LEWISTON, N.Y. — For local colleges and universities, the start of the fall semester is just around the corner.
Many of the students displaced from one of the larger degree programs at Medaille University after that school abruptly shut down have landed at Niagara University.
Niagara University's partnership agreement with Medaille to accept students working toward graduate degrees in education has resulted in 340 former Medaille students now pursuing their graduate degrees at Niagara, one of several local universities which scrambled to enroll former Medaille students
"Medaille and Niagara were the only schools in Western New York with online graduate education degree programs," explained Chandra Foote, Niagara dean of the university's College of Education. "We were both border colleges and we both had a lot of Canadian students."
Because the degree program is completed online they won't need to be building out any dorms at NU.
"The majority of them aren't within driving distance of Niagara University nor Medaille for that matter," Foote said.
But they may have to find some office space.
Because there's also some good news for some faculty displaced from Medaille.
"We brought over 8 new faculty as well from Medaille's teacher education program and four from Medaille's clinical mental health counseling," said Foote. "In order to serve these students we had to have more faculty."
The extra students may not be seen as providing a long-term enrollment bonanza, however, for Niagara or any other school that displaced Medaille students have transferred to in order to complete their education.
" I don't think it's an economic windfall for the university," said Foote. "And we also have to predict how much this bump in our enrollment will last."