Updated at 3:04 p.m.
David Bergh, a former Johnson State College administrator and president of the recently shuttered Cazenovia College, will be the next interim president of Vermont State University.
The Vermont State Colleges board of trustees announced the appointment at a Friday morning meeting. Bergh will begin in the position Nov. 1, replacing outgoing interim President Mike Smith, and is expected to stay in the position for roughly a year and a half.
“I am incredibly impressed with the students, faculty, staff, and leaders of Vermont State University and throughout the Vermont State Colleges system,” Bergh said in a Friday press release. “The transformation planning and the modernization work done over the last few years is truly remarkable. I believe that this work paves the way for growth and viability at our campuses and will be a national model to build on.”
Bergh spent 20 years working in the Vermont State Colleges system, according to the press release. He held multiple administrative roles at the former Johnson State College, now the state university’s Johnson campus, including serving as the dean of student life and college relations and dean of students.
More recently, Bergh held administrative roles, including roughly a year and a half as president, of Cazenovia College, a small private college in Cazenovia, New York, that closed earlier this year.
In an interview, Bergh said that he sees the potential for Vermont State University to become “a potential national model for serving students and communities.”
“I think that there’s been a really thoughtful approach taken to, ‘What are the best ways to strengthen this university, to make it a resource and a real asset for the state of Vermont? And for the students in Vermont?’” he said. “And so I’m excited to be a part of that and help advance that initiative and that work.”
Rep. Lynn Dickinson, R-St. Albans, who chairs the Vermont State Colleges board of trustees, said that the job opening drew “a really excellent applicant pool.” But Bergh stood out for his time in Vermont and his experience in rural education, she said, as well as his time working closely with students and local communities.
Dickinson said that Bergh’s time overseeing the closure of Cazenovia College would help ensure that VTSU thrives.
“He knows what happens if you don’t hit the marks and be successful in the transformation,” she said. “He knows the warning signs and he knows the process. And we hope that because he has that experience, he will be more effective in trying to move the transformation along.”
Cazenovia College shut down this spring amid “a combination of financial challenges (that) were more than the College could overcome,” according to its website.
At Vermont State University, Bergh will inherit an institution that also faces daunting challenges. VTSU was officially created this summer through the merger of Castleton University, Vermont Technical College and Northern Vermont University.
Those three public institutions spent years struggling financially amid declining enrollment and little in the way of state appropriations. The consolidation, officials hoped, would set them on a course to financial stability.
For Vermont State University, however, 2023 has been anything but stable. In February, the institution’s inaugural president, Parwinder Grewal, announced a plan to downsize sports programs and remove books from libraries.
Those decisions created an immediate uproar, and Grewal resigned abruptly in April. Trustees reversed those cuts and tapped Mike Smith, a former Agency of Human Services secretary with a reputation for turning troubled institutions around, to fill the void.
But Smith, who had come out of retirement for the gig, planned only to stay until Nov. 1. That left the trustees searching for another interim president.
Bergh acknowledged the challenges facing the institution, which is carrying a roughly $22 million structural deficit.
“There is not an unchallenged place in the higher ed landscape right now,” Bergh said. “It’s going to take some creative thinking for colleges and universities to find ways to be vital and vibrant and relevant.”
This week, university leaders signaled that more changes are on the horizon. Vermont State Colleges Chancellor Sophie Zdatny, who oversees Vermont State University and the Community College of Vermont, announced Monday that she would be resigning at the end of the year.
A task force has also been examining the state university’s academic offerings, with an eye toward programs that could be consolidated or trimmed altogether. Smith is expected to issue recommendations about potential cuts Oct. 1.
Bergh’s salary has not yet been finalized, according to Vermont State Colleges spokesperson Katherine Levasseur, but will likely be around $225,000 annually. Smith, who will end up spending six months in the role, will make half that amount.
