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Anxious Students Search For Solutions As Dowling College Announces Abrupt Closure

OAKDALE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- More than 2,000 Long Island college students have been left high and dry after Dowling College abruptly announced that it would shut its doors.

The Suffolk based college has been struggling with plummeting enrollment and rising debt for several years. On Wednesday, students lined up for hours desperate to get their transcripts.

As CBS2's Carolyn Gusoff reported, those students face an uncertain future.

"I'm not going to spend my whole day to get my transcript. I have two months to find another college. I don't know what they expect me to do," sophomore, Randi Knepper said.

The school had been struggling for years, but students were stunned by the news that its doors will close on Friday.

"Big headache. Hopefully I'm finishing up in another semester since I only had one left, but I'm not sure what credits will or will not transfer over," senior, Nick Ocasio said.

Long Island's first 4-year college, founded nearly 50 years ago in Oakdale, was steeped in debt. Its bonds were junk-rated, the school was plagued with plunging enrollment, and a last-ditch effort to find an academic partner to stay afloat fell through.

Its popular aviation school was not enough to pull it through.

"You're not going to find another school like this so I'm very sad. Don't really want to go, but I don't have another choice," A.J. George said.

Administrators called the decision to throw in the towel painful.

"We want the student body, faculty, and alumni to know we made every effort to form a suitable academic affiliation so that we could keep the college open," the school said.

Now, 2,400 students worry it's too late to enroll elsewhere for summer and fall classes, and about precious scholarships.

"All the colleges I wanted to go to either already have a team and can't give out any more scholarship money," soccer player Amber Pindulic said.

Offers have been pouring in from other Long Island institutions -- Molloy, Hofstra, and Farmingdale -- to extend admissions deadlines for Dowling students.

At Suffolk Community College, County Executive Steve Bellone offered expedited help.

"This institution jumped in right away to say 'how can we help the students at Dowling College who are now facing this very difficult challenge," he said.

Dowling officials suggested that what's happening is not unique. They blamed unprecedented financial challenges facing countless private institutions across the nation.

One question that remains unsettled is how and whether students who paid tuition for next year will get their money back.

 

 

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