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The following investigation unfolds across 10 sections that trace how UVM’s culture was built, how it operates, and what it leaves out. Each section adds a new layer, building toward a full picture of exclusion and identity on campus. You can click into any topic on its own, but the ideas presented here are clearest when read in sequence (~2 minutes/section). For a comprehensive overview of the findings, scroll to the bottom of the page.
Follow the trail. Read on.
Beneath earth-toned aesthetics and progressive branding lies a rigid social architecture that determines who gets to call themselves a “real” UVM student.
II
At UVM, exclusion doesn’t come from confrontation but from the quiet suffocation of being unseen.
III
Granola may look neutral, but its roots in whiteness ensure the burden of exclusion never falls evenly.
IV
UVM sells itself as progressive, but its diversity crisis shows how easily liberal branding covers for a deeply exclusionary reality.
V
Behind closed doors, consultants mapped out how to package Vermont’s identity as bait for the wealthy and outdoorsy, creating a recruitment strategy that UVM eerily parallels.
VI
From glossy brochures to Instagram reels, UVM’s Division of Strategic Communications doesn’t just reflect granola exclusion—they mass-market it.
VII
UVM hides its diversity failings behind the myth of unlucky geography. In truth, Vermont’s whiteness didn’t trap the university—its own decisions do.
VIII
What’s left is a portrait of UVM defined not by its students, but by the ghosts of those who never came: a generation of names, lives, and stories who became casualties to a recruitment machine calibrated for wealth and whiteness.
IX
UVM faces a choice: continue branding itself around granola culture’s narrow appeal, or abandon it to build a truly inclusive university.
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