Since the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions ended, staffing has generally improved on campus. However, several departments still face the burden of being undersupported, especially in light of the budget cuts announced in April. The cuts reduced staff and faculty retirement benefits and offered some staff a financial incentive to retire early.
Catering has had four people to carry out the work normally allocated to 12, Ross Dining Hall had to eliminate a full-time position due to budget constraints, and the Student Activities Office (SAO) has had a vacancy in their Program and Budget Administrator role since July, a job that is vital for balancing the office’s workloads.
Understaffing has not worsened since the budget cuts were announced, several staff members said, though drawing people to positions at Middlebury and maintaining high morale is a constant challenge. The shortage has caused burnout for workers, and departments have had no choice but to alter what they can provide.
Catering Coordinator and Events Supervisor Jess Crossman said that her team wants to put out a good product, but cannot do that without more hands. The catering team has lost 14 full-time employees in the past eight years.
“We like to be proud of what we do, and being short-staffed affects that greatly,” she said. “It causes burnout after time. We're tired. There's not a huge work-life balance when you're trying to execute so many events at the same level, and I think a common misconception is that, well, it's only for 10 people. It takes the same amount of effort, manpower, everything to execute a 10-person event as it takes to execute a 500-person event.”
Crossman also explained that the issue is not always due to understaffing alone, but because of increased demand for catering services without the proper staff to match.
“Because of the staffing and the demand of catering, we had to pump the brakes and slow down. We understand that we are such a huge convenience for people, and we want to be able to say yes to that. I can't express enough that we don't want to say no, but we also have to maintain the level of quality that we're putting out and ourselves and to have a work-life balance,” she said.
Ross Dining Services Manager Brent Simons expressed a similar sentiment.
“If an employee is out or a position is vacant responsibilities are then redistributed throughout the operation(s). This has a tremendous impact on employee morale as well as increasing stress throughout the department. If staffing is an issue on a particular day we may need to close a food station in the dining room or alter the menu,” he wrote in an email to The Campus.
Understaffing ultimately affects students and the services they can receive. However, Valerie Nettleton, executive director for student engagement, hopes that the vacant position in the SAO will not affect students all that much.
“We have asked student organization leaders to partner with us in the interim, but are thinking creatively about how to combine financial transactions and purchase for multiple events or meetings at the same time where possible,” she wrote in an email to The Campus.
Caroline Crawford, president of Staff Council, said that understaffing is a two-fold issue, in part caused by the cost of living in Vermont, as well as a possible misalignment between the college’s budget and the current level of staffing.
“Middlebury has done a really good job of raising salaries in these areas to try and improve recruitment. But, there are just a lot of jobs, not only on campus but around Vermont, that are open, because there aren't enough people in Vermont applying. That’s caused by just the demographic nature of the cost of living and what it means to live in Vermont right now,” she said in an interview with The Campus.
Crawford said she understands that salaries and benefits for faculty and staff are the biggest cost at Middlebury, but believes that on-campus needs should be met by hiring for the necessary number of positions.
“Middlebury's reach is large. And we are waiting to see where Middlebury's reach could perhaps be reined in a little bit to align more with the current level of staffing,” she said.
Correction 10/5/25: A previous version of this article indicated that the organization Page One Literacy faced delays in receiving their budget due to a delay in the SAO. Mention of Page One has since been removed due to SAO's lack of involvement the organization's finances.
Maya Alexander ‘26 (she/her) is an Editor at Large.
She is a sociology major and intended French minor from New York City. She loves getting lost in her Pinterest feed and staging spontaneous photoshoots, occasional yoga and a solid iced oat milk maple latte.
