Vermont State University officials are examining the university’s academic offerings to find cost savings, raising the possibility of cuts to degree programs in the future, VTSU interim president Mike Smith said this week.
“Today, I am writing to introduce you to ‘Optimization 2.0,’ an initiative to examine our list of academic offerings to decide what our degree programs will be for future incoming students,” Smith wrote in a Monday email to VTSU students. The initiative would identify programs that “may be consolidated or retired,” he said in the email.
It’s not yet clear how many programs, if any, will be affected by the initiative. But it’s possible that process could ultimately result in layoffs, Smith said in an interview.
“When we wind down a program, at some point there won’t be a need for a faculty person,” he said. “That is something that we’re going to have to address as we move forward.”
The news appears to signal more changes ahead for Vermont State University, which has spent the past five years in a state of near-constant transformation.
In July, state officials inaugurated Vermont State University, an institution created from the merger of Castleton University, Northern Vermont University, and Vermont Technical College.
Multiple academic programs were combined as part of that merger. But since July, a VTSU task force has been examining the university’s academic offerings and collecting data, with the goal of finding possible additional areas of consolidation.
Smith said he has met with faculty, staff, students and alumni during the process. He plans to submit a formal report of recommendations to faculty on Oct. 1, after which community members will be able to submit feedback.
The first changes will take effect in the fall of 2024. Current students will be able to continue in their current major, and graduation requirements will not change, Smith told students in Monday’s email.
Smith told VTDigger that the process was intended to save money and cut down on confusing or redundant academic offerings. Assessing VTSU’s programs should take place regularly, he said.
“There’ll be an Optimization 3.0 and an Optimization 4.0 as we move forward,” he said. “I think we need to review our program array each year to make sure we’re meeting the needs of the students and meeting the fiscal needs of the university.”
Over the past few years, Vermont lawmakers poured millions of dollars into the VTSU consolidation, which was intended to set the three institutions — all of which have been teetering financially — on a path to sustainability.
But before the July 1 merger launch date, the new university-to-be ran into other headwinds: a controversial plan to remove books from libraries and downgrade sports teams, a 15% percent drop in first-year enrollment, and the abrupt departure of the inaugural president, Parwinder Grewal.
In fiscal year 2023, which ended this summer, the university’s member institutions ran a nearly $20 million deficit, according to data sent to faculty and staff Monday. That is projected to shrink to a roughly $18 million deficit in fiscal year 2024, and administrators hope to break even by 2027.
“There’s no getting around the fact that we have much more work to do to realize the vision of transformation, but we are working hard to get it done,” Smith said in an op-ed published by VTDigger this week.
The news comes amid more turnover at the top of the university this week. On Tuesday, Vermont State Colleges Chancellor Sophie Zdatny, who oversees Vermont State University and the Community College of Vermont, announced that she would depart at the end of the year.
“I believe that we’ve accomplished an awful lot in the last three and a half years,” Zdatny said in an interview Tuesday. “There’s still a ways to go but it feels like we’re at a good transition point.”
Officials said Wednesday that Zdatny’s departure and the assessment of academic programs are not connected.
Smith himself is scheduled to leave the position of interim president on Nov. 1. Both he and Zdatny will be replaced, she said.
The Vermont State Colleges trustees interviewed two candidates for an interim president position Monday, Zdatny said. Both candidates are from outside the state, she said, but “one of them has long connections to Vermont.”
That new interim president will oversee the implementation of the “Optimization 2.0” program.
Linda Olson, who represents Vermont State University faculty for the American Federation of Teachers union, said she sees the initiative as “a fancy administrative way of saying ‘laying off folks or closing programs.’”
Amy Miller, the co-president of the Vermont State Colleges United Professionals union, which includes campus staff members, said that potential cuts have “been a threat” for some time.
Staff at the state colleges are “exhausted, low morale,” she said. “We’re all in fear of losing our jobs for three, four years now.”
Faculty and staff union leaders pointed to what they said was another expensive area of the university: administrators. Staff and faculty have long complained that VTSU employs too many well-paid administrators, who, they say, eat up a disproportionate amount of the university’s budget.
Smith, the interim president, said he plans to appoint a smaller task force to look into administrative costs in October.
“I think that’s legit, to be honest with you,” he said.
