Published in The Beacon on March 6, 2019.
In the wake of Southern Vermont College’s decision to close this past Monday, MCLA was announced as the preferred teach-out partner for the institution.
MCLA President James Birge released a statement Monday morning saying that he was saddened by SVC’s closure and that MCLA would attempt to help those affected by the decision.
“Because we want to make sure all students in our region have access to a quality education, the College has drafted an official teach-out plan in partnership with SVC,” Birge said. “A teach-out is a written plan that provides for equitable treatment of students in the event a higher education institute closes.
“MCLA is the preferred SVC teach-out partner and will allow all SVC students who are currently enrolled, or who were accepted to SVC for the fall 2019 semester, to transfer to MCLA,” Birge continued. “This agreement will also include guaranteed housing for SVC students who meet MCLA’s residency requirements.”
SVC and MCLA had conversations that started in February as part of that teach-out plan. Following hearings over whether or not SVC would remain accredited, the college was required to draft a teach-out plan as part of a show-cause order, which saw the college justifying why their accreditation should remain intact.
“We had some pretty extended preliminary conversations with President Birge and some other folks to sort of line it up, but then Friday at noon it got serious,” SVC President David Evans said.
All current SVC students who wish to transfer to and attend MCLA will be able, with minimal disruption to their academic career.
“MCLA has a credit residency requirement which means that students have to take their last 45 credits at MCLA; what we’re doing because of the special circumstances with Southern Vermont College is that students who are within 15 credits or have 15 credits to complete, we’re going to wave that 45-credit requirement and let them take their last 15 credits here and graduate,” explained Birge, following a Town Hall meeting on Tuesday.
As part of the teach-out agreement, the college can accept up to 105 credits in total.
“We can bring in up to 105 credits according to what’s been agreed upon through the Department of Higher Education and both institutions,” said Joshua Mendel, director of recruitment and outreach, division of graduate and continuing education.
“It makes it easier for students who are juniors or first semester seniors right now to be able to complete their degree,” Birge explained. “If we didn’t do that then they would have to extend their time to degree and we want to be as helpful as possible to let them finish on time.”
Mendel said that MCLA will honor the New England Board of Higher Education regional rate for all SVC students. On average, students transferring to MCLA will see a savings of $8,400 annually on their bill, with the estimated annual cost of attendance coming in at $22,278.
During his Town Hall event Tuesday, Birge said that students who currently commute to SVC will be allowed to commute to MCLA, and arrangements will be made for SVC students who want to live together on campus when transferring.
While two of SVC’s most popular programs, Nursing and Radiologic Sciences, are not offered at MCLA, Birge believes that MCLA can still offer something of value to those students.
“A number of those nursing students at SVC as I understand it are pre-nursing students, so one of the things that our team is talking to those students about is that they could come here and enroll in our Health Sciences or Community Health or Biology program, get their Bachelor of Science degree here, and we have a newly-minted agreement with The Sage Colleges in New York to do an accelerated RN degree,” Birge said.
For students who do want to continue in those programs, Evans said there are agreements in place with both Norwich College and Castleton University, both in Vermont.
Mendel also pointed out that MCLA does offer a minor in Criminal Justice through the Sociology Department, has strong STEM majors, and a strong business/administration Department which are compatible with the offerings at SVC.
By being the preferred teach-out partner, MCLA has been able to be on the SVC campus all week to work with students directly. Different offices from campus attended, including the Office of Admissions, Student Financial Services, Counseling Services, Wellness Services, the Center for Student Success and Engagement, and Residential Programs and Services.
Throughout the end of the week, MCLA admissions personnel will be able to offer on-the-spot acceptances to SVC students and present information in a college-fair style setup.
“Those who qualified received a conditional acceptance letter and acceptance packet so they had something tangible to walk away with and it was like a security for them knowing ‘alright, I’m safe, I have somewhere else to go,’” said Mendel, speaking of the first day at SVC.
Birge said that SVC standards are very similar to MCLA’s, which is why the College would be accepting their students and would-be freshman.
“We know that the current students who are in good academic standing and good student conduct standing we’ll automatically accept them, although they do have to go through the process,” Birge said. “For those students who are planning on being first-time full-time students at SVC they will still have to apply to us but if they’ve been accepted to SVC, we will accept them because we know their standards are very similar.”
Conversations between the two institutions started somewhere around late January or early February as part of the show-cause order SVC was issued, justifying why their accreditation should not be withdrawn or placed on probation.
“One of the parts of the show-cause order from NECHE was that they wanted us to develop what is called a teach-out plan and that is what they want to see from distressed institutions to ensure that they are properly planning to support their students,” Evans said.
Evans also said that conversations took a more serious tone following the Board of Trustees vote March 1, and that Daniel Summers, vice president of enrollment management, was responsible for bringing different offices at MCLA to the SVC campus.
For Evans, MCLA was a good fit for the students affected by the decision because of its familiarity.
“We think that the student body is pretty similar to ours, the campus community is similar and supportive, we have relationships with the faculty and staff there,” Evans said. “So MCLA is a known quantity for us and has people who we trust to work with our students in a way that will help them be successful.”
Regardless of how many students decide they want to come to MCLA, Birge said that MCLA is prepared to do what it takes to support them.
“We are happy to be helpful for one of their students or all of their students,” Birge confirmed.
