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Legislators in Massachusetts issued a scathing report Thursday questioning the series of decisions that led Mount Ida College to close and be taken over by the University of Massachusetts -- with threats of subpoenas and more scrutiny if the college's former officials don't offer good answers. The report by the Massachusetts Senate's Committee on Post Audit and Oversight blasted the conflicting answers that officials from Mount Ida and Lasell College gave in legislative testimony about failed merger talks between the two institutions last winter, a partnership that was widely perceived as being more beneficial to students and staff members at the college.
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“It was Lasell College that could have saved Mount Ida, but Mount Ida’s Board of Trustees incomprehensibly rejected that opportunity,” the report stated. “We believe Mount Ida’s rejection of Lasell’s offer to take over and operate Mount Ida College is one of the most important examples of the Board and President Brown breaching their fiduciary duties.”
The Boston Herald reported that the head of the legislative panel, Senator Kathleen O’Connor Ives, planned to send additional questions to Mount Ida's former leaders, and that if they don't provide satisfactory answers, “we will proceed to the next tools in our tool kit, namely subpoenas and additional hearings.”
