Green Mountain College once marketed itself as a polished emblem of New England environmental virtue. Sustainability. Progressive campus culture. Boutique liberal arts earnestness. It belonged to that era when moral signaling felt like a business model.
Then the math showed up.
Enrollment sagged. Demographics shifted. The bills did not pay themselves. By 2019, the college shut its doors after what leadership described as an inability to achieve "economic sustainability."
The administration even framed the collapse in language that now reads like unintentional satire:
"Despite our noteworthy accomplishments related to social and environmental sustainability, we have not been able to assure the economic sustainability of the college."
Social and environmental sustainability. Not economic sustainability.
You almost want to underline it twice.
Now comes the contrast that makes the whole story impossible to ignore.
The former campus in Poultney, Vermont, is being offered, free of charge, to a Catholic mission-based organization aligned with "the revival of the United States and Western Civilization." Raj Bhakta, the current owner, is not hedging. The RFP homepage puts it in black and white:
"The right beneficiary has a vision aligned with the revival of the United States and Western Civilization. They would also recognize this must first begin with the spiritual revival of our Christian faith."
From progressive environmental campus to explicit Christian revival project. Not a pivot. A reversal.
The property itself is no symbolic token. Roughly 115 acres. Academic buildings. Dormitories. A gym. A pool. Classic Georgian brick architecture. The site will be transferred "as is, where is," with deed restrictions limiting its use to causes supporting the mission. Operating costs are estimated at a minimum of $1 million annually, with a more realistic $1.5 million to address deferred maintenance and infrastructure.
And about that maintenance.
For all the lofty talk about sustainability, the physical plant tells its own story:
"Previous owners completely mismanaged the maintenance of the campus and it needs tens of millions of dollars in repairs in order to be brought up to code and provide useable space."
This is a gift. It comes with invoices.
The RFP requires any recipient to "demonstrate sufficient resources to maintain the property." If you want to revive Western civilization, you also need to replace the boilers and fix the roof.
The irony is thick. A campus that leaned heavily into environmental branding ultimately could not survive basic economic reality. It admitted more than three-quarters of applicants but enrolled only about 20 percent of those admitted. Demand was not exactly overwhelming.
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Green Mountain was founded in 1834 as a Methodist institution. What is being proposed now is not a hostile takeover of sacred progressive space. It is a return to explicitly Christian roots, this time with unmistakable clarity about mission and worldview.
The press release calls it "a gift of opportunity, the chance to revive a campus for mission, formation, and future generations of the Catholic Church." Critics will scoff at words like "revival" and "Western civilization." They always do. But the previous model did not fail because it was too faith-forward. It failed because it could not sustain itself.
There is something bracing about clarity. No euphemisms. No coded language. Just a campus, a deed restriction, and a donor saying this is what it stands for.
Turns out you cannot major in sustainability and minor in solvency.
The old experiment ran on vibes.
If this one succeeds, it will run on conviction, capital, and a worldview that does not apologize for itself.
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