Vermont State University President Resigns; Library Plan Shelved 

Updated 1:19 p.m.

Parwinder Grewal, the embattled president of the new Vermont State University, has resigned after weeks of intense criticism following his decision to remove most of the books from the system’s libraries. The library plan itself has been put on hold.

When reached by phone on Friday, Grewal, who served for less than a year, said he preferred not to give any details about his resignation. The Vermont State Colleges System announced Grewal's departure in a news release, saying he was leaving the post immediately for personal reasons. Mike Smith, former secretary of the Vermont Agency of Human Services, will start as interim president next week, the news release said.

Grewal started at the state college system on July 1, moving from Texas with the mandate of combining three institutions — Castleton University, Vermont Technical College and Northern Vermont University — into one unified Vermont State University, with a launch scheduled for July 1, 2023. He was also tasked with finding $25 million in savings over the next five years and with raising enrollment.

Grewal's announcement in February that most library books would be removed and replaced by digitized materials was met with fierce backlash from students, faculty, alumni and community members. Faculty issued a vote of no confidence. Students held protests and a well-attended meeting at the Vermont Statehouse, inspiring a few lawmakers to sponsor legislation aimed at heading off the library proposal.

On Friday, Zdatny announced that the library and athletic plans were on hold “pending development of a comprehensive set of recommendations for continued transformation work in the coming weeks."

“More information will be shared when that work is complete,” the system’s press release promised.

But that probably won’t be enough to silence critics, many of whom have blamed the board and chancellor for the unpopular proposals. Jonathan Spiro, who served as interim president of Castleton University for two years before retiring in 2022, said on Friday morning that he hoped the board and chancellor would resign, too.
“So-called leaders who throw their underlings under the bus do not deserve to be leaders,” Spiro said in an interview. He said plans for the libraries and athletics had been in place long before the announcement.

While he said he has nothing against Grewal, Spiro described the former president as a patsy.

“They purposely hired this out-of-state nonentity, this hack, because they wanted someone who would do their bidding, no questions asked, and now they have fired him for doing their bidding,” Spiro said. “To treat him like this, with a simple one-sentence bullshit that he’s retiring for personal reasons, shut the fuck up — it’s insulting.”

Reaction on Facebook was similar.

“He was scapegoated,” alumna Mary L. Collins wrote in a Facebook group called Save the VTUS Libraries & Sports. “While he started off badly, I hold the Chancellor, Board of Trustees, and Governor (not just Scott but those previously in that role as well) for this debacle. It's shameful.”

Smith has been described in the past as "interim fixer-in-chief " for his habit of popping into roles that were recently vacated under difficult circumstances. In 2015, he agreed to serve as interim president of Burlington College, a now-defunct institution that was $11 million in debt, four days after the school's president resigned suddenly under fire from students.
Smith was administration secretary under Vermont governor Jim Douglas and served as secretary of the Agency of Human Services during the pandemic.

"I'm a little concerned the interim president they just appointed isn't an educator," said Charlotte Gerstein, one of two librarians at Castleton University and Spiro's wife. "That's part of the problem."

The board’s message on Friday was brief.

“We know we have a lot of work ahead to achieve the vision of a unified, thriving and financially viable Vermont State University. Strong communications, engagement, and collaboration will be our ongoing focus,” Board of Trustees chair Lynn Dickinson said in the news release.