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Message to Saving Sweet Briar Community: Moving Forward

• Posted on March 25, 2015
• Official Statements

Dear Saving Sweet Briar Community –
We know that many were counting down the hours yesterday until 4 p.m. awaiting the school’s response to the Troutman Sanders letter released Monday. We have learned that response has come through the media. The recap: The President and Board deny the allegations and will remain in their positions.
Rest assured our sisters (and brothers in arms). We are in for many ups and downs – as if we HADN’T already endured enough, we know. Our challenge is to harness the energy of the highs to weather the lows.
We HAVE had many victories:

• We launched SavingSweetBriar.com within hours of the announced closure and have had nearly half a million pageviews in three weeks. The website link has been shared more than 30,000 times.
• While it is understandable that the media would cover the announcement of the closure of the college, we have managed not only to continue the conversation but change it to include the alumnae efforts and outreach. Media coverage has been overwhelmingly positive toward our efforts. Further, there are many conversations occurring on the national level about the future of higher education. Sweet Briar’s story is impacting those who may have never heard of the school before. The Diane Rehm show and The New York Times are helping bring our story and college to a national audience, and we hope this is only the beginning.
• Our alumnae network is connecting around the world, not only reaching out to current and graduating students to help but to each other. These connections will hopefully last long after the immediate situation has been resolved.
• A non-profit has been formed and is in the process of collecting the more than $3 Million pledged (501(c)(3) status is being sought with the IRS). In just three weeks, this is tremendous and is a reflection of a coordinated effort of an engaged group of women.
• Troutman Sanders, a well-respected law firm in Virginia with years of education law experience, was retained. Their expertise is an incredible asset in this fight.

The next few days/weeks may continue to be a series of ups and downs. While we know that there are many experts involved in this, it is still very challenging to sit back and be patient. And besides, sitting around and waiting was never really our style anyway, right?
So, what can you do?

• Continue to spread the word about the importance of Sweet Briar College in helping shape the woman you have become
• Write an op-ed to your local newspaper or any news outlet that has run a story about Sweet Briar. Topics to consider: the continued gender gap in executive level positions and the successes of women’s college graduates; how Sweet Briar taught you to be a leader; what riding a horse taught you about life; the success of alternative tuition models in higher education. Let your voice be heard.
• Convert your pledge into a donation. Saving Sweet Briar needs to have the financial backing of this group of alumnae to show the legal entities looking at this case that we have the ability to actually save the college.
• Consider writing up a proposal to submit to SavingSweetBriar.com. Lots of great ideas have been proposed over the last few weeks about the future of the college. Consider pulling these ideas into a formal proposal that could be presented to a future board for consideration. We will announce soon how to submit these on the site.

Overturning the decision will not be undone overnight. What we know from history is that victory is never all or nothing and consists of winning not every battle, but instead the most important ones. We fight on.