 Hi, good morning Hi everybody and thank you all for coming. I'll thank Charlie Giannone from channel 17 who's with us today My name is Sandy Baird and I am one of the founders of the Vermont Institute of Community and international involvement Which is a group that started about a year ago to provide community discussions to provide Information about critical issues facing our country and our state and our city We meet every Wednesday night and we present some kind of a community discussion I'm on a lot of issues for instance on Wednesday and Thursday night tomorrow night We're going to have a discussion of the court packing or the court expansion The US Supreme Court and we will have a community discussion about that tomorrow night Zoom on zoom at six o'clock But I'm here today to express Vicki's solidarity with the faculty the staff and the students of the University of Vermont and their position that the College our university the state university should continue to support and Expand the liberal arts and humanities Courses and majors at the University of Vermont Vicki believes as does all the citizens of our state that the only way to Educate a complete human being and a complete human being at all ages is to provide Education teaching and learning in the liberal arts that foster critical thinking creative expression and engaged citizen and to create free citizens in A democratic society so with those of the faculty with the students and with the Staff of the University of Vermont We urge the university to halt the cuts in the liberal arts and in the humanities and To rethink their position and to support those programs In the liberal arts and in the humanities and all the faculty who teach in those programs So welcome here this morning. We're going to have a discussion of this issue I'm going to turn over this microphone to Megan Emory who is a French professor Here at the University and who has been very active in supporting the liberal arts and the humanities Thank you and welcome, and I'm so happy to see you all here. Thank you Thank you very much Sandy, and I'm very happy to be here too. I want to give Sandy a proper introduction She did tell you a little bit about a lot of what she does. Here's more She is an avid student of European history with professor Andrew Buchanan at UVM a colleague. I know well She's also a former state representative from Burlington the UVM district She's a lawyer and educator in addition to being a founder of Vicki and the people's law school And of course she is committed to civil rights as we see here today The next speaker that I'd like to call here. Just be careful of the cords is Helen really she is My colleague on the South Burlington City Council But she has a long illustrious career of service to this state and to this institution She graduated from UVM from education in 1972 She's a former state representative for Burlington Former state senator for Chittenden County and a former legislative trustee for the University of Vermont She is also the past executive director of Champlain Valley Area Health Education Center It is my honor and pleasure to welcome Helen to the microphone Well good, I put it all on plastic because it was supposed to be raining I thought I should plan ahead, but maybe that's what would bring sunshine But good afternoon, and I appreciate the opportunity to address you and thank you Megan for Including me in such a nice introduction Let me first start by saying that I'm not representing the South Burlington City Council Nor am I contemplating a run for higher office and here hoping for some support I am here simply as an individual a citizen an alumna A person who cares deeply about the future of the University of Vermont My perspectives come from experience as a former as Megan mentioned a former UVM trustee elected by the legislature quite a few years ago A Vermont middle school teacher of us history government and world history And 20 plus years as a Vermont legislator It seems to me that the current administration's action and plans for the future Do three things detrimental to this institution and this state The plan strays from the promises and expectations of a land grant university Which is important to the state It undermines the foundational teachings Important to a rigorous democracy Which is important to everyone and three challenges the ability to provide development of an ethical foundation For our students careers and life endeavors To bring humanity back into the equation or rather keep it there Again important to everyone So number one straying from the land grant university goals Certainly could be problematic for the state of Vermont We all know Vermont is a small state A community really given its size We depend on each other For all manner of things We seem to embrace the democratic spirit perhaps more than many other states We depend on the promise of a land grant institution To provide the research Intellectual foundation and stimuli for all manner of things agricultural best practices water quality The importance of forest blocks education special education social services mental health and primary care physicians and providers Cleaning up lake Champlain smart growth historical preservation climate change nurses technicians The list is longer As a legislator we look to uvm as our flagship and partner For assistance in addressing the multitude of issues important to us all Where would we go if uvm couldn't help? Who knows and understands this state best? If you stray from that relationship Eliminate the courses critical to addressing those issues You fail to meet the basis for land grant institutions And you're no longer really the university of Vermont You can become a you you can become a university for somebody else And just happen to be located in Vermont But that would be tragic number two A true university offers students the foundational teachers teachings For a rigorous and healthy democracy And heaven knows that is critically important at this moment in our history Without the broad spectrum of courses offered in the College of Arts and Sciences that are now at risk Students lose an important ability to learn and understand the world Courses in religion and culture and language and art history music Provide better understanding and responses to issues we are facing in Vermont Our country and the world These are the underpinnings of a democrat democratic society An ability to build bridges of understanding As important to town meetings as to the state legislature and the united nations We need diversity of thought and understanding of what makes people see the world differently This translates into a shared sense of humanity And is important to our world Then we can move forward Without that We can help put Functioning democracy at risk And this humanity leads me to my final point number three An ethical foundation for careers and life endeavors of our graduates is critical Again the all important courses in philosophy the classics Ethics religion history literature All play important roles for successfully graduating future leaders entrepreneurs teachers scientists Healthcare providers Even lawyers lobbyists in short all graduates and by extension all vermont residents Our state's university must provide these opportunities of of learning We can't leave it to fate I understand there's no guarantee that every student will become totally ethical caring and perfect But I would like to think That that is an important value Still held by the university of vermont Let's not renege on our contract with humanity In conclusion I understand how difficult it can be for a board of trustees to challenge the goals of a recently constituted administration They seem to have all the data and often it is not fully shared in ways that are clear and discernible It can be complicated But I implore the trustees And the administration to take a closer look Listen to the faculty staff and students Consider the consequences of this new vision in the broadest sense and do the right thing Rethink this and get back to what is best for vermont and the students Thank you for this opportunity to share my thoughts and for your interest and persistence I wish us all success Thank you so much Helen and you see why south burlington and indeed the region is so lucky to have her at the helm Of municipal and local and regional government She spoke of the not on uvm campus Yeah, the campus is a little bit. I will do so And feel free to to just raise a hand to an ears to let the speaker know all right Very good. Well, thank you again Helen and I wanted just to repeat what she said that a liberal arts education Is something that is called a contract with humanity. I love that expression applause yes You coined it here Helen And let us not forget that our republic is founded on a social contract And that social contract is with our citizens including our new citizens And that is why we have invited the next speaker to our podium And I hope I'm pronouncing is it abhija Abhija manga. He is a uvm phd student in education Department of leadership and policy studies. He's the owner of loving home care in colchester He's a teacher interpreter youth program coordinator with a alv Former outreach coordinator for cvo eos fair housing project mhf a Save the children and past foreign affairs expert for the office of the prime minister of the congo Yes We have a distinguished list of speakers Here comes the truck. So please wait And might I add that he is a living example of that social contract that all new americans make with this great democracy Thank you. Thank you abhija. Thank you Hi everybody You will see that I didn't uh write a very long speech But I just wanted to be here to support this cause Why is because I am a living experience Of why I think education is important not only for All of you But also for new american who have chosen america to be their homes especially verma You as you may know it, you know that verma is one of the Resettlement states And we have so many immigrants And most of them are refugees And I work with refugees students When they're in high school A lot of them want to come to uvm So many of them want to go to college But if we are hearing that Some fund will be cut We actually jeopardizing even their hope They will not even have hope To pursue what is in our constitution To pursue the better life so I didn't want to write a lot because I believe that education as a public good All of us need to benefit from that And it doesn't as I said in the beginning Benefit a lot to new americans and as a new american I believe that we need to support this cause Because by supporting this cause We show Not only to american but to other people around the world that this country is really a true democracy And we're supporting education as a public good We're supporting our citizen by giving them what is needed If they can't get education, especially liberal art because I mean the liberal art We're showing that we actually stopping them to move forward There's a greater competition around the world So To you all I just wanted to tell you to thank you first for coming today and to showing that you're supporting this cause So thank you again for giving me this opportunity Thank you so much abija And I do want to say that he accepted only on monday Okay, and actually I I reached him on monday and he accepted yesterday because a previous speaker needed to change Plans due to an unforeseen event and just remarkable Generosity, thank you. Thank you The next speaker is julie roberts who I know quite well as a colleague She is a professor of linguistics, and she is our very much appreciated and beloved united academics president Who has just served to us a ratified contract for full-time faculty Yes, we are happy about that. Thank you. Um, please step forward if you can't hear also And I will do my best to project I want to talk to you today about how not to run a university during a pandemic or other global emergency Based on the example of uvm one Reduce the job and pay of many of the least paid and most job insecure faculty by one quarter Then after they've spent the summer worrying about how they're going to pay for housing and food And when you realize you actually need those faculty to teach classes change your mind two Cut the salaries of staff who are without the protection of a union by five percent Then when you realize you can't make the budget crisis argument work anymore And you can't give the same cut to unionized employees because there is no budget crisis Change your mind three Do not renew the contracts of three senior lecturers with over 20 years experience each And bend over backwards trying to explain that it's not real really a layoff But rather it is normal to reevaluate what courses are needed as contracts come up for renewal And besides we're in a budget crisis Oh Then when it turns out that many more students than expected or planned for put down deposits for the fall And you desperately need faculty to teach them change your mind Only this time don't offer them the four-year contract tracks to which they are entitled But reduce the offer to two years Why I have no idea fine four finally Announce cuts to programs departments majors and minors Because maybe we're in a budget crisis or maybe we're fiscally sound But units with few majors are unsustainable no matter how many students they teach and what their impact is on the state of vermont Then when your decision comes up against the well established processes of shared government through the faculty senate Coerce those programs into dissolving themselves by hiding their faculty and classes under the protection of larger units Why I have no idea I want to talk about briefly how we got here The uvm board of trustees decided to approve the hiring of the current president Ignoring all past practices and their own stated process By bringing him in as the only candidate without faculty or other uvm community support Having made this decision They now back the current administration despite the harm they are doing to uvm in general And particularly to our ability to deliver a quality liberal arts education What is the solution? One there are undoubtedly many as you will probably hear today, but I want to talk about one in particular Diversify and democratize the board of trustees at the experience At the experience and the perspectives of those who know what is going on day in and day out at uvm our faculty and staff Add both faculty and staff members We at in united academics have promoted a bill which has been introduced into the vermont house of representatives To do just that However, if the board decided to go ahead and do what is right for uvm and for the state on their own How much better would that be? I don't think they would need to change their minds And lastly Fully restore the jobs of the three cut senior lecturers Two-year recall appointments are not enough. These beloved faculty deserve their full contracts back We can turn this around. We celebrate the students who have chosen to return to or come to uvm for the first time We celebrate the faculty whose amazing teaching and scholarship has made uvm the kind of place Where students want to come and we celebrate the staff who make this education possible We celebrate our unions which have worked harder than ever this year To support these faculty and these staff and these students. Thank you Thank you, julie. She is one of the pillars up here, right? Also a former faculty senate president in addition to all that she does for our university The next speaker i'd like to call up is eric lindstrom who is a professor of english He is also a member of the united academics executive council as a member at large. I believe Thank you everybody for coming out to vicki my colleagues in the union community members I'm here as the secretary of united academics a member of the executive council and also on my own behalf To talk to you about something that concerns everybody here All the members of our university community and citizens of the state That uvm administration really doesn't want us to know or talk about And that is the increasing normalization In the dollar amounts of uvm admins relationships with private consulting firms um, you know, this is critical in a public institution And uh, i'm an english professor. I was just promoted to the rank of full professor two weeks ago I'm proud of that. I earned it. I've been here for 15 years I was a member and then chair of the fletcher free library board. I've got two kids in the brillington school system I want to be proud of staying here and I want my kids to have a good option to come to uvm And uh, i'm happy to be here with my colleagues and friends But reluctant, you know, I'd rather be in the community garden or doing some research after finishing class last night Uh at eight o'clock this issue came to the fore back in 2007 maybe In a kind of scandal really When a member of uvm administration chief financial officer Without authorization spent I think minimum five million dollars That wasn't authorized by the board or the then president dan fogle My colleague whom I respect um Five million dollars on a people soft software implementation That that was a scandal And also i'll say it was for It was for a product, you know, it was for something that we do use however Uh kind of ghastly that was What I want to talk about today is just kind of the normalization since then 2007 right before the financial crisis of Kind of day-to-day operations right with private consulting Here at uvm and broadly across the nation. Um, I will admit I don't have a real personal comprehension Or like Of management culture in the academy I'm a romanticist and I teach in the english department. I'm allowed to have a kind of constitutional, you know Gap there But we are a public institution And when we make a freedom of information act request, certainly we deserve public information And you all should know What our state school is spending And what they're doing it for so the issues I have are multifold really One is the amount of money In kind of again, not a scandal. I'm not trying to blow a whistle today Day-to-day operations. We just filed given the uh austerity measures on campus A request to see how much A request to see how much uvm administration had been paying to the private consulting firm Huron Who you can google this. I mean, I just did last night who's ceo. I believe makes four million annually And I think whose cfo makes two million annually I don't want to be quoted on that but I googled it. So it's there Um And since 2016 and ending in 2021 it was just under four million dollars three million nine hundred thousand 33 488 dollars and 63 cents Eventually after a request that was filed, I'll just give the dates And I mean again, I'm not trying to say anything exceptional is going on here, but it's characteristic A FOIA request was made on behalf of united academics January 29th 2021 Which makes the mutually acknowledged date to get back to us 10 business days february 12th We got some lagging and kind of kicking it down the road And some requests for deferral It was answered Eventually with the set of 17 redacted documents That are posted to the united academics website on march 12th So a month after the 10-day protocol Both the time needed for uvm's offices to prepare these documents and the time needed for Huron The private consulting group to prepare those documents were invoked as reasons for the delay, right? At that time, so this is march 12th One reason for the highly redacted, you know blacked out documents was Cited as Huron's quote trade secret rights as a private company to protect their trade information around their proprietary products, right? um What concerns me here, and I don't have an answer for it But I feel like it's a big question that requires real community participation to address Here in vermont and across the nation is how our state public universities can have private consulting relationships That are not disclosed And that are legally protected as trade secrets even when such information At least initially includes basic things like the dollar amount of the contract Um Again, I you know I'm not in law either or management. That seems like a big issue to me and an important issue And it's not often that you sort of feel that little thrill in your bones of knowing you're a citizen and you have to do something But I really do feel if we don't think together about this In 10 years 20 years 40 years This kind of consulting relationship Which again, I'll acknowledge my My position feels to me parasitic feels to me opportunistic Feels not motivated by the better good of our state our university um Is going to grow over our campuses And wipe out elements of our campus ecology like dutch elm disease did in the 20th century to Our trees. I mean, I think we'll look out and our institutional landscape will be different Uh, I'm really worried about that. I can't even necessarily formalize You know my thoughts about what that will look like But I think we need to act and I don't just think it's about uvm I think it's business as usual Other schools that this consulting firm here on has worked with Are interestingly great schools my alma mater university of wisconsin madison To make them more efficient and flexible The new school, you know, like my colleague in grad school that was smarter than me. He teaches there. These are great schools New hampshire our colleague in peer institution These are all great universities and the fact that there are peer institutions are better does not comfort me um So broadly i'm here to express my concern Not just about one FOIA request which is important and should be heated and should be um respected in the function of our university in the state But also more broadly in terms of uvm's ongoing relationship with consulting firms Well, I'd acknowledge that outside consulting relationships on some scale are probably a necessary part Of life in today's academy I mean uvm brings in some people to consult and we pay them 100 Thousand couple thousand they help us out. We know them. We name them. You see them on the street They live here What I see here increasingly across the country Are moves from a corporate playbook And could spread like a disease And we're seeing it start certainly in the last decade Because of the amount of money being spent The compound factor that whatever money is spent is being sent by Spent by higher administration that we're already paying a lot. They should do those jobs. They should have those visions They should do the reimagining We pay $4 million for reimagining and we don't pay for the imagining of an english department instructor um Two because of the near complete lack of transparency even when pressed by such means as the public does have And three from the sense which I truly feel And don't want to feel Collectively that our administration seems increasingly to value and plan alongside professional management firms in consulting not with faculty not with students not with citizens Even when uvm faculty students staff and vermont citizens are brought on board It seems to be more about hollow gestures of process and not about substance which has already been set Um That's what I have to say. Thank you. Thank you, eric and congratulations on becoming a full professor. Bravo I just wanted to add um that We all are in the midst of Finalizing the semester and and we are looking forward to Being free but before we get to that freedom which includes perhaps we hope freedom from wearing the mask We have exams right ahead of us here And so I am really grateful to the students who have now joined us as well as the faculty including emeritus who are here This is a busy time and we very much appreciate your presence I just wanted to add to something about huran consulting They not only work with higher education institutions. They work with right-wing politicians Including ted crews of texas It's perhaps not a coincidence that the great university of wisconsin Was decimated under its previous governor scott walker I just want us to think about that a little bit and I want us to also think about A sales pitch that came out under the title of covet insights in december of 2020 just a few months ago highlighting uvm as one of huran's clients Huran is associated with breaking tenure It's associated with downsizing the liberal arts And so I want us to just think about that a little bit about with whom our administration is contracting I'm the next speaker And I am an associate professor of french. I've been here for 19 years Um, I'm here because sandy baird reached out to me and said I belong to this incredible association named vicki and we want to know what's happening at uvm Please come talk to us along with senator phil bereuth Which I did back in march and and julie joined us at a subsequent session in in was it april Thank you sandy these months are so What a year right and this past year has been traumatic For many of us here at the university of vermont on the faculty and equally the staff and students Just as it has as it has been and continues to be for people all over you might say so get over it right And who doesn't like or even vicariously benefit From compelling drama these days Well to the naysayers I say Let's get past the entertainment value shall we and spin that's happened in the administration statements and press releases Because and I hope you hear me when I say this This is serious business The interests of our future your future and our future are at stake As we follow developments led by faculty staff and students over the past few months Followed by last friday's news of record-breaking deposits from new and coming first year students The administration's story of ongoing financial hardship is increasingly hard to take It's a fiction The layoffs that julie spoke of unnecessary And our dean and his staff are now scrambling to reconstitute our shrunken faculty ranks You've seen the numbers More than 200 students net are expected to exceed institutional projections and this is for the college of arts and sciences alone 300 more 300 students net for the university overall In our college in addition to layoffs We are facing severe attrition With 30 more faculty in the arts and sciences planning to retire in the coming years On top of 18 full-time tenured faculty 10 non-tenure track full-time equivalents and 62 part-time faculty that we've lost through attrition and cut since 2018 Do the math And as julie robert stated Last semester's layoffs were made in the cruelest of ways with little warning During the week of final exams Just as winter was setting in and faculty seeking to recharge with their families over the end of year holidays After a grueling three months of cleaning protocols for in-person classes Or the challenges of adapting to hybrid or remote instruction charlie briggs jamie williamson And steven rite combined taught more than 550 students last year alone They were tired And deserved a thanks and needed rest They certainly did not deserve to be unceremoniously dismissed and shown the door brian walsh of classics and anise mement of french and italian Didn't deserve this treatment either when their contracts weren't renewed two or three years prior Due to a non-existent budget crisis More widely broadcast as a structural deficit Both of which terms top administrators have now disavowed And now they're claiming a revenue shortfall Probably a creative play on our tuition freeze Which i'm i approve of But it's not a tuition revenue shortfall. Let's just be clear None of us deserve this orwellian shock treatment Plus when you're only four years shy of retirement as in jamie's case or the father of a young family as in anise's case It is inordinately shocking To hear university administrators cry poverty When they give themselves one million dollars in raises and bonuses At the same time They claim to save six hundred thousand dollars as justification for closing 27 programs 12 majors 11 minors and four masters programs that's six hundred thousand dollars of savings Compared to a million And that's only in the arts and sciences and particularly the humanities And we're a land grant university Vermont's flagship institution of higher learning and a premier research institution Even teaching and research excellence did not save our male colleagues from what Naomi Klein has coined as disaster capitalism This unforced and yet foreseeable human and institutional catastrophe Has created not only a scramble in our dean's office to find faculty to cover needed new course sections But also the past year A deadly climate of fear Particularly among non-tenure track and untenured faculty faculty of color LGBTQ plus faculty and faculty in small programs such as mine in french Although the administration is now offering our non-tenure track faculty a full full time load of classes And the modest salary that goes along with it These same faculty have seen written into their contracts the ominous redefinition A full-time equivalency as 0.75 FTE or 75 percent of a full teaching load This damically soared of losing a quarter of one's barely livable wage Perhaps the sole income for a single mom's household as non-tenure track faculty rachel montesano in spanish taught us last fall Is barely tenable for an institution I can't let them roar over this salaries by 25 percent is untenable for an institution that prides itself on our collective commitment to respect integrity innovation openness justice and responsibility or what we call here our common ground principles And as a professor teaching in a relatively small language program Though our numbers are impressive in comparison to our peers It was not without hesitation that I chose to speak up as one Among a loose coalition of faculty staff and students and community members known as uvm united against the cuts However, once the ice is broken after the first press conference back in march I and indeed we remain firmly committed to restoring the liberal arts programming and our faculty ranks So that our uvm our university to which we dedicate our life blood Can thrive as an institution and provide the quality education promised and bequeathed to us by our forebears Including john dewey It was perhaps easier for me as a woman faculty member to accept the invitation to join a more private working group Of the faculty women's caucus Before I even got on board this amazing group of women had put together a draft survey of 45 questions That was then distributed to the university listservs Serving faculty who identify as women lgbtq plus or by pock The results were issued late yesterday at about the same time we learned of the ratification of our full-time faculty contract Representing a subset of women faculty the results from those who responded as well as the 20 pages of open-ended responses They wrote single-space pages They tell us a story The story of what shock capitalism does to not only men But also those among us who feel the most vulnerable In particular our non-tenure track and untenured faculty and faculty women of color Respondents from each of uvm's eight colleges with about half tenured and half untenured or non-tenure track Shared their assessment of the current campus climate and working conditions. I'm going to share some quotes with you from the executive summary As to choose from excellent very good good fair or poor The situation was rated the worst for by pock and non-tenure track and untenured faculty With 89 percent of respondents 89 percent of respondents rating climate and conditions as fair or poor for by pock faculty And 83 percent rating them fair or poor for untenured faculty 65 percent of respondents rated climate and conditions as fair or poor for faculty women overall And 48 percent rated them as fair or poor for lgbtq plus faculty Furthermore the women faculty respondents clearly linked the climate to our current administration and here I quote again 66 percent of respondents reported that climate and conditions have worsened for faculty women in the past two years 85 percent of respondents reported worsening climate and conditions for untenured or non-tenure track faculty Listen to these numbers. They tell us a story Respondents also cited and I quote the large negative effect from recent administrative decisions Such as closing the campus children's school and pushing for cuts an academic reorganization in a pandemic Of major concern is that more than half of respondents seek to leave uvm in the near future with one third Attributing their plans. That's more than half With one third attributing their plans to recent trends at uvm Respondent comments showed clear dissatisfaction with the current university administration's failure to address campus climate Working conditions and equity issues that impact the work and lives of faculty women and lgbtq plus and bi pock faculty So All is not rosy in this picture as the administration would have us believe On this day when we are to celebrate the ratified contract for full-time faculty after more than a year of brutal negotiations Julie's tired and she deserves our thanks The picture this report provides less and arrest And here she is today The picture this report provides is extremely far from being rosy Which is why I felt compelled to speak about it today So my thanks to the brave women and men and faculty of all genders Who have worked to find ways to have the voices of the most vulnerable heard May they be Thank you Now we turn To the best part our students Annalise Holden are you here? All right, I have to find my notes. I've gotten lost here in all of my pages Because she's also got some Things I need to talk about All right This amazing young woman is a rising junior During her sophomore year She has been one of the champions Of our uvm union of students She has participated in every activity that I have taken part in Including the teaching where she spoke so eloquently She wrote a commentary That appeared in the vermont digger Again her eloquence Was moving And as professors we love to see our students shine the way that Annalise shines She is a classics major Yes Just like tony morrison and dr. Anthony Fauci Here we go Annalise The world and the stages are Um My name is Annalise Holden. Um, I'm a rising junior undergraduate student. Um, I'm studying classical civilization in ancient greek With a minor in psychological sciences I would like to share with you all a student's perspective on the latest occurrences within the college of arts and sciences As most of us know on december 2nd of last year college of arts and sciences dean william falls Set to memo in conjunction with provost patricia prelock To propose the termination of 12 majors 11 minors and four graduate programs Including the closure of the classics religion geology historic preservation programs As well as majors and minors in global studies language and more This announcement made in the middle of a remote semester Of finals in the middle of a remote semester was devastating to students in and outside of these programs myself included For six months. I have given a lot of efforts to protest these changes Efforts made alongside my heavy academic responsibilities and difficulties coping with the pandemic I wish I was studying for my finals right now, but i'm here today because this is important I'm not saying these things to earn pity and I don't regret any of these things that i've done This past challenging year has been a reality for all of our students The proposed loss of our academic units and our professors has undoubtedly added to that burden Fast forward to this month may 2021 Dean william falls announced that the latest data for new class enrollments showed that the college of arts and sciences Expects nearly 200 more students than anticipated this fall Enrollment is at a dramatic increase uvm-wide, but particularly in the college of arts and sciences He estimated that number even after taking into account students that would melt away or put down deposits and not choose to attend uvm in the end He states and I quote that there is clearly greater interest in cas Personally, I don't think that great interest went anywhere In a covet year where students deferred going to colleges and took gap years for their own mental health and physical safety It should not have come as a surprise to the uvm administration that new students would be abundant this coming year Nor should they have jumped at the chance to close departments. They deemed suffering and terminate three lecturers While the pandemic has caught everyone off-guard and halted business as usual It is not an excuse for hasty decision-making It is poor judgment by ambitious administrators who stake their reputations on quick sodic restructurings and initiatives And students and faculty become the collateral The thing that perhaps has offended me the most out of all this backpedaling is that dean falls offered to renew the contracts of the three lecturers Whose contracts he had terminated in december James williamson charlie briggs and steven rite Let me be clear that I take no offense in the reinstatement of these three. I am overjoyed that their contracts would be renewed and that They are so dearly valued by their students and they will have an opportunity to continue working here I take serious offense for them that dean falls and the broader administration would end their contracts without second thought And then turn around and ask them to come back It's discourteous to say the least Dean falls also stated that the increase in enrollments shows that students believe in our faculty and all we have to offer He's nearly correct I believe in my professors every single one in the classic department I believe in the professors and cast that I have had the pleasure to learn with these past two years I believe in james williamson charlie briggs and steven rite the lecturers who so indecently had their jobs threatened before all of our eyes But I don't believe in william falls. I don't believe in patricia prelock and I do not believe in syrash garamella The way that my fellow students and I see it what has happened here was a surprise to no one It is a game to administrators and a heartfelt disappointment to faculty staff graduates and undergraduates This is why I stand behind all of the demands made by faculty and fellow students today as a student of the university of vermont They keep us young They keep us young And they keep us determined Our resolve has never been stronger thanks to our students So Dan daniel montonio he's Another amazing student. He was my right hand guy at the april 12th press conference That we put together uvm finance is exposed Not only did he man the controls He did all of those charts All of those slides That we had in that press conference That's dan He did it on top of being a student and an employee At the university of vermont These students have amazing energy. They're an example to us A little bit more about him He's an incoming phd student in biology One of our fabulous programs that I know from having met biologists from france attracts International scholars and researchers and we need to keep this basic sciences program strong If we let ibb or here on consulting dismantle our scientific labs It will be exponentially more expensive to rebuild them from zero I want people to hear this It won't happen They'll be replaced So in addition to being an incoming phd student in biology and an employee He is also a member of uvm united their union sorry of students and he just like annalise has been at every single event and meeting Saturday afternoon at four o'clock That I have attended since december or january Look at fabulous. Thank you Hey guys, I'm not All right I'm not really sure what i'm going to add You've already heard from a lot of great speakers that have all shared their lack of confidence in uvm's administration And the idea that the current administration have betrayed the mission and values of the university I'm not a student here yet, but I hope to bring a graduate employee voice a staff voice And I will be a grad student coming in in the fall I arrived in vermont two years ago and like immediately knew this is where I wanted to stay and continue my education I spent the last year working in the biology department as a research tech Getting to know my project my lab and sort of all the levels of organization above it how this university comes together In the meanwhile, I've also seen these cuts go down in real time Uh, so and I got the sense right that all of the other sort of things that make up the university were slowly decaying as faculty weren't being rehired or yeah as like as yeah faculty weren't being rehired and you know Departments were essentially let to die So we're all we all believe that the administration is leading uvm down a destructive path And I feel that this path is exemplified by the president's amplifying their impact strategic vision for uvm And this document was actually basically ratified by the board of trustees back in 2020 So I'm going to read the actual vision statement of the university in full and it reads To be among the nation's premier research universities with a comprehensive commitment to a liberal arts education environment health and public service And I feel like the administration has has betrayed this vision in a number of ways on each of those four points So garamela's vision promises only an exposure to humanities, which I feel is a far cry from a comprehensive commitment to the liberal arts and How could we be a premier research university if we're cutting whole basic science departments that receive federal funding and have actually been recognized for their teaching efforts on like the undergraduate and master's levels All by a roll of the dice. How could we be the sort this premier university if faculty and staff live in fear of losing their jobs and losing their livelihoods basically So also in garamela's vision. He promises to attract more graduate students and from further out like not just You know to kind of build sort of a national reputation for the university How could they expect to do that when graduate students aren't being paid a living wage? so The livable wage standard is no more than 35 percent of of salary going to rent Here for graduate students once the comprehensive fee is taken to account It's more like 40 percent and we're basically in the bottom like fourth of universities in in that ratio How could we attract good graduate students when there isn't subsidized housing or more support for For students and you know valuable employees of the university Back in 2015 before garamela's time But also indicative of this sort of privatization of the university the graduate student housing They had at fort ether. Ethan allen was closed And sold off to the shampoos land trust and the reason that they justified that was it's too far away Right graduate students don't want to live out in Essex or you know colchester But in reality many graduate students today still need to live that far because it can't afford to live Here in burlington students on campus feel uh face rampant food insecurity as well and that is due to the essential monopoly that Sodexo the Main service provider of food on campus has so there isn't opportunities to get fresh cheap and local food close to campus And i'm just going to close off by talking about uvm's lack of accountability And i'm going to talk about the issue of climate So again back in 2007 uvm committed to being carbon neutral by 2025 and set multiple milestones along the way And this plan was aggressively advertised on the university's website And it's still there to this day that we're going to be carbon neutral by 2025 And have 100 carbon neutral in thermal energy by 2020 when in reality there was no intention to keep to these goals So the university signed on to this commitment and they were actually a charter signatory But there's essentially been no action on it and when speaking to student activists about this recently Administrators said that the plan was never binding since it wasn't approved by the board of trustees But it's clear that the board of trustees and is setting the agenda and it is not one, right? It is not one that Uh, you know, it's not It's an agenda without this comprehensive commitment to liberal arts environment health and public service So what is the remedy to this? I don't know But I think it starts with reversing this cuts and changing the composition of the board of trustees Not only to include democratic membership For faculty and staff but also democratically elected representatives of the undergraduate and graduate student body And solidarity between all of these different groups on campus going forward I'll hear online with me. Very good Okay Our next speaker Is also a student and I want you to again look at this beautiful building that we're standing in front of here I talked about julie being a pillar before each of the speakers is a brick Right of this structure of this university that is more than a building Or a collection of buildings is all of the people who have given so much to build our reputation and the incredible research and knowledge and human potential that comes out of These halls and classrooms And here again, we have an example our last speaker David aren't Who I again got to know thanks to uvm united against the cuts He was in it before I got in it. I think Because he cares so deeply about the moral act and the land grant Act that brought all of these great universities into being and let us acknowledge that it is on Native american land. So let us acknowledge that fact as well. That was the time That we must we must hold and understand David aren't as a director of a nonprofit He is also an amazing researcher He has taught me so much about what our administration is doing And about What we need to be aware of in terms of potentially future plans Uh as programs are terminated downsized and where those monies and all of that investment will flow More to learn about that perhaps in the coming weeks For now, I want to turn it over to David aren't who is a student here He takes classes and social work in addition to being a father And I think a researcher writing a book If i'm not mistaken on the moral act and on the land grant institution David Thank you everybody. Can you hear me? Everybody hear me? Okay, no louder. Okay Um, I actually my main focus wasn't going to be the land grant, but helen you brought it up. Yes Uh without a doubt garamella Truck Garamella is violating the land grant Uh within the land grant first of all the land grant was established in 1862 by the vermont senator Morell who was right here at uvm and um There were certain things that Morell wanted He wanted there to be a strong liberal arts But he also wanted there to be mechanics and agriculture and sciences Maybe what we'd call stem today, but senator Morell was not against liberal arts And within that federal act Morell act He specifically says that classics and other sciences science as a geology Should not be excluded And with the 19th century definition of classics you also have religion in there So He goes against the Morell act now the Morell act was about giving away land to the states for universities But it was left up to the state It was left up to the state to have control and some oversight And so I find it very puzzling that some of our trustees Our legislators because that seems like a huge conflict of interest But that's another story um But whenever you see uh, uh, president garmella bragging about land grant universities It's like he embodies it or something and he likes to talk about senator Morell's desk in his office Remember that he's actually violating He's violating the Morell act So I just wanted to throw it out because Helen mentioned it And this is what I really want to talk about If I can find it here I you know, I go beyond sort of what everybody's saying. I really think that there really is no choice But for garmella to resign That we need to be rid of him And if you want to know why Look at his career over the last 30 years at Purdue You know, what basically what they did there is they created a defense economy Okay, garmella is so tied in with the defense industry Uh, and he's already brought in grants for military here And so this should be something that should really concern all brahmaners I mean his his vision is totally turning this into a stem school. That's just his mindset. He's not going to change There's like no real no gate negotiations with someone like this And if you look at his record, you know, you will see that um Now how many people know that, uh, garmella present garmella is involved in a legal case right now Anyone? Okay, a few people There was a major research scandal at Purdue In a nutrition camp All right, where there were 40 Assaults physical and sexual, okay Garmella was the head of research at Purdue So the buck stops with him um This scandal You know what i'd love people write down camp dash And google it on youtube Because the bbc did a half hour show on camp dash From the children the miners point of view and the parents point of view And that'll give you an idea of what happened at Purdue and why there's a legal case About camp dash coming why our president of uvm is going to be deposed legally So how does that look for uvm? How does that look to for our reputation? I mean we we deserve a president who has ethics Yeah character integrity Not someone who hides in his ivory tower sending dean falls off to You know to cut off another head of faculty So so this this uh I mean this is really new news people don't know about this and the reason the case got slowed down was because of the virus So the court system shut down I called the lawyer thinking that had been settled. He said no his evidence so strong. He wants a jury trial Because he really wants him exposed and i'm happy to provide any of this information So people should check themselves don't take my word for it check yourself um Now what would be the motive in keeping a uh A camp where there was sexual assault and physical assault going on Well in the middle of the camp There was a pause because of Purdue police Uh They wanted it shut down But then there was a meeting, you know with the provost and Darmella and other characters They decided to keep it going Despite knowing this Now why would they do this? It was part of an eight million dollar grant And if they did not complete this study They would not get the eight million dollar grant And it was at the national institute of health That garmella, you know had a in his job description. He used to maintain the relationship with the national institute of health So This is all going to be coming out you'll see this you will see this in the papers But I really encourage you to go to youtube and look up camp dash And you'll just be horrified um other thing is You know The direction uvm is going in Just just think of some brutally accomplished liberal arts scholar Would you want to come here and teach? You know, would you want to come here and teach with everything going on? No Now my daughter was going to go to uvm Because of all this my daughter's a syracuse Okay, when I saw what was going down here You know and once other parents and people realize What's going on? It's going to hurt uvm. It's going to hurt uvm's reputation and credibility And ultimately it's bottom line um I mean, there's just so many things I mean i've done so much so much research on garmella that I feel like I live with them and one of my Reasons here is I'm hoping someone here will be willing to take them on as a roommate anyone willing No, I didn't think so. I'm stuck with them um Just to keep this concise you've all been so patient. I don't want to go on too long um Yes Ah The liberal arts they are all about critical thinking You know for democracy to work you have to have critical thinking it doesn't work otherwise And and what garmella is doing is he's undermining that he's undermining democracy. There is no democracy at uvm He's an autocrat really there's no democracy I mean really there should be students and faculty on the trustees as part of the trustees You know this opportunity right now. I mean covet is horrible They recognize it as an opportunity to transform this university into Solely focusing on stem. I don't have anything against the sciences But sciences without the ability to critical to think can be very dangerous. They need to go together um but Lost my place Well, I'll just stop with a quote from uh john dewey Who was an alumni here? Actually two quotes Um The value of a college education is not the learning of many facts, but the training of the mind to think To think critically all right And then the last quote i'm going to read it's a little longer The most important idea in the genesis of the land grant colleges and state universities was that of democracy Because it had behind it the most passionate feeling Social and economic democracy in america means primarily liberty of action and equality of opportunity The central idea behind the land grant movement Was that liberty and equality could not survive unless all men and women had full opportunity To pursue all occupations at the highest practical level No restrictions of class or fortune or sex or geographical position No restrictions well the struggle No restriction whatsoever should operate the struggle for liberty when carried to its logical conclusion is always a struggle for equality And education is the most important weapon in this context Democracy implies intellectual liberty with full freedom to think right and speak It implies an open society without task lines giving its members Full freedom to move from calling to calling rank to rank. There's not freedom here at uvm The faculty can't speak openly about what's going on. They're living in like a reign of terror You know, so I really Look up camp dash on youtube. Please do that for me You know, and if the media would like to ask armella about camp dash He won't be able to speak about it Because he could be liable for anything that he says in court. That'll be interesting too So this is going to come out but this really matters like the abuse of minor children is just simply not okay for any reason shape or form You know in this scandal that happened You're going to be hearing about it. So I'm sorry if I was a little scattered I was a little nervous, but I'm going to let you all go now. Thank you so much And really the faculty has to be united The students have to be united and we should use this to create a new vision for uvm That restructures it in a way that brings everybody into it really You know and garamela will never get that with garamela Never thank you All right. I know that sandy had Somewhere to be a two. She's might likely gone and I've been deputized To to do the next the next little bit I I just wanted to say that when I did watch that camp dash documentary What came back to me was what occurred last may in june here at uvm When our international students were in emergency housing And the heat Was on it was over a hundred degrees in these dorm rooms and for weeks Our international students were getting no answers to their phone calls or emails And they were sleeping on rooftops It's that lack of care that comes through That is not uvm Same thing green and gold promise here. We are we all are wearing our masks We're all being thoughtful and caring towards others And yet there was a policy that was rashly Decided upon and then implemented where we saw suspensions Almost immediate suspensions based on an accusation of violating the green and gold promise It took 4 000 student signatures on a student petition and the threats of lawsuits from parents For finally our university president to to act and say wait This maybe is going a little bit too far Don't you think He should have acted a little bit more with foresight And and thought and care prior to that implementation and decision so To wrap this all up and there is a speak out if anybody did come here to to add their voices to ours and and quite quite A rounded discussion it's been And all of the speakers provide the rationale For our call upon the university and state legislature to meet our demands And I hold these demands in my hand and I have copies There are 12 demands of the uvm administration and three demands of the state legislature That is 15 in all. I'm happy to give this to anybody who would like to see it I want us To ask them in unison To recognize the role just as julie said earlier the role of the faculty senate Whose constitution and bylaws explicitly authorized the faculty to participate in the selection of the president Not in this case And to legislate Again, julie said this needed change to the structure of the board of trustees We are extremely concerned by the dismantling of the liberal arts at uvm and by the lack of Transparency and decision-making that has led to the current climate And predicament as we all scramble to give students instructors Please keep in mind the upcoming dates May 20th That is the date of the last faculty senate meeting of the year And for the senators i saw senator bailey here just a minute ago Who are here or who are listening who might watch this on on tv Or on their screens May 13th, that's tomorrow. That's the last date to submit materials to be reviewed for possible inclusion in the may 20th agenda The faculty women's caucus is submitting the report based on the survey June 4th another date. It's the date of the board of trustees meeting We will be there And all who wish to have the right to be there These are open meetings and we must ensure they are per state law That is those are my closing remarks. I I so thank you for coming out if anybody would like to come forward and speak you are more than welcome to Just show your hand or step forward very good Just be careful of the courts All right, everybody. My name is marcus. I am a second year phd student here at the university of vermont and like dan We've been very much aware of the culture of austerity that syrash garemella and his administration have implemented here And it has affected us to the point where a lot of us unfortunately can't take this anymore I'm going to hit some of the same notes that dan hit but i need to give you all some context as to what this administration is doing to us We are being denied a living wage. There are three departments Of graduate students who get paid a living wage. Everybody else is being denied enough money to eat and to afford housing 20 of all graduate students at this university are food insecure We cannot afford to eat. We are spending disproportionate amounts of money on rent We are thrown into the midst of burlington's already dismal housing crisis with no support from garemella or his administration Over the years his administration have sold off graduate student housing Making the housing crisis even worse All of us are having issues trying to meet maslow's hierarchy of needs. We cannot eat and we cannot get roofs over our heads Now the context that i need to give you is that we have confronted garemella and his administration in the student government body Called graduate student senate The student government body they allow to exist To give us the illusion of progress the illusion of change When we confronted his administration we confronted richard kate and cindy forehand about these issues these systemic issues that keep us down They denied our fundamental humanity richard kate called us revenue streams and declined to assist us in any way with allocating money towards Rebuilding graduate student housing at this university We were told that we should be grateful for the money that we have and that we're not paying fika taxes Which is you know something that no full-time graduate student in the country pays that is not something that they are doing on our behalf Right it goes to it stands to reason That in order to actually have research done at this university graduate students need to be taken care of We need to be invested in we are the future of the academic and A corporate workforce in in many respects and if we can't live You know under a roof and have food in our stomachs. We are not going to be doing quality work And this problem has become now so systemic that prospective graduate students at interview weekends across multiple departments Are declined to come here to attend this university because These systemic issues are being communicated to them. They're being told to run in the other direction because they will not be able to eat And they will not be able to find housing in burlington This needs to change this is systematic abuse of graduate students that has been Perpetuated long before the pandemic but made even worse in the midst of this pandemic And when gary amela himself was confronted with all of these issues He simply engaged in victim blaming and told us we spend too much money on organic food And that's why we have a problem with affording rent food and housing in burlington This needs to stop his culture of austerity needs to come to an end A plurality of graduate students stand with you the faculty And opposing these cuts and opposing this manufactured budget crisis that is being used to keep all of us down And to any graduate students who hear this who see this you need to understand Organizing is the only way that we can work together to overcome this culture of austerity student government Thank you Student government has been fighting incredibly hard to oppose this culture But unfortunately they do not have the power vested in them to make the systemic change that we need They have been literally taking the money uvm gives us for you know building community and solidarity amongst ourselves And instead going to cost code to buy food in bulk to distribute to other graduate students And while we certainly applaud them for doing that And we are happy that this is within our means to do to try and support us in our graduate student communities This unfortunately is not enough and this is equivalent to a band-aid over a gaping wound So again graduate students we need to work together to overcome this culture We need to stand behind our faculty We need to stand with undergraduates in supporting survivors and calling upon the administration to believe survivors We all need to work together and graduate students you have the power It's time when we start using it. Thank you Hi, um, my name is Sharon busher and My name is Sharon busher. Can you hear me and I'm a graduate of uvm and um actually in clinical laboratory science So stem programs are important to me, but what I want to talk about is the fact that That was that gave me a profession, but the classes that I had in liberal arts Gave me growth and a means to communicate with other members of society They touched my humanity And so to think that stem is the only That step forward is really ill-fated STEM and liberal arts need to go hand in hand. They really do And this I hear from all of you students and faculty You know, this is what you see as an internal Problem, but it isn't it is a statewide problem I'm a resident and I only hear things that trickle out. I don't know all I've learned a lot today And I keep learning about what's happening to each one of you to all of the programs But it's not okay. We as residents of vermont. This is our state university and we need to hold The members the board of trustees and the president accountable And we need to have input into the direction that this university is going You can't make decisions or you can in a vacuum, but then they're ill-fated and the outcome is terrible Now you talked about here here on I worked at the hospital for 50 years and there was a company called west hudson outside consultants that come in Do analysis save money take their money and leave you with their findings And usually their findings fall short It leaves a structure in shambles and it takes decades to get out of that And to repair the damage that was done I'm hoping that this can be stopped before all of the damage that heron is going to do to this university Because it really what i'm really telling you is that we lost it was the first time the the hospital Laid off and fired people and they never fully recovered from that decision It was not the right decision because people from the outside don't know the circumstances Don't know the ripple effect nor do they care because they're getting paid. So I hear all of you I'm worried about this. I want to have a voice. I want to help And I think the point of this rally today is to say to vermonters pay attention Get in touch with your legislature get in touch attend Virtually, I guess the board of trustees meeting let them know that they're going in the wrong direction and A very important point was made about diversifying the board of trustees Most of those people don't live in vermont and are so detached That they are making decisions that are only financially beneficial They aren't Decisions that are good for the student body or the faculty or the economic state of vermont And I want to say one other thing if you're a young family here You might think that your child would go to the university of vermont But as you cut and gut programs you will not have that opportunity potentially You may have to go out of state at an additional cost So I think that all of the things that are happening Are those that I'm glad you're giving voice to them. I'm glad that channel 17 and charlie is taping this so that So thank you. Thank you because I think we need to get this information out to people So they know what is really happening and what we what we could lose Um, I want to just say one thing if I I listened to npr and they were talking about The importance of geology especially in the environmental crisis that we're in And the soil and and rocks and how that all plays out paul bierman's a professor here He has made he is a resource for the state of vermont and his observations about stormwater runoff And how that impacts the water quality of this lake Are are so important to our state and the and lakeshamp plane So don't minimize a small program Don't minimize it. It's really important And I don't know how uvm can say they're an environmental institution and then got a program that is so important I'm going to stop now. But anyways, thank you all for allowing me to be here and um, it's been really good. Thank you sessions and their fabulous discussions and I am so grateful to the people who make these discussions possible because Discussion is the backbone of our democracy. So thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you