About VCFA Stay

What happened? A quick synopsis

The VCFA Board of Trustees and President Leslie Ward decided in secret, without involvement from the faculty, staff, students, or alumnx, to relocate the six MFA residencies from their Montpelier campus and sell the campus buildings. On June 15, 2022, President Ward announced to faculty, staff, students, and alumnx that the Board had given unanimous approval to the leadership team to sell campus properties and sign a contract with Colorado College to host summer residencies. Originally, President Ward announced that winter residencies would be held virtually, but walked that back in July of 2022. News of the residency changes and buildings’ availability for sale was met with shock and repeated requests for more information about how the decision was made. When these requests were ignored or denied, stakeholders' opposition began.

President Leslie Ward’s announcement, in defiance of governance policy and precedence, has resulted in a formal complaint to VCFA’s accreditors, NECHE and NASAD, a complaint filed with the Vermont Attorney General, letters of No Confidence in President Ward, mass staff resignations, and many letters to the editors from significant members of the VCFA community.

Changes are a shocking paradigm shift

The relocation of residencies, sale of campus buildings, and undermining of VCFA’s pedagogy are a shocking paradigm shift that fundamentally mutates the very nature of VCFA’s graduate arts school with more than thirty years of acclaim and abandons a campus with a 175-year history of continuous education. With her surprise June 15th email announcing that the college would vacate its Montpelier campus, combining and relocating all six Masters program residencies to Colorado Springs beginning in summer 2023 (whilst holding all winter residencies “online”), President Leslie Ward and the Board of Trustees unilaterally violated VCFA’s governance policies and, in turn, the long-held trust between the college and its stakeholders. Leadership consulted no faculty, staff, students, donors, or alumnx— nor made them aware of conversations between VCFA and Colorado College — before VCFA’s President signed a contract with Colorado College.

This stunning news was communicated to new and returning students, faculty, staff, and alumnx by President Ward just a few short days before the start of the summer residency 2022 season. President Ward’s Administration and the Board of Trustees later admitted they had intentionally withheld this information from incoming students in an effort to prevent a drop in enrollments. It is appalling that donors learned of this news on social media and in the press. Repeated requests for financial transparency and process documentation about leadership’s decision have been answered only with silence and/or intimidation by President Ward herself.

Faculty and staff are now under added duress as they cope with staffing shortages, deceptive leadership, and the upheaval of their programs without their buy-in or blessing. In addition, alumnx who have questioned the integrity of the Board’s and President Ward’s decision have been vilified for demanding transparency and for their unwillingness to refer potential students to a fragile and unfamiliar program; donors have been dismissed or ignored and their anger met with ambivalence. Most distressing is the position in which current students now find themselves. Upon entering a program whose geographic location and residency calendar directly influenced their ability to both afford and access a terminal degree, these students now find themselves in an untenable position — in debt to a college that has been unapologetically manipulative, unable to transfer the vast majority of their accrued credits to another graduate program, and utterly dismayed that the revered program(s) and place they chose to invest in are not the ones being delivered.

This distrust of the college’s leadership is further evidenced by the resignations of several long-term core faculty members and critical administrative leadership positions, including the Director of Student Recruitment, the Director of Information Technology, the Associate Director of Admissions for Visual Art and Film, the Assistant Director of Visual Art, the Program Assistant for Writing, the Program Assistant for Graphic Design, the Director of Marketing, the Website and Publications Manager, the Digital Marketing Campaign Manager, the Social Media & Video Content Manager, the Director of the Center for Arts and Social Justice (recently refilled by and Interim Director of the Center for Arts and Social Justice, then vacated when that Director was promoted, currently hiring) and the Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (recently refilled by an Assistant Dean for Equity & Inclusion in Teaching & Learning). Many of these positions have now been either downsized, their responsibilities added to alternative staffing positions, or filled by temporary hires.

Stakeholders have repeatedly requested a pause in Administration’s plans to sell campus properties in order to allow us space to evaluate this decision as a community and explore every alternative to remain on VCFA’s historic and cherished campus. Unfortunately, President Ward is moving as quickly as possible to execute irreversible changes. Under her leadership, the college chose not to run a capital campaign, giving the VCFA community no opportunity to raise funds that would have allowed campus needs to be addressed. Instead, President Ward and the Board of Trustees unilaterally decided to dispose of the campus.

Despite repeated assurances that VCFA is not in financial crisis, Administration still refuses to share financial information, give evidence of due diligence, or respond to college stakeholders’ continued pleas for transparency. On February 14, 2023, these ongoing requests were met with an email from Academic Dean, Matthew Monk, announcing to faculty and staff that three key campus properties were now under contract. These properties include the historic Gary Library and Martin House, and VCFA’s newest building, Crowley Center — financed with non-profit donations in honor of a beloved, 30-year program director. These properties will reportedly become a for-profit spa and wellness center. Dozens of public comments from local residents cite the same frustrations as those from within the college community itself: leadership’s lack of transparency, inclusion, and communication, and the absence of a detailed, substantive plan.

Because faculty, students, and alumnx were refused a pause in moving forward with these significant changes so that they could understand the school’s needs, investigate alternatives, and ensure that leadership’s decisions don’t dismantle VCFA’s successful brand, they were forced to pursue alternative courses of action. Faculty and students submitted complaints to NECHE and NASAD accrediting agencies with cited violations to governance and bylaws; within the week the complaint was received, NECHE demanded that VCFA administration answer within 30 days; NECHE will evaluate both the complaint and the Administration’s answer at its upcoming spring meeting. Along with notable alum and best-selling author Wally Lamb, students submitted a complaint to the VT Attorney General asking for evaluation of VCFA’s adherence to non-profit law and potential conflicts of interest. 

Faculty member, actor, and filmmaker Luis Guzman has spoken out publicly, lighting a fire of community outrage; Guzman’s op-ed highlighted “VCFA leadership's clear abuse of power and unwillingness to communicate openly.” Former Vermont Poet Laureate, long-time VCFA faculty and founding board member Sydney Lea, publicly called out leadership’s “indifference,” and their opaque decisions that “savage the institution’s very soul.”

President Ward is unreliable and has lost the trust of staff, faculty, alumnx, donors, and current students. This loss has been further exacerbated by her frequent unprofessional and emotional outbursts during meetings with both faculty and students. Students, faculty, and alumnx have called for her resignation or removal. Letters of “No Confidence in President Ward'' were submitted to the Board of Trustees by students, faculty, and alumnx.