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Staff Advisory Meet-up 3.6.20

March 13, 2020

Watch a recording of the Friday, March 6, 2020 Staff Meet-Up with the Communications Department.

Institute Leadership Group 2.19.20

February 20, 2020

Agenda

  • Coronavirus Update (Jeff Dayton Johnson)
  • Student Council Update & Student Curricular Input Proposal (Jaewon Oh)
  • Strategic Planning Work (Jeff Dayton Johnson)
  • ILG Reporting Practices & Curricular Change Role (Jeff Dayton Johnson)

Notes

Coronavirus Update (Jeff Dayton Johnson)

  • There will be no Institute-supported travel to China through the end of Summer 2020. 
  • Students who are traveling from China may encounter quarantine restrictions or other travel delays. 
  • The State Department travel advisory for China is set at at “Do Not Travel” and anyone attempting to travel to China may experience travel delays or other restrictions.
  • Barbara Burke is the central point of contact, please contact her if you have any questions or receive questions from students.

Student Council Update & Student Curricular Input Proposal (Jaewon Oh)

  • Like the ILG, the Student Council has using restorative practices at the start of their meetings with proactive circles and team questions. They are also holding monthly social dinners to build community between council members.
  • The Student Council held a retreat at the start of the year, the main goals for their work continue to be increasing avenues for student input, and increasing transparency around information and decision-making processes that impact students.
  • Student Council is organizing two upcoming open meetings for students:
    • March: Budget & Financial Overview
    • April: Academic Input from Students
  • Professional Development Funding (PDF) for students is close to running out. While this happens almost every year, last year the funding was not depleted, so some students are experiencing this for the first time. Student Council is working to identify the best way to allocate remaining funding given that current applications exceed the available funds.
  • Elections for the executive committee spots coming available will take place before the end of the semester.
  • Student Council is in the process of developing a proposal for gathering student input on curriculum, and will be reviewing the proposal with the ILG in March.
  • The International Bazaar will be on April 18th.

Strategic Planning Work (Jeff Dayton Johnson)

  • The Institute Council has been working on articulating the Institute vision for 2025. The ILG is being asked to provide input in preparation for the Town Hall with faculty and staff on February 27th.
  • Institute Mission
    • The Middlebury Institute of International Studies educates professionals to advance understanding, promote peace, and drive change in pursuit of a more just world.
  • In support of that mission, our overall objective centers on career outcomes of our graduates.
  • There are four top-level areas of work:
    • Effective Programs (How we educate professionals)
    • Learner Success (How we support learners)
    • High-Performing Organization (How we operate)
    • Thriving Community (How we engage one another)
  • We are focused on making this vision translate into action, measurable, and monitor-able results.
  • The ILG discussed each of these areas in greater detail in preparation for the town hall meeting, where more information will be shared.

ILG Reporting Practices & Curricular Change Role (Jeff Dayton Johnson)

  • Reporting Practices
    • There were previously regular reporting expectations for ILG members, and with the expansion of the group we need to revisit these practices.
    • The goal of ILG updates is to open communication and information sharing between departments, and allow ILG members to bring relevant information back to their areas.
  • Curricular Change Role
    • In the Institute curricular change proposal review process, APSIC reviews curricular change proposals, followed by the ILG, followed by the Council and final VPAA decision.
    • In the future, APSIC recommendation letters will be shared with the ILG as consent agenda items. ILG members will be expected to review these items in advance of the meeting, and we will reserve a brief agenda item to allow the APSIC chair to provide an introduction and open the floor to any concerns before the proposal moves to the Council/VPAA.
    • There will soon be a tracking space available on sites.middlebury.edu/miis-info where curricular change proposals and reviewer feedback can be viewed by all faculty and staff.

Institute Leadership Group 8.21.19

August 21, 2019

JDJ Update:

  • Patricia Szasz has been added to the Institute Council.
  • ILG / Institute Council relationship – working on new calendar of meetings – want fewer, more effective meetings, and make sure info is flowing – tension between being inclusive but not too big, deliberative but not blocking forward motion… may be some change to enlarge ILG/ facilitate information sharing. Hope to roll out early this semester.
  •  WFP: this will be a year of adaptation and planning. (How to deliver the programs next year when a number of colleagues have left).
  • JDJ shared a preview of  Vision 2020– a presentation that introduces priorities for the year(s) ahead. ILG members provided feedback for a new iteration that will be presented to faculty and staff at the Town Hall next week.

[To learn more about this please come to the Town Hall meeting on Thursday, August 29 from 12:15PM – 1:45PM in McGowan 100.   This will be an opportunity to share a vision for the future and discuss priorities and objectives for the upcoming academic year.  There will be ample time for Q&A, as well. Seating will be limited, so those wishing to join remotely can connect via Zoom at https://middlebury.zoom.us/j/8316474647.]

Student Council update:

  • Jaewon Oh reported that we have 6 SC members in place now, holding elections for co-treasurer to take over in Spring,
  • There has been inconsistent accessibility between Program Chairs and Student Council program reps. SC reps should be invited to program leadership meetings, etc.
  • A series of dinners is being planned: Tu Oct 8, We Oct 9,  Th Oct 10 – free food and meet faculty and students.

Faculty Senate Retreat, February 2019

February 9, 2019

Senate Retreat Feb 2019 Download

Institute Leadership Group 11.7.18

November 7, 2018

Institute Board of Overseers Briefing
  • The Institute Board of Overseers will be meeting in Monterey Friday, November 16th, and Saturday, November 17th.
  • Some key themes will be the student experience and exploring new revenue pathways.
  • There will be a student experience panel where a group of students will each spend five minutes speaking about their experience at the Institute. Board members will then have breakout meetings with the students.
  • Friday afternoon the board will be meeting with the Faculty Senate and Staff Advisory Team, and then move on to “Staff Chats” for staff members to have a chance to meet with a board member.
  • Saturday morning is the full board business meeting.

Future of Business Education Proposal (Guest: Kent Glenzer)

  • The work to envision the future of business education at the Institute began over a year ago. During this time, the project team has connected with key stakeholders across the organization to develop ideas for offering a robust set of options for the future.
  • The envisioned future of business education aims to target the overlap of key areas that align with Middlebury’s mission and the ability to address the world’s most pressing problems.
  • The current proposals aim to:
    • Enhance business education in our existing residential degrees and retain our reputation in the impact investing, social enterprise, and social impact of business space, and design new products for new kinds of learners.
    • Launch new educational products for (1) undergraduates in the liberal arts, (2) advanced working professionals in private and nonprofit sectors.
    • Explore the launch of a new 36 credit; modularized masters for non-residential, part-time learners.
    • Leverage Middlebury faculty resources across our global campuses
    • Infuse all residential GSIPM degrees with competencies to leverage market forces for good, markets that work for all of us.
  • Sample Programs/Offerings:
    • Continue/Deepen:
      • Sustainability Management Specialization for IEP
      • Frontier Market Scouts Course and Capstone
      • Financial Crimes Specialization
      • M-Force Student Consulting/Learning on Sustainable and Social Enterprise
      • Business Basics in TLM and IEM
    • New Products
      • Business & Global Impact (BGI) course in DPP-Core (Monterey)
      • New Business Basics Summer Bootcamps (Vermont)
      • FMS Advanced Program (DC, SF, Schools Abroad)
      • Undergraduate Business Certificate (Vermont)
      • New Capstone in Business & Global Impact (Monterey)
      • BGI Specialization (Monterey)
      • Modularized Business Impact Masters (Online)
  • The next phase of consideration will take a closer look at the specific figures associated with each option and consider what might be feasible for our future state.

Mental Health at MIIS

  • There have been some concerns raised about the mental health resources available on campus. There are also likely gaps in awareness about what resources are available.
  • The leadership group will collaborate with Ashley Arrocha to gain a fuller understanding of the resources that are currently available, and explore what options might exist on the Middlebury College campus that have potential to be shared (particularly through the center for health and well-being), in order to further the conversation.

Faculty Senate Monthly Update

  • The Faculty Senate continues to focus their work on three key areas: Faculty Governance, Faculty Evaluation, and Faculty Development.
  • They are working to add a new preamble to the faculty handbook, conduct a careful review of the handbook to note where there isn’t alignment with our current practices, and review the rubric for faculty evaluation and bring the consideration of evaluating professional stature together with scholarship to the faculty assembly for a vote.

Student Council Monthly Update

  • Student Council recently had students come to express concerns about the food options at aqua terra and not adhering to the 50/50. It has been clarified that the 50/50 policy is for events and is not meant to be applied to food service.
  • There is concern from NPTS students over some workshops that may not be offered next semester. The NPTS Student Council representative is drafting a memo to the program chair, and Jeff will also discuss the issue with Student Council.

Institute Leadership Group 10.3.18

October 3, 2018

RRR Funding Prioritization (with guest Andrew Hernandez)

  • The ILG takes part in a regular cycle of reviewing and sharing prioritization input on requests for RRR (Repair, Renewal, Replacement) Funding, which is used for capital projects over $5,000. The Institute RRR budget for the fiscal year is usually around $500,000.
  • The ILG reviewed the status of projects from FY19 and gave prioritization input on projects proposed for FY20.
  • RRR projects can span several years of funding, but some of the projects that are either complete/near completion from the FY19 cycle include making classroom improvements in CF434, replacing the carpet in selected McGowan locations, making improvements to the 400 Pacific/Admissions building, expanding McCone 238 and replacing the furniture, refurbishing the Samson Center furniture, ordering new dual stream trash/recycling receptacles, and adding more carpeting to the Holland Center.
  • The ILG reviewed project proposals for FY20 to discuss priorities. The emerging priorities centered on classroom improvements, specifically improving the interpreting booth lab spaces, increasing capacity in CF434, and replacing classroom furniture in the Morse building. There is also increasing need to improve the HVAC system in the McGowan building, as well as other facility improvements around campus. These priorities will be taken into consideration as facilities begins to assess costs and determine the feasibility of each project.
  • The ILG will revisit RRR project prioritization once initial cost estimates are in place.

September Board Meeting Updates

  • The September board meeting in Vermont took place on Friday, September 28th, and Saturday, September 29th.
  • An overview of the board is available here: Board of Trustees, Boards of Overseers, Standing Committees
  • There were several in-person participants from the Institute – Jeff Dayton-Johnson, Devin Lueddeke (Staff Constituent Representative), Erin Kelly-Weber (Student Constituent Representative), and several other ILG members present over Zoom.
  • There was a half day retreat preceding the board meetings, following by a meeting of the Board of Trustees, the Boards of Overseers, and the Board Committees.
  • Some key themes of the board meeting were taking a student-centric approach to higher education and financial sustainability.
  • The Institute Board of Overseers will be meeting on campus in Monterey on November 15 & 16. We will be planning some opportunities for the board to engage with various groups around campus with a specific focus on engaging the student experience.

Returned Peace Corps Volunteers at MIIS

  • With the discontinuation of the Peace Corps Master’s International (PCMI) program we have noticed a shift in our Peace Corps Volunteer enrollment, and are considering how we might create new opportunities for Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) at MIIS.
  • One potential direction is to consider whether the Peace Corps experience might fulfill certain program requirements, and thus be able to contribute to an accelerated program at MIIS.
  • We need to have some foundational conversations about how we determine flexibility in degree requirements before we can more fully engage this particular challenge.

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