The struggling Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey to shut down by June 2027.

By the end of June 2027, the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey will be no more, and its last resident graduate students will have completed their programs.

Middlebury President Ian Baucom announced the news on Thursday, Aug. 28 following an afternoon meeting with MIIS faculty and staff at the Irvine Auditorium on campus, where dozens filed out the doors just after 3pm, with most quietly walking off down the sidewalk.

In his statement, Baucom – who also issued a video address – begins, “I write today with difficult news.” He then outlines the brass tacks of what the Middlebury board decided on Aug. 27, at Baucom’s recommendation: Residential graduate degree programs at MIIS will be concluded by June 2027, along with online graduate programs in International Education and TESOL. The James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, which is based in Monterey but doesn’t offer degrees, will remain, while Baucom stated that Middlebury’s summer programs currently offered in Monterey – School of the Environment, Bread Loaf School of English’s short program, and the English Language School – will remain at least through 2026.

Baucom emphasizes that “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… Ultimately,” he wrote, “the decision to discontinue enrollment and end MIIS’s programs and operations over the next two years was the only financially viable option.”

Middlebury announced a $14.1 million budget deficit in April, $8.7 million of that coming from MIIS. Middlebury Campus, a student-run newspaper, published a story Aug. 28 following the announcement, and noted that, according to a motion made by faculty in May which called for MIIS to close down within three years, “past losses and current deficits combine to more than $25 million per year lost to the College’s operating budget.”

The Institute was founded in 1955 and focused on international and language studies; it moved to its current location, in a collection of 19 buildings in downtown Monterey, in 1961. MIIS merged with Middlebury in 2010.

The City of Monterey issued a statement following Baucom’s announcement, calling it a “sad day for Monterey.” City Manager Hans Uslar added, “We find some comfort in knowing that Middlebury’s world-renowned James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies… will continue to operate here.” The City’s statement added that MIIS students who were hired into Monterey’s internship program “have been some of the best in the City’s history.”

What exactly happens with all the Institute’s real estate in Monterey is a question being tabled for now. Baucom’s announcement states Middlebury leadership will “pause consideration of any repurposing, lease, or sale of [MIIS] property until the completion of programs in June 2027.”