Exasperated College President to Student Protesters: ‘I Resign. Happy?’

[Updated (9/1/2014, 9:30 p.m.) with confirmation that the president has resigned.]

The embattled president of Burlington College, Christine Plunkett, had a surprising response to a group of student protesters who crowded around her car on Friday and demanded her resignation:

“I resign. Happy?”

The students, who had been blocking Ms. Plunkett’s car from leaving a Board of Trustees meeting, were shocked to silence but then cheered as she drove away. A spokeswoman for the Vermont college, when asked by the Burlington Free Press on Friday if Ms. Plunkett had resigned, said, “No comment.”

But in a news release emailed to reporters on Monday, the college’s Board of Trustees confirmed that Ms. Plunkett had in fact resigned and said that a transition team had been appointed to oversee the institution while it searches for a new president to replace her.

Ms. Plunkett’s handling of the college’s finances has made her a controversial figure. She has been the subject of no-confidence votes from both the student union and the faculty/staff council.

Watch her interaction with student protesters here: