The College of New Rochelle (N.Y.) has filed for bankruptcy and will sell its 15.6-acre former main campus in an auction within two months, the Rockland/Westchester (N.Y.) Journal News reported. The chapter 11 filing on Friday comes a month after the college ceased academics and held the final graduation in its 115-year history. A deadline for qualifying bids to take part in the auction will be due some time in early November, with specifics yet to be announced. The campus is being leased through 2020 by Mercy College, which reportedly accepted the transfer of more than 1,700 former College of New Rochelle students. The college decided to dissolve after a long-standing financial crisis that led to the conviction of a high-ranking finance official on federal charges. The college was already facing declining enrollment and difficulty keeping its head above water in October 2016, when it announced the resignation of then-President Judith Huntington alongside the launching of an internal financial probe. The probe uncovered $31 million in previously unknown debts, including millions in mounting payroll taxes, that had been hidden from the college's financial books and its board of trustees.
