click to enlarge - Photo courtesy David Blow, VTSU–Castleton
- A protest against the elimination of Vermont State University library collections at the Vermont Statehouse in spring 2023
When
Parwinder Grewal, then-president of Vermont State University, announced his plan in February 2023 to eliminate most of the physical books from the state college system's libraries and switch to an all-digital library, students, faculty and staff described his decision in many ways, none of them flattering: "shocking," "embarrassing," "surreal," "patriarchal" "ableist" and "a joke," to name a few.
For the students in Sam Davis-Boyd's documentary filmmaking class at VTSU–Castleton, the announcement — part of a flawed plan to cut $5 million annually from the state college system's budget — was something more: an opportunity to practice documentary filmmaking in real time.
One day after Grewal's announcement, students in Davis-Boyd's Documentary Workshop class decided to forgo their previously scheduled projects. Instead, the students focused their attention on what it meant for a college to no longer offer physical books in its campus library.
“That’s kind of the nature of documentary filmmaking," said
Davis-Boyd, an assistant professor of communications. "You think you’re going to do one thing, and then the story changes and unfolds.”
The film, titled "Error 404: Books Not Found," premiered last week on the Castleton campus, with a second showing tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, May 8, at 5 p.m. at VTSU–Johnson. The 30-minute documentary chronicles
the monthslong protests and community activism in spring 2023 that ultimately led to
Grewal's resignation in April 2023 and his cost-cutting measures being rescinded.
But the film also exposes other systemic problems in the state college system. They include the larger hypocrisy of eliminating what one professor in the film calls "the very core of what higher education stand for" — i.e., physical libraries — while simultaneously expanding VTSU's administrative offices.
As VTSU physics professor Carl Brandon points out in the film, between 2021 and 2023 the number of nonfaculty employees earning more than $100,000 rose from 34 positions to 52. In the chancellor's office alone, Brandon noted, the number of nonfaculty staffers earning six-figure salaries grew from six to 17 in just two years. In all, nonfaculty employees make up nearly three-quarters of the state college system.
"We don't have a library problem in Vermont State University," said Linda Olson, a Castleton professor of sociology, in a public hearing documented in the film. "We have an administration problem."
"Error 404: Books Not Found" also touches on the racism aimed at Grewal, who grew up in India and who, according to the film, "took the fall" for a deeply flawed cost-cutting endeavor not entirely of his own making. That much seems evident in the film when, during a public hearing, Grewal describes himself as "deeply humiliated" by the plan.
The film project was led by student codirectors/producers Will Smith and Lily Doton and edited under the leadership of Jacob Gonzalez, with help from fellow classmates Maddie Lindgren and Jacob Ruben. Though Doton and Gonzalez graduated before the film was finished, both stayed on to see it through completion.
Smith, a 44-year-old student from Rutland who will complete his bachelor's degree in communications in May, said in an interview that the project highlights what campus protests can achieve when students pay attention.
“Students need to be involved more in what is happening with their schooling," he said. "If you see something you don’t like, you need to say something.”