Tom Sullivan Credit: Oliver Parini

It came 83 years after the fact, but the University of Vermont issued an apology Friday for the “stereotyping, persecution and in some cases state sponsored sterilization” that resulted from the Vermont Eugenics Survey that operated from 1925 to 1936.

It targeted Native Americans, French Canadians, people of color and the poor. UVM professor Henry Perkins directed and founded the effort, with support from other UVM leaders including then-president Guy Bailey.

“We recognize and deeply regret this profoundly sad chapter in Vermont and UVM’s history,” university president Tom Sullivan said in a statement Friday.

Last fall UVM trustees voted to remove Bailey’s name from the campus library because of his support for the survey. 

Guy Bailey Credit: Courtesy of University of Vermont

Don Stevens, chief of the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk-Abenaki Nation, had lobbied Sullivan for the apology as a natural next step. He told Seven Days Friday that it was an important bridge toward healing. His own grandmother was targeted in the survey but escaped sterilization.

“I have to give Tom Sullivan and UVM credit for actually doing this step,” said Stevens, a Shelburne resident. “How many years have we been looking for this? Generations. At least they are stepping up to the plate, So I want this to be a positive. Obviously, there was a dark history, but I have to applaud them for doing this.”

His grandmother, a Burlington resident, was labeled a “cripple” in the survey and a descendant of a man who was “chief of his tribe.”

The eugenics movement went well beyond Vermont, but its disturbing history in the Green Mountain State has triggered recent debates. Last month, Vermont state librarian Jason Broughton announced that Vermont author Dorothy Canfield Fisher’s name would be removed from a state book award. Critics said her contributions are tainted by her ties to the Vermont Eugenics Survey.

Sullivan, who will retire as president this summer, calls in his letter for education as a preventive force in the future.

“Let us move forward, together, as an educational community to ensure that such a grave injustice never be repeated,” his statement urges. “By providing relevant, accessible educational initiatives going forward, we have an opportunity to better come to terms with the past and learn from these tragic lessons.”

Here’s Sullivan’s full letter:

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Molly Walsh was a Seven Days staff writer 2015-20.

17 replies on “UVM Apologizes for a Eugenics Survey That Ended in 1936”

  1. If Dorothy Canfield Fisher’s name is removed, how come no one is removing Sara Holbrooks too???? JUst saying, it is a slippery slope….

  2. Remember, eugenicists are bad…. except for Margaret Sanger. She’s amazing.

    So just shut up, misogynist.

  3. I am surprised at the dismissiveness, the mockery, and the anger that people are posting about this…

    My close friend’s family members were sterilized during these campaigns without their knowledge. Why celebrate those responsible? Why mock efforts to acknowledge these crimes?

    To be clear: 1) forced sterilization is genocide 2) when you mock this issue, you are making jokes about genocide.

    Is that the look you’re going for?

  4. Perhaps we could add The Eagles “Get Over It” playing in the background as a sound track.

  5. That means that people who came from canada are as they are . the commonwealth can decide resources for reconnnecting with autentic culture or minority related cultures vermont does not know much about things that are cultural . instituationalization and socialism are non cultural counter cultural initatives from the state and uVM goddard college are hippy culture , unitarian or new age . the term for that problem is instituational racism and cultural appropriation

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