On the Closing of Green Mountain College

Originally posted on the Facebook group Rogue Alumni of GMC. For more information about the college's closure, visit greenmtn.edu. To view the January 26, 2019 meeting with Green Mountain College President Bob Allen, click here. 

I’m writing to share my thoughts on the closing of our alma mater (’01) after today’s [1/26/19] meeting with Bob Allen. I stayed in Vermont after graduation, and have been working at Vermont Tech since 2004. Through Mitch LesCarbeau, I often heard about the college’s financial mismanagement; that despite offering an important curriculum, the Board of Trustees and administration made choices that kept the college from staying viable.  

I know many want to see GMC stay open, and I understand that—we shared something awesome there that may never be repeated and can hardly be described. However, I cannot support fundraising campaigns towards its remaining open as-is: the decision-makers that got our institution into this mess cannot be trusted.

Green Mountain College is not literally, but financially, dead. The burden of the USDA-and-other-lender loan ($21.5million) has to go away somehow, and I’m guessing through the bankruptcy of the institution (I’m not an accountant or lawyer). The college property is for sale on the international market, according to Bob Allen.

I see it as far more feasible to track down the “international broker” with which Green Mountain College is listed, and purchase it outright, as part of the liquidation of our sadly-mismanaged college, than to take responsibility for the bad decisions of the Board of Trustees and administration.

What to do with the campus is a whole different question. The accreditation will go away with the bankruptcy—but so will all governance. Whoever buys it will have their butt kissed by the same Governor that offered no help to Bob Allen, in hopes that the new buyer will have a need for new employees.

One can operate a college without accreditation (Trump University). One can operate a think tank, go full-on Silicon Valley and have employees live on-site. If I had the chance to approach VT Gov Phil Scott, I would have asked for special dispensation to allow the campus to become opened as New England’s first institution dedicated to cannabis cultivation and production, and offer non-accredited degrees to an on-campus population. An idea that wild could ‘save’ the college.

My larger point is: while I understand where hearts are at towards raising funds to keep GMC open, I cannot support the continued administration.