Clarks Summit To Cease Operations

Pennsylvania Baptist school becomes latest college to close

Author

Steve Ulrich
July 03, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes

JULY 3, 2024 | written by STEVE ULRICH

The news that you need to know about non-scholarship college athletics and those that love it.
Send tips to [email protected] and/or via DM. #whyD3

🎆 Happy Birthday, America. We’re a day early today to get ahead of the Fourth of July holiday weekend. Enjoy. See you Monday.

TOP STORY
1. Grief, Gratitude at Clarks Summit As School Announces Closure

by Sarah Hofius Hall, WVIA

“Clarks Summit University’s pending closure brought both grief and gratitude to the Lackawanna County campus on Monday.

Staff and students of the Baptist school, which had furloughed all employees last month, had remained hopeful the school could remain open despite its financial troubles.

Faculty planned new programs. Alumni provided support. A freshman class enrolled for the fall.

But in the end, the students and employees said, staying open wasn’t in God’s plans.”

» Driving The News. “The school, formerly known as Baptist Bible College and Seminary, announced on Monday it had started the closure process. Students enrolled in summer courses will complete their classes, but there will be no students this fall. Agreements with Cairn University near Philadelphia and Liberty University in Virginia will allow students to transfer and complete their degrees.”

» Reality Check. “For more than a decade, declining enrollment and rising costs have made it hard to balance budgets. In 2006, the college had more than 1,000 students, including more than 700 in undergraduate programs. This spring, the total was 548 students. More than $1 million short in its budget and with options seemingly exhausted, the Board of Trustees voted to close the school. President James Lytle said a major donation could potentially keep doors open, but as of now, the school will cease operations.”

» Quotable. “There’s a combination of grief and gratefulness and just sadness that this is over, because it has been so good,” said Erika Bruckner, director of communications.

CONFERENCES

2. New Paltz to Become Full Member of NJAC in 2026-27

“The New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) Presidents Council and Board of Athletic Administrators recently voted to accept State University of New York (SUNY) New Paltz as the conference’s newest full member effective in the 2026-27 academic year.

The addition of SUNY New Paltz in 2026-27 will increase the NJAC full membership to 11 institutions and will mark the first full-member expansion in the conference in 43 years. New Paltz will also become the first full-member institution in the history of the conference to be located outside of the State of New Jersey.

SUNY New Paltz currently sponsors 16 varsity sports and its geographic proximity to the current NJAC full-member institutions will result in little or no overnight travel for any conference regular season contests. Some of the positive ramifications of New Paltz joining the NJAC include the maintaining of the conference’s NCAA automatic qualification in women’s tennis, the addition of men’s lacrosse as the newest NJAC-sponsored sport, and the league’s men’s volleyball membership expanding to five programs.”

» What They’re Saying. “In studying SUNY New Paltz, it was evident that it is an outstanding institution with a strong history of athletic success. I am confident that SUNY New Paltz will be a good fit for the NJAC, and the NJAC will be a good home for SUNY New Paltz,” said NJAC Commissioner Terry Small.

ACADEMICS

3. Scolan Headlines Academic All-America Baseball Squad

UW-Whitewater OF Matt Scolan was named the Academic All-American of the Year as College Sports Communicators released their 2024 DIII Academic All-America baseball teams.

Scolan earned first-team All-America honors from both the ABCA and D3Baseball.com this season, hitting .404 with 18 home runs and 78 RBI. In addition, the junior scored a school-record 81 runs to go along with 18 steals.

A finance major, he has a 3.83 cumulative GPA. The DIII teams boasts an overall average GPA of 3.85 with six students posting 4.0s.

First Team
C-Jack Anderson, Case Western Reserve, Grad, 3.71/3.90, Law
DH-Nik Panico, Aurora, Sr., 4.00, Spanish & Secondary Education
IF- Isaac Kim, Pomona-Pitzer, Sr., 3.77, Politics
IF-Trent Youngblood, Transylvania, Sr., 3.84, Marketing
IF-Sam Angelo, Montclair State, Grad, 3.58/3.64, Business Adm./MBA
IF-Shawn Steuerer, Johns Hopkins, Jr., 3.72, Economics
OF-Matt Scolan, Wisconsin-Whitewater, Jr., 3.83, Finance
OF-Matthew Carlsen, Bethel, Sr., 3.99, Mechanical Engineering & Physics
OF-JC Ng, Pomona-Pitzer, Jr., 3.89, Economics
OF-Scout Zaas, Washington & Jefferson, Jr., 3.92, Economics
P-Jackson Teer, Trinity TX, Jr., 3.51, Marketing
P-Nolan Sparks, Rochester, Sr., 3.92, Neuroscience & Business

NEWS
4. Lightning Round

» 🗞️ News. “The NCAA is in active talks with USA Gymnastics about how to revamp its collegiate men’s gymnastics championships, conversations that could lead to coordinated major events, shared personnel, or cross-selling partnerships.”

TRANSACTIONS
5. Comings and Goings

1 PUZZLE THING
6. Happy Birthday, Rubik’s Cube

The Rubik's Cube has been with us for 50 years.

Erno Rubik, a Hungarian architect, created the cube and solved it for the first time in July 1974, The New York Times writes in an appreciation for the classic puzzle.

🟥 🟨 🟦 By the numbers: The cube's 26 pieces can be twisted into 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 possible positions, per the Times.

And every one of them can be solved in 20 moves or fewer.

📬 Thanks for starting your day with us!

What did you think of today's newsletter?

Your feedback helps make D3Playbook better.

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.


Please invite your friends to sign up for D3Playbook

Copyright © 2024, D3Playbook.com All rights reserved

Reply

or to participate.