notes from the desk Middlebury - you're a B+ in my book

Author: Peter Baumann

Like any other Middlebury student, I complain a lot. I don't understand why our 2006 Strategic Plan placed an emphasis on recruiting new faculty in order to improve our faculty-to-student ratio, yet the additions seem awfully slow in coming, at least when staring at 35+ student seminars. Perhaps that's less about faculty recruitment than about blown admissions numbers, but the net result is a watered-down learning experience - and a step backward in an area that the school identified as vitally important less than three years ago.

I also don't understand the logic behind the Proctor renovation. Suppose I get over the hassle of having all three dining halls tucked away on half the campus and how packed the Atwater and Ross dining rooms will be. I still have yet to hear a decent explanation for why the Proctor work can't begin during summer vacation to at least compress the headaches. It sure seems that the College has made the conscious choice to avoid inconveniencing its Summer Spanish Language School students, who pay a fraction of the tuition of their full-time counterparts.

Come to think of it, I don't understand the ambiguity of our alcohol policy, especially when I see students being written-up for enjoying a beer in their room while un-registered keggers go unpunished. I don't understand why a dorm as large as Hepburn has only one TV, which is located in a room that can be "reserved" during the football playoffs. I don't understand why a school with our resources has a Web-registration system that crashes every time registration comes around.

So I guess there is a lot about Middlebury that I don't get, even that I don't like. But when it comes right down to it, most of my gripes are marginal. To be fair, there's a lot I really like about this place.

I love the passion each of my professors brings to class day in and day out. Even when I don't agree with their methods, their policies or their grades, I can't help but be impressed by how they never, ever take a day off.

I love the gamble the College took a couple of decades ago to dip deep into their endowment to improve facilities on campus. Every time I walk into Kenyon, the New Library, John McCardell Bicentennial Hall, the CFA, Atwater Suites and Dining Hall or look at the soon-to-be-completed Axinn-Starr Center, I take pride in the financial risk the Board of Trustees decided to take. While the drama and effort surrounding the College's current $500 million capital campaign may be an ill-advised offshoot of that initial success, I'm proud that my school went against conventional wisdom in order to provide a better product.

I love how I still get e-mails from my Intro to American Politics professor, detailing the intricacies of American electoral politics. He didn't just teach me for a semester - he continues to teach me each time I open one of his frequent e-mails. And I love how Middlebury was willing to admit that the commons system had more than its fair share of flaws. The administration stepped back and maintained what worked (a support-system within the general college community), while jettisoning what didn't (the drastic housing imbalance).

I love that the Career Services Office provides funding for student internships. That's one of the best examples of the College making sure that every student has equal opportunities, regardless of their socio-economic background.

I love how hard the school tries to integrate itself with the town instead of becoming an island unto itself. While I don't always agree with their actions (a chocolate bar?), I really applaud the effort. I think the town does, too.

I love how good our athletic teams are and I love even more how well the athletes are integrated into the general college community. It's pretty cool to watch an All-American play, but it's even cooler to have him help you out in your Econ study group the next day.

Most of all, I love the support that that I feel on this campus - from friends who are quick to help pick you up, to deans who are willing to give you a second chance when you really screw up; from first-year professors who still stop by to chat in the library, to coaches who care more about developing you as a person than they do about developing you as a player. This campus is full of people who work hard at making sure that nobody falls between the cracks and every student leaves the College a better and more prepared person than they were when they entered. In the end, gripes aside, isn't that why we're here?

All in all I give Middlebury about a B+ on the grading scale that they are constantly using to evaluate me.

And speaking as a habitual B+ student - with several notable exceptions, both up and down - if I were them, I'd take it.

Peter Baumann '10 is a Political Science major from Denver, Colo.