– News from elsewhere covered by Quincy Quarry News with commentary added.
Attorney General Maura Healey calls for tougher oversight of colleges in wake of Mount Ida College’s collapse.
Calling the recent closure of Mount Ida College “a wake-up call,” Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey on Thursday urged state officials to create a new office within the state Department of Higher Education that would oversee financially struggling schools.
The statement by Healey comes as her office investigates whether Mount Ida leaders violated their fiduciary duties before the Newton liberal arts school closed, laid off all 280 employees and sold its campus to UMass for $75 million. Students, faculty and state regulators were caught by surprise when the deal was publicly announced on April 6.
“We need to take proactive steps to prevent future chaos and financial harm to students, parents, faculty, and staff,” Healey said Thursday. “Our experience working with Mount Ida students confirms that we need better oversight and accountability.”
See related: Boston Business Journal editorial calls on state to prepare for more college closures
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No comment was offered, however, on the more recent chaos caused for Quincy College nursing students who were left high and dry when the college’s nursing programs were stripped of their accreditation by the state.
In any event, Attorney General Healey is investigating whether the president of Mount Ida, Barry Brown, and other members of Mount Ida’s leadership and board “violated their fiduciary duties in addressing (the college’s, ed.) financial condition and in carrying out its educational mission.”
Source: Amid Mount Ida probe Attorney General call for tougher oversight
The ironies in questioning Healey about improprieties. Where does one begin? There are crimes being committed all over the state every day. She is focusing on lawsuits against Trump. They might be very successful in annoying Trump, but how does any of her petty suits help crime victims in Massachusetts? She wants oversight for struggling schools? Seriously? That struggling school’s buyer was UMass. UMass is run by the state. The state has $75 million lying around? The last we heard is that they needed more money for higher salaries. They just laid off a janitor. They can’t find a new chancellor. Did they just find the $75 million? So Maura, who can’t find the time to do her own job, goes along with the false rhetoric of the state needing more money blah blah blah, now wants the state to take on the added responsibility of overseeing flailing schools that they are already bailing out? What could go wrong with that?
It’s like Howie read my comment before he wrote his article today.