The Middlebury Campus

Issue date: 1/13/05 Section: News

Media Credit: Nirvana Bhatia [Click to enlarge]

On Jan. 7, students and members of the faculty and staff met in Coltrane Lounge to discuss the College's stance on discrimination in light of recent incidents on campus. An e-mail from six students sent to faculty summarized several of these incidents, which included the Frisbee team's protested "Cowboys and Injuns" party and a now-defunct facebook.com group formed around the Public Safety announcement describing a black suspect as having "nappy hair." These incidents have generated campus-wide discussion about what constitutes discrimination and what an appropriate institutional response should be.

"We would like to see some institutional change and action," said Yashika Walker '05. "We have diversity here, but there is little attempt to make students feel comfortable. [When I experienced discrimination], I didn't get the support I would have liked."

Much of the discussion centered on what Middlebury as an institution should be doing to educate about issues of race and sexuality. Possibilities discussed were the addition of a sensitivity training segment to first-year orientation, as well as the merits of this type of training in a classroom setting.

"White students do need to learn about systemic racism and white privilege, and the social order's role in racial oppression," said Will Nash, director of the African-American Studies program. "There is a need for dialogue between students and faculty, and one place to accomplish this is in the classroom."

There was some dissention about the practical effectiveness of classroom discussion.

Said another faculty member, "Students have been taught to speak a certain way in class. It is clear that they are shoving off from classroom discussions about these issues and talking about it in other forums. The challenge is being able to talk about it in a down-to-earth, instead of just a theoretical, way."

It is mostly within these more informal forums that controversial issues have arisen. The e-mail sent to faculty began, "The level of insensitivity on this campus has reached an all-time high, and public attention should be brought to this issue."

Continued...

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