Bennington/Manchester economic report: County worries its gains will be lost to property tax reform

Vermont Business Magazine, Oct 01, 1997

Melissa Smith, the public relations director for SVC, said their enrollment is up about 6 percent this fall, with the total enrollment at 745. As in the past, they have a high percentage of older, non-traditional students (around 40 percent this fall) and an active internship program with area businesses like NASTECH, Hemmings Motor News, the Southwestern Vermont Medical Center, and Mace Security International.

For example, she said, Eduardo Nieves, the new spokesperson for Mace (see separate story) started as an intern and was subsequently offered a key job. "He's a good guy," she said.

SVC recently selected a new president, Barbara Pickard Sirvis, formerly vice president for academic affairs at SUNY-Brockport, who took office in June. One of her first duties was to announce that SVC had been awarded NCAA Division III accreditation, a big plus for the future of the college's athletic program -- and ultimately, if the experience of other college's holds true, for alumni loyalty and financial support.

The other big news at SVC this summer was the opening in July of their Lifelong Learning Institute, offering short-term programming for professional development or personal enrichment. It includes distance learning opportunities and the chance to participate in a new Institute for Creative Writing.

Green Mountain College of Poultney has been operating an Academy of Lifelong Learning that has been successfully accessing a similar market in the Manchester area.

As for Bennington College, Michael Leary, their media relations director, said enrollment has gone from 78 in the fall of 1995 to 119 in 1996 and 145 this year. With about 350 students, they are well on their way to their target figure of 600 students, he said.

A suit by 21 former faculty members is still in the courts. Leary could only comment on the events three years ago by saying that when President Elizabeth Coleman moved to create a more interdisciplinary academic environment and a closer connection between teaching and professional activity among the faculty, she took advantage of the fact that Bennington always had "presumptive tenure" -- anticipated rehiring in five-year periods -- rather than a formal tenure program.

Alumni support has grown about 25 percent in the past year, helping to ratify the changes, Leary said. Prospective students no longer hear that Bennington is among the most expensive schools in the country, with cost-cutting having brought it down to 74th, he said.

POOR FARM

This has not been a good year for Vermont's farmers, even with the commencement of the Northeast Dairy Compact. At a meeting in Pownal on August 22, meant to plan an even larger protest September 3, dairy farmers announced the extra monies from the Compact were still not enough to put them in the range of $16.49 per hundredweight of milk, that the federal government has said equals average production costs.

However, Fairdale Farms in Bennington, the state's largest dairy, is doing well, according to Gary Warren, their executive vice president and general manager. Indeed, they and Garelick Farms, Fairdale's parent company in Massachusetts, were doing well enough to be bought up this summer by the Dallas-based Suiza Food Corp, a deal that also included a Garelick plastic manufacturing plants and a dairy in North Carolina.