The executive committee of the Vermont State Colleges Board of Trustees on Monday, Oct. 6, said the position profile and application for the Vermont State University presidency have been released and that the search will move into preliminary screening in December, with screening interviews expected to start in January.

Sharon, a staff member, said, “the position profile, application, and nomination form have all been released. The application is available on the Vermont State College's website,” and that the search firm Isaacson Miller is circulating the opening and materials. “We're really shooting for, really doing first screening near the December,” Sharon said, adding that screening interviews would begin in January.

The committee discussed logistics and outreach: Sharon said the opening has been broadly distributed to alumni and community members and an advertisement was placed in the Chronicle of Higher Education. The committee planned a meeting in October to have “a first preliminary look at the materials that have come in thus far,” Sharon said.

Before the search update, trustees moved to approve minutes from the Sept. 15 meeting. Trustee Steve Silverman moved to accept the minutes and Trustee Clover seconded; the committee approved the minutes by voice vote after a brief clarification about an earlier physical meeting location that had been missing at an August meeting and for which a curative action had been taken at a subsequent board meeting.

Later the committee voted to enter executive session to discuss the employment of a public employee and to receive confidential attorney–client communications. The motion invoked the Vermont open-meetings statute, cited as 1 V.S.A. § 313(a)(3) and 1 V.S.A. § 313(a)(1)(F). The committee invited the chancellor, the chief financial and operating officer, the general counsel, the president of the Community College of Vermont and the president of Vermont State University to attend the closed session. The mover said, “We do not expect to take any action upon exiting this executive session.”

The committee returned from executive session about 1:44 p.m. and announced that there was no decision or vote to be taken. The chair then adjourned the meeting and said the committee would meet again near the end of the month.

The meeting opened with no members of the public signed up for comment and included technical coordination by staff members Kayla and Jason to manage virtual breakouts and cohost permissions.