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(11/29/18 10:58am)
Speakers discussed the painful and sometimes tragic experiences of immigrants seeking new lives in the United States during a Nov. 15 panel in Dana Auditorium, titled “Trauma and the U.S. Immigration System.”
The panel featured University of Vermont College of Medicine Professor Dr. Andrea Green, Albany Law School Professor Sarah Rogerson, Migrant Justice activist Marita Caneda and Hannah Krutiansky ’19, who worked as a summer intern with the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES).
Meron Benti ’19, who was born in Ethiopia and moved to Italy before making her way to the United States, served as the moderator. She opened by talking about her own experience as an immigrant and her 18 month wait for asylum.
Krutiansky shared her experiences working with RAICES, a non-profit based in San Antonio, Texas, where she spent time in detention facilities and worked directly with detainees to provide legal support. She focused on injustice faced by indigenous migrants that she observed during the job.
[pullquote speaker="Hannah Krutiansky ’19" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]What they really need is counseling, but what they’re going to get is interrogation about the most intimate, traumatic, events of their life.[/pullquote]
“I was in a courtroom where the mother and the interpreter clearly were not understanding each other and the judge just said, ‘Please give your best interpretation,’” she said.
Krutiansky’s work with RAICES gave her a first hand perspective of the trauma that immigrants endure.
“They’ll be told that they need to sign a paper that might be in English and if they ask what they’re signing a very typical response could be, ‘Do you think I have time to explain this to you?’” she said. “What they really need is counseling, but what they’re going to get is interrogation about the most intimate, traumatic, events of their life.”
In one incident, she and other RAICES staff were forced to leave the holding facility without explanation.
“We exited visitation and we were met by a literal army of ICE officers, it was probably anywhere from 30 to 50 officers in bulletproof vests, guns, shields, handcuffs,” Krutiansky said. “This was just to terrorize this population.”
After this incident, 16 fathers were randomly selected and put in solitary confinement for a day with no explanation. One of the fathers tried to commit suicide.
Krutiansky witnessed the effect that this attack had on the children whose fathers were taken away with no explanation.
“One seven-year-old boy whose eyes were completely glazed over after the incident, bloodshot, you could have put your hand in front of him and he wouldn’t have flinched,” Krutiansky said.
Rogerson elaborated on immigration from a legal perspective and described a variety of legal terms. She also described traumatic experiences helping 300 refugees who had been flown to a county jail in Albany to be detained.
“No one ever told them where they were, so the first thing that the lawyers did when they went in was draw a map of the United States and show them where they were, and where their family members were in some cases,” she said, describing many of the refugees as “incredibly disoriented.”
[pullquote speaker="Albany Law School Professor Sarah Rogerson" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]The Trump administration made the decision to limit asylum claims for people who were fleeing gang violence and people fleeing domestic violence.[/pullquote]
Rogerson criticized many recent changes to immigration policy.
“The Trump administration made the decision to limit asylum claims for people who were fleeing gang violence and people fleeing domestic violence,” she said.
She also emphasized collaboration with law enforcement.
“We’re creating our own system of humane immigration system enforcement and we’re using law enforcement allies to do it,” Rogerson said.
Dr. Green, a pediatrician with experience serving refugees, focused on the physical effects of trauma and immigration, especially on children.
“Young people, they will trade sex for their basic needs,” she said, calling it “survival sex” which leads to sexually transmitted infections, in addition to other diseases and injuries acquired through the arduous process of coming to the United States as an asylee or refugee.
“The bigger issue, in addition to all those health issues, is the effects of trauma,” she said. “Stress, trauma causes inflammation in the body, and that inflammation in the body affects health in the long term, and actually changes your genetic makeup.”
The effect at a broader level is a higher suicide rate among immigrants. Green spoke about her own experience serving Bhutanese refugees in Vermont, which has twice the suicide risk of the general population.
“That trauma affects that parents ability to parent that child,” she said during discussion of parents coming to the U.S. to get a better life for their children. “That trauma is now a multi-generational trauma.”
Caneda, a Migrant Justice activist, gave a brief overview of the organization’s current work. She spoke about its mission to protect Vermont dairy workers with the goal of improving lives of migrants and advancing human rights, and highlighted that immigrants do not have the same human rights as others.
“Since 2014, a lot of members of migrant justice have been arrested” she said. “Nine of those detentions have clear evidence of retaliation for coming in and speaking out about human rights.” Caneda added that many detentions and arrests by ICE also involved illegal cooperation with the DMV.
Caneda emphasized that not all immigrants are necessarily fleeing violence, but also lack of opportunity and unsafe working conditions.
“When the only options to work are for a fracking company or for an oil company or joining the army, a lot of people don’t have those values and they come and migrate here and end up working on the dairy farms” she said.
“When you work at a dairy farm you live on the farm, you become a 24/7 worker” Caneda said, pointing out food safety concerns. “When you live on a farm, especially up north, you depend on others to bring you food, sometimes it’s every 15 days, so if day 13 you run out of food, you don’t have an option and you spend two days without.”
[pullquote speaker="Migrant Justice activist Marita Caneda" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]Right now in Vermont anyone can get a driver’s license regardless of your immigration status, which was a big change because now people could start driving cars, going to stores, not depending on others for food.[/pullquote]
In a positive moment, Caneda explained that this condition has improved.
“Right now in Vermont anyone can get a driver’s license regardless of your immigration status, which was a big change because now people could start driving cars, going to stores, not depending on others for food,” she said.
This panel fit within a larger national conversation around immigration. The narratives of the speakers stood in striking contrast with the president’s recent military response to the alleged “migrant caravan” of immigrants approaching the border from Central America.
(11/01/18 9:58am)
Signs reading “go/mapproject” appeared across campus last week, advertising a link that leads to a form where respondents can identify where they have been sexually assaulted on campus.
The goal of the project is to visualize locations where sexual violence has occured on campus. It Happens Here (IHH) began the map project in 2012, placing a map with red dots paired with a selection of anonymous stories on display in the atrium of Davis Family Library.
Taite Shomo ’20.5, one of the organizers of IHH, led the effort to revive the map project this year.
“The reason we decided to bring the map project back now is because of all of the student activism on campus, as well as the activism around the country about sexual assault,” Shomo said. “I’ve also been looking for ways to make IHH larger than just a once-a-semester event, and this was one way to continue to raise awareness about sexual assault at Middlebury aside from the regular events.”
The map project reflects the reality that sexual assault remains a major problem at Middlebury. This reality is what drove the protest that took place at the Pather Day parade against Middlebury’s handling of sexual assault. One of the protestors at the Panther Day protest was holding the 2013 map.
“The map is powerful because it gives people a visual of how pervasive and prevalent sexual assault and harassment are on this campus,” Shomo said. Recent campus security reports have recorded no more than 25 reported instances of sexual violence per year — a figure that IHH organizers believe is in fact much higher.
[pullquote speaker="Taite Shomo '20.5" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]The map is powerful because it gives people a visual of how pervasive and prevalent sexual assault and harassment are on this campus.[/pullquote]
“The objective is to get people to consider how much of a reality assault and harassment are here,” Shomo explained.
Annie Blalock ’20.5, president of Feminist Action at Middlebury (FAM), echoed the same sentiment.
“There’s that one story that you have in your head that you saw on the news, and then looking at a map like that, you think ‘that’s this one red dot here’ and then you’re like ‘oh, there’s hundreds of red dots, every one of those is a story like that,” Blalock said.
Although she is not involved with organizing the map project, Blalock is an enthusiastic supporter. IHH and FAM engage with many overlapping issues.
“There’s an obvious tie between feminism and raising awareness of sexual assault and holding perpetrators accountable,” Blalock said. “We are now living a culture where people who formerly were silenced by our society and the systems in place that silenced victims, are being given the space to speak out.”
In the original map project, which was completed in early 2013, most submitted sexual assaults occurred in party hotspots such as Atwater, social houses, KDR and Palmer, as well as other residence halls, especially underclassmen dorms. However, sexual violence can happen anywhere, as victims reported incidents in both the McCullough Student Center and the Freeman International Center as well.
[pullquote speaker="Annie Black '20.5" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]Walking through a place like Allen and being like, ‘Someone was assaulted here.’[/pullquote]
“I think it’s an interesting perspective to gain,” said Blalock, reflecting on the benefit of locating the the incidents of sexual violence on a map. “Walking through a place like Allen and being like, ‘Someone was assaulted here.’”
According to Shomo, the map from this year will be formatted in the same manner as the previous map. However, Shomo added that organizers may need to make the map bigger because they are accepting reports of both sexual assault and harassment, whereas the 2013 map only dealt with sexual assaults.
“I would be surprised if we see any of the campus on the map, as opposed to it just being all red dots,” Blalock said.
The go/mapproject survey contains two questions. The first asks in which residence halls respondents have experienced sexual assault or harassment. The second asks in which other buildings, including dining halls and academic buildings, respondents have experienced sexual assault or harassment.
“Filling out that form itself could be empowering for people because they feel involved,” Blalock said.
She also believed that some people would still not feel comfortable submitting the form, although it is anonymous.
“Even with all the reports that this map project gets, it’s not going to be the whole number of assaults or reports of harassment.”
Between 2013 and 2015, some members of the college community were concerned that IHH’s events and advertising were triggering to students. Others were worried that the map project would stigmatize certain buildings on campus, but Shomo was not concerned about this.
“I think that the maps will show that sexual violence happens in so many of the buildings on campus that I’m not concerned about it sending a message that assault only happens in some spaces,” Shomo said.
In a 2013 Campus article on the map project, Luke Carrol-Brown ’13 responded to the criticism that the project stigmatized certain locations on campus.
“The Map Project has never been about identifying danger zones on campus,” he said. “That would stink of emphasizing victim responsibility instead of placing accountability where it should lie: in the hands of the individuals who perpetrate these crimes. The Map Project is about coming clean with a problem that so many of us deny or disregard, putting the human impact of this epidemic in visual form and driving empathy amongst survivors.”
[pullquote speaker="Luke Carrol-Brown '13" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]The Map Project has never been about identifying danger zones on campus.[/pullquote]
In January 2014, The Campus published an editorial titled “It Happens Here: It’s Time to Evolve.” In it, the editorial board argued that the map, IHH events and signs reading “It Happens Here” could be powerful triggers that hurt survivors, and urges them to adjust their strategies.
Student organizers of IHH published an op-ed in January 2015 addressing the conversation surrounding the potential triggering effect of their work. They acknowledged that though “these criticisms weigh heavily in our minds,” “there must be spaces for survivors to share their stories if/when they’re ready,” and that “if we are to continue to hold these events, we will continue to need to advertise. In our minds, relegating survivors’ experiences to the margins of this campus has never been and will never be an option.
“We raise consciousness that It Happens Here in the hope that one day, It won’t.”
Blalock was concerned about the lack of institutional support for survivors of sexual violence at Middlebury, but saw the Map Project as a resource for students.
“This is as much a tool for survivors and victims of assault or violence or harassment because it could be cathartic, it could be building that community, it could be feeling like a part of something or feeling not alone, but I think it’s as much a resource for survivors and victims as it is for bystanders or people who have not had a situation like that,” Blalock said. “One survivor is not alone, they are one of many people that have been victims of perpetrated violence.”
The submission form will remain open until Nov. 16.
(09/20/18 9:59am)
Parton Health Center has added a triage phone line which will enable students to schedule appointments with nurse practitioners and physicians without having to first go there to be evaluated by a nurse.
President Laurie L. Patton announced the development in an all-school email on the first day of classes.
Although it has always been possible to talk to a nurse over the phone, a nurse will now be dedicated to the triage phone line.
Mark Peluso, director of health services, said the system should streamline operations, which will likely result in students spending less time at Parton. He hopes the triage line will enable students to get appropriate care as quickly as possible.
Peluso cited the establishment of the phone line as a response to student feedback.
“Some students expressed frustration with having to visit Parton for a nurse evaluation, only to have to come back later that day to see a nurse practitioner for their complaint,” Peluso said. “When volume was high, they were scheduled for the next available appointment that day or early the following day.”
The triage system will not change how students interact with Parton when they walk in for an appointment, but is another way for them to receive medical attention. Students can still call to make appointments with nurses or walk in to see a nurse.
Students seemed to welcome the news of the new phone line.
“I can make an appointment and miss fewer classes,” Alyssa Crogan ’20.5 said.
“That’s great,” Taite Shomo ’20.5 said. “There have been times when I’ve gone in and seen a nurse for something that needs immediate treatment and then had to go to urgent care because I couldn’t see a doctor that day.”
The triage system will be in place only for the health services part of Parton, and will not affect how the counseling department operates. Appointments for counseling can be made online, a feature not available for health services.
To make an appointment through the new triage line, call 802-443-3290.
(04/25/18 11:37pm)
Two resolutions, one in support of Middlebury students against gun violence and one calling for action against racism resulting in gun violence, were passed by the SGA on Sunday. Contention surrounding both bills centered around questions over the scope of responsibility of the SGA in addressing political, far-reaching issues.
The first resolution stated that gun violence is an issue that requires immediate action to ensure the safety of students, encourages students to be aware and engage in issues they care about, and calls on the admissions office to reword their statement on applicants and political action.
The current statement, issued on Feb. 28 of this year in a nationwide response to high school walkouts protesting gun violence, addresses applicants’ involvement in protests. In a similar approach to its peer institutions, the college’s statement assures students that reports of disciplinary action based on political action will be considered in light of students’ free-speech rights and obligation to engage politically.
Senators Connor McCormick ’18 and Jack Goldfield ’20 raised opposition to the bill because it is largely a political statement, with few actionable policies, and nothing that the SGA itself can act on.
The senate debated whether it was their role to make political statements. Some senators argued that they had received backlash for making political statements, while others brought up criticism that they had received for not making political statements in the wake of the student protests at Charles Murray’s talk last March.
Senator Kailash Pandey ’19 defended the bill on the merits that the one of the roles of the SGA is to encourage the community to think about important issues, while senator Maryam Mahboob ’18 cautioned that it is not the SGA’s job to tell people what to think.
The resolution passed, opposed by McCormick, and with abstentions from Goldfield, senator Stephanie Andrews ’18, and speaker Rae Aaron ’19.5.
The second resolution called for more actionable policy from the administration by bringing more professionals to campus who are trained and experienced working with diverse communities. It calls for Parton health center to hire a clinical psychologist who is trained and experienced to work in diverse communities and states that the SGA themselves will work to bring speakers to campus this May to provide students with “healing spaces, activities and resources facilitated by trained, experienced professionals familiar with the identities and culture of black students.”
It also called for Middlebury to acknowledge the institutional racism that results in disproportionate impacts of gun violence on black students and says that the SGA supports “unwavering action” to support those students.
The debate over this resolution was much shorter. A clause about charitable organizations was removed after McCormick raised the issue that it’s not the SGA’s responsibility to choose between charitable organizations. This resolution was passed as well, with McCormick opposed, and Andrews, Goldfield, and Aaron, along with senators John Schurer ’21, and Violet Low-Beinart ’19, abstaining.
(04/18/18 4:35pm)
Hannah Ross, Middlebury’s general counsel, and Dave Donahue ’91, special assistant to the president, delivered a presentation on the college’s governance structure last Thursday evening to an audience of seven. The talk was part of the “How Midd Works” initiative led by the Student Government Association and President Laurie L. Patton’s senior leadership group (SLG).
Donahue has worked at the college since 1997, serving as associate dean for library and information services, associate vice president of operations in college advancement and dean in student affairs before becoming special assistant to the president. Ross came to Middlebury in 2003 after representing Princeton University in litigation.
The presentation covered a variety of topics including the college’s position as a non-profit, the role of the Board of Trustees, college finances and future projects. The seven students who attended the talk included Community Council co-chair candidate Lynn Travnikova ’20 and SGA Chief of Staff Ish Alam ’18.
Thursday’s event was one of several action items in the “How Midd Works” initiative within the SGA’s and SLG’s Common Agenda. The Common Agenda was developed in an effort to improve the communications and relationship between students and the administration by giving students a better sense of how the college operates and by giving the administration a better sense of student needs.
Due to the small nature of the crowd, the session was uncommonly interactive, with Ross and Donahue taking questions from the students in attendance throughout the presentation.
After a student asked whether the college was building a dam, Ross and Donahue discussed a potential hydroelectric power project. The potential hydro power generator would be at the falls on Otter Creek.
“We are not building a dam,” responded Donahue, “We are exploring with an energy development company the possibility of a hydro project. The idea of taking advantage of a natural resource to have hydro be part of our energy footprint is pretty cool.”
“And fish friendly, that’s what’s very exciting,” Ross said.
Donahue then turned to the new temporary academic building that will be constructed behind Johnson Memorial Building.
“The building probably has a 35 to 50 year useful life. In the end, what got approved by the town is a permanent building,” Donahue said.
“If it works well and we’re all happy with how it’s functioning, it could be there for that long. It could also be moved and repurposed,” he said, explaining that most buildings are built with an intended lifespan of 100 years when they are part of the master plan, which this building is not.
“This building allows us to do a bunch of those projects,” Donahue said, referring to renovations of Warner, Munroe and Johnson, with the new building serving as an “academic swing space” for people to leave those buildings while they are renovated.
Ross and Donahue also provided an overview of the college’s management structure as a non-profit.
“It doesn’t have any kind of owners, shareholders, or investors. It’s not formed for some private interest and it can’t benefit private interest,” Ross said.
The President and Fellows of Middlebury College, the official name of all the Middlebury entities, is a 501(c)3 non-profit, meaning it is a public charity. “It’s a non-profit because it delivers a public benefit or a public service” Ross said, the public benefit or service in this case being higher education.
“Non-profit organizations have a mission that goes towards public benefit or public service,” she continued, adding that “any extra money goes back into that mission.”
Donahue explained that though the college cannot substantially support political causes due to its non-profit designation, “that doesn’t mean we don’t ever take interest in legislation or stake out a position,” he said.
The presentation then shifted to the role that trustees have in managing the college. Though there can be up to 35 trustees, there are only 33 at the moment. Trustees are chosen by a committee made up of 6 trustees, and can serve up to three five year terms. Trustee emeriti are trustees that have served for 15 years and are lifetime trustees, but do not have voting powers.
Being a trustee is a volunteer position, as trustees receive no compensation. The college president is the exception to this rule, and Donahue explained that Patton, as the president, is a voting member of the board.
Ross explained that trustees hold the “ultimate legal and fiduciary responsibilities,” meaning that they are required to act in the interest of others, which in this case means in the interest of Middlebury. “They have to be acting for the benefit of the students of Middlebury.”
This question of what is benefitting students has been raised recently in discussions around divestment.
“They [the trustees] need to make good decisions so that the non-profit can last a long time,” Ross said. “We have an endowment that is intended to allow us to do that forever.”
Ross went on to discuss how tax structure affects the College. “We are tax-exempt, which is an important form of government support, and we also get grants,” Ross said.
Donahue and Ross then addressed a student question: “How is the Middlebury operating budget affected by the recent tax bill that was passed? I know there was some discussion regarding taxation of endowments.”
“We just barely squeaked under that one,” said Ross. “We are still, along with other colleges, advocating that they reconsider this.” Ross said, however, that it is likely that “they will change the wording and increase the tax, and someday it will catch us.”
Donahue and Ross went on to describe Middlebury’s operating budget, which comes from three sources: tuition and fees, donations and the endowment, and government support.
Of the $270 million annual budget, Ross estimated that $50 million came from the endowment, $40 to 45 million from donations, and most of the remainder from tuition and fees.
“We model our budget on a six percent return on the endowment and a five percent spend,” Donahue said, “with the remaining one percent being spent as part of the operating budget.”
(03/08/18 4:01pm)
The president’s office shared with students a list of committees and advisory groups formed under its “Common Agenda” with the Student Government Association. The document also included future plans for the semester.
In an all-campus email on Feb. 23, President Laurie L. Patton and SGA President Jin Sohn ’18 lauded the actions completed under the agenda, including assigning administrators as liaisons for several issue-specific committees and working together with the SGA.
The SGA and the SLG created the Common Agenda this past fall as a joint effort to improve various aspects of the college. The SGA announced its formation in an email sent to students on Oct. 17.
“This is in the hopes that the SGA and members of the administration will have a more routine check-in, less of a call and response form of communication, so that students and the SGA can have a better understanding of what members of administration are working on, and so that the administration will know what the students need and what the SGA is working towards,” the email read.
The Feb. 23 email included an attachment outlining nine Common Agenda “action items,” the status of each, and the SLG and SGA “leads” for each item.
The first action item involves dining. A 17-member student advisory committee met with head of dining Dan Detora every month and will continue to throughout the spring. David Provost and Jack Goldfield ’20 will continue to lead this initiative.
The next item, “Transparency and Communication,” is led by dean of students Baishakhi Taylor and Varsha Vijayakumar ’20. There are five student groups that work with SLG members to promote collaboration between administrators and students regarding college policy on issues like diversity and investment. Taylor currently meets with two student advisory groups. Chief diversity officer Miguel Fernández and dean of faculty Andi Lloyd each work with their own student advisory groups. Treasurer David Provost advises two student investment clubs.
Future steps on this action item will include the formation of a student advisory group to Bill Burger, the college’s spokesman, additional student representative appointments to the alumni board and annual fund committees, and greater student engagement with the board of overseers.
To address the next item, “Talking, Listening and Better Admin Access,” SLG members have hosted dinners for students at their homes and have met students for lunch in the dining halls. Both practices will continue in the spring semester.
Two other items involve McCullough improvements and “Public Spaces & Art.” Both the McCullough team and the public art team cited the approval of a new mural on the first floor of McCullough as an accomplishment. “Public Spaces and Art” is led by Patton’s special assistant Dave Donahue and Violet Low-Beinart ’19. Low-Beinart will work with director of the arts Pieter Broucke this spring.
Provost, John Schurer ’21 and Diego Garcia ’20 led the “McCullough Improvements” project, which spearheaded the redesign of the Crest Room as a student and faculty lounge. Provost has maintained regular communication with the SGA in order to further improve the building as a social space for students and will continue to do so in the spring.
The “New Traditions” action item has involved the announcement of a new college traditions competition. This item is led by Patton for the SLG, with Rae Aaron ’19.5 and Adiza Mohammed ’18 leading for the SGA. Since going live Feb. 19, the competition has already received 12 proposals. The winner will be announced on April 25.
The “Summer Communications” item is led by Burger, Taylor, general counsel Hannah Ross and Laura Castillo ’19. The team decided to send updates to the college in both late June and early August detailing the SLG’s activities during the summer.
“We the Midd Kids,” the eighth action item, was a system used by students to petition the Middlebury SGA. The team, led by Annie Cowan ’18, with the SLG lead to be determined, hopes to revive this program in the future with support from the SLG.
Lastly, Provost and Ishrak Alam ’18 are spearheading efforts on “Midd Works,” which aims to increase students’ understanding of administrative and facilities functions, finances, alumni engagement and non-profit governance. Strategies to accomplish these aims included talks for the student body in the fall and winter. Ross, Donahue, Provost, vice president for advancement Colleen Fitzpatrick and philanthropic advisor Mike Schoenfeld will participate in “Midd Works” presentations this spring. Provost will also try to arrange for SGA and SLG members to take shifts in dining and facilities, and for SGA members to shadow administrators.
(03/01/18 12:58am)
Students and faculty gathered to discuss the implications of and ways to challenge white supremacy at a teach-in in Wilson Hall on Monday. Some people had to be turned away after all the seats were filled up, despite the last minute addition of an extra row of chairs.
The discussion featured professors Tara Affolter, Kemi Fuentes-George, Rachael Joo, Sujata Moorti and Joyce Mao, of the education studies, political science, American studies, gender studies and history departments, respectively. It was moderated by Linus Owens, professor of sociology and anthropology.
In their opening remarks, all five of the participants said, in various ways, that white supremacy is not just present in radical fringe groups, but is pervasive throughout American society.
Affolter spoke first, saying that white supremacy was part of the founding of the United States, noting that it only took 12 years after the founding of Jamestown for the first slaves to be brought to the United States
“This is white supremacy,” Affolter said. “Space is taken up by white folks.”
“There is a concerted effort to normalize white supremacy,” Joo added.
Fuentes-George spoke of how white supremacy is about “norms and practices, not people.” He acknowledged that white people can be kind to people of color on an individual basis while still supporting the institutions that are part of white supremacy.
Mao made the point that white supremacy is not limited to people who are conservative.
Moorti talked about the phrase “white supremacist capitalist patriarchy,” which she read from bell hooks, and how they were all interlocking structures.
Fuentes-George responded that students of color at Middlebury “have been made very conscious of their minority status,” creating a “system of alienation.” He also said that we must call attention to problematic behavior, even though doing so may be awkward, so that people of color do not have to deal with all the discomfort.
The panelists then spoke on more conservative views on white supremacy. Mao made the point that white conservatives on college campuses perceive themselves as minorities because of the idea that college campuses are part of the liberal establishment and that they don’t feel comfortable voicing their opinions.
“This is not a radical space,” Owens added, noting that conservatives’ practice of framing it as such was a sort of “magic trick.”
On the subject of how to challenge white supremacy, Affolter said that white people should stand up to problematic behavior to avoid placing the burden on people of color.
“What voices are lifted up?” she asked, as she also questioned the types of scholarship professors use in class.
Inevitably, the subject of Charles Murray’s visit to the college came up.
Joo discussed Stanford’s response to Murray’s visit, which was to hold an alternative event focused on building up communities of color.
“There was no way of engaging with Charles Murray in a way that would have been satisfactory,” Fuentes-George said. He brought up the idea of “challenging white supremacy by choosing our own forums.”
These ideas were challenged in the question and answer section by Madeleine Bazemore ’19, who said protesting was about the “evil man” and that she didn’t care that they were playing into the hands of conservatives.
“Student activists can’t win,” Owens said. “Respectability politics is just a way to keep you quiet.”
Fuentes-George said that though he did not believe the protests against Charles Murray’s visit were wrong, he knew how it would be spun by the media.
Esteban Arenas-Pino ’18 asked the panel what their thoughts were on teaching the work of white supremacists, such as Garrett Hardin, author of “The Tragedy of the Commons.”
“I teach about dead white dudes all the time,” Mao said in response, drawing some laughs from the crowd. Arenas-Pino’s question sparked a discussion on how to include minority voices in syllabi.
Mao and Fuentes-George both said that including white people who were involved in white supremacy is inevitable. But Mao said that she tries to highlight minority viewpoints as well, and Fuentes-George said that he has his students consider the beliefs and biases of authors. Joo noted that using racist sources in class can make students of color uncomfortable.
Fuentes-George said that he did not feel like he could make recommendations about syllabus changes to senior professors as an untenured junior professor.
Shatavia Knight ’20 asked about how to make sure that the entire Middlebury community, and not just those in attendance, learn about the issues discussed at the talk. Knight also inquired about how to spur change as a result of talks such as this one.
Fuentes-George said that “the changing balance of power of these institutions” is key to bringing in people who might reexamine their assumptions after listening to the ideas raised at the discussion.
(03/01/18 12:45am)
The Student Government Association (SGA) passed two bills on Feb. 18, one which called for a referendum on Middlebury’s divestment from fossil fuels and one which provided a process by which students may form new club sports teams.
The divestment resolution, proposed by Feb senator Alec Fleischer ’20.5, called for a referendum among students on whether or not Middlebury should divest from fossil fuels.
“We had a successful divestment bill in 2013, a long time ago, but nobody listened to it,” Fleischer said.
He added that the referendum will help to spread the word about divestment and to gauge what percentage of students are in favor of it, rather than relying only on the elected representatives to advocate for change.
“We’ll do a very large ramp up campaign with more events like we saw in the fall, a lot of tabling, doing a lot of just like get out the vote type of things, cause the more people that vote, the better,” Fleischer said.
The fall event Fleischer referred to featured a series of speakers, including professor Bill McKibben, who spoke about why Middlebury should divest. The event was held at the same time as a college trustees meeting.
The referendum will occur during the spring SGA elections.
The club sports bill that passed the same day had been in discussion for several months. Senators John Gosselin ’20, Jack Goldfield ’20 and Rae Aaron ’19.5 authored the bill, which designates any new group hoping to reach club sports status as a “provisional club sport.” This designation will come with $200 in funding for the club’s first two years. After those two years, a joint committee made up of members the SGA student organization oversight committee (SOOC) and the SGA finance committee will decide whether the club will be accepted or rejected as a club sport, or whether it will continue its provisional status.
The bill is an offshoot of an original draft that focused on allowing the club tennis team to become an official club sport, since Middlebury policy previously did not allow club sports where there were existing varsity teams.
“The main motivation behind creating this bill is that there have been a group of students who wanted to start club tennis three or four years ago and they were told no by the student activities office because there already is a varsity sport” said Aaron, who is a member of the club team. “They really just want recognition and they deserve recognition, and I think that the SGA realized that and decided that instead of just opening the rule for one sport, it’s only fair if we open the conversation for all students who are interested in starting a new club sport,” Aaron said.
Doug Connelly, director of club sports, estimated that between four and eight new club sports could apply to be provisional club sports in the first year.
The proposal originally had a number of clauses focused on saving money that were removed because they would have crippled a number of existing club sports teams. The bill ultimately passed in a contentious vote, with eight in favor, one opposed and five abstaining.
“I had a lot of problems with the way the bill was written, how hastily it was written and that it got rid of the only check we had to keeping club sports manageably funded,” said Peter Dykeman-Bermingham ’18.5, chair of the finance committee.
Dykeman-Bermingham noted that when the current club sports bill expires in two years, the new bill will simultaneously allow both new and existing club sports to become more expensive.
“In two years we’re gonna have a really serious budget issue. It opens the door to a whole host of clubs that we are not prepared for financially,” he said, adding that students are concerned that the college will have to raise tuition to accompany the rising student activities fee when the crisis hits.
Club sports make up about 10 percent of the SGA’s annual budget, accounting for $122,000 a year plus an additional $20,000 that was requested this year. Each club sport costs on average $5,000; the cheapest one this year had a budget of $1,305. The current club sports bill caps the any club sport’s funding at 100 percent of its average budget over the last three years.
Though Aaron admitted that the SGA’s biggest concern is the financial aspect of the bill, she had a more optimistic view on the potential costs associated with new club sports.
“I’m not concerned about it getting out of control because our finance committee and our student organization oversight committee are very thorough when they look through which clubs to admit,” she said. “I think it’s just frustrating that the student activities fee has to cover the cost of all club sports.”
After the bill passed, SGA president Jin Sohn ’18, who voted against holding a vote for the bill and then abstained from the vote, called for the SGA to ask for more support from the administration in the handling of club sports.
Dykeman-Bermingham and Gosselin worked on an amendment to the club sports bill that was passed at this week’s SGA meeting on Sunday, Feb. 25. The amendment addresses some of the issues that were immediately apparent in the original bill, such as the inability for teams to purchase snacks.
The SGA also passed the bill calling for the replacement of the dining halls’ disposable containers with reusable foodware at Sunday’s meeting. Students will be able to buy in and get carabiners before spring break, while the reusable containers will be available after the break.
(02/22/18 2:24am)
Dining services has ordered 2,000 reusable containers and is working with student authors of an SGA bill to create a reusable to-go container system. They hope to switch over to the system one week after students return from spring break.
The SGA bill was introduced on Jan. 28 by Leif Taranta ’20.5, Sierra Moen ’17.5 and Feb Senator and SGA Speaker Rae Aaron ’19.5. It calls for the complete removal of to-go cups and containers from all dining halls in order to reduce waste generated by the college.
A straw poll within the SGA indicated support for the bill, though several senators were concerned with the loss of to-go cups. At this time, no official vote has been taken.
The college currently uses 241,000 non-compostable to-go cups per year and 181,000 containers, all of which end up in landfills. Although the containers are compostable, many are thrown away. Dining services spends about $21,000 each year on to-go cups and lids, as well as $27,000 on containers, and estimates that the proposed program would save them $12,000 in just the first year.
According to the proposed bill, the disposable containers would be replaced by reusable containers that students could check out. Each student would have to put down a deposit on a carabiner that would function as a token, which could be exchanged for a to-go box at the dining halls. When the box is returned, the student would be given another token to get a new box in the future. Dining services would then clean the containers for students. Students would be expected to provide their own travel thermoses if they wanted to take away hot drinks.
Students would pay five dollars at any campus retail location to get their first carabiners, which they could exchange for their five dollar deposits at any time. These deposits would be applied to their declining balances. If a student lost their carabiner or reusable container, they would have to pay another $5 to get a new carabiner.
The new containers cost the college $6,995 or $3.50 per container. The college also plans to purchase 2,000 carabiners, costing $1.15 each.
Sophomore Senator Jack Goldfield ’20 and others voiced opposition to the initial five dollar buy-in. Other concerns included the ease of use of the new system and the availability and cleanliness of containers.
A pilot period for the to-go boxes occurred during December and one of the complaints of the otherwise-successful program was that the boxes were too big. “It would be too difficult from an operational standpoint to have multiple containers,” said Dan Detora, head of dining. He also said that other colleges with similar reusable to-go container systems use only one container size.
Detora indicated that disposable silverware would stay. Disposable to-go cups will also still be available at the non-dining hall food locations campus, such as Wilson Café, but discounts will be offered for those students who bring reusable mugs to be filled there. Some locations, including Wilson and Crossroads, already offer discounts for reusable mugs, which would be advertised as part of the new program since many students are not aware of the discounts.
A clause in the bill stipulates that travel mugs and water bottles be made available for purchase at wholesale prices at college retail locations and that students receiving financial aid will receive funds to cover these additional costs.
(01/17/18 11:17pm)
The college admissions team released the first round of early decision acceptances on Dec. 9. Of the 650 applicants, 326 students were accepted, putting the admissions rate at just over 50 percent. Those students accepted early decision are bound to attend the college.
The average number of students accepted early decision tends to be a little over 300. This year’s number was lower than last year, when 343 students were accepted as part of the early decision one process.
In addition to the 326 acceptances, 39 applicants were deferred to the regular decision pool, and the remaining students were rejected. 300 of the accepted students will start in September, while the remaining 26 will begin in February.
The final size of the combined classes of 2022 and 2022.5 is expected to total around 715 students. The 326 already accepted students make up about 45 percent of that total. Feb classes generally total around 100 people, which means that only about 25 percent of the class of 2022.5 has been admitted.
Twenty-three percent of the admitted class consists of students of color, and 11 percent are the first person in their family to go to college. Diversity is down from the 28 percent of last years class that consisted of students of color.
The accepted students are from 32 states plus Washington, D.C., and 20 countries. 29 international students are among the 326. Other than the United States, the most common countries that students come from are Canada, China, and the Philippines. The best represented state is New York, followed by Massachusetts, California, Connecticut, Illinois and Vermont.
30 of the admitted students were a part of the Posse Foundation, an organization that helps public school students who display academic and leadership potential to access elite schools that might otherwise overlook them. The admitted students are part of three 10 person teams from Los Angeles, New York and Chicago.
The early decision process has been criticized in the past for favoring wealthy applicants who do not have to be concerned with financial aid packages. The binding nature of early decision applications means that students do not have the opportunity to compare financial aid packages from different schools.
This criticism led to some schools, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford to replace early decision with single-choice early action. This system allows students to apply to one school in the early admission process without being bound to that school.
The ED2 decisions will come out in February, before the final round of admissions decisions are released in April.
(12/07/17 12:22am)
The Student Government Association (SGA) passed a resolution on Sunday titled “Support for Black and Minority Students,” which included calls for changed judicial practices and new training for faculty and staff.
The vote was near unanimous, with only Cook Commons Senator Connor McCormick ’18 abstaining. The resolution was drafted by SGA Speaker and Feb Senator Rae Aaron ’19.5, SGA President Jin Sohn ’18, First-Year Senator David Vargas and President of the Black Student Union (BSU) Charles Rainey ’19.
The resolution consists of eight points.
Two of the points focus on judicial processes. One calls for restorative justice training for the academic and judicial boards. Another calls for students to be able to appeal their policy violation decisions to the judicial board retroactively, after policies have changed.
To increase transparency, a clause suggests a website to record the school’s progress with goals and deadlines.
Another point asks the college to hire an outside conflict mediator. For current employees, one clause calls for mandatory diversity training for all faculty and staff members and de-escalation training for campus security personnel.
In a notable statement coming from the SGA, which has no black representatives, the resolution also calls for increased representation of black and minority students in decision making bodies.
Two broad resolutions call for expedited responses to occurences of racism on campus and increased communication between the administration and student cultural organizations.
Although some senators expressed concern that the resolution was too open-ended, only one change was made during the discussion before the resolution was passed. A friendly amendment by Community Council Co-Chair Kyle Wright ’19.5 calling for the SGA to work with Community Council on the issues in the resolution was accepted as the ninth clause of the document.
Aaron said that Rainey was a major help in making the resolution possible.
“[Rainey] came to the SGA right when tensions were really high earlier in the fall and we decided as a senate that something needed to happen, but we weren’t sure what it was,” Aaron said.
“These grievances have been here on this campus for a long time, black students have felt unheard long before I got to campus, long before [Aaron] got to campus, by both the SGA and the administration,” Rainey said. “This is a first step. I don’t want to say that it’s done.”
“There’s a discord between black students who get more jaded much more quickly than our white counterparts might when it comes to relationships with the SGA,” Rainey continued. “What I hope is that this bill serves as a first step towards saying, ‘Hey, the SGA can be an advocacy body for black students and for minorities,’ and help rebuild the trust that hasn’t been there for a while.”
On Monday, President Laurie L. Patton announced the creation of a new position, Director of Diversity and Inclusion Education and Training, which may partially address clauses three and six: the hiring of an outside mediator and mandatory diversity training.
“What we’re realizing is that there are so many conversations happening among the faculty and the administration and students about the same things” Aaron said. “Hopefully, this bill will show support for the processes the administration is already working on and that they’ll continue to be transparent with us to make sure that black students on campus and the SGA and others know what tangible actions are happening.”
(11/01/17 8:59pm)
As Middlebury’s board of trustees convened inside Old Chapel on Thursday, Oct. 19, members of the college community rallied outside to renew a years-long call for the college to divest from fossil fuels.
The event, described as a teach-in, was organized by the student group Divest Middlebury. Scheduled to coincide with the trustees’ annual fall meeting, the event featured speeches by three students and three community members.
“The place we love is not behaving in the way that we need it to behave,” said Bill McKibben, an environmental activist and scholar at the college, who headlined the event. “It’s not a very hard thing that we’re asking.”
Divest Middlebury calls for the college’s board of trustees to withdraw all investments that the college holds in any of the top 200 fossil fuel corporations—a ranking maintained by the environmental advocacy group Fossil Free. The college’s endowment, managed by the firm Investure, currently invests $60 million in corporations on that list.
The Divest Middlebury campaign began in 2012, and the board of trustees voted against divestment that same year. A resolution supporting divestment was passed by the Student Government Association (SGA) in 2013, and a 2017 SGA survey showed that 67% of the student body supports divestment.
Alec Fleischer ’20.5 delivered the first student speech, providing an overview of the divestment movement and its goals. Fleischer then led the crowd in a chant of “Stand up, fight back,” intending to be heard by the trustees inside Old Chapel.
Esteban Arenas-Pino ’18 spoke next, focusing on Middlebury’s history of student protest.
“In May 1969, 250 students staged a sit-in in Coltrane to demand the faculty take a position on the role of ROTC on campus and the dissolution of the department of military science,” he said. “Clearly, since then, the campus legacy has been one of activism.”
Arenas-Pino framed divestment as a matter of social justice, calling for the end of “carbon colonialism and the modern climate apartheid that renders those in the global south the most vulnerable to climate injustices caused by global warming.”
Emma Ronai-Durning ’18.5 voiced similar sentiments. “Divestment has called attention to the essential connections between capitalism and racism in creating climate destruction,” she said.
“[The trustees] missed an opportunity to be leaders in environmental justice, climate justice and what they claim they stand for,” she said. “Today, as the board continues to hide behind its guise of neutrality, students haven’t taken no for an answer. We see that there is only one answer: that’s organizing.”
Non-student speakers focused on the impacts of climate change already being felt in Addison County. “It poured rain for three months here,” said Fran Putnam, a Weybridge resident. “The farmers who normally plant their corn the middle of May, they planted their corn on July 6.”
McKibben discussed the trustees’ past failure to divest, and the movement’s continued importance.
“I had high hopes so that Middlebury could be the first place to divest, and we really had it lined up. It was great, everybody here talking” he said. “Sadly, Middlebury whiffed. The trustees weren’t quite up to it then, couldn’t bring themselves to do it.”
McKibben emphasized that the growing renewable energy sector, in conjunction with an unstable fossil fuel industry, makes divestment an economically sound choice. “We’re moving away from fossil fuels. That’s the past, not the future,” he said.
“It behooves, in this place in particular, the board of trustees to pay some attention to the moral authority of the people who will have to live through the crises that we are now creating,” he said, invoking the elder generations of which he and many trustees are a part. “We’re going to be dead before climate change hits at its absolute worst.”
The crowd at the protest matched the leaves on the trees, wearing the orange that has come to symbolize the divest movement. Despite the blustery weather, attendance exceeded one hundred students.
Bea Lee ’20.5 was one of them. “I want to do more than wear a piece of orange felt on my backpack,” she said.
(10/11/17 10:48pm)
First-year students John Schurer and David Vargas won the Student Government Association (SGA) election for first-year senator. Over half of the Class of 2021 voted, with 322 ballots cast.
Ten students competed for the two spots. Schurer finished first with twenty percent of the vote (130 ballots total), leading Vargas, with 14.5 percent of the vote (93 ballots). Vargas beat the next closest competitor, Eun Ho Lee, by a mere ten votes.
However, the top three finishers account for only forty-seven percent of cast ballots.
Vargas said he is excited to be “representing one of Middlebury’s largest and most diverse classes in recent memory.” On winning such a tightly contested election, he said it carries “as much honor as it does responsibility.”
A member of the First-Year Committee, Institutional Diversity Committee and the Sexual and Relationship Respect Committee, Vargas feels that his activities on campus provide him with “the capacity to facilitate change.”
For his upcoming term in SGA, Vargas said his three main goals are to “help Middlebury better recognize and address gender-based violence on campus, open new avenues of communication between the student body and the administration that promote transparency and accountability and expand access to facilities and resources.” Vargas will be one of many voices attempting to promote transparency within the administration, an increasingly prevalent topic of political discourse on campus.
Schurer highlighted the personal relationship he hopes to build with his constituents. His first goal is an ambitious one: “to get to know each and every person in the Class of 2021, not only by name and face but by story, identity, interests and aspirations.”
Such a goal is crucial, Schurer said, in order for him to “have a comprehensive perspective and accurate pulse on my classmates’ expectations, needs, and desires.” Indeed, he said, such personal connections are necessary in order to achieve true representation.
“If I am supposed to ‘represent’ the Class of 2021, then it is only right that I make a great effort to represent each and every person who comprises it,” he said.
Like Vargas, Schurer emphasized institutional accountability, noting that through personal relationships, “we can create a culture of transparency and approachability in which everyone feels extremely welcome talking to me about anything.”