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(02/20/20 10:57am)
Five first-year students who arrived on campus in the fall of 2018 were saddened, though not surprised, by the lack of diversity on campus. In response, Maya Gee, Roni Lezema, Dennis Miranda-Cruz, Cynthia Chen and Myles Maxie, all of the class of 2022, partnered with the admissions office to establish a Student Ambassador Program, which was put into practice last fall.
The program enables Middlebury students from rural, low-income and ethnically diverse areas to serve as admissions ambassadors to high schools in their hometowns and surrounding areas — areas that the college’s admissions counselors don’t visit often.
“We believe that, above all else, students want to go to a college where they envision themselves being happy,” the program’s founders said in an October Campus op-ed. “In our experience, the best way to help them have that vision in the first place is by watching and listening to someone from their own hometown speak about the school.”
The five students met on the SGA Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee (formerly known as the Institutional Diversity Committee) in the fall of 2018.
“The Middlebury community as we see it right now reflects a lot of what Middlebury used to be, but also the evolving efforts to include more students of marginalized backgrounds that typically weren’t represented in higher education,” said Gee, who grew up in rural Hawaii. Gee visited a number of high schools in her capacity as an ambassador when she was home this winter break.
“If we want to be fostering a diverse community on campus, we have to make sure that we are inviting those communities to campus,” she added.
Although they discussed developing this program as a student organization, the founding members agreed that they wanted it to be institutionalized under the umbrella of the admissions office. Nicole Curvin, the dean of admissions, and Santana Audet ’13, the senior assistant director of admissions and coordinator of diversity, inclusion and access initiatives, have been integral in this endeavor, according to Gee.
The founders began collaborating with the admissions office that fall and ran what they call a “pilot program” in spring 2019.
While the program is now an official part of the admissions office, it remains entirely student-run.
“Five first years came to us two years ago and I left that meeting so energized and motivated by their infectious enthusiasm and engagement,” Audet said. “I want this to always be a student-led initiative because that’s where the energy comes from. Our office’s support will maintain the longevity and historical knowledge of the program as students come and go, but this will become a student legacy.”
Now, the program is made up of three coordinators— Gee, Dennis Miranda-Cruz ’22 and Cynthia Chen ’22 — and 18 student ambassadors. They hope that the program will double in size each year, eventually employing over 100 student ambassadors.
Off the beaten path
The Office of Admissions has about a dozen admissions counselors that each travel approximately six weeks out of the year, visiting four or five schools a day. They attempt to balance visiting schools that traditionally send applications and visiting schools from which they hope to see applications.
Still, many of the schools that the student ambassadors are now hoping to reach are often left out. To maximize each counselor’s outreach, they often forgo visits to rural areas with few students.
New Student Ambassadors are trained to give information sessions about the college to prospective students, while adding personal touches to connect with high school students in their own hometowns.
“We know that nothing works better than personal contact when it comes to helping a student see themselves at Middlebury,” Audet said.
Student Ambassadors intend to do most of their outreach in the spring, which is the opposite of the fall travel schedule for the college’s admissions counselors. Each high school on the list has never been visited by the college, and is in an area considered either high poverty or extremely rural.
Ambassadors get paid $20 per two-hour visit. Although visits are typically only one hour long, the extra hour accounts for potential travel time. The admissions office recommends that students travel to high schools no more than 30 miles away from their home addresses.
Gee estimated that student ambassadors have already completed 15–20 visits in 2020.
“We are reaching out to an entirely new demographic. For me personally, there were a lot of students I visited in Hawaii who ended up applying to Middlebury from high schools who had previously never had any applications to Middlebury,” Gee said.
(05/02/19 10:00am)
As the school year moves into the home stretch of the spring semester, final exams, summer jobs and future plans loom on the horizon. It is a hectic time when the grinding, everyday stresses and anxieties begin to attack from all angles, further exacerbating mental health issues.
In recent years, college mental health issues have received increasing attention by the mental health community, the public and school administrators. Events like the series of suicides at New York University in 2004 received prominent media coverage, turning college student mental health issues into a pressing public health and policy concern.
On our own campus, over 70% of students said they feel lonely at least once in any given week. Tthe data also shows that students of color feel disproportionately lonely. A 2015 national survey found that although students of color have similar rates of mental illness in comparison to their white peers, they report higher rates of emotional distress in their first year and are half as likely to seek counseling services. Additionally, students of color report disproportionately higher rates of loneliness compared to their white counterparts. Stigma, reluctance to seek help for mental health needs, and cultural mistrust of mental health professionals may contribute to this disparity.
Simply providing counseling services doesn't necessarily solve the problem. Mental health on college campuses is a notoriously complicated issue, with causes and effects that researchers are still trying to pin down. Schools have moved from solely working to expand access to treatment to a whole host of prevention initiatives, making their campus and students healthier and more resilient to prevent problems from arising in the first place.
In order to meet an increasing demand, colleges and universities across the country have begun to ramp up their services for undergrads in distress. Middlebury’s Parton Health Center has increased the number of counselors five-fold in the last 25 years. There are now seven counselors on staff and three interns, as opposed to two counselors in 1995. Parton now holds over 3,600 counseling sessions per year, and over 26% of the student body has interacted directly with a counselor in the last year.
On April 18, The Campus reported that Parton has joined a national program which helps schools improve their suicide prevention services as well as support for substance abuse and other mental health issues. The coming years may see changes in staffing within the counseling department, the availability of counseling to students who are abroad, the creation of support groups for mental health issues and the creation of a counseling app.
Even with the improvements in recent years, Zeitgeist results found that less than 50% of students are satisfied with Parton. Although a majority of students at the college agree they would know where to go to seek professional help for mental or emotional health, students have complained about the lack of counselors available to meet the growing demand for counseling services.
Parton’s website states a mission to “promote, enhance and support students’ emotional and interpersonal well-being within a safe, confidential environment.” To schedule an appointment, hear more about Parton’s services, or speak to a counselor call 802-443-5141.
(05/02/19 9:56am)
In the wake of the controversy stirred by Ryszard Legutko’s visit to campus two weeks ago, members of the Middlebury community gathered in Mead Chapel to support marginalized groups. The small crowd that gathered on Friday evening included members of the college’s faculty and student body alike, many proudly waving rainbow flags and sporting attire celebrating queer identities.
The college’s Queer and Trans People of Color organized the rally in response to discussions that have taken place on campus after Legutko’s talk, the troubling question about Nazi gas chambers on a recent chemistry exam and the slave ship joke a professor used to introduce a presentation. Originally meant to be a march from the Queer Studies house concluding with an open mic just outside of Wilson Hall, the event was moved indoors due to inclement weather.
“We want to be very intentional about elevating marginal identities in this space,” said one of the organizers in his opening statements at the rally. The speakers have asked to remain anonymous.
According to the description in the Facebook event, the goal of the rally was to “be both visible and construct community,” aiming to “build bridges across different marginalized groups given that the LGBTQ+ community was not the only one affected by Legutko’s rhetoric.”
Many attendees came prepared with speeches or poetry that voiced their outrage with administrative decisions surrounding Legutko and disregard for marginalization that takes place within the student body, while others were moved to speak by the palpable emotion that permeated the Chapel.
“I am not disappointed by these events, because that would mean I had hope to begin with,” an attendee said.
A few students shared letters they had written to members of the administration or faculty that had gone unsent for various reasons.
“Theodore Roosevelt, a distant cousin and friend to Alexander Hamilton, once said, ‘to educate a human in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.’ Poli Sci, you need to be better,” one letter said.
Many speakers addressed issues of class disparity, mental health and accessibility that are often left out of activist dialogue on campus. One student shared frustrations at watching wealthy and upper-middle class activists speak over their mid to lower-class peers, while another discussed the inherent ableism demonstrated in moving Legutko’s talk from Bicentennial Hall to the Kirk Alumni Center.
“This event was set up to privilege not only people who could emotionally handle being at Legutko’s talk, but also people who could physically make it to Legutko’s talk,” said one student.
The student added that they were frustrated by a lack of consideration for people who “for whatever cognitive or developmental reasons may have had a difficult experience trying to communicate and express their ideas in that setting.”
Another speaker addressed the college’s response to a recent chemistry test question that asked students to calculate a lethal dose of the gas used in Nazi gas chambers.
“Issuing administrative condemnation is not the same as supporting the Jewish community,” the student said.
Feelings of exhaustion and discouragement at the seemingly never-ending fight for equality were voiced across the various identities in attendance. However, there was also a sense of hope in the simple fact that this group of people was gathered to stand in solidarity with each other.
“I hope to hear more, and more, and more of your voices, of our voices, here at Middlebury,” said a faculty member in attendance.
For those that didn’t want to share their thoughts in person, the organizers offered a google form allowing people to provide their opinions anonymously. One respondent expressed his hope for Middlebury to become, “a place where people can learn to love themselves, every part of themselves, fully.”
(04/11/19 9:55am)
Middlebury will welcome all of its language schools back to Vermont next summer. Beginning with the 2020 summer session, Bennington College will host the three schools that are currently held in Oakland, Calif., joining the eight schools that are already held on the Middlebury campus.
President Laurie L. Patton and Bennington College President Mariko Silver announced the agreement last Wednesday on the Bennington campus.
“Middlebury and Bennington really are sister institutions and this is a great opportunity for higher-ed in Vermont,” Silver said at the signing event. “What we want here truly is a partnership. It is not a transactional relationship.”
Dean of Language Schools Steve Snyder said that the college selected Bennington, after surveying many Vermont institutions, for its excellent facilities, isolated environment and its goals and values, which align with those of Middlebury.
Bennington granted language schools exclusive use of its campus during the summer session. This is critical, as it provides an environment free from “language pollution,” and allows students to deeply engage with the curriculum and language pledge.
Middlebury’s language schools currently offer 11 programs, three of which have been housed in Oakland at Mills College for the last decade. The language schools educate about 1,500 students each summer, ranging in age from 17 to 70 and coming from all over the world.
Snyder said the directors of each school came together to identify some new goals during a recent strategic planning process as part of the“Envisioning Middlebury” framework. Curricular innovation, faculty professional development, research in language pedagogy and digital learning were among the top priorities they identified.
These new objectives required that all the Language School faculty and directors be in one place and able to meet before and after the summer session.
“To have one-third of the faculty located in California was preventing us from achieving some of our major strategic goals,” Snyder said.
The college is planning to create time at the beginning of the summer to bring in experts from around the world to hold a workshop for faculty professional development and curricular innovation.
The expansion to California in 2009 was an effort to accommodate a growing population of Language School students in Middlebury, and in recent years about 300 students each summer have studied Arabic, Italian and Korean at Mills. The schools also hoped that students at the Monterey Institute would enroll in the provided language courses, though the idea didn’t catch on in the way they anticipated.
“In the end it was a very marginal number of students (from the Institute) that actually attended the Language Schools.”
Snyder praised Mills as a wonderful institutional partner, even as they have experienced challenges of their own in recent years. The increasing number of English-speaking summer programs on their campus, combined with the operational difficulty of travel between the two locations, were some of the factors in the decision to relocate the schools to Vermont.
This new proximity will allow a cooperative and interconnected relationship between Bennington and Middlebury, as first demonstrated in the co-signing ceremony attended by the colleges’ presidents.
“We are hoping to create a broad relationship where the faculty exchanges, where Bennington students are able to attend the Language Schools more easily and we begin to think about various areas where we can cooperate across the institution,” Snyder said.
Snyder foresees only a few challenges that may accompany this upcoming transition, primarily concerning the demanding use of the Bennington campus over the summer and the residential problems that often arise when hosting such a diverse group of students.
“These are things we are used to handling and we will work with Bennington to manage what may arise,” Snyder said.
It has not yet been decided which schools Bennington will host. The remaining schools will stay at Middlebury.
(03/14/19 9:56am)
When Munroe Hall was built in 1947, accessibility, air conditioning and general safety standards were not a priority. All of these problems will be addressed in the building’s yearlong renovation, set to begin in June.
Although Munroe has been around for over 70 years, the college has made few changes in that time. Consequently, the building hosts multiple components that do not meet ADA standards. Every entrance to Munroe opens to a set of stairs, doorways and bathrooms are too narrow to be wheelchair-accessible and elevators are nowhere to be found.
Michael Sheridan, chair of the Sociology/Anthropology Department, which is located in the building, believes the proposed renovations will go a long way toward making Middlebury a more inclusive community.
“I get very frustrated watching someone on crutches struggle up to the fourth floor for class,” Sheridan said. “I once had a student in a wheelchair who could not even enter Munroe.”
[pullquote speaker="Michael Sheridan" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]I once had a student in a wheelchair who could not even enter Munroe.[/pullquote]
The proposal also addresses concerns about the safety and comfort of students. The antiquated building has no automatic sprinkler system for fire protection, no ventilation and a heating system that is variable and inaccurate. The doorways and roofing system are not insulated and the classrooms and faculty offices are poorly furnished.
“We are hitting every single component of the building,” said Project Manager Tom McGinn.
The project received final approval from the Board of Trustees just last week. According to McGinn, the design has been in the works for about a year. The staff and faculty housed in Munroe, largely from the departments of Religion, Sociology/Anthropology and Political Science, have provided input throughout the process.
“We’ve tried to accommodate all of their requests, but of course there are larger college considerations as well. Within every group there is always difference of opinion. I think they’ll be happy with it,” McGinn said.
The proposed renovations include the same nine classrooms and 43 faculty offices it currently holds, along with the addition of an open common room on the second floor. All new single-user restrooms and brand new furnishings will create a more welcoming environment. Air conditioning, ventilation and new windows will add a level of energy efficiency the building previously lacked.
McGinn noted that Munroe’s location in the middle of campus means pedestrian traffic will be interrupted for a short period of time during construction. The site will be fenced off and temporary walkways will be created to decrease the disruption as much as possible.
The staff and faculty will temporarily relocate to the brand new 75 Shannon Street building, located behind Wright Theater. This building, often referred to as a “swing-space,” was built to accommodate the college’s rapidly expanding computer science program, which will occupy the second floor. The Munroe residents will move into the first floor while their building is under renovation.
Faculty members have expressed concerns over the temporary cubicles that will serve as staff offices on the first floor of the interim academic space.
“I worry about holding private conversations with students in the temporary offices,” said Matt Dickinson, professor of Political Science. “I suspect I will have to find another place to hold office hours for the coming academic year.”
The college’s announcement about the temporary building last summer garnered mixed reactions. One commenter on the news release applauded the college for updating some of its older buildings.
[pullquote speaker="" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]Great to hear Warner and Munroe will finally move out of the late 1970s and into an ADA compliant world.[/pullquote]
“Great to hear Warner and Munroe will finally move out of the late 1970s and into an ADA compliant world,” they said.
Others criticized the building’s metal exterior, which does not match the college’s quintessential stone style.
“Please find a way to make the outside more attractive/similar to the traditional Midd buildings. It looks like a building you’d expect to see in a big city setting, not in the beautiful Champlain Valley,” one reader commented.
McGinn conceded that the new building does not boast the grandeur that some other parts of campus are known for.
“When you go in you say, wow this is really cool. Is it a stone building with a pitched roof? No. But it is not in the middle of campus. It is tucked away, and it is allowing us to get into Munroe and possibly many other buildings,” McGinn said.
Munroe’s renovation marks the beginning of the college’s 10-year Academic Space Master Plan. Upon its completion in the summer of 2020, the college will begin work on Warner Hall. Other future projects may include the renovation of Johnson Memorial Building and Adirondack House — home of the Center for Careers and Internships — both of which possess similar accessibility concerns to Munroe’s.
[pullquote speaker="Gia Gould ’19" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]It’s important to communicate that all fields of study hold equal value to the liberal arts education.[/pullquote]
“It’s nice to see that Middlebury is investing equally in the social sciences as they are in the sciences,” said Gia Gould ’19, a Political Science major. “It’s important to communicate that all fields of study hold equal value to the liberal arts education.”
(03/07/19 10:55am)
Two influential economists debated whether capitalism is worth saving in today’s world in a debate last Thursday, Feb. 28, in Dana Auditorium.
Free-market economist Michael Munger spoke in support of capitalism, while Marxist economist Richard Wolff argued for socialism. Their exchange was part of the college’s Alexander Hamilton Forum, a series aiming to foster civil discussion around differences in American political thought.
“This prompt might have sounded strange to most ears just 15 years ago,” said Keegan Callanan, assistant professor of Political Science and event moderator. “But today, polling indicates that socialism is more popular than capitalism among both Democrats and, what is perhaps the same thing, the young.”
Munger, a professor of Political Science, Economics and Public Policy at Duke, was the first to lay out his position. While he did not offer a clear definition of capitalism, Munger explained that markets are an integral part of a capitalist system, though he noted they are also found in other economic systems. Socialism, on the other hand, he defined in detail.
“The only useful definition of socialism is state ownership and control of the means of production, state management of the direction of resources, and state control and provision of all services,” Munger said. “By that definition, there are no functional socialist nations. The exceptions are at the margins.”
Munger asked the audience to consider their priorities, namely whether they were concerned with ending poverty or ending inequality. Using China as an example, he conceded that capitalism is good at getting rid of poverty but also noted that it often creates inequality. Since 1978, when China began adopting free-market reform, China has seen the largest decline of poverty in history. However, it is currently the country with the greatest degree of income inequality in the world.
“If you were to ask the poor, who now have a much more prosperous living setting, ‘are you concerned with inequality,’ well, they might be. But if you ask them if they want to go back, they will probably say no, which means capitalism is worth saving,” Munger said. “If you want a system that reduces inequality and poverty, my claim is that there is no such system.”
In closing, Munger concentrated on pervasive evidence of the failures of democratic government. He believes the kind of regulation present in America that protects large corporations is the failure of democracy, not capitalism.
“If we had a different political system, we would be able to save capitalism,” he concluded. “We need to save capitalism in order to address the questions of inequality that will harm democracy.”
Munger concentrated on the U.S. government’s failures to spend on basic infrastructure, to maintain basic public education and to adopt an efficient health care system.
“As an old person I want to thank you for keeping my taxes low. But there is no reason for my taxes to be low. I am rich as heck. Why does our political system have this pathology? Because every flaw in consumers is worse in voters.”
Next to speak was Wolff, Professor Emeritus at University of Massachusetts-Amherst and Visiting Professor at the New School in New York. He began his argument with a response to Munger’s claims.
“Partly I agree with him, partly I feel like we must live in different universes,” Wolff said. “I would like to see capitalism wiped off the face of the earth.”
Much of Wolff’s response centered on the difference between his and Munger’s definitions of capitalism. Wolff defined capitalism as “an organization of production, so that a small group of people make the decisions that everyone else has to live with.”
Wolff connects this to his definition of democracy, which he believes to mean each person has a say in the decisions that affect them.
“Capitalism is not a democratic economic system. You could have a democratic economic system if everybody had an equal voice.” Wolff said.
Wolff latched on to Munger’s concession of inequality, and cited historical examples of economic downturns to demonstrate the instability of a capitalist system.
“Capitalists have been trying to figure out how to stop these crashes from happening,” said Wolff, referencing the 11 downturns of the American capitalist economy between 1941 and 2008. “They have been working at it for 200 years because capitalism, wherever it has landed, goes through these cycles.”
Wolff described the pervasive anxiety that racks economists as they wait for the next economic crash. He predicted it will occur at the end of this year or early next year.
Although Wolff noted that he is not inherently against markets, as they have existed through history and in every socialist society he is aware of, he made it clear he is not a major proponent of them.
“Markets are themselves a questionable institution, and a healthy society should be questioning them all the time,” Wolff said.
Later in his argument, Wolff emphasized the evolving nature of socialism. He explained how socialists are reacting to their history and socialist experiments that have come before them, much like capitalists did coming out of feudalism.
Wolff concluded by returning to the idea of democratization.
“Let’s make socialism be not just about government doing things, but a government rooted in a mass of people who have real power because they own and operate the enterprises collectively,” Wolff said. “That would build on what was achieved by capitalism, build on what was achieved in socialism and do better than either of those were able to do.”
Although each of the debaters held differing viewpoints and even seemed to contradict themselves at times, neither speaker dominated the conversation. For those in attendance, the amicable dialogue between the speakers exemplified how to communicate across difference.
“I was gratified to see so many students interested in the dialogue, asking fine questions and continuing the conversation among themselves afterwards,” Callanan said. “Sparking those kinds of conversations is certainly one of the goals of the Hamilton Forum.”
“I believe that watching scholars debate forces me to consider opinions that differ from my own, and thus expands my worldview,” Quinn Boyle ’21 said. Other students agreed with Boyle, and added that difficult conversations are critical to a liberal arts education.
“Respectful disagreement creates learning and growth because it forces people to defend their stances with evidence and logic,” said Joseph Lyons ’21. “The debate this past Thursday certainly made me consider ideas that differ from my own. I think Middlebury should do all it can to promote such challenging conversations.”
(02/14/19 10:55am)
Middlebury received a record number of applications during the 2018-2019 admissions cycle, with 9,750 students vying for a spot in the Class of 2023. The applicant pool increased by 5.6 percent compared to last year’s 9,230. With an increase of 13.9 percent, the number of applicants who identify as students of color also reached a new high.
Over the past 10 years, Middlebury’s applicant rates have increased by about 34 percent, according to Dean of Admissions Greg Buckles. Within that same 10 years, the college has seen a 99 percent increase in students of color, and a 75 percent increase in international students.
“Using an incremental, thoughtful, and responsible approach, we want to grow the pool to reach any potential candidate for whom a Middlebury education might be a good fit,” Buckles said.
In a news release, Director of Admissions Nicole Curvin attributed this year’s growth in part to recruitment by Middlebury’s staff in the South and the West, where growth in applicants was particularly strong. Applicants rose by 16 percent in the South, and 10 percent in the West.
The applicants hail from across the country, with most admitted students coming from New York. Other pipeline states include California, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Illinois.
International applicants were up 10 percent this year. The six countries with the most applicants were led by China, with 628, followed by Pakistan, India, South Korea, Vietnam and Kenya.
Other NESCAC schools, such as Bowdoin, also saw an uptick in applications. Bowdoin received a total of 9,300 applications this year, an increase over its record of 9,081 for the Class of 2022.
[pullquote speaker="Greg Buckles" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]We are trying to pay more attention to students who may fall outside what some may consider traditional norms or mainstream types of Middlebury profiles.[/pullquote]
For the first binding early decision round, Middlebury said it admitted 297 of the 654 applicants this December. A quarter of early admits were students of color. The second round of early applicants and regular decision applicants will receive their decisions in mid-February and March 23, respectively.
The college is looking to continue the development of a diverse and balanced community in the Class of 2023.
“We are trying to pay more attention to students who may fall outside what some may consider traditional norms or mainstream types of Middlebury profiles,” Buckles said.
Looking to the future, Buckles believes the college will focus on reaching international applicants, as well as tackling affordability.
“Middlebury will want to continue to be accessible to anyone who is qualified and admitted regardless of ability to pay,” said Buckles, who is leaving the college at the end of the academic year to take a job at the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey.
The admissions team is busy reviewing applications for next year’s class, which they expect to total between 610 and 630 students in the fall and another 100 to 110 in February. The projected class size of about 700 is consistent with previous years. Last year’s overall acceptance rate was 18.4 percent, down from 19.7 percent the year before.
(02/14/19 10:52am)
The College has begun preparing a master plan for the restoration and improvement of Armstrong Science Library and Davis Family Library. In partnership with New York architectural firm Marble Fairbanks, the master plan will aim to serve the emerging research and study space needs of students and faculty. The architects are expected to return for a final visit in early April to present their draft plan.
During a two day site visit January 14-15, representatives from Marble Fairbanks met with students, staff, and faculty to observe how the library spaces are being used. The need for areas that encourage an inclusive community, spaces for collaboration, and spaces that address experiential learning were among the top remarks.
Middlebury opened the Davis Family Library in 2004, five years after the 1999 opening of the Armstrong Science Library. The Davis Library was built with room for 20 years’ projected collection growth to support Middlebury’s ever-changing curriculum and research. It reached capacity, however, in just 10 years.
While there are occasionally empty or partially filled shelves, Head of Collection Management Douglas Black said this space needs to remain clear in order to do the necessary resifting involved with keeping the collection current.
As digital and collaborative projects have become more prominent in recent years, there have been many requests from students and faculty for more space.
“We think we can find some room by refining the collection back to where it more accurately serves the curriculum,” said Black.
The potential use of compact shelving, off-site storage, and the reduction of physical materials will all be considered in this process. Although the library collections are constantly updated, it is rare that a full review can be conducted to thoroughly eliminate outdated materials. According to Black, the withdrawn materials will be sent to Better World Books, who sells them and returns to the College a portion of the proceeds to use in further developing Middlebury’s collection.
Librarians with the help of faculty will be carefully reviewing the collection based on a number of criteria, including usage, whether something is outdated, whether there is a more recent edition in the library, and whether it is available in other forms. Ideally, the project team agrees, changing the size of the libraries’ physical collections should go mostly unnoticed in terms of having the resources students and faculty require.
The master plan will provide strategies to align the spaces and the related infrastructure in the library with Middlebury’s future needs. Dean of Library Michael Roy said this plan has been in the works since last year.
“We were about to embark on a deaccessioning project as we were running out of space to store our materials, and wanted to link that effort with a broader examination of how well the current space is meeting the needs of our community,” Roy said.
Karen Fairbanks, the lead architect of Marble Fairbanks and parent of a recent Middlebury graduate, believes the master plan will be developed on the foundation of feedback from the Middlebury community.
“All of this input is critical to our understanding Middlebury’s future goals and current needs,”said Fairbanks.
Since its formation in 1990, Marble Fairbanks has designed many libraries and academic spaces, including projects for Haverford College Library, the Hunter College Library, the Greenpoint (N.Y.) Library and Environmental Education Center, and the New York Public Library.
Although the plan will evolve as the development teams get further in the process, the immediate goal is to plan for the next 20 years. Though much of the focus at this stage has been centered on creating new and innovative spaces, chair of the Library Space Team Brenda Ellis noted that comfort and aesthetics are important as well. To foster the need for quiet spaces, special attention will be given to acoustics to better isolate noisy activities from quiet study areas.
“Students spend a lot of time here, so we want to make sure the library is meeting your needs now and in the future,” Ellis said.
The architects will be returning to campus on March 6th and 7th to share what they have learned about the library buildings and discuss findings from their first visit. Students are encouraged to provide feedback in person, or through the online form available at go/libraryspaceplanning. Some of the ideas will be posted in the atrium of the Davis Library as the plan develops.