Updated at 6:20 p.m.
Vermont State University is reversing course on changes to its libraries and athletics programs, putting an end — for now — to a controversial slate of decisions to transform member campuses.
The changes were announced Monday afternoon by Vermont State University interim president Mike Smith, who took over the institution after the surprise departure of embattled president Parwinder Grewal earlier this month.
The university will rescind layoff notices to library staff and will maintain athletics programs at two Vermont State University campuses for at least three years, Smith said during a meeting of the Vermont State Colleges board of trustees.
“I have not hidden the fact that I think these are distractions,” he said, adding, “This is a way to put these behind us.”
Amid rocky financial prospects, Vermont State University is engaged in an ambitious merger process to unite three public academic institutions — Castleton University, Northern Vermont University and Vermont Technical College — under one name. The university is scheduled to officially debut July 1.
But the upcoming launch has been overshadowed by controversial changes to libraries and athletics programs.
In February, the university announced plans to transition to an “all-digital” library system and downgrade sports programs. Library materials would be made available digitally, Grewal said, and most physical books would be donated. The library spaces themselves would be “repurposed.”
The plan would eliminate seven full-time positions and three part-time ones in campus libraries, officials said.
Meanwhile, athletics programs on two campuses would be reshuffled: The system’s Johnson campus — currently, part of Northern Vermont University — would leave the National Collegiate Athletic Association for the smaller, less-competitive United States Collegiate Athletic Association.
Vermont State University’s Randolph location, currently a Vermont Tech campus, would leave the USCAA and offer only club sports.
Grewal pointed to long declines in the circulation of physical library books on campus, as well as struggles to field full athletic teams, as reasons for the decisions. But the announcement ignited a storm of controversy — one that university administrators seemed unprepared for.
Amid protests from students, faculty, and staff, university officials apologized for how the decisions were communicated, but said they would not abandon them. Last month, however, administrators released a “refined” library plan, one that would maintain roughly 30,000 physical books across five campus libraries. That number would represent roughly 10% of the current collection.
The announcement failed to quell the outrage, and on April 14, Vermont State University’s board of trustees announced Grewal’s abrupt resignation. In a press release, the university said that his departure “comes after much consideration about how best to lead the upcoming launch of Vermont State University.” The changes to libraries and athletics would be paused, officials said.
On Monday, administrators backtracked further. Layoff notices for library staff would be rescinded, interim president Smith said, and athletics programs at the Johnson and Randolph campuses are to be maintained for at least three years while officials collect data to determine whether those programs are sustainable.
That data could include “the number of student athletes per program and total, the retention rates, and what athletics have to do with those retention rates,” Smith said at Monday’s meeting.
The about-faces have met with celebration by campus unions, who fought the library and athletics transformation from the start. The Vermont State Employees Association, which represents Vermont State University staff, including library employees, called the announcement “great news.”
“The initial plan was a very bad one in the minds of many Vermonters, and that was evidenced by the large number of commentaries and letters to the editor blasting the decision, as well as plenty of testimony to lawmakers in the past few weeks against the cuts,” Aimee Towne, the union’s president, said in an emailed statement Monday.
But the ultimate fate of the campus libraries is not yet clear. At Monday’s meeting, Smith said that the library collections would still undergo a “streamlining” process.
“If you look at what’s happening with libraries out there, there is a move towards the digital evolution or revolution, whatever you want to say,” he said.
Katherine Levasseur, a spokesperson for the university system, said in a text message that the future of the libraries would be determined through a “deliberative” and “collaborative” process.
“We are changing how we are approaching this work while also acknowledging that digital is in our present and in our future,” she said.
