BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — The planned merger of Trocaire College and Medaille University has been terminated, according to a statement from Trocaire College President Dr. Bassam Deeb.
The statement from Dr. Deeb said:
“Efforts towards completing an asset purchase between Trocaire College and Medaille University have terminated.
This is not the outcome we strived for as significant human and financial resources have been invested by both institutions in the attempt to consummate the proposed transaction.
This is on top of the emotional effort expended by many board members, senior leadership and faculty and staff at both institutions who worked so diligently on this matter over the last several months.
We knew from the outset that this would be an extremely challenging endeavor given the complexities of the acquisition.
These are extremely challenging times for the higher education sector given shrinking demographics, especially in Western New York, fewer eligible students opting to go to college, and the lingering effects of COVID among others.
While this is an extremely disappointing announcement, it was a goal worth pursuing.”
7 News' Pheben Kassahun followed up with a Medaille graduate student whose coursework now hangs in limbo.
"We have no idea what our future is," Tim Arent shared via Zoom Thursday evening.
Nontraditional student, Tm Arent, is nearing the end of his masters degree at Medaille, in August.
Having attended the school for the last two years to receive his masters in mental health counseling, Medaille University closing was not on this year's bingo card.
"Disappointment. Extreme disappointment. Medaille has phenomenal history in the area of providing phenomenal education, in terms of mental health. Their program director, Dr. Helena Boersma, is outstanding. The faculty is outstanding. I love the program," Arent told Kassahun.
A month ago, students received the information about the merger.
Then, those in his shoes who are graduating in August were told they would be given a degree that showed they attended Trocaire College.
"Trocaire has no history with mental health counseling. Trocaire has a wonderful history in our area but not for mental health counseling," he said.
Arent said he only found out through the news that Trocaire decided not to go through with the purchase of Medaille.
So now they are wondering if they are getting a degree from Medaille or if they are getting a degree at all.
Arent said there is an administration responsibility to let students know what was going on rather than releasing information sparingly and last minute.
"You'll have nontraditional students that are paying out of their pocket. You have a number of men and women that have gotten student loans. We have put this money in and to be left hanging, not knowing what's going to happen, I don't think that's very fair," he said.
To make matters worse, the certified counselor says students received feedback to not speak out on anything about the merge.
He finds this concerning that students are not allowed to speak their peace, especially having invested between $60,000 and $70,000 in tuition.
"I'm 50 years old. I am doing this because this is something I want to do. My career is set. I do not respond to essentially being told, 'Watch how much you talk because it might come back'. We paid for these services. No one handed us anything. We've put in a lot of time and a lot of effort. The people in my cohort are phenomenal," shared.
Medaile University issued the following statement a short time later:
“The previously announced integration between Medaille University and Trocaire College will not be moving forward. Because the two institutions remain obligated to keep certain legal and business matters confidential, we are not able to disclose specific details of the termination. However, we are disappointed with this outcome. The Medaille University Board of Trustees will be meeting tomorrow to discuss next steps, and we will inform our students, faculty, staff and community of any decisions made.
We thank all our board members, administration, faculty and staff who worked diligently in pursuit of the integration of our institutions, and we express our appreciation to our counterparts at Trocaire for working with us to explore and advance this important effort.
We will provide more information about our next steps as it becomes available.”
In August 2022, Trocaire and Medaille signed a Memo of Understanding (MOU) that set in motion a cooperative agreement that the institutions said "would fulfill the missions of both institutions into the future."
Just last month, Medaille Interim President Lori Quigley's State of the University Address included information on the planned integration between the university and Trocaire College. Quigley said two reasons for the merger were: the pandemic heavily impacted higher education across the nation and fewer students are attending college. The merger was expected to be effective as of July 31.
Earlier this month, 7 News went searching for answers after a New York State Labor Department WARN notice stated that a total of 419 employees at Medaille's Buffalo and Rochester campuses would be laid off as of July 31st.
Medaille declined an interview about the layoffs, but issued a statement saying in part “This is just another step in the process of being acquired by Trocaire College, as Medaille University will cease operations on July 31, 2023."
Trocaire also responded with a statement saying the WARN notice was part of the acquisition process.
