The Vermont State College system’s board of trustees appointed Gov. Peter Shumlin’s Secretary of Administration, Jeb Spaulding, as the new chancellor of the state’s public college system, officials announced today.
“We are thrilled to have someone of Jeb's character, integrity, skill, and experience to lead the Vermont State Colleges in the coming years,” said VSC board chairwoman Martha O’Connor in a statement announcing the decision. “This appointment will provide the leadership continuity that our college presidents have asked for. With the appointment of Jeb Spaulding, the VSC has the opportunity to move forward into a future that will continue to benefit all of Vermont and all Vermonters.”
Spaulding said Wednesday that he wasn’t seeking to leave the Shumlin administration, but he was approached by a number of people in the Vermont State Colleges community about taking over as chancellor.
“People may not know, but I have a lot of connections to education and higher education,” Spaulding said. “Not only am I a former chair of the Senate Education Committee, but a member of the New England Board of Higher Education, used to be the director of the Vermont Academy of Science and Technology at [Vermont Technical College], was involved in starting the Vermont Higher Education Trust Fund and many other connection points there.”
Spaulding said his ties to education and his leadership qualifications made the new job a good fit.
“It seemed like something that wasn’t going to come along again in my lifetime,” he said. “Education’s a passion and I’m really, really excited about having the opportunity.”
Spaulding faces financial challenges in the Vermont State Colleges system that led to job cuts earlier this year. But he says sensitivity to higher education costs could ultimately be beneficial to the state colleges system, which offers lower cost education to Vermonters.
“There’s no question that the state colleges system – the individual colleges and the system overall – is facing some fairly significant challenges in the financial area, primarily resulting from demographic issues and a lower amount of state funding than is optimal,” he said.
But Spaulding said the challenges also present an opportunity.
“We are actually among the innovative players that are looking for ways to use dual enrollment and early college and the combination of a two-year degree leading to a four-year degree at another institution. All those kind of creative ways to address the affordability issue,” he said.
Spaulding said he will stay with Shumlin in his role as secretary of administration until mid-January in order to finalize next year’s budget and to continue working on the state’s financing plan for single-payer health care, which has yet to be unveiled.
The state colleges faculty union voiced frustration with the process used to select Spaulding, who was unanimously appointed after a closed meeting of the board of trustees.
"Faculty and staff were promised they could play a role in this process for a 'permanent' replacement by the Executive Committee," wrote Linda Olson, the president of the Vermont State Colleges Faculty Federation. "I am more than disappointed that the board has chosen not to honor that promise and that a permanent Chancellor was selected with absolutely no faculty or staff input."
Olson's statement also says the union looks forward to working with Spaulding moving forward. It doesn't indicate that the union is opposed to Spaulding's appointment.
