'It's Worth Saving': Marian Court Students Campaign for School's Future

As closing day looms for Marian Court College, some students are hoping their 11th-hour efforts can prevent the 50-year-old school from shutting its doors.

The college’s board of trustees invited students to a Tuesday night meeting originally intended to address an online petition the students started in hopes of saving the school, which suddenly announced last week it would close it doors for financial reasons.

But, according to faculty member Rebecca Bragg, students were notified Tuesday morning that the agenda for the meeting had changed “from a forum to hear their recommendations for how to bring the College back to viability, to a question and answer session regarding why the Board had voted Monday evening to close the College.”

When board members and administration heard the students’ pleas, however, they agreed to approach the Sisters of Mercy, who run Marian Court, for permission to remain open for an extra week while additional options for keeping the school open are explored.

“Because of your passion, and your commitment, we, as a board, have agreed to call the Sisters (today),” Board of Trustees Chairman James Burke said at the meeting, according to the Daily Item of Lynn.

As of Thursday morning, however, no news of an extension had been provided to students or faculty.

Taryn Walsh, a student at Marian Court, said her classmates presented a memo to board members and administrators at the Tuesday meeting listing a number of ideas for helping Marian Court College remain in operation.

“The students have come up with some really great ideas, mainly because the night students in particular (who started this campaign) are mostly working professionals,” Walsh explained in an email. “We have a lot of experience and insight that we can offer the situation.”

Among those ideas, students suggested marketing the evening classes to high school students, veterans and law enforcement agencies and partnering with area employers to offer partner tuition rates for their employees. Additionally, students suggested offering Saturday and Sunday classes that would appeal to working individuals and, long term, consider providing daycare services on campus.

The list of more than 20 suggestions even includes raising tuition for evening students by $200 per course.

“As evening students, we would be more than happy to pay more in tuition to keep the College open,” the memo reads.

“It’s worth saving,” Walsh told Patch. “I think all the students felt the same way about the school closing; confusion, shock, frustration, but mostly sad. When we decided to try to save the school though, every student has really gotten on board and done their part. We all want to save this school - not one of us wants to have to transfer and finish somewhere else.”

On Thursday, a notice posted on Marian Court’s website indicated the college would close on June 30, the end of the fiscal year. Bragg and Walsh said no one has received any official word that their efforts have changed anything about the school closing and, in fact, have reached out to the board of trustees and college administration, but have received no response.

Bragg said students have requested alumni contact information from administration in order to mount a fundraising campaign for the school, but had not received that information as of Thursday morning. As it is, the only way students can reach out to alumni or one another through a mass email is for the college to send that email via its database, according to Bragg.

“As of July 1, it will be more difficult, if not impossible, for the students to continue their campaign to potentially re-open the College, with alumni support, without access to this information,” Bragg explained. “It was the students’ hope by reaching out to the leadership for access to the alumni to next host a phone-a-thon to ask for alumni pledges to help the College with its financial needs.”

As it is, a GoFundMe campaign with a $250,000 goal has been started, and individuals who want to see the college saved are being encouraged to approach friends and family about doing what they can to help out.