Cazenovia Community Reacts to Closing of Caz College Cazenovia Reacts to Closing of Caz College

CAZENOVIA COLLEGE STUDENTS ARE SPEAKING OUT AFTER THE UNIVERSITY ANNOUNCED ITS CLOSING ITS DOORS. N-C-C NEWS REPORTER JOHN PERIK BREAKS DOWN HOW STUDENTS ARE FEELING.

PERIK:
Cazenovia College students…

Sophia Ferris: we’re just all lost.

PERIK:
Left in shock and disbelief

Sophia Ferris: We dont know what to do

Arrianna Henry: it is kinda heartbreaking

Owen Hoyt: You wish you could finish out here, but you’ve just got to move on.

PERIK:
This week. To the surprise of just about EVERYONE…… Cazenovia college announced after almost 200 years, it would be closing its doors following the current academic year.

Owen Hoyt:You don’t know what’s going to happen next yet.

(Sound of Hoyt basketball introduction)
“Owen Hoyt, Class of 2024”

PERIK:
Owen Hoyt is a junior on Cazenovia’s basketball team. When he first heard the news, he froze.

Owen Hoyt: It was like heartbreaking, can’t lie because just like you know you’ve been here for 3 years and just like your planning on finishing out with all the friends you’ve made.

PERIK:
Cazenovia College first made the announcement Monday 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…

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.

Mary Leatherman: It bring young people with different thoughts and ideas, different political ideas which is great I think we need that diversity here in this area.

PERIK:
And where ever there’s a college town, there’s usually a bar.

(Nats of bar music, bell, and nat pop of “ward you’re famous”)

PERIK:
Ward O’Hara, who owns McCarthy’s Pub in Cazenovia, knows things may never be the same.

Ward O’Hara: I think it’s going to affect all of the businesses here in town, I don’t know to what the 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.

Sophia Ferris: My uncle actually works here too so I know he’s upset because he just lost his job. We’re all just trying to get through it together and just 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 two hundred years has been – a huge part of its — identity. In Cazenovia, John Perik, N-C-C News.