Trinity College

Our Lady of Mercy Chapel, Trinity College

Trinity College

Location: Burlington, Vermont, USA

Founded: September 1925

Closed: September 2000

From the Trinity College of Vermont Association of Alumni and Friends website:

In September of 1925, equipped with unshakable determination and inexhaustible energy but little else, the Sisters of Mercy opened what was then the second Catholic college for women in New England. Twenty young woman settled into a room in Burlington's Mount St. Mary's Academy on Mansfield Avenue to begin a rigorous academic regimen of Latin, Greek, Religion, English, French and Mathematics.

Trinity College yearbook (1964)

By the 1990's, 140 young woman and adult students of diverse backgrounds studied in undergraduate and graduate programs offered on-campus and in field sites in six states and Monterrey, Mexico. They studied abroad, served in challenging internships, worked in innovative community service programs and lived on- and off-campus with other students from as far away as Korea and Japan.

On July 7, 2000, it was announced that Trinity College would be closing, with most of the college's undergraduate programs to end as of September 1. The problem was largely one of financial sustainability, coupled with the difficulties of recruiting an adequate number of "traditional age residential students" to the campus:

“We hoped to be the exception to the prevailing trend of financial difficulty faced by most small, single-gender, liberal arts colleges without significant endowment,” said President Jacqueline Marie Kieslich, RSM, Ph.D. “Nevertheless,” she said, “our students, faculty, staff and alumni deserve special attention and special thanks for the uncertainty with which they have lived and the support that they have provided. Our Trinity community has given energy and commitment beyond all expectation. ”

At the time of its closing, around 5,000 students had been educated at Trinity. The facility is now the Trinity campus of the University of Vermont.

Photo: Trinity College, Yearbook