RENSSELAER — Leaders of Saint Joseph's College had banked on a last-minute, multimillion-dollar deal to be the institution's saving grace.
But when the deal wasn't going to provide as much money as they had hoped, their plans to repair the financially-drained college quickly unraveled.
Saint Joseph's in 2010 received a gift of about 7,600 acres of farmland in White County, which now includes more than 30 wind turbines, that generates about $2 million every year. As detailed in the deed, the college can't sell the land, so leaders instead sought to sell the rights to it in order to keep Saint Joseph's afloat.
The college was hoping to get $35 million from Mayo Clinic, the other main benefactor of the donor's trust, but the hospital only offered $15 million. The school rejected that offer last semester.
Leaders appear to have also promised the Higher Learning Commission that it would receive money for the land.
The Higher Learning Commission, which accredits colleges in Indiana and 18 other states, put Saint Joseph's on probation in November. In a formal notification of the probation addressed to Pastoor, the HLC noted the "successful completion of the monetization of (the land)" as one of the things the college has to provide evidence of when the commission re-evaluates its accreditation status in 2018.
The commission, nor Saint Joseph's representatives, responded to interview requests from the Journal & Courier on Friday.
In late January, Saint Joseph's President Robert Pastoor sent a letter to the campus warning of the institution's dire financial challenges and said it needed $20 million by June. Nine days later, the board of trustees voted to temporarily suspend operations on campus at the end of this school year.