Sweet Briar College’s story shocked the higher education world. Certainly, no one was more shocked than the faculty, staff, and students at Sweet Briar, but everyone interested in American higher education has found the Sweet Briar College experience to be troubling. At the time of this writing, the ultimate fate of Sweet Briar will be in the hands of a newly constituted board and a new president, and despite the celebration of the mediated outcome among the alumnae who had opposed the proposed closure, the outcome at Sweet Briar is uncertain.

Regardless of what may ultimately happen at that institution, the lessons already learned from Sweet Briar are instructive for all of higher education. There are few better examples of how legal considerations impact the day-to-day operations of financially distressed institutions than the Sweet Briar College story, much of which is being put on public display as a consequence of both litigation and extensive media coverage. Using Sweet Briar’s experience, institutions around the country can gain insight about how to proceed through the briar patch of sticky legal issues that confront a college or university when cash and financial resources are in short supply.

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