www.montereycountynow.com SEPTEMBER 4-10, 2025 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 17 The college and university system is sometimes derisively described as an Ivory Tower, a place where elitists gather to come up with esoteric ideas from on high, disassociated from the real world. Certainly there are examples of this, although I’d argue that it’s worthwhile for everyone to learn how to write clearly or critically read a poem, just as much as to learn financial literacy or how to change a tire. But my take aside, MIIS has never been that kind of institution. It’s been a graduate school where people—many of them dreamers with grand goals like world peace, sure—come to earn graduate degrees in practical fields like translation and interpretation, counterterrorism and cybersecurity. Many of them come from abroad (currently 44 countries); many of them go far afield in pursuit of grandiose goals, but many stay in Monterey County. I don’t know how I could begin to measure the impact of MIIS in Monterey County—it’s the kind of study that a local agency might contract MIIS faculty and students to produce. All I know is that it’s significant, in tangible and intangible ways. So the news, delivered in person on campus by Middlebury College President Ian Baucom on Thursday, Aug. 28, that the board voted the day before to close the institution, is a blow to Monterey. Of course it is crushing personally to the 63 staff and 61 faculty members (a total of 125) whose careers are disrupted. (A later meeting with HR officials informed staff that 15 of them will be out of work on Jan. 1, and others will be phased out after that.) For our community, it means the end of Monterey as a draw for world-class thinkers in their fields. Monterey Mayor Tyller Williamson says it’s too soon to know what the economic impact to downtown will be, “but I’m sure it will create some level of discomfort for some of the businesses.” But that’s all looking ahead. Looking back, I have heard from current and former MIIS employees that the institution never quite got on the right track after a fork in the road 20 years ago. What was originally the Monterey Institute of International Studies kept its acronym but became the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey in 2015, a decade after the Vermont college first made moves to take over MIIS. “The cultures clashed,” a longtime former staffer tells me. “MIIS was always small and nimble and scrappy. Midd is a large 3,000-student campus in rural Vermont; MIIS is a 700-student graduate school in semi-urban coastal California.” Some felt like it was never a fit. Not to mention that giving over decision-making authority to a board based 3,000 miles away, with no skin in the local game, makes it easy to account for what is best for Middlebury College’s bottom line, not for the local community. (For more on Baucom’s thinking, read a news story by David Schmalz on p. 15.) Middlebury officials plan to close down degree programs by June 2027, so currently enrolled students can graduate. The James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, which Baucom described as “self-sustaining,” will remain. It’s too soon to know exactly what the real fate of all of MIIS’ programs will be; some may find other institutions to claim them. There is a need. The Switzerland-based International Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC) issued a statement saying, “For decades, MIIS was the quintessential conference interpreting training in the United States, and in recent years, it had also become the last comprehensive conference program. This is part of a larger program affecting conference interpreting globally, but with its own national undertones. “With this decision, there will be no conference interpreter training in the entire U.S.…given the gravity of the situation, we urge the MIIS president and board of trustees to reassess.” The forces that the AIIC alludes to—the national undertones in the MAGA era—make it harder for international faculty and students to come to MIIS at present. But they are exactly the forces that places like MIIS exist to counteract—scholars trained in not just fighting against an enemy, but understanding an enemy across the planet. It’s the kind of institution of learning we need more of, not less of, in times like these. Sara Rubin is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at sara@montereycountynow.com or follow her at @sarahayleyrubin.bsky.social. Institutional Memory Middlebury announces the end of MIIS, a devastating blow to Monterey. By Sara Rubin PARTY ON…Squid’s attended many drag-themed events over the years, and has always found them to be welcoming. Despite the naysayers, drag is a form of art that can be entertaining for all ages. Unfortunately, those in power have a history of making uneducated decisions based on hearsay or their own personal biases. That seemed to be the case in the fledgling City of Marina, when early city leaders, looking to regulate adult businesses, lumped drag performers in a section of its municipal code that includes descriptions of “human male genitals in a discernibly turgid state.” It essentially banned drag shows in the city without a permit. At the end of Pride Month, Councilmember Brian McCarthy requested the city remove the words “male and female impersonators” from the code’s definition of “adult cabaret”—“The policy is outdated, discriminatory, unnecessary and unfairly targets a form of artistic gender expression that is protected by the First Amendment,” he said. The Planning Commission recommended the change, and the council is expected to sign off on Sept. 16. Squid is glad to see the city slowly getting with the times. Squid can’t wait to party with the queens in Marina, whether turgid or gelatinous—all such creatures are welcome in the sea. PAPERED OVER…Squid always enjoys sea snail mail, partly because it’s slow. Send a letter to Flapjack the Octopus, and it might take a couple of weeks to arrive. So Squid was stunned when the mailbox started filling up immediately after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a package of bills, collectively called the Election Rigging Response Act, on Aug. 21. Opponents were ready to go with mailers paid for by PACs Right Path California and Hold Politicians Accountable. The former featured what looks to Squid like an AI-generated illustration of a left hand (ha) drawing blue lines on California’s map, next to a broken red pencil. The implication is that Democrats are to blame for this gerrymandering mess, but it all started with President Donald Trump telling Texas lawmakers to gerrymander their state to secure a Republican majority in Congress. California’s rebuttal is a special election that goes to voters on Nov. 4, with a chance to approve a map that would all but ensure a Democratic majority neutralizing the Texas plan. Another opposition mailer quotes the president of the League of Women Voters of California—implying the organization is part of the opposition, while in fact it is neutral on Prop. 50. “Election integrity begins with an informed electorate,” the League’s Monterey County chapter president Tama Olver wrote in response. That’s true not just when it comes to the ballot itself, but all the glossy snail mail. THE LOCAL SPIN SQUID FRY THE MISSION OF MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY IS TO INSPIRE INDEPENDENT THINKING AND CONSCIOUS ACTION, ETC. “We urge the MIIS board of trustees to reassess.” SEND SQUID A TIP: squid@montereycountynow.com
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