Nearly two weeks ago, the Vermont State Colleges community woke up to an email from Chancellor Sophie Zdatny regarding the immediate resignation of President Dr. Parwinder Grewal. Grewal is stepping down for “personal reasons,” according to the email, though a press release sent out minutes later stated that this “announcement comes after much consideration about how best to lead the upcoming launch of Vermont State University.”
Following the announcement on Friday, April 14, The Critic spoke with numerous students on the Lyndon campus today following this announcement. Some were glad to hear the news following the decision to move to an all-digital library system and restructure athletics on the VTC and Johnson campuses. Students told The Critic that they were “not surprised” to hear of his resignation, and claimed he didn’t care about the smaller campuses and didn’t have an impact on the Lyndon community. One student even went as far as to call Dr. Grewal a “pushover.”
Still, others defended him. Many students expressed their concern that he was “set up” or “bullied out of the position.” Second-year Jonathan Chambers said he was sad to hear about Grewal’s resignation. “I thought he was good. He stood up for students,” he shared. Chambers went on to say that he feels like the Board of Trustees is on one path, but Grewal was on another, one that was more student-focused.
A majority of the students that The Critic spoke with, however, said they felt “conflicted.” First-year student and Associate Editor of The Critic, Evan Colman, said he was confused by the announcement, despite the recent backlash about leadership’s decisions regarding athletics programs and library viability. “He seemed pretty proud to be in the position,” he said.
Dr. Grewal’s successor is Mike Smith, Vermont’s former Human Services Secretary. Smith will serve as interim president of Vermont State University for six months.