(Host) New England Culinary Institute could become the sixth college affiliated with the Vermont State College system. Officials at the two institutions are exploring the possibility. VPR’s Kirk Carapezza reports.
(Carapezza) NECI and VSC say they’ve begun preliminary discussions about whether they should integrate their schools. They’re examining what that association would look like, and what the mutual benefits would be.
Tim Donovan is the chancellor of the colleges. He says culinary institute founder Fran Voigt reached out to him about NECI’s future.
(Donovan) "He’s looking for a long-term home for NECI."
(Carapezza) Donovan has told the state colleges board of trustees that he has begun to explore whether that home could be found within the state college system.
(Donovan) "We want to look at the value that NECI and its programs bring to Vermont and try to make sure that they’re sustained over time and hopefully expanded over time. And we think that the state colleges may be the organizational environment in which that can happen."
(Carapezza) NECI has recently had financial challenges. Fran Voigt says he built the school from seven students in its first term to more than 600 students on two campuses – Montpelier and Essex – at its peak.
(Voigt) "When we looked at the expenses of the Essex campus we just realized we were spinning our wheels and working very hard for little gain. So, we slowly contracted."
(Carapezza) Now, Voigt says the association with the state colleges could make sense because VSC already trains students for a number of industries in the state.
(Voigt) "They bring a number of people from outside the state who stay, and if you look at their commitment to hospitality, to agriculture it just seemed to fit in."
(Carapezza) Chancellor Tim Donovan agrees. He says preserving NECI is consistent with the mission of the state colleges: to educate Vermonters and find them in-state jobs.
(Donovan) "We’re concerned that NECI not disappear from the Vermont landscape, particularly in this time when the farm-to-plate movement is taking on such a very high profile in Vermont."
(Carapezza) VSC says it expects the review to take at least a few months, and it hasn’t gotten to the point of figuring out how it would pay for acquiring NECI.
Any association would require the approval of the board of trustees. And if the culinary institute were to become one of the state colleges, it would take an act of the Legislature.
For VPR News, I’m Kirk Carapezza.