![]() Grewal said he was stepping down for personal reasons, but those around the campuses believed it was directly tied to the library and sports plans. ![]() Then, a month later came another sudden announcement: The president was gone, and everything was on hold. This approach is consistent with the principles driving this transformation: student first, purpose first, and digital first.” Our objective is to ensure all students, across all campuses and locations across the state, and at out-of-state locations have equitable access to the library materials and services they need. “To do this requires difficult choices and compromises. “This is true of the library, as it is central to the education and student learning expected at an institution like ours, but it also consumes significant financial and operational resources. “As we build Vermont State University to become a hybrid university, we need to transition our programs, student services, and supports to this new reality, while simultaneously working within smaller and financially sustainable budgets,” the institution said in a statement posted on its website. The books being kept would be the most popular ones and those deemed “academically valuable.” A few part-time librarians would be kept on as well. ![]() Administrators said about half of all items in the library had never been checked out or even used. It said it would keep about 10 percent of the 300,000 books housed in the three campuses libraries. Then, in early March, the administration modified its plans. The sports plans would have moved Northern Vermont’s programs from the NCAA to the smaller United States Collegiate Athletic Association and dropped Vermont Technical’s teams from the USCAA.īoth moves sparked almost immediate controversy.Įight days after the email announcing the change, the faculty voted no confidence in then-President Parwinder Grewal, the board, and the system chancellor. While its advice wouldn’t be binding, the committee was expected to issue recommendations on what to do with the libraries as the merger took place. In February, system leaders announced plans to transform the new university’s libraries into all-digital entities, get rid of the physical books, and lay off seven full-time and three part-time librarians.įaculty, staff, and students felt blindsided, said Linda Olson, a professor at Castleton University and faculty union official, largely because a transformation committee of faculty and staff put together by the university had been working on a plan for the libraries that would have made them digital-first and kept some, but not all, of the librarian’s jobs. The new institution was tasked with finding ways to cut costs. (As of this winter, it stood at $25 million.) But the state rejected that proposal, gave emergency funding to the system, and blessed a merger of the same three campuses. In 2020, just after the pandemic began, the Vermont State Colleges system recommended closing the three rural campuses as an answer to a staggering budget deficit. But the state-colleges system had been in turmoil for longer. The distractions began in early February, with a surprising announcement about libraries and sports at the new institution. I will find a way to not make those a distraction.” The board and the chancellor’s office asked me to pause those and come back with recommendations. “There is no doubt been distracting and taken away from the main goal. “My goal is to keep the goal of transformation and not get distracted,” Smith said then. On Friday - his first day in office - he told The Chronicle he wanted to minimize distractions. In making the moves, Smith was also following through on his plans for his tenure. ![]() In wiping out the two policies, which caused considerable angst and protest among faculty, staff, and students, Smith did what he promised as he stepped in to lead the institution that will, starting July 1, combine Castleton University, Northern Vermont University, and Vermont Technical College.
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