Dear Middlebury,
Welcome to the pages of The Campus. Whether you’ve opened our paper to read about the closure of MIIS, the college’s role in a recent lawsuit or that new mural you may have noticed on Main Street, we’re glad you’ve found us. Of the 37 student editors who have made our first issue possible, 19 wrote this issue’s 20 articles and 10 arrived on campus early to kickstart their work before thinking about classes. They visited dorms to interview wide-eyed first years, attended a cross country race where the prize was maple syrup and visited the new Asian grocery store next to Bevco to inform their work.
In our archives, we found an article from a Jan. 30, 1975 issue headlined “The computer cometh” that begins: “By next fall, the basement of Voter Hall will house Middlebury College’s own computer.” Although a lot has changed since then, one constant is that Middlebury students seize the opportunity each year to lead and shape this paper’s coverage. What our contributors write is not only relevant to our current readers but will serve as a record of the college’s history.
As The Campus’ new Executive Team, we are honored to be temporary stewards of a paper that has existed for 120 years.
Over the past year, The Campus has tracked how the 2024 U.S. Presidential election reverberated through Middlebury. In our special election issue, we covered the tensions unfolding on campus leading up to Donald Trump’s return to the White House and have since published numerous articles about his administration’s impact on the Middlebury community, from precarious visa policies for international students to severe funding cuts to research.
As these national changes ensued, Middlebury also turned a new page in leadership. We conducted one last interview with Laurie Patton and our first with Ian Baucom, our new president. We covered construction projects on campus, changes to academic requirements and the honor code, the controversies around recent graduation speakers, and investigated pricing at Crossroads Café.
In the Spring, we wrote about the list of budget cuts the administration announced to the community via email that spurred protests and debate over the college’s values. By reporting news stories, publishing opinion pieces and editorializing, we chronicled the controversy that followed. Just two weeks ago, we broke the story online that Middlebury will close its graduate school in Monterey.
Through the chaos of the news cycle, we did not let culture fall behind. We covered our student-run arts festival Nocturne, numerous exhibitions and performances on campus, and spotlighted our sports teams through their wins and losses. Diving into life off campus, we toured the AquaViTea Kombucha factory, gauged student’s feelings about Vermont politician Bernie Sanders, and previewed Middlebury’s first rave at the Town Hall Theater.
This is the kind of work we hope to continue this year. But we can’t do it alone. Regardless of who you are, if you see something you think we should be covering — whether it’s a problem on campus we haven’t written about, a question you’ve always had about Middlebury that we can help answer, or a local business that deserves our attention — tell us. Email campus@middlebury.edu or submit an anonymous news tip through our website.
We also want more students to contribute to The Campus. Anyone, even first years, can write for any section, take photos, or draw visuals for us; all of our writing happens freelance-style, so there is no application process or long-term commitment to taking an assignment or submitting.
You won’t regret asking for your first story. We know from experience.
Mandy Berghela '26 (she/her) is a Managing Editor.
Mandy has previously served as the Senior Local Editor, a Local Section Editor and Staff Writer. She is majoring in Political Science with a minor in History. She is the Co-President for the Southeast Asian Society and an intern with the Conflict Transformation Collaborative. Last summer, Mandy interned with U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and participated in the Bloomberg Journalism Diversity Program.
Madeleine Kaptein '25.5 (she/her) is the Editor in Chief.
Madeleine previously served as a managing editor, local editor, staff writer and copy editor. She is a Comparative Literature major with a focus on German and English literatures and was a culture journalism intern at Seven Days for the summer of 2025.
