 This is Higher Education Matters and I'm your host, Jeb Spaulding. I'm the Chancellor of the Vermont State Colleges System and in this program we try to explore issues of higher education. Often we do focus on the Vermont State Colleges System as a whole but we also address generic issues in higher education like affordability and access and technology and hopefully we have interesting guests that make it something that you want to watch on a regular basis. So thank you for joining us today and thanks to Orca for hosting us and producing this program. Our guest today is Jesse Streeter. Jesse is a junior at Northern Vermont University Johnson. Hello Jesse. Hello. Thank you for having me. Thanks for coming on the program. So Northern Vermont University, we may as well start right there. This is the first official year of Northern Vermont University. What is it? It's very exciting changing Johnson and Linden combining together to become, go from a state college to a university. I don't know, it's exciting to be attracting a lot of new people to do it. It's a unification of bringing the best of Johnson and Linden together into one institution but with two campuses. Yes. And one thing we may as well say right from the start if people are watching this and wondering, the athletic teams are staying on each of the campuses. Correct. So each will have a soccer team or a basketball team or what have you, right? And they've sparked a competition between the two schools to see which one is the better campus. Yeah. Athletically. Okay, well that's good. Yeah. But I think the purpose of it really was to try to make sure that the dollars we're spending are spent on the things that matter most to students. Yes. So I happen to know being the chancellor of the Vermont State College of the System that in the first year, the transition year before they even became officially Northern Vermont University, we saved over a million dollars in sort of executive management fees by having one president, one CFO, one academic dean and trying to re-plow that money into things that actually matter to students like education and extracurriculars and stuff like that. So that's really the purpose of the whole thing. And over time we are hoping that it will actually mean the faculty members at both Lyndon and Johnson get to know each other a little bit better and work together so students like you will have access not only to faculty members at the Johnson campus where you go but faculty members from the Lyndon campus as well. Yeah. And some of those things take a while. Like right now I know that the business program has already become one department and that's sort of the vision of where we're going in the future. And I was actually up at Johnson fairly recently talking to a professor that takes trips, I think he was taking a trip to India and they didn't have enough students last year but when they look at both NVU, Lyndon and Johnson they'll have enough to actually run the trip. And so that's another example of like where we're doing more for students. I mean have you noticed Jesse any difference or is it in your own way it's just the same as it always was? For me personally it's been pretty much the same. A lot of the faculty in my programs have stayed there and I've experienced them but I do know people in the business department who have experienced meeting professors from Lyndon and kind of getting to know other people through the unification. Well let's learn a little bit about you to start with here. Yes. Jesse Streeter, where are you from? So I'm from Richmond, Vermont went to Mount Mansfield High School, grew up in the area and I wasn't really sure exactly what I knew I wanted to go on to higher education but I wasn't sure where I considered going to a large college out of state or staying home kind of went back and forth with that but I decided to stay here, come to Johnson because I like the small community aspect, being able to get to know your professors really well. Well it's interesting that since you mentioned that about getting to know your professors well because I know a lot of times I have two daughters and one of them went to a fairly large university and really didn't have much opportunity to get to know the professors. Have you had the opportunity to actually not only see them in class but you know get to know them a little bit? Yeah, I don't know what it's like at a large university, I imagine it's a lot harder but from my experience when you have classes of 20 or so students you really the teachers get to know everybody's name, they know how you're doing in the class, if you're struggling they'll come work with you more, if you're not they might help you go even farther than the class would normally take you and you build a strong connection with your advisor and they all really care about you and how you're doing in classes and will bring opportunities to you that I feel like you wouldn't get elsewhere. Okay, well that's great. Yeah. So I'm just kind of curious back when you were, if you can remember back in the old days when you were still a high school student a few years ago, did the school counselors or the teachers you had in high school welcome you with thinking about going to one of their state colleges or discourage you or they had no role at all? It's hard to remember but I feel like there was a limited role and they tried to help you go somewhere but it wasn't like they were necessarily pushing one thing or the other that was just kind of a decision on my own to really stay around. Okay. I mean the reason I ask is because sometimes I feel like people in Vermont, regular citizens or educators don't really understand the opportunities that are available to students at our own public higher education system and oftentimes I see people that are go out of state and pay more and get less out of it and that's unfortunate in a way and it makes me think about like for you and you might not have, I don't know the answer to this Jesse but have you taken advantage of any of the foreign exchange programs or anything like that? I haven't taken advantage of any of those. I have some friends who have had a great experience but I personally haven't looked into it at all just because it doesn't fit in necessarily with my interests. Yeah. We'll get back to your interest but just so people know, I mean all of our colleges and I should maybe say, you know we have four institutions that are part of the Vermont State College's system, Castleton of course, I'm doing an alphabetical order here, no other reason for this but Castleton University down outside of Rutland, we have Community College of Vermont which has got 12 locations around the state and fully one-third of the courses at Community College are actually online courses now and then Northern Vermont University with our two campuses and Lyndon and Johnson and then Vermont Technical College which has its main campus in Randolph Center but a really nice campus in Williston which by the way is getting so popular it's hard to park there anymore and then they offer distance learning and programs throughout the state and allied health and nursing so those are the main institutions of the Vermont State College's system but all of them have opportunities for students to actually spend a year abroad or to travel and at Johnson for example, Johnson is a member of the National Student Exchange and the International Student Exchange which means that students can go to study for a year at you know hundreds of universities and colleges in this country and around the world at in-state tuition so you know I think it's fine if students like and families want to go out of state for a while and often that that's that's nothing wrong with that it's a big world but often people don't realize actually you could do that at in-state tuition rates at one of our state colleges. Yeah it's a really really good opportunity I have a friend in Montana and then one that just went down to Rhode Island so you can go anywhere and it's a very good opportunity. So what is it what is it that's your what are you majoring in? I'm majoring double majoring in history and political science and I feel like the programs there have created a lot of opportunities for me they've got really well connected professors a senator Bill Doyle who's no longer teaching there but when I first started he taught a course down at the state house which was a really good experience we went down over winter break and observed the legislature and then through that I got a couple internships down there so there's a lot of connections connections and smart people there that really want to help you. Yeah it's amazing you know when I sort of look at the makeup of the legislature how many of the legislators actually went to one of our state colleges system so I'm glad you had the opportunity to do that it is unfortunate that Senator Doyle retired but he is you know well past normal retirement age so it happens to everybody eventually but we're certainly gonna miss him but I'm hopeful that we'll still have programs that allow students to go down and spend time in the state house. Yeah and you know have you gotten to a point where you're thinking about what you wanted I know you're just a junior but are you starting to think a little bit past graduation and what you might want to do with your education? Yeah I plan on going to law school after I graduate and just another thing is going being able to go to a Vermont State College and get a really good education at a very affordable price makes it a lot more realistic that I can then go on to the cost of law school later and still feel very prepared for it. So and what just on a personal level if you're thinking about law school and you're a history major when you said a double major history and what was the other political science are you thinking about politics or maybe a maybe eventually I haven't decided on that but I definitely have the interest in that area after what I've done and this general interest. Well you're sort of involved with politics right now so have you been involved with the Student Government Association? Yeah I have last year I was a senator on the student government and this year I've taken a role as the director of clubs at the school which is lessened the decision-making but kind of the role of just helping out. So and you've recently been elected to become a trustee of the Vermont State College system right? Yes. Okay so you just you can did you know you can do that for two years Jesse? I didn't know that. Yes and I actually I'm glad to know that you're a junior because personally we've had you know we've had some really great student trustees but most of the time they just do it for one year and they're really just coming up to speed and then we get somebody new like you. Yeah. If you enjoy it at least keep that in the back of your mind that you know you can do it for two years if you're elected. Is it is the Student Trustee elected by the all the students of Vermont State College system or by the board of the Student Government Association? It's by the board of the Student Government Association all the presidents and vice presidents of the different student governments at the schools. Yeah and did you have to did you have a contested election to get to be trustee? It was lightly contested yeah but it was yeah it was good. Okay well I'm glad you got on board. Yeah. And what have you thought of a trustee meeting so far? They've been very good I mean it's still very early so there's a lot to be seen and learned but it's been a great experience so far I'm learning a lot and hopefully we'll be able to contribute. I like to be a voice for the students I like to think that I have connections with a lot of different people on campus all different kinds of interests so if I can represent them the best at these meetings that's the goal. Looking forward to that you know we have four institutions that are part of the system I already mentioned them we only have one board of trustees and there are 15 members of the board including the governor and my experience governors don't usually have the time to participate so it's really more like 14 people and the Student Trustee brings a perspective that's really really important and we try to stay involved with what's going on the campuses but there's nothing like somebody that's actually there and we encourage our trust student trustees that they're just like any other trustee we all come in with you know certain backgrounds and when they're on the board though they're everybody's equal so we look forward to that you know you mentioned clubs and you're involved with that this year are there what kind of clubs do we have? There's a very wide variety of clubs there's a lot of skiers and snowboarders and johnson so there's a club that tries to get them up to the mountain as much as possible there's clubs that play like tabletop games there's clubs that it's really just bringing interests together of any kind to do activities or there's model un which is a really good club that brings together bright minds and they go down to massachusetts every year with I don't know if it's from around the country or from around the world just different schools coming together representing a country and kind of in a diplomatic situation you know it's the reason I mentioned it is because in this day and age people are sometimes attracted to getting their degrees online or some way like that which is nothing wrong with it but you know you're not getting the full student experience like you can at one of our state colleges that have all these extracurricular activities model un or or athletics or whatever you and have those kind of experiences been you know something that's been attractive to you and useful for you? Definitely and I know I've talked like there's commuters at johnson that always say they want to get into things but they have a hard time with commuting being able to participate in these activities and I just I do think they're a great opportunity to meet new people but even get to know even more faculty that aren't just in your classes and build those really good connections and opportunities so I guess the college experience is at the heart of it is the academics but it's a lot more than that yeah there's a lot more personal growth and learning how to you know deal with people that are different than you and you know actually struggling sometimes just and getting through the other side hopefully with some support from the the college is a good experience that you can't get online exactly so I'm curious Jesse have you ever run into any students that are early college students at at NVU Johnson? I have um this past summer I was actually an orientation leader um so bringing in all the new freshmen helping them find things and I had an early college group all the students in my group were early college students and they were they're very like I feel like they were a little more nervous maybe than some of the regular freshmen just because they're they're younger and experiencing a totally new thing but but they're very smart kids and they're they're ready to tackle yeah what's in front of them it's something that I for our viewers I just want to elaborate on a little bit early college is when seniors in high school combine that senior high senior year of high school and their first year of college so they could come to NVU Johnson Lindencastleton Community College from Montec and actually by the time they graduate from high school have completed their first year of college with no tuition cost which is pretty amazing when you talk about affordability is is a big issue for people these days but you know if you were going to get an associate's degree that would be a 50 reduction in the tuition cost or even with a bachelor's a 25% reduction in tuition so you know not only do you get a like for first for many in fact on this program we had had a student from up in Franklin County who was an early college student you know really recounted that he was kind of like just drifting along in his high school and got to go to Johnson and really had a much more meaningful and productive senior year that was going to lead him on to go to college that he really didn't even know he was going to go to college so you get that experience but also really helps in the affordability angle too yeah and it's growing I mean it's amazing and within the Vermont State College system the numbers of students participating is is increasing fairly significantly yeah and you can also as high school students take you know without without doing the full early college year you can every high school student in Vermont is entitled to taking two college courses while they're still in high school and it was one student that was down in the Rutland County area that did in their junior year of high school two dual enrollment courses did the early college at Community College of Vermont and then you know their first year out of high school was already into their sophomore year at Castleton you know I just I mentioned that because you know there are a lot of opportunities that people if they think ahead a little bit about can can actually make it much more possible for them to go on to college definitely that's that's an important one you know I also at Johnson have you ever met any students that are in the have you ever met professor Les Cannon I haven't it's in science but they have a program through the National Science Foundation where you're basically for students that are I know your you know history and political science but for students that are interested in math and science where they can go you know for a free boat for four years you know oh is that right yeah and you know you've got to be motivated right there are ways to do it there's incentive to do well yeah yeah so you know I'm just I'm saying that Jesse because a lot of parents and grandparents and students may think gee you know with the sticker price of colleges we just can't even think about it at all and you know there are ways that people can't access higher education in an affordable fashion with a little bit of planning absolutely yeah so have you gotten to know any of the students at the Linden campus yet I haven't yet I'm looking forward to doing that through some of the new positions I haven't then hopefully outside of that the unification brings brings us together on many different levels but I haven't haven't yet no have you've done any courses through telepresence no well what that is I don't know what that is well what it is and we're seeing more and more of it and not only between the campuses of Johnson and Linden at Northern Vermont University but also between community college and and and Casselton or or what happens throughout the system we have classrooms using technology that are connected so a professor can origin it's not not like online I mean it's live and it's happening Monday Wednesday and Friday above whatever time it is but the professor originates the program from one campus but students at another campus can take it live can see the professor can see the white board can ask questions say I didn't understand that equation could you you know just kind of go through a little bit and it is a way to actually allow students to have access to more professors to make sure that we don't have to not you know that we're not running classes with you know four or five people in them that we really is not economically viable for the long run so you know we're trying to take advantage of technology to make sure that students you know really have access to as many of the professors as they can that seems great yeah so Jesse you're how tall are you I'm six six six six six so do you play basketball I was considering playing basketball my freshman year I had a really bad knee injury that kind of took me out for ever but I play I play golf there so doesn't use my height necessarily no it's probably hard for tall people to be golfers like I'm not quite as tall as you but I I'm up there too and it's one way down to that golf ball so yeah but they have athletics at both Johnson and Linden and I mentioned that earlier but you know they play in a conference so if people are thinking about G Northern Vermont University maybe it's you know like kind of like minimizing the opportunities for athletics that's not the case no and what about clubs and you know intramurals and stuff like that um there there's a lot of small intramurals like there's intramural basketball that anybody can participate in one of our biggest sports at the school though is actually a club sport rugby it's um our teams are well known in the region as the best teams every year men's and women's and is that right yeah they they do very well that's great that's a tough game yeah it's like you know it looks like I've never played it myself yeah and you play other colleges within the state college system or within the state college system and outside up not sure the exact place but in Maine and Massachusetts it's different nice yeah well if you had an opportunity to tell students you know why they should think about going to northern Vermont University Johnson which is your direct experience you know what would you what would you say to them Jesse well the biggest thing for me the thing I actually have told a lot of people new students is to really take advantage of every opportunity that you get because at a small college like this there are a lot more opportunities that will come to you than at a larger college um and if you take advantage of it then one thing can lead to another and you can really further your education and help you out in the future so if you take take advantage of those yeah that sounds good it's great and getting to know people I'm just curious I mean before you were on the board of trustees have you ever met the president of of uh Johnson no never yeah never and now you have a student trust yeah okay yeah well that's good yeah and you know when when you went to Johnson did you have any connections there I mean did you know I mean not really my mom had gone there um at one point in her college career um but other than that I did not have any connections and it's crazy to see just two and a half years later all the connections that you can build in that short amount of time right okay I feel like I'm really entrenched in it now well good you're a good ambassador for us that's for sure you know hopefully and I'm I'm thinking that you know what we want to try to do is make sure that whether it's Northern Vermont University or Castleton or Community College of Vermont Technical College that we are serving uh the needs of the state of Vermont and you know if you sort of look at all of our colleges together you would find not only folks like you that may be future legislators or lawyers or what have you public servants but you know if I were to go to you know get some procedure in a in a hospital I'd probably have a nurse that was educated at either Castleton or Vermont Technical College you know we have uh I mean there are hundreds of uh graduates of the Vermont State Colleges that work at what was IBM and is now Global Foundries uh you know the CEO of PC Construction went to Vermont Technical College the president of Union Bank went to Johnson State College and now Northern Vermont University so you know our role uh is actually not just to improve the prospects of individual students but also to serve the needs of the state of Vermont and you know with our demographic situation out there right now where there are just fewer young people it's important that you know that the state colleges provide the kind of education that will allow allow our our young people in Vermont to contribute to the state and to their own future definitely and you know I mean some people Jesse uh wonder about the value of a college education uh and you know the experts would say that uh fully two-thirds of the jobs that are going to be available in the next 10 years require a bachelor's degree and it doesn't mean everybody needs to get a bachelor's degree uh but uh you know people shouldn't minimize the value and I'm glad that you're taking advantage of of those yes and I look forward to find out what you're going to do with your future me too all right well don't don't forget us all right absolutely and I think you know in the in the couple minutes we have left I'd really like to find out um you know one more time what you would say to students that are thinking gee you know I want to go out of state or I want to go to a big university what's the value of a Northern Vermont University Johnson or Lyndon or Castleton or Vermont Tech yeah um I mean it's for those who are having a hard time with staying close to home or not or they really want to go out and experience life outside um it's not you're not getting less of the college experience going to one of the Vermont State colleges it's a smaller community but you can still pursue any interest that you have and affordability is is huge for a lot of people uh whether you need you can only go because it's more affordable or whether it just helps out in the future yeah because it's more affordable it's okay yeah well that sounds good yeah and you know did you have you been a residential student the whole time or did you meet some of the time I have been that's a great opportunity although we have both right so we have plenty of students that do commute absolutely I was surprised when I went to the convocation which is sort of the gathering of the first year students when the semester begins and one of the professors asked the whole group of new students how many of you are working while you're going to school and it seems like it was like 90 percent of the hands went off so there are a lot of our students that are actually pursuing their academics and still trying to you know help with the affordability by maintaining a part time job while they're going yes you've probably seen that with some of the students too right oh definitely okay and those are some of the best students because they're just driven working hard outside of class and then getting their homework done just stay on track and have you met any students from from other states at Johnson a few a lot of the a lot in the region like massachusetts road island my roommates from road island but um also a lot of in-state too because that's a good experience too that i mean we have you know we it's not like not only vermonters there are students from around the region and you know around the world i'm amazed at a place like castlem they have like 36 countries or something like that where students are coming from so and community college is very diverse and so i think jesse we are i hate to say it out of time and so i want to thank you for being a guest today on higher education matters i want to thank our viewers for giving us their time thanks so thanks to worker for hosting i'm jeb spaulding chancellor of the vermont state college system and we hope to see you again