1) many of the changes you cite are of course in response to the greatest economic downturn this country has seen in 80 years, and maybe more. One can hardly expect that in such a financial context, services at organizations that rely on non-comp fee income (gifts and endowment revenue, which is also related to gifts) would remain the same and not be cut. Remember: though the comp fee is what it is (steep), it only covers about 68% of the costs of a Middlebury education. The remainder comes from gifts and endowment income, both hit hard by the economic circumstances beyond Middlebury.

2) No student input: I wish were more student input. We had another open forum two evenings ago for students. 15 students attended (at the recommended best time — 7 p.m.). There were 10 the last time, and about 30 time before that. We have students on the budget oversight committee, both of whom have solicited their fellow students and try to provide advice and ideas to the larger committee. We have a suggestion box that students have used to submit ideas, and students have come by during my office hours all year to suggest this or recommend we don’t do that. The idea for breakfast at 3 dining halls (continental at Atwater) came from students who came to office hours.

3) lines in the dining halls. Yes, I have seen them, as I have been there (not as early as 11, but sometimes just as the rush subsides). These lines should be far less next year, as the total seats available next year will far exceed the number we have this year. The capacities in both Ross and Proctor will be expanded significantly. The lines this year were a function of the Proctor renovation, which is the largest dining hall, but as I said, the number of seats will be higher than what we had before this year’s renovation.

4) Hot breakfast at Ross v. Proctor. Will suggest to Matt Biette that he weigh which of these makes most sense. Proctor is larger than Ross (I believe by 200 seats) and so perhaps the thinking is that, with one hall open for hot breakfast, it should be the largest…but I will check.

5) Nickel and diming: we, like any school that has a significant endowment, have LARGE deficits due to reduced endowment income, so of course we need to find ways to increase revenue or cut current expenditures. That said, some of the changes you mention were in the pipeline for discussion long before the financial crisis. We have discussed parking fees for 15 years (at least), to name just one of these, as there is more to that proposal (for those who proposed it) than revenue.

I understand the frustration you and others feel about the cutbacks. But it is hard to understand how, given the financial situation in the world today, one might NOT expect changes to the status quo. The country has just experienced a decline in wealth on the order of 35% (and that might be conservative), and so the closing of a dining hall, and a reduction in frequency of how often a residence hall is cleaned, while not welcome, should not be such a surprise.

I encourage you and all others to provide input on things that we might do to reduce costs and increase revenues to preserve as much as we can that students love and have experienced here. In all of our deliberations, we are trying to preserve what most students, faculty, and staff believe to be most important to preserve, but we understand anything we change will of course affect someone or some group, too.

Ron

Now let’s consider the question of dining. It makes NO sense to put the only hot breakfast in Proctor. If anything, it should be in Ross or in Atwater and Ross. Also, why not offer the waffle iron in Atwater next year along with a cold breakfast. That way the chefs don’t need to make anything extra and students still have some option of a warm breakfast.
I will be living in Atwater next year, and don’t care that we have a new dining hall that we want to show off (seemingly the only reason for the hot food being there) and do not want to run across campus in a morning blizzard at 7am to get some food before I have to run back across campus to class. That makes no sense!

Many of these decisions seem to be made without any input from students and I would like to invite our president to a lunch at 12:30 in Ross or Atwater currently and see how he likes to wait in line for 20 minutes for food. I have seen him at lunch at 11 when there are no lines and it’s not hard to figure out why he doesn’t think it will be a problem when there are only two dining halls open next year. Let’s not forget the brilliant idea of telling people to come earlier or later. Perhaps one would like to consider that the reason people come to lunch at certain times is that they are free then to eat before they rush off to class again or perhaps it is because they just like to wait in line. Really… come on!

Also, how is each scenario working considering that Ross is closed in the fall and Atwater in the spring?

If you think we should cut things like the library that’s fine, but I must disagree with you. The library does not just have shelves of books, but a number of other resources to help students and faculty with research and classes (ever wonder how all those ERES readings get online?).

I’m not sure the administration has “got its priorities all wrong,” but I think you might.

if i had it my way, atwater and proctor continental m-f, atwater closed weekends and hot breakfast at proctor saturday and sunday.

That being said, I would rather prefer if Ross had hot breakfast and proctor had continental breakfast simply because Ross has a better variety of hot breakfasts than Proctor and because it is more centrally located of the 3 dining halls.

I am living in Atwater next year, so I would like Atwater always open with the best food…

Seriously, this poll is a proxy for where people are living, but hey, maybe that’s a good way to figure out where to put the food.

But if you asked me what the right thing to do is (and remember I’m going to live in Atwarer), I’d tell you, sucky life for all is better than life for some and starvation for others.

I don’t think it’s unreasonable to be able to have breakfast at a closer location, even just a cold breakfast.

Keep the comments up and propose creative solutions!