A college campus that remains motionless has a subtly eerie quality. The brick structures don’t fall apart overnight. The shelves in libraries don’t go empty overnight. The quad simply waits there. After operating continuously for 185 years, the former Green Mountain College in Poultney, Vermont, closed its doors in 2019. The Griswold Library’s arched windows, the riverfrontage that cuts through the campus, and the open quad that used to be crowded with students debating John Dewey and environmental policy are all still visible if you were to walk through that campus today, or at least imagine it. It’s still lovely. That contributes to the story’s peculiarity.
Green Mountain College was more than just a tiny, struggling liberal arts institution. Originally called Troy Conference Academy when it was founded in 1834 as a Methodist institution, it spent almost 200 years changing its name whenever the situation called for it. It was coed at first, then women-only, and then coed once more. In the late 1990s, it made a significant shift into environmental studies and developed a reputation that felt more earned than branded. In 2018, the year its financial circumstances became intolerable, the Sierra Club named it the top Cool School. It is difficult to forget such cruel timing.
President Robert W. Allen announced the closure in January 2019 with an almost welcome candor. No false promises, no protracted drama. The college, which at the time had about 430 students, was absorbed by Arizona’s Prescott College in a matter of months. This was an uncommon act of institutional solidarity in higher education, where institutions frequently collapse into silence rather than graceful handoffs. Student records at Green Mountain were kept intact. Some academics took on new positions. However, the campus was deserted.
Raj Peter Bhakta followed. Given the campus’s estimated value of more than $20 million, the entrepreneur’s purchase of the entire 155-acre property at auction in August 2020 for $4.5 million suggested either a deal or a burden, possibly both. It seems that Bhakta sat with the property for years. He was making plans to convert hotels and condominiums by 2024. It makes sense for a man who owns a substantial piece of real estate in a picturesque Vermont village close to the New York border. Then, though, something changed.
Bhakta made a truly unexpected announcement in February 2026: he plans to donate significant areas of the campus. Give rather than sell. His public Request for Proposals stipulates that the recipient must be a Catholic mission-based organization. Catholic colleges, seminaries, dioceses, and religious orders are all qualified. Dorms, the library, administrative buildings, a gym with an indoor pool, green areas, and almost a mile of riverfrontage are all included in the offer. It’s important to remember that Green Mountain was initially established for religious reasons. All of this has a certain symmetry, but whether it seems calculated or poetic will probably depend on your point of view.
It’s still unclear if any organization will provide Bhakta with the operational capacity it needs; at least $1.5 million a year in programming and maintenance expenses is a significant commitment for a nonprofit with a clear mission. The fact that the initial proposal deadline was set for March 2025 suggests that the process is already well underway. It’s really difficult to predict what will happen next.
One thing that is certain is that the tale of Green Mountain College will not end satisfactorily. That might be appropriate for a school that emphasizes adaptive thinking and environmental resilience. Even if the institution fails, the campus perseveres, waiting, as it has in the past, for someone with the courage and vision to take action.
