(HOST) Some budget cutting decisions at the University of Vermont have Commentator Tom Slayton worried about the school’s commitment to research in and about our state.
(SLAYTON) The Center for Research on Vermont – a network of Vermont scholars, teachers, and researchers administered through the University of Vermont – lost its longtime coordinator, Kristin Peterson-Ishaq, this month.
At her retirement party, there were many kind words for her – but few for the University of Vermont, which many at the event said was abandoning the center.
Earlier this year UVM administrators cut the staffing for the Center for Research on Vermont significantly by eliminating the position of the Center’s administrative assistant. That cut made the continued operation of the center, as it has run for the past three decades, untenable, and sparked the resignation of Ms. Peterson-Ishaq.
Dean Eleanor Miller, head of the College of Arts and Sciences, said the University was not attempting to deep-six the center, but it was evident that many at the retirement party did not agree with her.
"This is the conclusion of the Center as we have known it," said state Historic Preservation Officer and archaeologist Giovanna Peebles, who was emcee at the event.
Professor Garrison Nelson, one of the founders of the Center for Research on Vermont some 35 years ago, was more blunt: "UVM is no longer the University of Vermont," he declared. "It is now a University IN Vermont."
Others shared this sentiment – because they believe that the Center has been one of the few direct connections that UVM has with Vermont at large. It has served as clearinghouse for Vermont scholars at UVM and elsewhere doing research on a variety of Vermont topics; and it helps scholars in many areas – state government, public schools and colleges, museums and other institutions – stay in touch with one another and share research. Its seminars and conferences are now televised and available over the web. And it oversees the Vermont Studies Program at UVM.
In a recent memorandum, Dean Miller said that the staffing cut was "…not a signal that the Center is not valued," but is part of the difficult economic times faced by UVM. At the reception, she introduced the new director of the Center, Cheryl Morse Dunkley, a lecturer in the Geography Department. She will be asking Center members and others to reassess the work of the organization.
It would seem that the fate of the Center is, at best, uncertain. And the controversy, while not an unfamiliar one in these times of economic distress, raises some significant questions, both about the Center for Research on Vermont and the University itself.
Can the Center survive this staff reduction?
Can it play any meaningful role in coordinating the research done by Vermont scholars with such a tiny, unsupported staff?
What is the future of the Vermont Studies Program, which the Center oversees?
And does the University of Vermont want to maintain any meaningful relationship with Vermont and Vermonters?
Will it continue to be the University of Vermont? Or will it become, as many seem to fear, just a university in Vermont?
EDITOR’S NOTE: This text corrects errors in our broadcast version, in which Peterson-Ishaq was identified as Center Director, when her correct title was Center Coordinator; and according to university sources, future Center funding is intended to support a staff of two.