STRENGTHEN OUR CORE
Middlebury’s core is the College, its students, faculty, and staff, and its residential liberal arts teaching and scholarly mission. That core is grounded in our Vermont campus, extended by our Schools Abroad, and enlivened each summer by the Language Schools, Bread Loaf School of English, and Bread Loaf Writers’ Conferences.
Initiative: Our People
Initiative: Community and Connection
Initiative: Human Intelligence in the 21st Century
EXCELLENCE PURPOSE JOY
Excellence Purpose Joy
Middlebury’s strategic plan is the culmination of an institution-wide effort to rearticulate our mission, purpose, and aspirations for the next decade and beyond.
Transcript
Hi, it’s Ian Baucom—and I am excited to report that Excellence.Purpose.Joy: The Plan for Middlebury is moving into the implementation phase.
In May 2026, our board of trustees unanimously approved a new strategic direction for Middlebury—an affirmation that arrived on the heels of a tremendous amount of work by faculty, staff, students, administrators, alumni, and community members as we collectively asked ourselves: What is Middlebury for?
We are, of course, for many things. Above all, we are for our students, and for our world. Our strategic plan is dedicated to ensuring that we deliver on those commitments. Its ambition is to establish Middlebury as the best liberal arts institution in the world.
Our history tells us we can succeed in that ambition. We have long distinguished ourselves as the most global liberal arts college in the world; the college most alive to the languages and cultures of the world; the college most dedicated to addressing the crisis of climate change. We will continue to be that place. As we will continue to be a place dedicated to the vibrancy of the residential liberal arts across all our fields of study in the sciences, social sciences, arts, humanities, and in all our life.
In a moment of profound social, technological, economic, and environmental change, I believe we must also distinguish ourselves as the college most dedicated to demonstrating that liberal arts learning is more urgent than ever and that the students best-prepared for the shifting future are the ones who can combine multiple forms of intelligence: Critical intelligence, creative intelligence, historical intelligence, scientific intelligence, and the forms of ethical, emotional, and civic intelligence necessary for them to thrive in life and in work, and for their communities to flourish.
In a time of civic fracturing, it’s time to distinguish ourselves as a profoundly civic-minded institution: A college for our town, state, nation, world, and planet.
In a time when the value of diversity is being questioned, it’s time to distinguish ourselves in affirming that the future will be more diverse, not less.
In a time when the freedom to think and speak is being challenged by forces across divides, it’s time to distinguish ourselves in defending academic freedom for everyone, advancing the free and rigorous debate of ideas.
In a time when trust in higher education and the value of a college degree is being questioned, it’s time to lead in being affordable, excellent, and open to students from all backgrounds. It is time to lead by demonstrating that a liberal arts education is not a retreat from the world but the best possible preparation for a world that needs liberal arts thinkers more than ever.
If we do so, we will realize our ambitions. At a time when too much of our culture defines itself by what it is against, we will define ourselves by what we are for.
That is what our plan is designed to do. In building it we’ve dedicated ourselves to three linked values: excellence, purpose, and joy. We’ve chosen those words carefully. We’ve chosen excellence because our teaching, arts, research, and scholarly mission depends on it, and because we want our students to excel during their time at Middlebury and in their lives ahead.
We’ve chosen excellence with purpose, particularly a sense of public purpose, because that has always guided us. We are a public-minded private institution.
We’ve also named a sense of purpose because I believe our world is hungry for it, and because I believe that young people in particular are aching for it. I see that in every student I meet at Middlebury. Our students seek purpose during their years in college. They seek highly successful and purpose-driven lives after they graduate. We will equip them for both.
Finally, we’ve chosen joy. That is not a word that shows up in most higher education strategic plans. But it should. For our students, college happens once, in the height of their youth. It should be a joy-filled time. For all of us devoted to the life of this place—staff, faculty, alumni, parents—Middlebury should also inspire a joyful sense of purpose, rooted in our lives together, the beauty of our place in the world, and a rediscovery of the wonder of college, the wonder of studying, working, and living together, pursuing purpose-driven lives together.
I believe that the college that can accomplish these things will have earned the right to be known as the best liberal arts institution in the world. That is our ambition and I believe this plan will help us accomplish it.
This website has been built to serve as the digital nexus for our efforts.
We will be transparent in tracking our progress to achieve our goals, providing continual updates on progress toward implementation of the plan.
And then there’s the heart of both this website and the plan itself: outlining our three guiding strategies and the seven key initiatives designed to advance our mission and realize our ambition.
I hope you will take some time to navigate these pages and learn more, and I encourage you to come back often to track our progress and stay abreast of recent developments.
Beyond that, one more thing: please stay engaged. However you are connected to Middlebury, as a student, parent, alum, faculty or staff member, friend, we need your energy, thought, involvement. We are in a defining time. Let’s define it together.
Thank you in advance.
Three Strategies, Seven Initiatives
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SERVE OUR WORLD
Explore Our World
From the beginning, Middlebury has known itself as “the town’s college”—a way of naming our commitment to the town of Middlebury and our broader dedication to the civic worlds around us. We are a public-minded private institution, committed to being ever more so: for our town, state, nation, world, and planet.
Initiative: The Town’s College and a College for Vermont
Initiative: The Nation’s College and a College for the World
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PREPARE FOR OUR FUTURE
Explore Our Future
Our age is one of dramatic technological innovation, intensifying climate change, remarkable advances in medicine, and a rapidly altered world of work. To prepare ourselves, our students, and our world for that future, we must embrace a spirit of agility and innovation while staking out a distinctive position in areas where Middlebury has the demonstrated capacity to lead.
Initiative: The Middlebury Labs
Initiative: The Planet’s College
Three Guiding Words
Our ambition is to be the best residential liberal arts institution in the world, purposefully and joyfully excellent in everything we do—for our students and for our world.
Our Foundational Commitments
The plan is organized around three linked strategies, each supported by initiatives and key actions. Three commitments—to diversity and pluralism, academic freedom, and academic excellence—underpin everything we do and are stated here as foundational commitments.
Diversity and Pluralism
We will build a truly plural Middlebury: a staff, faculty, and student body drawn from around the nation and world, and from all backgrounds and perspectives, advancing teaching and scholarship on the rich diversity of the world’s histories, cultures, and traditions of thought, and celebrating the difference makers in our history.
Academic Freedom
We will make Middlebury a model of academic freedom, supporting faculty and students in teaching and learning across perspectives, fostering civil discourse and civil disagreement.
Academic Excellence
We will uphold academic integrity and rigor by fostering a culture of honesty and trust, maintaining clear standards for academic honesty, and supporting faculty in implementing assessments and grades that promote critical thinking, originality, and deep learning.
Our Vision
We strive to be the best residential liberal arts institution in the world—excellent, purposeful, joyful—for our students and for our world.
- At Middlebury, we have long distinguished ourselves as both the town’s college and the most global liberal arts college in the world; the college most alive to the languages and cultures of the world; the college most dedicated to addressing the crisis of climate change. We will continue to be that place.
- In an era of dramatic social, technological, and global change, it is time for Middlebury to lead in demonstrating that liberal arts learning is more vital than ever; that the students best prepared for the shifting future are the ones who can combine multiple forms of intelligence: critical intelligence, creative intelligence, technological intelligence, historical intelligence, and the forms of ethical and entrepreneurial intelligence necessary for them to thrive and for their communities to flourish.
- In a time of civic fracturing, it is time for Middlebury to lead as a profoundly civic-minded institution: a college for our students and for our world.
We are a place defined by what we are for, not what we are against: a private institution with a public purpose.
Read more about The Vision from President Ian Baucom.