MIIS Teach-Out Communications
Dear MIIS Community Members
Last month, the Institute Board of Advisors met in Middlebury. The three constituent advisors – Marley Uyemura, Jeni Henrickson, and Sharad Joshi – shared updates with the IBA about the impacts on students, staff, and faculty of the decision to wind down MIIS’s degree programs. Their dispatches were thoughtful, well-researched and heartfelt, and the IBA leadership acknowledged our contributions after the meeting in a letter to the MIIS community sent on November 10.
A common theme shared by our colleagues at the IBA meeting was a desire for more frequent and comprehensive communication from Middlebury and MIIS leadership following President Ian Baucom’s August 28 announcement of the closure of our programs. Since then, I’ve been working with our Transition Team on a variety of efforts, including how we can improve communications. This message outlines our renewed communications approach through the end of the teach-out in summer 2027.
Meetings for Asking Questions, Sharing Information, and Coordination
My objective is that communication about the teach-out be regular, consistent, predictable, and appropriately transparent; that it is tailored to the needs and expectations of different stakeholder groups; and that it includes emails, accessible web resources, and opportunities to deliberate, share information, and ask questions.
Before we get any further, here is the video from this week’s student town hall.
What to Expect
Regular Email Updates:
This Week at MIIS. This weekly email message, focused especially on events and updates of interest to students, but sent to all staff and faculty colleagues as well, was relaunched in a new, simplified format earlier this week. Submit items for inclusion by 4.p.m. Friday for the following week’s update.
Monthly VPAA Updates. Today’s message is the first in what will be a monthly series of updates from me, sent mid-month to students, faculty and staff. Monthly updates will also provide information about forthcoming town halls and other meetings and will be archived at the publicly accessible MIIS Teach-Out: Updates and Resources website.
Website Resources:
The MIIS Teach-Out: Updates and Resources. This publicly accessible website will include communications from Middlebury and MIIS leadership about the teach-out of interest to the global MIIS community. There is also an online FAQ section that is continually updated.
The MIIS Teach-Out: Updates and Resources for Faculty and Staff. This website, which faculty and staff can access with their login credentials, includes more targeted resources such as town-hall recordings, and a continually updated FAQ section focused on employee questions.
Meetings for Asking Questions, Sharing Information, and Coordination:
Town Hall meetings continue–one for regular full-time faculty last month, another for all employees last week, a third co-organized with the Student Advocacy Council this week. We’re extracting FAQs from the town hall meetings to answer questions and record those answers in an accessible archive.
Regular Institute Leadership Group meetings will resume and will provide an opportunity for program chairs and other academic leadership, Monterey-based anchor function leaders, and elected student, staff, and faculty representatives to hear regularly from Middlebury and from each other, as well as to coordinate across units. As we proceed through the teach-out, and as the campus population gets smaller, coordination and cooperation across departmental lines will become more necessary. The first meeting has been scheduled for early December.
Celebrating MIIS
During this period, we also want to take time together to celebrate the Institute’s living legacy. We have already begun this effort in part by marking milestones in our colleagues’ length of service, gathering for a Friendsgiving celebration for the whole campus community and with events such as welcoming back early 2000s alumnus Michael Shaikh to campus.
A Thank You
As we think about our future communications, I’d like to pause to recognize Sierra Abukins, our director of communications at MIIS, for her exceptional contributions to Institute communications over the last three years. She has brought tremendous insights into how to communicate with our internal and external communities during that time, overseeing video production, social media campaigns, content creation, and strategic communications. I am grateful for all of her advice and counsel as she prepares to transition to a new role in mid-January.
Stay tuned to This Week At MIIS for upcoming opportunities to gather and celebrate this educational community that means so much to us, including Winter Commencement.
Thank you all for the work that you do for our MIIS community. We will be in touch again soon.
With appreciation,
JDJ