This commentary is by Anthony Pollina of Middlesex, chair of the Vermont Progressive Party and a former state senator.
As a graduate of Johnson State College, now part of Vermont State University, I am really glad that the Vermont State University Student Government Associations passed a resolution of “no confidence” in the Vermont state colleges board of trustees, the Vermont State University office of the president, and the vice president of business affairs.
The students’ no confidence resolution is a response to the board of hrustees’ unanimous vote to adopt the so-called Optimization Plan to cut faculty and staff and eliminate or restructure academic programs.
The students’ vote should get the trustees’ attention and make clear they will not sit quietly while the trustees take away positions and programs they need to be successful students.
Legislative leaders should consider taking similar action and stand with the students, faculty and staff who are demanding a stop to a process quickly moving in the wrong direction. After all, it is the Legislature and governors who must bear responsibility for the colleges’ current situation.
Vermont is ranked last in state support for state colleges by every measure. To make matters worse, our governors and legislators have deliberately ignored the law establishing the college system, which says they shall be supported wholly or in substantial part with state funds.
Instead, for the last 50 years Vermont has deliberately underfunded them, providing less than 20% of the schools’ budget needs.
Now, more cuts and consolidation will only lead to more diminished resources and fewer students, not healthier budgets and more dynamic, vibrant diverse campuses. But there is no indication that those leading the Optimization planning looked at alternatives to the austerity measures that are driving our state colleges into oblivion. And, call it layoffs, buyouts or retirements, they all mean fewer staff and faculty.
We should renew our commitment to the law establishing our colleges before enduring more cuts.
One alternative is a last-dollar tuition assistance program, where the state covers tuition and fees left after state and federal tuition aid is added up. Essentially, college becomes tuition-free for most students. Tennessee started it for two-year programs and enrollment increased 40%.
There is good reason to believe this could work in Vermont, if we were willing to find some seed money, but I didn’t see any analysis of it in the restructuring plans. Apparently, this and similar alternatives that could cut tuition, rather than budgets and staff, and attract students, were not considered.
We should also take a hard look at the Vermont Higher Education Trust Fund. Set up to provide non-loan financial support to college students, the trust has somewhere around $30 million in it. Maybe enough to jump start a last-dollar program?
The bottom line? We should be looking at all the options before we head down the road of more cuts and diminishing returns.
Let’s vote no confidence in the current plan, commit to boosting state support for our colleges as stated in law, seriously consider a last-dollar tuition program and decide what to do with the $30 million in the Higher Ed Trust Fund. Let’s move forward, not backward.
