After a year of exploring the merits of a possible move to the campus of Holy Names University, the board of regents of Samuel Merritt University has decided to back away from the so-called shared campus project.
Sharon C. Diaz, president and chief executive officer at SMU, said in a press release published Aug. 9 that while the shared campus project would have been “a new model of collaboration in higher education, the board of regents had determined that the project “had become too complex and costly to pursue.”
Last fall the two Oakland educational institutions announced that they had signed a letter of intent to consider an affiliation that would involve sharing and modernizing the 60-acre Holy Names campus on Mountain Boulevard over a period of several years. After the project’s completion Samuel Merritt University would have moved from its North Oakland site to the HNU campus.
Many academic institutions like HNU are considering collaborations and/or affiliations with other institutions as “a way to leverage institutional strengths for a more positive future,” said Steven Borg, chair of HNU’s board of trustees. He added that HNU will continue to explore such relationships.
The HNU board will have more to say about the University’s future soon, Borg said in a written statement. “We are keeping an eye on our financial situation and enrollment, both of which remain priorities and challenges as we seek a path to viability and sustainability.”
From Catholic Voice Oakland.
So both tiny colleges will eventually fold. No loss.
I agree in part. The small colleges individually possibly can’t make a go of it financially. Where I disagree is ‘no loss’. If the combined institution were to be fully accredited, their demise is a loss in diversity of available educational alternatives.
Holy Names College used to have Matthew Fox (of heterodox creation spirituality fame) and Starhawk on faculty. I think it’s mostly a trade school or vocational school now. Nursing and that sort of thing. Maybe accounting.
HNU is perhaps best known for its Music Department. My children take private lessons there. Unfortunately, there was once a bunch of flyers announcing the vile “V- Monologues” in production on campus. A couple of recitals took place in the chapel which reminded me of the bridge from “Star Trek.” The tabernacle had been shunted off to another room. The vestibule boasted a plaque of such “luminaries” as Harvey Milk and Mother Jones done in modern iconography. A veritable rogues gallery which I hope is no longer there!