Middlebury College Trustees Adopt

Statement on Diversity - Recognizes Work of Human Relations

Committee, and Links Diversity to Quality Education

The board of trustees of Middlebury

College has unanimously adopted a statement on diversity affirming

that diversity is crucial to the quality of education offered

by the College, and reflecting the board’s commitment to maintaining

a “community that recognizes the dignity of every human being.”

The statement, which responds to a report on campus diversity

issued in March of 1999 by the College’s human relations committee,

was adopted at the September meeting of the board. In issuing

the statement, the board expressed its gratitude to the members

of the committee for its “informed engagement of the issue

of diversity on the Middlebury campus.”

Before submitting its report last

spring, the human relations committee conducted several months

of discussions on campus, visited other institutions, and conferred

with faculty, staff, and students. The report included an assessment

of the current campus climate in regard to diversity issues, and

listed a series of recommendations for action in more than a dozen

areas of College operations including admissions and financial

aid, faculty recruitment, and student residential life.

According to Middlebury College

President John M. McCardell, Jr., the trustees’ statement is significant

because it places an obligation on all members of the Middlebury

community to become more fully aware of cultural differences,

and to actively embrace diversity in all its forms, and at all

levels. “It is vital that the excellent work of the human

relations committee be ratified by action,” said McCardell.

“By issuing this statement, the board of trustees demonstrates

that Middlebury’s commitment goes beyond words. It calls on us

all to act on what we say we believe,” he said.

The one-page trustee statement

notes evidence of the College’s historic commitment to diversity,

cites its international student body as an example of cultural

diversity, and acknowledges the need to build further on these

achievements.

The statement says that “all

those who seek association with Middlebury College will be expected

to bring to that association a mind free from prejudice and a

willingness to engage diversity in all its forms.”