The Student Government Association (SGA) passed a resolution to reduce the number of credits needed to graduate from 36 to 34. The change, proposed on March 14, has not been implemented and would need faculty approval to become the new graduation criteria at the college.
Written by SGA President Abed Abbas ’24, alongside Directors of SGA Academic Affairs Michael Eller ’24 and Christopher Martucci ’25, the resolution passed unanimously with 11 votes in favor.
The SGA announced the proposed change in an email to the student body on April 2, providing the resolution and informing them of the ongoing discussions between faculty, administration and student leadership.
The email encouraged students to discuss this with peers and professors, and requested that students fill out a feedback form with opinions or concerns about the proposed credit reduction.
According to the resolution, lowering the number of credits needed to graduate by two has been previously discussed at faculty meetings, but no action has been taken.
The resolution outlines a number of reasons why the SGA believes the change is warranted, including a suggestion that the reduction would make the credit completion process at Middlebury more equitable.
“The key impact here is that lowering the graduation requirement by two credits would extend flexibility in academic schedules to all students. All students, regardless if they have AP/IB credits from high school, would now have the capacity to take two J-Terms off, or take two semesters with a load of three classes,” Martucci wrote in a message to The Campus.
The change would also offer students more flexibility to study abroad, according to Martucci.
“By lowering the number of credits required to graduate, numerous study abroad programs will become more feasible for all students as they don’t need to worry about all of their classes transferring to Middlebury in order to graduate on time,” Martucci wrote.
With two credits fewer to complete, students would be able to devote more time to their other courses and academic activities, Eller described.
“This will give students more flexibility during the academic year to devote significant time to intensive research projects with faculty, departmental theses, courses that tend to have more instruction time (turbo and introductory language classes, superlabs, etc.), in-semester internships, and other programs,” Eller wrote in an email to The Campus.
He also explained that students undergoing personal hardship would have more flexibility in rescheduling or postponing assignments and activities.
“Additionally, this reduction in credits allows students who may be facing any sort of extenuating circumstance during the semester to restructure their schedule while still being on-track for graduation and not having to ‘double-up’ with a fifth class during a future semester,” Eller added.
He clarified that this change would not prevent students from accruing more than 34 credits during their time at Middlebury if they would like to do so.
In support of the credit reduction, the resolution cites the curricular requirements of Colby College and Williams College — peer institutions that, like Middlebury, have a winter term, but only require 32 credits to graduate.
The resolution also suggested that moving to a 34 credit threshold could alleviate some of the difficulties posed by course registration, allowing for more space in courses when there otherwise would be limited seating availability.
“In theory, requiring less classes to graduate might allow more seats to be open in some classes but there may also be cases where, if students take fewer classes overall, some classes may not run because there are simply less students interested in taking the class,” wrote Vice President of Academic Affairs Jeremy Ward in an email to The Campus.
Ward described the class enrollment aspect of the change as hard to predict and suggested SGA consider this further.
A 34 credit system poses a potential reconfiguration of how students utilize J-Term, where students often acquire credits outside of their majors to complete distribution requirements or engage in short internships, according to Ward.
“Depending on how the 34 courses are distributed across the semesters during a 4-year curriculum of any given student, Winter Term could be an excellent place for targeted, individual study, like it is now. It could also become a time where internships play a greater role,” Ward wrote.
The SGA and its Academic Affairs Committee have been considering ways to give students more academic flexibility since last fall, according to Abbas. He added that the SGA has communicated with college administrators throughout their discussion of changing the credit requirement.
Associate Provost for Planning LeRoy Graham, who works with accreditation, and Vice President for Student Financial Services and Enrollment Kim Downs-Burns, who is familiar with the U.S. Department of Education’s requirements regarding instruction, provided input to the SGA as they created the resolution.
“They both confirmed that there are no logistical/legal barriers to dropping the requirement to 34 and that the change only requires a faculty vote,” Abbas wrote.
Ward commended the collaboration between students, faculty and administration that this resolution has involved, and emphasized the importance of including student voices in deliberations over educational objectives.
“I think a really important take home from the processes so far are the great collaborations that are developing between student government, faculty committees, and the College administration. I very much enjoyed working with the SGA this year and look forward to more discussions with them,” Ward wrote.
Cole Chaudhari ’26 (he/him) is a Managing Editor.
Cole is a managing editor at The Campus, where he has previously served as a news editor, copy editor, and staff writer. He is a junior, and is studying history and literature.
