Clik here to view.
Aims McGuinness of the National Center for Higher Education Management addresses the long-range planning committee of the Vermont State College’s board of trustees, in Montpelier on Thursday. Photo by Amy Ash Nixon/VTDigger
The Vermont State Colleges Board of Trustees will consider next month whether to make any sweeping rebranding changes to strengthen the college system’s identity and also, whether to approve a name change for Castleton State College to Castleton University.
The issues were discussed in depth at the second meeting of a new long-range planning committee for the VSC system on Thursday, where two national higher education experts helped the committee to think both system-wide about changes, and how the change in name for Castleton is part of a larger vision.
The group was in agreement in support of the Castleton name change, but action was not taken Thursday. The full board will take up the issue at its July 23 meeting.
“There really is a consensus, there are questions remaining,” said committee Chairman Jerome Diamond.
Jeb Spaulding, chancellor of the Vermont State Colleges, said he was hoping that a recommendation on the name change be made soon, but he wants the committee first to decide on any system-wide changes to unify the Vermont State Colleges, in an effort to improve enrollment and strengthen the system as a whole.
At Thursday’s committee meeting, three different proposals for system-wide structural changes were debated:
- A Penn State-type model, in which there is one accredited university with multiple campuses and learning centers;
- A University of Maine model, where the colleges and/or universities are individually accredited, degree-granting institutions, but named as Vermont State University Castleton, Vermont State University Johnson, etc.;
- An expansion, tightening up and rebranding of the model now in place, possibly to be renamed the Vermont System of Higher Education or the Vermont State Colleges and University – a comprehensive, inter-connected system with multiple distinctive colleges and a university possible within it.
Trustees were expressing consensus around the third proposal on the table Thursday.
In addition to Castleton, the VSC system includes Johnson and Lyndon state colleges, Vermont Technical College and the Community College of Vermont.
Trustee Karen Luneau, a member of the long-range planning committee, said she thinks the system overall needs a “re-energizing and a re-packaging of the wonderful opportunities that we present to the State of Vermont.”
National experts weigh in on changes
Clik here to view.
Michael Thomas of the New England Board of Higher Education, addresses the long-range planning committee of the Vermont State Colleges board of trustees on Thursday. Photo by Amy Ash Nixon/VTDigger
Undergraduate education is a pivotal strength of Castleton and the other four colleges which make up the VSC system, emphasized Aims McGuinness Jr. of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, and Michael Thomas of the New England Board of Higher Education.
However, other colleges which have moved to universities have not seen the hoped-for growth in enrollment or new dollars, both experts said.
Trustees were told there is no silver bullet to lure international students, and no panacea to turn around enrollment numbers, though McGuinness said there can be positives, despite that.
“It meant a lot to those institutions and to the communities in which they are located,” he said, and mentioned names that changed colleges to universities in other states, including Massachusetts, New Hampshire and West Virginia.
“But they have not changed their profile significantly…They have not moved up the food chain,” he added.
McGuinness warned that the intended outcome may actually achieve the opposite effect, noting of those colleges’ experiences since becoming universities, “…enrollments have gone down, if anything.”
“I’ll just reveal this right off the bat, one of the impacts if you don’t watch out is you will creep into a cost model that you cannot afford,” he cautioned. “Every new program that you have (in becoming a university and expanding graduate programs, for example) is taken away from another program.
When the overall mission of the VSC was discussed, tying academic programming to the economic and job needs of the state was called critical to do, as the VSC system moves ahead, said Thomas, of the New England Board of Higher Education.
“The one thing we know is, standing still is our enemy,” said Spaulding.
Clik here to view.
Jeb Spaulding, chancellor of the Vermont State Colleges, speaks on Thursday about a possible name change for Castleton State College to Castleton University. Photo by Amy Ash Nixon/VTDigger
Castleton community embraces change
“We’ve got one school that wants to call itself a university, I don’t think that’s going to change the world, but I spent two days in the Castleton-Rutland community, and those people are so excited,” said Board Chair Martha O’Connor.
David Wolk, president of Castleton State College, was at the meeting via speakerphone and was asked about three hours into Thursday’s meeting to speak to the name change proposal.
Wolk said Castleton would continue “treating students as we would any member of our own family,” but said he believes the change would draw in more international students, making Castleton a more global community.
Wolk said while there is excitement over the university idea, the concern about rising costs has come up.
“It’s very important for us to emphasize the tuition freeze starting in the fall of 2016,” said Wolk.
The tuition freeze and a change to university status would be a great message for Castleton to pitch to prospective students, said Jeff Weld, Castleton’s spokesman.
The post Experts warn Castleton name change may not alter enrollment appeared first on VTDigger.