MONTREAT, N.C. (AP) - Students at Montreat College in western North Carolina do not want the school’s trustees to proceed with a plan to merge with a school in Georgia.
Montreat officials said last summer they want to merge the financially troubled school with Point University, which has one campus near Atlanta and the second West Point, Ga.
Montreat’s board met in a conference call Tuesday night to talk about the school’s future. That meeting was not open to the public.
A group of Montreat supporters has been trying to raise $2 million in hopes of keeping the school independent. Montreat officials have said the school faces a $3 million deficit.
Student body president Jordan Lukacena said the goal of Tuesday’s rally was to bring students together to address rumors about the school’s future.
Some of the students carried signs that read “The world needs Montreat” and “This is more than a school.”
“This is like home to us. This is like family,” said Kannah Begley, a senior.
Begley said she wants to be able to come back to the campus years from now with her children “and show them this is where I went to school and be proud of it. And let my diploma stand for something.”
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