New England Board of Higher Education » Vermont

More Comings and Goings: Dartmouth Academic Named Vt Ed Chief; former Skidmore Prez Takes US Under Secy Post

John O. Harney — Mon, 23 Sep 2013 19:11:21 +0000

Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin named Rebecca Holcombe, current director of the Dartmouth Teacher Education Program in Hanover, N.H., to lead Vermont's Agency of Education, starting in January. Before going to Dartmouth. Holcombe was a principal at Fairlee School in Vermont and a social studies and science teacher at the Frances C. Richmond School in Hanover, N.H. The governor’s office took over management of the agency in 2012 and chose then-Commissioner Armando Vilaseca to serve an interim term as secretary until January 2014.

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The U.S. Department of Education appointed Jamienne S. Studley to be deputy under secretary, where she will focus on higher education policy development and outreach. She previously served as president of Public Advocates Inc., president of Skidmore College, and associate dean of Yale Law School, where she helped to establish the loan-forgiveness program. She has also held positions in the Education Department under the Obama and Clinton administrations.

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Sarah Kelly, former vice president for enrollment management and dean of students at Wittenberg University in Ohio, became vice president for enrollment at Saint Michael’s College.

NE’s 2013 Legislative Sessions: Vermont

John O. Harney — Fri, 13 Sep 2013 20:10:52 +0000

NEJHE will report on new education-related laws and other legislative highlights from each New England statehouse, starting with Vermont ...

On May 14, Vermont lawmakers wrapped up their session by passing a $5.2 billion budget for FY14. House and Senate proposals to changes in the income tax fell by the wayside as did proposed increases in taxes on bottled water, soft drinks, candy, dietary supplements, clothing purchases over $100, cigarettes, health care insurance claims and satellite television. In the end, lawmakers joined with Gov. Peter Shumlin and agreed not to raise any additional taxes.

Earlier in the session, the tax on gasoline increased by a net of 5.9 cents. The tax on diesel fuel increased by 2 cents as of July 1, 2013 and will go up another cent in the following year.

Lawmakers doubled the subsidy on Amtrak providing an additional $3.1 million to keep passenger service going on the Vermonter and Ethan Allen routes.

Session highlights

Vermont lawmakers:

Approved physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients
Decriminalized possession of less than one ounce of marijuana
Required pharmacists to check drug registries before filling prescriptions and require patients picking up prescriptions or other behind-the-counter medications to provide a photo ID
Approved driver’s licenses to migrant workers
Passed the Equal Pay Law which was recently tested in Dreves vs. Hudson Retail Group where the court found in favor of the female manager of airport newsstand, who was paid less than her male counterpart.
Allowed home care providers to take part in collective bargaining after voting to form a union and approving a union to represent them.

Higher education

Shumlin successfully lobbied lawmakers to support a $2.5 million increase in funding for the University of Vermont, Vermont State Colleges and the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation in exchange for holding the line on tuition increases.

UVM President Thomas Sullivan urged lawmakers to approve UVM’s $45 million budget with the promise that half of what is appropriated would go to financial aid for Vermont students.

K-12

Schoolchildren on the state’s subsidized food program will now receive free school lunches. Previously, more than 35,000 Vermont schoolchildren were ineligible for free meals at school but could receive a reduced-price meal. The legislation signed into law earlier this year by Shumlin will now provide these students with free breakfast and free lunch.

Flexible Pathways Initiative

The Vermont General Assembly responded to Shumlin’s suggestion that more be done to help poor children achieve access to higher education by passing the Flexible Pathways Initiative which expands options for students who may want to enroll in college courses before graduating from high school.

Concussions

Vermont schools must now have an action plan to address concussions and ensure that athletic coaches and referees are trained to recognize concussions and other head injuries. Also, by July 1, 2015, a statewide concussion task force is to be established. Additional provisions of the legislation require a health care provider to be present at school athletic events which involve collision sports (e.g. football, hockey, lacrosse, wrestling) and allows schools to have epinephrine on hand to treat allergic reactions and nurses to administer the drug.

Carolyn Morwick handles government and community relations at NEBHE and is former director of the Caucus of New England State Legislatures.

Vermonters Say …

John O. Harney — Tue, 29 May 2012 10:55:02 +0000

Polls Show: Castleton Making a Difference

During the past 11 years as president at Castleton, I have suggested to all our incoming classes and current students what they need to remember: Their mission is to make a difference in their college and our wider community before they go out to make a difference in the world.

We have another new initiative at Castleton, a dream in the making over the past decade that will help students and their college do just that. The Castleton Polling Institute is already making a difference on campus, in our state and beyond.

Several years ago, we gathered Vermont leaders in the media, government and the corporate world to ascertain interest in a college-run public opinion research and polling center. I wanted to serve Vermont, offer a new forum for enhanced civic engagement, provide talented students and faculty with additional education and employment opportunities with compensation, and provide accurate and timely information regarding public policy issues, electoral campaign polling, private marketing research and other data that would contribute to the enhancement of our quality of life.

We then conducted thorough and comprehensive research related to public and private research centers across the country, hired an experienced consultant, and decided to embark upon a plan that included hiring and training personnel, establishing a new calling center, purchasing state-of-the-art software and technology equipment and cultivating partnerships.

Last year, we completed the most important first task, a national search for an experienced director who would also hold faculty status as a professor. We were fortunate to hire Rich Clark, who had recently run a similar institute at the University of Georgia, as the new director and political science professor. Clark says that “the institute’s vision is simply to be the most authoritative resource for understanding public opinion in Vermont. We want to bring public opinion to the discussion around policy issues.”

This year, we inaugurated the new polling center with careful planning and an eye toward student engagement, faculty involvement, community connections and expanded public consciousness of Castleton as an outstanding, dynamic and thriving college serving students from all over the country.

It should be noted that although Castleton is a Vermont public college with a public mission, it is not a college that is blessed by overflowing financial support from the state. This year approximately 9% of our budget comes from our state appropriation, the lowest of any public college in the country. Nevertheless, we embrace our public mission.

In late February, Clark, along with dozens of well-trained undergraduates, polled 800 Vermonters prior to the presidential preference primary on Super Tuesday with questions related to state and national issues along with the normal “horse race” questions regarding the presidential candidates. The new Castleton Poll caught fire, with reports that week and thereafter citing the results on ABC News, the Washington Post, the New York Times, The New Republic and MSNBC, the website Real Clear Politics, among others, including Vermont media.

During a broadcast of MSNBC’s Hardball show, Chris Matthews reported the results of our poll on national television and looked into the camera and said: “Don’t you just love it when these colleges get all this free publicity for their polling?”

Yes, Chris, we do.

There are other, perhaps more important, aspects as well. We cherish civic engagement. We foster professional educational experiences for students and faculty. We teach issue-identification strategies, instrument design, sample selection, data collection, research methodology, data analysis and media relations. We cultivate and engage public and private partners to research ways they can be more effective and successful. We conduct mail, telephone, Internet and email surveys, as well as in-person interviews and focus group facilitation and analysis.

We also know that we need to balance our budget, and we will accomplish that, growing the Polling Institute as our business increases over time. We are on our way. We are already negotiating contracts with two major broadcast media companies as well as agencies of state government, in and out of Vermont.

Our journey is predicated upon several core beliefs that guide us.

We believe in collaborating with others, including those who have also joined the Association of Academic Survey Research Organizations (AASRO), with more than 70 members. We are connected to other institutions that also produce unbiased, high-quality data and analysis employing, as Clark would say, the most rigorous methods possible within limited budgets.

We believe in learning through more traditional methods, but also through learning-by-doing. Students working in our Polling Institute engage in well-organized and well-planned data collection, developing an understanding of how survey data originates and how it is analyzed. Students are paid for their work in a professional environment that enhances their resumes and their graduate school applications.

We believe in serving the public. We are a resource for the Vermont community and beyond. We work with print and broadcast media, nonprofits, corporate interests, communities and public policy leaders who expect to benefit from objective research recognized in academia as well as the world outside the Ivory Tower.

We believe in making a difference, for our students, our community, our state and our country.

This new venture is doing just that, allowing learning to come alive.

It is a dream come true.

For more information as well as poll results, please check out our website: http://www.castleton.edu/polling/index.htm

Dave Wolk is president of Castleton State College.

Photo: Castleton Polling Institute director Rich Clark supervising students in the calling center. (Courtesy of Castleton State College.)

Trends & Indicators: Demography

Daren Follweiler — Thu, 03 May 2012 13:00:23 +0000

Updated May 2012 ...

The six-state New England region's population grew by a sluggish 3.8% between 2000 and 2010—while the nation's as a whole grew by 9.7%, according to U.S. Census Bureau’s 2010 population figures released in December.

Among other highlights:

• United Van Lines, the nation’s largest household goods mover, classified four of the six New England states as “high outbound” (55% or more moves going out of the state) in 2011. They were: Rhode Island (56.3%), New Hampshire (56.1%), Connecticut (55.8%) and Maine (55.8%).

• For the first time in history, whites accounted for less than half of that total U.S. babies born during the 12-month period ending in July 2011. "Minorities"—Hispanics, blacks, Asians and babies of mixed race—accounted for 50.4%

• It's not your grandfather's New England. Exhibit A: The first Somali families moved to Lewiston, Maine, in late Jan. 2001. Ten years later, nearly 10 percent of the city's population is Somali.

• The Massachusetts population grew by only 3.1%—and the state was the only one in New England to lose a congressional district. Massachusetts had 16 districts in the early 20th century, but will sink to nine in the next Congress.

• As the U.S. population seeks warmth, Texas will gain four seats and Florida two. New York and Ohio will each lose two. Michigan will lose one.

• The historical shift in population from New England to the South and West has gradually brought with it political power, research dollars and college enrollment.

For other trend data, visit Newslink and Trends & Indicators: Continually Updated Stats on New England’s Education and Economy.

Figure DEM 1: Resident Population of New England and the United States: 2010 and 2000 Census