College to offer MOO-style trips to all first-years

Author: Patrick Jobson

The administration will reduce the amount of activities in orientation and create an outdoor experience for every incoming student who was not accepted for Middlebury Outdoor Orientation (MOO) beginning next fall. According to Tim Spears, dean of the College, and Katy Abbott, associate dean of the College, the overload of activities and the inequity of MOO have taken the institution to design a new orientation planned for the class of 2012.

To tackle the overloaded orientation schedule, the new orientation will reduce the amount of activities, allowing students just to "hang out and have more breathing room for the first few days," said Abbott. As Spears said, "less can be more."

Currently, new students experience an overloaded schedule in addition to an already overwhelming transition. In less than a week students are bombarded with social activities, meetings, exams, discussions and handouts. Middlebury is "orienting you to a constant life of multitasking," said Abbott.

"What could we gain by reducing the sheer number of orientation week components," Abbott wrote on Spears' blog, "allowing students time to settle, forge friendships, and save for the second or third weeks of the semester some of what we now insist upon during week one?"

Among some other changes, administrators are considering decentralizing the welcome process in order to solve the lack of free time. That way, instead of heading to the Welcome Center on the first day, incoming students would directly be welcomed at the commons.

The administration is also discussing the option of offering an outdoor activity to every incoming student that is not accepted to MOO. In the past, MOO has been one of the most important and rewarding activities for first-year students during orientation. Nevertheless, MOO's lottery style selection process creates much dejection and a feeling of unfairness.

"I don't think it is fair because lots of people want to go and are unable," said Mariella Saavedra '11 who attempted to attend MOO but was not selected in the lottery, "I felt I was in a disadvantage because I didn't get to meet many people I would have liked to hang out with."

"How can it be that the first real introduction to the College starts with a rejection?" asked Spears.

Since the institution believes that MOO is such a meaningful event on orientation, administrators seek a way that "everyone can have an outdoor experience," said Abbott.

As for the actual MOO trips, instead of occurring before normal orientation begins, they would occur at the middle of the orientation week. That way the schedule would allow MOOers to accommodate and integrate themselves into their dorms and campus before heading to their MOO trips.

These changes to future orientations have logistical and budget challenges. Nevertheless, administrators claim that changing orientation is worth facing these challenges.

Although the current schedule is very effective in presenting a glimpse of what Middlebury life will be, according to Abbott, there is still "room to improve upon the model that is now in place."

According to Spears, the changes to orientation will better reflect Middlebury life for incoming first-years, said Spears.

"How is the College presenting itself to its students? Then compare it to the orientation."