Membership Update

 

Our August 18 program was entitled “How Sweet Briar College was Saved.” The story was told by our speakers, Ellen Carver and Nancy Worcester. They are Sweet Briar alumnae from the class of 1985, who shared the program with Sweet Briar senior Hallsey Brandt with comments from her Rotarian dad, David Brandt. 

 

Ms. Carver set the stage with a brief description of Sweet Briar College, which was founded in 1901 as a result of a bequest under the will of Indiana Fletcher Williams, whose only child, Daisy, had died at the age of 16. The will left her family’s plantation and a sizable sum to establish a college for the education of “white women.”  The school went to court in the early 1950s and successfully removed the racial restriction. The college is located on 3,200 acres near Amherst, outside Lynchburg.  It is one of the few remaining all-women liberal arts colleges in the United States. Until recently, its enrollment had been between 700 and 800 students. Notably, the college has one of the highest per capita endowments in the country.

 

Ms. Carver then turned to the events of March 3, 2015, which will live in infamy among Sweet Briar alumnae. It was on that day that the president of the college announced the board’s decision to close the college, effective with the completion of summer school. Students would receive assistance in transferring to other schools. The president’s surprise announcement indicated that this decision was the result of intensive study by the board leading to its conclusion that closing was the only option due to “insurmountable financial difficulties.”

 

Ms. Carver described the “shock” that she and other alums experienced as they received this email from the school. By all accounts, the investigation and decision process had been kept secret.  Immediately, the social media reaction began and snowballed. Between Facebook, Twitter and emails, the word was out and outrage grew. Those forces on the board seeking closure had forgotten the phrase, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” but they were soon to experience it firsthand from Sweet Briar Vixens.

 

Outraged alums immediately began to organize. Ms. Worcester described how they used social media to reach out and solicit support from donors, alums and all of the college’s stakeholders, who had been kept in the dark. Five or 10 years ago social media tools would not have been as readily available.

 

Funds were quickly raised and, of course, lawyers were hired! The alums, seeking to reverse the board’s decision, were largely successful before the circuit court and also before the Virginia Supreme Court, which sent the matter back to the trial court for further findings and rulings. The time for such proceedings before the next school year was running out when the parties agreed to mediation. The result was an agreement to replace the board, hire a new president, and to continue fundraising. The forces fighting to keep Sweet Briar had already raised over $12 million.  Ms. Carver told the story of one of her classmates who had routinely annually contributed a modest $250, but who wrote a $1 million dollar check when the need made itself apparent. 

 

The school was saved, at least for the time being, and Ms. Brandt is able to graduate from Sweet Briar, which has reopened with about 300 students, including 45 freshmen.  But, with new energy, leadership and promise for the coming years, the three Vixen speakers predict a great future as long as the forces that banded together stay the course in helping the college grow its enrollment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Skilled at fundraising, President Sally found a few minutes to squeeze in “Happy Bucks” as she reached out and “touched” our fellow Rotarians for a few dollars, including the following: