Contact: Adrianne

Tucker

802-443-5629

satucker@middlebury.edu

Posted: January 21, 2003

MIDDLEBURY,

VT - Eighty-eight students from the class of 2003 will earn bachelor

of arts degrees from Middlebury upon the mid-year completion of their

academic requirements. As part of Middlebury College’s celebratory weekend

for students graduating mid-year, the annual “ski-down” procession

in cap and gown will take place on Saturday, Feb. 1, at the Middlebury

College Snow Bowl in the nearby Green Mountains.

The College

offers admission to students two times each year, in September and again

in February. A program in its own right at Middlebury since the 1970s,

February admissions is designed to allow first-year students to begin

their studies in the spring semester instead of the fall.

As the “Feb”

class completes its course of study, the College honors the students’

accomplishment with a weekend-long mid-winter celebration. Following the

custom initiated by mid-year graduates more than two decades ago, most

students choose to participate one way or another in the ski-down event,

a festive procession on the slopes. Led by a Middlebury College standard-bearer,

honorees ride the chairlift or trek up the mountain and ply their way

back down in a procession of caps and gowns, regalia-bedecked faculty,

blue and white balloons, skis, snowboards-and sometimes snowshoes-to the

cheers and hearty congratulations of family, friends, and College faculty

and staff waiting below.

The College

also looks forward to seeing its ski-down graduates return later each

spring, when they join the rest of their graduating class at the College’s

official commencement ceremony on the main campus in May.

For more information

prior to the event, contact Heather Cahill, of Middlebury College Alumni

and Parent Programs, 802-443-5192.