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(12/07/17 12:27am)
As part of the college’s efforts to improve “cultural competency and racial awareness” on campus, President Laurie L. Patton has announced the establishment of a new position, entitled director of diversity and inclusion education and training.
Patton announced the position in a college-wide email sent to students, faculty, and staff on Monday. This individual will be responsible for both evaluating Middlebury’s current level of inclusivity competency and creating educational training programs tailored to campus community members.
The new position follows an ongoing conversation regarding diversity and racial sensitivity at Middlebury, which took center stage during the town hall event held at Mead Chapel on Nov. 8. Specifically, the administration’s decision comes in light of requests made by students and faculty alike to incorporate educational facilitators within additional skill-building diversity programs.
The administration hopes this new faculty position will increase racial awareness and cultural sensitivity throughout the college. The new director is thus expected to highlight the complexities underlying micro-aggressions, racial bias, and de-escalation as a means to prevent instances of misunderstanding moving forward.
Establishing diversity expertise within the administration will also provide additional flexibility regarding the nature and frequency of educational sessions. Middlebury will be equipped to both bypass outside organizational dependence and alter its training programs over time to maximize their effectiveness. This system also affords more opportunities for community feedback to actively shape the direction of future diversity initiatives.
The administration intends to begin recruiting for the position during early 2018, following the formation of a search committee composed of students, staff and faculty members. Candidate qualifications will range from experience in racial and social justice education to an understanding of restorative communal practices.
Students are encouraged to provide input both during the hiring process and once the diversity education programs begin.
(11/01/17 10:49pm)
The Student Government Association (SGA) has recently formulated a common agenda in collaboration with the administration and President of Middlebury Laurie L. Patton. The agenda lists nine specific points that the administration and the SGA will collectively work to address in the coming years.
Patton proposed the creation of a common agenda during the SGA’s fall retreat in September as a way of addressing a multitude of concerns and suggestions expressed by the student body.
“During meetings in September, we’ve talked with SGA about what was on their minds, and what was on ours,” Patton said. “And it seemed right to both of us that we could come up with a common list of ideas that we work on together.”
“During our fall retreat, Laurie Patton came and talked to us about a series of propositions we as the SGA had collectively decided on,” said SGA Deputy Chief of Staff Annie Cowan ’18. “She brought her own ideas coming in, and we essentially meshed them together with ours.”
The nine points currently included within the common agenda are as follows: expanding general transparency and communication, developing a “How Midd Works” program to explain the basic functions of various college bodies, creating a new set of Middlebury traditions, improving SGA and administrative accessibility, adjusting dining services, communicating changes made over the summer, reviving the “We the Midd Kids” consulting platform, developing public spaces that accommodate student art and altering McCullough Student Center to become more student-centric.
Both the SGA and Patton hope that the establishment of a common agenda will strengthen collaboration and communication between the student body and the administration moving forward.
“In the past, a lot of what the SGA did and what President Patton’s Senior Leadership Group (SLG) did felt distant, similar to a call-and-response type of relationship,” said SGA President Jin Sohn ’18. “For this year, we want to focus on building a closer relationship with the SLG by creating a set of benchmark goals together.”
“I know that I and my colleagues in SLG are interested in getting work done with students that we all care about,” Patton said. “Why not make a regular custom of creating a work plan at the beginning of the year, so that we can refer back to that and see how we’re making progress? Then we can actually focus on what we have in common.”
Regarding the implementation process, the SGA is still debating whether to convert the agenda into a piece of legislation that the Senate may vote on.
“There’s no formal process of doing this, since it has never been done before,” Sohn said. “We don’t have to make the agenda into legislation if it isn’t necessary, but if it would make the plan more available to the student body, then it is probably something we will do.”
The SGA has, however, begun assigning senators to focus on specific points within the common agenda based on their interests and committee specializations.
“We asked different senators to let us know which particular points of the common agenda they were interested in working on alongside their existing initiatives,” SGA Chief of Staff Ishrak Alam ’18 said. “That sort of delegation will be important to make sure that no point or discipline goes unnoticed.”
Both Patton and SGA members acknowledge the long-term nature of certain agenda initiatives, particularly those calling for the alteration of buildings on campus.
“There are long term goals and short term goals,” Patton said. “The ones involving changing buildings usually involve a lot more than just students. They also involve consultations with faculty, staff, and trustees as well. They are also the most costly. So they will take multiple years to effect change. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t start now by hearing from students and developing a plan.”
While a portion of the agenda’s initiatives will not be implemented by the end of this academic year, the SGA hopes that establishing overarching goals alongside the administration will set a precedent for future years.
“There are nine big items on the common agenda, and we recognize that we won’t be able to get all of them done this year,” Alam said. “The idea of a common agenda with the administration and the SGA working together is one that we hope will last, and one that we will work together with the incoming leadership for next year to instill.”
“I think the point of the common agenda is to create a year-by-year description of the goals that exist between the SGA and the administration,” Cowan said. “Hopefully, the next group of SGA members will work again with the administration to form an agenda for whatever problems that might arise in the future.”
While the common agenda will remain a priority for the SGA, student leaders will still work to address alternative concerns that are not explicitly mentioned within this collaborative framework.
“The things that are on the common agenda are not the only things the SGA will be working on,” Sohn said. “There are some things that the SGA might disagree with the SLG about, and those are things that probably won’t make the common agenda.”
The SGA hopes to release a finalized version of the common agenda at some point either this week or next week to allow for student feedback.
(10/18/17 11:28pm)
The Middlebury Student Government Association (SGA) recently passed a proposal to incorporate a new “Midd Day” event into the school calendar. This proposal will enable the President of Middlebury to select one day every academic year to cancel all classes so that students may enjoy the Vermont foliage.
The initial concept for Midd Day was suggested by President Laurie L. Patton, and, having been received enthusiastically by student leaders, the event proposal was passed unanimously by the SGA. Moving forward, President Patton will lead the event’s implementation process and introduce the idea to fellow members of the administration.
“The SGA originally heard the idea of having a Midd Day from President Patton, who was looking for student support to move forward,” Feb senator Rae Aaron ’19.5 said. “It can be hard for Middlebury students to slow down and enjoy the beauty of Vermont during the semester, but Midd Day has the potential to give students and faculty a break from everything to appreciate the people and nature around us.”
Originally referred to as “Mountain Day,” the event was renamed “Midd Day” in order to incorporate the entire Middlebury community as opposed to strictly those who regularly participate in outdoor activities.
“[Community council co-chair] Kyle Wright ’19.5 and [senator] Hannah Pustejovsky ’18 contributed valuable ideas about inclusivity, especially in changing the name from Mountain Day to Midd Day to put the emphasis on community and enjoying the outdoors rather than solely on hiking,” Aaron explained.
Many SGA members hope that the incorporation of a Midd Day will improve students’ well-being amidst difficult courses and large workloads.
“I think this could be the first step in a shift of campus culture surrounding mental health and purposeful time off from school,” senator Hannah Pustejovsky ’18 said. “I am very excited for the prospect of having this day to enjoy Vermont with my friends and hopefully the greater Middlebury community.”
(10/11/17 11:05pm)
The Middlebury bookstore has recently announced plans to switch its textbook distribution platform to a purely online system by the spring semester of 2018. This online platform will be run by the international textbook company MBS Direct, a change that the administration hopes will reduce students’ expenses while simultaneously improving convenience.
The bookstore has credited their desire to shift textbook distribution methods to a gradual decline in book sales, resulting from the growing popularity of websites such as Amazon among Middlebury students.
“With more and more students competitively shopping at other book retailers, such as Amazon, we have seen book sales declining,” college bookstore manager Erin Jones-Poppe said. “We cannot afford to continue in our current trajectory. It doesn’t make sense.”
The bookstore also believes that the large number of resources provided by MBS Direct will reduce students’ costs and improve the convenience of textbook purchases.
“MBS Direct and has 25 years of experience in the direct-to-student distribution with 20 of those being e-commerce,” Jones-Poppe said. “We’re limited in what we do here at the school, whereas the scope of MBS Direct is much larger.”
To provide additional context for textbook prices, MBS Direct will list offers from alternative market sellers on the same page as the MBS price for a given book. This feature is intended to limit the amount of price comparisons students must make in order to find the optimal deals for classroom materials.
“Students will be able to shop for their books not only from MBS Direct, but from other market place sellers all on one screen,” Jones-Poppe said. “It really is a one-screen, one-shot deal that shows you the money you could be saving.”
The bookstore does not believe that these alternative outlets will negatively impact business moving forward. The new online system is not intended to force students to buy from solely the bookstore, but rather to simplify price comparisons between multiple options.
“I think that MBS Direct is confident in their pricing, so much so that they will allow you to see other outlets’ prices,” Jones-Poppe said. “They know that Amazon is a huge competitor, and many students who already buy off Amazon will probably continue to do so. I don’t think that we are worried about losing business, but at least now students have streamlined options.”
The MBS Direct website will also feature the buyback price of a given book directly next to the purchase price. This system will more accurately communicate the net cost of each book, assuming it is re-sold at the end of the semester.
“MBS Direct will have what is called a guaranteed buyback,” Jones-Poppe said. “Right now, if you ask me how much you will get for reselling a textbook to the bookstore, I won’t really know as teacher’s plans and course materials might change. MBS Direct, from the beginning of buying your books, can tell you exactly how much you will get back for that text in December, so it really shows you the true cost of ownership.”
The new system is also intended to expand the availability of rental and electronic textbooks beyond the bookstore’s current offerings.
“Every title under [MBS Direct] will be available as a rental, whereas [the bookstore] only offers around 30% of its textbooks for rent,” Jones-Poppe said. “Also, I’m almost positive that every E-book [MBS Direct] has will be available, so there will be so many more options than what we can currently provide.”
The bookstore hopes to initiate additional conversations with faculty members to promote and facilitate the use of electronic books among students.
“We had a situation just this semester where a professor did not want laptops in the class room, but we informed them that the only option for their course materials was in e-book form, so therefore an exception had to be made,” Jones-Poppe said. “We are all in this together, trying to understand how [technology] will affect our day to day, and so as I cannot answer for specific Professors, these conversations will need to happen, and possible exceptions made.”
Under the MBS Direct system, the bookstore return policy will no longer require proof that a student has officially dropped a given class in order to return that course’s materials. Instead, students will be able to review their previous orders on the MBS Direct website, receive a return code, and ship their materials directly back to the MBS Direct facility for a full refund.
“The return policy will change as well, as returns will no longer go through the bookstore, but be returned directly to MBS, just as you would return any online purchase,” Jones-Poppe said. “That means student funds are no longer tied up in a store credit, but the student can receive the full value for their book via the original tender method.”
MBS Direct will continue to implement the voucher system currently in place for students receiving financial aid. However, the bookstore is working on alternative methods to aid students that do not qualify for the voucher program but still lack the means to purchase textbooks.
“MBS has a voucher system for low-income students that will be attached to a student ID and will provide a voucher total for students to use during checkout,” Jones-Poppe said. “So, these students will still be able to use the same system, but it will just be direct from the bookseller rather than going through us. The students who don’t qualify for vouchers will still have free shipping on orders of $90 or more, and we’re also working on obtaining really cheap flat-rate two-day shipping.”
The bookstore does not believe that the mail center will face unreasonable volume under this new system. Students’ textbook purchases will be shipped directly to the bookstore’s address in order to alleviate any additional pressures that would have been imposed onto the mailroom staff.
“Under MBS, we are working to make a default shipping address where student orders automatically come to the bookstore to alleviate shipments addressed to 14 Old Chapel Road,” Jones-Poppe said. “No one is really worried about potential increases in Amazon shipments to the mail center. I think it would be different if every single textbook order accidentally went down there, but I don’t think that should be an issue.”
Moving forward, the administration hopes that the upcoming shift to MBS Direct will increase the transparency of the textbook purchasing process.
“We want students to see how it would behoove them to use this system as opposed to going to Amazon,” Jones-Poppe said. “We really want to educate students on the entire textbook process.”
(10/04/17 11:57pm)
The facilities staff at the college has recently begun the process of updating sidewalks throughout campus, successfully overseeing the construction of three new stone pathways surrounding Proctor dining hall. These pathways are intended to make traversing campus both more convenient and safer for the community.
“In facilities, we’re quite concerned with accessibility, and we want to make sure that you can walk on all the sidewalks well,” said Time Parsons, a landscape horticulturalist at the college. “We’re extremely wary of areas next to sidewalks where the dirt has worn away due to erosion. If [the path] dips down enough, you could potentially twist your ankle and get injured.”
The facilities team initially conceived the idea to update Middlebury’s sidewalk infrastructure last spring, and began constructing the new paths prior to the start of the academic year.
The mason who constructed the paths was Brad Lambert, who works for the college’s carpentry department. Parsons said the paths only took “a couple of days” to build.
In order to maximize the effectiveness of the new pathways, Parsons and the facilities team carefully observed student movement patterns and used their findings to decide where to install new pathways. Many students, for example, used to cut across a flower bed in front of Proctor dining hall to reach the language tables entrance. After the facilities team identified this makeshift pathway, they decided to turn it into a formal brick pathway.
“Sidewalks in general are really hard to lay out,” Parsons said. “It seems to be a real urban mentality to stay on the sidewalk because when you’re in the city, stepping off usually means getting hit by a car. But in a place like this, it’s damn cold, and you want to get from point A to point B as fast as possible, and if there’s not a walkway there, you don’t care as much.”
The new sidewalks are made of granite stones instead of conventional concrete due to the constructional constraints of filling new sections of concrete near older sidewalks.
“There’s a lot more to a sidewalk than what you see, as there might be a foot and a half of concrete underneath,” Parsons said. “If you have a corner where two sidewalks meet, pouring concrete can get tough. We thought that these granite stones would then be a lot easier and more manageable, so we picked three or four key spots on campus to test them out.”
Because the durability of these granite stones in cold conditions is still unclear, the college is holding off on building additional stone pathways until after this winter.
“[The stones] may move too much in the winter, we might not be able to plow on top of them, or the frost might lift them up,” Parsons said. “This is really a trial run. We do not yet know whether the cost of these stones will outweigh that of concrete. When we do figure that out, we certainly may add more of these pathways; we’re always looking to upgrade, but it’s really too soon to say.”
Moving forward, Parsons urges students to voice their opinion on whether current pathways require maintenance or if additional sidewalks are needed in certain areas of campus.
“I’m always open to hearing from students where it’s hard to walk or where sidewalks should be,” Parsons said. “There are some key spots that I know of, and [updating Middlebury’s pathways] is on a large to-do list that we have.”
(09/28/17 12:17am)
In response to threats of violence following student protests of Charles Murray’s lecture last spring, as well as recent hostilities at the University of Virginia, administrators moved to revise the college’s policies on events and invited speakers.
Provost Susan Baldridge first announced the changes in an email on Sept. 15, which outlined “interim procedures for scheduling events and invited speakers.” These new policies, Baldridge wrote, were the result of “work by members of the administration, Public Safety/Campus Security, and local and state law enforcement.”
Under these interim policies, those seeking to schedule an event will be required to submit a request three weeks in advance, and outline any potential safety risks. Proposed events will then be subject to review by the Student Activities, Event Management and Communications staff.
If that review finds that an event is “likely to be the target of threats or violence,” it will be subject to additional reviews by Public Safety and by the administration’s Risk Management team, to determine adequate safety measures. In “exceptional cases” in which the review finds “significant risk to the community,” the president and senior administrators reserve the right to cancel events.
STUDENTS TARGETED
Senior administrators began to discuss revising the event policies at the beginning of the summer. Karen Miller, vice president for human resources and risk, told The Campus that the Charles Murray protests were a motivating factor, along with related threats that ensued.
“The events of March 2 coupled with the subsequent threats against students, faculty and administrators, did create a new awareness of the risks we face,” Miller said. She added that the discussions “took on a new urgency” following the violent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, which were partially centered on the University of Virginia campus.
Senior Senator Hannah Pustejovsky ’18, who also served last year in the Student Government Association (SGA), is among the community members who received threats and hateful messages last semester.
“I wrote a bill trying to create an appeals process for speakers to give students an institutional way to file a complaint,” Pustejovsky said. “It must have gotten shared in some alt-right Facebook groups, because I got an influx of Facebook messages from white Texan males and my name began showing up on conservative online articles all within a three day period.”
Pustejovsky’s name, and the bill she wrote, were mentioned on a multitude of conservative internet sites, including The DailyWire, CampusReform, and The Federalist.
“It was more frustrating than anything, because it was as if these people were coming in and didn’t really know what we were talking about,” Pustejovsky said. “I couldn’t understand why these people had such a high stake in [our affairs] but didn’t take the time to research things or truly read the bill.”
According to Miller, the threats leveled against Pustejovsky were part of a larger pattern. In addition to the individual students who were targeted, the institution itself also received threats from outside sources.
One such threat emerged at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In June, a student there received a letter denouncing “mobs” and “rioters” at schools including Middlebury. The letter urged readers to put “holes in the bodies of such thugs.”
After learning of the Wisconsin incident, a college spokesman told The Campus in June they were aware of the threat.
“In the months after the protests of March 2 we became aware of a number of vague threats made against our community,” Miller said this week. “None proved to be credible.”
The college hopes these interim policies will better prepare the campus for more serious threats, should they arise, in the future.
MIDDLEBURY COMMUNITY RESPONDS
The college’s decision to implement these interim procedures generated both positive and negative responses, on and off campus.
Kyle Wright ’19.5, Co-Chair of Community Council, and no fan of Charles Murray’s, hopes that the interim procedures will foster community-building.
“There is, reflected in these interim procedures, a great degree of hope for a renewed and compassionate conversation surrounding the community we are hoping to build here at Middlebury,” said Wright, an avid defender of student protesters. “We all have an opportunity to engage in the conversations that will now follow, wherein we will seek to define guidelines that foster inclusive discourse — prior to, during, and after events — and protect the members of our community who are most historically vulnerable to violence and exclusion.”
Some conservatives, however, have criticized the procedures’ cancellation provision, which they suggest will allow protesters to shut down events pre-emptively.
Ari Fleischer ’82, a former press secretary for President George W. Bush, voiced his displeasure on Twitter, claiming that the cancellation provision “rewards the heckler's veto.”
“Speakers will not be allowed on campus if groups on campus say they will shut down the speaker,” Fleischer wrote.
Phil Hoxie ’17.5, head of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) club, voiced a similar sentiment.
“This policy falsely equates speech with violence and wrongly punishes speakers for the potential violence of others who reject the principle of free expression,” Hoxie said. “I would hope that the administration would rethink their policies to promote the rights and viewpoints of all members of our community.”
Former SGA President Karina Toy ’17 expressed concern regarding the policy’s mandate for a three-week advanced notice for future events.
“For well-planned events this should not be a problem, as reservations usually occur months in advance,” Toy said. “[But] it will force staff, students, and faculty to plan ahead of time and [could] prevent spontaneous, potentially really awesome, events from happening.”
After sending the Sept. 15 email, Baldridge said administrators have responded to “about a dozen questions” from community members relating to the interim policies. Moving forward, she plans to communicate with community groups to devise a plan for crafting permanent procedures.
“This week I’ll be reaching out to the leaders of the governance groups on campus here and in Monterey to ask how they would like to approach the process of moving to a more permanent approach,” Baldridge said on Monday. “Once we have arrived at an agreed-upon process, I’ll be letting the campus know.”
(09/20/17 11:57pm)
The Envisioning Middlebury program is currently entering its second year of implementation, and both student groups and administrators feel optimistic about the initiative’s future.
“The Envisioning Middlebury initiative is both bold and comprehensive,” said Rae Aaron ’19.5, Speaker of the Student Government Association (SGA) Senate. “[It] forces members of our community to ask ourselves forward-looking questions that expand our day-to-day outlook.”
President Laurie L. Patton initially announced her “Envisioning Middlebury” plan in March 2016, describing it as a way to address institutional issues and reassert communal values over the coming two years. President Patton intended to use this process as a mechanism to define questions regarding Middlebury’s identity, its principles, and the direction it will take moving forward.
“The goal,” Provost Susan Baldridge said, “was a nimble, inclusive, and forward-looking process, leading to a visionary and strategic foundation that is informed by our values and traditions, and can serve as a means of guiding, aligning and prioritizing the future.”
The administration established a steering committee and an advisory committee to gain communal feedback and incorporate a wide variety of constituencies, hoping to draft an inclusive and relevant strategic framework on how Middlebury should proceed. These organizations held a variety of surveys and facilitated conversations to address particular concerns or ideas on campus, ultimately garnering the participation of over two thousand community members.
In May 2017, the steering committee introduced its first draft strategic framework to the board of trustees, revealing the plan to the Middlebury community over the course of multiple open meetings later that spring and during summer.
“This draft framework,” Baldridge said, “[included] an institutional mission statement, a vision statement, a set of distinctions reflecting current strengths that Middlebury can build on, a set of broad strategic directions that will help guide our setting of priorities for the next three-five years, and a set of principles that describe how we will work together.”
In regard to the efficacy of Envisioning Middlebury during its first year of implementation, the administration feels particularly proud of the communal support and participation the program has garnered thus far.
“We hoped that we would engage as many members of the community as possible, over the course of a year-long conversation,” Baldridge said. “That conversation took place in every Middlebury location, in every program, with every constituency, during the academic year and during the summer. Participation was impressive, and the conversation is continuing.”
Additionally, the administration believes the draft strategic framework effectively encompasses specific goals and principles while still remaining broad enough to facilitate communal adaptation and change moving forward.
“President Patton asked us to create a new kind of strategic plan that could guide us through the complicated times we live in,” Baldridge said, “[one] that is not overly prescriptive about specific outcomes, but that acknowledges Middlebury’s distinctiveness, articulates the principles we need to follow, and sets forth how we need to adapt and grow into the future. The draft strategic framework fits nicely on one page, but contains within its broad concepts many possibilities for our diverse community to realize our collective and individual aspirations.”
Looking forward into the upcoming academic year, the administration would like to shift Envisioning Middlebury’s focus from holding a surplus of events and conversations to the realistic implementation of the strategic framework.
“As we pursue the strategic directions,” Baldridge said, “we will be looking for ideas for bold new initiatives, but we will also want to give individuals and groups agency to imagine how they might apply the strategic directions and principles to reshaping their own work and the way they live in this community. The next phase will focus less on public events and conversations, and more on how we can integrate the strategic directions into what we do, and how we can communicate effectively with each other about the intentional choices we make as we set priorities for the future.”
Members of the student body similarly hope that Middlebury will successfully incorporate the strategic framework throughout the coming months.
“Envisioning Middlebury has sought to bring together members of our community to discuss our identity and direction as an institution.” Co-Chair of Community Council Kyle Wright ’19.5 said. “I believe that the institution has made a very necessary step in creating a campus environment in which coalition and inclusive exchanges of ideas can prosper and influence the way we look at ourselves as a community.”
“Specifically through the Envisioning Middlebury conversations,” Aaron said, “I’m optimistic that different communities within the College will take advantage of the chance to contribute long-term changes and improvements.”
“I hope [Envisioning Middlebury’s] conversations can continue moving forward beyond the completion of Envisioning Middlebury,” SGA President Jin Sohn ’18, “specifically in the implementation stage. I am excited to see the final draft of the strategic framework next week!”
The final draft of Envisioning Middlebury’s strategic platform will be discussed in a series of open meetings held on September 26 at 4:30 p.m. in McCardell Bicentennial Hall and September 27 at 7:30 a.m. in Wilson Hall, both of which will be live-streamed. This final draft will then be presented to the board of trustees for approval during the October board meeting.
(09/14/17 4:01am)
This week The Middlebury Campus sat down with Jin Sohn '18, the new Student Government Association (SGA) President. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity, and was conducted both in-person and via email.
Middlebury Campus (MC): What are your primary goals for this academic year?
Jin Sohn (JS): We just completed our SGA Fall Retreat where members of the SGA had the opportunity to learn more about the logistics and roles of the SGA, as well as interact and connect with different community members such as administrators, staff, and faculty. There are already exciting and innovative ideas and initiatives that SGA Cabinet Directors and SGA Senators are working on, and there will be more information on these initiatives in the coming weeks. At this retreat, a term was coined for the year: “student-centric." We want the SGA to become much more visible and accessible to students. One way we are aiming to do this is by starting an SGA Snapchat account, which will be going live soon. We hope to show students the actual work of the SGA and the faces of its members, so that the SGA is not just another institution but a student-driven body.
Along the lines of accessibility and transparency, I am personally hoping to revamp different existing resources on campus such as the WeTheMiddKids website. The website is a forum which students can use to put up an idea or some kind of complaint, then once those hits a certain amount of upvotes in the community, the SGA has to address it. The website is not that user friendly and the last time it was used was 2014, but the website is still there so we’re going to look at how we can revamp it and make it more accessible to students, and also try to include administrators in a more open dialogue.
I hope to offer different opportunities for students to have a more direct role in their SGA; this includes launching SGA workshops and information sessions, such as a bill writing workshop. I am also working towards increasing accessibility and inclusivity on campus by partnering with different offices and departments, including Student Financial Services and MiddRides, to improve and expand the services for students.
MC: What specific areas of the SGA do you hope to alter or improve this year and why?
JS: Within SGA there’s a senate, which is elected by the student body, and then there’s the cabinet made up of students that are nominated by myself, the SGA president, and then ratified by the SGA senate. One thing that we’re trying to do is bridge groups closer together, so essentially we have appointed SGA Senators to different Cabinet Committees. For example, the SGA Educational Affairs Committee will now have an SGA Senator who will be a committee member on the SGA Educational Affairs Committee. The hope is that this new system will allow for a better flow of communication, increased student engagement, and greater input into the actual initiatives and implementation of bills.
MC: Do you intend to approach the administration differently from
previous years?
JS: At the SGA Fall Retreat, the members of the SGA were able to speak with President Patton and have started working towards building a common agenda. This is in the hopes that the SGA and members of the administration will have more routine check-ins and less of a call and response form of communication. That way, the SGA and students can have a better understanding of what members of the administration are working on, and the administration will know what the SGA and students need.
Additionally, the SGA has currently partnered with the Center for Community Engagement, the Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life, and the Commons on relief efforts for natural disasters across the United States. There was an email sent out to students earlier this week regarding ways to get involved at go/middhelps, and ways to learn more about ongoing efforts at go/disasterrelief.
MC: How will you deal with the Charles Murray protests and their subsequent impacts within the SGA from last semester? Will the debate between free speech advocates and protesters continue?
JS: I think that there will still be many conversations in regards to his visit within the SGA this semester, especially in light of the bills that were drafted but not passed last year. I think one of the biggest things I will do in my role as SGA President will be to facilitate conversations, whether they are between students or student groups, and do it from as equal of a playing field as possible. We’re trying to keep things fair across different cabinets as well, for example with social life, we want to bring different student groups together either through formal conversations, casual parties, or other meeting areas.
For me, one of the most important things will be to facilitate and prepare for these important conversations by fostering as open of an environment as possible. Within SGA Senate, half of the senators are new, while the other half are returning; this gives us a wide variety of perspectives, so we need to find a way to move forward while still recognizing the events that did happen. It will be a tricky balance, but I think student initiatives will be crucial to hearing all sides. This is a question that many on our campus are reflecting on and seeking answers to. My hope the SGA this year is to help facilitate such conversations from, as much as possible, a supportive and equitable environment. Last year the SGA hosted discussions and panels for students to participate in, and we are hoping to initiate similar events this year.
(09/14/17 4:01am)
During the Sept. 10 meeting of the Student Government Association (SGA), Feb Senator Rae Aaron ’19.5 was elected speaker of the senate. Senator Aaron has served on the SGA since February 2016, her first semester, and hopes to improve both senatorial communication and transparency in her new position.
“Being elected speaker is a huge honor, and I’m really excited for this upcoming year,” Aaron said. “Having spent many hours a week since I came to Middlebury working with senators, students and the administration and staff to improve the Middlebury experience in several ways, I’m looking forward to the opportunity to lead and facilitate discussions in the senate and continue in my role as Feb senator.”
The responsibilities of speaker include organizing and conducting weekly senate meetings by establishing senatorial agendas and maintaining order. In her new role, Aaron hopes to streamline senatorial discussions and incorporate a fair multitude of perspectives both within the senate and throughout campus.
“As Speaker,” Aaron said, “I hope foremost to facilitate efficient dialogue among senators and visitors during SGA meetings, expanding our conversations beyond the senators at the table. Debates are a central component of democratic representation, and I am looking forward to making sure senators’ time is allotted fairly and that we are always looking for solutions from within the SGA and college community.”
Senator Aaron feels particularly optimistic about assuming her new position, and encourages all students to voice their ideas or concerns to the SGA during the coming semester.
(05/11/17 2:38am)
On April 30, Feb Senator Rae Aaron ’19.5, First Year Senator Jack Goldfield ’20, and Ivan Valladares ’17 presented their Academic Freedom and Viewpoint Diversity Resolution to the Student Government Association (SGA). The legislation called for Middlebury College to reaffirm its commitment to the preservation of free speech by allowing outside speakers to present controversial views without fear of disruptive protest.
The bill’s cosponsors argued that such a resolution would work towards fostering an open and inclusive atmosphere where opposing viewpoints may be properly debated without the presence of censorship or unruly violence. Proponents for the resolution asserted that the goals of free speech and social justice are not mutually exclusive and that this resolution would still protect students’ right to constructive protest.
“The resolution brought forward was one which we felt could lay the framework for any conversation on campus through reaffirming Middlebury’s commitment to free and diverse speech,” Senator Goldfield said. “We branded this resolution as one about discussion.”
The strongest opponents of the bill argued that it would threaten students’ right to justified and necessary disruptive protest in the future in favor of an ill-defined notion of free speech. Many senators also felt uncomfortable about voting on this legislation while many Middlebury students faced charges related to the Charles Murray protests.
When the Senate reconvened on May 7th, the resolution’s cosponsors were intent on putting their legislation to a vote despite President Toy’s suggestion that they table it for next year. Senator Aaron and Senator Goldfield asserted that many of their constituents desired such a reaffirmation now, and that pushing off the vote would only be perceived as an aversion to discussing free speech.
President Toy then proposed the inclusion of a friendly amendment regarding community wellbeing and an unfriendly amendment that called for the removal of certain “whereas” clauses. Senators may propose unfriendly amendments to proposed legislation that the Senate may vote to include; if the authors accept these amendments, the changes become friendly amendments. After the cosponsors of the bill rejected this unfriendly amendment, the resolution was brought to a vote and eventually rejected with a tally of 9 opposed, 6 in favor, and 4 abstained.
Senator Aaron was particularly disappointed by these results. While she admitted that the resolution did not attempt to define free speech or hate speech, she still considered this resolution to be a necessary step towards countering the divide on campus regarding social justice and the freedom of expression.
“The fact that this resolution on free speech and viewpoint diversity didn’t pass is quite concerning,” said Senator Aaron. “It really brought to light the failure on behalf of the SGA to unify around the importance — especially for marginalized voices on campus — of having the right to express ourselves, exercising judgment on what is appropriate.”
Senator Aaron also expressed her dissatisfaction with the way in which fellow senators approached the resolution after it was first presented on April 30.
“[One senator] cowardly refused to share the resolution with [their] constituents and attempted to table the resolution in the middle of our conversation,” Aaron said. “President Toy had all week to propose friendly amendments, and instead chose to force unfriendly amendments to undermine the integrity of the resolution’s message. [Also,] the Senators who sponsored a bill on updating College protest policies failed to even show up to the [May 8] meeting [to vote].”
Ivan Valladares ’17 echoed Senator Aaron’s concerns, interpreting the SGA’s approach towards the legislation as an offense against freedom of speech within Middlebury.
“Narrow interests and cowardice at the SGA attempted to make this resolution irrelevant,” Valladares said, “instead of utilizing this opportunity to establish a much-needed baseline on how to proceed with dialogue on campus. Short-term pursuits have limited students to regard free speech as a dispensable issue, or worst, a partisan ploy.”
Senator Pustejovsky, who voted against the resolution, argued that such legislation was presented at a particularly difficult time on campus when many Murray protestors are going before the judicial board.
“For me, the college community has not even scratched the surface on what free speech means to us, and what it should look like on this campus,” said Senator Pustejovsky. “Pushing a bill through Senate to make a statement about [free speech] left me feeling out of touch with the greater conversation as a whole. I also was worried about the way protest as a viewpoint was clearly undervalued and rejected in this bill, which felt like it was ignoring the larger issue at hand.”
Senator Fleischer echoed many of Senator Pustejovsky’s concerns regarding the bill’s timing, adding that such legislation would contradict the Protest Policy Reform Bill passed on April 23.
“Just a few of [the resolution’s] problems,” Fleischer said, “[regarded its position] that non-violent disruptive protest is never justified, its direct contradiction to the recently passed Protest Policy Reform bill, and its asking for administration to ‘enforce the policies as set forth in the Student Handbook.’”
Senator Wilson disagreed that the resolution was presented at an inappropriate time, attributing attempts to table the bill to fears of negative mainstream media coverage.
“I think there was an effort to table the bill until next year,” Wilson said, “because some think it reflects poorly on the College for a bill affirming free speech to fail. [Certain] senators said they believed it was an inappropriate and insensitive time to pass such a bill when so many students are currently going before the judicial board. I understand that argument, but I think it is overly concerned with perceptions and optics of the bill rather than with what the bill is actually saying.”
President Toy maintained that the bill was introduced too quickly to properly address the issue of free speech on campus.
“My biggest concern was that this bill was be being voted on at the same time that the judicial proceedings against students involved in the protests are occurring,” President Toy said. “This was a very comprehensive bill being voted on in a fairly rushed manner, when the student body has just started making progress in conversations on what free speech means. I would rather Senate get it right than vote down a well-written but not yet perfected bill, which is unfortunately what happened.”
(05/11/17 1:37am)
During the scheduled housing registration period on Tuesday, April 25, the new StarRez housing software suffered a glitch that prevented students from signing into their accounts. Students across multiple grades could not gain access to the StarRez sign-in interface, and once it became clear that the problem was not isolated but system-wide, the administration shut down the software entirely.
Prior to April 25, multiple tests had been conducted to ensure the StarRez software was running properly. The housing registration slot was originally pushed back to allow this extra week of testing, and the software appeared to be fully functioning for each respective grade level during the testing period.
“[The administration] went through a testing phase to make sure that everything worked,” said Doug Adams, associate dean of students for residential and student life. “We were able to test all aspects [of the software] during the extra week, and everything was fine.”
However, when students attempted to register on Tuesday, few could even sign into their StarRez accounts.
“When we launched on Tuesday,” Adams said, “there was immediately a great number of students who could not gain access to the sign-in wizard, preventing them from accessing the system. As soon we determined it was a system-wide issue, we shut [the program] down.”
In response to the shutdown, the administration contacted the software vendor to help troubleshoot the issue and eventually managed to get the system back online and running smoothly. Any room draws that managed to be processed during the initial period on Tuesday were removed after the shutdown.
“We are still trying to figure out exactly what happened [during the crash],” Adams said. “We were able to reset the system and then retest the entire program to make sure it all worked.”
The afternoon after the system was shut down, the administration sent out an email containing students’ new housing selection time slots. These selection periods were kept in their original order, but were all moved to Wednesday, April 26.
While Wednesday’s draw ran smoothly for rising juniors and seniors, a time slot for Brainerd Commons sophomores still encountered a small number of isolated issues.
“When we relaunched, there was one brief hold up within the sophomore drawing process,” Adams said. “It didn’t affect the juniors or seniors at all, but just impacted sophomore students within one time slot of the Brainerd draw. We were then able to address the individual issues of those students within that time slot.”
Going forward, the administration intends to further incorporate students’ opinions on both StarRez and the housing process itself.
“We will be reviewing the amount of time allocated for each time block,” Adams said, “as well as continuing to take in student feedback.”
(04/27/17 1:48am)
The spring elections for the Student Government Association (SGA) were held on April 19, appointing a multitude of new representatives who will serve in the Senate next year.
Jin Sohn ’18 was elected as the new President of SGA, while the Co-Chair of Community Council will be Kyle Wright ’19.5 during the Fall semester and Tina Brook ’18 during the Spring. Maryam Mahboob ’18 and Hannah Pustejovsky ’18 were elected as Senior Senators while Varsha Vijayakumar ’20 and Jack Goldfield ’20 will both serve as Sophomore Senators. The Juniors senators will be Kailash Pandey ’19 for both terms, Elizabeth Warfel ’19 in the Fall, and Violet Low-Beinart ’19 in the Spring.
In terms of commons senators, John Gosselin ’20 will be the Atwater Senator, Tori Koontz ’20 will be the Brainerd Senator, Connor McCormick ’18 will represent Cook Commons, Stephanie Andrews ’18 will represent Ross Commons, and Andrew Salas ‘20 will be the Wonnacott Senator.
According to the Chair of the Elections Council, William Weightman ‘17, voter turnout for senate races this year was not significantly different from past elections, remaining at around 25-35 percent. However, this years’ elections have been much more contested than previous races.
“Last year, all commons senate seats and the junior fall senate seats were uncontested,” Weightman said. “This year only Wonnacott Commons and the Sophomore senate races were uncontested. This is a big improvement and gives students options in terms of being able to elect candidates that best represent their interests and concerns.”
Weightman identified campaign controversy and competitiveness to be a crucial component for determining a given election’s voter turnout. While this year’s presidential election saw voter turnout decrease by nearly 22 percent, the competitive environment surrounding the Co-Chair election saw an increase in voter turnout of 11 percent.
“One of the most important determinants of voter turnout is the competitiveness of the races,” Weightman said. “As such, I think the primary goal of the Elections Council to increase voter turnout going forward is to ensure that all races are contested and that we continue to have elections that are transparent, professional, and accessible to all [students].”
Sohn, who currently serves as the SGA’s Chief of Staff, feels particularly excited to serve as SGA President next year. “I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to have ran for SGA President,” Sohn said. “For me, this [campaign] was another great opportunity to engage with the larger [Middlebury] community, specifically to speak with and listen to students on our campus.”
Sohn hopes to address many of the student body’s concerns during her upcoming term as president, specifying the need to facilitate constructive conversations between varying perspectives. She also hopes to improve administrative accountability and transparency while streamlining the SGA’s inclusivity and accessibility.
“One [topic] that has come up in multiple conversations is the need for more perspective,” Sohn said. “I believe there needs to be more initiatives that [provide] the institutional weight and support for students’ voices to be heard and create opportunities for students to collaborate with the administration, campus staff, and each other.”
Wright shared Sohn’s optimism for his upcoming term as Co-Chair of Community Council. He feels that the student body has successfully elected capable representatives who have the general needs of the community in mind. While campaigning, Wright made a conscious effort to prioritize his platform and discussions with individuals over a social media presence.
“I have never run my campaigns with an emphasis on fostering or social media advertising,” Wright said. “I have instead focused on connecting with individual members of our community and organizations to develop highly comprehensive platforms that are grounded in the lived experiences of students, faculty, and staff.”
Wright has also stressed the need to improve communication on Middlebury’s campus, citing the lack of communicative interconnectedness between students, administrative departments, and faculty as both a barrier to defining and protecting inclusivity.
“In my experience as Res life staff and as an SGA senator,” Wright said, “I find communication on our campus to be very siloed. This lack of interconnectedness isn’t just a barrier to inclusivity, it’s a barrier to discussing what terms like that even mean for our community.”
Looking forward, Wright hopes to enforce the position of Community Council as the central forum for all non-academic issues on campus. Additionally, he intends to unify ties between administrative bodies such as MCAB, ICC, Faculty Council, and the SGA to eliminate any potential redundancies and streamline constructive conversations. At the center of his platform, Wright has prioritized the incorporation of “coalition resistance” within Middlebury.
“Coalition resilience acknowledges that challenging conversations do not occur in a vacuum,” Wright said. “[It] is a departure from rhetoric and confrontational free speech as the primary modes of community building and instead leans towards micro-conversation and critical self-reflection. As the Co-Chair elect, I am striving to create prototypical spaces such as these right now, and I hope that the Middlebury community will continue to join me in these efforts.”
Tina Brook ’18 felt particularly proud of her election, as the originally uncontested position ended up becoming particularly competitive. Brook won the race with 39.26 percent of the vote, slightly above Charles Rainey ’19’s 37.87 percent and Jack Carew ‘20’s 22.86 percent. Due to the contested nature of her campaign, Brook felt compelled to abandon her previously relaxed style of campaigning to reach more students and remain vocal about her candidacy.
“I am thrilled with the results, but do not in any way think that it was an easy win,” Brook said. “The margin between myself and the runner-up was quite small, which is a testament to how widely recognized the issues mentioned in both our platforms were, and how important it is moving forward to engage with those ideals too.”
Similar to Wright, Brook has specified that her main focus as Co-Chair of Community Council will be the improvement of communication on Middlebury’s campus to achieve higher levels of inclusion and student engagement.
“I know that Kyle’s focus will revolve around accessibility and inclusion across all identities,” Brook said. “My hope is to continue on with the work that he starts in the Spring in a similar fashion. How I intend on addressing concerns of communication is to immediately implement spaces of discussion, be that digital or physical [outlets] for students to voice their concerns and be heard.”
(04/27/17 1:38am)
Starting in fall 2017, Middlebury will use a swipe-based dining plan to replace the current open dining system. Students will be required to swipe their MiddCards to gain entrance into campus dining halls as opposed to freely entering.
The administration attributes these dining changes to the unsustainability of the open dining hall system. The large number of outside diners, typically composed of visiting sports teams, parents, or surrounding Middlebury community members, has placed a financial strain on Middlebury’s dining budget in recent years. As such, the swiping system will be introduced to prevent outsiders from taking advantage of the College’s dining halls without paying. Hundreds of thousands of dollars may be saved as the College will need to buy less food overall.
The administration also hopes that the swipe system will reduce the amount of food waste on Middlebury’s campus. MiddCards will enable the college to collect data on student dining patterns and adjust food quantities accordingly to limit food waste after meals. The administration has also expressed the possibility of altering dining hall hours based on student’s eating patterns.
In the coming fall semester, all students who live on campus will be under an unlimited meal. Students will still be able to access all dining halls during all open times, only they will now need to first swipe in with their MiddCard.
MiddCards will also provide students with four guest passes and a 50 dollar declining balance per semester, which adds up to a total of eight guest passes and a 100 dollar declining balance for the entire year. Spare guest passes or declining balances will carry over from the fall semester into the spring, but neither will transfer to the next academic year.
The MiddCard’s declining balance may be spent at any Middlebury dining service location, including The Grille, Crossroads Café, MiddExpress, Wilson Café, 51 Main, the Snow Bowl snack bar, Rehearsals and the BiHall Kiosk. Starting Friday, April 28, students and parents will have the option to add money onto the MiddCard through Middlebury’s Campus Card Center website; additional dollars added to a student’s MiddCard will not only carry over from semester to semester, but also from year to year.
The administration has stated that students living off-campus next fall will have multiple meal plan options, but these choices have yet to be specified. Off-campus students will, however, have the opportunity to avoid a college meal plan altogether.
Depending on the success of the swipe system during the fall semester, the administration will consider implementing additional meal plans for the general student body next spring. Executive Director of Food Service Operations, Dan Detora, as well as the SGA-appointed Dining Committee are particularly open to feedback and will try to take students’ opinions into account when creating future meal options.
(04/21/17 12:58am)
The April 9 meeting began with a discussion pertaining to election reform within the senate bylaws. President Karina Toy ’17 proposed that the senate consider framing the election for Co-Chair of Community Council as a one-semester ticket where candidates would run for the spring and fall semesters separately. Such a change would allow students going abroad or living off campus for a semester to still run for the Co-Chair position.
The current Co-Chair, Travis Sanderson ’19, asserted that an elected individual could still be effective while holding the position for a single semester.
Senator Wilson, however, shared that her entry into the SGA for just one semester was a difficult transition, and that a split election could potentially impede Co-Chair efficiency. The motion to split Co-Chair elections was then put to a vote, and with 11 in favor, 3 opposed and 3 abstained, it was ultimately passed.
President Toy then outlined the clarifying changes within her Bylaws Amendment Bill. Such changes formally clarify the amount of money allocated to campaigns, the length of Feb senate positions and the newly introduced split election process for the Co-Chair of Community Council. These alterations were unanimously passed with all senators in favor of the bill.
The senate discussed an Elections Council Bill that would call for a special meeting of the senate in response to an electoral tie. Each of the tied candidates would have five minutes to address the senate, which would be followed by a secret ballot among senators to break the tie. The President of the SGA would be allowed to cast a vote to alter any ties within the senate ballot.
Senator Aliza Cohen ’17 expressed her concern that such a tiebreaking policy would diminish the democratic foundations of the SGA. Senator Nikki Lantigua ’17 echoed this sentiment, asserting that this procedure would give too much power to the senate. In response to these concerns, the senate called a straw poll on the tiebreak proposal; 12 were opposed to the policy, while only 4 were in support.
As an alternative tiebreak policy, Senator John Goldfield ’20 proposed the implementation of an additional runoff election between tied candidates. President Toy then provided additional guidelines of this additional election, specifying that tied candidates would have 12 hours to submit 100-word statements on why they should win, which would then be emailed to all relevant constituents before the 24-hour runoff election period starting at noon the following day. This revised policy was unanimously approved.
The April 17 meeting began with a reminder about Staff Appreciation Day, which will be held on April 20. President Toy then reviewed aspects of her Constitutional Reform Bill, which sought to rephrase certain Constitutional clauses and remove redundancy. This bill made alterations to the senator impeachment process, specifying that senators may not miss more than two meetings over the course of office, or no more than five meetings with a proxy substitute. It also asserted that meeting agendas and minutes should be sent out 48 hours prior to the next meeting as opposed to just 24 hours. The Reform Bill was unanimously approved.
(03/19/09 12:00am)
Author: Aseem Mulji Student Government Association (SGA) President Hiba Fakhoury '09 led an agenda-less meeting on March 15. The informal format, explained Fakhoury, allowed for a "fast-paced, action-oriented" atmosphere conducive to brainstorming initiatives for the rest of the semester.The meeting began with a discussion of the Honor Code Review Committee's controversial recommendation to allow faculty-proctored exams. Since the SGA voted down the recommendation last week, Fakhoury urged the body to come up with new creative ideas to present to the Faculty Council.Katie Hylas '09, newly appointed chief of staff, presented some ideas, which included a verbal honor code, elected student proctors and mandatory brief discussions about the Honor Code before exams.Some senators questioned the effectiveness of elected student proctors, citing the fact that these students must proctor and take the exam simultaneously. Fakhoury and Hylas suggested that the Center for Teaching, Learning and Research (CTLR) provide paid proctors to the faculty who request them. Senators also suggested increasing the Honor Code's visibility online and on syllabi as well as creating guidelines for proctoring, be it by faculty or students.Fakhoury and Hylas will present all discussed ideas to the Faculty Council on March 19 with the hope of striking a compromise.Following the Honor Code discussion, Fakhoury showed off the SGA's new blog at go/sga. She explained that it exists "so students know who the SGA is and what is going on with the SGA."Junior Senator Chris Goodrich suggested that e-mails be sent out periodically to remind students that the blog is available. Other SGA members were concerned about clogging student mailboxes."We should really just keep it to one e-mail a week," Fakhoury said.Fakhoury opened the floor to brainstorm initiatives to tackle during the rest of the semester.Sophomore Senator Ashley Quisol suggested an end-of-year yard sale for graduating seniors. Community Council Co-Chair Antoinette Rangel '09 pointed out that an unofficial KDR yard sale already exists. A work group was established to do further research.Hylas indicated interest in working with commons senators to create quiet study spaces around campus to be used after library hours. First-year Senator Jonathan Kay expressed concern over dining hall lines. Work groups were established to research all three proposals.Rangel, on behalf of Community Council member Jason Rago '09, brought to the SGA's attention the concern that club and varsity athletes receive only one of two required PE credits for graduation. Rather than create a work group, the SGA quickly wrote and passed a bill suggesting that athletes be able to fulfill two credits through participation in a club or varsity sport.