It’s been a difficult summer for Burlington College. The small liberal arts school has been under increasing financial pressure after enrollment failed to meet projections. And a regional accrediting body for colleges put the school on probation, citing financial problems.
And to make matters more complicated, the college’s president Christine Plunkett resigned suddenly after a confrontation with students.
The college’s board has put a three-member team in place to help the school get back on track. Part of that effort has been naming Mike Smith as the interim president for Burlington College.
Smith said he wanted to take on the role because he was a non-traditional student, who returned to college after serving as a Navy SEAL, and he appreciates that Burlington College caters to veterans and non-traditional students.
“They were innovated before colleges even looked at non-traditional students. And today this college continues to innovate, the student designs the program. You’re not pigeon-holed into certain programs. That innovation, that’s what attracted me to Burlington College.”
The school has made financial decisions based on a projected enrollment increase to 400 students. Today, the number stands at 213.
“There are significant financial problems at Burlington College. We’re going from crisis to crisis, and that does three things to people who are associated with the college: they don’t get their job done because they’re trying to handle the crisis of the day. Number two it puts enormous stress on people and number three it creates large turnover. So we have to give the college some room,” Smith said.
Smith said his role is going to include a lot of fundraising to get the college through this tough time.
“It’s not going to be Jane, David, or myself that saves this college,” Smith said, referring to Jane Knodell and David Coates, the other two members of the interim team, “it’s going to be the community has to save this college. We can steer it in the right direction but the community has to step up.” Smith said over the long-term the school needs to bring in students.
“We have good data and we can recruit from those, and start bringing that number up incrementally.”
In 2010, Burlington College purchased the former Roman Catholic Diocese on North Avenue in Burlington for $10 million. Smith did not want to weigh in on whether or not that purchase was too much for a small school.
“That’s water over the dam. We can’t go back. I’m talking about moving forward and trying to bring some stability to this organization. I can’t change what we did in the past so I’m not going to focus on what we did in the past,” Smith said.
Smith says that Burlington College matters to the community. “They’re changing the model of how you educate people, into how you look at non-traditional students, and how you look at veterans,” Smith said. “And you look at the programs at Burlington College. The film-making aspect which is very popular, the wood-making and the variety of Bachelors, Associates and certificates, there’s a need for Burlington College. I hope that the community recognizes that need and steps up to the plate to save Burlington College.”
