Greenway Institute Aims to Reinvent Higher Education

A coalition of business, government, and education leaders is planning an entirely new college in Montpelier, Vermont, aiming to reinvent higher education by stripping away expensive frills and bureaucracy. Called the Greenway Institute, the project will focus on proven instructional methods like real-world training under faculty mentors to address a system its founders say is broken.

Mark Somerville, the founding president and former provost of Olin College of Engineering, said this effort comes during a moment of mass extinction for colleges, with seven private institutions closing in Vermont in the last decade alone. He argues this climate makes the need for new models clearer than ever.

New Models and a National Alliance

Greenway is not alone in its experimental approach. Several planned institutions formed the Future Universities Alliance in January, organized by Duke University. These projects share a belief that changing existing colleges from within is too difficult. Brian Rosenberg, former president of Macalester College and an advisor to Greenway and another project called Polymath, said there is broad agreement that something has to change.

Project Polymath, founded by former Pat Tillman Foundation CEO Dan Futrell, plans to mentor students through three majors each starting in 2028, followed by two-year apprenticeships, calling itself an ROTC for the private sector.

A Lean, Hands-On Engineering Focus

Greenway purchased its campus in 2023 from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. After renovations, it tentatively plans to open next fall. The school has raised $4.5 million toward a $30 million goal by 2031, including a National Science Foundation grant shared with Pennsylvania's Elizabethtown College. Its founders include tech executives, a former Vermont education secretary, and administrators from schools like Harvard and Dartmouth.

The institute will teach only engineering. It tested its model last year with students from other schools who received academic credit for a prototype semester on campus. Instead of conventional lectures, they designed wind turbines and solar-powered traffic signals.

Troy McBride, chair of Greenway's board and co-founder of a solar panel manufacturer, said students basically learned electrical, mechanical and some controls by doing. He criticized traditional instruction as stuck in the 1950s, focused on memorizing facts rather than teaching skills. Jazz Gonzalez, an Elizabethtown graduate who participated, said conventional lectures left him wanting to know how to apply theory.

Structure, Cost, and Life Skills

When fully operational, Greenway students will live on campus for two years doing projects, then spend two years in real-world workplaces while continuing faculty support. This structure lowers the college's housing costs. Research cited by the Association of College and University Housing Officers shows students living on campus for the first two years have lower dropout rates.

The model is deliberately lean. Students will shop and cook in communal kitchens, plan their own extracurriculars, and use off-campus gyms. Emmanuel Attah, an Elizabethtown engineering major who participated in the prototype, said it goes right to the point and that the students felt really in charge.

Annick Dewald, Greenway's first faculty member, said making students responsible for meals and schedules teaches crucial life skills. She said employers report difficulty with recent graduates showing up on time or feeding themselves, which she links to how traditional colleges operate.

Confronting the Cost of Amenities

Founders argue that eliminating amenities like climbing walls and football games is key to controlling cost. A McKinsey study found that in the ten years before the pandemic, spending on noninstructional services grew four times faster than spending on instruction. A separate study by Gordian found that from 2012 to 2021, colleges added facilities much faster than they added students.

Troy McBride said you see tuition going up and up and up and up, and not necessarily for the reasons that a student would want them to go up, like a better educational experience. He added that a lot of it is for amenities, extras and for space sitting empty. Somerville said young people and parents are increasingly questioning whether the traditional college model makes sense.

Hannah Root, the project's chief of staff, said one of the most challenging moments of the prototype semester was taking the test students food-shopping.