Daniel Webster College May be Sold to For-Profit Company

Ambi - Students playing catch, one says how cool was the helicopter that just came in, fade under

As finals week comes to a close, a couple of Daniel Webster College students play catch on the quad.

On this spring day, the subject of the college’s finances seems far removed.

But they’re on the mind of graduating senior Chris Smith.

Smith: I just knew we had a lot of debt and we were struggling. I wasn’t sure if we were going to sustain the recession, or if we were going to go through it. But with the buyout, it’s definitely going to help us sustain, and it will strengthen my degree as a graduate.

Smith is leaving the college with a degree in flight operations.

Ambi – plane, fade under

The school got its start in the 1960s as an aeronautical institute.

Over the last 50 years, it’s expanded to offer programs in business and technology.

Because it’s fairly young, the college doesn’t have endowments to fall back during tough economic times.

And over the past decade, the school has fallen into debt.

But now the college has found a lifeline in an educational company that may be best known among the general public for its TV commercials: (fade up)

Commercial VO: music , ITT Technical Institute. Education for the future. Call 1-800,.. fade under

The for-profit ITT Technical Services has offered a little more than 29 million dollars for the college.

Horgan: It’s sad that another small, non-profit private college in New Hampshire can’t make it in the economic environment in which we find ourselves.

That’s Tom Horgan, president of the New Hampshire College and University Council.

Horgan says several small private colleges have closed in the past five years.

For example, he points to Notre Dame College in Manchester and Castle College in Windham.

Horgan: They don’t have a lot of resources. Their debt load is pretty significant. And we’re facing some negative or declining demographic trends. New England is the fastest aging region of the country. So all of the factors are pressing down on those private colleges.

Those economic factors probably won’t be going away anytime soon.

And Tony Pals with the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, says for profit colleges pay a great deal of attention to the bottom line.

Pals: There may be certain majors that don’t bring in enough students to justify their costs. There could be less college engagement and participation in the local community. And it could also mean bringing in instructors at a lower cost.

Kevin Modany, CEO of ITT Technical Institute, doesn’t deny that unprofitable programs may disappear.

Modany: Ultimately, the institution’s survival is what we have to put first. Programs need to be sustainable so that the institution can be sustainable.

Some programs, like the flight training, admits Modany, are capital intensive.

But they’re important to the college’s roots.

Robert Meyers is president of Daniel Webster College.

Meyers: Any time you lose any kind of a program, it’s not a day for celebration.

Meyers insists the college wants to keep the flight program if it can, and that it plans to expand others.

But the college needs to look at the numbers.

Meyers: We’re an indication of why you do need to look (laughs) at the bottom line. That fact is that not-for-profits are expected to make a profit. They just don’t call it that. They call it a surplus, or reserves, or funds carried forward. In a for-profit, it’s shared with shareholders, who also provide a funding source by buying shares of your stock, which provides more capital for you to grow.

If the sale of Daniel Webster College goes through, the college will keep its name, and operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of ITT.

At the end of the month, the New Hampshire Probate Court will rule on whether the acquisition is in the public’s best interest.

For NHPR News in Nashua, I’m Sheryl Rich-Kern.