By Kathleen Moore,

Staff Writer

Jan 25, 2025

Siena College President Charles Seifert speaks during a ceremony to commemorate Nobel Hall, a new science building built with a $35 million donation by alum Das Nobel and his wife Nipa Nobel, the largest gift in college history. A ceremony was held on Friday to commemorate the new building in Colonie.

COLONIE — Siena College triumphantly unveiled a new $35 million building Friday, which they managed to build without a multimillion-dollar bond.

For a decade, the college has avoided adding debt. That philosophy was fueled in part by an operating budget deficit in 2014. Siena had to cut back on staff compensation; it was a painful time for the college.

Siena was also paying back a multimillion-dollar bond from decades ago. They still owe $36 million on that debt.

So they decided to stop borrowing. And a decade later, they’ve managed to continue to avoid substantial new debt — despite renovating student housing and building a new science building.

Financial analysts often say debt is good, if it allows the business to adapt and improve. But small liberal arts colleges are struggling as enrollment falls nationwide. Colleges with high debt, like The College of Saint Rose and Cazenovia College, have closed. In the case of Saint Rose, officials overbuilt the campus, betting on continued enrollment increases. Instead, enrollment plummeted and they couldn’t make ends meet.

Siena is trying to avoid that fate. For now, that’s meant not borrowing.

“Institutions that are facing financial difficulties today, it’s not because of decisions they made five years ago or 10 years ago. It’s because of decisions they didn’t make 15 years ago,” Siena President Charles Seifert said.

Sticking to cash hasn’t been easy. The new science building was largely supported by one major donation — a pledge of $35 million from Das Nobel, a 2007 graduate, and his wife, Siena Trustee Nipa Nobel. Their name is on the building and their picture hangs in the lobby, but they haven’t paid the entire amount yet.

“We’re working with them,” said Mike Hickey, Siena’s chief of staff. “They’re on track.”

Most colleges would turn to bonds while awaiting years of donations, but Siena “self-financed” by putting money from savings into the building. Other donors stepped up, and they got grants, which paid for much of the furniture and other equipment. They even broke their rule and took on some short-term debt to handle bills during construction.

Siena needs to continually improve to compete with other similar colleges, Hickey said. That means money.

So Seifert met alumni at 21 stops to ask them to “invest” in the campus for the greater good.

“We don’t ask people to give us money, we ask you to invest. If I can point to something, they’re much more likely to be generous,” he said.

It’s working.

“Also, without borrowing, we did other projects — we’re rehabbing the townhouses, we renovated (freshman dorm) Ryan Hall,” Seifert said. “We’re continuing to invest on an ongoing basis.”

The trick is to keep enrollment steady or slightly increasing, despite the national slump, he said.

Siena’s enrollment this year is 3,722 students. That’s up from 3,482 students last year — and up 20 percent from 10 years ago, when enrollment was 3,093 students.

Hickey isn’t completely on board with not borrowing to keep those students coming.

I think a certain amount of borrowing can be good,” he said. “It can be a lifesaver, and it can be a concrete block.”

Siena needed to invest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), he said.

“I wouldn’t want to be a liberal arts college that didn’t address the STEM needs,” he said. “We’re treating it like a business in a highly competitive industry, and we’ve got to win.”

The new building has an entire floor for nursing — complete with all the modern manikins and equipment nursing students need to practice IV insertion and other skills before moving on to humans.

On another floor is a 14-machine computer lab equipped with specialized geospatial mapping software. An ecology laboratory has snorkel hoods to remove air above each lab station.

“With labs and equipment, science programs are much more expensive to deliver,” Seifert said. “But at the same time, it’s an opportunity to increase the student body.”

The number of students enrolled in science programs at Siena has increased 25 percent in the last five years — and 50 percent in the last 10 years. But there wasn’t much space to expand science on campus — the nursing classrooms were “tight,” and that limited the number of students Siena could accept for that and other science programs.

Now they can accept more students.

“It’s a pivotal point for Siena,” Seifert said. “Now we have the ability to offer even bigger, bolder programs.”

Jan 25, 2025

Kathleen Moore

Staff Writer

Kathleen grew up in Glenville and now lives in Schenectady. She has covered the Capital Region for various newspapers since 2000, focusing on the interesting people who breathe life into their towns, villages and cities. She is the Times Union’s education reporter. You can reach her at Kathleen.Moore@timesunion.com or 518-918-5497.