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.

Heretofore, the best soap opera at Englesby House arguably (no pun intended) occurred in 2011 and involved an alleged "inappropriate relationship" between then-president Daniel Fogel’s wife, Rachel Kahn-Fogel, and a high-ranking university administrator, Michael Schultz.

The discovery, which came to light during Schultz's divorce proceedings, led to the president's resignation.