By Michael Bielawski
After more than 80 years of educating Vermonters and those from elsewhere, Goddard College will finally close its doors due largely to declining enrollment.
The following announcement came via their school webpage on Tuesday.
“Today, Goddard College’s Board of Trustees announced that despite decades of dedicated efforts to sustain the institution, they have ultimately arrived at the heart-wrenching decision to close the College’s doors. Facing financial insolvency, the Board of Trustees voted unanimously to close at the end of the current semester, citing a significant and persistent decline in enrollment since the 1970s as the determining factor that made the decision unavoidable.”
The school has been in financial trouble for years. InsideHigherEd.com detailed some of the history in a report on Wednesday.
“The college has struggled to generate revenue in recent years, according to public financial documents, which show it lost money in seven of the last 10 available fiscal years,” they wrote.
The school was in debt and selling its assets off may have been a last resort to fix the situation.
The report continues, “In 2016, it borrowed $2.1 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture—a loan that has not been paid off, Lisa Larivee, executive assistant to the president, told Inside Higher Ed by email. However, Larivee noted the board of trustees plans to sell the campus and settle all debts.”
The news has garnered national attention. Forbes reported on the closure, including what bewildered students can expect to be offered in compensation.
“Goddard has formed a partnership with Prescott College, a private nonprofit school in Arizona, that will allow current Goddard students to transfer there at the same tuition rate. A Goddard College Scholarship Fund also will be established to help students transition to Prescott College and potentially other partner institutions that will be announced in the coming months,” their report states.
The announcement from Goddard suggests that its failure is part of a larger national trend.
“The closure of Goddard College mirrors a trend seen in numerous higher education institutions across Vermont and the nation, all grappling with similar challenges. Goddard College is currently serving only 220 students, down from over 1,900 in the early 1970s,” it states.
A far-left activist college?
Goddard College wasn’t shy about its activist-leaning curricula. In a description of its Bachelor of Arts in Sustainability, it notes that “climate justice” is part of its goals.
“As students learn about the diverse, changing needs of their communities, urban and rural, they specialize in a variety of focused areas from climate justice to food sovereignty to local currencies to permaculture and more in ways that are innovative, mindful and lasting,” it states.
In a post about its “Reimagining Safety” panel, it states it was about “reimagining community safety and justice without police and prisons.”
In another post titled “Keynote Speaker Dharna Noor Addresses Climate Change” activist and writer Dharna Noor chose to blame capitalism for our climate troubles.
She wrote, “At the root of the climate crisis, Noor argued, are global capitalism and corporations that prioritize profits over people and planet. Fossil fuel companies exert enormous influence over policymaking, blocking meaningful climate action and perpetuating our reliance on dirty energy,” she writes.
Colleges pushing away conservatives?
According to Newsweek, colleges across the U.S. are actively discouraging or pushing away the enrollment of conservatives.
They reported, “Using eight surveys of academic and graduate student opinion, we examined the willingness of faculty to cancel controversial academics and to discriminate against political minorities. We also looked at the level of fear among dissenting scholars. And what we found was worrying.”
The report continues that the impacts of these university policies are spilling over into the rest of society.
It states, “While it’s normal for those holding minority views to feel a bit uncomfortable, my study found that younger scholars are far more likely to support an intolerant ‘cancel culture’ that is driving self-censorship and limiting viewpoint diversity in universities. And increasingly, this ethos is moving off campus into other professional organizations such as tech firms and newsrooms.”
The author is a writer for the Vermont Daily Chronicle. In 2016 his radio show “The Mike B Report” was canceled by Goddard College for his questioning of global warming rhetoric/scientific claims.
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Categories: Education
It would be nice to see the campus be used for another school or retreats. The grounds are really nice. I am not surprised to see Goddard close though – and actually I thought it had closed years ago. I think it had the reputation of offering classes in areas that were not really going to prepare anyone for employment. It was something of an artsy hippy school in it’s day. I seem to remember several lawsuits regarding the degrees not being worth anything in the real world.
Phds in tie dying, and basket weaving will only get you so far in life.
I should have qulified my statement that, “Phds in tie dying, and basket weaving will only get you so far in life.” by stating, “unless mommy and daddy left you a great big trust fund !”
Of what use is a degree in “Philosophy”? The issue of usefulness is a tricky one. Certainly, colleges which don’t require direct attendance in classes are of benefit to countless people.
It was only a matter of time…any institution or organization run by far-leftists will eventually fail without the constant infusion of OPM (other people’s money). Since they have been in the business of training people to abhor capitalism and personal responsibility, the donations from the few trust funders who attended it eventually were unsustainable. The failure of this institution because of pathological founding principles is a foreshadowing of the future of the State of Vermont if we keep going in the current direction.
It’s to bad it didn’t close 60 years ago, but I guess it’s another case of “better late than never.
Well-I could share lots of stories about Goddard-going back to the late 40s and the 50s. I grew up in a nearby town, and many of us teens were forbidden to set foot on the campus because of their philosophy. Stating it kindly. When I was in 6th grade my teacher was a “graduate” of Goddard! She wasn’t really a teacher. I have no idea how she was able to be hired. After my Dad had a “discussion” with the Superintendent yours truly got into some real trouble, ie. being kept after school for no reason. Needless to say my parents felt terrible for me and pretty darn upset. Long story-short. I could write a book about all of the “fallout” locally from Goddard, but it couldn’t be published while I’m still above ground. Some close friends have encouraged me to do so.
When Bernie Sander’s wife, Mary Jane O’Meara Sanders, is one of Goddard’s graduates of note, aside from some of the Phish band members and actor William Masey, that demand for Goddard services declined to this point is no surprise. A so-called ‘progressive education’ in Vermont is, after all, just another oxymoron.
In the 70s it was assumed those at Goddard were an embarrassment to their affluent families, subject to banishment far away. Those I’ve met would suit that mold.
It was kinda like a Vershire School for older “kids”. Let’s send them to Vermont.No one will care that they are “troubled”, or just “weird” in Vermont, especially if they have $$$$$ !
It wasn’t just at Goddard. It was the same story for dorm students at St. Johnsbury Academy. It probably still is.
Exactly, and then they joined communes. There is a long list of those. Unfortunately, too many of them stayed. For those of you that aren’t aware-Bernie got kicked out of one in the NEK because he was SO lazy and enjoying weed.
Excellent!
The closing of this “college” is no great loss. Turn this Ex-Indoctrination Center into housing for the homeless.
Haven’t the decent people of Plainfield suffered enough?
Personally I like the idea of turning into housing for the homeless, but shouldn’t we take care of our homeless Vets first ? We owe them so much, and they ask so little.
Per Mr. Finney: homeless Veterans most definitely should be prioritized as having EARNED their benefits. It would be most fitting and at the same time poetic justice to use taxpayer funds to turn Goddard into subsidized or free housing for our deserving Military Veterans. However, there must be provisions that it be used EXCLUSIVELY for that purpose lest it turn into another Decker Towers situation, when the original purpose as a home for low-income disabled persons “evolved” it into a flophouse for junkies.
How about create a Christian conservative college there instead?
Did Goddard not offer courses in history? Math, geography, etc.?
It did, but as you know only courses taught by Republicans can be trusted. What did it offer that Ben Shapiro can’t teach better ?
Tear it all down and renovate what can be used for housing, then sell it to folks at reasonable rates. Rent is slavery…
Not a bad idea.
If Rent is Slavery…
And Property Tax is Rent…
Is Property Tax not Slavery too?
that is the new work camp for the drug addicts/// fence the place and provide security /// wow/// not in my back yard/// nothing gets done in this state, because the people running it do not have smarts to produce anything///
Maybe Hillsdale would like a Vermont Campus?
I was about to post this, and saw yours. A Hillsdale outpost! A beachhead!
We are and have always been a right wing country. What you call far left are corporate sponsored issues. Corporations are in no way left wing. It’s just the illusion of choice, which you don’t seem to be able to see through
Progressives never learn. Everything they touch turns to rubble. Goddard is just another example. These are the same people and ideology attempting to run all institutions, all municipalities and the State government in Vermont. See where this is heading? It’s up to Vermonters to save themselves from this pending disaster.
I’m trying to be diplomatic here….but…don’t let the door hit you in the butt, on the way out.
Climate change 😂🤣
I find it interesting that so many of the higher learning instructions are going bankrupt. Aren’t they supposed to be the bright ones teaching the rest of us fools how to prosper?
The dumbing down of admissions standards and the taxpayers paying off the student loans has devalued the college degree. The ratio of administrators to teachers has gotten unsustainable as well. Spending money on DEI programs to make white kids hate themselves has also not been an example of money well spent in higher education.
BYE-BYE leftist! Don’t let the dust hit you in the butt!!
The school should be re-used, this would be a opportunity to house illegal immigrants who have no place to go. Let the state buy it and homeless families could have a SAFE place to reside.
Goddard was slightly weird 50 years ago, but many of the faculty had good quality backgrounds. But during an earlier flirtation with bankruptcy, Goddard formed an alliance with Antioch — which has substantial endowment. Then Goddard acquired the Vermont College property, and decided that really Progressive meant a totally self-directed, self-designed, and self-evaluated program was the goal. Creative writing meant not caring whether one’s reader could grasp what you were intending to say. The traditional humanities disciplines evaporated. Philosophy was no longer a study of how people think, it was endless spouting of one’s own banal rumination. Grades were gone, achievement ignored, and the life of the mind was belittled. Graduates effectively quoted Dr. Fred Rogers — “I like myself just the way I am.”