MIDDBRIEFS

Author: DINA MAGARIL, CAROLINE S. STAUFFER AND ALEXXA GOTTHARDT

College searches for Financial Aid director, prepares for new aid model

As the comprehensive fee continues to escalate, Middlebury College is taking extra care in its selection of a new Director for Financial Services in order to make the financial process less stressful for both students and parents. The new director will be in charge of managing $25 million of institutional aid and about $13 million in federal grants loans and work study. A committee is looking for an individual who has knowledge of financial needs analysis packaging as well as federal aid and loans regulation.

The College will be employing a new student financial services model that will utilize a "high-tech, high-touch" approach to financial aid according to Patrick Norton, controller and head of the committee that will appoint the new director. For this reason, the new director must also be familiar with the SCT banner system as it relates to financial aid. The committee created to pick the new director will be comprised of faculty, students and staff from the College.

Most importantly, the new director must have a strong commitment of service to parents and students. The program's goal is to provide high quality financial counseling to prospective as well as current Middlebury students. The committee realizes that finances are a very important aspect of choosing a college and they hope to make each student as comfortable as possible with his or her decision to attend. The financial program hopes to offer as much assistance as possible in deciding how to pay for college and provide options in financing tuition.

The committee is confident that they will find a new director by the July 2005 deadline.

Approximately 40 percent of Middlebury students, however, currently receive financial aid in the form of a college grant. An even higher percentage receives some sort of financial assistance through federal loan programs.



College featured in national media

Middlebury College has graced the pages of several local and national publications in the past few weeks.

Will Mayers, coordinator of the Arabic Language School, was quoted in an article entitled "Arabic Language is in Demand" in USA Today's Lifetime section on March 13. The article noted the national expansion of Arabic language programs and highlighted Middlebury's efforts to recruit from Syria and Egypt to staff its summer programs. It also remarked on the competitiveness of the College's summer program.

On the same day, The Rutland Herald featured Jonathan Isham, assistant professor of Economics, and his Winter Term class, "Building the New Climate Movement." Three students from the class helped establish the "flat earth" award as their class project. Isham was pictured with six of his students.

Rick Reilly recounts his experience reporting the story of Butch Varno in his March 7 column in Sports Illustrated. Reilly devoted the last paragraph in his column to memorable stories from the last 20 years. He still gets asked about Varno, a friend of Middlebury who has cerebral palsy.

Middlebury was also selected out of a pool of 900 colleges and universities for inclusion in the Princeton Review's newest book, "College's with a Conscience: 81 Great Schools with Outstanding Community Involvement." The book features a two-page spread on each school selected and hits stands June 21. Criteria for selection included the College's admissions practices and scholarships rewarding community service, support for service-learning programs, student activism and student voice in school governance and the level of social engagement of its student body.



Personette to join Facilities Planning

On April 1, Susan Personette will assume the role of Associate Vice President for Facilities Planning at Middlebury College on a transitional basis. For several months, an administrative board has been in the process of selecting a candidate to fill this position. Personette graduated from the University of Connecticut with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1973 and went on to continue her studies at Yale University where she received her Masters of Architecture in 1981. In 1984, she became a licensed architect. With 24 years of experience as an owner project manager for Genesis Planners Inc. and Capital Projects at MIT and as a licensed architect and project manager in various leading architectural firms, Personette's knowledge of architectural planning spans a broad spectrum. Her expertise includes institutional and academic projects, design and construction phases, contractor, architect and owner relations, budget schedule and scope alignment, conflict resolution and team building and maintenance.

At Middlebury, Personette's skill and guidance will be instrumental in developing the facility plans for the College's future strategic planning process as well as in the administration of College facility operations and maintenance. In addition, she will oversee a $17 million budget to maintain and run the 9,280-acre campus. Personette's influence will also extend outside Middlebury's campus as she will represent the institution on facility issues to members of both local and state regulatory agencies. Personette will assume the position of Associate Vice President for Facilities Planning full time as of July 1.