Although the Master of Public Administration degree is considered a terminal professional degree, the UVM-MPA program has distinguished itself for the applied and basic research conducted by its students and faculty.  For example, MPA ’12 graduate Erik Wells undertook a study of Designated Downtown or Village Center Districts for PA 306: Policy Systems.  Details from his research report were quoted in a speech by Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin and were used to expand the state’s tax credit cap by $500,000.  A current MPA student, Erin Flynn, is interning for the Joint Fiscal Office for the State of Vermont providing invaluable research in support of the comprehensive healthcare reforms being undertaken by the State of Vermont.  Current MPA student, Drake Turner, recently received the award for best social science and business poster during new UVM President Sullivan’s Installation celebrations for her research on Vermont’s Farm to Plate network.  MPA students routinely involve themselves in the activities of the UVM James M. Jeffords Center, the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics, the Transportation Research Center, the Vermont Consumer Assistance Office, and the Center for Rural Studies.  Our program alumni go on to distinguished careers in federal, state and local government, nonprofit administration, policy analysis and higher education. 

Two examples of alumni distinguishing themselves include: MPA alumni Russell Mills ’07 who went on to get his Ph.D. from Kent State, spent two years with the FAA, is now an assistant professor at Bowling Green, and has established himself as one of the leading experts in airport governance in the country.  MPA graduate Richard Donahey  ’09 now serves as the comptroller for the State of Vermont Agency of Human Service. 

Our faculty have distinguished themselves as well.  MPA faculty members Asim Zia and Christopher Koliba are combining computer simulation with participatory modeling approaches to address climate change adaptation, water quality, transportation and energy needs of the region, involving a host of MPA students serving as research assistants on these efforts.  MPA faculty member Maura Collins Versluys (MPA ’07) was recognized by the Vermont Business Magazine for their Rising Stars Award for her commitment to business growth, professional excellence and involvement in their communities through her work on fair housing advocacy.  .

MPA faculty are drawn from Community Development & Applied Economics (CDAE), Psychology, and the Rubinstein School of Natural Resources, and an experienced set of scholar-practitioners who are or have recently been leaders in state and local government, leading nonprofits and businesses, health care and higher education institutions.  MPA faculty are active scholars in the areas of organizational and network behavior and change (Lawson, Anderson, Koliba and Zia), environmental policy, management and governance (Farley, Zia, Koliba and Ventriss),  ecological economics (Farley and Zia), climate change governance (Zia, Koliba and Farley), food systems (Kolodinsky, Koliba, Findley-Woodriff, and Zia), transportation (Zia, Koliba and Kolodinsky), public service ethics (Ventriss), energy (Koliba, Zia and Farley) and healthcare (Kappel, O’Donnell, Kolodinsky, Koliba and Zia),   Many MPA faculty have substantial experience as leaders within nonprofit organizations (Van Buren, and Collins), regional businesses (Findley-Woodriff), the healthcare system (O’Donnell and Kappel), state and local government (Cate and Zia), and higher education administration (Cate, Kolodinsky, Lawson and Koliba).  Because of the breadth of expertise of MPA faculty, the MPA degree appeals to students with a diverse array of interests including the environment, food systems, transportation systems, social services, land use planning, energy and healthcare, while preparing them  to lead and provide innovation across the public, nonprofit and private sectors. 

The 36 credit hour degree program provides students with a solid foundation in professional management competencies and public policy analysis methods, while allowing them an opportunity to “hand craft” their own learning pathways.  The core curriculum focuses on such areas as organizational behavior and change, policy systems and public and nonprofit budgeting and finance.   Elective courses are offered in such areas as advanced policy analysis and decision-making modeling, systems analysis and strategic management, healthcare policy, and nonprofit administration.  Striking a balance between theory and practice, MPA students engage in applied projects involving local and state governments, the Vermont State Legislature, social service, food system and environmental nonprofits within their classes and internship experiences. 

The pervasiveness of our society’s public policy challenges continues to call for the cultivation of public service leaders and innovators.  The UVM-MPA Program provides an opportunity for its student to address those challenges.  For more information visit the MPA website: www.uvm.edu/mpa

But wait a minute. Words can't begin to describe the way photographs do how students, faculty and staff welcomed visitors and how much fun families and alumni had, so let's cut right to the SLIDE SHOW of cute animals and children and folks you know. Then read on, if you will.

On Friday in classes as complex as Laura Almstead's Survey of Biochemistry and Jenny Wilkinson's Horse Health and Disease, parents were spotted in the back rows. One anonymous couple who had majored in chemistry and biology respectively admitted they wanted to see if they could actually understand what their daughter was learning. An animated Almstead walked up and down the aisles waving her arms, challenging students to commit to answers with their iClickers, then shook her head, urging them to talk it over, do better. She could instantly see their choices on computer screen.

Saturday's rain made the indoor chat with Dean Tom Vogelmann all the more popular as dozens stopped by to hear about the College's continued rapid growth to 1,245 undergraduate and 146 graduate students this year, $3.1 million in research grants brought to the College by its scientists and some of the state-of-the art facilities where even undergrads can conduct research with their mentors in addition to classroom learning. But talk was informal. Families from Washington, Oregon, California flew to Vermont to see how their first-year students were doing. The answer was: doing very well. Alumni like John Vanderpol of Hudson, Massachusetts and Steve Hancock from Dartmouth, Massachusetts came back to campus to see old friends, former professors and how the place has changed. The both graduated in Plant and Soil Science in 1987. 

But a hub of activity was the UVM Farms where cattle and horses were on display and equestrian demonstrations were a hit even with folks not familiar with agriculture.

Thousands of visitors converged on campus for Reunion and Homecoming. Many came to see the ceremonial installation of Thomas Sullivan as the University of Vermont's 26th president on Friday, Oct. 5.

 The funds awarded include $11,332 for a project led by the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund, $12,000 for a project led by VT FEED, and $12,000 for a project led by the Center for Sustainable Agriculture.  There were a total of 18 applications for funding.

 “These partnership grants are important for the future of Vermont as a leader in the development of a vibrant, economically sustainable regional food system,” says CRS Director Jane Kolodinsky.  “The community partners will implement the projects and UVM researchers will evaluation their impact.  Together, we can help move Vermont agriculture forward.”

 "Each of these projects will add to knowledge and practical experience of our food systems in Vermont with benefits to producers, consumers and Vermont's economy,” adds Senator Patrick Leahy.  “Great work by the Center for Rural Studies is making it possible to have a real impact with the leverage of these investments."

 The project led by the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund will test a method for determining how much of Vermont’s current food consumption is actually produced locally.  It will build on Vermont’s Farm to Plate strategic planning process as well as efforts throughout the nation to measure the economic impact of increased local food consumption and the capacity of the land base to support local diets.  The outcome of the project will be a set of pilot data and a method that can be used to conduct a full study in Vermont as part of implementing the Farm to Plate strategic plan.  The benefit of this project to the broader food systems community is to create a credible means of measuring current local food consumption and tracking progress toward stated goals over the next 10 years.

 This project led by VT FEED (Food Education Every Day), a collaborative partnership of Shelburne Farms, the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont  and Food Works at Two Rivers Center, will work with PEER Associates and members of the growing Vermont Farm to School Network to develop a web-based “Farm to School Evaluation Toolkit.” The toolkit will include a Needs Assessment Rubric and surveys to assist schools and Farm to School practitioners throughout Vermont to collect data to support increased understanding of the impact of Farm to School activities.  Broadly defined, Farm to School programming connects schools (K-12) and local farms with the objectives of serving healthy meals in school cafeterias, improving student nutrition, providing agriculture, health and nutrition education opportunities, and supporting local and regional farmers. The evaluation toolkit will benefit the growing Farm to School movement in Vermont and throughout the country by increasing the information collected and shared about practices from existing programs and research activities.

 The project coordinated by the UVM Center for Sustainable Agriculture will include the Windham Farm and Food Network, the Vermont Vegetable and Berry Growers Association, the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont, the Vermont Tree Fruit Growers Association and the Vermont Agency of Agriculture.  This project will explore the feasibility and logistics of creating a food safety certification program that could serve as an alternative to GAPs certification for small, diversified produce farms.  Complying with the current USDA GAPs food safety certification can be very challenging for smaller growers, who often lack the staff and additional capacity required.  This project will determine whether creating an alternative food safety certification process for small produce farms would be a viable option for Vermont.

The phrase “food systems” is as prevalent in research circles nowadays as “ecological” and “sustainable” were before it. The United States Department of Agriculture, National Science Foundation and other major research funders have targeted food systems in their requests for major proposals.

“UVM and Vermont are leaders in food systems right now, but the rest of the country is running fast to catch up,” says Kolodinsky, who in 2010 was named chair of UVM’s steering committee on interdisciplinary food systems research. “We need to stake our claim, we need to be the people that people want to talk to when they talk about food systems. We need to be first, we need to be bold and we need to be the best,” she told a crowd on campus at UVM’s Food Systems Symposium in November.

And Kolodinsky stressed that this is not just a UVM project, rather, “an effort of Vermont and for all of Vermont.” As director of UVM’s Center for Rural Studies’ and its new Food System Research Collaborative, she worked with two other departments to create a food systems minor in 2010. Kolodinsky has her finger on the pulse of the food systems trend.

And she is backed by a cadre of research scientists, educators and outreach professionals. More than 60 UVM researchers and 20 Vermont speakers convened at that Symposium to share work and raise issues and opportunities.

There’s a palpable excitement, optimism and urgency around this “farm-to-fork” topic. And the conduit for much of that energy is Kolodinsky’s 2009-2012 USDA Community Development Resources and Food System Research in Vermont grant secured with help from U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy.

While the grant is broad and covers other aspects that benefit Vermonters, one of our goals is to increase communication, collaboration and research about food systems in Vermont, “much of the funding goes right to Vermont communities,” says Kolodinsky, through programs such as VT FEED and Food Education Every Day.

In other projects such as the Food System Research Collaborative, “we are trying to increase collaborations that link UVM researchers with community organizations to further food systems research and enhance work on the ground in Vermont and beyond,” she says. “This year we will fund three to four projects up to $12,000 each for organizations partnering with UVM researchers to answer one of their food systems problems. Grant winners will be announced in February.”

Tangible results of earlier partnerships were published recently in a new working paper series. One discussed whether Vermont’s flourishing Farm-to-School programs will impact childhood obesity; another looked to France and Quebec for insights on how Vermont can develop place-based agricultural products; one considered possibilities in raw milk, organic and artisan products in light of trends in milk prices and another promoted entrepreneurial Vermont businesswomen adding Internet to their marketing strategies. The next series will be published in 2011.

How UVM Got a Head Start

UVM is ahead of the food systems trend because it has long been positioned in this area and because, as one of the nation’s small premier research universities, it is nimble enough to take advantage of this recent concentration of funding. “In 2006, we were already beginning the food systems concept co-founding the Food Systems Leadership Institute with Ohio State University and North Carolina State University to develop institutional leadership for the 21^st Century food systems. Two years ago we created the Food System Research Collaborative between community organizations and UVM Researchers as a clearinghouse for of the food systems work being done in Vermont currently,” says Kolodinsky.

“I think that food systems work is so urgent now because of a decline in our agricultural economy at the national level, growth in obesity related health problems, anticipation of climate change induced impacts on food production, increased awareness of food safety impacts and rising food prices in the midst of recession,” Kolodinsky says. “They are all linked, and we need to understand the complexity on a more systematic basis.”

“It is an exciting time to be doing food-systems work at the University of Vermont. Over a short time we increased the number of undergraduate course offerings, created a minor, developed a master’s program, launched the food systems spire of excellence, published a working paper series and conducted more research,  

The work that we do goes beyond campus and into the community. With Vermont as our laboratory and in partnership with numerous organizations, UVM is positioned to be a national leader in food systems teaching, research, and outreach. As we continue to move forward with this work, it is important to keep making connections and maintaining communication,” writes Research Specialist Jessica Hyman on the food systems website.

On the other side of room, despite the boisterous gathering surrounding them, Tom Vogelmann, in his role as director of the Vermont Agricultural Experiment Station envisioned future research in which milk could contain vitamins, probiotics and other health-promoting enzymes present as the result of fine-tuned cattle feed. He was responding to Addison County Rep. Paul Ralston’s challenge to come up with a way for milk to fetch high prices.

These and many other brief-but-meaningful introductions to the value of UVM research took place on February 9 at an event that has come to be as sure as the frost heaves on the road to the state capitol.

For the 20^th year in a row, the Vermont Agricultural Experiment Station (VT-AES) and UVM Extension hosted the governor, his executives, state senators and representatives and a federal delegation on their own turf. Amid a cacophony of bright posters, brochures and a newly minted annual report, they talked about how state and federally funded research from Vermont’s land-grant university helps its citizens. Before introducing Gov. Peter Shumlin, UVM President Daniel Mark Fogel remarked that state and federal funding forms a foundation for UVM research upon which it competes for additional grant money that directly strengthens Vermont’s economy and communities.

“Every year just after Vermont legislators convene for their new session we meet here to celebrate UVM’s partnership with state government and showcase some of our top research in agriculture, environment, nutrition, food systems and community and economic development and how it directly helps Vermonters,” said Vogelmann.

Business cards were exchanged, a number of researchers were invited to present before committees, and perhaps their work will be on the minds of legislators as they prepare the budget for the coming fiscal year.

Truth be told, something else drew nearly 300 people to the event: it was the brief respite from the hard work of budget cutting, bowls of Proctor Maple Research Center maple sugar on snow and Ray and Pam Allen’s Allenholm apple pie topped with Vermont’s Island Homemade Ice Cream. The Allens served 352 slices of pie. But what kept everyone there long after second helpings was the work to be done toward common goals.

That’s not how Ernesto Mendez sees it.

When he came to UVM in 2006, the agroecologist brought expertise in the science of growing a crop whose success depends on the forested shade – coffee. And he brought an attitude that the forest’s ecological and cultural value to farmers can be described and maybe even quantified.

“I’m really interested in the conservation value of agriculture in a way that helps not harms farmers,” Mendez says. “Agriculture and conservation have been presented as at odds for a long time – as working the landscape for products versus preserving the landscape for conservation. Agriculture and conservation are not ‘either/or.’”

His research stresses conserving on-farm ecosystems and protecting the environment, while at the same time enhancing farms’ functions and the livelihoods of farmers.

In 2006, a $10,000 USDA Hatch grant allowed Mendez to hatch his Vermont research, first assessing the Vermont agricultural landscape through existing maps, then working with farmers to expand that information. Since then, Mendez convinced the USDA of the value and potential of this one-on-one work with Vermont farmers to tease out what Mendez calls the “multifunctionality” of farmland. Current grants through 2011 total $110,000.

Farmland Has Unexpected Value

“I would say the core of this project is multifunction – the functions of a farm other than those that generate products – the ecological functions. These include plant diversity, water quality, wildlife and climate regulation – that last one is really important in Vermont,” he says. More on that later.

Mendez, Sarah Lovell of the University of Illinois and colleagues found 30 willing participants among small and mid-sized Champlain Basin farmers – half vegetable growers and half dairy producers. They rolled out detailed aerial photos and GIS maps onto their kitchen tables and talked about each building, field and forest as they traced their fingers along hedgerows and fence lines.

“We asked, ‘what do you do in each of your parcels,’” he says. And with the answers, they penciled in hunting, snowmobile and hiking trails, wild nut trees, places with family or historical value and the like. They walked the land, collected demographic information and interviewed farmers.

“We mapped the functions, got an idea of farmers’ attitudes and documented practices that may improve water quality, add to biodiversity and conserve tree species. We want to know what species farms are conserving and how those compare to the species mix in nature.”

Mendez and his team also asked farmers how they felt about conservation and what conservation programs they participate in. Initial results indicate that farmers don’t always know the programs they’ve signed on for – Next they will review conservation programs available and assess how to improve them so they compensate or support farmers for the ecosystem services they provide.

While they’re still at the inventory stage, ultimately these researchers want to show how Vermont farms support environmental conservation and then to evaluate how federal conservation programs, land trusts and private easements enhance (or not) farmers’ conservation efforts. Their research seeks to show how working farms are providing environmental protection and how existing programs could further support farmers to maintain or enhance this impact. This could be useful to any farmers interested in conservation grants, tax-incentives and payments.

“We seek to identify key landscape features and habitats that serve multiple conservation functions, so that some day these functions might become policy priorities reflected in conservation programs that support or compensate farmers. We will also be able to explore opportunities to combine on-farm conservation with economic benefits or other incentives for farmers, including the emerging markets for ecosystem services,” his grant proposal states.

Europeans Ahead On This

 “Europeans have long valued the cultural and ecological qualities of land, even to the point of subsidizing them,” Mendez says. “I think that in the future, people here will look at the functions of forests as part of farm landscapes.” And perhaps these qualities will become part of a farm’s net worth.

With the increasing awareness and preoccupation with climate change, the phrase “carbon sequestration” has come to the forefront of environmental management needs in rural landscapes, Mendez wrote in the original grant proposal. He explains, “initially, people focused on forests because that’s where carbon is sequestered, and when forests burn, that’s a major source of carbon emissions. But now people realize that agriculture comprises a huge land mass globally, and it is a source of high carbon emissions from livestock, fertilizer and fossil fuels. So worldwide interest in how we can turn agriculture from a greenhouse-gas emitting industry to one that mitigates climate change.”

Additionally, this project inventoried trees on 12 farms with an eye to future projects on calculating carbon sequestration. But Mendez is thinking way ahead of this project and perhaps ahead of current thought on climate change.

“That’s where policy comes in. At the world level, many propose that governments should contribute money for climate mitigation. That’s not going to be easy or simple,” but even if that doesn’t come to pass, “we believe it is important to work with farmers that are interested in doing conservation on their farms and to start a dialogue with others that may not be so interested.”

“Through scientific understanding we can help procure sustainable food systems where people can make a meaningful living while conserving the environment,” one of Mendez’s project posters proposes.

Through UVM's Center for Rural Studies, Mendez recently submitted a proposal to UVM’s “food systems mini-grant” to “start taking what we found on the 30 Vermont farms and add other organizations that serve these farmers." Decisions on these grants will be announced in February.

How We Compare:
Vermont will end up continuing to be the second smallest state behind Wyoming (563,626 persons), and we rank 44th in rate of growth between 2000 and 2010.  The entire United States grew by 9.7% between 2000 and 2010.  The U.S. population on April 1, 2010 is 308,745,538.

Congressional Apportionment:
Vermont's APPORTIONMENT population, which includes those serving overseas in the military, is 630,337.  The entire apportionment population of the United States is 309,183,463.  Obviously, apportionment is not a concern for Vermont, since our entire state's population still falls below the average representation for a U.S. House district, which will now be 710,767 persons.  Many northeast states, however, will lose one or more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.  Texas will gain the most seats at 4.  Massachusetts lost one seat and was the only New England state to lose or gain.  Across the lake, New York State will lose 2 seats.  Nationwide re-apportionment should take effect in Congress in 2013.

Looking Ahead:
Tuesday December 21 was an exciting day and the beginning of many data releases from the 2010 Census.  We can expect data on our counties and communities in February and March of 2011, as the states begin receiving data for their own legislative redistricting efforts, including Vermont.

Also, do not forget that the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) is now the source for much of the data we used from the 2000 Census.  Outreach efforts at the Vermont State Data Center are ongoing to help Vermonters find 2010 and ACS data and learn how to use the two data sources together.

The story addresses the importance and successes of marketing Vermont foods locally and across the country.

The story is available on the WCAX website.

The majority of the data in the report was collected via two statewide surveys conducted by CRS in the summer of 2010. The first survey of over 800 individuals throughout Vermont sampled Vermonters’ perceptions of the nonprofit sector. The second survey of nearly 500 nonprofit leaders around the state, investigated the collective outlook of Vermont’s nonprofit sector in the face of new, economic challenges.

CRS is proud to have been part of this effort to continue the conversation on the role, significance and trajectory of nonprofits in Vermont.

More information is included in the linked press release below.

The award of this grant to the State was covered by the Burlington Free Press on October 6:
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20091006/NEWS02/91006001

VermontBiz.com also posted details about the grant on October 6:
http://www.vermontbiz.com/news/october/vermont-gets-12-million-broadband-mapping-grant]]> http://www.uvm.edu/crs?Page=news&storyID=9926&category=crs Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.uvm.edu/crs?Page=news&storyID=9926&category=crs http://www.uvm.edu/crs?Page=news&storyID=9906&category=crs Wed, 02 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.uvm.edu/crs?Page=news&storyID=9906&category=crs The UVM Center for Rural Studies (CRS) and the Winooski Natural Resources Conservation District (WNRCD) have launched the Local Growers Guide, a searchable web site that links consumers with local food, farms, and sales outlets in the Champlain Valley and central Vermont.

The Local Growers Guide, at www.vermontgrowersguide.com, is intended to raise awareness about local food sources, link customers to local products, and support Vermont farms. The guide includes farmer-submitted information about their farms, their products, and where they sell. Farmers can also access and update their listings. The web site is searchable by town, product (organically grown, certified organic, or conventional), farm name, or sales outlet.

The Local Growers Guide currently contains listings from farms in Chittenden and Washington counties, with ongoing updates. CRS is working with the Addison County Relocalization Network (ACORN) and the Northwest Regional Planning Commission to expand the Local Growers Guide to Addison, Franklin, and Grand Isle counties this fall.

This web site is intended to complement the comprehensive, searchable web sites that state-wide organizations like NOFA Vermont and Vermont Fresh Network already have for their members. Look for printed versions of the Chittenden and Washington counties Local Growers Guides in early spring 2010.

The Local Growers Guide web site was designed by Gregg Banse of 7th Pixel (www.7thpixel.com). Funding for the project comes from the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Northern Vermont Resource Conservation & Development, Inc., the Oakland Foundation, and a USDA CSREES special research grant with ongoing support from Senator Patrick Leahy.

The Center for Rural Studies is a nonprofit, fee-for-service research organization that addresses social, economic, and resource-based problems of rural people and communities. The mission of CRS is to promote the dissemination of information through consulting, research, and community outreach. To learn more about CRS, go to uvm.edu/crs/ The Winooski Natural Resources Conservation District is a non-profit organization servicing the Winooski River Watershed, Browns River, and portions of Lake Champlain's sub-watersheds, including all the land and resources within Chittenden and Washington counties and three towns in Orange County. WNRCD provides on-the-ground conservation assistance and promotes public awareness and appreciation for the value of conserving natural resources. To learn more about WNRCD, go to http://vacd.org/winooski/

Local Growers Guide quick facts:
URL: www.vermontgrowersguide.com Farmers who want to be listed in the guide can contact Jessica Hyman at 656-9897 or jhyman@uvm.edu or go to http://www.vermontgrowersguide.com/get-listed/ ]]> http://www.uvm.edu/crs?Page=news&storyID=9701&category=crs Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.uvm.edu/crs?Page=news&storyID=9701&category=crs Today the U.S. Census Bureau released the 2000 - 2008 population estimates for towns, cities and villages in Vermont. You can download the data from our website at http://crs.uvm.edu/census/estimates/town

As is normally the case, these numbers include adjustments to previous estimates releases. So, if you have been using the population estimates, please replace your previous data with these new numbers.

What has changed in these numbers? Well, we have noticed that the Census Bureau has downgraded population growth across the board with each release of estimates since 2006. For instance, while the numbers have always shown population growth in Vermont since 2000, each release of estimates shows a lower level of increase for the same time period. With last year's estimates release, the Bureau's numbers reflected a drastic recalculation to decrease the population estimates of Vermont's southern counties. This year's release does not include a similar downgrade for the south and treats all counties in the state similarly. However Chittenden and Rutland County seem to have been recalculated up slightly due to new data on college dormitory populations in Burlington and Castleton.

Overall the trends that the Census Bureau is assuming with these estimates include:

1. Net natural increase (births minus deaths) around the state, except for slight decreases in Bennington, Essex, Rutland and Windsor Counties.
2. A net domestic migration decrease (state to state) throughout Vermont, fed mostly by large net losses in Chittenden and Windham Counties. There are also slight losses in Addison, Bennington, Washington, and Windsor Counties).
3. Net increases in international migration for all Vermont counties, especially Chittenden County. However these gains have been downgraded slightly for the same time period since last year's estimates release.

In light of these state and county trends, how are the numbers assigned to communities? The Census Bureau's methodology for the local estimates is to distribute the county population among towns and cities proportionally by estimations of the number of local housing units. The primary data source for local housing units is the Building Permit Survey that the Bureau requests of all communities annually

PLEASE REMEMBER that we eagerly wait to see whether or not these local and statewide population trends are ratified by the full headcount in Census 2010.

WILL SAWYER
Manager
Vermont State Data Center
at the Center for Rural Studies
http://crs.uvm.edu/census
207 Morrill Hall
University of Vermont
Burlington, VT 05405
Phone: 802.656.0892
Email: wsawyer@uvm.edu

Despite the overall increase in household broadband, there is still evidence of a digital divide. According to this year's poll, 44% of responding households making less than $25,000/year have computers, compared to 83% of all households and 91% of households making more than $25,000.

"Citizens can't be connected unless they have a computer," says Center for Rural Studies Co-Director, Jane Kolodinsky. "While progress is being made with regard to access to personal computers and the Internet, we can't 'level the playing field' for Vermont students and adults in terms of access to the information highway until the digital divide issues are solved."

A majority of all Vermont households that have Internet have a high-speed connection, but lower income households in that group are slightly less likely to have broadband than others. According to the poll, 76% of households with Internet making less than $50,000 have broadband versus 85% of households making more.

Traditionally there has also been a rural divide in high-speed Internet. According to the poll, 76% of rural households with Internet connections have broadband versus urban (88%) or suburban (93%) households. It should be noted however that urban households are less likely to have Internet overall (69% versus 84-85% for urban and suburban). This may be due to the fact that a higher proportion of urban households in Vermont are in lower income groups. Overall suburban households in Vermont are more likely to have Internet and broadband. Overall nearly 82% of polled households have an Internet connection. Of connected households, 18% had dial-up, 24% had a cable modem, 42% had DSL, nearly 7% had satellite Internet, 6% had a wireless Internet service, and 3% had fiber-optic or some other service. Generally anything faster than dial-up is considered to be broadband, although speeds may vary.

Between those that have broadband and those that answered about the availability of high-speed Internet, at least 79% of households in this poll have broadband available to them. The State of Vermont has made 2010 a target for 100% broadband availability in the state. In the past, polled households have expressed varying support for State and community efforts to expand broadband service. The 2007 Vermonter Poll found a majority (58%) of respondents in support of the allocation of State funds toward universal broadband. However only a minority (36%) was in favor of the use of municipal funds for the development of broadband infrastructure. Last year, the Vermonter Poll asked more focused questions about the favorability of respondents toward the use of local resources to work "alone or in partnership with other municipalities to develop high-speed Internet infrastructure, such as data lines or wireless transmitters, so that companies may use them to sell high-speed Internet connections to local residents and businesses." The understanding was that any municipal investment eventually would be paid back through fees charged for the use of the new infrastructure. A vast majority of respondents (77%) were in favor of having their city or town involved in such an effort. When the question was focused to ask if respondents were in favor of an effort exclusively in fiber-optic infrastructure, much faster than typical broadband, a majority (73%) said yes once again.

For a detailed report on the information technology questions from the 2009 Vermonter Poll, please go to http://crs.uvm.edu/vtrpoll/2009.

The Vermonter Poll is a statistically representative, statewide telephone poll conducted annually by the Center for Rural Studies at the University of Vermont. Responses are limited to Vermont households with telephones, not including cell phones*. Households are selected randomly using a list of telephone numbers generated from Vermont telephone directories. The 2009 Vermonter Poll was conducted February 18-27 and includes responses to questions on a wide range of topics from 615 Vermont households.

*According to the most recent estimates, 5.1 percent of Vermont households have at least one wireless cellular phone, but no landline telephone. As a state, Vermont has the lowest level of "wireless-only" households in the country. Blumberg et al. (2009). Wireless Substitution: State-level Estimates from the National Health Interview Survey, January - December 2007. National Health Statistics Report, 14.