Northern Vermont University will require vaccination, expects higher enrollment

“They’re able to upload their card information and they’re doing so now,” said Jonathan Davis, dean of students. “We’ll cross reference that with campus-based enrollment lists. Students have a deadline of Aug. 23 to submit verification of at least the first shot with a schedule for the second shot, unless they’ve taken the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, in which case, they’re all set.”

Davis acknowledged that the university has also established a system for requesting exemption from the vaccine requirement. Students can request an exemption for religious or medical reasons.

But still, Davis hopes that students and faculty can return to campus this fall with a nearly fully vaccinated population.

Though the University of Vermont announced recently that all students would be required to wear masks on campus, Northern Vermont University is only requiring masks for unvaccinated students. The university meets with Vermont Department of Health weekly to reassess the situation.

Enrollment on the rise

Like the University of Vermont and other colleges, the university also expects higher enrollment this fall after the pandemic rocked the 2020-21 school year.

Though firm numbers will not be available until October, Northern Vermont University provost Nolan Atkins said new student enrollment is on the rise.

“Those folks that are going to start with us this fall, relative to last year, the numbers are up,” he said. “It’s still a fluid situation as we still continue to onboard folks that are going to start with us in the fall, but those numbers are up relative to last year.”

He said a lot of students for various reasons register right up until the start of classes.

Applications to the university are up this year as well, according to Sylvia Plumb, a university communications representative.

Other universities in the state have seen an influx of applications. Champlain College saw an 83 percent increase in applications while Middlebury College saw a 30 percent rise.

The university is also expanding a program that has been in great demand: Early childhood education.

“It’s an incredibly in-demand degree and students are eligible for licensure at the completion of the degree program,” Atkins said. “We’ve seen tremendous interest in that program not only because of the acute need, but because the state is actually offering free tuition for the students through this critical occupation program. So, we’re seeing a tremendous interest in that program this fall and we’re considering, if the numbers pan out, adding another cohort in the spring of 2022.”

University officials are looking to grow the performance, arts and technology program, which just received a Kennedy Center Citizen Artist Award for “The Monument,” a live virtual play reenacting suffrage history through staged selectboard meetings held over video.

Davis and Atkins are also looking forward to working under the leadership of the incoming interim president of the university, John W. Mills, whose background is at rural universities like Paul Smith’s College and Mount Aloysius College in Pennsylvania.

“He was with similar universities in very small communities for a long time, so I think he’s going to have a great sense of how important the whole symbiotic relationship is with our communities and the communities to us,” Atkins said. “So, I think that he’ll be very strong there.”

Learning, working community

Already underway, one focus of Northern Vermont University administration is to further its goal to build a living and working community.

A large part of this goal is easing what they’ve identified as a main barrier to would-be college goers: Cost.

To do this, the university has made use of the $3.5 million gift bestowed upon them last fall by Mark Valade, CEO of the outdoor clothing brand Carhartt. The gift was the largest in Vermont state college history.

Valade graduated from the university’s Lyndon campus in 1978, an experience he credited with helping him to form his earliest business partnerships in the Northeast Kingdom.

“Last summer, we were going through an exercise of revisioning of the institution,” Atkins said. “We came up with this concept that we’ve termed the Learning and Working Community. The goal that we were trying to achieve is how do we reduce the cost of earning a degree for students? It’s one of the barriers for students to enroll in the state institutions in Vermont, because we’re not that affordable. The way that we tackled this was to think, how do we integrate these applied working experiences?”

The program is already underway, facilitating internships and apprentice experiences between university students and local businesses.

According to Plumb, the approximately 30 scholarships have helped students connect in fields like substance abuse prevention, youth education, e-commerce, athletics department management, live audio engineering, weather station forecasting and connected them with organizations like Yellowstone National Park and the North Country Council in New Hampshire.

“It’s because we recognize that cost and affordability is a barrier to access,” Atkins said. “If we’re going to be accessible to more Vermont students, particularly in the northern tier, then we have to address that issue. We’ve been trying to be very proactive in that regard.”