[V]ermont College of Fine Arts president and novelist Thomas Greene, who founded the school, will step down in 2020.
“I have decided it is time for me return full-time to my literary career and to hand the baton to someone who, with our remarkable faculty and staff and dedicated Board, can help write the next chapter in VCFA’s history,” Greene said in a statement.
VCFA board of trustees Chairman Bill Schubart said Greene had told college leaders some weeks ago he wanted to return to writing.
“I don’t think it was a surprise to any of us. We were disappointed because he’s been a phenomenal leader,” Schubart said. “There’s immense respect for what he’s done.”
Greene has written six novels. The latest, “The Perfect Liar,” came out this year from St. Martin’s Press.
He has has been at the helm of VCFA since 2006, when he created a nonprofit and raised $13 million in capital to purchase the Vermont College campus and three MFA programs from Union Institute and University. The low-residency graduate school now has an annual operating budget of about $10 million and employs about 250 people.
Greene will take a year-long sabbatical starting July 1, according to the college, and then officially step down from his post to join the faculty of the college’s MFA in Writing & Publishing program.
VCFA chief financial officer Katie Gustafson and its academic dean, Matthew Monk, will serve as co-presidents come July 1 until an interim is appointed, college officials said, and the school will conduct a national search for a permanent replacement.
“The board is not concerned about the interim. The board feels that the leadership team is one of the best the institution has ever had,” Schubart said. “We’d much rather get it right than fast.”
