Middlebury College
EN-13: Community Stakeholder Engagement

A committee consisting of the Special Assistant to the President, Associate Vice President for Operations, Assistant Treasurer and DBS, and others as appropriate to the topic, work regularly with various parts of the Town of Middlebury municipal government including the Planning Commission, Selectboard, Economic and Business Development, Public Works, and Public Safety. The College also appoints a staff member to serve on the board of directors of the Addison County Transit Resource and meets regularly with their staff to adjust routes, do outreach to students, faculty and staff re: riding the bus. Other departmental staff work closely with various other stakeholders (see list below) on an "as needed" basis

For Town engagement a committee meets two times per year with the Planning Commission for the Town of Middlebury. The agenda is to understand the impact of the College on the town and to identify collaborative projects that can address town or college issues, or issues of shared concern. The other stakeholders listed below are groups that the College has identified over the course of years of engaging with the greater Middlebury community as key stakeholders. Various departments take the lead in connecting with various groups and maintaining communication with them and in bringing issues and opportunities of mutual concern for decisionmaking at the appropriate level of the college and usually in consultation with the Special Assistant to the President who is responsible for community engagement.

Government: Town of Middelbury (Selectboard, Planning, Public Works, Economic and Business Development, Parks and Recreation Dept, Public Safety, Energy Committee) Addison County Regional Planning Commission Addison County Transit Resources NGO: Porter Hospital Middlebury Area Land Trust Addison County Chamber of Commerce Addison County Economic Development Agency Trail Around Middlebury Middlebury Regional EMS Better Middlebury Partnership (Downtown Events) Addison County Relocalization Network Middlebury Rotary Helping Overcome Poverty's Effects United Way of Addison County Education: Cornwall School Weybridge School Ripton School Middlebury Union Middle and High School Mary Hogan Elementary School Hannaford Technical Career Center Salisbury School Orwell School

The most significant outcome of the past three years was successfully navigating a contentious proposal involving the Town and the College and the voters to swap and purchase land, move buildings, and build a new Town Municipal Center and commercial space. This process had heavy public involvement of many stakeholder groups with views in support or opposition to the project. It required a lot of participation from the College working with the Town and various stakeholders to explain the College's position and willingness to contribute the the cost of the project, what land would be swapped, and mitigating perceived impacts to make the project work. The town did vote favorably on the final version of the proposal and the project is underway.