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Faculty at Castleton University are calling for a pause in the consolidation process designed to merge their institution with two other Vermont state colleges to become Vermont State University.
Fifty-five Castleton faculty members -- nearly 70 percent of the full-time faculty -- signed a letter to Sophie Zdatny, the Vermont State Colleges chancellor, expressing concern about “the haste with which the transformation is proceeding.” They argued that the process “will irrevocably damage the very institutions it purports to be ‘saving.’”
The state system’s Board of Trustees voted in September to approve the merger of Castleton, Northern Vermont University and Vermont Technical College as an alternative to shutting them down. The three four-year colleges faced financial shortfalls after years of chronic underfunding and declining enrollment.
The decision to unite them under a single administration has angered students, faculty and alumni -- especially at Castleton, the largest of the three.
“We see the quality of academic programs being threatened,” the Castleton faculty wrote to Zdatny. “We see programs being eliminated or diminished in a haphazard manner. We see conclusions being reached before data are analyzed. We see ignorance of why students apply to our institutions, and why they choose to stay.”
The letter also asserted that the faculty members’ questions about the process have been met with “only deflection and obfuscation.”
In an interview with VTDigger, Zdatny acknowledged the pain the merger is causing.
“People feel very passionately about their institutions, about their students,” she said. “And we recognize that.”
At the same time, she said, “This is change that we’re being asked to do by the state, and change we have to make in order to move forward.”
