Gifts to the Alumni Fund allow the College to respond rapidly to changing circumstances and to take advantage of new opportunities. They help Middlebury stay current and responsive: able to bring an important speaker to campus; to buy musical scores, books, and other materials for the library; to create a student-faculty seminar on a critical topic. Unrestricted gifts to the College through the Alumni Fund enhance every aspect of a Middlebury education.
The Participation Challenge |
In 2004, an anonymous donor pledged to give Middlebury College an additional $1 million every year that the College reaches a predetermined goal for alumni participation in annual giving.
Middlebury has reached its goals in each of the past three years: 56, 57 and 58 percent. This year, 2007-08, the target is 59 percent. So every gift, no matter the size, is equally important in getting us closer to the magic number!
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Here is a sampling of a few of the interesting facets of Middlebury life that unrestricted dollars help support. Libraries: In one month alone, the libraries received 741 new items: 574 books, 92 audio recordings, 56 DVDs and other visual materials, and 19 musical scores. Students, faculty, and staff checked out 25,444 items.
Athletics: Athletes use 150 cases of white athletic tape each year. A case contains 32 rolls, each with 10 yards of tape. That adds up to about 27 miles of tape.
Environmental Action: Middlebury’s composting program diverts 75 percent (300 tons/year) of College food waste from the landfill, protecting the environment and avoiding tipping fees. The resulting compost is used for soil amendment in campus landscaping and vegetable growing.
Computing: The data stored on each of Middlebury’s five e-mail servers grows by about 1.5 gigabytes a week. A gigabyte represents about a billion letters or numbers, enough space to store half a million typewritten pages.
Celebrations: Over commencement and reunion weekends, the College prepares more than 1,000 beds and sets up for approximately 40 events,which includes 6,000 chairs for commencement.
Learning by Doing: As part of a winter term class studying Hurricane Katrina, the students and professor spent a week in New Orleans working with elementary school students and helping with home restoration.
Networking: Middlebury maintains a searchable database (MiddNet) of more than 7,000 Middlebury College alumni and parents who have volunteered their time and expertise to help students and alumni with career networking.
Enduring Traditions: For winter carnivals, the College prepares the Rikert Touring Center at Bread Loaf and the Snow Bowl for two days of ski racing. This includes stocking an ample supply of hot chocolate.
Discoveries: It took eight years and 735,000 depth measurements for students and faculty to create the most comprehensive bathymetric map ever made of Lake Champlain, the sixth-largest lake in the U.S.The map is an important resource for researchers across the nation.
Lights! Camera! Action! For nine consecutive Saturdays starting in June, the Language Schools’ International Film Festival features a major foreign film on the big screen in DanaAuditorium. What makes the festival different is language, nine languages to be exact, one for each of the Language Schools.
Play On. Each summer, the Bread Loaf School of English brings professional actors to its Ripton campus.They bring the power of theater to the literature courses; provide instruction in acting, directing, playwriting, and stagecraft; and take the lead in mounting the summer’s major theater production.