SHU Drops Out of UB Deal

On Oct. 5, President John Petillo announced to students and faculty that Sacred Heart University would no longer be involved with the plans to acquire part of the University of Bridgeport

Sacred Heart would have joined Goodwin University and Paier College of Art to own different parts of the university’s programs and degrees. The deal was first announced at the end of June, and University of Bridgeport was to turn into a “university park” where students from the three schools could take classes for their concentrated major.

“We were interested in taking over most of the programs,” said Petillo. “Initially, we were only pursuing a few programs including engineering, education, and chiropracting. Then we did our due diligence, as you would normally do in any deal, and found out that we would walk away from engineering and education. This was because the numbers of the terms of the enrollment were not there.”

Petillo continued to talk about the other programs Sacred Heart was pursuing and said, “Then we came back and made another offer on the nutrition and chiropracting program, and we said we could put the money in escrow, which means a lawyer would hold it, until the accreditors transferred the accreditation to Sacred Heart. The lender wasn’t able to do that, so we didn’t go through with it.”

According to Petillo and Michael Iannazzi, Vice President of Marketing and Communications, the enrollment numbers given to them were significantly less than what University of Bridgeport had initially stated.

“Upon inquiry and verification by Sacred Heart, the enrollment numbers we had been given turned out to be significantly less than what we were led to believe. We made another offer, in line with the new projections, and that was turned down,” Iannazzi said.

Junior Leah Weeks reflected on the decision and said, “I think it’s a good idea that we didn’t act on it, especially considering that the enrollment numbers were lower than expected.”

As for whether the deal will still happen, Petillo said, “The other school, being Goodwin, as far as I know is still planning to purchase it at a much more significant price than we were. But we will see on Oct. 15 if they close the deal which the lender, the bank, was insisting on. If it is, in time, University of Bridgeport will cease to exist.”

Petillo explained that University of Bridgeport has a very rich history, and that it still needs to be represented in the community.

When asked what the next steps for Sacred Heart are, Petillo said, “The university will have its own organic growth as a school, regardless of what happens to University of Bridgeport.”

There have been many new programs added to Sacred Heart, such as a master’s degree program and a doctorate in social work, along with a number of online programs which continue to grow.

Iannazzi said, “As far as our school as a whole, we will continue with our longstanding commitment to the City of Bridgeport through such programs as our robust student teacher internship program, Horizons, Upward Bound and the many service programs our students are involved in.”

Iannazzi added, “And, in keeping with our mission, we will continue to look for opportunities to support and enrich our local communities in any way that we can.”

Senior Amanda Bernardi said, “I think Sacred Heart dropping the ownership of University of Bridgeport is a good idea because they are already spending lots of money to make our campus better. I think that if they took on University of Bridgeport, then things here wouldn’t get done.”

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