Leaders at the AIB College of Business in Iowa took a look at the future of their small private college and decided to shut down and donate the campus to the University of Iowa.
AIB's decision, made back in January, is similar in some respects to one made a few weeks later by leaders at Sweet Briar College, a 700-student women's college in rural Virginia, that announced it plans to close this year.
At AIB, officials figured they would close down before they were forced out of business.
President Nancy Williams, whose grandfather founded AIB and whose father was also president, said she and the college's trustees looked around at other private colleges and AIB's own condition. They decided they wanted to end things on their own terms. Notes taken during the meeting -- which were leaked to a local TV station -- give insight into that decision.
Officials explored options to keep AIB open, but some of the possible Band-Aids included a 15 percent tuition increase for incoming students and going deeper into debt.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/03/09/private-college-iowa-gives-itself-university-iowa-rather-be-forced-out-business