A bagpiper leads a procession of Paul Smith’s College faculty in front of the Joan Weill Adirondack Library at the school’s graduation ceremony in May 2018. (Enterprise photo — Griffin Kelly)

PAUL SMITHS — Green Mountain College in Poultney, Vermont, will be closing in May. Paul Smith’s College, along with eight other colleges and universities, will be vying for the remaining undergraduate class as a way to combat its already dropping student enrollment.

Green Mountain College, which has an undergraduate class of around 450, is offering teach-out partners — nine colleges and universities that it will recommend to its students. The eight others are in Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Pennsylvania and Vermont. Paul Smith’s College is the only one of the nine in New York.

Paul Smith’s faculty and administration hope that similarities between the two schools, such as the natural landscape and majors (forestry, fisheries and wildlife and biology), will draw some Green Mountain College students to Paul Smith’s.

“I think we’re a pretty attractive school,” said Nicholas Hunt-Bull, Paul Smith’s provost.

The two schools have also exchanged some students at times, and students have met off campus at various functions. For example, several from Green Mountain College and Paul Smith’s huddled around the same campfire at the New York chapter of the Wildlife Society’s annual fall meeting. The psychology chair at Green Mountain College will teach at Paul Smith’s. Several faculty members from both colleges stay in regular contact, which is why for some Paul Smith’s professors it was not a great shock that Green Mountain is closing — and yet it stirred their emotions when they heard.

“It hits home,” said wildlife biology professor Jorie Favreau, chair of the Natural Science Department. “We’re feeling for their kids.”

Faculty and staff from Paul Smith’s and the eight other colleges will visit Green Mountain to inform students of opportunities.

“We negotiated a really good memorandum of understanding with Green Mountain,” Hunt-Bull said. “They’re going to be completely transparent with us regarding what the financial aid package was that the students had with Green Mountain, and we have guaranteed that whatever financial aid package they had we’ll match it. So they will not pay higher tuition to us than they paid to Green Mountain.”

Another similarity between the colleges, one that worries teachers and administration, are the challenges faced in enrollment. In 2010, Paul Smith’s had about 1,000 students. Enrollment now hovers around 650, said David Placey, vice president of enrollment management. The year before, the school had 771 students. Green Mountain College had 582 undergraduates and 200 graduate students in 2015, according to a 2015 Presidential Search pamphlet.

Hunt-Bull said New York’s Excelsior Scholarship has had a low impact on the school, but other factors such as the declining population of New York and the decrease in college-age population in New England are more detrimental. He also said the spring semester’s enrollment is typically lower than the fall’s.

“Is there some level of nervousness? Of course,” Hunt-Bull said.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, tuition and room and board came to around $44,551 for students enrolled in the fall of 2017. A drop in 100 students comes to around $4.45 million. In 2014, faced with similar drops in student enrollment, Paul Smith’s laid off 11 employees and cut 23 positions. Hunt-Bull said it has not had to cut positions this year, but has had to scrimp and save, leaving some positions vacant and using deteriorating equipment as long as possible.

If enrollment decline were to continue, that would mean a change in how the school must operate.

“I’m not planning for that, but if lightning strikes, then we’ll deal with it,” Hunt-Bull said. “But we will deal with it in a way that means there’s still a Paul Smith’s College, and it means that we’ll still educate our students and that we will still support the North Country as well as we can.”

Hunt-Bull said he believes that enrollment will increase and he hopes around 45 Green Mountain students come to Paul Smith’s. Dozens have reached out to see if their credits will transfer. From what she has seen, Favreau said, most will, and students who had only two years left will finish in time. In the fall, two Green Mountain College students transferred to Paul Smith’s when they were notified that Green Mountain’s forestry program was changing, said Associate Professor Brett McLeod, chair of Paul Smith’s forestry department.

The financial situation also differs between the two colleges. Green Mountain College relied heavily on enrollment to bring in revenue, approximately 90 percent. Enrollment was also a major source for Paul Smith’s, approximately 38 percent in fiscal year 2018, Hunt-Bull said. But he said a large amount from grants contributions puts Paul Smith’s in a much better position.

According to the school’s 990 tax forms for the fiscal year ending in June 2017, Paul Smith’s earned over $21.4 million through student tuition, over $2.5 million through government grants, and over $6.3 million through all other contributions, including gifts and grants.

Green Mountain College’s 990 tax forms for that same year showed that through tuition, room and board, and fees, it garnered over $23.4 million in revenue. Through grants and gifts it was able to bring in only over $2.2 million.

Paul Smith’s College’s total revenue, including auxiliary services income, for that fiscal year was just over $40 million, compared with total expenses over $37.1 million. Green Mountain College’s revenue was just over $26.7 million, but its expenses were over $27.5 million.

According to 2017 audits for both schools, Paul Smith’s had an endowment of $29.5 million and Green Mountain $3.4 million. In 2015, Paul Smith’s was $26.7 million, and Green Mountain’s was $3.9 million.

But unless Paul Smith’s enrollment rises again, which Hunt-Bull thinks it will (he believes it will be up to 900 in five years), the function of the college will have to change. Administration is working to push that off by offering new majors and programs. The school is working on a winter sports initiative to draw potential Olympic athletes. It’s also attempting to bring in more students through its new psychology and sports management majors, which Hunt-Bull said are popular.

The school has also started a new program this past fall — Human Health and the Environment. This program was created because the state informed colleges and universities of a need for more educated leaders and trained workers in the field, according to Paul Smith’s biology professor Lee Ann Sporn.

Graduate programs are another possibility being pursued, as is whether the school can offer summer programs for other colleges.