Sterling College‘s new president, Scott Thomas, was preparing to move his family to campus in June when his predecessor got in touch: Would Thomas be needing any chickens? The president’s house, a former blacksmith shop, has a coop in the yard.
“That wasn’t one of the questions I had been prepared to answer,” said Thomas, who has worked in higher education at more conventional institutions, including as a dean at the University of Vermont.
Thomas, 61, declined the poultry, assuming he’d have plenty of other responsibilities to tackle in his first year at the tiny college in Craftsbury Common. Sterling, which offers two- and four-year degrees in environmental studies, is rooted in farming and ecology, and its close connections with the land are woven into its history and curriculum. The campus includes a farm that produces a third of the food consumed in the dining hall.
Thomas is the 12th president in Sterling’s 65-year history. He took over from senior vice president and COO Lori Collins-Hall, who led the college for two years after the resignation of Matthew Derr, who held the top job for 10 years. Thomas was hired to build the small school’s enrollment and endowment — both difficult tasks in an age of increased competition among colleges and universities.
The number of college-age people is dropping, particularly in the Northeast. Nationwide, there is new skepticism about the value of higher education. Schools much larger than Sterling — including Vermont State University — are combining departments, shedding staff and selling off property in order to survive. Sterling can weather the storm because it offers prospective students a rare opportunity to join a small, close-knit community with an emphasis on environmental stewardship, Thomas said.
With only 70 students enrolled this semester and an endowment of just $1 million, Sterling is one of the very smallest colleges in the country. Its 130-acre campus of white clapboard buildings is tiny, too. The swag for sale consists of several T-shirts and some hand-spun wool from the campus farm.
Sterling’s 10 full-time faculty members make salaries that average in the mid-$50,000s, relatively poor pay for professors, and there’s maintenance due on the campus buildings.
There’s no indoor athletic facility. Four times a year, everyone turns out for an all-college work or service day. During the most recent one, held on August 30, Thomas’ job was splitting wood.
Each Wednesday, the community’s 100 staff, faculty and students meet in the dining hall to share announcements and offer thanks to members for a job well done.
“I came here because I see a vibrant future for the college where enrollment can increase within the boundaries of its mission.” Scott Thomas
Only one major, environmental studies, is offered, though students can concentrate in outdoor education, sustainable agriculture and food systems, environmental humanities, or ecology. Through seminars in areas such as financial literacy and conflict resolution, the school strives to produce graduates who can serve as effective team members and leaders in work and life.
Thomas would like to increase enrollment to capacity, about 120 students — the number it hit in 2019. In the decade before the pandemic, the school’s average enrollment was about 100. Thomas said having such a small student body is critical to the sense of community on campus and not a sign that Sterling is in trouble.
“Sterling’s finances are stable, and I came here because I see a vibrant future for the college where enrollment can increase within the boundaries of its mission,” he said. “Sterling College’s future is not in question in my mind.”
He blames the recent enrollment drop on the pandemic and demographics. The school has always survived on fundraising, and his job will be to secure the $1.3 million in philanthropy that Sterling needs to stay in the black each year. Growing the endowment is also a top strategic priority.
To do so, Thomas needs to get the word out about Sterling.
“I grew up in Morrisville, and I didn’t know Sterling existed until literally I was applying,” said Theresa Snow, whose mother suggested the school, just 25 minutes away. Snow pursued sustainable agriculture studies, graduated with an associate’s degree in 2001 and founded Salvation Farms, a Morrisville nonprofit that finds markets for surplus local farm crops. Sterling students volunteer at Salvation Farms, and Snow occasionally teaches on campus.
The college “really influenced my creation and direction with Salvation Farms,” Snow said. “Sterling wanted to foster productive problem solvers who were stewards of their natural and human communities.”
Thomas knows Sterling’s long-term future is not assured and that the school can’t survive on tuition alone. But he has a plan to increase its chances. This fall, the college streamlined its offerings by dropping a 5-year-old degree-granting partnership with the Berry Center Farm and Forest Institute in Kentucky.
Thomas plans to use the Craftsbury Common campus in all seasons, hosting workshops in areas such as writing, weaving, cheesemaking and professional development for educators. Sterling has offered short courses in the past to raise money, he said.
“With our history in outdoor education and our connection to the environment, we have a credibility and an opportunity few other campuses have,” Thomas said.
He’s buoyed by the words of Brian Rosenberg, a visiting education professor at Harvard University whose 2023 book, “Whatever It Is, I’m Against It”: Resistance to Change in Higher Education, compares Sterling with Middlebury College. At Sterling, where tuition and board run $50,000 per year, 98 percent of the students receive some financial aid to learn practical skills on a beautiful but bare-bones campus.
At Middlebury, about half of the 2,500 undergrads pay the full annual cost of more than $80,000 in a relatively luxurious setting with 44 majors and eight arts and performance venues. Middlebury has a $1.5 billion endowment.
Rosenberg concludes that Sterling’s model is the one to follow.
Middlebury, he wrote, “is an unobtainable fantasy for most institutions” while Sterling is focused and scalable: “Imagine how different American higher education would look if instead of having hundreds of colleges and universities trying to stretch their limited resources to offer essentially the same, extensive suite of majors and areas of study … we had more that elected to create a narrower and more problem-based curriculum: perhaps one built around the study of urbanization, or sustainable democracy, or population health.”
Sterling bucks the trend in other ways. On its website, an essay by a former admissions director reminds students that college isn’t for everyone. In “3 Reasons Not to Go to College,” Tim Patterson compares admissions counselors to sales reps and outlines the financial constraints and alternative career paths that might make college the wrong choice for some.
“There are numerous honorable and rewarding career paths that do not require a degree,” Patterson writes.
That’s an unusual message for a college website, a space that is often used to market the school to prospective students. Thomas said it’s a sign that Sterling is serious about finding students, faculty and staff who, like him, are focused on environmental stewardship and community.
With social bonds eroded by social media, political discord and the pandemic, Thomas said, he expects the trust and sense of purpose offered by Sterling’s small community to gain appeal among prospective students and their parents. The result, he said, will be a steady pipeline of skilled workers for Vermont’s economy. The college’s hands-on environmental focus and competency-based approach distinguish it, he said.
“Sterling is built around a place with a common purpose tied to learning, to the environment. It’s pretty unique,” Thomas said.
Thomas can relate to the importance of learning outside the classroom. Growing up in Florida, he was an indifferent student until his grandfather offered him flying lessons. Behind the controls of a small plane at age 16, he finally understood why it was worth paying attention to subjects such as math and physics.
“Calculating fuel usage, navigating your courses … those are all things that require a lot of math,” he said. “I learned that organically by flying. I never would have had the patience for it in the classroom.”
He also learned to surf, a skill that took him around the world as a professional at age 19. Eventually, he returned to school and earned a doctorate in educational leadership at the University of California, Santa Barbara, one of the first in his family to go to college.
Thomas has held several educational leadership positions since, spending five to eight years building or shoring up programs before moving on. He was at UVM from 2016 until 2021, working as dean of education and social sciences and then dean of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, before he left for a job as dean of education at the University of Wyoming.
He’d been at Wyoming for only two years when he learned about the president’s job at Sterling early this year.
“I said, ‘There are few presidencies I would really jump at, that don’t come around that often,'” he said. “I have always been intrigued by Sterling College.”
Thomas made it clear in his interviews with the board that he could help Sterling focus on its commitment to the environment, outdoor activity and community, said board member Michael Tessler, who was on the presidential search committee. Tessler, a Sterling alumnus, is an assistant biology professor at the City University of New York and has taught at Sterling as an adjunct faculty member.
Tessler described Thomas as “very aligned with Sterling’s mission,” noting that he was speaking for himself, not for the board. “He’s highly, highly capable and driven to make things happen, and that’s the type of person that Sterling needs.”
Walking across the snowy campus recently, Thomas greeted everyone he encountered by name. For the benefit of this reporter, he asked each of them to describe their work. After five months on the job, he said, he was still learning the details.
Adrian Owens, the director of athletics, described the hiking trip that students in his winter outdoor challenge elective take every December. For four days, they bushwhack through the snow in the Lowell Mountains range north of Hyde Park, carrying everything they need on their backs. The trip is tough, and Owens said the classmates learn to rely on each other, stay organized and communicate effectively — skills they can take to jobs, communities and relationships.
“There’s a teamwork aspect to making it work,” Owens said.
Thomas beamed as Owens described the rigors. The new president said alumni often tell him about a professor or an expedition that made a difference to them.
“They say how enabling and confidence-building it was, how Sterling College changed their lives,” Thomas said.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Earth-Focused | Sterling College’s new president says its tiny size and emphasis on environmental studies are central to its enduring appeal”
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This article appears in Dec 13-19, 2023.
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