Inside the Crest

In the upcoming weeks, senator Anne Runkel ’11 will present a resolution before SGA urging the administration to help promptly restore MiddView (OINK, MOO et al.) to our community and future peers. This initiative expects to receive full SGA support, and should garner our backing as well.
Outdoor orientation programs at Middlebury have, since their founding in 1988, enjoyed healthy and enth¬usiastic support from administrators, students and alumni. Introducing thousands of first-years to Middlebury over the years, MiddView and its other manifestations have provided new students a superb environment for social integration and support.
When SGA pledged financial support of the Mountain Club OINK program, we knew full well that despite the Mountain Club’s boundless energy and enthusiasm, OINK would not sustainable in the long run. From the outset, neither the Mountain Club nor SGA intended OINK to be a permanent institution. Runkel’s resolution reflects our initial intention and represents an appropriate transition toward restoring stewardship to the administration.
While the College maintains that the financial deficit forces them to keep MiddView in mothballs, recall that not one of our peer schools nor any of the Ivy League chose to shut down their outdoor orientation programs. Kalamazoo College kept theirs, and Harvard doesn’t even serve hot breakfast anymore. The question of maintaining our orientation program, therefore, is not merely one of what numbers to crunch and cut. MiddView should instead be regarded as a cornerstone in our first-years’ inauguration.
In a survey submitted to the student population last year asking whether students would be willing to support orientation programs through their own student activities’ fee, results were unmistakably positive. On a scale of one to five, with five as the most positive, a total of 529 participants responded, with an average of 4.08 and a standard deviation of 1.32. And not to delve into the statistics too technically, but while acknowledging survey bias, having 529 Middlebury students respond to any kind of questionnaire is, in and of itself, remarkable (cf. SGA election turnouts).
Though the specifics of Runkel’s resolution remain undisclosed till the Senate reconvenes after fall break, it will likely build upon the initiatives that garnered such strong polling support, along with Mountain Club recommendations, and push the administration to quickly review MiddView’s financials for reinstatement. Moreover, the administration should be reminded of the lasting impacts of social integration: the students of today become tomorrow’s donating alumni.
It is important that administrators recognize the value of sustaining one of Middlebury’s enduring traits. Our character as a school and what differentiates us from our competitors is not merely our particular jumble of students and faculty, but also the environment fostered around our community. Members of the College alike should thus support SGA in preserving one of our lasting traditions.