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.

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