This commentary is by Dr. Jonathan Spiro, an award-winning teacher, a renowned historian of white supremacy, and the former president of Castleton University. He lives in Rutland.
As an experienced educator in Vermont, I note with dismay that the administrators of Vermont State University are still attempting to defend their ill-advised plan to remove the books from the university’s libraries.
While there may be valid arguments for expanding the university’s online offerings, the wholesale elimination of the books is the sort of reactionary, anti-intellectual move one might expect from a benighted place like Mississippi, Arkansas, or Ron DeSantis’ Florida. Tragically, this scandal has made Vermont State University a laughingstock in the national press.
I hasten to add that the folks who run Vermont State University are hardly reactionary. They are hard-working and well-meaning administrators for whom I have great personal fondness. But they wrongly believe that Vermont State University should be a primarily digital (aka “hybridized”) institution.
That vision is not in the best interests of Vermont’s students. To the contrary, our students need what Castleton University offers. Despite the challenges of chronic underfunding, Castleton (until now) has been a well-run institution, with stable enrollment and an enviable reputation in the state and throughout the region.
Castleton’s dedicated professors and devoted staffers transform the lives of Vermonters because they provide an in-person, relationship-based learning environment — an environment that includes attractive academic programs, successful athletic programs, impressive arts programs, vibrant residence halls, and — yes — a library with actual books on the shelves.
The current leaders of Vermont State University do not appreciate this, perhaps because most of them have never taught in a classroom, or perhaps because they have relied throughout the merger process on the advice of highly paid out-of-state consultants who have never been to Vermont.
In 2021, when I was president of Castleton University, I was stunned when a high-ranking officer in the chancellor’s office recommended terminating intercollegiate athletics at Castleton. Another official advocated permanently closing our residence halls. My team successfully nipped these ludicrous ideas in the bud because they would have fatally damaged the student experience at Castleton.
And yet the same “experts” who floated those proposals are still in power in Montpelier, and it is likely that the current plan to eliminate the books is the latest salvo in their crusade to severely curtail face-to-face education in Vermont.
Everyone in higher education is aware that Vermont’s colleges are in the midst of an enrollment crisis because the college-age population of New England is declining precipitously. Castleton University — with its flourishing on-campus programs — is weathering the demographic storm, but enrollment at some of the other campuses is falling, which means their revenue is dropping.
Accordingly, the central office in Montpelier fears, rightly or wrongly, that some of the smaller campuses may no longer have the resources to support full-service, on-campus libraries. So, under the mantra of “equity,” they have decreed that, since students at the smaller campuses can’t have a library, then Castleton’s students can’t have a library either.
That incongruous logic is akin to a father — whose youngest child has contracted a fatal disease — deciding he will deprive his eldest child of food and water for the sake of “equity.”
The spokespersons for Vermont State University are understandably reticent to admit these truths out loud, so instead they engage in obfuscation and disinformation. Destruction is couched as “expansion.” Reducing services is sold as “equity.” Learners are classified as “consumers.” Up is down. War is peace. Ignorance is strength.
Castleton’s students, staff and faculty are outraged by this lack of candor and — more importantly — by the piecemeal dismantling of their once-great university. I wonder if the 15 members of the board of trustees — who have the power to prevent the desecration of our libraries — are similarly outraged? I wonder if they will stand up and reverse this misguided decision so Vermont’s students can continue to flourish?
If you want to urge the trustees to do the right thing and salvage Vermont’s reputation, you can find their email addresses here.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Jonathan Spiro: Time for the state college trustees to step up.