2008 Woodie Awards
Students asks Trustees to think big
Issue date: 2/17/05 Section: Center Spread
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As a centerpiece to their proposal for the College's 2005-2006 operating budget, members of the Student Government Association's (SGA) Comprehensive Fee Committee asked Trustees of the College last Friday to consider an ambitious plan to reduce the College's student-faculty ratio (the number of students to the number of faculty) from 11:1 to 9:1 over the next six years. The Committee is a group of students who work independent of the College administration to calculate an operating budget for the College and present it at the annual Trustee meeting where the comprehensive fee is voted on.
If recent years are any indication, the official comprehensive fee for 2005-2006 that will be announced in the coming weeks will numerically bear little reflection of the student proposal - the students suggested a 2005-2006 fee of $42,420, a 5 percent increase. To avoid tension with the Trustees over setting the comprehensive fee, this year's committee chose to pursue issues over figures. "I wanted to keep the discussion clean and stay away from numbers," said Committee Chair Dustin Dolginow '05.5. "Our approach was focused on the issues." According to the administration the student proposals are taken seriously, thus putting the proposal for reducing the student-faculty ratio up for debate in the College community.
A relative problem?
By most measures, Middlebury's current student-faculty ratio can hardly be described as poor, particularly when compared to most national universities and larger colleges. Speaking to the SGA last Sunday, President Liebowitz pointed to the College's low student-faculty ratios in language courses. "In language fields we are better [than other colleges]," said Liebowitz.
In overall comparison with other highly selective liberal arts colleges, however, the College performs less extravagantly.
Middlebury's student-faculty ratio last year (TABLE) was behind every one of its competitors in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC), the group of 11 highly competitive liberal arts colleges in which Middlebury competes. The percentage of classes offered by the College with more than 50 students enrolled in them was also higher than the other NESCAC schools - four times the percentage at Colby College and eight times that at Hamilton College.
If recent years are any indication, the official comprehensive fee for 2005-2006 that will be announced in the coming weeks will numerically bear little reflection of the student proposal - the students suggested a 2005-2006 fee of $42,420, a 5 percent increase. To avoid tension with the Trustees over setting the comprehensive fee, this year's committee chose to pursue issues over figures. "I wanted to keep the discussion clean and stay away from numbers," said Committee Chair Dustin Dolginow '05.5. "Our approach was focused on the issues." According to the administration the student proposals are taken seriously, thus putting the proposal for reducing the student-faculty ratio up for debate in the College community.
A relative problem?
By most measures, Middlebury's current student-faculty ratio can hardly be described as poor, particularly when compared to most national universities and larger colleges. Speaking to the SGA last Sunday, President Liebowitz pointed to the College's low student-faculty ratios in language courses. "In language fields we are better [than other colleges]," said Liebowitz.
In overall comparison with other highly selective liberal arts colleges, however, the College performs less extravagantly.
Middlebury's student-faculty ratio last year (TABLE) was behind every one of its competitors in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC), the group of 11 highly competitive liberal arts colleges in which Middlebury competes. The percentage of classes offered by the College with more than 50 students enrolled in them was also higher than the other NESCAC schools - four times the percentage at Colby College and eight times that at Hamilton College.