College of Saint Rose

The College of Saint Rose was a private Catholic college in Albany, New York. It was founded in 1920 by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet as a women's college. It became fully co-educational in 1969. The following year, the college added laypersons to its board and became an independent college sponsored by the sisters. The college was in the Pine Hills neighborhood of Albany. It was a Division II member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

In June 2023, after many years of financial difficulties, the college's accreditor, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, publicly warned the college that it was in danger of losing its accreditation. In November 2023, the college's trustees voted to close the college in June 2024.

History
The idea for The College of Saint Rose was conceived by Monsignor Joseph A. Delaney, the vicar general of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany in 1920. Delaney contacted Sister Blanche Rooney, a member of the local chapter of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Carondelet, located in the Provincial House on Eighth Street in Troy, New York. Rooney and her sisters were receptive to the idea and, with the permission and support of Bishop of Albany Edmund F. Gibbons and Rooney, Delaney purchased the William Keeler estate at 979 Madison Avenue. Upon granting of a provisional charter from the Board of Regents, The College of Saint Rose was established as a college for women with a liberal arts curriculum in Albany, New York on June 28, 1920.

The college's founders selected its name to honor the first canonized saint in the Americas, Saint Rose of Lima. Initially, emphasis was placed on the professional training of teachers, but it quickly expanded to include preparation for business and other professions.

The college created an evening division in 1946 to serve World War II veterans. By 1950, the college opened a graduate school. Men were allowed to enter the evening and graduate divisions. The college became fully coeducational in 1969. Campus housing was made available to male students in the 1970s. The evening division was re-instituted in 1974.

In 1970, 10 laypersons were added to the board of trustees, and the college became an independent college sponsored by the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Carondelet.

Financial challenges 2015–2023
In December 2015, the college announced plans to eliminate 27 academic programs and 23 faculty positions. The eliminated programs enrolled just four percent of the student body, and 12 of the academic programs contained no enrollees. The college asserted that the cuts were necessary to ensure the college's future viability. Two months later, the faculty of the college passed a "no confidence" motion in regard to college President Carolyn J. Stefanco, who remained in her post until 2020. An investigatory committee of the American Association of University Professors concluded that the college's layoffs "violated shared governance and undermined tenure and academic freedom" and "violated the association's principles and standards".

In 2020, the college made $8 million in administrative budget cuts. In December of that year, the college announced that it would eliminate 16 bachelor's degree programs, six master's degree programs, and three certificate programs as a cost-saving measure in an effort to achieve a balanced budget by 2023. In December 2021, four professors who were terminated in connection with the 2020 downsizing won a lawsuit against the college and were reinstated. A New York state court found that the college had not acted in accordance with its own faculty handbook. However, in October 2022, this decision was overturned by the Appellate Division of the state Supreme Court's Third Department.

In June 2023, the college's accreditor, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, warned the college that its accreditation was "in jeopardy" due to financial difficulties. The commission gave the college six months to address the commission's concerns. By October, Fitch Ratings assessed the school's bond rating as "BB" which is described as "non-investment grade speculative". In November, the college asked lawmakers for emergency funding in a late effort to avoid a closure, including $5 million from the New York State Legislature.

Closure
On November 30, 2023, press accounts indicated that because of financial difficulties, the board of trustees voted to close the College of Saint Rose after the Spring 2024 term. President White cited challenging factors that she said were affecting many small independent institutions, particularly in the Northeastern United States, such as years of declining enrollment and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education. Students protested the planned closure.

On February 15, 2024, the college submitted a "Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification" ("WARN") filing to the NYS Department of Labor confirming the shutdown and advising that 646 employees (out of 646) would be losing their jobs in the coming months. In addition, the closure will lead to 87 properties in Albany sitting vacant.

According to the New York State Education Department, the last day of instruction was June 21, 2024, with all operations ceasing by the end of December 2024.

Presidents

 * 1) Edmund Gibbons (1920–1949)
 * 2) Rose of Lima Dolan (1949–1953)
 * 3) Catherine Francis Soulier (1953–1966)
 * 4) Margaret Keeshan (1966–1970)
 * 5) Alfonse R. Miele (1970–1972)
 * 6) Thomas Manion (1973–1983)
 * 7) Louis Vaccaro (1983–1996)
 * 8) R. Mark Sullivan (1996–2012)
 * 9) David Szczerbacki (2012–2013)
 * 10) Carolyn J. Stefanco (2014–2020)
 * 11) Marcia White (2020–2024)

Campus
The campus of The College of Saint Rose was located in the Pine Hills neighborhood of Albany, the capital city of New York. The 46-acre campus was bounded by Western Avenue to the north, Partridge Street to the east, Morris Street to the south, and Main Avenue to the west, although there was college property north of Western and east of Partridge. Over the years the college had gradually acquired many of the Victorian-era homes adjacent to the main campus. Many of these structures, most of which are located on Partridge Street and Western and Madison Avenues, had been converted into offices and student housing. The slow expansion of the college into the surrounding neighborhood had occasionally led to conflict with local neighborhood and historic conservation associations.

St. Joseph Hall was a four-story English brick building with limestone trim fronted by six Corinthian columns. It was located at 985 Madison Avenue between the Science Center to the west and Moran Hall to the east. The structure was built in 1922 at a cost of half a million dollars due to a need for classroom and dining space to house the growing student body. As the first academic building constructed specifically for the college, St. Joseph Hall originally included an auditorium, classrooms, chapel, dormitory, a dining area and kitchens in the basement.

The Massry Center for the Arts featured the Kathleen McManus Picotte Recital Hall, the Esther Massry Gallery, and the William Randolph Hearst Music Wing. This building served as the primary venue for concerts and exhibitions by the college's students and faculty, and as a performance and exhibition space for artists, musicians, vocalists and orchestras. The Massry Center had received a LEED gold award for being one of the most energy-efficient buildings in the Capital Region.

Athletics
The College of Saint Rose was a Division II member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), offering 19 varsity intercollegiate sports at the NCAA Division II level. Shortly before 2000, Saint Rose became a member of the Northeast-10 Conference (NE-10). The school's primary colors were white and gold, but black and gold were used for marketing purposes. The school's NCAA Division II sports teams were referred to as the Golden Knights. This led to controversy when the Vegas Golden Knights joined the National Hockey League in 2017, when the College of Saint Rose raised objections that led to Vegas's trademark application being initially denied, though it was later approved on appeal.

In 2009, the Saint Rose women's soccer became the third team in Northeast-10 Conference history (1985) to win three consecutive postseason league titles. The team's season record was 24–1, and it was ranked fourth in the United States at season's end.

Sports complex
The college's Christian Plumeri Sports Complex was constructed at a cost of $4.7 million. The college's funding for the complex included a $1 million challenge contribution from Joe Plumeri, chairman and CEO of Willis Group Holdings and the college's 2006 commencement speaker. The complex was named in honor of Plumeri's deceased son.

Notable alumni

 * Philip Amelio, actor and teacher
 * Nicholas Anthony Ascioti, composer and conductor
 * Glen Barker, former Major League Baseball player later employed by the Houston Astros as Director of Pacific Rim Scouting
 * Peter Daempfle, science author and educator
 * Mary Daly, radical feminist philosopher and theologian. Taught at Boston College. Wrote on religion and women
 * Jimmy Fallon, actor and television personality. He left school before graduating to join a comedy troupe, and completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in communications in 2009, also receiving an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters at the same ceremony.
 * Patricia A. Fennell, sociologist
 * Marilee Jones, former dean of admissions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and co-author of Less Stress, More Success. Resigned from MIT after it was discovered that she had falsely claimed academic degrees and credentials she had not earned.
 * Garth Joseph, professional basketball player
 * Joan Lescinski, 13th president of St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa
 * Elizabeth O'Connor Little, New York State Senator
 * Jon Mueller, college baseball coach at University at Albany, SUNY
 * Brian Patneaude, jazz saxophonist and band leader
 * Loretta A. Preska, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and a former nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
 * Robert Reilly, Democratic member of the New York State Assembly for the 109th district
 * James Nicholas Tedisco, Republican member of the New York State Assembly and New York State Senate. He was the Assembly's Minority Leader from November 2005 to April 2009.
 * Marcia White, former president and executive director of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. She served on the Board of Trustees of Saint Rose before being named interim president in 2020 and then president in 2021.

Notable faculty

 * Sharon Louden, visual artist
 * Evan Mack, librettist and composer
 * Daniel Nester, writer, editor and poet
 * Doris Grumbach, educator, author