Vermont State University plans to lay off only one faculty member as part of a broad cost-cutting initiative after 17 faculty members opted for a buyout option.
University officials earlier this month offered buyouts to up to 33 faculty members in disciplines largely concentrated in the humanities. The university needed to cut between 20 and 33 faculty members, administrators said, but if enough faculty took the buyout package, layoffs might be avoided.
A report issued Tuesday signaled that VTSU officials were largely successful at avoiding forced job losses. In addition to the 17 buyouts, six faculty members are planning to retire and three more will not have their contracts renewed.
Katherine Levasseur, a spokesperson for the university, said a professor of landscape contracting would be laid off.
In a press release Tuesday afternoon, interim VTSU president Mike Smith thanked faculty who opted for the buyouts, saying they will help the university become financially sustainable.
“We no longer have to talk about there being a path forward for Vermont State University to be academically and financially viable because we are truly on our way with this important, albeit very difficult work,” Smith said in the release.
But campus unions have expressed frustration and anger with the cuts, saying the university should trim budgets by targeting high-level administrative positions instead.
“All the unions are disappointed in the decisions,” Chris Reilly, president of the Vermont State Colleges Faculty Federation, said in an interview last week. “The faculty and staff morale is definitely lower. And we don’t agree with where these cuts are being made at.”
Tuesday was Smith’s last day in the interim president position. Nolan Atkins, VTSU’s provost and vice president of academic affairs, is serving as the university’s acting president for two weeks until David Bergh, who’s been appointed as the next interim president, takes office.
The public university was created through the merger this summer of Castleton University, Northern Vermont University and Vermont Technical College. That consolidation was intended to help the university get on solid financial ground.
But VTSU has more work to do. The institution has been instructed by lawmakers to eliminate a structural deficit, estimated at $22 million earlier this year. So last month, the university embarked on a far-reaching campaign of budget cuts.
As part of that initiative, VTSU announced plans to cut 33 non-faculty staff positions. Those cuts will eliminate the jobs of multiple deans and staff members who work in communications, events and financial aid, among others.
In an initial draft report released Oct. 2, the university announced plans to cut nearly a dozen degree programs and consolidate others. Tuesday’s report included an updated list of program closures and consolidations.
Earlier this month, VTSU recommended shuttering 10 academic programs and consolidating 13 others. On Tuesday, VTSU said that, in fact, 11 programs will be discontinued and 16 will be consolidated.
In a list of changes made in the original plan, the report says VTSU now aims to shutter a natural science degree and reshuffle programs in resort and hospitality management, communications and business, among others.
Implementation is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2024, and officials say current students will be able to complete their degrees as originally planned.
