January 21, 2003
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.