I am confused by the CAMPUS these days. Take, for instance, its recent editorial (in the Sept 24 issue) on the CORE survey that the office of Health Education and Wellness administered last year.  After questioning the validity of the survey data—suggesting that Middlebury students drink less than some might imagine—the editors say they are [...]

You’ve read the press release, and now you can see the drama.  Dean James Ralph holds aloft the crystal bowl the College was given for winning an ACE/Sloan accelerator grant to expand faculty career flexibility.

As we all know but sometimes hate to admit, colleges and universities must market themselves to prospective students in order to fill classes and educate the public about their mission.  Even the most selective institutions do this, and it’s not easy.  For how can an advertisement, viewbook, or video capture the essence of a college, [...]

One effect of this economic downturn is that commentators have turned their view to the future of higher education, sometimes with startling effect.   There has been no shortage of such writing in the past, but with endowments down and resources scarce this seems like a particularly opportune moment to imagine what college education will be [...]

Welcome back students!  Or welcome to the new year for those of us who never left.  If this opening salvo sounds a little awkward or self-conscious, that’s because I haven’t posted since the final week of classes last May.  But, having taken the summer off—and returned to the role of Dean of the College after [...]