The closing of Cazenovia College at the end of its spring semester leaves hundreds of students scrambling to figure out what’s next in their college careers.
On a drizzly December day, there are few students out and about on this small-town campus. The students who are though have common reactions to news this week that Cazenovia is closing because of financial problems.
There’s shock.
"We were kind of surprised, we didn’t think this was actually going to happen," one student said.
Anxiety.
" Now I have to worry about going to a new college and making new friends," a second said.
And ultimately, resignation.
"There’s nothing much we can do about it as students, except try and make the most of our spring semester," another said.
Cazenovia plans to begin helping students with transfers during the spring semester, and has entered into agreements with several other colleges and universities to ease the transition, from maximizing credit transfers to meeting financial aid packages. That list so far includes LeMoyne College, SUNY Oneonta, Utica University and Wells College. Freshman Q Morales and her boyfriend are hoping those agreements can clear the way for them to stay together in a new school.
"The list of schools that they are giving us are able to make any type of accommodations that we have here at Caz," Morales said. "[It] just transferred over, like tuition, costs. [My boyfriend] lives in a double room by himself, so they’ll make that accommodation for him. Also [they'll] transfer credits without an issue."
But these students don’t expect to find the same features in a new school, that brought them to Cazenovia College like the small class sizes, and close-knit connections with staff and faculty. So, the focus for many looking ahead is to keep the friendships forged at the school. That’s what freshman Kaelyn Gerencher and her friends are talking about.
"We’re just all trying to find the same college," Gerencher said. "It’s been kind of hard, because I'm interior design, and barely any colleges have that. So it’s kind of hard trying to find a college where all our majors are going to match."
Junior Anthony Staffieri is confident he’ll find a match somewhere else. But he’ll also miss the campus he called home for three years.
"Caz was definitely the best decision I made in regards to my college career," Staffieri said. "It’s sad to see it going, especially because of how beautiful it gets in spring. It’s going to be sad that this is the last spring I’m going to see on this campus."
A final graduation will take place in May, and then the school closes for good, after almost 200 years as a mainstay of the village of Cazenovia.
