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Middlebury students are often taught that the skills a Middlebury education fosters are ones that will prepare us to be leaders, to make our own informed decisions or to strike out on our own paths. The “Our Students” tab of the college’s website even touts that Middlebury is home to students who want to “make [their] own future.”
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The Middlebury College experience is marketed to prospective students as a place full of extracurricular possibilities and opportunities. We’ve all seen the brochures and heard the classic line about student organizations at Middlebury: If you don’t see a club that interests you, start one.
Over the past few years, Middlebury community members have become accustomed to the impacts of having a larger-than-typical number of students enrolled at the college — a housing crunch, packed classes and stressful course registration processes. Historically, around 2,500 students have called Middlebury home each year. In recent years, however, that number has crept up to more than 2,800.
With few Covid-19 guidelines still in place, many parts of campus life are starting to return to pre-pandemic routines. Students are once again able to eat in the dining halls, attend most classes without masks and go out to parties or other gatherings on the weekends.
Next week, Middlebury’s Board of Trustees will meet to discuss, among other things, tuition for the 2023–24 academic year. They will almost certainly increase tuition, in keeping with the trends of past years. Tuition increased by 4.5% last year and 2.5% the year before.
December is upon us, and with it the lovely and long-awaited Finals Season. The days are shorter; your once enjoyable afternoon class now feels like a time warp when you leave only to find it is pitch black outside. We now layer up to brave the long walks between classes, just to feel suffocated when stepping into the intense Proctor heat. Morning conversations of “How’s it going?” have turned from lighthearted to the simple “It’s going.”
“Your individual thoughts and ideas are fostered here, and the opportunities to express them are endless. Students are also able to start new clubs each year, so the possibilities for engagement are virtually limitless.” In reading this messaging from Middlebury’s admissions web page, one would expect the extracurricular experience to be inviting and seamless. Unfortunately, the image presented to prospective students does not hold true to our experience as active members of the Middlebury community.
The Supreme Court began hearing the oral arguments for two cases which will decide the future role of race in college admissions on Oct. 30. In the 40 years since Regents of the University of California v. Bakke established affirmative action’s constitutionality, there have been numerous challenges. The Supreme Court, even as recently as 2016, has continually upheld affirmative action. But this court is different. Many believe that given the court’s conservative supermajority, it is not a matter of if affirmative action will be overturned, but to what extent.
Trigger Warning: This article contains mentions of student death.
During the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, Middlebury students were frequently granted additional flexibility and room for self-care. From the expanded Credit/No Credit grading system to more lax due dates and “freebie” late days, there was infrastructure in place to grant more space to students when they were struggling.
This summer, Middlebury implemented a new compensation system for staff that seeks to promote “ownership and impact” for employees. The plan centers on a “skill matrix” which places staff in one of four categories — ‘learning,’ ‘growing,’ ‘thriving’ and ‘leading’— which then is used to determine their pay grade.
We’re guessing that most of us don’t want broken glass, beer cans, vomit or urine in the spaces we inhabit. Yet a return to the pre-Covid party scene has also, unfortunately, ushered in a return of damage, destruction and vandalism of both public and private spaces. We’re not totally sure why drunk students like to smash, steal and break things on nights out, but we do know that it represents a level of entitlement and disregard that other community members should in no way have to deal with.
This week, Middlebury’s chapter of the AAUP published an op-ed in The Campus calling for a 10% faculty wage increase, which they state is still less than the 16% they would be granted if raises were correctly adjusted for inflation. They note that “not investing in employees is a short-sighted strategy that will save some money now, but cost the College much more in the future.”
The recently reported admission statistics for the class of 2026 and 2026.5 illustrate a significant increase in the prevalence of first-generation students: 21% of these incoming students are the first in their family to attend college, compared to 11% of the class of 2023 and 2023.5. The percentage of domestic students of color is also the highest in the college’s history at 38%.
As a residential college in which 95% of students supposedly live on campus, Middlebury states that their “residential system embodies that culture of living, learning, and growing together.” The close-knit, intimate housing community on campus is widely touted as one of the hallmarks of student life on our liberal arts campus. Yet, after the last two housing draws, students have found themselves in singles far away from their friends, forced to live off campus at places like the Inn on the Green, or placed en masse in August draw. Over-enrollment coupled with a lack of housing availability continues to jeopardize the residential student experience that our college professes to hold so dear.
In a couple of weeks, the last class who has experienced a full year of pre-pandemic Middlebury will graduate. This has left some of us wondering about the potential loss of institutional memories and traditions that flourished before the onset of social distancing and Zoom links.
Around the midway point of the 2022 Zeitgeist survey, our 1,134 respondents encountered a rather blunt question: “Are you happy?”, with only “yes” or “no” answer options. While we acknowledge how this binary greatly oversimplifies this inquiry, we were curious as to how Middlebury students would opt to characterize their happiness when confronted with only two choices.
On April 13, fellow NESCAC institution Williams College announced its commitment to move to a fully-grant based financial aid system, effectively eliminating loans and work study packages. This shift is said to benefit the 53% of students who are on financial aid, at a cost of 6.75 million dollars per year.
The Editorial Board of The Campus is proud and excited to endorse Raymond Diaz ’23 for Student Government Association (SGA) president for the 2022–23 academic year. Diaz, who plans to appoint Evelyn Magdaleno ’24 as his vice president, boasts an impressive background of campus leadership positions in organizations including JusTalks, ResLife and Distinguished Men of Color (DMC).