Last week, the Trenton Times published an article describing budget cuts at Princeton, where the endowment dropped 24% in fiscal year 2009—a significant loss, especially since 48% of Princeton’s operating budget comes from the endowment. The piece makes a couple of interesting points. For one, while the budget cuts that Princeton has made thus far—closing [...]
I am kind of surprised that neither The Campus nor MiddBlog has commented on this story, but I think it’s worth a mention and it beats the heck out of reflecting (some more) on the CORE survey results. The story concerns a new policy, now in place at Tufts, that “prohibits any sex act in [...]
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 [...]
I am intrigued by the fact that Middlebury, like many colleges and universities, has several “centers” that serve as the headquarters for various academic, artistic, and extracurricular programs. We have the Mahaney Center for the Arts, the Rohatyn Center for International Affairs, the Donald Everett Axinn Center for Literary and Cultural Studies, the McCullough Student [...]
The responses to my post on the Phoenix prompted me to dig up additional information on the history of fraternities at Middlebury. Perhaps the most substantive issue at play here concerns the right of free association, which is protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution. Why, the question goes, should Middlebury students be prohibited from [...]
I am known as one of the more technologically engaged/addicted faculty members at Middlebury. Luckily, it ties directly into what I teach: media studies, focused on contemporary popular culture, television, and digital media. So the hours I spend on my MacBook Pro are mostly part of my broader “field research,” whether it’s Facebook social networking, [...]
