Middlebury College is currently striving to put into practice the vision expressed by the administration in its statement of 1994. It pledges to make Middlebury, "Nothing less than the college of choice for the very strongest students--the college of choice." To do this, we have to be able to appeal to the best and the brightest of all students, and we should remember that at least half of those will be young women. The College's 'vision statement,' as it is known, states that by 2004, "we should be competing successfully for students against those schools with whom we now have the greatest overlap of applicants and acceptances and the least success in competing for matriculants. In 1994, those institutions were Amherst, Williams, Dartmouth and Princeton." All of these are former all-male schools, and have had varying degrees of success in integrating women into their institutions. In competing successfully with them, one of our greatest drawing cards could and should be that our long tradition of coeducation makes Middlebury a particularly comfortable environment for women. In order to capitalize on this important selling point, we first have to be sure it is true. If we find that we have not yet reached our goal, we must make the necessary adjustments.
The report which follows has one precedent. A Committee on Attitudes Towards Gender was appointed by President Olin Robison in the Fall of 1988, "to review the status of women and, to study more broadly, the status of gender on campus." Faculty, staff and students undertook an exhaustive eighteen month examination of these issues, and produced a report that was enlightening, controversial and thought-provoking. Through the use of questionnaires, the Committee sought to assess the status of women and men at the College and to educate the campus about the gender biases in our midst. The Report of the Special Committee on Attitudes toward Gender issued its findings in March 1990, concluding with a series of recommendations to help the College to redress some of the more glaring omissions and inequities that had been identified. President Robison was supportive of its role, "as the basis for discussion and action" on campus.
The original 'Gender Report,' as it came to be called, was undertaken in the aftermath of an incident in which a mutilated female mannequin was hanged from the front of a fraternity house during a party at the close of the 1987-88 school year. The event was a major turning point for the College, for it made it difficult to ignore that a campus culture had developed that was too often lacking in maturity, sensitivity and respect toward the female half of our community. The Gender Report represented the College's first courageous attempt at self-evaluation on these issues, and as such it was a watershed in our institutional history.
As we approach the 200th Anniversary of the College's founding, it seems an appropriate time to evaluate how women are faring at Middlebury College. For this reason, the Student Affairs Committee of the Board of Trustees asked that a task force be set up to review our progress since 1989-90 and to make new recommendations regarding women's issues at Middlebury. A committee composed of students (chosen in consultation with the SGA), faculty and staff began meeting in the winter of 1995-96 to assess our progress. We hope that our report will stimulate campus-wide discussion and action to keep us moving forward in these areas of concern.
Continue to Page Two: Women in Authority
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