HNU’s site could become a Historically Black College or University (HBCU) campus, said Post Publisher Paul Cobb

By Ken Epstein

Holy Names University (HNU), which has served Oakland for 154 years, earning deep respect as one of the nation’s most diverse post-secondary educational centers, offering bachelors’ degrees, training teachers, social workers, and nurses, announced this week it will close permanently at the end of next semester, leaving the city with no major university since the recent loss of Mills College.

Responding to the news, HNU students and staff spoke at Tuesday’s Oakland City Council meeting, seeking to rescue the city’s higher-education pipeline. The council, passing a resolution authored by Councilmember Carroll Fife and Vice Mayor Rebecca Kaplan, went on record calling for the university to work with the Oakland community to ensure that the beautiful 60-acre campus can become a home for another university, rather than be sold to a real estate developer to build an exclusive residential enclave.

HNU’s administration, mostly silent as news and rumors about the university swirled around campus for the past few months, deeply worrying staff and students, made the announcement after the school closed last Friday for a holiday break, and no students were around.

The university’s Board of Trustees revealed their plans Monday in a press release produced by Sam Singer public relations. Singer has a long history as an aggressive representative of corporate clients, including Chevron in its legal battle with indigenous communities in Ecuador’s Amazon forests, and Wedgewood, the real estate company that owned the home in West Oakland taken over by Moms for Housing.

According to the press release, the Board of Trustees blamed COVID-19 and an economic downturn that disproportionately impacted HNU students for the university’s predicament.

“HNU has worked tirelessly to find pathways to help continue its mission but was forced by financial circumstances to cancel its NCAA sports programs as of the end of spring season, issue WARN ACT notices to staff beginning Dec. 1, and give layoff notices to 32 employees effective at the end of January/early February,” the press release said.

“We have been doing our best to find a partner to keep the university functioning and continue HNU’s mission,” said HNU Board Chairperson Steven Borg in the press release. “While we’ve had interest in long-term collaboration from potential partners, we do not have the type of interest that would sustain HNU in continuing to offer its own programs and services, so we are forced to make the difficult decision to close and designate a transfer institution in the best interest of our students.”

The press release said HNU is working with Dominican College in San Rafael to offer “specific pathways for students to complete their degrees at Dominican.”

HNU is also talking to other institutions to support the school’s Kodály Music Program and the Raskob Learning Institute and Day School, which “will either operate independently or in partnership with a new institution after this school year,” the press release said.

Explaining the financial hole that is crippling HNU’s operations, Borg said that there is “$49 million in debt on HNU’s property, but as a 65-year-old campus, the costs of deferred maintenance and compliance upgrades could be over $200 million.”

Tuesday’s City Council resolution, written originally while Council members and community leaders still hoped to reach out to the HNU administration to help avert the school’s closure, was modified to emphasize the need to save the campus as a site for a different institution that will graduate Oakland students and provide trained staff for local employers that need well-trained workers who are culturally competent.

The revised resolution said the Council and the community would work with HNU “to ensure that higher education continues at the current site.”

So far, the HNU administration has not responded to city leaders who have reached out with offers to help.

Many HNU staff and students as well as local residents spoke at the council meeting calling for the university to work with the community to continue higher education at the site.

Student Kayla Argueta said, “(Closing HNU) is uprooting lives. I am urging the Council and the community to make sure this stays an education institution. To see HNU closed down or sold to developers is terrifying to think of. It is an incredibly important part of Oakland, and something must be done to make sure the legacy lives on.”

Jim Stryker, chair of the HNU Faculty Senate, told the Council, “Thank you for the resolution. It is deeply appreciated by the faculty, staff, and students.”

Polly Mayer, vice chair of HNU ‘s Faculty Senate, said she was “saddened by the opportunities we are taking away from our students and faculty. It’s really a tragedy to see this educational institution close.”

Oakland Post Publisher Paul Cobb said, “I would hope the City Council and City of Oakland would work closely with the County of Alameda to support the educational infrastructure of the City of Oakland with hundreds of millions of dollars, like they are now spending on infrastructure for a stadium.”

He suggested they could partner with a Historically Black College or University at the site, “since HNU is the most integrated university in the country right now.”

Rev. Cheryl Ward called for the facility and property to be used for higher education purposes. “We all know there is a lack of education institutions that provide housing. The number of students who are unhoused is unconscionable in this city. Should we consider dismantling higher education in that space, since it provides housing?”

HNU staffer Nancy Schulz said “HNU is a university that really walks its talk. We have community partners and discounted tuition.” It has also provided the region with trained mental health workers.

In her remarks, Councilmember Fife, who attended HNU, said, “It’s an amazing school. It was a safe place and sanctuary for me as a working mom.”

In September, Fife was recognized as the institution’s Alumni of the Year.

Vice Mayor Kaplan said, “It would be incredibly problematic for the community to lose access” to the institution that provides the city with educational opportunities and a well-trained workforce.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post