This commentary is by Kate Gold, associate director of advising at Vermont State University Lyndon, and Linda Olson, a professor at VTSU Castleton. Gold is vice president of Political Action AFT VT and Olson is co-president of Higher Education AFT VT.
Vermont State University’s Optimization 2.0 and buyout plans will not serve our students or our state. Based on flawed data, the proposal will have a disastrous impact on the future viability of VTSU.
It’s another example of administrators looking at quantitative data and seeing only immediate cost and not resulting benefit or investment.
Optimization 2.0 proposes the discontinuation of 10 programs, relocation of 11 programs, and consolidation of 13 programs. The report claims that “no current students will be impacted by the proposal.”
We completely disagree. While we understand that proposed cuts to administration are forthcoming, this wave of faculty cuts could reduce current faculty by as much as 16%. This comes at a time when the faculty has already been reduced through attrition and layoffs by 27% since 2012. In fact, the only consistent reductions have been in faculty and student-facing staff positions, primarily by way of very non-strategic attrition.
If we want to increase retention, as President Smith contends, we don’t reduce positions that directly impact the persistence and retention of our students. This should be self-evident.
Most of our students are first-generation college students. These very capable students don’t have a family road map for navigating college, and so rely on the relationships they build with both faculty and student-facing staff, who help students to find the support they need in the classrooms, at academic support and advising centers, in the library, or on the playing field.
We dedicate our careers to VTSU because we know the transformative power of education and want to shepherd the next generation through to graduation. Instead, what is likely to happen because of these proposed cuts is that we will lose current students and discourage new students from attending our university.
Here are some reasons why:
• Students in programs that move will likely be unable to take the courses they need in-person. Remote learning has low success rates among first generation students. Most current students have built community, connections, and friends on their campus, which they rely on for success. Starting over may be too big a hurdle.
• Students in programs that are being taught out may find that their professors have taken the “buyout,” and if students decide to stay on their current campus, faculty who built the programs that brought them in the door may be replaced by part-time or remote faculty. Not to disparage either part-time faculty or faculty who teach remotely, but for many of our students the outcomes are not equal and are not the experiences students anticipated when deciding on our programs. Students forge meaningful connections with their faculty and sustain relationships long after graduation. We believe many students in these programs will leave if faculty do.
• Despite the spin, current students are already being affected. Some have chosen to switch to other majors on their campus and stay to graduate. Others will choose to leave the system because they feel like they were sold an education under false pretenses, and the administration continues to gaslight them by insisting that they need not worry when those promises are logically not deliverable.
• Here’s what we need to do to serve our existing students, future students, and state with integrity:
If reductions are necessary, start with the upper level, non-student-facing positions. VTSU’s administrative bloat has only gotten worse since the merging of the institutions. Upper-level non-bargaining unit positions command the most money, and some departing administrators are receiving salary and benefits packages that could fund multiple vacant staff positions in the coming year. How does preserving these costly positions improve retention?
The Legislature needs to adequately support VTSU in the long term. While we appreciate the $200 million allocated to keep us afloat during the pandemic years, this comes after 40 years of neglect. Prior to the pandemic, Vermont consistently ranked 49th or 50th in terms of state support to higher education. The continued insistence that we have done this to ourselves is insulting and absurd. The VTSU continues to deliver impressive outcomes for students, given the limited fiscal support.
Make college affordable for our Vermont students. VTSU is the institution for Vermont students, as evidenced by recent data about UVM serving a majority of non-Vermonters. Despite this, the tuition and fees VTSU students pay are too high. Recently, VTSU reduced tuition for Vermont students, but increased fees. Tuition is covered by student aid; fees are not. This means many of our students who are primarily first-generation, middle- or lower-income, are paying more out of pocket now than when the tuition was higher.
Institute legislative oversight. Resources should support student-facing services first. Streamline the upper-level non-bargaining unit positions. Legislators need to take the lead to create a sustainable institution.
