A Message from
John Bramley, Interim President

August 1, 2011

To The University of Vermont Community:

It is good to be back on campus, albeit rather unexpectedly, and it is an honor and a privilege to return to the UVM family as your Interim President. Although I did not seek the position, I care deeply about this institution and concluded that it was my responsibility to serve at this extraordinary time in our history. With your help, involvement, and commitment, I believe we can make significant positive progress to the benefit of this place we all cherish.

I want to express my appreciation and good wishes to Dan Fogel, who has worked so hard and accomplished so much over the last nine years. We have a strong foundation to build upon, and I will do my utmost to keep UVM on a sustainable and successful course. We must not allow the remarkable progress we have made on so many fronts make us complacent.

We have challenges before us that we will face together, and we will do so openly, honestly, and respectfully. I will be talking about them more specifically in the days and weeks ahead. And thankfully, we have tremendous assets in our favor, including:

• Talented, distinguished faculty with a passion for scholarly excellence
• Extraordinarily dedicated staff who care about who we are and what we do
• Bright, motivated students who want to change the world and often do
• A burgeoning national presence and reputation for quality
• Great pride in our contributions to Vermont

I will share with you my emerging priorities and plans in the near future. But for now, I want to be clear: although I will occupy this position for a limited time, I intend it to be a time of progress, problem solving, and decisions that pave the way for the success of UVM and its next President. For that to happen, I will need the active engagement, determined effort, and best thinking of the members of this very special academic community.

Thanks to all who have worked so hard to put us in such a positive position as a University. I consider myself most fortunate to have the chance to walk with you again as colleagues in our quest to make UVM an even more sustainable, better place. I’ll give it my best effort, as I know you will as well. Together, we can achieve exceptional things. I am looking forward to it.

Sincerely,

A. John Bramley
Interim President