<p>I was under the impression that Middlebury was launching a new website at the first of the year. Any idea what has happened to that? Seems to me that particular deadline has come and gone.</p>
<p>I heard it was pushed back to the first week of February.</p>
<p>awww… I have found that since this overhaul went into action updates to academic content online is dated and dept pages etc aren’t being updated. I assume this is because they would be working on new and thus updated content for the new web site. And perhaps the commons’ as well? Just seems like the holes are growing and too, with cuts and other belt-tightening measures, it would be nice to either see a more recent reflection of things - activities, research, etc. </p>
<p>The thing about changing a deadline or pushing it back, it all amounts to the same thing. A missed deadline. Maybe I am just a stickler for deadlines, but I believe strongly in them. Miss the deadline? You lose. As someone’s whose short life in Marketing required pretty harsh deadlines, if you missed when you had copy, to art to… well, it screws up everyone’s life. AND if you had to miss a deadline, there were even greater expectations for whatever it was you were working on! Too much pressure for me so I always tried to make deadline. I learned to be less of a perfectionist, but it did teach me to be more respectful of other people’s time. And now I also have to admit that I am a tad bothered by kids applying to colleges and not having made the time to take the concept of deadlines seriously. Even in my day when applying to colleges was relatively easy despite it all being handwritten and mailed by real mail :), you had to have your application postmarked by the deadline or forget it. Now I am not sure the world looks at deadlines as deadlines or is it just academia?</p>
<p>My… that was a ramble. :)</p>
<p>I think the delay stems from White Whale’s (the web site developers) group consensus approach to developing the new site. They posted several mock ups and received hundreds of comments, many of which were negative and most of which were contradictory. They’ve worked hard to try to please a demanding administration and an incredibly vocal group of alums (spanning many generations) and current students. It’s a tough job. I think many schools would just unveil the new web site without much input from students and alums, but Middlebury seems to be all about transparency and openness these days. Which can be both a good thing and a bad thing. The end result—delays.</p>
<p>I agree about the transparency thing, but a website isn’t static. I recall during one of Liebowitz’s talks he has said that if he’s making even half of his constituents happy he’s doing a pretty admirable job. I guess as a parent who is trying to really step back and let the kid spread his wings, the website gives me some measure of connection to where my son is making his life, an idea of what HIS opportunities might be (and not those of students in 2006). So I read the student paper (that’s been on hiatus since winter break) and peruse the news of he website on a fairly regular basis. </p>
<p>And I admit… I want to see the pictures on the new website. It is such an unbelievably beautiful school with, what seems to me, a truly engaged student body that I think looking to make everyone happy by holding off debut of a website is a tad shortsighted for those looking to get excited about the school today (let alone this past admission cycle).</p>
<p>Agreed. I’m eagerly anticipating the new images as well. I get excited every autumn when I get the calendar, and every season when the new Midd Mag arrives. </p>
<p>In the meantime, you can feast on this:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.middlebury.edu/middcms/Render/Tools/GetImage.aspx?guid={17415C71-8B15-47FC-988E-87AA3F2CB357}[/url]”>http://www.middlebury.edu/middcms/Render/Tools/GetImage.aspx?guid={17415C71-8B15-47FC-988E-87AA3F2CB357}</a></p>
<p>and this:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.albanyaerialphotos.com/Middlebury-4.jpg[/url]”>http://www.albanyaerialphotos.com/Middlebury-4.jpg</a></p>
![http://www.albanyaerialphotos.com/Middlebury-4.jpg[/url]](http://www.albanyaerialphotos.com/Middlebury-4.jpg%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
<p>Ha ha Arcadia, that first one is my laptop wallpaper. Love it. Thanks for the new one.</p>
<p>I find Middblog to be really useful. A website can be a powerful statement and I can see why they want to get it right.</p>
<p>Middblog is great… but I am over the bridge (i.e. no new blogs of late). Hoping it isn’t on hiatus until feb as well!</p>
<p>I will agree that I don’t want to see a bunch of typos and spelling errors (as we did a beta release of our HS’s website and I was on the committee to find such errors and there were a LOT of them when you have a lot of people writing copy who, umm… usually don’t). So I get that part… and by the time I am done complaining, the month will have flown by!!</p>
<p>Modadunn, If you really want to let your kid spread his wings, get off this(college confidential) website, and stop worrying about silliness like when the new Middlebury website is coming out.</p>
<p>Modadunn, if you really want to have a life ignore morons like 3tuitions and continue to do what makes you happy.</p>
<p>Gee… I never even saw that post from 3tuitions… probs just as well. But I hardly consider perusing a website or blog as failure to let kid2 spread his wings. Sheesh. Frankly, I don’t see how one can even compare to the other.</p>
<p>In any event… New website is up and running!! Just in time for 2nd semester. What do we think? (and since we already know what 3tuitions thinks, about me anyway, we’ll just ask that they keep their opinions to themselves 
)</p>
<p>The new website fits Middlebury; a beautiful website for a beautiful school.</p>