Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Martha Feltus (Vice Chair)]: Good morning, this is the House of Publications Committee. It is Wednesday, February 4. We are going to be hearing this morning from GBM and also from the Department of Vermont Health Access. Then after lunch later on, we will be working on the agency of education and adjutant general. So without further ado, I would like to invite Doctor. Trump to come up to the table and Wendy, if you'd like to join us. We have some documents that they have submitted, both on our website, and some of you perhaps have printed copies. I think it would be helpful if we had a real quick introduction, but I don't believe that Trump has been into this committee yet. He's new, so.

[Dr. Marlene Tromp (President, University of Vermont)]: Good morning. Good morning. My name is Marlene Trump, the new president, new ish, beginning officially in July 1 of UVM, and I am so thrilled to be here. Well, good.

[Martha Feltus (Vice Chair)]: I would like to have the group introduce themselves as well. Dave?

[David Yacovone (Member)]: Good morning. Pleased to meet you. I'm David Yacovone, a representative from Lamoille, Wyoming.

[John Kascenska (Member)]: Welcome. We know each other well. John Kascenska from Burke, and I represent the 10 towns in the Essex Caledonia District.

[Thomas Stevens (Member)]: I'm Stevens representing the Washington Chittenden District, which is Waterbury Bolton, Multitude and Fuels Corps.

[Martha Feltus (Vice Chair)]: And I'm Martha Feltus Melenden, represent five towns, and Caledonia three. Robin Scheu, in absentia. I'm Scott Middlebury, I'm Tiffany Bluemle from Burlington.

[Trevor Squirrell (Clerk)]: Trevor Squirrell, I represent Hundred Hill at Jericho.

[Wayne Laroche (Member)]: Wayne Laroche, represent Peggy Franklin, Berkshire, and Richter.

[John Kascenska (Member)]: And

[Martha Feltus (Vice Chair)]: then we have Mike Mrowicki, who's not here right now, from Putney, and Lynn Dickinson from St. Helens.

[John Kascenska (Member)]: And Mike Nigro from Bennington.

[Martha Feltus (Vice Chair)]: I'm sorry, and Mike Nigro also So from would you go ahead with your presentation, please? We have half an hour. We could maybe squeeze another five minutes since we started five minutes late. You.

[Dr. Marlene Tromp (President, University of Vermont)]: Autumn, Autumn, are you Okay, driving the slide thank you very much. So the theme I really want to underscore during my presentation this morning is our focus on serving the state of Vermont. So you'll hear a little bit about what we're doing across the landscape, but that's my primary focus. Thank you, Autumn. We are Vermont's flagship public land grant university. And as you all know, the land grant system was invented by our own Justin Mrowell, who wanted to ensure that states committed resources to provide for the public education of their own citizens, and in the language of the act, the sons of farmers and mechanics. So we are meant to be an institution that reaches out across the state and serves the state. And you can see some of our numbers here that give you a sense of the number of folks that we're serving. Next slide, please. We're very proud of the range and depth of our program offerings. We offer curricula across the range of a comprehensive university's offerings business, agriculture, the humanities and social sciences, health care, all across the curriculum, including certificates so that people who want to up credential have that opportunity as well. And we are very proud of serving Vermont. So as many of you know, our state has what we call an upside down demographic, more older people than younger people. And that affects everything from the challenges that you all face as public servants in terms of making a budget work for health care when you have more people who are older and not working and fewer people who are younger. And so our service to the state of Vermont, which I'll talk about in a couple of different ways, is critical. We have almost 4,000 Vermont students. Many of those Vermont students are Pell eligible. And that language may be or may not be familiar to you, but Pell eligible means the federal government defines them as being socioeconomically disadvantaged so that there are opportunities for free resources from the federal government to ensure, at least at this time, to ensure that and for decades that those students have access to school. And 18% of our Vermonters are first generation, which means they're really changing their lives and the lives of their family by getting access to that education. And I am extremely proud of our affordability. I had the opportunity to visit Yale for a president's leadership workshop, which invited presidents from all over the country recently. And we have one of the most generous programs in the country for students who have economic need or just simply don't have the resources for a college education. The UVM Promise program guarantees that any student whose family makes less than $100,000 a year can come to UVM tuition free, tuition free. And that's one of the most generous programs in the country. And 48% of our students receive our undergraduate students not only attend tuition free, but that is direct aid from the university that covers their costs. So we don't benefit from the same tuition programs that other institutions do. We actually provide that aid from our own coffers, from our own resources. And that means that more than half of our students are getting directly funded through our resources that are Vermonters. Thank you. And this is one of the figures I'm the most proud of, especially given that upside down demographic that we talked about. For every Vermonter that UVM graduates, two of that student's out of state peers stay in the state and join Vermont's workforce. I think that's an extraordinary impact on the state. So when we're talking about the incredible need for health care workers, for innovation, for young people who work in the really vital businesses and industries in the state, that's an impact we're making every day. Thank you. In fact, we have more than 35,000 UVM alumni who live and work in the state of Vermont. Now, of you may have heard in the news that we've become an R1 research university, but that language may not be familiar to you. So the Carnegie Foundation ranks all universities across the country that do research. And R1 is their highest ranking. It means very high research activity. Only 3% of the institutions in the country merit that ranking. And it means that what you're doing is incredibly impactful, well funded research that's making an impact across the country and across the globe. And that allows us to recruit students, to recruit faculty. Many students want to be a part of an R1 because it means it allows them to participate in research as students and to get that experience of learning when they're students. Next slide, please, Autumn. We are also named the number one school for making a social impact, and this feels so profoundly in alignment with the state of Vermont and with the University of Vermont's long values that we don't just educate people in facts, we teach them that they have an ethical responsibility to make a difference in a way. And it's being recognized all over the country as being such an important impact on not just our state, but our country. Thank you, Laura. And our research is making a difference in the state. The image that you see here is actually folks working out on Lake Champlain. They've made so many discoveries that have been transformative. And you may or may not know that because of our commitment to the well-being of the natural environment around the state, we had the first research vessel in the world that was all electric, that was spec built for the University of Vermont. And we will exceed this number this year with the research that we're doing across the state. And I'll talk a little bit about some of that research. But it's making a difference in Vermont. Thank you, Autumn. One of the ways you may know about, because the legislature's generous support in the past, is our VGAN tech hub. So this is the gallium nitride semiconductor work that's happening through UVM and in partnership with Global Foundries. And this is a novel material for semiconductors. And this is something I have some experience with, having worked alongside Micron when I was at Boise State, when I was the president of Boise State, one of the largest semiconductor programs and manufacturers in the world. This novel material has the potential to make a tremendous impact because it's lighter and more compact than anything that's used for semiconductors at this time. So we're training the workforce. We're doing the research. We've already received from the Northeast Microelectronics Coalition three point four million. And watch the news because we have a five part grant proposal that's gone into the federal government. Now, this was in the original freeze of federal grants. A grant that we had been awarded got frozen. But they're renewing the process of review now in all five parts of our grant, which could award us tens of millions of dollars to advance this critical work for the university and for our state, that grant has been approved to move forward. It's very exciting. We are also the home to the first ever rural BioLabs facility in the country. So BioLabs partners with universities to help new biotechnology discoveries, which is critical given our work as a medical research facility, as a medical school, and across our academic areas to take new innovations in biotechnology and make them a reality in the world so that discoveries that are made get translated into real well-being for people in the state and across the nation. So BioLab built their first ever rural BioLab's hub in Burlington to help advance this work across the state and across the region. Thank you, Adam. And we are so proud of the work that we're doing in health care. What you see pictured here is a super creepy picture of somebody studying a tick because we are developing the first ever vaccine for tick borne illness, which will change health and well-being, not only for Vermonters, but across the world. Thank you, Laroche.

[David Yacovone (Member)]: Thank you.

[Dr. Marlene Tromp (President, University of Vermont)]: Thank you. And I'm so Yes, sir.

[Wayne Laroche (Member)]: Understand there was a tick or a vaccine in the past, but it was taken off the market because people are complaining of having joint problems. So are you working Is this a spin off of that one? Are you working something de novo?

[Dr. Marlene Tromp (President, University of Vermont)]: It's de novo. And in fact, and I actually don't know much about the previous effort at a vaccine. But it's the same research team that developed the vaccine for RSV. So you may have heard of RSV, which afflicts mostly older people and children. Many people get RSV, and for them, they experience it like a cold. But for an infant or a child or an older person, it can be very serious. It can be a deadly disease. The vaccine that was developed by the chief researcher on this team for RSV has reduced infant hospitalizations globally by eighty percent because of the impact of the vaccine. So he's using the same methods

[Wayne Laroche (Member)]: to work on this tick borne vaccine. So he's going beyond just Borrelia, also looking at antisposis, other tick borne diseases, are you going to come up with a vaccine that deals with all of them or is it specific?

[Dr. Marlene Tromp (President, University of Vermont)]: I don't know, but I'm going to find out for you. And I'll get you that information. There's a list of It's really as a person who grew up in Wyoming and got Lyme disease in Wyoming when I was a kid, which wasn't very common it's much more common in the Northeast than it is in the West. And before we understood, because I was young and that was before Lyme disease was broadly understood, I was ill for a year before I was treated for Lyme disease. And I have a colleague who I've known for many, many years, who was a Vermonter. Her spouse had Lyme disease for years before they discovered it, and it completely attacked his organs. And he had long term disability because of the Lyme disease. This could really be transformative for the future. So I'm very excited about this vaccine, but I'll get you that information because I think that's a superb question. One of the things that we're also very excited about knowing about our health care shortage is that so many of our physicians stay and live in the state. So many of our nursing students stay and give back, so we're addressing that health care shortage. And I'm very proud to report that we just got a $16,000,000 estate kit that will reduce the costs for students who want to study nursing at UVM so that we can scholarship those students. It was an incredibly generous gift. And I was able to thank the donor in person because it's going to change access for nursing education in the state. We have two questions. Tiffany? Yeah,

[Tiffany Bluemle (Ranking Member)]: that's really exciting. How long I mean, what's the scope of the impact of that $16,000,000 And is there any synergy with the Department of Health? I mean, are you coordinating with them and the Rural Health Initiative and etcetera, etcetera? Yes, yes.

[Dr. Marlene Tromp (President, University of Vermont)]: And in fact, one of the things that we're most proud of is that our health care programs focus on rural health. So people from all over the country come here who want to study rural health. And that's a part of how we developed a center for rural health at the university. We do partner with the State Department of Health, and the impact, well, it depends a bit on the market because it's an endowment fund. So as the market does well, it will help us fund more nursing students. But the limiting factor for us in terms of nursing education is clinical placement. And so that is our seamless

[Tiffany Bluemle (Ranking Member)]: Yes, I understand. So for nursing accreditation,

[Dr. Marlene Tromp (President, University of Vermont)]: nursing students and, of course, medical students are required to do clinical rotations, to actually be out in the health care system doing work, experiencing the things firsthand. We have one of the premier sim labs in our region, which allows students to simulate interaction with a person and to learn how to draw blood, how to do CPR, how to interact with the simulated person. But you have to do work with real people to get your nursing degree as well. And so for us, it's the placement of getting those students into placements that limits how many students we can have because you have to be able

[Tiffany Bluemle (Ranking Member)]: to place them all. I

[Dr. Marlene Tromp (President, University of Vermont)]: thought that there was a real demand for. There is, but you have to have health care systems that can accommodate.

[Wendy Koenig (UVM Government Relations)]: There has to be supervision of the students. And because we have such nursing shortage, it's very difficult for those nurses to also be supervising students as well as doing their

[Dr. Marlene Tromp (President, University of Vermont)]: And the accreditation requires that it only be a certain number of students per nurse supervisor. So it becomes like the bottleneck. We Is going

[Martha Feltus (Vice Chair)]: to be used in part for the supervision or only for scholarship tuition? Money

[Dr. Marlene Tromp (President, University of Vermont)]: is dedicated to scholarships, and we can certainly support those efforts. In fact, every time we graduate a nurse who stays and works in our health care system, that increases our capacity to grow more nurses. Don't know if there's anything you would add to that. No, I think that's it. But it's one of these bottleneck issues, and it's happening across the country right now. And I actually wonder if given the demand and the need, especially because nationally we have a demographic that's growing to an upside down demographic, If the nursing accrediting bodies will have to be a little more flexible to allow us to train more nurses. Two

[Thomas Stevens (Member)]: things. I mean, how far are you along here? Are you about to get to the requests? Yes, we're almost fine. So two things, one on the nursing. President Trump has done a disservice to the nursing profession by trying to downgrade the professionalism And of recently announced that any kind of federal financial aid is going to be cut to in half, I believe. Were those considerations brought into how you're going to use this money to help supplement? And do you believe that is the program going to reflect the fact that they're less professional than they were six months ago?

[Dr. Marlene Tromp (President, University of Vermont)]: This really was a shock to many people across the country, programs that were cut out of these professional federal loan programs. And those are under negotiation right now. And I believe some of them will be added back in. However, this money will make a huge impact on the reduction in resources that's coming federally by making resources available locally at UVM for students. It doesn't change their degree program. It doesn't change their curriculum. But this generous gift comes at just the right time to help us supplement that gap in federal resources. Okay.

[Thomas Stevens (Member)]: Now it's a real blow to

[Dr. Marlene Tromp (President, University of Vermont)]: And it's a blow to graduate students, too.

[Thomas Stevens (Member)]: Well, it's a blow to humans. Yes. And to say that the nurses are now that a nurse that draws my blood that has a master's degree in nursing is now being considered essentially as an LNA, which is supposed to be on the step up, is really disturbing to me and it's really detrimental to anybody who wants to join a career. So anything you can do to keep people's morale up in the face of what they're facing from the federal government would be appreciated. Second question or second area, what I don't see, I see it in the request, but what I don't see is any emphasis on extension. I used to be involved with extension on the family programs, not agriculture, but family programs twenty five years ago. And there was a move there to start consolidating and having less original research and more regional or more pulling things from different extensions across the country. And I'm just curious to know what the current status of extension is when it comes to beyond four H. There's so much that's happening in agriculture, whether it's about fertilizer, whether it's about, and I see that there's disaster stuff that is resources mostly pulled from other resources. Just curious about what the commitment is going to be to, again, addressing what is essentially a very difficult field, agriculture in particular, but also all these other programs that community building, I have not heard a lot about extension, not even about whether it's been cut or whether it's been reduced. I've heard classics programs being cut in the past. I mean, I've heard about all these things, I've heard about the good stuff, but I haven't heard anything about extension. And I'm just wondering where it sits on your stovetop. Is it back burnered? Is it side burnered? Is it going to be given a shot at life that we don't see?

[Dr. Marlene Tromp (President, University of Vermont)]: I'm so glad you asked this question.

[Thomas Stevens (Member)]: We are a land grant university.

[Dr. Marlene Tromp (President, University of Vermont)]: That's right. And I will tell you that I would encourage you all to take a look at it, to Google UVM strategic plan or go to uvm.edu/strategicplan because it is one of our primary goals, one of our four primary goals for the university. So student access and success, which is important to all of us and important to the future health of Vermont. Research advancement, which is doing this incredible work that's making an impact. And then our land grant mission, which means really striving to help not just extension thrive and grow, not just the health care reach across the state, but reaching across the state with every part of the strength of this research university to serve Vermonters no matter what corner of the state that they're in. So to my way of thinking, extension is such a powerful model for everything that we should be doing. And I just met with the provost and the dean of ag just about two weeks ago. And we talked about how do we elevate the work that's happening with Extension, elevate the folks who are teaching and working in that field, connect them with our College of Business so we can support people who are working across the state and benefiting from extension research, but also help them get support from the business college. And some of you may know that we just at the time that I came, in fact, I interviewed the candidates. We hired a new dean of the College of Ag and Life Sciences. I just interviewed and we just announced the hire of a new dean for the School of Business. And one of the primary questions I asked that dean, the new dean of nursing health sciences, we had a cascade of retirements, so we're bringing in all these new people. One of the primary questions I ask them is, are you prepared to serve the entire state of Vermont? Are you prepared to think about how to reach out and extend the impact of the university? I don't want us to be a university on a hill. I want us to be a university that comes out and touches the entire state and grows our services and resources for the entire state. And we chose people who were up for that mission. And so, yes, we're going to increase the strength and the support that goes to Extension. Yes, we're going to increase the reach of our entire university across the state. So it is one of my top four priorities for the strategic plan for the university.

[John Kascenska (Member)]: It's okay if we just get one thing. I know we're getting short on time.

[Martha Feltus (Vice Chair)]: Sure. But need to go to the next slide. Yeah.

[John Kascenska (Member)]: When you came first came in to your presidency, made a you purposely came to visit different areas of the state. You came over to visit us. I just wanna say we were appreciated to have. You gave the same message on our dean at the time here, but being the land grant institution here for the state, know that one of your big priorities is to expand beyond where your main campus is here. You already are in some aspects, you're clearly here, but just to kind of bring that back up to a level that we need to have it. I appreciate that opportunity to connect with you at that time.

[Dr. Marlene Tromp (President, University of Vermont)]: Thank you so much. And Yes. And I have I have set foot in every county in the state, and that was one of my highest priorities. Wendy graciously drove me around, and I got to see spaces all over the state and meet with folks all over the state. And and it's my commitment to serve the state.

[Wayne Laroche (Member)]: Thank you for that. Just quickly, has anything the federal government done to actually change the training standards for nurses? No.

[Dr. Marlene Tromp (President, University of Vermont)]: Because accreditation is independent, so far that has not happened, although there have been attacks on institutional accreditation. So we're all watching that very closely. Because right now, the way accreditation works for universities, which is what permits people to use federal student loans at the institution, is peer review. So universities review other universities financially in terms of the quality of their programming. The federal government has talked about doing away with that. And what that would allow, to my way of thinking, a former chair of an accrediting body, is it would allow predatory, high cost, for profit organizations to exploit people.

[Wayne Laroche (Member)]: I would think we would still have some kind of review process. Any other kind of review process being proposed?

[Dr. Marlene Tromp (President, University of Vermont)]: I'm sorry?

[Wayne Laroche (Member)]: Any other review process being proposed? And then, would they just have more review process? That seems odd that they would just not have the review process.

[Dr. Marlene Tromp (President, University of Vermont)]: They have talked about having a different federally designed review process. But right now, falls under the Department of Education. And you may have heard that there's been talk of eliminating the Department of Education. And there are six national accrediting bodies. And so if there were no Department of Ed, I don't know how those would exist because they come through the authority of the Department of Ed.

[Martha Feltus (Vice Chair)]: Let's proceed to your next slide, please.

[Dr. Marlene Tromp (President, University of Vermont)]: Thank you very much. So our requests for this year are first and foremost the inflationary increase to the general fund appropriation, which would allow us to continue to provide that student aid that I mentioned for the discounting of tuition for Vermonters to our College of Medicine, which is making such an incredible impact. And this specifically about extension to support our extension programs across all 14 counties. Second, we have requested a million dollars per year for five years to support the UVM Cancer Center. We want to expand care in rural communities. Where you live shouldn't be a determining factor in your health care. We should be able to reach out and make an impact across the state. My sister is being treated for cancer right now at the Larner College of Medicine, and we meet people in the infusion center all the time who have driven hours and hours to get their health care. And for people to have their regular health care close to home and to have easier access to the services is something we're hoping to provide. And finally, you will have heard Governor Scott mention in his budget proposal this year, a $15,000,000 commitment to our multipurpose center. The goal behind that multipurpose center is to ensure access to facilities for the entire state of Vermont in alignment with my strong sense of purpose around serving the state. It would be one of the largest indoor venues in the state. It could provide opportunities for high school programs, for state championships, for events, for concerts. It would provide a wellness facility for our students that would be accessible from across the state. I had the good fortune when I was president in Idaho to oversee a facility that functioned very much like what the vision of the Multipurpose Center was. It attracted people from every corner of the state. And for many young people, when we did, for example, Disney on Ice, it was the first time that they set foot on a college campus and it helped them to know this was their university. UVM is a university for Vermont, not just of Vermont, and we want to be able to serve the entire state in profound ways. But as many of you will know, the project was stalled during COVID, and there was such an extraordinary cost escalation that we were unable to complete it at that time. And we've been very, very fortunate. Excuse me. That two donors from the state. They have generously come forward, Rich Tarrant passed away recently and his sons have admitted $15,000,000 up to $20,000,000 for this project. And Chuck Davis generously agreed to match whatever they can commit. So we have come a long way in funding this project, and I will strive to travel around the country to our generous philanthropic alumni to cover the costs of that project philanthropically so that our institutional dollars can be committed to our academic buildings for research and academic units.

[David Yacovone (Member)]: Thank you. Dave, please. First, thank you for being here. Can you tell me the value of the UVM endowment?

[Dr. Marlene Tromp (President, University of Vermont)]: Do you know the exact figure?

[Wendy Koenig (UVM Government Relations)]: I don't know the exact This

[Dr. Marlene Tromp (President, University of Vermont)]: is some day to day basis.

[Wendy Koenig (UVM Government Relations)]: Approximately 800,000,000.

[David Yacovone (Member)]: That's what it was a couple of years ago, I think. Yep, but thank you, if you can help. And then also, I think you mentioned 48% of the students are eligible, their household incomes below 100,000. Yes. Many of those, I suspect, are going into the nursing program.

[Wendy Koenig (UVM Government Relations)]: All kinds programs, every possible.

[David Yacovone (Member)]: So the 16,000,000 gift, will that help those families whose incomes are over? You bet it, about 100. Okay, that's how we bet it both. Okay. And your base appropriation is 10? Your state of Vermont base appropriation? No, it's about I can look it up.

[Wendy Koenig (UVM Government Relations)]: It's about $56.09.

[David Yacovone (Member)]: Okay. Thank you.

[Thomas Stevens (Member)]: Just a quick question on all of the good news about tuition free. Tuition free is not Does or doesn't people debt free?

[Dr. Marlene Tromp (President, University of Vermont)]: Right. It does not.

[Thomas Stevens (Member)]: So room and board is still a list of all the other students.

[Dr. Marlene Tromp (President, University of Vermont)]: However, we do have need based aid in addition to that, and we help students apply for, if they're Pell eligible, for Pell Grants, which provides $3 so you don't have to pay that back. Pell aid is not a loan. You get that money for free from the federal government. So we support them accessing that. And we also have scholarship funds. And we have, in addition to that, emergency funds for students because many times students will have when I was a senior in college, my dad was a coal miner and a train of miner. And going to school was costly for me, and we didn't have a lot of resources. My senior year, I was driving to work and my engine blew up. It seized on the highway. And I was able to utilize supportive emergency dollars to cover that cost. So we can also help students often financially in areas that federal aid doesn't cover.

[Martha Feltus (Vice Chair)]: We thank you very much for coming in. John Kascenska is your contact, and I think we have one last question if we can squeeze in. Thank you.

[Wayne Laroche (Member)]: So you don't have anything that's the public government's recommended of the vote? Not much.

[Martha Feltus (Vice Chair)]: Thank you.

[Dr. Marlene Tromp (President, University of Vermont)]: Thank you very much. You for your participation.

[David Yacovone (Member)]: You. You.

[Martha Feltus (Vice Chair)]: I'm glad

[Dr. Marlene Tromp (President, University of Vermont)]: to be back and a nice meeting with me alive. Do you want to take five minutes before the next people come in?

[Martha Feltus (Vice Chair)]: I had indicated that we probably would be able to.

[John Kascenska (Member)]: We

[Martha Feltus (Vice Chair)]: were a little late getting started.