Archiving Dissent: Feminist lessons for student activists
Content warning: This op-ed references sexual assault.
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Content warning: This op-ed references sexual assault.
In the wake of financial disruption and rising projected deficits, Middlebury has instituted a temporary hiring freeze for all employees. The policy is set to continue into the 2021 fiscal year, which begins July 1, 2020 and extends to July 1, 2021, and will remain until the college has “more clarity on the budget,” according to an April 23 memo to faculty and staff. Under the freeze, the college has ceased all faculty and staff hiring processes that had not been completed before the transition to remote learning, including searches that were in the background check or verbal offer stages. In addition, the college is no longer supporting any new searches. The Campus reported significant facilities staff shortages this fall, including a block of 16 vacancies in Custodial Services that necessitated the hiring of an externally contracted cleaning service to clean student spaces. But applications for those positions and others surged after the college’s increased entry-level wages for its lowest-paid employees in late December. At the time the hiring freeze was instituted, all but three positions in facilities — which includes custodial and maintenance workers — were filled, according to Missy Beckwith, associate director for the Office of Facilities Services. Dean of Faculty Sujata Moorti emphasized that faculty hiring processes were largely unaffected by the freeze given that almost all faculty hires for the 2021 fiscal year had already been completed prior to the transition to remote learning. Only one faculty search had not concluded by late March, according to Moorti; this search was frozen. “In making this decision, we have sought to balance our commitment to academic continuity with the financial shocks the College is experiencing as a result of the knock-on effects of the pandemic,” Moorti said. Elaborating on the college’s decision to suspend hiring processes, VP for Human Resources Karen Miller cited the college’s commitment to continue paying benefits-eligible employees. “In light of these changes and given our intent to ensure pay continuity for our existing staff for as long as possible, we do not believe this is the time to add new employees to our workforce,” Miller wrote in her announcement to the community. The college has implemented a number of changes to support this commitment, including instituting a “Covid-19 Pay Bank.” The Pay Bank provides up to 21 days off of work that can be used for circumstances related to the current crisis, in addition to the college’s ordinary vacation time and sick leave provisions. The college has also attempted to support teleworking arrangements from some employees, as well as find temporary reassignment for staff after the cancelation of in-person classes and the subsequent evacuation left the campus with fewer than 140 students. These staff — who are typically considered essential workers — include dining, facilities, health and safety employees. Miller acknowledged that this hiring freeze may burden some departments, but ultimately stressed that the change is both a necessary and a temporary mechanism to help the college adjust to financial blows related to the Covid-19 outbreak. “We are sorry for any difficulty this may cause, but the uncertainty of this time forces us into this (temporary) position,” Miller wrote in her announcement. “Cooperation and teamwork between departments is especially important during this period. We appreciate your understanding and support.”
A semester after Vermont’s new Tobacco 21 policy went into effect, the conversation regarding tobacco at Middlebury now centers around a possible transition to a tobacco-free campus. The Tobacco 21 policy, active as of Sep. 1 of last year, raised the legal age of sale for tobacco products to 21 throughout Vermont. In compliance with this policy, Middlebury banned the possession and use of tobacco and tobacco-related products such as e-cigarettes for students under 21. Likewise, the sale and distribution of tobacco is prohibited on campus. The implementation of Tobacco 21 has sparked a new focus on the role of tobacco in the Health and Wellness Education Office and across campus. This week, Kevin Kareckas, the alcohol and other drug education specialist, addressed the Middlebury Community Council about his office’s initiatives to provide better support to members of the campus community who have negative relationships to tobacco. Currently, students can set up one-on-one consultations with the Wellness Education office at go/talktobacco. The college also connects students with the State of Vermont’s online and over the phone program 802Quits. It also offers its own group-based cessation counseling program known as Freshstart. Kareckas discussed how a grant the Health and Wellness Education Office applied for would provide the campus with more resources to support community members. He asked members of the Community Council for feedback on what different kinds of support should be prioritized. The Community Council meeting also marked the first step in opening up a dialogue about the possibility of moving towards a tobacco-free campus. Middlebury is not currently a tobacco-free or smoke-free campus for students 21 and older, although restrictions exist. With the implementation of Tobacco 21, Kareckas has started to explore what a tobacco-free campus might look like. “Becoming a tobacco-free campus is a significant process and impacts some people significantly more than others,” Kareckas said, referring to the complex considerations of going tobacco-free and acknowledging how faculty, staff, and students, as well as members of Middlebury summer schools, might be affected differently by tobacco policies. Kareckas is also looking to expand this dialogue to the student body this week in the form of a go-link survey that will gauge students’ perspectives on tobacco use and policies on campus, as well as support and resources. The go-link will be active until Wednesday, March 4 and can be accessed at go/tobaccoatmidd. Other considerations raised by the council included the disparity between smoking and vaping use on campus, as well as whether the implementation of a tobacco-free campus would be feasible. The council, as well as Kareckas, agreed that the current focus is on support, and that any move towards a tobacco-free campus would be a long and deliberate process that would accommodate the different needs of community members. “The direction of future tobacco initiatives on campus needs to be a community decision with multiple stakeholders at the table,” Kareckas said.
Some say comedy is a boy’s club ... but the joke’s on them! Last Friday and Saturday evenings, Sept. 20–21, Middlebury students gathered in Coltrane Lounge to learn about sketch comedy from some leading comics on campus. The workshop, led by female-identifying members of the student-run sketch comedy group Middlebury Discount Comedy (MDC), was part of a larger program this past weekend called the Funny Femme Fest. The Femme Fest was a celebration of women in comedy and comprised of four workshops over the course of two days meant to encourage diverse voices in comedy. In addition to MDC’s Friday session, the festival included a stand-up workshop led by American Studies Professor J. Finley. The women of Middlebury’s satirical newspaper, The Local Noodle, and members of various on-campus improv groups led workshops on satirical news writing and improv. The MDC sketch lesson began, quite aptly, with a bizarre getting-to-know-you question. The attendees were asked to share not their majors or hometowns, but rather their most serial killer-like trait, setting the playful yet open-minded tone for the workshop. After settling into the workshop with the serial killers among us, we were brought through an introduction to the ins and outs of sketch comedy, which usually consists of a series of short, few minute-long scenes known as “sketches.” The session’s leaders, Amy Conaway ’20, Em Ballou ’21 and Laurel Rand-Lewis ’20, provided us with the vocabulary to discuss sketches, as well as some of the basic structures we could use to craft them ourselves. One of the fundamentals we learned was the idea of “The Game,” which is a bit of a catch-all term to describe what is truly funny or interesting about a scene. We also discussed the importance of creating a cast of characters that is balanced to include both traditionally funny or bizarre characters and what is known as a “straight character.” This character, unlike the other characters (but similar to the audience), is able to recognize the eccentricity of the situation. We then touched on practical elements to take into account when writing sketches to be performed, like including stage directions, sound cues and descriptions of physicality. After going over the background of the discipline of sketch comedy writing, we dove deeper into feminist comedy writing and how intersections of gender and other identities inform the meaning of a joke or sketch. When revising drafts of sketches, writers will often look at assumptions made about the gender or other identity markers of a character, asking themselves, “Does this character really need to be ______?” In other words, does the gender of a character matter in order for the joke to work? If not, assigning a gender through a character’s name or physical description may be unnecessary or limiting. One way the writers work around this is by assigning gender neutral names or even referring to characters as “Character no. 1.” After all, Conaway pointed out, we rarely define character by other specific aspects of their identity, such as their religion, favorite sports team or astrological sign. With regards to addressing controversial subjects in sketches, the session’s leaders highlighted the importance of working honestly and openly with those around you. Sketch comedy, like other works of art, either theatrical or material, can be a powerful tool when it comes to examining societal norms and systems of oppression. But, if poorly executed, jokes can quickly become harmful reinforcements of structural inequalities. A general rule of thumb, the leaders suggested, is known as “punching up,” wherein jokes remain aware of positionality. The rule enables the critique of power structures, rather than perpetuating them through stereotypes that continue to disempower different groups. “The world of comedy is still presented with internalized sexism,” Ballou said. “It’s possible for women to be funny not because they play into stereotypes or misogynistic views for laughs, but because they themselves are humorous.” According to Ballou, there is a general lack of diverse and inclusive comedy. “We need more comedians of color. We need more queer, disabled and working-class comedians.”
In the culmination of a highly successful season, the 2018-19 Middlebury Debate society traveled to Panama City, Panama last week for the Pan American Championships (Pan Ams) and achieved a historic performance for the program. The annual title tournament features teams from North, Central and South America, bringing together college debaters from the United States, Panama, Colombia, Jamaica and Mexico, among other countries. The tournament includes both an English-speaking division and a Spanish-speaking division, which take place simultaneously. In an international debate community dominated by English-speaking speakers and events, this Spanish facet of Pan Ams increases inclusivity across language barriers and fosters cross-cultural community. The society sent two debate pairs to the tournament, consisting of Amanda Werner ’21 and Justin Cooper ’22, as well as Nate Obbard ’21 and Charlotte Massey ’19. Additionally, Middlebury Debate member Van Barth ’21 served on the tournament’s adjudication team. “It was quite exhilarating to compete in Pan Ams,” said Cooper, the society’s Vice President in an email to The Campus.“To represent Middlebury College to all of North, South and Central America is a big role to fill, but I feel that we did a good job of filling it.” Cooper and Werner made it to semifinals Both Middlebury teams made it through seven preliminary rounds and placed in the top eight teams in the semifinal rounds. Obbard and Massey continued onto the final round, which covered climate change ethics. They ultimately won the tournament’s English division. This marked the team’s first time winning a title tournament in known history since its conception in 1912. Massey explained that competing with Obbard was a deciding factor in their success at Pan Ams. “We were very in sync and had our prep time and speaking roles dialed in.” She explained that they have different strengths and that their skill sets balance well. In fact, Massey and Obbard had seen success together in several tournaments over the course of the season, competing abroad in Oxford, England and Cape Town, South Africa. One week prior to Pan Ams, the pair ranked 22nd at the United States Universities Debating Championship (USUDC) in Clemson, South Carolina. “In total, we did 20 full rounds of competitive debate during an eight-day period between USUDC and Pan Ams,” Massey said. For the society, which has a particularly young membership this season, it has been a record year. In December, Massey and Obbard placed 70th at the World Universities Debating Championship in Cape Town, a competition including 400 teams from over 90 countries. Werner and Quinn Boyle ’21 ranked 224th. At the Berkeley IV in January, Massey, Barth and Boyle made it to the semifinals, with Massey ranking third speaker overall. In February, Barth and Obbard made it to the quarterfinals of the US Universities Eastern Championship at George Washington University. At the Empire Debates at Kings College in New York City, Massey and Cooper made it to the semifinals, Massey won second varsity speaker, and Cooper won second novice speaker. Massey reflected on her four years on the team, noting that, after graduating a class of talented debaters her first year, the team underwent a redeveloping period. Now, the majority of the team is composed of sophomores and first-years. All debaters said that the sense of community on the debate team is the reason they keep working towards their goals, not to mention the valuable critical thinking and presentation skills they are building. “Since joining the debate team in my freshman year, I have formed close friendships with other members of the team,” Werner said. “I truly love debate’s close-knit community, and I value how much we support one another both inside and outside of debate rounds.” Next year, the team will look to build on its current success with a new group of novices. For more information about the debate society, or to join, contact debateso@middlebury.edu.
Amid efforts from the college to decrease its deficit in the coming years, the Middlebury Board of Trustees announced at the end of last month that it will raise undergraduate tuition and room and board costs for the 2019-2020 academic year. Cost of attendance will increase 3.25%, or $2,261, resulting in a total price of $71,822: $55,790 for tuition and $16,032 for room and board. Tuition increases are recommended by the administration and approved by the trustees to minimize the current budget deficit, based on Middlebury’s operating costs. In a college news release on March 25, Middlebury President Laurie L. Patton cited Middlebury’s commitment to financial aid and a low faculty-student ratio as priorities for determining tuition prices. “It is critical that we maintain the quality of the student experience as well as our commitment to making Middlebury accessible to a diverse group of talented and bright students,” she said. The administration also factors into its decision the national inflation rate. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the inflation rate is currently around 1.5%. The change in tuition cannot be wholly attributed to inflation. This year’s tuition increase was 1.75% greater than the inflation rate. At the start of the decade, Middlebury announced a commitment to limiting tuition increases to 1% over inflation as indicated by the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The once-commended program, known informally as “CPI + 1,” was scrapped in April 2015 following rising budget deficits. David Provost, Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration & Treasurer, attributed Middlebury’s current financial instability to the disproportionately high increases in college expenses in recent years, compared to the relatively low increases in revenue that the college took in while the CPI + 1 policy was in effect. The college was subsequently forced to raise tuition prices significantly, at times by nearly 5%, but the rates of change have stabilized in recent years. “The Board and President Patton are committed to financial sustainability,” Provost said in an interview with The Campus. Provost said that the budget for fiscal year 2020 will be the break even point for the deficit, a year earlier than the school had predicted. Middlebury’s current costs are similar to those of its NESCAC peers, and the average cost of attending a NESCAC school in the 2018-2019 academic year is $69,877, compared to $69,561 at Middlebury. These costs are rising across the NESCAC. At Wesleyan, costs will increase 4.38% to $73,833 for the 2019-2020 academic year. Williams will raise its costs by 3.32% to $72,270 in the coming academic year. Provost predicted that in the next three to five years, tuition increases will remain in the 3% range. Provost attributed the continual rise in tuition rates to both the rise in service costs and the addition of new services. “Middlebury College is a different place than it was 20 years ago” he said, “there are more services that we need to provide and that comes at a cost.” Despite concerns about increasing costs and their impact on affordability, Middlebury points to its financial aid program, which services over 45% of the student body, to reassure students that their financial needs will continue to be met. Middlebury will remain need-blind in the application process and meet 100% of demonstrated need of admitted students, unlike some of its NESCAC companions Bates, Connecticut College and Colby. Middlebury also predicts a 9% increase in financial aid for the 2019-2020 academic year. “We will address (tuition increases) by giving more aid to the most needy students” Provost said. Even with rises in tuition, student debt has remained stable over the last five years. The average student debt for graduating seniors in May 2018 was $14,874. The college’s budget deficit has also prompted the college to cut staff costs through buyouts, and reduce faculty by offering incentive retirement packages. Provost hopes that tuition does not increase dramatically, but he does not expect it to stop rising in the coming years. “There is a day in the foreseeable future that it will hit $100,000,” he said.