Marlboro College has found a new partner nearly two months after ending merger plans with the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut.
On Wednesday, Massachusetts-based Emerson College announced an alliance with Marlboro College in which the latter will gift its endowment valued at more than $30 million and real estate holdings worth $10 million to the former.
Emerson has agreed to rename its liberal arts and interdisciplinary studies program to the Marlboro Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies.
“One way to understand this transaction is to think of an individual making a $40 million gift to endow an existing college program. For Emerson, the gift will permanently fund Emerson’s Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies program,” said Emerson President Lee Pelton.
“For Marlboro, their legacy will live on, their students will benefit from enhanced educational programs, and their tenured and tenure-track faculty will continue to teach in an environment that supports intellectual creativity, innovation, and experiential learning.”
Over the years, the college has been witnessing a decline in student enrollment prompting its Board of Trustees to consider an alternative to closure and a way to financially secure the school’s future.
In the past few months, the college was coordinating with dozens of potential partners after a Request for Partnership Vision was sent to more than 70 colleges and universities.
Both the colleges are planning to form working groups in the coming months to propose various aspects of the implementation of the alliance and start the new partnership by July 2020.
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