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| Becker athletics file photo |
The Becker College Board of Trustees unanimously made the difficult decision to permanently end academic programming at the end of the current academic year. The college will provide academic, support and transitional services to students through Aug. 31 and will not resume classes in the fall.
It is at least the 12th member of NCAA Division III to close its doors in the past three-plus years, joining Mills, MacMurray, Johnson & Wales-Denver and Wesley, plus New England schools Pine Manor, Daniel Webster, Mount Ida, Newbury, Southern Vermont and Wheelock, as well as New Rochelle in suburban New York City.
The eventuality was first reported in the Worcester Business Journal in early March. The institution made it official on Monday, March 29.
The school, which is located in the suburbs of Worcester, Massachusetts, is one of the many Division III institutions which added football in recent decades as an enrollment driver, and as of the school's most recent filing with the U.S. Department of Education, the school had 1,461 full-time undergraduates. But like many schools, that number has been falling, and in addition, Becker's most six-year graduation rate was just 46%, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Becker's president, Nancy P. Crimmin, said the college worked on an array of options. “Ultimately, the impacts of COVID-19 turned what was a very challenging situation into an unsustainable situation,’’ said Crimmin.
The loss of Becker leaves the New England Collegiate Conference hurting in terms of trying to retain its automatic bids. Already at the minimum of seven schools for automatic bid status, the NECC loses not only Becker, but Elms, which is joining the Great Northeastern Athletic Conference. The Hawks are a football member of the Commonwealth Coast Conference, which will have seven teams in the fall and will be able to retain its automatic bid.