 I want to sincerely welcome Governor Scott and Senator Peter Welch. I want to welcome the university trustees that are here and the leaders in state government. We have a good number of them. As you know from his post in the Senate and his engagement in Vermont, Patrick Leahy made the University of Vermont a priority in his legislating as a means to support our state and contribute to the well-being of the nation at large. At UVM, we have chosen to honor only a few of our state leaders with significant namings. I am pleased that the name Leahy will stand in such prominence on our campus, alongside his peers in the history of the U.S. Senate. I have taken Stafford, Jeffords, and of course my favorite, Justin Morrill. That was a while back. The Patrick Leahy building will stand for generations as a fitting tribute to the senator's legacy. Bringing together the heart of our campus, our teaching and research missions, along with the key elements of the land grant mission. Those interrelated elements of our mission are proudly embedded throughout this building. Our new Institute for Agroecology, which engages in transformative research and engagement for sustainable agriculture, is housed here. UVM Innovations, which practices the important work of transferring research into applications, empowering entrepreneurship in ways that are far-reaching impact in Vermont, and well beyond, they too are in this building. I am especially happy to welcome friends from the U.S. Agricultural Research Service here today. Hosting your labs and your offices in this building is a privilege for us, enabling the interwoven work of UVM and ARS for making the critical American agricultural industry as innovative, sustainable, and successful as possible. Thank you for being here. Sincere thanks also to the U.S. Department of Agriculture itself. We're fortunate to have a message from Secretary Vilsack to share the start of the panel that follows here. And we have much to thank the department for, including the significant funds that went into the renovation of this building. And all of us should be thankful for the Secretary and Senator Leahy's long and strong relationship that have made Vermont and the country much, much better and an even-enhanced agriculture all around the world. It's better for our communities, better for our planet, and better for the future. So thank you, and thank you to Secretary Vilsack and the team. That same energy and sense of purpose brings all of you here from the Food Systems Summit to our campus as well and drives you to the important work you do. I do want to welcome all of you specifically. There's a great event going on in the Davis Center that I'm missing, but I need to be here as well. Dr. Polly Erickson, your tireless host and herself a distinguished researcher, is also a resident of this Leahy building. The name will change up there soon, you'll see. The innovative work of the Food Systems Research Center at UVM is critical to the success of our state and meaningful for communities around the world. At UVM we have long contributed important work across colleges on different elements of food systems. This work spans agricultural research, farming practice, economic development, food access, climate change impacts, and education and community programming. I'm proud of the way our Food Systems Research Center and the over 100 faculty members that are associated with it in partnership with our colleagues from the IRS are forging such an important and integrated path for the future of research and practice in Vermont and well beyond. So welcome to all of you from the Food Systems Summit and welcome to Vermont and for all of you. Thank you very much for being here. This new Leahy Institute and that's up there for rural partnerships connects the knowledge, talent and innovative spirit of UVM with the people working for a strong future in treasured communities across Vermont. Patrick Leahy worked every day of his career for every corner and county of Vermont. He was a representative of every Vermonter and he championed their collective strengths. Connecting the state's research institution with this resilient rural communities honors the best of his energies and his devotion. Today we're proud to say that his spirit infuses all we do and his presence continues to make those efforts better. The Leahy Institute for Rural Partnerships will underline and maintain the senator's profound dedication to Vermont, our rural communities and his support for the students, faculty and staff of the University of Vermont now and for the future. We're so proud and grateful to open the Leahy Institute for Rural Partnerships with Senator Patrick Leahy and Marcel Leahy here today. And with that I would like to invite Governor Scott and Senator Peter Welch up here in that order for sharing a few remarks. Thank you all very much for coming. Good morning everyone. I met up with Senator Leahy right before this and I don't remember the Hills building looking quite this good when I was here in 1980. Quite an improvement. So thank you very much for having me here today to celebrate the launch of the Leahy Center for Rural Partnerships. As many of you have heard me talk about before, revitalizing communities in every corner of our state in all 14 counties has been a top priority for me and my team since I first took office. Too many places in Vermont have been left behind for far too long where we've seen once thriving county economic centers shrink as rural communities struggle to adapt to a changing economy. I'm proud of the work we've done together over the past few years from Senator Welch and the full congressional delegation to partners in the legislatures and other across the state. To begin to turn the tide as we focus on community revitalization and rural revival. UVM has an important role to play and the Institute for Rural Partnerships can help UVM's impact outside of Chittenden County grow even further. It's also very fitting the Institute bears the name Leahy. Senator Leahy has been a true champion for rural communities his entire life and delivered so much for them in his time in Washington. So many in Vermont are in his debt and I will be forever grateful to him for his many contributions to the places we all call home. Senator Leahy and I would speak frequently when he was in D.C. and when we talked about the issues facing our state. I always knew I could count on him to understand the diverse needs of our villages and towns and put them first and he always delivered. So it's an honor to be here for this launch and I look forward to our panel discussion in a few minutes and thank you for having me. It's really wonderful to be here with Patrick and Marcel and with so many members of the Leahy team and I'm just going to tell a little story. I was in Washington last week and I ran into a couple of people. Senator Leahy used to have a security detail and this true story. So this guy looks at me and he says you know I heard you're a nice guy. He says well that's good but he says you couldn't succeed Patrick Leahy if you weren't a really good guy. And then the next thing there's two of these folks that were providing security to somebody else and they said hey how's that farmers market in middle sex. Hey how's that farmers market in Hardwick. Hey I hear they have a really good one down in Brattleboro. I'm not kidding. They were all of the farmers markets that you took them and you know that's Senator Leahy. Rural Vermont and what we all I think so value about is not sentimental. They're values in rural Vermont. It's hard work. It's self reliance. More than anything else it's community. It's helping one another when they need help. It's an understanding that what we do we're responsible for but one of the things we're responsible for is working to help other people be successful in what they're doing. And that's what I think Phil you've been working so hard to reinforce and Patrick all these years that you've been doing that. And now we have this Institute where day in and day out the work is about revitalizing strengthening our rural communities because we never want to let go of our rural values. So thank you all very much. There's many who could tell a lot of stories about Senator Leahy but let's hear from him next. Patrick please come on up. I haven't been born in Vermont I better at least take the coat off when everybody else has been this way. I want to thank certainly President Garamillo you've led us all the way through on this and as I told Suresh he's made both Marcel and I feel at home up here. And Governor Scott you and I I have appreciated the partnership we've had over the years. We talk all the time about things that Vermont needs there's never been any partisanship has been what's the best thing for our state. And I admire you for that Phil I really do. And Peter Peter waltz I should tell you this I've heard from so many senators in both parties since I left they said boy are we glad you left we like Peter waltz. But it has been it has been nice Peter to hear from the senators who really count in both parties the compliments that you you get. So I know that our delegation is in good hands down there but I want to be here and to be Marcel and I were ready to come home. We want to come home and then to be humbled by this building to have my name on it and the Institute for Rural Partnerships. I can't think of any way to be welcomed home better than that. And if I could just tell you on a personal thing Marcel and I have talked about this. This building is right next to Stafford Hall. Robert Stafford. He was my senior senator when I came to Washington. I was the only Democrat ever been elected in Vermont. He was Mr. Republican and he took me under his wing. His wife welcomed Marcel. They were our mentors the two of them and always been indebted for the help they gave us we came here. So it just feels like being special being next to the Bob Stafford Hall. And of course the I want to think that my mentor Bob Stafford is keeping an eye on me here. And of course we have our neighboring buildings and Senators Jeffords and Aiken and Morrill. It's a good company and it made me proud during the 48 years I was in the Senate to know this is home. This is what I come back to because my highest priority was representing our state. What can we do for young people in the state? What can we do to give them a future in Vermont? We are a very special state. We have wonderful aspects to it. But we also have to make sure that we provide for each new generation coming up. So I asked everybody in my staff come together. Let's see what we can do to address challenges the communities face across Vermont. And all of you pitched in and we talked to you. J.P. Dowd and others telling me Tom Berry, Chris Sanders, where are you? All of you here in the group. How do we support our agriculture community? How do we strengthen our food systems? Revitalize our downtowns which is so important to what we are. Our fund workforce development. Promote sustainable energy. Build affordable housing. Build entrepreneurship. Maintain our infrastructure. Prove our broadband connectivity. These are easy things to say. They're difficult things to do. And we want to be able to do it. I know that Secretary Vilsack, the Department of Agriculture, came up here different times. He and I talked about this. The number of other federal agencies. How do we address the challenges? If we can address the challenges we face in Vermont and jobs and innovation and all, we can have a template that can be used throughout the country. And we've had some great initiatives. But we have to have even more. We have to have our state, our federal partners, our business community, higher education come together. And to have this right here in this citadel of our higher education. The University of Vermont. I cannot be happier. And I have a change for the representatives of the Department of Agriculture here to be one of the three centers, the University of Vermont, to be home to an Institute for Rural Partnership. The other two are the University of Wisconsin and Auburn University. And that was nationally searching to who would be the three best that could have not just take care of what's current, but what's going to be the future. What's going to be there for our young people. And I want to thank President Garamillo and Kurt Dombrovsky. I see our Secretary of Agriculture here and others. It is so important that the entire UVM community come together. Marcel and I were born here in Vermont. And what we would consider anywhere else in the country, small towns. But we want the things that could be fostered in those towns to continue. So I think this is going to dramatically expand UVM's support for communities and Vermonters throughout the state. We're going to have millions of dollars in annual grants. Senator Welch will be on your doorstep every day. But I also want to thank Tricia Coates. Tricia, right here. She's going to be the inaugural director of the Institute for Rural Partnership. And it comes from a wonderful family in Montpellier, lived not far from the Leahy family. We're fortunate to have her experience and leadership in the UVM team. But I think that I will not make a longer speech on this. I just want you to know that Marcel and I have talked so much at home about what this means to both of us as Vermonters. But what it means to the next generation of Vermonters and the generation after and after that we stand out as the symbol for the rest of the country. Thank you all very, very much. You can see you're going to cut the ribbon now. Great, thank you all. Thanks again, everyone, for coming. Again, it's so great to see so many folks. I've only been at UVM for three years, but already I feel like I know about two-thirds of the people in the room and that's because so often everywhere we go, folks come up to talk about what's happening in their communities and to talk about what's happening at the university and what their visions and hopes are for Vermont. So it's really just a pleasure to see so many folks from so many different places here. Lieutenant Governor, thanks. We were nice to see you as well. So we're going to start with a video clip from Secretary Vilsack who apologized for not being able to be here. He's really excited about it. This is on his radar. And again, the USDA support for this entire effort has been so fantastic and collaborative. My colleagues from NIFA and ARS have just really embraced this effort tremendously, so maybe we'll start with the video and then we're going to move to a panel discussion where we'll just talk a little bit about what the framework is for rural communities, what the challenges are, what the opportunities are, what's special about Vermont and what we plan to try and do about it long-term. But we'll start first with a video. The President's looking at me. Did I miss something? Okay, good. All right, just checking. Well, I'm Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and I'm delighted to have the opportunity to say a few words today to celebrate the grand opening of the Institute for Rural Partnerships at the University of Vermont. It is a momentous occasion. This facility will serve as a beacon of hope for rural communities nationwide and set the stage for a promising future for rural sustainability. Our staff at the National Institute for Food and Agriculture take pride in awarding $9.3 million to the University of Vermont, enabling the community to bring this institute to life and inspire others along the way. The research done here will have a meaningful and direct impact on the rural cities and towns millions of Americans call home. The solutions offered by this institute will study everything from how we face the challenges brought on by climate change and population shifts to how we provide suitable housing and clean water to rural communities nationwide. As one of the most rural states in the country, Vermont is in a unique position to lead in rural studies and support rural communities in meeting the mark. We know rural communities have been left behind in the past, but under the Biden-Harris administration, we've invested unprecedented resources through the American Rescue Plan, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and Inflation Reduction Act to help rural communities prosper. Though I could spend the rest of my time naming the investments these historic bills will provide, I'm just going to name a few. The Inflation Reduction Act made nearly $13 billion available to support clean energy infrastructure for rural America, including $9.7 billion for the Empowering Rural America or New Era program. This program helps rural electric cooperatives build clean energy infrastructure, and is the largest investment in rural America's electric system since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Rural Electrification Act into law in 1936. A popular rural energy for America program, or REAP, received $2 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act. Now this program helps farms and small businesses invest in renewable energy that will lower their energy costs, generate new income, and strengthen the resiliency of their operations. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provided USDA with nearly $2 billion for investment for the ReConnect program, which expands access to high-speed internet in rural areas. Since 2021, we've announced over $2 billion in 107 projects that will expand access to high-speed broadband to more than 300,000 people through the ReConnect program. And we know these programs work because they fill gaps in rural America and create new economic opportunity. And thanks to the work that will be done at this institute, we'll be able to more effectively partner with those rural communities and learn about the needs and gaps that they have. With more rural partnerships, we'll be able to better fill the gaps and address the unique challenges faced by rural Americans. Now, none of this, none of this, the historic investments or this institute would have been possible without the support and work of Senator Patrick Leahy. He knows that a zip code should not determine if a community can access critical services like healthcare, internet, or reliable, affordable energy. Senator Leahy's advocacy for rural communities, even beyond those here in Vermont, has been critical in getting legislation through Congress that helps rural America find economic prosperity. Because of his time and extraordinary career in Congress, rural people have more opportunities to build lives, raise families, and find success in the communities they call home. Senator Leahy has also been the champion of our Farm to School program, so much so that this year we renamed it after him. The Patrick Leahy Farm to School program helps producers build relationships and create revenue by partnering with schools and providing them with locally grown, fresh products. I'm lucky to count Senator Pat Leahy as a friend, and I hope he's enjoying his retirement, although I suspect he's busier now than ever before. I want to congratulate him and the University of Vermont on the opening of this institute. And I want to thank all of you in advance for the critical work that you'll do here that will help rural Americans for generations to come. Thank you, Senator. I'm going to ask the panelists specific questions sort of one at a time, but at the end of each section, if others in the panel want to comment on that, we've allowed a little bit of time for that as well. And I'd like to start with Senator Leahy. Senator Leahy, in your many years serving as Senator for Vermont and working directly on issues affecting rural Vermont, are there challenges that you see as persistent across the years related to rural economic development? You know, many things have changed, but are there persistent challenges that you see ahead of us? I think there are. And listening to my friend Tom Vilsack speak, he fully understands that from his own background, incidentally, he's been up here several times, visited with so many of you going around the state, and listening to him afterward, he'd be with our delegation and governor, and he knows what is happening here. One of the good things, and it stays this way, is that we're small and we tend to know each other. The governor of Scarlet is doing a superb job in running the state. He and I talk all the time, especially when I was in the Senate. My successor, Peter Routt, in the Senate, I don't know how many times we would talk and meet all the time he was in the House and I was in the Senate, and we all had some of the same things we'd seen. We'd been in some small town, in Vermont, and we'd seen a problem that we wish would go away whether it's in broadband or educational, but we also saw the successes in places where jobs and innovation came in and generations would stay. Marcel and I were both born here in Vermont, and we have this feeling, how do you keep people to stay? And how do we work with an aging population as the somewhat aging former senator? But how do we have for young people to stay in the jobs we have and take advantage of the fact that they're in one of the most beautiful areas you could be here in Vermont? So I'm hoping that what we're going to do is find out how do you do things? How do you create jobs, healthcare, communication, transportation? In boring, they were a very small state. We have only so much money, but how do we do it together? And I won't go into more than that, but I am thrilled with this institute because I'm hearing from so many people already from across the state in all kinds of areas and what they might do. So I'm delighted it's here, but I just want to have to let the governor and the two senators and the congressmen do it all, and I'll sit back and just enjoy these luxurious quarters. Thank you, Senator. Governor Scott, many of the problems facing rural communities are similar across the United States, but Vermont is unique in that nearly the entire state is considered rural. Are there specific challenges for Vermont that make it different from places like New York that have large rural areas, but also major metropolitan zones? What do you see as unique in the issues facing Vermont communities in economic and workforce development? Well, there's no one single answer. Unfortunately, there's not one single answer to rectifying the problem that we see. There's multiple layers, but we have to look at why we're in the position we're in this today, because we are seeing, we don't have to drive very far to see some of the recession of the rural communities of our state. I grew up in Barrie, for instance, Blue Collar community, but we lost the granite industry. That was probably the biggest blow to Barrie. We were the third largest city in the state when I was growing up. That was, there were 10,000 people there. Now there's maybe 8 to 85. So we're moving in the wrong direction there, but it was because of the manufacturing had changed. The same with Springfield. I mean, think about Springfield back about 50 years ago. That was the epicenter of growth, economic growth, probably equaling Burlington in some respects. The Hartness Airport, you know, the largest airport still, you know, was one of the largest airports in the state, still one longest other than Burlington. And so we, it's our demographics as well. I've talked about this a lot, but when you think about this one statistic that I saw last week, since 2000 we now have 80% growth in the number of people over 60 in Vermont since 2000. That's a stark reality. Under 21, we've lost 17%. So again, we're moving in the wrong direction. We need more people in the state. We need more workers. We need the workforce. And we're losing kids out of our school as a result. So a lot of that, you know, snowballs in a community. So we need, I believe, you know, we need influx of people. We need more immigration. We've been working on that for quite some time, but we need the housing to go along with it. So it all has to work together. And the basic infrastructure, the water, sewer, stormwater, broadband. I mean, we, Director Hallquist is doing a great job with that. But we're, we need all the pieces of the puzzle to make this work. I remember going to, and again, you can go to any community, any area to see this, but Reedsboro is a prime example. I went to Reedsboro a few years ago, had never been through the community. And I've lived here all my life, but there's places I still haven't been to. But Reedsboro was unique because they had, they were going through what they once had. They had, they had a hospital in Reedsboro. They had two theaters. They had like three car dealerships. They had the railroad. They had everything. And today they don't have any of that. And they were desperate for broadband. They thought that that was going to be part of the answer and then it is. But they need all the rest of the infrastructure to go along with it. So I wish I had the answers, but at the same time with all the work the congressional delegation has done for us over the last few years, whether it's ARPA money, whether it's the inflation reduction act, all of this is giving us an influx of hundreds of millions of dollars to get us back on our feet, to invest in Vermont. But we need the other ingredients as well. And I think, I think legal immigration is part of the answer because we need them, you know, not 20 years from now, we need them today. So, so those are the challenges. Those are what we have to work on. Great. Do you want to add something? Sure. Well, I want to say, I guess three things. Number one, the reason it's so important to have an institute is that you have an organized group of people who have a mission and that is to try to address some of the challenges through research, through trial and error, but where there's a dedicated commitment to asking these questions, what does it take to revitalize rural Vermont and rural America? So it's fitting that it's at the University of Vermont. But there's such a pushback on institutions these days in our modern society, and we need institutions. We need them to serve us and to have this institute, Patrick, that's going to carry on inquiry into the work that you did over your 48 years and the Senate is really important. Second, a lot of the agricultural challenges we have are a result of just the mass agribusiness type farming at the expense of local production because the inputs are different, the reliance on pesticides and herbicides is different, and then you get a situation where for small farmers that don't have that kind of scale, anything we can do that has a different economic model which generally can be much more environmentally friendly, can be much more local, really serves a local community. And Patrick, I think you were the champion of organic agriculture and when that started out in the ag bill, that was just tiny and now it's getting bigger and bigger and more and more communities across the country are seeing that there's some real significant economic benefit and it gives some potential for smaller farmers to get a margin that is potentially, it makes it economically viable. And the third thing is the point that the governor just made, rural America includes manufacturing. When you think about all of these communities in Springfield, that's where I started out and when I first ran for the state Senate, I would go campaign and Patrick, I'm sure you did this too, the shift changes down at the machine tool factories. And it was a politician's delight, by the way. Everybody would be coming out and everybody would be going in and you'd be shaking hands as much as you could. But the point was we had 5,000 machine tool workers there and all of them had wages where they had a good vacation, they put money aside and a lot of their kids went to college, they had good healthcare and they owned a home. And it was a viable community. So when we talk about a strong rural community, it also has to include the manufacturing and bringing those jobs back. And that, by the way, that's where some of these funds are going to be helpful as well, broadband as well. Anyway, thank you. Senator, that leads right into the question I'm going to ask, which is you're sitting at the nexus of many processes that will have a large impact on rural communities, things like the Farm Bill or the new EDA Tech Hubs program. Thank you very much for your help with that. And the stream of bills that focus on issues facing rural communities, what do you see as the big federal priorities right now that Congress needs to address? Well, I sort of got ahead of myself because I just answered that question. I thought I was answering my questions. I'm going to go on. But just to reiterate, it's a combination of having an institutional mechanism by which you ask these questions, come up with practical solutions, have a political system that's cooperative instead of confrontational all of the time. And you work with, what I love about these small grants, especially with farmers, Patrick, that's been so great, is you see it creates an opportunity for innovation by people who just with a little bit of extra help are going to be able to answer some questions and come up with a way where they can survive and help Vermont. So thank you. Yeah, great. Thank you. President Garamella, the University of Vermont is large relative to the population of Vermont. So does it size provide special opportunities for impacting Vermont economic development and workforce challenges? Yeah. Thank you, Kirk. And thanks to everyone for the comments so far. So obviously the university is the economic driver and the provider of workforce for the state. We add over 1,100 highly trained workers to the state every year. And we take that responsibility very seriously. We make sure that our students graduate in four years so they can be productive members of society. In fact, over 30%, over a third of our out-of-state students that come to the University of Vermont, stay in the state. So there is no larger talent magnet for the state than the university. And therefore, for a state the size of Vermont, our size is very, very important. I think what we need to focus on is ways to keep them here, ways to make Vermont stickier for our students, especially for those that are coming in from out-of-state, so they add to that population. If you heard Governor Scott carefully, those numbers should alarm every one of us. The fact that the number of high school graduates is dropping really, really rapidly in the state. So where is that workforce going to come from? It's immigration. It's being attractive to people from outside the state. And as far as the university goes, we think that offering internship opportunities for our students within the state from the time they arrive here makes the state so much more attractive. They start envisioning life after school in Vermont instead of sort of thinking about it at the end of four years. By the time they've found something in Boston in New York City. So I think it's very important that we do everything we can to bring even more Vermonters to the state and to have them stay in this state. So our size is in fact an asset because it allows us to partner with other institutions, other universities, other states. We've got colleagues here from Alabama and from Wisconsin. Those kinds of partnerships are critical because none of this can be done in isolation. We all need to work together. Other organizations, certainly companies. And so we do that well, and I think those partnerships have an amplifying impact. So everything that we do in Vermont has to somehow think of how to sort of grow the pot, amplify the opportunities. And I think that's what we can do. A university like ours. And I thank Senator Welch for bringing that up that institutions have extremely foundational roles. They're important. A state like Vermont absolutely needs the University of Vermont as we need the state. And I think that we have convening power. We can bring people together at meetings. And we had the Rise Summit last year, Kurt, that you organized so well. And we had almost a thousand people that were sort of thirsting for an event like that to think about things. And so that convening power is critical. And I think the Lehi Institute for Rural Partnerships will be an important sort of nexus for things like that. The other amplifying effect of a university like ours is the power proximity. The fact that I have our state senator here and Senator Lehi here and our lieutenant governor, David Zockerman, who joined us a little after I made my remarks. The fact that we can all sit together here and there's a bunch of legislators and secretaries and others. This allows us all to work together. Vermonters want to be heard, want to work together. And we have the ability to sort of provide a platform. And so I think that's another way that we must and do make use of the proximity we have. And so I think the special connection with the University of Vermont, its land grant institution has with the state and how well the folks work well together here, irrespective of party affiliation and things like this. I think in times of flooding, for example, we just came together as a state like no other. And I think that's what the power of a large university by Vermont standards is. Thank you. Great, thank you. Senator Lehi, that the institute is part of a number of legacy programs that you've created to help Vermont in the future. What are your hopes for the institute? What are your hopes for the institute's impact on Vermont? I think we've heard a number of the things that we need from the president, President Garnell to Peter Warts, Governor Scott. Think of some of the things that we're sitting here. Think of what the president was saying about the ability of UVM, the diversity in education and facilities and learning. But the fact they can help people think, it's not a bad place to come here from our state. Why not stay? But then you're going to have the things available for them to stay. Peter talked about going down in Springfield and what that was like. I remember as a youngster, my parents had a printing business in Montpain with the Lehi press. I remember putting down to Springfield, growing in homes of people that are involved with the machine tool industry and also sat in the freezing cold, sometimes shaking hands, and shift change. And that is. And the governor talked about the fact that we should have more people agreeing to this country and to Vermont. My grandparents, my maternal grandparents, ever agreed to Vermont from Italy. They still have a lot of relatives in northern Italy. But they established a stone-cutting business by a mother who was born here. I learned the values, so many of the values from the old country there. Unfortunately, the Irish side of our family were not alive when my parents had met. I do point out that there is a Patrick Lehi buried and buried when my father was born and some of my opponents have gone by the gravestones and done wrong one. But the thing is, it was the diversity of race, of religion, of political backgrounds. And if it's ever going to work somewhere, it has the potential to, it's here in Vermont. And, you know, I work very closely. I'm a Democrat with a Republican governor. And I certainly felt the value of his advice and all of these told me over the years. I hope that some of the things I might have done might have helped him. But take advantage of that. The fact that we can work together, we don't have to be in little cliques here and there. But then create the jobs, the abilities, the advance in technology, the advances in education that encourages people to stay here. I mean, I love being here at my age, coming home and being here. But I want people a lot younger than I am to say that's where I want to be. Whether they're born here in Barcelona or whether they come here to be here. Bring more. We need that. And our Trish Coates is going to work cut out to her as director. I mean, I'll give the great speeches of what we need and she can work it out. It's, you know, as I used to say in the Senate, we senators are merely constitutional impediments to our staff who do all the work. And fortunately, I've had some of the most wonderful people have done that. But that's too long an answer. But the fact is, don't look for one single answer. There isn't any. I mean, the Attorney Governor knows this. You were just talking about the places you've been in the last few days. The differences of people who has the idea for this, the electric airplane company out here who ever would have thought that would happen in Vermont. But one of the things they talk about, we've got to have the education. We're young people. We're doing good jobs for them. They're going to be educated. I've got them in the classes here. And I hear from students who are starting to say, you know, I just heard from somebody, it may be Chip Foundry out in Trusted Foundry in this extension. And I never thought being there, but I'm learning the right things and I want to follow up on that. That's what we've got to do. Whether it's in agriculture, in science, in technology, in manufacturing, in education, be here. And you'll be interested in some of the things you find, like we were the other evening with Chris Bujalian and talking about why he likes to write his best-selling books here in Vermont. I'll take advantage of that. I might not encourage everybody to come here in mid-January for this spot, but then just tell them, look at the courageous people who can live through mid-January. Come here. You can see why partnership is in the name of the institute. I think that's spot on. Governor, the state of Vermont has faced real challenges recently, including flooding. That's really had a severe impact on many communities. Are there ways that we turn these kinds of challenges into opportunities for rural Vermont? We know that these will be transformative moments. How do we turn these into transformative moments that open new futures? Yeah, that's the key, is making sure that we're creative and we're open-minded and we utilize all the tools that we've been given by the Congressional delegation and the federal government in terms of the dollars so that we utilize those as investments in these areas. And that's what we tried to do before the flood, making sure that we're coordinating all the money so that we're not duplicating and that we're spreading it out into the rural areas of the state in those communities that have been left behind for far too long. So you go through, I just came from my way up through here. I was at a mobile home park in Johnson. We're trying to help revitalize that park, get people in homes and replace their homes as well. But there's the one thing that they're missing now since the flood is a market in the store that's no longer there. And there's no real solution to that, but they need one. It's the glue that holds the community together. We're in East Calis last week or the week before. And they've revitalized their general store. And you can think about all the general stores you see throughout the state, whether it's in Elmore or Hardwick or in East Calis, and it's the glue that holds it together. And this is the same thing here. So we have to do everything we can to make sure that we have the infrastructure in place so that they can put a market back into Johnson. So utilizing and using the money that we've received and investing in those areas to give them back on their feet, to get them back on their feet is going to be vital. Same with Barrie. And again, my hometown, but Washington County was hit the hardest of any county. And it's not to say LaMoya was hit hard, Windsor was hit hard, all of them. But if you look at the mass amount of damage, Washington County was the largest. In particular, in Barrie was housing. Many, many of those neighborhoods, you don't have to again drive through right on 302 and take a look and you'll see the devastation that is still there. And we're going, it's going to be a while before we work our way through that because it's going to flood again. So we need to do something about that and we need to invest in those areas and we need to invest in the river, the whole corridor from all the way from upstream of Barrie flows all the way through Montpelier, Berlin, Montpelier, Waterbury, Richmond, everything that we can do to make sure that we have the storage capacity. And a lot of the problems we have are math problems, demographics, math problem, workforce math problem, housing math problem. And it's the same thing here. We need the storage capacity. We know the storms are going to be more intense because of climate change. So we have to prepare for that. So we have to make sure that we have the storage capacity to make sure that we can protect those communities. Once we rebuild them and get them back on their feet, we want to make sure we protect them. So using all the tools we have, the money and so forth is going to be so vital and in Barrie is in particular, I'm working with a congressional delegation on that to Senator Sanders, Senator Welch, Congresswoman Ballant, and we've talked a lot about this and we're asking for a supplemental to invest in a gateway into Barrie to provide storage capacity and get them into and grow the housing that they desperately need, but also having it higher and drier but protecting the communities and protecting the downtown, having green space and so forth. So again, we have a lot of work ahead of us. This isn't going to be rectified overnight, but if we all just think about pulling in the same direction and fixing many of these problems so that it doesn't happen, so it doesn't pull us down when we should be rising up, it's going to be vital. Great. Thank you. Senator Welch, there's been a rising, I mentioned this earlier, there's been a rising tide of skepticism across the U.S. about Washington, D.C. and the role that the federal government plays in the lives of rural communities. Is there a role for the federal government in addressing the problems we've talked about today? I know that many of our monitors agree that there is, but what is that role? Can Washington, D.C. provide the leadership and direction we need to help rural communities rise in these current times? You know, we're in trouble in Washington and the country's in trouble. I mean, January 6 is not that far behind us. And you know, as I was listening to Governor Scott talk about the work that has to be done to deal with these math problems and to try creatively to solve some of these storage issues where we know we're going to get more storms. They're going to be intense and we've got to redesign so that that flood water is able to spread out and then go back into its normal flow without spreading out into homes. The level of cooperation that's required, that's really hard, but he was just talking about, that has to be done. Because you've got structures that have to be adjusted. You've got people who will be affected. You've got challenges about resources. You've got to make priority decisions where there's not all winners. And the level of cooperation and trust that's required to be able to go from where we are to where the governor is suggesting, and we all know we have to be, that's really essential. And what's the worry for me is that in Washington where the tool that we have to be able to have those discussions and to have that cooperation, that's democracy. That's what it is. It's the process by which the challenges that we face as a society, everybody has a seat at the table and we try to work it out. But it takes trust. And you're seeing that erosion in trust in Washington and that's what was so profoundly alarming to me on January 6th. It was the first time in our entire history where there was violence in the Capitol contesting the peaceful transfer of power. So I feel very blessed, I think all of us do in Vermont where we've had this strong tradition of small D democracy and it has allowed us in a collaborative way to try to do the best we can to solve the problems for our community. But I see that as the big, big challenge. And I'm optimistic about it, but it's a jump ball. I mean, we've really got to work on it. And you know, recently, I was talking to Patrick a little bit about this before, you know, we had a House of Representatives and sometimes you can just step back and just be dismayed. But this is an institution that's really important for us to help make those decisions. And we went three weeks for the first time in the history of our country where we didn't even have a speaker. And that's an indication of the erosion of that trust and it's indication of the erosion of that tool that we need, that democracy. The role we have in the federal government should be, in a lot of ways, the easier role. Our role is to try to have policies and transfer resources back to communities so that the hard work that was just outlined by what Governor Scott was saying, that's the really hard work because that's where the rubber meets the road. And our job in Washington is to have policies and to have the resources back in the community. So folks can be successful doing that work that's so essential. So Patrick, you were always such a leader in a stabilizing force, not just for Vermont, but in the Congress. And I think all of us at this table feel the responsibility to do our part so that we have that tool, the democracy, to help us work through these challenges that are substantial. But we like to face challenges. What you do as you wake up and you face the day and it's trying to deal with this problem and you have a feeling you make a half a step forward, that's a good day. So we can do it. But the collaboration as opposed to confrontation, the progress as opposed to the name-calling, that's really, I think, the Vermont way. Thank you. A few less challenges, by the way, would be helpful. Just a few more. Five challenges, but not every day. That's great. President Caramella, you've spoken previously about the ways that the Vermont tech sector surprised you when you came to Vermont. Is this a hidden strength for the state? Are there ways that UVM can lean into this and help accelerate tech development that's been going on here, often in rural places, for the last couple of decades? I know this has been on your mind. Yeah, thanks for the question, Kirk. One thing which Governor Scott was talking about in terms of the mobile homes. We've got my colleague, Kelly Hampshire here. She and her colleagues have been working with these mobile home folks who have been affected so strongly. That's part of that flood relief thing, the drones and our extension folks that have helped out, et cetera. So I just do think that the university is so deeply embedded with our community and it's people like Kelly and with the constitutional impediments, I guess. Kelly, keep doing your work. On the tech front, I do think tech is a great asset for the state of Vermont. It was a surprise, a very pleasant surprise when I found increasingly, as I had breakfast with various CEOs of companies, that we have this sort of cluster of really successful tech companies in biotech and engineering, et cetera, that all are in that 200 to 300 million dollar range, maybe 150 to 300 employees. They may not be massive, but they're really successful at that scale. And so I think we should do all we can to sort of enhance that, to support them, to grow businesses at that scale, attract the workforce to that kind of scale. And we're making, as I've always been most excited and most interested in partnerships with NGOs, with national governments, with nonprofits, but also with the private sector. And so we have deep partnerships with global foundries. We want to do all we can to ensure that they stay in the state, but of course to grow them, to help them, especially as the nation sort of looks at the semiconductor production challenge and not giving up our competitiveness to other countries, et cetera. Global foundries is at the heart of that. We've got great partnerships with Agilent, which of course bought one of our wonderful companies here, Biotech, but they're thriving here under Agilent's, say, ownership. And of course, Beta, that Senator Leahy mentioned, it just really is wonderful to see a place like Beta flower here. And just talking to Kyle Clark makes you feel like there's great hope and great optimism. And if that kind of a company can grow here, and we do a lot, I think 40% of the folks there come from UVM or some such statistics. So we're doing a lot to support them. So I think those kinds of partnerships from the University of Vermont to these thriving businesses is extremely critical. And we intend to lean into those by providing them with research, with entrepreneurship, with internship, and facilities and so on, so that they get to thrive, they get to see us as a partner and get what they need from us. And to some extent, that's why we're here today. The Institute for Rural Partnerships, the Leahy Institute for Rural Partnerships, our Office of Engagement that we started my first year here, those are the retail arms of what we're trying to do is to go out there, reach folks, folks that sometimes cannot even define what they need. We help them define it with the funding we have now. We can actually resource that with federal funds and help them move forward. And so we will do all we can to nurture and accelerate this growth. The tech hub announcement that we just had, so 30 out of like 400 applications, and our area was one of those winners. Thank you very much, Senator Welch, for your support of that. The tech hub designation that we have in the Gallium Nitride Technology Area, which is the higher end semiconductor area, along with the older foundries, with the state colleges, positions us in the near term to access another $75 million of funding from the Department of Commerce. But more importantly, that designation draws attention to this area. People think of us in different ways and attracts more technology, attracts more people. I have just really great hopes for what we can do with that tech hub and we all need to work together on that. So yes, I think it's a great asset for the state. Thank you. Thank you. And I want to thank the panelists. We're going to bring up, I'm going to bring up my colleague, Tricia Coates, right now who has been handed all of these problems to solve. And I'll just say it's been a real pleasure. Tricia started with us this summer. She's my partner in a lot of work on economic development and having someone as a partner who has so many ties across the entire state has just allowed us to really hit the ground running. So I'm glad you're here. Thank you. Thank you. Directly after the devastating floods in July, UVM researchers, often with their students in tow, were assessing the impact of dam ruptures on water quality, advising the state about the impact of flooding on residents of manufactured housing communities, mapping the extent of flooding with drones and advising farmers about food safety and flooded crops. Their years of helping to create and map restored wetlands showed how these mitigated flooding downstream this July. Community-based research, community-based research, informed policy and planning in real time this summer. Senator Welch, you just spoke about the unique challenges of our Vermont communities, and we know that you'll continue to take your cues from Vermont in your role as chair of the Rural Development Subcommittee in Senate Agriculture. Thank you. What we see in these challenges is potential. Potential for research and best practice information sharing to move the needle. How can research accelerate our state's work toward a clean, resilient energy system? How can the university support with urgency the development of technology solutions for clean water, better healthcare, and food safety? The answer begins with trusted partnerships. And we saw this this summer. Just how powerful research can be when it is community-based, relevant to community need, and frankly, when you have the cell number of the local road foreman already. And there are reciprocal benefits of community engagement for UVM. Our research becomes more impactful. Our students have expanded opportunities in Vermont for project-based learning, internships, career pathways, and the services we provide, whether through the extension service or through UVM innovations, our commercialization program, become more responsive to community need. As President Garamella said, UVM is an economic driver for the state. And our new Leahy Institute can help amplify that role. This is what my team is saying to faculty. With our funding, let's try another level of engagement. Let's support partnerships with entrepreneurs and problem solvers who have the best shot at making an impact. Let's pilot student engagement in new ways, in new parts of the state. Let's bring together multiple partners on campus and off who are coming together to solve hunger, housing, a workforce challenge. So our website is live now, UVM.edu slash world partnerships. There you will find information about who we are, how we will work, and in a few months, stories about our successful partnership projects. We're going to be working in three ways. First of all, we have a suite of engagement initiatives that will begin in January. The first is data services. We're going to be providing on-demand support to communities, looking to utilize local, regional, state, and federal economic and workforce development data. We will also partner with municipal leaders in rural Vermont to support education and professional development opportunities. And finally, we are coordinating efforts between community organizations and faculty now. To provide applied service learning opportunities for students at UVM and other colleges and universities across Vermont. And we're piloting this program in the spring with coordinated effort toward flood recovery and resilience. We have a seed grant program that is now open. It will fund project costs associated with partnerships between organizations in the University of Vermont. We will join as partners with Vermont leaders who are working toward impactful solutions to rural challenges, many of which we spoke about today. Organizations may apply for funding. You'll see the link on our website. Our seed grants will provide funding up to $300,000, and those will fund research, engagement, student internships, service learning experience, and support from a wide variety of services here at the University. We will also offer convenings, including next year's RISE Summit. I'll mark your calendars for June 24th and 25th. And we will also be convening around questions and to share knowledge about community and economic development. We are fortunate to be in consortium with two other institutes for rural partnerships at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Auburn, and we're pleased to have representatives of those universities here today. This is all possible because of funding and moral support provided by the National Institute for Food and Agriculture of the USDA. The focus they bring to research, systems thinking, and knowledge sharing is elevating our work. We appreciate the investments that USDA has made in the Leahy Institute, our food systems work, and this space where all these components are coming together. I want to thank my team at UVM's Office of Engagement and Institute for Rural Partnerships. They have worked so hard to stand up these new programs and to remain engaged at the same time across the state. Thank you, Wayne Maseca, Michelle Karoti, Daria Gerani, Emma Spett, Kevin Coburn, Kristin Andrews, and Kathleen Kemp. A special thanks to President Garamella and VP for Research, Kirk Dombrowski, who continue, through word and deed, to make engagement in UVM's leadership role in economic development in Vermont a priority. I think it is a sign that we are on the right track then that Governor Scott's team at the Agency of Commerce and Community Development is on our speed dial. Working hand in glove with UVM as we build the state's tech economy. Thank you for your partnership. The Leahy Institute for Rural Partnerships Board of Advisors have provided guidance and patience as we construct this institute out of whole cloth. I would invite our advisors to please raise their hands and be thanked for your service. Travis, we're very grateful for your time and your wisdom. We have just moved to this beautiful building where we have already welcomed visitors to UVM and met with partners in the collaborative spaces. We admire every day the work of the primary contractor behind this project, Engelberth Construction, in addition to our UVM facilities team. So I wanted to just take a minute, acknowledge their incredible work and thank them for all they did. Senator Leahy is not only our office mate, but he is our inspiration. When I asked Senator Leahy what he thought about the institute and what he wanted it to be, he said to me, I want all Vermont communities to have an opportunity to thrive. I want young families to see a bright future for themselves and their children right here in Vermont. UVM has a proud history of service to the state. With the institute, it has a unique opportunity to support new impactful engagement of our researchers, our students and staff for the benefit of our rural places. Our eyes will stay on that bright future. Thank you. Thank you all for coming and that concludes our program. Thank you to the panel.