Having lost its accreditation,
On its website, Dana has posted a plea for donations and help from volunteers so that the school can close gracefully:
Currently no one at the college is being paid. God bless those who are still working there diligently to make this as orderly a transition as possible under the circumstances. Local businesses such as Washington County Bank, Great Plains Communications and American Broadband have pitched in by sending personnel to help and providing lunches for workers. You, too, can help in several ways...
Having been a student at a small college that nearly lost accreditation, my heart goes out to the students and employees at Dana who now find themselves scattered. But while there is pain and loss for the community and alumni every time a college dies, Dana’s demise is a fresh occasion to consider: should colleges close when the time is right?
I believe they should, and that we mustn’t feel the need to keep every college going forever on artificial life support. I recall Parker Palmer’s words in Let Your Life Speak (via Alice Brown in Inside Higher Ed, “Time to Close the College?”): “By allowing something to die when its time is due, we create the conditions under which new life can emerge.”
I hope some new life emerges in the gap left by Dana’s closing—let’s seize the moment to think outside the box—and in the meantime, may those who found a home at Dana not be orphans long.