TOWARD A DIFFERENT UVM
When dots connect this starkly, we owe it to ourselves to ask not only what went wrong, but how to fix it. The patterns revealed in these pages are not accidents—they are the product of choices that formed UVM’s invisible fences. Real change starts with what happens next. What follows are practical, structural, and cultural shifts—concrete ways for UVM to trade its single story for a true community. These aren’t just suggestions; they’re an invitation for the institution to rewrite its rules of belonging, to ensure that at Vermont, no student sees themselves as an outsider standing in the snow.
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PUBLIC INSTITUTIONAL ACKNOWLEDGMENT
UVM President Marlene Tromp and Interim Provost Linda S. Schadler must jointly issue a public statement acknowledging that the University of Vermont’s marketing strategy—centered on expensive outdoor recreation and lifestyle experiences that require significant economic and cultural capital to access—inherently caters to an affluent, narrow demographic while systematically discouraging a diverse range of prospective students outside it from applying.
This institutional acknowledgment, distributed through official channels and major media outlets, must explicitly recognize that any campus culture sustained through exclusionary practices is fundamentally incompatible with educational excellence and commit the university to dismantling marketing approaches that privilege economic and cultural capital.
AUDIT OF ALL MARKETING CONTENT
UVM must commission an independent, external diversity audit firm—overseen by the Division of Intercultural Excellence—to conduct a comprehensive bias assessment of all marketing materials from 2020-2025, including social media content, recruitment brochures, website imagery, email campaigns, video content, and promotional messaging across every platform.
This audit, with findings reported publicly to the Board of Trustees, Faculty Senate, and media, will investigate the cultural and economic contexts of all activities and messaging featured in UVM’s promotional content and document which demographic groups these materials are most and least accessible to, revealing exactly who the university’s marketing strategy targets and excludes.
ELIMINATION OF OUTDOOR-CENTRIC MARKETING
Alessandro Bertoni must immediately implement a “Content Parity Rule”: for every outdoor recreation post, promotion, or feature story published on any UVM platform, an equivalent promotion of academic achievement, cultural programming, or urban-oriented student life must be published within the same monthly cycle.
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The responsibility for promoting outdoor recreation as a campus experience should primarily fall to relevant student organizations rather than official institutional channels, which must de-center outdoor recreation clubs as default representations of campus life and maintain promotional balance across all student interests and activities. All marketing materials featuring Vermont outdoors must include clear, direct connections to UVM itself or explicit explanations of relevance to the university experience.​​
IMPLEMENT INCOME-UNAFFECTED MARKETING
StratComm must prioritize marketing content featuring zero-cost activities and explicitly label any promotional material requiring expenses beyond standard tuition and fees. 60% of all promotional content must showcase free campus resources, academic opportunities, work-study programs, and accessible community spaces.
Any content featuring activities with participation costs must include prominent information about free alternatives and financial aid resources, ensuring students from all economic backgrounds see viable pathways to campus engagement.
LAUNCH “AUTHENTIC VOICES” CAMPAIGN
Alessandro Bertoni must personally oversee an annual “Authentic UVM Voices” campaign featuring 50 students from backgrounds typically excluded from outdoor-centered branding: first-generation, urban natives, working-class students, and those engaged in arts, activism, and non-recreation subcultures.
Each profile must receive professional photography, 3-minute video interviews, and dedicated social media promotion demonstrating authentic student experiences beyond outdoor recreation culture. This campaign directly counters the self-selection barrier created by current marketing, proving to prospective students that UVM’s community extends far beyond the narrow outdoor recreation demographic currently dominating all university promotional materials.​
END LIFESTYLE BRANDING
UVM’s Division of Strategic Communications must implement new content guidelines ensuring that skiing, hiking, maple syrup features, farm visits, vintage markets, and expensive outdoor gear-clad students represent no more than 30% of total promotional content. Within nine months, at least 50% of all promotional content must highlight experiences that don’t require outdoor recreation participation or Vermont cultural fluency.​
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​Any marketing budget allocated to outdoor recreation content must be matched with equal budget allocation for academic research showcases, student employment features, cultural events, or accessible campus activities. StratComm must cease portraying mountain summits, dairy barn features, and SSC events as the UVM default, and instead merely as single options among many equally valid and “UVM-relevant” university experiences.​​​​​
