Since the last students departed Wells College, various stakeholders have come forward with proposals related to its closure and the preservation of its physical assets and legacy.
The Wells Legacy Society has raised $43,000 toward its goal of preserving the college's legacy in Aurora and the Finger Lakes region, and the Cleveland Commission for Wells has collected $71,000 as it pursues legal action against the college to get answers about its abrupt closure.
The board of directors at Wells, meanwhile, continues to encourage donations to the college for the preservation of artwork and books, and to support legal challenges of its own.
But in a recent newsletter to alumni, the board said the efforts of groups like the society and the commission have been "diverting funds" that could be better used by the college.
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"Devoted to Wells as they are, they do not accept that the board, most of whom are alumnae themselves, spent years trying to find a path forward for Wells," the statement said. "These groups have diverted funds from Wells and have created delays in many wind-down efforts that could have been completed, and communicated, by now."
Wells College alumni sing the alma mater with graduates during the college's last commencement ceremony on Saturday.
We believe this stance by the board will only further divide an already divided Wells community, as members of those groups have suggested.
"It implies that we pretended to be part of Wells, which is just not true," said Caolan MacMahon, a Wells alumna and co-chair of the Cleveland Commission for Wells. "If you're doing to donate money, go and do some research. We have been very clear from the beginning that we want to find answers as to why and how this happened, and that we want to explore pathways for the future of the college."
Declining enrollment and other signs of struggles at Wells had been evident for years, but its leadership appears to have kept the most dire financial information secret even from longtime employees and close associates. The way the college handled its closure undermined people's trust, which makes its request for money that'd otherwise go to the groups somewhat rich.
Battling some of Wells' most ardent supporters also marks yet another sad chapter in the end of the college. We hope the administrators charged with overseeing its final days will back off from an adversarial approach and work toward amicable compromises with the people the school is leaving behind.
水果派AV's complete coverage of Wells College's closure and new developments as the institution winds down operations in Aurora.聽
