Every day, across UVM’s campus, members of the university community gather for conferences, ceremonies, and panel discussions. They pass microphones around, read questions from online audiences, and post the videos online. From the Waterman Building to the Davis Center to the University Green, one team works behind the scenes to make sure it all goes off without a hitch.

Justin Sell, one of this year’s recipients of the President’s Our Common Ground Staff Award, is the Event Production and Technical Manager for University Event Services. He leads a team of four full-time staff members and a dozen student workers who scatter across campus every day to handle every aspect of event management, from setting up tables and chairs to operating cameras, lighting, and sound equipment.

Sell began working for Davis Center Operations and Events in 2014, as a UVM student, when he spotted audio equipment at a job fair taking place there. Having worked on events in high school, “I walked over and started a conversation with the supervisor at the time—and here I am.” He began as a technical assistant, becoming a technical lead by his senior year.

“And I found that’s where I really thrived,” Sell said. “I really enjoyed that type of work, so I started to get more involved with campus events my senior year through University Event Services, which was known then as Conference and Event Services.” And the job went on from there.

“I actually worked my own commencement!” Sell says. “I worked Monday to Saturday and then I graduated and helped break stuff down the following Monday.” He returned a year later to work commencement again.

Sell worked for a large corporate events company at one of their properties in Stowe before moving down to Boston as a technical lead in one of their larger hotels, then became the operations manager at a sister property before finding his way back to Vermont.

“I'm from Vermont. My family’s here. So I got my stint in the city, and then I was ready to move home. I have a brother with special needs, and sometimes being further away is difficult for him and for me,” Sell says, adding, “UVM had this position open in early 2019, and I was familiar with what it entailed, so I came back. And I’ve been here ever since.”

A Significant Challenge

Even with two commencements under his belt, Sell says, “the 2019 commencement was a significant challenge.” Events Services was short-staffed at the time, and although the million little details that make UVM commencement happen were not new to him, running things was different.

“I was the person responsible, not just for doing the work, but for helping to plan and ensure that everything got done. It was a 114-hour workweek for me,” he says with a laugh.

But, he says, “Seeing all of that come together, and having it done, was a huge weight off my shoulders because from then on, I knew all the parts of all the different venues that I needed for the following years, and I didn’t have to redo all that work. I still go back and reference my photos from that time,” refreshing his memory of where outlets and network jacks are in various campus venues.

Now, with some 2025 commencement ceremonies planned at the Fairgrounds in Essex for the first time, those outlets and network jacks are in a different town entirely, and Sell is already “a couple hundred hours in” on planning and logistics for the new location. These days, he’s laying out seating and aisle grids and meeting with vendors. Sell and his team have set up chairs, checked sightlines, figured out where to put the cameras. They’re asking themselves “how big the stage is, where we can put ramps, where will the video wall go? How wide does the aisle need to be for two people to walk, with academic regalia on?”

A Niche Position

The Event Services team has grown over time, Sell says. Event setup and technical operations are different skillsets, but since Sell’s team handles it all, “it's a very niche position, and it's historically difficult to hire.” Once he had staff in place, he got to work on training, so every staff member was confident performing all aspects of the job. He also grew the team, bringing on an assistant production manager and a specialist to handle technical coordination for virtual and hybrid events. Now, he says, he’s able to focus on management and larger-scale planning.

Sell never knows what might come next—and that’s one of his favorite parts of the job, he says: “I'm never doing the same thing.” 

Having connections to colleagues across campus is beneficial and makes the job more fun, he adds. “Over my years here, I’ve gotten to establish relationships with tons of different departments, a very wide range of individuals at UVM, which keeps things interesting. My contact list continues to grow, and when I go out to fix AV systems in our event spaces, I always see people I know in the hallway, and we stop and talk. We work with physical plant, lock shop, carpenters.” He adds, “I’m always getting to know new people. Some of them have been here almost as long as I’ve been alive!”

Sell loves having the opportunity to help colleagues, too. “I’m able to pick up the phone and call someone in another department for help, and then pick up the phone when someone else calls me for help, because that's what we do for people—and that's great about UVM: there's always somebody you can contact when you need help.”

Between having colleagues across campus to reach out to, a strong team at Event Services, and a few more commencement weekends in the rearview mirror, Sell can finally afford to relax a bit: “Now, the week before commencement is just a 90-hour workweek for me,” he says with a grin.