BURLINGTON — David Rosowsky, the provost at the University of Vermont, announced he would be stepping down as the university’s next president, Suresh Garimella, prepares to take office.
Rosowsky said in an email to the campus community that he wanted to give Garimella the chance to build his own leadership team when he assumes the presidency July 1.
Rosowsky, who has been the provost for six years, wrote that it had been a privilege and an honor to work at the university and help achieve exiting president Tom Sullivan’s vision for UVM.
“I believe the time is right to step aside, having honored my commitment to serve through President Sullivan’s presidency, and having helped build a strong foundation for UVM’s new president and the University’s next chapter,” he wrote.
It is not uncommon for a sitting provost to step aside during a presidential transition. The provost is the university’s top academic and budgetary officer.
Sullivan sent an additional email to the college community, saying that he is launching a process to identify an interim provost in consultation with Garimella. He wrote that more details and next steps in that process would be released soon.
Rosowsky wrote that he was stepping aside “in the coming months” but did not list a specific date. University spokesman Enrique Corredera said that all the available information was in the messages from Rosowsky and Sullivan.
As provost, Rosowsky introduced an incentive-based budgeting model to the university.
A fact sheet on IBB provided by the university states that the model provides an incentive for academic schools and colleges to generate revenue by allowing them to retain and allocate the revenue they generate. It also empowers deans to set their own budgets, instead of the central administration.
Faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences have expressed disdain for IBB, which they say forces CAS to compete with other schools for resources and discourages cross-disciplinary cooperation.
CAS faculty and students have been protesting faculty cuts in the college, and believe that IBB puts the college at a funding disadvantage.
Along with the protests, students affiliated with the “Coalition for Student and Faculty Rights” have been circulating a flier with a photoshopped image of Rosowsky wearing a crown that criticizes UVM’s administrative spending in light of the cuts in CAS.
Rosowsky recently tweeted and deleted a message including a bitmoji image of himself wearing a crown, as the university’s student newspaper, the Vermont Cynic, reported.
