MONTREAT, N.C. (AP) - An anonymous gift has revitalized Montreat College, according to the president of the school in western North Carolina.
In 2012, financial struggles led to the layoffs and the elimination of some programs at the school. One year later, former college president Dan Struble resigned, the Asheville Citizen-Times (https://avlne.ws/1r1nlmr) reported.
President Paul Maurer said the financially troubled school’s future was bleak when merger talks broke off two years ago with Point University in Georgia, and the college had few options.
“The merger discussion ended, so that left two options - close or have something dramatic happen. And something dramatic happened,” he said.
An anonymous donor who had never been to the school pledged $6 million. That later increased to $9 million.
“They had visited the area two years prior and gotten connected to a church over in Marion, and really respected what the pastor was doing to serve the poor of McDowell County,” Maurer said.
In March 2014, the college board of trustees agreed to launch its “All In” initiative - a plan to raise additional money and to hire a new president.
Maurer was hired in the summer of 2014, after the merger collapsed. He said the anonymous donation triggered other giving.
According to college officials, Montreat was removed from the U.S. Education Department’s financial watch last summer.
“The story is a really remarkable one, and it’s an unfolding story,” Maurer said in a recent interview.
Enrollment last year reached its highest level since Montreat became a four-year school in the 1980s.
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Information from: The Asheville Citizen-Times, https://www.citizen-times.com
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