MiddView Enforces Mandatory Attendance

It is a rare feat to find 140 college students spending their Saturday night playing cards, board games or doing puzzles – and liking it. But the Common Ground Center found nothing less on Saturday, Aug. 30, as 140 soon-to-embark MiddView leaders whiled away the last night of their retreat in a mountainous valley, puzzling wintery scenes, mastering Settlers of Catan or slapping Jacks until their palms reddened, with little cell service and no distractions from academic or social stress.

The four-night retreat began on Wednesday, Aug. 27, and offered workshops on mentorship, health and wellness, community building, reflection, risk management and hard skills to the volunteer leaders. Guests such as Director of Health and Wellness Education Barbara McCall, Director of Civic Engagement Tiffany Sargent and Atwater Commons Dean Scott Barnicle lead the group in conversations and exercises, building leadership skills and fostering community among the group.

“This project as a whole has a thousand things going into it,” said MiddView intern Rod Abhari ’15. The retreat was the culmination of his summer’s work. “It was cool to see most of the things aligning perfectly; pretty much the only problem we had was having so much we wanted to do.”

Though the retreat offered an abundance of reflection, bonding time and ice breaker games, several leaders, questioned the necessity of such an extravagant and extensive training model, considering the financial effort the College had made for the trips themselves.

“When it actually came down to how I lead on my trip, I think [the training] was probably a little superfluous,” said MiddView leader Jordan Collins ’15.5.

“It helped me get into the mindset of a first-year student, but I think it could have been one or two days, especially because it was probably a lot of money they were spending.”

The intra-leader connection proved perhaps the most valuable aspect of the training. “It helped me see different ways leaders approach certain roles, and it inspired me to be a better leader in ways I wouldn’t have been exposed to otherwise,” said Collins.

Since the beginning of last spring semester, Derek Doucet, director of outdoor programs and club sports, Amanda Reinhardt, orientation trips coordinator, MiddView interns Jack Peisch ’15 and Abhari, have been pouring over spreadsheets, sending reams of emails and contemplating overarching goals to provide over 600 first-years with trips. The trips had themes such as Exploring Education in Rural Communities, Housing Access in Vermont, The Music Scene in Vermont, Storytelling and Folklore, Capoiera, Backpacking, Trail Maintenance and Sailing. They were divided into three categories: Community Engagement, Vermont Exploration and Wilderness Exploration.

Though in its inaugural year, the MiddView program branches off 25-plus years of the College’s tradition of orientation trips. Middlebury Outdoor Orientation (MOO), the College’s first and longest-lasting orientation trip program, originated with predominantly outdoor excursions, later expanding to include volunteer components and later still, an option called “This is Vermont,” a trip in which first-years stayed at Breadloaf and toured the state on buses, visiting sites from the capitol to Ben and Jerry’s.

This first-come, first-served system, while a positive experience for participants, remained divisive among the first-year class, as several students were denied spots on trips.

“This [lottery system] meant that for some students, their first experience with Middlebury beyond their initial acceptance was one of disappointment,” said Katie Smith Abbott, dean of students and assistant professor of art and architecture.

In 2007, Smith Abbott joined the student life team, oversaw Orientation and became determined to open orientation trips to every first-year student, no questions asked.

“If (as we knew to be the case), our trips offered students a transformative experience and if we were offering these experiences athrough small-group, student-led trips focused on challenge and growth, why in the world could we not make these available to any student who wanted to participate?” said Smith Abbott.

One year and a lot of dedication later, MiddView, version 1.0, was born, with Derek Doucet, associate dean of students and, Doug Adams, associate director of internships and career services, JJ Boggs, associate dean of students for student activities and orientation, Tiffany Sargent, director of civic engagement, and, of course, Smith Abbott, leading the charge. Three hundred and eight first-year students embarked on voluntary trips of their choice, with fully-trained leaders and coordinators supporting the system from the inside.

“We were ecstatic,” said Smith Abbott.

But a month later, the financial crisis hit.

“That was that,” she said. “The college pressed a big pause button (that felt like a big cancel button to students) on MiddView.”

But the cancel button proved reversible. Through several petitions, resolution, and Mountain Club-SGA collaboration, the temporary outdoor introduction program Outdoor Orientation for New Kids (OINK) was introduced, with the SGA agreeing to budget $141,000 for four years of trips for 165 students, selected by application. Participants still paid an approximately $200 fee, with financial aid available.

As OINK’s planned expiration date neared, “we got to a place where lots of us, including Dean of the College, Shirley Collado were going for broke: we’re doing trips for every student, or we’re not doing them,” said Smith Abbott.

And, with hours of meetings and negotiations having pulled all the details together, MiddView officially launched last spring, with the help of student representatives and administrators alike. The plan in place lands half the budget in the hands of the SGA and half in those of the College, intending over three years to allocate all costs to the College.

“Thrilling and terrifying,” said Smith Abbott. “You did have a moment at some point to reflect on the enormity of all of this, right?” she asked. “626 first-years?  148 leaders?  All launched at once?”

As the MiddView program is in its first official year, the model is still in its formative stages. “I’m sure we’ll learn a great deal from the assessment process and make plenty of refinements for next year, but on balance I’m really pleased with the way training went,” Doucet said. The organizers remain confident that the pilot MiddView, version 2.0, trips were a success.

According to Doucet, the philosophy behind MiddView is based on three central goals: “fostering the creation of a supportive small peer group through shared experience, facilitating opportunities for intentional reflection on this time of transition…and introducing the first years to various aspects of the campus community.”

The overwhelming reaction to the trips seemed to reflect these ideas.

But for all the positives of these mandatory excursions, conflict arose for several fall athletes, whose trips conflicted with their season-opening games. Field Hockey, Men and Women’s Soccer and Men and Women’s Golf played their first matches this past weekend without the help of their first-year teammates, and the first-years were prevented from experiencing the first game of the season. Frustration teemed among upperclassmen athletes, who felt their chances were unfairly altered due to the trip requirement, and many first-year players grumbled that they’d rather be on the field than in a tent. Many understood, however, the pros of the MiddView scheduling construction.

Erin Quinn, director of athletics, recognized the importance of MiddView in making ties between athletes and non-athletes among the first year class, a bond that is often difficult to form.

“The inclusion of first-year athletes supports the integration of athletics as an important component of student life, and the full integration of athletes into the student experience,” said Quinn.

While there are some challenges with scheduling, the mandatory aspect of the program worked to provide a stronger foundation among the first-year class.

“The diversity that having the trips mandatory brought to my group was really great,” said Collins, “because sometimes trips like that can be pretty self-selecting, and instead we had a great group of people with different senses of humor from all over the country, all these different kinds of kids who came together.”

Athletics aside, controversy also became evident over the idea of first-year missing their first weekend of college.

Abhari believes this is one of the greatest advantages of MiddView’s setup. Without another option of a way to spend their weekend, first-years “avoid the fear of missing out,” said Abhari, citing parties and meeting upperclassmen as two of these potentially tempting options.

Collins echoed this idea, saying, “I think it was super liberating for the first-years to be in a setting that they could totally immerse themselves in, without having any expectations or outlets for regret.”

Abhari also stressed the importance of first-years spending their first weekend of college substance-free, an unwavering policy of the program.

“We want to set up the norms that there are other fun things to do on the weekends,” said Abhari. “You can choose to drink or you can choose to do other really fun things, and we’re showing you the other options.”

“A large part of it is we want first-years to ultimately be happier on campus,” he continued. “That’s what a good orientation does – helps them find a place, their identity, and meet people with common interests on campus.  We’re presenting them with other productive options, things they can engage in and get involved with. We want to help first-years adjust to college life and these trips help them in that regard in a number of ways.”

Though its mandatory participation and scheduling conflicts sparked some dispute, MiddView went off essentially without a hitch, according to Abhari.