Three months after the University of Vermont announced plans to cut 23 liberal arts programs, pressure on the university to reverse course is ramping up.
Nearly 1,500 people, including many students, staff, and alums, signed a petition this week declaring “no confidence” in the university’s administration, headed by President Suresh Garimella.
The petition was spearheaded by UVM United Against the Cuts, a group of students and faculty organizing against the program terminations — which they see as evidence of the university’s shifting priorities.
“In year two of President Garimella’s tenure as president, it is now clear that he and his administration have betrayed the mission of the University of Vermont,” the petition reads.
In December, Bill Falls, dean of UVM’s college of arts and sciences, announced plans to eliminate 12 majors and 11 minors in the liberal arts, saying the school’s multimillion-dollar deficit had left him no choice.
The university administration has also directed other schools within UVM to reconsider programs and has laid off at least three liberal arts faculty. Activists with UVM United Against the Cuts say the moves are “a crisis of values” — arguing that the university is deliberately divesting from the programs.
The petition also says the university’s TRIO program, which provides resources to first-generation college students and students with disabilities, ended in December when it lost grant funding. Allowing the program to end, the petition says, was “meritless” and “shows a lack of commitment to racial justice and diversity.”
The claim that UVM canceled the program is “highly irresponsible, and a downright falsehood,” since the U.S. Department of Education had chosen to discontinue the grant, said Enrique Corredera, a spokesperson for UVM. Corredera said the university had launched an initiative to provide resources to students previously served by the TRIO program.
The program’s former website offers few further details about that initiative, however, saying only that the university is “finalizing a plan to sustain this support for students who identify as first-generation and/or low income students.”
“UVM must be restored to its core mission,” the petition states. “We declare No Confidence in President Garimella and call for an immediate and complete reversal of course.”
Garimella arrived at UVM in the summer of 2019 from Purdue University in Indiana, where he was a vice president. He has steadfastly defended the cuts, and has described them as part of a “transformational change” needed to keep pace with shifting student interests.
In an opinion posted Feb. 17 on VTDigger, Garimella wrote UVM “will continue to look deeply at the structures and the systems we have in place and make bold changes.”
Some faculty grievances predate Garimella. The college of arts and sciences has been locked in a hiring freeze for several years, which has taken a toll on the school’s smaller programs.
“Our faculty have taken blow after blow, watching their colleagues retire or their contracts non-renewed, courses disappear, areas of expertise lost,” wrote Meaghan Emery, a French professor at UVM, in her signature on the petition.
“Ultimately, students are left with fewer choices and a diminished educational experience,” she wrote.
All cuts that are contested by faculty must go through an extensive review process by the faculty senate, which has not yet begun. The senate will recommend a decision to the university’s board of trustees, which will have the final say.
The petition is directed at the board of trustees, whose next meeting is scheduled for May.
