Burlington College, a small Vermont private school once led by the wife of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, said Monday it will close later this month, citing “the crushing weight” of debt incurred during her presidency.
The college, which enrolled 224 students as of fall 2014, said it faced financial troubles connected to its 2010 purchase of 32 acres of lakefront property from the Archdiocese of Burlington, according to the Burlington Free Press. The college said it had sold property to reduce its debt to a manageable level, but it was placed on probation in 2014 by its accrediting agency and it faced cash flow problems due to the imminent loss of a line of credit.
Jane Sanders was president of the college from 2004 to 2011. Her husband, Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., a former mayor of Burlington, served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1991 to 2007 and since then has represented Vermont in the U.S. Senate. He is now competing with Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination.
The Sanders campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The school’s website describes the college, started in 1972, as “a small, creative, private liberal arts institution located in Burlington, Vermont on the shore of Lake Champlain. The College has been recognized as having the most free-spirited students in one of the healthiest states in the country.”
Jane Sanders was the college’s fourth president. She stepped down in 2011 amid a dispute with the college’s board. After her husband launched his presidential campaign, news stories emerged that scrutinized her role in a loan application for the lakefront real-estate purchase. Jane Sanders has dismissed those stories as politically motivated and said the issue was not a factor in her departure from the college.
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