Reaccreditation seeks student input

Every decade, American colleges and universities must go through a rigorous examination to prove their effectiveness as an institution. The College is now in the midst of this reaccreditation process.

For the past 18 months, the Reaccreditation Steering Committee and numerous subcommittees have investigated all aspects of the College. The results were put into a 114-page draft self study emailed to students March 18.

Dean of Planning and Assessment, Professor of Psychology and Director of the College's Self-Study Susan Campbell said the self-examination is beneficial in two ways.

“It’s not just a process where we’re meeting the requirements of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC),” she said. “It’s also an opportunity for us to think about how we want to get better as an institution.”

Campbell says the draft was released to students to solicit their opinions, which will be included in the final report.

“Now is the moment for people who haven’t had a big role to weigh-in and say ‘that looks like the institution I know’ or ‘wait a minute, here’s an issue you haven’t highlighted but I think is a concern and I want it addressed,’” she said.

Gus Jordan, executive director of Health and Counseling Services and chair of the subcommittee charged with student life, feels that students don’t need to read the entire draft to get involved.

“I hope students will read chapter six regarding student life — it’s only 12 pages — and give us feedback on how authentically the chapter reads,” Jordan wrote in an email. “Does it match reality ‘on the ground’ from student’s perspectives?”

Campbell also recommends students read the five-page institutional overview section — which she says gives a good overview of the themes and issues that run across the College.

“I bet students would recognize some themes and be interested in others that they weren’t so familiar with,” she said.

The draft also covers student services at each of the College’s affiliated schools — the Monterey Institute for International Studies, the summer language schools, the Bread Loaf School of English and the C.V. Starr-Middlebury Schools Abroad.

“All of our affiliated schools offer a variety of student services appropriate to each setting and we attempted to address aspects of each school,” he said, “though the undergraduate college here in Middlebury gets most of the attention.”

Campbell stressed that student participation will not only help the College’s self-study, but also benefit student life in the future.

“We [the administration] think we have identified some issues, but we want to hear what students have to say,” she said. “If there are issues that students think we could do better about, we want to hear what students have to say.”

Many students embrace the opportunity to become involved in shaping the future of the College.

“Oftentimes it is difficult to weigh in on issues that you believe are important to the improvement of the College, but this study gives you the rare opportunity to voice an opinion on student life,” said Robert Shimasaki ’13. “With such a small student body, every voice matters, and I feel that by participating in this study you receive the rare opportunity to speak out on campus issues that concern you.”

According to Campbell, students will get two chances to voice their opinions. A general meeting open to all will be held on April 11 at 12:30 p.m. in the McCullough Student Center and a students-only meeting will be announced via email after spring break.