2008 Woodie Awards
SGA week to examine financial spectrum
Adam Dede
Issue date: 11/8/07 Section: News
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Next week will be the first Middlebury Privilege Week. Sponsored by the SGA Institutional Diversity Committee (IDC), the week will focus on issues of socioeconomic diversity and the attainability of the American Dream, culminating in an open conference on Nov. 17.
"Were focusing on socioeconomic diversity because I think it's sort of the silent thing that we don't really talk about because Middlebury is so affluent," IDC Chair Angelica Towne '08 said.
The genesis for the idea came from Max Kanter '10.5, member of the IDC.
"There's such a wide range of just socioeconomic backgrounds, and it's really important and crucial to understand the Middlebury community," Kanter said.
He said that one thing which really inspired him was how little anyone seemed to talk about the socioeconomic issues he saw around him.
"One thing that inspired the idea was that a few of my friends couldn't do anything over spring break, because basically they couldn't afford it," Kanter said.
The week will kick off on Nov. 12 with three shopping cart instillations, which will be put up around campus to represent the issue of poverty and privilege. One of these displays will be a shanty, situated in front of the New Library, and the IDC has hopes that they will be able to get student volunteers to live in the shanty throughout the week as a demonstration of poverty issues.
"Since we're in such an affluent culture it's hard to even think about poverty here so we thought the visual instillations would really bring that home." Towne said.
Besides poverty, the IDC also wants to foster discussion around the attainability of the American Dream. They will screen "The Pursuit of Happyness" in the library on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. Following the screening, students can discuss the attainability of the dream in the movie and what possibilities members of the lower class have for improving their situations.
In an e-mail, Kanter outlined the plan for the discussion, "MIDDialogue will lead a discussion on the accessibility of the American dream as represented in the film. Does hard work usually lead to such a pay-off? How do we understand poverty if not in terms of a personal failure to succeed?"
"Were focusing on socioeconomic diversity because I think it's sort of the silent thing that we don't really talk about because Middlebury is so affluent," IDC Chair Angelica Towne '08 said.
The genesis for the idea came from Max Kanter '10.5, member of the IDC.
"There's such a wide range of just socioeconomic backgrounds, and it's really important and crucial to understand the Middlebury community," Kanter said.
He said that one thing which really inspired him was how little anyone seemed to talk about the socioeconomic issues he saw around him.
"One thing that inspired the idea was that a few of my friends couldn't do anything over spring break, because basically they couldn't afford it," Kanter said.
The week will kick off on Nov. 12 with three shopping cart instillations, which will be put up around campus to represent the issue of poverty and privilege. One of these displays will be a shanty, situated in front of the New Library, and the IDC has hopes that they will be able to get student volunteers to live in the shanty throughout the week as a demonstration of poverty issues.
"Since we're in such an affluent culture it's hard to even think about poverty here so we thought the visual instillations would really bring that home." Towne said.
Besides poverty, the IDC also wants to foster discussion around the attainability of the American Dream. They will screen "The Pursuit of Happyness" in the library on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. Following the screening, students can discuss the attainability of the dream in the movie and what possibilities members of the lower class have for improving their situations.
In an e-mail, Kanter outlined the plan for the discussion, "MIDDialogue will lead a discussion on the accessibility of the American dream as represented in the film. Does hard work usually lead to such a pay-off? How do we understand poverty if not in terms of a personal failure to succeed?"
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