The 10 members of Taylor University Fort Wayne women's volleyball team, which includes just one senior, sat quietly Monday afternoon in the gymnasium, faces somber, eyes downcast.

“What does going forward look like?” said their coach, Scott Haddix. All knew the answer did not include the team playing together again next year. Just hours earlier, they had been told this is the last year for TUFW to exist as it does now.

That decision was made Friday by the board of Taylor University, which has its main campus in Upland and took over what was once Fort Wayne Bible College, then Summit Christian College, in 1992.

“After 16 years of significant effort and investment, we concluded that we have been unable to develop the TUFW operation into one that is financially self-sustaining,” said Taylor President Eugene B. Habeckerreading a media statement Monday from board chairman Richard Gygi.

The board and university officials were “unable to put in place a viable business plan to stem the tide of the downward spiral of undergraduate enrollment,” Habecker said, noting TUFW Chancellor Duane Kilty didn't agree with the decision. Kilty, named chancellor in 2006, was not available to the media Monday. He was unavailable for comment this morning.

Enrollment at the Fort Wayne campus on Rudisill Boulevard, has dropped 45 percent since 2003, requiring a more than $15 million subsidization by the Upland campus. It has a current enrollment of 337 traditional students seeking four-year degrees

Taylor Fort Wayne plans to continue its online courses, Habecker said, noting that program is growing and has about 600 students enrolled. Ironically, in the face of the university's own business plan for Fort Wayne failing, Taylor plans to continue its MBA program at the Northeast Indiana Innovation Center. WBCL Christian radio station, owned by Taylor and housed on the Fort Wayne campus, will not be affected, officials said.

But the effects of the decision were visible throughout the campus Monday. Students hugged each other in hallways and dorm rooms. Faculty stopped on sidewalks to bolster one another up after being called together via e-mail for the emergency meeting.

“There was some guessing that maybe the chancellor was leaving,” said Athletic Director Bud Hamilton. “Some of us were guessing that (Taylor Upland) was cutting us loose,” a strategy discussed by some that would have meant the Fort Wayne campus would become autonomous. “But this - none of us expected this. They just told me last week they wanted me to stay on,” he said.

“Shocked” was the word Oakdale Neighborhood Association President Bruce Lehman used when told of the closure. “There was no news prior of this.” To build a new dorm, completed in 2006, “They tore down a beautiful old brick home in the neighborhood to build it.” The closure will hit hard area businesses such as the Friendly Fox coffeehouse on South Wayne Avenue, which is frequented by students and staff, he said.

Volleyball teammates and best friends Courtney Seeley from Breckenridge, Mich., and Denise Lehman of Monroe, both sophomores, looked at each other, then leaned over in their chairs, hands covering their tear-streaked faces.

“I'm sorry. This has been such an emotional day,” Seeley said.

Students are encouraged to transfer to Taylor Upland, with transfer for juniors recommended by January. Fort Wayne's lower tuition cost for existing students will be honored at the Upland campus, which is predominately residential, but Fort Wayne's 124 computer students could find housing costs prohibitive to an Upland transfer.

Freshman athletes whose sport hasn't yet begun could perhaps withdraw and transfer to another program where they could still play a sport four years, Haddix suggested.

Several students recently signed an agreement to play volleyball at TUFW, and late Monday, he was fielding e-mails and phone calls from parents and students who had heard about the closing.

To freshmen, sophomores and juniors, he advised: “Get out of the campus as soon as you can. Don't let a school's decision hurt your future. You all watched the movie ‘Titanic.' Get on the lifeboat while you can.”

Freshman Annie Tuttamore of Marblehead, Ohio, chose Taylor over other colleges because it offered an intercultural major, something she could not find at many Christian colleges. She was off campus, eating with her parents who were visiting, when the closure announcement was made. “When I came back I saw all these people crying. When my friend told me what it was about I was shocked. I couldn't believe it.”

Neither could her dad, Bill Tuttamore, a banker, who said, “We came here because they promised us the school would survive and she wanted to major in cross-cultural studies. Now I don't know what we'll do.”

But he reminded his daughter and her friends: “God never promised us life was fair. As you go through life this will be a very important lesson to learn. God will give you the wisdom and strength.”

Many decisions still must be made, Habecker said, including what, if any, academic programs will be transferred to Upland and what will become of the 30-acre, 14-building Fort Wayne campus, which includes a library and residence hall constructed in the past five years.

Partnerships with other universities or organizations will be explored, he said, noting, “This will be a continuing story.”