This commentary is by Edward Scott of Richmond, a retired Vermont teacher and Lyndon State College alumnus.
When Dr. Parwinder Grewal was hired for the job of creating the Vermont State University, he was charged with a “mandate to restore public trust.” He pledged in turn to work toward the “best interest of Vermont and Vermonters,” and to expand enrollment.
Yet, a few months into the job, public trust is further eroded, and his failure to understand what’s in the best interest of Vermonters has led to a contentious upheaval in the college community.
In January, Grewal announced a plan to decimate library bookshelves and fire librarians. Angry protests erupted on the various campuses, yet despite the outcry, he dug in his heels. The unions representing faculty and staff voted “no confidence.”
He is effectively undermining the quality of education at the new university for the sake of the bottom line, and no one is buying into it.
The Vermont State Colleges are on shaky financial ground, and the creation of a single university may be the best solution following former president Jeb Spaulding’s unpopular attempt to close Johnson State College. However, to cut costs at the expense of the “soul” of the university, as one VTDigger contributor put it, and with disregard for the educational value to Vermont students, questions are raised about whether Grewal is the best person to make this transition.
His professional history of working in six states and five countries in 25 years hardly qualifies him to understand Vermont or its students. The poor handling of the announcement, as well as the decision itself, shows an ivory tower attitude that is disrespectful to the faculty, students and alumni.
Moreover, it shows a lack of respect for the quality of the institutions themselves, for implicit in the decision is an attitude that Vermont State Colleges enroll students who are not serious or concerned about the quality of their education.
Many Vermonters who attend Vermont State Colleges were Advanced Placement students in high school, and they are ambitious and hard-working. They investigated the state schools during their college search and found that the quality in the professors and course offerings were on a par with many private institutions at much lower cost.
Now, faced with the decimation of their libraries, even beyond the educational impact, they are insulted and resentful.
I am a state college alumnus, and I share their sentiments. My military service disrupted my education, and I attended Lyndon State College following a patchwork of colleges, including Middlebury College and Clark University. I took University of Maryland courses while I was in the Army.
With these quality colleges in my background, I could make educated comparisons to Lyndon, and I found many of my Lyndon professors to be superior in every respect.
Yet my education would have been compromised without a fully stocked library.
There is an unfortunate and undeserved stigma attached to the Vermont State Colleges. Grewal’s inconsiderate decision to decimate the libraries and fire the librarians only makes it worse. The Vermont State University will be seen to have a cultural and educational deficit compared to other colleges.
In televised interviews at Castleton University, current students questioned their decision to go there, so rather than advance enrollment, applications will likely suffer.
Parwinder Grewal is an unfortunate choice as the new president of Vermont State University. His goal to improve the bottom line comes at the expense of educational quality and “soul.” It shows his lack of appreciation for the quality of the colleges he’s to lead, its students, and the culture embodied in each campus. His hard-line approach does not bode well for his future as a leader.
We can hope that the trustees who hired him will see how his mistakes, made already months before he’s due to take over, will work to the detriment of the new university. He’s got the job, but we can hope that he lives up to his pledge to “work with people to come up with solutions,’ and that he will explore with the trustees other solutions rather than the ill-conceived plan to decimate the libraries.
