Frequently Asked Questions

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 liquidate 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.

No. And let’s hope that doesn’t change! VCFA is an excellent school, consistently ranked in the top five low-residency programs in the United States. President Ward and The Board of Trustees have stated publicly that the college is “financially stable”. The Administration says that the school offices will remain in College Hall, in Montpelier, and the school will retain its Vermont accreditation. However, no more residencies will be held in Vermont.

Yes. However, faculty filed a complaint in November 2022 with VCFA’s two accrediting agencies, New England Commision for Higher Education (NECHE), and the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD). These accreditors will review the complaint and if they feel the governance of VCFA has violated its statutes they will work with administration and faculty to make needed changes. Their first intervention will be to try and resolve the dispute.

Pedagogy refers to an established philosophy of teaching within an institution. VCFA’s pedagogy has always sought to challenge traditional approaches to how learning happens. Unlike conventional MFA programs where information and value systems are passed down from figures of authority, VCFA promotes a non-hierarchical pedagogy that believes all participants within the learning process bring a variety of unique and equally-valued knowledge and experiences to the table.

How one teaches is what one teaches.

Earning an MFA at VCFA is a process that is as relational as it is participatory. Be it the development of a student’s unique curriculum, program assessment, or the exchange of decision-making from administration, VCFA has always been a partnership where all members are recognized as equal. We believe that the same holds true for leadership. How one governs is what one governs.

At VCFA, we strive to bring attention to minority rights. We strive to recognize the legacy of colonialism and combat it through our art. We study social, political, and environmental issues. Our art engages feminism, identity, politics, racism, indigenous rights, violence, biodiversity, science, labor, and scarcity. We believe that non-hierarchical management promotes a stronger institution and a more inclusive pedagogy.

Good question! Certainly not current students, alumnx, faculty, or staff. Not the Montpelier neighborhood around the school, either. In a recent poll of constituents (students, faculty, staff, alumnx, donors), 73% of 579 respondents are strongly opposed to the move and the sale of the campus. Twenty-one staff members have resigned.

We are investigating if anyone might financially benefit from this move. The VCFA bylaws (Article II, section 1) state that the board may hold no more than 49% financial interest in the school. We have asked the Attorney General to investigate conflicts of interest of the board members who may benefit from this move.

At a meeting on July 28, 2022, students asked Leslie Ward, President of Vermont College of Fine Arts why the VCFA Board of Trustees chose not to work with outside consultants in making these significant decisions to move residencies and sell campus buildings.

President Leslie Ward replied, “We didn’t feel we needed it,” and “felt we had the expertise.”

At a meeting on July 26, 2022, students asked Matthew Monk, Academic Dean at Vermont College of Fine Arts, “How many students and from which many programs were consulted before making these decisions (to relocate residencies)?”

Matthew Monk replied, “None.”

We don’t know. We would hope that they would be proud to show us the research and process they undertook to arrive at these significant changes. We can only speculate on their decision-making process because they will not tell us, nor will they share the board minutes.

This is especially difficult to answer when the board and President Ward will not share any financial information outside of the publicly filed tax forms.

The Board and Administration rushed this decision without even consulting the college’s Academic Council. The Academic Council consists of administration, faculty chairs, and program directors, who used to meet regularly to plan the fine arts programs and exchange financial information. These meetings were previously held once a month or more frequently. No Academic Council meetings were held during the pandemic from 2020-2023 while this move was being formulated.

Yes, all buildings except for College Hall are for sale. Administrators at Vermont College of Fine Arts hired the real estate firm White and Burke to find the “best uses” for buildings the college owns. “Best uses” could include the sale of many buildings. The college campus started as a seminary in 1834 and has since operated as a series of educational institutions.

The buildings may have been a financial drain for a while. Tom Greene (who founded the current VCFA entity in 2006) tried to get the City of Montpelier to work with him to sell some of the buildings for housing and business. When the New England Culinary Institute enrollment started to decline in 2010, VCFA lost one of their biggest tenants, and sources of income.

As noted in the complaint to the Attorney General:

• At least as far back as January, 2018, the very people who were entrusted to preserve and further the Mission of the college were laying the groundwork to develop campus properties, as they pursued zoning amendments and mixed-use residential zoning designations to develop college properties as urban zones. (Development Application on the City of Montpelier website)

• In March, 2018 the board pursued a city zoning amendment to alter the college’s Sabin’s Pasture property designation to qualify for Tax Incremental Financing as “an important key to the development of this parcel.” (Times Argus article)

• These underhanded efforts have continued into 2022, with the board in contact with the City of Montpelier regarding the land sale and future use of campus properties. (Report on City of Montpelier website)

Administration has not shared this information with faculty, program staff, alumnx, or students.

Faculty and staff are under duress as they cope with staffing shortages, deceptive leadership, and the upheaval of their programs without their buy-in or blessing. Distrust of the college’s leadership is evidenced by the resignations of multiple long-time staff and core faculty members. The majority of these resignations have occurred after President Ward’s announcement in June 2022.

VCFA has a staff of close to 50 employees. Over the last 14 months, approximately half of VCFA’s staff have left the college, including the following key VCFA faculty and staff leadership positions:

• Jae Young, Café Manager
• Nick Gingrow, Director of Information Technology
• Ann Cardinal, Director of Student Recruitment
• Alia Quart-Khan, Associate Director Admissions Visual Art and Film
• Donald Quist, Program Director Writing
• Brad Heck, Program Director Film
• Danielle Dahline, Program Director Graphic Design
• Thatiana Oliveira, Program Director Visual Art
• Ross Sheehan, Program Assistant Graphic Design
• Sumru Tekin, Assistant Director Visual Art
• Angela Paladino, Website and Publications Manager
• Alastair Hayes, Director of Marketing
• Kali Hilke, Digital Marketing Campaign Manager
• Jennifer Skinder, Director of Center for Arts & Social Justice
• Howie LeBlanco, Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
• Jennifer Skinder, Director of Center for Arts and Social Justice
• Danielle Weindling, Office of the President: Engagement and Communications Manager
• Karen Cygnarowicz, Social Media & Video Content Manager
• Jeff Kellar, Accountant/Controller
• Rob Gummere, Facilities Supervisor
• Dont Rhine, Core-faculty Visual Arts
• Doug Glover, Writing Faculty

Many of these positions have now been either downsized, their responsibilities added to alternative staffing positions, or filled by temporary hires. Some programs now lack the experienced staff to successfully meet the demands of the planned transitions.

With four of the six programs experiencing attrition in their directorships, Assistant Directors who remain on staff have taken on more duties. Interim and temporary positions are being pieced together, many without experience in education.

Yes. Faculty are currently exploring this option. However, while there was overwhelming interest from faculty in the need for a union, ironically there was not enough faculty who could take the time to work on forming one. This goes to the heart of labor being at a disadvantage. Faculty at VCFA work on six-month contracts, semester to semester. They have no tenure, no health benefits, and no PTO. President Ward lauds this model as a wonderful way to keep costs down. However, this model does not fit with an institution whose pedagogy involves a commitment to social justice.

In the original email announcement in June 2022, students were informed winter 2022-2023 residencies would be the final residencies held on the Montpelier campus, and subsequent winter residencies would be held online. After students and faculty demanded in-person residencies as being far more valuable than those held remotely during the pandemic, senior leadership and the Board agreed to find a location for winter residencies. The location of future winter residencies has not yet been announced but administration says the location is neither in Vermont nor at Colorado College.

Those of you who have your degrees are fine. You earned your degree through an accredited institution and it is yours forever. Under Vermont state law, if the school closes, the school must see current students through to the finish line, but they can’t enroll any others.

Yes. Under Vermont state law, if a decision is made to close the school, the school would not close until the last matriculated student graduated. The state will determine when they can no longer take new students. As long as VCFA has revered faculty, the school will graduate current students.

In theory, yes. But how many art students do you know who have the time or money to sue an institution whose board is packed with lawyers? In the complaint to the Attorney General, students asked that the Attorney General consider a reimbursement option for students who wish to claim compensation for time spent in the MFA program, at a tiered rate of $12,000 to $60,000 dependent on their investment.

The current plan for the library is to move contents to the basement of College Hall. New stacks are being built so the relocation can happen quickly by a moving company – likely after Summer 2023 residency. The library will use what has been the book store as its office. The college's archives and all the student thess collections will be moved into the new space, so those will still be available to the VCFA community as well.

VCFA librarians are also cleaning out books to be donated to Better World Books. The library has been working for years with Better World Books (BWB) to manage the items we can no longer use at VCFA. BWB sells books around the world and uses its profits to support worldwide literacy projects.

This "sorting" project (also known as "weeding") is a regular part of library maintenance, but it's something that the librarian says hasn't been taken on at a large scale in this library in many years. The library uses what is known as MUSTIE criteria to determine which books to keep in the collection and which to remove. They assured us they plan to put hands and eyes on every book evaluated for removal. The sections of the library that directly support VCFA’s six programs will remain largely unchanged, and books authored by members of the VCFA community will be kept regardless of where they are cataloged.

VCFA Stay is a coalition started by current students in July 2022, and joined by faculty, staff, and alumnx. We conduct research and collect data to seek answers to the injustice of moving VCFA out of state and liquidating the campus without community input or support. We have received generous funding from alumnx to help us check legal questions and cover operating costs.