By Michael Bielawski
As Vermont endures a sharp housing crisis, the student housing on a college campus in a quiet central Vermont town appears virtually unused.
On Tuesday Goddard College in Plainfield, the liberal arts school which has struggled financially, formally shut down on-campus programs in favor of an online-only model which is anticipated to last at least a year.
Numerous media outlets reported the change.
“Declining enrollment and rising operational costs are driving the move, which will be accompanied by an estimated dozen job cuts, the newspaper [Seven Days] reported. The shift online is expected to be temporary,” reported InsideHigherEd.com.
President Dan Hocoy wrote a letter to the campus indicating that it was under-utilized: “In recent semesters, we have observed a continual enrollment decline, particularly with students not choosing to attend residencies in person.”
The official Goddard College website still reflects their model of using a hybrid online/in-person program.
“Goddard College is a liberal arts college in Vermont with Bachelors and Masters degrees. Explore our full program offerings and learn how Goddard College is different as we blend remote learning and real life experiences,” it states.
According to another article by InsideHigherEd.com, the campus has seen better days.
“Goddard has produced several generations of artists, musicians and activists — in its heyday, it educated the playwright David Mamet and the jazz saxophonist Archie Shepp,” the report states.
The public is responding to the news on X. George Jefferson wrote, “Cut out half your staff, lower the quality of education by teaching online, lower your standards. Then charge the same amount of tuition if not more with accumulative inflation. I’m not surprised, that sounds just like the department of education.”
What will happen to the campus?
Back in 2020, the college and state were in the initial stages of utilizing the campus for housing those considered vulnerable to COVID-19. Pushback from the community ultimately derailed the project.
VDC reached out to Goddard with questions about their future plans for the campus but it has not yet heard back.
Meanwhile the state urgently needs new housing. In January of 2023, The Vermont Housing Financing Agency put the scope of the supply shortage into perspective.
They wrote, “Vermont will need 30,000-40,000 more year-round homes by 2030. This means adding 5,000 to 6,700 more homes to Vermont’s primary home market each year, well above the 2,100 homes that the state has been generating.”
College embedded in far-left politics
The school’s culture and curriculum have long been known as far-left progressive. This includes in September of last year they hosted a panel discussion on what public safety might look like without police or incarceration.
A description states, “Goddard College hosted a dynamic panel on reimagining community safety and justice without police and prisons.”
The school also hosted a speaker on climate issues. The message according to the description blames capitalism for climate issues.
“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,” it reads.
There are numerous political essays posted on the school’s website. One of them is titled “America Isn’t (and Wasn’t) Great. What Now?” by Jan Clausen, a faculty member for the school’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program.
Undated but apparently written in response to the 2016 election, she wrote how her mother was “horrified by the outcome of the presidential election.” She adds that she was “disheartened by the prevalence of nationalist rhetoric within a number of U.S. writing networks.”
The author is a reporter for the Vermont Daily Chronicle