Dressed in the school’s colors of pink and green, waving signs bearing welcoming messages—“Holla Holla,” and “Vixens forever”— Sweet Briar alumnae from around the country converged on the bucolic women’s college campus on Sunday, March 15 to welcome students back from spring break. Two weeks earlier, on March 3, Sweet Briar interim president James F. Jones had dropped the bombshell that the school would close following spring semester 2015, first to stunned faculty, who say they had no idea the 114-year-old institution’s financial situation was so precarious, and then, just an hour later, to an auditorium of sobbing students, some of whom had already heard the news through social media.
The festive spring break welcome was meant to lift student’s spirits, but it was also a symbol of alumnae’s defiance and part of a growing effort to save the school through any means possible—including legal action. The Saving Sweet Briar nonprofit, founded in the days after the announcement, has raised $3.2 million and has retained a high profile law firm to put up a fight. Their first demand: the resignation of the college’s interim president and board. What’s next for Sweet Briar and its students?