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(04/09/20 9:55am)
The Covid-19 pandemic has been eye-opening to me in a lot of ways. These trying times have shown me people’s compassion, their drive to initiate change and the beauty of those who inhabit Middlebury. However, they have also emphasized some of the continuing problems that exist in our community.
Amid the Covid-19 crisis, student mobilization surrounding grading systems, in particular, has been incredible. Determined to help their peers, students created petitions and reached out to their classmates to get insight into the nuances around the issue. Certain members of the SGA cabinet and senate took action in reaching out to students as well as this situation became broader; however, discussion as an entire SGA on this growing issue was originally limited to a few messages on our Slack messaging platform until the SGA senate met with student organizers on Sunday, March 29.
When members of the SGA leadership were initially approached prior to our Sunday senate meeting, they rejected a request from student activists to send an all-student survey to gather data on public opinion. This was based on the misleading grounds that it was against SGA protocol. There is no SGA guideline that states that sending out a survey to collect data is against protocol; if there were, it would be outlined in the constitution or bylaws. Additionally, it is not often that a student asks the SGA directly to send a poll to collect data on something that affects every single student on campus during a global pandemic. To say that “standard protocol” is why this didn’t happen is disingenuous.
The same members then shifted the conversation to encourage these students to show members of the SGA sympathy for the behind-the-scenes work they may be doing during this crisis, instead of focusing on where we as a body were not satisfying the needs of students. Some senators took individual action to collect the requested data. In fact, many people reading this now likely received the email I sent on March 26 to most students with a survey attached, five days before the SGA sent out its official survey, to collect the data that student activists requested.
All of this said, it is disappointing that the initial course of action the SGA leadership chose to take was one of inaction. It was six days from when the #FairGradesMidd organizers reached out to us when the SGA sent out the all-student survey. However, this inaction is a common reality of the SGA senate as a body. That is why historically students have called it an elitist organization or another bureaucratic hoop to jump through.
What I care about most at Middlebury College are my peers. I care about their needs, I care about what affects them, I care about their well-being and I care about hearing their feedback. This is my personal alignment with the voices of students, as should be the alignment of any well-functioning SGA.
Students’ issues are the fundamental reason behind the SGA’s existence. The cabinet does an amazing job of looking at what students care about and need, then acting on it. However, in being a part of the senate, I’ve realized the current state of the body has been focused on internal structure, infighting and self-appreciation. It focuses too heavily on the deflection of responsibility and questions of internal operation, all the while ignoring criticism. Sure, many individual senators have done an amazing job. This is not to take away from the hard work and dedication that they show. However, the SGA senate as a body needs a dramatic change in order to live up to its mission statement.
SGA needs to be about listening to students and making changes that benefit those students. Representation isn't about doing what is easy. It isn’t about pushing personal agendas. It is about listening to the community and acting in their best interest based on the information they provide.
Especially in times as turbulent such as this, it is imperative to have student leadership that listens to the voice of the community. With students spread across the country, reaching out to others becomes an even deeper necessity. I will continue directly listening and representing students. My goal moving forward, however, will be to ensure we have an SGA senate that is willing to do this as well.
Myles Maxie is a member of the class of 2022 and a Wonnacott Commons Senator.
(11/21/19 10:57am)
“I was born and raised in rural Hawai`i. Aside from me, there are only two other people from Hawai`i in the class of 2022. I had never heard of Middlebury until I searched ‘northeast’ and ‘<2,500 students’ on my Common Application, a week before the application was due.” — Maya Gee ’22
“Coming to Middlebury — an institution my school counselors didn’t recognize, in a state my parents didn’t know existed — without knowing anyone as a person of reference, or even guidance, was difficult.” — Dennis Miranda Cruz ’22
“Growing up in a suburban/rural part of upstate New York myself, I wondered at the low percentage of students from rural backgrounds. Was this because Middlebury did not find them a good fit when reading their applications, or was it that simply not enough students from rural backgrounds applied? I think the problem lay in the latter — in the limitations of Middlebury’s outreach to rural communities, and thus the lack of rural students applying.” — Cynthia Chen ’22
“I commuted to a public school in the very wealthy Financial District of New York City to escape impoverished and underfunded high schools. I strongly believe that I would not have known about Middlebury if I went to one of my local high schools.” — Roni Lezama ’22
“Growing up in Southern California, I assumed that my area would get a lot of outreach due to the size of our population; that was until I realized that, historically, schools like Middlebury never reached out to my high school or any of the public schools in my surrounding area due to how vast the state is and difficult it is to travel in a short amount of time.” — Myles Maxie ’22
When we, five members of the Class of 2022, arrived on Middlebury’s campus in the fall of 2018, the demographics of the student body saddened us. However, they were not something that surprised us. When we all joined the SGA Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee (formerly known as the Institutional Diversity Committee) last fall, we found a platform to address these common concerns.
Put simply, we wanted Admissions to do more outreach to high schools in rural, low-income serving, and/or ethnically-diverse areas — areas where we all came from. While the Admissions Office does currently conduct some outreach in these areas, we believe our own student population could amplify and personalize this outreach even more. To that end, Miranda Cruz pitched the idea of establishing the Student Ambassador Program on campus. The program would have current Middlebury students doing outreach to high schools that can’t always be reached by the Admissions Office. Quickly, we (Miranda Cruz, Gee, Chen, Lezama, and Maxie) formed a sub-group within the committee that decided to initiate this project.
Last fall, we began collaborations with the Admissions Office to turn our idea into reality. Since the program’s conception, the Dean of Admissions, Nicole Curvin, and Senior Assistant Director of Admissions and Coordinator of Diversity, Inclusion, and Access Initiatives, Santana Audet ’13, have been assisting us in our endeavor. Not only have they helped us build a training program, they have also shared their travel schedules with us — that way, we can be sure to visit the high schools they are unable to.
As student ambassadors, we train Middlebury students in two areas: first, giving information sessions on the college to prospective students and second, adding a personal touch and connect with high school students in their own hometowns. We believe that, above all else, students want to go to a college where they envision themselves being happy. In our experience, the best way to help them have that vision in the first place is by watching and listening to someone from their own hometown speak about the school.
On that note, we think that Student Ambassador visits offer unique perspectives on both college admissions and Middlebury College itself. Apart from the basic information that Student Ambassadors must be trained to know, we think that students can also provide a more candid outlook of life at Middlebury. Often, connecting with college counselors can be very intimidating for college students. In particular, high school students may feel more self-conscious about what they say and do knowing that they are talking to people who might one day be reading their applications. By comparison, chatting with current college students (who are closer in age and experience) mimics conversations with friends.
Since we began training Student Ambassadors in Spring 2019, we have been piloting the program. We started with schools around the D.C. area and, this fall, are expanding to visit Delaware, Vermont, Hawai`i, Oklahoma, Texas, New York and Ohio. As we are now officially launching the program, we are searching for students who are passionate about creating more access and connection to Middlebury College. We hope this program will be a pivotal point in not only amplifying diverse college admissions outreach at Middlebury, but also across all elite institutions.
If you are interested in bridging a connection between your hometown and Middlebury, apply to be a Student Ambassador at go/ambassadorapp or visit middleburystudentambassadors.weebly.com. Applications are due: Dec. 2, 2019 at 11:59 p.m.
Maya Gee, Dennis Miranda Cruz, Cynthia Chen, Roni Lezama and Myles Maxie are members of the class of 2022.
(11/14/19 10:57am)
At this point, it’s certainly starting to feel like one.
A few weeks ago, I was disappointed to see the removal of the commons system. I felt very strongly about it, in large part due to my position in SGA as a commons senator and as one of the members of the Wonnacott Commons Council. Mostly, I was disturbed by the implications which the commons change holds for the structure of student representation in SGA moving forward.
As a result of that frustration, I drafted a bill. My bill would effectively maintain the current SGA Senate structure by replacing the five commons senators with a similar senate position (to be put into effect next school year). While my initial proposal was not passed, it sparked conversation. In particular, the SGA Senate found itself debating: what is the most effective way to structure our student government in a method that best represents students, increases SGA legitimacy and holds us accountable as a body?
In ensuing conversations, our 17-person senate offered a diverse range of opinions. Some believe the solution is an 11-person senate (created by removing both the Commons senator positions and the co-chair of Community Council from the senate); others believe the solution is adding another class senator position. At the end of the day, there is one idea we agree on without question or doubt: there will be changes to the Student Government Association’s structure moving forward.
I have had a lot of time to reflect throughout this process. I have thought about questions of representation, legitimacy and accountability time and time again over the last two weeks. I’ve come up with over six potential models based on the successes and failures of SGAs in comparable institutions. And yet even in light of research, reaching out to peer institutions and drafting and redrafting different models, I still felt something missing from my equation.
I realized that, as a student representative, I need to do a better job of representing the ideas of others on this issue (instead of behaving singularly). As a representative of approximately 20% of the student body, I needed to be consulting people on the system they want to represent them moving forward. That is what I have been trying to do for the last few weeks.
Generally, I try my absolute best to do speak candidly with my constituents to get their feedback. I am in constant conversation with a variety of people both inside and outside of my commons, trying to understand more about what other students at Middlebury care about. In doing so, I have gotten an incredible amount of insight into the things that matter to a broad cross-section of the student body. That is the type of work that is important to me. That is the type of on-the-ground work that promotes a student government’s sense of legitimacy and encourages accountability.
Last year’s Campus’s Zeitgeist survey showed that 53.4% of respondents felt indifferently or negatively about the performance of SGA. This trend has developed over the course of many years, during which people have had a net negative or indifferent opinion on the SGA as a whole. Historically, similar sentiments were recorded in which many students do not know what the SGA does, how it operates or even who is in it. This suggests that, in part, people were apathetic due to a lack of knowledge. That’s a problem. It’s a problem that is only solved by direct interactions, communication, transparency and gaining the input of the student body.
At the end of the day, SGA operations shouldn’t be comparable to a magic trick. There shouldn’t be a veil or smoke and mirrors disguising what’s going on. There shouldn’t be any magician’s secrets or keeping the best tricks of the trade from the public. These instances would only further the apathy of students as a whole and act counter to constructing a senate that is accountable and legitimate.
This is in no way meant to be antagonistic or an overly-harsh criticism; however, it is an unapologetic call to action for being deliberate, on both the part of SGA and the general student body. The way forward in this process is conversation, and that is a two-way initiative. Students should be well informed by their representatives on what is going on. To that end, students should feel enabled — and are encouraged — to use their voice to speak to their SGA representatives.
This isn’t a magic trick. Still, I think students and the SGA can do wonders together.