This letter was signed by more than 1,000 Castleton University alumni in a 24-hour period.
Dear Members of the Vermont State Colleges System Board of Trustees:
We, the undersigned alumni of Castleton University, write to you today with gratitude for your service during what has been a time of great challenge. Your service in the face of significant financial challenges as well as the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic is admirable and deserving of our thanks.
The purpose of our letter today is to provide input regarding the proposed rebranding of the newly combined entity of Castleton, Northern Vermont, and Vermont Tech.
We believe that rebranding and introducing a new name of any kind to the volatile higher education marketplace at this time will not have a beneficial impact on any Vermont State Colleges System stakeholders. On the contrary, there is reason to believe it will be quite detrimental to all the above-named institutions.
Look no further than five years ago at the unification of Lyndon State College and Johnson State College, and the subsequent rebranding to Northern Vermont University. The rebranding effort cost Vermont taxpayers an additional $2 million over three years, and there has been no significant return from a brand standpoint. If anything, it diluted the brand equity that had been built into Lyndon and Johnson over its previous existence and we’ve ended up in need of further consolidation. We should learn from that exercise, not repeat it at a much greater cost.
During a merger like this, the combining businesses should take an accounting of the most valuable assets and costly liabilities and make difficult decisions on what to keep, what to change, and what to remove. These decisions should be based on facts and data, not emotions.
In this case, one of the most valuable assets that the Vermont State Colleges System has is the Castleton University brand.
Castleton has the largest alumni base, the largest and most up-to-date campus thanks to more than $80 million in infrastructure investment over the last 20 years, and has students attending from 36 countries and 26 states, according to its website. It has proven capable of growing and operating efficiently on campuses outside of its own footprint, with a nursing program delivered in Bennington and a resort management program in Killington, as well as its Center for Schools, which operates in every Vermont county educating Vermont teachers.
When you add to this the fact that most of its varsity athletics programs compete in the top NCAA Division III Conference for public universities in New England, its hockey programs compete among the nation’s best, and its ski teams are internationally recognized, the ability to mobilize, recruit and retain students and alumni under the Castleton University brand is without parallel in the system.
One small example is the fact that Castleton is routinely mentioned as the top venue to watch college football in the state of Vermont. Our small and mighty university is mentioned alongside football and academic powerhouses such as Alabama, Michigan, Penn State and UCLA, to name a few.
This kind of organic brand growth is something that takes years to build, but just a few poor decisions to destroy. When you look at social media following and brand recognition, Castleton is the only Vermont institution that registers along the same metrics as UVM, Middlebury and Norwich.
We understand that the board is met with a difficult decision here. First, trying to maintain all the existing brands during a merger of this magnitude will create confusion in the marketplace and make it very difficult to explain to prospective students and other stakeholders the benefits of merging. Maintaining existing brands also does not signify the opportunity and significance of the merger. However, introducing a completely new brand to the marketplace will also create confusion, will result in high costs of rebranding, and will erode existing brand equity while alienating key stakeholders such as alumni.
It is the opinion of this alumni group, we the undersigned, that the newly merged university should operate under the Castleton University brand, which would allow for the precious capital resources that it would take to rebrand an entire system to be allocated to recruitment and retention of students to all campuses.
The Vermont State Colleges System should leverage the strength of the Castleton brand to lift all campuses, rather than erode the brand equity built over time with the hopes that the new brand matures within the typical two-to-five-year window most experts will tell you it takes.
Unifying the entire system as Castleton University would allow for a galvanizing of resources with a clear naming and branding convention that has already been established (i.e., Castleton University’s Killington School of Resort Management) in the marketplace and would allow for the necessary academic consolidation to truly take form with a clear direction, eliminating competition for a limited pool of prospects, and allowing for tuition differentiation based on academic program and delivery model.
For example, Castleton University’s Lyndon School of Atmospheric Sciences would leverage and grow an already well-renowned program for the benefit of all. Imagine utilizing Johnson’s scenic campus as the new hub of the nation’s finest year-round resort management program, offering access to Vermont’s northern peaks and natural resources while utilizing Castleton’s brand and curriculum that has been developed at Killington.
Any entrepreneurial or creative opportunities go away if you must focus all resources over the next two to five years developing brand awareness, say nothing of building brand equity.
We implore you to consider the far-reaching ramifications of a rebranding at this juncture. You have at your disposal one of the most valuable public university brands in New England, steeped in history as Vermont’s first college. Do not throw it away.
