Dive Brief:
- Burlington College in Vermont is beginning its fall semester about 15 students short of an enrollment goal of 180, meaning it will have to cut its budget by $400,000, Inside Higher Ed reports.
- The college’s accrediting agency has put the liberal arts school on probation, giving it two years to turn around its poor financial condition.
- Its financial issues include $10 million in debt taken on in 2010 to pay for 32 acres of property along Lake Champlain for a new campus.
Dive Insight:
At the time of the lakefront property purchase, the idea was to increase the college’s enrollment to as many as 750 students. Burlington College has been on financially shaky ground since its founding in 1972, but, according to Inside Higher Ed, critics say it has gotten worse since the college’s current president, Christine Plunkett, took the reins following the October 2011 resignation of Jane Sanders, the president who bought the lakefront property. The school needs $2 million to repair its main building, and one of its lenders — the Roman Catholic diocese that sold the lakefront property — says the college has defaulted on its loan, which the college disputes.