Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: We are live.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Okay, we're live. This is Senate Appropriations Committee's February 4, ten days, and today we have President of UVM here. I'll let you introduce yourself for the record and give us your presentation.

[Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: Thank you so much. For the record, I'm Marlene Trump. I'm the president of UBM. It began on July 1. I'm thrilled to be here. Thank you so much. So, you have my deck? I do. It's online, but yes, you can share it, right, on on the Oh, okay.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Yeah. It's better if you want to send me you or Wendy shares anything.

[Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: And so how should

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: I share it for you?

[Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: So the email is sent to Wendy through I'm gonna text. Thank

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: you.

[Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: Well, I'm gonna tell you, while we wait to pull this up, that my theme today is really about my vision for, as the president, about how we move together as a university to strengthen the entire state.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: And

[Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: our community has worked together for the last several months on a strategic plan that's actually going before our board of trustees on Friday. So now I've got something.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Senator Brooks, why don't you wear one of these or UVMs?

[Senator Philip Baruth]: Mhmm. I don't wear any pins.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: But you have an open hand policy? You know, like,

[Senator Philip Baruth]: standard of weeks, I've

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: been Similar in the to that in the

[Senator Philip Baruth]: front and center. Yeah. I don't know. I I my first couple of years, I was trying to wear all the pins, and pale miserably, and so

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: I just He's often a no pain upon. Nice.

[Senator Philip Baruth]: Nothing I can find out from the universe.

[Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: Looked like I had this problem last week. My Wi Fi signal isn't showing up. That's okay. How about I just share it for Thank you so much. I appreciate that. I can't actually see the choose at this screen. I can get it. Thank you so So you're gonna work off of your deck, the 16 page? Yes. And I will speak quickly so that I leave time for questions for everybody. So please forgive me if I'm talking fast. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Let me ask you a name. And, Hal, thank you so much. Alright. Next slide, please. Too many. Sorry. Okay. So, as you all likely know, we are Vermont's land grant university. And as a public university, as a land grant university, we're so proud that the Land Grant Act was written by Senator Justin Wong, senator from Vermont, signed in a period of great strife in our country during the civil war by president Lincoln. And so as we are in another period of strife in our country, that notion that when you are going through strife, committing to education is a way to secure the future of the nation is something that I thought about a great deal. This gives you just a sense of the figures in terms of the number of students that we serve. And I'm gonna break that down in just a moment around Vermonters as well. Next slide please up. We have an extraordinarily broad range of offerings, and that's because we're a comprehensive research university. So, we're able to reach across bachelor's, master's, doctoral degrees. We have pathways for people to quickly through a master's, and we also have certificates and micro credentials that make it easy for someone to upscale who's currently working. But we are the university that's there to provide all that full range of degree programs. As people think of the land grant and they think about ag, that's a big part of what we do. But so much more. We do health care, we do engineering, academic curricula that is broad and wide so that people can be prepared for any future. And in fact, in a world of AI, giving people humanistic and social scientific preparation is key. In fact, I was at the conference board, which is Fortune 500 CEOs and a handful of university presidents. I got to appear at this board. What they were saying is we've got to hire more people with those humanistic and social scientific backgrounds because that's going be the differentiator. AI is going to do a lot of the technical work that we've done in the past. So that comprehensive university background gives us the opportunity to really prepare people for our complex future. We are also really proud of the fact that we have nearly 4,000 Vermont students and that 32% of our Vermont students are Pell eligible. Now what that means is that the federal government deems them socioeconomically disadvantaged. And so it it is a way for us to change not just an individual's life, but the lives of their whole family. My dad was a coal miner and a truner miner. And it we had no college experience in our family background. And the opportunity for me to go to college didn't just change my life. It changed the trajectory of my whole family. So, we're really proud that we're serving as Pell eligible students. 18% of those UVM undergrads that come to us are first gen, which means it's a complete transformation in their families. That's a

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: good question about Vermont students. So that's just over 30%, if I do the math correctly. Do you have a goal, or does the university have a goal for the number of Vermont students, is it just evidence based on the applications?

[Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: No, in fact, our new strategic plan has four pillars. Now, it will be, we can't call it official until it's approved by our trustees later this week, but they've all vetted it and previewed it. We've had conversations with all of them, so I don't anticipate problems. But the there are two pillars that are intimately related to our Vermont students. The first one is about access and success. How do we get more students who haven't thought about college as an option for them in the doors to the university and help them be successful when they get there? And the third pillar is about our land grant mission, which is serving the state of Vermont. And so for us to really we're we are gonna develop tactics and metrics for each one of these pillars and all the strategies associated with it across the entire university and every unit. So we'll be able to measure what's making an impact and how we're getting more of those students in the door for us. So we haven't developed those metrics yet. We'll do something to get this approval. I'm really excited.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: So you're not trying to go like we want to get at least 50% of our student body to get this from

[Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: That's what we'll be determining at the Wiggins Plan being created. And and my goal is to increase the number of Vermont students that we have at the university and to make sure that that we have that every student who desires a UPM education is not doesn't have finances as an obstacle, doesn't have the doesn't imagine they don't have the chance or don't belong because we are Vermont's public migrant, and that's a part of our mission.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: So if I already complain on UVM, that's the that's the.

[Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: And, you know, this is this is a new part of why that feels to me like it's missional need. That a big part of what we need to do next, and that's why it's such a significant part of our strategic plan.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Great.

[Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: And the next slide, if you will, is intimately, yes, this one is intimately related to this, which a lot of people don't realize that if your family earns less than $100,000 a year, you can come to the tuition free if you're ever long term. And so, in fact, when I met Senator Sanders, he said, Is there anything I can do for you? And I said, Please help me publicize this so Vermont students are aware of this opportunity. And and he did. He tweeted about it. And he's asked me to do a town hall with him so we can make more people aware of it. 48% of Vermont undergrads attend tuition free, and that's from our budget. That's not scholarship dollars that we're taking in. That's from our budget to support those Vermont students. So more than half of our state funding, our appropriations goes directly to furlough students and their scholarship aid. And the next slide is a really interesting one in terms of what this does for the state. So, as you are aware, we have an upside down demographic and that makes the work you do as legislators challenging. It's challenging in terms of health care. It's challenging in terms of workforce. And as we hit the demographic clip, some of you may have heard about that, that's this year was the last year that that student populations at k 12, so the students who graduated this year and came to school, the last year that that number was increasing. Now as we look down through the k 12 system and can see who's coming up to it, that number's gonna decline. And the decline will be the steepest. As that number declines, it really affects the state's ability to fund things like healthcare, especially for people who when you have people who are retired not working. And so I'm very proud that not only are we supplying students for the workforce, we're supplying that well-being for the state by having young people stay. So for every Vermonter that we graduate, two people from out of state stay and work and live in Vermont.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Are you also assuming that Vermonter stays?

[Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: It many of them do. And and I actually went to VSAT about a month and a half ago, and they had done a longitudinal study. And what they found is that the first twelve to fifteen years, most folks stay. It's when their family starts to grow. They're not sure they can afford health insurance. They're not sure they can afford housing. And that might be when they move to a city. And they tend to move not far, but as you all, I'm sure know, then folks tend to come back when they retire. And so, what we wanna do is figure out how we can, as the land grant, really think about how we can support the possibility and prospect of people staying thriving in the state. And we do have, next slide please, more than 35,000 of O-nine who are living and working in the state right now. So, we're making a really significant impact on the workforce and on the energy, the optimism, the entrepreneurship, the having the the medical workers, having the teachers. So, it's making a big difference, but we recognize that we can make an impact by really working with our state partners, business communities, and nonprofit community to try to figure out ways that we can help people stay in private state for their whole career. Next slide, please. We have been named an Arnold Research University and not a lot of people know what that is unless they're in the world of academia. It's a Carnegie classification that rates the excellence and extent of any research. There are only 3% of the institutions in the country that are r ones and now to be in that rarefied air. And what that does for us is it helps us recruit top faculty. It helps us bring in additional research dollars and it helps for students who want to be a part of student research, which can be very transformative for students, changes the way they think. This is the kind of institution that they want to go to and their parents want them going to. And more than just doing excellent research, which I'll talk more about in just a moment, if I can go to the next slide, please. We are very, very proud that we have been named number one in the nation by Princeton Review for making a social impact. So in alignment with the values of the state, in alignment with the deep values of the university or over the course of its history. This is an institution that has worked to make an impact on the world around it, and our students graduate with that sensibility. So, for example, our MBA program is number one in The US and number two in the world for graduates that make a social impact with their degree program. So, they're not just people who want to graduate and go out and earn a bunch of money. They want to make the world a better place, and we're very, very proud of that. Next slide, please.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Do you know if UVM is still the number one in Peace Corps volunteers?

[Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: Don't know that one.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: At one point, were At one point, we won the doctor. Yeah. Let me

[Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: I wouldn't be surprised. We are extremely proud of the amount of extramural support that we've won to the state. So, those are dollars coming into the state from various kinds of research entities. And in the way our research makes an impact, what you're seeing here in this image is people on our our research vessel out on Lake Champlain, and they've made incredible discoveries about how to improve the health of the lake and in improving the health of the lake, improving the landscape around it. They made incredible discoveries about, for example, this thing that just astonished me, that in fish cancers are communicable diseases. They're contagious. They can be contagious. And so, understanding that scientifically may help us get ahead of those risks for humans. So, the kinds of discoveries that are happening have a real impact on our day to day lives. I'll give an example on the next slide, if you could please help. You probably recall support that we received for the Vegan Tech Hub. I had the privilege of working with one of the largest in my last role, in my last presidency, one of the largest semiconductor producers in the world, Micron. And so I I actually was at the g seven summit a number of years ago when the Chips and Seins Act was passed because it was focused in part on semiconductors during the pandemic. Maybe you tried to get technology, a computer or even something like a refrigerator or dishwasher. And there was a a huge bottleneck in the production of those kinds of things because all of them are fitted with semiconductors. And so The US made a decision to try to bring more semiconductor production home to this country so it went on dependent on the supply chain for that work. This technology, the gallium nitride technology makes semiconductors lighter and smaller so that all of our technology from our computers to plates can have lighter, smaller equipment. We were awarded 3,400,000.0 and you may recall that we got a $20,000,000 federal award for this work. And that award was frozen when the research entities were had their phone choked off. And we were shocked because this is about American competitiveness and American independence. But it was one of the awards that was reopened again recently. So, we had to begin the process all over again and we have a bi part application. All the bi parts are now final stages of review and we've made it through all the stages. So, keep your eyes peeled on that because it would be tens of billions of dollars coming for that project. Next slide, please. We are the first ever in the country rural bio labs. So bio labs tries to take, go to places that are doing incredible medical and scientific research and help get that research into the hands of consumers and into the healthcare industry. So how do we take research and get it translated out into the world so that people can actually use it? And BioLabs has these sites across the country, but they're all in major, very large scale metro areas. This was the first rural BioLabs country and they chose to come because of UVM, because of the opportunity that it presents in the state of Vermont for us to really be game changers in terms of healthcare research and scientific research. So this new effort is going to be launching new projects and new commercialization of these kinds of innovations. And if I can add the next slide, I'll give you an example of one. So, this super creepy image you see of a tick is here because we have researchers that are working on a vaccine for tick borne illnesses so that people who are living out in the world who will be protected from diseases like Lyme's, which can be so devastating in this part of the country. And this is the same research team that developed the RSV vaccine. And maybe you've heard of RSV, sometimes people are advised by their doctors to get RSV, especially if they've got children or infants or they have older people in their family because it's very dangerous for those two groups. A person who's in the middle of their life may just get experience cold symptoms. But for people on both ends of the age spectrum, it can be very dangerous. That vaccine has reduced hospitalizations globally for RSV for infants by eighty percent since its introduction. Phenomenal outcome. Next slide, please. But we're not just doing healthcare research, we're getting people out into the healthcare industry in the workforce. And I'm so proud to share with you that we just got a $16,000,000 estate gift that will help us scholarships Vermont students for nursing so that we can cover the costs and expenses of their education. So, we're churning people out into the workforce and healthcare, and we recognize too the role we have to play in rural healthcare. And I'll speak about that on the next slide. So, these are our requests for this year and they are in alignment with the Governor's budget proposal. A 3% inflationary increase to the general fund appropriation that would allow us to continue to support need based student aid for Vermont students. Fund the tuition discounting for Vermonters at our College of Medicine and many of our College of Medicine graduates stay in practice in Vermont. And we're nationally recognized producers of rural healthcare specialists. And then three, to support UVM Extension programs across all 14 counties. And the third pillar of that strategic plan speaks explicitly about the way in which extension needs to be a model for how we reach across the state, excuse me, the state in every area of the university. The second request is for a million dollars a year for five years to support the UVM Cancer Center. It's especially designed to support care in rural communities. My sister is receiving cancer care at UVM Health right now. And when we go in for her infusions, what we have discovered is that there are often people who are driving two hours, two and a half hours to get their cancer care. And that may be for regular appointments. If we can even take some of that burden off of those families, I think that would be tremendous and that's what that cancer center care is designed to do.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Did we spend that last year? No. The few asked for it.

[Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: Yes. It's on the third

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: The third test chart.

[Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: Yes, that's a herbal babe. And the final request is for our multipurpose center. So, this was Governor Scott's support was about the capacity it has to make an economic impact on the state. So, you may recall that he mentioned this in the economic portion of his budget remarks. I think of it as as not just being about economic impact, the shows or concerts that we can do there, but also outreach across the state. I think about those young Vermonters who, like myself, are first generation, grew up in rural communities like I did, who don't imagine colleges of the place that's made for them. And one of the things I had the privilege of doing when I lived in Idaho was I ran a facility like this one that had events, that had hosted state championships basketball, that hosted programs for youth. And for many young people across the state, the first time they stepped foot on a college campus was when they came to Disney plus Nice. And if we can get people onto the campus feeling like it's their community, it can make a tremendous difference for them. So the multipurpose center is designed to support wellness, to to be one of the largest indoor venues in the entire state, and to support programming for everyone in the state. So I'd be happy, I wanted to talk fast so I could be

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: time to Yes, the

[Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: and in fact, the history of this project is that it was approved by the board, it was funded, they began work on the project, they poured the foundation. They bought all the steel. It's sitting in a warehouse near campus. Pandemic hit. They stalled the work when we were not able to when the governor suspended all construction. And then when we were able to go back and work again, the cost had escalated so much that the university couldn't fund it. So, in addition to the governor's support, we had two generous donors come forward. So many of you will know Rich Terrence, who recently passed away. His sons have generously committed 15 up to $20,000,000 of that estate to help support this, and Chuck Davis has said he will match whatever the Terrence put in. And the project cost has escalated so much, the original cost estimate was a $100,000,000. We set out to complete the project, invested over 70,000,000 project. Now the costs have escalated so much, it's still a $101,000,000 to finish the project. On top of the original amount that we've already put in. Does

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: the plan include finishing, it sounds like a whole separate complex, but it's not. It's just

[Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: completely Right, so it would be all of the projects that were anticipated in a space that's now Patrick Ginny,

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: would

[Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: be a wellness facility for our students. And our student government has actually come forward with resolution to ask us to complete this project because they want to have that wellness facility.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: What does that mean in wellness?

[Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: It will have meditation center, yoga center, opportunities for physical fitness, and this program that I just mentioned that I went to where there were all these Fortune 500 CEOs, there were three presentations across the course of that day that I was there, where they talked about the role that wellness is playing in people's success, professionally, academically, that that this is now what we understand to be critical, and students want this. We saw a huge decline in student loan being in the wake of the pandemic. It affected young people differently than it did people my age. In fact, when my son said that to me for the first time, thought, dude, you don't have a job where you're trying to support a family, but the data for out is critique in ways that surprised me. It affected our young people more than anyone else. So, would have the wellness facility. It would upgrade and remodel things like the gut, and it would make the whole facility much more amenable to having events for the state. Right now, it's the most beautiful high school gym in the state.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Right. And it would be the same location.

[Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: Same location. And there's a space in between Patrick and the gut that already has the foundation for him that we had for him, that we had steel for him that would expand both and and enclose the space between people.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Senator Baruth,

[Senator Philip Baruth]: I was just gonna point out, and the governor mentioned this in the speech, the place that the governor is thinking this comes from is IRA trust fund. Not the general fund, but from windfalls that have come into the Higher Ed Trust Fund doesn't make it a simple discussion, but much simpler than if it was coming from the general fund.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: And so with the two fighters you had, that sounded like 40,000,000 or so, and then this 15,000,000, does that mean you still have a ways to go to get to 101,000,000?

[Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: That's right, but I already have a few other commitments that have not been, I don't have the ink on the And bottom I'm actually leaving the state to travel to visit a group of alums who are eager to help raise the rest of that money. And my goal is to fundraise all the rest of it. Because if I fundraise all day, then what happens, I don't need any student fee from the student's dollar, or any debt financing. So it takes the burden off the students to complete the project. It's frustrating because this project wouldn't have been finished years ago if you had that. But if we can complete it now, I think it'll make a huge impact on our and on the state.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: It would be easier if this was the last $15,000

[Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: This the last $15,000 right?

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Yeah, people like to be the last one. I think what I would Put it in a fund that sits there and then it becomes 309,000 Well,

[Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: we actually have projected out to give me time to do the fundraiser, so that 101 is building in 2728.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Perfect.

[Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: And I have I can tell you unequivocally that the state that the governor making that commitment has changed the mind of many of our donors who were wary because the project got stalled before. And they said, okay, if the state is in, then we can come to the table again. And so it's been very transformative for our fundraising already.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: And the other handout you had or the other thing, is that just more stats?

[Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: It's the data, it's some of the data that was included, but it also gives a little more Vermont data, so that what we called our one sheeter. And it gives you also a sense of the the kind of impact we're making in the state. One of the figures that I didn't mention is that 92% of Vermonters who come to UEF receive scholarship funds.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Going back to the nursing program. Yes. In the scholarships, do they have strengths like, you know, we'll give you a scholarship for nursing if you stay in Vermont and work a year or two, or I know some some do that.

[Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: I've I've seen that in other landscapes before. We don't have that requirement.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Okay.

[Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: But what we have found with our students, they want to stay in Vermont. Okay. And what we have to do is make it easier for the Badger TubeSat. And so I think, for example, the initiatives that we're working on that help increase housing accessibility for people, that's gonna make a huge difference for students that want to stay.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: I think that's a big part of it. Any other questions? Well, welcome.

[Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: Thank you.

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: Thank you for taking the job.

[Marlene Tromp, President, University of Vermont]: Thank you for having me here today. I'm very honored to be here and

[Senator Andrew Perchlik (Chair)]: I'm very grateful for your service.