Burlington College, which has been under extreme financial distress, is closing its doors permanently on May 27.
The board of trustees made the decision Friday, according to a press release issued Monday morning.
The release began by noting: “In recent years, Burlington College has struggled under the crushing weight of the debt incurred by the purchase of the archdiocese property on North Avenue.”
That $10 million purchase was made in 2010 at the direction of the college’s then-president, Jane O’Meara Sanders, wife of presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Current interim president Carol Moore declined to comment at a press conference Monday afternoon when reporters asked whether Jane Sanders was responsible for the school’s downfall.
During a separate interview, the college’s board chair, Yves Bradley, echoed that assessment. But, he said, the school’s financial situation became untenable in April when its lender, People’s United Bank, decided not to renew its $1 million line of credit.
“I think it’s a tremendous loss to the community and I think a lot of people worked extraordinarily hard to try to keep the institution afloat,” Bradley said. The school was founded in 1972.
The New England Association of Schools and Colleges, which accredits schools, put Burlington College on probation almost two years ago because of its tenuous financial position. NEASC held a hearing in April, and recently informed the trustees that it planned to revoke the college’s accreditation next January.
“They ran out of time and money basically,” said Barbara Brittingham, president of NEASC’s Commission on Institutions of Higher Education. She explained that NEASC is required to make a decision after two years of probation.
At the press conference, Moore said that approximately 70 students are currently enrolled at the college, and another 30 would-be first-year students had sent in their deposits for the coming fall. Those students will be able to transfer to a number of other schools, including Marlboro College, Champlain College and the Vermont State Colleges, and possibly Green Mountain College to complete their degrees, according to Moore.
Burlington College has just fewer than 30 faculty and staff. They will receive their final paychecks on Friday. Moore said the Department of Labor will send representatives to the school Tuesday to help people sign up for unemployment.
In 2014, the college sold most of its campus to developer Eric Farrell to reduce its debt. He plans to build a large housing development on that land. Now that the school is closing, Farrell will buy the remaining property under an agreement with the college and People’s United Bank, signed last year. Farrell declined to disclose the price.
According to Moore, Burlington College still owes the bank roughly $3 million — $2.2 million for the original purchase of the land and $750,000 on its line of credit.
No receptionist was on duty in the main entrance, and some offices appeared empty. Outside, signs congratulating graduates — commencement was on Saturday — stood near an empty white tent where the ceremony was held.
One female student, leaving the college with her mother, declined to comment when approached reporters.
“It’s sad,” is all she would say.
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Sorry to hear this.
Where can I send Jane Sanders a thank you note?
JANE SANDERS!
Lets try to keep this in perspective. Christine Plunkett never had a chance. After many years under Sanders’ leadership, there was no significant endowment fund, yet the college made a heavily leveraged bricks & mortar purchase. What could go wrong?
But Mrs. Sanders did make a huge salary off the place… and ended up with almost a million cash out of the deal… not bad for a family of socialists! That socialist thing pays great, doesn’t it?
This school was bound to fail regardless of the fact that Jane Sanders pushed for the purchase of the lakefront property. It’s a niche school in a highly competitive market (Burlington has the most universities and colleges per capita) – how were they supposed to compete anyway? The only way to make the school viable was to somehow draw prospective students in, which I would imagine is one of the reasons that Jane Sanders directed the college to purchase the lake front property.
Sounds like they used a field of dreams financial model. If you spend it, it will come.Sounds a lot like Bernie on the campaign trail with all his talk of free _____ for all. Indeed it’s the philosophy the state of Vermont has been run by can you guess what that is ? Here’s a clue, it starts with a P and rhymes with expressive.
For all the people trumpeting Jane Sanders as being guilty – Burlington College does have a board and an executive team. They had already collectively decided that BC needed to move. Jane Sanders was brought on to do fundraising and find a new home for the college – she did that. In 2011 stories were run on BC ‘successfully completing’ that mission. Jane was given a severance package for successfully completing the mission and a few months later, in 2011, the college shifted to developing the student body. This severance package, from a private enterprise, is hardly comparable to the multi-million dollar taxpayer/bailout funded ‘golden parachutes’ called into question by her husband. Look back in the news archives and you’ll also see that every journalist challenged BC’s executive team and board’s decisions when they decided to head down this path. The sad news is Burlington College is gone, they made their own decisions that led them down this path – and they knowingly took big risks doing it. If the college’s board and executive team knowingly pinned all their hopes and plans on one person – then they are fools. If they simply risked big, and lost big as a result, then they simply failed at trying something new for the college and couldn’t recoup the losses.
Yes, without question the former Burlington College executive board is who is at fault here. A full and thorough investigation is in order, but it won’t happen unless someone files a lawsuit. In no way did Jane Sanders come up with the idea to buy the Diocese property on her own, nor did she have the financial skills to put it together.
At the time of the land purchase, anyone who had a background in finances or worked in academic administration knew this deal made no sense. For a school of its size, with its prior financial constraints and low student enrollment, to acquire that kind of massive debt was beyond an eyebrow-raiser. We all thought “Just what is REALLY going on here”? A functioning board would have nixed this deal in the bud.
The board’s decision to buy the property was very contentious and NOT unanimous. But former board members have been very tight-lipped about what transpired behind closed doors. Both during the purchase and afterwards with the hiring of Plunkett and turn-over of board members.
We all know several City officials who have promoted housing development served on this board at the time, as well as real-estate interests. And others similarly inclined have taken the open seats. This is likely the real problem…the College was taken over by development interests, who’s primary goal was not the success of the College. They were serving another master.
Yup Jane Sanders is the one that did this, I don’t give a crap what you Sanders lovers think.. She lied!!! She pulled a rotten trick on the college..She lied about the amounts of people pledges, just to make herself a big shot!!! She then stole $250,000, I don’t care how you look at it, the bottom line is she stole it and it all got sweep under the rug because of her husband Sanders, but that’s how Socialists work..Lie, Steal and Lie again..I see some of you blamed the board mrmbers and Sanders was brought on fundraising ..SHE WAS THE PRESIDENT OF THE COLLEGE.. the board thought they could trust her.. Never trust a Sanders..they are LIARS..