Editorial

Author: [no author name found]

Fearsome fee...



It is a grim reality that the influence of inflation can be seen almost everywhere, and in no place is it more apparent than the cost of one year at Middlebury College. This year's already incredible $40,400 comprehensive fee will increase to $42,120 for the 2005-2006 academic year.

President Liebowitz and his staff should be applauded for keeping the increase much lower than it could have been, indeed lower than the 5.1 percent the Student Comprehensive Fee Committee recommended. It is also commendable that this percentage increase is the lowest percentage increase in the past four years. However, the 4.25 percent increase - while low compared to the 6.1 percent change seen last year -translates to an almost $2,000 increase to an already very steep comprehensive fee.

When one works with budgets in the six-plus figure range, it must be easy to forget that $2,000 is a significant amount of money, as is $42,000. But for those footing the bill - especially students who have to take loans or work study into consideration, or parents who may have multiple Midd-kids to see through four years of college - the increase will likely be mind-boggling.

As well, for prospective students who have yet to experience why it may be worth paying so much to attend Middlebury College, the price tag may be what helps them decide between Middlebury and Williams. Also, while it is unlikely that many of Middlebury's peer institutions will have percent-increases less than that of Middlebury, the differences between the base tuition from which the cost will increase is such that is it very unlikely that any other NESCAC comprehensive fee will surpass Middlebury's.

Inflation may make comprehensive fee increases inevitable, however there has to be tangible justifications for the high cost. Supposedly, there will be a significant increase in the number of faculty members as soon as next year. It is changes like this that will make the $42,120 worth paying, not just the wild salmon at the dining hall. Put the money into areas that will make students truly appreciate why the increase was necessary.

Graduating seniors will look at the increase in tuition and remember how their first year at Middlebury cost a mere $34,300. Hopefully the class of 2009 will not feel the same nostalgia. Make it so the value of a Middlebury diploma is not high only because the cost of it is.



Bedlam over beds



Isn't it ironic that the school that discourages students from living off-campus is already faced with a housing shortage for the next academic year, even before admissions decisions are mailed out to the class of 2009?

Right now housing officials are looking for a way to make up the 50-some-odd beds that are needed for current students. Their answer? Letting more students live off-campus and taking houses from rent-paying faculty members. At the same time, on-campus houses are going to be turned into faculty houses. How does this make sense?

Here are some ideas. How about converting storage space into rooms? A triple could be made out of the student storage area in Palmer House. Or rooms could do double duty - laboratory by day, dormitory by night. Hey, students sleep in the chairs in the Great Hall of Bicentennial Hall... It is already a standing joke that some of the best housing on campus comes in the form of "temporary" trailer homes. Now lounge-living looks like it is becoming a permanent reality. It will give new meaning to the description "lounge lizard."

How is this possible? Wasn't the housing shortage supposed to be alleviated by the completion of the Atwater dorms? Sophomores lived in Forrest this year - that must mean something for next year, right?

Every time there has been a housing crunch a creative way has been found to fix it. Who knows, maybe students will return from the summer break to find tents dotting McCullough Lawn. Every student going through room draw considers the possibility of living in a box on Battell Beach - maybe this year it will become a reality.