The former Wells College campus in the village of Aurora is back on the market and could be sold off in pieces.
Remaining artwork and antiques that once adorned the picturesque property along the shores of Cayuga Lake are headed for auction, after a judge gave the go-ahead last week.
The private liberal arts college ceased operations in June 2024, beset by mounting debts and falling enrollment. Now more than two years into a protracted and litigious sales process, a snubbed bidder whose deal to buy the historic property collapsed this summer, is claiming the market value of the 113-acre campus is plummeting and its aging buildings have fallen into a state of decay.
The Hiawatha Institute for Indigenous Knowledge is suing to force the sale, though for something far less than its previously negotiated $12.5 million. In an amended complaint filed last week, the nonprofit claimed that some of the 23 campus buildings’ ceilings have collapsed, that roofs are leaking, and the president’s house is moldy.
College President Susan Henking says those claims are overstated or incorrect — but the concerns are not misplaced.
“This is a crisis,” she said. “It’s been a crisis since the day the place closed.”
Wells College is not alone.
Colleges are closing or merging at a dizzying pace with an estimated 400-plus deemed at risk over the next decade. In upstate New York, the past 11 months have seen the former College of Saint Rose sold to Albany County. Medaille University in Buffalo sold to a charter school. And the former Cazenovia College campus outside Syracuse sold to multiple buyers who plan to repurpose them for government offices, as well as residential and commercial uses.
The financial strain leaves many in disrepair before, and certainly after, closure. Potential reuses vary, but can be limited by building layouts and zoning. And all of this requires navigating a heavily regulated framework that still surrounds the colleges, and the disposition of assets, after closure.
“The crisis here,” Henking said, “is we have to make sure we dispose of this in a way that benefits — in the long run — students.”
Hiawatha Institute wanted to repurpose some or all of the buildings for an accredited university dedicated to indigenous studies. But disputes arose before the deal could close, and other buyers emerged, miring the deal in litigation.
In its amended lawsuit, the institute claims the president’s house has mold, “fungal infestation” and damaged hardwoods made worse because it was partly “used as a marijuana grow house.” Henking said the college rented out the house and later learned the tenants might have grown marijuana, but not on the scale of a commercial operation and that she never saw it.
“In the historic Glen Park building, there is now extensive water damage and falling pieces of the ceiling around the four-story spiral staircase,” the amended complaint reads, continuing later that the college removed “four interior stained-glass Tiffany windows from one building, leaving extensive damage to its classic interior woodwork.”
The windows were transferred to Hobart William Smith, the college’s legacy institution that also has received or is receiving other items, including Wells’ endowment — which has to be used for educational purposes, not operational expenses.
A new property appraisal that Hiawatha Institute attached to its amended complaint asserts the market value of the campus has dropped from $10 million to $7.7 million.
“There’s some consequences of being closed,” Henking said. “It’s financially onerous for us. It’s incredibly financially onerous for us, and we’re doing what’s commercially reasonable. And, in every case, we have said the campus is for sale as is.”
Henking estimated monthly operational costs at $125,000, with a skeleton administrative staff and a security contingent overseeing the property.
“We manage to mow it. We manage to keep each building dehumidified. We check where we can and mitigate — where we can — any leaks,” Henking said. “We do all of the things that we can do within the context of being a virtually fully mothballed campus.”
