Editorial - 02/11/10

After many weeks of hype and expectation, the new Middlebury Web site launched last week to equal measures of excitement and uncertainty.

Having spent over a year tailoring the site and seeking input from different community groups, the Web makeover team’s (mostly) finished product marks a bold departure from convention. Naturally, doubts about this boldness abound — ranging from the much-maligned “bars” of the front page to newfound difficulties navigating the site’s updated layout.

Cosmetic critiques aside, we find the College’s boldness with respect to the Web refreshing. It aims to redefine Middlebury at a time when many liberal arts institutions are undergoing painful changes that will have profound effects on their character and composition.

Middlebury’s new Web site, distinctive as it is from the cookie-cutter pages of its peers, puts the College in a good position not only to compete with those peers, but to lead them by breaking from the pack.

Success on this count depends largely on the College’s effective engagement with its brand. Despite controversy several years ago over the redesign of the College logo — an experience that elicited widespread barbs about the rise of “Midd Corp.” — few can deny that Middlebury has always been subject to one brand or another.

The difference today is that the College is now asserting more control over its brand than ever before. Whether with tongue-in-cheek “page not found... or covered in snow” error messages or by omitting the word “College” from its front page, Middlebury is making increasingly conscious choices about what to present to the world.

What the Middlebury community ought to consider now is not whether this bold, new Web site is categorically good or categorically bad, but whether this bold, new Web site effectively represents the Middlebury identity.

Depending on your role in this community, your answers may differ. Even among the members of our staff, a consensus was elusive — some voiced concerns about the seemingly arbitrary selection of front-page content, particularly the student profiles, while others found those profiles precisely what makes the Web site accessible to those outside our community.

With the right feedback from students and community members, administrators will come to populate the site with content that is as diverse, interactive, multi-dimensional and creative as the Middlebury student body. But that can’t happen until we have a collective discussion about who we are, who we want to be and, most importantly, what this place is all about.