Limited Enrollment Capacity and $39 Million in Needed Repairs Led to Decision

DePaul University’s Board of Trustees voted Wednesday to end the university’s operations on the Barat Campus in Lake Forest by June of 2005, after the university fulfills its commitment to educate all students who were enrolled at Barat College prior to the 2001 alliance between the two Catholic institutions of higher education.

“This was one of the most difficult decisions we have ever made,” said John C. Staley, chairman of DePaul’s Board of Trustees. “As trustees, we must ensure that DePaul provides a consistent, high-quality educational experience to all students, regardless of the campus they attend. Although Barat faculty and staff offered very personalized services to students, the campus does not have the capacity to generate the revenue required to provide these students with the first-rate educational environment all DePaul students deserve.”

Trustees believed DePaul could achieve its mission on a more effective scale by serving more students with more program choices and quality student services in state-of-the-art facilities at the Loop and Lincoln Park campuses.

Students enrolled in Barat College prior to the alliance will be able to complete their programs on the campus by June of 2005, as promised in the alliance agreement.

Meanwhile, DePaul will reach out to other students at the campus to present a variety of options for them to complete their academic programs at another DePaul college, school or campus.

“A Transition Resource Center will be established as soon as possible to provide individualized, one-stop assistance to students seeking information about academic programs, degree requirements, housing options and other issues,” said John J. Kozak, executive vice president for Academic Affairs at DePaul. “Barat Campus students will be able to complete their degrees without penalty to scholarships, financial aid or academic progress.”

In the end, the Barat alliance was unsuccessful for the same reasons that it was necessary in the first place, DePaul officials said.

“Despite a proud history of successfully serving students, a much-loved educational tradition nurtured by the Sacred Heart religious order and mighty attempts to survive, Barat today remains a small, interdisciplinary liberal arts college with few academic programs, a small endowment, limited student enrollment and facilities that require as much as $39 million dollars to renovate, repair and maintain over the next five years,” Kozak said.

These were the factors that brought Barat to the precipice and threatened abrupt closure in late 2000, when it sought to affiliate with DePaul, and they remained the factors that hindered the university’s success there.

Scott L. Scarborough, DePaul’s executive vice president for Operations, said, “Both sides recognized that the alliance represented a tremendous level of risk. Today, the trustees decided the university can no longer accept that risk.”

Since the alliance began, DePaul has invested upwards of $22 million to achieve success at Barat, more than $16 million of which has been used to improve facilities and technology to serve students at the campus. Despite those efforts, the campus produced significant operating losses each year. The university projected an additional investment of $39 million in maintenance repairs and renovation costs in order to offer quality similar to that available at its other campuses. Of that $39 million, $18 million would have to be dedicated to essential repair and replacement activities on all buildings at the 100-year-old Lake Forest campus.

Although the Barat Campus will close by June of 2005, university officials vowed to continue the Barat and DePaul traditions of serving students who thrive in special learning environments.

“We remain committed to increasing affordability, accessibility and academic success of students with high potential who are facing challenges because they are academically under-prepared or come to us from backgrounds under-represented in higher education,” Kozak said.

The trustees did not make a decision about the future of Barat College of DePaul as an academic unit, but rather sent that issue back to the Faculty Council to address, as called for by the university’s faculty handbook. The 26 tenured and tenure-track faculty at the Barat Campus are DePaul faculty and are assured placements in other colleges and schools if their home academic unit were to be discontinued. Some Barat staff positions and non-tenure track faculty will be eliminated as a result of the closure. It is expected that key staff will continue to serve on the campus as long as the transition plan requires, while other staff will be re-deployed to another campus.

As for the 23-acre Barat Campus property, DePaul is exploring a variety of options in consultation with the City of Lake Forest, other educational institutions, government officials, corporations and developers. The Barat Education Foundation also has expressed interest in acquiring the campus. DePaul officials said these conversations will continue, and any disposition plan will be reviewed and approved by the Board of Trustees.

“I regret DePaul’s decision to withdraw from the Barat Campus, but I understand why,” said Lake Forest Mayor John E. Preschlak. “We are confident that DePaul’s board and administration will work closely with us, as they have in the past, to determine the future of the Barat Campus.”

Explaining the trustees’ decision to close the campus 16 months from now, Staley said: “As stewards of the university’s resources, trustees are responsible for building the strongest possible institution that will be in a position to provide access to a DePaul education for generations to come. We must carefully consider each decision from a mission perspective and in the context of financial and other challenges and opportunities the university faces at any given point in its history.

“This has not been a hasty conclusion, but rather one that has come at the end of months of conversation and evaluation, consultation with the Faculty Council, careful review of the Barat Task Force report and consideration of the moving stories told by Barat students, faculty, staff and alumni who want Barat to endure,” he said. “DePaul will leave Barat Campus with tremendous regret and great sadness.”

Although the alliance is concluding, DePaul’s participation has made a difference: all students in the original Barat College had the opportunity to graduate; hundreds of new students received a DePaul education, pay and benefits for Barat staff were improved and DePaul welcomed Barat’s tenured faculty as DePaul faculty, awarding all the rights and privileges that status merits.

Staley asked the university community to come together and support the personal transitions of students, faculty and staff now that the decision about the future of Barat Campus has been made.