[U]niversity of Vermont President Tom Sullivan will step down next summer, the school announced Monday.
He has held the top job at the state’s flagship school since 2012. UVM Board of Trustees Chair David Daigle said Sullivan’s time at UVM had positioned the school to better compete for students nationally by raising its academic profile and strengthened its financial footing.
“I would also point out that he has led with an incredible level of dedication and integrity, that I think would be acknowledged by everyone, including his critics,” he said.
Sullivan made $437,675 in base pay last year. He is 69.
A hallmark of his tenure at the school has been his prodigious fundraising efforts. UVM recently announced it had met its $500 million fundraising campaign goal – one year ahead of schedule – and Sullivan said in a statement that that milestone felt like an appropriate transition point.
“UVM is poised for its next era of reaching even greater academic expectations and aspirations. The time is right!” he said.
After stepping down from the presidency, Sullivan will take a research leave to write a book and then join the UVM faculty full time, he told the school’s community in an email.
Sullivan has also overseen a building spree on the Burlington campus, including a $104 million STEM complex slated to be completed next year.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, Vermont’s senior senator, called Sullivan a “remarkable leader” for the school.
“During his tenure the University has continued to grow while holding true to its founding as a Land Grant university, as shown most recently by the opening of UVM’s state-of-the-art Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Center,” the Democrat said. Leahy also highlighted the school’s “Catamount Commitment” program, which began under Sullivan and covers tuition for all Pell Grant-eligible Vermonters who attend UVM.
But his time at the school has not been without controversy. Sullivan oversaw a new budgeting model, called “incentive-based budgeting” that tied funding to enrollment, which badly squeezed the liberal arts. The faculty union ultimately took a vote of no confidence against Provost David Rosowsky, the school’s number two administrator, over the new system.
“We thank President Sullivan for his hard work and service to UVM, especially his respect for professional standards and process,” Tom Streeter, the president of the faculty union, said in an email. “As the search for his replacement gets underway, United Academics will focus on longstanding issues at UVM, including better developing the University’s commitments to racial justice and shifting UVM’s priorities to the core mission of teaching and research.”
The school was also roiled by anti-racism protests last year. One staff member went on a hunger strike and students briefly occupied an administrative building in an effort to get UVM’s leaders to agree to a list of demands – including that Sullivan resign.
Starr Cobb, a founding member of NoNames for Justice, a student activist group involved in the demonstrations, declined to comment on Sullivan’s decision to step aside or time at the school.
“We would like to comment on the status of our movement by saying that our work is not finished, and regardless of who our president is we will continue,” Cobb said.
Sullivan came to UVM in 2012 from Minnesota, where he was senior vice president for academic affairs and provost at the University of Minnesota for eight years, according to his university biography. An attorney by training, he has published extensively on antitrust law and complex litigation.
A national search for Sullivan’s replacement will start immediately, Daigle said. A third-party firm will be hired to help with recruiting candidates, and a search committee will be formed, likely in September. The committee will include students, alumni, staff, faculty and trustees. The school hopes to choose the school’s next president by March 2019.
