Last week, the unions representing staff and faculty at Vermont State University kind of tossed a grenade in the punchbowl. Not that anybody noticed, even though they issued a press release about it.

On March 25, leaders of VSU bargaining units from the American Federation of Teachers and Vermont State Employees Association sent a letter (available online here) documenting a dramatic trend of administrative bloat at the financially challenged university.

I must emphasize, as I did when VTDigger’s union went public over the use of AI in the newsroom, that unions typically don’t like to do this. They don’t go public with labor/management issues unless they feel it’s the only course left to them. Unions would rather negotiate and reach agreements.

So when a union takes this step, you know things are serious. And if they’ve got their facts right, then Vermont State University has some big problems.

Well, some more big problems. Which they don’t need, as they’re already in a struggle to survive.

There’s a lot in the letter, but the key passage outlines changes in staffing between 2019 and 2025:

• Bargaining-unit full-time staff positions decreased by 26%, representing 115 lost positions.
• Bargaining-unit full-time faculty positions decreased by 30%, representing 72 lost positions.
• Non-bargaining-unit full-time upper-level administrative positions increased by 41%, adding 38 positions.

The result, according to the unions, is an administrator/faculty ratio that’s substantially out of whack. They cite “a general benchmark of approximately three faculty members for every one managerial administrator” while the current ratio at VSU is “closer to 1.3:1.” (Emphasis theirs.)

Wow. An administrator/faculty ratio barely above one to one? Seems a bit excessive.

Furthermore, according to the unions’ figures, top administrators are also enjoying big pay hikes:

From 2024 to 2025, the five highest-paid positions within the system collectively received $129,188.34 in annual raises, with some increases exceeding 20%.

…These expenditures stand in contrast to ongoing hiring freezes and staffing reductions affecting student-facing roles, as well as other cost-cutting measures such as mandating that academic departments reduce their expenditures by required percentages year after year.

The phrase “death spiral” comes to mind. How can VSU be competitive in the challenging field of higher education if they’re just cutting and cutting and cutting?

One more thing: The letter notes that VSU leadership recently got the Board of Trustees’ approval to hire even more upper administrative positions.

What’s that they say about when you dig yourself a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging?

I can understand how the transformation of the disparate Vermont State Colleges into a multi-campus monstrosity — done at the behest of the Legislature, which was desperate to avoid closing any campuses — would increase administrative workload. I’m not surprised that the process led to the hiring of more paper-pushers. But if the union’s figures are correct, it sure looks like things have gotten out of hand.

You can’t keep cutting faculty, staff, and programs and somehow strengthen the institution. If I were a prospective student or parent, I’d have to be asking myself why I’d commit four years to a university that seems to be on a negative trajectory — and, again, is still under pressure from the Legislature and the Scott administration to cut costs.

And if they’re still trying to grow the administrative cohort, it’s hard to conclude that they’re moving in a positive direction.