January 2006 Update: Engaging the Campus Community
Throughout fall 2005, the Planning Steering Committee continued to join forces with President Liebowitz and his senior staff to form the Planning Task Force on Resources and Prioritization. We used the extensive reports submitted by 15 different planning groups.We also continued to explore strategic options for the College, including a proposal for a modest reduction in the size of the student body; after extensive examination of the likely implications of this change we decided to recommend that our undergraduate student body remain at 2350 students for the coming years.
Planning Retreat with Middlebury Board of Trustees
On October 6, we were at the Bread Loaf campus for an all-day planning retreat with our Board of Trustees, and with other groups of leaders from the Middlebury campus. It was a beautiful warm day and the view of the colors on Bread Loaf Mountain was simply stunning. But for us it was a day of intense work and conversation about what the Middlebury College community values most about Middlebury. The formal sessions with the Board focused largely on three areas: the relationship between some major strategic initiatives and the College's financial capacity; five broad themes for our planning, with some illustrative planning initiatives; and the College's mission statement. We ended the day with an excellent dinner served in the Bread Loaf Inn by the College catering team, and with brief reports by each of the day's breakout discussion groups. One specific outcome of the day's deliberations was a decision by the Planning Steering Committee to re-engage the mission statement and to draft a much shorter and more "inspirational" statement that could apply to all segments of the College's varied academic programs.
Our September planning update included an earlier draft statement of mission. I include here the current draft as it is being considered on campus this month.
Proposed new Mission Statement
At Middlebury College we challenge students to participate in a vibrant and diverse academic community while at the same time pursuing knowledge unconstrained by national or disciplinary boundaries. 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 dimensions of character needed to provide leadership in a rapidly changing global community. Students come to Middlebury College to engage the world.
Toward a Draft Plan
We spent the balance of the fall in prioritizing around 230 different recommendations from the 15 task force and committee reports, and in developing some further recommendations of our own. As the weeks passed we found ourselves heavily engaged in drafting and redrafting various sections of the report. We'd like to view that process as a model for our students with regard to the amount of criticism and revision involved, if not the eloquence of the resulting draft! On December 8 President Liebowitz and I had a chance to present in broad outline to the Middlebury Board of Trustees our major planning proposals. A particularly intense effort right after that led to a complete draft document on December 21, the day on which we adjourned for the holiday break. After New Year's Day we made a few modest changes, and we then circulated the draft plan for consideration and response from the on-campus community.
Our draft is entitled Knowledge Without Boundaries: The Middlbury College Strategic Plan, a title that reflects our convictions that education extends beyond our classrooms, that its focus prepares students to be citizens of a global community, and that Middlebury's educational programs do reach around the globe.
Engaging the Campus Community
We are now beginning a very different phase of our work, and one that we have looked forward to for many months. Students, faculty, and staff are writing to us with their reactions, praise, and critiques. They are also visiting with us, calling us, and attending open meetings. We are responding to questions and explaining positions, but mostly we are listening hard to the responses of the community and suggestions for changing the report.
The Planning Steering Committee anticipates a process that exemplifies what we value most in the Middlebury community—serious and thoughtful discourse, critical thinking, and spirited debate. Out of this process will emerge a revised and strengthened document that the Board of Trustees will discuss at their February meetings. It seems likely that this version of the plan will be shared with the broader Middlebury community, including alumni and parents. President Liebowitz will discuss the plan and his views about it as he travels across the country in the coming months. Our work will inevitably continue into the spring as we identify how the planning initiatives will be moved ahead and how we will hold ourselves accountable for their progress.
A Note of Thanks
We could not have reached this point without the advice and perspectives that so many of you shared with us. You completed thousands of planning surveys, and you included thoughtful and often provocative commentary in the narrative sections. You wrote letters and e-mail messages to President Liebowitz and to me, and we shared those with other members of the planning group. Many of you attended Middlebury gatherings where you engaged in conversations about the College, often with President Liebowitz. On behalf of the Planning Steering Committee, I thank you for your contributions and for your loyalty to the College. I hope to be in touch before the end of February.
John Emerson
Dean of Planning
January 17, 2006