This is a guest post by Helen Scott, who is professor of English and director of the Buckham Overseas Study Program and graduate program director at the University of Vermont. She is a department representative for United Academics, the University of Vermont’s unionized AAUP chapter. She is also on the board of Vermont State Labor Council, AFL-CIO. This post first appeared on the Academe Blog of the AAUP and is reposted here with permission.
The Struggle for the Soul of UVM
During this year of crisis, faculty and staff have mustered all our strength and resolve to ensure that the University of Vermont continues to fulfill its central academic and public interest mission. But the university administration is undermining these efforts as they pursue a short-sighted and reckless restructuring plan, justified by an accounting trick, that threatens to radically change and irreversibly damage UVM.
In December management dropped a bomb, or, as the dean himself put it, lobbed a “hand grenade”: The dean of the College of Arts and Sciences announced plans to terminate twenty-seven majors, minors, and programs; consolidate departments in languages and the arts; and close the departments of classics, geology, and religion. Right before the winter holidays, three highly credentialed and much-loved senior lecturers, whose combined years of service to UVM approach three-quarters of a century, were told they would no longer have jobs next fall. The board of trustees has indicated that more of the same will follow.
There is nothing strategic or rational about these cuts: this is a short-term, slash-and-burn attempt to “balance the budget” in the college: Dean William Falls was instructed by the provost, president, and trustees to find a way to save money, no matter the damage. When confronted by faculty arguing that these cuts would irreparably harm the long-term health of the university, the dean admitted that this was a “roll of the dice.”
The rationale is a so-called “budget deficit” of $8.6 million. Pointing to this so-called deficit, management repeatedly argues that the College of Arts and Sciences is “not sustainable,” that its costs are too high, and that cuts are the only solution.
But none of this is true.
Between 2016 and 2020, UVM’s other undergraduate-serving colleges contributed $111 million in net undergraduate tuition dollars (tuition after financial aid) to this subvention fund, while the College of Arts and Sciences provided the lion’s share, 44 percent. But although it contributed $88 million, the College of Arts and Sciences only received $54 million back. The rest was siphoned off to subsidize other “priorities,” including $23 million in salaries, benefits, and bonuses for the 131 top-earning executives. Far from being an “unsustainable drain,” the College of Arts and Sciences has been used as a cash cow—one that has been systematically starved and then punished for not thriving.
On top of this “academic fracking,” as one of my students put it, last semester the administration quietly eliminated the TRiO program, which provided essential support, including scholarships and a food pantry, to first-generation college students, low-income students, and students with disabilities. Yes, during a devastating pandemic they chose to cut off crucial resources to those most in need. Their justification for doing so—that a federal grant supporting the program had run out—is meritless given that UVM has received $45 million in federal CARES COVID-19 relief funding and is slated to receive close to $11 million more.
This is not a budget crisis but a values crisis. Far from being in a state of financial exigency, the university as a whole is remarkably well off: the 2020 year-end financial report showed a net increase of $24 million; there is an untapped $34 million “rainy day” fund; and an endowment of more than half a billion. And yet classics, geology, and religion are being shuttered to “save” a total of $600,000. Three outstanding senior lecturers, with combined salaries of around $170,000, have been fired by a dean who himself makes more than $270,000, while the head basketball coach was handed a bonus of $235,000.
The problem is that those in control are not prioritizing education or equity. They see the university as a corporation competing with other corporate universities for student dollars. That’s why UVM administrators, and university administrators across the country, are jumping on the same bandwagon of downsizing liberal arts to fund expanded technical training, expensive and ineffective consultant contracts, and vanity projects such as UVM’s planned $95 million sports arena. And, of course, they prioritize and protect their own excessive executive compensation.
UVM United Against Cuts, a coalition of faculty, students, staff, alumni, and community members, instead sees education as a public good. We aim to provide a quality liberal arts education and to make a positive contribution to Vermont, in keeping with our university’s land-grant mission. We want to nurture our students’ critical thinking and understanding of the world. The university’s wealth could be used to nurture and enhance academic programs, ensure livable wages for all who work on campus, increase antiracist and antisexist initiatives, and expand funding for TRiO and other valuable support networks.
Management has made it clear that they will not be moved by moral suasion or superior logic. We need to build solidarity between students, faculty, staff, and the community and increase our organizational power so that we are ready for an epic battle for the soul of UVM and the future of public higher education in Vermont and beyond.
NOTE: This post has been slightly edited to correct errors.
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