Senior work plan raises controversy

President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz reaffirmed the College’s pledge for mandatory senior work despite the acknowledgement that departments would not have the 25 additional faculty positions envisioned to realize that goal, during his address on Feb. 12. The decision attracted both praise and concern from members of the faculty.

In 2006, the Board of Trustees approved a policy to increase faculty positions by 25 over the course of the next several years. This increase would have enabled every Middlebury senior to pursue an independent project by reducing the teaching course load for faculty.

Members of the Educational Affairs Council (EAC) had already considered alternative ways of achieving the goals of universal senior work even before the hiring of 25 new faculty members appeared dubious.

As Alison Byerly, provost and executive vice president of the College, explained, “Even before President Liebowitz announced that the planned 25 incremental positions would be removed from the financial model, the EAC was aware that new positions were no longer a given, and they have been looking at alternative ways to allow departments to implement senior work.

They also are optimistic that by streamlining some curricular requirements and using teaching resources more efficiently, we can create space for senior work in departments that do not currently have a senior work requirement.”

Roberto Veguez, professor of Spanish, was not as optimistic as the administration on this issue.

“We didn’t have senior work except for students who were invited to do an honor thesis,” he said.

The Spanish department was originally planning on making senior work available to everyone, but “it requires time for one-on-one mentoring.”

Steve Sontum, professor in chemistry and biochemistry, emphasized that professors have been more receptive to adding requirements for senior work when the addition came with a decrease in teaching load, as all senior work requires time for 1-on-1 mentoring and guidance.

The varied nature of academic disciplines caused different reactions from different departments to the freeze for increasing faculty positions.

Because of faculty and infrastructure limitations, only several departments are capable of requiring department majors to do senior research or art projects.

The faculty-student ratio and the interdisciplinary character of some programs seemed to be particularly important to professors in light of new academic planning.

Sontum emphasized that more and more students are declaring Molecular Biology and Biochemistry (MBB) majors and that the problem with some departments is “not just losing faculty, but adding students.”

Some departments have lost faculty because of the early retirement fund, which has provided financial support for faculty and staff who are considering retirement during the era of budget cuts. A decision on whether to replace these positions or not will be discussed at the Board of Trustees meeting.

Sontum also added that interdisciplinary majors such as MBB would struggle if they had to reduce curricula. “The courses that fit between departments are going to get squeezed. We can’t see a way of doing a cross-disciplinary major and offering fewer courses.”

Other departments that already require senior work, such as the History of Art and Architecture (HARC) department, were also impacted by cuts in teaching positions. A visiting artist position was cut in the HARC department because the endowment fund was decreased.

Monica McCabe, department coordinator for HARC and studio art, said “it will affect the Art 520-720 program, [where students] have one-on-one mentoring and one-on-one critique with professors and visiting artists.”

She did recognize, however, that the College has done an excellent job in reorganizing and retaining staff, and that budget cuts at times like these were necessary.

Cost-intensive departments, mainly in the sciences and arts, needed to take a step back in planning universal senior work.

As Sontum said, “We don’t have the [financial and space resources] to handle senior theses. We end up not being able to supply laboratory experiences to everyone if 100 percent of students wanted to do senior work.”

Despite the slowdown in advancing academic opportunities further, Liebowitz noted the relatively new infrastructure and resources that Middlebury already has, such as McCardell Bicentennial Hall and the Main Library, as well its wealth of graduate and special academic programs.

“It is time for us to view these entities, these valuable assets, in terms of the adage, ‘[in] rising tides raise all boats,’” summed up Liebowitz.