Summer Update: Planning Task Force on
Resources and Prioritization
Over the summer months the Planning Steering Committee was joined by President Liebowitz and his senior staff to form the Planning Task Force on Resources and Prioritization. Our first tasks were to study the extensive reports submitted by 15 different planning groups [see the executive summaries] and to review data and narrative responses from more than 4,000 planning surveys. Following our all-day retreat in mid-June we organized ourselves into five working groups to focus on various areas of the planning process. These groups have worked throughout the summer and they have led many of the discussions by the larger Planning Steering Committee/President's Staff.
Between our May Commencement and Labor Day, the combined Planning Steering Committee/President's Staff group met on 19 occasions for a total of 46 hours. These numbers don't include the many meetings, e-mail conferences, and drafting sessions of the five working groups. So we have worked long hours and with much intensity throughout the summer. I believe that we have accomplished much in developing a shared vision of Middlebury's future and in exploring detailed recommendations from all the task forces.
Although we have in hand advanced drafts of some sections of our report, we don't yet have a full draft of a strategic plan. Several aspects of our work have taken longer than we had envisioned. For example, task force recommendations that we further strengthen student-faculty interactions by improving the student-faculty ratio have forced us to rethink our assumptions about the ideal size of the student body and faculty, and of course there are related staff implications. Furthermore, any changes in the numbers of people in the community have implications for our physical plant and the campus infrastructure. It takes considerable time to develop good data and other information needed for making informed decisions in these areas. Even this week, many people in the planning group and in the college staff are hard at work developing more information needed for us to move ahead.
Broad Themes in our Planning
Our work throughout the summer has borne fruit in several ways. From the many recommendations and substantial advice received and sifted through, we have identified five broad themes that are serving as guides for our drafting:
1. Centrality of academic excellence and an intellectual focus. Our goals include attracting an ever-stronger student body, celebrating student achievement, supporting a faculty that is deeply committed both to teaching and to scholarship, valuing staff contributions to our core educational mission, and engaging important issues of our society and the world community.
2. Access to Middlebury experience by the most promising students regardless of their financial circumstances. Our goals are to ensure competitive financial aid programs, access to all academic programs that define the Middlebury experience including the Language Schools and Schools Abroad (for Middlebury undergraduates and graduate students), the Bread Loaf School of English and the Writers' Conference.
3. Intense faculty-student interactions. In this area we address teaching, mentoring, advising, first year seminars, senior work, science lab experience, developing intellectual independence, continuing to enhance full student engagement with faculty and with intellectual agendas – experiences for our students that make Middlebury special.
4. Emphasis on human dimensions of the Middlebury experience. We want a community of learning for students, faculty, and staff that extends beyond academic programs and courses; vibrant residential life; strong community service; valuing and celebrating the contributions of all members of the Middlebury family; appropriate traditions and celebrations; a physical plant and infrastructure that serves the needs of Middlebury's people.
5. Preparation for roles in the changing world community. We would encourage the continued strengthening of a global focus for all students; languages, cultures, international focus; environmental agendas and need for sustainable communities; extra-curricular programs that teach lifetime skills and valuable preparation for future roles; and new initiatives designed to better prepare students, both undergraduate and graduate, for the substantial challenges facing a global society.
We intend that our draft plan, when completed, will substantially reflect each of these themes and values.
A Fresh Look at Middlebury's Mission
The first of our five working groups, led by Professor John Elder, was charged with taking a hard look at Middlebury's mission and identity. The group took this charge quite literally and proposed that we take a fresh look at the College's mission statement itself. The Steering Committee, President's Staff, and the President all engaged in intense examinations of the working group's various drafts. We have developed what we regard as a first draft of a revised Mission Statement, and we are ready to share it with the college community and invite reactions and suggestions.
The first part of this draft, as with our present Mission Statement, is a brief and formal statement:
DRAFT Statement of Mission:
Middlebury College seeks to offer undergraduate students an excellent education in the liberal arts and sciences, and to do so within a diverse and inclusive residential community that vigorously engages the world beyond our campus. Middlebury is committed to excellence across the full range of the curriculum, while continuing to build on our preeminence in environmental studies, international studies, languages, and literature. Middlebury's core mission as an undergraduate college has long been complemented by graduate and specialized programs that operate during the summers in Vermont and, on a year-round basis, at a variety of other campuses around the country and abroad. The Language Schools, Schools Abroad, Bread Loaf School of English, and Bread Loaf Writers' Conference are not only distinguished ventures in their own right, but are also integral to the larger identity of our college.
What follows this statement is a longer narrative piece that acknowledges and explains Middlebury's uniqueness in being a classic liberal arts college that also offers specialized programs operating around the world. We plan to share this full statement with the Middlebury community soon.
You will be hearing much more from the planning process during the coming weeks, and we invite and encourage your continued involvement.
John Emerson
Dean of Planning
September 6, 2005