Ah, the best four years of our lives. Middlebury College is supposed to be more than just a place we go to school. We are a community of students living together — we go to parties together, play sports together and this year, we experienced a total eclipse together. In its sixth year, Zeitgeist seeks to find out the diverse experiences of Middlebury students.
Students might remember this year as commencing with a $10,000 incentive to not attend fall semester, going night skiing at the Snow Bowl for the first time or the college receiving huge financial investments from its donors. We prepare to say goodbye to the beloved — or despised — Battell Hall that has long defined the first year experience, as we watch the construction of a new first-year dorm, set to go up by spring 2025.
But for many, the past year will be remembered as one filled with tragedy. Catastrophic flooding destroyed infrastructure across Vermont and on campus. Our student body has suffered three student deaths in a short timespan, and Israel’s continued escalation of its war in Gaza has had rippling effects on our campus.
Among all of this turmoil, one thing has remained constant: Students have called for and engaged in increased dialogue about difficult issues. And so, this year’s theme aligns with the spirit of the times: dialogue. The Campus has received a series of op-eds from students and alumni calling for increased free speech on campus and beyond, especially in the wake of an ongoing lawsuit over the college’s removal of Mead’s name from the chapel. There was also dialogue about the location of the Feb graduation, with hundreds voicing their concerns about a lost tradition.
As the war in Gaza wages on, students and faculty have engaged in conflict-transformation dialogues, and on April 28, students set up an encampment in solidarity with Gaza, where they have led educational sessions and confronted the issue head-on.
During a particularly difficult time for mental health, students have not shied away from dialogue about the subject, and Center for Health and Wellness has used its $4.9 million gift to boost mental health, dedicating day-long events to support specific identity groups on campus and planning a possible adult playground.
This year’s Zeitgeist is itself in dialogue with our old surveys, asking many of the same questions about breaking the Honor Code and drug use in the past years’ themes of recalibrating and being in transition.We sought to address all of these issues in our survey, adding new questions that asked students if they have experienced self-harm or suicidal ideation in college as well as their varying levels of support for Israel and Palestine. That wasn’t all we added, however. Zeitgeist 6.0 wants to know how many students have been cheated on (and how many cheated on a romantic partner), if they feel guilty about breaking the Honor Code and more. As the college and its students evolve, so too must our survey.
We hope to spark new dialogue about the Middlebury experience. The MiddKid 2.0 video released this winter sought to redefine what it means to be a Middlebury student. For the first time this year, we put the question bluntly, asking: “Do you feel like you represent a typical Middlebury student?” Well, let’s find out who does, and what it even means to be a Middlebury student.
This year, 1,207 respondents completed The Campus’ 60-question survey, answering a variety of questions across eight different sections. Middlebury has 2,546 degree-seeking undergraduates on campus this spring, meaning that 47% of the student body is represented in Zeitgeist results.
After receiving a 44% response rate last year, a slight increase of one percentage point compared to the 2021 and 2022 surveys, Zeitgeist 6.0 marks a four-year high in The Campus’ representation of the student body. The highest response rate to date is in 2020, when nearly half of the school took Zeitgeist 2.0.
In this section, there are differences between our demographic categories and the most recent college statistics; this may be attributed to over or undersampling of different groups, as well as different categorization of data in our survey. All demographic questions were required for respondents to answer, although one of those answers was an “I prefer not to answer” option.
The largest class years represented in our survey were 2024 and 2026, tied for first at 20% of respondents, while the class of 2025 was the smallest regular class, likely due to many juniors studying abroad this semester. There was a noticeable gap of 28 people between intended and matriculated class years for 2024, and a 36-person difference for the class of 2024.5. As noted last year — when the class of 2023 was 46 students short of those it matriculated with — the Covid-19 pandemic and related gap semesters or years may have contributed to the discrepancy in these categories.
Twenty-four respondents indicated that they had originally intended to graduate last spring, while eight shared they had planned to graduate this winter with the class of 2023.5, which was the largest Feb class in history.
Respondents were also asked to select which races they identified with and were able to select multiple options. White students made up 78% of respondents. Seventeen percent identified as Asian — six percentage points more than last year — followed by 10% Hispanic or Latino, 5% Black or African American and 2% Middle Eastern or North African. Less than 1% identified as American Indian or Alaskan Native and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander.
According to the most recent demographic data from Middlebury, which only allows students to choose one identity, 55% of students are white, 12% are Hispanic/Latino, 7% are Asian, 6% are Black or African American, and less than 1% are American Indian or Alaska Native. There were no Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander students recorded.
The U.S. Census recently added Middle Eastern and North African as an official racial identity to its national survey; The Campus has included such a category in Zeitgeist since 2021.
For the second year in a row, we found that while over one-third of respondents identified with a race other than white, significantly fewer said “yes” when asked if they identified as a person of color. Only one quarter of respondents identified as people of color, a slight increase compared to 24% last year, which was the first year the survey asked this question.
Fifty-four percent of respondents identified as cisgender females, while forty percent indicated being cisgender males. Similar to last year, five percent identified as non-binary, while trangender male and transgender female represented less than one percent of respondents each.
Students also shared their sexuality, which was largely consistent with prior trends. Thirty-seven percent self-identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer or questioning, the same number as last year and a modest decrease of three percentage points from 2022.
This year, 16% of respondents indicated identifying as or previously identifying as a student with a disability, a two percentage point increase from our 2023 survey.
As seen in past years, a plurality hailed from New England, representing almost 30% of respondents. Next came the Mideast, with 23% of respondents, and the Far West, with 15%. Eight percent traveled from the Southeast to Vermont, with an additional five percent from the Great Lakes and Rocky Mountain regions each, and three percent from the Southwest and Plains each as well.
Eight percent of respondents indicated that they were international students or lived outside of the U.S. In a newly added question this year, we asked that subgroup to share which country they considered to be home. Fourteen indicated that they were from China, followed by ten from Canada and seven from India. Other places with more than one representative included the U.S., Morocco, France, the Philippines, Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Spain, Ukraine and the U.K.
Of the top ten most common countries for international applicants this year, only Ghana, Mongolia and Kazakhstan were not represented in this year’s survey.
In Zeitgeist 6.0, 543 respondents — 44% of the total survey-takers — indicated that they do not receive financial aid in any capacity to support their college education, while 53% indicated that they do not receive need-based financial aid.
This year’s result is a three percentage point increase from 2023, when 41% of the total respondents reported receiving need-based financial aid. The college has stated that 51% of the student body receives some form of need-based financial aid.
This year, 52% of respondents reported attending public schools, while 31% indicated attending private or parochial day schools, 9% reported attending boarding schools and 7% said they attended charter schools or magnet schools.
Eighty-five percent of respondents this year reported not being a first-generation college student, while 15% indicated being a first-generation college student.
This data marks a three percentage point increase from last year’s numbers, which found 12% of respondents reporting being first-generation students. That 12% was also a two percentage point increase from 2022, in which 10% of survey respondents indicated their first-generation status.
Of the respondents who identified as people of color, 60% reported not identifying as first-generation college students, and 40% reported themselves as first generation college students. This breakdown is markedly different among survey respondents who did not report identifying as people of color, 94% of whom reported not being first generation students and 6% reported being first-generation students.
Respondents were asked if either, both, or neither of their parents had attended Middlebury. Ninety percent reported that neither of their parents attended Middlebury, while 10% said that at least one of their parents had attended Middlebury. These numbers are similar to last year’s statistics, which found that 9% of respondents also had at least one parent that attended the college.
When asked about their involvement in athletics, 17% of respondents indicated that they were varsity athletes. The college has previously reported in 2020 that around 28% of the student body participated in varsity athletics.
Diving deeper into varsity athletics revealed significant differences between athletes and non-athletes. Only 21% of varsity athletes identified as LGBQ+, while 41% of non-athletes identified as such — a sizable gap of 20 percentage points. The results also showed for the second year in a row fewer respondents who identified as people of color were varsity athletes. Only 11% of varsity athletes identified as people of color.
Class year also appears related to athlete status — only 7% of the Feb classes indicated being varsity athletes, while 21% of regular class years said the same. The class of 2025 had the most varsity athletes with 52; the class of 2027.5 had the fewest with zero.
This year, economics was the most popular major, comprising 11.2% of respondents. Environmental studies (including all tracks) was a close second, representing 10.5% of students, a reversal from 2022 and 2023, when it was the most popular major, followed by this year’s usurper, economics. Computer science and political science shared more than “science” in their names: These two majors were tied for the next most popular majors, as each contained 82 respondents, or 6.8%.
Next came Psychology (6.1%) Neuroscience (5.7%), and International Politics and Economics (5.1%). Of survey respondents, 12.3% had not yet declared a major, and 26% were double majors.
This year, 65% of respondents reported breaking the Honor Code, a record high in all six years of our survey. The percentage of students who have broken the Honor Code has almost doubled since Zeitgeist began in 2019, when 35% of respondents said they had violated it. In 2020, 46% of students reported breaking the Honor Code; there were 59% of students who did the same in 2021, 64% in 2022 and 63% in 2023.
As violations have increased, Zeitgeist 6.0 introduced a new question to gauge students’ moral response to breaking the Honor Code, asking students to react to the statement “I feel guilty about breaking the Honor Code.” Overall, more respondents (38%) disagreed or disagreed strongly with the idea that they felt guilty, while 34% agreed or agreed strongly that they felt guilt over violating the Honor Code.
Twenty seven percent of respondents said they neither agree nor disagree with the statement, indicating a sizable number of students who seem ambivalent about the Honor Code. This group may have to form an opinion sooner rather than later: The Honor Code Review Committee is conducting a review of this all-encompassing academic policy, a process that will be ongoing throughout the next year to address new challenges concerning proctoring exams and A.I. usage.
As in 2023, the most common method of breaking the Honor Code was using unauthorized aid (i.e. translators, calculators, SparkNotes, friend edits paper), which reached 44% both years. This year, 31% of respondents cheated on a test, 6% reused papers or assignments, 6% falsified data and 4% plagiarized.
Notably, the number of students who reported unauthorized use of A.I. nearly doubled from 2023 to 2024, jumping from 15% to 29% of respondents. This question was included for the first time in last year’s Zeitgeist survey after the emergence of ChatGPT in 2022.
Sixty-nine percent of respondents who worked a paid job this academic year reported breaking the Honor Code, which is 12 percentage points higher than the 57% of respondents who have not worked a paid job and broke the Honor Code.
Mirroring last year’s data, respondents in older class years were more likely to have broken the Honor Code. Seventy-three percent of the class of 2024 and 78% of the class of 2024.5 reported breaking the Honor Code. With less than a semester into their time at Middlebury, roughly a third of the class of 2027.5 reported breaking the Honor Code, while slightly more than half of the class of 2027 reported breaking it, marking a noticeable difference between respondents who had completed at least one semester here and those who had not.
For the second year in a row, we asked students, “What is your GPA?” Results showed that the average GPA was a 3.77 on a 4.0 scale — or above an A- — although The Campus recently reported the college calculated the average GPA to be 3.65 last spring. This Zeitgeist average did not include students in the class of 2027.5, because they have not yet received official grades for a full semester. There was minimal variation in average GPA among class years, although majors proved to be more variable.
Among majors with five or more student responses, the major with the lowest average GPA was comparative literature, with an average GPA of 3.60, followed close behind by history, with an average GPA of 3.61. The major with the highest average GPA was statistics, with an average GPA of 3.91 — the only major to achieve above a 3.9 average. Statistics only became a major in April 2023, possibly impacting the number of respondents who have had the opportunity to study that field. After Statistics, German majors had the highest average GPA, scoring a respectable 3.88 average.
Overall, 82% of respondents said that if they could make their choice again, they would still enroll at Middlebury. There was a significant difference when weighting for different demographics: 72% of respondents who identified as a person of color said they would choose Middlebury again, compared to 85% of students who were not people of color who said the same.
Among respondents who identified as first-generation college students, 28% said they would not choose Middlebury again. This was significantly higher than the percentage of respondents who did not identify as first-generation, 16% of whom said they would not choose Middlebury again.
Just over half of all respondents — 52% — responded yes to that question, marking themselves as typical Middlebury students. However, the results vary when accounting for demographic factors like race, sexuality and financial aid.
Twenty-four percent of respondents who identified as people of color reported that they feel like they represent a typical Middlebury student, compared to 62% of respondents who did not identify as people of color. Forty-five percent of LGBQ+ students felt they represented a typical student, while 57% of respondents who do not identify as LGBQ+ said they were a typical Middlebury student.
Seventy-one percent of respondents who identified as varsity athletes responded in the affirmative, while 49% of respondents who were not varsity athletes felt like they represented a typical student — over a twenty percentage point gap. Only 19% of respondents who identified as first-generation college students reported that they do feel like they represent a typical Middlebury student, 40 percentage points below respondents who did not identify first-generation respondents, 59% of whom felt like a typical Midd Kid.
Students on campus are rewriting the narrative surrounding the “typical Midd Kid.” The Midd Kid 2.0 video, an updated version of the (in)famous 2010 Midd Kid video, premiered in December, featuring a new song and a more diverse cast.
Turbulence in the college admissions landscape is also affecting what background a “typical” Middlebury student comes from. This year, colleges around the country reckoned with the Supreme Court’s decision to prohibit affirmative action, leaving an uncertain future surrounding the recruitment and support of underrepresented groups on campus. Despite changes in peer institutions, Middlebury is remaining test-optional for the foreseeable future, and will continue to consider factors like athletic recruiting and legacy status in its admissions process.
Alcohol and drug use remain prevalent within the Middlebury social scene. Over 1,000 students out of 1,207 total respondents reported that they had consumed alcohol at Middlebury and partied where alcohol/drugs were present.
Marijuana usage has remained consistent for the last three years and included 71% of respondents, although usage has increased from 66% in 2021.
Following marijuana usage, the next most common categories,“vaped/Juuled/smoked cigarettes,” “used psychedelics” and “used Adderall without a prescription” were selected by 522, 217 and 122 students, respectively.
For the second year in a row, we asked how important student organizations (including social houses and club sports) are in students’ lives.
On a scale from zero to five, with zero being not important and five being very important, the average response for student organizations was 3.16. Outdoor recreation trailed student organizations in terms of relative importance, with an average response of 3.08. Forty-four percent of respondents reported valuing student organizations at a four or five, while 39% rated outdoor recreation at similar levels.
In last year’s survey, which previously asked students a simple yes-or-no question without allowing for degrees of importance, 74% of respondents said that outdoor recreation was important to them, while 68% of respondents affirmed that student organizations were important to their social life.
Unsurprisingly, over 1,000 respondents reported that academic work prevented them from spending time with their friends, followed by extracurricular commitments and jobs. Last year, students identified those same three concerns as the top factors from spending time with friends.
Behind those factors, mental health, a lack of a car on campus and financial cost of trips or outings were selected by 329, 310 and 289 respondents, respectively, as barriers to time with friends.
Forty-four percent of respondents who identified as a person of color indicated that a lack of a car on campus was a challenging factor to spending time with friends, compared to 19% of those who did not identify as a person of color. Additionally, 38% of respondents who identified as a person of color selected the financial cost of trips or outings as a barrier, while only 19% of respondents who did not identify as such did the same.
Varsity athletics also appear to be a hindrance to social activities — 73% of varsity athletes said that extracurricular activities prevented them from spending time with their friends, while 49% of respondents who were not varsity athletes indicated the same.
Like last year’s results, 68% of total respondents reported working a paid job this academic year. Sixty percent of respondents who indicated they were varsity athletes worked a paid job compared to 70% of respondents who were not varsity athletes and reported working a paid job.
While college students are notorious for planning out their lives to the second, love may be the one thing we cannot control — it could strike any of us at any moment during our four years here. The rumors of star-crossed lovers on the lawn seem to be just rumors, however: Only 17% of Middlebury graduates married other alumni from the period 1915 to 1991.
Numbers aside, Middlebury students love to throw around the possibility that they will find their future spouse here. In this year’s Sex & Love section, we sought to find out the truth: How much love is really in the air on campus?
We learned that students’ desire for monogamous relationships has increased, while satisfaction with the romantic scene at Middlebury has gone down. For the first time ever, we asked respondents if they have cheated on a partner or been cheated on.
This year, just 9% of respondents reported being extremely satisfied with the romantic scene at Middlebury and 19% said they are somewhat satisfied. There were fewer respondents happy with the romantic scene on campus compared to the 11% who said they were extremely satisfied and 21% who said they were somewhat satisfied last year.
On the flip side, 15% of respondents reported extreme dissatisfaction with Middlebury’s romantic scene this year compared to just 12% of respondents last year.
Respondents who identified as cisgender female or cisgender male reported the highest levels of extreme satisfaction with the romantic scene at 20% and 22%, respectively. Cisgender male respondents reported the least extreme dissatisfaction at 13%.
Transgender men were the gender identity overall the least satisfied with Middlebury’s romantic scene: None reported extreme satisfaction and 40% reported extreme dissatisfaction. Transgender women also reported a high level of dissatisfaction, with no respondents indicating being extremely or somewhat satisfied, and 28% feeling extremely dissatisfied.
A lower proportion of Middlebury students reported having had sex in the past year than did in previous years. This year, 77% of respondents said they have had at least one sexual partner, down six percentage points from last year. Still, the number of partners with whom respondents have had sex over the course of a year remained consistent over the last three years, with most having had one to four sexual partners.
The most common reason respondents gave for pursuing romantic and sexual encounters at Middlebury was companionship, at 72%, slightly lower than last year’s 76% of respondents seeking companionship. After companionship, respondents described sex (52%), exploration (42%) and desire to find a future spouse (36%) as reasons for pursuing romantic and sexual encounters. The least common motivators were security (19%) and external pressure (13%).
While we removed some options between last year’s survey and this year, companionship and sex have remained the most common responses among those that have been consistently included.
The desire for a committed, monogamous relationship has continued to grow among students in recent years. This year, 76% of respondents said that they would ideally be in a monogamous relationship, compared to 72% last year and 70% in 2022. Though most would like to be in a monogamous relationship, only 50% of respondents said they have been in one during their time at Middlebury.
Far more respondents (44%) shared they have had a one-night stand than would ideally have one, which was at 10%. This trend extends to long-distance relationships, with 34% of respondents stating that they have been in a long-distance relationship since coming to Middlebury and only 9% indicating that this is their ideal type of relationship.
Similarly, 50% of respondents reported having been in a ‘situationship,’ while only 19% see this as an ideal relationship type. The rise of the term ‘situationship’ in media and public discourse has been notable in recent years, leading The Campus to change the title of this category from “slightly-monogamous ‘thing’” to ‘situationship’ this year.
Amid new labels for relationships and a growing desire for monogamy, the discrepancy between what Middlebury students wanted and what they achieved romantically continued this year.
Across all class years, the most common ways Middlebury students have met romantic and sexual partners were at parties and gatherings and through mutual friends. These two avenues of meeting partners have steadily been the highest over the last three years. Only 17% of respondents reported meeting partners on dating apps, while nationally 53% of people under aged 30 use dating apps.
Twenty-one more students said they met romantic or sexual partners through the Middlebury Marriage Pact this year than last year, rising from 26 to 47 respondents. In 2022, 29 respondents reported the platform as their means of meeting romantic partners.
This year we added the option for students to indicate having met a partner while studying abroad, and 55 respondents reported having found a companion overseas. The class of 2024 has the most members who have met a lover internationally, while the classes of 2026.5 and 2027.5 have the fewest, with zero. Notably, nine members of the class of 2027 reported meeting a romantic or sexual partner through study abroad, perhaps as a result of the program that offered first years the option to spend their first semester in Copenhagen.
We asked students for the first time this year whether or not they have experienced infidelity in their relationships at college. Nine percent of respondents said “yes,” they have experienced infidelity in some form here. Five percent of respondents said they had been cheated on while 3% said they cheated on a partner, and 1% said they had experienced both. Another 5% of respondents were unsure.
Within the 9% of respondents who reported having experienced infidelity, the majority (37%) said they had a partner who was unfaithful to them. Twenty percent said they were unfaithful to their partner, while 7% said they had experienced both cheating and being cheated on. A large proportion of this group, 35%, were unsure.
Seventeen percent of respondents described their sexuality differently now compared to when they first arrived at Middlebury. Last year, 21% said the way they describe their sexuality has changed, four percent higher than this year, and in 2022, 26% said the same — a drop of nine percentage points across three years.
Those who identify as LGBQ+ were more likely to indicate that they have changed the way they describe their sexuality since coming to Middlebury than those who do not identify as such. Thirty-eight percent of LGBQ+ respondents said they have changed the way they describe their sexuality while only 5% of non-LGBQ+ respondents said the same.
Content Warning: This section mentions suicide, self-harm and sexual assault.
In the wake of three student deaths this year, one of which has been confirmed as apparent suicide, and all of which have contributed to increased calls for mental health support at Middlebury, this section has taken on new importance. We asked respondents for the first time if they had experienced self-harm or suicidal ideation while at Middlebury.
Nearly a quarter of respondents (22%) responded “yes.” Nationally, 14% of college-aged students have experienced suicidal ideation, and 29% reported non-suicidal self injury, according to a survey from with data from 2022–2023.
When considered by sexual orientation, 36% of respondents who identify as LGBQ+ had experienced self-harm or suicidal ideation, a result which is 22 percentage points higher than for those who did not identify as LGBQ+.
Results were also different between students who identify as a person of color as opposed to those who do not. Thirty-two percent of respondents who identify as a person of color responded “yes” to having experienced self-harm or suicidal ideation while at Middlebury compared to only 20% of those who do not identify as a person of color.
On average, students who took the survey rated their mental health highest this spring compared to any previous semester going back to fall 2020. Consistent with responses from the past two years, respondents rated fall 2020 — the first semester of school fully affected by Covid-19 — as their lowest mental health point. Notably, this past fall semester, amidst three student deaths and a war in Gaza with rippling effects on campus, students did not report a decline in mental health more than any other fall semester. The responses indicate a general upward trend in mental health over time, with dips each fall semester as compared to the spring.
Discussions around mental health have often called for the college to hire more counselors, specifically for BIPOC counselors who are able to connect to students from marginalized identities. This year, half of Zeitgeist respondents answered that they did not feel as though their Middlebury (or Telehealth/TimelyCare) counselor was able to connect with them based on their identity.
These numbers were higher among those with marginalized identities: 66% of respondents who identified as a person of color said that their counselor could not connect with them based on identity, which was 24 percentage points higher than respondents who did not identify as a person of color. Fifty-three percent who identify as LGBQ+ felt that their Middlebury counselor was not able to connect with them based on their identity, seven percentage points higher than the 46% of respondents who do not identify as LGBQ+ and felt that their counselor could not connect with them based on identity.
This spring, after Center for Health and Wellness received a $4.9 million gift for mental health, the college hired two new contracted counselors: Adam Jon-Aparicio, who identifies as a first-generation college graduate and gay Latino man, and Alyssa Brown, who identifies as Black, queer and neurodivergent. The new counselors are only contracted, and do not work in-person on campus, but students can set up Zoom sessions with them.
Thirty-seven percent of respondents said that they have had a sexual experience at Middlebury that made them uncomfortable.
Twenty-nine percent of respondents identifying as cisgender men said they had a sexual experience that made them uncomfortable, while 43% of respondents identifying as cisgender females said they had a sexual experience that made them uncomfortable. Seventeen percent of transgender female respondents and 28% of non-binary respondents said they had an uncomfortable sexual experience.
Fifty-two percent of respondents said that they avoid people on campus due to their own sexual experiences or the experiences of their friends. There was a 20 percentage point difference between respondents identifying as cisgender females, 61% of whom responded that they avoid people on campus due to their sexual experiences or those of their friends, as compared to 41% of those who identified as cisgender men.
About one-third (32%) of respondents said they use alcohol or drugs to cope with stress either “frequently” or “occasionally,” down slightly from last year’s 36%. Meanwhile, 40% of respondents reported never having used alcohol or drugs to cope with stress, which is four percentage points higher than last year, when 36% of respondents answered “never.”
Of the 228 respondents who said they have experienced sexual assault, just over half of them (120) reported that it had occurred at Middlebury. Only 18% of those who reported being sexually assaulted at Middlebury said they reported the incidents to the college, and 63% of those respondents indicated that they were not satisfied with the way the school handled the complaints.
There was an 11 percentage point difference in victims of sexual assault based on their sexual orientation — 26% of LGBQ+ respondents reported having been sexually assaulted, compared to 15% of people who do not identify as LGBQ+.
The Campus asked whether people had struggled with their relationship to food or exercise during their time at Middlebury, and 64% answered that they had, compared to 68% last year and 71% in 2022.
The results by gender identity are similar to last year’s, with 46% of cisgender men having struggled with their relationship to food or exercise, and 76% of cisgender females. Those who identified as trangender men, women and non-binary had similarly high rates to cisgender females. The highest rate was among people who said the gender options do not define them, with 91% of those respondents having reported struggling.
Fifty-two percent of respondents reported being comfortable using athletic facilities at Middlebury.
There was an even greater gap among genders than last year’s 28 percentage point gap between cisgender male and female respondents, with 74% of cisgender males reporting they were comfortable using the athletics center facilities, compared to 40% of cisgender females. Transgender male and female respondents, as well as non-binary respondents and those who answered that the options do not define them, reported far lower levels of comfort using athletic facilities.
This year, we asked students about a number of resources on campus, including the Middlebury College Activities Board (MCAB), Midd Telehealth/TimelyCare and the Student Activities Office (SAO). We also inquired about students’ satisfaction with their financial aid packages, and how safe they feel interacting with Public Safety.
Overall, students showed similar levels of satisfaction with resources on campus this year compared to last year.
Resources that received the most positive overall ratings were the Disability Resource Center (35% very satisfied); the Anderson Freeman Center (27% very satisfied); the Center for Teaching, Learning and Research (22% very satisfied); and the Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life (21% very satisfied). The Disability Resource Center, AFC and Scott Center also received the highest levels of satisfaction last year.
Resources that received the most negative overall ratings include the Student Activities Office (SAO) and Counseling Services, which both had 39% reporting somewhat or very dissatisfied. Midd Telehealth/TimelyCare also reported a high level of unhappiness, with 31% of respondents somewhat or very dissatisfied with their experiences there.
The SAO has implemented new programs such as the Join the Club fundraising initiative this academic year, which came $80,000 short of its fundraising goal in April, while club sports teams have continued to struggle with funding challenges. The college directed $4.9 million from an unrestricted gift to mental health services in December 2023 and recently hired two new contracted counselors.
Like last year, resources used by more students received worse ratings than resources used by fewer students.
Residential Life, MCAB, the Parton Center for Health and Wellness, and SAO were all used by over 70% of respondents. Resources used by the fewest students included the Prism Center for Queer and Trans Life — 75% of respondents reported not having used the Center — International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS) and MiddSafe.
The Prism Center opened in early April after having been in the planning stages since the spring of 2021, which is one possible explanation for the relatively smaller number of respondents to have used the resource at the time of the survey.
Respondents reported similar levels of satisfaction with their financial aid packages compared to last year. Fifty-eight percent of respondents who indicated being on need-based financial aid were somewhat or very satisfied with their financial aid packages this year. Just 13% of respondents stated they were very dissatisfied with their financial aid packages, on par with 14% last year.
This satisfaction with financial aid packages did not carry over to their opinions of Student Financial Services. Fifty-three percent of respondents familiar with that department gave it a neutral or negative rating.
The percentage of students who reported feeling safe interacting with Public Safety increased substantially to 77% this year from 67% in 2023 and 61% in 2022. Eighteen percent of respondents stated they were unsure if they feel safe interacting with Public Safety and 6% responded they do not feel safe.
The difference in responses between students of color and non-students of color decreased from last year. Respondents who identified as a person of color reported feeling safe when interacting with Public Safety, eight percentage points lower than respondents who did not identify as a person of color. The difference was 18 percentage points last year.
Respondents who identified as cisgender females reported feeling safe around Public Safety by twelve percentage points fewer than those who indicated they were cisgender males. The same group was also 10% more likely to respond “unsure” to the same question.
One thing is clear: Middlebury students care about politics. Seventy-five percent of respondents said “I care a lot about a wide range of issues” or “I care a lot about a few specific issues.” Less than 3% said “I don’t care at all,” and only 2% said “I actively avoid thinking/talking about politics.” This year’s Zeitgeist produced similar results to last year’s, where 78% of respondents reported caring about a wide range or few specific issues.
Notably, respondents who identify as LGBQ+ more frequently reported that they care about a wide range or a few specific issues than respondents who did not identify at LGBQ+. As threats like Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay Bill” continue to appear around the country, the lack of LGBQ+ representation in positions of power has become an even more pressing issue. National surveys have demonstrated higher levels of political engagement by LGBQ+ young adults as compared to their straight counterparts.
Middlebury also leans very liberal, according to respondents’ self-assessments. The most common response rating was a two — with 30% of respondents — out of a zero to 10 scale in which 10 was the most conservative. Similar to 2023, the vast majority (79%) of respondents placed themselves somewhere in the zero to three range, while a typically moderate but left-leaning four seems to be a conservative answer at Middlebury. Only 10% of respondents described themselves as leaning conservative, an increase of three percentage points from last year.
Zeitgeist added a new question this year, asking students directly where they stand on the war in Gaza. Fifty-eight percent of respondents said they either strongly supported or somewhat supported Palestine and 7% said they either strongly or somewhat supported Israel. Eleven percent said they supported both, 8% supported neither and the remaining 14% said they were unsure.
Respondents who identified as a person of color more frequently indicated their support for Palestine compared to students who did not identify as people of color. Seventy-three percent of those who identified as a person of color strongly or somewhat supported Palestine; a smaller majority of respondents who were not a person of color (55%) said the same, a difference of eighteen percentage points.
Historically, Black activists like Malcolm X and Angela Davis have expressed their support for Palestine and fought to support the cause. In recent years, the Black Lives Matter movement has engaged in pro-Palestinian actions to show their solidarity.
What else do Middlebury students care about? For the fifth year in a row, climate change dominated the responses, with over 400 students identifying it as the most pressing issue of our day. Some respondents connected their answer of climate change to related issues, like current policies that perpetuate global warming and the abuse of natural resources as a direct result of late-stage capitalism.
Compared to last year, there was a significant drop in the number of responses — from 113 to 21 — that cited gun violence as the most pressing issue. Despite many mass shootings taking place in the past year, other issues seem to have occupied more prominence in the national conversation in recent months.
Other responses highlighted capitalism in a different way, identifying it as the root of inequality, ignorance and polarization that exists today.
This year’s Zeitgeist included 68 responses that named the war in Gaza as the most pressing issue. There were another 33 responses that more generally touched on issues like global conflict, nuclear warfare and the war in Ukraine.
Another new issue respondents cited was the 2024 presidential election and overall fear of the election outcome. Similar to last year, political polarization, division and global “democratic backsliding” were named as pressing issues. One respondent highlighted “our ability to communicate and cooperate within our democracy to work together as a nation to overcome the issues of our time such as climate change, economic disparity, food access, etc…” as their most pressing issue.
Other common responses included abortion and reproductive rights (35 responses), racial inequality (56 responses), mental health (12 responses), free speech (29 responses) and human rights. One response emphasized the issue of “rapid social change and globalization inflicted upon those without the abilities and experience to handle that.” Another shared that same pessimistic outlook typical of Gen Z, worrying about the “incoming unavoidable apocalypse.”
However, similar to last year, a lot of responses touched on personal concerns like a lack of empathy, academic pressures, apathy, body image and finding time for self-enjoyment. One person identified their most pressing issue as “the Middlebury housing lottery” while another cited “Jojo Siwa” as a top concern.
Other issues that appeared in responses included immigration, queer rights, wealth distribution, the threat of artificial intelligence, greed, education, the economy and extremism.
For evidence of Middlebury students’ political engagement, just look outside, where students set up an encampment on McCullough Lawn to display solidarity for Gaza and to demand divestment from companies tied to the Israeli military, among other issues.
In a year in which we have seen increased questions about the role of higher education and declining faith in academic institutions, we wanted to know what the people here think about their institution. To wrap up this year’s Zeitgeist survey, we asked an open-ended question: What do you want to see change at Middlebury?
The 722 responses included support for mental health initiatives, calls for adding 35 pound weights to the Fitness Center and complaints about student organization funding from the Student Activities Office (SAO).
The largest of any one topic area — making up 16% of responses — addressed a lack of community at Middlebury, and the outsized impact of “cliques” upon the college’s social environment.
Of those responses, many students wrote about feeling excluded from social spaces because of wealth or racial gaps. Other students mentioned making Middlebury more unique and de-emphasizing the career-advancement aspects of socializing.
“I want to see more people being themselves. Make middlebury weird!!” one student wrote.
“I wish that there were more spaces for community gathering that didn't feel like they were trying to accomplish things like ‘networking’,” wrote another respondent.
Sixty-two respondents sought improvements in Middlebury’s inclusivity, especially for students of color, LGBTQ+ students and disabled students. Several respondents discussed issues of visibility and exclusion among those groups.
“I want to meet more queer people without feeling the need to perform my queerness to fit in with a group,” one student wrote.
A number of respondents commented on an observed tendency towards self-segregation among Middlebury students when selecting social groups.
Sixty responses clustered around the topic of mental health and mental health support at the college, with 11 respondents explicitly addressing student death.
“I want to know that Middlebury is doing its best to keep my friends safe,” one student shared, reflecting on a challenging year that has seen three students pass away on or off-campus.
A number of those sixty responses discussed reforming the academic policies in place to accommodate students struggling with mental health issues.
“I want mental health services to be vastly expanded so that all students can access free, continued mental health care when they want or need it,” another respondent wrote.
Seven percent of respondents discussed the academics at Middlebury, often calling for a lessening of the academic pressure upon students.
“Less work, literally drowning,” one student wrote. Other students suggested reformatting grading policies.
“I want to see anonymous grading where professors don't see your name when grading. A professor did this in one of my classes and I think it makes sense for the entire institution,” one student wrote.
One student called for an expansion of academic intensity: “Increased academic rigor. I feel like most of my real learning was concentrated in a small number of fantastic classes led by great professors.”
Forty-nine student responses concerned free speech and campus politics, two very contentious topics in recent memory at Middlebury. Many of those responses lamented political polarization and ideological conformity on campus.
“I want to actually hear people's opinions instead of hearing everyone resorting to groupthink. DO the critical thinking you accuse your opponents of being incapable of, “ one student wrote.
A few student responses displayed a hope that Middlebury students would get more involved with local political organizations, and that the student body would boost its civic participation in the town of Middlebury and in Vermont more broadly.
These responses highlighted groups like Migrant Justice’s “Milk with Dignity” campaign — a migrant justice program based in Burlington, Vt. — as an example of political collectives to which Middlebury students could contribute more.
The longest response by over 200 words came from a first year student, who wrote 459 words on the “inane or thoughtless administration” that reinforces “individuality and aggrandizement” to our detriment.
“Every single one of us could benefit from having our values and egos challenged,” the prolific student wrote. “Comfort is not the goal of an enriched education.”
Not everyone was so confident in their responses, however. Thirty students responded with some variation of “I don’t know” or “Unsure” and are perhaps still pondering the weighty question that prompted such ambivalence.
A handful of students took the open-ended opportunity to inject a bit of levity into the survey’s data.
Other responses that refused to be easily categorized included “I want to change the fact that I am single,”; “Enroll more baddies,”; “More fish”; and — perhaps, most importantly — “More zeitgeists.”
Zeitgeist 6.0 has been in production for six weeks, involving 15 editors and volunteer students who spent their time drafting, visualizing and analyzing the responses of over 1,200 students.
The team carefully reviewed all five past years of questions, weighing whether to keep or discard those that no longer seemed relevant. We did not include past questions that had not yielded noteworthy results in order to prioritize the most pressing and interesting topics to probe this year.
We chose the theme to be “dialogue” in reflection of the ongoing and unsettled debates on our campus, ranging from the need for free speech and its limitations to where the college should allocate its new pools of money from fundraisers. Just as Zeitgeist is a moment in time on campus, “dialogue” shows how we are not yet finished determining what the future of Middlebury should be.
As is typical of Zeitgeist, new questions were added to reflect updates to the college community, and previously asked questions were retained to make comparisons across multiple years. Notable questions that we added this year included “Do you feel like you represent a typical Middlebury student?” and “Have you experienced infidelity at Middlebury?” The question “Have you experienced self-harm or suicidal ideation while at Middlebury?” was added after increased discussions on the topic after multiple student deaths this past fall. The Campus also asked respondents to react to the statement “I feel guilty about breaking the Honor Code,” in hopes of understanding why so many have done so in recent years.
We opened the survey on the morning of Monday, April 1, and it ran for fourteen days through midnight, April 15. We shifted the timeframe a week earlier this year and added two extra days for respondents in order to increase time for data visualization and increase our response rate. We advertised Zeitgeist 6.0 through Instagram, and four separate days of tabling outside Ross Dining Hall, Proctor Dining Hall and the Axinn Winter Garden. We ultimately received 1,207 complete responses by the end of the open survey period.
Following the closure of the survey in Qualtrics, we worked with the data in Excel and created visualizations via Data Wrapper, a website for data journalism. The results were published in print and online on May 4, 2024.
The Zeitgeist aimed to capture the feelings and mood of the Middlebury campus, but it did not do so scientifically. Our methodology prioritized increasing response rate rather than randomness or independence; we personally campaigned our friends and classmates to fill out the survey. Because of this, we cannot generalize the findings from the Zeitgeist to the entire campus population.
From our first meeting on March 14 to yesterday, a team of Campus editors and contributing writers have worked over one hundred hours to review past Zeitgeists, publicize the survey, create visualizations and write each summary. The eight sections in print today would not have been possible without their hard work and dedication.
Thank you to Susanna Schatz ’24, Ellie Trinkle ’26, Mandy Berghela ’26, Lexi Linafelter ’24, Cole Chaudhari ’26, Charlie Keohane ’24 and Julia Pepper ’24 for brainstorming new ideas and preparing the final list of 60 questions.
The high response rate of Zeitgeist 6.0 would not have been achieved without all of our additional staff who volunteered to stand outside Ross, Proctor and Axinn Winter Garden to tell students about the survey: Hannah Sayre ’24.5, Stephanie Crocker ’24, Emily Hogan ’24, Sarah Miller ’24, Claire Shapiro ’24.5, Cadi Klepeis ’24 and Charles Crounse ’24.
Thank you also to our data visuals team, which also included Carly McAdam ’25, who all created dozens of visualizations seen above. I also want to extend gratitude to Olivia Kilborn ’24, who designed Zeitgeist’s excellent print layout and made our final product fit for publication. Thank you to all seven writers who contributed the insightful, comprehensive coverage of this survey.
Special thanks to Editor in Chief Maggie Reynolds ’24 and Managing Editor Katie Futterman ’24, who were deeply involved in every aspect of the process and without whom none of this would be possible.
Finally, thank you to our respondents, all one thousand, two hundred and seven of you, who took the time to complete our survey. Whether you have found or lost love here, discovered new layers of your identity or shed old labels at college, followed the Honor Code or used A.I. in every paper, lean liberal (as we’ve learned many of you do) or swing conservative, I hope you are represented somewhere in these pages.
