Fountainhead College of Technology will be closing its doors for good after serving the Knoxville community for 71 years.
The school broke the news to students on Tuesday night that it will cease educational activities the following day on Oct. 31.
The private college was located off Tazewell Pike next to Smithwood Baptist Church and offered students technology-related training programs.
Fountainhead president and CEO Richard Rackley said the small college had been struggling recently to compete with free education being offered by the state of Tennessee and other institutions.
“We are tremendously saddened by the necessary decision to close the college,” Rackley said.
“We’ve considered it a privilege to serve our students and prepare them for jobs in technology.”
Roughly 50 students were currently enrolled at Fountainhead and will be receiving their final transcripts through the mail after their grades are finalized. Students can also access those transcripts through the Tennessee Higher Education Commission's Website under the institution's closure information.
The 33,000-square-foot building on Tazewell Pike will be locked on Oct. 31 and has been up for sale since July. Besides Rackley, the school employed 6 full-time and 5 part-time employees -- a notable drop from what it once used to employ as early as 2011 when a total of 40 full-time staff worked there.
The college was founded in 1947 as the Tennessee Radio Service School, but changed to the Tennessee Institute of Electronic the following year.
Rackley served as the second generation president and has been working at the college since 1994.
The college had several locations over the years before moving to Tazewell Pike in 1984, becoming Fountainhead in 2003.
The school was one of the first to offer a computer security-focused baccalaureate degree in the Southeast. It was named one of the 11 Centers of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education by the Homeland Security Agency and Department of Homeland Security.