photo by Sally McCay
SUSTAINING THE ADVANCE
This spring, our community reflected upon key issues before the University of Vermont and indeed before higher education generally. A draft of our refocused strategic plan formed the basis of this discussion, and I’d like to take this opportunity to give Vermont Quarterly readers a sense of what’s on the horizon for UVM as we carefully map our future.
Higher education is entering an exceptionally trying period of demographic and economic stress. All indicators predict a sharp decline in the college-age population, especially in New England and the Middle Atlantic states. Economic forecasts are unsettling at best, and most are dire. The conjunction of these challenges has the potential to be daunting for a comparatively high-cost, tuition-driven university such as ours, particularly given the region from which we traditionally have drawn most of our students.
UVM enjoys, nevertheless, significant competitive advantages that present as many opportunities as challenges in the gathering demographic and economic storm. I believe that the University’s successes of recent years can be sustained, indeed accelerated, if we seize those opportunities with a shared determination to act on the strategic and fiscal imperatives that will allow us to prevail as we face the challenges ahead.
Although the coming period will almost certainly be tighter financially than the period we have recently enjoyed, UVM’s relatively low levels of state and endowment income provide a hedge against the significant shocks that many public colleges and universities and many well-endowed private institutions are likely to undergo.
The difficulties UVM experienced in the 1990s have been followed in the new century with significant progress and momentum. Especially notable are our increased doctoral and undergraduate enrollments, historic student application levels, and high-water marks of research funding and philanthropy. The University’s reputation and visibility have soared. Investment unparalleled in UVM’s history in people, programs, and facilities has raised our competitive metabolism, increased pride among faculty, students, staff, alumni, and friends, and built justifiable confidence in UVM’s future.
The success of the invest-and-grow strategy has allowed us to enjoy annual revenue growth and, according to our financial modeling, we will continue this trend at a time when higher education funding elsewhere is at risk, though it is important to note that the rate of revenue growth at UVM will slow significantly as we come in the next two or three years to the end of our planned enrollment increases. The undergraduate application trajectory at UVM has been so strong that we do not foresee a serious threat to meeting the enrollment goals we require for fiscal health over the next two to three years. We now have a precious window of time to deliberate together on where we should invest effort and resources to continue building academic quality and fiscal strength. In short, we must implement smart measures for these uncertain times, continuing on the course we have chosen with intensified discipline and focus.
I invite alumni, parents, and friends of the University to learn about current planning issues by reading the full array of documents available on the Office of the President’s website (uvm.edu/president), and I welcome your thoughts as we move forward. Please direct responses to daniel.fogel@uvm.edu, subject line “Sustaining the Advance.”
—Daniel Mark Fogel
