The board’s announcement that 2014-15 will be the last academic year for Sweet Briar College has given our field much to process. Each constituent audience — from administrators, to the board, to faculty and students, to staff and community — has been struggling, in some cases quite publicly, with a world in which their institution no longer exists. And now, as this closure moves into the courts, even more questions arise around the question of legality in this closure. It’s a complex scenario, but one which opens the doors to hard questions all institutions should be asking as they work to adjust to this new normal.
