Thursday, April 30, 2020
UVM president Suresh Garimella informed lawmakers earlier this month that the university had lost millions of dollars this spring after sending students home early due to the pandemic.
"The biggest challenge in my mind is that things are uncertain," he told the Senate Education Committee earlier this month. "We cannot quite put a number on it — if we could, it would be easier to plan for. So there's a whole bunch of scenario and contingency planning going on."
Garimella later requested a $25 million appropriation from Vermont's $1.25 billion federal stimulus funds, a cash injection he hoped would cover the losses and help the university prepare for an anticipated uptick in financial aid requests from families impacted by the virus.
But that money is not guaranteed, especially now that lawmakers are considering a similarly priced bailout for the ailing state college system. And UVM may eventually need to cough up even more money in response to a class-action lawsuit from students who say they were not properly compensated for being forced to finish the semester at home.
Meantime, UVM and colleges across the country are bracing for further unanticipated costs — for good reason. Though Garimella announced on Wednesday that the university would resume in-person classes this fall, recent national surveys suggest that four-year institutions like UVM could lose up to 20 percent of their fall enrollment due to uncertainty caused by the pandemic.
Karen Scolforo said she plans to step down May 31 after three years with the university. She recently told Seven Days that she was effectively "out of a job" as chancellor Jeb Spaulding prepared to replace her as part of his campus closure proposal.
"The circumstances that have occurred over the past couple of weeks have put me in a position where I feel that I can't lead at the same level," Scolforo said during Wednesday night's board of trustees meeting. "I don't want folks to be distracted by trying to understand some of the decisions that have been made."
Tags: Karen Scolforo , Castleton University , Jeb Spaulding , Web Only , Image
Wednesday, April 29, 2020
The analysis, provided to two House committees Wednesday morning by economist Tom Kavet, is the first to look beyond the already grim forecasts for the current fiscal year, which ends in June, and consider the longer-term impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Kavet warned members of the House Ways and Means Committee and the House Appropriations Committee that it was challenging to peer into the fiscal future given how little is known about the trajectory of the public health crisis.
"There is phenomenal uncertainty right now," he said. "This is not primarily an economic event. This is an epidemiological event with huge economic consequences."
Tags: Tom Kavet , Jeff Carr , Phil Scott , Web Only , Image
The homeless were moved off the streets and out of shelters — where it was virtually impossible to practice social distancing — and into motel rooms around the state.
The state is currently paying to house 1,700 homeless people, including more than 200 children. In Burlington alone, about 400 homeless people are living in motels.
Advocates have praised the initial state response as the right thing to do, both to reduce the chances of a deadly outbreak among a vulnerable population and to bend the curve of the pandemic for the state as a whole.
But what to do next remains an open question.
Tags: homeless , covid-19 , coronavirus , Web Only , Image
I'm not allowed into some places. When I am, I can't get close to anyone.
In recent weeks, I started photographing some of the people who are still doing essential work — medical staffers, journalists, volunteers — wherever I could. I do my job in a mask and gloves, getting close to people while maintaining appropriate distance.
I was lucky enough to spend time in several workplaces. At Feeding Chittenden, I photographed volunteers as they prepared meals for vulnerable people who are being quarantined at home and in hotels.
I toured a COVID-19 patient overflow site at the University of Vermont's Patrick Gymnasium. The basketball courts where I normally photograph games had been turned into a makeshift hospital with wall-to-wall beds and a negative-pressure room constructed to contain the spatter of bodily fluids during procedures such as intubations. To date, patients have not been treated there.
I walked a route through empty streets in Burlington's Old North End with a U.S. Postal Service carrier whom Eva Sollberger interviewed for this week's Stuck in Vermont episode on essential workers.
Here's a look at some of those people. How is COVID-19 affecting your life? I'd like to capture your story in photos. Contact [email protected] or @jamesbuck on Twitter
The new testing and contact tracing strategy should allow the state to better track and prevent the spread of the disease so that more Vermonters can get back to work, the governor said.
"If you think of this whole pandemic as a forest fire, testing will allow us to spot those embers early, and contact tracing allows us to surround it in order to contain it," Scott said at a press conference.
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The University of Vermont announced Wednesday that it intends to bring students back to campus for in-person learning this fall.
“We’re being both clear-eyed and pragmatic and are informed by experts in public health, government and education, in addition to our own medical personnel,” school president Suresh Garimella said in a video that accompanied a letter to the community about the decision.
The statement contained scant details about specific precautions the university will take both on campus and in bringing back students from around the world, including many from areas hit hard by the pandemic.
Data provided by UVM show that about 7,800 undergraduate students — or 73 percent — of 10,700 enrolled last fall were from out of state. Massachusetts led the way with 1,905 students, followed by New York with about 1,200. Another 776 came from Connecticut, while about 654 were international students or listed with an "unknown" home state.
Enrollment data for the coming school year won't be available until closer to the beginning of the semester, a spokesperson said Wednesday.
“Return to an in-person campus will require more testing, tracing, and improved protocols developed through collaboration across sectors and around the globe,” Garimella wrote in the statement. “And it will require additional precautions on campus, in our classrooms, and in our residence halls and dining facilities.”
Tags: University of Vermont , coronavirus , COVID-19 , pandemic , UVM , students , fall semester , return , Web Only , Image
In a statement posted to VTDigger.org late Tuesday, founder and editor Anne Galloway announced that the Vermont Journalism Trust had recognized the guild and was "prepared to engage in negotiations that will strengthen the mission of VTDigger."
Education reporter Lola Duffort, a member of the union's organizing committee, hailed the decision by management. "This is great news, and I'm really proud to work at Digger," she said in an interview. "We are trying to create a model for sustainable nonprofit news, and our employers showed they believe that's absolutely compatible with creating a good workplace for employees."
According to Duffort, lawyers for the nonprofit and the union reached an agreement this week over the bargaining unit's membership. Two non-supervisory editors were deemed eligible and one fellow was deemed ineligible. In total, eighteen newsroom employees will now be represented by the Guild, which is affiliated with the NewsGuild and its parent organization, the Communications Workers of America. The group includes reporters, photographers, interns and staff columnists.
When the Vermont Journalism Trust agreed to voluntarily recognize the union through the card check process, the Guild withdrew its petition for an election with the National Labor Relations Board, according to both sides.
"It was not contentious," Duffort said of the negotiations. "It was very respectful the entire time."
Reached by phone Wednesday, Galloway said her written statement "pretty well speaks for itself." She added, "We're eager to get to work on further cementing VTDigger's position as Vermont's leading news site and as a place where employees can thrive and do their best work."
When Seven Days attempted to ask follow-up questions, Galloway called it "a personnel matter" and hung up the phone.
The union has yet to begin negotiating a contract with management, but Duffort said Guild members were "eager" to do so. They had previously expressed a desire for better and more consistent pay, benefits and time off. According to Duffort, she and her colleagues recognize that the news outlet faces financial stress brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. In March, VTDigger laid off three full- and part-time employees.
"A lot of what we asked for will be conditioned on what the financial picture of Digger looks like and what we can or can't count on," Duffort said. "There's a lot of uncertainty in this context."
Tags: Media , VTDigger , Anne Galloway , Lola Duffort , Web Only , Image
Tuesday, April 28, 2020
"You are live," Senate operations manager Vanessa Davison informed the lawmakers as they appeared onscreen.
"OK, Vanessa has spoken," said Senate President Pro Tempore Tim Ashe (D/P-Chittenden). "Good morning, everybody."
It sounded like the start of the meeting, but it wasn't. According to several senators in attendance, they had already spent several minutes discussing the state's beleaguered unemployment insurance program — in private.
Though they are supposed to conduct the people's business in public, Vermont legislators have a history of doing so behind closed doors. They have met in the basement of the Department of Taxes, in the Senate president's office and in the lieutenant governor's office.
Tags: Vermont Senate , Tim Ashe , Becca Balint , Joe Benning , Zoom , transparency , open government , Web Only , Image
"I realize that a fresh perspective and new leadership is necessary to move the VSCS forward in its mission," Spaulding said in a release sent out Tuesday morning. "I will continue to do all I can to provide support in the transition and champion the System’s leaders as they work through the challenges ahead.”
Spaulding's decision comes a week after he withdrew a highly controversial proposal to close three state college campuses in the face of mounting losses from the coronavirus pandemic. He has served as chancellor for five years.
The trustees plan to discuss "next steps for leadership" at Wednesday's meeting and may consider appointing the system's general counsel, Sophie Zdatny, until they can identify a longer-term interim chancellor.
“We deeply appreciate Jeb’s extended career in service to Vermont and Vermonters. We at the Vermont State Colleges System have valued his contributions as our Chancellor, and we wish him well as he charts his next course,” said trustees chair J. Churchill Hindes in the release.
This story will be updated.
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