Alumni Group Seeks to Save Dowling College

A Dowling College alumni group launched a campaign to save the 48-year old Long Island school after it announced plans to close last week.

The Alumni Association of Dowling College launched a website for an online fundraising campaign seeking to secure a large infusion of money to help the debt-ridden college stay open and succeed long-term. Dowling defaulted on debt service payments last July and has around $57 million in total debt outstanding, according to an analysis by Interactive Data analyst Jon Barasch. The debt-ridden private school was set to cease operations last Friday, but college officials postponed the closure until this Wednesday and said they are negotiating with the Global University Systems in the United Kingdom to try and create an academic partnership that would avert the shutdown.

"We want to be a resource for the current administration and do everything we can to help save our beloved college," said Frank Corso, Jr., president of the Alumni Association, in a statement. "The alumni of Dowling College are among the strongest supporters of our alma mater and want to do all they can to help save our school."

Corso said there are seven alumni who are willing to immediately begin serving on the college's board of trustees to provide "an infusion of new ideas." The seven alums include some from the financial sector including Frank Pellicone, vice president of Flushing Bank in Garden City, N.Y and Bill M. Faggiano, a chartered retirement planning counselor at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management.

Moody's Investors Service rates Dowling at Ca and expects bondholders to receive a recovery rate of 35% to 65%. Standard & Poor's downgraded Dowling bonds to D from B last August after missing debt payments on its bonds, which were issued through the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency and the Town of Brookhaven Industrial Development Agency.

Dowling, which has two campuses in Oakdale and Shirley, N.Y., enrolled around 2,400 total students prior to the closing announcement. The college's enrollment dipped 53% in the four-year period leading up to last summer's default, according to Moody's.