Vermont State Colleges Staff, Students Protest the Plan to Eliminate Librarians, Books 

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• Caleb Kenna
• Calvin Coolidge Library at Castleton University

Well-thumbed monthly magazines, dusty midcentury encyclopedias, graphic novels and costly reference books: They're all destined to be cleared from the library shelves at Northern Vermont University-Lyndon under a cost-cutting plan to go digital-only.

Jay Bona, who has worked in the Lyndon stacks for decades, is one of nine library workers at campuses around the state whose jobs are being eliminated by the Vermont State Colleges System. President Parwinder Grewal says getting rid of the books and employees will save the cash-strapped colleges $600,000 a year. The staff will be replaced by one person who will run the merged virtual library.

The plan has caught many by surprise, generating protests and prompting a no-confidence vote in Grewal, other administrators and trustees.

"How is this advancing people's educations?" asked Allison Fiske, a nursing student at Castleton University. She helped organize a protest and has contacted state lawmakers for help. She says it's a matter of equity.

"For some people, this is their first exposure to different ideas from what they were raised with in the community," Fiske said. "A lot of those ideas are discovered in the library by looking at a book that piques your interest."

"I don't know how you substitute being able to go to the shelf and browse," Bona said. "I don't get it."

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• Caleb Kenna
• Allison Fiske

The State Colleges System hired Grewal last summer to help consolidate Northern Vermont University — made up of the former Lyndon and Johnson State colleges — with Castleton University and Vermont Technical College into a new institution, Vermont State University. Grewal has been up front that the merger, which will be final on July 1, requires hard choices. He pledged last summer not to do away with any departments altogether, but he has eliminated administrative jobs.

When he announced the library plan on February 7, Grewal said students wanted it. He cited a survey of 5,500 students that yielded 500 responses, as well as his own data that showed annual library checkouts have declined from 22,000 in 2019 to only 6,000 last year, when the pandemic was still a factor. The system has 350,000 items in circulation.

Students sharply disagreed with the survey findings, saying it wasn't clear they were being asked whether they wanted the print materials removed. Many noted that they often use printed works without checking them out.

"I'm hearing a lot of students saying they might transfer because of this huge change," Castleton student Brandon Burmeister said. A few in the college community predicted that the system would soon resemble huge online-only institutions such as Southern New Hampshire University and the University of Phoenix.

Bill Wiles, an adjunct professor of English at Castleton, cited Ray Bradbury's oft-taught novel Fahrenheit 451, in which authorities order books to be burned as a way of eliminating knowledge and complexity in society. In the McCarthy-era novel, fireman Guy Montag — whose job is burning books — starts to save literature instead of destroying it.

Wiles said in a Facebook post that he hoped Grewal would relent.

"I fear, however, that those of us who value physical books and the printed word will end up like Montag and the hobos at the end of Fahrenheit 451," Wiles wrote, "...sitting around a campfire where the Calvin Coolidge Library used to be, each person tasked with committing to memory those valuable and precious texts that have been lost or given away."

On Tuesday, students from several state college campuses gathered in the Statehouse to ask for help from state leaders. They decried not only the library changes but also decisions to alter athletics, too. The sports program at the Johnson campus of Northern Vermont University is leaving the National Collegiate Athletic Association for the smaller United States Collegiate Athletic Association. And Vermont Technical College will leave the USCAA and offer only club sports.

Brianna Belisle of South Burlington, a first-year student at Johnson, wore her softball mask to the Statehouse and said afterward that she expects many of her teammates to transfer to other schools. "People don't want to attend a glorified junior college," Belisle said.

In a flurry of media interviews and meetings with lawmakers, Grewal has so far defended his decisions. Despite infusions of aid from the Vermont legislature, his colleges are still $20 million in the hole, and he has pledged to eliminate $5 million in expenses for each of the next four years.

"We are looking in every corner where we can make a change and come out of this as a sustainable institution," he said.

But like Bona, many people can't envision a library without books. Grewal's announcement prompted a furor on social media and at Castleton University, which has the largest on-campus student body. Petitions are circulating, and protests are planned. A film class at Castleton is making a documentary about the controversy.

"We are seeking to understand the reasons for this capricious, anti-intellectual, and heavy-handed decree," Castleton professors Rich Clark and Linda Olson wrote in a stinging response last week.

Grewal and administrators held their ground in meetings with staff, students and legislators, saying they were basing the decision on the survey.

But the survey, which was created by library staff, has drawn scorn. It "appears to be a poor attempt to feign support for a decision already made rather than a catalyst for making such a decision," wrote Clark and Olson. "This goes beyond being poor social science methods; this is outright deception." Clark was the founding member of Castleton's Polling Institute.

In addition, library proponents questioned whether board member Megan Cluver had a conflict of interest because she was closely associated with Deloitte Consulting, which assists higher ed transformations. Cluver said she had no conflict.

"Deloitte has not bid and will not bid on work at the Vermont State Colleges," she said on Monday. "I would not want there ever to be the perception of a conflict of interest."

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• Caleb Kenna
• Signs of support at Calvin Coolidge Library at Castleton University

Grewal has the support of trustees, according to board chair and state Rep. Eileen Dickinson (R-St. Albans Town). She noted that several liberal arts colleges in Vermont have gone under in recent years.

"I recognize change is hard, but it's either change or die," Dickinson said.

Grewal's plan was reported in the national education press. No other state university libraries are converting physical collections to digital-only, according to Raymond Garcia, a spokesperson for the American Library Association.

"How can we in good conscience send new teachers into the world without educating them on how to navigate real books?" Blithe Milks, an adjunct professor of English at Castleton, wrote on Facebook. "Imagine kindergarten teachers with no experience with picture books. Imagine high school teachers who can't help their students do anything but digital research."

Grewal told Seven Days last week that he was surprised by the vehemence of the reaction, but he's determined to see the plan through. However, the uproar has softened his stance; he's now open to keeping a few books on the shelves.

"Because people are so passionate about the ambience of the library, the feel of the physical books and such, we may consider a small number of books to be placed in the library and make a decision — working with faculty — about what would be those most important to each academic area," he said.

Asked if he himself reads books on paper, Grewal held up Arrive and Thrive: 7 Impactful Practices for Women Navigating Leadership, a business guide that he said he's sharing with top managers. He also listens to books while driving.

"I'm not saying that people should not read books," Grewal said. "I love books."

He added that his son, a political science scholar and researcher who just finished writing a book, told him recently that he hasn't checked out a book physically in years because he can find everything he needs online.

"And he's a scholar and researcher," Grewal said. "Not just master's level."

But the state colleges serve a different population — those who otherwise might not get a shot at higher education, many of them first-generation college students. The system tries to provide the financial and academic support they need to complete a degree, often while working. Some of these students, activists say, learn better when they have access to paper books and journals.

Grewal is reliving on a small scale the experience of former chancellor Jeb Spaulding, who shocked the state colleges community in April 2020 when he proposed closing three campuses. The backlash was intense, and the plan was tabled; Spaulding later resigned.

Lawmakers responded last year with $45.5 million in annual funding — $10 million more than in previous years — and nearly $15 million in one-time spending. In return, administrators are under strict instructions to cut costs, something that Grewal has taken a run at by consolidating academic programs, selling underused real estate and the changes in athletics.

Administrators have acknowledged that raising enrollment is critical and won't be easy in a state with one of the oldest populations in the country. Starting next fall, tuition will be cut roughly 15 percent, to $9,999 a year for undergrads. Still, enrollment is projected to drop 10 percent in the coming year.

Grewal, who oversaw a large merger in the Texas higher ed system, knew what he was getting into. As a cerebral PhD biologist who relishes solving difficult problems, he brings an impartial mien to the difficult job of dismantling one of the most cherished institutions on each campus — and some see that as uncaring.

There was a short honeymoon period. Grewal spent his first few months on the job visiting campuses and getting to know people.

Last week, he spoke with some regret about the fallout. "This is extremely hard for me," Grewal said. "Those relationships that I spent so much time building, even some of those folks are not happy with it."

He acknowledged that more painful cuts are on the way.

"In this situation, we have to make hard decisions," Grewal said on February 15. "We have the data that there is this sharp decline in use. What else can I say?"

On a recent February day, the NVU-Lyndon library did have some users — including one who was reading a book. But the room next door, where students receive academic assistance, was quietly bustling, with full tables of students at work.

Grewal has repeatedly said books in print will be available to students who need them. "We are taking a multipronged approach to survive," he said.

What will happen to the hundreds of thousands of books newly freed from the shelves? Grewal has mentioned donating them to community libraries — several of which have responded they don't have the space — or placing them in the little free libraries that can be found in some front yards.