The billboard towering above Wabash Avenue still proclaims, “The Benedictine PROMISE: affordable and attainable undergraduate education.” It is a promise broken. Last Thursday the Benedictine University board of trustees announced without warning that it is pulling the plug on undergraduate education in Springfield at the end of this school year, leaving 520 students with an uncertain future and 75 staff and faculty members without a job. We had thought Benedictine was doing so well, and appreciated how the Lisle-based university had brought life and investment back to the historic Springfield College campus. The abruptness of the announcement highlighted how little connection Benedictine’s board has with Springfield. Had somebody here known the place was in trouble maybe something could have been done to save it. –Fletcher Farrar, editor and publisher
This article appears in Oct 30 – Nov 5, 2014.
