Every Small College Needs a Closure Plan: Laura De Veau in The Boston Globe
HCS Strategy Advisor Laura De Veau, Ed.D., has a new opinion piece in The Boston Globe arguing that Massachusetts should require smaller colleges to keep a confidential closure plan before financial trouble makes one urgent.
Laura writes from experience. She was vice president of student affairs at Mount Ida College when it closed in 2018, and she helped guide more than 1,400 students through that transition. She describes what students lose when a closure comes without a plan, and why timing matters. Under Massachusetts' current approach, a full closure plan is generally required only after the state sees serious risk, and recent closures have left students scrambling for their education, housing, and finances.
Her proposal has two parts:
Every institution with fewer than 4,500 students would file a confidential closure plan with the state Department of Higher Education. The plan would identify destination institutions and transfer pathways for each program, plus the support students would need on their new campuses.
The state would maintain a central repository for academic records from closed colleges, as the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers recommends.
Laura also makes a point that boards and presidents of healthy institutions should hear: "Readiness for closure is also strategic planning." Working through a closure plan can reveal programs that lack a transfer pathway or depend on enrollment that's no longer realistic. It can also point to partners and collaborative programs while an institution is still strong.
Laura De Veau, Ed.D., is an advisor with HCS Strategy and an assistant professor of the practice in the Lynch School of Education and Human Development at Boston College.
Whether your institution is planning for the long term or facing hard choices now, HCS Strategy can help your board and leadership prepare. Learn about our closure planning work, or contact HCS Strategy to start a confidential conversation.