While we are still waiting to receive a formal response from the Program’s Counter-Proposal to UVM, we’ve been following some great media coverage about the UVM Historic Preservation Program lately. Check out this article from 7 Days. Full text here.
OLIVER PARINI – Devin Colman in front of his favorite midcentury house in Burlington
On January 24, the preservation experts of seven northeastern states, including Pennsylvania and New York, convened for a webinar on historic barns, hosted by the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance. One of the three invited guest speakers was Tom Visser, professor and director of the master’s of science program in historic preservation at the University of Vermont.
In the subsequent breakout session for Vermont, the main speakers, Vermont state architectural historian Devin Colman and Preservation Trust of Vermont field service representative Alex Tolstoi, greeted each other familiarly. Both graduates of Visser’s program, they gave a shout-out to a third grad, Caitlin Corkins, tax credits and grants coordinator at the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation, who didn’t make it to the event.
What these professionals didn’t mention was that their common graduate program was on the chopping block. On December 2, Bill Falls, dean of UVM’s College of Arts and Sciences, proposed phasing out 12 majors, 11 minors and four master’s programs. Aimed at culling low-enrollment programs, the cost-cutting measure is designed to combat the university’s $8.6 million deficit for fiscal year 2021. (Learn more about it in Seven Days‘ January 27 cover story, “Major Fallout.”)
University of Vermont Historic Preservation Alumni Association 