Progress Report on Implementing the Strategic Plan: December 2008

In May 2006, the Middlebury Board of Trustees voted unanimously to endorse a strategic plan, Knowledge Without Boundaries. The plan is available on the Middlebury College Web site. The strategic plan serves as the foundation for the Middlebury Initiative, launched in October 2007.

The present report outlines progress made with the strategic planning agenda in the period May 2008 through November 2008. For convenience in reviewing the planning recommendations in their own context, this report identifies items by referring to numbered recommendations in the strategic plan. Although progress is ongoing on many of the strategic plan recommendations, there were no significant changes in recommendations not reported on below.

Given the current financial climate that we are facing, certain aspects of the strategic plan have been reprioritized. To that end, the Budget Oversight Committee is currently reviewing the strategic plan and will be making recommendations to the president. The implementation of the strategic plan continues; however, the pace of implementation will depend on the availability of resources that will be affected by our current financial challenges.

Recommendation #1: Adopt a new mission statement that reflects our aspirations and future directions.
The Board of Trustees adopted a new mission statement in spring of 2006. The mission statement highlights the centrality of the liberal arts while also pointing out the unique nature of Middlebury, with its graduate and special programs. The mission statement:

At Middlebury College we challenge students to participate fully in a vibrant and diverse academic community. The College’s Vermont location offers an inspirational setting for learning and reflection, reinforcing our commitment to integrating environmental stewardship into both our curriculum and our practices on campus. Yet the College also reaches far beyond the Green Mountains, offering a rich array of undergraduate and graduate programs that connect our community to other places, countries, and cultures. We strive to engage students’ capacity for rigorous analysis and independent thought within a wide range of disciplines and endeavors, and to cultivate the intellectual, creative, physical, ethical, and social qualities essential for leadership in a rapidly changing global community. Through the pursuit of knowledge unconstrained by national or disciplinary boundaries, students who come to Middlebury learn to engage the world.

---

Shaping the Student Body

Recommendation #2: Seek more applicants with special academic talents; and, Recommendation #4: Identify and recruit more top-rated academic applicants.
Last year we sent an Early Notification Letter to 170 students in early March, enabling our faculty to have contact much sooner in the process. We did not have a separate visiting program for that group last year (as we had done the year before), but we did invite them to attend our regular Preview Days programs (and provided financial support for their transportation if they asked for it). Twenty-two of those students matriculated, one fewer than last year, but, given all of those in that group who ended up at Harvard and Princeton (both of which dropped their ED/EA programs last year), that was still quite good for us.

Recommendation #5: Move gradually toward a voluntary February admission program.
About three-quarters of the students who are matriculating this February had expressed a willingness to be considered for it, which is a far higher percentage than in the past.

Recommendation #7: Increase the socio-economic diversity of the student body.
Predictably, we took a step backwards in terms of socio-economic diversity last year compared to the year before, but that was also because we had taken such a big step forward the previous year. The percentage of first-year students receiving grant aid dropped from about 45 percent last year to 41 percent this year, but the 41 percent is still an improvement over where we were as recently as four and five years ago. It is also a function of our not having had a zero-loan policy. Our loan expectations were close enough to be competitive for many students.

Recommendation #8: Enhance recruitment and retention of students of color.
The racial diversity in the first-year class dropped from 21 percent last year to 20 percent this year, which is probably partially caused by our lack of zero-loans. We do have a record number of African Americans in this year’s class. At this fall’s Discover Middlebury program, we also had a record number of attendees, and we feel certain that it will generate many strong applicants for us. This remains an area of significant priority for Middlebury.

Recommendation #9: Maintain our strong international enrollment.
We had a 30 percent increase in our pool of international applicants this year (including a significant increase in applicants from Mainland China), and we matriculated 76 of them—up from 65 last year. In that group are also 28 UWC students, the highest enrollment for us in several years and the second highest number of UWC students to enroll in one U.S. college.

Recommendation #10: Create an admissions advisory committee.
The Admissions Advisory Committee has continued its monthly meetings this year, and we are currently doing a statistical study, looking at the admissions factors that may be most highly correlated with academic performance at Middlebury. We anticipate that the committee will make a series of recommendations by the end of the year.

Recommendation #12: Continue to offer leadership in addressing the relationship between intercollegiate athletics and academic mission.
Middlebury’s leadership of the national College Sports Project data collection and analysis continues. The detailed statistical analyses of the second-year data collected on two cohorts are completed, and the reports have gone to presidents of 78 participating Division-III colleges and universities. The statistical analysis of roughly 80,000 student data records has provided initial insights about the role of high-school-level variables in contributing to college outcomes. Collection of third-year data is underway; the data include year-three college outcomes for students who entered college in 2005–06, year-two college outcomes for students who entered college in 2006–07, and the background information and first-year data for the newest student cohort that entered college during 2007–08. More than 80 institutions have committed to participate this year.

Recommendation #13: Establish a systematic procedure for consultation between coaches and other faculty members about the balance of athletics and educational mission.
The Athletic Policy Committee is working to strengthen faculty to coach liaison via a renewal of lunch conversations and other meetings.

---

Enhancing Community

Recommendation #15: Clarify and enhance the status of the Commons heads.
Extensive discussions have occurred, and continue to occur, regarding the status of Commons heads.

Recommendation #16: Further integrate the Commons system and the curriculum.
This year marks the introduction of a new Commons program during the sophomore year of college. The “Sophomore Experience” includes a core component known as “Commons Conversations,” in which faculty from various disciplines meet in small-group settings with students. Students have the opportunity to discuss the work of these faculty members and to ask questions about their perspectives, training, research areas, etc.

With the introduction of the Sophomore Experience, increased opportunities for informal advising, both through Commons Conversations and through special evenings organized with International Programs and Off-Campus Study and with Career Services Office. Students, in turn, are better able to see connections with disciplinary pursuits and with what they are doing inside and outside the classroom.

Efforts are being made to tie first-year reading from Orientation (known as “Common Reading”) into curricular offerings throughout the year. Focus is on making this connection for first-years, but others are welcome, too. The Common Reading for fall 2008 was an anthology of poems, Poetry of War: Giving Voice to Conflict. First-years were encouraged to attend a public reading by Galway Kinnell, a performance of Howard Barker’s play, Plevna (February 2009), and other Commons-initiated programming.

Recommendation #18: Initiate a weekly College-wide convocation.
The College Convocation Series represents an effort to bring together all members of the College community to reflect upon topics of broad intellectual and cultural importance. A College-wide convocation is planned again this year for March 3, with John Francis speaking. John Francis, Ph.D., known the world over as the Planetwalker, spent 17 years in silence and 22 years without riding in motorized vehicles after witnessing an oil spill in San Francisco Bay. He will discuss how the current environmental crisis is a reflection of worldwide social and economic inequity and that any attempt to resolve the crisis must not only address the scientific issues, such as climate change and deforestation, but also the humanitarian issues.

Recommendation #23: Encourage staff participation in intellectual community.
This was put on hold last year and will be revisited in spring 2009. However, a number of staff volunteered to lead discussions in conjunction with the Common Reading for first-years. Well over one-half of the leaders (or about 30) were staff members from across the campus.

Recommendation #25: Promote greater work-life balance.
During the 2007–08 academic year, a task force was formed to look at work-life balance; Barbara Doyle-Wilch, a member of President’s Staff, led the task force. The group held a meeting with senior managers from around campus and identified next steps: among them, creating a survey to collect information to better understand what staff members mean when they refer to work-life balance; and holding smaller meetings within departments, to get at specific issues to be addressed. These meetings are being considered for the 2008–09 academic year. In addition to these initiatives, Human Resources is leading several ongoing efforts related to self-care, working smart, the Optimal Health Initiative, and employee training. Each of these includes a component that addresses work-life balance. Given the current financial challenges facing the College, further development of specific programs or initiatives to address work-life balance is being delayed. However, new opportunities in the area of flexible work schedules, shifts in status, etc., are expanding.

Recommendation #26: Encourage a culture of collaboration.
Most directly related to Recommendation #26 is the creation of the graduate and special programs committee and the Middlebury/Monterey program integration work group. These groups have created ideal forums for collaborating on program development.

Additionally, the expansion of President’s Staff and the creation of a vice presidents’ meeting have created additional opportunities for information sharing and collaboration across the College. The work of the Finance, Operations, and Communications Monterey Integration Task Force has also brought senior managers from large divisions of the College together to exchange information. Along with these new opportunities for collaboration, the president, President’s Staff, and Human Resources are promoting the themes of working together and transparency. This is especially true in light of the current financial challenges facing the College.

Recommendation #27: Cultivate and support creativity and innovation.
There are several ways the College is promoting and supporting creativity and innovation. The recent financial challenges have pushed the College to move forward more quickly with its effort to reach out to the community to solicit ideas for ways to improve the work of the College. This effort is geared toward finding creative improvements to work flow, looking at things that no longer need to be done and identifying efficiencies that can help streamline work. In thinking about this opportunity, employees are being encouraged to think as creatively as possible. Also related to the “cost-cutting effort” several departments on campus are going through a business process analysis to systematically analyze how work is done and how it might be done more effectively.

Additionally, the Project on Creativity and Innovation in the Liberal Arts is creating greater visibility and support for a College-wide culture of creativity, innovation and intellectual risk-taking. Although this effort is focused on students, there are faculty and staff who are involved in supporting this effort and many more who are enjoying the programming that is supported by this project.

Recommendation #29: Expand the ways we engage alumni in the life of the College.
During spring 2008, the Communications Office oversaw the formation of a committee charged with finding a new partner to help us create an expanded, improved, more interactive, and better-integrated online community. We determined that we would expand our idea of online community to include not only alumni and students in all Middlebury programs, but also parents, faculty, and staff. Over the course of several months, the committee discussed the issues involved and met with several vendors, finally settling on Harris Connect, the leading provider of online community solutions for higher education. We signed a contract in July 2008 and are in the process of transitioning from our current vendor to Harris, with an expected rollout date in spring 2009 for the improved online community.

In addition, the Communications Office has taken the lead in establishing Middlebury “beachheads” in places where members of the Middlebury community can be found on the Web. These efforts have included:

• a Middlebury College group at LinkedIn (the world’s largest professional networking site), which now has more than 2,800 members that include Middlebury and Monterey alumni, students, faculty, staff, and parents;
• a Middlebury page on Facebook that provides information about the College and its programs and access to various kinds of Middlebury interactive content; more than 2,000 people, many of them alumni, have signed up as “fans” of this page, and from 50 to 100 people visit it each day;
• a Middlebury site on YouTube, where more than 3,800 people have viewed a campus-tour video in the past couple of months; and an iTunes University site (live, but still under construction) that features videos and audio files of lectures, events, and performances at Middlebury and Bread Loaf.

Recommendation #30: Re-examine and strengthen our communications both within and beyond our campuses.
The Communications Office has implemented an internal communications program to improve employee engagement, strengthen community, enhance staff productivity and retention, and support employee recognition. Primary tools include a steady flow of news coverage about the College on the Middlebury home page and elsewhere on the site, MiddPoints, and community-building projects. The Sustainability Integration Office has filled a full-time, one-year position to focus on engaging the College community in carbon-neutrality efforts and to help put in place additional communications tools for the campaign to become carbon neutral by 2016.

Recommendation #31: Expand and support diversity in the staff and faculty.
In collaboration with the Office for Institutional Planning and Diversity, Human Resources (HR) has been making great progress in this area. They have met with academic coordinators and introduced them to the New England Higher Education Recruitment Consortium, a consortium for dual-career couples among New England schools.

Human Resources has consciously increased our ad venues for staff recruiting. Job Elephant is now being used as an advertising service that places ads, per approved schedule, with all media (newspapers, trade journals, online job boards).

A much larger percentage of the HR advertising budget is now being used in targeted diversity publications. A future goal is to look closely at the yield from this new initiative.

Liz Kafer, HR employment manager, has been appointed to the Governor’s Committee on the Employment of People with Disabilities.

With regard to faculty recruitment and hiring, changes have been made to the Handbook for department chairs and program directors encouraging greater collaboration in recruiting with the Office for Institutional Planning and Diversity. All faculty positions are now advertised in publications intended to broaden the audience for our position announcements (e.g., Diverse Education, Latinos in Higher Education). Approximately, one-quarter of this year’s new hires were faculty of color.

In a new partnership between Middlebury College and Williams College, the vice president for institutional planning and diversity visited the University of California, Berkeley, to describe teaching opportunities for graduate students of color. Most of the students had never thought about or been advised to look at liberal arts colleges. We also plan to introduce ourselves to graduate students at Duke, Michigan, Stanford, etc.—institutions that are known for generating some of the most diverse Ph.D.’s in the country.

Recommendation #32: Recognize Community Partners.
Tiffany Sargent, director of the Alliance for Civic Engagement designed a rubric to advance a three-pronged approach toward work with community partners, which includes community partnership development, creation of reciprocal and meaningful work, and recognition of community partners. The Alliance for Civic Engagement helps facilitate collaboration between the College and community partners around both academic- and service-related initiatives. The Events Scheduling Office has successfully developed policies regarding campus space-use issues for our community partners, and it is working well. This policy and the list of community partners are now reviewed annually. Additionally, departments are tapping local expertise to augment programming with and for students, both in and out of the classroom (e.g., as colloquia speakers, winter term instructors, workshop presenters, internship sponsors, etc.). There are several formal means available for annual recognition of community partners and outstanding individuals: the Citizen’s Medals, the Vermont Campus Compact annual gala, and the Public Service Leadership Awards.

---

Curriculum & Faculty

Recommendation #33: Increase faculty resources and enhance student-faculty interaction.
Last spring, the faculty voted on a mandatory senior-work requirement that is scheduled to take effect in 2013. This will be a big step in enhancing student-faculty interactions. In addition, a Middlebury project will emerge from the 2009 Mellon 23 Assembly on faculty-student collaborations.

Recommendation #34: Consolidate the College's distribution requirements.
In January 2007 the recommendation to consolidate the College’s distribution requirements was officially rejected by the Education Affairs Committee after careful consideration. The Education Affairs Committee reviewed student transcripts to determine whether students completing our current distribution requirements sample classes from a broad range of departments and programs. The Committee confirmed that students do, in fact, select a wide range of classes. The Committee concluded that any altered version of the requirements would be no more effective at encouraging a broad-based liberal arts education for our students.

Recommendation #35: Institute a laboratory science requirement within the new distribution requirements.
The recommendation for a lab science requirement is on hold until we implement the new teaching load guidelines (currently planned for fall of 2010), as these will impact the teaching resources available in the sciences. The Educational Affairs Committee (EAC) and Curriculum Committee will take this issue up in 2009–10 to see whether such a requirement would be both desirable and feasible with current resources.

Recommendation #36: Enhance academic advising.
This year, the focus was on advising as the topic for the Bread Loaf faculty-meeting small-group discussions. Minutes of those discussions were distributed to all faculty members, and the Academic Council (a group of academic deans and student-life staff) has continued these conversations. In the next few months, ideas to enhance advising will likely be presented to faculty and other relevant staff.

Recommendation #37: Eliminate triple majors and reduce the number of double majors.
In the spring of 2007, the faculty voted to eliminate triple majors and reduce the number of double majors.

Recommendation #38: Streamline departmental major requirements.
Last year’s EAC worked with departments to encourage reassessments of major requirements, and a number of departments and programs reduced and reconfigured their requirements in anticipation of implementing the new senior-work requirement and new teaching-load guidelines. As we move toward that implementation, it is likely that some additional departments and programs will do so as well.

Recommendation #39a: Highlight the strength of the sciences at Middlebury.
We had been working on a brochure to highlight the sciences, but this project has been tabled for now because the cost seemed to outweigh the benefits, considering the current fiscal climate.

We are collaborating with the Office of Sponsored Research to establish a comprehensive database detailing student-faculty research (academic year and summer), student presentations at national and international meetings, etc. The objective is to hold all the pertinent information needed for institutional grants along with a faculty CV database.

The dean of curriculum met with the science chairs once this fall to discuss the “mission” of the sciences—additional meetings will be taking place in the coming months to continue this discussion.

Recommendation #39b: Highlight the strength of the arts at Middlebury.
The College moved forward this fall to establish a new venue at the Old Stone Mill to house projects that are related to the Project on Creativity and Innovation in the Liberal Arts—these projects will be programmatically tied to 51 Main Street. That is, the Old Stone Mill will be a place where student projects are developed and created, and 51 Main will serve as a venue for student performances, exhibits, and presentations.

Recommendation #40: Strengthen Winter Term.
We’ve been discussing the idea of incorporating course clusters into the winter term that are related to the Clifford Symposium. This will provide more meaning and can provide more in-depth teaching opportunities for a subject discussed for three days at the symposium.

Two winter term 2008 courses were taught by MIIS faculty: one on non-proliferation (by Jean du Prez); the second was a team-taught course in translation and interpretation offered in three different languages (by Jaclyn Harmer, John Balcom, Julia Johnson, Carl Fehlandt, Chuanyun Bao, Diane de Terra, and Barry Olsen).

Recommendation #41: Reinforce the first-year seminar program.
For the first time this fall, we affiliated every first-year seminar (FYS) with a Commons. This move, which means that all first-year seminars will be housed by Commons (that is, seminar participants will live together in the same residence hall), will augment the learning experience for first-years and enhance the advising they receive.

We have yet to undertake a comprehensive review of the FYS program to insure consistency of advising and writing across the program (as the strategic plan recommends). However, we have initiated a review of the academic advising system, which we hope to complete by early spring.

Kathy Skubikowski is leading a Teagle-funded, portfolio-based assessment of student learning that begins with the FYS experience and tracks student progress forward.

Recommendation #42: Explore possibilities for Commons-based courses.
All first-year seminars are now Commons based. Occasional J-term courses are offered in a particular Commons, with an affiliation modeled on that of the first-year seminar program. It is very difficult to limit these offerings to just the students of one Commons, both in terms of ensuring enrollment, and because it conflicts with the equal-access model we currently have in place for J-term courses. Other attempts at Commons-based courses have not been successful.

This year, Associate Dean of the College Katy Smith Abbott worked with the Commons heads to establish a “Sophomore Experience” that includes a range of programs to help expand students’ understanding of the curriculum—so they can make more meaningful decisions about what to study—and strengthen links between the academic program and the “real world.”

Recommendation #43: Require senior work in all majors.
The faculty voted to approve a new senior work requirement, which is currently planned to begin with the graduating class of 2013. This year’s EAC will be working with departments and programs to develop specific plans for senior work within their curricula. A general outline of the requirement for each department and program will be included in the 2009–10 catalog, and more specific requirements will be in place by the following year.

Recommendation #44: Promote student research through a daylong research symposium.
The student research symposium continues to achieve great success with strong and innovative presentations, in depth faculty-student collaboration, and great participation from the Middlebury community.

Recommendation #46: Create a database for service-learning projects.
Following a review of this project, which was initiated by the Alliance for Civic Engagement, we have placed the database development on hold until at least fall 2011. This decision responds to a need for directing resources in this area to other priorities (e.g., international service learning), and to a desire that its implementation be closely linked to the pending senior-work initiative. We hope that incremental resources will become available then in order to appropriately create and manage the service-learning database.

Recommendation #47: Make better use of current teaching resources with a goal of achieving a more competitive teaching load for faculty.
Last year’s EAC developed guidelines for a reallocation of teaching load as recommended by the strategic plan. These guidelines were accepted by the administration. The current estimate is that we will implement these new guidelines beginning in the fall of 2010. The implementation timeline is dependent on the number of additional positions added and the ability of departments and programs to implement the new guidelines with existing staffing levels.


Recommendation #48: Develop a more flexible approach to faculty leaves.
In the spring of 2008, the administration adopted a more flexible academic leave policy for faculty. Normally, colleagues are eligible for up to a year's leave after teaching for five years. We have enhanced flexibility by allowing tenured colleagues to request an accelerated semester leave after two and a half years of teaching, if that schedule better facilitates their scholarly and professional goals. The policy can be found in the Handbook.

Recommendation #49: Provide more centralized staff support to reduce administrative burdens on faculty.
This recommendation has not been addressed yet this year. The academic deans will consider this recommendation this year to see whether there are some duties faculty assume that might be assigned to existing staff positions. In addition, Faculty Council and department chairs will be consulted for suggestions relevant to this recommendation.

---

Middlebury’s Graduate & Specialized Programs

Recommendation #50: Increase collaboration across Middlebury programs.
Non-language undergraduate faculty sit on study-abroad advisory boards to work with the vice president and dean of international programs to integrate languages and study abroad into course work across the curriculum and to expose faculty to Middlebury’s breadth of programs. The office of the vice president for languages has revived interest in a proposal for a minor in linguistics, to be offered to undergraduates. The linguistics minor involves not only language departments but also religion, sociology and anthropology, and teacher education, among others. Significant areas of collaboration between Middlebury and Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS) programs are listed in Recommendation #61.

We are applying for the first phase of an Alfred P. Sloan Award for Faculty Career Flexibility. (Six $200,000 grants will be awarded.) As part of our application, we will note the unique nature of Middlebury’s many academic operations—e.g. “One Middlebury”—and our desire to offer more movement of faculty across those operations.

Kathy Morse and Michael Newbury are organizing a one-day retreat in January 2009 to increase collaboration across the College's interdisciplinary programs. This retreat will be paid for by a $4,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation.

Please see Recommendation #40 for a description of winter term 2008 MIIS courses taught at Middlebury. Rich Wolfson is hoping to offer a Center for Non-Proliferation Studies winter term course at MIIS in January 2010.

Recommendation #51: Establish a Board of Trustees subcommittee devoted to the summer program, schools abroad, and affiliates.
An ad-hoc Trustee Committee on Graduate and Special Programs was formed in October 2007. The committee includes the vice president for the Language Schools, schools abroad, and graduate programs. The committee is reviewing the mission, program policies, market, etc. of the College’s various graduate and affiliate programs. The committee will make recommendations regarding the role, value, and potential of these programs.

Recommendation #53: Ensure that the needs of the College’s summer and auxiliary programs are represented in committee and administrative structures that are responsible for operational planning.
Considered the needs of the summer and auxiliary programs in operational planning. The ADA Plan Committee is an example of an important ongoing committee that includes a member of the Language Schools administration. The Master Plan Committee will soon be formed with the charge of ensuring that future construction, renovation, and landscape projects comply with the principles of the recently endorsed Campus Master Plan. One of the 10 goals of the plan is to “foster the 12-month campus”.

Recommendation #55: Expand the scope of the Language Schools curriculum by integrating broader cultural content in Language Schools courses.
The MA in Mediterranean studies, to be introduced at the Language Schools in 2009, will enable students to develop insight into the history and culture that have shaped a vital region, helping them to interpret and address the complex issues of today’s world in the age of globalization. This innovative MA program requiring master’s-level competency in two languages (French, Italian, or Spanish) is designed for students seeking a career in international affairs, economic development, diplomacy, politics, economics, journalism, or education.

Recommendation #56: Add summer graduate programs in languages that are currently taught only at the undergraduate level.
Middlebury’s affiliation with the Monterey Institute of International Studies has provided an option for students pursuing the Chinese MA degree. Candidates spend an academic year on the Monterey campus between their initial and final summers at Middlebury, thus completing the degree in a little over two years. Here, in addition to the immersion experience at Middlebury, students can take advantage of the expertise in second-language acquisition, pedagogy, and applied linguistics.

Middlebury’s first MA in Chinese was awarded in August 2008.

Recommendation #57: Offer new languages and explore possibilities for new sites abroad that support the undergraduate curriculum.
Last year, Middlebury College and Brandeis University announced the establishment of the Brandeis University-Middlebury School of Hebrew, which was launched in the summer of 2008. As Middlebury’s 10th Language School, it is the newest summer program since the Portuguese School was inaugurated in 2003, with 27 students enrolled.

The curriculum of the seven-week session focused on Modern Hebrew, with optional course work for qualified students interested in developing their linguistic skills in Classical Hebrew also available.

Middlebury College established the C.V. Starr-Middlebury School Abroad in the Middle East, the first of the Middlebury Schools Abroad in this region. Located in Alexandria, Egypt, and affiliated with Alexandria University, the school began offering classes in the fall of 2007, with 12 students enrolled in the first year.

In conjunction with CET Academic Programs, Middlebury College has been operating the C.V. Starr-Middlebury School in China, since 2004, at Hangzhou.

Planning is ongoing for two new sites in China—Beijing and Kunming, with director interviews taking place this winter. In Beijing, Middlebury will be at Capital Normal University, and in Kunming, at Yunnan University.

In Japan, students have been attending the Associated Kyoto Programs. Planning is now underway for development of Middlebury’s own program in Japan, and several potential sites in Japan were visited in the fall of 2008.

A Korean language program is in the early stages of consideration.

n.b. In response to increasing demand for admission, a Language Schools second site, at Mills College in Oakland, California, is to open in June 2009. Middlebury at Mills provides a unique opportunity for West Coast students to experience the Language Schools closer to home, and for East Coast students to explore the cultural diversity of the Bay Area. As of 2009, all students admitted to the Arabic School will study at Mills. Students in French, Italian, and Spanish may choose either the Middlebury or Mills campus.

Recommendation #58: Integrate the Bread Loaf School of English into the College’s international focus by considering further expansion beyond the U.S. borders.
Discussions about a possible program in Africa started, with a target date of 2012 under consideration. A number of students from Africa (Kenya and Tanzania in particular) have attended the Bread Loaf School of English, and two graduated last summer, with several still in the program.

Recommendation #59: Upgrade facilities at the Bread Loaf campus to ensure longevity of its historic buildings and allow for support of new teaching technologies.
The foundation study was completed in 2005. Building conditions assessment was completed in 2006 (which was a study on the architectural, structural, mechanical, and electrical needs of the buildings).

An implementation plan, building on these studies, for the long-term phased rehabilitation of the Bread Loaf campus and infrastructure was completed in the fall of 2008. This plan compiled studies of the foundations, building conditions, ADA needs, site and infrastructure needs. The implementation plan provides scenarios for the rehabilitation of the campus over a minimum period of 12 years. Two new buildings are proposed in the plan to allow rehabilitation of the Inn and the Barn. These buildings would be a new maintenance facility and a new residence hall that would also house the bookstore in summer months and the Rikert Ski Touring Center in winter months.

A brief summary of this planning work was presented to President’s Staff on September 30, 2008, and again to the Building and Grounds Committee of the Board of Trustees on October 17, 2008.

Recommendation #60: Develop stronger ties between the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and our academic year programs.
This year, we are launching a search for a Robert Frost Writer in Residence, who will teach during the academic year and at one of the Bread Loaf programs during the summer.

Recommendation #61: Collaboration with the Monterey Institute of International Studies.
Program collaboration between Middlebury College and the Monterey Institute include: faculty exchanges (one with the Center for Non-Proliferation Studies), Middlebury undergraduates at MIIS for J-term, Middlebury and Monterey Institute students in joint field-study programs, Monterey Institute graduate students attending the summer Language Schools, and a joint Chinese MA program. A major collaborative project was the organization and successful convening of 400 participants at the Connect·ED Conference 2008 (held at the Monterey Conference Center).

The Middlebury-Monterey Language Academy (MMLA) was inaugurated in 2008, as an initiative to teach languages to middle and high school students. The program took place on Vermont and California campuses and was overseen by MMLA staff and the Middlebury College summer Language Schools. Another program operated jointly by the Monterey Institute and the Middlebury summer Language Schools offered an immersion program in TESOL (Teaching English as a Second Language) to English teachers from Spain, summer 2008. The program was paid for by the Council of Madrid, conducted in Monterey, and Burlington, Vermont, and overseen by Middlebury’s study abroad program director in Madrid. The agreement was finalized during a site visit by the Council of Madrid representative at the Connect·ED Conference. A new initiative involves collaboration with the Monterey Institute’s linguistics program in consideration of an undergraduate minor in linguistics at Middlebury.

Recommendation #62: Establish a liaison group to explore programmatic connections between the Monterey Institute of International Studies and Middlebury programs.
Two liaison groups have been established to look at the ways that Middlebury and Monterey can work together. Specific to Recommendation #62, a program integration task force is looking at curricular collaboration and academic program development. This group meets regularly and includes representatives from the various graduate and special program areas. There is also a finance, operations, communications integration group that focuses on how to facilitate collaboration between the two institutions, how to support the program collaboration, and how to integrate operations when that makes sense, due to efficiencies and capacity.

---

Campus, Infrastructure & Environment

Recommendation #65: Equalize housing opportunities for seniors.
After the sophomore year, rising juniors and seniors are free to choose rooms from across campus, and these junior/senior rooms are not affiliated with any particular Commons. Academic-interest houses, language houses, and social houses are now also unaffiliated. Seniors enter room draw first, and have the maximum flexibility in choosing a room for their final year at Middlebury.

Each individual junior and senior, however, remains associated with his or her original Commons. Thus, juniors and seniors may continue to work with their Commons heads and deans on any number of Commons-related projects or programs, may actively participate in Commons Council, and may return to heads and deans for academic or other advising needs. This arrangement allows for continuity of Commons membership and relationships across all four years, even as older students choose majors and move on to a variety of other activities across campus. It also gives juniors and seniors a much wider array of housing to choose from during room draw, without sacrificing the relationships developed during their first two years of residence within the Commons. Based on initial reports from juniors and seniors (and an article in the Campus), they were generally pleased with this increased flexibility in the spring 2008 room draw.

Recommendation #66: Improve space for departments and programs.
Work continues to find the best use for Munroe, Adirondack, and Wright office spaces. Several relocation options are being reviewed in an effort to solve as many issues as possible in the most cost-effective way.

Recommendation #67: Create more space for the arts.
Johnson 205 has been converted from a classroom to an additional teaching studio for studio art. Several music practice rooms have been added across campus (Wright, Sunderland) in response to student demand. A meeting is planned in mid-December to establish a permanent rehearsal space in addition to CFA 232 for theatre productions.

Recommendation #70: Design energy-efficient buildings and operations.
The Franklin Environmental Center monitoring and display system was being tested in fall 2008, and this building has been performing at 53 percent above base reference for energy efficiency. A monitoring and display system of the building’s resource use and efficiency, with both a Web- based and kiosk interface, is being installed. It will also provide easy access to data about the building’s resource usage (steam, electricity, water, solar-power generation and solar radiation) for research purposes. The McCullough renovation includes improvements to building envelope/insulation.

The recently completed Franklin Environmental Center at Hillcrest is the first building in Vermont and the seventh in the nation to receive a LEED platinum certification, which is the highest designation a building can receive for energy efficiency and sustainability.

The recently completed Axinn Center at Starr Library incorporated energy efficient systems throughout.

It is anticipated that the operation of Middlebury’s soon-to-be-completed biomass heating plant will effectively reduce the College’s carbon emissions by approximately 40 percent. The plant is scheduled to come online by January 2009.

A detailed retro-commissioning study and implementation plan for the Mahaney Center for the Arts has taken place. This study identified 19 key energy-efficiency improvement projects. The majority of these projects will yield a short economic payback. Development of the implementation plan and schedule for these projects is in progress.

Two solar-thermal hot-water heating systems were installed at 107 Shannon Street. Renewable energy systems are a key element in support of the College’s carbon neutrality initiative. Installation of these two systems includes a monitoring system that will allow evaluation and comparison of each system’s performance to support future solar-thermal hot-water installations.

A final draft of a new set of building-design and construction guidelines has been completed and is ready for approval. These detailed guidelines are based on the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design guidelines, with adaptations and additions to reflect the College’s own requirements and circumstances.

Recommendation #71: Consider the various impacts of development on the College campus and the natural environment.
The recently completed, and trustee-endorsed, Campus Master Plan provides carefully considered guidelines for the development of the Middlebury campus. This document includes chapters on sustainability, built systems, and natural systems, but the need for sustainable development is the foundation of the plan, and this concept is woven throughout the text. As an outgrowth of the Master Plan, a set of sustainable design guidelines has been completed, and these standards will help ensure that best stewardship practices are followed relative to land use. Moreover, a Master Plan Committee will review all potential projects for compliance with Master Plan and sustainable design guidelines principles.

The College’s Lands Committee meets quarterly and makes recommendations.

Recommendation #74: Continue making alterations to facilities that improve their accessibility for those with disabilities, and work toward universal access.
In May 2008 the College began work on a comprehensive ADA plan for the campus. A committee comprised of faculty, staff, and students held meetings over the summer with ADA consultant Kessler McGuinness and Associates to develop the first phase of a three-part plan. The first phase was completed in October, and the next phase is set to begin in early December. Much of the work will be done in-house by College staff and through the work of the committee.

Recommendation #75: Better utilize existing facilities through efficient scheduling and management.
In order to consolidate and streamline the scheduling of campus events, the provost’s office now oversees the scheduling office. This transition took place in early November, and we are just beginning to discuss strategies for more efficient scheduling.

Recommendation #79: Explore ways to support development of a Cornwall Path.
The path to the Organic Garden has been completed. The 12 foot wide path supports pedestrian, bicycle, and light vehicular traffic. The new path allows a safe alternative to traveling on Route 125. Additionally, the College is supporting the efforts of the Town of Cornwall to widen the Route 30 road shoulders between the Town of Cornwall and the Golf Course. The purpose of this selective widening and improvement project is to create a roadbed capable of supporting at least 3 foot wide shoulders on both sides of the road. The project needs to be completed by November of 2009 so it will be in place to facilitate the VTrans paving project for Route 30 scheduled for summer of 2010. The College has committed $17,500 toward this project.

Recommendation #80: Cultivate open dialogue with the town.
The president and executive vice president/treasurer continue to meet regularly with town leaders at a monthly lunch. Several members of the College community also serve on local boards (Addison County Chamber of Commerce, Better Middlebury Partnership). The development of a formal relationship with the Town Hall Theatre and the College’s commitment to support the construction of a second bridge have contributed to open and positive dialogue. These efforts, along with the various student projects and student volunteers in the local community, have contributed to an excellent relationship and a very open and active dialogue. These efforts will continue.

Resources Supporting the Strategic Plan

There are four planning items in the strategic plan that fall in the domain of College Advancement. The goal is to better engage alumni in the life of the College and to raise financial support through the Middlebury Initiative. The plan specifically refers to financial aid for the Language Schools and internships for students. Progress has been made in all areas and the efforts are, and will be, ongoing. We have seen particular success in raising money for the Language Schools through the Davis Fellowships for Peace Program. A total of $290 million has been raised toward the $500 million goal for the Middlebury Initiative as of November 2008.

— Shirley M. Ramirez
Vice President for Institutional Planning and Diversity

December 1, 2008