President of the College

President Liebowitz will present the 2015 Staff Recognition Awards. These awards have been endowed through the generosity of Rudolf K. Haerle, Jr., Professor Emeritus of Sociology, who wished through his gift to recognize the importance of staff to the Middlebury College community. A light lunch will be served.

Special Faculty Meeting: President Patton will hold a meeting for discussion of topics of interest to all faculty.

The Public Park Advisory Group (PPAG) is hosting a public “listening” session on the public park to be sited on the land where the Town of Middlebury Offices and Municipal Gymnasium are currently located. During this session the group will share the principles for the park as established by the PPAG and will share some preliminary concepts. Community members are invited to share comments and ideas before they enter the final phase of design.

The Board of Trustees of Middlebury is pleased to announce the inauguration of Laurie L. Patton as the seventeenth president on Sunday, October 11, 2015. The inauguration ceremony will take place at 10:30 a.m. on the main quad of the Middlebury campus. In case of inclement weather, the ceremony will be moved to Virtue Field House. Live streaming of the inaugural ceremony will be available for those unable to attend in person.

Please click here for more information surrounding Inauguration weekend.

Outdoors on the Main Quad (Rain location: Peterson Family Athletics Complex) On Saturday evening at 7 p.m. in celebration of the Middlebury presidential inauguration, there will be a free family-friendly concert outdoors on the Main Quad near McCullough Student Center, followed by fireworks at 9:45 p.m. behind the Peterson Family Athletics Complex. La Bottine Souriante, the traditional French Canadian folk music group with a modern twist, will open the concert with their high-energy performance.

Dennis Parker (Class of 1977 and Trustee), and Lee Rowland (Class of 2002), both attorneys at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in New York, will discuss how they became public interest attorneys. They will also describe their day-to-day work at the ACLU in particular their efforts to advance the Racial Justice Program (Dennis) and the Speech, Privacy & Technology Project (Lee). Finally, they will share their views on the current debates in higher education over safe spaces, trigger warnings, racial justice, and free speech.

The Ethical Dimensions of Reading Classical Literature Moderator: Timothy Billings, Professor of English and American Literatures Panelists: Wendy Doniger, Mircea Eliade Professor in the History of Religions, University of Chicago; James Romm, Bard College; Karen Stolley, Emory University; Luke Bretherton, Duke University

Scientific Exploration and the Boundaries of Life Moderator: Eilat Glikman, Assistant Professor of Physics Panelists: John Grotzinger, Chief Scientist and Head of Strategic Planning Mars Rover Mission and the Fletcher Johns Professor of Geology at the California Institute of Technology; Mohamed Noor, Duke University; Pat Marsteller, Emory University

Race, Gender, and Inequality Moderator: Tara Affolter, Assistant Professor in Education Studies Panelists: David Simon, writer and producer of “The Wire;” Gyanendra Pandey, Emory University; Ruby Lal, Emory University; William Darity, Duke University