Dowling College is “open and functioning under streamlined operations,” its president said June 9, 2016, as the school works on a potential deal with an education investment firm. The school, which is struggling with financial woes, had previously set two different dates to close its doors after 48 years.

Long Island

Education

A judge Monday approved the sale of Dowling College’s Oakdale campus for $26.5 million to Princeton Education Center LLC.
Princeton Education Center plans to use the campus as a private, bilingual K-12 school licensed by New York State, said Sean Southard, an attorney representing the Dowling estate.
“This was a significant and meaningful first phase,” Southard said. “It was a very successful sales process.”
The sale, approved by Judge Robert E. Grossman of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York’s Eastern District in Central Islip, is expected to close in the next 45 days.
Representing Princeton Education Center, Chengyu Hou, an attorney with Liu, Zheng, Chen &amp; Hoffman in Manhattan, said Monday “many things are not decided yet” regarding the Dowling campus. The firm specializes in working with companies and individuals in China doing business in the U.S.
Princeton has many schools, Hou said, declining to comment further. He didn’t disclose the location of Princeton’s headquarters, and the company could not be reached for comment.
Dowling College ran out of funds, lost its accreditation and closed in August. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November. The estate faces 626 claims totaling $65.8 million filed in the Bankruptcy Court in Central Islip by creditors, vendors, college officials, faculty and staff.
Princeton Education Center was one of five organizations that bid on the 25-acre campus last week.
Dowling’s roughly 105-acre Brookhaven campus, located off William Floyd Parkway in Shirley and abutting Brookhaven Calabro Airport, will also be auctioned. Marketing for the sale is expected to begin in about 60 days, Southard said.
The Brookhaven property is home to the college’s aviation program and features an athletic complex, a two-story residence hall and a 10,000-square-foot airplane hangar.

Business

BZDOWL0411

Judge approves sale of Dowling College’s  Oakdale campus for $26.5M

Judge OKs Dowling sale; firm to use as private K-12 school

IMGJZBW_WEB

The winner of the Dowling College Oakdale campus auction is Princeton Education Center LLC, with the highest bid of $26.5 million, according to court documents filed Friday.
The new owner intends to operate a private K-12 school licensed by New York State, said Sean Southard, an attorney representing the Dowling estate. 
Princeton Education Center couldn’t be reached for comment, and an attorney representing the company did not respond to requests for comment.
The auction of the 25-acre campus, which includes a stately Vanderbilt mansion, began with sealed bids that were due late last month. Five qualified bidders were selected to participate in an auction Tuesday in East Meadow. 
The bids at the auction were higher than expected, and Dowling and its creditors requested additional documentation from the three highest bidders to determine their ability to pay.
Each of the three highest bidders, including Princeton Education Center, was an “educational end user,” court documents said. Each of the two lowest bids were made by a “redeveloper.” 
Subject to court approval, Dowling and Princeton Education Center “contemplate a closing taking place during the month of May 2017,” according to court documents. 
Dowling College ran out of funds, lost its accreditation and closed in August. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November and said it had $54 million in long-term debt. 
The college laid off about 450 faculty, and had 1,700 students. It was the first fully accredited nonprofit college on Long Island to close in recent history.
Dowling’s estate faces 626 claims totaling $65.8 million filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Eastern District of New York in Central Islip by creditors, vendors, college officials, faculty and staff.
Dowling’s 104-acre Brook haven campus, located off William Floyd Parkway in Shirley and adjacent to Brookhaven Calabro Airport, will be auctioned off separately. The campus, which was home to Dowling’s aviation program, has an athletic complex, a two-story residence hall and a 10,000-square-foot airplane hangar.
The college also owns 32 residential properties near the Oakdale campus that are part of the bankruptcy but not included in the auction. They are being sold by local real estate agents.

BZDOWL0408

Dowling College Oakdale campus auctioned for $26.5 million

Dowling College Oakdale campus sold for $26.5M

Suffolk

Princeton Education Center wins Dowling College campus auction

Newsday

The auction of Dowling College’s 25-acre Oakdale campus was adjourned Tuesday without choosing a winner, after bids came in higher than creditors of the bankrupt college expected, an attorney for Dowling’s estate said.
The three highest bidders will submit information to verify that they have the financial resources to fulfill their bids, said Sean C. Southard, the attorney.
The highest bid at the auction Tuesday, held in East Meadow, was $26.5 million; the bidders’ names weren’t disclosed. The winner must be confirmed by the estate and creditors.
“We were very pleased with the results of the auction,” said Southard, of Klestadt Winters Jureller Southard &amp; Stevens in New York City. He called Tuesday’s bidding “spirited.”
Five bidders participated, including educational and real estate organizations, he said. The starting bid was $9 million. 
“The debtor and the banks and the creditors can’t make a decision until they have comfort that the bidders can close,” said Emilio Amendola, co-president of Melville-based A&amp;G Realty Partners. A&amp;G Realty and Madison Hawk Partners of Manhattan were selected to market the Oakdale property. Adjourning without a winner is “a common occurrence when the value goes up as much as it did,” Amendola said.
Dowling ran out of funds, lost its accreditation and closed in August. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November.
The sale could bring substantial change to Oakdale, where the liberal arts school’s main campus has been the anchoring presence since 1968. The campus features an immense former Vanderbilt mansion, and is one of the few large tracts of undeveloped waterfront acreage along the Connetquot River.
The auction will help pay off 626 claims totaling $65.8 million filed by creditors, vendors, college officials, faculty and staff, in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Eastern District of New York. 
Dowling College said last year that it had $54 million in long-term debt. It laid off about 450 faculty, and had 1,700 students.
It was Long Island’s first fully accredited nonprofit college in recent history to close. 
Dowling’s 104-acre Brookhaven campus, located off William Floyd Parkway in Shirley and abutting Brookhaven Calabro Airport, will be auctioned off separately. The campus was home to Dowling’s aviation program, and has an athletic complex, a two-story residence hall and a 10,000-square-foot airplane hangar.
The college also owns 32 residential properties near the Oakdale campus that are part of the bankruptcy but not included in the auction. They are being sold by local real estate agents.
Many of those properties are occupied by tenants who are unaffiliated with the college. 
The auction was hosted by Certilman Balin Adler &amp; Hyman. 
With Candice Ferrette

BZDOWL0405

Dowling College campus auction adjourned without a winner

Dowling auction adjourns with higher bids than expected

IMGY1I1_WEB / mg

Candice Ferrette

The final chapter of Dowling College begins with the April 4 auction of 25 acres of the bankrupt school’s main campus in Oakdale, bringing the potential for change to the area unlike any in the last half-century.
The impact touches a broad group, from banks that lent the school tens of millions of dollars, to staff claiming back wages, to residents of the hamlet where the liberal arts school has been the anchoring presence since 1968.
So much is uncertain, they say: the future of the prime property, with its immense former Vanderbilt mansion, which is to be auctioned, and more than 30 other college-owned buildings and parcels that dot the streets near campus but are not included in the auction.
“We just want to maintain the community and what it was,” longtime resident Kathleen Baron said. “It’s a family community.”
It is unusual for a nonprofit four-year college to go belly-up. Dowling, which struggled for years with high debt, declining enrollment and unstable leadership, succumbed last year, officially closing on Aug. 31 and filing for Chapter 11 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in November.
The bankruptcy petition includes more than 626 claims totaling $65.8 million, filed by creditors, vendors, college officials, faculty and staff who have a stake in the liquidation of the shuttered institution.
“It is sad. I feel badly that it has come to this,” said chief restructuring officer Robert Rosenfeld, whose Manhattan-based firm RSR Consulting is managing the dissolution of the Dowling College estate. “But now the main goal is to enhance the value of the property and pay the creditors.”
Michael Puorro, who was chairman of Dowling’s board of trustees when it closed, did not respond to a request for comment.
The deadline for sealed bids for 25 acres of the main campus, once known as the “Idle Hour” estate, is Wednesday. The auction is set for April 4.
“Several competing bids are expected at the live auction event, with strong interest in the Oakdale campus being expressed from both developers and educational users, including for-profit and nonprofit end-users,” said a release Friday from a communications firm representing A &amp; G Realty Partners and Madison Hawk Partners, the real estate brokerage firms retained to manage sale of the property. “The highest and best offer is expected to be approved by the bankruptcy court on April 10.”
Judge Robert E. Grossman of federal bankruptcy court in Central Islip is overseeing Dowling’s case and approved the hiring of RSR Consulting, A &amp; G Realty and Madison Hawk, as well as the bidding procedures and deadlines.
The Oakdale campus, located in the Town of Islip, operated under a special permit that allowed both an educational and residential use.
Rosenfeld, who was not involved in the school’s closure and began handling Dowling’s affairs in October, said there “is a lot of oversight,” with various government agencies making sure the bankruptcy proceedings are on schedule.
Seven months ago, Dowling became Long Island’s first fully accredited nonprofit college in recent history to close.
College administrators shocked the campus community in first announcing the closure on May 31, quickly laying off the majority of its employees and causing chaos among its student body. College officials then reversed the decision to continue negotiating a partnership with Global University Systems, or GUS, a for-profit educational investment firm based in the United Kingdom.
For weeks last summer, with its accreditation by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education in jeopardy, the college’s fate was uncertain. Students weighed their options on whether to stay and finish their degrees or transfer to other colleges, faulting the school for the disruption in their education.
Negotiations with GUS and attempts at alumni fundraising failed. About 1,700 students, bereft of their planned education, went in other directions — transferring to other schools or reconsidering their schooling. By early June, more than 450 faculty and staff were laid off.
Dowling, carrying $54 million in long-term debt, lost its accreditation on Aug. 31 and officially closed. It was the only institution among more than 500 that Middle States accredits — in New York, the mid-Atlantic states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands — to have that designation withdrawn during 2016, agency spokesman Richard Pokrass said.
With the prospect of the auction, the process of settling the school’s debt draws nearer.
Of the 626 claims against the institution recorded in its bankruptcy petition, 562 were not secured by real estate. The claims, some of which are marked as being disputed, are unreconciled and their validity will be determined by the Bankruptcy Court judge.
Secured claims total $61.3 million and unsecured claims total $4.5 million, according to the court papers. Secured claims will be paid out first, followed by unsecured claims in the order of priority, Rosenfeld said.
In addition to banks with mortgage liens on Dowling properties, local and national vendors such as Absolute Plumbing of Long Island Inc., based in Bohemia, and the Carrier Corp. in Cleveland, Ohio, have claims.
On Wednesday, a committee that represents the unsecured creditors, which includes professors, staff members and other vendors, filed a request to depose the accounting firm KPMG, which conducted the 2014 audit of Dowling.
A spokeswoman for KPMG declined to comment, citing client confidentiality requirements.
Lori Zaikowski, a chemistry professor and current president of Dowling’s 46-member faculty union, which continues to exist despite the college’s closure, is one of three people on the unsecured creditors’ committee. She declined to comment, citing a confidentiality agreement.
The unsecured creditors’ committee could be looking for a better picture of Dowling’s finances before it closed, said bankruptcy attorney Marc Hamroff, whose Garden City law firm Moritt Hock &amp; Hamroff is not involved in the Dowling case. He teaches creditors’ rights at Hofstra University’s law school.
Mathematics professor John Vargas is among the employees with a pending claim of $195,000 for deferred wages and contributions to his pension.
“Faculty and staff did everything humanly possible to help keep the school afloat over the last few years,” said Vargas, 69, of Floral Park. “We took cuts to our salaries, stopped paying our pensions. We wanted the students to be treated fairly.”
Faculty with the most success at finding new full-time employment after Dowling’s closure were those who left the state. Vargas, with 45 years of teaching experience, has pieced together adjunct positions at Adelphi University, Molloy College and SUNY Old Westbury, but is earning less than one-third of his former Dowling salary, which was $120,000, he said.
“Yes, schools close and people move on. But the reality is it’s not that easy,” he said. “Now we are all wrapped up in this bankruptcy.”
Dowling’s assets are reported as being worth about $109 million, with most of the value in its land.
The Oakdale campus — with its 11 acres of waterfront on the Connetquot River and the 110-room mansion, the former estate of William K. Vanderbilt — was valued at $52.3 million.
The 104-acre Brookhaven campus, located off William Floyd Parkway in Shirley and abutting Brookhaven Calabro Airport, was valued at $42.7 million. Home to Dowling’s aviation program, the property also has an athletic complex, a two-story residence hall and a 10,000-square-foot airplane hangar. That property will be auctioned off separately on a date yet to be announced, real estate agents said.
The college also owns 32 residential properties near the main campus that are part of the bankruptcy but are not included in the auction. They are being sold by local real estate agents.
Many of those still are occupied by tenants who are unaffiliated with the college. Steve Hanna and his family are among that group.
“All the tenants have been . . . left in the dark,” said Hanna, 51, who has rented a Dowling-owned home for about 18 months.
Aside from a letter that informed him of the bankruptcy, he said, there has been little communication with tenants. In recent months, Dowling hadn’t been maintaining the properties well, he said.
“All along the homes were being neglected,” he said. “They were neglected in many ways. There were leaks and just rental issues with some of the homes, and they were ignored.”
Eight other properties are being marketed by Douglas Elliman. Two of those are suitable for commercial use with a special permit and are visible from heavily traveled Montauk Highway. Six others that were used as administrative offices and are located on Idle Hour Boulevard, across from the mansion, could be converted back to residences.
“Those properties are generating a lot of interest,” said Michael Murphy, executive vice president and head of operations for Douglas Elliman. Murphy, who said he has been marketing the commercial properties, said there are several offers on the two closest to Montauk Highway.
The others, he said, are so much a part of the residential community that they would need to be converted back to single-family dwellings.
“Those residential houses could be very dependent on what’s put into the main campus,” Murphy said.
Howard and Kathleen Baron, who have lived near the Oakdale campus for 37 years, share the sentiments of many Dowling neighbors who are worried about what might replace the college.
The couple were outside Dowling’s vacant visual arts center one recent afternoon, rearranging misplaced slate tiles on the ground. They spoke of how new owners could add condominiums, senior housing or other facilities that could flood the community with traffic.
Kathleen Baron pointed out that some of the area’s homes belonged to an historic artists’ colony, and that the couple’s home was built in 1890.
“We don’t want any big corporation coming in and just buying this,” she said, “and making this a horrible building and not caring about anything.”
“Our concern is this: Should things turn upside down, what are we going to get here?” Howard Baron said. “It would really be great, if an institution of higher learning could come in here and keep things, maintain it, even though it’s expensive. But all the infrastructure is here. I think that’s an easy, easy switch-over.”
Experts in higher education and real estate, however, said the properties are unlikely to attract other Long Island schools. Many colleges and universities, both public and private, aren’t buying more land or physical campuses. In the last decade, many schools have expanded their online programs.
“It’s a beautiful mansion and a beautiful campus. There are ancillary buildings, dorms and classrooms, and a few smaller buildings as well,” said David Pennetta, executive director of Cushman &amp; Wakefield in Melville, who is not involved in the Dowling property sale. “With something like this, the highest and best value would be to find someone who can use it as a campus again.”
Pennetta sold the 170-acre St. John’s University campus on Montauk Highway in Oakdale. He said there was a lot of interest from buyers abroad to open a physical campus in the United States, particularly in New York.
Amity University, one of the largest multi-campus colleges in India, purchased the waterfront St. John’s property for $22.5 million in September.
The last major property sale between two local colleges was in 2006, when Stony Brook University paid $35 million to purchase the Southampton campus of Long Island University.
If local public or private higher education institutions were looking to expand, experts said they would seek sites abroad to give global education opportunities to domestic students while capturing some of the international student market.
Additionally, private college officials said they face uncertainty over their enrollments. Some are putting capital plans on hold and paring down their operations. Not many are looking to expand, said Mary Beth Labate, president of the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities, which represents more than 100 private not-for-profit colleges in the state. Labate took over at the commission in January and admitted she was unfamiliar with all the details of Dowling’s demise.
The group, of which Dowling was a member, has aggressively opposed Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s Excelsior Scholarship plan to provide free tuition to full-time students from families making less than $125,000 in adjusted gross income. The plan, which gives supplemental tuition assistance for use at schools in the State University of New York and City University of New York systems, threatens to cut into the enrollments of private colleges, Labate said.
“You could see more Dowlings in the future. If you think that’s the saddest higher-education story ever told, there could be more sequels to that if this free tuition plan goes through,” Labate said.
“As residents of towns, private colleges bring jobs and culture and a dynamic environment,” she added. “Often we are the major employer and the anchor tenant.”
Dowling, which had struggled for years with high debt and changes in leadership, suffered major enrollment declines that were accelerated by the Great Recession and a freeze on hiring in local school districts, officials said.
One of the college’s largest programs was its School of Education, which offered undergraduate and doctoral degrees as well as graduate and advanced certificates.
In 2015, Dowling had 1,784 undergraduate and 670 graduate students, according to a Middle States report — a drop of nearly 50 percent from its 4,500 students in 2009.
Albert Inserra, a former superintendent of the Port Washington school district, was named the college’s president in August 2014 — and was its seventh leader since 2005. He had been chairman of Dowling’s doctoral program in educational administration, leadership and technology.
Small private colleges with low endowments and little name recognition have been at-risk for at least the last decade. Moody’s Investors Service, which publishes an annual outlook for the higher-education sector, continues to predict that in 2017 “highly tuition-dependent small colleges will face the greatest challenges, given more limited prospects for tuition revenue growth and a typically more expensive business model.”
“We are hoping it doesn’t get to that point for the other schools,” Labate said.
For Steven Birkeland, 68, and other members of the Oakdale Historical Society, the selling-off of the college also means the possible loss of portions of the community’s very identity. The historical society used to hold its meetings on the campus, and members of the community have enjoyed access to the campus and its waterfront views.
The group has submitted a 2,300-signature petition to the Town of Islip, asking that the former Vanderbilt mansion and several other buildings that were part of the old estate be designated as sites for landmark protection.
They want to be sure any artwork, furniture, documents and letters with historic value are preserved as well. Rosenfeld said each of those items is being evaluated and the Bankruptcy Court judge and/or the state attorney general’s office will determine what happens to them.
“There are so many documents at the library still that go back to the Vanderbilt days. There are many pieces of art that have been loaned to Dowling, and we would like to see those returned to the powers that be,” Birkeland said. “We just can’t get access to it.”
With Michael R. Ebert, Scott Eidler and Dorothy Levin

LIDOWL0326

Dowling College main campus in Oakdale set for auction

25 acres of Dowling’s main campus set for auction

Dowling College to be auctioned April 4

Dowling College is expected to grant its last degrees Wednesday as the private liberal arts school loses its academic accreditation and closes its doors to students after 48 years. 
The college ran out of money — a rare occurrence in higher education — after being burdened by $54 million in long-term debt. The school laid off about 450 faculty and staff in early June and sent about 1,700 students scrambling to find other ways to continue their education. 
The Middle States Commission on Higher Education has withdrawn Dowling’s accreditation as of midnight Wednesday, and college officials have filed its plans to close with the state Education Department. 
While other public and private colleges and universities are welcoming students back to school this week and next, Dowling’s main campus is vacant and the academic buildings are locked. Landscapers mowed the lawn, security guards manned the gate and a handful of cars were parked in the administration lot on the main Oakdale campus this week. 
Dowling becomes the first fully accredited, nonprofit four-year college on Long Island to shutter in recent history. 
“How can you let an institution run completely out of money?” said Drew Bogner, president of Molloy College in Rockville Centre, which organized student transfer events and other advising services to help Dowling students earlier this summer. 
“How in the future can we make sure that colleges have enough money to ensure a proper closure?” he said. “I think we should start thinking about whether there should be something in place to make sure this doesn’t happen again.” 
The school’s closure process left a network of bitter students and faculty who say more warning and oversight should have been provided. For nearly three months, Dowling’s status has been unpredictable. 
College officials announced it would close on May 31 — laying off faculty and staff — then twice postponed closure dates as they unsuccessfully sought an affiliation agreement with Global University Systems, an educational investment company based in the United Kingdom. 
“Disappointment and shame is what comes to mind when I think about this college now,” said Tracy Heflin of Ronkonkoma, whose daughter, Bailee, is among about 60 students to receive the last Dowling-issued degrees. Beginning Thursday, students within 15 credits of graduation must complete their studies at other colleges and apply for state Board of Regents college diplomas. 
The college’s public regulating agency, the state Education Department, “did everything possible under its authority in the law and went above and beyond the law’s requirements to assist students to transition through the college’s closure,” spokeswoman Emily DeSantis said. 
She said officials from the agency met with the college several times prior to closure to explore options that would have allowed Dowling to remain open. 
“Throughout this process, SED’s number one concern has been that students have access to their records,” she said. 
Dowling student records have been transferred to LIU Post. Students seeking official transcripts to apply to other schools or jobs can access them at the Brookville campus. 
The state’s education policymaking body, the Board of Regents, could not have changed the outcome, said Roger Tilles, the Regent representing Long Island. 
“Right now, the creditors are running the college. There’s nothing they can do but collect their debt. That’s their job,” he said. 
Discussions with state lawmakers and representatives of private, independent nonprofit colleges currently are being planned to prevent a Dowling-like closure from happening again, Tilles said. 
Unknown is the future of the institution and the fate of its assets, including a historic waterfront campus in Oakdale, a 60-acre campus off of the William Floyd Parkway in Shirley, and 32 residential properties and other land holdings in Oakdale and Mastic. 
Dowling will remain a tax-exempt, nonprofit entity for the near future, said Nancy Sterling, a spokeswoman with Mintz Levin, the Boston-based law firm involved in the school’s restructuring and operations. 
“Plans are unclear at the moment,” Sterling said Tuesday. 
In charge of the school’s daily operations is chief restructuring officer Chad Shandler of the Manhattan-based accounting firm CohnReznick. Dowling President Albert Inserra resigned effective Aug. 19. About 12 other employees have remained, including chief financial officer Ralph Cerullo. 
Dowling has not filed for bankruptcy protection, Sterling confirmed. 
More than 260 Stony Brook University undergraduates are expected to live in the dorms on Dowling’s Shirley campus for the 2016-17 academic year, according to a lease agreement between the two schools, Stony Brook spokeswoman Lauren Sheprow said. 
Sterling declined to comment on whether Dowling officials currently are talking with any potential real estate developers or buyers. 
The Oakdale campus is one of the few large tracts of undeveloped waterfront acreage on the Connetquot River. 
“It’s a prime area for preservation and recreation,” said Adrienne Esposito, executive director of the nonprofit Citizens Campaign for the Environment. “We’re predicting there’ll be lots of extravagant proposals for this property. But to preserve it would be a legacy and a gift to the public.” 
The site’s sewage treatment plant had problems in the past and waste discharge hasn’t met health standards, Esposito said. “Any development there could have a serious adverse impact on the bay’s water quality,” she said. 
Kevin Law, CEO and president of the Long Island Association, called the property “prime real estate on Long Island” and said it could wind up as high-end waterfront housing. 
“Folks winding down Dowling should probably solicit proposals, depending on what Islip is willing to accept,” he said. 
Both Law and Esposito agreed the Shirley campus could be a good location for more moderately priced housing. 
Next steps on how the college will satisfy its debt are unknown. 
Experts have said Dowling would have needed a significant infusion of cash to be saved. That’s what trustees said would happen if negotiations with Global University Systems had gone well. 
Those talks failed, and Dowling became the first nonprofit college rated by Moody’s Investors Service to close, the crediting agency said. 
Dowling’s credit default poses no potential liability to county taxpayers or the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency, which issued two bonds for the college, IDA executive director Tony Catapano said. 
State law allows nonprofits to issue capital improvement bonds through IDAs to get better terms. 
Two tax-exempt “civic facility” bonds for the college were issued — $38.9 million in 2006 and $7.2 million in 1996. Of those, about $33.8 million still is owed on the 2006 issuance and about $3.1 million is owed on the 1996 issuance, Catapano said. 
&nbsp; 
CORRECTION 
Dowling College’s Oakdale property is located on the Connetquot River. This story incorrectly stated the property’s was on the Great South Bay.

LIDOWL0831

Dowling grants last degrees, loses accreditation Wednesday

Dowling to lose accreditation, shutter today 

IMGMSIP_WEB

Dowling College, the debt-ridden liberal arts school that has stayed open with a bare-bones staff since June, has officially filed for closure with state and federal regulators, a spokeswoman confirmed Wednesday.
“The college ceases to be an educational institution at the end of the day on Aug. 31, which is when they are no longer accredited,” said Nancy Sterling, a vice president with the communications division of Mintz Levin, the Boston-based law firm involved in the private school’s operations.
Earlier in the day, Dowling officials notified the state Education Department, the U.S. Department of Education, the state attorney general’s office and the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, the accrediting agency, Sterling said.
The agencies “were sent emails and were the recipients of follow-up phone calls,” she said.
The notifications followed a unanimous vote Friday by Dowling’s board of trustees to close the 48-year-old college, Sterling said. She declined to provide details about the vote, including the number of board members who are responsible for the school’s governance.
The Middle States Commission, which measures the quality of more than 500 colleges and universities, took action at its June 23 meeting to withdraw Dowling’s accreditation as of Aug. 31. Loss of accreditation means a school’s students no longer may be eligible for federal and state financial aid.
Richard Pokrass, a spokesman for Philadelphia-based Middle States, said Dowling officially notified his organization on Wednesday. Calls and email messages to officials at the state Education Department, which has been monitoring the school, were not immediately returned Wednesday.
Dowling has been winding down operations at its Oakdale and Shirley campuses after months of unsuccessful efforts to save the school through a deal with Global University Systems, or GUS, an educational investment firm based in the United Kingdom.
The college, which is carrying $54 million in long-term debt, had little cash to sustain its day-to-day operations when on May 31 it abruptly announced plans to close. School officials set two different closure dates — June 3 and June 8 — then reversed course, keeping a handful of offices open at the Oakdale campus and hoping negotiations with GUS would prove successful.
More than 450 faculty and staff were laid off, and about 1,600 students have spent much of their summer seeking out degree programs at other colleges and universities.
Because Dowling did not officially close earlier, there was no trigger for an official “teach-out” plan giving the authority to nearby schools to complete Dowling’s program requirements. Instead, Dowling arranged partnerships with LIU Post and five other colleges that agreed to take a majority of Dowling students’ credits.
About 50 to 60 students are eligible for graduation in August, Sterling said.
Those students have until Aug. 15 to apply for graduation through the school. Their Dowling College degrees would be mailed directly to them, according to information on the college’s website.
Until earlier this week, May graduates hadn’t yet received their diplomas. The diploma vendor, Michael Sutter Co., had not been paid until Monday. The diploma company issued students digital versions Monday morning and, when Dowling’s balance was satisfied, said it would mail those graduates their diplomas.
On June 30, the college’s yearlong forbearance agreement with its major creditors had expired. A certified public accountant from the Manhattan firm CohenReznick had been responsible for the day-to-day operations of the school.
College officials are in the process of working with its secured creditors to monetize Dowling’s assets, Sterling said.
In addition to its main base in Oakdale — a former Vanderbilt waterfront estate — Dowling owns an expansive campus off of William Floyd Parkway in Shirley, used for its aviation school, and about two dozen residential properties in the Oakdale and Mastic area.

LIDOWL0811

Dowling College files for closure with state, fed agencies

Dowling College officially files for closure

IMGCTR3_WEB

Hundreds of Dowling College’s May graduates found a surprise in their inboxes Monday morning: e-diplomas, thanks to the firm that is contracted to print the paper copies.
Because the college had not yet paid for the Class of 2016’s printed diplomas, Michael Sutter Co. issued the digital documents free of charge, account executive Brad Allen said. The firm has printed Dowling diplomas since 2003.
The Utah-based firm cooperated with Dowling President Albert Inserra to deliver the documents to student email addresses that the college had on file, Allen said. A total of 534 students graduated on May 21, according to information Dowling gave Newsday at the time.
“We’ve had a lot of students who called, and a lot were genuinely frustrated,” Allen said.
By midafternoon Monday, the situation shifted.
Chad Shandler, an official with the Oakdale-based college — which has $54 million in long-term debt and is winding down its operations — said the school had paid the firm with a check sent via Federal Express.
Allen confirmed that the check had been received and said it would be deposited Monday, with diplomas to be mailed out this week. Neither the college nor Allen would provide the amount the college paid.
Michael Sutter, which serves colleges nationwide, sent the digital diplomas to nearly 400 graduates Monday morning. Addresses for at least 35 students were not included in the original list that Dowling provided, Allen said.
While the e-diplomas cannot be printed out, they are legally valid in their digital form, he said.
The firm usually charges a $5 fee for each digital document, Allen said, so the donation came at a cost of about $2,000.
Dowling in July sent the company exact payment for outstanding invoices for diplomas of the school’s December graduates, the account executive said. The school ordered diplomas in June for spring graduation, but there was an outstanding invoice, Allen said.
Lynne Viccaro O’Leary, 46, who received a master’s degree in management and leadership, received her e-diploma Monday morning, but she said some students still were waiting.
“Sad situation all around for what was once a solid college here on Long Island,” O’Leary said.
Monday morning, Allen had alerted students to the e-diplomas via the Dowling LOSER Club, a repurposed Facebook page where students air grievances and post updates.
Richard Montchal, 22, of Central Islip, who regularly posts to the group, had been wondering for weeks when he would receive his diploma. At a transfer fair for students last week, he asked Inserra about it and the president told him Dowling had not paid for the Class of 2016’s diplomas.
Monday afternoon, Montchal said he’s happy with the outcome.
“It took way too long,” he said, “but nevertheless, this is what we wanted.”

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Hundreds of Dowling grads get e-diplomas from company

Hundreds of Dowling grads get e-diplomas

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The state’s largest teachers union is taking action against Dowling College to try to recoup severance pay and health benefits for full-time faculty members laid off two months ago from the Oakdale institution, a spokesman said Monday.
New York State United Teachers, on behalf of 47 Dowling professors and staffers, has filed a demand for arbitration, claiming the college violated its contract by not giving employees 10 months of severance pay and discontinuing payments to their self-funded health plan, administered by Cigna Health and Life Insurance Co.
The union is awaiting the college’s response to the demand, filed last month, NYSUT spokesman Carl Korn said Monday. The union represents about 600,000 educators statewide.
“It is fair to say that Dowling faculty members are owed millions of dollars in severance pay and health insurance benefits,” said Korn, who did not provide a specific dollar amount. “NYSUT is fighting tooth and nail to protect the contractual rights of its members at Dowling. They served students and the college with dignity and dedication for years, only to be left high and dry.”
Korn said Dowling denied members’ grievances and the union now is pushing for an arbitration date. An arbitrator would be selected from the American Arbitration Association and would decide if Dowling violated the contract.
Dowling President Albert Inserra and Chad Shandler, chief restructuring officer at the college, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Nancy Sterling, a spokeswoman for the school, said as it is “a matter potentially going to arbitration, then it wouldn’t be appropriate to comment.”
Dowling, a private liberal arts college with campuses in Oakdale and Shirley, will lose its academic accreditation from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education on Aug. 31. The school is winding down operations after unsuccessful efforts to strike a deal with Global University Systems, or GUS, an educational investment firm based in the United Kingdom.
Burdened with $54 million in long-term debt, Dowling announced plans to close May 31, telling its 453 employees in an email that their last day of employment was June 1 and that all benefits would cease on June 2.
The college set two different dates that it would close — June 3 and June 8 — then reversed course, staying open on a streamlined basis and hoping negotiations with GUS would save the school.
Faculty members were not rehired and have been seeking other job opportunities and filing for unemployment benefits. Many, citing their job searches, have declined to comment.
Korn said several of the union’s members have indicated that the college had not paid its health insurance premiums since January and have not provided employees with information about how to continue health coverage under the federal Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, or COBRA.
“Our members are getting the bills from the doctors saying ‘You owe this’ because Dowling isn’t paying the claims,” Korn said.
Dowling is officially open and has not provided a date of closure to the state Education Department, a spokesman for the agency said Monday. While the Education Department oversees the college, it is not legally empowered to close the school.

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Teacher union claims Dowling violated contract on pay, benefits

Union: Dowling violated faculty contract

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They trickled in and out of imposing Fortunoff Hall on Monday: a father-to-be, a high school teacher, a lacrosse player and a military veteran — Dowling College students united by uncertainty and frustration.
They are among hundreds whose education or professional plans have been brought to an abrupt halt by the Oakdale-based college’s impending close after years of financial instability and now, withdrawal of its academic accreditation.
At Monday’s transfer fair, which featured officials from Long Island University, the former students sought answers to a slate of problems that ran the gamut from unpaid-for diplomas to expired visas.
Khali Armstrong, 19, who expects to be a father soon, came to the event in the hope his 54 credits will transfer to LIU and his future will continue on track.
“I don’t want to put it on the back burner,” the psychology major from Coram said of his college career. “That’s what usually happens — and I don’t want to fall into the status quo.”
Armstrong is one of about 1,200 Dowling students who “still need to continue their journey,” President Albert Inserra said. After unsuccessfully seeking a financial partner, Dowling “had to begin to look for other ways to help students.”
The school set up partnerships with LIU and five other institutions that will review former students’ transcripts and facilitate transfers. LIU sponsored Monday’s fair and provided a “robust team” of admissions staff to answer questions about undergraduate and graduate admissions and provide credit evaluations, Inserra said.
Like Armstrong, many students aren’t sure how their credits will transfer to other institutions with different requirements and majors.
Inserra gave his assurance that most students with more than 60 credits will transfer seamlessly, though some have run into obstacles.
Donna Conway, 50, a high school teacher from Islip, plans to attend a second transfer fair Tuesday because LIU can accept only 12 of the 30 graduate credits she already completed. She sat in Fortunoff Hall’s elegant Hunt Room, choked with emotion over what she called the school’s “heartbreaking” demise.
“It’s shocking that a university that sets a standard the way Dowling always has is going down the way it is,” she said, gesturing to the room’s ornate wood carvings. “This was a Vanderbilt mansion.”
This week’s transfer fairs — being held through Wednesday — are geared toward those with degrees to complete. But some students are scrambling to renew student visas that no longer are valid if they are not enrolled in a degree program.
Kody Te Kanawa, 23, is a Canadian citizen and attended Dowling on a lacrosse scholarship. He graduated in the spring, but cannot find a teaching job because of his now-invalid student visa. Because of employee layoffs, Te Kanawa said he no longer has an international officer to go to with questions.
“It’s gotten to where we have to . . . hire immigration lawyers,” he said. “That’s not really an option if you come here on scholarship in the first place.”
Others, such as David Lisma, 29, are struggling with finances. A U.S. Navy veteran, Lisma commutes from Philadelphia and has a federal loan he’ll lose if he can’t get into LIU.
“Even if I transfer, I’m still losing thousands of dollars and time,” he said.
Amid the confusion, many students have turned to a repurposed club Facebook group, the Dowling College LOSER Club, for their information.
Richard Montchal, 22, of Central Islip, regularly posts to the group. He graduated in May but attended Monday’s fair to ask about his missing diploma.
In a conversation with Inserra, the president told him that Dowling has not yet paid for the Class of 2016’s diplomas.
“I’m happy that I got out before this,” Montchal said as he gestured to the transfer fair down the hall. “But still, it’s been a mess. Everyone’s freaking out.”

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Orphaned Dowling College students seek help at ‘transfer fair’

Dowling students seek help at ‘transfer fair’

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Dowling College has reached agreements with Long Island University and five other colleges to accept its students as the struggling Oakdale institution continues to wind down its operations, officials have announced.
LIU, with campuses in Brookville and Brooklyn, is the lead institution to accept Dowling transfer students. Starting Thursday, that private college will be the repository of records, transcripts and other information for Dowling’s current and past students, officials said.
The announcement, in a news release Friday afternoon, broke weeks of silence from Dowling officials on students’ opportunities to continue their education.
The 48-year-old private college, saddled with $54 million in long-term debt, will lose its accreditation from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education on Aug. 31. 
Dowling, which has campuses in Oakdale and Shirley, has not yet announced when it may shut down.
The school, in its statement Friday, said it had 1,200 to 1,300 students when the Philadelphia-based accrediting agency made its decision June 23.
Transition talks with LIU started two weeks ago as Dowling sought out a mix of colleges that would present students options, including online learning and majors, said Chad Shandler, Dowling’s chief restructuring officer and a partner in the Manhattan accounting firm CohnReznick.
“All of this was really done to try to create as soft a landing for our students as possible or as easy a transition for them to be able to continue their education,” Shandler said.
LIU officials could not be reached for comment Saturday.
“We are delighted to welcome Dowling College students to our university,” said Joseph Schaefer, chief of LIU administration and student affairs, in the statement that Dowling released Friday. “We feel confident that we can help Dowling students attain their college goals.”
The other five schools that Dowling has made pacts with are Farmingdale State College in East Farmingdale; St. Joseph’s College in Patchogue and Brooklyn; Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology in Queens; Empire State College, based in Saratoga Springs; and Excelsior College in Albany.
All the colleges “have agreed to work with Dowling to create a transfer program which will give Dowling students an opportunity to complete their degrees,” Dowling president Albert Inserra said in an email to students Friday.
The Oakdale campus will host transfer fairs 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday with LIU representatives. On Tuesday, the six colleges and their admissions counselors will participate, along with U.S. education officials who will answer questions about federal student aid, including loans, grants and work-study programs. 
Students first scrambled to find alternatives after Dowling officials on May 31 announced plans to close and told 450-plus faculty and staff that June 1 was their final day of employment.
However, the college twice changed its date of closure and ultimately remained open, but with a bare-bones staff at the Oakdale campus. 
The liberal arts college had mounted a futile, last-ditch effort to save itself with an investment by Global University Systems, an international education firm based in the United Kingdom.
Inserra — whose letter to students is posted on the college’s website — said LIU would accept students with at least 60 credits and good standing. They would pay Dowling’s 2015-16 tuition and student fees as they complete their degree at the Brookville campus. Those with fewer than 60 credits would be admitted at LIU’S discretion and pay LIU’S tuition and fees, he said.
The costs for the other colleges were not immediately available. Shandler said some had lower tuition than Dowling.
The biggest challenge in the transfer talks was getting someone to take decades of student records, Shandler said. Transcripts are all electronic, he said, but grades for students’ courses will have to be digitized.
Dowling will continue to exist as a legal entity after its academic dissolution, Shandler said.
Officials will have to take stock of its assets and determine how to dispose of its debt, he said. 
The institution has been known for its education department, a unique aviation program and online business graduate degrees for working professionals.
Dependent on tuition dollars, the school experienced severe enrollment declines after the 2008 recession. In 2007, the school had a total of 5,834 students. By 2013, that number had dropped to 3,182, according to state Education Department records.

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Deal allows Dowling students to go to LIU, 5 other colleges

LIU, 5 other colleges to take Dowling students

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Some Dowling College students, angry about losing time and money to complete their degrees, said Thursday they want the school to formally file for closure and implement a plan that would require other Long Island colleges to help them complete the rest of their degree programs.
“Why won’t the school close already?” said Anthony J. George, who was to begin his senior year in the aviation management program in the fall semester. “It’s not exactly open and holding class.”
George, 21, of Seaford, said he chose Dowling in 2013 because he couldn’t afford to “go away to college.” Now, many of the similar programs that will accept a majority of the credits he’s earned are located in Florida.
He said he has called and met with officials in the state Education Department and local elected leaders in his quest for clarity on whether there will be a plan to assist students who were pursuing degrees in Dowling’s aviation curriculum.
“There is no one protecting the students and that’s what bothers me the most,” George said.
The student was among those close to graduation who expressed extreme disappointment Thursday that the administration has offered little clarity on how to transition to other institutions. He and others spoke one day after Dowling trustees announced there was no agreement with Global University Systems, the international education investment firm said to have been interested in making a substantial financial investment in the financially strapped private college.
Dowling, which has been operating with a skeleton staff for the past five weeks, has not announced that it is closing.
No official number was available Thursday on how many of Dowling’s 1,700 students still are enrolled there, hopeful that a partnership agreement with GUS or another entity might save it. While many had left the college over the last few weeks, several seniors took the gamble and remained because transferring would mean losing many class credits.
Since early June, the college has provided on its website information for seniors who wish to take their remaining classes over the summer at other colleges and transfer the credits back to Dowling for an August graduation. An office that issues official student transcripts has been open every weekday. Beginning Monday, the office will be open from 9 a.m. to noon, Monday through Friday.
When a college decides to close, it is required to inform several federal and state agencies — including the state Education Department — of both that decision and the formal date of closure.
“We have not received formal notification of closure from Dowling,” department spokesman Jonathan Burman said Thursday afternoon.
He said the department, which regulates the college, does not have data on how many students are expected to graduate on Aug. 31, before Dowling loses its accreditation, or how many students are left at the school.
Closure, not loss of accreditation, would prompt any “teach-out” plan for students to continue their studies.
Dowling was required by Middle States Commission on Higher Education, its accrediting agency, to develop a teach-out plan. As part of the plan, the college would be working on agreements with other higher education institutions.
Those agreements would outline the specific accommodations for displaced Dowling students, such as waiver of transfer fees, number of credits accepted in transfer and consideration of grade-point average for acceptance. These arrangements would go beyond any normal transfer opportunities, Education Department officials said.
Nearly two dozen Dowling aviation students already have transferred to Farmingdale State College, the only other Long Island college with an aviation program, spokeswoman Kathy Coley said.
“FSC is being as liberal as possible in accepting credits from Dowling. However, not all aviation program courses align with ours,” Coley said. “To provide further accommodation, we are beginning discussions with the Dowling administration for a possible teach-out program for their aviation administration students. We will make every effort to assist these students in completing their degree.”
Dowling, which has campuses in Oakdale and Shirley, has about $54 million in long-term debt.
Earlier this year, trustees had engaged in exclusive negotiations with GUS that were ongoing, officials said, even as they announced on May 31 the school would cease operations. That closure was delayed twice to allow for more intense talks with GUS.
During that time, Middle States, based in Philadelphia, said it would pull the college’s accreditation on Aug. 31.
Michael Devine, 25, of Redding, Connecticut, said as of Thursday afternoon he and other students had received no communication from the college.
“They took so long and now they are leaving us out to dry,” said Devine, an aviation student with about $90,000 in student loan debt. “They’ve offered no guidance on what we are to do next.”
Sharon Parkton, 22, a psychology major and a member of two honor societies, had only one semester left at Dowling. She said she immediately looked for other schools in the beginning of June and will attend Adelphi University for the fall semester. The move adds an extra semester to her academic plans.
“I was looking at Adelphi for graduate school, so I guess this a forced early transition for me,” Parkton said. “Maybe this is a blessing in disguise and what we needed to realize our full potential.”

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Dowling senior: ‘There is no one protecting the students’

Dowling senior: No one is protecting students

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News

Dowling College letter to community

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called for the U.S. Department of Education to implement a warning system for students at financially troubled schools in the wake of Dowling College’s possible closure. 
Schumer said the department should require schools to notify their students if the institution is designated as being in the “danger zone” financially, as he said Dowling had been in 2015. 
The Department of Education assigns a financial responsibility score to private nonprofit colleges. A Schumer spokesman said the “danger zone” designation was derived from this score. 
Such a system would give students “a fair warning if fiscal trouble could lead to an abrupt close,” he said. 
“Our young people need to be told the truth about their colleges even if the truth hurts so they can adequately plan for their futures,” Schumer said. 
Schumer said schools that failed to disclose to their students that they were in the danger zone should be sanctioned, but he said it should be up to the Department of Education to decide the details. 
The Department of Education agrees with Schumer, spokeswoman Dorie Nolt said in a statement. 
“That’s why we’ve added such warnings to our College Scorecard and are considering additional regulatory options to improve information for current and prospective students,” Nolt said. 
Oakdale-based Dowling announced on May 31 that it would permanently close. That sent about 1,700 students scrambling to obtain transcripts and transfer to other colleges to complete their degrees. Last week the college announced that it was open under “streamlined operations” and is in negotiations with a British investment firm to keep it open. 
Citing a 2015 report from Moody’s Investors Service, Schumer said Dowling was not alone, that “there are many colleges on the brink.” 
In a statement accompanying last year’s report, Moody analyst Dennis Gephardt said declining enrollment “and lost market share for smaller colleges continue to spur closures and mergers, as students increasingly opt for larger colleges with greater academic resources.” 
The report said closures among four-year public and private nonprofit colleges averaged five per year from 2004 to 2014 and were expected to hit 15 per year by 2017. 
Dowling student Jennifer Guerrazzi, who joined Schumer’s news conference, said she hopes to finish the last three credits she needs for her master’s degree in special education at Dowling. 
Two days before the summer class was supposed to begin, the 25-year-old from Mount Sinai learned her class was canceled and the next day learned the school was closing. Since then she’s been trying to find out whether she could finish somewhere else, or, since Dowling may remain open, if she can finish there. 
“I’m still waiting to hear when that class would be offered so I can complete that degree but right now I still have no information,” Guerrazzi said. 
Though she completed her undergraduate education at Dowling as well, she said she did not know about the school’s dire financial state when she decided to pursue her master’s degree in 2014. 
“Unfortunately I did not know about a ‘troubled’ list or I would have looked elsewhere,” Guerrazzi said.

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Schumer: Warn students when college is in financial trouble

Schumer: Warn about cash-strapped colleges

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As Dowling College’s long-term future remains uncertain, representatives of dozens of colleges gathered Thursday at Suffolk County Community College’s Selden campus to counsel displaced students who are considering how and where to continue their education.
Scott Cahill, 18, of North Massapequa, who was enrolled in Dowling’s sports management program, said he hopes to transfer. There is too much uncertainty about the Oakdale school’s prospects, he said, not to consider other options.
“It’s not worth it,” said Cahill, who had completed one year of his four-year program at Dowling.
Suffolk County Community College officials said 51 colleges and universities from across the region were represented at the Transfer Fair, held in the Brookhaven Gymnasium on the Ammerman campus. About 75 students attended, college officials confirmed.
The event, designed specifically to aid Dowling students, was organized after the debt-ridden school’s initial announcement that it planned to close permanently on June 3.
The president and trustees since have said that Dowling will remain open as they try to seal an affiliation deal with Global University Systems, an education investment firm based in the United Kingdom.
Both summer sessions at Dowling remain canceled, however, and it is unclear if the college will manage to continue operations — and how its profile as a liberal arts school may change.
James Schultz, 22, of Ridge, was in his fourth year of study and planned to graduate with a degree in aerospace systems. He said he needs only 15 credits — the equivalent of one semester’s course load — to finish.
He said he heard about Dowling’s closure announcement through The Dowling College LOSER Club, a student Facebook page for Dowling students who are gaming fans.
Schultz said he would come back to the college if it remains open, although he expressed dismay at the overall situation, the future of his professors and a lack of information from school officials. All of Dowling’s 453 employees were told in a May 31 email from President Albert Inserra and the board’s trustees that June 1 was their last day of work.
“My four years were great,” he said, adding that it was Dowling’s “friendly classes and friendly professors that drew me in.”
Still, Schultz, who wants to work as an U.S. Air Force and power plant mechanic, is devising a backup plan while he awaits word on Dowling’s fate.
At the Transfer Fair, he was looking at Farmingdale State College in East Farmingdale and Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology, in East Elmhurst, Queens, among others.
Jessica Ventura, 25, a senior at Dowling, said she has only three credits left to complete her degree in Early Childhood and Teaching English as a Second Language.
While she called the situation “stressful,” she said she would consider going back to Dowling if the school remains open, adding, “It’s a good school.”
Marguerite Lane, dean of admissions for Molloy College in Rockville Centre, said she and others at her school had encountered frustration from Dowling students and their parents as Molloy tried to match those students with programs that fit their degree programs.
“We understood that their anger was never directed at us,” she said, “and they always walked away so grateful that they had someone to guide them through the process.”
Lane said she anticipates Dowling students will continue to seek enrollment at other colleges. Molloy has received so many calls that staff members offered to cancel their vacation plans to help with the influx, she said, adding, “It was all-hands-on-deck.”
Christopher Adams, vice president of student affairs for SCCC, said the school has been flooded with calls from Dowling students seeking help in transferring.
Though the student turnout at Thursday’s event was smaller than he had expected, Adams said, “We took a pledge to help the residents of Suffolk County, and I think we did just that today. Even if you help one student, it’s still enough to be a success.”

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Dowling students’ Transfer Fair draws dozens of college reps

Dowling student Transfer Fair hosted at SCCC

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Dowling College President Albert Inserra said Thursday that the Oakdale school is “open and functioning under streamlined operations” as he and trustees attempt to negotiate an affiliation agreement with an education investment firm based in the United Kingdom.
Inserra — in the first news conference held by a school leader since the announcement on May 31 that the 48-year-old Oakdale institution would permanently close — declined to give specifics on the potential deal with Global University Systems.
The deal, if it occurs, would help the private liberal arts college financially and enhance academic programs, the president said. Any agreement would need to either pay down or restructure Dowling’s $54 million in long-term debt and occur in advance of a June 23 meeting of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, which holds the college’s accreditation, he said.
“The debt has to be addressed and there are multiple ways to accomplish that,” he said.
Seven entities, including private equity firms, nonprofit and for-profit colleges and international companies, were interested in partnering with Dowling in the middle of January, Inserra said. The college hired the Royal Bank of Canada to help in attracting potential partners. Through a vetting process that was reviewed by accrediting and regulatory agencies, Global University Systems was selected.
Inserra said he was “strongly supportive of that choice” for the firm’s track record of turning around struggling institutions.
“They would support our mission and complement our mission by adding enrollment over time,” Inserra said.
Dowling currently is running with a staff of 19, including the president. The following offices are open: registrar, degree audit, bursar, financial aid, business and finance, dean of students and the School of Education, the president said. Its two summer sessions remain canceled.
Inserra, who took the helm in August 2014, did not say Thursday how Dowling’s former employees might fit in. The college’s 453 faculty and other staff were told in a May 31 email from Inserra and trustees that their final day of employment was June 1, and that all benefits, including health coverage, ceased as of June 2.
The news conference was the latest development in an unpredictable seesaw of events over recent weeks for Dowling, which is struggling with financial woes, dropping enrollment, unstable leadership and accreditation uncertainty. Since May 31, the college set two different dates that it would close: June 3 and Wednesday. On both of those days, the school’s trustees invoked continuing discussions with Global University Systems in saying the college would remain open.
Michael Puorro, chairman of Dowling’s board of trustees, was not present at Thursday’s news conference. In an interview with Newsday on Wednesday night, he said officials were monitoring the college’s liquidity on a daily basis. He has said the talks were occurring “in earnest around the clock.”
The optimism about a potential deal with Global University Systems allowed the college’s board to rescind the motion to close the school. College officials alerted Middle States, its accrediting agency, just before midnight Tuesday. The announcement was made to the campus community on Wednesday evening.
Inserra admitted that if the deal goes through, rebuilding Dowling’s image will not be easy.
“How do you rebuild trust?” he said. “When you lose trust, it is very difficult to overcome it.”
The college president also told reporters that he is working and communicating often with state Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia and state Sen. Kenneth LaValle (R-Port Jefferson). The state Education Department and its policy-making Board of Regents have regulatory oversight over the college.
The Education Department has not responded to Newsday’s questions regarding Dowling this week. LaValle, chairman of the Senate’s Higher Education Committee, has not responded to emails or calls last week or this week.
The news of closure sent about 1,700 students struggling to figure out whether and how to transfer to other schools.
If Dowling does affiliate with the private, for-profit firm, Inserra told Newsday earlier, the college still would need its current student body and need to be accredited by Middle States. The Philadelphia-based agency, which accredits the college, placed Dowling on warning two years ago. This spring, the agency required Dowling officials to file a “teach-out” plan that would go into effect in case the school lost its accreditation or closed.
The plan no longer applies now that the college is officially open again and students are being treated as traditional transfer students, officials at other colleges said.
More than 75 Dowling students attended a Transfer Fair on Thursday at Suffolk County Community College’s campus in Selden, where admissions officials from 51 local and regional colleges reviewed transcripts and offered academic advising.
Adelphi University and Farmingdale State College held separate information sessions Thursday. 
New York Institute of Technology will host one on Monday at its campus in Old Westbury. SUNY Old Westbury will hold another on June 16. Both of those events are planned from 3 to 7 p.m.
Global University Systems was founded in 2013 by Aaron Etingen, who began the London School of Business &amp; Finance 10 years earlier. The company posted more than $300 million in revenue in the 12 months ending on February 2015, according to credit agencies. It grants undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, in addition to language and vocational programs, through its institutions in the UK, Canada, Germany and Singapore and online courses. Registered in the Netherlands, it recruits its students from more than 150 countries.
Repeated calls and email messages to the company’s main offices in London were not returned.

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Dowling president: College is open ‘under streamlined operations’

Dowling president discusses school’s future

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Dowling College will remain open as the Oakdale school’s trustees continue talks to affiliate with Global University Systems, an education investment firm based in the United Kingdom, the school’s officials said Wednesday.
The college’s president, Albert Inserra, announced in a statement that negotiations with the international company have “enabled the college’s board to rescind the motion to close the school.”
“We know how difficult the last week has been for our students, our faculty and our staff,” Inserra said in the statement, released just before 6 p.m. “We recognize the importance of a sustained Dowling College to our entire Dowling family and community, including most of all our student body.”
The reversal was the latest turn of events for the 48-year-old liberal arts college struggling with financial woes, dropping enrollment, unstable leadership and accreditation uncertainty.
Since May 31, Dowling — beset by $54 million in long-term debt — has set two different days it would close: June 3 and Wednesday. On both of those days, the trustees invoked continuing discussions with Global University Systems in saying the college would remain open.
In the scrum of uncertainty, it was unclear Wednesday night what the college’s latest pronouncement means for students or those who worked there.
The news of closure has sent about 1,700 students struggling to figure out whether and how to transfer to other schools. Dowling’s 453 faculty and other staff were told in a May 31 email from Inserra and trustees that their final day of employment was June 1.
The college president, in a brief interview Wednesday evening, said the timeline for the negotiations with Global University Systems is pegged to the Middle States Commission on Higher Education’s June 23 meeting. The Philadelphia-based agency, which accredits the college, placed Dowling on warning two years ago.
“This is not going to be a protracted negotiation,” Inserra said. “It has to unfold over the next few weeks.”
If Dowling does affiliate with the private, for-profit firm, the president said, the college still would need its current student body and need to be accredited by Middle States.
“This is an affiliation agreement that would not change who we are,” Inserra said.
Richard Pokrass, spokesman for Middle States, said earlier Wednesday that the full commission, at its June meeting, is slated to determine Dowling’s reaccreditation status. The school’s trustees, in a brief email late Tuesday night, had notified the commission of the intention to remain open for an unspecified time period.
Both Inserra and Michael Puorro, chairman of Dowling’s board, said talks are happening around the clock and they are hopeful an agreement can be reached. Neither could say how often they could provide updates.
“There’s no way to say that tomorrow we will have a definitive answer,” Inserra said.
Puorro declined to give details on the talks, citing a confidentiality agreement. He said the deal is “dictated by many complicated decisions.”
Calls and email messages Wednesday to the state Education Department were not returned.
Global University Systems grants undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, in addition to language and vocational programs through its institutions in the UK, Canada, Germany and Singapore and online courses. Registered in the Netherlands, it recruits its students from more than 150 countries.
The company was founded in 2013 by Aaron Etingen, who in 2003 founded the London School of Business &amp; Finance. The company gets its students through a network of more than 1,700 active independent education agents and 500 staff dedicated to marketing, sales and business development, according to Moody’s Investors Service.
Official student transcripts still were being held at Dowling’s main campus in Oakdale, where the grounds were quiet on Wednesday.
Shatisha Oswald, 36, of Aquebogue, was among the few students and alums on campus. She was optimistic about alumni efforts to save the school, saying she had her “fingers crossed” about efforts to keep it open.
“Hopefully we have enough people to save the school and save the school for future students, because it’s a beautiful school to be in,” she said.
Oswald, who graduated from Dowling in 2015 with a degree in teaching and works as a substitute teacher and at Home Depot, said her fondest memories are of the students and professors.
“It’s sad. It’s very heartfelt,” she said. “I didn’t think I would be as emotional as I was when I got here . . . I’m definitely choking up today.”
Students need official transcripts to transfer to other institutions, and many local colleges were holding events this week and next that are geared to help Dowling students continue their educations. Admissions and enrollment counselors have said students can bring unofficial transcripts for review.
A big Transfer Fair, with representatives of more than 50 universities and colleges from throughout the region, is scheduled Thursday afternoon at Suffolk County Community College’s Ammerman campus in Selden, and both Adelphi University and Farmingdale State College are holding information sessions Thursday. New York Institute of Technology has a transfer event scheduled Monday.
When Dowling announced its closure, Molloy College in Rockville Centre was designated as the primary contact for displaced students and families. That school already held two information sessions to assist students seeking information on how to complete their degrees.
Pokrass, from Middle States, said Dowling’s “teach-out” plan for its students will remain on file.
“Even if the college plans to remain in operation for now, it is still required to have the teach-out plan in place in case it needs to be fully implemented following any commission action on June 23,” he said.
With Jean-Paul Salamanca

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Dowling College to remain open as talks continue, officials say

Officials: Dowling to remain open during talks

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Here are events scheduled to assist Dowling College students displaced by their school’s announced closing, as well as a hotline number for Dowling employees:
<h3>Adelphi University</h3>
Thursday, June 9: Walk-in admission counseling, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the university’s Hauppauge Center, 55 Kennedy Dr., Hauppauge.
<h3>Farmingdale State College</h3>
Thursday, June 9: Transfer information session, 2 p.m. in the Roosevelt Hall Tour Room on the Farmingdale campus.
<h3>Transfer Fair</h3>
Thursday, June 9: Representatives of at least three dozen colleges from throughout the region will be available to speak with Dowling students from 3 to 7 p.m. at Suffolk County Community College’s Ammerman campus, 533 College Rd., Selden.
<h3>New York Institute of Technology</h3>
Monday, June 13: Transfer information session, 10 a.m. in Harry Schure Hall on the Old Westbury campus. Register in advance by email at transfer@nyit.edu.
<h3>Websites for more information</h3>
<a href="http://www.dowling.edu" target="_blank">http://www.dowling.edu</a>
<a href="http://www.molloy.edu/dowling" target="_blank">http://www.molloy.edu/dowling</a>
<h3>Hotline for employees</h3>
Dowling employees looking for help finding jobs can call a dedicated Suffolk County Department of Labor hotline at 631-853-6517.

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Help for Dowling College students, employees

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Dowling College trustees announced Friday they are back in negotiations with a British educational investment firm to create an academic partnership that would allow the liberal arts school to continue its operations, just as Dowling’s alumni association mounted a separate campaign to shore up the debt-ridden college’s finances.
Michael Puorro, chairman of the college’s board, told Newsday that trustees still are in “serious talks” with United Kingdom-based Global University Systems, an international network of postsecondary institutions.
If a deal is reached, he said, Dowling would not close and the firm would make a significant financial investment and supply students to the school.
Puorro and Dowling President Albert Inserra, in a joint telephone interview Friday afternoon, said the 48-year-old liberal arts school still is slated to close Wednesday.
“We will continue to work every minute, every hour, 24 hours a day to see this through in an effort to keep Dowling College Dowling College,” Puorro said. “But make no mistake about it — we understand what’s important to our student body and we will assist in their transition to other schools, if they so choose, for the sake of their educational future.”
Global University Systems is involved in schools around the world, from Vancouver to Singapore, according to Dowling officials, and “has a proven ability to turn around the fortunes of colleges buffeted by economic challenges.”
Puorro and Inserra declined to provide any details on the current talks, such as how much money the firm would invest; whether there is a timeline in place for the negotiations; how many students the firm would provide; and what might be delaying the deal.
“These are sensitive, multi-faceted negotiations, and that’s why we are being circumspect with the details,” Inserra said.
Puorro and Inserra said the college is working with its accrediting agency, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, and state regulatory agencies, including the state Education Department.
With the Oakdale school saddled with $54 million in long-term debt and its reaccreditation in peril, Dowling officials were in talks with the company earlier this year. However, the firm’s identity had been kept confidential until last week, when Newsday reported that Dowling was teetering on the brink of closure. At that time, the newspaper sought comment from Global University Systems, but calls and emails were not returned.
On Tuesday afternoon, Dowling said it would close after failed efforts to raise money and secure an investing academic partnership.
The sudden announcement sent about 1,700 students hustling to acquire their academic records and figure out how to continue their educations, with Molloy College in Rockville Centre designated to coordinate a “teach-out” plan for the displaced students. The college’s employees were told not to report to work after Thursday, and that their pay and benefits would cease as of that day.
The college initially had said it would close on Friday. Then, a notice posted on the Dowling website Thursday said that trustees had “extended the potential closing date until Wednesday, June 8,” and said students could get their official transcripts at the Oakdale campus through that date, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The alumni association, in its own effort to salvage the school, announced Friday morning that it is in negotiations with a “substantial entity” that would be in a position to donate money to help pay down Dowling’s debt. The “entity” was not named.
“We are dedicated to turning the page on the college’s history,” said Frank Corso Jr., the association’s president. “We will have a real cohesive plan with financial backing to help get this college on a sound financial path.”
As part of the effort to bolster the college’s finances, the association said it has seven individuals willing to serve on the school’s board of trustees.
Corso said those potential board members would commit money immediately to help the college pay down its debt, which was a factor in the school’s decision this week to close.
It was not clear how much money those individuals would be willing to commit. In addition, it was unclear whether those seven would replace current board members or join the existing board. It also was not clear how they would join the board.
Puorro on Friday afternoon said he welcomes any effort by Corso and the alumni association.
The seven individuals proposed as immediate board members by the alumni association are John F. Wayne, executive director of the Delaware Thoroughbred Racing Commission; David R. Bobbitt, president of the SCORE Foundation; Michael Hynes, Patchogue-Medford school district superintendent; Frank Pelliccione, vice president of Flushing Bank; attorney Andrew Thaler of Westbury; Nicholas Marino, managing director of Cart-Tops; and Bill M. Faggiano of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management in Garden City.
“While there has been significant effort made to overcome the challenges facing Dowling College, we believe there is more that can be done to provide a path forward other than closing the school,” Corso said. “We look forward to working with the administration and other stakeholders to forge a new future for Dowling College.”
Corso said the alumni association will launch a website aimed at raising funds to save the school.
“We want to be a resource for the current administration and do everything we can to help save our beloved college,” he said.
Corso said he wrote a letter to Inserra offering an “infusion of new ideas” to help the college remain open.

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Dowling College trustees, alumni trying to save school

Dowling trustees, alumni trying to save college

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Bart Jones

Some Dowling College students said Friday they would return to the school if it remains open, though their parents had different opinions.
As Dowling officials and alumni engaged in frantic efforts to salvage the college, which is slated to close Wednesday, scores of students flocked to Molloy College in Rockville Centre for a daylong “teach-out” event to help them figure out their next move. Molloy was designated as the primary contact for the displaced students.
“If they kept athletics, I would want to go back to Dowling,” said Tiana Deoliveira, 19, a softball player and physical education major from Shirley who would be a junior in the fall. She said she likes the small classes, individual attention from professors and “home-like” atmosphere.
But her father, Anthony Deoliveira, had strong reservations, fearful that even if Dowling manages to remain open, its future is shaky and it could close.
“For me as a parent, I would not want her to go back,” he said. “I would talk her out of it.”
Melissa Escobar, 21, a physical education major from Manhattan who lived in a residence hall at Dowling, said she would like to return in the fall for her senior year. “Dowling has been pretty great for us,” she said.
The Laird family of Holbrook has a particular dilemma.
Their oldest daughter, Samantha, 22, only has to do her student teaching for one semester, gaining 15 credits, to graduate. She would like to return and earn her teaching degree.
But her younger sister, Alexandra, 17, who committed to Dowling at the end of her sophomore year at Sachem High School East, said there is no way she will attend the school now. Dowling had offered her a scholarship to play field hockey and softball. She hoped to study criminal justice.
“It’s already so late — I need to look at other options,” she said.
Peter Kupperschmid, of Long Beach, said he loves Dowling’s “Academic Access” program, which helps students with handicaps, such as his son, attend the college. His son, Justin, 19, who is majoring in digital game design and graphic design, lived away from home for the first time during this past school year as a freshman.
But the father said he would not send his son back.
“It’s not a solid institution where I would want my son to go,” he said. “It’s sad, but it’s obviously been mismanaged.”
At Dowling’s Oakdale campus on Friday, students voiced similar sentiments.
Ryan Franciosa, 20, a junior from Dix Hills majoring in criminal justice, said, “I would be so happy to go here and finish,” instead of attending a school where students are packed “300 in a class.”
But he doesn’t expect to return. Instead, he is looking to transfer to Molloy or St. Joseph’s College in Patchogue.
Stephen Naraine, 26, of Westbury is a sophomore studying digital game design. He said he has already made plans to register at LIU Post in Brookville.
“It’s sad, because I had a teacher who’s one of the best teachers here. He was excited about getting new computers and updating the graphics lab, and he was pretty much spearheading the new gaming courses that they have,” Naraine said.
He was skeptical of plans to save the school, having watched people pack up their belongings this week. “Personally, seeing what all my other professors are having to do and all the people having to clear stuff out, I would say it’s doubtful that it’s going to happen.”

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Dowling students voice loyalty, but parents’ viewpoint differs

Dowling students voice  loyalty, but parents’ view differs

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About 300 Dowling College students displaced by their school’s announced closure turned out Thursday at an academic counseling event aimed to help them plan the next steps in their education.
A steady stream of students and their families attended the daylong event, coordinated by Molloy College at its Suffolk County center at Republic Airport.
“What we are trying to do today is really just give them options and tell them that they need to be looking at all of the colleges on Long Island, because what we would like to do is keep them all on Long Island,” said Linda Albanese, vice president for enrollment management at Molloy College.
Molloy, a 4,600-student private school based in Rockville Centre, was designated as the primary contact for Dowling students. About 1,700 Dowling students are potentially looking for a new college to which they can transfer. Officials said some already may have made alternate plans, particularly those who had planned to enter Dowling in the fall semester.
At the drop-in session, many students and their families said they were frustrated by the lack of communication and clarity from the Dowling administration.
Bridgit Manseau, 51, of Rocky Point, said she thought the state would have more oversight. Her son, Ryan, 24, received his acceptance from Dowling’s MBA program on Tuesday — the same day the school announced it was closing.
“Dowling has had issues over the last decade, but for a university to close like this is shocking,” said the elder Manseau, noting the disruption in the lives of students and their families.
“There should be a safety net in place,” she said. “We are always talking about keeping young people in the area and that we want kids to stay on the Island — well, this isn’t the way to do it.”
Dowling College officials’ announcement Tuesday afternoon of the 48-year-old institution’s impending closure came after years of dropping enrollment, financial struggles and leadership changes. Dowling has $54 million in long-term debt.
That announcement said the school would shut its doors on Friday. However, on Thursday, the school’s website said the trustees “extended the potential closing date until Wednesday, June 8” and said students could get their official transcripts at the Oakdale campus through that date, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Dowling President Albert Inserra declined to comment Thursday.
About two dozen advisers were on hand at Molloy’s center to answer students’ questions, such as whether they would be able to obtain their degrees on time, if their financial aid package would apply to their new college and what academic programs still are available to them.
Plans for housing, schedules and other practical considerations were discussed as students expressed an overwhelming sense of uncertainty about their futures. Those who were further along in obtaining their degrees or enrolled in graduate programs at Dowling were particularly concerned.
“My whole summer is on pause right now,” said Jonathan Singh, 22, of Port Jefferson Station, as he waited to speak with one of the counselors.
Singh, who was attending Dowling on a cross-country running scholarship, said he is one course away from getting the bachelor’s degree that would make him the first in his family to graduate from college.
“It means a lot,” he said. “It really does.”

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Displaced Dowling College students flock to drop-in session

Dowling students flock to drop-in session

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Joie Tyrrell

June Capossela Kempf of St. James donated a political cartoon to Dowling College that her late son drew when he was a student there in the mid-1990s.
With word of the school’s impending closure, she is trying to get back the artwork made by her son, Jonathan Kempf. She has reached out to the administration and his former teachers in an effort to find it.
“Now with this crisis, I want someone to get a hold of it and save it, so it doesn’t wind up in a Dumpster,” she said Thursday.
Jonathan Kempf, who had muscular dystrophy, attended the Oakdale school from 1993 to 1996. An art major, he went to classes with his service dog, Barney, and had a very good experience at Dowling, the mother said. He died at age 21 in 1996, when he was a junior.
He used colored pencils to draw the cartoon, and Capossela Kempf and her husband, Ron Kempf, donated the framed picture to the special education department within Dowling’s School of Education. It pictured former U.S. Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich seated at a desk, trying to write a speech, with a shoe in his mouth.
Capossela Kempf is not sure if the picture ever was displayed. At the time, she said, she was told it might be too political.
This week, when she learned of Dowling officials’ announcement that the school is closing, she tried to find out what had happened to her son’s work.
She said she sent emails to his former teachers and spoke with someone from administration. Dowling President Albert Inserra, contacted Thursday by Newsday, sent a referral to a staff member for Capossela Kempf to contact for help.
Capossela Kempf said she realizes that with the impending closure, Dowling employees may be preoccupied with more pressing developments.
College officials initially announced Tuesday afternoon they were shutting down the school, which has campuses in Oakdale and Shirley, on Friday. Then, on Thursday, a notice posted on the school’s website said the campus is expected to close Wednesday, June 8.
“I remembered the picture and I wouldn’t want to see it thrown away,” she said. “I know it is possibly an impossible quest, but I wanted to do my best to make sure it was secured.”

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Mother seeks help locating late son’s artwork before Dowling closes 

Mother seeks late son's artwork before Dowling closes

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The impending closure of Dowling College has sent about 1,700 students scrambling, as state officials and leaders of other colleges attempt to carry out a plan that would give displaced students opportunities to continue their education.
On the main Oakdale campus Wednesday, students and graduates seeking information and their academic records lined the hallways inside the campus’ majestic Fortunoff Hall, snaking through the building.
“I was hoping to have them last one more year and unfortunately they couldn’t even last one more week,” said Jordan Hemmerly, 25, a Medford resident who was one class away from graduating with a biology degree on a pre-med track. “Considering I’ve been paying my tuition and all that, I’m pretty mad. I’ve been pretty much tossed around the entire time I was here, and it didn’t seem like any one department knew what the other one was doing.”
Officials at Dowling, the 48-year-old liberal arts college with campuses in Oakdale and Shirley, plan to cease operations Friday, except for a skeleton operation to supply student records. Dowling trustees moved to close the school after years of financial challenges and several unsuccessful attempts in recent months to find an investor or academic partner.
Several students and faculty members said they were saddened, shocked and upset. Staffers walked to their cars, carrying boxes of books and mementos.
Another student, Chris Snyder, 22, a Shirley resident and finance student, called Dowling’s closure “heartbreaking” as he left with a cardboard box full of computer equipment.
“I am upset, because, honestly, three days’ notice before a school closes is ridiculous — like, how would you feel if you had nine credits left, three classes, and your school shuts down?” Snyder said.
Dowling and state education officials have designated Molloy College, a 4,600-student private school in Rockville Centre, to coordinate the “teach-out” plan, according to Molloy President Drew Bogner.
The plan, which is standard procedure in academia, was put into effect Tuesday when Dowling officials announced the school’s closure. It includes advising students on other college programs, academic counseling, advice on transferring credits and relocating official transcripts for thousands of students and alumni, Bogner said.
“The phones have been ringing nonstop. People — rightly so — want to know how they are going to finish their degrees,” Bogner said.
As of last week, Dowling’s enrollment was about 1,500 students, with another 200 who planned to enter as freshmen in the fall, he said.
It was unclear Wednesday how many faculty and other staff members will lose their jobs. Dowling’s board of trustees, in a letter emailed Tuesday to employees, said staffers should not come to work Thursday and that all of their benefits would cease on that day.
The situation poses an extra challenge for international students in the United States on special visas.
Xiaojie He, 35, a graduate with a master’s in general management degree, said she came to the school from China. She was worried about other international students who could lose their visas if they are not enrolled in an accredited school.
“The international students, and even the staff, they had no idea what will happen now,” said He, a Manhattan resident. “Without a school, their visas expire and they have to go back” without a degree.
Dowling was required to file the “teach-out” plan before March 1 with its accrediting agency, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, based in Philadelphia. The commission’s spokesman said the plan named Molloy as the “primary contact institution” in the event of Dowling’s closure.
A copy of the document was not publicly available.
The plan allows for student transcripts to be sent to Molloy, although it was unclear Wednesday night when they would be available. Those official sealed transcripts are needed for students to gain acceptance at any institution to which they would transfer.
Late Wednesday, Dowling updated its website to say that students can obtain transcripts at the Oakdale campus through June 8, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“We will be talking with the administration at Dowling over the next few days to see how we can be helpful as they implement their closure plans and work with their students on identifying opportunities to complete their education,” said Jeanne Beattie, spokeswoman for the state Education Department.
Most professors and Dowling College employees refused to talk Wednesday, except to say they are saddened by the school’s closure.
Employees received word in an emailed letter at 5 p.m. Tuesday that the college was shutting down. Some had worked at the school for decades.
Stephen Saroli, a science professor, walked out of a building carrying biology books, a cow’s femur that he used in his classes and some clothing with Dowling insignia he had recently purchased. Both he and his wife, Roxanne, are graduates and were on campus with their 6-month-old baby, Jack.
“I’m just really sad, because it was a great school,” said Saroli, 55, of Deer Park, who graduated from the school and then taught there for 22 years. “They were in dire efforts to try and figure out a strategy to move on and save the school.”
Suffolk County Steve Bellone held an afternoon news conference to discuss the Dowling closure. He announced a dedicated hotline at the county’s Department of Labor to help Dowling employees find new jobs.
“Yesterday was a very sad day for all of us here in Suffolk County, and I think on Long Island,” Bellone said. “And, most importantly, for the family of Dowling College.”
He invited Dowling students to attend Suffolk County Community College, announcing he would waive the $40 application fee and defer the usual requirements for immunization records and transcripts.
Officials at other four-year colleges on the Island offered sentiments on the closing of the school. Many said they were ready to help Dowling students complete their degrees; however, it is up to each college to determine which credits they will accept.
There is no guarantee that course credits will transfer or that students will graduate on time. The Education Department cannot require other colleges to accept credits earned at Dowling, state officials said.
“The loss of Dowling to the Long Island higher education community is unfortunate,” said W. Hubert Keen, outgoing president of Farmingdale State College, which like Dowling has an undergraduate aviation program. “We will be aiding Dowling in any way we can. Our focus is on doing whatever is possible to help their students continue their education and earn their degrees. That should be everyone’s focus.”
With Chau Lam

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Dowling College’s closure leaves about 1,700 students scrambling

Students scramble ahead of Dowling’s closure

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Dowling College letter to employees

The death of one Long Island college, Dowling, this week could become an object lesson for another institution, Nassau Community College, now scrambling to secure firm footing.
As of Friday, Dowling College, a 48-year-old liberal arts school in Suffolk County, will be no more. And although the sudden announcement of its demise likely came as a suprise to some students, staff and faculty, the hard fact is that the college had been dying.
For years.
Efforts to stem declining enrollment by retooling some of its programs did not work.
And — despite union concessions — Dowling remained unable to pull itself back from financial instability.
One of the biggest issues?
It’s one that NCC knows well: A lack of strong and consistent leadership.
In 2012, Dowling — gripped by enrollment and financial issues — named its fourth president in six years.
But it didn’t last.
In fact, sources told Newsday back then, the leadership gap kept decades of administrative infighting alive, even as academic programs began to falter.
But there was a time when Dowling thrived — most admirably, as a college that turned out generations of teachers, until the demand for educators fell off.
There were other programs in the college’s schools of business, education, arts and science and aviation. 
One of the Mercury Seven astronauts, Wally Schirra — who also flew Gemini and Apollo missions — opened the college’s transportation campus in Shirley in 1994.
More recently, Dowling began reaching out to Long Island high school students through the college’s annual Youth Summit, challenging them to research and rethink some of the issues vexing the region — from the environment to race relations.
That all ends Friday, the day the college, which has one of the most bucolic campuses in the region in Oakdale, ceases operation.
Like Dowling, Nassau Community College in Garden City has had a dearth of stable leadership, as shown recently by multiple failed attempts by the college board of trustees to field a new president.
Like Dowling, NCC has been beset by years of infighting between administrators and faculty.
NCC also is under scrutiny by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, an accrediting organization, as Dowling once was.
Still, NCC has advantages.
For one, NCC has not seen Dowling’s precipitiously steep enrollment decline, although the school’s retention rate could be better.
And while Dowling, as a private independent college, tried and failed, to partner with another institution, NCC, as a public college, is part of the state university system.
Which means SUNY can help — as it did in the effort to secure an open-ended contract with W. Hubert Keen, the outgoing president of Farmingdale State College, to lead NCC. 
Like Dowling in years past, NCC is at a crossroads.
Which path will it choose?

Columnists

Joye Brown

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Nassau Community College’s lessons in Dowling College demise

Brown: Lessons for NCC in Dowling College demise

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Dowling College, the 48-year-old liberal arts school in Suffolk County, will cease operations and close its doors effective Friday afternoon after failed efforts to grow enrollment and find a suitable academic partner to stabilize the debt-ridden institution.
The college’s president, Albert Inserra, announced the decision in a statement released by a spokesman just before 5 p.m. Tuesday. 
“As painful as this announcement is we want the student body, faculty and alumni to know that we made every effort to form a suitable academic affiliation so that we could keep the college open,” Inserra said. “Unfortunately, despite months of lengthy negotiations we were unable to form such an affiliation, and our only option is to cease operations. This painful decision is a reflection of the unprecedented financial challenges facing countless private educational institutions across the nation and the difficult choices that many must now face.”
On Tuesday afternoon — which would have been the start of the college’s summer session — the student parking lot was empty on the Oakdale campus, although buildings were open and staffed. The college, which is more than $54 million in debt, announced on its website that summer classes also were canceled.
College officials now are responsible for implementing a “teach-out” plan to ensure students transition to other colleges and universities. Dowling officials were required to file such a plan by March 1 with its accrediting agency, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education in Philadelphia. The college’s accreditation status was to be discussed at the next meeting of the full commission June 23. 
Late Tuesday, officials with Molloy College, a 4,600-student private college in Rockville Centre, announced that the college is working with Dowling to assist Dowling students. A transition counseling center will be established and managed by Molloy and will be available to Dowling students starting Wednesday to help them make decisions on how to complete their degrees. 
“This is a sad day for everyone at Dowling and, indeed, all of Long Island,” said Molloy College President Drew Bogner. “Our focus at Molloy will be on the affected students; therefore, Molloy is coordinating the development and implementation of a program designed to help Dowling students complete their education and earn their degrees with as little disruption as possible.” 
Students and alumni seeking their academic records will be able to retrieve them from the New York State Education Department, state and college officials said. The state education department is responsible for ensuring transcripts are permanently maintained and stored. 
“We will work with the remaining Dowling staff and their students and regional colleges to try and make sure the students have access to their student records, and work to ensure they have the information they need to make the best choice to continue their education,” said Jeanne Beattie, an education department spokeswoman. 
When colleges or universities close, the education department provides guidance and information to help close while also protecting students, a state official said. 
The education department requests that the closing college notify current and prospective students; faculty; media; creditors; local, state and federal agencies; accrediting agencies; and neighboring institutions, the official said. 
Dowling has been on the brink of closure for a while. Dowling officials had been in talks with several institutions the past few months, including an education investment company based in the United Kingdom, sources had said. 
Last week, state Sen. Kenneth LaValle (R-Port Jefferson), chairman of the Higher Education committee, revealed the school’s situation was so dire that it nearly canceled the Class of 2016’s commencement, held on the field at its Brookhaven campus May 21. 
Opened in 1968 on the grounds of the former waterfront Vanderbilt estate in Oakdale, the college offered degrees with schools in arts and sciences, education, aviation and business. 
The school had struggled for years with financial challenges, changes in leadership and plummeting enrollment.
It had 1,784 undergraduate and 670 graduate students in 2015, according to a Middle States report — a drop of nearly 50 percent from its 4,500 students in 2009.
The most recent cost to attend Dowling — including tuition, room and board and fees — ranged from $40,000 to $44,000 per academic year based on a 30-credit undergraduate course load, according to the college’s website.
In November 2014, the faculty union approved $4.7 million in contract givebacks to help close the school’s 2014-15 budget gap. It was unclear Tuesday how many faculty and staff would be impacted by the college’s closure. 
Also in November 2014, Dowling agreed to pay more than $400,000 to Robert Gaffney, the former Suffolk County executive who served as the college’s president from 2006 to 2010, in a settlement of his lawsuit against the Oakdale school. Gaffney’s lawsuit, filed in 2010, alleged he was owed about $375,000, including interest.
“It is my firm belief that the history of Dowling College cannot be dismissed, forgotten or marginalized. Through our students and alumni, Dowling’s legacy will continue for decades to come,” Inserra said. “We are enormously proud of them, their achievements here at Dowling and their career successes. We hope we have helped them on their road to a better and brighter future.” 
Inserra was unavailable for further questions Tuesday.

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Dowling College in Oakdale closes its doors after 48 years 

Dowling transitioning students impacted by closure

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Dowling College is rushing to find an academic and investment partner after a deal to help the debt-ridden liberal arts school stalled, threatening both the school’s existence and the Class of 2016’s commencement ceremony, a key senator said Monday.
A flurry of activity over the last four days averted a crisis — but only for the near term, said state Sen. Kenneth LaValle (R-Port Jefferson), chairman of the Senate Higher Education Committee.
“They are alive for another day,” LaValle said in an interview in Albany. “Right now, it’s a day-to-day basis.”
A cash infusion allowed the private college to get through the end of the academic year and Saturday morning’s graduation program, some said, although Dowling President Albert F. Inserra, in a telephone interview Monday evening, said “no infusion” of cash was needed. He did not elaborate.
“We are vigorously pursuing all opportunities to keep Dowling Dowling,” he said.
Dowling, a private college founded in 1955, has its main campus in Oakdale and a Brookhaven campus in Shirley.
“We worked Friday to make sure they could have graduation,” LaValle said, calling it a “roller coaster” that didn’t conclude until that evening. “We were talking about hours. Quite honestly, Friday night I thought it was over.”
LaValle said the college is in talks with “interested parties,” whom he declined to name, after an investment arrangement with London-based Global University Systems appeared to hit a dead end.
The identity of that potential affiliation had been kept confidential since Dowling announced in mid-March that it had reached a deal with an academic partner to help keep it afloat.
Earlier, in a brief interview at the Oakdale campus, Inserra would not answer other questions and referred a Newsday reporter to a college spokesman, who acknowledged that Dowling is looking for investment help.
Roger Tilles, Long Island’s representative on the Board of Regents, the state education policy-making body, also said Dowling needed an “emergency infusion of cash” to get through the last week and noted that it is an estimated $54 million in debt.
Calls Monday to the state Department of Education and the Middle States Commission on Higher Education were not returned. Middle States is a nongovernmental agency that accredits Dowling and other institutions of higher learning in certain areas, including New York.
Three employees who were leaving the Oakdale campus said their workdays Monday were normal and they planned to return Tuesday. They would not give their names.
Joseph Olivero, 19, of Shirley, who is majoring in criminal justice, came onto campus to return a book, but the bookstore was closed. He said there has been no communication from the college about any changes in its future, and he wants to continue his studies and graduate from Dowling.
“The professors here are awesome and I really like my classes,” said Olivero, whose brother attends Dowling and is on the lacrosse team. “I like the school. It’s a nice atmosphere.”
Dowling has struggled for years with financial challenges, changes in leadership and plummeting enrollment. It had 1,784 undergraduate and 670 graduate students in 2015, according to a Middle States report — a drop of nearly 50 percent from its 4,500 students in 2009.
LaValle said one hang-up with the affiliation with Global University Systems, an education management company that runs institutions around the world, was the establishment of a Dowling branch in New York City, which involves a lengthy process. That led the London-based company to “walk away,” he said.
Inserra, in the later interview, said the partnership is “still percolating.” Another source said it wasn’t necessarily dead yet.
“This has been an accident that has been in the making for some time,” LaValle said of the overall situation, adding that “keeping the doors open” is “critically important.”
Tilles said it is possible that another university could be interested in taking over the campus and running the school, if that other school would not have to assume Dowling’s debt.
“The creditors, the bondholders would have to make that deal,” Tilles said. “But they are owed $54 million and there is no money.”
When colleges announce they will close — as did the for-profit Briarcliffe College in Patchogue in December — they are required by Middle States and federal regulations to provide a “teach-out plan” that allows equitable treatment for students to complete their education, and to include any teach-out agreements that the institution has entered into or intends to enter into with another institution.
Dowling has been on warning regarding its accreditation since June 2014, when a Middle States report showed the school had failed to comply with three major standards. The college remained accredited while on warning.
Dowling had been required to submit to Middle States audited financial statements for the most recent fiscal year, budget projections through the 2019 fiscal year, a fundraising campaign and a debt repayment plan. The college also had to provide Middle States with a “teach-out” plan, describing how students would be accommodated if the commission withdrew its accreditation.
Middle States was scheduled to consider Dowling’s status at the commission’s June meeting.
Inserra, a former superintendent of the Port Washington school district, was named the college’s president in August 2014 — its seventh leader since 2005. Inserra had been chairman of Dowling’s doctoral program in educational administration, leadership and technology.
The current cost to attend Dowling — including tuition, room and board and fees — ranged from $40,000 to $44,000 per academic year based on a 30-credit undergraduate course load, according to the college’s website.
The school has been teetering on a financial precipice for years.
In November 2014, the faculty union approved $4.7 million in contract givebacks to help close the school’s 2014-15 budget gap.
That same month, Dowling agreed to pay more than $400,000 to Robert Gaffney, the former Suffolk County executive who served as the college’s president from 2006 to 2010, in a settlement of his lawsuit against the Oakdale school. Gaffney’s lawsuit, filed in 2010, alleged that he was owed about $375,000, including interest.
According to a Standard &amp; Poor’s Ratings Services report in fall 2014, Dowling depended on student tuition and fees for more than 95 percent of the college’s budget, which was $41.9 million at the time.
The Standard &amp; Poor’s report dropped Dowling’s long-term debt rating from a B to a B-minus, citing high debt, the dramatic drop in enrollment and unstable leadership. At that point, the school had $54.9 million in debt and a $2.1 million endowment, according to the S&amp;P report.
Moody’s Investor Services, in March 2014, said the school was “likely in or very near default” on bonds issued by the industrial development agencies of Suffolk County and the Town of Brookhaven.
When it was founded in the mid-1950s, Dowling was an expansion of Adelphi University and it became Suffolk County’s first four-year college. It was established as an independent institution in 1968, and named after planner Robert Dowling, then its main benefactor.
With Kathleen Kerr

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Dowling College held its 54th commencement Saturday at the school’s Brookhaven campus in Shirley.
<h3>Number of graduates </h3>
534: 248 bachelor’s degrees, 254 master’s and advanced certificates, 32 doctoral degrees
<h3>Commencement speaker </h3>
Clyde I. Payne, who has served in administrative positions at Dowling since early 2000, was awarded an honorary degree. He spoke about graduates’ need to know themselves, make a difference in their communities, stay focused and keep the faith as they continue their journey. “Commencement indicates a beginning, and you as graduates thought you were finished, but you really are not. Today is the first day of the remainder of your life,” Payne said. He also reminded them to remain ethical, and to learn from failures. “Don’t be afraid to fail, but use your failures as springboards to success. As Jerry Zucker, the film director, writer and producer states, ‘Nobody else is paying as much attention to your failures as you are.’”
<h3>Student speakers </h3>
Valedictorian Angel M. Ramirez quoted poet and children’s book author Shel Silverstein in a speech that reminisced on the bittersweet closing of one chapter in graduates’ lives as they prepared to turn their tassels, and the exciting start of another. 
“This is true, there are no happy endings. What makes an ending feel happy is the potential that it holds as a new start,” Ramirez said. “This day, being an end as well as a new beginning, can be both happy and sad. And as we move on from here, we can all try to make every moment in our lives parts of a story that is complex with endings and beginnings overlapping with potential.” 
<h3>Student reactions </h3>
Zachary Sinclair, 21, arts and science
Sinclair graduated with a bachelor’s degree in arts and science, and said now he wants to go to graduate school to learn mobile game design in the hopes of becoming a video game designer. Of commencement, the Brooklyn resident said he’s glad “it’s finally here, after all.”
Rebecca Olson, 22, visual arts
Olson, of West Islip, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in visual arts and a minor in psychology, and she said she wants to go to LIU Post for a master’s degree in art therapy. “I’ve known I wanted to do something art-related ever since I was a little kid,” Olson said. 
Amie Velez, 40, business
Velez, of Smithtown, who has a 17-year-old son, said she has been attending Dowling part time and online since 2008 and is thrilled to finally have her bachelor’s degree. “I’m very happy to be done. I’m just relieved ... and now I’m ready to pursue more opportunities now and close the book on this.”
Anthony Ferrante, 24, communications
“I would love to work in film, that’s the dream,” said Ferrante, of Holtsville. Another dream job, he said, would be to work for ESPN, and to that end he’s considering pursuing a master’s in journalism.

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Dowling College 2016 commencement

Valedictorian: ‘There are no happy endings’

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Dowling College -- cropped

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