THE VERMONT
CYNIC Feb. 5, 2019
vtcynic.com
Program to offer safe rides home
Life with seasonal depression
A program in its beginning stages would allow students cab rides home for a subsidized fee.
For some students, the short days are the most devastating aspect of winter.
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Racism in alt culture 7 / Women’s basketball win 11
Trustees come together to decide University’s future New policies lead to decline in enrollment Image source: Facebook
Lindsay Freed
First -year Connor Gage, of Little Falls New York, died over the weekend. He was found the morning of Feb. 2 in the snow in a parking lot off North Winooski Avenue.
lafreed@uvm.edu
UVM is seeing a slight decline in student applications after taking steps to make the University more competitive and adding a fee to its application process. The number of undergraduate students applying to UVM has dropped by 16 percent since 2015, Provost David Rosowsky said at the Feb. 1 board of trustees meeting. The drop in applications is partially due to the University eliminating free applications for out-of-state students in 2015, which was done in order to increase the “quality” of the applicant pool, Rosowsky said. “We’re continuing to see a higher quality student,” he said. Despite the added cost for out-of-state applicants, the University is determined to lower its acceptance rate and the rate of students who enroll after being accepted, Rosowsky said. The acceptance rate for the 2018-2019 school year was 68 percent, and the next goal is 66 percent, he said. There is growing competition with other schools, such
First-year student found dead in snow Lee Hughes ehughes7@uvm.edu
ALEK FLEURY/The Vermont Cynic
First-year students walk down Main Street Aug. 26 on their way to the University green at convocation earlier this year. The number of undergraduate students applying to UVM has dropped by 16 percent after UVM took steps to add a fee to its out-of-state applications. as the State University of New York System, which has lower in-state costs than UVM’s price for out-of-state students, said former student trustee Caitlin McHugh, a junior. Out-of-state tuition for the 2018-2019 school year is $40,176 for two semesters for
a full-time student, according to the UVM website. Cost-wise, UVM looks like a private institution for its outof-state students, board chair David Daigle said. “We better have a value proposition for our out-ofstate students,” Daigle said.
“Our sticker price is too high [and] our discount price is too high.” UVM also has to compete with other universities for a shrinking pool of students, said Stacey Kostell, vice president for enrollment management, at the Feb. 1 meeting.
Trustees deliberate on new student-based initiatives Lee Hughes ehughes7@uvm.edu
Student-led projects were up for debate at this year’s Board meetings. Board members followed up on efforts to provide rides back to campus for students through SGA and efforts to address food insecurity on campus, proposing a variety of funding options which Foley and SGA can consider to fund these projects. Daigle said the Explain the Asterisk campaign, which aims to make transcripts explicitly state when a student has been dismissed from school for sexual assault, is legally tricky. “We don’t need to get into it here, but I think you understand there are some very complicated legal implications involved with that movement,”
TAYLOR EHWA/The Vermont Cynic
Chair of the board of trustees David Daigle and President Tom Sullivan speak at the final session of the board of trustees meeting Feb. 2. Campus leaders, including SGA President Ethan Foley and Joseph Campbell, Graduate Student Senate president, confronted decisions to determine the future of the University. he said. “This particular movement has some tricky flaws.” Foley said the goal of the support is to make the logistics
and situation for students as comfortable as possible. “Anything we can do to make it safer is what we’re go-
ing to do,” he said. There are stress fractures in universities around the country and at UVM that are becoming more apparent every year and need to be addressed, such as the rate of tuition increase, said David Daigle, chair of the board. “Together, we have to set UVM on a sustainable, student-centric course,” he said. Daigle outlined a new strategic process intended to begin upon the arrival of the new University president, following the conclusion of Sullivan’s term this summer. SGA President Ethan Foley, a junior, gave the board an overview of SGA’s main projects, including support of Explain the Asterisk, the hurricane relief fundraiser raffle and the ongoing Safe Ride Home and Rally Cat’s Closet and Cafe initiatives.
A first-year student died unexpectedly over the weekend. Connor Gage of Little Falls, New York, was found the morning of Feb. 2 in the snow in a parking lot off North Winooski Avenue, according to an email sent by Annie Stevens, vice provost of student affairs Feb. 3. No exact cause of death has been confirmed by the Burlington Police Department, but they don’t believe foul play was involved, according to the email. The cold weather was deemed a contributing factor to Gage’s death, according to Stevens’ email. Burlington Police Department believes that the sub-zero overnight temperatures over the weekend were a factor in Gage’s passing, according to the email. Gage, who was a neuroscience major in the College of Arts and Sciences, was part of the Wellness Environment and a member of the WE Mentor Program in the South Burlington school district. A campus gathering is being planned for Gage, according to the email from the University. A specific date has not been set. If any students are in need of support following these events, they are encouraged to contact UVM’s Counseling and Psychiatry Services at (802) 656-3340. The Employee Assistance Program, also called Invest EAB, is available at (802) 8643270 or toll free at 1-866-6609533 for employees if they are in need of support.