Editor’s note: Trustees on Tuesday called for an emergency session of the board for Tuesday night to continue discussion of VSC finances.
The Vermont State Colleges are rapidly running out of cash and will need at least an extra $25 million to avoid insolvency, officials in the chancellor’s office told trustees on Monday. And that’s whether or not they approve a radical proposal to close three VSC campuses or put the plan on ice for a year, as top lawmakers have urged.
But Jeb Spaulding, the system’s chancellor, argued it still might not make sense to press pause. That $25 million price tag is likely to climb as students decide to transfer out of schools threatened with closure and tuition revenues decline even further.
“To say well we’re going to put it on hold for awhile, with the uncertainty – I don’t think that’s realistic,” he said.
The figure the state colleges say they need is no small figure, especially relative to Vermont’s regular investment in the system. The Green Mountain State invests in public higher education at a lesser rate than nearly every other state in the country, and the VSC’s annual appropriation from the state totals about $30 million.
VSC chief financial officer Steve Wisloski acknowledged as much, and noted that the colleges had just last year asked the Legislature to increase their appropriation by $25 million over five years, in order to get Vermont to the New England average. (Lawmakers demurred, instead upping their annual contribution by $2.5 million.)
“The reality is, the urgency of our situation is we need it all,” Wisloski said. “Now.”
In the wake of the pandemic’s financial fallout, Spaulding announced Friday he would recommend trustees close Northern Vermont University, which has campuses in Johnson and Lyndon, and shutter Vermont Technical College’s Randolph location.
Some of NVU’s programing would migrate to Castleton University – the system’s only remaining residential, liberal arts school – and VTC would consolidate operations on to its Williston campus. The plan would cut nearly 500 staff and faculty.
VSC officials are projecting a near term operating deficit approaching $10 million, in large part because of expenses linked to the coronavirus crisis. But the chancellor has also repeatedly pointed out that pricing competition from online competitors, low state support, and steadily declining enrollments had long left the system financially fragile.
“It’s not all Covid-19. We’ve been precarious for some time,” Spaulding told trustees during a meeting held remotely that was livestreamed on YouTube.
Over time, officials in the chancellor’s office argue closing the three campuses will put the system back on track financially. A scenario that basically maintained the status quo – and cut as many as 90 employees – would create a cumulative deficit of up to $85 million by 2025, they say. Closing NVU and VTC’s main campus would create a deficit of just under $13 million over the same period.
Opposition to the chancellor’s proposal has been swift and fierce. That morning, a parade of cars drove through downtown Montpelier to protest the plan. An online petition urging the state to reinvest in the system had well over 30,000 signatures. And trustees and lawmakers alike reported receiving hundreds of emails from apoplectic constituents.
Spaulding on Monday repeatedly acknowledged the angst wrought by his proposal, but he also insisted it was the best available option to keep the larger system from collapsing.
“I apologize for all of the heartache and the fear and the confusion that my recommendation has caused. And I have to take responsibility for that. But my motives are pure,” he said.
Public furor over the proposal appears to have bought the colleges a small window of time. Trustees were initially set to vote on Spaulding’s recommendations Monday, but Churchill Hindes, the board’s chair, announced over the weekend that Monday’s meeting would be informational only. But the board could take action as soon as a week from now, when they reconvene April 27.
Monday’s marathon meeting ran nearly nine hours, and trustees twice entered executive session to speak privately. During the public comment period, over a hundred speakers, including current and former students, faculty, staff, and community members, called in to urge trustees to vote against the plan.
Beverly Taft, a high school counselor at Randolph Union High School, said that the schools on the chopping block were also precisely those that most often catered to low-income and at-risk students.
“This is classism in the most blatant form. While I understand the VSC is in dire financial straits, this proposal flies in the face of equity and access,” she said.
Johnson selectboard member Nat Kinney, who graduated from NVU-Johnson when it was called Johnson State College, said both his mother and grandmother had also attended the school.
“For generations, this school has been helping to raise families out of poverty,” he said, adding that the community and alums were ready to stand “shoulder to shoulder” with trustees to demand the state reinvest in the colleges.
“Please fight with us for these institutions. They’re incredibly important for Vermont,” Kinney said.
Zoe Clark, a student at NVU-Johnson, said she had come to Vermont from New Jersey because of the college.
“This proposal will only drive away young people and families, which is the opposite of what you’re saying you’re trying to do. Johnson’s sense of community and love is one like no other.”
Shavonna Bent, a former VSC student trustee and current graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, criticized the board for acting as a rubber stamp to the chancellor’s office. And, like several others, she noted that some trustees, who were visible via webcam to those livestreaming the meeting, appeared to be distracted by their phones and paying little attention to what the public was saying.
“I know that everyone listens to things differently – I’ve been on a lot of Zoom classes lately, but frankly, it’s been a little bit disappointing,” Bent said.
Cas Hannon, a freshman at NVU-Lyndon, pointedly told trustees “we can see you,” and called out board member Linda Milne by name.
“If you can pay attention for one moment – please act your age and stop rolling your eyes, mumbling, and smirking at public concerns,” Hannon said.
