“The solution is always the same: cut benefits, introduce salary caps, raise premiums, freeze positions, ask fewer people to do more work,” said Terry Simpkins, director of Discovery & Access Services for the college’s library. “Every time this college faces a financial crisis, whether it is due to external factors like the pandemic or the 2008 recession…or to bad decisions by the board and senior leadership past and present, every problem is solved on the backs of staff.”

FACULTY PUSH BACK

Thursday’s protest followed other efforts by Middlebury faculty over the past month to push back against the changes in employee benefits announced last month.

College officials in April provided context on the deficit and an update on progress made with the budget gap, as well as outlined five measures the institution will take as the start of its “plan for financial viability.” The new steps are aimed at helping bring expenses in line with revenues and expected to achieve over $10 million in savings.

Those measures consisted of offering a retirement incentive for staff in Vermont; reducing rental properties; growing undergraduate enrollment; evaluating health insurance options; and capping the college’s retirement match at 11%.

Like many employers, the college matches employee contributions into the retirement savings up to a certain level. Starting next January, the highest the college contribution will be an 11% match for retirement, down from a top level of 15%, the letter states.

Middlebury College is the largest employer in Addison County. The institution has around 2,000 employees, including faculty and staff, as well as another 5,000 part-time, short-term student employees and adjunct, according to Associate Vice President for Public Affairs Julia Ferrante.

The college’s Faculty Council and Middlebury’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors last month cosponsored a Sense of the Faculty Motion demanding college officials reverse the compensation cuts and enrollment increase announced April 2, The Middlebury Campus reported.

A reported 94% of around 200 faculty members at an April 18 plenary faculty meeting voted to pass the motion, according to The Campus.

Twelve senior members of the Middlebury College Economics Department have also started a petition to preserve faculty and staff benefits, which had garnered around 800 signatures as of Thursday morning.

Middlebury Economics Professor Tanya Byker and student Cole Siefer

In an April 17 opinion piece in The Campus, the group pledged not to participate in college-wide events (including commencement) “until the decision has been reversed or a plan to mitigate the damage has been implemented.”

On Thursday, several speakers criticized recent remarks made by incoming Middlebury College President Ian Baucom, who last month voiced his support for the new measures at a reception at the Monterey, Calif., campus of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies and in a subsequent letter sent to the college community.

Josh Harkins and Freddi Mitchell

STUDENTS, STAFF SPEAK OUT

Multiple speakers referenced the graduate school at Monterey in their speeches, pointing to losses Middlebury College has experienced since it acquired MIIS more than a decade ago. College officials have stated that MIIS has a projected deficit of $8.7 million but noted that the college and the institution’s other schools would still face an anticipated deficit of between $11-$13 million next year without MIIS.

“As two students studying international politics and economics, we don’t want to be pushed to a master’s program at Monterey just to save an institution that has been failing from the start,” said Freddi Mitchell, one of two college seniors who spoke at the event.

Others pointed to how compensation cuts will affect college employees.

“Any plumber, electrician or HVAC tech on campus took at least a 15-20% less in wage when they came here,” one staff member wrote in a statement read by Associate Professor of Economics Tanya Byker. “None of these men make wages that they could have made if they worked outside the college. They were definitely here for the benefits package. The lost 4% hurts, especially when we are anticipating a rise in insurance costs this coming November.”

College officials in the April 2 letter said they are evaluating health insurance plans, employee contributions and deductibles and plan designs and comparing them to benefits at peer institutions.

Audiovisual Technical Director Ethan Murphy also spoke of the compensation cuts.

“I’m speaking for myself because this impacts me and my family directly and represents a significant loss of income,” he said. “I’m also speaking for all Middlebury College employees because this decision sets a precedent.”

Speakers also deplored administrators’ decision to increase undergraduate enrollment to between 2,600 and 2,650 in the coming years.

Jason Mittell is a professor of Film & Media Culture and serves on the Faculty Council at Middlebury College. He said college officials had as recently as February expressed an intention to bring enrollment back down to its previous target of 2,500 before changing course.

“They’re taking advantage of that, that the paying customers they see you as have been here for four years and that you have never known 2,500,” he said.

A couple of speakers acknowledged that the announced budget cuts come at a challenging time for higher education in the country. Several actions taken by President Donald Trump in recent months have targeted colleges and universities, from the federal funding they receive to diversity initiatives on campuses.

“If the administration can unilaterally impose its will on the most senior members of its community, what does that say about its commitment to its most vulnerable,” asked Cynthia Gao, an instructor in the college’s Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies Department.

Professor David Miranda Hardy

College officials issued the following statement after Thursday’s protest:

“We value the perspectives of all of our faculty, staff, and students and are actively engaged in conversations with our constituents across Middlebury,” they wrote. “We first communicated with our community about our structural deficit and related cost-saving measures in early April and have continued the conversations and provided updates since that time.”

At the end of Thursday’s protest, college employees symbolically delivered the latest faculty motion and the recent petition to Executive Vice President and Provost Michelle McCauley, who has at the event. She was one of three college officials who signed onto the April 2 letter.

Faculty were expected to weigh in on a motion related to MIIS at a meeting on this coming Tuesday, May 13.

This story will be updated.