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Vermont State University interim president Mike Smith issued a draft report Monday recommending that the system terminate 10 academic programs and eliminate between 20 and 33 faculty positions, VT Digger reported.
The report also proposed consolidating another 13 degree programs and relocating 11 among the university’s three main campuses.
If approved, the changes will take effect in fall 2024 and will not impact the students currently enrolled in those programs, officials said.
Among the degree programs Smith recommended ending are: agriculture, forestry, music, photography, climate change science and school psychology. He said the 10 programs identified enroll a total of 77 students, or roughly 2 percent of VTSU’s student body, VT Digger reported.
Proposed faculty cuts would eliminate 10 to 15 percent of the 207 full-time faculty positions—layoffs that could be averted if enough members take the buyouts the system is planning to offer.
“None of this is easy, and I recognize that impacted faculty will have a period of transition ahead of them,” Smith wrote in the report. “What we are doing with these recommendations is confronting our pressures head on—not running from them—and forging a path to address each and every one of them either through steps to obtain fiscal sustainability, strategic plan for admissions, or a student success model to keep students engaged in academic life.”
VTSU has struggled almost since it was announced last year that three financially challenged public institutions in the state—Northern Vermont University, Vermont Technical College and Castleton University—would be consolidated into one.
Officials initially proposed and then backtracked on some cuts, and enrollment continues to flag.
Smith assumed the presidency in April after former president Parwinder Grewal resigned abruptly. Sophie Zdatny, the chancellor of the Vermont State Colleges system—which includes VTSU and Community College of Vermont—announced last month that she will also step down at the end of the year.
