Aquinas College Announces Dramatic Cutbacks, Half Of Students Must Transfer

NASHVILLE, TN — Aquinas College announced major cuts for the fall at its Nashville campus, slashing the number of degree programs available to just one, laying off nearly 80 percent of its employees and sending more than half of the student body scrambling.

The college, which is run by the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia, will offer only education degree programs starting in the fall — ending its nursing, business and arts and sciences programs — which will force 140 of its 267 students to transfer and resulting in lay offs for 60 of its 76 employees. The college cited massive financial losses as the reason for its scaling back.

"Obviously this decision has been extremely painful. We are deeply aware of the profound impact such a change will have on the faculty, staff and students at Aquinas, people whom we know and love. One of our greatest concerns is for them, and we are committed to do all that we can so that they will experience as little disruption in their lives as possible," Sister Mary Sarah Galbraith, president of Aquinas, said in a statement.

In the wake of the announcement, Lebanon's Cumberland University announced a robust transfer program for the Aquinas students left in the lurch, including a $6,000 transfer award for all students and potentially up to $13,000 for eligible students in degrees other than nursing. Further, Aquinas students will have their application fees waived and the school has already matched up its courses with those from Aquinas.

Despite a large capital growth program, which included new student housing, Aquinas failed to meet its enrollment and fundraising goals, the Dominican congregation's spokesperson told the The Tennessean, and a focus on education echoes the purpose of the original school founded by the sisters in 1860, which began to teach the sisters to become educators.

Aquinas opened as a junior college in 1961 and became a four-year college in 1994.