Strategic Plan: Excellence. Purpose. Joy.

President Ian Baucom shared the following message with the Middlebury campus community on Tuesday, May 12.

Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff, 

I’m pleased to let you know that the Board of Trustees unanimously approved a new strategic plan for Middlebury at its meeting this past weekend. Here is a link to the plan—Excellence. Purpose. Joy. (Middlebury login credentials required.)

Vision

As you know, over the course of the past year, we’ve been asking: What is Middlebury for? 

We are, of course, for many things. Above all, we are for our students, and for our world. The strategic plan that we’ve been working on together, and which the Board has now approved, is dedicated to ensuring that we deliver on those commitments with distinction and excellence. Its ambition is to establish Middlebury as the best liberal arts institution in the world.

Moment

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 of work, innovation, and democratic possibility 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.

Excellence. Purpose. Joy.

As we do so, we must strive for excellence in everything we do. Excellence with purpose and with 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—from the choice of our motto (Scientia et Virtus) to proudly knowing ourselves as “the town’s college.” 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. In a time of hustle-culture, the strain on human connections intensified by the Covid years, the loss of faith and trust in many enduring institutions—including higher education institutions—young people remain deeply idealistic and dedicated to a sense of purpose. 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 must 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. 

Thanks, and what comes next

Let me close with a word of deep thanks to everyone who has poured so much time, imagination, and thought into developing this plan: Students, faculty, staff, and alumni; the members of the strategic planning working groups; the steering committee and representatives of elected bodies from across our community who participated in its work; the members of our Senior Leadership Group,the Board of Trustees Strategy and Programs Committee, and many more. I am grateful to you all and thankful beyond measure to LeRoy Graham and to the two sterling co-chairs of the Strategic Planning Steering Committee: Jessica Holmes and AJ Vasiliou.  

There is much work ahead as we move from the planning phase to implementation, including launching a range of implementation groups and establishing a clear implementation dashboard to mark and track our goals and progress. My goal is for us to take up that work with the same spirit of openness, transparency, and collaboration across our community that you have all brought to the work of building the plan. I’ll be following up on that process over the coming weeks and months. For the moment though let me end with thanks again. It’s been a joy to join this project with you. I’m looking forward to all our shared work ahead.

Best,
Ian

— 

Ian B. Baucom
President
Professor of English
Middlebury