Ursuline Academy - Catholic High School in Springfield, IllinoisUrsuline Academy in Springfield, Illinois, was a Catholic High School formerly affiliated with Springfield College in Illinois (SCI). Ursuline Academy billed itself as "a college preparatory school". One offshoot of its partnership with SCI was a program which allows High School Students to simultaneously receive high school and college credit for courses. 
Ursuline Academy was originally founded in 1857 by Mother Mary Joseph Wolfe, with its location at 5th and Mason streets. The Academy moved to its current and final location on 5th Street, north of Eastman, in 1867. The school originally opened as an all-girls school, but eventually allowed its first co-ed class in 1982. However, on May 11, 2007, the SCI-BU (Benedictine University) Board of Directors made the decision to close Ursuline at the end of the 2006-2007 school year. The Ursuline Principal, John Stimler, was notified the following day, and the students were then notified on May 14. Immediately following the announcement, several students and parents immediately began trying to come up with ways to bring the school back for the next school year. 
Many have called the SCI/Benedictine handling of the school's closure a "PR nightmare" that will be hard for the local community to overcome. Several Ursuline Alumni were rumored to withdraw from SCI's ranks in protest to the college's actions, and the University is not winning many friends with their recent decisions. Benedictine/SCI personnel have reportedly changed the locks on the Ursuline campus, just in time for the 150th Ursuline Class Reunion and Anniversary celebration, held from June 29, 2007 to July 1, 2007. Articles about Ursuline Academy
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The Ursuline Academy Foundation was formed on May 22, 2007, to try to help get the school back on its feet, and to come up with the finances to do so. The Foundation did receive over $100,000 in donations. However, SCI-BU set a deadline that the school needed $500,000 by May 29. A lease was able to be made for the 6th Street building, so the school set an effort to get 150 students back into the school by June 4, 2007. This would come at a cost, however. Tuition at the Academy was raised from $4,500 per year to $6,200, in addition to other surcharges, making it far out of reach for several families. Sadly, only about a third of the needed 150 applied to go back. Ursuline Academy officially announced that its doors would remain closed the evening of June 4, thus ending 150 years of Ursuline tradition in Illinois.