Academic Interest Houses Receive Positive Reviews

Author: Tom Drescher

The Community Council recently completed a review of all academic interest houses at Middlebury College and reported its positive results to President John McCardell.
Composed of students, administration, staff and faculty, the Council is one of the College's most influential governing bodies. Among other things, it is responsible for reviewing the academic interest and social houses every year and making recommendations directly to McCardell, who ultimately determines the status of the houses based on the results of the Council's review.
This year's annual house review is the first following a restructuring of the process that took place last semester. "In the fall, we restructured the tenets and stipulations under which the process was guided," said Student Co-Chair of the Community Council Ben LaBolt '03.
The Council eliminated many non-achievable regulations and prioritized the evaluative criteria to focus on the issues by degree of importance.
The Council report, issued in the fall, clearly defined what criteria were most important, including greater focus on the student safety.
"The regulations that houses may not engage in life-threatening hazing events or drug or alcohol distributions are most important," the report stated. "Gender distribution is less important."
The assessment process of academic and social houses began in January. "We appointed a sub-committee on social and academic interest house review, chaired by two of our members, Anya Puri and Colin Morawski '03," explained LaBolt. "They conducted interviews during J-term and collected statistical data on houses since the conclusion of our last review."
The data and information collected during Winter Term on the academic interest houses ultimately satisfied the new standards set by the Council and led to positive recommendations across the board. "At this stage, we have reviewed all of the academic interest houses and have recommended that they continue without stipulations because of the impeccable job they have done this year," said LaBolt.
The reviews do not come, however, without at least some constructive criticism. The Council always encourages academic interest houses to expand their influence and involve more of the student body in activities and events.
"We would, as always, encourage them to do further outreach to the broader campus community so that their prime real estate may be shared with the entire student body," said LaBolt. "But," he added, "they did a good job on the event and house maintenance front this year."
Academic interest house recommendations have only recently been made. "The recommendations are confidential and are made to President McCardell," explained Co-Chair of the Community Council and Dean of Student Affairs Ann Hanson.
Hanson added that the Council has not yet heard back from McCardell, but it is likely that he will accept the Council's recommendations.
The results of the social house review, which comes later this month, might not be so satisfactory.
Last spring, Alpha Delta Phi (ADP) was continued on "provisional" status and placed on probation for the fall semester. With reviews focusing on concern for students' safety, ADP and the college's five other social houses will be under close scrutiny.
Results of the Council's social house review will be sent to McCardell next month.