Mount Ida Closure Leaves Newton Students, Parents Scrambling

NEWTON, MA — When Madeline was accepted as an incoming freshman to the Vet Tech program at Mount Ida for the Fall of 2018, she and her family decided to turn down six other schools because Mount Ida offered them the perfect scholarship. She was settled. She and her family had a vision for how next fall - and the next four years - would look.

And then they saw on social media that Mount Ida was closing.

"We still have not been formally notified from Mount Ida about this nonsense," said Madeline's mother Lissa Mclain Tuesday.

She was shocked and confused. In an effort to urge the college to act in a way that aided students like her daughter, Mclain and her partner Phil Varlese started a Facebook group and began to pool resources.

"Madeline was offered several very lucrative scholarships and grants from Mount Ida, which is why we decided on there. We’re left now scrambling to apply for other programs, which are not only going to cost us up to $17k more a year, but wondering if we can even make these new programs work for her," Mclain told Patch.

The four-year Vet Tech program is one of a handful of programs, including Dental Hygiene and Funeral Services, at Mount Ida that doesn't translate to UMass, although that school has offered to take students in good standing and let them finish out their college experience at the public university, according to parents and students. And it's not just incoming students left scrambling.

A number of Vet Tech majors said Tuesday they only received news of Mount Ida's closure Friday when the administration sent the email to the school community. One Vet Tech major said her classmates broke it to their professor that the school was closing because the alert came in the middle of class.

Because Mount Ida is such a small private school many of the students at the school know each other, but in the program it's more like family, they said. It brought them to tears thinking about their college Vet Tech family having to split up.

So sudden

And then there's the feeling of how quickly it all went down. Some students said after the school announced the Lasell College discussion and possible merger, and then its falling through, administrators would let them know if something else came up.

But it wasn't until Friday, after it was a done deal, that some even found out on social media before the official email went out. In light of that, there's a feeling that information has been scarce despite a couple of meetings the school's president held and showed up to field questions.

"We all knew Mount Ida was in debt, but they could have handled this better," said Sydney Bridges, a sophomore.

Alyson O'Connell, also a sophomore, said the plan so far was that students would be permitted to stay on campus until graduation. What happened next was anyone's guess.

Both Bridges and O'Connell told Patch they were sad to think about not graduating from the college that felt like home.

One senior said she was in "panic mode" and hoping to graduate in May. But with an internship slated for the summer, she wasn't sure how that would work. Staff didn't know, either, she added.

A Funeral Services student told Patch outside a dorm Tuesday that she had no information about what was next for her. "I have nowhere to go," she said, exasperated.

Mclain said she received her daughter's final award letter in the mail Monday. The postmark indicated it was sent Friday.

"It’s my fear, that parents not connected on social media still have no idea the nightmare that is awaiting them," Mclain said.

Monday, in lieu of classes, there were meetings on campus. Parents said there was admissions paperwork outside the hall where the meetings took place, which further confused them.

"Parents that are local attended the meetings. They took photos of the admissions paperwork outside the hall. They also took photos of our students files, lined up in bins just sitting in the hall," said Mclain who says she has made calls to the school and sent emails daily to both Mount Ida and Attorney General Maura Healey, who announced she was planning to look into the school's closure and make sure students were treated fairly.

But Mclain said neither had gotten back to her.

On Saturday, President Barry Brown held a meeting on campus where many parents and students laid into him. He told them Mount Ida granted scholarships they had no money for, which is why they are in this situation.

"If that’s the case, why did you actively pursue so many students?" other parents wanted to know. Many said they felt duped and said this needs to be remedied for their children.

"We believe wholeheartedly, that MIC and the board of trustees need to be held accountable and provide they proper transitions for our children," Mclain said. "That could include making sure that they are awarded the same awards they offered. If not, being financially responsible for paying the difference."

In Madeline's case one of the six schools that she originally applied to indicated they'd be able to re-extend her offer, but it isn't as good as the Mount Ida offer, said her mother. Still, it's early days and there may yet be options coming.

And some say it may have been that President Gordon Brown was working on trying to get a different outcome right up until the last moment.

"I believe he has our best interest at heart, and tried to make it work," Gaters Lacrosse Assistant Coach Sean Mahel, an alum of the school told Patch on his way from practice Tuesday. "It shows a lot about him that he held those meetings and stood up in front of those angry people, and took it."

Mahel and fellow coach Alex Veloukas, who work part-time at the school, said they felt bad for the full-time faculty and the students, but hoped there would be a silver lining and that students would end up seeing this as an opportunity.

Where else if not UMass?

The college is arranging with Regis College and UMass for Regis to take over the Vet Tech program, including faculty, and to keep it on the campus under Regis’ authority for at least the next two years. It will then move to the main campus.

In addition, Becker College will be on campus this Friday to meet with students who might be interested in transferring into its program.

A number of other local colleges have sent statements or encouraged students to transfer to their schools. They include Newbury in Brookline, Becker College in Worcester and Tufts in Somerville. Some, such as Tufts, even extended their deadlines.

Bridges said she was impressed with the UMass Dartmouth chancellor who met with students this week.

"He's doing so much... He's making a dorm for Mt. Ida students," she said, "and doing a lot to let us feel like we're at home."

Previously:

• Two Newton Colleges Consider Merger
• No Merger For Two Newton Colleges After Pushback
• Newton's Mount Ida In Talks With UMass
• UMass Acquires Newton College, Mount Ida To Close

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Photos by Jenna Fisher/Patch