ELIZABETH MAUCH

Elizabeth Mauch, the president of Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kan., will be the next chancellor of the Vermont State Colleges, trustees announced last week. 

Mauch will step into the position on Jan. 1, replacing outgoing chancellor Sophie Zdatny. In that role, Mauch will oversee the two institutions that make up the state colleges system: Vermont State University and the Community College of Vermont. 

“This is a critical time to shape the future of public higher and continuing education in Vermont, as higher education rapidly evolves and changes across the country,” Mauch said in a Dec. 29 press release.

“I look forward to collaborating with state and community leaders, our institutions and their teams, and our faculty, staff, and students to build a thriving Vermont State Colleges system that continues to transform lives and communities across the state,” she said. 

Mauch has spent three years as the president of Bethany College, a private Lutheran institution with roughly 750 students as of the fall of 2022. She has also held faculty and leadership positions at Pennsylvania’s Bloomsburg University.

Rep. Lynn Dickinson, R-St. Albans Town, the chair of the Vermont State Colleges board of trustees, touted Mauch’s “impressive experience in bringing strategic and visionary approaches to leadership” in the press release. 

“The board is confident in Mauch’s ability to implement ongoing progress and secure continued support of system-wide transformation,” Dickinson said. 

Vermont State University has spent years undergoing a series of structural changes in response to financial struggles. The institution, also known as VTSU, formally launched this summer through the merger of Castleton University, Northern Vermont University, and Vermont Technical College.

This fall, administrators announced a slate of wide-ranging cuts across VTSU’s multiple campuses. Those cuts have stoked anger amid faculty, staff and students, some of whom have called for the elimination of the chancellor’s office as a cost-saving measure. 

But trustees have rebuffed that demand. 

“Proposing to cut the Chancellor’s Office is neither serious nor reasonable,” Dickinson argued in a Nov. 28 opinion piece for VTDigger. “With two statewide institutions, a shared services organization, and an even greater demand for nimble and strategic leadership, the chancellor’s role is essential to the success of the state colleges system and securing continued progress of the ongoing transformation.” 

Mauch told the Seven Days newspaper that she and her husband wanted to move to Vermont to be closer to their daughter, who is a first-year student at Middlebury College. They recently bought a house in Cornwall.