<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail-asset-masthead" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:20px 0px 40px;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px"><h1 class="gmail-headline" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-size:42px;margin:0px 100px 0px 0px;font-family:inherit;font-weight:400;line-height:1.1;color:inherit"><span style="box-sizing:border-box">Declining enrollment leads the Middlebury Institute to soften its language requirements.</span></h1><div class="gmail-meta" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:20px;margin-right:100px"><span style="box-sizing:border-box"><ul class="gmail-list-inline" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:10px;padding-left:0px;list-style:none"><li style="box-sizing:border-box;display:inline-block;padding-left:5px;padding-right:5px"><span id="gmail-author-popup-e6f17cc2-451c-11e9-9a35-2fbe0796df8a-asset-7649b506-87f3-11e9-a4ad-ebc325a34d8a" class="gmail-tnt-byline gmail-asset-byline" rel="popover" title="" style="box-sizing:border-box"><a href="https://www.montereycountyweekly.com/users/profile/Asaf%20Shalev" style="box-sizing:border-box;background-color:transparent;color:rgb(73,129,206);text-decoration-line:none">Asaf Shalev</a></span></li> <li style="box-sizing:border-box;display:inline-block;padding-left:5px;padding-right:5px">7 hrs ago</li> <li class="gmail-hidden-print" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:inline-block;padding-left:5px;padding-right:5px"><a href="http://www.montereycountyweekly.com/news/local_news/declining-enrollment-leads-the-middlebury-institute-to-soften-its-language/article_7649b506-87f3-11e9-a4ad-ebc325a34d8a.html#comments" class="gmail-cm" title="0 comments" style="box-sizing:border-box;background-color:transparent;color:rgb(73,129,206);text-decoration-line:none"> <span class="gmail-count" style="box-sizing:border-box">0</span></a></li></ul></span></div><div class="gmail-share-container gmail-headline-right gmail-pull-right gmail-hidden-xs" style="box-sizing:border-box;float:right"><ul class="gmail-social-share-links gmail-hidden-print gmail-list-unstyled gmail-stacked gmail-icon" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:10px;padding-left:0px;list-style:none"><li class="gmail-social-share-link gmail-fb" style="box-sizing:border-box;opacity:0.8;margin-bottom:1px;max-height:2em"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.montereycountyweekly.com%2Fnews%2Flocal_news%2Fdeclining-enrollment-leads-the-middlebury-institute-to-soften-its-language%2Farticle_7649b506-87f3-11e9-a4ad-ebc325a34d8a.html%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dfacebook%26utm_campaign%3Duser-share" class="gmail-tnt-share-link gmail-fb" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow" title="Share on Facebook" style="box-sizing:border-box;background-color:transparent;color:inherit;text-decoration-line:none;display:block;white-space:nowrap"><span class="gmail-tnt-stack" title="" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:inline-block;height:2em;width:2em"></span><span class="gmail-sr-only" style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;height:1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0px;width:1px">Facebook</span></a></li><li class="gmail-social-share-link gmail-tw" style="box-sizing:border-box;opacity:0.8;margin-bottom:1px;max-height:2em"><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.montereycountyweekly.com%2Fnews%2Flocal_news%2Fdeclining-enrollment-leads-the-middlebury-institute-to-soften-its-language%2Farticle_7649b506-87f3-11e9-a4ad-ebc325a34d8a.html%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_campaign%3Duser-share&text=Declining%20enrollment%20leads%20the%20Middlebury%20Institute%20to%20soften%20its%20language%20requirements.&via=mcweekly" class="gmail-tnt-share-link gmail-tw" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow" title="Tweet" style="box-sizing:border-box;background-color:transparent;color:inherit;text-decoration-line:none;display:block;white-space:nowrap"><span class="gmail-tnt-stack" title="" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:inline-block;height:2em;width:2em"></span><span class="gmail-sr-only" style="box-sizing:border-box;border:0px;height:1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0px;width:1px">Twitter</span></a></li><li class="gmail-social-share-link em" style="box-sizing:border-box;opacity:0.8;margin-bottom:1px;max-height:2em"><a href="mailto:?subject=%5BMonterey%20County%20Weekly%5D%20Declining%20enrollment%20leads%20the%20Middlebury%20Institute%20to%20soften%20its%20language%20requirements.&body=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.montereycountyweekly.com%2Fnews%2Flocal_news%2Fdeclining-enrollment-leads-the-middlebury-institute-to-soften-its-language%2Farticle_7649b506-87f3-11e9-a4ad-ebc325a34d8a.html%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Demail%26utm_campaign%3Duser-share" class="gmail-tnt-share-link em email-share-link" title="Email" rel="nofollow" style="box-sizing:border-box;background-color:transparent;color:inherit;text-decoration-line:none;display:block"><span class="gmail-tnt-stack" title="" style="box-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t of the mandatory curriculum for all students.</p><div id="gmail-tncms-region-article_instory_top" class="gmail-tncms-region gmail-hidden-print" style="box-sizing:border-box"><div id="gmail-tncms-block-606881" class="gmail-tncms-block gmail-hidden-xs" style="box-sizing:border-box"><div class="gmail-tnt-ads-container gmail-text-center" style="box-sizing:border-box;min-height:1px;text-align:center"><div id="gmail-ad-606881" class="gmail-tnt-ads gmail-dfp-ad" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px auto 40px;min-height:125px;min-width:300px"><div id="gmail-google_ads_iframe_/1040459/Ranch-03_0__container__" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px auto;border:0pt none"></div></div></div></div></div><p dir="ltr" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 24px;color:rgb(68,68,68);font-size:16px;line-height:27px">The reason given for the change was that declining enrollment led to “an intractable deficit situation.”</p><p dir="ltr" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 24px;color:rgb(68,68,68);font-size:16px;line-height:27px">“We are ‘boxing out’ large segments of our potential student market by appealing solely to students who have or desire to attain high-level language proficiency during their graduate studies,” the policy announcement said.</p><p dir="ltr" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 24px;color:rgb(68,68,68);font-size:16px;line-height:27px">Each individual degree program would be allowed to uphold the traditional language requirements, and the opportunity to study language would be guaranteed to every student. Supporters say the change will allow better use of dwindling resources and an increased focus on advanced language instruction.</p><p dir="ltr" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 24px;color:rgb(68,68,68);font-size:16px;line-height:27px">A day after the announcement, the administration at MIIS rolled out another policy, this time around “workforce planning.” Before implementing layoffs, the institute would offer voluntary separation packages with the goal of reducing its spending on faculty and staff salaries by $2.5 million. The combined salary cuts at MIIS and its parent entity, Middlebury College, would total $8 million. The announcement came less than a year after outcry about the level compensation for top executives. At the time, the college’s student newspaper ran headlines like “Executive Pay at Middlebury Is Out of Control” and “Faculty Demand Answers on Executive Pay.”</p><p dir="ltr" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 24px;color:rgb(68,68,68);font-size:16px;line-height:27px">Morale plummeted. MIIS’ chief diversity officer, Pushpa Iyer, gave voice to the feeling on campus in her newsletter, titled “The Black Mirror.” (The title was not meant as a reference to the dystopian science fiction series, a MIIS spokesperson says.)</p><p dir="ltr" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 24px;color:rgb(68,68,68);font-size:16px;line-height:27px">“I am struggling to write a note that encapsulates the general mood on campus,” Iyer wrote in March. “I am not sure it is even possible to do justice in a few words to almost a year of uncertainty, turmoil, and collective grief.”</p><p dir="ltr" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 24px;color:rgb(68,68,68);font-size:16px;line-height:27px">Almost no MIIS faculty agreed to speak to the Weekly on the record, but Vicki Porras, who taught business and environmental studies in Spanish at MIIS for 15 years and retired in 2014, says, “All of my former colleagues have been devastated by job insecurity.”</p><div id="gmail-tncms-region-article_instory_middle" class="gmail-tncms-region gmail-hidden-print" style="box-sizing:border-box"></div><p dir="ltr" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 24px;color:rgb(68,68,68);font-size:16px;line-height:27px">She is also concerned the new policy will erode the identity of the school. “Monterey is the language capital of the world. Many students came here for that.”</p><p dir="ltr" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 24px;color:rgb(68,68,68);font-size:16px;line-height:27px">Indeed, former Congressman Sam Farr, who once studied at MIIS, wrote in the MontereyHerald in 2017 that the language requirement was one of the factors that led to a 1995 proclamation by former Gov. Pete Wilson designating Monterey as the Language Capital of the World.</p><p dir="ltr" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 24px;color:rgb(68,68,68);font-size:16px;line-height:27px">Learning of the change, Farr says, however, that the new language requirement policy is an appropriate way for the school to broaden its appeal. “You have to adapt to the times,” he says. “I doubt [the change] will hurt MIIS.”</p><p dir="ltr" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 24px;color:rgb(68,68,68);font-size:16px;line-height:27px">Enrollment at MIIS dropped from 683 full-time students in the 2016-17 academic year to 583 this year, a roughly 15-percent decline. The good news is that the downward trend appears to have stopped. Dean Jeff Dayton-Johnson says the school is forecasting higher enrollment this year than last year: “I am guardedly optimistic.”</p><p dir="ltr" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px 0px 24px;color:rgb(68,68,68);font-size:16px;line-height:27px">Dayton-Johnson, who is responsible for the decision to change the language requirement, says the new policy is a “big change for us.” He acknowledges the reputational risk but says that MIIS remains committed to language instruction: “We still want to be the destination for language nerds.”</p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies                     <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone:  (215) 898-7475<br>Fax:  (215) 573-2138                                      <br><br>Email:  <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a>    <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div></div>