Someone recently asked Director of Development Keith Barrett '80 how the Communications Office sends its electronic "push pages" to various constituencies. He replied that he had no idea. The Communications Office just does its thing, and he doesn't have to worry about how. His audience was stunned, because they're used to micromanagement. But this balance of freedom within fences is typical at Proctor. Whether you're a member of the Communications Team or a student, you have to work hard, and produce, but in a community that affords you a healthy degree of freedom..... and,  therefore, a pretty nice lifestyle.

For example, the curriculum favors activity-based learning over lectures. 





The deal is that you have a lot of homework, and you have to be at different places on time, and there are study hall hours and Saturday morning classes, but--on the other hand--you can grab lunch or dinner at three local venues, sit with whom you choose in the dining room, get help on request, wear jeans and a T-shirt to classes, hike to a remote pond or cabin on a Sunday after sleeping very late, and you address your teachers by their first names. Those are just a few examples.




It's as if the structures, rules and regulations exist where they have to exist..where they should exist, but that's it.



If it works, you end up with a school at which a very high percentage of students want to be here. In my years here, I have never witnessed the school having as many students for whom this is the right place. Each has his or her own complex story, of course, but we're here by choice, and the choice--I hope and believe--is easy.