Herring Should Back Fiduciary for Sweet Briar

There are now three separate legal actions challenging Sweet Briar’s closing — one from alumnae (working through Amherst County), one from faculty, and one from a group of students. It would certainly be in all their interests if Updike appointed Stone as fiduciary. They all want someone other than the current board to be running the college. The sooner the Sweet Briar case is resolved, the better for everyone. If it’s going to close, with the assets converted to a scholarship fund, then better to save the legal expenses that eat away at those assets. Conversely, if Sweet Briar is going to stay open, that decision needs to come quickly if it’s going to be anything other than a Pyrrhic victory.