Last Tuesday, the Trustees of Middlebury College announced the appointment of our new president, Dr. Laurie L. Patton, currently Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Duke University. Dr. Patton will take over as the college’s 17th president in our more than 200 year history.
Environmental initiatives — both academic and operational — have been at the core of Middlebury’s tradition for a long time, since at least the founding of our Environmental Studies Program in 1965, and our efforts here to innovate and diversify our environmental efforts have grown through the administrations of at least the past five presidents. But the naming of a new president is always brings with it the potential for change, sometimes significant, in direction and emphasis, so I don’t think I am alone in saying that I was waiting for the trustees’ announcement with great anticipation.
It gives me great pleasure to say that, based on her comments in her inaugural address to the college community on Tuesday, Dr. Patton will continue Middlebury’s tradition of leadership and innovation in environmental curricula and operations. Her speech emphasized three important pillars for the liberal arts in the 21st century: innovation, adaptation, and integration, all three of which have long been hallmarks of environmental program here.
However, she even went further and spoke about what she saw as the “seven virtues” of Middlebury College. And Number Two among those virtues? Environmental stewardship, and in her justification for that, she spoke about the School of the Environment. By name. All of us who have been working to bring the SoE to life over the past few years, and everyone involved with the School leading up to and during its launch last summer, especially the students who made it so successful, couldn’t be happier. It’s a testament to all of vision and hard work that has come before … and a signal that the best is yet to come.
Check out the video of her speech. Her discussion about environmental stewardship comes at 7:14. We look forward to welcoming her to campus … and to the School of the Environment … next summer.