BU-Wheelock merger: what it means financially

Boston University’s merger with Wheelock College on June 1, 2018 will see the formation of the new Wheelock College of Education and Human Development, which will cause several changes in regard to the financial, physical and human assets of the two schools.

The net tuition paid by current Wheelock students will remain the same after the merger, according to BU spokesperson Colin Riley. However, tuition may increase with inflation as it would for any other BU student. Financial aid packages for current Wheelock students will remain the same.

For the 2017-18 school year, BU students were charged $67,352 in tuition, room and board, and fees, while Wheelock students paid $54,650, the schools’ websites state. Wheelock students’ tuition will increase by the same annual percentage as BU’s, according to Wheelock spokesperson Alexandra Smith.

The merger will see that the university’s commitment to educating future educators is maintained throughout and after the process, Riley wrote in an email. The fundamental educational values that the two schools have sought to explore and support will be able to thrive within the new school.

“The legacy of Lucy Wheelock – her commitment to early childhood education – and the college that bears her name, Wheelock College will be preserved and continue on through the merger with BU’s School of Education in the proposed Wheelock College of Education & Human Development at Boston University,” Riley wrote.

The current plan is to have WCEHD remain on the current Wheelock College campuses in Boston and Brookline, according to Smith. The college will retain the Wheelock education philosophy while incorporating BU’s distinguished post-graduate programs and means of research.

“The new college will reflect the current Wheelock College mission to improve the lives of children and families and will combine the doctoral programs and research capabilities of BU’s School of Education with the clinical practice and community focus of Wheelock’s School of Education, Child Life and Family Studies,” Smith wrote in an email.

The merger will allow the universities to bestow their respective strengths on the new college, according to Wheelock President David Chard, establishing a school of education that has both a strong vision and the means to achieve it.

“BU will get an infusion of assets for [WCEHD], which will include endowments, land, faculty knowledge [and] new programs that they don’t currently have,” Chard said. “For the Wheelock faculty, alumni and students, it means that the mission and identity of Wheelock continues, but under the umbrella of a much stronger institution — both by reputation and financially.”

There are several different committees currently working on various aspects of the integration of all academic and administrative components of Wheelock into BU, according to BU President Robert Brown.

The committees are finalizing decisions on details concerning the integration of the schools’ academic and administrative programs, Brown wrote in an email to The Daily Free Press.

BU and Wheelock also have attorneys who are working together on the documentation and regulation relating to the transfer of assets between the two schools, Chard added.

Wheelock’s current assets will be transferred to BU in June, as will all costs and debts, according to Chard, who will serve as the interim dean of WCEHD from next June until 2020.

“BU will effectively take over all of our liabilities and our assets,” he said. This includes Wheelock’s property and its endowment of around $50 million.

Despite the facilitating committees, there is still much uncertainty in regard to how students, faculty and alumni will be affected by the merger, Chard said, but BU has been working to help communicate the processes to current Wheelock stakeholders — many of whom fund scholarships for current Wheelock students.

Chard said he has been meeting with alumni to try to help them understand how they will be integrated with the alumni of BU.

“Communication is key,” he said. “We have a transition team that is represented both by BU staff and administration and [those of] Wheelock, and we’re working through every detail of the merger, trying to make sure it’s as positive and progressive as it can be for everyone involved,” said Chard, who was in California to meet with Wheelock alumni during his interview.

Several BU students expressed concern about the intentions and effects of the merger and its resulting economic implications.

Tatiana Morales, a junior in the College of Communication, said she finds it frustrating that current Wheelock students will get to graduate with a BU degree, even though they are not paying the same tuition cost as current BU students.

“[The merger] bothers me because I’m here on scholarships and loans and that’s the only reason I’m here,” Morales said. “It’s kind of annoying in that sense.”

Megan Apple, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said she thinks the merger is more of a buyout situation and that it will negatively affect current SED students.

“[The merger] is a buyout. It’s definitely for their real estate,” Apple said. “I think it’s going to be a bigger pain for the kids in SED because I don’t really know what they’re going do if they’re going to move the school.”

Jake Lee, a CAS sophomore, said although he thinks the merger is a good way for BU to acquire more valuable real estate, but he doesn’t think the way in which it’s being carried out is fair to students of either school.

“I honestly feel bad for Wheelock students,” he said. “They signed up for a small campus, small class sizes and all of the advantages that came with that. They didn’t even have a vote. They’re just being forced into a large campus setting now.”