Strategic Plan aims remain unchanged

In May 2006, the Middlebury College Board of Trustees unanimously approved a strategic plan, entitled “Knowledge without Boundaries,” which strengthens the College’s mission as an institution of higher education.
The report includes a lengthy list of recommendations that seek to improve certain elements of the College. These recommendations were divided into five categories: “shaping the student body,” “enhancing community,” “curriculum and faculty,” “Middlebury’s graduate school and specialized programs,” and “campus, infrastructure and environment.”  Over the past three and a half years, the College has released progress reports that highlight significant developments made with the strategic plan’s agenda. The most recent update was released in May 2009, summarizing the progress made from the period between December 2008 to May 2009.  A facet of the plan with utmost importance to the College is expanding the socioeconomic diversity of the student body by providing ample financial aid for qualified students. By reducing the loan component of the financial-aid packages, the College has been able to remain competitive with other peer institutions. “One of the highest priorities of the strategic plan is to enhance financial aid,” said Dean of the College Tim Spears.  Kathryn Benson ’13 believes that offering financial assistance for those with need should be something that the college expands upon in the future. As well as offering students generous financial aid packages throughout their four years at Middlebury, Benson thinks that the College should assist students with travel expenses. “Perhaps having funds for students to tap into so that they could get home easier and more frequently would be beneficial to the Middlebury community,” said Benson. Another recommendation proposed by the strategic plan seeks to “identify and recruit more top-rated academic applicants.”
Kevin Redmon ’09.5 believes that this recommendation is misguided and has altered the types of students that the College admits. By focusing solely on applicants’ grades and extracurricular participation, Redmon has noticed that the College is beginning to lose its unique student body. “The composition of the student body has changed in four years,” said Redmon. “It’s gotten profoundly less weird, less quirky and off-beat.” A more controversial recommendation set out by the strategic plan is one that seeks to “limit the use of community housing by students.” This recommendation was prompted due to concerns about driving up rent in the town and the student personalities lost when seniors live off campus.  “We are a residential liberal arts college and part of our mission is to foster a sense of community on campus,” said Spears.  As of May 2009, the College has not made significant progress with this recommendation due partially to insufficient funding needed to build new residential buildings and issues of over-crowding in pre-existing housing options. Although the strategic plan states that the college should limit the number of students living off-campus to 60, more than 90 seniors are living in community housing this academic year. Redmon lives in a house off-campus and is relieved that the College has not addressed this recommendation yet. “I’m glad they haven’t done much work on that because we love living in our house,” said Redmon. The strategic plan focused on strengthening the commons systems by proposing infrastructural plans that would unite commons buildings together as a whole. This goal has not made much progress yet due to financial limitations and student disapproval of the four-year commons system, which limited juniors and seniors to live in commons housing options. The current 4-2 commons system was a reaction to student outcry of the previous system in which students remain affiliated with their commons for their four years at Middlebury, but can live anywhere on campus after their sophomore year. The trustees acknowledged student concerns and attempted to incorporate these issues into the plan. The numerous recommendations seeking to tackle environmental issues developed out of the strong sense of student environmentalism had been present on campus for several years prior to the drafting of the strategic plan. Another recommendation encourages the strengthening of the college’s environmental leadership and reputation. This part of the strategic plan has prompted successful environmental initiatives, such as the construction of the biomass energy plant, the “greening” of Hillcrest Environmental Center and the College’s goal of carbon neutrality by 2016. Spears notes that the strategic plan did not necessarily create these environmental initiatives, but rather fostered their development. “These [environmental] initiatives have evolved and bubbled up and then become institutionalized,” said Spears.  The economic recession has hindered the progress of the several goals set out by the strategic plan. For example, one recommendation calls for a “senior work project” as a graduation requirement starting with the Class of 2013. The College originally intended to hire more staff members to aid seniors with their senior work projects; however, given the economic situation, the College is looking for more effective ways to make senior work an integral part of the Middlebury experience.
Spears emphasized that although financial constraints have limited the execution of certain elements of the strategic plan, the ultimate mission of the plan that was delineated three years ago has remained the same. “For the most part, the goals have not changed, but what has changed perhaps is the pace at which we can achieve those goals given the financial situation,” said Spears.