Southern Vermont College to Close in Summer of 2019

Southern Vermont College to Close in Summer of 2019

Earlier this year, it was announced that Vermont’s Green Mountain College will close. Now there is another.

The Vermont Digger reports:

Southern Vermont College says it will close this summer

Another small liberal arts college in Vermont will close its doors for good this summer.

Southern Vermont College president David Evans announced Monday that the school would shut down at the end of the year. He cited declining enrollments, financial pressures, and a recent decision by the New England Commission of Higher Education, the school’s regional accreditor.

“We have done as much as we feel we could have done to turn things around in terms of enrollment and to turn things around in terms of philanthropy,” Evans said. “But we’ve just sort of run out of runway.”

In late January, NECHE notified the school that it was worried about the school’s financial viability, and that SVC would need to show accreditors why it shouldn’t be placed on probation or have its accreditation withdrawn entirely.

Evans said that because losing accreditation was on the table, the school almost immediate stopped recruiting new students, which made SVC’s board of trustees conclude that there was “no plausible way forward” to increase enrollment and stabilize finances. After a hearing with accreditors on Thursday, the board voted Friday to close, and on Saturday, NECHE called with its verdict: it had decided to withdraw the school’s accreditation.

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