Luis Guzmán: Formal complaint filed on Vermont College of Fine Arts decision

By Luis Guzmán • VT Digger • February 14, 2023 • Original Opinion Article 

This commentary is by Luis Guzmán, an actor who lives in Cabot and who’s been a visiting faculty member at the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

You may know me as Gomez Addams on Netflix’s new show “Wednesday,” but I also serve as a faculty member in the master of fine arts in film program at Vermont College of Fine Arts, one of the preeminent arts graduate schools in the nation. 

In June of 2022, we learned that our six Montpelier-based graduate programs will be dismantled and moved to Colorado Springs. Counter to Vermont college’s founding history and its governance documents, the information was released as a fait accompli. 

I’ve been a Vermonter for nearly 30 years, raised my kids here, and cherish the open spaces and progressive minds. VCFA's MFA students were also drawn to this place for a reason. They chose to base their explorations as writers, artists and filmmakers at the school's charming and intimate campus, which has a storied, 175-year history. 

In turn, Montpelier benefited from jobs VCFA generated, and from several hundred artists coming to Montpelier each year. And that's why it's so devastating that VCFA President Leslie Ward abruptly announced — without soliciting any input from faculty, students, alumni, or the Montpelier community — that the administration and leadership would sell off the campus buildings, and move the programs to Colorado Springs.

Along with fellow faculty, students, and alumni, last fall I signed a letter of “no confidence” in President Ward. In it, we wrote, “We believe that President Ward’s proposal to relocate and restructure all MFA residencies and remove them from the Montpelier campus poses a significant threat to the quality, reputation, brand and 40-year legacy of VCFA’s graduate education. We believe that President Ward has failed to meet her responsibilities of shared governance and ethical stewardship.” 

Without an adequate response from the board of trustees, we submitted a formal complaint to the New England Commission of Higher Education. That document detailed “how the President and Board of Vermont College of Fine Arts violated its written governance and five NECHE Accreditation Standards with their decision, made in secret with no faculty or student input, to fundamentally change the pedagogy and location of the 41-year-old MFA program.” 

In addition, Attorney General Charity Clark has a complaint sitting on her desk, ready for review, submitted and signed by numerous current students as well as alum Wally Lamb, which clearly outlines “potential illegal conduct and violations of Vermont Statutes committed by the college’s Board of Trustees.”

The neoliberal trend toward divestments in 'the local' is damaging and destructive. There is a pattern of treating educational institutions simply as businesses, using unsuitable, top-down tactics. 

But colleges like VCFA need creative and visionary leadership that understands the critical and unquantifiable importance of community. People matter. Place matters. Ironically, VCFA's website acknowledges this truth, and states: “Named one of the ‘Best Places To Work in Vermont’ for the past six years, VCFA prides itself on being the arts hub of central Vermont and one of the biggest and best employers in this remarkable small city.” 

The local landscape will be far bleaker without the richness of what VCFA faculty, students and alumni bring to the region. 

We all recognize the need to find creative solutions to ensure the college's sustainability. Across the country, there has been a huge proliferation of the low-residency model that VCFA pioneered. But in this situation, one dubious path was chosen by a few, with no effort to involve the VCFA or Vermont communities. Selling off the campus was never the only solution, and needs to be investigated.

There is a deep feeling of sadness among many of the students and faculty participating in their final Vermont residency this month. Several core faculty have resigned, and four out of the six program directors have announced their departures since June.

VCFA leadership's clear abuse of power and unwillingness to communicate openly is not a small matter. We urge others to ask questions about the conspicuous loss of small colleges within Vermont and beyond. We look forward to careful review from NECHE and the Vermont Attorney General. 

The leadership of VCFA should be held accountable, out of respect for the history of the school, for the future of arts education, and for the local and international communities it has betrayed.