AUDIO TRANSCRIPT
Reporter John Perik: Cazenovia college students were just all lost left in shock and disbelief.
Student: Like we don’t really know what to do. It is kind of heartbreaking, mainly because I’ve been here for all four years.
Student: You you wished you could finish out here, but we just gotta move on this week.
Perik: To the surprise of just about everyone. Cazenovia College announcing after almost 200 years, would be closing its doors following the current academic year.
Student Owen Hoyt: You don’t know what’s going to happen next yet.
Perik: Owen Hoyt, class of 2024 is a junior on Casanovia’s basketball team.
Hoyt:: We first heard the news, he froze. Oh, it was like heartbreaking. Can’t lie, because just like, you know, you’ve been here for three years and this like you’re planning on finishing out with like all the friends you made.
Perik: Cazenovia College first made the announcement Wednesday morning, citing financial challenges from the pandemic and rising inflation as causes for closure. Now the whole situation has the entire town of Cazenovia feeling well.
Resident Mary Leatherman: Sadness, shock, sadness. What to say from there? See what’s going to happen to the future of this lovely institution.
Perik: Mary Leatherman is a Cazenovia resident. She’s watched the college change the town.
Leatherman: It brings young people with different thoughts and ideas, different political ideas, which is great. I think we need that diversity here in this area. And wherever there’s a college town, there’s usually a bar.
Perik: Wardo Herra, who owns McCarthy’s pub in Cazenovia, knows things may never be the same.
Herra: I think it’s going to affect all the businesses here in town. I don’t know to what measure as of yet, but it will certainly affect everyone here.
Perik: And on campus, emotions are running high. Just ask Sophia Ferris. She’s a freshman and Cazenovia is her family’s home.
Ferris: My uncle actually works here too. So I know like he’s upset because he just lost his job. So we’re all just trying to get through it together and just trying to hope for the best.
Perik: Now the field of higher education is losing one more institution. Faculty and staff are losing jobs. And hundreds of students are losing their school. And some people here wonder if the community of Cazenovia is also about to lose what for nearly 200 years has been a huge part of its identity. In Cazenovia, John Perik, NCC News.
Cazenovia, N.Y. — (NCC News) Cazenovia College students and nearby residents are speaking out after the university announced it is closing its doors. NCC News reporter John Perik breaks down how students and community members are reacting.
