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Posts tagged ‘finance’

Sep 22

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President Liebowitz Gives “State of the College” Address

President Liebowitz delivered his fall “State of the College” address to a packed house of faculty, staff, and students this afternoon in McCullough Social Space. An update on his speech from February, the President’s address mainly dealt with the financial issues of the college, and how although we are not out of the water yet, progress has been made that should be recognized. Some key points (paraphrased) in case you missed the event or the live tweeting by @middcampus and yours truly, @middblog:

  • This fiscal year (which ended on June 30th) reported a budget surplus, as well an endowment rebound to $815 million. Update: While the endowment, the college’s second greatest source of revenue, is still down from its peak of $962 million, we earned a great 17.7% on the endowment this year, as supposed to the 11% projected in December and the 5% first projected for this year and the coming years.
  • The current priorities in this financial reevaluation are as follows: 1. No staff layoffs 2. Protect academics (including our 9:1 student-teacher ratio and student academic resources) 3. Maintain our need-blind policy for domestic students 4. Maintain excellent benefit packages for staff/faculty
  • President Liebowitz stressed that it was a “conscious decision to choose the slower path”; meaning not making staff layoffs. The Staff Resources Committee will continue to work this fall to consolidate departments and positions based on common work.
  • It is the hope of President Liebowitz and the administration to make this issue as transparent as possible. He noted that financial literacy and a knowledge of this process is important for everyone in the college community.

Ultimately, President Liebowitz hopes that this refocused financial agenda will allow us to put academics back as our top concern here at Midd; that we will be able to reengage in issues that had previously been put on the back burner. This includes but is not limited to a curricular push in the fields of linguistics, global health, and more. We will also be able to focus now on the reaccreditation process and the external review team that will be coming to campus next fall.

The president ended his short, straight and to the point speech by saying that he hopes we will all take a step back from the stress and worry this crisis has caused and take time to recognize the team effort that has been made to get us on the right track.

The full transcript and video of the speech can be found here.

Apr 20

9 Comments

So Midd has some stock in software now… Why care?

In response to last week’s announcement regarding Middlebury Interactive Languages, the Middlebury community’s reaction has been relatively subdued regarding the College’s 40% hold in the computer software venture. This is especially surprising when compared with those supporters calling it a “revolution” in language-learning, or otherwise, with those who fear the software could damage Middlebury’s reputation.

The next Midd marriage, thanks to MIL?

The next Midd marriage, thanks to MIL?

The College is taking a significant step with Middlebury Interactive Languages (MIL). Administration is counting on MIL as a “fourth revenue stream” to supplement tuition, the endowment, and gifts. What is more, according to the MIL software’s web site, the chief aim of the software is to answer the increasing need for foreign languages, while language-learning resources in the U.S. decline.

Perhaps the muted response on students’ behalf is due to the fact, that apart from periodic e-mail updates from the Office of the President, the College’s other recent additions — our adding “a graduate school of Middlebury College” (oh yes, by this fall, that is what Monterey will officially be) and the expansion of summer language programs to high-school students via MMLA — do not affect current Midd undergraduate students.

Though the Monterey Institute and MMLA might not noticeably impact the Vermont campus, here’s why you should care about the newest addition of MIL.

  • ‘BRAND’ ON THE LINE? K12, the company taking care of the tech and distribution side, seems to be a worthy partner – experienced, respected, and committed to providing learning tools “to maximize success in life, regardless of geographic, financial or demographic circumstances.” But still, is this Midd’s sell-out to the Man? Are we now that money-grubbing, liberal arts college? After following the commentary for a while now, it seems to me the answer is no. Why?
  1. MIL doesn’t change language schools or schools abroad. That’s why the “Middlebury brand” exists in the first place (outside of being another New England liberal arts college) – and they, along with the brand, are not going anywhere.
  2. MIL is entrepreneurial and creative. Problem: Middle- and high-school language program resources are on the decline. Solution: Create an alternative for intensive, pre-college language-learning using Middlebury’s experience. True, Internet-based learning does not help teachers keep jobs on the line. However, the fact remains that the U.S. is losing foreign language teachers to budget cuts: some substitute is needed. MIL is Midd’s answer. Plus, education experts agree that classroom tech is both necessary and helpful. Check out the stats on the software’s website and in the InsideHigherEd.com review for yourself.
  3. MIL really is aimed at solving this deficiency. The target audience is exclusively pre-college students who need language skills. It isn’t a tool for awkward middle-aged men trying to impress foreign supermodels, like the Rosetta Stone farm boy. It sounds like President President Liebowitz might even get it for his kids!
  • WHAT ABOUT THE LIFE-CONSUMING ‘PLEDGE’? Well, there won’t be one, it seems. But isn’t that why Middlebury language (summer schools, language tables, C.V. Starr Schools Abroad) work in the first place? Yes and no. The immersive, in-language, in-culture “Middlebury method” has literally a century of experience and success, yes, much of which is due to the Pledge (registered trademark). Though, as Middlebury Language Programs V.P. Michael Geisler says in the second video on this page, due to the College’s experience, the new programs “will be significantly more immersive than other programs” currently available. There will even be online clubs and 3-D simulators (boy, I wish that I’d had something like that to practice with, especially after my first attempts at dealing with “customer service” in Russia…). “Experience schmerience,” you say. As a Russian School alum, I can vouch that compared with other students coming to summer school with two years of Russian under their belts like me, my fellow Russian Department comrades and I consistently placed into higher levels than those from other colleges. Middlebury knows something about teaching language, outside of the pledge, too.
  • THEY KEEP SAYING ‘VENTURE’… This is a risk, like all investments. But, looking at the success of the MMLA for high-school students, Middlebury’s track-record in language instruction, and the promising partnership with K12 and its existing market, we have reason to expect some degree of success. Advertising Midd? Yup. Revolutionize language teaching? Maybe. Make some money? Seems so, too.

The announcement about MIL came in the same week as another e-mail message to students regarding recently purchased properties new housing options to expand student capacity (now listed on the Room Draw webpage). EDIT: The shifts in office and housing space on campus are to be funded through the newly created RRR (Reserve for Renewal and Replacement), a fund set apart for infrastructure updates in order to avoid depreciation on existing college properties.

Perhaps this signals a change of pace in the College’s financial outlook.

No doubt, we are still recovering from the losses of the crisis, with Juice Bar hours as the most recent addition to the list; though, with two long-range investments set in motion in the same week, Middlebury is (finally?) moving forward with confidence and a new product to sell.

(Now who’s with me crossing their fingers for free copies?!)

Mar 2

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Are you going to be in the yearbook?

This year’s edition of Middlebury’s yearbook Kaleidoscope is already in production, and the money for it spent. The only question at this point is, will your face be in it?

You can upload your face picture (and others) on the yearbook’s photo upload website using the login information sent to your email, or you can ask kaleidoscope@middlebury.edu.

Despite my personal skepticism of whether or not this yearly publication in its current form is right for Midd (see below), I’ve submitted my picture. Here’s a list of reasons that you might do the same…

  • POST-GRAD LOVE LIFE, PLAN B. Senior crush lists don’t always work. Maybe your Proctor crush is too alternative for Facebook. Adding your most flattering picture to the yearbook increases your chances–from zero to slightly higher-than-zero–that the lucky gal or guy will stumble across your face in just in time for your 5th reunion weekend….
  • Obama's yearbook pictureYOUR FACE (IN PRINT!). Yes, a bit vain, perhaps, but user-edited Web media completely takes the fun out of seeing oneself on the Internet. Who doesn’t get a little kick out of seeing your name or face in print?
  • RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE 2010s. If I had posted a picture of myself like the one to the right on FB, and then found out I was going to be U.S. president a few decades later, I probably would have untagged it or deleted it long before the fact. Having a concrete freeze-frame of your 2010 hairdo and granola Vermont style will force you to take a bit of ownership for the good ol’ days in front of your kids.
  • MAKING THE MOST OF IT. You don’t decide exactly how your tax dollars are spent, but you still benefit in some respect from the programs and security that they buy. Likewise, if you disagree with the yearbook, it will nonetheless be published in June with the label “Middlebury College 2009-2010.” If you were a part of that, it seems a waste of your student activities money not to be included.

What’s there to disagree about? Last March, MiddBlog posted on why Middlebury doesn’t need a yearbook. To recap the reasoning, still valid from its original posting a year ago:

  • Publishing a yearbook is expensive, especially as it’s provided “free” to seniors (they’ve paid into the student activities feed coffers for four years, and get a part of that back in the form of the book).
  • It isn’t a well-known part of Middlebury graduation tradition.
  • Documenting everything from an entire year at a busy place like Midd seems impossible.
  • Most of all, perhaps, Facebook and the Web partially replace the need for the extra 200 pages of photos sitting on your shelf 10, 25, 50 years from now. Ditching the yearbook for FB ruins the sentimental part of it, but on the upside would save a tree or two.

As much as I support participating in the current yearbook, I also think discussing the yearbook’s future should continue. It’s a large sum of money being spent, going towards a publication that many say (today) that they’re against.

MiddBlog wants to know. What’s your take? Is a Midd yearbook worth the money? Will you value a yearbook down the road, or is Facebook the answer? How should the idea of a yearbook adapt to the “social media age”? Does DePauw University have it right?

May 12

4 Comments

Budget Cut Analysis

Early this morning (2:10AM to be exact), President of the College Ron Liebowitz released the lastest in the budget cuts, accepting almost all of the recommendations of the Budget Oversight Committee (BOC). Below is a quick first-brush analysis of selected recommendations:

  1. Athletics: The big one for Athletics is letting the Crew team drop back down to a level 2 Club sport. Crew made level one several years ago meaning that many costs were paid for by the Athletics department. Now, that burden has been shifted back to the SGA Finance Committee and your own Student Activity Fee (SAF) dollars. Non-essential travel has also been eliminated for all teams, meaning it might be tougher to get to that spring break training trip or that extra scrimmage.
  2. Arts: The deepest cuts and consolidations this round were made to collective arts. The college museum will take a 10% budget cut, straight out. Well, at least the school didn’t sell off all its art. The biggest direct effect on students is the increase in price for music lessons from the applied music faculty. We’ll see if the Music Dept will continue subsidizing majors and other students who perform in the College Choir or Orchestra. But don’t expect students (who don’t otherwise charge it to their parents) to pick up the slack. Consolidating the box office and tech staff makes sense too.
  3. New England Review (NER): Not many students know what the NER actually is, but it will be going away entirely unless it can eliminate its current operating deficit by 2011. It’s a point of prestige for Middlebury to have its own journal but it’s for professors, not students.
  4. SGA: Assuming something came out of the SGA Crisis Contest, the three SGA recommendations ar: 1) reduce lawn care costs by cutting less, planting more natural grass, 2) develop a kitchenware loan program for residences with kitchens around campus, and 3) develop and then implement a flexible dining system. I am wary that the administration will take a SGA “recommendation” to have “flexible” dining as a blank check to implement a non-open dining system. I’ll be more clear: do not get rid of open dining. Even a “eat-as-much-as-you-want” meal plan misses the point. No checks at the door builds the system of trust at this school. And any tiered dining system requires money, time, staff etc. to check for cheaters of the system. Financially, checks may be less than the costs of freeloaders (“riding the panther”) but you must account for the social and community benefits of open dining. The kitchenware loan program is a genuinely good idea but again, requires a check to prevent students from taking dishware out of the dining hall at will, as it happens now.
  5. President’s House: If you’ve ever been invited to a reception or meal at the President’s house, you know it’s a nice place. But the BOC recommends a 50% cut in couse costs from catering to maintenance. Expect Ron to be doing more of his student gatherings in the new “flexible-mealplan” dining halls.

MiddBlog wants to know: What will affect you? Are these appropriate cuts?

May 7

The Campus 5/7

campus2In an effort to deepen MiddBlog’s coverage of campus issues, this is a recurring column that comments on selected Campus newspaper articles, published most Thursdays of the school year. This allows a place for the Middlebury community to comment, expand, and discuss important issues in a dynamic way.

This Week in (the last issue of) The Campus:

  • College puts pandemic plan on hold: As much as I love the description of the “Meeker Conference Room” emergency operations center (I imagine it’s like CTU on an episode of 24), this as a above-the-fold front page story is a little overblown. The new redish “wash your hands, cover your cough” signs around campus (one in every dorm bathroom) tell the whole story here.
  • Cuts to save College $20 million: In short, language school tuition goes up. Breadloaf fees up. The school will balance the 2010 budget but need to make even more cuts to get to 2011. You have to wait for the real hard hitting recommendations coming out within the week from the Budget Oversight Committee (BOC). It’ll be interesting to gauge reaction from students as they hit finals and leave campus for the summer.
  • Twitter takes College, classes by surprise: I am surprised that MiddBlog’s list of Middlebury twitterers (or tweeps) didn’t make the article (list yourself). But I digress. Overall, this article is a good introduction of Twitter at Midd.
  • Editorial: Man, we love College: I agree silence on the social life issue means that it has improved, but I would hesitate to attribute that to the superblock system. Students, responding to incentives, are applying to live in superblocks not based on any special interest but rather based on scoring good housing and a few extra dollars to throw parties that have nothing to do with the interest of the house. Adding another superblock worsens this problem. Yes, it’s true that Brooker, of the two superblocks this year, has done some good programming but overall, this system is furthering seperating out the types of Middkids: environmental, hipster, etc. Social houses have improved this year but I think it’s really the diversification of options with the final rollout of The Bunker and 51 Main that have made the difference. We now have the venues. Where does social life go from here?
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