Dive Brief:
- On Friday, embattled Burlington College President Christine Plunkett told student protesters who were demanding her resignation and physically blocking her car from moving in a parking lot: “OK, I resign. Happy? Goodbye.”
- By Monday, college officials confirmed that she really had resigned, though it wasn’t clear if the resignation was effective when she said it to the protesters, the Burlington Free Press reported.
- Burlington College’s board of trustees appointed a three-person transition team to oversee the financially troubled college: an interim president, provost, and financial advisor.
Dive Insight:
This could become a new tactic in the student protester playbook: Don’t let your school’s administrator move his/her car until your demands are met. A Free Press video shows Plunkett emerging from a board of trustees meeting that the protesters weren’t allowed into when the students confront her and follow her to her vehicle. They block her path as she tries to back up her car, so she talks for a short time with the protesters, then announces her resignation and slams the door, and the students erupt in cheering. The board of trustees’ statement said that the interim team would follow the financial plan established by Plunkett and the board, which includes developing half of a 32-acre plot of lakefront property for housing to pay off half of a $10 million debt incurred when the college bought the property in 2010.