After 3 Years and $22-Million, DePaul U. Trustees Vote to Close Barat College
By AUDREY WILLIAMS JUNE
DePaul University's trustees voted on Wednesday to shut down Barat College, the small, struggling liberal-arts institution that DePaul acquired three years ago.
The 1,000-student college, which is one of DePaul's seven campuses, will close by June 2005, the earliest date permitted by an agreement between the two Roman Catholic institutions.
Officials at DePaul said that enrollment at Barat had not grown as quickly as they would have liked and that prospects for increasing it did not look good. The officials also estimated that over the next five years it would cost $39-million to repair and maintain Barat's 100-year-old campus, in Lake Forest, Ill., a suburb of Chicago.
Wednesday's vote followed a report by a seven-member committee -- made up of two deans, three trustees, and two administrators -- that spent nine weeks determining whether a turnaround at Barat was possible. The report, presented to the university's Board of Trustees in mid-January, concluded that spending more money on Barat would be a "high risk" move. One of the deans on the committee worked at Barat, and one of the trustees was an alumna of the college.
Supporters of the college started a "Keep Barat" campaign that included letters to trustees, prayer vigils, and many rallies. The DePaul Faculty Council voted 14 to 11 last week in favor of keeping Barat open.
"This is one of the most difficult decisions we have ever made," said John C. Staley, chairman of the Board of Trustees. "Although Barat faculty and staff offered very personalized services to students, the campus does not have the capacity to generate the revenue required to provide these students with the first-rate educational environment all DePaul students deserve."
DePaul acquired Barat in 2001 for $6-million. Of that amount, $2.5-million went to the Sisters of the Sacred Heart, the religious order that founded the college. The balance went to a new Barat Educational Foundation, whose goal is to continue advancing the college's values.
At the time, Barat was on the verge of closing and was seeking a merger partner. It had a $2-million endowment, limited academic programs, and about 800 students.
DePaul planned to provide Barat with financial and academic resources, and in turn Barat was supposed to give DePaul a way to reach students in the northern suburbs who wanted to attend a small college away from the bustle of Chicago. Founded in Chicago in 1858 as an academy for women, Barat had relocated to Lake Forest in 1904.
Since the acquisition, DePaul has spent about $22-million in Barat, more than $16-million of which went toward upgrading facilities and technology on the campus. Still, Barat continued to operate with a deficit, which reached $2.9-million this academic year. Projections showed enrollment increasing to 1,250 students by the 2007-8 academic year, the earliest year operations at the institution could break even, according to the committee's report.
"Both sides recognized that the alliance represented a tremendous level of risk," said Scott L. Scarborough, DePaul's executive vice president for operations. "Today the trustees decided the university can no longer accept that risk."
What will happen to the Barat campus is unclear. According to the Chicago Tribune, the Lake Forest City Council held a closed-door session last week to consider buying the 23-acre property -- a prime tract that is located in the city's historic-preservation district.
Another potential buyer is the Barat Educational Foundation, which has the opportunity to match any bids the university receives for the property, officials said. DePaul said it is "exploring a variety of options" with other educational institutions, government officials, corporations, and developers.
Students on the Barat campus who have not completed their degrees by June 2005 will be able to finish their studies at another DePaul campus.
The 26 tenured and tenure-track faculty members on the Barat campus will be assured of jobs, DePaul officials said. But some Barat staff members and non-tenure-track faculty members will lose their jobs.