Vermont
On anniversary of controversial merger, VTSU officials say they’ve turned the page
RANDOLPH CENTER, Vt. (WCAX) – It’s been one year since the Vermont State Colleges campuses merged to form Vermont State University to address millions in debt and declining enrollment. Faculty and university leaders say while it has been a bumpy year, they feel like they’ve turned the page and are looking forward to year two.
Engineering department head John Kidder and his peers have been on the front lines of the merger of Castleton University, Northern Vermont University, and Vermont Technical College.
“It’s been somewhat tumultuous going through that,” Kidder acknowledged. “The faculty, while we had a common catalog and a lot of common ground and common practices, they were still very different institutions, and so there’s been some work to pull that all together. I would say the faculty has done a great job at pulling it all together.”
Kidder says some of that tumultuousness is connected to leadership changes, including two new interim presidents after previous former president Parwinder Grewal stepped down suddenly in April 2023 after less than a year in office. “I think that at times it’s felt like we haven’t had the leadership we need, and the vision we need,” Kidder said.
Interim president David Bergh joined VTSU at a time when leaders faced backlash for ongoing cuts to programming. The state invested $200 million into the merger with the promise that the university would cut spending by $5 million a year.
Bergh says they met that goal. “Financially, as we’re working to reduce our expenses and our budget, we’re on track and we’ve made progress there,” he said. The cuts came from letting go of many faculty members as part of the university’s plan to reach financial stability. “It takes time to work through that as an institution, and you know, those are some of the hard choices and decisions we had to make to be on track to reach our fiscal goals and to meet our responsibility to the state.”
The system also struggled with declining enrollment over the past decade, but vice president of enrollment Maurice Ouimet says numbers are trending upwards again. “We’re excited to report that we’re seeing positive growth trends in our new student enrollment at this point. We’ve been trending from three to as much as six percent ahead and we’re currently hovering around five percent increase for new students for the fall,” he said. Ouimet says he thinks many students needed a year to see how the merger would work out and now he’s hopeful the numbers keep trending up.
Kidder says now that the first year is over, he’s excited about what’s ahead. “I think it was wise for us to go into that direction, because higher education is really in flux right now. So, it’s an exciting place to be and I think we stepped out and were proactive about it,” he said.
Copyright 2024 WCAX. All rights reserved.
Debby downgraded to tropical storm as more flooding affects Florida
Hurricane Debby, now a tropical storm, brought flooding and power outages to Florida as it begins to move up the East Coast.
Vermont is likely to feel the impacts of Tropical Storm Debby on Friday, which could include more flooding in the region now that the storm has shifted west.
Though, forecasters caution there is still uncertainty about exactly what to expect.
Tropical Storm Debby is making its way over the Atlantic Wednesday, with concerns of flooding and rainfall in North and South Carolina, according to the National Weather Service’s latest forecast.
After making landfall in Florida on Monday, Debby has killed at least five people so far and continues its track north.
The storm is expected to continue through the East Coast over the weekend. Vermont will feel the effects of Debby this weekend, the NOAA’s latest forecast projects.
Here’s what to know about Debby’s projected impact in Vermont.
Debby expected to bring rainfall to New Hampshire later this week
Although the NOAA had earlier projected several inches of rainfall in Southern New England, overnight the storm shifted west moving that rain to Upstate New York and Vermont. About two to four inches of rain is expected, NOAA said.
“The remnants of Debby will move through the region Friday and Friday night and bring heavy rainfall. Scattered flash flooding is possible,” the National Weather Service Burlington predicted. “There is still uncertainty about where the area of heaviest rain will fall.”
With the storm trending westward, there is a chance that it will continue to move that way, the National Weather Service Burlington wrote in their Area Forecast Discussion, which “means the area of concern may be shifting.”
“The latest forecast has Debby`s remnants crossing near or directly over our forecast area late Friday into early Saturday, with the center potentially being well to our east by Saturday evening. This means a faster end to rainfall on Saturday, with some guidance even indicating that much of the day will be dry, especially from the Champlain Valley westward,” the Area Forecast Discussion reads.
Vermont, they added, remains particularly sensitive to flooding.
Where is Tropical Storm Debby now?
Debby is expected to cause flooding in portions of North and South Carolina Wednesday through Friday, the NOAA projects.
“Tropical Storm Debby is forecast to restrengthen a bit and re-curve toward the Southeast today before making landfall along the central South Carolina coast tonight,” the NOAA said.
Tropical Storm Debby tracker
This forecast track shows the most likely path of the center of the storm. It does not illustrate the full width of the storm or its impacts, and the center of the storm is likely to travel outside the cone up to 33% of the time.
Tropical Storm Debby spaghetti models
Illustrations include an array of forecast tools and models, and not all are created equal. The hurricane center uses only the top four or five highest-performing models to help make its forecasts.
How long does hurricane season last?
Hurricane season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30 in New England.
WATERFORD, Vt. (WCAX) – Vermont’s Open Farm Week is celebrating its 10th year, but after severe flooding in the Northeast Kindgom over the past month, some farmers are not able to take part.
“If every other storm, or every storm we get is three, four inches at a time, then I’m not sure what we are going to do,” said Shawn Gingue with the Gingue Family Farm in Waterford.
He says they are still picking up the pieces following last month’s flooding. The farm lost some of its sweet corn, 25 chickens, their soybean crop, among other damage. “The biggest thing we found — underneath Interstate 93 was a complete river. The culvert was plugged at the top and then all that water came rushing down from underneath the underpass. Our whole day was just assessing damage and kind of scratching our heads,” Gingue said.
Open Farm Week comes as farmers are looking for community support after losing an estimated $4 from the flooding, according to Vermont Agriculture Secretary Anson Tebbetts. “We are looking at long-term strategies. We do have some of our farmers thinking about — can I plant there again? Because they have been flooded out twice, three times. One particular farmer told me it’s been five events he has… as far as dealing with the floods,” he said.
Paul Gingue, who has been working the Waterford farm since he was a child, says he hasn’t seen storms like this since the ‘70s.
“You can tell that there’s gotta be something to do with climate change. That I did not believe in at all when they first started talking about it. I worry about what kind of effect it’s going to have on my son and daughter-in-law that are planning on taking it over,” he said.
The family says the best thing for them to do to recover is to salvage what they have and start planting again next spring. They do say their farm stand is open for Open Farm Week.
Copyright 2024 WCAX. All rights reserved.
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