College unveils new vision for commons

Author: Anthony Adragna

Originally seen as a way to foster four years of continual community growth, the commons system as conceived by former President of the College John M. McCardell over 10 years ago is no more. Current President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz announced a new direction for the system, based on continued affiliation with a commons for four years but only two years of continued residency.

Liebowitz and Dean of the College Tim Spears, unveiled the new "4/2" proposal at a meeting of the new Residential Life staff during their training. A more general announcement came through Liebowitz's blog, "Ron on Middlebury."

Upon reviewing the progress made in the original common vision, Liebowitz concluded the original hope for the commons system was not compatible with the needs of the College.

"The commons vision does not work with the culture at Middlebury," he said. "Students want freedom. Ties [between students] would not be as strong in a completed system. The impact of trying to build five commons on this campus would be huge. It would involve readjusting building uses. Forget the financial side of things."

The financial side of things, though, prompted Liebowitz to examine the progress made in the original plan.

"Cost was the original reason for stepping back and thinking where we were in the original vision," he admitted. "We have to ask though, 'If we had the money tomorrow, is this the right system for Middlebury?' We assumed in the 1990s an unreasonable sense of how long it would take to finish the commons. We probably didn't consider how long it would take to finish all five. But the point is, we don't have to take the money to finish the vision."

Spears said the commons system has not evolved into the vision seen a decade ago.

"We needed to stop and revisit where we are and see how that compares to the original vision [of the commons]," he said. "Now we can evaluate the cultural assumptions we made back then. People march to one vision. The system was designed in an idealistic vision. It's fair to say that most people then wanted a four-year commons system with continued membership. We're not there."

Under the so-called "4/2" plan, juniors and seniors will have open housing, while all first-years and sophomores must remain in commons housing.

"We have to set out a big chunk of beds for first-years and sophomores," Spears said. "First-years and sophomores will live close together. Juniors and seniors will live in the remaining housing."

Liebowitz wrote in a blog post that he decided on the outline of the 4/2 plan following lengthy discussions with students and faculty over the past three years. The original vision for the commons did not fit the College due to the small undergraduate population and the fact over 60 percent of students go abroad their junior year, hindering community development.

Many students like the freedom the plan will allow students following their sophomore year.

"I am basically in support of the plan," Alicia Taylor '09 said. "I like the idea of keeping in the commons family for the first two years. The commons really are a great resource and giving people increased exposure to their own space is important. Opening it up after people are established is a good idea, though."

Other students feel the plan will restrict students too much and does not truthfully represent what the administration says it does.

"I don't like the plan because I feel that it's more restrictive and would just encourage separation between commons," Ann Benson '10 said. "It really isn't an even split either because most people are abroad for at least part of junior year, so it would only be senior year that you would truly be free to live wherever you wanted. Also, I think that this would not be appealing for prospective Middlebury students since it would not seem to give them much flexibility in their housing."

While the ultimate vision for the new plan is firm, many of the details of the 4/2 plan remain undecided.

"I don't want to convey that everything has been decided," Liebowitz said. Dean Spears and I plan to host open forums and students can weigh-in on the plan over the year."

Spears said the process of changing the commons identity has led to challenges from within the faculty.

"The process hasn't been easy. With both faculty heads and deans, there were concerns," he said. "They had to realize the community they were building was constantly changing."

"Deans have already picked apart certain elements of the plan which have to be rethought," Liebowitz added.

Student Government President Max Nardini '08 said he does not fully understand the specifics of the plans yet and was not directly involved in discussions.

"I haven't really been involved in any conversations this year regarding the 4/2 plan," he said. "On the surface I see some merit to it, but I haven't heard the argument against."

Logistically, the shift will alter how dormitories deal with problems that arise.

"The question the deans focus on is 'who will govern these halls?'" Spears said. "We're working through that now. We need to rethink the way students call in problems. We want to set up a helpline that students can call, which then calls a CRA or RA or FYC, who will then deal with the issue. We need to think how best to support a decentralized system. There is a lot of logistical stuff to work out."

One of the larger logistical issues remaining is how to incorporate Febs into the new structure.

"Febs are hard to incorporate into the new vision as well," Spears said. "The commons-based first-year Seminar works well. We'd like for them to be 100 percent. Right now, it's difficult to house Febs. It's a bit of a shell game in the middle of the year to even put them together."

Housing issues will always remain at the College, according to Liebowitz.

"There will always be issues with housing," he said. "But now equity will not be the issue."

Taylor thinks the College needs to build more senior housing to fully resolve the problems.

"More senior housing needs to be incorporated for people to not be annoyed when they don't get the top picks," she said.

Spears, however, believes the plan will allow for the administration to focus on social concerns on campus, by resolving some of the repeated housing concerns.

"If you're in Brainerd and Cook now you say 'when will we get good senior housing?'" he said. "Now you take away that question which has been hanging over everyone's head. We're done with that and can now focus on programming."

Commons councils and other organizations will remain vital parts of campus in the 4/2 plan, according to administrators.

"I see them as crucial," Liebowitz said. "They are not to be lost in all this. The hope is human relations can develop even further through this."

Nevertheless, these organizations will face challenges and must adapt to the changes.

"Councils have to reinvent themselves," Spears said.

Ultimately the changes in the system will lead to stronger commons, Liebowitz believes.

"We can now focus on programming," he said. "This plan gives more permanence to the commons."