Vermont's small colleges eye Trinity's demise

Vermont Business Magazine, Aug 01, 2000 by Kelley, Kevin J

The ghost of Trinity College haunts the halls of the remaining halfdozen or so private liberal arts colleges in Vermont with fewer than 750 students. While none of these modest schools is in imminent danger of following Trinity into oblivion, each faces financial challenges that could threaten its existence in the coming years.

Strategic consultants specializing in higher education say it is possible for small liberal arts colleges to survive in 21st century America - even to thrive. But, as Trinity's demise demonstrates, schools with low enrollments and tiny endowments can also go out of business. In fact, about 20 private colleges with fewer than 750 fulltime students have shut their doors during the past decade, according to the United States Department of Education.

In order to remain viable, specialists say little schools without big reputations must develop a clear and unique identity. George Dehne, an expert in the financing of small colleges, further prescribes that they create an educational niche that a critical mass of students will want to occupy. Relentless and effective marketing is also essential, Dehne added in an article appearing last January in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The ongoing economic boom and a propitious demographic spike provide boutique academies with opportunities they must not fail to exploit, planners also say.

If it invested cleverly, a small school will have seen its endowment expand considerably during the past five years, perhaps reaching the dimensions of a fat financial cushion. In addition, colleges are currently able to prospect along a wide seam of potential students. The number of Americans aged 18-22 has been increasing steadily in recent years, helping offset the continuing decline in the percentage of college-bound high school graduates who choose a liberal arts institution.

But one of these favorable trends is certain to come to an end fairly soon. The 18-22-year-old demographic group is projected to peak in 2007, which will make the already-intensive competition for this traditional-age market segment even more ferocious. And should a sharp economic downturn occur, at least some small schools could suddenly find themselves without sufficient paying customers.

The security of Vermont's own diminutive colleges appears dependent on whether they are meeting the general criteria for success cited by Dehne and other experts. Schools that have honed a distinctive image and developed a chic niche are faring better than those that have not managed to make their missions and their programs match the interests of a carefully targeted audience.

Burlington College, for instance, has seen its enrollment increase about 15 percent in each of the past three years, partly because of its rising reputation for cinema studies and for a New Age discipline known as transpersonal psychology. Those flagship programs, along with its location in a hip college town, have attracted the number of students needed to assure institutional self-confidence and stability, says Burlington College President Dan Casey.

With 240 students paying at least a portion of the full $8,000 annual tuition the school charges, "We've probably never been as well positioned financially as we are today," Casey declares.

The 28-year-old college's current endowment of $135,000 "may sound like nothing," Casey adds, "but it's a lot when you compare it to the 10 or so shares of Ben & Jerry's stock that constituted our endowment a decade ago."

One key to stability lies in the college's decision to confine itself to a single administration and classroom building in Burlington's Old North End. Needing to maintain only a small physical plant has enabled the school to avoid the real estate-related expenses that helped sink Trinity, Casey notes.

Burlington College has begun to expand slightly, however. It recently purchased an adjoining five-unit apartment house to accommodate students from out of town who have difficulty finding affordable living quarters in a city with a rental vacancy rate near zero.

Green Mountain College, nestled somewhat obscurely in Poultney, has also found a promising educational formula. GMC is believed to be the only accredited four-year school in the United States offering a bachelor's degree in "adventure recreation." 'that new major grew out of a decision five years ago to refashion Green Mountain as an "environmental liberal arts college."

The college is also making a marketing pitch to home-schoolers who are moving into institutional academics. GMC's Website includes a special invitation to that group of potential applicants. But college spokesman Stephen Diehl says it's too soon to tell whether Green Mountain will become a destination of

choice for the formerly home-schooled.

Established in 1834 as the Troy: Conference Academy, GMC today enrolls 660 students, most of them from out of state. With tuition, room and board set at $2 1,000 a year and with an endowment of around $5 million, Green Mountain is in less precarious condition than many schools of its size. Still, spokesman Diehl is less than ebullient in his description of the school's financial standing, calling it "fairly decent."