Committee advances Policy 101 procedural update and forwards emeritus, faculty‑fellow nominations

The Vermont State Colleges’ academic policy committee met May 4 and voted to recommend a procedural update to Policy 101 — the system’s five‑year academic program review and continuous improvement process — to the full board, after trustees and faculty liaisons debated metrics, timing and implementation.

Yasmin (presented in the packet as the official who led the policy overview) described Policy 101 as a five‑year self‑study cycle that aggregates annual assessment work and sets improvement goals. "The policy is designed as a five‑year cycle," Yasmin said, adding that annual program assessment (Policy 109) produces the data that is rolled up into the five‑year report.

Provost Atkins told the committee that programs perform annual assessments and that the five‑year report is an aggregation of five years of those annual data points: "It's not that there's this five‑year point in time where the program reviews itself and makes improvements. It's actually done annually, and we take five years of annual data and roll that up into a more comprehensive report," Atkins said.

Trustee Bombardier pressed for greater standardization in the reports. Using the applied psychology and human services review as an example, Bombardier asked whether transfer pathways (for example, CCV‑to‑VTSU pathways) and student financial metrics — including average time to degree and debt exposure — should be required fields rather than optional guidance. "I think there has to be something like average duration to achieve degree... that's a cost," Bombardier said, urging that key items be mandatory to support governance and budgetary follow‑through.

Faculty liaisons stressed the importance of annual review and flagged implementation pressures. Professor Richmond Palt said annual evaluation is critical and warned that many programs have been asked to change repeatedly since system unification, sometimes before the earlier change can be evaluated: "We have programs who have made a change, and then they're asked to make another change before we even know how the first change is working." Professor Penberthy also urged use of advisory boards and noted that stackable certificates can support student progress.

After discussion, the committee moved, seconded and voted to recommend the procedural update to Policy 101 to the full board. The committee also voted to recommend Faculty Emeritus status for Helen Mango (Castleton campus, geology and chemistry instructor, full professor at retirement) and to recommend Dr. Alexander Strokabinov as the VSC faculty fellow for 2026–27. Both personnel recommendations were forwarded to the full board after motions and voice votes.

The committee directed staff to continue work on a concise, consistent summary packet of metrics for trustees and asked institutions to consider which fields should be mandatory in program reports. The committee will present the Policy 101 procedural update, the emeritus resolution and the faculty‑fellow nomination at the full board meeting for final action.