WORCESTER, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — Becker College will lay off 329 people when it closes after this school year.
The small, private college is a merger of two different colleges, one founded in 1784 and one in 1887.
Data released as part of the state's Worker Adjustment and Retraining Act (WARN) shows that the state will lay off 245 workers from its Worcester campus and 84 from its Leicester campus.
Those layoffs will go into effect on June 30.
The board of the college voted to close the school for good on March 28. The President of the school had been warning students and staff of the school's financial problems since early March.
The board blamed the COVID-19 pandemic with drastic loss of enrollment and the need to invest a large amount of funding in technology, saying these expenses "had a dramatic impact on the ability of the College to continue to support and maintain day-to-day college operations in a financially sustainable manner."
Becker College will still hold a graduation for both its seniors and the Class of 2020, which missed out on a graduation ceremony last year. The school has reached an agreement with more than 40 other colleges and universities to let students finish up their degrees elsewhere.
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Written by Chaiel Schaffel
(Photo: Getty Images)