I was shocked and dismayed to read that the DePaul University Board of Trustees is giving serious consideration to closing my alma mater. The campus of Barat College is practically a picture postcard of what a dream college should look like. This 30-acre wooded campus in Lake Forest includes all of the facilities that students expect in a modern campus–three well-kept dormitories, the Cuneo Science Building, the Drake Theatre Building and the almost-new Cooney Library, and, as the focal point of the campus, the stately Old Main building.
In regard to the education available on the Barat campus, I believe that Barat College of DePaul University offers the best of both worlds–the technological and human resources of a major university, combined with the personal attention that is only possible on a small college campus.
If the trustees of DePaul University feel that Barat’s current enrollment of 1,000 full-time students is not sufficient for the campus to maintain financial viability, then the solution seems self-evident: simply do a better job of marketing this gem of a college. I predict that, with even modest recruiting efforts, the Barat enrollment could easily be boosted to 1,300 or 1,400 students within the next three years.
