Lindenwood University announced Monday morning that it would be consolidating daytime undergraduate academic programs from its Belleville campus to St. Charles, Missouri, following the 2019-2020 academic year.
All Lindenwood-Belleville students will be able to complete their degrees at the St. Charles campus with all scholarship packages fully intact, including athletic scholarships. More than 350 faculty and staff members in Belleville either will be moved to St. Charles or offered a severance package.
“This decision comes after careful consideration by our Board of Trustees to serve the long-term interests of our students, faculty, and staff,” said J. Michael Conoyer, M.D., chairman of the Lindenwood University Board of Trustees. “We believe this plan will best position our students and Lindenwood for the future, and we will work with our students and staff to ensure the transition is as smooth as possible.”
Lindenwood Communications Director Chris Duggan said the Belleville campus “historically underperformed” and that efforts have been made turn around enrollment numbers.
Belleville Mayor Mark Eckert said the city received no advance notice of the board’s decision. He said he learned of the consolidation during a 45-minute meeting Monday morning with Art Johnson, interim president of Lindenwood University systems, and Dr. J. Michael Conoyer, chairman of the board of trustees.
Students and staff already had been notified.
“They just left my office,” Eckert said Monday morning. “Sadly enough, a lot of other people knew it before they were honest with the city about their intentions. It was very disappointing. It’s a sad day.”
According to a news release, the school will continue to offer evening programs. Consolidation of the two campuses will be completed in May 2020. The Belleville and St. Charles campuses are 38 miles apart.
The university created a website to keep students, faculty, staff, alumni and members of the community updated.
More than 20 clubs and organizations and 34 sports teams are active at the college.
Since 2013, Lindenwood has spent more than $25 million on renovations for the Belleville Campus. The City of Belleville committed $3 million through tax increment financing (TIF) in 20 annual payments. The city sold the former Belleville Township High School West campus to Lindenwood for $1 in 2003.
Those projects include:
A new female and a new male dorm that collectively cost $8 million,
The $2 million purchase of the Travel Lodge motel on West Main Street that was set to become student housing,
Fifty homes and apartment buildings purchased around the campus that are used as student housing,
Renovations to the campus football stadium that cost $2 million,
A communications center that included radio and television studios that cost $1.2 million,
Work on the student center and dining area that cost $1 million,
Several hundred thousand dollars spent on landscaping the campus.
In the past year, tuition and fees recently were raised at the college, according to Linenlink, the St. Charles campus student-run newspaper. Full time undergraduate tuition increase to $9,000 a semester and part-time tuition by $15 per credit hour.
Housing, financial aid and degrees
The Belleville campus has more than 250 full- and part-time faculty and 100 staff employees.
According to a university-issued FAQ, all offers of admission for undergraduate studies will be honored at Lindenwood’s home campus in St. Charles. Financial packages also will be unaffected if a student stays enrolled with the college as a daytime undergraduate student.
The college is encouraging students to make their decisions about transferring to the St. Charles campus by July 1 to allow time for registration and to get their housing situation sorted. According to the university, there is enough housing at the St. Charles campus to accommodate all Belleville students wishing to move.
Some classes, including Accelerated Degree Program courses, will continue to be offered at the Belleville campus. However, the classes also are available in St. Charles, at other St. Louis area centers and online. For normal degrees, though, degrees may or may not be completable online.
In addition, no academic programs will be discontinued until the consolidation is complete in 2020.
The campus offers more than 20 undergraduate and graduate programs and has roughly 1,254 undergraduate students and 165 graduate students.
Faculty and staff
According to the university, Belleville staff will remain employed through May 31, 2020. Faculty on 9-month contracts will work through May 22, 2020 and faculty on 12-month contracts will continue to work through Aug. 21, 2020.
The university said it will offer assistance to employees who either made the transition to St. Charles or lose their jobs.
It isn’t clear which employees will continue working with the college past the 2020 consolidation date. Severance package will be given to employees at the Belleville campus through the consolidation and do not obtain new jobs in St. Charles.
Student employees and temporary employees will not work with the college after the consolidation date, the release stated.
Kavahn Mansouri is a reporter with the Belleville News-Democrat, where this article was originally published.
