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Incoming Class Breaks Record, Yet Again

For the fourth year in a row, UVM’s incoming class has achieved the highest academic credentials in the university’s history. The Class of 2022, an estimated 2,500 students, have earned an average SAT score of 1264 and an average ACT of 28.1, record highs for any incoming class.

It’s a record that’s been set year after year since this year’s senior class arrived on campus in the fall of 2015, making the current undergraduate body the most academically talented in school history.

Beyond test scores, the Class of 2022 boasts a number of standout students with fascinating backgrounds — from a professional cinematographer, to an internationally competitive snowboarder, a classically trained advanced ballet dancer to a competitor in the long distance paddling world championships. They’re Eagle Scouts, entrepreneurs, National Hispanic Scholars, leaders in the LGBTQA community, and Olympic hopefuls.  

The incoming class hails from 43 states and 25 countries. Approximately 22 percent are Vermonters, and an estimated 12 percent are students of color. Thirty-five of Vermont’s Green and Gold Scholars, the top rising seniors in 68 high schools across the state, have chosen UVM.

First-year students arrive on campus Friday, Aug. 24 for Opening Weekend, an annual program that helps acquaint new students with college life. The weekend culminates in a convocation ceremony, Sunday, Aug. 26 at 6:30 p.m. in Patrick Gymnasium, to celebrate the opening of the new academic year. Following convocation, the UVM community will process down Main Street to the University Green, where the Class of 2022 will participate in a twilight induction ceremony.

Classes begin for all undergraduates Monday, Aug. 27.

New this year

A number of new academic programs come online this year, including a major and minor in Health and Society, an interdisciplinary, cross-college program that applies social science approaches to questions of health and healing in human populations.

Also launched this year are doctorates in Physics and Complex Systems and Data Management, master’s in Biomedical Engineering, Engineering Management, Leadership for Sustainability, Athletic Training, and Physical Activity and Wellness Science. New minors include Emergency Medical Services and American Sign Language.  

Progress on construction projects continues, with a number of new facilities to greet students. The Grossman School of Business has opened Ifshin Hall (below), which connects to its home base in Kalkin Hall. The new facility features dedicated space for group work, enhanced capacity to host events like case competitions, new classrooms, and a coffee shop, Campus Perk, in the lobby.

The Michelle and Martin Cohen Hall for the Integrative Creative Arts, located on South Williams Street, also opens this fall. The building, formerly Taft School, is designed to promote collaboration across the arts. Featuring classroom and studio space, students and faculty in music and dance, film and television, and studio art will work alongside each other and draw on resources that include an audio recording studio, a digital lab, and lighting studio, as well as display space.

Re-opening this fall is the historic Billings Library, now home to the Jack and Shirley Silver Special Collections Library, as well as the Humanities Center, the Carolyn and Leonard Miller Center for Holocaust Studies and the Center for Research on Vermont. A renovated North Lounge provides additional space for student study.

To help navigate a changing campus, UVM has launched a new, online interactive map, available at uvm.edu/map. 

Fall events 

Signature events this fall include:

  • A visit and talk by celebrated author Ta-Nehisi Coates, whose award-winning book, Between the World and Me, was this year’s First-Year Summer Read selection. Coates will speak at UVM Nov. 6. 
  • On Nov. 1, the annual Aiken Lecture presents Tan Le: Immigrant, Refugee and Revolutionary Tech CEO.
  • On Oct. 17, UVM and the Vermont Humanities Council will cohost a talk by David Sanger, chief Washington correspondence for The New York Times and author of The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage, and Fear in the Cyber Age. This event will take place at 5 p.m. in Ira Allen Chapel.
  • The Painted Word Poetry Series, hosted by UVM professor and celebrated poet Major Jackson, continues this fall, and includes a reading by Pulitzer Prize winner Sharon Olds, Oct. 12 at 7 p.m. in UVM’s Alumni House.

Source: UVM News

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National Groups Rank UVM Among Top Schools for Sustainable Energy, Energy Reduction

Two recent national reports have recognized the University of Vermont’s leadership among institutions of higher education in the category of sustainable energy use and sources. One comes from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), the organization that coordinates the STARS (Sustainability Tracking Assessment & Rating System) rankings. The other comes from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Green Power Partnership.

On August 22, AASHE released the 2018 Sustainability Campus Index (SCI), recognizing the University of Vermont (UVM) among the top ten performers in the Energy category for achievements in energy reduction and development and use of clean, renewable energy sources. The 2018 SCI report draws from data submitted through STARS by hundreds of colleges and universities from across North America and the world. 

The Energy section of UVM’s 2017 STARS submission reports that between 2007 and 2015 the UVM campus building space increased by 7% while total energy use for electricity, heating and cooling dropped 12%. Electricity and thermal energy sources also became cleaner between 2007 and 2015, as UVM ceased using #6 fuel oil for heating, converting to #2 oil as a backup fuel and using natural gas for most of its heating fuel. Cooling became more efficient in a shift away from individual chilling units toward centralized chilling. 

On July 23, the Green Power Partnership program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency placed the University of Vermont 24th on itsTop 30 College & University list based on the total quantity of certified renewable electricity it used. The Green Power Partnership (GPP) is a voluntary program that encourages organizations to use “green power” as a way to reduce the environmental impacts associated with electricity use. The EPA website describes “green power” as “zero-emissions electricity that is certified as being generated from environmentally preferable renewable resources, such as wind, solar, geothermal, eligible biogas, biomass, and low-impact hydro.”

UVM is one of ten institutions on the GPP list buying 99% or more of their power using certified “green power” sources.  According to Gioia Thompson, Director of UVM’s Office of Sustainability, “the University of Vermont has generated its own power (1%) or purchased certified “green power”(99%) for all of its buildings since 2015, in conformance with its 2010 Climate Action Plan and commitment to reducing greenhouse gases.”

There are three ways UVM buildings are powered.

  • The Aiken Center, the LEED Platinum-certified home of the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, uses the “green power” generated by nearby solar panels for about 40 percent of its electricity.
  • The Extension Service offices across the state are buying local “Cow Power” through the local power company, Green Mountain Power. Cow Power, Thompson explains, comes from “anaerobic digesters on Vermont farms that not only produce renewable power but also help control water pollution, reduce odors, and reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases.”
  • The rest of UVM buildings are buying certified wind power from the Midwest. The benefit, Thompson explains, is “this wind power can displace high-carbon sources in one of the nation’s dirtier electric grids, an area which also happens to be a major source of air pollution in Vermont due to our prevailing winds.”

“These recent reports from AASHE and the EPA are recognizing both UVM’s strong commitments to energy and climate action, and the hard work of the many people at UVM—students, faculty, staff, and leaders—who embody that commitment and make UVM’s achievements possible,” said Thompson. “It takes sustained leadership and dedication over time to achieve the overall energy and carbon reductions that UVM has seen.”

The 2018 Sustainable Campus Index report recognized top-performing colleges and universities in a total of 17 sustainability impact areas relating to academics, engagement, operations and administration. Vermont institutions recognized in the report for achievements in categories such as curriculum, air and climate, energy, food and dining include Sterling College, Middlebury College, Green Mountain College and UVM. The SCI report draws from STARS reports that are available online at stars.aashe.org. The University’s 2017 STARS submission resulted in a Gold rating, as did UVM’s first submission in 2014

The Green Power Partnerhip’s Top 30 list represents the largest green power users among participating higher education institutions participating. The Partnership has more than 1,400 member organizations voluntarily using more than 40 billion kilowatt-hours of green power annually. Partners include a variety of leading organizations including Fortune 500®companies; small- and medium-sized businesses; local, state, and federal governments; and colleges and universities. The combined green power use of these organizations amounts to more than 3 billion kilowatt-hours of green power annually, equivalent to the total annual electricity use of more than 280,000 average American homes.

 

Source: UVM News

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New Course Helps Students Unearth an Ancient Idea: Sustainability

Classics professor Mark Usher was nearing the end of a visiting scholar stint at the American Academy in Rome when he decided to take a break from working on his latest book to hike the nearby Sabine Hills with his wife, staying at a series of “agriturismi” – small farms that host guests, B&B style – along the way.

He was particularly keen on one a UVM colleague had recommended, Le Mole sul Farfa, which boasted personable owners and an archeological dig of an ancient villa.  

When he arrived at the dig site near the agriturismo, “My jaw dropped,” Usher says, not only because of the Roman mosaic poking through the grass, which signaled its obvious significance.

“What really got my attention,” he says, “was the grove of ancient olive trees” next to the ruins, huge, gnarled and still producing olives, which he learned later were more than 1,500 years old.

“That was the taste of ancient Rome on those trees,” he says.  

By the end of his three-day visit, he knew not only that Le Mole would anchor the chapter on Roman agronomy in his new book, but that he could build a one-of-a-kind multi-disciplinary course around the site, incorporating classical history, food systems and sustainable agriculture, one that  – as a farmer who’d practiced small scale agriculture for 20 years, as well as a classicist  – he was uniquely qualified to teach. 

Just two years later Usher’s book, on sustainable systems in antiquity, is nearing publication, and three lucky students have just returned from a beta-test version of the course, launched this summer.

Environmental Studies majors Amanda Brown and Ariella Mandel, both seniors, and senior Geology major Melinda Quock spent two weeks at Le Mole helping professional archeologists excavate the dig site, a Roman “villa rustica” – a kind of working farm that formed the backbone of productive agriculture in ancient Rome, where elites would relax when they weren’t at their beachside estates on the Bay of Naples.

Students, who had read Usher’s book chapter and discussed it informally during their stay, also helped archeologists produce 3-D images of the site using laser scan technology, created a GPS map of the olive trees, and retrieved and carbon-dated olive pits.

Back to the land, Roman-style

What makes the site so resonant for Usher, for both his book and the evolving class, is what he describes as its continuity and contiguity.

By continuity, he means the relationship between what the ancient Romans were doing 2,000 years ago and the Italian government’s policies today.

“Romans were the original ‘back-to-the-landers’ and were always trying to keep small farmers on their land as part of the ancient Roman ideal,” Usher says.

That’s a “distant echo” of the current Italian government’s program of tax incentives for agriturismi, which also promote farming by allowing owners to put up guests, like Usher and his wife, if at least half the property’s income comes from agriculture.

By contiguity, Usher means the cheek-by-jowl location of the ancient villa rustica and the modern agriturismo, so close that a key point of Usher’s new book and the course – that the sustainability movement, far from springing full blown from contemporary society, has roots that go back millennia – is inescapable.

Students walk through the Italian countryside

As if the dig site and olive trees weren’t enough to recommend it, Le Mole and its environs have another ace up their sleeve. In Roman times, the villa may well have belonged to the Pompey the Great, one of Rome’s most famous military leaders and statesmen.

The evidence, which Usher finds persuasive, lies in the etymology of the town where Le Mole is located, Mompeo, likely a combination of “mons,” the Latin term for hillside, and the adjective “Pompeianus” – relating to Pompey – and by countless references in a centuries-old registry of local properties to a “fundus,” Latin for farm, “Pompeianus” at the location of the dig.

In addition to giving legs to the fundraising effort to finance the ongoing excavation, the connection to Pompey makes the site even more resonant from an educational perspective by underscoring Usher’s theme that the concept of sustainability has ancient roots.

By refusing to buy up and agglomerate small parcels of land, instead contenting himself with carefully farming a smaller lot, Pompey was part of a movement, which might be taking place in the United States today, to slow the growth of “latifundia,” Rome’s equivalent of large factory farms.

High marks

If the summer course was a beta test, the grades couldn’t be better.

“Overall my experience in Mompeo was incredible, filled with a diverse array of opportunities to learn from knowledgeable and engaging teachers,” Brown wrote in her evaluation of the course.

Students overlook an archaeological dig

As Environmental Studies majors, Brown and Mandel found the Romans’ commitment to small-holder farming compelling from a food systems perspective and were fascinated by the biodiversity implications of the ancient olives, which are distinct from genetically similar modern varieties. Geology major Quock, was moved by the way of life at the agriturismo and got to exercise her disciplinary chops with the carbon dating project. All were highly engaged in the dig and loved the family atmosphere created by the agriturismo’s energetic owners, husband and wife Stefano Fassone and Elisabeth De Coster.

But what about the eventual course that will combine archeology, food systems and sustainable agriculture with in-depth study of the site’s evocative ancient history, taught by Usher?

“I think you’d have to be pretty lucky to be one of those students who gets to come,” says Brown.

The archeological excavation and development of the course are being funded by the Office for the Vice President for Research, the UVM Humanities Center, the Environmental Program’s Ian Worley Award, the College of Arts and Sciences and by an Engaged Practices Innovation Grant from the Office of the Provost. Usher is the Lyman-Roberts Professor of Classics. 

Source: UVM News

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New Book: Entertainment Media Shape Our Politics More Than We Know

Are you a fan of the HBO series “Game of Thrones”? What about the Avengers film franchise? Maybe you love “House of Cards” on Netflix or the “Hunger Games” movies?

As it turns out, you’re not just enjoying these shows – or any entertainment that absorbs your attention and allows you to temporarily escape the real world. You’re also shaping your political viewpoint, often unwittingly, as you watch them.

So says Anthony Gierzynski, professor and chair of the political science department at The University of Vermont, in his latest book, “The Political Effects of Entertainment Media: How Fictional Worlds Affect Real World Political Perspectives.” In the book, released Aug. 15, Gierzynski argues that the content people consume for fun plays a serious role in their attitudes about social justice, crime and terrorism, tolerance and diversity, the benefits or dangers of technology, and the characteristics of leadership.

“The unique state of mind that occurs when we are transported by stories and identify with characters makes fictional stories (perhaps especially those most disconnected from our current reality, such as fantasy and science fiction) a more potent agent of political learning than overt attempts to teach politically relevant values,” he writes.

The book is one of few in academic research to explore the connection between popular entertainment and political beliefs. It expands on Gierzynski’s 2013 book, “Harry Potter and the Millennials: Research Methods and the Politics of the Muggle Generation,” which found that the books and films about the boy wizard influenced the political perspectives of those who grew up with them.

Research for the new book took place before the 2016 presidential election, but the subject is all the more relevant in today’s polarized political environment.

With greater awareness of the influence of entertainment, Gierzynski says, people might recognize that they aren’t as rational as they thought they were in developing their staunch opinions and might become more open to opposing ideas.

“If you become aware of the fact that your views are not based on reason and evidence alone, then you might be able to have a conversation with someone who disagrees with you,” he says.

The proliferation of entertainment options, fueled by streaming and on-demand services, far outpaces that of news content today. And fiction captivates viewers on a more visceral level than news, allowing for greater influence, Gierzynski says. “In entertainment, you’re less on your guard.”

For the book, Gierzynski conducted 13 separate studies and experiments with the help of students from his courses. Using standard methods for social science research and survey tools, his team looked for correlations between participants’ immersion in a specific TV show and their political philosophies.

Many movies and TV shows contain political subject matter: “House of Cards” is about an unscrupulous congressman; much of science fiction features a president making decisions about an alien invasion. Overt political content, though, doesn’t usually change viewers’ minds, Gierzynski explains. It’s the thematic undertones of the story that alter our answers to political questions.

One of those themes is “belief in a just world,” the focus of Gierzynski’s study using “Game of Thrones.” In the TV series, good rarely triumphs over evil. Instead, the villainous characters seem disproportionately to overtake and, often, kill the honorable characters.

As Gierzynski writes, “The findings indicate that there appears to be a causal linkage between exposure to these shows and the belief in a just world – exposure to the repeated lessons of ‘Game of Thrones’ that the world is cruel and unjust seems to have dampened the tendency to believe the opposite, that the world is just.”

A person who sees the world as unjust might favor socially corrective measures to protect human rights and level the playing field for those less fortunate, he notes.

Gierzynski and his students conducted a similar study for “House of Cards,” determining its influence on cynicism about political leadership, which in turn could discourage the viewer from seeing the value of political engagement or even the need to vote in elections.

Gierzynski himself is a science fiction fan. He loves “Battlestar Galactica” and will talk at length about the potential for the character of the strong female president to influence viewers’ perspectives on gender and leadership.

Gierzynski has spent more than 25 years studying political parties, elections and campaign finance. The power of fictional entertainment fascinated him partly because many social science colleagues dismissed this content as either inconsequential in swaying political opinion or, because we choose what we watch, simply a reinforcement of the beliefs we already have, he says.

Gierzynski found that’s not true, that fictional storylines can change thinking – and they have done so throughout history.

“No one questions the fact that ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ had a huge impact on people’s views about slavery and racism,” he says.

Source: UVM News

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Extension Helps New Faculty Get Rolling With Tour of State’s Working Landscape

A bus tour of Vermont might conjure images of adventurous retirees traipsing around the Ben & Jerry’s factory.

But the Vermont Catamounts bus that pulled out of the Davis Center circle on August 16 at 7:45 a.m. carried 16 people in the prime of their working lives – brand new UVM faculty, most of whom would start teaching or diving into their research within 10 days.

The occasion was the tour of Vermont’s working landscape that UVM Extension has organized for new faculty for the past six years.

The idea is “to help new faculty at the University of Vermont get a sense of how the state operates, what our communities are like and how the university is connected to them,” said UVM Extension director Chuck Ross, who served as tour guide.

“We’ve seen an array of incredible Vermonters today, innovators, leaders and pioneers, all hard-working people who’ve invested in their communities.”

Faculty came from a range of disciplines, including Math and Statistics, Biomedical Engineering, Nursing, Forestry, Education and Computer Science.

In all the tour made six stops showcasing the variety of enterprises that define Vermont’s agricultural sector. Destinations included the Green Mountain Dairy in Sheldon, the Choiniere Family Farm in Highgate Center, St. Albans City School Teaching Gardens and the Down to Earth Community Garden in St. Albans, the Boyden Valley Winery in Cambridge, UVM’s Proctor Maple Research Center in Underhill and the Jericho Settlers Farm in Jericho.

Faculty took a seat on the bus for a variety of reasons.

Valerie Wood, a new research faculty member in the Center for Disability and Community Inclusion, “thought it was really important to understand the relationship between UVM, Vermont and Vermonters” and how the abundance of knowledge at the university is shared with communities. “This was the perfect opportunity through Extension to learn more about that.”

Deb Hinchey, a new faculty member in Biomedical and Health Sciences, had two reasons for taking the tour. “One of my main responsibilities is developing an undergraduate capstone where students will be partnering with communities around issues related to health and health outcomes,” she said. “So I thought learning about local agriculture and meeting farmers and getting to know the landscape outside of Burlington was a good idea from a professional perspective. On a personal level, I’m really interested in food and food systems and where food comes from.”

Computer Science lecturer Jason Hibbeler, who came to UVM from IBM in Essex Junction, said he “learned a ton today because of the way this tour has been structured to take us out from Chittenden County, so we can see what’s going on outside of the Burlington area. It’s a fantastic way to start making connections with Vermont.” 

Early Education faculty member Kait Northey echoed a point other faculty made. It’s important to understand “the history of what’s happening in the area” – especially the ups and downs of the agricultural economy –”and how that’s going to affect the students that we’re teaching and their families, and what they’re coming to learn.”

For Emily Morgan, a faculty member in Nutrition and Food Sciences who will start in January, lessons learned were directly related to her field.

“My research interests are really in the local food system and food system sustainability,” she said, “and I thought this would be an awesome way to get a little sampling of what is happening in Vermont, see little bit of landscape and meet people.”

She had special appreciation for tour guide Ross. “I think it’s really special that we’ve had the director of extension to show us around.”

The experience was also a valuable one for the food producers who were the objects of faculty interest.

“I appreciate the opportunity to be able to reach out to a wide spectrum of faculty because, having been in school where you’re in your little isolated bubble, I know it’s very hard to understand what’s going on the community around you,” said Christa Alexander, co-owner of Jericho Settlers Farm, a 200-acre farm producing 25 acres of certified organic vegetables, flowers and herbs.

“If in any way it informs their teaching or their perspective that they share with their students, that’s even better,” she added. “I don’t farm just because I like growing food. I farm because I truly believe there are better ways to grow food than some of the ways that are being practiced, and I want other people to know about that.”

Source: UVM News

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How Forests Improve Kids’ Diets

A first-of-its-kind global study shows that children in 27 developing countries have better nutrition–when they live near forests.

The results turn on its head the common assumption that improving nutrition in poorer countries requires clearing forests for more farmland–and, instead, suggest that forest conservation could be an important tool for aid agencies seeking to improve the nutrition of children.

“The data show that forests aren’t just correlated with improvements in people’s diets,” says Ranaivo Rasolofoson, a scientist at the University of Vermont who led the new study. “We show that forests cause these improvements.”

The results were published on August 15 in the journal Science Advances.

Global Realities

More than two billion people in the developing world suffer from a lack of micronutrients–like vitamin A, sodium, iron and calcium. The result for children can be brain damage, stunted growth, and even death.

In response, food and farming programs have begun to consider how to do more than just increase production of staple crops, like rice and corn, to fight malnutrition. There is a growing global awareness that the fight against hunger requires getting people a larger range of nutrients needed to thrive.

The new study, led by a team at the University of Vermont’s Gund Institute for Environment, examined data on children’s diets from 43,000 households across four continents. They found that being close to forests caused children to have at least 25% greater diversity in their diets compared to kids who lived farther away from forests.

“This is a powerful, actionable result,” says Taylor Ricketts, director of UVM’s Gund Institute and senior author on the paper. “It’s comparable to the impacts of some nutrition-focused agricultural programs.”

For example, the results of the new forest study are very similar to the results of an effort to introduce a fortified sweet potato in drought-prone areas of Mozambique and of a homestead food production program in Cambodia. In other words, protecting forests could be a central piece in integrated efforts to promote better nutrition.

Other recent studies have also suggested that forests help reduce micronutrient deficiency by increasing dietary diversity. “But their evidence has been mostly based on local case studies or simple correlations,” says Rasolofoson. “These are of limited use in forming a global view and in forming global policies.”

In contrast, the new study examined data for a huge diversity of households–in the Caribbean, South America, sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe, Nepal, Bangladesh, Cambodia and the Philippines–that were both close to and far away from forests. By painstakingly accounting for variables that could hide or mimic the impact of forests, the team of scientists was able to show that in otherwise similar households, the ones within or nearer to forests had better nutrition, on average, than those farther away.

Overall, the study reveals a global signal showing that forests can improve nutrition through numerous pathways. These include: providing a range of foods gathered in forests, benefits from wild pollinators that live in forests, income from forests products to buy food, and more productive use of mothers’ time–all of which can promote greater dietary diversity.

The team also took a closer look at a group of African countries, which added detail to their portrait of how forests help.

“We discovered that the positive effect of forests is greater for poor communities,” says Rasolofoson, a post-doctoral researcher at UVM who grew up in Madagascar. “But communities need at least some access to roads, markets, and education in order to get the most benefit from their forests.”

Additionally, the study presents evidence that forests can reduce vitamin A and iron deficiencies.

The team built their study and models from data–about children under the age of five– gathered by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) between 2000 and 2013. The massive database enables researchers to study global links between health and the environment. The database features 30 years of USAID demographic and health surveys, with 150 variables for 500,000 households, to which the research team added spatial data on the environment.

False Choices

Forest conservation and children’s health have not often been seen as closely aligned issues.

“Our study shows that conservation and health can go hand in hand,” says Brendan Fisher, a professor in UVM’s Environmental Program in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, and a co-author on the new research.

The proven benefits of forest conservation include supporting the livelihoods of local communities, helping to slow climate change, and protecting wildlife. Now the new study adds strong evidence that forests promote the health of children through improved nutrition.

“Economic development and forest conservation are typically thought of as trade-offs–that leaders have to prioritize one or the other. This study helps to show that’s just not always, or even usually, true. More often than we think, it’s a false choice,” says Taylor Ricketts.

“This study is a wake-up call that people who work on forest conservation and those that work on improving children’s health should be working together and coordinating what they do,” says Brendan Fisher, a Fellow at UVM’s Gund Institute. “We are now seeing a lot more examples of how an integrated approach to some of the world’s most pressing problems pays double dividends.”

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Support for this research came from the Biodiversity Results and Integrated Development Gains Enhanced program of the USAID, the Luc Hoffmann Institute at WWF International under funding provided by the Mava Foundation, the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) under funding from the National Science Foundation DBI-1052875, and the Gordon and Betty Moore and Rockefeller Foundations as part of the Health & Ecosystems: Analysis of Linkages program.

Source: UVM News

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UVM President Tom Sullivan to Step Down in Summer of 2019

Following a highly successful six-year tenure as The University of Vermont’s 26th president, Tom Sullivan today announced that, after one more year, he will step out of the presidency in the summer of 2019.

“When the Board of Trustees extended an offer to serve as UVM’s president in February 2012, I was asked the length of time I could envision for this presidency. I knew the University was planning a major comprehensive fundraising campaign and the Board wanted its next president to lead a successful campaign,” said Sullivan. “Now with the University’s comprehensive campaign crossing over its campaign goal of $500 million, one year ahead of schedule, UVM is poised for its next era of reaching even greater academic expectations and aspirations. The time is right!”

Board of Trustees Chair David Daigle expressed great appreciation for Sullivan’s leadership. “In 2012 the UVM Board of Trustees sought a president who could lead our community on a mission to improve the academic and financial profile of UVM. President Sullivan has succeeded in this mission, and our entire community owes him a debt of gratitude for his selfless service to UVM. Tom has led with a passion for students and higher education, with reasoned and thoughtful decision-making, and with unwavering integrity. Our University is unequivocally stronger as a result of his efforts and accomplishments.”

Sullivan stated that he is thankful for the way the University community responded to his call to “raise our expectations and aspirations to create an academic experience of the highest quality” during his installation address in the Fall of 2012.

The University will begin a formal search process for a new president immediately, according to Daigle, with the goal of selecting a successful candidate by March of 2019. Comprehensive information about the search process will be shared with the entire UVM community, he said.

Source: UVM News

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Career or Summer Job? UVM Students Don’t Have to Choose

Sophomore animal science major Ellie Karasch cups a baby house sparrow in her hands, holding it steady while vet tech Jen Wolfe wraps its legs with clear tape, leaving a half-inch gap so the bird can balance and hop. 

Wolfe is treating a condition called splay leg – the spread-eagled, immobilizing posture baby birds can acquire, often as a result of disease or faulty nest design, which makes them an easy target for predators if they’ve been blown to the ground. After the tape is removed in a few weeks, the legs should be back to normal and the bird can be released when it matures.

Nursing injured or abandoned juvenile birds, ducks, turtles, racoons, skunks, possums and other wildlife back to health, releasing them to the wild, and, in the process, educating the public about wildlife and conservation is the mission of the New England Wildlife Center in South Weymouth, Mass., where Karasch is interning this summer.

The 12-week internship is notable, says Karasch, who wants to be a veterinarian, because “it’s the most hand-on experience I’ve been able to do,” a major selling point on her eventual vet school applications.

The internship is notable in another respect. Even though the wildlife center is in the non-profit sector, where internships are typically unpaid, Karsach’s expenses – food, gas and housing – are being covered by a newly expanded and consolidated internship scholarship program at the University of Vermont.

The stipend she received from UVM as part of the program made the internship possible. “I don’t know what my summer would have been like without it,” Karasch says.

Internship leveling

Study after study shows that internships are an invaluable career-building experience for college students, helping them earn starting salaries between 10 and 26 percent higher than students who haven’t interned. Interns are also significantly more likely to receive full-time job offers than non-interns and, once employed, are more satisfied with their jobs and are promoted more quickly than their non-intern counterparts.

But internships carry a built-in inequity.

“Internships are likely to be paid in business and STEM fields,” says Amanda Chase, UVM’s internship coordinator, who manages the internship scholarship program. 

“Nonprofits, government and media internships tend to be unpaid,” she says, forcing some students interested in those fields – especially those from less affluent families – to take on a summer job rather than an internship, which will help pay the bills but not advance their careers. Chase has led an effort rallying and coordinating support across the university to aid students in unpaid internships.

“Our goal is to remove, for as many students as possible, any financial burden that unpaid internships can represent,” says UVM provost David Rosowsky, who has advocated for the program and is working with the UVM Foundation to secure additional funding to build on the pool of more than $300,000 currently available.

As UVM is expanding its commitment to scholarships that support unpaid internships, it is also enhancing its efforts to place students in paid internships. About 65 percent of UVM internships are paid, according to Chase, which corresponds to national figures, and the university has recently helped students secure internships with Google, Fidelity Investments, Amazon, Microsoft, Pfizer, Under Armour, and Morgan Stanley, among other employers – which more often than not turn into job offers after graduation.

From internship to law school

It’s hard to imagine a bigger fan of the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources’ Perennial Internship program than Nicole Pidala, a Natural Resources major and member of UVM’s Honors College who graduated in 2017.

The scholarship program – whose costs are split between the Rubenstein School and employers – supported a summer internship Pidala secured as a public communications assistant at Green Mountain Power’s 21-turbine wind farm along a ridge line in Lowell, Vt. The internship, in turn, helped her land a job as an operations assistant at SunCommon, Vermont’s largest installer of residential solar panels.

Pidala then marshalled both her internship and job experiences into a standout law school application to University of Virginia, where she will start in the fall, specializing in renewable energy law.

As crucial as the Green Mountain Power internship turned out to be for her trajectory, it wouldn’t have happened without UVM’s support. “I would not have been able to apply for it if it wasn’t paid,” she says.

Greater good

Sophomore political science major Daniel Felde benefited himself from a scholarship that supported his unpaid internship – working in Washington, D.C. for Nevada congresswoman Dina Titus of Nevada – and in the process learned why internship scholarship programs like UVM’s are needed.

“Most people working on Capitol Hill as staff assistants had an internship with a senator or representative at one point,” he says. Internship programs like UVM’s help ensure that interns – and eventually congressional staffers – come from economically diverse backgrounds. “Ultimately we need those types of people in government to provide that perspective,” he says.

Chase agrees. “When you think about it, if a whole set of industries tend to have internships that are unpaid,” she says, “and you have students who have to choose between a paid part-time job and an unpaid internship, that’s not a choice they should have to make. This program helps make these internships a more viable option for students of all income levels, which benefits both students and employers.”

Source: UVM News

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UVM Receives $1.25 Million DOT Award to Help Form Transportation Infrastructure Durability Center

University of Vermont in collaboration with the University of Maine and others will create a highly competitive University Transportation Center (UTC) called the Transportation Infrastructure Durability Center (TIDC). TIDC aims to help save taxpayer dollars by extending the life of our transportation assets, including bridges, roads and rail.

The U.S. Department of Transportation will provide as much as $14.2 million over five years for this University of Maine-led coalition, which includes the University of Vermont, University of Rhode Island, University of Connecticut, University of Massachusetts Lowell and Western New England University.

Mandar Dewoolkar, chair and professor of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UVM, will be receiving $1.25 million over five years to assist in the development of this regional initiative. UVM professors Ehsan Ghazanfari, Dryver Huston and Ting Tan collaborated on the proposal.

Additional partners include representatives from the Vermont Agency of Transportation, Maine Department of Transportation, Massachusetts Department of Transportation, Connecticut Department of Transportation, Rhode Island Department of Transportation and the American Society of Civil Engineers Transportation and Development Institute.

“This is an exciting opportunity for UVM students, research staff and faculty to perform innovative research for improving the durability and extending the life of our transportation infrastructure,” said Dewoolkar. “I look forward to this partnership with the University of Maine and others across all New England states, which will strengthen our collaboration in transportation research, education and technology transfer.” 

New England’s transportation infrastructure faces unique challenges due to harsh winter weather and short construction seasons. According to American Society of Civil Engineers, nearly 30 percent of New England roads are rated in poor condition which, on average, costs each motorist $584 annually in extra vehicle repairs and operating costs. Nationally, driving on roads in need of repair costs U.S. motorists $120.5 billion.

Working with state departments of transportation, the new TIDC seeks to identify new materials and technologies that maximize the impact of transportation infrastructure investments. The center will work along four pathways: 1) develop improved road and bridge monitoring and assessment tools; 2) develop better ways to strengthen existing bridges to extend their life; 3) use new materials and systems to build longer-lasting new bridges and accelerate construction; and 4) use new connectivity tools to enhance asset and performance management while promoting workforce development.

TIDC will harness the experience of 28 faculty researchers and train 280 student researchers from all New England states. It will focus on real infrastructure needs identified by the department of transporation partners and will prioritize extending the life of existing transportation assets to ensure cost-effectiveness.

Since 1987, the University Transportation Center program has advanced transportation research and technology at colleges and universities across the country. Every five years, academic institutions nationwide compete to form their region’s UTC.

The University of Vermont and other member universities of the new TIDC have an extensive record of accomplishments in transportation infrastructure research, education and technology transfer.

 

Source: UVM News