Oakland City University says it will lay off all its employees June\u00a01.<\/p>\n
An Indiana Christian institution that said last week unnamed donors could save it from closure and pay its unpaid workers<\/a> announced Tuesday it’s \u201csuspending\u201d its undergraduate classes for the upcoming academic year. <\/p>\n \u201cOur online graduate programs will continue to operate during this time,\u201d Oakland City University said in a statement<\/a> on its Facebook page. \u201cIn addition, the University will continue efforts to sell the carbon capture patent, with the hope of reopening once those efforts are successful.\u201d <\/p>\n That patent was one of a few ways the institution said it was seeking to solve its financial issues as employees missed their May 8 paychecks and the university told the state it plans to lay them all off June 1. When the university issued the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice on April 1, it listed 167 employees. But Todd Mosby, the university\u2019s associate vice president of advancement, development, marketing and communications, told Inside Higher Ed Friday that employees have since left.<\/p>\n Carbon capture\u2014the technology the university is banking on, which seeks to stop carbon dioxide created by burning fossil fuels from entering the atmosphere\u2014has for decades failed to become a large-scale, commercially viable way to alleviate climate concerns. <\/p>\n The university\u2019s announcement Tuesday made no mention of the previously touted \u201cstrategic partnership\u201d planned with an unnamed donor company, which Mosby had earlier announced could keep the institution open. Tuesday\u2019s update also didn\u2019t say whether another unnamed donor company\u2019s money had come through to pay the workers, as university officials had repeatedly said would happen. <\/p>\n Mosby didn\u2019t immediately return requests for more information early Tuesday evening. <\/p>\n The university had 640 students as of fall 2024, according to the most recent Education Department data available. The University of Evansville, roughly 30 miles south of Oakland City, has launched a landing page<\/a> to attract transfer students. <\/p>\n \u201cToday is a very difficult day for Southwest Indiana and for higher education,\u201d Evansville president Christopher Pietruszkiewicz said in a news release. <\/p>\n \u201cFor students who may be concerned that their educational pathway has been disrupted, there are still pathways forward to continue their education and complete their degrees,\u201d he said. \u201cThe University of Evansville stands ready to help students navigate that path in any way we can.\u201d<\/p>\n