For 185 years this college campus in Vermont was teeming with students. Now it sits empty. In January, the school announced it would be closing.
‘I’ve had a very long professional career. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do – to stand in front – in our auditorium with 400 people and telling principally students, but faculty and staff, that we wouldn’t be opening this fall,” said Bob Allen, President at Green Mountain College.
The liberal arts college, that specialized in environmental studies, wasn’t bringing in enough revenue to keep up with costs. Enrollment was down and it had to offer ever-larger tuition discounts to attract students.
While annual tuition was around $36,000, no one paid that.
“We were actually discounting that about 67%. So the average student was really only paying about $12,000 for tuition,” said Allen.