STUDENT ADVISORY COUNCIL
Thank you to all those who have nominated themselves or nominated others to serve on the Student Advisory Council. We have a broad cross-section of nominees by institution, part-time/full-time, traditional/early college/adult learner, commuters/residential, in-state/out of state, veterans, first generation, students of color, students who manage disabilities, et cetera.
The Student Advisory Council will help guide the work of the Transformation Teams as we work to design the future of the new unified university. We will be finalizing the composition of the committee this week. As a reminder the first few meetings are scheduled for September 23rd, September 30th, October 14th, and October 28th.
PRESIDENTIAL SEARCH – Feedback requested
As discussed in Transformation Update #11, the search for the first president of the new university is underway. We are working with executive search firm Storbeck Search. Please see the attached memo from Trustee Megan Cluver to the VSC Community about the search as this provides some additional information.
Last week Storbeck Search began conducting meetings with different groups of students, faculty, staff, and administrators at the three institutions that will form the new university. These sessions, all conducted electronically, will continue through the first week of October. Your candid and engaged participation in these sessions is vital to our future. If you are not able to participate in one of these meetings, or you would like to provide additional insight, you are encouraged to complete a short survey and share your thoughts about the priorities, traits, experiences, and practices that the future President of our new combined entity should possess. Your responses are confidential and will go directly to Storbeck Search, where they will be aggregated and analyzed. Storbeck will present themes, patterns and trends gleaned from the survey with the Search and Screen Committee. The composition of the Search and Screen Committee will be determined in the coming weeks.
Link to the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/VSCNCEPresidentSearchSurvey
UPDATES FROM THE TRANSFORMATION TEAMS
Academic Operations Team
The Academic Operations Core Team is scheduled to meet weekly through the semester and is working closely with the various sub-teams, all of which have now launched except for the General Education and Institutional Research sub-teams. In addition to the General Education sub-team, there will be a DEI learning outcomes working group. The Academic Programs sub-team is working closely with the Academic Governance Planning Group on how to handle the review and approval process for the program array work.
The Advising sub-team is planning campus visits from NACADA (formerly the National Academic Advising Association, now known as the Global Community for Academic Advising) next week to explore potential new advising models.
Student Experience Team
The Student Experience sub-teams are putting the finishing touches on their team charters and finalizing their objectives and deliverables. Discussions are underway to discover what is currently working well on each campus and what services and procedures could be improved for our students. In addition, the teams are incorporating best practices into their conversations so that multiple perspectives can be considered. The Core Team has been looking at enrollment services across the three institutions, especially as to how the admissions, financial aid, billing, and registration components intersect during the pre-enrollment process for students and their families.
Administrative Operations
The Administrative Operations Core team kicked off on August 18th and introduced the administrative operations concepts to the sub-team members. A second Core Team meeting was held on August 26th at which the charter for the team was organized. A short-term working group on Tuition Pricing for the new university, comprised of enrollment and finance staff, was established. The sub-teams and the Tuition Pricing working group will hold their initial meetings during the weeks of September 13th and 20th.
NAME AND BRAND UPDATE
Thank you to all those who participated in the listening tours conducted by VisionPoint Marketing and those who completed the survey regarding the name and brand for the new university. VisionPoint Marketing is currently analyzing the data and feedback received and will be presenting their recommendation on the name for the new university at the upcoming Board of Trustees meeting on Tuesday, September 22nd. The meeting will be livestreamed so the presentation and recommendation can be watched live or viewed at a later time.
We anticipate that there will be considerable interest in the recommendation and so, in order to obtain feedback and public comment before the Board votes on the recommendation, we will be providing a link for submitting written feedback, following the Board’s September 22nd meeting. In addition, the Board will be holding a virtual public listening session for input on the recommendation on Wednesday, September 29th at 6:30 p.m. The links for submitting written feedback and for the listening session will be sent out next week, via email.
Recommendations regarding the brand for the new university will follow in October.
UPCOMING CAMPUS TOWN HALLS
Barring any additional challenges presented by the COVID virus, we will be visiting the campuses for a series of in-person Town Hall meetings between September 22-28, 2021. The format will be a short presentation on transformation, the mission and vision for the new university, and the name/brand for the new university, followed by a dialogue about the upcoming changes, including the opportunity to ask questions.
All are welcome to attend. Here is the schedule – any additional details will be shared by your institution.
| Campus | Date | Time | Location |
| NVU-Johnson | Weds., Sept. 22nd | 11:30-12:30 p.m. | Dibden |
| NVU-Lyndon | Thurs., Sept. 23rd | 11:30-12:30 p.m. | Alexander Twilight Theater |
| Castleton | Fri., Sept. 24th | 11:30-12:30 p.m. | 1787 Room |
| VTC-Randolph | Mon., Sept. 27th | 1:00-2:00 p.m. | Conant 102 |
| CCV/Chancellor’s Office | Tues., Sept. 28th | 9:00-10:00 a.m. | Via Zoom |
| VTC-Williston | Tues., Sept. 28th | 1:00-2:00 p.m. | Williston 401B |
In addition, following each meeting, Wilson Garland will hold a “meet and greet” meeting for all those serving on a project management team from that institution. These meetings will be held in the same room as the Town Hall at Castleton and Vermont Tech. Rooms for these meetings at NVU-Johnson and NVU-Lyndon are to be determined.
TRANSFORMATION FAQs
To respond to some of the most pressing questions that may be circulating on campuses, here are some transformation FAQS that you may find helpful. Transformation is a work in progress and so there are not answers to every question at this point but, if you have questions, please consider coming to one of the upcoming Town Hall meetings.
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION – Feedback requested
The Board of Trustees created a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee earlier this year. The DEI Committee has met twice. You can see the meeting materials and minutes here. The DEI Committee’s meeting scheduled for September 13th was canceled, in part to provide time for public feedback on the proposed definitions of the terms Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. The Committee’s charter provides that the Committee will define these terms as they will apply to the VSC. At its June 7th meeting, the Committee received the following proposed definitions as drafted by the VSCS Social Justice Group:
Diversity: A community where individuals with various intersecting identities thrive. We acknowledge that no person may be defined by one identity, and our various identities intersect in unique ways. These identities include race, color, ancestry, ethnicity, sex, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, medical status, religion, language, culture, marital status, height, weight, national origin, age, and disability. Note: we recommend excluding “political ideology” from this list. We do not tolerate, for example, white supremacist ideologies in the VSCS.
Equity: The active and sustained deconstruction of unjust power hierarchies that privilege certain voices, identities, and bodies over others, at both the interpersonal and structural scales.
Inclusion: Being a part of a meaningful decision-making process. Note: we recommend avoiding the term “feel” in this definition. We want people to be included, not feel included.
Statement of Gender Inclusivity: The VSCS draws on the Agency of Education’s 4 core principles to guide gender inclusivity[1]:
- All students, faculty, and staff have a gender identity which is self-determined and valid.
- All students, faculty, and staff have privacy rights.
- All students, faculty, and staff have a right to a safe learning environment and social community.
- All students, faculty, and staff have a right to a learning environment free from discrimination.
As the definitions of these terms will be applicable across the Vermont State Colleges System, the DEI Committee is requesting public feedback on these proposed definitions. Please send any feedback you have to chancellor@vsc.edu, using the subject line “DEI Definitions,” on or before October 5th. The next meeting of the Board’s DEI Committee is scheduled for October 15th.
[1] See Continuing Best Practices for Schools Regarding (vermont.gov).