Students suggest $46,768 comprehensive fee

Author: Brian Fung

Members of the Student Comprehensive Fee Committee recommended raising next year's comprehensive fee to $46,768 in a presentation before the Board of Trustees last Saturday. While the official amount approved by the Trustees will not be announced for several weeks, the student Committee's recommendations have in previous years closely predicted the Trustees' final number.

With the recommended fee increase, the Committee planned funding for several components of the College's Strategic Plan that enjoy heavy student support, including the Carbon Neutrality Initiative (CNI) and the gradual addition of 25 new faculty.

"This year, we decided to take a more theoretical approach, and as such, placed the greatest emphasis on student priorities," wrote Amanda Goodwin '07, chair of the Committee, in an e-mail.

President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz remarked that the Committee's focus paralleled the interests of the College.

"What was heartening," said Liebowitz, "was that a lot things came through from the [presentation] that very much mirrored the priorities of the strategic plan."

The presentation was accompanied by a 12-page report, entitled "Lifelong Participation," issued to trustees two weeks before Saturday's meeting. The report outlined the Committee's suggestions and strategies for increasing student commitment to the College from their arrival as first-years until well after their graduation.

The Student Comprehensive Fee Committee proposed to increase the level of alumni contributions overall, beginning with the Class of 2007, to close the gap between comprehensive fee revenues and the actual cost of a Middlebury education.

"[This year], the cost of educating each student was approximately $73,000," read the report. "However, this figure was offset by [only] $28,000 in generating the Comprehensive Fee."

Much of the difference, said Goodwin, is compensated by a "hidden scholarship," comprised of donations from parents and alumni.

To encourage giving from this year's graduating seniors, the senior class gift committee established a "Green Fund" to appeal to active student interest in environmental affairs. The fund would support future student-coordinated environmental projects such as those launched by the Sunday Night Group (SNG).

Goodwin recommended that SNG's MiddShift movement be included in the College's budget as a line item. If the proposal is passed, MiddShift will be officially acknowledged as a College-supported initiative.

"This approach formally institutionalizes [respectful] environmental behavior and carbon neutrality, specifically," said Goodwin.

In addition to the possibility of bringing CNI into the College budget, the student committee investigated other, less conventional environmental solutions. Goodwin commended the Trustees' approval of a biomass facility designed to provide an alternative to fossil fuel combustion.

"By burning woodchips rather than fuel oil," said the committee report, "the College will be able to meet its carbon reduction goals as defined under the Middlebury Carbon Reduction Initiative of 2002."

In conjunction with the committee's green recommendations, SNG delivered its own presentation to the Trustees explaining CNI in greater depth.

"In having the Trustees officially endorse carbon neutrality," said Caitlin Littlefield '07.5, one of several SNG members at the closed-door lecture, "we can really get the ball rolling, because this is not going to be a cost-free process."

SNG hopes to achieve total carbon-neutrality at the College by 2016. According to both Goodwin and Littlefield, the plan to enact CNI will likely be developed through a three-stage process.

Statistics show that student support for carbon-neutrality continues to run strong. In a campus-wide survey conducted by the Student Comprehensive Fee Committee, 67% of respondents approved or strongly approved of a $36 addition to the comprehensive fee that would go towards offsetting the College's carbon footprint.

In addition to assessing students' opinions on the growing green movement, the committee surveyed attitudes regarding other campus concerns as well. According to the report, financial aid and faculty were among the top priorities expressed by the 430 responses the committee received.

The Student Comprehensive Fee Committee recommended the expansion of funding to both categories in its presentation to the Trustees. The proposed 5.5-percent increase in the comprehensive fee next year would cover a six-percent increase in financial aid packages, while boosting faculty salaries by 5.8 percent.

Furthermore, Goodwin suggested adding 25 members to the number of professors currently teaching at the College. The majority of these additions would likely be distributed evenly across College departments, though the committee drew particular attention to the Departments of Economics, Arabic and Spanish.

"Faculty expansion will help broaden and standardize course offerings," read the committee report, "and decrease class sizes that have become increasingly inflated."

The Board of Trustees will be deliberating the recommendations made by SNG and the Student Comprehensive Fee Committee until its next convention in May. According to President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz, the meetings with student groups confirmed that the College is on the right track.

"It was nice to hear," said Liebowitz. "[Their] ideas are central to what we're doing already. Furthermore, he said, "The priorities work with where we are as an institutionÖand are consistent with the Strategic Plan."