For a while, there have been rumors and discussions about how NECI has been doing financially. On April 23, the Times-Argus addressed some of those whispers with an article entitled “Changes in the Works at NECI.”
According to two anonymous sources connected with the culinary school, students and faculty learned yesterday that NECI plans to close its Essex campus and consolidate operations in Montpelier.
More details to come.
This article appears in Apr 22-28, 2009.
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This is all the talk among faculty, students and many alumni right now. NECI has been on the financial ropes for the better part of the past decade; their contract with the Inn at Essex has expired and renewal negotiations are rumored to have died. With term after term of low enrollments, the loss of a crucial line of credit that had helped pay vendors and the challenges of the current economic environment, closing their Essex campus would help prolong the school’s existence. Money is why NECI Commons closed. This is similar, just much more dire in terms of what could happen were they to not do it.The sad question really is how this will impact the school’s employees. Who will get the ax? Who will stay? How can VT’s hospitality industry absorb all those who are let go?