King’s Reveals Seven Transfer Schools at Latest Community Update
Photo by Melinda Huspen
The King’s College discussed transfer options, current fundraising updates and the TKC Letters Project at the Community Update meeting on Monday, Feb. 27.
Attendance at this community update was higher than the previous meeting as the City Room hit capacity and over 60 people watched via Zoom. Most attendees partook of the newly-restored free PRS Chick-Fil-A offered before the update, though servings ran out due to the high attendance.
Photo by Melinda Huspen
Dr. Kimberly Reeve, Dean of Academic Affairs, told the student body that King’s is actively building transfer plans in case the school closes.
“We've had a number of people… working on different transfer agreements with a bunch of schools,” said Reeve. “This is to give you options.”
Reeve then named seven schools actively building transfer agreements with King’s, noting that King’s has legal permission from each institution to disclose their identity to the public.
The identified transfer schools are:
Messiah University (formerly Messiah College), a private Christian university in Central Pennsylvania near Harrisburg.
St. John’s University, a private Roman Catholic university based primarily in Queens with satellite campuses in Manhattan, Rome, Paris and Ireland. (St. John’s is currently rolling out a two-year teach-out plan for its Staten Island campus.)
Providence Christian College, a private Reformed Christian liberal arts college in Pasadena, California.
Seattle Pacific University, a private Methodist Christian liberal arts university in Seattle, Washington.
Cairn University, a private Christian university in East Pennsylvania near Trenton, New Jersey.
Houghton University (formerly Houghton College), a private Christian liberal arts and sciences university in upstate New York.
Marymount College, a private (non-Christian) liberal arts college on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
King’s will host a transfer fair with these schools the week of March 20.
“This is where representatives from those schools will have a presence on campus in-person or virtually, [and] students have an opportunity just to learn more about the schools,” Reeve said.
“They will accept you if you are a student in good standing,” Reeve continued. “They will transfer as many credits as possible, looking at transferring scholarship funding, federal aid… and we will be discussing the specifics of those in our program meetings.”
Business and Finance majors will meet on Thursday, March 2; Media, Culture and the Arts, Humanities and English majors will meet on Friday, March 3; Journalism, Culture and Society majors will meet on Wednesday, March 8; Politics, Philosophy and Economics and Philosophy students will meet on Friday, March 10. All announced program meetings will be in the City Room over the lunch hour on their respective dates.
“RTS [Religion and Theological Studies] is TBD,” Reeve said. “It’s not bad, [there’s] just a lot of logistics.”
Reeve also stated that Kings’ legal team is “working with Albee management” in regard to the ongoing overdue rent notices. “This, again, is part of the normal procedure that takes place when rent is past due,” Reeve said. “We are aware of it and it does not implicate you at all. So that's something that is for us to deal with.”
The content of the letters (including the 14-day deadline) and reported interactions with the man distributing the notices were not addressed.
Reeve then gave the audience an update on the school’s fundraising.
“We are now at just over $251,000,” Reeve said. “Again, that is not $2.6 million, but we are inching upward. We had parents from the Parent’s Committee calling previous donors, we had students and alumni calling previous donors… I'm really encouraged by just the outpouring of people wanting to support, and we have over 100 alumni who have now given, which is unprecedented for any one campaign.”
In light of rumors, Dean of Students David Leedy spoke about the school’s plans to finish out this semester.
“The board has not, I repeat, it has not made a decision to close,” said Dean of Students David Leedy. “We are committed to pressing through this semester and working towards a long-term plan. If that changes, we'll let you know. But there's been no decision to bring King’s to a premature end at this stage.”
Matthew Peterson, a freshman in the House of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, then spoke about the recently launched TKC Letters Project.
“We've had around 80 student letters and alumni letters,” Peterson said, “which is under our goal but it's still been overwhelming and super cool to see. We also have around 10 staff and faculty letters. We're so grateful for all of you who are writing.”
The TKC Letters Project website had 32,100 views with 3,540 unique user visits as of Monday.
“We are still accepting letters and we have no plans of stopping no matter what happens with the school,” Peterson said. “We think there's always a good reason to rejoice in the way that God has worked.”
At the beginning of the update, Reeve announced that the Board of Trustees voted to promote three faculty. The school promoted Dr. Ethan Campbell to full professor, Dr. Dru Johnson to full professor and Prof. Clemente Lisi to associate professor. Academic titles and promotions are awarded to professors based on the length of time since finishing grad school and peer-reviewed scholarly achievements in their field.
As far as potential school partnerships are concerned, the school did not provide any significant updates.
“We are still being approached by other organizations who are looking at the possibility of partnering with us in some way,” said Interim President Stockwell Day, who noted that the school received on Monday a “request from the president of another college just today who wants to meet tomorrow.”
“There has not been a second partnership that has fallen through,” Marketing Coordinator Lydia Marlin said in an email response to a request for comment. “Talks with the other schools are ongoing as these schools get to know King’s better and the College’s leadership evaluates which opportunity would be the best fit for King’s.”
King's hosted two guests from the Grace and Mercy Foundation for the community update. Managing Director Catherine Moon and analyst Annie Mae Jones attended the meeting in person, and Jones closed the meeting with a word of prayer. Jones is a King’s alumna and a former president of the House of Margaret Thatcher.
“This is what will move heaven and earth: our dependence on God, Him meeting us there, responding and working wonders on our behalf,” Leedy said. “So that's what I'm trusting God for and looking for God to do.”
Melinda Huspen is the Managing Editor of the Empire State Tribune. She is a junior at The King’s College studying Journalism, Culture and Society.