Agenda

• Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Work
• General Updates

Note: Welcome new APSIC Chair Wallace Chen and Student Council Vice President Lincoln Ngaboyisonga

Notes

Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Work  (Pushpa Iyer)

• The ILG participated in breakout room discussions to engage these two questions:
  • Given the pandemic and the overt struggle for racial justice, what are your current concerns for us as community/organization?
  • What values would you draw (example: from our Mission statement or Envision Middlebury goals ) to guide us through these concerns?
• Brief report out of key themes from breakout room discussions:
  • Financial considerations play a critical role in conversations about access.
  • We need to find ways to break beyond surface level conversations about these issues. Making meaningful encounters with others can be a unique challenge in the digital space.
  • How can we as an institution create a new balance, and still be inclusive of diverse opinions?
  • We need to continue to invest in diversity and inclusion. Our international community can also be an important bridge in bringing new perspectives to the American context.
  • It is critical for us to be thinking about kindness, compassion, and respect as the foundation of our discussions.
  • A values conversation is key in terms of where we go, we want to make sure our values are central in our actions.

General Updates (All)

• Student Council: Madeleine Smith
  • Madeleine and Lincoln have been working with Student Council colleagues to develop a proposal for the work of a Student Engagement Task Force. The goal is to ensure meaningful levels of student engagement as we continue to adapt to new circumstances.
• Facilities: Andrew Hernandez
  • We are a month into the construction on Pierce St., and right now we have a new sidewalk that will lead you all the way down to the side of Casa Fuente. 
  • We are revamping the parking lot by the Craig building.
  • It is going to be really neat for those who have not been on campus to walk into a new area. Justin Hitt has been keeping a time lapse video which should be something fun to share soon. 
  • There will be some landscaping work to do in front of the Casa Fuente building. 
  • Because we affected two of the accessible parking stalls, we have to go down on the Franklin side of Pierce st. and replace two ADA spots and redo the corners with a new radius.
• International Student & Scholar Services: Kelly O’Connell
  • The fall ICE guidance and FAQs that were published have now been reversed, which is great news. The ICE guidance was withdrawn yesterday.
  • They are going back to the March 2020 guidance and we are waiting for more information at this point. That document had said that fall information is forthcoming. We are anticipating more information being released in the coming days. 
  • US Embassies and Consulates are going to start processing visas again depending on each location. We are seeing information from students that they are getting appointments.
• Enrollment Management: Devin Lueddeke
  • We had our July 6th deadline for students declaring their intention to enroll in the fall, and we are seeing a very high percentage of students choosing to continue this coming semester. This is a really encouraging number.
  • We have a lot of late applications, and Admissions is still working hard during what is usually a quieter time.
  • Preview Day week is underway, we have had 150 participants in three different master classes, and we have another master class tomorrow. 
  • Friday our schedule of events goes into program-specific sessions, and we have over 400 people RSVPing to these events.