click to enlarge - Patrick Bohan/Saint Michael's College
- Saint Michael's College campus
The University of Vermont plans to house students in a residence hall on the Colchester campus of Saint Michael's College, the schools acknowledged on Friday.
UVM will lease Hodson Hall for as many as 47 graduate students, according to an agreement dated May 16. The arrangement runs through July 2025, during which UVM will pay the private Catholic school $479,400 per year.
The deal provides much-needed student housing for UVM, which continues to break enrollment records, while providing nearly $1 million to St. Michael's, which is grappling with years of declining enrollment.
"We view this arrangement as a prudent use of resources, and the right thing to do," St. Michael's College spokesperson Alessandro Bertoni wrote in an emailed statement. "St. Michael's seeks to be a good neighbor and community partner with mission-aligned organizations."
Total enrollment last year at St. Mike's was 1,399 students, down from 1,950 in 2018. Hodson Hall is one of three dorms the college previously said it would empty ahead of the fall 2023 semester as a way to cut costs. The others include Lyons Hall, in the heart of the campus, and the "100s" block of the Boutin Commons townhouses, according to the Defender, the campus student newspaper.
School officials told the Defender
in March that
the buildings would be rented out to other "mission-driven" organizations, likely for housing.
UVM is not negotiating leases for the other two buildings, UVM spokesperson Adam White said. Bertoni did not say how those buildings would be repurposed, though St. Michael's expects to announce plans for its vacant residence halls next week, he said.
As part of the deal at Hodson Hall, UVM students living on the St. Michael's campus will have access to student common areas such as dining halls, fitness facilities and the library, according to the lease agreement, which UVM provided to
Seven Days. Though White said the university intends to house graduate students at Hodson, the lease agreement does allow UVM to place undergraduates there upon separate written approval by St. Michael's.
The decision to consolidate student housing at St. Michael's was already fueling existing anxieties about its future, the Defender
reported in its March story. The newspaper interviewed an undergraduate who said her peers have been speculating that the school might shutter or be absorbed into UVM — a fear that St. Michael's officials tried to rebuff.
Bertoni, in his statement on Friday, described the arrangement with UVM as "short-term" and emphasized that it involved a small number of students.
So did UVM's White: "This is an opportunity to help a small number of graduate students find housing," he wrote. "We’re glad to partner with another higher education institution to provision housing for graduate students in a challenging housing market."
The public flagship logged its largest-ever class of new students last fall. How to house that growing student body is increasingly fraught in a city with a near-zero vacancy rate.
UVM recently
broke ground on nearly 300 apartments in South Burlington's City Center that will house graduate students and school employees. The university has also sought permission from Burlington officials to add hundreds of units to its Trinity campus, including 120 apartments for graduate students.
The Trinity negotiations
stalled when city councilors demanded that UVM make written commitments about the amount of student housing it will provide in years to come. Councilors again discussed the topic in a closed-door session on Monday.