Editor’s note: This commentary is by Curt Kolovson, of Redwood City, California, who is a 1977 graduate of Lyndon State College.
To the Board of Trustees of the Vermont State Colleges and Chancellor Jeb Spaulding:
I am writing to contribute some ideas on how to preserve and transform the NVU-Lyndon, NVU-Johnson, and VTC-Randolph campuses. These ideas build on some suggestions put forth by Prof. Richard Moye: “Options other than closing for VSC”.
In order to help make these campuses more impactful and relevant to helping Vermont become a vital contributor to the 21st century economy, the mission of these institutions should be rethought. In particular, the Northern Vermont University campuses could expand their mission to include research as well as teaching, with an increased emphasis on Computer Science and Computer Engineering degree programs — including advanced degrees with the master’s and doctorate programs. This would enable private-public partnerships involving collaborative research projects in emerging fields such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, and the possibility of establishing on-site research labs that could be self-funded through grants from state and federal government agencies as well as from private industry.
Online course offerings could be expanded, not as a replacement to existing in-person programs, but as an additional tool – to allow for sharing of unique courses across campuses (including the University of Vermont), as well as making it possible for some focused degrees to be offered entirely online — e.g. a two-year associate degree in Computer Engineering, or a two-year master’s degree in Data Science.
I am not naïve to think that the Northeast Kingdom can become the next Silicon Valley in a matter of months. I am very well aware of the challenges faced by rural communities that make up northeast Vermont, as well as by institutions of higher learning across this country, big and small, private and public. But I have seen public-private partnerships develop where you would least expect them to take root. I believe that with this sort of vision for the future, the Vermont State Colleges System can be a catalyst for helping Vermont develop and grow some high-tech startups that could then lead to job and investment opportunities that would benefit the area and give young people reasons to stay or move to Vermont.
I submit these ideas as a former graduate of Lyndon State College (AA 1977, General Studies), University of New Hampshire (MS 1980, Computer Science), University of California, Berkeley (MS 1981 and PhD 1990, Computer Science), and as a senior staff engineer at VMware in Palo Alto, California. I am fortunate to have had a 40+ year career in Silicon Valley that continues to this day. I have never forgotten my formative years at LSC, and how special a place it is. I do believe that transforming these institutions into high-tech institutions of higher learning is achievable and necessary to turn them into engines of growth and opportunity for their communities and the state of Vermont.
