College Street
Observed
»Mathematics professor Stephen Abbott was awarded the 2010 Perkins Award for Excellence in Teaching, a College honor presented annually to faculty in the fields of mathematics or the sciences. Abbott is recognized for exploring the intersection of math and the humanities in the liberal arts; in his nomination packet this year, one student referred to him as “the maestro.”
» Twenty-one Middlebury graduates are currently volunteering in the Peace Corps, the service organization announced in February. That figure places the College third among the nation’s “small schools.”
» Middlebury launched its revamped Web site in February to great fanfare (and a little bit of grumbling). Designed by the Oakland, California-based company White Whale Web Services, the new site was conceived and constructed over the course of 18 months and involved the work of more than 300 people at the College.
» Shirley Ramirez is returning to Middlebury. From January 2007 until December 2008, Ramirez served as dean for institutional diversity and then as vice president for institutional planning and diversity at Middlebury before leaving for an administrative opportunity at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. She returns to Vermont on July 1, when she will become the dean of the College and Middlebury’s chief diversity officer.
» At its February meeting, Middlebury’s Board of Trustees endorsed President Ron Liebowitz’s proposal to limit comprehensive fee increases at the College to no more than one percent above the consumer price index. The “CPI+1” idea generated a fair amount of media attention, including coverage in the New York Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Inside Higher Ed. For context, last year’s comprehensive fee was 3.2 percent above the previous year, representing the lowest annual increase in nearly 40 years. And this was in a year when the CPI was nearly flat (at .1 percent), meaning that even this historically modest increase was 3.1 percent above the CPI. The new policy will go into effect immediately.
» Men’s swimmer John Dillon made quite a splash at the 2010 NCAA championships in early March. The junior captured a pair of national titles—in the 100 and 200 butterfly—while shattering school and NESCAC records (and, in the case of the 200 event, a national record, as well). Dillon was named the male swimmer of the meet in pacing the team to a seventh-place finish, its highest posting in more than a decade. The Middlebury women had a strong showing as well, finishing 18th in a field of 51 teams.
