Middlebury Establishes Collegiate “Commons” System
Posted by R. J. O’Hara for the Collegiate Way
11 June 2001 (collegiateway.org) — Middlebury College in Vermont is one of the leading liberal arts colleges in the United States. (In the United States the term “liberal arts college” refers to a school that is usually smaller than a university and that offers only the B.A. degree based on a broad curriculum.) One of great advantages of a liberal arts college is its small size, which allows students to receive a great deal of personal attention. Many American liberal arts colleges are not as small as they once were, however. Middlebury now has more than 2000 students, for example, and other liberal arts colleges have grown even larger. I’m pleased to report that Middlebury College, in an effort to restore the very small college atmosphere that liberal arts colleges originally had, has established a system of five residential colleges within itself called Commons. These colleges within the college have been in development for some time, and the first decentralized dining hall is now under construction. You can find out more about Middlebury’s pioneering work among liberal arts colleges by visiting the Middlebury website listed in the Collegiate Way’s directory of Residential Colleges Worldwide.
