New Hampshire’s private Daniel Webster College, known to some pilots only for its flight operations program, announced Wednesday that the program will come to an end. ITT Educational Services bought the college last year, fired then school president Robert Myers and brought in an ITT president to replace him. The school’s Web site indicates with an asterisk that its Bachelor degree program in aviation flight operations “will be phased out over the next several years as the students who are currently enrolled in the program are allowed the opportunity to graduate within the normal timeframe for completion.” The statement adds that no new classes will be started in the program, “effective immediately.” The school’s air traffic control and aviation management programs will continue, according to its new president, Nadine Dowling. Many of the school’s current and former students are expressing their opinions online.
A Facebook page titled “I went to Daniel Webster before it sold out” had 465 members, Wednesday, some of whom wrote that they would rather have seen the school financially fail, rather than lose its flight program. Dowling told local news that the program was extremely expensive to maintain and that graduates didn’t see a great return on their expenses. Students were told of the program’s coming closure in a closed meeting (no media) for faculty and students. Dowling told media after the meeting that Daniel Webster College had been considered canceling its flight program before the sale to ITT. Daniel Webster College began life in 1965 as the New England Aeronautical Institute.
