[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 15593-15595]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO DAVID WOLK

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I want to take a moment to recognize the 
achievements and contributions of a remarkable educator, a personal 
friend, and a celebrated leader in my home State of Vermont.
  For decades, David Wolk has successfully distinguished himself as an 
educator and public servant to the people of Vermont. Now in his 11th 
year as president of Castleton University, formally known as Castleton 
State College, David likes to call Castleton ``the small college with a 
big heart.'' As the longest serving president in its history, he has 
increased the college's involvement in the community and has expanded 
the university's commitment to civic engagement and service among 
students and faculty alike. His personal commitment to his hometown of 
Rutland, VT, is evidenced through his service as a former State senator 
and current role as a local justice of the peace.
  As David has emboldened Castleton's primary mission to serve 
Vermonters, the institution has forged new partnerships and expanded 
its opportunities to reach far beyond its footprint in Rutland County. 
David's leadership is currently enabling the Castleton Polling 
Institute, which conducts surveys for Vermont politicians and media 
outlets, to expand to a national audience. Meanwhile, the Castleton 
Center for Schools continues to serve hundreds of Vermont educators by 
offering advanced continuing education opportunities each summer. Under 
his leadership, Castleton athletics has expanded from 12 sports at his 
inauguration to 27 varsity offerings, enabling Vermont students to play 
Division III sports. Most recently, David has provided the vision and 
guidance for Castleton to undergo its own transformation as the college 
seeks to grow its prestige and opportunities as newly named Castleton 
University.
  David held a distinguished career in education even before stepping 
foot at Castleton. He served as chief of policy for former Vermont 
Governor Howard Dean and as the Vermont commissioner of education. 
Dedication to his native community of Rutland may also be witnessed by 
his impressive resume as a school principal, superintendent of the 
Rutland City Public Schools, a guidance counselor and teacher, and a 
college instructor. He has also served as a member of numerous boards, 
including the Vermont Business Roundtable, the Vermont Public Education 
Partnership, and the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation. In 
recognition of these achievements, he received the 2009 Eleanor M. 
McMahon Award for Lifetime Achievement from the New England Board of 
Higher Education.
  If his career is not inspiration enough, David's commitment to family 
surely is. The proud father of four children, David led his family 
through the celebration of the life and legacy of his wife, Diane, when 
she passed away this summer, nearly a decade after being diagnosed with 
early onset Alzheimer's. A lifelong educator herself, Diane and David, 
together, gave more to their community than most. And David's 
compassion and commitment to Diane leaves a lasting impression on those 
of us who call him a friend. Marcelle and I admire him.
  In recognition of David Wolk's service and resiliency, I ask 
unanimous consent that Terri Hallenbeck's article from the August 26, 
2015, edition of Seven Days be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

[[Page 15594]]



                    [From Seven Days, Aug. 26, 2015]

          Resilient David Wolk Champions Castleton University

       Between the playing fields that serve the Castleton 
     Spartans, a marble monument tells the story of the Greek king 
     Leonidas and how he bravely resisted an army of invaders.
       David Wolk chose the 22,000-pound stone from a Rochester 
     quarry and had it polished and engraved in Barre. As 
     Castleton's longest-serving president and its cheerleader-in-
     chief, he hoped the monument's message, titled ``Spartan 
     Pride,'' would inspire students. He installed it six years 
     ago, just after the college football team's inaugural season 
     in a brand-new stadium.
       Players quickly made the monument the focus of a new 
     Castleton tradition, stopping to touch it on their way to 
     practices and games. It offers no guarantees of victory on 
     the field but is an apt symbol for the little college's 
     fighting spirit to survive--and make a name for itself--in 
     the increasingly competitive world of higher education.
       For the past 14 years, Wolk has labored to transform 
     Castleton from a tiny, isolated college into a growing 
     university with adequate funding, marketable programs and 
     satisfied students. Last month, it got a new name: Castleton 
     State College became Castleton University.
       ``Not a lot of colleges are planning on increasing their 
     enrollment these days,'' said Vermont State Colleges 
     chancellor Jeb Spaulding, who oversees Castleton and four 
     other state colleges. ``Dave's different. His plan is, `I'm 
     building something that's attractive.'''
       ``He's the pied piper of Castleton and Rutland County.''
       Just as impressive is the fact that 62-year-old Wolk 
     managed to remake Castleton while he waged another, personal 
     battle. Beneath the engraved tale of the Spartan king, 
     there's a hint at that story, too. In small type at the 
     bottom of the rock, it reads, ``In honor of Dr. Diane Wolk.''
       Wolk's life is so intertwined with his work at Castleton 
     that he brought in this monument, at his own expense, not 
     just to create a Castleton tradition, but as a tribute to his 
     wife. Diane Wolk was a longtime teacher, school principal, 
     chair of the State Board of Education and one-time director 
     of student teaching at Castleton. She was diagnosed with 
     early-onset Alzheimer's disease in 2007, on her 57th 
     birthday, four years after she first started noticing 
     symptoms.
       David Wolk watched in awe as his wife accepted her fate and 
     even strove to demystify the cruel disease. In 2008, she 
     rallied 400 friends to take part in a ``Walk With Wolk'' 
     Alzheimer's fundraiser, and, while the disease had already 
     started to affect her mind, she addressed the crowd. Quoting 
     Lou Gehrig, she said she felt like the luckiest person in the 
     world.
       ``She just stood up and was very brave,'' Wolk recalled. 
     ``The monument is a testament to a woman who had a lot of 
     courage.'' Diane Wolk died last month.


                         ``The Castleton Way''

       Tony Volpone was the football coach for opposing Endicott 
     College when his team visited Castleton State College in 
     2013. Endicott defeated Castleton 43-7 that day, but the 
     ``losing'' side left an indelible impression on Volpone.
       He saw a stately new stadium filled with an enthusiastic 
     crowd, a marching band, fans holding tailgate parties in the 
     parking lot, a bouncy house for kids. And at the end of the 
     game, the team locked arms and led the crowd in the singing 
     of the alma mater.
       ``I was so impressed with what I saw,'' Volpone said. ``It 
     made me go, `Wow, I could really see myself here.''' A year 
     later, he became Castleton's head coach. Volpone credits Wolk 
     for the scene that sold him.
       For most of those home-game Saturdays, Wolk is in the 
     crowd, beaming, with his soon-to-be-96-year-old father, 
     Arthur. ``It's a beautiful thing,'' he said. It's what Wolk 
     envisioned when he became Castleton president in 2001 and set 
     in place a 10-year plan to boost the college's profile.
       Wolk was uniquely positioned when he took the job running 
     the public college in his native Rutland County. The son of a 
     local pediatrician, he graduated from Rutland High School and 
     Middlebury College and went on to a career as a teacher, 
     principal and school superintendent. Wolk also represented 
     Rutland County for four years in the state Senate, made an 
     unsuccessful bid for lieutenant governor in 1992 and served 
     as chief of policy for governor Howard Dean before becoming 
     state education commissioner.
       By the time he took over at Castleton, he had experience 
     navigating educational and political waters. Wolk also 
     brought boundless optimism and salesmanship to the job.
       Zachary Devoid of St. Albans, a senior computer information 
     systems major and lacrosse player at Castleton, remembered 
     meeting Wolk at the start of his freshman year. The president 
     hosts a barbecue for new students every year at his on-campus 
     house. Later, when Devoid's lacrosse team was holding an all-
     night fundraiser in memory of a student, Wolk came by with 
     pizza.
       ``He eats in the dining halls. He goes to sporting 
     events,'' Devoid said. ``He's very personable.''
       ``At orientation last year, he shook everybody's hand and 
     introduced himself. It was really cool,'' said Cassie 
     Papandrea, a senior English major from Orwell who was on 
     campus last month getting ready for this year's orientation.
       Spaulding said he visited Wolk at Castleton recently and 
     went off on his own to the gym. When he returned to Wolk's 
     house, he said, ``I asked him, `How come all these students 
     look me in the eye and open the door for me?' He said, `It's 
     the Castleton way. They have to open doors for people, and 
     they have to pick up trash.'''
       In fact, there's no rule about acting responsibly, but 
     Devoid said the campus is so close-knit that people just do.
       Wolk has created a campus atmosphere that makes students 
     want to stay, said Scott Giles, president of Vermont Student 
     Assistance Corp., whose organization administers college 
     loans and interacts with a wide variety of colleges. Although 
     its student-retention rate hasn't budged much in the last 
     decade--it's average, at 73 percent--Castleton's six-year 
     graduation rate has climbed by nearly 10 percent. Enrollment 
     has grown from 1,598 in 2000 to 2,183 last year. The goal is 
     to reach 2,500 by 2023.
       Students, faculty and outsiders have noticed a difference.
       ``Castleton has been one of the real success stories,'' 
     Giles said, likening its emergence to Champlain College's 
     transformation from a two-year to a four-year school a decade 
     and a half ago.
       ``Dave has been really, really successful in taking an 
     institution that had a reputation as something of a suitcase 
     college--where you can get a solid degree but you leave to do 
     other things on the weekend,'' Giles said. ``What he's really 
     done is transform the campus. It's a community that meets a 
     student's full range of needs.''


                              Double Duty

       Not every faculty member was convinced Castleton needed 
     football, according to Louis ``Tersh'' Palmer, a union rep 
     and English professor. Some ``would like to see more emphasis 
     on academics,'' he said, and ``throw all the rest of that 
     stuff out.''
       The football program has had some problems. In 2011, its 
     first coach was forced to resign after allegedly violating 
     National Collegiate Athletic Association rules by arranging 
     loans for an athlete. In 2013, six players were suspended 
     from the team following a scheme to steal sporting goods from 
     a store.
       In both cases, Wolk publicly acknowledged the fumbles and 
     recovered the ball. ``We will stay positive and upbeat as we 
     move forward together as a family,'' he said in response to 
     the 2013 case.
       He took the same approach to his wife's illness. Diane 
     Wolk, who'd been named the state's teacher of the year in 
     1984, was the popular principal of Rutland's Northeast 
     Primary School when Alzheimer's began to manifest itself. In 
     his Woodruff Hall office, Wolk keeps a photo of her 2006 
     retirement; it shows his wife surrounded by smiling 
     children--a happy spin on a somber moment.
       Wolk likes to focus on the positive. He hands out cards 
     printed in Castleton green that say, ``Keep smiling.'' And, 
     amazingly, it works.
       He tried to follow his own advice during the nine-year 
     ordeal that Wolk calls the ``long goodbye.'' But he also 
     acknowledged it's been a roller-coaster ride. Asked how he 
     managed the double duties of handling his wife's illness and 
     raising the college's profile--two long but very different 
     journeys--Wolk said candidly, ``I didn't.''
       He relied on his team at Castleton, he said, and there were 
     times he considered quitting to become his wife's full-time 
     nurse. But as the disease progressed, Wolk realized she 
     needed professional care. Diane had chosen to move to 
     Florida, where she could participate in Alzheimer's research 
     and access different levels of specialized care. Wolk said 
     his wife actually preferred being far away because it spared 
     her friends and colleagues the pain of watching her decline. 
     ``She didn't want to make them sad,'' he said with 
     admiration. But for Wolk, who visited many weekends, it was a 
     long haul.
       ``I think it's been very difficult,'' said Spaulding, who 
     served in the state Senate with Wolk in the 1980s. ``But I 
     think Castleton University is part of his family. It's part 
     of what's enabled him to continue.''
       Wolk confirmed that Castleton was his salvation during that 
     decade of decline. ``I was able to dive into the college,'' 
     he said. ``It gave new meaning to my life.''
       Castleton had 12 athletic teams when Wolk arrived on 
     campus. It now has 27, which is more than any other Vermont 
     state college or the University of Vermont. The school is 
     providing Vermont students with an opportunity to play 
     college sports in their home state. And they're tuition-
     paying students. Because it is Division III, Castleton 
     doesn't offer athletic scholarships.
       The school has added a lot more than sports teams. It has 
     invested more than $75 million in new construction and 
     renovations to every building on campus. The college has gone 
     from offering one master's degree to 10, with plans to add 
     doctorates in education and nursing practice.
       While some Vermont state colleges have endured layoffs, 
     Castleton has avoided them, according to Wolk. The college 
     does plan to

[[Page 15595]]

     cut one program next year, though: its associate's degree in 
     nursing, a program that Vermont Technical College offers.
       Wolk has also launched a variety of branded initiatives 
     that are generating revenue: The Castleton Polling Institute, 
     which conducts paid surveys for Vermont politicians and media 
     outlets, is expanding and going national; the Castleton 
     Center for Schools brought 800 Vermont teachers to campus 
     this summer for continuing education; the Castleton Downtown 
     Gallery showcases art--and the Castleton name--in downtown 
     Rutland. The university also owns the Spartan Arena at 
     Rutland's Diamond Run Mall, a public operation that gives 
     students real-world business experience. The college bought 
     the building to accommodate its men's and women's hockey 
     teams, which Wolk started in 2003. When they aren't 
     practicing or playing there, it's a rental rink and fitness 
     center.
       The income-generating programs have been developed in 
     response to a shrinking pool of college-age students and 
     declining state funding. Vermont routinely ranks near the 
     bottom in state support for its public colleges. This year, 
     Vermont State Colleges will receive $24.4 million from the 
     state, which is split equally among the five colleges. 
     Castleton's allotment pays just 10 percent of its budget.
       ``We're getting less money from the state this year than we 
     got in 2008 or '09,'' Wolk said, and he knows enough about 
     Vermont politics to realize that is unlikely to change 
     anytime soon.
       The name change is also intended to counteract the lack of 
     state funding. Wolk said he hopes Castleton University will 
     attract more out-of-state students, who pay higher tuition. 
     Currently, 74 percent of its students are in-staters. By 
     2023, Castleton's goal is to have a 60-40 in-state versus 
     out-of-state split. Wolk said Castleton's main mission 
     remains to serve Vermonters but will reflect the reality that 
     there are fewer college-age students in the state. 
     Castleton's other programs within the community, including 
     the polling institute and the Spartan Arena, are examples of 
     other ways it's contributing to the public good.
       Particularly for international students who equate the word 
     ``college'' with high school, the ``university'' designation 
     should send a clearer message. Castleton had 25 students from 
     other countries last year and expects 50 this year, Wolk 
     said. The college upped its overseas admissions efforts by 
     hiring a Chinese-American recruitment coordinator and making 
     two trips to China last year, he said. As part of a 
     residency, 13 Chinese scholars are due on campus this fall.
       During the 15 years he's taught at Castleton, English prof 
     Palmer has seen enrollment and programs expand and the 
     quality of students grow. ``There really has been an 
     improvement in morale, in offerings,'' he said. Football, he 
     acknowledged, helped.


                        What's in a Name Change?

       As Vermont's colleges struggle with dwindling resources and 
     occasional layoffs, can the state afford to keep all five 
     alive--plus the University of Vermont? In a recent 
     commentary, Hinesburg author Bill Schubart took on the issue, 
     arguing, ``Vermonters can't adequately fund six colleges in a 
     time of declining enrollments.'' He contended that renaming 
     Castleton was not the answer.
       ``I really doubt that their new name will do much to solve 
     the enrollment and cost challenges facing all our small state 
     colleges, to say nothing of our students,'' he said.
       Spaulding, who took over as chancellor last year, said he's 
     heard all of those arguments before, but he sees no reason to 
     consolidate. ``We actually need the colleges we have,'' he 
     said.
       Spaulding argued that Castleton's name change will be good 
     for all of them, adding that none of the other college 
     administrators objected.
       Each of the state colleges has--and should have--its own 
     identity, Spaulding said. Lyndon has the largest percentage 
     of out-of-staters, a strong meteorology program and an 
     innovative electronic journalism program. Johnson is known 
     for external degrees for nontraditional students, social 
     service programs and the performing arts. The bread and 
     butter of Vermont Technical College is its two-year 
     engineering degree. Community College of Vermont offers an 
     affordable start for students of all ethnicities and 
     socioeconomic backgrounds.
       Castleton's specialty is being less specialized. ``It's a 
     small university that has a robust graduate program combined 
     with broad academic programs,'' Spaulding said. ``It's the 
     only public higher ed institution in Vermont with a football 
     team, and it's got a very lively campus.''
       Wolk acknowledged that the name change is really about 
     perception.
       When Richard Stockton College of New Jersey became Stockton 
     University this year, the goal was to ``raise the school's 
     profile, helping it attract faculty, students--especially 
     graduate and international students--and raise funds,'' the 
     Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
       Massachusetts state colleges changed their names in 2010, 
     though they retained the word ``state,'' so that Bridgewater 
     State College became Bridgewater State University.
       Castleton students are buying into the idea that Castleton 
     University carries just a little bit more prestige. ``It 
     means we're expanding, we're growing,'' said Papandrea.
       ``It's going to help the college bring in more students,'' 
     Devoid said. It might look a little jazzier on his resume, 
     too, he said.
       For Wolk, the name change marks a major milestone for 
     Castleton, which has actually had seven other appellations 
     since 1787: It's been Rutland County Grammar School, Vermont 
     Classical High School, Castleton Seminary, State Normal 
     School at Castleton, Castleton Normal School and Castleton 
     State Teachers College. The Castleton State College 
     designation dates to 1962.
       ``Modernizing our name reflects who we've become and who we 
     aspire to be,'' he said. ``It's a wonderful turning point for 
     a wonderful institution.''
       The idea for the name change emerged two or three years ago 
     as Castleton administrators crafted Wolk's second 10-year 
     plan. Although he was a driving force behind it, the 
     visionary president had to miss some of the meetings that 
     made it happen, during which his staff pitched the idea to 
     the Vermont State College committees. In the last few months, 
     as his wife's health worsened, he spent more time in Florida 
     than Vermont. He was with Diane when she died there on July 
     4.
       ``Our goal was that her death be peaceful and painless,'' 
     he said. ``It was that.'' In the weeks after, Wolk received 
     hundreds of messages from his wife's former students, 
     colleagues and friends telling him how much Diane had meant 
     to them.
       ``Kids just loved her,'' said David Blow, a Castleton 
     journalism professor who had Diane as a first-grade teacher. 
     His mother, Lucille, who taught alongside her at Barstow 
     Memorial School in Chittenden, told her son that Wolk's was 
     the most difficult condolence card she has ever had to write.
       When the full Vermont State Colleges Board of Trustees 
     gathered July 23 to make a final decision on the name change, 
     David Wolk traveled to Montpelier for the meeting. ``I just 
     wanted to be there, because it was historic,'' he said. The 
     vote was unanimous. Word went viral as Castleton spokesman 
     Jeff Weld announced the move on Twitter and Facebook, and the 
     university's website got more than 10,000 hits.
       Afterward, Wolk continued on to Burlington to board a plane 
     for Florida, where two days later family gathered for a 
     celebration of Diane's life. In his eulogy, Wolk spoke about 
     his wife's courage.
       ``Her life was full of teachable moments, and this was the 
     final one,'' he said.
       Diane Wolk's family members divided her ashes for each to 
     scatter as he or she wished. The next week, Wolk returned to 
     Castleton. That Friday afternoon, he and two of their four 
     children went to the Spartan monument and spread her remains 
     at the base of the rock that honors and encourages brave 
     souls.

                          ____________________