Alumnae vowed to save Sweet Briar from closing last year. And they did.

One surprise when the new leadership took over at Sweet Briar College was finding that the financial situation wasn’t as dire as they had expected. The closure was based on projections; if trends continued it would have been unsustainable. The current administration believes that changes can keep the school competitive, she said, despite the multi-million-dollar impact of the closure, including lawsuits, severance, and buying back faculty houses on the campus from professors who have gotten new jobs.