Letters to the editor

Author: [no author name found]

To the Editor:

In legitimate newspapers, which adhere to journalistic standards, editors are required to present their changes to each writer before publishing the changes. In legitimate newspapers, gratuitous graphic sexual commentary hardly exists. The Middlebury Campus separates itself from legitimate publications, as it does not adhere to these guidelines.

Two weeks ago, the "Winners and Losers" column in the Features section contained a comment about a sex toy workshop here at Middlebury under the "winners" column, and under the "losers" column, a comment about masturbation on lonely Friday nights was written. Although the by-line of the column contained Mia Lieb-Lappen's name as well as my own, we do not own these words or ideas rather, the features editor does. Instead of this highly sexual comment, Mia and I had written about Kosovo gaining independence from Serbia. We had not even attended the sex toy workshop. The features editor did not ask permission before she replaced our comments about foreign affairs with her opinions about sex toys and her assertions about masturbation habits on lonely Friday nights. Not only did this irresponsible action needlessly embarrass me and Mia, but it has also led me to question the legitimacy of The Middlebury Campus and its ability to responsibly provide accurate and legitimate articles and commentary to the Middlebury community. In my opinion, people who are interested in seeking extraneous sexual content would be better off to rely on pornographic magazines rather than their school newspaper. The Middlebury Campus made an important statement about its standards by publishing graphic sexual comments in place of world news, and by inappropriately and falsely attributing the sexual comments to Mia and me. Adding insult to injury, the leadership of The Middlebury Campus has not printed a retraction, a correction or an apology, and has left it to me to correct the record by writing this letter to the editor. I hope these words will be published unchanged.

Sincerely,

Molly Dwyer '10


Editor's Note:

In the Feb. 28 issue of The Campus one portion of Winners and Losers, located in the Features section, was written by editors of the section. The Campus apologizes for this misattribution. The newspaper reserves the right to edit any work submitted for publication as it sees fit, but in a manner that accurately reflects the authorship of our content.


To the Editor:

I'm writing in response to the article written about the Middlebury Open Queer Alliance's (MOQA) involvement with the Red Cross last week concerning blood drives and the discriminatory practice of banning all men who have ever had sexual relations with other men ("Protest, forum clot blood drive," March 6). While I felt that Annabelle Fowler did an incredible job of relating MOQA's efforts to the community, I thought the title (which I have since learned was not her decision) was abrasive and not representative of the article itself.

First of all, MOQA did not protest the Red Cross, but instead engaged them in conversation within an open forum to discuss the discrimination they are forced to practice. People who attended the forum know that it was not a hostile environment, and it ended with the Red Cross and Middlebury College planning what activism can be done together to end the FDA's ban on gay and bisexual men. I was especially alarmed by the words "clot blood drive" as if to say that MOQA tried to hinder the drive. As co-president of the Middlebury Open Queer Alliance, I was the organizer of all of our efforts. Part of our activism included recruiting able donors to sponsor a gay student and donate in his honor. Dave Carmichael, the coordinator of blood drives in our area, was impressed with my organization because we promoted awareness to a challenging issue in a new and positive way and also made this one of the most successful blood drives in college history. To quote a letter that Mr. Carmichael sent to me, "We were able to collect 107 productive units of blood from the 125 individuals that presented to donate. That was our first drive over 100 units at the college in our last 4 visits and it was a 40.7% increase over what we did last semester! No doubt, the added attention to the drive that you and MOQA provided contributed to our success."

It is obvious to me that MOQA did just the opposite of what that title suggests, and I feel The Campus, which has done such a fantastic job of covering MOQA's events in the past, should own up to this mistake.

Sincerely,

Ryan Tauriainen '08
Co-President of the Middlebury Open Queer Alliance


To the Editor:

We are pleased to learn that the Appeals Committee has responded favorably to Professor Laurie Essig's appeal of her reappointment decision and that the case will be revisited by the Reappointments Committee and the President. This creates a wonderful opportunity for the College to retain a gifted and talented teacher and thereby fulfill a central facet of the liberal arts educational mission.

1. Darién Davis, History Department
2. Juana Gamero de Coca, Spanish and Portuguese Department
3. Gloria Estela Gonzalez, Spanish and Portuguese Department
4. Roman Graf, German Department
5. Bill Hart, History Department
6. Barbara Hofer, Psychology Department
7. Jon Isham, Economics Department
8. Antonia Losano, English Department
9. Ana Martinez-Lage, Spanish and Portuguese Department
10. Timi Mayer, Geography Department
11. Claudio Medeiros, Theatre Department
12. Sujata Moorti, Program in Women's and Gender Studies
13. Kevin Moss, Russian Department
14. Kamakshi Murti, German Department
15. Peggy Nelson, Sociology-Anthropology Department
16. William Poulin-Deltour, French Department
17. Robert Prasch, Economics Department
18. Burke Rochford, Sociology-Anthropology Department
19. Patricia Saldarriaga, Spanish and Portuguese Department
20. Paula Schwartz, French Department
21. Michael Sheridan, Sociology-Anthropology Department
22. Yumna Siddiqi, English Department
23. Stephen Snyder, Japanese Department
24. David Stoll, Sociology-Anthropology Department
25. Hector Vila, Writing Program
26. Susan Watson, Physics Department
27. Linda White, East Asian Studies Program
28. Martha Woodruff, Philosophy Department
29. Catharine Wright, Writing Program
30. Ellen Oxfeld, Sociology-Anthropology Department