Core strategic plans unveiled

Author: Jason F. Siegel

The Strategic Planning Committee held a town meeting in the McCullough Social Space last Thursday in an attempt to present its completed work and gather feedback from the College community.

Addressing a sparse crowd of around 15 or 20 people - about one-third the number who had attended a similar meeting earlier in the week - the Committee informally presented an array of information, including a history and overview of the process and its upcoming report, the three "core strategic initiatives" and the mission statement, before fielding a variety of questions from the audience of students, faculty and staff.

President Ronald D. Liebowitz addressed the most important part of the process, the core strategic initiatives. The Committee determined that these initiatives would be the fusion of academic and residential life through the commons system, access to and within the College and competitiveness as an academic institution.

Focusing first on the commons, Liebowitz presented the concerns that the Committee had encountered in the physical expansion of the system. Not only would new buildings present a costly expansion beyond what the College could reasonably afford in the immediate future, he said, but people also do not want to see the open character of the College closed off with new buildings. He reported on suggestions to reduce the size of the student body to 2,150 and the number of commons from five to four, or shifting focus to the "human capital" and programmatic development of the commons while delaying construction for a few years.

Ultimately the Committee decided that the latter option would be the most appropriate. A student body of fewer than 2,350 could not financially sustain operations, and having four commons was strongly opposed by the deans as they felt it would change the very feeling of the commons system. Increasing the human capital, however, especially programmatic development, would be economically feasible in the near future.

Liebowitz said that the Committee had considered the possibility of allowing seniors to have an open draw until senior housing was equal in all five commons. No definitive answer to the suggestion was given.

Discussion of access to the College's resources focused primarily on financial aid and student-faculty interaction. The Committee hopes to rework the financial aid package formula with an immediate goal of providing an extra $1,000 in grants rather than loans in each financial aid package, ultimately making Middlebury a more attractive school to economically disadvantaged students. It also hopes to set the goal of reducing the student-faculty ratio from 11:1 to 8.7:1, which would provide faculty members with more time to dedicate to each student.

The issue of competitiveness as an academic institution dealt principally with curricular growth and senior work. An expanded faculty, said Liebowitz, should bring with it a growth in the curriculum. Though there was no speculation as to what might be added, it would most likely be either new departments or intradepartmental expansion of coverage. The Committee also favored requiring senior independent work as a graduation requirement, calling it a capstone achievement of the Middlebury academic work ethic. In addition, Associate Professor of Computer Science Amy Briggs discussed a reevaluation of the College's distribution requirements, with Liebowitz adding that there may also be a new lab science requirement given science's increasingly key role in the world's development.

Beyond the core strategic initiatives were other important parts of the report. After an introductory statement from Dean of Planning John Emerson, Stewart Professor of English and Environmental Studies John Elder presented the most recent draft of the mission statement. Some of the main aspects the Committee has tried to convey in the statement are the links between academic and residential life, the unique location of Middlebury in rural Vermont and the importance of internationalism to the College. According to an e-mail message from Emerson, the new draft will likely appear on the College Web site in the near future.

Assistant Director of the Rohatyn Center for International Affairs Charlotte Tate addressed the role of people and human capital at Middlebury. She discussed the importance of faculty and staff development to the maintenance of excellence in everthing the College does. Tate also emphasized the need to "be a good neighbor" to the town. She commented briefly on the importance of optimizing the College's financial resources to make these things possible.

After the presentation, the Committee fielded questions from the audience and Liebowitz responded, occasionally helped by other members of the Committee. People challenged many of the ideas introduced, and in all cases the Committee had already considered the perspectives of the audience members.

One question that came up that had not appeared to be a concern in any task force report was the dim lighting on campus, which caused many students who grew up in well-lit urban areas to feel unsafe. Planning Committee member J.S. Woodward '06 suggested that the students alert Facilities Management to the problem, as it is often unaware of expired bulbs. Liebowitz reminded the audience that there has long been a semi-annual night tour of the campus to identify the poorly lit spots on campus, which ushered in the blue lights.

Assistant Professor of Theatre Claudio Medeiros '90 inquired about the role of the arts in Middlebury's future. Emerson responded by noting that the Committee for Art in Public Places was one of the Task Forces in the spring, and said that the arts would fit in with the themes of the process. This was evident in Elder's earlier statement that a mandatory thesis was not necessarily the most appropriate manifestation of independent senior work for all departments, so each department would determine the form of the project.

After the meeting, Emerson and Liebowitz said they were satisfied with the proceedings. Emerson praised the students in attendance, and Liebowitz, acknowledging that it was a busy time of year, was disappointed that more students had not shown up. He had also wanted to hear student opinions about the commons and said, "Though the infrastructure of the commons system is essential to provide the kinds of interaction to which we aspire, it is, first and foremost about relationships and what those relationships lead to."