MCLA Waits for News on Donor Gift
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — A potential major donor to Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts toured the campus last month.
"They were here on campus in September for two days and left the meeting feeling very good about donating to the mission of the campus," President Jamie Birge told the Board of Trustees last Thursday.
College officials have been working with the donor, who wishes to remain anonymous at this point, about a major gift that could include an art museum. The donor has supported other colleges in the region, said Birge.
"This donor found us and over the last year or two, we have been working with the donor's representatives on what the gift might look like," he said. "I don't know what it will be right now but do know that it will be the largest in the college's history."
Birge had informed the trustees back in April about the potential for a gift of up to $10 million that could include a campus art museum. The donor is said to have worked with other higher education institutions to support the arts.
A gift agreement has been drafted and initially approved by the donor and their attorneys to cover construction, build an endowment to manage the collection and the operate of the facility for three years. He told the trustees Thursday at that MCLA should know in a few months whether the gift will happen.
The college also got good news in the annual financial audit done by Withum Smith & Brown. The accounting firm's partner Christopher Pelland said the audit found no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in its report.
The college had also been able to wipe out a more than $1 million projected deficit in fiscal 2024.
"The fiscal '24 close out was quite a success story," said Birge, crediting work by staff to control expenses, additional revenue from out-of-state students enrolling for the new hockey program, events and programming and moving some construction into the the next year's budget.
There college is tracking a shortfall of $75,000 going into fiscal 2025 because enrollment figures have dropped by 30. Birge said the college had done very well in student retention and that the staff is working on adjusting expenses.
"I think it will be controlled by expenses and some additional revenue we anticipate," he said to questions about offsets. "It seems like a lot of money but based on our budget, it's not a lot of money."
Birge said he thought the state's new free community college program caused some of the dropoff in the enrollment forecast but that it would even out in a few years as those students transferred to MCLA to complete their bachelor's degrees.
The trustees also welcomed new members including attorney Buffy Lord of North Adams, class of 1998, who was returning to the trustees after serving from 2012 to 2018, and student representative William Garrity, a Taconic High School graduate and member of the Pittsfield School Committee. Trustee Yvonne Spicer, a retired educator and executive director of Life Science Cares, had been welcomed earlier in the year and new Trustee Darlene Rodowicz, president and CEO of Berkshire Health Systems, was absent.
Chair Mohan Boodram asked members to consider potential commencement speakers and honorary degree recipients for next spring and encouraged the members to "make every effort" to attend meetings and to indicate when they cannot. By law, no trustee can miss more than four meetings in a calendar year, he reminded them, and noted an experience with one trustee who was not attending and that two subcommittee had to be canceled for lack of quorum.
"Faculty and administration put a lot of effort to develop presentations," he said. "Please do prioritize attendance. That way we can go into meetings confident that they can take place."
There was also discussion of a multi-year budgeting plan and the development of a dashboard that would provide more transparency to the public on data and key performance indicators.
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