TROY – The pandemic affected schools and universities in the Capital Region; since March 202o, higher education institutions have spent millions of dollars protecting their campuses from COVID-19 and minimizing the spread of the virus.

Accommodation and food reimbursement prices have been added for the shortened spring semester, the garage of protective appliances and follow-up tests, and many schools have been forced to lay off workers and systems to balance their budgets.

One establishment that turns out to weather the typhoon more than the maximum is Troy-based Russell Sage College, which only a few years ago faced monetary difficulties.

Russell Sage President Christopher Ames, who joined the school in 2017, attributes his multi-year monetary recovery that began to produce effects some time before the pandemic began.

“The deficit gave the impression between the time I contracted and the time I started, so I found myself in a scenario where, of course, it was the number one priority: maintaining fiscal health. And it took me a few years to completely correct the ship, ” said Ames.

Through a series of specific cuts and a strategy to increase enrollment and rename the 105-year-old institution, the school reduced a deficit of $4. 8 million and canceled one of the worst credit ratings of any US school. But it’s not the first time

Between fall 2017 and fall 2019, the school removed 41 administrative positions and reduced its university to 10. All discounts were made by desertation: college members who withdrew or resigned and were not replaced. his educational specializations in fields such as mathematics, chemistry and computer science.

“Once we were given a healthy baseline and didn’t waste money, we might just start installing our systems and that was stable progress,” Ames said.

In the spring of 2019, Moody’s Investors Service elevated the school’s perspective from “negative” to “stable. “In June, the school had a balance of $2. 9 million, marking the time the year in a row ended with a surplus of several million. Dollars

Like other universities, Russell Sage reimbursed some of the accommodation and food fees paid through resident academics who were sent home during the pandemic-shortened spring semester.

But the school did not announce pandemic-like layoffs or layoffs, even when its campuses were closed last spring and their maximum operation was not required.

“We had made the above cuts to reduce our size, so we were running with a soft paint force arrangement. . . we asked many of our painters to paint with a smaller staff, so we sought to be unwavering with them at this tricky time,” Ames said.

Founded in 1916 as a women’s school through Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage, the school is named after Sage’s deceased husband who had left an abundant legacy. In its early years, the school was founded under the statutes of Emma Willard School in Troy.

Slocum Sage and Emma Williard, the school’s principal, Eliza Kellas, were suffragettes who saw education as a way to advertise opportunities for women. The school opened to men during World War II and added graduate systems and a school in Albany a few years later. as it evolved, the school’s initial social equity project held firm, according to Ames.

For two consecutive years, Sage has been among the top 10 in the “social mobility” category in US News’ annual “Best Universities” ranking.

The school, which has capacity for about 2,300 academics among its undergraduate and graduate programs, has noticed relatively few cases of coronavirus among its 500 students in the apartment and the socially remote fall period and has noticed an increase in its retention rates. positive for the virus since last fall, according to state report COVID-19 for schools.

Ames attributes the seriousness of Sage students; many and paintings on fitness fields and are used to practices such as dressing in masks and washing their hands.

At the height of the pandemic, many Russell Sage graduate academics who were already in the professions of fitness and school management were at the front line of the fight against the effect of coronavirus on the worst COVID-19 hot spots in New York.

Because many fitness professions require hands-on training, the school “had to be artistic with modest resources,” according to Ames.

“We kept the clinics as close as we could, but because the hospitals were crowded, of course the clinics were closed,” he said. “With our graduate systems, some of these systems had to be postponed and resumed during the summer. our scholars are stagnant. “

The school took credit for its small size, making sure the resident student had only one room, which simplified the quarantine procedure in cases of coronavirus, Ames said. Since most of its students are from New York, the school has also had fewer demanding situations related to out-of-state travel.

As a component of its restructuring, the school modernized its two campuses, the historic women’s facility in Troy and Albany’s new location, and its high school is a combined establishment. Formerly known as Sage Colleges, the establishment has returned to its original name Russell Sage College.

Rachel Silberstein covers education for the Times Union. Previously, he reported on state policy. You can succeed in it on rachel. silberstein@timesunion. com or (518) 454-5449.