Middlebury Handbook

B.1. Academic Policies

Middlebury’s model of immersive learning for the undergraduate degree is grounded in a common experience of full-time, residential, in-person academic study, completed over the course of four years and eight consecutive semesters and four winter terms.   In keeping with a liberal arts and sciences philosophy, Middlebury college students are expected to be fully engaged members of an intellectual community, exploring a range of disciplines through our distribution requirements, and making connections among them.  Our liberal arts foundation emboldens students to engage in difficult discussions with respect, appreciate difference, commonality, and connectedness across and within cultures and societies around the world, helping Middlebury realize its vision of a robust and inclusive public sphere.  The curriculum is designed in such a way that all students carry a similar course load, rigorously engage a field of study (or major), and make continuous, dedicated progress toward the degree (in accordance with Middlebury’s academic policies and expectations).

Students are expected to be active participants in their education; Middlebury prizes the development of advanced cognitive skills that are applied practically and ethically, such as thinking critically and creatively, working independently without unfair aid, as well as collaborating effectively, and using acquired knowledge to solve new problems. Middlebury students are also expected to learn, and practice, communicating in multiple modalities over their four years including giving formal and informal classroom presentations, participating in class discussions, through writing, audio, video, and artistic methods.  Students should matriculate to Middlebury able to manage competing obligations, and complete work in a timely fashion or be committed to gaining these skills in their first year at Middlebury.  This will allow them to take full advantage of our curriculum and to strengthen their ability to live engaged, creative and consequential lives, contributing to their communities and addressing the world’s most challenging problems.

We expect students to cultivate uncompromising intellectual integrity and the capacity for ethical citizenship. By virtue of their enrollment at Middlebury, students assume responsibility for engaging fully and primarily in their academic pursuits, not only by attending classes and participating, but also by complying with all academic policies.  Students are responsible for reading communications sent by Middlebury College academic offices, and for taking the initiative to ask for clarification when needed. Ignorance of or disagreement with academic regulations is not a basis for an exception to them.   Students are required to meet Middlebury College and course deadlines to ensure that they progress successfully toward the completion of their major requirements and earn their bachelor’s degree and may not carry incomplete courses past the “Add period” of a subsequent term.

Students unsure of, or contemplating requests for exceptions to, Middlebury’s academic policies, should proactively discuss their situation with their class dean, and/or appropriate offices. 

Students with disabilities may, of course, request reasonable academic accommodations, consistent with the ADA, including modifications to Middlebury policies, rules, and regulations through the Disability Resource Center (DRC).  (Individual faculty members do not approve disability accommodations, although they may help implement them.)  The DRC may approve a range of common ADA accommodations that are necessary to ensure a student’s ability to access the educational content, experiences, etc. without altering the fundamental requirements of a course as determined by the faculty.   Some exceptional modifications of academic policies or practices are only authorized through a petition the Administration Committee or, with the approval of the Dean of Curriculum or their designee.

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