College Administration Falls Short

Author: Daniel Hughes

Upon returning to Middlebury this fall, I had the unfortunate opportunity to witness a number of inexplicable inconveniences placed on students and a complete lack of sympathy from the administration of the school.

Certainly, many of these occurrences are simply minor inconveniences which should not worry the average student. For example, about 300 students were informed, rather rudely, that they would be forced to share mailboxes during the fall semester. This would normally not be a large concern, except that the explanation given was that there was an unexpectedly large enrollment. Unexpected? The school knew full well that there would not be enough mailboxes in May when incoming students responded to admissions, giving the school more than four months to find a suitable alternative.

Consider also the housing shortage on campus. While most students found housing last spring through the always chaotic room draw, those in summer draw, first-years, and many sophomores met a far more dire situation: too many students and not enough rooms. While this situation could not be solved nearly as easily as the mailboxes, it shows an obvious lack of planning on the part of the administration. Why should any student be forced to live in special interest housing, lounges and storage spaces and have the situation be written off as a minor inconvenience?

Furthermore, what of the shortage of spaces in key classes? The school has blamed this problem on "pressure points" in the system. Yet, one might note that most of the pressure points lie in required or introductory courses. Thus, nearly every Middlebury student is either enrolled, or attempted to become enrolled, in one of these pressured classes.

Yet my real problem lies in a far more important arena. Certainly the first few situations were problematic, but every student ended up with a mailbox, a place to live and a rigorous courseload. Yet while Middlebury gloats about its high rankings by U.S. News and World Report and Outside Magazine, it neglects to acknowledge that it ranked extremely low in a different poll: The Princeton Review's rankings of financial aid.

How is it that a college with rising tuition, multiple construction projects underway and an endowment in the hundreds of millions can allow for its financial aid to rank so low? Has the College accepted the stereotype that Middlebury students are a privileged class, immune to the hard financial times of the rest of the country? Students, many of whose parents are struggling in the sluggish economy, should not be expected to make concessions simply because the College's fundraising drives have met some obstacles, especially when the price of a Middlebury education is now nearly double the income of the average working American.