 We have ten. Okay, I see that. Well, I think I'm going to start. We're going to call the meeting to order. This is the Vermont State College Board meeting. It's June 16th at 1 p.m., and we are going to have a full agenda. I'd like to welcome everybody. For a housekeeping note, we do have a link to sign up to provide public comment. It's available on the agenda, published on the VSC website, or the link posted in the chat. So I welcome anyone who wants to do that to make use of that link. I'm going to start off by introducing and welcoming the new trustees. We have Shirley Jefferson, who is the Associate Dean for Student Affairs and Diversity at Vermont Law School. Shirley, wave your hand. Shirley has testified in the past to us and is a lawyer who is a graduate of Vermont Law School and has been working there for quite a while. And we welcome her. Thank you for joining us. We really appreciate your dedication and your service. The other new person is Sue Zeller, who is the, there she is. She has recently retired from state government. She worked for finance and management and worked for the office of the administration and is the performance manager. And she can explain that to us all if we have any questions as to what that involves. But she has recently retired. She was the, she's her, her special day is key indicators, performance measurement. And again, we welcome you. Thank you very much for joining us, Sue. We're going to put these people to work right away. And then also reappointed, although he's certainly not new, is Sean Tester, who is the administrator, the CEO of the North, North Eastern Medical Center. Is that correct? That's it. It's in St. John'sbury. So Sean, thank you for continuing your service. Thank you. I also want to thank Linda Milne, who is no longer going to serve. She got replaced for a long time of service here. She was the chair of the Audit and Risk Management Committee for many years. Her background is a CPA and she was an invaluable member of the board in dealing with the audits and the financial analysis that they required. So she will not be here today. We will see her and talk to some other people in August and give a formal resolution thanking her and others. So thank you, Linda. We're now going to move on to the approval of the minutes. I have the minutes for May 10th at the board meeting, and I need a motion to approve the minutes. So moved by Mary Moran. Any second? By Ryan Cooney. Thank you. Any discussion or questions? Okay. Seeing none, all those in favor of approving the minutes of May 10th, please syndicate by saying aye. Okay. Thank you. Any opposed? We also have the minutes of May 18th, which was a special board of trustees meeting, and I'd like to see someone make a motion to accept those minutes. Is that you, Sean? Ryan? Second by Sean? Good. Okay. Any discussion of those minutes? Okay. Seeing none, all those who are in favor of passing the minutes of May, approving the minutes of May 18th, please syndicate by saying aye. Opposed? Okay. We now have our report from EPSL. The EPSL committee had an important report that they listened to and that they are reporting back to us. I will turn this over to Megan Clover, who is the chair of that, and Yasmeen. She can also join in, and we have some guests here. Megan, do you want to introduce the members of the RPK group? Excellent. Thanks, Lynn. And just for context, we're actually going to take up four motions today. Two of them relate to the report that you're about to hear from RPK group, which is on the program array across the three institutions, Castleton, NVU, and Vermont Tech. And just for a little bit of context, particularly because we have some new board members that we're welcoming today. This is work. This is the final report out of work that's been going on for about six months. The EPSL committee just about four weeks ago benefited from a deep dive into this work. Rick and his colleagues spent about an hour with us, giving a much longer presentation to accompany the 60 page report that we had shared last week. And we may need to get that to our new board members. So I'll make sure you have that after this conversation. It's an interesting moment of transition. But we did benefit from that hour long discussion and a deep bedding and deep dive into the work that's been done as we put forth the motions today. Bill, I think you had a question. Well, I'm in the interest of folks who are listening and possibly our new board members. EPSL doesn't really mean a lot if you don't know what it stands for or what its charges. So I thought maybe we should not try to use that acronym. At least we should say what the acronym stands for before we go too much further. Excellent and fair point. And a nice test for me. Education, policy, personnel, educational personnel and student life. I'm sorry to put you on the spot. If I fail, am I replaced as chair? Is this how this works? Oh, no. Yes, thank you. So this is the committee. And again, as we expand our group here. So this is the committee where we take up pieces related to the educational programs in the past as our institutions have put forth new programs or looked to transition out of existing programs, they have come before the EPSL committee. And this report out that you're about to hear from Rick really represents a transition and how we think about programs and shifting us from really a one-off look at programs as they come up to a more holistic, ongoing framework for how we think about the programs across the system and how we come up with a common set of metrics to measure those going forward. So, Rick, I will turn it to you for your presentation, and then we'll have some further questions from the board, and then we'll take up the two motions. Terrific. And thank you, Megan. And thank you all of you for including us on your very full agenda today. I'm Rick Staslaw, the founder and senior partner with RPK Group, and I'm joined here today with our project lead, Katie Hagan. Just want to thank you for the opportunity that you gave us to partner with you with the senior leadership of the system with factory and staff on this project. You've all received our findings and recommendations in advance, so we're going to focus on the highlights and then make sure we have plenty of time for discussion. As we go through our findings and recommendations, I would just echo the comment Megan made a minute ago, that we believe that what we are sharing with you, what we've built together is more than just some data and analysis, but it's really a new way for the system to look at itself, a new framework that we think will provide benefit going forward. So, let me turn this over then to Katie Hagan, who's a senior analyst on our team, to walk you through what we discovered. Katie? Thank you, Rick. And good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for the opportunity to be here today. As Rick mentioned, I'm just going to walk through the framework at a fairly high level, talk a little bit about the output, and then we'll end with our recommendations that I think we'll pair nicely with what Megan's going to talk about in terms of the motions. But we will take questions at the end, and as was referenced, there's a long report and lots of recordings of us going through this information with different stakeholders over the last several months. So, if you need more detailed information, we're always happy to provide it. So, we want to really focus here on the framework component that emerged as a result of this process. So, as Megan mentioned, what's most typical within systems at institutions is that programs are evaluated on a singular sort of one-off basis when they're up for review or when you're thinking about launching something new. What's not as common is sort of a portfolio approach to evaluate all of the programs within an institution or within a system. And so, that's what we developed here. We call it the program evaluation framework. It's inclusive of all programs at Castleton, Northern Vermont, and Vermont Tech over a five-year period. And the ideal portfolio will be able to meet the following criteria. One, aligning to student demand. It provides students what they're asking for. It aligns with your labor market demand in the state and sort of state employers. It delivers on student success, so students are able to enroll in the programs and complete successfully. And it also is financially sustainable for the institution and ideally accessible to all Vermont students in some capacity. And so, we evaluate programs using this framework on the above criteria, the criteria just listed, but it doesn't prioritize any one metric above another. So, it's really critical for a portfolio to be balanced. I think this is most often thought about from a financial sustainability perspective, right, that not every program has to generate a lot of revenue. In fact, lots of things that are so important, nursing is a really good example here and don't often make any money at all and lose money. And that's okay. That's totally understandable, but you also have to do things as an institution that help offset some of those things that are more expensive than mission critical. So, it's important to note that, you know, as we look at the outputs here, that not thinking that every single metric is as important as another disorder depending on the program that you're looking at. So, once you have the framework in place, how does it support your work as board of trustees? So, one, it helps you identify the strengths in your offerings. So, what are sort of the things that you all are best at should be highlighted and known for? It helps you realize efficiencies to identify opportunities for reinvestment. It'll help make sure that you're meeting both the student and labor market demand. It really helps drive decision making from a data informed from a data informed place and supports a cycle of continuous improvement. So, when we think about the existing portfolio across these three institutions, how did we define the universe? When we looked at these three institutions, there were more than 200 active programs across the three institutions covering six different physical campuses. And when you're looking at three different institutions like that, you have to sort of find units of analysis. And so, we rolled up all of the individual programs to what's called a SIP code, which is the classification of instructional programs. This is a schema that's sort of attached to programs by the U.S. Department of Education. And then the SIP codes are grouped according to discipline as well. So, based on that SIP code, we were able to say, you know, something like all you psychology as an example, that's offered at both NVU and Castleton, but as the same SIP code. So, we didn't treat it as two distinct psychology programs. Instead, if we're imagining this as a newly formed combined institution, you have one psychology program. So, let's combine the data from those two places. So, it's a good way to eliminate duplication of effort. So, once we do that, we end up with 126 rolled up programs that are enrolling about 5,000 students annually. And then we took all of those rolled up programs and then created what we call areas of focus. You can kind of think about these like departments, so they're not perfect parallels for departments. Again, it was a way to organize information by creating a different unit of analysis. You will likely sort of, as you move forward into this new institution, replace this concept with actual departments and structure the institution, you know, more traditionally with departments and programs that are affiliated with those departments. But this is the language that you'll see throughout. So, when we look at the overall findings of this framework, we see really strong concentrations within areas of focus. You have some really core areas that serve a lot of students across the portfolio. We also see some clear areas of investment and optimization when looking at size and growth. So, some areas that are growing that are, again, significant concentrations and should be considered in terms of the level of contribution that they are making to this overall portfolio. We also see that within your areas of focus, you largely do serve Vermont students. So, not new information, I'm sure, but there are some areas that serve primarily out-of-state students. So, that's also good to know sort of the difference by program or by area of focus so that you're aware of the implications of that particular program in terms of who they're serving. And then we also see lots of opportunities to enhance teaching efficiencies through streamlining the portfolio and reducing duplication of efforts. So, as I mentioned, again, I'm not picking on psychology, but it's one that folks can sort of understand quickly. If you're offering psychology at two different institutions, if you are able to find some opportunities for consolidation within those two programs and sharing of labor and sharing of courses and things like that, there's some clear opportunities for efficiency as you reduce that duplication. So, when you look in the report, you'll see a sample framework output for every area of focus. So, communication and journalism is a good area of focus to look at here because they didn't have, there's not a lot of programs within this and they represent some diversity in terms of recommendations. So, here across the top of this chart are all of the different data points we looked at by each program, size and growth, the sort of scoring as well as market scan. These are sort of hybrid metrics that we explained more thoroughly in the report. And then the average annual enrollment, matriculation rate, institution retention rate, four-year graduation or transfer, six-year graduation and the total number of degrees produced within five years. So, you look at all of these variables across all of the different SIP codes or programs that you had within this newly defined institution, this combined of the three institutions. And we made three different recommendations across these different programs. We recommended either investing in the program as an area of growth for the institution, optimizing the existing programs, and I'll talk more about what that means in a minute, or eliminating the program based on the metrics that we saw as a result. So, I want to talk quickly about optimization. So, this is really the most critical piece of the work that as you work towards sort of putting three different institutions together and creating the singular institution for the state of Vermont that's going to serve students the best, you are going to run into instances of duplication of effort or instances where a program can change slightly to better realize the goals of the institution, particularly in terms of serving more students across the state and achieving that rural educational mission. So, when we look here at digital communication and media communication as two separate distinct programs, the reality as things are right now is that one of those programs is referring to the program at NVU, the other one is referring to the program at Castleton. They have a lot of commonality, but they are not perfectly the same. And so from an optimization perspective, there is work that can be done by the faculty within these two programs to try to identify potentially one program offering that combines the best of both of these two programs that will then be available to more students statewide, particularly if they think about different modality options to be able to reach more students. So, from an optimization perspective, within this area of focus, that's something that faculty can go and work to achieve over the course of the next several months. And then when we think about elimination, we didn't actually recommend eliminating that many programs as a result of this analysis, but the ones that we did recommend for elimination just weren't producing that many degrees, had fairly low enrollments were shrinking. So, what the size growth metric here indicates that this program is below median size based on other bachelor's degrees within this analysis and is declining in enrollment or below median enrollment growth and has only produced two degrees in the five years of the analysis. So, that's the general idea of the framework. So, based on our analysis and based on working with the three institutions and system leadership over the last several months, we have three key recommendations. So, the first one is to adopt a program evaluation framework. So, the framework that we just walked through as a starting point that can evolve over time and use this framework to report on health of the portfolio to you all as the trustees annually. This could include an update to your existing policy 109 or a different sort of mode by which you would adopt this framework. But I think in moving forward, this is a very replicable process that could be done and reported to you on an annual basis. The second recommendation is to optimize the academic portfolio. So, we recommend that you should carry out the work of optimizing the portfolio beginning with the work that is it's already sort of starting with the summer. So, this would allow you all to recruit a new class of students into the unified portfolio as soon as potentially fall 2022. And one metric that we do recommend setting here is achieving a 25% improvement in the number of student credit hours per faculty FTE. So, as I talked about duplication of effort, this metric is really intended to try to reduce that duplication that might exist in terms of having three separate institutions operating some somewhat similar programs in some areas. And then our third and final recommendation is to review and make final decisions on the recommendations for program investment and elimination that will be informed by the summer optimization work that the faculty will soon begin. That's all that I have. I'm happy to take any questions that you all have. Any questions? Dylan, do you have something? Megan had Jen send out the or Yasmin send out the 60 page report which was very detailed. If there's any questions, student credit hours are maybe I'm going to ask a question. Katie, can you talk about the number of student credit hours per FTE and where we stand with what your examination is for the vermostin colleges? Yeah, sure. So, the number of student credit hours that we're referring to here is the number of student credit hours that are delivered. So, being taught that students sort of taken translated into that student side. So, a course is the credits. If 10 students are enrolled in a course, that course produces 30 student credit hours. And then faculty FTE is actually defined by the load. So, faculty in this analysis, typically having a 404 load or teaching eight courses over the course of a year. So, you sort of take all of the activity of the faculty and you sort of divide by eight to get into that faculty FTE or full time equivalency. And then you think about all the student credit hours that were delivered and all of the labor that you had from a full time equivalency perspective. And that's, you know, you just divide those two. That gets you to your faculty, your measure of productivity, your teaching productivity, which is student credit hours per faculty FTE. So, the average for the three combined institutions, which again, you know, we're sort of smushing together three different institutions. And it's not a perfectly sort of scientific thing in the sense of you wouldn't expect to achieve perfect productivity given that three completely different institutions right now. But the average is 300 student credit hours per faculty FTE. And there's a wide range across that, right? And it's a very standard range that we see at most places in terms of discipline. So, you have sort of the nursing and health sciences having somewhat of a lower productivity metric. There are student credit hours per FTE metric. And you have business at the other end having a higher metric. And those are very normal polls to have within an institution. But what we can confidently say across all of the, across all the areas of focus is that when you are able to achieve this optimization, when you are able to effectively combine these three institutions and eliminate any areas of duplication, you will be able to achieve growth on that metric. So overall, you know, setting something like potentially growing to 400 as an average for this new institution over the next year or so. That is a very achievable goal for you because just this natural process will occur of reducing that duplication. And then just building on Katie's comment, because I think this look at what we guys as faculty throughput is a great example of a framework that also supports you from a data perspective that can impact culture. Why do I say that? Well, when you think about efficiency metrics, typically for faculty, when we think about load, we're looking at the number of courses we're teaching. And that's very important. But as you connect into the business model, it's really not a really good translation. Whereas if you look at the number of credit hours you're teaching, it really does translate better into revenue generated and net revenue. Secondly, there's this element in the framework, which is part of our PK's lens of how do we get more for the resources we already have. Not by saying to everybody, please work harder, but let's use data to make smart decisions so that the work we're doing best taps into what students are asking us for with the labor markets asking us for. So this way we can shift our most valuable resources just really people in time, right, towards the things we're most passionate about to plug into mission and student success. So it is an important metric. It does help you understand and improve efficiency and you'll want to track it carefully. But it also reflects a way to think about people time and money differently as you move towards an overall sustainable model. Bill, do you have something? Well, I was, I mean, in one of the notes in the report it was talking about that there was some suggestion that there are perhaps other metrics that should be merged with the credit hours as well, such as research, etc. I'm reminded of many years ago now, but I was the director of a mental health agency and you could try to measure the number of client hours that that psychotherapists or counselors were patients they were treating, etc. And of course, you had to also take into account that there had to be some people providing supervision so that if you didn't give someone credit for the time that they were doing supervision, your whole program really didn't function. So it's, there's a, it's, there are different metrics that need to be included to ensure that you're reflecting that you're reflecting the overall requirements of a successful institution. So I just find myself thinking about that in the course of this. But I also find this, I also find this frankly an exciting framework within which to be able to think broadly across all of the institutions, the three institutions and our emerging new university institution, which is a framework we haven't had in the same way before. Yeah. Thank you for that. I mean, a couple of thoughts there. One, I know before we started you all were talking about healthcare, hospital, you know, it's a great example because they're so far ahead of us and we can learn a lot in terms of what are good metrics? How does it help us make informed decisions? Secondly, to your particular point here, absolutely, as Katie said earlier, you wouldn't want to just look at one metric, right? We've got to look at a host of things. At the same time, we don't want to look at 100 metrics. Then we get a little loss. So it's like, what are the key things for the moment we're in and where we want to go? You're a good point about research and administration is a good one. That's why we often say this work isn't a math problem, meaning if the metric average is 10 and you're nine, it's not like something automatically happens, right? You take a step back and say, well, what's going on there? Let's take a look at release time or the combination of research, teaching, and service. Does that look like we've set those dials correctly? The third piece I think is around the framework and I'm glad it resonated with you. We think unabashedly that what you're moving towards here can really serve as a model nationally for what systems need to be thinking about in terms of how they best leverage themselves and really take advantage of that idea of systemness, and that's no small thing. Sean, did you have something to say? Yeah, just a clarifying question for me, and it's probably obvious, but first off, I really like the framework. Looking at the data empirically like that is really helpful to me, and I really appreciate the systemic approach. When I read this, I said, the heavy lifting here is really once you get into optimizing those programs that need to be optimized, right? And I hope to see an extension or a toolkit developed to give the teams that are working on the faculty and some resources and tools to help guide that decision-making process. Can I also anticipate that as part of the optimization, as you can saw the programs, there will be consideration given for how to effectively deliver those programs across multiple campuses. And I'll apologize for my dog. I'll go on mute. Sean, if I may, I'll jump in here and say that you're right on and anticipating that that is where the big lift is. I'm thrilled to be able to report to you all that we have 85 faculty committed to participating. We're kicking off next week with this work, and in terms of that structure and guidance for people, it's around some of the things that Katie has talked about. So getting to singular programs where we might have duplication, that'll be a big consideration. Thinking about shared curriculum in a more nuanced way, is there one general education course that can serve multiple programs? Maybe we have different flavors right now. Can we get a little bit more efficiency that way? And access for students, right? And then the third piece is around the delivery access more generally, especially if we're thinking about singular programs, is delivering them in a way that they are more accessible and we bring more students in for those programs. So those are kind of at the high level, some of the guidance that we're looking at and certainly getting into the weeds of how faculty work through particular curriculum will be the focus for the coming weeks. Anyone else? Yes, Ma'am, do you want to talk a little bit about the grant that we have for this summer? So, yes, we're very excited to receive support from the Davis Educational Foundation for this work. They are very interested in, as Rick said, models for how to do this, and we're doing this in a very comprehensive way. So they are supporting essentially the work of the faculty this summer that we can support their time and effort on this project. Any other questions? Megan, do you want to add anything? No, just the one thing I would add is, first, a thank you to Rick and Katie, because I do very much appreciate the approach that you brought to this, not just your expertise, but also the way that you engaged faculty across our institutions in this challenging Zoom environment that we're in very effectively and took the data that you had, vetted it with the faculty, so we really got to a point of there was agreement on that data. So just appreciation for both your expertise and your process. And Lynn, I think we have to say deep appreciation for our faculty who have spent many, many hours focused on helping shape this as the right framework, making sure the data was correct, making sure the culture and the context of our institutions were understood as this work went forward, all while balancing the challenges of this past year. So I just want to make sure that we take a step here and appreciate the tremendous effort of, yes, me and of our academic officers of the faculty in getting us to this point. I will note it. Bill. I don't want to shift any focus away from, because away from the work that's ahead, the work that's being done, but I also found myself thinking, and just want to ask the question, is there anything, because this was a focus on NVU, Castleton and VTC, is there anything that comes out of this that is appropriate to be thinking about in terms of the relationship of this new emerging curriculum, et cetera, and CCV. And I think that would be interesting to have someone be commenting on at some point, perhaps not now, but at some point, I think just, and to have CCV reflect on what they see emerging and what their range of programming is that feeds into this new construct. Sure. I mean, I think Bill, all academic work is iterative, and CCV has pathways right now mapped to all institutions. A part of the benefit of now sort of thinking about a program array for this new entity is to then be able to say, okay, how does the bridge from CCV to the new entity work? Obviously, a shared general education curriculum now is a very robust foundation on which to stand the rest of that work, but I'd say part of this is iterative. And so the first summary right is on the new entity side. Right. And that's why I was not suggesting that this is the time, but just to say it's in my mind as we're moving through this major undertaking that there's also another piece perhaps at some point. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And I have to say that Bill's question and Yasmin's response, I'm sure this will happen, but I really want to make sure that the appreciation of the board is given to the faculty and staff who've done all of this very difficult work in a very difficult time. So Yasmin, that's your job, right? Happy to relay that. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. And I think that under the EPSIL agenda, we do have the general education that has been discussed and worked on over the past couple of months as well. So anyone else have any questions or concerns about this? Okay, Megan, do you have some suggestions here for us? I do. I have two motions that came out of EPSIL's discussion of this, and I'll go through the first, which is that we adopt the BSE, adopt the program evaluation framework proposed by the RPK group to guide review of the academic portfolio at Castleton, NVU, and Vermont Tech going forward. Okay, yes. That's a motion. Is there a second on this? Karen? Karen Luno? Any discussion or any more questions? Seeing none, all those in favor of that motion, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay, you have another one. I do. So the second motion, and this very much is with thanks to Yasmin for securing the grant to enable this to happen as we go forward. So the second motion on the table today is to charge the chancellor and the chief academic officer to work with faculty to develop a plan for program optimization and to report back to EPSIL in the August meeting with an evaluation of that work and decisions on the program investments and elimination recommendations made by the RPK group. Do we have a second on that? Karen or Dylan? Any questions or any discussions or anything about that? Just go ahead, Bill. Clarification that this is not a motion to make any particular changes in any particular area at this time. We're talking about the framework and the process. Correct. This is a motion to ask the faculty to come back to us with those particular recommendations. Just for clarity in terms of anything that's laid out in the report. Yes, this is just to do the process that they're going to now take up. I'm 85 faculty, that sounds like a good group. Any further discussion or questions? Ryan? I was just curious real quickly. That 85, I agree, is a good number. But is there, Yasmin, do you have any breakdown on how many from each of our campuses are in that group? What's that group made up of exactly? Yeah, it is faculty. I don't have the exact numbers. Ryan, off the top of my head. But it's a robust contingent from Vermont Tech, from NVU, from Castleton. There are some program areas that, as Katie said, represent a lot of students or a lot of programs. So we have more faculty in those areas. And some programs are very small, right? So that's where we've got some variation and participation. Very good. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay, all those, since there's no more discussion, all those in favor of the motion for the use of the Davis Foundation, for the process of working on the recommendations of RPK, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Seeing none. Now, there's also the general education. And Megan, you may or Yasmin may want to discuss where we're going with that at the moment. And Yasmin, if you can go ahead and give a brief overview, and then we do have two motions on that as well. Certainly. So, you've already heard a little bit about it. This has also been a significant amount of work this year by faculty to develop a shared, transparent foundation of general education requirements. It's not a full general education program, but it's designed to be an associate degree core that would be consistent across all of our institutions and with the same set of requirements, same learning outcomes. So faculty developed that last fall working with a facilitator. It went through several rounds of discussion and ultimately approval by all of our academic governance bodies, including CCV and the faculty assemblies at the other three institutions. One aspirational goal of the general education program was to incorporate diversity, equity, and inclusion learning outcomes and really infuse that comprehensively across the curriculum. There was a robust discussion of that, but I think with any ambitious effort, we recognize it's an aspirational goal. All faculty assemblies except Castleton were ready to approve that. So we do have some work to do next year to kind of fully embrace that. And I think the thing that came out of the Castleton Faculty Assembly recommendations was just recognizing there's a lot of professional development that needs to happen for faculty to do this appropriately to do this well. So that's part of our work that we see ahead for next year. Another piece that came out of all of this discussion about the new general education program was a recognition that the board's graduation standards have been implemented sort of in the past with our existing general education programs. And this new framework really implicitly embeds a lot of those standards, but we haven't done that next step of work of sorting out the practicalities of how assessment of graduation standards would happen in the new general education program. So the faculty really were recommending with all the other change going on that we suspend our current approach, and we have to sort through what that means to suspend it temporarily while for the next year we work through how we're going to implement that differently. So the two motions I think that came out of Epsil sort of recognize that work and also recognize there's work ahead and direct some of that. Any further questions? Lynn, can I make one point before we go into questions? Yes, I just want to pick up the point on suspending the graduation requirements. That point that emerged from faculty really did dovetail well with conversations that several board members have brought up around the challenges. When those were operationalized over time, those graduation requirements seem to be presenting obstacles to students completing their degree and the inconsistency among institutions has come to the front of board discussions as a challenge to be addressed. So I think that the motion on graduation standards really it's both the faculty interest here as well as several questions that have come up with this group around aligning those better to make sure that we've got clear paths and consistent paths for students. I know what else I have a question. Anyone want to comment? Okay, motion. Are you ready to make a motion, Megan? Yeah, so the first motion and Mary, this goes back to your very important point made earlier is a motion from the board recommended by Epsilon to commend the significant work accomplished by faculty on the VSC general education working group and all academic governance groups to achieve the initial implementation of the single system-wide general education core. Okay, do we have a second on that? Mary is seconding. Any other questions or discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of the motion, please indicate by saying aye. Opposed? Okay. Anything else, Megan? What else? So I do have a second motion. So and this is a motion again generated by Epsilon to direct the VSC chief academic officers group to convene a system-wide general education committee for the upcoming academic year, develop a plan to integrate the VSC policy 106 graduation standards into the new general education framework, and to continue system-wide professional development and diversity, equity and inclusion to support its implementation into the general education program, including how world languages fit into the program with a follow-up report to be provided to Epsilon by May of 2022. Okay, second on that motion, please. Karen, we have a motion on the floor. Any further discussion or questions? Okay, does that answer your questions, Bill, about general education? Good. Okay, excellent. Karen, you have something to add. I just want to note how very pleased I am that world languages are being highlighted as an important content area to be included in our and emphasized in our in our educational offering, specifically as it relates to diversity and inclusion. I think it's very important and I think this is a major step forward and I'm hopeful that it's going to bring us to some good places. Okay, any other discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of the motion, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. No one opposed? Okay, thank you very much, Megan. Anything else from Epsilon? No, that was all. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Next thing on the agenda is the transformation update from, I guess, the Chancellor. Thank you very much. Yeah, so I'm actually going to introduce our incoming Director of Transformation Projects, Wilson Garland, and our Chief Information Officer, Kelly Campbell. Wilson joined us on June 1st, so just over two weeks ago, and with his guidance, we're starting to build the project management structure for the transformation and administrative consolidation that lies ahead. And then as we have two new trustees today, I just want to do a quick recap by way of background. Last summer, the state created a select committee to study the future of public higher education in Vermont with a particular focus on the Vermont State College system. Through an RFP process that was conducted by the Joint Fiscal Office, an external consultant was hired to work with the select committee, and the select committee issued an initial report in December and a follow-up report in February, and then a final report in April. At the February 22nd, 2021 Board Meeting, the Board approved the select committee's two key recommendations. The first one was that three of the four Vermont State Colleges, so specifically Castleton University, Northern Vermont University, and Vermont Technical College, be combined under a single leadership structure and a common accreditation. And second, that the Vermont State College system engage in administrative consolidation system-wide. The select committee anticipated a five-year timeline for these changes to occur, during which the Vermont State College system would reduce its structural deficit by $5 million each year for five years. The select committee also recommended that the state provide the Vermont State Colleges with a permanent increase to our base appropriation, as well as bridge funding in progressively smaller amounts over the years to address our anticipated deficits. Last week, the governor did sign the budget bill, which provides the Vermont State Colleges with a small increase to our base appropriation, the bridge funding that we need for the upcoming fiscal year, funding for transformation, and an array of free tuition and scholarship programs for Vermont residents. The state is mandating that in exchange for the additional funding we're receiving, that the Vermont State Colleges implement the board's approved transformation plan as developed by the select committee. One of the recommendations in the select committee's final report was that the Vermont State Colleges take a professionalized project management approach to transformation, and that is where Wilson comes in. So Wilson is going to provide a presentation on the project management approach that we'll be taking, and Kelly will be providing some follow-up with some preliminary information about the role of our information technology systems in the transformation, and we anticipate doing a deeper dive on the IT end of things at a later board meeting. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Wilson and to Kelly. Thank you. Welcome, Wilson. Thank you. And thank you, Chair Dickinson and trustees, for the opportunity to come talk about our initial approach with transformation, and I'm sure it will be the first of many opportunities to sort of share where we're going and get some feedback. So I look forward to that. Let me go ahead and share my slides here. Okay, can you see my slides? Yes. Okay. So as Sophie indicated, really what I'm going to talk about today is to give a little background and context as it relates to our approach to project management. We also are going to talk a little bit about how we're working to assemble the teams that are involved in the transformation, and then Kelly Campbell and I will talk a little bit about how we will be working together really to determine how best to have the transformation work and the technology work simultaneously. Okay, so in terms of the approach to transformation and change within this transformation effort, one of the things that's really central to the work that we're doing is that change in transformation is really about the people, and people are at the center and not just the people that are part of the institutions that are part of the transformation, but also really the student is really the core concern as we're going through the transformation effort and making sure that students and the community and others are involved in the transformation and also aware of what's going on. So that's really important to us. The second thing is that we're really approaching this as a team effort. There's really the central core belief here that teams accomplish more than just groups of individuals. We can define a shared purpose, come up with ideas from various different sources, and really make sure that we're representing a diversity of perspectives in the work that we're doing, and making sure that really all the different functional stakeholders that are involved in the process have a voice in the transformation work. Also just the recognition that change is hard is an important thing for us to keep in mind as we go through this, and really making sure that as we go through the process that we're explaining, not just the what, which is the transformation effort, but also the why and the how, and really keeping those questions kind of at the center of what we're doing is important. And then another principle that's really essential is recognizing that technology is the enabler and not the purpose to the work that we do. And yet it's probably one of the most important enablers. So as we'll talk about a little bit later in the presentation, keeping the transformation effort aligned with the technology and how we're supporting the work is going to be essential as we go through this. And then finally, I'll talk a little bit here in a moment about how we're approaching the project management work of the transformation. And, you know, I think there's a tendency when we talk about project management to jump into discussion of tools and processes and so on. But one of the things here in my third week at Vermont State Colleges that I'm particularly aware of is making sure that whatever project management approach that we take is consistent with the needs and the culture of the organization. And so that's something that we're constantly evaluating is how much structure to add and when into the process. So that's important. Throughout the process, no matter what different tools and processes we use, some of the successful practices that we'll be employing just to ensure that the transformation stays on track and make sure that there's enough communication to all the different stakeholders are things like seeking frequent alignment of stakeholders at all levels. And I'll talk a little bit about some of the sort of structure we're adding for that, but also just ensuring that we're constantly communicating is really important. Also, empowering cross functional teams to solve problems, I think, in past transformation and change efforts I've been involved in, it's really important to have that cross functional, the cross functional voices at the table. And then also making sure that it's not just senior leaders making decisions. It's really involving the people that are at the front lines of the work that's getting done. And so involving the people that do the work in the process is really essential. And then as with any project management work, it's really important to find the linkages and integration points and dependencies that are involved. And so that's not only important just in an overall perspective, but also as we talk about prioritizing and sequencing the work, really those dependencies in many cases help drive the sequencing and alignment of the work that's getting done. And then finally, I think it's important to have opportunities to engage grassroots leaders in the transformation, not just in the cross functional teamwork that we're going to do, but also as we think more longer term about, once we're into this into and through this transformation, making sure that we're setting the foundation for ongoing transformation and innovation and change. And I think it's tempting when we think about the transformation to focus on the consolidation and combining into a new combined entity. But we also want to make sure that we're thinking more longer term about the foundation that we're setting for innovation and change and making sure that we include the grassroots leaders in that effort. So in terms of implementing structure and process into the project management of this effort, one of the things that I coming in as sort of a new person to the team and critically aware of is that there's a lot of great transformation work that's going on. And there's a lot of teams that have sort of been organized or self-organized around the transformation work. Some are more ready to engage in the transformation than the others. And so trying to ensure that we're keeping that in mind is important. And then really our intent here is to come in with a little bit more structure and process to support the work that's going on, not necessarily to replace it, but then also to add the important cross functional dimension that I talked about. And so we'll be talking a little bit more about that when we talk about the teams. But then it's also important given the overall capacity of the organization to realize that not all work needs to be teamwork. And there will be situations as we go through this where we want to really assign ownership of something to a smaller group or an individual and they can get that work done maybe more quickly and efficiently as long as they're operating within the overall scope that we've agreed upon. And then with that we are going to start right away and begin implementing some tools into the project management process sort of carefully to make sure that we're not overwhelming people with tools because it can be overwhelming to go from none to a lot at once. So with that the two that we're really going to start with right out of the gate are a project charter template that we will use and then also a project status dashboard. The charter is really important because it not only identifies a more clear purpose as well as deliverables and objectives that go into the the process it helps also helps us to identify the dependencies and interdependencies with other processes and so on that we need to keep in mind. It allows us to sort of designate the team members and also to discuss really transparently what the role of the team members are and with this sort of an effort it's important for team members to not only represent their function or the institution that they're from but also to be full participants on the team and in many cases communicate back to their function or their institution the work that the team's doing and and elicit and solicit help in doing that work as it relates to their function. So the charter really is important from those dimensions and really trying to ensure that all the people on the team are starting with the same charge and understanding what the work is and being clear on sort of their role in the in the work. And along with that one of the other components of the the charter that we'll talk about in a moment is the governance and and sort of being clear on what people's roles are and how they play a role not just the people on the team but then the others in the organization and I'll talk about that in a moment. The second tool is the project status dashboard and the purpose of that is to provide visibility to the other stakeholders and sponsors of the work to how things are going. You know we can't we can't overwhelm ourselves with team meetings and and then stakeholder meetings and everything else and and the project status dashboard really gives the team a way to communicate to other stakeholders and then up to the sponsors. Here's how we're doing. Here's what things are standing in the way. Here are just some decisions that we need to have made so we can continue our work and it's really that that provides the team leader then a way of going to the other stakeholders and having those conversations and in many cases getting some decisions or things cleared out of the way that the team needs to to do their work. So I can talk more about that at a later time but that those really are the two tools that we want to start with right out of the gate. And as I mentioned you know it's important to organize the work but then it's also important for everybody to have full transparency about how decisions are going to get made and I realize there's a lot of words on this slide but I just wanted to put it up here because I think often people that are working on the teams are concerned because they're not sure are they supposed to be making the decision are they making a recommendation what are the parameters around which they can operate. And so it's important to sort of designate all the levels in the decision making framework and the governance framework and that really starts with the sponsors the sponsors need to have the ability to communicate to the teams here's your charge here's what we're asking you to do here are the guardrails around the work so that you can focus your work on what's most important for the institution. Along with that there's other stakeholders across the organization whether they're functional leaders or institutional leaders that have some stake in the work that's going on and some ownership over the processes that will get impacted in this change work. And so making sure you designate who of the cross-functional stakeholders need to be at the table for key decisions is going to be an important part of the process. And then obviously the team itself needs to sort of understand what their role is and really it comes down to being a full participant and making sure you're getting your voice heard and participating. But then also as I mentioned earlier there's this dual communication role where they're both communicating from their institution or function to the team as well as communicating back to their institution and function from the team and then engaging other experts as we go to do the work. And then it's also important to have a team lead designated even if that's a person who's just in an interim capacity but leading that team and sort of serving as the person then to take recommendations forward to the stakeholders and to the sponsors. So anyway that's a little bit more about the governance direction we can talk more about that later. In terms of the overall sequence of work and how the work will go on for each of the different teams that we'll talk about, the overall framework is sort of what we call a stage gate process where the work is broken into different stages and we sort of agree on what the deliverables are for each stage and how we sort of determine the work that's going to go on then in the next stage. And the reason for using this sort of a process particularly in the higher education environment is that it is a fairly highly regulated industry and there's the need to have the stakeholders and sponsors at different levels have greater visibility to the work that's going on. So the way that the stage gate process works is you have work going on in the stage but then before the work can move on to the next stage you get the sponsors and the stakeholders together to meet with the team and say yep we've accomplished our goals of this stage we're ready to move on to the next and that's not to say that there might not be individual activities that you know are going on in advance of the next stage but it at least gives the stakeholders and sponsors a chance to make sure that they're all on board to get it to the next phase. So now I'm going to talk a little bit about the how we're implementing the cross-functional team approach to the work. So if you think of the overall scope of the initiative of transformation you know it's all sort of under the umbrella of the VSC system transformation work that we're doing. But within that there's really the core processes and I mentioned earlier it's important to have this organized around core processes and cross-functional core processes in particular so making sure that all the people and functions that impact a process are at the table and the reason for having it be cross-functional is really if we're taking a student-centered approach here students interact with the institutions not with one function or another typically they are going through a process that is influenced and contributed to by multiple different functional experts as they go and so making sure that we've got those people at the table as we're working on this transformation effort is important. So the four core processes are student experience, academic programs and school operations, administrative operations and then workforce development which we're suggesting is really its own cross-functional process team that we'll talk about later. Then within these sort of macro cross-functional processes then we have a lot of different sub-projects and processes that we're trying to navigate and design and change and implement and so each of the core teams will have other activities that's going on but that's sort of in their purview of work and so for example within student experience you have groups like admissions and enrollment, financial aid and registrar, marketing, student residence life and so on so there's different sub-processes and sub-projects and again not everything is going to be a project some of it might be contributed by an individual but it's just sort of keeping aligned the different streams of activity so that the cross-functional teams that have essential ownership over those cross-functional processes have some visibility into what's going on there. So one of the the core discussions that we're engaged in now is how do we assemble these teams, how do we ensure that we have the right cross-functional representation, that we have the right institutional representation, how do we think about the the folks that are both functional experts as well as have the sorts of leadership capabilities that are needed to be on teams like this and so these are all the factors that we're going through to try and determine how are we best going to organize this work and who's going to be on which teams. I think one of the things though that we're particularly aware of as we go through this process is while it's a lot of work to do transformation there's also a lot of existing work within the institutions that we need to keep on the table and keep moving forward while we're doing this transformation work so that's that's one sort of capacity constraint that we're aware of there. We also know that you know some people may be very interested in being on the team, others may not, but there will be opportunities for people to participate that aren't necessarily team activities and so there's going to be a chance for everybody to take part in it and so it's not that they'll be left out and and certainly there's going to be communication back and forth between the teams and the functions and institutions as well and then it's just also important to remember that transformation is not a short process it will extend out over a period of time and so people will be joining teams and leaving teams as their functional or institutional expertise is needed so that's sort of how we're thinking about assembling the teams so and as we've sort of looked at the the folks that are involved in the efforts and at the institutional roles that people play there's really four additional roles that we've decided we need to add in here to really facilitate the work of the transformation so obviously there's the the project management role which is the the role that I'm in and I know you've had some discussion about that in the past there's also as we've talked about so much of the work is related to processes and optimizing processes documenting processes those sorts of things we feel it's important to have a business and process analysts involved in that work and and really to get down into the details of of how that how that process could be constructed and not just take the existing processes to match the match them together but looking at best practices looking at ways that we could optimize by creating a new process out of what we've been doing before and doing some of that background work as well as the documentation that goes along with that so it's really an essential role as we're as we're taking on this on this work and they can also assist with the implementation of some of the project management tools and and other things as part of that kind of continuing around the circle there another role that needs to be sort of joined to this work is a financial analyst role and this isn't necessarily a new position within the within the system but having somebody who's really assigned to this work who can help us to model different approaches to the processes and and so on as well as to assist with some of the the annual financial planning and budgeting work because those things are really inextricably linked and having some ability to sort of as we go on the fly be able to analyze budgets versus actuals in terms of how we're thinking about some of those things and then the fourth role is really a business intelligence lead so that's a data and reporting and database expert and I'm going to let Kelly just add a couple of points there because this is really a role that's core to both the the IT work as well as the the work that we're doing in transformation. Yeah thanks Wilson good afternoon everyone um yeah I'm really excited about this this business intelligence also referenced frequently as BI lead and just for quick context and I think this might have been shared in previous meetings but when I started with my colleague back in January on an interim basis we did a listening tour around the system and kind of this data reporting institutional research pillar continued to surface up as kind of a top three priority and so I really see from the IT perspective this is a position that can not only support the critical work of transformation but I think it's really going to help us start to put some operational layers in place that I think are long overdue and really supporting um on the front end how we work with our community and our constituents to understand how we're wrapping a data governance strategy in place how we're starting to define our data a data dictionary um ensuring data is going into official systems of record and has some have some retention policies around them helping um in close alignment with the business and process and process analyst um helping constituents understand you know taking things out of spreadsheets things and emails and putting them into official systems of record and I think if we can support that work through the business process redesign it's going to set us up long term for a much more sustainable data architecture and really start to support I think some of the critical data needs of our organization so I think this is a really exciting position to see on this slide as well. So I think the next question obviously is we get people in place into these roles and and think about the work and how we're going to organize it is to think about how are we going to sequence the work I think it's it's not realistic for us to sort of take on all of this all at once um and you know as both Kelly and I talked about I think getting some of these roles in place to begin the discovery work is important even if some of the work will happen um as we go so um in any case I think as we think about sequencing the work it's really taking into account the load that's on the key players that will have to play a role in this transformation one of the principles that we put forward is really in the first year of transformation we should focus most of the effort on the new combined entity and how we align the work of the new combined entity align the processes align the people all of those things at the same time we want to make sure that as we do that work we've got representatives at the table from CCV that can also both provide some input into how they operate some of these same processes but then also ensure that as we go through the transformation work and they're looking to consolidate different aspects of the the background systems and work that we're doing that we have their voices at the table and so we're trying to be cognizant of that as we go through assigning the teams and it's not a one-size-fits-all sort of thing sometimes CCV has more of a role to play in helping us to sort out some of these things sometimes less and so we're keeping that in mind as we go but it's really what the idea that let's focus on the NCE this first year and then begin to do some of the other work to get everything else aligned across the system and then the second principle here related to sequencing is that we're trying to prioritize tasks based on student and institution needs with the potential impact on enrollment or cost so it's not just about cost and it's not just about enrollment but it's about how do we keep in mind that this is really about the student and their experience at the institutions and how do we align around those needs and then finally I think really as we're sequencing the work it's important to recognize that there's a lot of different dimensions to this and and we talked about this a little bit relative to the additional roles but it's really in addition to the people it's about the process it's about the data and it's about systems there to support the processes and the data and so keeping in mind those three dimensions as we go through this work are really important to the success of what sorts of outcomes we have so initially as we go through this work we're going to be trying to answer some core questions related to process core questions related to the data and then core questions as it relates to the systems so some of the key questions as it relates to process are you know how do we manage the accountability when functional and cross functional processes intersect and so you know who ultimately is accountable for the cross functional processes who's accountable for the functional processes and as we get into how the work is done and how it needs to be aligned we'll be able to answer some of those questions a second core thing which i think is at the center of what a lot of people think about with transformation is which processes should be common and which processes should be unique so are there some that need to be different for different institutions are there some that are similar enough that we really should find one way of doing them and we're really going to try and tease that out and and kind of the the principles behind how we answer those questions are really going to be about does the unique process that an institution or department has is that driven by a specific student or institution need that drives better value to the student or to the to the state and so keeping that value at the center of how we make that decision I think is is going to be critical and then also trying to find those common process areas where we really can drive better quality and better efficiency by having a shared service approach to how we're doing it so as we dig into each of the the core process areas that I talked about earlier we'll really be trying to answer those questions and then overall how do we use process to create better efficiency and effectiveness in general and and really reducing you know the systems and software customizations and other things that that Kelly will talk about here in a minute so now turn it over to you Kelly to go through data and systems here thanks Wilson so also some key data questions that need to be answered through this process so it's kind of threads to the bi position I referenced a minute ago but how do we construct a shared data and reporting architecture that ensures transparent transparency and accountability and I also think trust I would add to this too so you know I think right now in some spaces we're challenged to trust some of the data coming out of our systems data is living in a lot of places and so that's this is a question that we need to to answer through this process because data will need to support not only like I said the work of transformation but also just our day-to-day work and how do we prioritize a data first strategy that starts with the questions and works backwards and I think you know from my perspective sometimes we bring data and spreadsheets to meetings or or to different discussions and we say what is this telling us and I think the strategic nature of how we might want to approach this is more you know what are the major questions that we need to answer what are the KPIs and really start to define those from a strategic perspective and work backwards ensure that we are organizing collecting and putting data into the right systems to be able to address those big big questions ahead of us and then how do we ensure common data standards definitions and single versions of truth so there truly is trust in the data that is being provided to do the work ahead of us and again that threads critically to the BI position I referenced a minute ago Wilson if you don't mind the next slide and some system questions and as I start to think about kind of the role of IT and supporting transformation I think you know IT plugs into every aspect of our of our system we work with every academic and business department and so we have a lot of systems to support that work so some really critical system questions that need to be answered and so how do how do we ensure our systems align with the determined business process redesign and that's why I'm really excited about the the structure that Wilson and team have put in front of you all today because I think we really need to focus on that business process redesign and then wrap the technology around it that's a really critical I think approach from my perspective and we have to ensure that our systems are agile and flexible enough to adapt to the needs of our system over time we have to establish some future governance some sustainability around these systems and continue to ensure that we realize the best value out of these systems and then the process and vision work that Wilson outlined today you know and the work ahead of us informing our next generation of systems so whether that be our ERP our CRM which is you know we use that for admissions front end how we are delivering the scheduling solution how we're using kind of our advising software our learning management software there's a lot of technology and systems to support our quote business and we need to be sure that again as I said it's aligning with the vision work the vision work ahead of us and that I think really Wilson said it speaks to technology as the enabler not the purpose so and then the last slide here and then I think we'll wrap up with some next steps but I just I think this gives this is a slide that I think really gives a critical example to maybe what we're talking about here and Wilson spoke a moment ago about some of the structure of where can we be common versus unique and I think colleague is currently our the hub of our enterprise application portfolio and I think this just speaks to maybe some of the current unsustainability wrapped around some of our systems and how how we need to kind of address this through the process and so you know there's concerns around kind of not only our current IT FTE supporting some of our critical systems but really heavy reliance on our expert users across the system and we have some really really wonderful and capable individuals across the system working very closely with us in IT but they also you know are hired to do very different jobs and not necessarily us you know support the enterprise from the technical perspective so we need to find sustainability in terms of how we're resourcing and supporting these systems the customization the third column there you know we've had colleague in our environment for 20 years but I think the customization there speaks to and this has been by design in some nature but just the customize the customizations we've wrapped into our environment to serve the individual needs of all of our institutions which was what is needed at that time and through this business process redesign how do we start to shed some of that because it really is expensive and difficult and unsustainable to support an architecture that that customized in that dynamic and to ensure we're wrapping some governance around it and then all that feeds really to the reporting complexity I think we also have and that we continue to hear from our community a very valid concern we need to be able to do efficient reporting to support as I said our transformation work but our day-to-day operations and and right now this is really just an unsustainable architecture so I'm really putting this in front of you all today to just show the example of of how critical it is that we put this structure in places Wilson outlined and I think in following a structure such as this and allowing the IT to kind of wrap under it I think is going to much better position us not only for the transformation work ahead but but years beyond transformation as well. Thanks Kelly and you know obviously Kelly and I are going to be working very closely together as we go through this process really as we're thinking about sort of the next steps you know obviously we're in the process of thinking about the teams and organizing those teams and getting those kicked off. We also are you know probably the first team out of the gate is going to be the the brand identity work and then that's really core to the transformation as well and then we'll be as we assemble the teams and working as teams going to be doing the process discovery and planning around each of the core processes and sub processes as we go really ensuring that we're taking a student-centered approach and trying to come up with a common process where possible and then obviously there's the project planning and prioritization because we won't we can't do all the projects at once but each core team will be involved in sort of determining how we're going to sequence the work and keep the work going while also making sure we've got enough capacity to do the the other work of the institutions. So those are kind of our four key next steps of things we'll be working on before the next time we get together. I think that was our that was it yeah just a few slides. So now I think we're available to take any questions that you might have. Any questions? There you are Sue. Not a question but I have to say this is delightful. Everybody both the programmatic approach to the educational selection and this project management approach to the optimization of the systems is you know singing my song so I'm very excited. This has been wonderful to hear from my perspective. Thank you. Jim you have a question? Me? Yes you. Okay sorry my the volume is terrible on this machine. I had a question several slides back one about data driving the questions if that makes sense I didn't write the things down as they went flying by but I had I had two questions on that page if someone could fly back to that it was about about three slides back or four slides back not not way way way back. I think that's slide 14 Wilson if I'm this one. Oh I I don't think you're sharing anymore Wilson you may have to. Yeah thank you. This first bullet how do we construct a shared data reporting architecture oh the next one how do we prioritize data first strategy that starts with the questions it works backwards that's that's an intriguing bullet it's kind of counterproductive counterintuitive and I really look forward to seeing how that works because in the sort of normal course of events we perform some questions and then we go find some data and see what supports what and I just find that an intriguing approach but I think it's really correct and so this is not so much a question as a as a comment and I'm literally looking forward to seeing how this works out and also as a general comment I find this presentations to be intriguing and exceptionally thorough and detailed and I really look forward to seeing how this works through it's quite remarkable I think thank you thank you thank you anyone else Karen um how uh just a comment about how far we have come and I know we're not at the end of the road yet a long way from it but boy how far we have come and all I could think of was wow and I know that's probably not but I think of collaborative informative inclusive process um and when we started out folks had great concerns about um something a plan that that was was not going to involve a lot of Vermonters and and people specifically within the system and pieces of the system and again how far we have come and how very proud I am of um the good people that we've put in our employ to help us along the way and boy for anyone who thinks how come it's not done yet look at the work that needs to be done before we get where we need to be and I'm so proud of this and we've got such good people here already in our employ and then the people we've brought in to guide us and um I want to thank everyone and Sophie you're you're shouldering a lot of this very quietly um from behind the scenes and I want to thank you well it's definitely been a team effort and I as you say there's a long way to go but we we shouldn't forget how far we've come in a year so incredible incredible and I do want to say that two of those positions that were um Wilson noted the business and process analyst and the business intelligence lead both those positions are posted um the financial analyst position I think will get posted soon um so again there may be folks internally that that think they would be a good fit for those positions and they should certainly apply for them otherwise we will be looking again to bring bring people in bring some expertise in from outside to help us uh with those pieces but um yeah I'm very comfortable with this approach it's it's I'm very happy to have Wilson on board and to start getting some structure because before you know everyone's been pitching in and doing things but it's been relatively unstructured so I'm definitely my comfort level has increased now that we've got some structure Sharon anything else um just a little comment one of the very first slides maybe the first slide said that where we're going we'll align with Vermont's business employment needs which I agree with although as we know having reviewed the correspondence it flies into our inbox from time to time there's concern about liberal arts and are we throwing it out you know baby out with the bathwater um I know I we agree where we need to go but I'm curious to know at the end of the as we approach the end of the tunnel here um how liberal arts um will remain or and or how they'll be integrated with what we end up as our product um because as some of you know I'm a proponent of of um including liberal arts liberal arts and a broad functional useful education so I'm curious to see how this ends up you know I'm not objecting to anything at this point in time it's not my business and I don't think it would be appropriate but I do find the question um interesting and let's see where we end up thanks I would I would just add it's not one or the other I think um liberal arts will absolutely be there as we move forward um I think one of the things that's a little unsettling for people is the focus that came out of the select committee work and and the conversations we had with the legislature about the importance of the Vermont State colleges to the workforce in Vermont so that's why it's gotten a lot of attention um but it doesn't mean that that's we're not going to be focused on liberal arts as we move forward I think there's there's obviously recognition that uh liberal arts is sort of essential for careers into the future we're not just training um people to do one job although we obviously have a lot of very specific programs that we do that are critical to the state so it's the combination of both I just think people are a little uncomfortable with the fact that we're now talking so much about workforce development and critical occupations but that's not to suggest that we're not also going to be continuing with the liberal arts as well as we move forward and I appreciate and I hope I wasn't implying it was a one or the other kind of choice and um I appreciate the answer and I think we'll figure it out but thank you yeah another thing Jim is if you look back at the rpk report there is a under the market analysis there were certain courses that were clearly liberal arts oriented and were indicated as liberal arts they're not really market analysis for like a b or c they were clearly liberal arts uh entities and whatever the rpk group has been doing and the faculty will do this this summer will probably align pretty quickly in with what the things that wilson and kelly you're talking about because liberal arts are in fact workforce development right courses you know to think and to make decisions so understood and much appreciated yeah okay uh karen um i'm glad to brought that that up jim and i would just point out that that in the time that i've been on the board and it's been a number of years i don't think and i'm looking at the screen now and i don't know everyone intimately but as i look at board members i don't know that we've ever had such a strong representation of liberal arts based people as trustees and um i'm confident that i share your concern jim i think that's that's the core of education that's the core of humaneness and you can't do anything well even with a machine if you're not a good person first so um i think as we keep that and we look at diversity humanness is important we have to keep that at our as our center and i'm unconfident that we as a board are going to be vocal about that and pulling folks back to that if in fact it should ever veer away and i'm not saying that it would but um i thank you jim for bringing that up anyone else have any questions wilson do you want to or you or kelly want to address some of the issues too talked about this is right up her alley she's very excited about this she's just retired as the performance manager for the state so um she probably understands this a lot better than most of us did i didn't know what a project manager was exactly until you just went through that process um do you have any any further comments from what people have asked i guess the only other comment i would make is you know today was really to talk about the process and how we're going to organize the work i think one of the other sort of deliverables we have with it is to sort of figure out the accountability matrix of sort of who's accountable for what not just you know at a program or institution level but also inclusive of the the board and and sort of how we think about um how we manage those accountabilities and also the the metrics that go with it so how are we measuring our progress against all of the things that are sort of included within transformation as well as the outcomes that we want to measure going forward yeah i would just add that i one thing wilson and i spent a lot of time together over the past few weeks and i think one of the perspectives wilson brings to the process um which is critical is really the focus of student on students when we really put students front and center in this decision making process um i think it makes the conversations easier right um in many ways so i've really appreciated that in terms of the approach it's just a consistent theme in terms of how um how he's suggesting and providing structure to the conversations ahead of us and i'm just seeing how valuable that is in just the few short weeks that he's been here and i think it's making our team stronger in terms of how we approach this moving ahead so yeah well thank you it was a very good presentation i really did get a feel as to what a project manager does which is helpful anyone else have any other comments um so if you do have any comments to end this or i know we're working hard on this yeah i mean we'll we'll continue you know we're issuing our transformation updates every couple of weeks out to um our communities we certainly will be thinking about um communications now that things are loosening up in the state but really probably focus more on the fall when when people come back you know but we'll certainly be um communicating as much as we can over the summer to make sure people know what's going on um and what we're actually thinking about doing is even including uh what the presentation that wilson and kelly just did as a zoom clip um for our next transformation update so that you know the more people get the benefit of understanding this because it is something that's different and it's not something that everyone's familiar with but i do think it's essential for us if we're going to be successful moving forward okay thank you thank you very much that was very informative very very helpful thank you for your time okay we're now moving on to finance and facilities our chair of that committee is not present today at an important board meeting um i can't remember off the top of my head who the vice chair is uh the chair is uh the vice chair is also missing in action so i was going to ask Sharon to kind of lead us through thank you Sharon well i'm happy to give the report obviously i um you'll need to take it away on all the action items uh the finance and facilities committee met on may 24th there were four main topics on the agenda the first topic was the review and approval of a modification to the glenn and marga sprawl endowment as found on pages 14 to 17 of your packet the donors glenn and marga sprawl created this endowment in 2013 with $35,000 their intent at the time was to create an endowment uh that would create an endowed chair of mathematics for the nvu johnson campus when the corpus grew large enough since 2013 they have continued to make many significant contributions to the endowment and it currently stands at a little more than $777,000 they wish to revise the endowment to more closely match their current wishes and the environment of the vermont state colleges therefore they request to change the purpose of the endowment to provide non-salary support for faculty and mathematics and sciences to improve the quality of their teaching they request that priority be given to mathematics faculty on the johnson campus with second priority to science faculty on the johnson campus and a third priority to math and science faculty at all of the campuses within the vermont state college system the committee recommends to the full board the approval of the expansion of the scholarship okay we need a motion uh to expand the um the glenn and marga spool endowment i'll make that motion okay shon makes the motion a second on that okay surely is made a second any further discussion or just questions on this seeing none all those in favor of the expansion please indicate by saying aye aye opposed seeing none that has been voted on and approved we also have a resolution 2021-015 for banking and investment can you explain what that's about chairman please absolutely this resolution which is reviewed and approved annually authorizes certain personnel within the vermont state colleges to perform banking and investment activities on behalf of the vermont state colleges so it's a standard resolution we do this every year and it gives the authority for us to create banking accounts perform banking activities and investment activities okay this this was in our packages i hope everyone had a chance to read it's got a very long resolve pieces to it is there someone who would like to make a motion to accept the resolution 2021-015 for banking and investment i'll move that okay ryan moves it do you want to second that jim okay any further discussion or questions we've apparently seen this before haven't we sharon absolutely you see this every year in june okay any further questions or discussions seeing none all those in favor of approving that resolution please indicate by saying aye aye opposed okay so that motion has passed now um that resolves that uh you don't have anything else to report do you and you're reporting budget related materials provided in the moving materials there is a system-wide budget proposal resolution that does need to be approved i don't see that here can you explain a little bit more on that please absolutely um at the may meeting we discussed the proposed system-wide budget and as discussed there before the use of one-time and new sources of funding the deficit will be 36 million dollars that number is in the lower third of the deficit range that we've been sharing throughout the budgeting process and that when we apply all one-time funds and new funds the deficit will be approximately 6.3 million all of which will be covered through the use of carry forward funds um from this current fiscal year uh this budget did include two new features this year uh the first were key performance indicators or benchmarking metrics that will help the board gauge the health of the system's finances as we move throughout the year and then the second aspect was a five-year budget pro forma that will be used to assist the system in financial planning so the resolution is number 2021-016 and it's found on page 23 of your packet page 23 okay any questions or any discussions i'd like a motion on that so moved ryan's moving it shon you're seconding it okay we have a motion on the table for the budget analysis that we put forward from the may meeting and a discussion or questions while those in favor please indicate by saying aye aye opposed okay thank you very much sharon thank you i i just wanted to add and i should have said before before sharon started speaking but for surely and sue um sharon is our chief financial officer and our chief operating officer so i apologize i didn't give her her title before okay we have a report from the executive committee i'm going to say that uh several things that we discussed we're going to have the retreat like we have had in the past but did not have in 2020 at lake moray september 20 september of 2021 uh we have the dates and i believe that's in the calendar that we also got from the chancellor's office in our package um this will be the pretty generally one overnight retreat um we're going to focus i believe on a few housekeeping things and we're also going to do more development and continue with that we also are um we're also currently reviewing proposals submitted in response to an rfp for an executive search firm to assist with the search for a president for the new university the new combined entity um i can let uh the chancellor discuss where that stands at the moment if that's okay with you sure so we we received four proposals came in um we met last week to discuss what to do with the proposals that came in we whittled it down to two different um search firms and um sharon again recently sort of interviewed both of them um so i we're just waiting to make the final decision as to which firm to move forward with um but i think we got some very good feedback just from the two um interviews that sharon did with regard to timing um and some other suggestions about about the search but i think it will be beneficial for us to have um the benefit of an executive search firm that really understands the landscape um and help them and this is going to be a very big decision um as to who will be the president of the new university so it's best that we you know get the expertise that we need to make sure we get the right person for this position moving forward our goal right now is to try to bring somebody on board for July 1 of 2022 understanding that the new university will be launched in July of 2023 but it's important to have the president on board to help shape what that new university looks like um as we move forward so that's where we're at right now on on the executive search yes and part of that search will be a search committee and some members of the board will be on that among others um we have a few search committees that we've had in the past it'll be patterned very similar to what we've had done in the past any questions on that sure wine yeah just just real quick to clarify selfie did you say we would have this new president in July one of next year or was my understanding that was January 1 has that date moved um yeah i think based on the conversations that we had with the search firms um the concern is you know it really follows the academic hiring cycle and uh they were recommending that we look to hire somebody for July one of 2022 because there's a concern as to who's you know the quality of the pool if you're looking for a January one hire does that make sense it does yes thank you thank you any other questions or or discussion okay the third thing that we did is that we did make a motion uh to recommend to the uh to the board um for the chancellor to reappoint president Joyce Judy president patricia molten interim president jonathan spiro and for the board to reappoint chancellor zodotny for the upcoming 21-22 academic year um the chancellor appoints the presidents we appoint the chancellor and we uh made a motion to that effect so moved by Karen mary you're you're seconding that okay um chancellor um can you describe the the way that we've done this in the past and what we're doing this year the two years so actually it is the it is the board that appoints the presidents and then i'm responsible for negotiating the the terms uh with them um but yeah so i'm i met with each of the presidents we had a discussion um and then the presidents met individually with the executive committee of the board and then the executive committee made its recommendation to the to the full board here and so i will be issuing um appointment letters for uh the three presidents moving forward and then we'll be issuing my letter yes okay any questions or any discussion there is a motion on the table we do have um anything else we want to ask seeing none all those in favor please indicate by saying aye opposed okay congratulations to chancellor and the three presidents the next thing is the report from the nominating committee the chairman of the nominating committee cannot be here today so i will um make the motion to uh re-elect the um well my term actually goes for two years so we don't have to re-elect me that's a relief i guess but we made a motion to re-elect vice chair Megan Kluver treasurer david silverman and secretary Karen Luno i need a second on that second sure yes several seconds any discussion or questions all those in favor of the motion as stated please indicate by saying aye aye opposed okay we have a that's the executive that's the executive committee we also have a motion to uh collect people to the audit committee um we have we so the motion is to re-elect david silverman dylan gm bantista mary moran and shon tester to the audit and risk management committee we will be missing one person because linda melm is no longer on the board um and we will just work on the motion of the people that have already been nominated and i need a second on that okay ryan as any discussion or questions seeing none the um we'll vote on the motion to re-elect the audit risk management committee all those in favor please say aye aye opposed okay now linda melm is stepping off the board now um we have we have discussed an option of um making a motion to elect appoint suzela to serve on the risk and audit management the audit risk management committee would anyone like to make a second of that motion Karen okay we have uh Karen lina seconded any discussion or questions seeing none all those in favor please indicate by saying aye aye thank you sue i just i just want to clarify that um under under the bylaws for uh the board of trustees and the trustee handbook um members of the audit and risk management committee are elected by the full board the other committee assignments are handled by the board chair um so again if um you know just so you're not surprised by why why we voted on this one but we don't vote on the other ones it's just the way that it's structured under our bylaws in our handbook yes and uh we'll have to pick a new chair for that committee but we will we will do that okay now we have a report from the diversity equality and inclusion committee um that's mary moran mary's having a hard time with her sound unmute there you are am i unmuted you are okay so quick quick updates um we met on monday june 7th um all community members chances of office staff and lin and karen attended as well also present with joey sui and pat moulton as well as several guest speakers from the colleges um jasmine spoke about the recent vc the scs academic retreat held virtually on may 25th and jesty stone was a keynote speaker speaker and spoke about inclusion and student engagement jasmine also shared an update on the adoption of the general education program inclusive of the learning outcomes from the faculty assemblies there was an update on the definitions from the social justice group and the committee voted unanimously to invite public comment and feedback for the proposed definitions um and that meeting is scheduled on september 13th and there was a discussion about an anti-racism pledge from the vsc s social justice group and the general discussion referred to draft and we discussed it but there was no action taken that's it any questions or discussions saying none thank you very much um there'll be no action on that we also have the next we have the board calendar this was also something that was distributed in the packet it was uh it talks about it shows all of the meetings that are planned for the coming year most of which seem to be on zoom there is um the retreat which will be in person in september any comments or any discussion on that uh so if you do want to give any kind of comments on what was planned or how that was planned yeah so we've um the thought was that you know this is what very well doing our meetings via zoom it really facilitates participation i know today we've had a couple of folks that did have um conflicts and couldn't be here but generally we've had phenomenal participation from trustees and i think it's been facilitated by the fact that we've been able to do things by zoom it really enables um you know people from our communities to participate to watch if they if they're not available to watch in real time they're able to watch the live stream later um so we don't want to lose some of that at the same time we do know how valuable it is for trustees to connect with the campuses so um given that we've we're now in an era where we're meeting more frequently than historically we've met um historically the the full board has met four times a year the thought was that we would have four in-person meetings again one would be at the lake moray for the retreat which is a two-day event but then typically we've gone to campuses to do three of the board meetings during the year um and to preserve that so that's what we're proposing is essentially maintaining zoom meetings for committees um and for and for some of these interim board meetings but the the four traditional board meetings would be in person with three of them being on the campuses um coming up and again the campus ones were were the ones that traditionally we've we've gone to the campuses so december march and um june any questions on that love would love to be able to get back at doing that that's the goals be able to interact personally nope charlie you have a question yes i was going to ask sophie about the retreat on monday september 20th uh and tuesday what time will the retreat start on monday typically we we have folks come sort of for lunchtime and then we really start in the afternoon and then depending on how much business there is on tuesday we either finish at lunchtime on tuesday or we finish you know early to mid-afternoon on tuesday it really depends it again it is an opportunity for the trustees get and particularly given what we've gone through in the past year where we haven't seen anyone at all um it'll be more important than ever but they're an opportunity for trustees to sort of get to know each other a little bit outside of you know formal board meetings um there will typically be some training some board assessment self-evaluation for the board um and we we are planning for the august fourth board meeting on doing some of our routine trainings then as well just so we're not fully loading trainings um at the board retreat um but yeah we're working on the agenda for that now but typically people get there around lunchtime or early afternoon for it okay thank you i teach on mondays but i rearrange my schedule for the oh well thank you very much okay thank you there will be a more detailed schedule that you should be getting soon that we all should be getting soon surely okay um we have to approve this so um i'm going to make a motion that we vote to accept the the schedule that the chancellor has sent out to us i need a second on that second mary several of you um any more questions or concerns any discussion seeing none all those who approve the the board schedule please indicate by saying aye aye um any dissent opposition no thank you it's passed we do have additional business i'm going to turn this over again to the chancellor yeah i just wanted to add um and let the board know that um the council of presidents met in person back in mid-may i was our first time seeing each other i was exciting to do um but we met to start talking about uh the new combined entity the new university and um the sort of senior leadership team that would be needed for that university given that some decisions really can't wait until next summer when we hoped to have a new president on board and so through our discussions we identified two specific positions that were identified as being essential and for which the need to fill them was immediate and the first was for a provost for the new university and the second was for a dean of enrolment so in consultation with the presidents it was agreed that we had well qualified candidates for both positions within the vermont state college system and that we should explore their interest in taking on uh those roles so i'm i'm really pleased to announce that nolan atkins the provost of northern vermont university and morris were met who's the dean of enrolment at castleton university have both agreed to step into those roles both of them are experienced they're well qualified they're highly respected and we believe there'll be an excellent fit for those two positions uh they are needless to say extremely busy and i've been working with them and with their presidents to explore what resources will be needed to give them the additional capacity um to take on these new roles while also continuing to support the critical work that they perform at their current institutions um and just to be clear part of the transformation budget um that we submitted to the legislature and was funded does include funding to help backfill these positions so there will be some additional resources there that we can tap to help support both of them um i do anticipate that one of the questions many people will have is how decisions are going to be made as to who will fill positions in the new university and many of those decisions will ultimately be made by the president of the new university when they come on board but in the interim if as happened here there's a determination made that there's a position that's critical and we need to fill it prior to the new president coming on board then the process that we're using is that i will work in consultation with the presidents as to how best to fill those positions and then depending on the particular circumstances and the available talent pool that we have within the vermont state colleges um the particular decision making process may vary so for example some positions may be filled by selection uh some may be done through internal postings and applications and some may be done through an external search process so there's no one size fits all but i just wanted to be clear that we're you know we're trying to be as thoughtful as we can be as we make these decisions moving forward and i did just want to add um to sort of compare this to the the presentation that you received earlier from from wilson and kelly um leading or serving on a transformation project team doesn't mean that a person has been selected to fill that particular role in the new university the two processes are distinguishable and there are many reasons why someone may be asked to lead or serve on a project team um including ensuring that different institutions and different functional areas are represented um and so being selected or being asked to serve on a team or to serve as a lead for a team shouldn't be interpreted as meaning that that person um is is somehow the anointed person to serve in that role in the new combined entity um so i just wanted to make sure that that people were aware of that we will be making um an announcement when we send out our transformation update about both um nullan and morris but i wanted to let the board know um that we're very very happy that they've both agreed to step into those roles moving forward thank you congratulations morris and and nullan morris is wonderful it's a very good choice so thank you nullan's pretty wonderful too i just want to be clear yeah and i don't know him but i know morris i just want to say also for additional business this is really old business but it was um the last week or so 10 days ago we had a press conference uh the day after the governor signed the budget we had a press conference with the presidents who presented with along with um maryland and whose name my last name i can't remember but kagel kagel from besak yeah besak and they talked about the scholarships and the different uh projects that were funded in the budget that are going to help critical uh positions critical positions and employment in the state as well as a variety of other scholarships available to vermoners and uh it got quite a bit of good press coverage and it was a very successful press conference and i want to thank uh president molten for for hosting that but it was a a really big deal and it's apparently gotten a lot of uh generated some activity in terms of people applying so that's all very good now do we have any comments from the public gen do you have anyone who has signed up chair dickinson we do not have anyone who has signed up is there anyone present who would like to make a comment please raise your hand looks like no okay thank none thank you very much we now need a motion to go into executive session which i think i have here yes okay so i move the board of trustees under executive session pursuant to one vsa 313 a2 to discuss negotiating or securing real estate purchase release options in addition i move the board of trustees enter into executive session pursuant to one vsa 313 a1b to discuss labor relations and agreements with employees one vsa 313 a1e to discuss pending limit litigation one vsa 313 a1f for the purpose of receiving confidential attorney client communications made for the purpose of providing professional legal services because premature general public knowledge of these discussions would place vsc at a substantial disadvantage no formal or binding action shall be taken in executive session except for actions relating to real estate transactions along with the members of the board president this meeting and its discretion the board invites the chancellor the general counsel the president and dean of administration of vermont technical to attend i need a second on that mary seconds that any discussion seeing none all those in favor of the motion please indicate by saying i hi hi hi okay we have a breakout room usually to go on to executive session so we can join that you'll see an invitation on your screen just click okay and you'll be whisked to the breakout room or join that's what mine says join thank you oh pat linio muted okay let me just say again we've got back an open session it's now five and four there any more discussions or questions thing none i'll entertain a motion to adjourn seconded by jim okay we have a motion to adjourn any discussion seeing none i just want to say thank you everybody for joining us and being with us and and uh all those in favor please indicate by saying hi right thank you thank you bye