Vermont State Colleges library staff who expected to lose their jobs at the end of June won a reprieve on Monday.

Five days into his new job as head of the beleaguered college system, interim president Mike Smith said a decision to cut library jobs would be rescinded and a controversial plan to remove almost all the books from the libraries would be put on hold, for now.

Smith described the plan in a brief note to the state colleges community and to trustees at a board meeting on Monday.



“We will continue our work to streamline our library collections consistent with normal and progressive library best practices,” Smith wrote in his note.  “At the same time, we know that digital academic materials are the way of the future, and we will continue to evaluate how they fit into our libraries.

“As we look forward, we will take an agile approach together to design the best library to serve our faculty, students, and community."
Smith started last Thursday, after the sudden resignation earlier this month of president Parwinder Grewal, who had been hired to lead the system as it merged three universities under the banner of Vermont State University, which is scheduled to officially "open" on July 1.

As part of a money saving plan, Grewal announced plans in February to remove books from college libraries and offer them digitally instead. The plan called for the elimination of several library staff jobs. Additionally, he announced plans to change the athletic conferences two schools compete in: Vermont Technical College and what is now Northern Vermont University-Johnson.

Smith said on Monday that the athletic changes, too, were being put on hold. For at least the next three years, the new Vermont State University-Johnson will remain in the NCAA, and VSU-Randolph will remain in the USCAA.

“Athletics play a significant role in student recruitment and retention on all our campuses,” Smith said in his note to campus members.

The uproar and backlash over the library and athletics decision have been "distractions," he added.

"The fact is, this is a way to put these behind us," Smith said.

The note brought some relief to people who had vigorously fought the library plan, but many on social media said they wanted more information. For example, it's not clear how long the library plan has been shelved, though many took the decision to retain staff as a sign that the books wouldn't be removed anytime soon.

"I don't want that to be mistaken by saying we're stopping the process of streamlining the collection," Smith said at the trustees' meeting. "It is good library practices and normal library practices to streamline the collection."

The library staff will be needed for that work, he said. But he added a glimmer of hope that the shelves won't end up entirely bare.

"I want to message that libraries are for books," Smith said. "But some books have other ways to access, including digital."
Baruch Zeichner, who said he had taught at Johnson State College (now Northern Vermont University-Johnson), was skeptical.

“Great news, stay vigilant,” Zeichner wrote on Facebook after the changes were announced. “This seems more like appeasement than a true change of direction."

Financial woes — and discussions about how to address them — have been the order of the day at the Vermont State Colleges System for a few years now.  To prepare for a sweeping transformation aimed at cutting costs, the system hired education veteran Grewal from Texas last summer to help consolidate Northern Vermont University — made up of the former Lyndon and Johnson State colleges — with Castleton University and Vermont Technical College into a new institution, Vermont State University. The merger is due to be completed on July 1.



But Grewal ignited a fiery debate after his February announcement about the libraries. The legislature has ordered the struggling system to find $5 million in annual savings for five years, and Grewal said converting written materials to digital would save about $600,000.

The news provoked demonstrations on campus, a torrent of protest to the board and a crowded student rally at the Statehouse. A few lawmakers sponsored a bill aimed at stopping the library plan.

On April 14, the college system announced that Grewal was resigning after just nine months on the job and that the library book plan would be "paused," although the library staff cuts would go ahead as planned.

Smith said on Monday that the administration plans to evaluate the athletic programs at the system’s four campuses in Randolph, Lyndon, Johnson and Castleton.

“Over the summer we will establish athletic specific benchmarks and metrics for all four campuses,” he said. “These benchmarks and metrics will allow us to evaluate the programs over the coming years with the goal of building towards long-term sustainability.”

Still up in the air is the system’s plan for saving $25 million over five years as required by the Vermont legislature, which approved a sizeable increase in the system’s appropriation last year.

Joseph Kinney, a third-year history student at Castleton University, said on Monday that students who are protesting the library and athletic cutbacks have discussed other ways that the system might save money. He noted that Castleton reports enrollment of 1,900 students, making it the largest institution in the system. NVU-Lyndon has 1,050 students, and NVU-Johnson has 1,145.

“Around Castleton, the common consensus is that the cuts should come from campuses where enrollment has been down,” Kinney said. “We shouldn’t be pumping money into those two other schools to save them if they’re not successful.”