Midd Blog

Disconcerted? Who is the tipster who feels disconcerted, and why? MiddBlog reports that even Middlebury undergrads can’t get into some of the summer Language School programs, so why shouldn’t the College look to expand these programs when they are in such great demand and thereby give more an opportunity to study at the best programs available? I believe the second site under consderation is not intended to increase overall attendance at the LS, but allow for expansion in some languages, while also reducing the use of the Middlebury campus in the summer so dorms can be renovated and other programs could use the campus facilities. Seems like a win-win-win smart strategy. And these are not new programs, are they? Won’t the directors of the current Language Schools oversee the Schools out west?

And why shouldn’t Middlebury expand what it is best at, especially when what it is best at is in such demand and seems so important in this day and age. Seems getting Middlebury’s name (”brand”) out there can only help all associated with Middlebury, including undergraduate students who seek stronger networks to help them get internships and then jobs after graduation.

As a Midd parent, I would hate if my daughter could not enroll in the summer Arabic program, and would like the fact that the College is better known and its networks expanded as a result of such a plan.

Why the angst over what Mr/Ms Disconcerted calls “auxiliary” enterprises?? They are hardly “auxiliary” as they are educational and contibute to the College’s great reputation.

Looking forward to some enlightenment here.

Another thing to remember is that at least for the Arabic school, and probably for others as well, there are up to four times as many applicants as spaces. In a country where we could use as many people speaking these “strategic” languages, why not give more people the opportunity to study.

Is Mills College really the place to have a second campus of the language school? I agree that the language pledge might not mean much when you’re in one of the largest metropolitan areas in the US. I think that one of the biggest reasons people should go to Midd for language school is that it’s a really nice place to focus on one thing: learning a language.

I’m also not surprised that Middlebury is expanding around the country like this: they’re marketing themselves for the new century. Unlike some of the other more famous colleges back east, they are not as recognizable. For example, Dartmouth College, founded barely 30 years before, is always recognizable, and Williams and Amherst are almost always get some familiar looks. (I now live in the Bay Area, California)

But, for whatever reason, Midd doesn’t get that, even though the cognoscenti acknowledge that it’s one of the best places to learn a language. So, it isn’t surprising that Middlebury would want to expand it’s brand recognition, and it’s most marketable product. It’s disturbing if you want to think of it as the Starbucks/McDonalds/WalMart approach to modern marketing, but I’m not sure that this is that out of line with the way things are going. Many educational institutions are opening campuses in distant places. I guess that if you thought you got the ultimate designer and unique ornament for your office wall, you may find that it’s being marketed (marginally more) for the masses now.

Does this expansion cheapen the Middlebury degree? I don’t think so. Does it open up a slippery slope that will lead to a Middlebury language program booth next to the the Rosetta Stone store in the airport? Ask me in 20 years.

Would I prefer to have Middlebury-in-the-Sierras to Middlebury-in-Oakland? For sure.

As a recent alum, I feel that Middlebury money is best spent at Middlebury and on the undergraduates, not in California sinkholes. But let them do as they will. I’m not at Midd anymore and if I were to ever donate money I’d stipulate that it cannot be used toward axillary campuses.

As a Middlebury undergrad and Language School (LS) Graduate, I find this string fascinating. Upon graduation, and before beginning my LS studies, I worked at the College and did not understand then the rather parochial view of most alumni toward the Language Schools and Bread Loaf School of English.

Ryan would be interested to know that what are being labeled auxiliary entities on MiddBlog actually subsidize the undergraduate program. An undergrdauate education costs a student about $48,000 a year now, but it actually costs the College about $70,000 to educate each student each year. The more than (when I worked at the College) 30% subsidy was made up from the endowment and gifts, so the comprehensive fee actually only covered part of the expenses. The Language Schools, I learned, operate without a subsidy. The cost charged is the cost to educate each student, plus some, and the bottom line of the Language Schools actually add to the College’s bottom line and thereby significantly subsidize the undergraduate operations.

I also learned from my friends in the development office the past two years that our auxiliary programs (the LS and now Monterey) were major reasons for several large gifts that left Middlebury as the liberal arts college with the most funds raised for two years running (2006 and 2007). So far from being “sinkholes,” these entities have aided, not taken from, the undergraduate program. But who would know?

But more important, it seems, is the point Rising Soph Mom made, and it has to do with program opportunities for future undergrads. If 130 Middlebury undergrads already benefit from the LS each year, and the Bread Loaf English School and Monterey also provide unique and valuable opportunities for Middlebury undergraduate students, why the animosity? Why the “disconcertedness?” Especially if these entities are, as reported, ‘cash cows” for the College?

The College is at least now investing in academic programs that can benefit our undergraduates directly and indirectly (through greater fundraising and larger networks). I graduated right as the Commons fiasco was more or less forced down the students’ throats by our past president. Talk about sinkholes. How many students wanted (and still want) that system, and how many millions were sunk into that project Thank goodness the College has stopped pouring money into that experiment and will not build 5 dining halls and many more gradiose residence halls, all of which add to already outrageously high fixed costs of running the College.

The Language Schools and Bread Loaf School of English have been around more than 80 years. They add to, rather than take from, the College in so many ways. For the muckety-mucks in the administration today, it is clear the College needs to do a better job of educating the Middlebury family about this topic, because I found these things out by earning a degree at the LS and working in the back offices at the College. Most alumni of the undergraduate College do not get those opporutnities.

I can confirm that the College is in the final stages of securing an agreement to open a second site for its summer intensive Language Schools — a much smaller operation than what we operate on the Middlebury campus. This has been in the works for a year, and was reported at our faculty meeting last semester.

No agreement has been signed yet, but we are in the final stages of reviewing terms, etc. The lack of space on our campus, the need to take residence halls off-line for long overdue renovations, the demand by others (non Language School programs) on the Middlebury campus to use some space in the summer, and the huge demand for some Language Schools prompted our search for a second site.

Though I love the idea of a program in the Sierras, the technology infrastructure, tech support, library, and other needs to run an intensive language program made the impossible. And I should note that Mills, though in a metro area, is secluded from the city of Oakland, and the temptations for students to dishonor the Language Pledge will be no greater than in Middlebury.

Ron

New details on MIDDLEBURY at MILLS (M@M) from a Middlebury job posting:

340 students at Mills
~60 faculty/staff
at least 3 full time Middlebury-paid staff in Oakland

Is it really important how many students or faculty/staff are going to be at a second site for the Language Schools? What is the newsworthy piece? The number of students? That staff will need to cover the expaned operation? Hard to tell.

Hasn’t the College been employing staff at non-Vermont Middlebury sites for, well, since it opened its Schools Abroad more than 60 years ago?? I would guess the 3 non-Ripton, Vermont Bread Loaf School of English sites, and our 8 Schools Abroad that operate in more than 10 countries, employ far more than the 60 faculty/staff Midd Kid notes for the possible Mills operation. And there are more than 600 students at those Bread Loaf and Schools Abroad sites…so is this news for Middlebury???

More important — and it would be good to hear directly from Vice President Geisler, who oversees the Language Schools and Schools Abroad — is whether this second site at Mills will mean more slots for Middlebury and students from other colleges to study Chinese and Arabic, because Middlebury’s existing Schools for these languages had to turn away more than 80% of its applicants (at least that is what the claim is).

It would also be good to know from the president’s office when an agreement is signed for this second Language Schools site, as the president’s posting of July 18th reports no agreement has yet to be signed.

[...] at Mills Update Latest word on the street is that Middlebury at Mills is slated to open next summer with all of the Arabic School and part of the Spanish School in [...]

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