By Kieran McQuilkin
On March 2, Stacy Karmen and her senior-year classmates had just finished donating their first annual gift to Sweet Briar College as soon-to-be alumnae.
Shortly after noon the next day, they found out there would be no Sweet Briar left to return to.
“It was almost unbelievable,” Karmen said. “There are so many things that are great about [Sweet Briar] that I wanted to come back and visit later on. I was hoping if I have daughters one day they would go here.”
Karmen is part of a growing wave of supporters working to keep the 114-year-old women’s college alive. President James F. Jones and Sweet Briar’s board of directors are under fire on several fronts. The most recent are a lawsuit brought by Amherst County and an external audit by an organization trying to keep the college open.
County Attorney Ellen Bowyer filed the suit in March against the college, Sweet Briar President James F. Jones and President of the Board Paul G. Rice. It cites a Virginia statute governing the way charitable organizations and their officers or directors solicit charitable contributions.
And Saving Sweet Briar, an organization of students, alumnae and others who have pledged more than $3 million to keep the college open, hired forensic accountant R. Steven Spitzer to review the college’s finances. Spitzer concluded this week that the college’s financial records as of August 2014 show that the closing is unwarranted.
The county’s lawsuit alleges that Jones and the board of directors negotiated “teach out” agreements with other nearby colleges months before announcing the closure, asking them to receive students who would have to transfer from Sweet Briar after this spring.
Lynchburg College, Mary Baldwin College, Randolph College and Hollins University have created an expedited transfer process and will accept all student course credits from Sweet Briar.
All of the college’s 534 women except graduating seniors will have to transfer. Sweet Briar also employs more than 300 faculty and staff.
The suit also alleges that Sweet Briar retained legal counsel in November or December 2014 to assist with closing plans, without making it known to students, faculty and alumni.
But the suit focuses primarily on Sweet Briar’s solicitation of contributions from supporters in the months leading up to the announcement that it will close. It alleges that donated money is likely being used to prepare for the closing instead of for the education of young women.
Jones and Rice declined to comment on the pending legal action, but in an email Sweet Briar Communications Director Christy Jackson called the complaint unfounded.
“The claims asserted in the county attorney’s complaint are contrary to well-established Virginia law as expressed by both the General Assembly and the Supreme Court of Virginia…,” Jackson said. “Although the matter is now in litigation, Sweet Briar will remain receptive to further communications with the county attorney on all matters as the litigation progresses.”
President Jones has said publicly the school would need to raise between $200 million and $250 million to continue operating. Supporters of Sweet Briar are skeptical of that number.
The college still has an estimated $85 million dollar endowment, $25 million of which is owed in debt, Sweet Briar’s lawyer Calvin W. Fowler, Jr. said in a letter to Saving Sweet Briar Inc. He added that the college has approximately $28 million in maintenance needs.
Spitzer, the accountant hired by Saving Sweet Briar, reported to the organization that closing the school was not urgent.
“… As of approximately eight months before the closure announcement, the College was financially viable, and there was not an urgent financial reason to close,” he stated in the report. Spitzer is a certified public accountant with Yount, Hyde & Barbour, P.C. He has worked with several Virginia colleges.
Spitzer said the $250 million figure used by the president is much more than would be necessary to keep Sweet Briar running.
Sweet Briar was created in 1901 in the will of Indiana Fletcher Williams. Williams, who owned 8,000 acres in Central Virginia, donated money and part of her estate to build and sustain a women’s educational institution.
After her death the commonwealth took on the responsibility to build the college and ensure its adherence to Williams’ will, which stated “no part of the [donated land] shall at any time be sold or alienated by the corporation…. Income only shall be used for the support and maintenance of the school.”
Sweet Briar students hope that legal action and fundraising efforts will keep the college afloat.
“We’re optimistic,” said senior Alyssa Sarmiento. “None of us are blind to the fact that the school will probably need to close for at least a semester to restructure, but we think we stand a chance.”