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(03/10/17 3:44am)
National news and media outlets have been spotlighting the on-campus protests against Charles Murray, a libertarian columnist and sociologist who, due to student demonstrations, was prevented from delivering a guest lecture on Thursday, March 2. The events and their aftermath drew attention from major publications and broadcast programs including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, PBS NewsHour and Fox News.
The majority of sources ran pieces denouncing the protest as well as the altercation that resulted in the neck injury of Allison Stanger, an international politics and economics professor who moderated the virtual question-and-answer session with Murray.
In his piece “A Violent Act on Free Speech” published in The Atlantic, Peter Beinart, a political columnist and contributing editor for the magazine, pointed to the protests as evidence that “something has gone badly wrong on the campus left.”
Referring to the recent protests against a planned speech delivered by Milo Yiannopoulos at the University of California, Berkeley, Beinart wrote, “If what happened at Berkeley, and now at Middlebury, goes unchallenged, sooner or later, liberals will get shouted down too.”
The New York Times featured the incident over several articles, including an editorial published on the front page of its website, titled, “Smothering Speech at Middlebury.” The editorial board criticized protesters’ refusal to lend Murray a platform to speak, labeling the event “a violent free-speech debacle.”
The board wrote, “Mr. Murray is an academic with an argument to make about class in America … and maybe it is flawed. But Middlebury students had no chance to challenge him on any of his views. Thought and persuasion, questions and answers, were eclipsed by intimidation.”
Fox News reproduced an essay written by Murray following the events. His reflection originally appeared on the blog of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the public policy think tank whose branch at the College invited Murray to deliver a guest lecture.
In his piece, Murray wrote, “Academia is already largely sequestered in an ideological bubble, but at least it’s translucent. That bubble will become opaque.”
College faculty utilized several of these platforms to voice their own commentary on the matter, as well.
Professor of English and Creative Writing Jay Parini and Assistant Professor of Political Science Keegan Callanan wrote an opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal, outlining the core principles they deem “unassailable in the context of higher education within a free society.” These principles were endorsed by over 60 faculty members at the College.
Included in this core principles list are the following statements: “Exposure to controversial points of view does not constitute violence … Students have the right to challenge and even to protest non-disruptively the views of their professors and guest speakers … The purpose of college is not to make faculty or students comfortable in their opinions and prejudices.”
Although a majority of news outlets openly denounced the events, not every publication ran condemnatory views on the matter.
Dean Spade of The Chronicle of Higher Education wrote, “It is not fair to portray student activists as troublemakers damaging the institution’s reputation. First, it is not the students’ responsibility to portray their colleges as wonderful destinations if they are not experiencing them that way. Second, the disruptive activists are often the same students who are leading student organizations, mentoring new students, pipelining high schoolers, and otherwise devoting themselves to making the institution more accessible and survivable for marginalized people.”
(03/09/16 4:13pm)
Racially-charged comments appeared on Yik Yak last week, an anonymous social media app, that criticized statements made by Student Government Association (SGA) First-Year Senator Charles Rainey ’19 concerning racism on campus. The posts appeared following the publishing of a Campus article that detailed two bills Rainey had written criticizing the College’s MLK Today event and calling on President of the College Laurie L. Patton to condemn former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s comments regarding black students on college campuses.
Among the posts were the following:
We don’t like Rainey because he’s making up stuff about racism at Midd like if we freed you all from slavery what more do you want
Rainey is an attention whore, sexual predator, and anti-white jigaboo. Impeach him
IMPEACH. RAINEY. NOW.
After these posts appeared Rainey sought support and guidance from administrators, including his commons dean, Chief Diversity Officer Miguel Fernández and Dean of Students Baishakhi Taylor. The anonymous nature of the platform left Rainey little remedy; Rainey explained that only violent threats would spur an investigation into the posters, like the ones posted on Yik Yak at the University of Missouri in November.
“Ironically, these comments are only aiding me in my efforts to ameliorate this institution,” he said. “It is my hope that this coordinated, racist attack on my endeavors and character has served as a reminder for the faculty, staff, administration and all of our 2,500 students here that our campus is immensely plagued by racism. According to the responses [on Yik Yak], a substantial portion of our community is not comfortable with idea of an inclusive Middlebury. Personally, it is very distressing that we have members of our community who felt so threatened by the prospect of truly embracing historically marginalized groups on this campus, in this case students of African descent, that they were inclined to resort to racially-charged hate speech in order to voice their discomfort. Nonetheless, with great progress comes great resistance. My goal remains the same. I will continue to fight for true inclusivity on this campus and continue the much-needed conversation around this substantial issue offline, where it will be most productive.”
Patton addressed incidents like Rainey’s in an email sent to students on March 8. In it she reiterated the first community standard in the student handbook, “cultivating respect and responsibility for self, others, and our shared environment,” and urged students to abide by it in their interactions especially as the College has broached sensitive “issues of race, gender, privilege and inclusivity.”
“The anonymity and impersonal quality of some social media sites has at times shown itself to be a less considerate environment,” she wrote. “While they can be places of kindness and generosity, they also can be platforms for disrespect, revenge, and hate. When this happens, it must be condemned by all. Everyone in our community should understand the damaging effect that personal comments or attacks — anonymous or otherwise — can have on individuals and on the community as a whole.”
(03/02/16 4:19pm)
The Middlebury Campus met with Ilana Gratch ’16 to discuss the first half of her term as president of the Student Government Association (SGA). In this profile, Gratch speaks on initatives she has worked on and goals for the remainder of her presidency.
Middlebury Campus (MC):
We interviewed President of the College Laurie Patton in last week’s issue discussing the first few months of her presidency. What has your involvement with Patton looked like over the course of your own presidency?
Ilana Gratch (IG): I meet with President Patton every other week, and my Chief of Staff and I meet with her and the rest of the senior leadership group once a month. The purpose of those meetings is twofold: first, they are for us to keep them informed with things that not only the SGA is talking about but [also] relevant issues we hear around campus; the other half of it is for them to take advantage of the student perspectives on issues they’re discussing. In the past, there was no SGA senior leadership group involvement on any regular basis. Working with President Patton [has] undoubtedly been one of the highlights of this whole experience because she has been so incredibly open to suggestions, feedback and working together on all sorts of things.
MC: Who are people on campus you look to as mentors?
IG: I would say my adviser, [Assistant Professor of Psychology] Rob Moeller. I speak with him all the time about the SGA, and he’s always very supportive and instructive. I certainly do look up to President Patton, and she’s been great in terms of not only working with me in an SGA capacity [but also] checking in [with me] as a leader. It’s been really cool to learn from her.
MC: You launched 10 o’clock Ross in the fall semester. Has it been successful, and what improvements do you want to make to it?
IG: I would say it’s been incredibly successful. I’m there almost every night, volunteering my time with the paid monitors. For a while I was taking a count every night, and there has never been fewer than 100 students in attendance — usually it’s between 100 and 200. I’d call that a success. There’s still definitely work to be done. In an ideal world, there would be a greater variety of food options. Not everybody is a cereal fan or wants ice cream in the winter, but we’re working on that, and I think this year is really meant to establish the program and ensure it goes well now [and] into the future. I’ve been working with dining services to transition it from being a program that’s overseen by SGA — which it currently is — to being part of dining’s program. That, for me, would be a huge accomplishment.
MC: How does the SGA plan to make the College more inclusive, especially in light of recent events that have occurred on campus?
IG: [That’s] a tough question because I don’t know how possible it is for any one group, person or school to move the community forward to the extent it needs to be moved. The SGA is doing a lot this year to think about diversity and inclusion in ways it has not previously thought about those issues. We spent one meeting in the fall watching the video by Tim Garcia, “Accounts of the Invisible.” We spent the rest of the meeting talking about what role SGA could play in this conversation on campus. I don’t think there’s an easy answer, and we’ve spent a lot of time talking about it — I think we’re still trying to search for the best way forward. In J-term, I [initiated and] was part of a working group that was looking at the comparative [distribution] requirement to see if it could be repurposed in some sort of way to better address issues of power difference and dynamics of difference and identify in an academic setting. [It was] different than JusTalks because it’s not about your own identity but about history and institutional racism and things that you can learn about in class. More broadly, I’ve been meeting with individual cultural organizations. We have one meeting coming up between all of SGA and as many of the cultural orgs that can [attend]. I hope that will be a good thing and I think it’s important for SGA to take the time to listen to what we can do to better serve cultural organizations on campus and other students that are feeling marginalized.
MC: What role do you see the College having in educating students about racism and living in a diverse community?
IG: I absolutely think the College has a role in educating students about issues of racism and difference. That’s why I formed the working group because I think one of the biggest takeaways for me, after one of the town hall meetings, was exactly this issue of education. We’re at college, and yet, people don’t know where to turn for education about an issue that everyone is talking about all the time. I think colleges are uniquely positioned right now to be leaders in this conversation. I don’t think having a class where you learn about the history of race in the United States is a conversation ender, at all, and I don’t think it has any opposition to free speech — I think it’s a part of our history that a lot of people [are unaware of]. We could benefit as a community if we just learned a little more.
MC: What is the SGA’s position on the banning of energy drinks in retail spaces on campus?
IG: The SGA has no formal opinion and [had] no role in that [ban]. It was a Community Council decision. Personally, I think it’s a bit silly — I think what’s silly about it is linking [energy drinks] to problematic behaviors like high risk sexual decision making.
MC: What other goals do you have for the remainder of your presidency, and what projects should your successor pursue or initiate?
IG: One major goal that I have is internal SGA reform. The senators don’t know this yet, but I want to collapse both the Senate and the Cabinet into one cohesive SGA. I think we have an inefficient system right now — if the senators don’t know what’s going on with the cabinet, and the cabinet doesn’t know what’s going on with the senate, how can we expect the general student body to know anything? I thought I could play the role of keeping everyone informed at all times, but it’s just not a manageable thing to do. [As such], one of the big goals I have is proposing to the Senate a restructuring of SGA such that cabinet members — such as the Director of Environmental Affairs, of Institutional Diversity, of Health and Wellness — would all be elected by students instead of appointed by the SGA President. They would sit in a room every Sunday night with a first-year president, a sophomore president, a junior president and senior president — and that would [comprise] the SGA.
MC: It’s a Saturday night, and you’re at the Grille. What is your go-to order?
IG: Mozzarella sticks. I’m a vegetarian so the options are kind of limited — but bread and cheese are my favorite foods.
(02/17/16 4:18pm)
The annual off-campus housing lottery was conducted on Tuesday, Feb. 16 in Crossroads Café as a part of the 2016-17 Housing Process. The lottery brought the total number of students approved to live-off campus next fall to 75, marking a nearly 25 percent drop from last year’s 95 and the preceding year’s 106.
According to Associate Dean of Students for Residential and Student Life Doug Adams, the ongoing construction of the new Ridgeline Residence Complex served as the greatest factor in the decision to lower the off-campus approval number for the upcoming academic year. Upon completion, the complex — which will consist of four buildings with townhouse and suite-style apartments — is set to provide new housing for 158 upperclassmen students.
“In the spring of 2015, the College announced that the new construction would serve three purposes: the removal of the Mods, the return of residential lounges currently used as rooms and the reduction in the number of students living off-campus,” said Adams. “The new housing is on track to open this fall and we anticipate continuing with all of these plans.”
Concerns regarding town-gown relations and off-campus incidents with partying were not responsible for the upcoming school year’s approval drop.
“The reduction in the number of students living off-campus has been our plan since the announcement [of the new residence complex] last year,” Adams said.
The lottery was a random selection process that permitted students to apply as individuals or groups of up to eight peers. 28 students currently living off campus extended their status to the fall semester, leaving 47 spots available to be included in this year’s lottery. In total, 119 students applied for these remaining spots and were invited to observe the process, which was intentionally made transparent to mitigate concerns of tampering.
Controversy rose last year when several students accused the administration of rigging the lottery against varsity athletes who may have been likely to throw off-campus parties. 37 varsity athletes applied and only eight were accepted. A study conducted by the Paige-Wright Professor of Economics Paul Somers reported the probability of this outcome occuring was .0035 percent. However, Adams maintained the lottery was and continues to be completely random and noted it has always been an open process that permits students to observe the proceedings.
The only change to this year’s lottery was the creation of a “reserve list” that included students who were not selected to live off campus. Applicants in this list will be contacted in the event there is an emergency need for students to live off campus. However, Adams does not anticipate such a need for the upcoming year, remaining optimistic the Ridgeline Housing Complex will be ready by its projected September 2016 completion date.
In an article released following the announcement of the construction project, Adams said, “The design of these buildings will allow students to live near their academic and social centers while continuing the small-community feel they’ve enjoyed in the ‘mods’ or off campus.”
(01/21/16 4:23am)
Legal action in the John Doe v. Middlebury College case formally ended on Dec. 21. Doe, the student expelled over a charge of alleged sexual assault, dropped his lawsuit against the College after the two parties reached a settlement.
“The lawsuit has been resolved by the parties and they have agreed that the Plaintiff will complete his education elsewhere,” Vice President for Communications and Marketing Bill Burger said this week.
The case against Doe involved an alleged sexual assault that took place while he was studying abroad during the fall 2014 semester at a program run by the School for International Training (SIT). SIT investigated the complaint by a non-Middlebury student and found Doe not responsible in December of that year.
In early January 2015, the alleged victim, anonymously identified as Jane Doe,contacted Associate Dean for Judicial Affairs and Student Life Karen Guttentag, which ultimately led Middlebury to begin its own investigation. The College said last September that it had concerns about the SIT investigation and adjudication.
“Under its policies, a Middlebury student’s off-campus conduct may be subject to Middlebury’s disciplinary processes when, among other things, such conduct may represent a threat to the safety of the Middlebury community or any of its members,” the College said in a statement at the time. “Middlebury initiated an investigation and adjudication of the student’s conduct on that basis and we believe we properly applied our policies in this case.”
The College, after conducting its internal investigation through Ellen Coogan, an independent contractor who has investigated sexual misconduct cases on behalf of the College, ultimately found Doe responsible for the assault and, in late August, expelled him. Coogan concluded that John Doe’s conduct towards Jane Doe constituted sexual misconduct based off a preponderance of evidence, a decision that was reached by an evaluation of all evidence and her own assessments of credibility in which she was “struck by the consistency of Jane Doe’s account.”
Doe then filed suit against the College in federal court, claiming his expulsion was “unjust and unlawful,” noting that the SIT investigation did not find him responsible for the charge. According to Doe’s complaint, the College relied “on SIT’s determination to permit [Doe] to return to Middlebury for the spring semester” and did not conduct its own investigation until the alleged victim of the assault had contacted the College. Doe’s counsel consisted of Lisa B. Shelkrot of Langrock, Sperry & Wool LLP in Burlington, VT, and Monica R. Shah and Naomi R. Shatz of Salkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP in Boston, Mass.
On Sept. 16, the same day classes began for the fall semester, U.S. District Court Judge J. Garvan Murtha issued a preliminary injunction ordering the College to re-enroll Doe while the legal proceedings continued, ruling that Doe would suffer irreparable harm if he were to win the lawsuit but be prevented from accepting a job offer because he had not been allowed to complete his courses and graduate. Murtha’s decision sparked public demonstrations on campus by students dissatisfied with the ruling and led students to create a go/doe link and a social media campaign with the tagline, “Doe must go.”
The College later filed an appeal to reverse Murtha’s order.
The College declined to comment on details of the settlement of the lawsuit, including whether he ultimately will receive a Middlebury College diploma or a degree from another institution once he receives the credits needed to graduate.
“It is difficult to say what I feel about the Doe settlement because the exact terms of his settlement with the College remain unknown,” said Maddie Orcutt ’16. “I hope that the survivor in this case, Jane, knows that there are students at Middlebury who were deeply unsettled by John’s actions to file civilly. I hope that Jane knows that even if she didn’t have a voice in [the case], there are students on this campus who believe her and stand with her.”
“My hope is that the recent developments in the John Doe case allow those who felt unsafe this past semester to feel more comfortable on Middlebury’s campus,” said Kyra Gray ’17, who acts as co-director for sexual and relationship respect on the Student Government Association (SGA) Cabinet.
According to administrators, the case has prompted the College to review the wording of its sexual assault policies governing Middlebury students studying abroad.
“It’s not uncommon for us to make revisions to our policies and we’ve done so every year in the last few years,” Burger said. “Policies and regulations governing how institutions of higher education should handle allegations of sexual assault change often, as do practices by other colleges and universities that are determined to do the best job they can investigating and adjudicating these cases. We always try to learn and adjust our practices based on our experiences.”
John Doe did not respond to our request for comment. Doe’s counsel, Lisa B. Shelkrot, declined to comment on the specifics of the settlement.
(11/05/15 12:32am)
On Oct. 24, Patricia “Pat” Rene Peters passed away at her home in Middlebury. Peters had worked as a cook with the College Dining Services since 2006. Her passing was announced in an email sent by Acting Associate Vice President of Human Resources Cheryl A. Mullins.
In the email, Atwater Commons Chef and Catering Manager Ian Martin is quoted, recalling that Peters was “blazingly witty, wicked smart and driven to be more than ‘just’ a cook.”
Additionally, he stated, “[Peters] was well liked by many students and always looked out for their best interest.”
Earlier this year, a crowdfunding site was created through GoFundMe for “Pat’s Cancer Fund,” in which students, friends, and family members could submit donations. On this page, Peters frequently posted updates on her treatment process, ultimately announcing the day of her passing.
At the time Mullins’ email was sent, no funeral arrangements were announced, but those who wish to make a contribution in her memory are encouraged to donate to the HOPE Food Bank.
(10/07/15 2:39pm)
On Sept. 23, the College filed to appeal U.S. District Court Judge J. Garvan Murtha’s order to temporarily re-enroll John Doe, the student anonymously suing the College to reverse his expulsion following an alleged sexual misconduct charge against a non-Middlebury student.
In a preliminary injunction filed last month, Murtha ruled that Doe would suffer irreparable harm if he were to win the lawsuit to reverse his expulsion and had not been allowed to attend classes while the suit was disputed. He hence mandated Doe’s reinstatement while the legal proceedings continue. The College’s appeal only applies to the preliminary injunction and not the actual case, as no decision has been made on the underlying case.
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals granted the College’s request to expedite the appeal on Oct. 2. However, even under an expedited process, the appeal will likely take most, if not all, of the fall semester.
The College is being represented by Karen McAndrew and Ritchie E. Berger of Dinse, Knapp & McAndrew P.C. in Burlington, VT. Doe is being represented by Lisa B. Shelkrot of Langrock of Sperry & Wool, LLP in Burlington, VT, and Monica R. Shah and Naomi R. Shatz of Salkind Dun- can & Bernstein LLP in Boston, MA.
The Campus will continue to report on this case as it develops.
(09/24/15 3:04am)
On Wednesday, Sept. 16 — the same day classes began at the College — U.S. District Court Judge J. Garvan Murtha ordered the College to temporarily re-enroll a student who had been expelled for an alleged sexual assault charge that took place while the student was studying abroad through the School for International Training (SIT).
The College released an official statement on Sept. 18 in reaction to Murtha’s decision, part of which states the following:
The Middlebury College Handbook holds students accountable for policy violations that take place between the time they first arrive on campus and their graduation. Under its policies, a Middlebury student’s off-campus conduct may be subject to Middlebury’s disciplinary processes when, among other things, such conduct may represent a threat to the safety of the Middlebury community or any of its members. Middlebury initiated an investigation and adjudication of the student’s conduct on that basis and we believe we properly applied our policies in this case.
Middlebury College is deeply disappointed by the court’s decision to grant the plaintiff, who currently is identified as John Doe, a preliminary injunction requiring Middlebury to allow him to re-enroll for the fall semester. We believe the court erred in its interpretation of the facts and the law in reaching this decision.
We are considering our legal options, but at this time we are obliged to comply with the court’s order.
Doe is being represented by Lisa B. Shelkrot of Langrock of Sperry & Wool, LLP in Burlington, VT, and Monica R. Shah and Naomi R. Shatz of Salkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP in Boston, MA. His counsel filed the lawsuit against the College for an “unjust and unlawful expulsion” on Aug. 28, after his appeals to reverse his expulsion were denied.
Following the court’s decision, Doe is now permitted to enroll in classes at the College through the fall 2015 semester while legal proceedings for the federal suit continue.
John Doe’s counsel asserts that their client “was falsely accused of sexual misconduct by Jane Doe.” Additionally, they state the College conducted its investigation after having already accepted SIT’s findings that Doe was not responsible for the charge and permitting him to return to campus for the following semester. As such, they state the College’s findings should not be upheld.
John Doe’s counsel argued that his expulsion throughout the proceedings will cause him irreparable damage in the form of reputational harm and lost educational and career opportunities. According to the initial complaint, the expulsion would cost him a position with a company he was to join after graduating that offered a starting salary of $85,000, a $10,000 signing bonus, and $5,000 in relocation fees.
The investigation led by the College was initiated after administrators were contacted by Jane Doe, who believed SIT had improperly conducted its initial investigation of the incident.
The College — represented by Karen McAndrew and Ritchie E. Berger of Dinse, Knapp & McAndrew P.C. in Burlington, VT — conducted its internal investigation through Ellen Coogan, an independent contractor who has investigated sexual misconduct cases on behalf of the College. Coogan concluded that John Doe’s “conduct towards Jane Doe constituted sexual misconduct” based on Jane Doe’s “assessments of credibility” and a “preponderance of evidence.”
The evidence submitted to the College by Jane Doe included: her statement to SIT in which she described John Doe’s assault that woke her from her sleep; a medical evaluation from a hospital in the country where John and Jane Doe were studying abroad; a medical report from Jane Doe’s physician in the U.S.; four pictures of blood-stained shorts that Jane Doe claims are a result of the attack; and four images of text messages allegedly sent by John Doe referencing the incident as a “cruel joke.” Reflecting on her finding, Coogan references the differences in credibility of both Jane and John Doe’s story. The defendant’s opposition states:
Ms. Coogan indicated that she was particularly struck by the consistency of Jane Doe’s account, and the way in which John Doe’s account changed over time. Id. She cited evidence that John Doe’s first statement to several friends, including Jane Doe, was something to the effect that he did not remember anything and had no idea what happened; that he next told another SIT student that he did not have sex with Jane Doe; he then admitted to an SIT administrator that he did have sex with her, but that it was consensual. John Doe also gave different versions of what sexual activity he was engaged in with Jane Doe. By the time of Ms. Coogan’s investigation, John Doe asserted that not only was the sex consensual, but that Jane Doe had initiated it.
John Doe described a very different story of the evening’s events. According to his account, a group of students that included himself and Jane Doe went out to a show, dinner and club on Nov. 7, 2014. Both John and Jane Doe consumed alcohol, but neither were visibly intoxicated. Later that night, John Doe, Jane Doe and Witness 1 — the latter of whom with John Doe had previously been engaged in a sexual relationship — decided to sleep in John Doe’s room. According to John Doe, he and Jane Doe then engaged in consensual, sexual intercourse.
John Doe’s complaint claims that Jane Doe “told a false account of what happened between her and the plaintiff on November 7-8, 2014, one in which she drank a number of drinks and has no memory of leaving the club and only remembers waking up in the plaintiff’s room, with a sheet over her face, engaged in sexual intercourse.” She allegedly then yelled, “Get off me. I don’t want this.”
According to Murtha’s ruling, John Doe, under his real identity, is currently listed as an “active student” enrolled in courses and was recently billed for the fall 2015 semester. However, if the College finds that John Doe’s expulsion is warranted, it will dismiss him as a student or, if applicable, later revoke his degree.
(09/17/15 5:57pm)
The College rose in the U.S. News & World Report’s annual rankings for national liberal arts colleges posted on Sept. 8. The College — which had previously ranked seventh among its peer institutions — is now tied for fourth alongside Bowdoin College, Pomona College and Wellesley College.
“It is important to keep in mind that the margins of difference among top colleges in rankings such as this one are extremely small and that movements up and down from year to year are to be expected,” Dean of Admissions Greg Buckles said.
According to U.S. News, the rankings are based on measures of an individual institution’s quality in seven broad areas, each with a designated percentage weight: undergraduate academic reputation (22.5 percent); graduation and retention rates (22.5 percent); faculty resources (20 percent); student selectivity (12.5 percent); financial resources (10 percent); alumni giving (5 per- cent); and graduation rate performance (7.5 percent). None of the weights were changed from the 2015 rankings.
“We believe that rankings sometimes can play too large a role in the decisions students and families make about what colleges to apply to and attend,” Buckles said.
“Just as we use many factors to determine which students to admit to Middlebury, we always hope prospective students will look beyond the numbers and seek out those colleges and universities that are the best fit for them.”
(05/06/15 8:41pm)
Following a voting period that saw the highest level of voter participation in recent years, Ilana Gratch ’16.5 was elected President of the Student Government Association (SGA) for the 2015-16 academic year.
“I look forward to an SGA that engages in meaningful conversation that translates to tangible change,” Gratch said in an email interview following the announcement of her election.
Results for this year’s election were announced in an email sent by former SGA Elections Council Chair Nick Warren ’15. Originally planned for release around 6 p.m. on April 30, election results were not released until 12:08 a.m. on May 1. Warren attributes this delay partly to the high level of voter participation. In an email to the Campus, Warren indicated that 1,783 students voted, marking a 136.47 percent in increase from last year’s presidential race, in which only 754 students voted.
Gratch, who previously held roles as Treasurer and Press Secretary of the SGA, ran alongside three other candidates: Josh Berlowitz ’16, Caroline Walters ’16.5, and Stuart Warren ’17. This comes as a sharp contrast to last year’s election cycle, in which Taylor Custer ’15 ran an uncontested race for the presidency.
Warren’s email, which included detailed rundowns of the election results, revealed that votes for the presidency were counted in three rounds, each of which saw the removal of the candidate receiving the least amount of votes. Berlowitz was removed in the first round after receiving 9.2 percent of votes, followed by Walters with 19.7 percent, and finally Warren with 38.0 percent. Gratch held a majority in each round, respectively receiving 44.4 percent, 49.4 percent, and 62.0 percent of votes.
Gratch’s platform includes opening Proctor Dining Hall from 10-11 p.m. for “10 o’clock Proc,” creating a student-run bar on campus, and forming a peer counseling service.
“I am deeply committed to fostering a student government that is relevant, transparent, and approachable. It is my hope that through leading in a thoughtful and purposeful manner, I will be able to not only listen carefully to what students want to see happen at Middlebury, but also advocate effectively on their behalf,” Gratch said.
(04/22/15 9:44pm)
On Tuesday, April 14, Kelly Boe, manager of the central biomass heating plant, died in a bicycling accident that took place along Hamilton Road in Weybridge. Boe was riding with his wife, Kathy, when he was struck by a car. His passing was announced in an email sent by Vice President for Finance and Treasurer Patrick Norton.
“Our hearts are broken by this news and know you join me in extending our condolences to the Boe family,” Norton said in his message.
Boe joined Middlebury College as a heating plant operator in 2009 and became a manager in 2013. He had previously worked at Danforth Pewter and KE Durasol. Outside the College, Boe served on the board of directors of the Addison County chapter of Habitat for Humanity and the local United Way.
“Once at Middlebury, Kelly was a key force in helping us exceed our performance expectations for the biomass plant, and [he] was a passionate advocate for our alternative energy initiative,” Norton said.
A service was held on Monday, April 20, at St. Mary’s Catholic Church. In addition to his wife, Boe is survived by his daughters Sara, 19, and Andrea, 15.
“This is a very difficult time for us all and, in particular, for Kelly’s colleagues in Facilities Services. We encourage you to make use of the support offered by the College and wider community,” Norton said.
(04/08/15 8:18pm)
On Thursday, April 2, Nathan Alexander ’17 was found in his room in Milliken Hall after taking his own life.
President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz announced Nathan’s passing in an email addressed to students, staff, and faculty.
“We know this comes as a great shock to his many friends, classmates, and faculty members. Public Safety discovered Nathan after receiving a request from a fellow student who was concerned about his whereabouts,” he wrote.
The request was submitted by Maggie Nazer ’17, a close friend of Nathan who last saw him three days before he was discovered.
“His girlfriend messaged me worried because she had been messaging Nathan for hours and had not heard back from him. I kept texting him and went to his room to check if he was there,” Nazer said in an email. “All along, I believed he was either too stressed with work to answer or simply needed space from us.”
Nazer reached out to Nathan’s sister and discovered he had not been replying to her messages.
“This is when I thought there must be something wrong and called Public Safety,” she said.
A Public Safety officer discovered Nathan in his room, where emergency medical services pronounced him dead. The cause of death was asphyxiation. In the late afternoon, upon receiving confirmation that the family had been notified, Liebowitz sent an email informing the College community.
“At a difficult time such as this, I encourage everyone on campus to look out for one another,” he wrote.
That evening, students, staff, and faculty were invited to gather in Coltrane Lounge, where staff members from the Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life, Parton Center for Health and Wellness, and members of the Commons team offered support.
Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of the College Katy Smith Abbott announced a schedule of opportunities for students, staff, and faculty members to gather in remembrance and support.
A candlelight vigil was held in Nathan’s honor on April 6 in Mead Chapel. From April 7 to April 9, community members were invited to the Fireplace Lounge in Ross Commons Dining for conversation and reflection.
“I encourage you to find ways to address your own feelings, questions, and concerns—whether in one of the scheduled gatherings, with your dean, with one of the counselors at Parton Center for Health and Counseling, with a chaplain at the Scott Center, or with friends,” Smith Abbott said in her email.
She continued, “If you, or someone you know, might need help over the next days and weeks, please reach out to one of us.”
Nathan’s girlfriend, Marium Sultan ’16, was studying abroad in Sri Lanka when she learned of Nathan’s death.
“Take advantage of the moments to be as kind as you can to others because you never know when you will have another chance to,” she said. “The last thing Nathan told me was that he loved me. He told me he was lucky to have met me, and I told him the same.”
Nathan was a graduate of The Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut, where he developed interests in public policy and a passion for sailing. At the College, he had not yet declared a major but took courses in economics and political science.
His loss is deeply felt by those who knew him.
“I think that this tragic incident has the potential to inspire a collective transformation of the social environment and our relationships on campus,” said Nazer.
She continued, “Many of us suffer quietly as we greet each other and take part in social gatherings that often make us feel more isolated. Reaching out and showing support should not only be an intention that remains in the form of texts or words but also an action. Having someone go out of their way to come knock at your door is better than just sending you a text. But before everything else we must find the strength and courage to open up to each other, be real, be vulnerable, and take it from there.”
If someone you know exhibits warning signs of suicide:
• Do not leave the person alone
• Remove any firearms, alcohol, drugs or sharp objects that could be used in a suicide attempt
• Call the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255)
• Take the person to an emergency room or seek help from a medical or mental health professional
(02/18/15 9:21pm)
Last Friday, Feb. 13, a student was struck by a car while crossing College Street at night. The incident, which took place near Adirondack Circle at approximately 12:20 a.m., left the student with multiple injuries.
The student hit was on the phone with his brother when he was struck by a moving motor vehicle which was being operated by other students from the College.
The victim was lifted off the ground and broke through the windshield of the car. Another student in the area heard the accident and rushed to the victim’s aid.
“[The student who helped me] is a champ; he heard the incident from a couple hundred yards away and stabilized my head until the EMTs came,” the victim said.
Shortly afterward, Middlebury Police and Public Safety arrived to the scene with an ambulance and transported the victim to Porter Hospital. He was released later that morning.
The sergeant from the Middlebury Police Department who is working to investigate the case failed to respond to a request for comment by the Campus.
The victim has a concussion and is sustaining a bruised jaw, ribs and legs. “Mostly, it just feels like I have been hit by a car,” said the victim.
He added, “I don’t remember being hit or where I was on the ground.”
This was not the first incident concerning student safety on College Street. Last fall, Public Safety sent an email to all students at the College concerning several instances where drivers of cars and pickup trucks threw objects and shouted at students walking near the road.
Although no students were harmed on these occasions, the incidents contributed to an ongoing concern for the safety of students on College Street.
College Street, which runs from downtown Middlebury through the College and turns into Route 125 as it continues past the College, is one of the busiest roads on campus.
Public Safety works with the College and the town to ensure student safety on and off campus.
(02/12/15 3:28am)
On Tuesday, Jan. 27, Professor of Economics E. Robert Prasch III passed away in his sleep.
Prasch joined the College’s Economics Department in 2000. He taught courses in monetary theory and policy, macroeconomics, and economic history. He has published over eighty articles, book chapters, and reviews and was in the process of completing two manuscripts at the time of his passing.
In an email sent to faculty, staff, and students, President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz said, “[Professor Prasch’s] outgoing personality was legendary, and he was greatly admired by his students, his faculty colleagues, and by anyone else who knew his acumen for economics, politics, history, and other subjects.”
Students, professors, and colleagues shared anecdotes and photos highlighting their times with Prasch in an online “book of memories” set up by the Economics Department. In this forum, Chair of the Economics Department Peter Matthews wrote, “I’ve told a lot of 'Bob stories' over the last week, and could tell a lot more. We all could. It was impossible to know him and not share him with others…Farewell, comrade.”
Prasch is survived by his wife, Falguni A. Sheth. Details about funeral arrangements will be sent out by President Liebowitz as soon as they are available.
(12/03/14 6:19pm)
Effective Feb. 1, 2015, Dr. Sunder Ramaswamy will step down from his position as the 13th president of the Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS), a graduate school of Middlebury College. Ramaswamy announced his plans in an email addressed to MIIS faculty, staff, and students on Nov. 20, two days following the announcement of Dr. Laurie L. Patton’s appointment as the 17th President of Middlebury College.
In his email, Ramaswamy wrote, “It is an extraordinary privilege to lead the Monterey Institute, and every day I appreciate the community that we have nurtured and strengthened over the past seven years. To this end, as we undergo this period of dynamic change, I believe that this is the right time to align and synchronize changes in the leadership of MIIS with the transition in governance and presidential leadership at Middlebury.”
Ramaswamy assumed the presidency in January 2009. During his tenure, MIIS created its Graduate School of International Policy and Management (GSIPM) and Graduate School of Translation, Interpretation, and Language Education (GSTILE), launched new degree programs in Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies, International Education Management and International Trade and Economic Diplomacy, and opened the Center for the Blue Economy, the Center for Conflict Studies and the Center for Social Impact Learning.
“It would be fair to say that MIIS is better positioned today than any time in its nearly 60-year history. And, these milestones are also a source of great personal satisfaction for me,” Ramaswamy said.
Prior to his move to MIIS, Ramaswamy was the Director for the Madras School of Economics in Chennai, India. He also held visiting positions with Vanderbilt University, the Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR) in Chennai, India and the World Bank, where he worked on projects dealing with economic reform in India.
Ramaswamy was also Middlebury College’s Frederick C. Dirks Professor of International Economics. At the College, he served three terms as the chair of the Economics department from 1996 to 2003 and helped create the International Studies major. Ramaswamy also served as the Dean for Faculty Development and Research. He was the project director for the Middlebury-Monterey Integration Task Force and guided MIIS through its integration phase with the College.
In an email sent to MIIS faculty, staff and students, President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz discussed the transition plan for new leadership at the school.
“Consistent with the administrative structure at Middlebury and recommendations from our most recent 10-year Reaccreditation, we are replacing the president of the Institute with a vice president for academic affairs (VPAA) and dean of the Institute. This position will serve as both chief academic officer at MIIS and will also have responsibilities for the overall success and functioning of the Institute through collaboration with the senior administrative team at Middlebury,” Liebowitz said.
Jeff Dayton-Johnson, an associate professor of international studies at MIIS, will serve in this position in an interim capacity until Jun. 30, 2016, effective immediately.
Prior to joining the MIIS faculty, Dayton-Johnson served as a senior economist at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris, where he served as the Head of the OECD Development Centre’s Americas Desk. Dayton-Johnson was also a professor of economics at Dalhousie University in Canada, where he coordinated the Master in Development Economics (MDE) program.
Liebowitz wrote, “[Dayton-Johnson] has emerged as a leader who is able to work across programmatic boundaries and who communicates the Institute’s curricular distinctiveness with compelling clarity … he has proven to be a clear and compelling communicator and has demonstrated his capacity for innovation and fruitful collaboration.”
After Ramaswamy officially steps down from his presidency, he will assist Dayton-Johnson until Jun. 30, 2015, serving as the Senior Advisor on Institutional Initiatives. Afterward, Ramaswamy will begin his scheduled sabbatical as a Distinguished College Professor of International Economics. He plans to shift his academic and research focus to the Indian economy and the development of higher education in India.
(11/19/14 9:44pm)
Students, staff and community members gathered in the Robert A. Jones conference room on Nov. 12 to discuss the feasibility of creating a “microgrid” on Middlebury College’s campus.
A microgrid is a smaller, more localized version of a larger power grid that brings distributed energy resources (e.g. wind, solar, natural gas) closer to where energy is being used. In this case, the larger power grid in the area is operated by Green Mountain Power (GMP), which currently supplies approximately 80 percent of the College’s electrical demand.
The creation of a microgrid would allow the College’s electrical system to better withstand extreme climate events. For example, if a storm were to cause a large-scale power outage, then the College would be able to disconnect from the main grid operated by GMP and continue to operate with the electrical generation available on campus.
Panelist speakers included Michael Hightower from Sandia National Laboratories, Jito Coleman from Green Toolbox Consulting and Josh Castonguay from GMP. The three shared their experiences working with microgrids and discussed successful implementation strategies.
“Microgrids are the future of energy distribution — they’re cheaper, better for renewables, more local and more resilient,” said Isaac Baker ’14.5, who helped organize the panel with Director of Sustainability Jack Byrne. Baker will be teaching a Winter Term course analyzing the feasibility of College microgrid from a financial, regulatory and logistical standpoint.
As a part of his independent study, Baker has been speaking with microgrid experts and researching the implementation of microgrids on college campuses across the country that are similar in size to Middlebury. Baker formed the idea for a microgrid while attending the Middlebury School of the Environment during its inaugural run last summer.
Baker said, “As a part of the sustainability practicum course, we were put into groups of four and matched with Director of Sustainability Jack Byrne. Our task was to assess climate vulnerability for Middlebury College, and the vulnerability my group identified was extended power outages due to extreme weather.”
Baker stated that a microgrid will give more resiliency to infrastructure at the College, most significantly through the ability to go into “Island Mode,” where the microgrid can fully power the College if the main grid operated by GMP goes down.
Princeton University and Wesleyan University are currently among the rising number of schools that have successfully created their own microgrids. Princeton’s microgrid gained recognition two years ago when it successfully went into Island Mode and kept power running to the school through Hurricane Sandy.
“Once you have a microgrid, another benefit is that you’re you’re able to act as a point of aid for the college and the surrounding community during disaster scenarios,” Baker said.
Baker added that both schools he has been focusing his research on — Princeton and Wesleyan — have seen significant savings since” implementing a microgrid
He said, “The way it works economically is that [the microgrid] operates in parallel with the larger power grid, so at any moment we can take power from the grid or sell some of it back. This means we wouldn’t have to invest as much in storing our electricity.”
Additionally, the microgrid fits in with the College’s goal toward achieving carbon neutrality.
“Our goal is to figure out how and if we can make the College more climate resilient while achieving other essential institutional goals,” Baker said. “We probably won’t go forward with the project unless we can both decrease the amount of carbon in our electricity and also decrease the cost of that energy.”
A more detailed analysis of the economic costs and benefits of a Middlebury microgrid will be conducted in Baker’s winter term course.
Baker said, “The general outline is that we will be spending the first week examining our campus infrastructure and understanding the system we have here as best as we can. The next three weeks will go into developing a proposal for the project — how much it will cost and its feasibility from a regulatory standpoint.”
He continued, “If our findings show that a microgrid is something we should be considering, then we will be refining our ideas and start planning a presentation for the Board of Trustees.”
Baker added that the course — which has been filled — will contain a good sampling of students, from first-years to seniors. He said, “If [the microgrid project] goes through, it will inevitably be a multi-year project.”
Baker said, “What inspired me to do this project is that we have so much of the infrastructure already in place: we own our own power lines, we already produce a great deal of energy on campus, and we have access to two stable, inexpensive, and carbon-neutral sources of energy, wood chips and biomethane.”
He added, “We know we’re on track to hit carbon neutrality in 2016. Once we get there, the question will be how do we move forward and make carbon neutrality a visible reality here on campus? The College has been hailed as an environmental leader because we’ve made strong commitments in the past… building a microgrid now would put us ahead of the curve and show once again that we can walk the walk in the face of climate change.
(10/01/14 10:38pm)
On Tuesday, Sept. 30th, thirteen students gathered in Crossroads Cafe to compete in the TEDxMiddlebury Student Speaker Competition, in which participants delivered four-minute pitches to a panel of judges on an idea they wanted to further explore and share through a full TED talk. Rachel Liddell ’15 was the winner of the competition and will therefore be this year’s student speaker at the fifth annual TEDxMiddlebury Conference, which is currently set to be held on Sunday, Nov. 9th with the theme, “Living in the Question.”
Liddell’s pitch was titled “Sex, Power, and Politics: How and Why We Sexualize Powerful Women.”
She said, “I’m hoping students will gain a little insight into our own community at a micro level. At a macro level, I hope we all start thinking about how we act as voters and judgers of the people around us, and how we include the sexuality of women in our perception of women’s skill in a variety of areas including politics, art, history, anything.”
Liddell’s topic was inspired by her experiences running for and serving as the President of the Student Government Association (SGA).
“The way I felt perceived by my community was not always positive,” said Liddell. “Specifically, during my campaign, someone defaced one of my posters to make it sexually explicit. This experience was incredibly hurtful at the time, but over time, I’ve recognized it as part of a pattern in society at large. Discussing how powerful women are sexualized will address this pattern, and hopefully disrupt it.”
Founded in 1984, TED is a nonprofit devoted to the sharing of ideas in the form of talks lasting no longer than eighteen minutes.
“The TEDx program is a branch of TED that supports communities around the world to host their own TED-like events,” said Josh Swartz ’14.5, one of the chief organizers and board members for TEDxMiddlebury.
TEDxMiddlebury was founded under the Programs for Creativity and Innovation (PCI) and held its inaugural conference in 2009 for an audience of approximately one-hundred people. Since then, the conference has expanded to host 400 people in the Middlebury Center for the Arts (MCA) Concert Hall.
Notable guest speakers from past conferences include spoken word artist Big Poppa E from HBO’s “Def Poetry” series and Emmy Award winning director of NBC News Washington Jeffrey Blount.
“[The conference] has grown quite a bit,” said Swartz. “We professionally record all our talks and upload them to our YouTube channel. Our most popular talk from last year was queer and trans activist Alok Vaid-Menon’s, whose talk ‘We are nothing (and that is beautiful)’ was an editor’s pick on the TED website just this month and has been watched over 80,000 times.”
“This year, for the first time actually, the Middlebury Oratory Society partnered with TEDx and hosted a prep session [for participants] before the Student Speaker Competition,” said Swartz. This session was held on Monday, Sept. 29th.
Among the many changes over the years for TEDxMiddlebury was the inclusion of the student speaker. Ryan Kim ’14 spoke in the 2012 conference, and Alec Macmillan ’14 spoke in the 2013 conference.
“Having a student speaker has helped us further engage the student body,” said Swartz. “This is always an ongoing goal for TEDxMiddlebury.”
Ryan Kim ’14 and Alec Macmillan ’14 were the first student speakers for TEDxMiddlebury. Kim spoke in the 2012 conference, and Macmillan in the 2013 conference.
Swartz stated that between twelve and sixteen students deliver pitches in the Student Speaker Competition each year.
“Anyone can pitch. They have four minutes, and we try to limit their use of visual aids and multimedia, so the judges can focus on the presence of the person and their idea, which will ultimately become the foundation for a longer eighteen-minute talk” said Swartz.
With Liddell set to be this year’s speaker, Swartz and the other organizers for TEDxMiddlebury will focus their efforts exclusively on the November 9th conference.
Swartz said, “It’s motivating to be part of a team that works so actively to make each event better than the last — to work towards building something that is both inspiring for the student body and that represents and values many different identities, experiences, and ideas.”
Meanwhile, Liddell will be working with MiddCORE Instructor in Persuasive Communication Mike Kiernan to develop her winning pitch into a full eighteen-minute TED talk for the conference.
“I am so excited and honored to have the opportunity to speak at TEDxMiddlebury,” said Liddell. “Hopefully, I’ll influence the way people think, and I definitely plan on having fun. I am very grateful to talk about an issue for which I care deeply.”
(09/17/14 10:46pm)
The U.S. News & World Report released its college rankings for the 2014-2015 year on Sept. 9, and with them came a drop in Middlebury College’s standing.
Previously fourth among all liberal arts colleges in the country, the College’s ranking has moved to seventh. It now places right behind Pomona and Bowdoin — both tied for fifth — with Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore and Wellesley respectively taking the first four spots.
According to the U.S. News website, the college ranking formula is based on the following data: undergraduate academic reputation (22.5 percent), student retention (22.5 percent), faculty resources (20 percent), student selectivity (12.5 percent), financial resources (10 percent), graduation rate performance (7.5 percent), and alumni giving rate (5 percent).
“The margins of the difference among the top group of colleges like Middlebury are extremely slight,” said Dean of Admissions Greg Buckles.
“And there are four or five of us that have been changing places with those 4th to 8th slots for years now. Our admissions profile is as strong as it’s ever been, and frankly, while we recognize the value to the public of the USNWR and other rankings, we don’t focus our admissions efforts exclusively on how they will impact such ratings.”
President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz signed a letter in 2008 agreeing not to publicize college rankings in marketing materials.
“Which says a lot about what I and other college leaders think about [rankings],” said Liebowitz.
“It’s nice to be recognized as being a top liberal arts college, but we neither manage the institution to achieve rankings nor believe any methodology captures the essence and strength of any institution. Formulas change from year to year in these kinds of rankings, and the variation in how things are reported (e.g., some schools report only fifty percent of their SAT scores so they are skewed) from one college to another is too great to believe the small differences in ‘overall scores’ among the top schools are all that accurate or significant. Do I think going from tied for 4th (tied for 4/5) to 7th is meaningful? No, not in terms of what it says about the quality of or demand for a Middlebury education—in those areas, we have never been stronger. In terms of selling magazines and providing new fodder for blogs and commentators, maybe.”
(09/10/14 8:30pm)
On Sept. 4, President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz announced a proposal for a new Middlebury identity system. The proposal was detailed in an email Liebowitz sent to all students, staff and faculty.
If approved, the identity system will formally incorporate the Middlebury name into the official title of each school outside of the core undergraduate program. For example, the Bread Loaf School of English will subsequently be referred to as the “Middlebury Bread Loaf School of English.”
The term “Middlebury College” will then refer exclusively to the undergraduate school, whereas the general “Middlebury” will be used to collectively describe the College and its graduate schools and programs.
“Middlebury has evolved into an institution that transcends the traditional bounds of a residential liberal arts college,” Liebowitz said in the announcement. “While best known for our preeminent undergraduate college, Middlebury each year educates as many graduate and summer students as undergraduates.”
He added, “The new system would create a common linkage across all our schools while ensuring that each retains and strengthens its unique identity and mission.”
Work on the proposal began after the decennial Reaccreditation Review’s recommendation that the missions of Middlebury’s programs and their relationships to each other be clarified.
“Middlebury was somewhat of a surprise to the visiting team as they were not quite aware that we have been awarding 200+ M.A. degrees through the Language Schools and Bread Loaf School of English for decades, or that we had become such a complex organization over time,” said Liebowitz in an email interview with The Middlebury Campus.
Though Liebowitz initiated the proposal for the identity system, day-to-day project management has been the responsibility of Vice President for Communications Bill Burger.
“We think that the identity system will help raise Middlebury’s visibility because a lot of really interesting things are happening at [the other schools], but people don’t understand that it’s Middlebury that is running them,” Burger said.
Liebowitz and Burger have both incorporated the community in the process as much as possible. Thus far, they have received suggestions, comments and feedback from over 300 faculty, staff, students and alumni in the Middlebury and Monterey communities.
For Burger, efforts have been especially strong in Monterey. Founded in 1955 as the Monterey Institute of Foreign Studies, the institute was later renamed the “Monterey Institute of International Studies” and signed an affiliation agreement with the College in 2005. In 2010, it formally became the Monterey Institute of International Studies, a Graduate School of Middlebury College.
If the proposal for the identity system is approved, the institute will be renamed the “Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.”
“There’s no question this is a more significant change for the Monterey Institute than is for the other schools,” said Burger. “We’ve tried to be very respectful of that by bringing as many people into the conversation as we can.”
“One reason we have taken so long, gone through so much process, and shown [the proposal] to so many people is that we wanted to make sure this would work. And that’s why we’re really being as inclusive as possible,” Burger said.
Town hall meetings will be taking place in Middlebury and Monterey. A presentation will be held for the Board of Trustees on Sept. 19, and a formal vote will take place on Sept. 20. If approved, rollout will take place over the next few months.
Burger said, “It’s been a fascinating and interesting project. So many people care about these things — which is great, because it shows how much they care about Middlebury. We’ve gotten a lot of good feedback, and we’ve made a lot of adjustments based on that feedback.”
In the conclusion to his email, Liebowitz said, “We have entered a period of great change in higher education. It is more important than ever for us to create clarity in describing and administering our rich and varied academic programs. The newly proposed identity system will help us achieve that clarity to the benefit of our individual programs and to the larger institution.”
(03/19/14 11:50pm)
The Student Government Association (SGA) will launch MiddCourses, a new site for students and professors to view course evaluations. The site will be open to all students in early April, after spring break.
“The point of this project is to create a better platform on which students can share course evaluations,” said SGA President Rachel Liddell ’15, who has been seeking sources for more reliable and consistent student reviews beyond Rate My Professor and MiddKid.com since her election last spring.
“There is pretty significant sentiment that [MiddKid] falls short of what people want,” Liddell said. “The data are out of date, and it’s not a visually clean site.”
Once MiddCourses launches, students will log into the site with their College email addresses. In order to see reviews, students will be required to submit two evaluations per semester.
“In that manner, people who want to use the data will also have to contribute to the data,” Liddell said.
Instead of having users manually enter in names of classes and professors, MiddCourses automatically adds classes being offered in the next semester to its database. This is intended to prevent the misspellings and inaccuracies found on MiddKid.com.
Liddell also noted that reviews on MiddKid and Rate My Professor tend to be polarized and unrealistic.
“A lot of the reviewers are either really angry or really happy,” she said. “[The submission requirement] will help keep the polarization issue at bay.”
In addition, MiddCourses will make helpful reviews more visible to users. Entries will be reviewed and extremely negative and unhelpful reviews will have the potential to be removed.
“We want to encourage respectful, high-quality comments and reviews,” SGA Director of Technology Dana Silver ’16 said.
Silver has been working closely with Liddell and Teddy Knox ’15 on the development of MiddCourses since September. In its early stages, they knew they wanted to make the site something the entire student body could contribute to.
“We decided to make the website open source,” Silver said. When a website is open-source, students will be able to see the code running on the site, download that code and contribute to it.
“Say a student notices a bug on the website,” Silver said. “If the student wanted to, [he or she] could go online and copy the source code to their computer, fix or patch the bug, and then open a pull request against our code. If we approve the code, then we would merge it into the site.”
The open-source code and student contributions work to make MiddCourses something that students feel they have ownership of, for it will be constantly evolving to provide the type of information that students are looking for.
“This is something that students have been wanting for a while now, in terms of having more transparency related to classes,” SGA Chief of Staff Jake Nonweiler ’14 said. “It started out as wanting to have course evaluation forms at the end of every semester released to students, but that’s not going to happen and will not happen.”
The development of MiddCourses has made some members of the faculty uneasy.The SGA is working to combat and clear up such concerns.
“The Faculty Council doesn’t really believe that publicizing the reviews is a good idea,” Nonweiler said. “As it works currently, the only people who have access to the course evaluations we fill out at the end of every semester are the professors for the course being evaluated, the chair of the department, and a few members of the administration. They’re very highly guarded.”
Likewise, the implementation of the site has not been met with administrative support.
“The Administration repeatedly advised the SGA not to pursue the idea of a course evaluation site. They do not support the implementation of the site,” Liddell added.
To appease the faculty, professors will have access to MiddCourses, but in a very limited capacity.
“It works very similarly to how the paper reviews [at the end of every semester] work now, where professors can’t view reviews for other professors,” Silver said. “They can log on, but they can’t create reviews and they are limited to viewing only reviews for their own courses.”
Liddell further explained the limited faculty access by noting that student reviews should not play a role in tenure decisions.
MiddCourses will be undergoing a soft launch, fine-tuning and preparing itself for class registration later this spring.
“The site is just better-looking and more fun to use,” said Liddell. “We’re hoping there will be a desire [among students] to read reviews, write reviews and be a part of it.”