The Little College That Couldn't

Burlington, Vt.

"Free Books at Former Burlington College,” the Craigslist ad read. “Many psychology texts and health texts, gender identity, some art, some literature, history, etc. Please bring boxes and bags for carrying your new treasures home with you!”

So ended a 44-year experiment in liberal education, with angry students and alumni filling message boards with blame and a library of books for the taking. Burlington College closed in 2016, crushed under the weight of debt it took on in a 2010 real estate deal. In its last five years, this tiny liberal arts school of fewer than 200 students occupied the former St. Joseph’s Orphanage (and its 33 acres, including the last virgin lakefront in town) overlooking Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks. A $10 million acquisition from the cash-strapped Catholic diocese was made while Jane Sanders, the wife of Vermont’s most famous socialist, was president of the college.

The site offered just what Sanders needed to fulfill the promise she made in 2004 to be a “transformative president.” The college’s operating budget at the time was just $3.6 million, and it had no endowment. The deal was made with a mortgage from the diocese, tax-exempt bonds, and a bridge loan from a 99-year-old philanthropist. Twelve years and three administrations later, the last president penned a letter blaming Sanders, whom the board dismissed in 2011, for sealing the college’s fate with an “appallingly inappropriate business deal.”

The FBI is investigating—both the loan application, which listed donations that never materialized, and allegations of political pressure applied by Sanders’s husband. The senator calls it a “witch hunt,” but the last chairman of the college’s board of trustees, local real estate executive Yves Bradley, affirms the scandal has sullied the Sanders name. “She did significant damage in the public eye.” The couple recently retained counsel, signaling the seriousness of the charges.

Read more at The Weekly Standard