The College of Santa Fe closed in 2009.
The College of Santa Fe's legacy just received new life.
The now-defunct college's alumni association transferred ownership of its $1.285 million endowment fund to the St. Michael's High School Foundation on Monday, according to a statement from the foundation.
"We're all getting real old, and we wanted to make sure we left a legacy for the College of Santa Fe," Clarence Lithgow, president of the College of Santa Fe Alumni Association, tells SFR. "We needed to make sure that the fund was taken care of and would last forever."
St. Michael's High School and College of Santa Fe were both established by the De La Salle Christian Brothers; SMHS in 1859 and CSF in 1947. The college closed its doors in 2009 and reopened a year later as Santa Fe University of Art and Design after the city bought the campus. The private operators of that school pulled out in 2018, and the city is currently reviewing proposals by developers to determine the land's next use.
The transfer of the endowment comes after two years of planning, according to the announcement. Lithgow says that the alumni association asked for proposals and received three: from SMHSF, St. Michael's High School and the Christian Brothers in California.
He says, ultimately, the association decided to transfer the endowment to the St. Michael's Foundation because its managers had experience managing their own endowment and so that "the money would stay here in town."
However, that does not mean that the foundation has full access to the total amount. The terms of the deal call for the foundation to manage the endowment and divide the yearly interest with half going to the Christian Brothers and the remaining portion to be divvied up among the foundation, the CSF Alumni Association and St. Michael's High School.
Maureen Ayers, executive director of the SMHSF, tells SFR that she expects there to be about a 4%—or $51,400—return in interest on the endowment each year.
The high school, alumni association and Christian Brothers' funds are all unrestricted. The foundation will receive 15% of the interest for costs to manage the endowment and 12.5% to use for tuition assistance for St. Michael's High School students.
Ayers estimates that with the portion allocated to tuition assistance, each year the SMHS Foundation should be able to award scholarships to between five and eight students to help cover part of St. Michael's $10,000-per-year tuition.
"Our tuition assistance program is based on need," Ayers explains. "It's usually lower-income students who want to be able to go to St. Mike's, and really the only way they get to go is by getting this assistance."
The Christian Brothers' portion will go to the group of retired brothers who live in a residence on the St. Mike's campus. Lithgow says it was important to the alumni association that they be able to take care of those brothers, because many were part of CSF while he and his fellow alumni were at school.
"They enabled us to get a good education," he tells SFR. "I wouldn't have been able to go to college if it wasn't for the Brothers of Santa Fe."
