College receives $20 million

Author: Elizabeth Campbell

An anonymous donor has pledged $20 million to Middlebury in response to the challenge established by an anonymous $50 million gift almost two years ago. The donor, wishing to remain anonymous, is identified only as a Middlebury Trustee family who has long been devoted to Middlebury and its mission. This donation comes in the wake of several other recent anonymous gestures of philanthropy.

The commitment was made in anticipation of the May Board of Trustees meeting and, combined with the $50 million pledge, will be directed toward the principal goals of the Strategic Plan. "This is a big step toward achieving the goals of the Strategic Plan that the College has outlined," said Vice President for College Advancement Mike Schoenfeld '73. "This commitment will really be directed toward the major plans that the Trustees will be looking at in their meeting in May."

Specifically, the donation will apply to the top two priorities of the Plan - increasing financial aid and hiring new faculty. These goals are intended to increase socio-economic diversity and to decrease the student-faculty ratio in order to make the College more competitive in the future. This new commitment will allow Middlebury to hire eight new faculty members over the next few years, nearing the goal of ultimately hiring 25 new members.

By increasing financial aid packages, the pledge will also begin to reduce the amount of loans that many incoming students have to take out because of the elevating cost of tuition. While this long-term goal of the College is aimed at developing a more diverse student body, the financial aid program will be phased in over the next four years to more immediately help students from low-income families.

This will certainly give a much needed boost to the ambitious goals in the Strategic Planning Report, outlined at the end of January. According to the final chapter of the Plan, the endowment must increase by $392 million in order to fully implement the most important recommendations ­- financial aid, faculty enlargement and eventual completion of the commons infrastructure.

"This is a great amount of money to donate and is a great commitment to the College," said Schoenfeld. "It represents a real vote of confidence in what we aim to do in the future."