| President
Barbara Sirvis, Southern Vermont College: A Special Leader for
a Special Place
By
Joan Baum, Ph.D.
 Baileigh,
who sits not too far from the president of Southern Vermont College
(SVC) is probably the college’s most visible recruiter. An Irish
herding dog the color of Bailey’s Irish crème, Baileigh’s reflective
face on the SVC web site seems the perfect complement to the smiling
welcome of her mistress, Dr. Barbara P. Sirvis. Only one of them,
however, sits under the desk. The online picture of the two, part
of Dr. Sirvis’s presidential web page, is telling: both text and
photo convey the message that SVC, a small, independent college
in Bennington, VT, is a caring, friendly place, almost like family.
Visitors are urged to tell the Admissions staff that they’d like
to meet the canine undergraduate, and everyone –“that goes for
faculty and staff, not just students”– is always urged to stop
in to see the president, even if just for “a hug.” Students at
SVC are known by name.
The tone set by the web page is reinforced by the College mission
statement that the Southern Vermont College philosophy “begins
with a deep belief in the potential of every individual.” Every
student “can recite that opening line by heart,” President Sirvis
says, and also every faculty and staff member. All college presidents
are expected to balance the budget and secure funding, she points
out, so that while the financial well being of SVC has been a
major accomplishment of her tenure there, it is not what she cites
first as what she is most proud of. Instead, as she enters her
sixth year as president, she points to “a sense of community,”
a great satisfaction at having involved the “entire college campus
in the creation of a functional strategic plan that brings together
mission, vision and academic programs.” She is proud also of increasing
the visibility of the college. The better known, the more partners
in the surrounding community and in the state at large – not to
mention The South Bronx. That’s right, one of New York City’s
most populous and diverse boroughs is sending students, many of
them people of color, to rural Vermont, which is 97 percent white.
And SVC and Bennington are loving it, Dr. Sirvis says.
That’s not all that’s unusual about SVC, a place that advertises
the emphasis it places “on serving students who have yet to fulfill
their potential, ensuring accessibility to those with extra needs,
financial and academic, who are serious about bettering their
lives through higher education.” For a school with only 500 students,
which will probably cap at 800-850 in a few years, SVC has a particularly
rich mix of undergraduates, about 40 percent of whom live on campus.
Approximately 30 percent are adults, 60 percent first-generation
to attend college, 12 percent students with learning disabilites,
and 13 percent students of color. And then there are international
students–from France, Bulgaria, Morocco, West Ghana, all living
together happily, the president says delightedly. Admissions officers
look at a student’s entire portfolio. Potential students look
at web sites. And then there’s word of mouth: SVC already has
caught the attention of a number of high schools, public and private,
in the Northeast, including New York City, and, with an increasing
infusion of grant money, has become a more prominent competitor
as a “career-oriented liberal arts college.”
Students love the place, the president says, because “here they
are individuals.” There’s the young African American who created
her own program, “The Gospel Diva,” on the college’s expanded
radio station, the Jewish student who arrived with his electric
menorah, and the foster child from the Bronx. And then there are
Vermont’s own, such as the undergraduate who went on to become
the local police chief. “We are,” the president says, “a private
college with a public mission.”
Do they succeed? Well, they have a 70 percent retention rate,
which is considered “excellent” for an institution such as SVC,
and a 90 percent employment rate, in the first year after graduation.
Students receive extraordinary attention as freshmen, do at least
one field placement (service learning), and enjoy entry into a
diverse job market. At SVC the hot fields are also the open fields:
Criminal Justice, Nursing, Psychology and Business. Partnerships
with hospitals have been growing, collaborative programs especially
in radiologic technology. Since 9/11, the number of applicants
in justice fields–police, sheriff, immigration and naturalization,
paralegal, etc.–has gone up three times overall and six times
for women.
The special place that is SVC has in Dr. Barbara Sirvis a special
person in more senses than one. A former special education teacher,
with particular interest in children with physical disabilities,
she received her doctorate from Teachers College, Columbia University
and went on to pick up degrees and expertise in management and
administration. Before coming to Vermont, Dr. Sirvis was Vice
President of Academic Affairs at SUNY Brockport and has held and
holds national and international posts in higher education. As
for Baileigh, she’s just special all on her own.#
Education
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