Every other year or so, the Board of Trustees holds a retreat to discuss issues of broad importance to the College. This year—last week, in fact—the Board met to consider the “new normal,” which is the phrase now being used to describe the conditions brought about by the economic downturn. The idea is that because [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
The Commons system was founded in 1992 for several reasons, but probably the most important reason was the desire to create stronger intellectual communities outside the classroom. Behind the emergence of the Commons was the complicated history of the fraternities, and the belief—held by administrators, trustees, and some faculty—that social life at Middlebury lacked options. This [...]
There was an interesting piece in Insider Higher Ed last month describing research on why athletes at liberal arts colleges sometimes underperform in the classroom. Since the publication of William G. Bowen and James L. Shulman’s 2001 influential study, The Game of Life: College Sports and Educational Values, educators have debated the proper role of [...]
Middlebury College is hot. It is one of the most selective schools in the country. The line at Emma Willard is long, and the competition for admission is keen. A key reason for the college’s enviable position is the quality of its teachers. In fact, the Princeton Review recently ranked Middlebury’s faculty as the best [...]
The following went out as an email today from the Office of the Provost: To the College Community: We write to update you on the initiative to establish a Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity at Carr Hall. As you may know, Shirley Ramirez convened a faculty working group in the Fall [...]
Recently, I had a great conversation with Dave Reidel and Torri Ross, Midd alums from the Class of 1998. They will soon leave for Ghana for a two-year stint with the HIV/AIDS programs funded by PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief). After graduation, Dave went to medical school at Penn State, completed a residency [...]
At the first faculty meeting of the year, held at the Bread Loaf campus, we traditionally highlight a topic of interest for conversation in small groups. This year, we chose to discuss advising. The topic seemed like a natural follow-up to endorsement of a new senior work requirement; beginning with the class of 2013, all [...]
