Letter to Governor Scott, VSC Trustees and NEK legislators

To Board of Trustees and Legislators and Governor Scott:

The Lyndon State College Foundation is in our 40th year raising funds for scholarships for NEK students attending NVU Lyndon. I am the current president of the Foundation, a 501c-3, and share concerns we have about the trustees’ recommendations to close NVU-Lyndon. Community members have stepped up over the years to support the college which is an integral part of our area socially and economically.

Theodore N. Vail saw the need for further education of young people in the NEK and donated his land to the State of Vermont for a School of Agriculture.  The state was later to have the Lyndon Teachers College move to the site establishing Lyndon State College on Vail Hill. LSC was and is to continue to be the social and economic engine of the area.

Looking over the names of trustees and legislators in positions to decide the fate of Lyndon-NVU: I notice no one lives in the Northeast Kingdom. It takes someone like T.N.Vail, who lived here, to see the need of the area, and take action. Many students of the NEK work one or two jobs and might live at home to afford to attend Lyndon. My nephew is currently one of those students today.

Closing Lyndon would mean traveling to Chittenden or Rutland Counties. Once you leave the NEK for higher education-will you return? None of my four children did-as is the story of so many.

I think it is short-sighted to close NVU-Lyndon especially in a poverty-stricken area of the state. It would leave the entire east side of Vermont, from Vernon to Newport, with no institution of post-secondary education. It makes more sense to close Johnson and to move that student body east. Governor Scott is trying to pay young people to return to the state as we have such an aging population. Isn’t this going in the wrong direction?

I know things are tough-the Covid 19 pandemic is like a sci-fi movie none of us expected.  Our ancestors lived through dark times; my family of farmers continue to defy the odds to keep a dairy farm operating in the NEK. I want to suggest that CCV be integrated into the closest college campus-Newport and St. Johnsbury locations could be at NVU-Lyndon; we have a great rural transportation system now in RCT. The Chancellor’s office could move to NVU-Lyndon. Randolph VTC could move to NVU-Lyndon rather than Williston.  It seems short-sighted to close a campus where the need is greatest and move them to more populated areas of the state.

Please consider all options to keep Lyndon-NVU open. The Lyndon State College Foundation Members are pleading with you to support keeping NVU-Lyndon open.
Visit our website:  LyndonStateCollegeFoundation.com.

Sincerely,

Lorraine Impey
President, LSC Foundation