A geography scholar and College insider, Ron Liebowitz is surveying the Middlebury landscape and preparing to chart a course for the College's future.
By Matt Jennings
Photographs by Dennis Curran
It's a few minutes before noon on a beautiful weekend morning in late October, and Ron Liebowitz is standing at the front of Mead Chapel, chatting with a group of parents and students. Moments earlier, some 250 people had given him a standing ovation at the conclusion of his Fall Family Weekend address and, while most of the audience has now scattered for lunch dates or athletic events, several people linger to grab a few more minutes with the College's recently inaugurated 16th president. Though he, too, has a luncheon to attend, Liebowitz wants to hear what people have to say.
"You have to be from New York," a mother from Manhattan says to the president. Liebowitz grins. "Brooklyn … Bensonhurst," he replies. "65th Street and 23rd Avenue, to be precise."
"I knew it," the mother says. "Well, my daughter absolutely loves it here." At which point, you'd expect a busy college president to nod and smile and say something like "That's great, I'm glad to hear it." Judging by the mother's obvious surprise at Liebowitz's response, it appears she had expected that, too. "Fantastic," he says. "What is it about Middlebury that she enjoys?"
And it goes on like this for several more minutes. Liebowitz—standing at the front of Mead Chapel, Gamaliel Painter's cane tucked under his left arm, a bottle of water clutched in his right hand—quizzes the remaining parents about their child's major, their child's adviser, their child's chosen swim stroke (!), until everyone who wanted to speak to the president has had the chance to speak with the president.
As he exits the chapel and makes his way down the long, descending walkway to his car parked on Old Chapel Drive, Liebowitz is joined by John Berninghausen, the Truscott Professor of Chinese, who is himself a Middlebury parent.
"Ron, that was magnificent," Berninghausen says. "And it was magnificent because you put it all out there, and you were very candid with the parents." For about 90 minutes, Liebowitz had touched on the emerging themes of his young presidency: an emphasis on the "human dimension" of the College; the role of sciences in the 21st-century liberal arts curriculum; the internationalization of the curriculum; the strengthening of Middlebury's academic reputation; and the moral responsibilities of a liberal education. Yet it was his candor, above all else, that seemed to grab the audience's attention.
On each issue, he was clear and direct about where he stood, and he stressed that not all of his opinions were shared by his colleagues in the faculty, among the staff, and in the administration—and that was OK. There was room for a difference of opinion. He mentioned that the College would begin a strategic planning process in January that would involve the entire community. He had already met with a number of academic departments as well as with students and staff in sessions that would help guide the yearlong planning agenda.
Of course, the parents were more focused on the present, and during a rather intense question-and-answer session, Liebowitz deftly handled questions on a variety of issues (increases in tuition, measuring success in the investment in facilities), before closing the program by answering a question about the impact a liberal arts curriculum has on a student's job prospects.
"I hope you will encourage your children to embrace the opportunity to broaden their horizons and to worry less about preprofessionalism," Liebowitz said. "Guide them, rather than direct them." It is the mode of study that a liberal arts college makes possible—how one studies, more than what one studies—that will have the greater effect on what they do in the world, he argued. And in return for this educational privilege, he added, there is an inherent obligation to give back to society.
Statements such as this one have begun to define the early days of the Liebowitz presidency.
On Leadership
In discussing his philosophy on leadership, Liebowitz explains why he places such a premium on transparency. "Transparency in operations, where the leadership is open about how an institution is being managed, and the constituents of the institution are equally willing to express unfiltered opinions and evaluations of the institution's management, engenders a greater feeling of inclusiveness," he says. And it is this inclusiveness that Liebowitz is after because of his commitment to encouraging creativity and innovation at Middlebury. Inclusiveness is necessary, he believes, for "creating the environment in which new ideas and approaches are offered and shared naturally and frequently. When such new ideas and approaches flow more freely, innovation is more likely to take root, and the institution is less likely to turn its back on the long-term sources of its own success."
Of course it is easier to give unfiltered opinions to a person you already know and trust. Fortunately for Liebowitz's presidency, he is a longtime Middlebury insider. Since he joined the faculty as an assistant professor of geography in 1984, the community has come to know him as a professor (he was appointed full professor of geography in 1993), as an administrator (he served as dean of the faculty from 1993–95, vice president of the College from 1995–97, and as executive vice president and provost since 1997), and now will have the opportunity to get to know him as president.
"When an institution is doing well—and it seems to me that Middlebury has been doing quite well recently—it's intuitive that some sense of continuity in leadership would be a tremendous bonus when selecting a new president," says historian David Stameshkin, author of The Town's College: Middlebury College, 1800–1915 and The Strength of the Hills: Middlebury College, 1915–1990. "The question is: What does Ron want to do?"
From early in his tenure, it has become apparent that what Liebowitz wants to do involves both continuity and change. He has stated clearly that the College will continue to build on its curricular strengths (its "Peaks of Excellence") and press ahead with major ongoing initiatives, such as the implementation of the Commons System. His commitment to continue these programs should come as no surprise; his fingerprints have been all over many of the institution's boldest initiatives.
Peaks of Excellence: As vice president nearly 10 years ago, Liebowitz appointed several peak task forces through which faculty and staff would define how each "Peak" of excellence was to develop. One such task force recommended the creation of the College's international studies major, an imaginative interdisciplinary major—requiring four years of language study, a semester or year of study abroad, and a unique senior seminar—that integrated several independent areas of study into one major; it is now the fourth largest major on campus. A subsequent grant from the Ford Foundation led to the development of a senior seminar program that allows 15 seniors who have studied abroad to engage a major topic in international affairs with two faculty members who bring different disciplinary training, regional expertise, and perspectives to the class. Liebowitz cites this type of "exceptional learning environment" as an example of what he would like to see elsewhere in the curriculum.
And while the development of specific "Peaks of Excellence" has never been wholly embraced at Middlebury —some feel that if there are peaks there must also be valleys—Liebowitz does not shy away from the 10-year-old initiative, citing strategic advantages the peaks bring to the College. "I believe strongly in playing to one's comparative advantages, and if Middlebury excels in specific areas of the curriculum, and plays to those strengths, the entire College will benefit. From an admissions perspective, the peaks increase our chances of matriculating the very best students interested in these areas of study. Quite often, those excellent students, who come intending to study in one of the Peak areas, major elsewhere, and enrich those other programs."
McCardell Bicentennial Hall: Around the same time that Liebowitz was helping launch Middlebury's Peaks of Excellence, he was chairing the science planning committee that led to the creation of McCardell Bicentennial Hall. This mammoth, state-of-the-art facility located on the northwest end of campus has been recognized both for its size (at 220,000 square feet, it's one of the largest buildings in Vermont) and for the innovative way in which it was conceived. The concept of a system of generic laboratories and shared, flexible space for the sciences was initially met with skepticism by consultants and architects, yet it proved to be a model for science planning and laboratory design on liberal arts campuses across the country.
"Although it is difficult to argue with those who feel the building is too large—and I happen to agree—nobody can argue with the positive impact it has had on our academic program," Liebowitz says. "The design of our specialized laboratories, which has helped recruit vibrant young faculty in the sciences and allows for superb faculty-student collaborative research, set the standard for undergraduate science buildings. The flexibility of the shared and generic teaching space serves the College very well in the present, and will do so even more in the future, as the way in which we teach science and what exactly we teach are continually—and inevitably—evolving."
Town-Gown: In the late 1990s, Middlebury tackled a problem that was causing great unease among faculty and staff: a community-wide dearth of child-care options for infants and toddlers. With Liebowitz leading the way, the College sought out early childhood development experts in the community and offered to form a strategic partnership to brainstorm ideas and propose solutions for a situation that affected not only College-affiliated parents, but parents in Addison County.
This collaboration with area child-care centers led to the establishment in 2000 of the College Street Children's Center, a facility that serves the entire Middlebury community (40 percent of the spaces are reserved for children with no College affiliation). "Ron had a really firm grasp of the issues," says Barbara Saunders, codirector of the Mary Johnson Children's Center. "He—and the College—understood that this had to be a community solution, not just a Middlebury College solution. The result is that we were able to fill an urgent need and do so without isolating the College from the town. This small program looks like the rest of the community."
The Commons: For more than two years following the Board of Trustees' resolution in 1998 to adopt the Commons System, Liebowitz led discussions on how to reshape the residential life system; the resulting plan included decentralizing the dean of students' office and creating Commons-based curricular and cocurricular initiatives.
And while many challenges remain (the infrastructure is only 40 percent complete, and campus reaction remains mixed), Liebowitz is committed to finding the best way to complete the system while addressing student, faculty, and staff concerns, as well as financial and human resource constraints.
Yet, for all the continuity that Liebowitz brings to the presidency, he's also made it known that he intends to steer the College in new directions. From what he has been saying in speeches and meetings over the course of several months, it is evident that there is no greater priority than his determination to shift Middlebury's focus from infrastructure to what he calls "the human dimension."
"I firmly believe that everything we do is based on the assumption that intense human interaction is essential for learning," he says. "What we do best is give students the opportunity to work directly with faculty—a faculty that sees its role as participating in a four-year process of opening the minds of its students and preparing them for a lifetime of learning."
Developing the human side of Middlebury is a central theme of the planning process, which began in January. One of the 12 task forces is examining how the College can reduce the bureaucratic demands on faculty so they may focus their time and energy on teaching, scholarship, advising, and mentoring their students. Another task force will propose faculty and staff development programs to ensure those working at the College are current in their fields so they may contribute their skills to making Middlebury's educational atmosphere richer and more rewarding for the entire community. And a third task force will focus on institutional change and culture, and will seek ways to create the conditions in which creative and entrepreneurial thinking by all employees is cultivated, all in support of enhancing the educational atmosphere on campus.
"If we can't offer the benefits of 'the human dimension,' then why would excellent students choose Middlebury over larger private institutions that have greater resources and reputations but do not offer such close student-faculty learning opportunities?" Liebowitz asks rhetorically. "Why would students choose Middlebury over the finest public schools that don't promise close student-faculty learning environments, but cost far less?"
At a November open session with Middlebury staff—part of a series of forums Liebowitz held with faculty, staff, and students to help set the agenda for the planning process—he outlined all that the College had achieved since 1992, when Middlebury last endorsed a strategic plan. "But we aspire to do more," he said. "We need to build on our successes, like our established infrastructure and our curricular strengths. And most of all, we need to embrace, encourage, and support our people." How the College does that, he believes, will define Middlebury in the years ahead.
Liebowitz at Home
For all the advantages in selecting a president from within an institution, there is also an inherent difficulty: How can a person shift within the same institution from provost to president, from operating officer to leader?
A provost is a hands-on, roll-up-the-sleeves, problem-solving person, so immersed in the College culture that he not only knows every faculty member, he knows the courses each one teaches—he even knows the course numbers for each course. To make the transition requires a person who can effect big changes—and if there was any question about whether Liebowitz can handle dramatic change, this question was answered emphatically in the fall of 2002.
That September, he met Jessica Korn, a Yale graduate and Harvard Ph.D. in political science. They fell in love, were married within a year, and had their first child, David Heschel, in February of 2004. They are expecting their second child in May. Jessica Liebowitz began her career as a professor of Political Science at UMass-Amherst. Soon thereafter, she was named a Congressional Fellow by the American Political Science Association, which enabled her to serve as the lead telecommunications staffer to U.S. Senator Pete Domenici. This experience, in turn, led to her appointment as adjunct professor of new media at Columbia Business School. She then went on to become founding editor-in-chief of the Gallup Management Journal, a post she resigned upon moving to Vermont to join Ron. She remains a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Outside of her eclectic career path, music has always played a central role in Jessica's life. She was trained as a pianist at the pre-college division of the Julliard School. As a student at Yale, she became involved in student-produced musical theater while also continuing to study piano at the Yale School of Music. Then, as a graduate student at Harvard, she served as the resident music tutor at one of the undergraduate houses while completing her Ph.D.
Jessica and Ron's commitment to being fully engaged with the College's intellectual and cultural life led the couple to commission renovations to the president's house at 3 South Street. Their personal living quarters are on the second and third floors of the residence, while the main floor, in essence, has been turned over to the College community. They created a reception room from what was once a den by opening a wall to provide a more inviting entry for guests. Artwork from the College museum adorns the walls, and a 1930 Steinway piano (a gift from Hector Griswold '71) has a prominent place in the redesigned music room, which is now poised to host student recitals. In the coming weeks, months, and years, 3 South Street will also serve as a locale for faculty and staff reading groups, presentations by student organizations, research presentations, student poetry readings, and the like.
When asked to describe her husband's perspective on the College, Jessica says: "He loves Middlebury in so many ways. He loves its excellence, its potential, the constancy of its community. And this love for the institution is not blind or abstract or strategic, but deep, full, and sincere. I think that's very rare. Middlebury is lucky to have someone at the helm who has such a strong connection to the institution, and Ron is so lucky, of course, to be in a place where he can build upon this unique connection."
Life at 30,000 Feet
In 2000, when John Hennessy was appointed president of Stanford, outgoing president Gerhard Casper said of the longtime Stanford administrator and former provost: "He's been at Stanford a long time and has observed me and my predecessors. But until the buck stops here, you never quite understand what you're in for.Liebowitz laughs at that quote and acknowledges that it's true. And he's quick to point out the flip side: You may come to know a person as provost, come to know him very well in that position, but that doesn't mean you know what he'll be like as a president.
Liebowitz explains that while a provost must focus on details as an institution's chief operating officer, a president must work at 30,000 feet, setting the strategic direction of the college. During the first few months of his presidency, he has engaged in a series of discussions leading up to the 2005 planning process, holding open forums with staff, having lunch with students, and meeting with individual academic departments (by the end of December, he had met with 15, and has meetings scheduled with the remaining 12).
Liebowitz's interest in engaging the community to think about Middlebury's future—and to think about it in creative ways—goes hand in hand with his fervent belief that ingenuity is essential to the College's health. In his inaugural address, he said, "To be true to [our] impressive history, we must, first, preserve those parts of the Middlebury culture that encourage creativity and foster innovation. There must be a level of confidence within the institution so that particular successes in one area of the College are viewed as successes across the entire institution; otherwise successes born out of innovation and creativity will have little chance of survival."
"I think this sentiment is unusual, and I found it to be incredibly bold," says Nan Jenks-Jay, Middlebury's director of environmental affairs. In an academic community, she says, innovation and tradition are often contradictory. Academic communities have a reputation for being resistant to change, and when change does take place, it happens slowly. "But here he turns the sentiment on its head. He's demonstrating that the tradition of Middlebury as a place of academic excellence is built on ingenuity, creativity. That quote—'We must preserve those parts of the Middlebury culture that encourage creativity and foster innovation'—is something I'll be quoting forever … and it so represents Ron."
Liebowitz admits that talk of an innovative, creative campus may rattle some in the community, but if Middlebury is to excel, it must embrace change. "We must give support and provide incentive to those whose ideas push us beyond our comfort levels and current ways of thinking," he says. "Entrepreneurialism doesn't necessarily go hand in hand with the culture of an academic institution, but it's been one of Middlebury's strengths going back many years, and I want the College to continue to nurture it and benefit from it."
Like the October meeting with parents in Mead Chapel, the fall forums with faculty, staff, and students have included candid exchanges. Liebowitz has been asked by faculty whether the College will continue committing its current levels of financial aid to international students; he's been asked by the staff how Middlebury services its debt; and he's had intense discussions with students about the Commons and about access to faculty. In each case, Liebowitz says, "the dialogue, the engagement has been fantastic."
"I found his meeting with the psychology department to be extraordinarily inclusive," says Associate Professor Michelle McCauley, the department's chair. "Not only did he meet with the entire department, but he really seemed interested in hearing all of our concerns. And at the same time, he was very direct in letting us know what he thinks, what his opinions are. From my perspective, that's a great thing. I think this speaks to his openness and his transparency. It is sincere, and that's why it works so well for him."
"At the beginning of our meeting, I think people were a little skeptical of his motivations," says Maija Cheung '05, who attended one of the student lunches. "We weren't sure if this was just part of a public-relations ploy, a way of saying the administration had met with the students. But right away I could tell he was genuinely interested in what we had to say; he encouraged us not to hold back any criticisms. If he's willing to listen—and it certainly seems like he is—students have a lot to say."
Staff members, too, welcome the inclusiveness. "I think that the more he talks to people, the more engaged and interested people become," says Joanne Leggett, administrative and operations manager in the Dean of Student Affairs Office. "Ron's made it clear that the staff will play a significant role in the future of the College, and people I have talked to have been really impressed with his informational meetings."
In early December, Liebowitz convened 2004's final faculty meeting, a crowded assembly in Kirk Alumni Center. Though it was the third time he had presided over a meeting of the faculty, several in attendance commented that it was the first time that it didn't feel like a new president was leading the meeting—it was simply the actual president presiding over the meeting. Shortly before 5:00 p.m., after all the committees had reported, Liebowitz briefed the faculty on the most recent Board of Trustees meeting, giving a full accounting of what had transpired. By most recollections, it was the first time the faculty had been briefed on the inner workings of the trustees. He then opened the meeting to questions "on any information provided this afternoon, or on any other issue." Perhaps unaccustomed to such an open invitation, the faculty was uncharacteristically silent at first, before a few questions were asked.
"I think we might have been caught off guard a little bit, but as we get used to this opportunity I think people will be more comfortable asking questions," McCauley laughs. "As a rule, most meetings follow a general script, and I think Ron is changing the 'script' for faculty meetings. His elaboration on the trustees meeting, for instance, was certainly a shift. And in this instance, I think it helps us to see the broader Middlebury picture. As a faculty member, it's easy to become so focused on our specific field or department or discipline that we can lose sight of all the other important parts of Middlebury that make us who we are. Ron has said that he wants particular successes in one area of the College to be viewed as successes across the community. Well, this transparency helps us to do just that."
Liebowitz's leadership style—a style based on transparency and engagement—coupled with his innate, organic understanding of the Middlebury community offers the College a fresh perspective on itself and its new president. Though he's been a fixture on the Middlebury campus for more than 20 years, the community is just getting to know Ron Liebowitz as president.
While he is a person informed by his life and career as a scholar, educator, and administrator, he's not defined by these experiences. To define Liebowitz as president you need to combine his track record of two decades at Middlebury with his fresh vision for the College's future. It's a combination that reflects the character of the institution itself, where tradition and innovation go hand in hand.
To reach President Ronald D. Liebowitz, you can e-mailofficeofthepresident@middlebury.edu.
The Liebowitz File
Ronald D. Liebowitz
Wife: Jessica K. Liebowitz
Son: David Heschel Liebowitz, 10 months
Education:
Bucknell University, B.A. in economics and geography (1979); Columbia University, M.A. and Ph.D. in geography (1980, 1985); Middlebury College, Russian School (1981, 1983)
Books
Russian and Eastern Europe After Communism: The Search for New Political, Economic, and Security Systems, ed. with Michael Kraus. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.
Perestroika and East-West Economic Relations: Prospects for the 1990s, ed. with Michael Kraus. New York: New York University Press.
Gorbachev's "New Thinking": Prospects for Joint Economic Ventures, ed. Cambridge: Ballinger Press.
Courses Taught
Introduction to Geography: A modern synthesis
Political Geography
Population Geography
Statistical Methods in Geography
The Nationality Question in Marxist-Leninist Societies Ethnicity, Nationalism, and the State (International Studies Senior Seminar)
Political Geography of the USSR/Russia
Professional Associations
Member, Board of Directors, United Educators (insures more than 1,200 colleges and universities)
Member, Board of NITLE: National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education, (served as first chair of the Board, 2001-03).
Association of American Geographers
American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies
Did You Know?
Liebowitz first set foot on the Middlebury campus not as a faculty candidate, but as a student. He spent the summers of 1981 and 1983 studying Russian at Middlebury's Russian School and says that the "intense and relentless faculty focus on student learning was like no other learning experience I have ever had."
A Planning Primer
This January, the College embarked on a strategic yearlong planning process that will guide the College from 2006 through 2012 ("As a Soviet scholar," Liebowitz quips, "I shy away from five- or ten-year plans.")
Some of the many issues to be addressed:
Strategic Goals
Strengthen the academic program and reputation of the College
Ensure that Middlebury's public reputation reflects the level of excellence the College has attained and is building
Support an institutional climate in which fresh perspectives, creative ideas, imagination, and an entrepreneurial spirit are valued and rewarded
Pursue strategic collaborations with other institutions
Leverage the reputation and strengths of Language Schools, Bread Loaf School of English, and Bread Loaf Writers' Conference
Students
Reassess packaging of our financial aid awards, with a goal of reducing financial barriers for those students we accept and who require aid
Establish a blueprint for completing the Residential Commons system
Faculty
Ensure that faculty energies can be more focused on teaching, scholarship, advising, and mentoring students
Strengthen faculty development programs to enable faculty members to become more productive scholars, recognized nationally in their fields, as well as engaged and effective teachers
Curriculum
Define Middlebury's "21st-century liberal arts curriculum"
Determine the role of the natural sciences within that 21st-century curriculum
Identify how we can best build upon our traditional curricular strengths—our "peaks" of excellence
Reassess the senior-year academic experience and consider required independent senior work
Assess the impact of an increasing number of double majors on the goal of educating
students broadly in the liberal arts, on curricular gridlock, and on teaching resources
Campus and Infrastructure
Refine the definition of (and then develop) the pedestrian campus
Pursue mutually beneficial areas of collaboration with the town of Middlebury
Take advantage of emerging technologies in teaching while always balancing that use with the human dimension of our teaching
Pursue operations that are consistent with our reputation as the "Environmental College"
Staff
Review work schedules and policies to enable staff to increase their participation in the life of the College
Strengthen staff development programs to provide career advancement and ensure ongoing contributions to the College's core mission
For updates on the planning process, visithttp://www.middlebury.edu/administration/planning.