Editorial

Author: [no author name found]

The Planning Steering Committee's recently released comprehensive report demonstrates an admirable commitment by the distinct constituencies within the Middlebury College community to make the College a better place. The challenge of compiling the first such report and recommendations in 15 years was generally well met.

Although the draft of the mission statement released earlier this year placed too much emphasis on the College's graduate aspirations, the new draft achieves the proper balance of identifying the College's primary role as an undergraduate liberal arts institution and noting that Middlebury is unique among its peer institutions because of its affiliate programs.

Of the approximately 80 recommendations presented in the report, many will be accepted with universal applaud, whereas others will be more contentious and some will prove inherently unpopular.

The report's commitment to enhancing the lives of the College's staff by enhancing educational and professional development opportunities is laudable. The staff is an indispensable component of College life and staff members should be incorporated into the community as much as possible.

The recommendation to increase alumni involvement in the College should also prove beneficial. Career Services claims that a majority of students secure jobs and obtain career advice through MiddNet online. Increasing the number of alumni volunteers on the network and further incorporating the volunteers into College proceedings should therefore prove fruitful.

The Committee's recommendation to hold a day-long student research symposium is somewhat puzzling. It seems that holding a large variety of student thesis presentations on the same day would actually limit student attendance. The necessary day off from classes to host the event would also replace the one-day recess held during Winter Carnival. Whether it is time to reevaluate the Winter Carnival tradition of a day-long recess or not, the Committee's recommendation would certainly be accompanied by student protest.

The College should move to follow the Committee's recommendation to increase faculty resources as quickly as possible. The current student-faculty ratio of nine to one has been an inhibiting factor in student-professor interaction and in College rankings. Improving the ratio would also make possible other Committee recommendations, such as requiring independent work of all seniors.

Perhaps the most disturbing recommendation is the College's desire to scale back the February admissions program. By "gradually shrinking the size of the February program to 55 or 60 students," the College would exacerbate the primary problems with the program rather than fixing such deterrents and therefore create a social burden on Feb students by making them feel more in the minority. The current average matriculation of 117 students makes up a group that is large enough to have a presence on campus, thereby easing the incorporation of those students into a social scene that is largely already established. The program ensures that the College enjoys a dynamic social capital with new faces arriving each semester. The report notes that the number of Middlebury students accepted for February admission far exceeds that number at peer institutions. The College should embrace this distinction as yet another way of distinguishing itself from its peers.

Students should be aware of the curricular challenges of entering college mid-year, such as not being able to begin language study in the spring, but such problems should not be a cause for shortchanging the program.

Overall, however, following an unprecedented era of physical building on campus, the commitment to the "human dimensions" of the College vocalized by Dean of Planning John Emerson and made manifest throughout the entire report has taken College planning in a refreshingly new direction.