Is this where Bernie Sanders gets his economic ideas from?
Jane Sanders, wife of Bernie Sanders, was president of tiny Burlington College in Vermont when she decided on a huge expansion. Under her stewardship, the school went massively into debt in order to buy some prime real estate to expand the campus.
Now the weight of that debt has gotten so heavy that the school has been forced to close its doors.
Burlington College will close later this month, the school announced Monday, citing the “crushing weight of debt” as the reason.
“This is a great loss to the higher ed community,” President Carol A. Moore said at a news conference on the college campus.
At the news conference, Moore and Dean of Operations and Advancement Coralee Holm said they were “heartbroken” to announce the college’s closure. Holm said about 30 faculty and staff, including herself, will lose their jobs. Holm added the state Department of Labor will assist former employees with finding new careers.
The school will cease operations by May 27, Holm said.
Founded in 1972 as an informal gathering of students, Burlington College grew into a small, regionally accredited liberal arts college. But financial strain and academic probation created by an ambitious but ill-fated expansion under then-President Jane Sanders onto a new campus on prime waterfront land led to its demise, officials said.
Holm and Moore declined to criticize Sanders, who served as president from 2004 to 2011.
But in a statement Monday morning, the college cited a the “crushing weight” of debt from the land deal as a primary reason for the school’s closure.
Holm suggested the college’s plan to pay for the waterfront campus was unachievable.
“I believe the vision was enrollment would grow, which it did, but not at the level that would have allowed us to manage the financial debt we had incurred,” Holm said. “So here we are.”
Sanders’ husband, Sen. Bernie Sanders, is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. Michael Briggs, spokesman for the Sanders campaign, did not respond to a request for comment.
The “vision” by Mrs. Sanders? Delusions of grandeur. What could have possessed a responsible college president to purchase prime waterfront land with no real plan to grow enrollment and evidently no expertise in managing debt?
Assuming she’s as much a socialist nutcase as her husband, Jane Sanders was engaging in the kind of wishful thinking that all socialists engage in. Because their motives and intent are so pure and noble, everything has to work out for the best.
In this case, she didn’t even come close.
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