Working Group Charge Questions
Build on Middlebury’s Strong Liberal Arts Teaching Mission
How can we build on the work of the “Liberal Arts Foundations” initiative that College faculty are leading to consider the future of our undergraduate curriculum? At the same time, how can we expand experiential learning opportunities and leverage the Middlebury calendar (fall, winter, spring, summer) and our Feb program to foster unique learning experiences? As we consider our long-term future, how should we understand our role as a “small” liberal arts college, defined by the deep bond between students and faculty? Can we maintain that purpose and identity as an intentionally small place while also considering some incremental increase in the size of our student body and a commensurate increase in the size of our faculty? Or are we where we wish to be for the long term?
Expand Access/Ensure Student Success
Can we expand thresholds for financial aid and a tuition-free Middlebury for low and middle-income students? As we do so, where should we focus our efforts in providing academic support for students from all backgrounds (e.g., academic advising and mentorship, and bolstering the first-year experience/transition to college for students across all backgrounds)? How can we build on and continue to advance the extraordinary vibrancy of our undergraduate athletics programs, supporting and celebrating our student athletes, while simultaneously building stronger ties across our full student body and drawing all students into a shared community of success and social belonging regardless of their participation in athletics?
Attract Outstanding Teacher-Scholars/Ensure Faculty Success
How can we strengthen faculty compensation to be in line with our highly competitive peers? How can we best encourage and reward innovative teaching? What other support can we provide faculty to help enable their success, including through creating a thriving culture of research, scholarship, and creativity for all faculty—individually and collaboratively—across all stages of their careers? As a liberal arts college, how should we best value, recognize, and support scholarship, research, and creative practice by our faculty alongside their commitments to teaching and service?
Attract Outstanding Staff/Ensure Staff Success
How can we make Middlebury an exceptional place to work—for staff, and for all members of our community? How do we create a workplace where people feel inspired to do their best work, feel a deep sense of belonging, and see a future for themselves at Middlebury, strengthening our culture and our ability to attract and retain exceptional talent?
Build a Vibrant and Engaged Learning Community
Can we build a stronger Middlebury residential liberal arts community by enhancing physical spaces for students, faculty, and staff to gather and learn together? How should we envision our future after the discontinuation of the commons system (and what are the key lessons we’ve learned from that initiative)? We have been considering establishing a new student or community center. If we do, what should guide the vision for its design, purpose, and programming? Should we also be considering other new places for faculty, students, and staff to gather and build a stronger sense of community? How should these considerations inform an updated Middlebury master plan reflecting the priorities of the strategic plan as a whole?
Define Global Mission and Strategy
How do we want to define our global mission and strategy, in teaching, research, and public commitment? Can this mission help support a more fluid Middlebury, grounded in Vermont, with opportunities for students and faculty to circulate among locations (e.g., for winter terms, summer research, fall or spring semesters away, internships, arts partnerships, sabbaticals, symposia across our multiple locales in the United States and beyond)? Can we forge stronger connections between the College and the Language Schools, the Bread Loaf School of English and Writer’s Conferences, our C.V. Starr Schools Abroad, our sites in Washington, D.C., and Vienna? Are there other key aspects of our global purpose we should be focusing on, such as the importance of languages?
Better Define Our Role in Advanced Professional Education
With the decision on the Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS) made, how do we want to define Middlebury’s role in advanced education for working professionals? How, in particular, do we want to build on the long record of the Language Schools and the Bread Loaf School of English in providing advanced education to high school teachers? Are there additional areas where we can leverage our academic expertise to support not only language and humanities teachers but other public service professionals (for example, those working in climate and sustainability, global security, etc.) to advance Middlebury’s service to the public good? Beyond the multiyear master’s degree programs for teachers we confer through the Language Schools and Bread Loaf, should we consider other types of nondegree Middlebury advanced certifications? To what purpose and on which principles? As we consider those questions, are there changes we should consider in our organizational structure to best address them?
Strengthen External Ties to the Local, State, National, and Global Community
How do we want to envision our civic commitments to our town, state, nation, and world? At the local level, how can we best continue to be the “Town’s College,” strengthen local partnerships, and contribute to the economic vitality and environmental sustainability of the town of Middlebury? At the state level, how can we best support the future of the state of Vermont (potentially through enhanced partnerships with other Vermont institutions of higher learning, public school teachers, and government bodies, and in support of statewide economic vitalization efforts)? At the national level, how can we advance Middlebury’s role in research, policy, and public-sphere discussions on the role of the liberal arts in advancing democracy? Should we leverage our role as a leading liberal arts college in a highly rural state by becoming a thought leader and convenor on issues of rurality? At the global and planetary level, what is our vision for what follows Energy2028 as we reaffirm our commitment to the climate future of the planet?
Advance Academic Freedom
How can we advance our commitment to academic freedom? Should we create a Middlebury Statement on Academic Freedom (and also a clear articulation of when we should and should not speak as an institution)? Are there other steps we can take to strengthen academic freedom (for example, through annual academic freedom symposia, lecture series, debates, course offerings, or other means)? What steps can we take to make Middlebury synonymous with academic freedom?
Articulate DEI Values and Strategy
What are our core values as we consider the future of our commitments to being a diverse, equitable, and inclusive community? What are our key strategic priorities in these areas? How can we be most effective in realizing these goals? What should our organizational structure look like? How can we ensure that we are addressing these questions based on our enduring values, strategically, and not reactively?
Engage and Lead in an Age of AI and Technology
How do we wish to articulate our key mission, values, and priorities for teaching, research, scholarship, the arts, student success, and our own operations in an age of AI and rapidly changing technology? Are there areas in these domains where Middlebury has an opportunity for distinctive leadership?
Address Urgent Issues of Our Times
Can we establish, expand, or reimagine interdisciplinary centers or clusters of Middlebury excellence engaging urgent issues of history and our times? If so, in what areas? In considering these questions, are there opportunities to build stronger connections between and among our departments, programs, offices, centers, and schools?