www.montereycountynow.com JULY 24-30, 2025 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 13 On July 1, his first day on the job, Middlebury College President Ian Baucom shared a video message of “greeting and gratitude” with the campus community. He spoke about the students, the faculty, the magic of a residential liberal arts college. “You’ve helped me see a Middlebury whose history and whose values have prepared us to meet the shifting currents and possibilities of this complex moment,” he said. “That fills me with optimism for our future.” He also acknowledged some existential challenges. “This truly is a complex moment, for Middlebury and all of higher education,” Baucom said. He praised a culture of asking questions. And he posed big questions about the future of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. Baucom listed MIIS and other Middlebury institutions (Bread Loaf Writers Conference, the Collaborative in Conflict Transformation)—and raised the question of their future. “It’s my preliminary sense that we haven’t yet fully articulated how all those parts fit together,” Baucom said. “I’d like us to take the opportunity to do so, to identify what kind of institution we are and aspire to be: so our whole can be more than the sum of its parts, and so those parts can work better together toward a common end. “We cannot, however, do so without definitively resolving the future of MIIS and its range of academic programs. That question has been left open for too long. It is time to answer it, and we will, within my first year as president if not sooner. Whatever the answer on MIIS, we must continue to be a Middlebury for the world, an institution for students, faculty, languages, and ideas from around the globe. That commitment has long defined us. In a time when many nations—ours included—are turning inward, that resolute openness to the world must remain defining of what we are for.” Middlebury, based in Vermont, took over MIIS in 2005. Governance changes over the next decade included a name change to Middlebury Institute. The graduate school’s degree programs focus on global leadership, with master’s in subjects like Interpretation for Diplomats and Executives, Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies, and Global Governance and Policy. MIIS administrators said they are not granting interviews on this topic. But the dialogue before Baucom’s post has been playing out in a student publication, The Middlebury Campus. According to a news story published on May 8, over 300 faculty and students in Vermont walked out of class for a rally against Middlebury budget cuts. They called for a reversal on cuts to staff retirement benefits, and for Middlebury to disassociate from MIIS, among other things. According to the story, MIIS contributes $8.7 million to Middlebury’s deficit. A group of four MIIS professors rebutted with a letter to the editor, disputing those facts. “Any perception that MIIS has been protected from austerity measures is false; instead, we have been asked repeatedly to tighten our belts,” they wrote. MIISing Out Middlebury’s new president raises questions about the future of MIIS in Monterey. By Sara Rubin Flags from around the world adorn the campus of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, representing its diverse student body, with 526 students from 44 countries. NEWS “We cannot do so without resolving the future of MIIS.” DANIEL DREIFUSS
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