Middlebury expands language ties to California

Author: Denizhan Duran

President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz announced on Sept. 16 that Middlebury's 94-year old Summer Language Schools would expand with a new site on the campus of Mills College in Oakland, CA. The entire Arabic school, as well as portions of the Spanish, French and Italian schools will be relocated to the West Coast. With this expansion, the Language Schools can now accommodate 1,500 students.

"As the United States sees the importance of second or third languages as necessary in a more globalized world, more people are turning to Middlebury as the gold standard in intensive language instruction," said Liebowitz in a press release, underlining the significance of expansion. Arabic was one of the main factors in this major change in the structure of the Language Schools.

"Arabic has the highest enrollment pressure-out of 645 applications we have received, we could only admit 125. The new spot will let us increase the capacity by 30-40 people," said Vice President of Language Schools and Schools Abroad Michael Geisler.

Geisler also stated the attractiveness of the location for recruitment.

"Finding professors teaching Arabic has always been a difficulty for the college," said Geisler. "I am sure that a professor from Beirut will prefer coming to Oakland, a city in the San Francisco Bay Area, rather than coming to Middlebury."

The Mills campus is also a very beautiful one, Geisler said, stating that it was "Middlebury with a Spanish accent."

Students studying Arabic at the Mills campus will also embrace a vibrant community: being in a more urban area than Middlebury and situated in the San Francisco Bay Area, Oakland also has an Arabic community.

"I think it's a good idea that the Arabic school is being moved to Oakland," said Austin Davis '11, a recent alumnus of the Arabic school. "If I were in a semi-urban area, then I would have been able to speak Arabic with people outside of the language school bubble."

Another recent alumnus, Alex Reynolds '11, echoed this statement.

"In terms of the location, I think Oakland is more advantageous than Middlebury, especially for Spanish, and being in the San Francisco Bay Area would be more enjoyable as opposed to being here for the summer," he said.

Geisler states that the costs incurred by traveling to California would be offset by the increased Kathryn Davis Fellowships and the financial aid program of the language schools.