So, first, silence for a few days does not mean I am not pursuing approaches to try to save SVC (and other small colleges that serve students — nursing, Rad tech, cj, social services, business.) The articles today in Chronicle of Higher Ed are telling about the price students pay when their college closes. Can we do better? Can we help these institutions? Surely we can try. Without trying, we get nowhere. So I’m trying on several fronts - legal and fundraising and gov. On a somewhat related topic, watch for a new post on colleges issuing certificates of failure to show students it is ok to fail. Not sure what psychologist or professor dreamt up this idea and I appreciate that learning involves risk taking. But, certificates of failure? To hang on a wall? To acknowledge competition? To make bad grades acceptable? I see vastly different ways to help students other than issuing failure certificates. Piece to appear shortly. At small non-elite colleges, can you imagine certificates of failure? Wait til you see them — look like degrees except for failure. Yipes. Another Yipes. I believe in real degrees and real support. Not diplomas of failure. …see more