What makes a rural location attractive for a college?

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports.

For Sterling College, in Vermont, Rural Location Is a Benefit

As the President of Sterling College, one of the “isolated” colleges mentioned in the article “Small, Rural Colleges Grapple with Their Geography” (The Chronicle, June 24), I wish to offer a different perspective on the central premise of the piece. For Sterling College, our rural location is an essential element of our mission and curriculum, not something to be overcome.

Sterling College students, studying at Vermont’s only college of environmental stewardship, want to be a part of a community that models a local, sustainable food system and working landscape, not one replete with fast-food emporia. Our students want to reshape humanity’s relationship with the natural world. They are drawn to study the most critical issue of our time: the stewardship of our climate, soil, water, food, energy, and wilderness. They know that our rural setting in beautiful and wild Vermont is essential to our educational mission and our curriculum.