MIDDLEBURY — In its ongoing efforts to improve its financial footing, Middlebury College officials on Thursday announced the institution will conclude residential graduate programs and certain online degree programs at its graduate school in Monterey, Calif.

In an Aug. 28 message to the college community, Middlebury President Ian B. Baucom said in a letter and video that those programs and operations at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (known as MIIS) would be wrapped up over the next two years. The Middlebury College Board of Trustees approved Baucom’s recommendation to do so at a special meeting on Aug. 27, the letter states.

Executive Vice President and Provost Michelle McCauley and Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration David Provost were also signed onto the message.

“I and my senior leadership team made this recommendation after careful deliberation, and the board did not come to this decision lightly,” Baucom wrote. “After consideration of multiple options, we concluded that to continue operations in their current state — as in-person graduate programs — is no longer feasible. To be clear, this was a financial decision and not a reflection on the quality of our programs or our outstanding Monterey colleagues, whose work is far reaching and significant.”

Divesting from MIIS is a move Middlebury College faculty and students have urged administrators to take, including this past spring after administrators announced compensation cuts and other steps the institution would take as part of an effort to balance its budget.

In May, college faculty passed a Sense of the Faculty Motion asking college officials to begin a comprehensive restructuring of MIIS and close the campus within three years. College students and faculty have pointed to losses the institution has experienced since it acquired MIIS over a decade ago.

Baucom acknowledged those losses in his letter, noting that college officials made “significant commitments to establish new and innovative programs and launched a major marketing effort to support MIIS’s academic programs” after 15 years of fluctuating enrollments and applications at MIIS.

“Despite these measures, MIIS experienced a steep decline in enrollments and applications following the pandemic,” he wrote. “Unfortunately, this is consistent with national trends for residential graduate programs. This has left MIIS’s programs operating with significant deficits for the last several years.”

He noted conversations about financial sustainability have gone on throughout the institution’s relationship with MIIS, formalized through a merger in 2010.

“The Board of Trustees and the Middlebury leadership have considered the future of MIIS’s academic programs many times and did so again last year, when they approved a four-year business plan to address the financial challenges, dependent on realizing key annual benchmarks, which have not been realized,” he wrote. “Ultimately, the decision to discontinue enrollment and end MIIS’s programs and operations over the next two years was the only financially viable option.”

The Middlebury Campus student newspaper reported the MIIS enrollments has steadily declined and is now 440, “less than half of Middlebury’s original target of 850 full-time students.” The Campus quoted a faculty motion passed in May that chalked up MIIS as responsible for “more than $25 million” per year on the college’s operating losses.

The college’s Thursday announcement will end the master’s degree programs and operations based in Monterey, as well as discontinue the online International Education Management and TESOL degree programs. Other online degree programs are not affected by the decision.

The Board of Trustees on Aug. 27 also affirmed recommendations continue to house summer programs held in Monterey at that campus at least for 2026. The institution’s James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS), based in Monterey, will also continue to operate there and in other locations.

Baucom outlined next steps for the process, which included meetings with MIIS faculty, staff and students. The letter also pointed to a series of Frequently Asked Questions with more information.

Baucom said college officials would provide further updates throughout the process and upcoming fall semester.

“We know that all of this is difficult news to hear, and that it will take some time to process these changes in our community,” he wrote. “It bears repeating that this was absolutely a financial decision and not a reflection on the quality of our programs or our exceptional faculty and staff.”