editorial

Author: [no author name found]

Bringing workload to the table

Chances are, if you are a student on campus at this time of year, you are reading this editorial somewhere between your morning lecture courses, your afternoon sports or a capella practices and that meeting with the student organization of your choice to plan the next film screening. Maybe, right now, you are squeezing in a cup of coffee before dashing down to the library to knock out a research paper and an Economics problem set.

Slow down: what's wrong with this picture?

Harry Lewis, a former dean at Harvard College, spoke last week at the College. His lecture consisted largely of sweeping charges leveled against higher education in America, and while ultimately more skilled at pointing to problems in the system than offering solutions, Lewis's lecture did raise questions about the nature of a liberal arts education in America today.

Lewis's best advice for Middlebury students was his recommendation to "slow down," to achieve more by doing less. With complaints about the workload at the College cropping up among students and faculty both, it is time for the institution to actively engage these concerns in a meaningful way. Administrators have acknowledged the problem - or perceived problem - exists, but no action has been taken, not even in the form of those open forums or sub-committees of which the College is so relentlessly fond. This reluctance to engage this clearly heated debate is disconcerting.

Students are responsible for making informed decisions and healthy choices about their time commitments. Assistance from the administration, however, would ultimately serve to foster a stronger institutional atmosphere of reflection and academic growth. Currently, Middlebury only reinforces the belief among students that success is only success when it is achieved simultaneously in multiple arenas, which is unsurprising considering that students have been rewarded for their frenetic pursuit of excellence in high school with admission to a prestigious college.

This activity overload is not necessarily negative - Middlebury students prize their experiences here precisely because they are varied and exciting. That said, the College should integrate tools into its arsenal to better help students make their own informed decisions about managing their time and making the most of their educations.

The first step? Invest in more extensive training for first-year seminar professors. The best of first-year advisors are vocal and enthusiastic presences in their students' lives. The worst sign Add Cards without batting an eye and take little interest in or note of the sometimes tumultuous lives of their bright-eyed but easily-overwhelmed first-years. In a similar vein, encouraging students to take more advantage of the Counseling Services and commons deans, particularly by scheduling regular meetings as their academic careers progress, would keep students reflecting on the choices they make about where they invest their time and energy.

While undoubtedly controversial, other, more proactive options deserve serious discussion. Strongly discouraging students from taking five classes each semester and from majoring in multiple disciplines - perhaps by requiring a rigorous application for both options - would make students think twice before overloading their schedules academically. This would additionally serve the purpose of lightening the demand placed on our excellent but overworked professors.

Perhaps Middlebury, in looking to the future, should even consider a trimester schedule. Trimesters would allow students to take the same number of classes over the course of the year while, ideally, building time for reflection and synthesis into the academic schedule. A return to the controversial debate about allowing a pass/fail option in classes instead of conventional grading is also a worthwhile pursuit.

It is time for Middlebury students and faculty both to slow down - and for the debate about the workload on campus to speed up.