Poorly maintained facilities were one reason Paier College lost its accreditation last fall, which resulted in the Connecticut Office of Higher Education revoking its authorization to operate in the state. Last month, the college’s president said it was no longer pursuing an appeal to reopen.
"We are choosing to withdraw,” President Jennifer Williams said in an email to the state, the Connecticut Post reported. The school is in talks to be sold to Florence Education, a private nursing school.
The 79-year-old school operated mainly out of a campus in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Its main academic building needed significant work, according to a review the Connecticut Office of Higher Education conducted last fall.
“The building is in poor condition and its facilities need repair and maintenance that will require significant revenue and time,” the state agency said in a letter to the school. “The facilities cannot support a safe, comfortable environment for its students, faculty and staff. Dormitories are unclean and facilities in general are in poor condition with visible water leaks and staining, and evidence of mold and mildew is visible in more than one area. The quality and cleanliness of classrooms and laboratories was poor … The boiler needs repair or replacement resulting in unheated classrooms.”
The school had about 200 students enrolled last year; that dropped to about 30 earlier this year, according to local reporting.
The school’s internal documents indicate it had mismanaged its financial resources, leaving it unable to pay for its operations and achieve its academic mission, the state agency said.
“Data and documentation provided by Paier demonstrate that the institution is not responsibly managing capital and the latest YTD financials reflect that the institution has been running a deficit,” the letter said. “The inadequate financial resources are evidenced by … an outstanding bill of $9,000 to MetroGuard for campus security, and the institution’s inability or unwillingness to fix or replace the institution’s aging boiler that has resulted in lack of heat in the academic building,” among other things.
The school was founded in 1946. It moved from its campus in Hamden, Connecticut, to four buildings on the campus of the University of Bridgeport in 2021.
