Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Michael Marcotte, Chair]: Good afternoon. This is House Commerce and Economic Development. Today is Wednesday, February 4 at 02:30 in the afternoon, and we are here with Doctor. Marlene Tromp from the University of Vermont. Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here. It's such a privilege. And Kara, can you step the deck for me?

[Dr. Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: Thank you so much. So I'm very pleased to be here today, and I'll try to talk quickly so I leave time for any questions anyone has. But I wanted to share my vision for the university under my leadership and the leadership of my team, and to talk to you a little bit about what we intend to do for Vermont and Vermonters. So next slide, please. So you probably know that we are your land grant university. Senator Justin Morrow from Vermont was the one who wrote the Land Grant Act. It was signed into law by Lincoln. But I bring that up at this time because it's been a while for us to reflect on the fact that that happened during the civil war when the country was being torn apart. And at that moment, the president and senator from Vermont said, we have to invest in education because it is the future of this country. And as we go through another very difficult period for our country, I am reminded of the power of what it means to be a land grant university to make an impact in the state by educating its people. So this gives you just a snapshot of our enrollment. And this gives you a snapshot of our academic offerings, which are broad and deep. So as a comprehensive research university, we cover everything from medical education, engineering, the humanities, social sciences, psychology, any field of study you can imagine. We have degrees from bachelor's to doctorate and we also have certificates that allow people to upscale in their areas of research and study. Next slide please. And I'm very proud of the way in which we serve Vermont at this time. We have nearly 4,000 Vermont students. 32% of those students are Pell eligible. Now, what that means is that they are, by federal standards, considered socioeconomically disadvantaged. And a Pell grant is free money that students don't have to repay, that the federal government feeds into students' educational opportunities. So it's not a loan. It's an investment the federal government makes in the future of education for the country. So 32% of our students are Pell eligible that are Vermonters. 18% of them are first gen, like I was. And what we know about first generation students is that when they get access to an education, it truly changes their future and their family's future. I think very often about how different my son's future will be than what I'm like when I was young. Next slide, please. And one of the things I am most proud of, and I just came away from a conference where I was with university presidents from all over the country, we have one of the most generous programs in the country for families that earn less than $100,000 a year. Vermont students can come to UVM tuition free. They pay no tuition. And 48% of our students attend tuition free due to direct support from the budget of the university, and more than half of the state appropriation goes directly to Vermont students to support their education. That makes a huge difference for Vermont. But it's not just our in state students, our Vermont students that make a huge difference for Vermont. For every Vermonter that we graduate, two students from out of state stay and live and work and give back in Vermont when they graduate. In fact, what I hear from our students is that virtually all of them want to stay. People fall in love with Vermont. In fact, I met a group of legislative interns when I was in the cafeteria earlier, and it was this group of students and they were telling me where they were from and what their major was. And one of them said, when I told my family I was going to go to the University of Vermont, they said, well, that does it, you'll never come back. And she said, that's my plan. I want to stay in Vermont. So when we graduate those out of state students, many of them stay. Next slide, please. And that means that 35,000 of our alumni are working, giving back in the state right now. A significant impact on the state in terms of our workforce. I'm very proud that we've recently achieved our one designation. Now this may not be a term that many people know. The Carnegie Foundation ranks all universities in terms of their research productivity. So it's about the extent, the depth, the funding of their research, how many students they educate in terms of doctoral research, only 3% of institutions in the entire nation are rated R1 universities and UVM is among that, that very select group of top research universities that allows us to recruit faculty that are top tier faculty, to recruit students from around the country who want the opportunity to be a part of research and to use that as a part of our way of leveraging the opportunity for funding for our research around the country. One of the things I'm most proud of and one of the things that drew me to UVM is that the values of our state and the values that have been a part of the university from the beginning, and I'll share just a little bit of history. In 1826, our President John Marsh at that time made a revolutionary change in higher education where he said, we need to actually teach people philosophy and ethics and value systems, not just in Greek or Latin, because they transact business in English, they raise families in English, they start they run government in English, and we need them to learn those things in English so they understand it as a part of their work in the world. And it was so transformative that we had the first English department in the country, and everyone now has English departments. And it was built on that notion that your education should be values driven and that those values should be taught to you in the language of the work of the world. And we've been recognized for this nationally. Just this year, we were named the number one school in social impact by Princeton Review, and our MBA was named the number one MBA for social impact in the country, number two in the world. So our graduates graduate and want to make a difference and make the world a better place. Next slide, please. And that research is making a difference right here all the time. So we brought in the last year, we brought in $225,000,000 in extramural funding from outside the state to the state to do this research. And what you're seeing here is our Marcel Melicera, the first all electric research vessel in the world that was purpose built to do research on Lake Champlain, and it's where all these incredible discoveries have been made about the health of the lake and the health of the environment around the lake, and in fact, it's where one of our faculty colleagues discovered for the first time that there are fish that have transmissible communicable cancers. And that research, which has been pathbreaking, may help us understand the biology of such a mechanism so that we can protect humans from transmissible cancers in the future. Next slide, please. Another big impact that research is making, some of you may recall that the legislature provided support for the Vegan Tech Hub. It came out of this company. Yes, it did. And and we've received a $3,400,000 award for that. So I had the privilege of working in my last role with Micron, which is one of the world's largest semiconductor producers, and that was based in Boise. So I was president of an institution that was working, partnering very closely with them. I was at the g seven summit for the signing of the Chips and Science Act because we were one of the major partners. So I understand the semiconductor industry and what it can do. Basically, every piece of technology you own and not just these kinds of things, but your microwave, your dishwasher, your refrigerator. The reason there was during the pandemic, it was so hard to get an appliance is because of the semiconductors. It was hard to get semiconductors through the supply chain at that time. So the Chips and Science Act was designed to bring the semiconductor industry to this country. And Global Foundries is working on that right here in Vermont with a revolutionary new material, gallium nitride, which is lighter and allows the semiconductors to be smaller so that the devices can be lighter and smaller themselves. And so this is the work that this facility is going to do to help advance the workforce for that effort and to help advance research for that effort. And we've put forward, you may have seen the news last year that we were awarded $20,000,000 from the federal government for the Big Ant Tech Hub. And then when they froze all that research funding federally, it was cut off. I thought to myself, was the strangest funding to cut off because that's about American independence and economic development. But they reopened that funding, and we've resubmitted our proposal, and it has five parts. All five parts have made it to the final stage. So watch the news over the next couple of months, because that could bring tens of millions of new dollars to the state for this effort. Next slide, please. We are also the co sponsor of a bio lab, the first ever bio lab in a rural place. All of the other bio labs across the country, which are designed to take that scientific and medical discovery and translate it out so that people can actually benefit in the real world from all of these discoveries. So it's translational research, like somebody comes up with a new molecule in a lab that may treat Alzheimer's, but we need to get that out into the world so it can be used by doctors. That's what Bio Lab does, is helps bridge the gap between discovery and getting it out to the consumer. The first ever rural bio lab was opened in partnership with UVM this year in Burlington. And so we're trying to help accelerate access to that path breaking research right here in Burlington. And I'll give you a specific example of that here. To my next slide. Oh, yeah, the one just previous, the one with the creepy tick on it.

[Edye Graning, Vice Chair]: That is a kind of creepy

[Dr. Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: It's it. Yes, it's a it's a kind of a creepy image, but it gets you right to the issue, which is that we are actually working on a vaccine to prevent tick borne illness. It would be transformative for people in Vermont and across the country. And this is the same research group, the same PI, the lead who developed the RSV vaccine. And you may have heard of RSV. Sometimes people get flu and RSV and COVID vaccines. RSV is mostly dangerous for people who are my age and older and children and babies. And people in between just usually experience it as being like a cold. But for people on the age ends in spectrum, it can be quite dangerous. That vaccine has reduced globally hospitalization for infants for RSV by eighty percent in the five years since it was discovered. So the same research team is working on this tick borne illnesses vaccine. Next slide, please. We're not just doing research discoveries, we're getting people into the workforce. We need to make sure that we have the nurses, social workers, healthcare workers of all stripes in our communities, and we just got, I'm happy to announce, a $16,000,000 request that will help us fund nursing scholarships so that our students can get access without financial barriers. Next. Finally, and I'm trying to ask to make sure you have time for questions. We are simply asking for the requests that the governor put in his budget, and I'll explain what they are. A 3% inflationary increase to the general fund, which would allow for us to maintain the need based funding for Vermont students, to fund tuition discounting for Vermonters in our College of Medicine, and many of our graduates of the College of Medicine stay in Vermont, we're nationally recognized in our College of Medicine for rural healthcare and rural medicine, and to support extensions work across all 14 counties. Second, a million dollars a year for five years to support the UVM Cancer Center to expand our access to care in rural communities. My sister is being treated in our health care network right now for cancer. When we go in to do her infusions, we meet people there who have driven for two and a half hours to get their health care because they don't have access to any facilities in their local communities. So we want to provide more of that care in their home communities so they don't have to travel as much. And finally, and you will have heard the governor talk about this in his budget remarks, a $15,000,000 support for our multipurpose center. And I'll share a little bit about what his vision was for that multipurpose center. He sees it as an opportunity to make an impact on the state's economy. He believes that creating that center will allow us to have more people visit the state during all seasons. And I see it as an opportunity to serve the whole state. So we can have concerts or programs there. And I ran a facility in my last presidency that, for example, hosted Disney on Ice in concerts. So for many young people across the state in my last institution, the first time they set foot on a college campus was when they came for a program at that facility. And we know that that makes a difference in whether or not people see college as an option for them. It can also host state basketball championships. It can host events. So it would be one of the largest indoor venues in the state, and it would create a facility to benefit all of Vermont. And the governor's proposal has inspired some of our donors. So you may recall or may know that Rich Terren recently passed. Rich's sons have generously offered to take his bequest and make a 15 to $20,000,000 gift, it depends on the resolution of his estate, for this project. And Chuck Davis, based on the governor's commitment, has agreed to match whatever the Tarrant brothers give to that project. There's still a long way to go, but I believe that there's a lot of generous donors who will help us fund that project, and our aim is to have it all philanthropically funded so it will have wellness facilities and events facilities that can be available for use across the state. So I'm happy to answer any questions anyone has or give more history on that project and why it sits in the space that it sits right now.

[Michael Marcotte, Chair]: I would love to hear more about the conference center.

[Emily Carris Duncan, Member]: When you say that it's going to be philanthropically funded, do you mean that the ongoing operating costs will be philanthropic, plus whatever ticket prices and earned revenue? Or is that just kind of the entire capital proposal, full build out is going to be private philanthropic?

[Dr. Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: That's my hope is that the whole build out would be philanthropic funding. And that will allow us to preserve our funding for academic buildings, our institutional funding capacity for academic buildings. And so if we can and I believe we have the philanthropic base to fund this project. In fact, there are some donors right now who won't give to universities unless it's just something like this. And so and that's what my hope is.

[Emily Carris Duncan, Member]: What is the total cost for the project?

[Dr. Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: So it it it was approved and by the board and begun in 2019. And at that time, it was about a $100,000,000. When the pandemic hit in 1920, the construction was halted per the governor's orders to stop construction across the state. In the time that the construction was halted, the cost escalated dramatically. So the money that was set aside for the project no longer covered the costs. So we had already spent about 70,000,000 on the project, it was stalled, and we couldn't proceed. And then the costs escalated so that that $30,000,000 gap is now a whole new $100,000,000. And so what we've seen with this commitment, if we received the appropriation and then these two donors committed, that would get us to about 55,000,000. I have another donor who has made a soft commitment. He hasn't signed the paperwork yet, but he has said that he will give an additional five. And I'm traveling next week to meet with donors in different parts of the country who we think can help us bridge the rest of that gap.

[Emily Carris Duncan, Member]: And my one last question.

[Dr. Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: Yes, please.

[Emily Carris Duncan, Member]: Has this been at all in conversation with the conference center that is being talked about in Rollington?

[Dr. Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: Wendy, maybe We've

[Wendy Covington, Director of Government Relations, University of Vermont]: been talking a little bit with the Lake Champlain Regional Chaver about it and others, but I think that they're sort of different goals. I think they're looking at their conference facility more for meetings under 2,000 people and under, from what I understand. This would be a much larger facility that would host more things like concerts and entertainment, sports events, rather than just conferences.

[Emily Carris Duncan, Member]: Okay. What's the proposed capacity?

[Dr. Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: There'll be an so there's I don't know if you're familiar with the way the facility looks right now. I'm not so. Okay, so there's a there's a basketball arena that's quite small. In fact, what I often say is it's the most beautiful high school gym in the state. It's there's a basketball arena and there's a hockey arena. And the proposed change is a wellness center for students that will have an array of wellness things, meditation, yoga, fitness, a variety of things. That's and that's something our students have requested. And actually, the student body president has told me that they've passed a resolution requesting we complete the facility. And then there is there we've already actually laid the foundation and gotten the steel. We have even the steel ready to build this space because it was we were ready to complete it. That would connect those two spaces. So then those two spaces will be connected. And this will go I don't remember this exact number of the seating.

[Emily Carris Duncan, Member]: Maybe it might be your. So

[Dr. Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: it will go up to about five.

[Emily Carris Duncan, Member]: Okay. Great. Thank you very much. Thank you.

[Dr. Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: He's on screen behind you. Hello.

[Jonathan Cooper, Member]: Mr. Trump, thank you very much for spending some time with us today. My name is Jonathan Cooper. I live in the Southwestern corner of the state in Powell, where we meet New York State and Massachusetts in an uneasy tension and alliance. My question for you has to do with the point about the Larner College and the residency program. Our local or regional hospital has partnered with Dartmouth Hitchcock Health Systems to set up a residency program in our area's largest municipality in Bennington. The hope is that it's able to bat around 500 to retain about half of the individuals who pass through to stay sort of in the area. Do you have a sense of what you're looking for in terms of retention, about what percentage of the students that are involved with that, or what you would consider a successful metric for Larner?

[Dr. Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: Thank you so much for that question. Can you see me if I face this way?

[Jonathan Cooper, Member]: Yes, it's just fine.

[Dr. Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: Thank you so much for that question. So maybe Wendy knows that data right off the top of her head right now.

[Wendy Covington, Director of Government Relations, University of Vermont]: So I think that if you look at the practicing physicians in Vermont, it's about thirty three percent.

[Dr. Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: Your name for the record?

[Wendy Covington, Director of Government Relations, University of Vermont]: Sure. I'm Wendy Covington, Director of Government Relations.

[Dr. Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: Of the things that we're going do in our new strategic plan so our strategic plan has four pillars. It will go before our board of trustees this week on Friday. And if they approve it, we'll be advancing it and developing the kind of metrics that you're talking about. So one of the things that is pivotal to that plan is the third pillar is about serving the state and our land grant mission. And one of the questions we're asking is how do we start understanding what it is that gets people to stay in the state? And I went and visited with VSET recently, and they explained that their research because they look at longitudinal research about entrepreneurs specifically, but about people who graduate and stay in the state or not. And they typically stay twelve to fifteen years. And then when they get to that place where their family starts to expand and they want to buy a house, they start to worry they're not going to be able to afford it. And so the kinds of housing solutions that we're thinking about, the kinds of the ways we hope to partner with the state and with cities, municipalities across the state, We want to make an impact on that. But what we have seen in our data is that students want to stay and need to find a way to do so. And so we'll be gathering more of that data because our strategic plan will be metrics driven. So we're going to determine how we can measure each thing that we're looking at. And we're not going to have perfect measures for everything, but we're going to try to understand better what's making a difference and what's not.

[Jonathan Cooper, Member]: Thank you so much.

[Dr. Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: Thank you. James? Do

[Emily Carris Duncan, Member]: you have something you were going to add?

[Wendy Covington, Director of Government Relations, University of Vermont]: Sure. Just was going to say also that we've been having this conversation about physicians and keeping people in state and recruiting people and retaining them. And one of the things I hear often is that when we have doctors that want to stay, it's often difficult for their spouses to find a job here that's equivalent. And so as the work of this committee and

[Edye Graning, Vice Chair]: the work of what we're

[Wendy Covington, Director of Government Relations, University of Vermont]: doing at UBM through this strategic plan, as we find more ways to keep people in the state and create new kinds of jobs, we hope that we're able to retain more doctors if we can find other employment for the people that are homeless. That's a big challenge for keeping them here when they're done with medical school and job for residency.

[Edye Graning, Vice Chair]: Especially in the rural areas. Yeah.

[Michael Marcotte, Chair]: My question was more about student housing, and I know that that has come up over the years for lots of different reasons. I know that the new housing, the apartments in South Burlington are taking some of the pressure off. And I'm curious, are there plans to go forward with more student housing? Do you feel like the student housing is adequate now? This isn't really a legislative thing. And we have a little bit of time. So what do they call it? A bird walk? We'll do a little bird walk.

[Dr. Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: Oh, I don't know to answer this question. It's really a critical issue. The state has a serious housing shortage, and it has escalated costs for people. And that's one of the reasons that people don't feel like they can stay. And so it's a very high priority to me. And when I met with the trustees about the strategic plan and told them not just what the whole university will be working on, but what our leadership team will work on, They wanted us to explicitly, in our leadership team's plan, talk about housing. Even though we felt like that was a part of economic development, they said, No, no, no. We actually need a separate line about housing. So I feel quite strongly that we need to be partnering with people to help bring the brain trust of the university forward so we can help solve some of these complex problems. And one of the things that we know we need to do is make housing available. And I will tell you that I worked on a project in my last presidency. Boise was facing a very similar crisis in housing availability and cost escalation. And so I partnered with the city, and we worked together to to create a plan that was approved by the board and by the city councilors that would create a joint facility to bring together people who needed access to low income housing, low cost housing, and and to put them in shared facilities with access to things like laundry, grocery in that same area and in in an area that bridged the university in downtown, which we have the privilege of being able to do because of our location in Burlington as well. And so I've already sat down with the mayor and talked to her about that. But I also think about the ways in which the university needs to partner with our community college system and our Vermont State College system. For example, there's empty housing all over the Vermont State College system. And if we can place students in internships or co ops, which are extended internships, out in those locations around the state, It gives them a bigger vision of what's possible for them in Vermont. It allows us to fill up that housing and take pressure off our housing markets in other places. So we're trying to think about a lot of creative ways that we can help address the housing crisis. Behind you, Ricky.

[Abbey Duke, Member]: Hi, back on the screen. Hi. Thank you, Doctor. Trump. This is Abbey Duke. I'm a representative from Burlington. First off, I want to thank you for how visible and present you've been around the community since you've come to town. I think that is very welcome and pretends good things, I think, for your tenure. I guess I wanna continue on the housing questions. I appreciate that you're thinking creatively about housing in Burlington, but also elsewhere, and kind of how you can kind of help relieve those pressures. And sort of connected to that is what do you see in terms of enrollment at the college? Both do you see the strategic plan looking to increase enrollment? Kind of how is that tied to housing? And then I guess the secondary question is concerns about sort of demographic shifts made across the country. Higher education is really in such a competition for students. I have a high school senior myself right now, so we're getting a crash course on the higher education market. But I guess talk a little bit about the competitive nature, what you see in terms of demographics and enrollment, and then I guess how that ties to housing. Those are sort of three questions, I guess, embedded in that. But thank you.

[Dr. Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: Thank you so much. And if I don't answer all your questions, please tell me. Yes, a lot of people aren't aware of what we call the demographic clip. What that is, is that this class year of students that came into university are the last year where our population in K-twelve was increasing. It declines here all the way down So what that means is we're having fewer and fewer college systems or college students that will be high school grads that will be in the pipeline available to be college students. And the place where that's most dramatic is in the Northeast. So we're experiencing the highest increase in that demographic clip of any place in the country. So there will be increased competition for students across the country. Some places have already experienced that, and it's particularly regional publics. So think the Vermont State College system, and we've seen them experience that decline already. And we feel like we've hit the right population of students at UVM, and the stability in that number feels right to us. We want to be responsive to needs in the state, but we aren't striving to grow. And yes, the enrollment does have an impact on housing. But it's this is a phenomenon that's happening across the country and a lot of people don't realize this. There's a housing crisis across the country, and it has affected everyone in essentially every place but the South, where there's been a lot of out migration. So we're really seeing that everywhere, but we have to be very conscientious about that as we work on enrollment at the university and as we partner. And what we're trying to do with our enrollment at the university, we want more Vermonters to come to school, and we want students to choose us because they are values driven. And we have the research we have done has demonstrated that people do come to UVM because they want to be someplace that makes a positive impact in the world, and they want to make a positive impact in the world. So we want to find those students wherever they are because we know they'll contribute, and they'll be in alignment with the state when they arrive. So we're seeking to create messaging that's very clear about that and to actually we've had a lot of people telling stories about the university, but we've never had an overall communications strategy, a comprehensive communication strategy. So in the wake of our strategic plan, we're building a comprehensive communication strategy, and then from that building a philanthropic campaign. So our plan is to find those young people that are a good fit for UVM and for Vermont and get them here and to get more Vermonters into school and to partner with the state colleges and the community college system so that students find their right place, whether what they want to do is become an electrician or they want to become an engineer. We want to find the right place for them and help them get equipped for the future. And so we recognize the interplay of all these things. I talk about it often as a Rubik's cube. You turn one side, it affects all the others. So we're thinking about these things in a really coordinated way so that we can plan for the future and help our state and our partners and government and industry and municipal government really think about how we can be a supporter for them in solving these problems.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Thank you for making this coming and speaking to us. As a UVM alum

[Dr. Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: Katsko.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: As Justin Morrow in my family line, have an attachment to the University of Vermont. And so I really appreciate hearing you talk about sort of the cooperation with this throughout State University and CCB. My observation over the years is that there have been some tensions in those relationships and to the detriment, I think, of education and community. And so I'm happy to hear you talking about those kinds of things and also working around housing issues and those kinds of things. I may have missed this, you may have said it, your strategic plan is not complete, right? Is that still evolving? And when do you expect it to done? I'm reading the draft here, but it's not.

[Dr. Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: It's not approved. Yeah. But we will meet with our board this week, and the board will make a decision on the strategic plan this week. They vote on Friday. And so we'll have an opportunity to know if this is our plan, but I have. Any of our board members that wanted to meet with us have had opportunities to meet and connect about it. I'm really proud to say that we've had 54 community listening sessions. We have had a thousand people face to face in meetings to give feedback on the plan and hundreds who've written in to give feedback on the plan. We sent it to every municipality in the state. We sent it to partners across the state in industry, in nonprofits, and we've sent it to all of our alums. And a lot of people probably didn't click, but we had a very high click rate with our alums. About 50% of people opened the plan and took a look at it. And we've heard from our alums that the messaging and the mission that we're talking about really resonates for them. So we'll be able to kick it into overdrive once we get the approval on the plan, and I hope to do so this week.

[Edye Graning, Vice Chair]: Questions? Hello?

[Emily Carris Duncan, Member]: Hi. I didn't introduce myself. Emily Carris. I represent Whitey Camp down south. I'm also Jonathan's southern neighbor. And so on that, I'm wondering about this demographic cliff that we've reached. Are you also talking to high school students and of beaming up their interest in education. And then my other one is, how do you work with communities that are further south in the state? I know that there's the extension program, which obviously we very much appreciate. But are there other initiatives that you do?

[Dr. Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: Thank you for asking that, because I really appreciate the question. When I arrived, I said this university will no longer serve the state just with extension or health care. We are going to be in every county. And I drove around the state and met with people all across the state. I set foot in every county within the first couple of months that I was here. And I said, we're going to bring the power of the entire research university across the state. So you will see that as the third pillar in our strategic plan. I'm very excited about it. I'm very committed to it. I've met with folks in industry and in high school leadership. When I went up to St. Johnsbury, they said I said, What can I do for you here? And they said, Well, could you send up your soccer team, your national championship soccer team? And this was in the fall. And I said, actually, they're in season right now, so I can't ask them to come up. But I went back to athletics and I said, they feel like if we have some student athletes come up, it's going to make a difference in recruitment because the students will feel affiliation. And so our women's basketball coach raised her hand, and she said, I'll take our women's basketball team up. We'll play an exhibition game, and we'll go into the high school. And so she did. So we're looking for new ways that we can actually show up for people so they feel a sense of our presence. And we know that's a bridge then. And I'll give you a specific example. I built a program when I was in Idaho called the Community Impact Program, where we created in communities cohorts of people where faculty drove out and visited with them and delivered the curriculum, partially face to face, partially online, for cohorts of students, and we had someone housed in the community who gave support for students in And the when we saw in the wake of the pandemic, a 50% decline nationally in rural college attendance, in the areas where we place those programs, we saw a 50% increase, not counting the students in the program. So when the when the university showed up in a community, people came because they were like, Oh, you are here for us. And I think a lot of people have felt like UVM was this college on the hill. And I want us to be present for our state.

[Emily Carris Duncan, Member]: That's really great to hear. Really appreciate it.

[Edye Graning, Vice Chair]: Thank you. Question? When talking about the multi purpose convention center, we have a task force that we put together last year, try to figure out where it could go, what it could do, and I'm just, and I think Abbey is on that task force. So I'm wondering if we're having cross conversations because it doesn't make a lot of sense to me sitting here putting money in one and then trying to build another. Is it possible that it could all work so that during the week, especially in the summertime, and this whole conversation came up because of our captive insurance industry. Yes. And their needs are growing. Outgrowing everything in Burlington. They need something a little larger. And so I'm just wondering if that's something that we're working with the task force on.

[Wendy Covington, Director of Government Relations, University of Vermont]: So GBM was not included in that task force, but someone asked me this week if we would put a representative on. Okay. So we'll work around the

[Edye Graning, Vice Chair]: different committee. Okay. Think it makes a lot of sense that everybody's working together on this. Yes. And I know we'll have you come in sometime in the next couple weeks. We want to learn more about, you know, we're going start talking budget, we want to know more about the office and engagement, we also, you know, the Green Mount Prevention program, how that's going.

[Wendy Covington, Director of Government Relations, University of Vermont]: We'll also update you on where we are with the tech

[Edye Graning, Vice Chair]: I think it seems like there's a lot of good things going on with you, Gail.

[Dr. Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: Thank you so much. I'm so proud of the team and all the work they're doing, I'm excited for us to do more.

[Edye Graning, Vice Chair]: Certainly like the focus of your administration, I think it's going push the UBM even further and help the state at the same time.

[Dr. Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: Thank you. Thank you for the privilege of visiting the committee.

[Edye Graning, Vice Chair]: Thank you for joining us. Appreciate your time. You. He gets today, we're on the floor at 03:30. It doesn't look like a long floor today. We're back here in Orange. Twelve morning. One morning, we're gonna talk more about age six thirty nine. See if we can get to a place where we could perhaps load it out. We'll see. But then at 11:00 we have the Alarac that's a joint hearing with the Center Economic Development that's going be at the Pavilion Building. They've invited us for lunch after that. And then at one we're having three squares come in and chat with us, and then at 01:30 Locomotion. Some of you may remember Chittenden Boutin used to be with Department of Economic Development. He did the Places. Better Places, yeah. And then, too, we'll talk more about H. 3.5, take more testimony on that. And then I think we'll have, also at the same time, we'll have a look at the language on the transactions.

[Dr. Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: Transactional hold, just you know.

[Edye Graning, Vice Chair]: Yeah. Transactional hold, suspicious active language. I know that Jonathan's been working on that, so we'll take a look at that and that'll be the day for tomorrow. So any questions from anyone? Okay. So we'll be back on at nine to one more, so we can go offline. Thank you.

[Wendy Covington, Director of Government Relations, University of Vermont]: Maybe invite into the lunch.