PLAINFIELD – A local climate resiliency group is hoping to purchase the campus, but it says it’s been frozen out by Goddard administration.
A week after Goddard College announced plans to close its private college, alumni and community groups with ideas for the property are feeling shut out.
At the time, Goddard President Dan Hocoy said the trustees were looking to sell the 117-acre campus and that they were “entertaining all proposals, ideas and conversations currently about property.”
Cooperation Vermont, an organization based in Marshfield that is geared toward adapting to climate change, has put forward a request to buy the property, but Director Michelle McCormick told VTDigger that so far the bid has been ignored.
photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
Goddard College in Plainfield as it appeared on June 22, 2023.
“I’m just not even really sure what to say at this particular juncture because I’ve never seen a group of people who want to sell a piece of property and not be able to engage with potential buyers,” she said.
In trying to purchase the Goddard College campus, she hopes to blend together the longtime ethos of Goddard, creativity and a cooperative approach to learning, with Cooperation Vermont’s mission of climate resiliency under a cooperative model.
She also wants to help some of the current tenants of campus buildings to stay where they are, including The Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism, Maple Hill School and WGDR Central Vermont Radio. Cabot Creamery employees also live in some of the dorms, according to McCormick.
Additionally, Cooperation Vermont would use the space to create a “community production center,” which would include woodworking, metalworking and other crafts, according to the organization’s website.
Erin Petenko, VTDigger
