Zach Despart

Free Press Staff Writer

Burlington College will close later this month, the school announced Monday, citing the "crushing weight of debt" as the reason.

"This is a great loss to the higher-ed community,” President Carol A. Moore said at a news conference on the college campus.

At the news conference, Moore and Dean of Operations and Advancement Coralee Holm said they were "heartbroken" to announce the college's closure. Holm said about 30 faculty and staff, including herself, will lose their jobs. Holm added the state Department of Labor will assist former employees with finding new careers.

The school plans to cease operations by May 27, Holm said.

Founded in 1972 as an informal gathering of students, Burlington College grew into a small, regionally accredited liberal arts college. But financial strain and academic probation created by an ambitious but ill-fated expansion under then-President Jane Sanders onto a new campus on prime waterfront land led to the school's demise, officials said.

Holm and Moore declined to criticize Sanders, who served as president from 2004 to 2011.

But in a statement Monday morning, the college blamed debt from the land deal as a primary reason for the school's closure.

Holm suggested the college’s plan to pay for the waterfront campus was unachievable.

“I believe the vision was enrollment would grow, which it did, but not at the level that would have allowed us to manage the financial debt we had incurred,” Holm said. “So here we are.”

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The college in 2010 purchased 32 acres along North Avenue from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington for about $10 million. The diocese put the property — including its 77,000-square-foot headquarters building — on the market to help pay costs from priest-abuse litigation.

Tamarrah Lessor, who attended classes in the new building before graduating in 2014, said she wasn't surprised at news of the impending closure.

"We kind of knew it was too good to be true," she said about the waterfront campus. She added she was told by her professors she was lucky to be graduating when she did.

Sanders’ husband, independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. Michael Briggs, a spokesman for the Sanders campaign, did not respond to a request for comment.

Holm said the college broke the news to faculty, staff and students Monday — two days after graduation. She said the college's Board of Trustees unanimously decided Friday to close the school, but the college's commencement ceremony Saturday was absent of any discussion of the school's fate.

Board Chairman Yves Bradley did not respond to a request for comment.

Holm, the dean, said the college was able to lower its debt from $11 million to about $2 million. But the college's lender, People's United Bank, told Burlington College in April the bank was declining to renew the school's $1 million line of credit.

Moore, the college president, said Burlington developer Eric Farrell would purchase the college's North Avenue campus from the bank. Burlington College in 2015 sold 27.5 acres of its waterfront campus to Farrell, who plans to develop the site into housing and a park.

The college's accrediting agency, the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, likely will decide against re-accrediting the school, Holm said. Burlington College has been on probation since 2014 for having insufficient financial resources.

Holm said about 70 current Burlington College students will be able to finish their degrees at nearby institutions. Thirty students had committed to attending the college in the 2016-17 academic year, Holm said.

In response to reporters' questions about a possible law enforcement probe into the college's finances, Holm and Moore declined to comment.

No members from the college's board of trustees — who include Burlington city councilors and city business leaders — attended the news conference. Holm said the college decided to schedule the event on short notice, after receiving a deluge of calls from journalists, and therefore trustees were unable to attend.

Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger called the closing "a loss for our community."

“Although it has been clear for years that the college faced major financial challenges, many individuals and organizations, including the City, hoped today’s announcement would never come and worked to achieve a better outcome," Weinberger said in a statement. "Our thoughts are with those most impacted by today’s news — current students who have not yet completed their degrees and the committed college faculty and staff who will soon lose their jobs — and the City appreciates the proactive steps being taken to assist these groups.”

For 2014 graduate Lessor, who still lives near the school, the closing represents a loss for the Burlington community. She said Burlington College was a place for students who might not have responded as well to traditional schools such as the University of Vermont to get a liberal-arts degree without the high price tag of Champlain College.

"I loved it. I wouldn't change it for the world," she said. She added that alumni would rally around current and recently graduated students who have suddenly found themselves without a school.

"The BC community is strong," she said.

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Contributing: Jess Aloe, Free Press.