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Where Should the President Live?

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By Jennifer Jacobson

If home is where the heart is, then neighbors of the University of Vermont say Daniel M. Fogel's home is in the wrong place.

The university's incoming president has decided to live not in Englesby House, the official residence on campus, but in a private home, making him the first president to do so in 44 years. Mr. Fogel's contract with the university gives him the option of living where he pleases and pays him an $1,800-a-month housing allowance for his private home, in addition to his $260,000 annual salary.

His decision has outraged residents of Burlington's Hill Section neighborhood, near where Englesby House is located, and prompted them to write letters to the editor in The Burlington Free Press. The newspaper is conducting an informal poll on the issue, with 60 percent of the 400 votes cast, so far, agreeing that the president should be required to live in Englesby House.

The controversy has even made its way to the Vermont statehouse, where last month Rep. Michael J. Obuchowski introduced this resolution: "The General Assembly strongly urges the incoming University of Vermont president to live on-campus, at the president's residence, in close proximity to the student body he serves." The resolution has been referred to the House Education Committee for consideration.

Residents near the university say living on campus is the only way the president, who takes office July 1, can fully appreciate the quality of life in the neighborhood and understand their concerns. "We were, and still are, looking forward to addressing problems that stem from disrespectful student behavior including noise and other situations that develop from time to time," says Judy P. Rosenstreich, a neighborhood leader whose home is a 10-minute walk from Englesby House. "People are really upset about this. We'd really urge Dr. Fogel to rethink this decision."

So far, it looks like he's not going to.

"The president and his wife have made the decision that it's important to them to be able to establish a private home separate from the high demands of the job," says Enrique Corredera, a university spokesman. Mr. Fogel declined to comment to The Chronicle because he felt that he has "already spent a more-than-reasonable amount of time on the issue," the spokesman says. He adds the president intends "to make full use of the official on-campus residence for the public purpose that it serves." The brick home is the site of more than 100 official university functions a year.

Mr. Fogel was quoted in The Burlington Free Press as saying that a housekeeper who showed his family around the home had said that some previous residents had found the rooms uncomfortable for sleeping because of the noise from nearby student housing and fraternities. Mr. Corredera, however, says noise "is not really the issue" for the president. "That's a remark that unfortunately has gotten far more attention than it deserves," he says. "The real issue is privacy."

The new president "fully intends to be very engaged in campus life and community life and be highly accessible on the campus" and continue to make progress on town-gown issues, Mr. Corredera says. The president will work "tirelessly," but after official university functions, he and his wife "just want to be able to return to their private home and not have to wait for the caterers to be done with their work and the house to be cleaned up," Mr. Corredera says.

Neighbors contend that the campus has many suitable locations for university receptions. "It's not really necessary for the president's home to be used intensively throughout the year," Ms. Rosenstreich says. "Certainly, if he expressed this concern, the use of the home for official functions could be limited so it would not overly intrude on his privacy."

Mr. Fogel's decision, Ms. Rosenstreich says, has stunned the neighborhood. "We fully expected him to live in the community." And now, she says, the talk is that the president is not even going to live in Burlington.

Mr. Corredera says Mr. Fogel has not yet found a home and doesn't know if he will live in Burlington: "They'd like to be in relatively close proximity. I don't think he's looking forward to a very long commute. A lot of it will just depend on what's available in this market."

Besides the president's not wanting to live on campus, the university's paying him not to has also rubbed citizens the wrong way. A $50-million shortfall in state revenues has resulted in $24-million worth of budget cuts for the 2002 fiscal year, out of an $872-million budget, and more cuts are likely, given the projections of further revenue declines. As a result, Representative Obuchowski says, the university's distance-learning and outreach programs that serve his part of the state, a two-hour drive from the main campus, are being cut.

Mr. Corredera, however, says the university hasn't cut any programs, although the provost commissioned a study of the operations of the Division of Continuing Education as a result of a growing budget deficit within that branch. "A report recommends cutting back on some of continuing education's operations to put the division back on solid footing," he says. "There will likely be some changes in order to strengthen the offerings that can best serve continuing education students." (Mr. Corredera says the university's estimated revenue shortfall for the 2003 fiscal year is $400,000 out of a $170-million budget.)

So at a time when the university has had to tighten its belt, the president's receiving $21,600 a year for a private home instead of using the one on campus just doesn't make sense to Vermonters, Mr. Obuchowski says. "The move is really out of line with the state of Vermont way," he says. "It's a misunderstanding of what Vermont is and what it's all about -- trying to utilize what you've got to its highest and best potential."

Some people, Mr. Obuchowski says, have said to him "if we were talking five years from now and the president had done a heck of a job and there's a reward for stellar performance, then people wouldn't have as much of a problem with this as they are."

Michael A. Gurdon, president of the university's Faculty Senate and a professor of management, says a few faculty members have criticized Mr. Fogel's decision, but he adds: "I wouldn't say there's a groundswell of concern one way or the other."

Student reaction has been somewhat more critical. "When we were looking for a new president, we wanted to see someone walking across campus eating a hot dog, someone we'd see all the time and be part of the community, a person more available to students," says William C. Tickner, a senior and president of the Student Government Association. Students aren't concerned that Mr. Fogel is not living in Englesby specifically, he says, but they are concerned that he might not even live in Burlington, as rumor now has it on campus.

Ronald D. Liebowitz, acting president of Middlebury College, 35 miles south of Burlington, says he can only assume that those who are raising questions about Mr. Fogel's decision are doing so on the grounds that where a university president lives is symbolic of how important undergraduate teaching is to an institution. For presidents of places that value undergraduate education, "it makes sense to live close by and be accessible and visible to the community," Mr. Liebowitz says. "I don't want to criticize the president. These positions are very public."

David Ward, president of the American Council on Education and chancellor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, says a president's decision to live on or off campus is a matter of personal preference.

At Madison, he lived in the chancellor's residence in a neighborhood within walking distance to the campus, three blocks from the university's stadium. When he and his wife needed privacy, they would drive on weekends to their cottage 90 minutes away. "There are very few presidents who don't have another house somewhere 20 to 50 miles out of town," Mr. Ward says. "You do need a place of your own that provides you with a retreat out of the public life you're living."

For Mr. Fogel, "his retreat will be his home," Mr. Ward says. "That's just a personal call."

According to ACE's latest survey of college presidents, in 1998 nearly 40 percent of the presidents surveyed lived in an official on-campus residence, while 28 percent received a housing allowance. Although the survey does not track the number of presidents who forgo the presidential home for a private one, Mr. Ward is sure Mr. Fogel is not the only president to have done so.

And as he looks at the varied household structures of chief executives in higher education, with presidents who are single and may not to want to live in a big home by themselves and presidents with young children who may want to live in neighborhoods with other young children, Mr. Ward says choosing a private residence over the official campus one "may well be a preference that will grow."

But not without some neighborly advice. "Reconsider," wrote Debbie Salomon in a signed editorial on March 3 in The Burlington Free Press that was published as an open letter to Mr. Fogel. "Think of the Wall Street traders who commute daily from Westchester as you walk across College Street to your office. Appreciate the accessibility of your UVM colleagues. Invite them to stop by for a beer. By the way, around here we use the back door."