In 2014, incoming freshman Morgan Farnan arrived at The College of Saint Rose’s campus in Albany’s historic Pine Hills neighborhood—not far from her hometown of Burnt Hills—for a preseason welcome for recruits to the nationally ranked women’s soccer program. “The whole team immediately welcomed me,” recalls Farnan. “I was hugged by my head coach and her husband, who was an assistant coach. We had a team dinner on campus catered by Paesan’s Pizza, and I knew instantly I picked the right college and soccer program.”
At the time, Farnan had no idea she’d be a part of the last generation to experience Saint Rose. On May 11, 2024, six months after it was announced that the college would close due to ongoing financial difficulties, low enrollment and continued fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic, the century-old institution held its final commencement ceremony at a packed MVP Arena. A month later, after summer classes, Saint Rose officially closed its doors.
Founded in 1920 as a women’s college, Saint Rose began admitting male World War II veterans in 1946 and became fully coeducational in 1969, transforming the school into a popular private college destination for Capital Region residents. In the years that followed, the school saw certain alum continue on to successful careers, from Loretta Preska, chief judge of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, to late-night TV star Jimmy Fallon, who started at Saint Rose in 1992 and left a semester shy of graduation to pursue his SNL dreams. (It worked out for Fallon; he was awarded his BA in communications through portfolio of work assessment in 2009.)
News of the school’s closure was leaked to the press on November 30, 2023 and made official a day later. “College officials and I worked tirelessly to save Saint Rose,” former President Marcia White tells Capital Region Living. Regarding the timing of the announcement, White says, “The College’s leadership and board needed sufficient time to develop a Teach-Out Plan that would include agreements with colleges and universities to enable current students to continue their education and earn their degrees with the least disruption.”
Of course, there’s no good time to tell thousands of students and faculty that a college will soon cease to exist; the announcement came not only mid-academic year, but during finals week. The women’s soccer team, for which Farnan had gone on to serve as assistant coach, got the news on the eve of their NCAA East Region Final. They ended up losing the game to Adelphi University.
“It was a shock for us because we did see higher enrollments, and it did seem like we were still doing business as normal,” says Haidy Brown, former Saint Rose associate professor of management and chair of management and marketing. Brown taught at the school for more than eight years. “I think we all knew that we were kind of living or dying by enrollments,” she says. “But at the same time, it looked like we were on the upswing.”
Saint Rose’s Teach-Out Plan included agreements with 22 institutions that provided program-specific pathways for graduates and undergraduates to complete their degrees. All students had at least one teach-out option, and many had several choices among UAlbany, Siena, Russell Sage and Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. UAlbany took the largest number of undergraduate students, with more than 180 enrolled for the fall, and will maintain Saint Rose’s student academic records in perpetuity.
As for the now-empty 90-odd buildings that once made up Saint Rose, the hope is that all of them will go to a single buyer, but they may also be sold off piecemeal. According to a June Times Union article, the Albany City School District, Capital District YMCA and Albany Pro Musica have expressed interest in the properties.
“This closure doesn’t diminish the incredible impact that Saint Rose’s 50,000 alumni have had and continue to have on the world, and in particular, this area of New York,” White says. “The College’s impact, mission and legacy will live on through the contributions of each member of the Saint Rose community, past and present.”
Regarding that community, many former faculty members have found work elsewhere. Haidy Brown and the MBA program she helped manage have migrated to Russell Sage, which absorbed several of Saint Rose’s academic programs, including faculty from its renowned Pauline K. Winkler Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic. The championship-winning soccer team’s coaches and athletes, however, have scattered to the winds of education and employment elsewhere.
“We have a tight-knit community who came through that program,” says Farnan, “but our former players all found new colleges.” As for the former assistant coach herself, she’s landed a new gig as the head coach of the women’s soccer team at Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake High School, her other alma mater. But she’ll never forget her 10 years as both a coach and a player at Saint Rose. After all, a college’s purpose is to be a stepping stone on a path to somewhere else. For Farnan, that path just happened to lead right back home.
