Higher education is different from business, and the essence of the school being acquired must be taken into account.
Think of it as an arranged marriage.
That’s the analogy used by Patrick McCay, a professor at what was until recently the New Hampshire Institute of Art, to describe what a merger in higher education is like for those involved.
“As in an arranged marriage, there’s not much time for the faculty and staff to ‘date,’” said Professor McCay, whose 121-year-old institute completed its merger with larger New England College in the summer. “It only happens after the appropriate parental authorities have negotiated the legal and financial aspects. And the two individuals then have to hope that their personalities will mesh.”
Or in this case, that the cultures of two very different institutions will result in a harmonious union.
One, New England College, is on 220 acres in rural Henniker, N.H. A river flows through the campus, and a nearby covered bridge adds to the Rockwellian tableaux.