Middlebury is a distinctly rural college. Ensuring a signature bucolic charm while trying to cater to an expanding student population with developing needs is an immense challenge. Hence, as the college prepares to open its new 298-bed, 87,000 square foot first year residence hall as early as this spring, concurrent and upcoming construction projects make us wonder about the future of our campus, not just in terms of its physical space, but in the experience of its current and future student bodies.
The rural setting of Middlebury plays a key role in not only why students choose to apply and enroll, but also in the continuous learning experience from matriculation to graduation. Given Middlebury’s remove from larger urban areas, the physical spaces that students have access to should be of paramount importance to the college, its stakeholders and its constituents.
The college has proposed the construction of a large new student center and dining facility on the premises currently occupied by Proctor Dining. The new four-story facility, with the capacity to seat 1,200 students, raises questions about the college’s character. We want to express our concerns about how this towering structure will impact the culture of our campus. Vermont is not a state known for large architectural projects; it notably does not allow billboards along its roads.
The construction of this new center will inevitably impact life at Middlebury and we have many unanswered questions about what this period will look like: Will other dining halls be temporarily expanded to accommodate the loss of Proctor during its reconstruction? Is it likely that the college will graduate a class that will not have the experience of eating in a Proc booth?
Four stories is quite the imposition for such a small section of campus — students living on the upper floors of buildings on Hillcrest and Hepburn roads may lose access to their views of the Knoll and the hills extending out on Route 125.
We hope the college has considered the impact of this facility on the Energy 2028 initiative, as it will undoubtedly require more energy consumption to fully execute on the various services and operations that will occur within it.
On another note, the upcoming renovation of Stewart Hall is a welcome project and one that aligns with our hopes that the college will become more accessible for students with disabilities and mobility impairments. We recognize and commend the effort to add an elevator in Stewart and replace its windows with those that can accommodate air conditioning units. We hope all future construction projects will maintain this investment in and orientation towards accessible living and working environments for all.
However, we are concerned about the college’s quality of communication to current and future students in regards to its construction plans. Many students are unaware of the new plans to renovate Proctor, and we call for a stronger effort on the college’s part to make the student body familiar with this and similar projects. Promote public displays of the plans and offer real opportunities for student feedback — and then act on it. Students may be encouraged to contribute if they know the college promised to amend its plans based on student feedback, rather than listening without action.
Speaking of student action, where is SGA in the middle of this debate? The new administration recently declared their goals for this year, which include “free speech on campus,” “life skills workshops,” and “open communication channels with community partners.” These are noble goals, yet they strike us as unambitious and vague to the point of being basically unachievable. We believe the SGA must reassert its voice in the most important debates on campus; we hope that this fall our elected leaders will be asking these same questions to the college that we are raising here.
As an editorial board, we failed to reach a consensus about the college’s plan to move its current art museum into a more central location on campus, as the museum currently receives few visitors. Moving it into the space currently occupied by Battell is certainly one strategy to increase student engagement with its collection, yet we do not know if the infrequently visited gallery should occupy such a central location on campus. Alternatively, the creation of new green spaces and outdoor classrooms is a welcome move for students and professors alike who may want to take advantage of trends in warmer weather and the Vermont landscape we all hold so dearly.
We suspect the construction of a new large first year dorm and another large dining facility signals an intended increase in overall student enrollment in the future. If the college intends to increase the number of students on campus — rather than attempt to revert back to pre-pandemic enrollment levels, the target figure of 2,500 students on campus each semester — then this change should be reflected in the admissions material distributed to prospective applicants. Point out the new construction on tours and be honest about the mixed bag — disruptions in the short-term for improvements in the long-term.
Ambitious construction projects and their implementers must take pains to ensure the projects can be safely and sustainably staffed. Visionary, forward-thinking renovations cannot come at the expense of college employees, who are already stretched thin in many areas and have voiced concerns about insufficient compensation in recent years. The college has a decades-long agenda for its physical renovations to the college’s campus; we believe it should clarify an equally ambitious plan to prevent placing increased demands on its staff through perennial over-enrollment and ever-higher expectations.
We also call on the college to share more details on how this will affect the granular aspects of student life on campus, such as access to parking lots, which have seen overcrowding in recent years. We wonder if visitors to the new museum will share the Atwater and Allen parking lots with students and how that would narrow student parking options. These may seem like minor concerns, but students spend September through May living, eating and studying at the college; we deserve to know what the college’s plans are for our home.
The built environment in which we live — especially when Middlebury is already in such a rural location — plays a crucial, perhaps the most crucial, role in our college experience. As Middlebury moves forward with its large renovations and installations, we call for more transparency on the thoughts and reasoning behind construction projects and involvement of students in planning. Before we agree to any of the sweeping changes proposed by Middlebury, let’s read the fine print.
