Construction projects planned at the University of Vermont will constitute the largest job-creation project in the state’s history, Tom Sullivan, president of UVM, said Tuesday in testimony before the House Appropriations Committee.
A proposed $104 million STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Initiative, which will house classrooms and new laboratories for those disciplines, combined with a new dormitory and projects at the alumni center, the Miller Farm project on campus, an addition to the business school and a new building at the hospital will fuel some $375 million in construction activity, Sullivan said.
Those new dollars will be a boon to the “construction industry starting this summer in the State of Vermont; it is the biggest jobs project in the history of this state,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan, along with Clarence Davis, special assistant to the president and director of state relations at UVM, appeared before the House Appropriations Committee to review UVM’s request for a $1.5 million increase in state funding for the coming fiscal year.
The STEM center will create more research, economic development, startups and intellectual property in Vermont, in addition to the creation of many jobs during the construction of the center, Sullivan said.
For every $1 of taxpayer appropriation to UVM, officials say the college returns $25 to the state’s economy.
Sullivan referred to national media reports citing “the rising quality and reputation of the university at a reasonable price point” as evidence of the school’s investment value.
UVM’s student body, all told, is 12,856, The college has 9,950 undergraduates.
Sullivan walked the committee through statistics on who is being served and how UVM works to deliver as much financial support to Vermonters as possible. About half of the state’s $42 million appropriation goes to financial aid and scholarships.
UVM accepts 67 percent of Vermonters who for admission and of those, 37 percent enroll, Sullivan said. The retention rates from the first to the second year for in-state undergraduates is at 90 percent. Retaining students that year is “the predictor of graduating in four years,” Sullivan said.
A total of 3,238 degrees are awarded each year from UVM, and the university confers 40 percent of the total number of bachelor’s degrees in Vermont each year.
“We not only admit Vermonters, we educate them and we graduate them,” Sullivan said.
More than $111 million in the UVM budget “is set aside for scholarships and grants,” he said.
Eighty-eight percent of Vermont students receive scholarships and financial aid, and 46 percent — nearly half of the Vermont students — attend UVM tuition-free, Sullivan said. He said he knows of no other state public university where such a high percentage of full tuition is covered by financial aid.
The net cost of attending UVM, $15,720, is discounted by about 40 percent because of the high level of university financial aid, Sullivan said. The total cost of attendance is $26,120, and the average financial aid award is $10,400.
“It is a great, great investment here in Vermont for Vermont students,” Sullivan said. He said the low debt ratio students leave with is a strong, positive message he wanted to convey to the legislators.
“Forty percent of our students graduate with no debt,” he said. “On a national scale, that is a terrifically positive statement.”
Of the 60 percent who carry debt after college, the average amount is $22,000, which is $6,000-$7,000 below the national average.
Sullivan also touched on the university’s important role as the state’s research university, which brings in about 130 million in outside grants.
That money “goes right to economic development,” he said, with inventions, patents, and business startups, among other positive economic outcomes for Vermont.
After testifying on the many high points, Sullivan got to the money pitch, saying the university is asking for $1.5 million more from the state, all of which would be devoted to scholarships and financial aid.
Sullivan stressed that the $42 million the college receives from the state is “the second-lowest state appropriation on a dollar basis or a percentage basis in the country” for state universities.
The University of Connecticut, for example, receives $540 million, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, $254 million, from state coffers. The University of Maine receives just shy of $100 million.
With the $1.5 million request in an increased appropriation, the total UVM request for the coming year is $44,009,094.
Rep. Bob Helm, R-Fair Haven, spoke to the fact that a higher state appropriation will mean higher taxes for the parents of some of the same students the university helps.
“Even in times like this, people want more and probably deserve more, but if we don’t have more, that means we only have one way to get more to give more and that’s to tax more, and if we tax more, the very kids who live in the state of Vermont who end up going to UVM, their parents end up paying that anyway,” Helm said. “I think all we’re doing is shifting the cost to the same group and others … if we can find the money.”
Sullivan, in closing, said, “We are appreciative of that $42 million, we very much are, and I think you can see how it really works for the State of Vermont.”
