Franconia College
 |
|
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Active | 1963–1978 |
| President | John S. Fallon (1963–1965) Richard S. Ruopp (1966–1968) Lawrence "Larry" Lemmel (1968–1970) Leon Botstein (1970–1975) Ira Goldenberg (1976–1978) |
|
Academic staff
|
40 (in 1968) |
| Address |
Franconia College Franconia, NH 03580, Franconia, NH, USA |
| Campus | Rural |
Franconia College was a small experimental liberal arts college in Franconia, New Hampshire, United States. It opened in 1963 on the site of the Forest Hills Hotel on Agassiz Road, and closed in 1978, after years of declining enrollment and increasing financial difficulties.
A small, eclectic faculty provided a diverse education. Areas of studies included the fine arts, architecture, performing arts, languages, law, and business. During the 1960s, the college played a small part in the Race for Space.
Franconia College opened as a two-year college in 1963 with nine founding staff members; the school began granting four-year degrees in 1965. The school was accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.
The school first gained national attention in 1968 when William Loeb, publisher of the Manchester Union Leader, vilified the students for behavior that included unmarried persons of the opposite sex sleeping together. The headline "Bare Debauchery at Franconia College: Sex, Liquor, Drugs Rampant on Campus" made the front page of the newspaper the same day a smaller one announced the assassination of Martin Luther King.
While the article was believed to be exaggerated, nine students were arrested in a marijuana raid that spring, and a cascade of changes happened at the school. College president Richard Ruopp resigned at the demand of the board of trustees in April, then the board let two teachers' contracts lapse against a faculty committee recommendation to rehire them. The teachers and staff responded in July with mass resignations, leaving the college with half the number of staff it had at the beginning of the 1967–68 year. At the time, the school was running $100,000 per year in debt and the school's mortgage was threatened with foreclosure. In an attempt to ease its financial straits, the school made its grounds available as a weekend ski lodge the following winter.
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