The Past Speaks

Sweet Briar College

Here’s a story about university leaders with real courage: rather than attempt to limp on and deliver an increasingly mediocre quality of education, the board of the struggling Sweet Briar College decided to shut the place down in an orderly fashion and use their remaining funds to help students and faculty to transfer to other colleges. They concluded that a college that is 30 minutes from the nearest Starbucks would just never become viable no matter what it did.

In other words, they decided that the interests of the human beings who make up the college take precedence over the interests of the college as a self-perpetuating organism. Very enlightened.

We all know of far too many organizations that strive for perpetual life when they should really be allowed to close once they no longer serve a purpose.