Another small Vermont college is in financial trouble.
Southern Vermont College in Bennington has been asked to show its regional accreditation agency that it has enough money and lives up to the commission's "institutional resources" standards, according to a joint statement from the college and the New England Commission of Higher Education.
David Rees Evans, the president of SVC, said that the commission is most concerned about the college's financial health.
"From everything I know from my interaction with the commission, we're fine in terms of academic quality and all our compliance with legal regulations," Evans said. "So it's really only about money."
"The specific concerns have to due with the financial resources of the college," commission president Barbara Brittingham said. "These are very challenging times for many small, independent colleges, and frankly public colleges too in New England."
In light of the recent announcement that Green Mountain College would be closing its doors at the end of this academic year, Evans said closing is now a concern at SVC.
"We remain optimistic that we can find a way to manage our way through this, but on some really important level the ball is in the accreditor's court," Evans said.
Over the last four years the college has faced more than 20 percent decline in enrollment, which has resulted in a loss of revenue, Evans said.
"The crux of it is a decline in enrollment over the last six years or so years resulting in concerns about the matching up of our income and our expenditures," Evans said. "And we've gotten to the point now where we're running an operating deficit that the commission is concerned we can't continue to support."
The commission will decide by March 1 whether they will suspend or revoke the college's accreditation or defer judgment, Brittingham said.
