The last piece of Burlington College has been sold at auction, closing a chapter in the story of the now-defunct college that is at the heart of an ongoing investigation into Jane Sanders, wife of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
According to the Burlington Free Press, the vacant building was sold to People’s United Bank for $3.1 million. When compared to figures disclosed in court rulings, the sale is still about $650,000 short of covering the college’s remaining debts.
A developer said he plans to turn the building into retail or commercial property.
Jane Sanders was president of the small liberal arts college of about 250 students from 2004 to 2011, and in that time she orchestrated an aggressive deal to expand the student body and the campus.
In 2010, the college purchased 33 acre of lakefront property from the Roman Catholic diocese, and financed the deal with $10 million in bonds and loans.
But when the hoped-for increase in students didn’t materialize, the debt service became too much to handle for the small college. Sanders was dismissed in 2011, and in 2016, Burlington College closed its doors, citing the loans as a major obstacle to their ability to continue operations.
One major issue that has emerged since that time are questions about monetary pledges members of the community made as a down payment on the financing. According to multiple reports from the local website vtdigger.com, it seems probable that investigators are looking into whether the pledges might have been misrepresented or inflated by the college when attempting to secure the financing.
The Washington Post reported this week that the investigation has “accelerated” in recent months. Also this week, Bernie Sanders told a Sirius XM radio station that he has not taken the idea of a 2020 presidential run “off the table.”
