Lawmakers who have worked year after year in the Vermont Legislature to craft budgets in the face of perennial revenue shortfalls have a new dilemma: what to do with a surplus of money that has to be spent this session in order to fight the many effects of the coronavirus pandemic?
How to wisely spend a windfall and not go into the hole next year is the lens Lamoille County legislators are looking through, as some of them shared during a legislative question-and-answer virtual forum put on by the Lamoille Chamber of Commerce Monday morning.
Lamoille County Sen. Rich Westman, R-Cambridge, sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee, which is normally tasked with taking testimony on the state budget. This year, he said, the Legislature is moving quickly on dispersing Vermontâs portion of the federal stimulus funds. That includes about $200 million to help Vermonters with rent and utility payments, Westman said.
The Vermont State Colleges System will advance with a plan to merge three residential colleges under one accreditation after a vote yesterday by its Board of Trustees. Under the plan, Castleton University, Northern Vermont University and Vermont Technical College will unify under a common accreditation in the 2023-24 academic year. The Community College of Vermont will remain
Vermont’s state colleges poised to adopt unification plan for survival’s sake
Modified: 2/21/2021 9:15:01 PM
Trustees of the Vermont State Colleges are poised to endorse a plan Monday in which all three of the system’s four-year schools would eventually merge into one “Vermont State University.”
The consolidation of Northern Vermont University, Castleton University, and Vermont Technical College under one common accreditation is part of a sweeping plan to make good on the system’s promise to transform itself in exchange for extra help from the state.
“It will be more student-focused, it will serve the state better, and it will get us to a place where we’re on a sounder financial footing,” state colleges Chancellor Sophie Zdatny said Friday.
Three Vermont Schools Merge to Stay Afloat During Pandemic
Castleton University. Photo: castleton.edu
February 22, 2021
Three schools of the Vermont State College System (VSCS) are set to be consolidated to form one “Vermont State University,” according to a proposal put forward by the Vermont State Colleges Board of Trustees.
VSCS trustees will meet today to make a final decision about the college consolidation plan first proposed last year after COVID impacted the financial position of state academic institutions.
If approved, three of the system’s four-year schools including Northern Vermont University, Castleton University, and Vermont Technical College will merge into one single institution. The Community College of Vermont will remain a standalone institution.
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