The proposed Marlboro College/Emerson College merger has generated a lot of concern about what might happen to the college campus, and at some point, on the various Facebook pages and groups that have been discussing the merger, I heard someone say it was hard to keep track of all the possibilities being floated.
So I put together this flow chart on the options for the campus.
There are a lot of different conversations happening around the merger proposal. Some are centered around the people on campus and the need to structure the proposed transition. Others are centered on trying to stop the merger, or to plan for a reboot of the campus as a new institution.
I'm going to channel my inner stage manager and list what I see as the major activities.
There are working groups for the transition: Campus, Faculty, Staff, Students, and I believe Finance. These are all centered at the college.
There is a proposal to keep the college open, led by former faculty members Adrian Segar and T. Wilson, which has been put forward as an alternative to the merger.
There is a supporting initiative for pledges to raise the funds needed to keep the college open.
There is a challenge in the form of a letter from Marlboro College graduate Will Wootton, who spent 19 years in the college administration, asking the Board of Trustees to slow the merger process and to allow him and a small team of senior Marlboro staff to examine the documentation that brought the trustees to the merger decision.
There is activity to “reimagine Marlboro” about finding alternate uses for the campus.
These are ongoing conversations among Marlboro community members, current faculty, staff and students, and college alumni.
This list of activities and the flow chart are not intended as endorsements of any point of view; they are intended as snapshots to put us all on the same page for a moment.
I do, however, support Will Wootton's challenge, and hope that the trustees accept it and allow for his review of “the financial spreadsheets and projections, any analysis of the impact of downsizing on student life, academic integrity, and admissions and retention expectations.”
This independent review has the potential to bring transparency to a process that has divided the many people invested in Marlboro College and to repair the rift that has developed in the fabric of its community.