'Work hard, play hard' philosophy examined

Author: Kimberly Schrimsher

Middlebury students and faculty discussed the College's "work hard, play hard" reputation during the Planning and Steering Committee's second open forum on March 30. While the Middlebury community fosters intellectual discourse in and out of the classroom, there is new concern that heavy workloads are preventing an over-stretched student and faculty body from taking advantage of the enriching aspects of the community.

"We in the community, students and faculty, would like very much to have more time set aside for conversation, interaction and engaging each other without the pressure of scheduled activities," said Dean of Planning John Emerson, chair of Middlebury's Planning and Steering Committee and Charles A. Dana professor of Mathematics. "Some students came to see me after the meeting reinforcing the sense that students feel overscheduled and sometimes overwhelmed. Some students feel they don't have the opportunity to be reflective or think in a sustained way around an intellectual agenda."

"We have a lot of work at Middlebury and it has the potential to dominate our lives, and it does for some," said Eli Berman '07.5, one of three panelists and a member of the Task Force on Commons and Student Life. "We all need to find an outlet outside of work."

The March 30 forum, part of the information gathering sessions for President Ronald D. Liebowitz's Strategic Planning for Middlebury's Future, is the second event with the theme "academic excellence and reputation." Panelists Berman, Assistant Dean of Student Affairs Karen Guttentag and Professor of Philosophy Stanley Bates addressed three questions: what is an intellectual community, how can we improve this community and how do people outside of Middlebury see Middlebury?

"This environment is intense when it comes to work," said Berman. "We want to lessen the perception of the work hard, play hard school. For example, a student at the last meeting said that when he isn't doing work or doing something for himself, he feels guilty. It seems we're learning for the task and not for the liberal arts education."

"It's dangerous for us to be working all the time," said J.S. Woodward '06, student representative for the Planning and Steering Committee. "Some students claim they'll relax more after college but after spending four years in the same behavioral pattern, it will be hard to separate work from the rest of your life. Middlebury seems to blur the lines between work and the rest of life. When you have 200 pages of reading to do that was assigned Monday for Wednesday, you're not going to reflect on it and absorb it because you're reading to get through."

At least one student seemed unconcerned with the work and play cycle. "We do have a work hard, play hard environment, but I think at a school that has such academic success and stress, you need something to counter the work, and sometimes that's a lot of partying," said Lia Jacobson '08.

The forum generated a lively discussion on the positive and negative correlation between Middlebury's work-obsessed culture and its strong academic reputation, and whether the College was admitting a homogenous student base of well-rounded, like-minded high-achievers. Although more faculty and staff than students attended the March 30 forum, participants generally agreed that the tendency to over-commit extended to all members of the community.

"Faculty members also feel that they have too many obligations in much the same way that many students feel that," said Emerson. "There are only so many hours in a week and it's a question of using time in the best way possible. The planning process is trying to take a serious look at this."

The size of the faculty, teaching loads and faculty-to-student ratio are being addressed in the planning process, according to Emerson. The College is looking at how faculty are expected to use their time and whether that time would be used for better purposes such as student engagement, a connection that Berman believes remains one of Middlebury's greatest strengths.

"If a student needs to see a professor, the professor makes himself or herself available, whether it is during office hours or that moment; and when a student really wants to enroll in a course, the faculty usually finds a way to make that possible," said Berman. "The accessibility and openness of the faculty and the generosity of professors with their time is especially impressive in an age when pressures on faculty members to 'publish or perish' increase every day."

Vice President for Academic Affairs and Professor of English Alison Byerly, member of the Planning Steering Committee and the Task Force on Faculty Resources, says it is clear from students and faculty that people work hard here. "It's a broader culture issue where everyone is expected to work hard constantly and it's hard to step out of that paradigm," she said. "Middlebury lives are scheduled. How much of this is the students we bring here or the institutional culture we create is difficult to determine. They may reinforce each other."

Learning to say "no" may be one simple solution, according to Michelle McCauley, associate professor of psychology and chair of the Task Force on the Composition of the Student Body. "I was surprised at the open meetings that I repeatedly heard from students about how busy they are," she said. "We have a great group of students who want to take advantage of everything. Perhaps we need to train students to say no when it comes to commitment. It's okay to be involved in a few things. It's true for the faculty as well."

Middlebury staff report a different set of intellectual challenges. Supervisors, especially in the areas of dining services, custodial and facilities, regularly note self-confidence problems among their staff with regard to their roles in the community, and this translates directly into their willingness to serve on committees, to attend events and to fully participate in the life of the College, according to Guttentag. Some report that attending a lecture, let alone participating in intellectual discussions, is truly intimidating.

"This raised a larger theme for us: the sense that Middlebury is not an environment in which it is comfortable to reveal ignorance or inexperience, and not just for staff, but for students and faculty," said Guttentag. "If we as an institution were to incorporate the growth that comes from intellectual risk-taking, experimentation and 'failure' into our definition of success, we might find several benefits to our intellectual community. We might improve our ability to learn and teach the essential skills of admitting those times when we are misinformed, wrong or have re-evaluated our position, without fear of losing face or intellectual credibility."

Such discussion raises the question of whether there is a way to move Middlebury's mode of operating more in the direction of learning for enjoyment and away from intimidation, obligations and meeting deadlines. "I don't think we know yet how to address it," said Emerson. "We're still trying to generate options. There is a real issue here, and I have confidence in a process like this to invite a lot of creative people to develop good ideas."

"I think some solutions would come from changing who we admit," said Woodward. "Maybe having students directed in their interests and who don't join every club might help. We're not academically competitive but when we hear someone doing five different things on top of class, we think we should do that, too."

Although much of the forum centered on challenges to the College's intellectual community and reputation, many speakers took a moment to reaffirm that the strategic planning process is building on Middlebury's strengths - not fixing something that is broken.

"Plenty of colleges around this country would die to boast about a campus full of so many bright, motivate
d and engaged students and faculty who, if anything, are so motivated and so engaged and have such lofty aspirations, that they want to be involved in too many things," said Caroline Donnan, associate director of Admissions. "If that means people here take on more commitments than are sometimes sustainable, simply because they're so interested, lucky us."

Byerly agreed. "It's natural for a planning process to be analytic," she said. "We're focusing on how Middlebury can be improved, but all of the task forces proceed with the idea that Middlebury is terrific as it is. No one is anything less than appreciative about the strengths Middlebury has."

The Planning and Steering Committee will review the results of this meeting, along with findings from the 11 task forces commissioned by Liebowitz by May 19. The suggestions will be prioritized for the College to begin drafting a new strategic plan this summer that will carry Middlebury through 2012.