This commentary is by Richard Plumb, the president of Saint Michael’s College in Colchester.
For decades, American higher education has made a simple promise: earn a degree, get a good job.
It was a compelling argument — and, for many years, a true one. But today, that promise is under strain. Recent graduates are taking longer to find work. Employers are rethinking entry-level roles. And advances in artificial intelligence are rapidly reshaping what skills matter and how work gets done.
At the very moment families are asking more of college than ever, the traditional case for its value is becoming harder to make.
That does not mean college has lost its purpose. It means the purpose must be more clearly defined and more honestly delivered. Higher education has, at times, overstated what a degree alone can guarantee. A diploma is not a promise of a particular job. It is preparation for what comes next, and that distinction matters more now than ever.
For Vermont, the stakes are not abstract.
Colleges like Saint Michael’s are part of the state’s economic and civic infrastructure. According to a recent economic impact study the college conducted, Saint Michael’s contributes approximately $180 million annually to Vermont’s economy, supporting jobs, local businesses and services across the region. Our students serve as first responders through Saint Michael’s Fire and Rescue, responding to thousands of emergency calls each year, and contribute tens of thousands of hours of service across local schools, nonprofits and healthcare organizations.
If institutions like ours succeed, Vermont benefits. If they falter, the impact is felt far beyond campus.
But the case for college cannot rest on economic impact alone. It must rest on what students actually gain — the skills, the judgment, and the sense of purpose that determine not just what they are able to do next, but what they choose to do with it. This is not a challenge for any one institution to solve. It is a challenge for higher education as a whole.
The question is no longer just whether a college prepares students for their first job. It is whether it prepares them for a world in which jobs, industries and expectations will continue to change.
In that world, access to information is not enough. Artificial intelligence can generate information instantly. What matters now is judgment: the ability to discern what is true, what is just and what genuinely matters. It is the capacity to think critically, communicate clearly, work across differences and act with purpose in conditions of uncertainty.
These are not abstract ideals. They are practical necessities for the century ahead.
That is the work Saint Michael’s is focused on. It is work I see every day in our classrooms, our community and in the students we graduate. We often describe it simply: our students learn to think deeply, belong fully and make a difference.
That preparation is both rigorous and grounded in experience. Students are expected to engage actively in their education, to contribute in the classroom, wrestle with complex ideas and apply what they learn in real settings.
Sometimes that learning is immediate and tangible. Saint Michael’s Fire and Rescue, staffed largely by student volunteers, responded to more than 3,800 emergency calls across Greater Burlington last year. These students are not simulating responsibility. They are carrying it — making decisions under pressure, working as teams and serving their community in moments that matter.
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This kind of education produces results. Ninety-eight percent of the Class of 2025 and 99 percent of the Class of 2024 were employed or enrolled in graduate school within six months of graduation. Our students are admitted to medical and dental schools at more than twice the national average. These are not projections. They are current outcomes.
But outcomes alone are not enough. Colleges must also confront the realities of cost and access.
At Saint Michael’s, we have made a deliberate decision to rethink the traditional pricing model. Students pay no more than the in-state tuition of their home state’s flagship public university, guaranteed for all four years. That is not a short-term incentive. It is a long-term commitment to making a high-quality, personalized education both accessible and sustainable.
We have also taken disciplined steps to ensure the long-term strength of the institution, aligning programs with student demand, focusing resources on what matters most and building a model designed to thrive at our scale. The work is ongoing, and we do not minimize the challenges facing institutions like ours. But the early signs are encouraging: fundraising is at its highest level in more than a decade.
The future of higher education will not look the same for every institution. The question is which colleges have the clarity, the discipline and the mission to earn their place in it.
Saint Michael’s has been answering that question for more than 120 years — not by resisting change, but by meeting it. We have held fast to the conviction that a small, mission-driven college, deeply rooted in its community and uncompromising in its commitment to students, is not a relic. It is exactly what this moment requires.
That is the institution we are building. And Vermont is better for it.
Disclosure: VTDigger Opinion Editor Tess Stimson previously served as a professor at Saint Michael’s College.
