UVM president "public housing" grab

By Ted Cohen

The press surrounding the recent installation of the new University of Vermont president has been embarrassingly circumspect, at best.

Marlene Tromp has been fawningly described by rose-eyed reporters since she took office six months ago for her “collaborative approach” and interaction with students, faculty and staff.

“Wherever she goes, Tromp stops to talk with students, faculty and staff,” Seven Days gushed.

Even the usually-curious UVM student newspaper, The Cynic, has gone prostrate for Tromp, its editors telling 7 Days how excited they were to actually get an interview with the school president.

But no one has had the temerity to actually ask what's going on at Englesby House, the president's pricey $1.6 million tax-free mansion in the heart of the UVM campus.

Tromp, 59, was vaguely described by the latest edition of the school's alumni magazine as cohabiting in her fancy digs “with her adult son and other family members.”

Turns out those others include her sister and ex-husband, James Spearman.

Tromp has been quoted (by Seven Days) as calling Spearman “my best friend.”

Fine. But what's he doing living in the UVM president’s house?

And while we're at it, how do her older sister and adult son get free beds too?

Burlington claims to have a homeless problem but the Tromp clan - president, son, sister and divorced husband - are doing just fine, not only living on campus but in well-appointed quarters.

The strange domestic brew in the presidential mansion has spilled into the Seven Day letters section, where readers have been debating whether it's appropriate.

Heretofore, the best soap opera involving Englesby House occurred in 2002 when UVM President Dan Fogel and his wife, Rachel, arrived on campus and chose to forgo living in Englesby - or anywhere on campus - and opted instead for the university’s $1,800-a-month housing allowance.

Englesby House, which was built in 1914 for Burlington physician William Englesby, was willed to the university by his widow, Maude, upon her death in 1956.

For two years the house served as a dorm for 27 women, before it was given over to the university president in 1958.