Diversity at Middlebury

Author: Thomas Brant & Cecelia Goldschmidt

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Is the College finally becoming a global village?

It turns out that the answer is yes. But we've only just started. On paper, Middlebury is admirably diverse. Students of color and those from overseas make up more than 27 percent of the total undergraduate population. But creating a true global village inside the gates of a small liberal arts college means more than just admitting students from diverse backgrounds. They must feel integrated into academic and cultural life, and that is where Middlebury is lacking. Much progress has been made, including the creation of a new deanship for institutional diversity last year. But after nearly two centuries of being "The Town's College" of a small New England shire town, evidence of provincial attitudes still exists. The Campus has interviewed students and staff members to find out where the problems are - including the dating scene and insensitive professors - and how to solve them.

- Thomas Brant, Focus Editor


In an attempt to assess the diversity of a place, it is always tempting to focus on the numbers. For example, in 1994, Middlebury's student body was 78 percent Caucasian, but it had decreased to 67 percent by 2007, according to official enrollment statistics. So diversity must clearly be improving, right?

But in those same 13 years, the percentage of African Americans on campus increased only one percentage point, to just three percent of the total undergraduate population. The percentage of Hispanics actually decreased from 2006 to 2007. Why are the numbers so conflicting? Is Middlebury getting more diverse or isn't it?

According to Dean for Institutional Diversity Shirley Ramirez, numbers are just one piece of diversity puzzle. Ramirez emphasized the importance of recognizing how oversimplified and superficial it is to assess such a multi-faceted topic through statistics.

"We seriously need to redefine how we talk about diversity," Ramirez said. "Using numbers is such a limited way of dealing with the issue. For me, what's important is the interactive aspect of diversity. Diversity creates a more vibrant community, and the importance comes from learning from each other."

She emphasized that the issue of diversity on campus "is just as relevant for a white male from Greenwich, Conn., as it is for a black male from Harlem, N.Y."

The College hired Ramirez last December as the its first chief diversity officer, and there seems to be a strong consensus that her presence has been an important addition to the College.

One of Ramirez's main responsibilities is coming up with initiatives to make diversity more sustainable. To do so, she works with all members of the College community, from student organizations to the financial aid office. Ramirez describes that part of her job as asking a lot of questions, such as "are we really creating an environment here that works for people of all walks of life?"

She emphasized the importance of integrating diversity into everyday life at Middlebury, instead of separating it as a side issue, and said that an important part of creating a diverse student body is attracting scholars from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds.

"One of our biggest challenges is figuring out how we can have more socioeconomic diversity," said Ramirez.

On this issue, the College already has an admirable track record - it has sought to attract students from low-income backgrounds through its financial aid program and through its partnership with the Posse Foundation of New York City, a program that is designed to help inner-city high school students attend selective colleges and universities. Posse scholars now make up about 25 students per class, according to Ramirez.

But attracting students from low-income backgrounds in urban areas to a small, expensive college in rural Vermont is only the first step. The bigger challenge is figuring out how to make Posse scholars and others from diverse backgrounds feel welcome and supported once they arrive on campus.

One student's experience with an insensitive professor shows that Middlebury still has a long road to travel before it overcomes this challenge.

"I never wrote a paper before I came to Middlebury," said Angelica Towne '08, a Posse scholar from Harlem and the chair of the SGA Diversity Committee. Towne recounts that when she got to campus as a first-year, she sat down with her academic advisor to discuss her inexperience with the academic expectations she found in her classes.

Instead of encouraging her or advising her to go the library's Center for Teaching, Learning and Research for help with her writing, Towne's advisor drew out a graph for her showing where he expected her grades to be compared with those students who had attended private schools.

"He told me I would see mostly C's during my freshman and sophomore year and would probably not see an A until my senior year," she said.

Towne's encounter with her unsympathetic advisor certainly reflects why the College is not only concerned with the diversity of the students at Middlebury, but also with getting the faculty to be more sensitive to students with diverse backgrounds. One of the changes that Ramirez wishes for is "to have a faculty and curriculum that reflects the diversity of our students here."

Morgane Richardson '08, president of Women of Color, feels similarly and believes that it is essential to have more members of the faculty with whom she can relate.

"It would be nice to have more faculty of color," she said.

Brian Pacheco '08, president of the Alianza Latinoamerica y CaribeÒa, agreed and added, "The professors here have to be mindful of cultural differences. A lot of teachers don't understand how your cultural differences can reflect on your work in class."

Outside of the classroom, the diversity at Middlebury, in terms of interaction among all of the different students of our student body, also leaves a lot of room for improvement. Many groups on campus hold lectures and events with ethnic speakers, but Richardson noted that she "always sees the same faces coming to the events that we organize."

Social barriers to creating a culturally sensitive community are also significant. Ramirez said that she has noticed that women of color tend to have an exceptionally hard time with the dating scene, feeling that they have a status of being "untouchable" to most of the men on campus and often only date outside of the College.

Another problem that Towne brought up specifically pertaining to low-income students at Middlebury is the multitude of hidden costs for everything from textbooks to late-night runs to The Grille. A student's financial aid might cover almost all academic expenses, but when it comes to dishing out money for a ticket to Winter Carnival or theatrical performances, that student might have to stand on the sideline and watch his or her wealthier peers have all the fun.

Off-campus programs such as going abroad or traveling during Winter Term are also a source of concern for students who have limited financial means. This Winter Term, Towne will be going to Ethiopia, and even though she received a grant to pay for the trip, she is concerned about the other necessary costs. How she will pay for the required vaccinations?

And, of course, there is always debt. Many students are able to attend Middlebury only because they receive loans, and Towne highlighted the stress these loans can cause students as they are heading towards graduation.

"Once you hit senior year and are looking at job choices, you're wondering how you're going to pay," she said.

So what is being done and what can be done to further pr
omote the diversity at Middlebury? One of the main things that Ramirez is most excited about is her work with the Faculty Working Group on Diversity Initiatives to develop a new center that will focus on Race and Ethnic Studies. This center will be opening on campus in Carr Hall within the next year and will concentrate on looking at race and ethnicity through a multidimensional perspective by studying things like class and sexuality.

Ramirez also stressed the importance of "fusion among different groups that wouldn't usually come together."

Chester Harvey '09, a Student Government Association Senator and a member of the Sunday Night Group, also emphasized the importance of such fusion.

"How can you get the environmentalists, the jocks, AAA [African American Alliance] and MOQA [Middlebury Open Queer Alliance] all working together?" he asked.

Harvey was a participant in the Eco-Equity Retreat, an assembly of environmental, cultural and even art organizations who met to discuss all sides and facets of the issue of global warming. Harvey described that much of this retreat was just about getting to know all of the different leaders there and figuring out how they can all work together to tackle issues on campus. He also commented on the present efforts to figure out how to further endorse this collaboration between students through setting up more forums for discussion between groups and through looking at ways groups can collaborate financially. Right now, financial systems at the college mostly promote working independently, but Harvey suggested, "what if we had a chunk of money that you could only access with four other groups?"

Harvey pointed out that the group of students working on this collaboration initiative is small. Whether or not the administration is doing the best job to enhance the diversity at Middlebury, student participation is key and can make a huge difference. While students cannot necessarily change the opinions of culturally insensitive professors or make the percentage of African Americans attending the college go up, there are lots of areas in which they can make a difference. It does not take much to attend a lecture or symposium on diversity, and even less to say "Hi" and smile at a person in the dining hall whose skin is a different color than your own.

According to Pacheco, diversity is "an issue that not only the administration needs to face, but the students themselves."