The college announced changes to the composition of the class dean structure in early February, marked in part by the hiring of new dean, Sabrina Durand, this past fall.
While there were previously three class deans — a dean for first years, a dean for sophomores, and a single dean shared between juniors and seniors — Durand’s arrival this fall means there are now four class deans. With the addition of a fourth dean, some previous deans have moved to work with different class years this semester: Jen Sellers became the dean of the junior year experience, and Scott Barnicle moved into the role of the dean of the senior year experience. Matt Longman remains the dean of the sophomore year experience and MariAnn Osborne the class dean coordinator.
In an email to The Campus, Derek Doucet, associate vice president and dean of students, discussed the considerations that went into the decision to shift from a three-dean system to a four-dean system. He wrote that the use of the three-dean system rested on the assumption that junior and senior students would require less support as they advanced in their Middlebury careers, as they would be more familiar with the college’s resources and processes than younger students.
“Those assumptions proved correct — juniors and seniors do utilize student support resources, in the aggregate, less frequently than their younger counterparts, but not to a sufficient degree to make the three-dean structure optimal for students or sustainable for the dean,” Doucet wrote. “We therefore decided to move to a four-dean system to better serve our junior and senior students, and make the job more sustainable for the dean.”
His colleagues agreed that this updated system would enhance support for Middlebury students across all classes.
“By separating out the Class Deans for the Junior and Senior Years, we will be able to focus more of our efforts on supporting students as they navigate high impact experiences such as study abroad, internships and supervised research in addition to providing guidance to students as they prepare for the transition to their lives beyond the Middlebury campus,” Jen Sellers wrote in an email to The Campus.
Sellers believes that despite the difficulty inherent to any transition, all members of the class dean team are excited about the group’s increased capacity to engage with students in a more focused manner over their four years at Middlebury.
“The role of the Class Dean is to support students in conceptualizing, working towards, and achieving their collegiate goals . . . Class Deans want to create opportunities for students to understand how all types of experiences – the great, the neutral, and even the not so great – are giving them skills and perspectives that their future selves will benefit from . . . Class Deans also spend considerable time helping students understand the myriad types of support that are available to them. Middlebury is a resource rich institution, but sometimes these resources can become overwhelming,” Sellers said.
Doucet added that deans are often a primary form of support for many students and that establishing a relationship with one’s dean can greatly enrich the collegiate experience.
Some students agree that the addition of a fourth class dean will enhance support for students on campus.
“I think having two deans for the junior and senior classes will be better because it will encourage people to keep using them as a resource if needed as we go throughout our college experience,” said Tatum Peskin ’24.
“I’ve had pretty limited experience with my dean at Middlebury. I remember getting really sick my freshman year and having to get a dean’s excuse for my school work, but I haven’t interacted with my dean at all since then,” said Violet Ross, ’25. “Despite this, I think adding an extra class dean is probably a good thing for Middlebury students, given the support/advocacy that deans offer and the rise of mental health issues we’ve seen on campus in the past couple of years,” she added.
Given the important roles that deans play in the lives of students at Middlebury, both Doucet and Sellers welcome these recent changes as they will increase the capacity of deans to actively support students.
“There is so much to be excited about! The junior year is a time in students’ lives when they get to ‘try out’ possible futures and apply their learning in very tangible ways,” Sellers wrote, in reference to taking on her new role as dean of the junior experience. “In just these few short days, I have really enjoyed hearing about what students are doing. I’ve also appreciated students’ willingness to share challenges with me. This allows me to better support them in the moment, and it also allows me to think about ways I might be able to offer proactive guidance and support to future students.”
