Interim Vermont State University president to stay in the job through 2026

Interim Vermont State University President David Bergh’s contract has been extended through 2026, the Vermont State Colleges board of trustees announced Wednesday.

Bergh was appointed to the presidency in November 2023, the third person to serve in the role in a year. Former President Parwinder Grewal resigned from his position in April 2023 after announcing controversial changes to close libraries and downgrade athletic programs . Mike Smith, a former member of Phil Scott’s administration, served as interim president until November.

Trustees Chair Lynn Dickinson said the board would conduct a national search for a president after Bergh’s departure. However, she said the board chose to keep Bergh on for now because he has served as “a calm and steady, stabilizing force” through the system’s many changes.

The five campuses in the Vermont State College system combined officially for the first time in the past academic year, uniting more than 5,000 students under one banner.

“It’s a difficult job,” Dickinson said. “It’s complex to combine these different locations and campuses, and he has done a really good job of it.”

Bergh spent 19 years at Johnson State College in Vermont before leaving the state to work at Cazenovia College in New York, which closed in June 2023 . He said he returned because he believes in the importance of the state university system.

“(I) saw how important these campuses were as points of educational access in the state, and also how important the physical campuses were as economic engines and resources to the communities and regions that they were located in,” he said.

Over the past year, Bergh has spent much of his time on an “extended listening tour” of all the different campuses, meeting with students, alums and community leaders to get feedback on what the system needs to move forward.

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He acknowledged there were big challenges ahead. Vermont State University expects to run at a $10 million deficit out of its $116 million budget this fiscal year, down from a $22 million deficit the year before. The university said in its latest budget report that it will need to find $7 million in cost efficiencies over the next two years to break even by fiscal year 2027.

Those financial challenges have led to some “hard fiscal decisions” like position reductions in faculty and staff , Bergh said.

However, Bergh also pointed to recent progress the system has made. He said there were signs that enrollment has risen for the coming academic year, although both Bergh and Dickinson said it was too early to share specific figures.

The way forward is to show Vermont that the campuses are a worthy investment in Vermonters’ educational and occupational needs, and are valuable to the communities they’re in, he said.

“If we can demonstrate that success, demonstrate our importance and our criticality to the state, and demonstrate our ability to grow, then hopefully … that moves us to the point where we’re getting beyond talking about reductions and cutbacks, and (toward) talking about how we grow into the future to better support the state,” Bergh said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Interim Vermont State University president to stay in the job through 2026 .