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(11/12/20 10:58am)
As students prepare to leave campus in the next two weeks, many are debating whether or not to return for the spring semester. The school required that students declare their intentions by Nov. 10, although they have the choice to opt out of the semester at any time.
An unconventional fall semester has brought forth many new challenges, as more than half of all classes were held online and Covid-19 precautions limited opportunities for socialization and gatherings. Instead of returning to Middlebury in the spring, some students, like Emma McKee ’23, are planning to take a gap semester.
“I’m really happy to be here this semester, and I’ve had a great time meeting people and hanging out with my friends, but seeing as it’s not going to be that different next semester with Covid remaining in the world, I just wanted to take this time to explore something totally new,” McKee said.
McKee hopes to spend her gap semester working for American Conservation Experience, which offers six-month programs in Utah and California.
Zander Kessler ’22.5, who is currently taking a gap semester in Colorado, is instead planning his return. While he is enjoying time off from school to tutor remotely and spend time outside, Kessler plans to re-enroll in the spring.
“I feel like a whole year is too long to not do real school,” Kessler said. “I need to start doing something more academic.”
As an environmental chemistry major, Kessler hopes to have some in-person lab classes and looks forward to reuniting with friends. But he does have some reservations.
“It’s definitely tough to say I’m OK with paying Middlebury’s tuition for classes that are going to be at least partially remote, even if I’m on campus,” Kessler said. “It seems really hard to justify paying that amount of money.”
Abby Wilner ’23, who is currently on campus, is leaning toward coming back in the spring so she can continue to spend time with her friends. She said that she has been much more satisfied being on campus in the past couple of weeks due to the easing of restrictions, but acknowledged that Phase One was difficult.
“There’s a learning curve to figuring out how to make friends remotely and then make friends in person,” Wilner said.
Wilner initially had doubts about coming to campus.
“At the beginning I was more like, ‘Oh, let’s wait it out, I’m going to take a year off, or a semester off, and wait until college is back to normal,’” she said. “Now that it’s looking like, ‘How long am I going to have to wait?’ It’s kind of moving towards the acceptance phase of grief. It’s not going to be normal, so I’m not going to wait around. I might as well try to live my life the best I can.”
Others are considering factors like athletics for their decision about the spring. Noah Laber ’24, a member of the tennis team, is leaning toward remote study so he can continue practicing at home.
“Most of the tennis team isn’t coming back, so I’m kind of feeling like it might be difficult to have a productive semester athletically if there is no one here for me to practice with,” he said.
First-years in particular have struggled to make connections this semester. Joel Kofman ’24 and Sam Maxwell ’24 agreed that while the college has kept students safe from Covid-19, it came at the expense of social aspects they had looked forward to experiencing, particularly during the first couple of weeks.
“The college has done really well with the safety of the students in terms of Covid, but not as much taking into account their social lives and mental health,” Kofman said.
Despite the challenges this semester brought, many students worked to make the most of their time on campus.
“I’ve taken the time to enjoy the small things more than I did last year, like the fall and spending time outside and having meals with close friends,” McKee said. “After being home for so long you enjoy all those little things even if some things from last year aren't the same.”
(10/29/20 10:00am)
As the pandemic heightens the responsibility of state governments across the country, Vermont has emerged as a success story in controlling the virus — and for Republican Gov. Phil Scott, the proof is in the polling. Scott’s statewide acceptance rate peaked at 96% over the summer, and he remains one of the most popular governors in the nation. Up for re-election in the fall, Scott has eschewed typical campaigning to stay focused on pandemic response — but for his challenger, Progressive/Democratic Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman, the race is far from over.
Working alongside each other in Montpelier, the two aren’t exactly allies. Scott has used his veto pen more liberally than nearly any other leader in state history, rejecting progressive legislation sent from the majority-Democrat Vermont House and Senate. These bills have included a minimum wage hike, a paid family leave program and, most recently, steps to combat climate change — all causes that Zuckerman has championed for decades.
“I’ve been fighting for environmental causes since before I was in elected office. It’s really at the core of who I am,” Zuckerman told The Campus. He announced his candidacy pre-pandemic in January 2020, citing the climate crisis as his primary motivation. His focus has not changed, earning him the endorsement of Sunrise Middlebury, Bernie Sanders and even the co-founders of Ben & Jerry’s. “The climate crisis did not go away because the global pandemic has occurred,” he said. “We have multiple crises happening.”
Yet Scott’s moderate “New England Republican” style of leadership has allowed for overlap between the two as well. In a heavily Democratic state, Scott has retained popularity in part by breaking with the national Republican party, openly supporting President Trump’s impeachment and signing perhaps the most progressive abortion rights legislation in the country in 2019. Both candidates have said, too, that if Biden wins the presidential election and Senator Sanders joins his cabinet — most likely as labor secretary — they would appoint a temporary replacement Senator who caucuses with Democrats.
Now, through mask mandates and careful science-based health guidelines, Scott has managed to steer Vermont away from the pandemic partisanship that other states have seen — even garnering praise from Dr. Fauci himself.
“The safety measures we have in place are there for a reason, and they're working,” Scott said at one of his twice-weekly coronavirus briefings. “We’ve put ourselves in a great position.”
These briefings have been conducted both in his capacity as governor and, some have noted, in lieu of traditional re-election campaigning. His campaign manager and only full-time re-election staffer, Jason Maulucci, told The Campus that the campaign is at the bottom of Scott’s priority list.
“Vermonters deserve a governor who’s focused full-time on the job he was elected to do,” Maulucci said. “For an incumbent, there’s nothing a campaign apparatus can say or do that can replace the effect of a good job performance.”
For Zuckerman, pandemic success is great — but not enough. Since his time as a student at the University of Vermont, where he was deeply engaged in the environmental movement and worked on then-Representative Bernie Sanders’s campaign, the lieutenant governor has advocated for cutting-edge progressive causes like marijuana legalization and LGBTQ rights.
He first ran for the Vermont House of Representatives while in college in 1994, though he won his first seat in the House in 1996. Ever since, his style of electoral politics has stemmed from both Sanders and the activists he worked alongside.
“I met a lot of people who were living the efforts they were espousing,” Zuckerman said. “They were housing advocates, they were fair pay advocates, they were reducing toxic substances in municipal services, they were fighting for universal healthcare. And they were all involved in not only electoral politics but also, in their daily living, working to make life better.”
This nexus is where Zuckerman resides: he and his wife, Rachel Nevitt, are organic farmers and have owned Full Moon Farm, Inc. in Hinesburg, Vt. for over a decade. The couple farms seasonal fruits and vegetables, meats and eggs, and CBD, which they sell at the Burlington Farmers Markets and through their Community Farm Share. “To me, our economy, our food sources, and our climate are all incredibly intricately linked,” he said.
If Zuckerman is cut from an activist’s cloth, Scott is cut from a businessman’s. Gov. Scott, too, graduated from UVM and bases much of his ideology in his entrepreneurial experience: he started his first business at 18, mowing lawns and renting boats on Lake Elmore. He worked his way through several other mechanics and construction companies before entering the Vermont State Senate in 2000, promising to fight for the voices of small businesses and working families in Vermont.
This experience has also been inextricably tied to his governorship, which he has used to keep state spending, taxes and the cost of living relatively low. “Too many families and employers are on the economic edge,” Scott said when announcing his run for governor in 2015. “I believe our state needs a leader who listens instead of lectures, someone who’s been in the shoes of the people who are struggling, and […] who will never forget where they came from.”
Priding himself on consistency and steady-handed guidance, Scott told VTDigger this year that he thinks of himself as the “only thing” standing between the Democratic House and Senate majority and “continuing to increase the unaffordability of Vermont.” Former Gov. Jim Douglas, also a Republican, has lauded Scott for playing “budget hawk” by rejecting progressive legislation that would be costly for the state.
Yet for Zuckerman, the status quo is no longer tenable — even financially. Zuckerman has proposed a Green Mountain New Deal, a plan that would impose a temporary tax increase on the top 5% of Vermont earners to be used to bankroll environmental and infrastructure projects. “My idea with the temporary tax is to sequester some of the Trump tax cuts to the wealthiest in our state,” he said.
This is also the reason that the lieutenant governor entered the race this year as opposed to waiting for a less competitive election cycle. “I just don’t think with the climate crisis we have two years to be casually waiting,” he said. In this vein, Zuckerman has committed to working with youth activists as he has done for decades. For him, meaningful climate policy can be something of a chicken-and-egg issue: when young people don’t vote, their interests can go unaddressed.
Heading into the gubernatorial election on Nov. 3, Zuckerman is campaigning hard, holding virtual events and “Honk & Wave” sessions across the state — and, as a fundraising gimmick, an opportunity to donate to either team “Keep it” or team “Cut it” to decide the fate of his signature ponytail. Meanwhile, Gov. Scott is unfazed. Running without a real campaign platform, Scott has kept his eyes on maintaining the state’s successful pandemic response.
Both candidates hope to prepare the state for a future that neither can predict. Above all, each sees protecting the well-being of Vermonters as paramount — and voters are tasked with choosing between their decidedly different visions in achieving it.
(10/22/20 9:57am)
Dean of Students Derek Doucet will be taking a leave of absence through the end of November, according to an email sent from the Office of the President on Oct. 14. AJ Place, associate dean for student life, will serve as acting Dean of Students in Doucet’s place. Place will oversee the Office of Community Standards, Student Activities and Residential Life. Kristy Carpenter, assistant director for residential life, will temporarily step into the role of associate dean for student life.
“Since I’m only stepping into this role temporarily, I’m trying to get up to speed on the work Dean Doucet was doing, which always has a bit of a learning curve,” Place said. “Overall it’s a challenging term for everyone, so continuing to help us as a community through the next few weeks is my main goal.”
Jennifer Sellers, dean of student life, will temporarily co-chair Community Council — a responsibility usually managed by the Dean of Students.
“I was more than happy to do it,” Sellers said. “I miss being in the classroom a lot this semester, so having a chance to talk more with students about issues, like on Community Council, just seemed like a wonderful thing.”
The Community Council’s first meeting was on Monday, Oct. 19. Sellers said she has no agenda of her own, but looks forward to hearing councilmembers’ concerns.
“I really do think it's a forum and a space for the people who applied to be on the council to advocate for what they thought were going to be issues of importance, and also to be able to vet those issues that are coming up organically in the moment,” Sellers said. “I imagine a lot is going to be around the issue of uniformed [Public Safety officers] on campus and how it might evolve in the future.”
The email also announced several updates to staff working on programming within the Student Life Office.
Jessica Holmes, professor of economics, will be stepping into a newly created role as student life advisor for remote students through the end of the 2020–21 academic year. Holmes said that the college recognized a need for greater support for remote learners and designated a point person so more resources would be available to those students.
“My goal is to find new ways to build community for our remote learners and help them stay connected to Middlebury,” Holmes wrote in an email to The Campus. “All of our students, no matter where they are living, are Middlebury students, and we want them to benefit from all that Middlebury has to offer.”
Holmes plans to gather student input in the coming weeks, with an upcoming survey to better understand the needs of remote learners. She also hopes to create a virtual student council to help design programming and a virtual student union page for remote learners to connect and engage with one another.
Robert Moeller, associate professor of psychology, will become the director of residential education and innovation as part of the college’s BluePrint residential experience, the group of residential changes that occurred after the commons system was put to an end last spring. Moeller previously co-led the college’s How Will We Live Together review of residential life at Middlebury with Doucet.
BluePrint is the college’s planned residential programming for building students’ communities and life skills. Moeller pointed to his research about mental health at Middlebury in past years through the “Student Stress & Social Life Study” and his work as the MiddCORE director — which features a significant life skills component — as experiences that informed his advocacy for residential programming.
“We are creating a residential community that reduces students’ experiences of stress and anxiety, celebrates our diversity and provides important life skills so that all students have equal access to the full Middlebury experience,” Moeller said in an email to The Campus.
Those life skills include relationship building, conflict resolution, time management, financial literacy, study skills, leadership development, identification, networking and careers explorations, so that students can live happier and healthier lives during and after college, according to Moeller.
He is working with the Student Government Association to develop life skills programming for students that will be available during J-Term and spring term, with a full rollout of BluePrint to follow in fall 2021. Residential programming will also be designed in collaboration with the college’s Task Force on Anti-racism to create a more equitable living and learning community.
“Every Middlebury student belongs here, and every student should have a clear set of paths available to them to experience the college’s mission — to live engaged, consequential, creative lives where they are prepared to contribute to their communities and address the world’s most challenging problems,” Moeller said.
Christal Brown, associate professor of dance, was recently appointed to head the college’s Task Force on Anti-racism and will meet with Student Life staff regularly to create anti-racist programming for all students, according to the email from the Office of the President.
(10/22/20 9:57am)
When I was born in 1971, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations were 324 ppm — roughly consistent with where they had been for the last 100,000 years; roughly consistent with the environmental conditions that allowed our species to transition from nomadic hunter-gatherer societies to stable civilizations that could domesticate livestock and crops; build cities; and create art, culture and science.
When I graduated from Middlebury in 1993, we were at 353 ppm.
Today, at the age of 49, we are over 410 ppm.
That’s a nearly 33% increase in my lifetime.
When I graduated from college, a Republican administration had just committed the country to an international agreement to set a price on chlorofluorocarbons through a system of tradable emissions permits in the Montreal Protocol. It was our expectation that the incoming Clinton administration would do the same for greenhouse gases in the Kyoto protocol. And yet it didn’t. Why?
Because politicians decided to punt the problem down the road and leave the generation of tomorrow to deal with the issues of today.
That’s not leadership, but it is politically understandable; after all, future generations don’t vote in the current election. And now that future is upon us.
In 2020, college-aged Americans are projected to make up 10% of the voting-age population. But, if historical voting trends continue, just 30–40% of them will vote. Conversely, more than 70% of voters over the age of 65 will vote.
If you ever wonder why politicians talk so much more about Social Security and Medicare than they do about climate change, that’s why.
[pullquote speaker="" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]It is in your power to turn that around. But only if you vote.[/pullquote]
We are less than two weeks away from one of the most important elections of our lives. As we move closer and closer to the 2020 election, you must ask yourself:
Should we finally address climate change at a level that is scientifically necessary, or should we simply settle for that which we judge to be politically possible?
Should we address the economic inequities that have been borne so heavily by younger and minority communities, or should we prioritize tax cuts for the old and already wealthy?
Should we recognize the tolerance of your generation, who sees gay marriage and a woman’s right to choose as yesterday’s battles, or should we prioritize the values of those who still want to relitigate 1990s culture wars?
I know how I answer those questions, but too many of my colleagues will instead prioritize the interests of older, voting Americans over your generation.
There are nearly 20 million college students in the United States. You have an enormous amount of power. You have the ability to sway elections up and down the ballot. The 2018 midterm elections saw record turnout levels, and yet, a handful of congressional races were won or lost by less than 2% margins. This presidential election year, young people have the power to decide critical seats for the U.S. House and Senate.
Democracy is an amazing tool. But only if you use it.
Vote by November 3.
Sean Casten ’93 serves as the U.S. Representative for Illinois's 6th congressional district.
(10/15/20 10:00am)
We’ve felt it too. The pressure, late nights and stress of this semester are more intense and taxing than usual. Of course, some of this can be chalked up to the global and national conditions of our present moment. Attending college during a pandemic and a moment of national unrest was always going to be difficult. Yet one Middlebury-made stresser adds yet another layer: our busyness culture.
During any given semester, college students all around the country pressure themselves to fill their time — to be perpetually busy — in order to get the most out of their undergraduate experience. But at Middlebury, this practice has elevated into an artform. Braggadocio of late-night studying, volume-shooting internship applications and long lists of clubs joined serve as battle scars of a productive semester.
Somehow, the pandemic has elevated these self-inflicted pressures. Now, without social outlets like weekend parties, days off or even just going to a friend’s room to break up the grind of the semester, many students are throwing themselves into work just to fill the time. The institutional and cultural pressure of internships and jobs are yet another stressor to deal with, adding more work to students’ already burdened plates.
Without open access to public study spaces, students are confined to their rooms, further blending the boundaries between study and relaxation. To make matters worse, while most professors are leading with grace and flexibility, some seem far too eager to burden students with large courseloads and unforgiving deadlines in an attempt to preserve the rigor of a Middlebury education. The sum of these parts is an overworked and under-rested student body. At Middlebury, the grind doesn’t stop; it just adapts. The nightmarish question of “was your pandemic productive?” looms over all students, even those taking the semester off.
These pressures were compounded last week with the college’s announcement of a remote J-Term and late start to the second semester. Faced with an empty three months to fill on short notice, many students are struggling to imagine how — or where — they’ll spend their winter. Only three weeks away from the decision deadline, many are scrambling to make plans.
For many students, the busyness stresses of the current semester are relatively “normal”: classes, internships and academic work. For some, leaving campus for an extended period of time means that these stresses will be replaced with the far more terrifying reality of the pandemic and the material health risks it brings. Students with proximity to frontline workers — or are frontline workers themselves — or to those with vulnerabilities must deal with much more serious questions than whether or not their professor will round up an 89. Conversely, others will retreat to comfort, far away from the most devastating realities of the pandemic, and be free to fret over the snowfall on the ski slopes. Without the equalizing force of campus, Middlebury students are headed for vastly different experiences, further heightening the student body’s class divisions.
But the common thread that connects us all is busyness, in all of its forms. Everyone wants to make their time away from campus worthwhile, but that word has a different meaning for each student. There is a pressure from both Middlebury the institution and Middlebury the culture to perform — and to perform well.
Yet we, the students, create that culture that we consume. There is an exit from this, and it begins with all of us appreciating the circumstances under which we find ourselves. Kindness to ourselves and others — however cliché — must be a motivating force for all of us as we finish out the term and navigate the winter. The grind of internship applications and busywork will not be what gets us through this pandemic. Thoughtful reconsideration of our own goals this semester is needed in order to create an environment that works for all.
This should also be a moment of self-reflection. Each of us should focus on prioritizing our own mental health and filling our days with what we value — not what others tell us is valuable. Moving away from busyness culture as a community requires figuring out what’s right for each of us and supporting that in one another. [pullquote speaker="" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]It’s okay to be busy, but not for the sake of being busy.[/pullquote]
What makes Middlebury, and an on-campus experience, special is the people. Peers, staff and professors are why students came back to campus. Let’s not lose sight of that in the deluge of work that currently lays in front of us. Our social outlets may look different, but we should make time to maintain and cultivate connections and take care of ourselves. The community displayed during this past Spring’s evacuation was a fleeting glimpse of a better Middlebury — we have to make it permanent.
This editorial represents the opinions of the Middlebury Campus’s editorial board.
(10/15/20 9:56am)
In the weeks before students returned to campus, staff members from dining halls, the mail center and facilities moved thousands of boxes that were left in dorm rooms when Middlebury evacuated students last March.
The abrupt departure in the spring sent students scrambling to schedule flights home and pack up their belongings, with little idea of when campus would reopen. When the college decided to finish the semester remotely, residential halls remained filled with boxed belongings that needed to be moved before new students arrived for the fall semester.
The college announced plans to reopen for the fall semester on June 22, with the first round of the delayed room draw scheduled for late July and the second occurring in August. Because most students received room assignments less than a month before moving in, staff had only a few weeks to move items from hundreds of rooms to students’ new residences.
“At one point, we had six teams of four moving student belongings. We just needed more time before students got here,” Jodie Keith, manager of custodial and support services, said. “Three weeks before the first students were scheduled to arrive, we got the list, and we started moving boxes then.”
Staff had already shuffled boxes around in the spring, as the college consolidated housing for students who remained on campus. Middlebury had designated several residential houses for temporary use by Porter Medical Center employees and prepared others in case the town needed them during the spring, according to Keith.
“It’s hard to say how many boxes we moved, but I would say on average there were probably 20 boxes per room, and kids did not take many things with them,” Keith said.
Seniors and other students not returning to campus for the fall were allowed back to pick up their belongings in late July. Some spaces, like the Atwater Suites, had many unlabeled items that staff had to move.
“We also brought over all the items that were left in common areas in the suites,” Keith said “There was a lot of furniture and just random things left in there, so we bagged it all up and took it to Nelson and labeled it.”
As the college adjusted housing plans, staff had to move many belongings multiple times.
“The biggest challenge was students who switched rooms — and I know they tried to minimize it because we were moving belongings and things — but they were also trying to keep students separated and use as few doubles and triples as possible,” Keith said.
Keith explained that sometimes staff would deliver a student’s items, then get a new list indicating that the student was living somewhere else, and they would need to return and move the items to a new location.
Most students packed up their items and labeled boxes clearly when they left, but staff had to guess for those that did not. Some items, such as rugs and mattresses, may have had tags fall off in transit and appeared unlabeled, according to Keith.
“When we loaded the trucks, we didn’t just load one room, we loaded five or six rooms. So when we got to a location and there wasn’t a tag on [an item], we tried to make our best guess on which student it belonged to,” Keith said.
As students moved into their dorms this fall, some were greeted by empty rooms. When Maya Saterson ’22 arrived on campus Aug. 28, only two of her items were in her room — her mirror and her fridge.
“I was thinking ‘oh, maybe they’re not here because I’m really annoying because I had 28 items,’” Saterson said. “But I was trying to be very patient because I appreciate how much the school is doing and how much was on their plate… They were helpful, it just took a while.”
Because Middlebury’s reopening plan required students to quarantine in their rooms until their Day Zero Covid-19 test came back negative, students without belongings had few options on the first day.
Once released to campus quarantine, students were still not allowed to go into town throughout Phase One, therefore many missing items could not be replaced. The college provided some supplies to students without belongings but not all students were aware of the option, and others were simply unable to get them.
“I reached out initially to my [Community Assistant] and he was very helpful. He said that he would reach out to facilities and everyone, and also he got me sheets and a pillow and a towel,” Saterson said.
Keith noted that the process could have been more organized.
“When students first left, we probably should have gone through each room and written down an inventory, which we did eventually but not when we first had to consolidate rooms,” Keith said.
In the days after students arrived, staff worked to get the undelivered items to dorm rooms. Saterson got permission to pick up her boxes and move them herself from Nelson Arena on Saturday, Sept. 5 — more than a week after she arrived — but staff members ultimately delivered them to her on Friday night.
(10/08/20 4:52pm)
This is a developing story and will be updated accordingly.
Middlebury plans to welcome all students back to campus for the spring semester. Students will arrive on Feb. 24 and 25 after a two-week home quarantine period. Classes will begin on March 1 and will be conducted remotely for the first week.
J-Term will be conducted remotely and will take place from Jan. 19 to Feb. 12, followed by a two week break before spring classes begin.
After classes begin in the spring, they will continue through May 21 with finals week beginning on May 23. Spring break and senior week have been cancelled.
Feb graduation may occur at the end of the fall 2020 semester. Spring 2021 commencement will be held on May 30 either in person or remotely, depending on conditions.
The college has committed to wage continuity for all employees through the spring semester.
Middlebury plans to reopen its campus to all students for the spring 2020 semester with delayed arrival on Feb. 24 and 25. J-Term classes will be held remotely from Jan. 19 to Feb. 12, with flexibility for internships and limited on-campus research. Spring classes will run from March 1 to May 21 and will be held online for the first week, after which they will be offered either in person, remotely or through a hybrid model.
Students received the announcement in an all-campus email on Oct. 8 from President Laurie Patton and other senior administrators.
Although most students will take winter classes remotely, a small number of students will be approved to conduct research on campus during J-term. These students will arrive on Jan. 21 to begin their research on Feb. 1. Students will be able to complete J-Term internships either in person or remotely, and internship dates will not have to align with the altered dates of the term if students acquire prior approval. Students will have until Nov. 10 to formally declare their intentions for J-Term and the spring semester.
Middlebury followed guidance from the state of Vermont to forgo on campus winter terms “to decrease instances of Covid-19 exposure due to travel from parts of the United States that have a higher prevalence of the virus.”
No outline was provided regarding off-campus travel within Addison County or beyond, nor about restrictions for dining, visitors, events, gathering sizes or students living off campus. The announcement also did not mention a “phased” approach to the on-campus restrictions that have characterized life on campus this semester.
The college plans to provide an updated version of the health pledge and a Return to Campus guide for the spring semester in December.
Like the fall 2020 semester, students will be expected to complete a two-week home quarantine before arriving on campus. Upon arrival, students will undergo Day Zero and Day Seven testing as well as a period of on-campus quarantine that will extend at least until the end of the testing and results period.
“One of biggest challenges for the coming months is the availability of indoor spaces for classrooms, dining and other activities,” the announcement read. No further detail was provided regarding these concerns, leaving unanswered questions about dining areas during mud season.
Once classes begin, they will continue through May 21. Finals week will begin on May 23 and Commencement is planned for May 30. There will be no traditional spring break or other significant time off, nor will there be a Senior Week break between the end of classes and graduation. However, the college has committed to “special activities to celebrate the Class of 2021.”
In the coming weeks, the college plans to send students a form asking them to indicate whether they plan to study in person or remotely in the spring.
Plans for an in-person commencement for the already-graduated class of 2020 are still unknown, despite an announcement from President Patton last spring that there would eventually be an in-person event.
In addition to committing to staff wage continuity, the college will also close for the entire week of Thanksgiving, which will add three paid holidays for eligible staff. Any hourly staff who work during Thanksgiving week because of operational needs will be compensated with “holiday premium pay.”
Middlebury is planning an Oct. 30 announcement regarding spring operations for its schools abroad. Pending travel restrictions and conditions in host countries, the college expects to be able to operate some of its 37 locations in 16 countries, with more details about specific programs expected closer to their program start dates. The college said it is hoping to host in-person summer programs such as Language Schools and the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, although information is not available yet.
The email also announced that there will be no NESCAC winter sports competition this year, as decided by the conference presidents today. The NESCAC has not yet determined what spring sports will look like, though the announcement stated that “Spring athletes should be aware that current conditions would not allow us to engage in competition.”
The college maintains that details about on-campus life during the spring semester depend on how the pandemic develops in Vermont and elsewhere. “As always, our decisions are and will be guided by the latest scientific research and advice from federal, state, and local health officials,” the email read.
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(10/08/20 10:00am)
Three months ago, we editorialized on the importance of working and thinking beyond the Instagram stories and Twitter trends revolving around performative anti-racist advocacy in the wake of the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and many more. “As protests and racial justice begin to leave the national discourse — our actions from this point onward are key in implementing concrete changes and forwarding genuine change,” the Editorial Board wrote in July.
Implementing these concrete changes at Middlebury — that dismantle structures of institutional racism and engender cultural shifts that decenter whiteness and white comfort — are more imperative and urgent than ever before. On Friday, Sept. 25, just hours after more than 500 hundred students marched on College Park protesting the Breonna Taylor verdict, Rodney Adams ’21 and Jameel Uddin ’22 were accosted by two white students who referred to them using a racial slur. Then, on Thursday, the Political Science department in conjuction with the widely contentious Alexander Hamilton Forum sponsored a debate titled “1619 or 1776: Was America Founded on Slavery?”
It has been made painstakingly clear that Middlebury must come to reckon with our complicity in the occurrence of overt hate speech — but also grapple with how institutional recognition of certain events leads BIPOC students to question their place on this campus. We must also recognize for whom the consequences of such events have just been made clear, and who has always known such stark injustices to be apparent and normalized.
While many white students expressed shock and dismay in response to these incidents, entrenched racism on campus has always been a demoralizing reality for BIPOC students. For them, the use of explicit racial slurs, an academic climate that treats the lived experiences of BIPOC students as topical academic theories and the morally deficient outcomes of police brutality verdicts aren’t just unsurprising — they’re expected.
Students, in their own right, have a vital obligation to reach far beyond their aesthetic Instagram infographics to bridge this disconnect. And while holding our peers accountable day in and day out is critical, we cannot let the administration off the hook for the role they play in abetting racism on campus.
This summer, our inboxes were peppered with promises we have yet to see reach fruition, from the half-a-million dollars to support nebulous “anti-racist programming” to obscure plans for a new task force, a DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) action plan and supposed initiatives at the board and trustee level. Students remain in the dark about these initiatives, and we urge the administration to double down on a much-needed sense of urgency that has appeared absent thus far.
[pullquote speaker="" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]We cannot wait for an amorphous five-year plan to tackle racism on campus. We must see material steps being taken as soon as possible — not just ambiguous lip service directed towards students who require both answers and healing. [/pullquote]
These steps in question are not a mystery. The letter to President Patton published last week in The Campus by Adams and Kaila Thomas ’21, the organizer of the Breonna Taylor protest, outlined a myriad of definitive demands ranging from Black faculty and staff recruitment efforts and a comprehensive Black Studies program to a compensated body of Black students responsible for creating distinct anti-racist initiatives alongside the Senior Leadership Group.
It is becoming increasingly evident that Middlebury does not have a concrete framework for addressing the racism that is embedded in the fabric of our institution. The administration has not only lacked adequate clarity and urgency — they are also unprepared.
This dilemma draws a parallel with another serious aspect of Middlebury life that we have been considerably prepared for. When it comes to Covid-19, we have extensive infrastructure in place to tackle the general campus culture surrounding everyday actions. Conversations regarding Covid-19 safety and responsibility aren’t just encouraged, they’re unavoidable. From classrooms to residence halls to required trainings, Middlebury has ensured that this discourse has become a natural part of our daily lives.
But why is it can we not have the same all-encompassing focus on campus toward anti-racist work? Why have dialogues surrounding race and race-based advocacy been confined to a specific few while many — predominantly white — members of our community get to skate by? Why is it that some professors can choose to go the entire semester without once having to confront inequities in their own classrooms?
It is long past time that we as a community stop placing these conversations and actions on the back burner. We students have a lot of work to do, but we expect that the powers that be will meet us halfway. We can no longer afford to be surprised by manifestations of both structural and interpersonal racism at Middlebury, and we can no longer be complicit in enabling the circumstances that allow such manifestations to be perpetuated.
This editorial represents the opinions of the Middlebury Campus’s editorial board.
(10/08/20 10:00am)
Inspired by the role that sports have played in her life, Jamie Mittelman ’10 created a podcast celebrating female athletes who play at the highest level of competition: Olympians and Paralympians. The podcast, called “Flame Bearers,” is part of the Women in Power Conference, a student-run conference at the Harvard Kennedy School that seeks to “spark difficult conversations on how together, through leadership and policy, we can work to remove systemic barriers and elevate people of all genders to places of power.”
“Growing up, many of the hardest and most rewarding times of my life were on the [soccer] field, [the ski racing] mountain and on the track. Sport has been the wheelhouse in which I’ve had some of my greatest joys but also the home for embarrassing and cringe-worthy self-realizations,” Mittelman said.
Mittelman is on track to receive a Master’s of Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School, the public policy school at Harvard University. She first became involved with the Women in Power Conference last year as a conference co-chair, a position she still holds. She began “Flame Bearers” to celebrate the triumphs and struggles of female-identifying Olympians by providing them with the opportunity to share the lessons they learned while becoming elite athletes.
On the podcast’s website, Mittelman discusses the struggles she experienced during her own athletic career on the Middlebury Women’s Soccer Team. “Before losing my dad to brain cancer, the single most challenging period of my life was when my obsessive-compulsive disorder paralyzed me during my college soccer experience, transforming the game from one of joy to one of constant anxiety and fear,” Mittelman said.
The hardships that accompany the intense commitment and training of a competitive athlete are often not discussed, Mittleman said. Playing at the highest level of competition is gratifying and rewarding, but the process to get there can be taxing and stressful. Being a top female athlete comes with its own host of decisions and stresses as women contend with issues such as social pressures on body image and the prospect of having children, among others.
Recognizing the highs and lows of sport is central to the goals of “Flame Bearers.” Mittelman hopes to create a space that celebrates both sides of being an athlete by normalizing discussions of the adversities that athletes — and women in particular — face.
In August, Mittelman interviewed two fellow Middlebury alumni, sisters Lea and Sabra Davison (’05 and ’07, respectively). Lea Davison is a two-time mountain biking Olympian and 2016 World Championship silver medalist. During the episode, she discusses her experiences as an openly gay cyclist as well as her work with Little Bellas, a mountain biking and mentorship nonprofit for girls that she cofounded with her sister. She spoke about showing up to under-18 races in her youth and seeing as many as 50 boys race each other, in contrast to only five girls competing. The Davison sisters decided this gap in participation had to change.
“We use mountain bikes as a kind of vehicle for empowering women and creating a welcoming space and community for our female mentors as well as our Little Bellas,” Lea Davison said. “Another factor motivating us to create Little Bellas was the fact that we didn’t see a lot of positive female role models out there, and so we wanted to give girls a selection of positive female role models to choose from.”
Athletics have continued to play a huge role in Mittelman’s life after leaving Middlebury; she completed the New York City marathon and received her yoga instructor certification. Despite her active involvement in athletics, Mittelman expresses that she still feels “athletically unqualified” to host the podcast. She makes a clear distinction between her athletic experience and the intense, life-long training of an Olympian.
“Sport has been one of my greatest teachers, and given the many more hours these athletes have dedicated to perfecting crafts than I had, I know that the lessons they’ve gleaned will be that much more powerful,” Mittelman said.
With the cancellation of the 2020 Summer Olympics, “Flame Bearers” is even more important, as it provides a platform for these athletes who have dedicated their lives to their sports. Mittelman expressed the importance her podcast holds in the current climate of the world as well.
“Our world is locked in a state of constant change and chaos, and people from all corners of the world are alone and in need of hope,” Mittelman said. “I want to create space for hope. These athletes carry their own Olympic torches, and I want to help illuminate their lights.”
(10/08/20 9:57am)
Six years ago, I wouldn’t have been able to get out of bed. Six years ago, it would have taken me three hours to get ready for school. Six years ago, I would have been tapping and stomping and counting in order to get out of the car, eat a meal or walk to the bathroom. Six years ago, I never thought I would be where I am today: a student and an athlete at Middlebury College.
October is National Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Awareness month, and I share my story now with the hope of raising consciousness about OCD in the Middlebury community. My experience is not unique, but I look to restore a sense of hope in others and help them untangle themselves from the chains of overwhelming fears and anxieties.
I have struggled with severe anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder for most of my life. But six years ago — when I was 12 — this condition reached its peak. Rooted in the fear of becoming sick, my OCD took hold of me until I was immobilized and could no longer function as a human being, let alone do the things I enjoyed the most, like swimming and spending time with my younger sister.
My anxiety-ridden obsessions were so overbearing that I was unable to complete basic tasks such as eating, sleeping, engaging in personal hygiene or walking. Stuck in a place of depressive, dark anxiety coupled with an ever-spinning wheel of compulsory behavior, I was hopeless. As my behavioral compulsions became increasingly intense and overpowering, I was eventually forced to take a leave of absence from school.
It became apparent to me and my family that an intervention was needed in order to help me get back on track. Living in a very rural community exacerbated the difficulties of finding adequate mental health services, particularly for the intensive treatment I needed. Beginning in the spring of 2014, I enrolled in an intensive outpatient program in the Bay Area, specifically designed for adolescents struggling with severe obsessive-compulsive disorder and other anxiety-related mental illnesses. I was lucky enough to have the support from my family that allowed me to temporarily move closer to the treatment center to complete a 10-week intensive program that focused on exposure response prevention therapy, commonly known as ERP. While the end result was utterly life changing, those moments in treatment were some of the most difficult days of my life.
My therapy consisted of progressively working through behavioral changes to disassociate fear and obsessive triggers from continual behavioral rituals, or compulsions. Every day posed a new challenge, and every day I found myself getting a little bit stronger. Over time, reversing and erasing rituals became easier and easier, and I was beginning to find myself again without the angry mask of the disorder which had haunted me for so long.
At the end of treatment, I was able to walk, eat, sleep, study and go about my day without the overbearing stress of my compulsions. I was able to swim, return to school and spend time with friends once again. Most importantly though, I was able to smile and laugh and feel something besides fear. I was happy.
Six years later, I am still that same girl. Even though the severity of my OCD has never returned to the levels it once peaked at, I still struggle. While getting sick may not be a large fear of mine anymore, circumstance lends itself to the power of the mind. In recent years I have struggled with an eating disorder, and while there are rougher and easier patches, my anxiety is still very much a part of who I am. The difference now, however, is that I have been to that incredibly dark place. I know what it’s like to wish everything would just stop so that there could finally be some peace. And I know what it is like to lose yourself.
I have come to accept that I will never completely overcome the obsessive-compulsive disorder, but I have learned what it means to be a fighter and overcome fear. I have the tools now to help me challenge intrusive thoughts and heightened anxiety. ERP was the most effective strategy, and I still rely on the cognitive tools that my therapists helped me develop when I was in the intensive program. I continue to use practices of mindfulness and visualization, which I incorporate into my life through activities such as yoga, journaling and meditation. Honest, open communication is paramount to success. I am forever thankful for the relationship I have with my family as well as the therapists and clinicians who have provided a space for my voice and responded with love and validation throughout the years.
I used to feel ashamed of my OCD, like it was some tremendous secret I needed to protect. I have come to realize that I am not defined by a diagnosis, nor am I guilty about who I am. My struggles have made me into the woman I am today. Confronting OCD at a young age forced me to mature quickly, giving me the opportunity to appreciate the nuances of life so much more. I have learned to harness the strength to overcome whatever life decides to throw, and I believe, with every part of me, that you can too.
Haley Hutchinson is a member of the class of 2023.
(10/08/20 9:56am)
Recently, I’ve taken to getting lost. I’ll pull on my sneakers and just run — no map, no plan, no time limit. The first time I did this, it was a mistake; my excitement to step off campus as soon as Phase Two began left me in the middle of a faint path somewhere slightly off of the TAM, a good couple of miles away from where I had intended to be. After dozens more miles, one cow stampede and several additional wrong turns, I’m still at it, wandering by foot on trails all over Middlebury.
I never thought that I would be someone who enjoyed getting lost. I’m the type of person who uses Google Maps every single time I drive just to make sure I arrive perfectly on time. Add in a healthy (but warranted!) concern about wildlife and an abnormally poor sense of direction, and you might think that wandering in the woods doesn’t really seem like it would be that great of an idea for me.
The truth is, most of the time, I do like knowing where I am, what I’m doing and where I have to be. I’m not unique in this: from the time we are in elementary school, we are taught to plan. And most of us, by now, are really good at it. At a school like Midd, this is unsurprising. We plan a lot, choosing our classes around distribution requirements and majors — ones that will be challenging enough to look good on a resume but not too challenging that they hurt our GPAs. We plan internships and interviews and grad school applications.
But what does all this planning get us?
Even as a liberal arts college that aims to create “a transformative learning experience” and “foster inquiry, equity and agency,” Middlebury isn’t immune to over-rationalization because it exists in a world where higher education isn’t defined by the intrinsic value of learning. Instead, a college education is seen as a means to an end. Despite establishing admirable, abstract goals that seem to emphasize a holistic student experience, one look at the admissions website reveals that the perceived value of a Middlebury education revolves around employment or postgraduate education, neither of which are necessarily connected to personal fulfillment outside of the professional sphere.
Somewhere along the way, we are taught that establishing concrete goals for our future — with their requisite strict set of steps to get there — will help us reach that all-too-nebulous idea of “success.” But success is often relative, and the completion of one step just leads to the next, leaving us stuck in a mindset of never-ending ascension. With our futures supposedly on the line, there’s not much room for risk-taking, experimentation or creativity. Pursuing interests that may be personally fulfilling but conflict with our concrete ideas of success is therefore discouraged.
There has been a lot of talk recently about being more intentional. New Covid-19 guidelines have transformed the way we interact, allowing the intentionality that drives our academic pursuits to seep into our relationships. Although it can be useful to put more thought into how we connect, as Maria Kaouris and Ben Beese have suggested in their recent op-eds, we need to be careful of letting meticulous planning dictate our personal lives. In a small environment like Midd, room occupancy limits and scrupulous planning of social events seem to lead to the maintenance of already-established connections rather than the development of new ones. Because we no longer have the same outlets for spontaneous socialization, we need to discover new ways of injecting the novelty of random interactions into our everyday experiences.
And so, to counteract all of the structure that is all-too-quickly taking over my life, I get lost. In his WSJ article, “Take a hike and get lost,” Colin Fleming explains the tension between the need for freedom and desire for the comforts of our many plans, writing, “We fight for so much control in our lives, and we feel frightfully unmoored without it.” It’s scary to go headlong into something without knowing how it will turn out. But that fighting is exhausting and, oftentimes, it prevents us from appreciating what is already around us.
It took being quarantined to this campus for me to realize that in my three years here, I have never really stepped outside of it: outside of all the structures and requirements that are simultaneously comforting and confining. New guidelines may require more intention, but more than ever, we need to make time for the unintentional, for the happy accidents, for the sidetracks, for the pointless wanderings.
I run to get away from it all — the list of assignments, the connections I should be making, the structured practices. I run because there is more to life than just a line of checkmarks and an ever-accumulating list of achievements. And a lot of the time, I end up in the middle of the woods with absolutely no idea where I am, but I’ve found that getting lost makes for a better run anyway.
(10/08/20 9:53am)
Middlebury students are navigating all-new or altered absentee voting systems ahead of the general election on Nov. 3. Although absentee voting is hardly new to college campuses, the pandemic has ignited nationwide debate about mail-in voting systems. Many states have expanded voting options for the 2020 election cycle because of safety concerns during the pandemic, but implementation varies significantly from state to state.
Lily Shannon ’23 registered in Tennessee last year, but was unable to vote in the Mar. 3 primary because of a state rule stipulating that voters who register online or by mail must vote in person their first time. The law affects mostly young voters and was temporarily halted by a federal judge in September, partly because of Covid-19 concerns. Still, absentee rules for the upcoming election are not always clear.
“There are all these rules — like it says you can email your ballot request in, but then on another website it says you can’t — so it’s really confusing. Then there’s three addresses to send your ballot to just in my county alone, so I don’t know which one I’m supposed to send it to,” Shannon said.
Many students are voting from Middlebury for the first time, trying to meet deadlines and adjust to an unfamiliar mail system. Policy changes at the U.S. Postal Service coupled with the pandemic led to nationwide mail slowdowns this summer, with Vermont experiencing some of the worst delays for long-distance mail in the nation.
“I haven’t mailed anything from here yet, so this will be my first time and that’s kind of nerve-wracking. I’m confident in my ability to do it, but it’s crazy that this is the first time,” Brianna Beach ’23 said.
Several students expressed anxiety about sending absentee ballots and not all were confident their votes will end up being counted.
“I was expecting to receive my local and state primary ballot... but that ballot got lost in the mail, and I had to go in person to re-request it. When it finally did come I had to hand it in day-of, which wasn’t going to be my intent with requesting an absentee ballot,” said Sophie Johnson ’22, who is registered to vote in New Hampshire.
Johnson was concerned that her ballot for the general election would also get lost. She visited her city hall before beginning her pre-arrival quarantine in August, trying to verify that her ballot would go to the right address in Middlebury.
“I had to call twice since coming to college — and now I think that my information is accurate and up to date — but it was a lot of phone tag,” Johnson said. “I still haven’t received my ballot, whereas one person I know from New Hampshire has received theirs and voted already, which makes me nervous that my ballot won’t get here in time.”
Beach, who votes in Georgia, also ran into issues during the primary. Georgia’s presidential primary was initially scheduled for March 24, shortly after Middlebury students were sent home because of the pandemic.
“It was a big hassle coming home. I know there was limited polling and a lot of stuff closed, and I had to figure out getting rid of my absentee ballot which I had requested in order to do it in person because I had missed the deadline,” Beach said.
Now she is voting from Middlebury for the first time.
“I’ve been really anxious about deadlines for requesting my absentee ballot, because it’s just not something I’m super familiar with,” Beach said. “I feel confident in being able to vote, but I definitely have been thinking about the way the virus is going to impact everything in Georgia.”
Even though students are eligible to vote in Vermont, Shannon chose to vote in Tennessee because the state leans Republican and she feels her vote can do more there.
“I still obviously am going to try to vote… but whether it be some miniscule fault of mine that they count as invalid, it not getting there on time, or just being lost, I definitely don’t think [my ballot] will be counted,” Shannon said.
Five states — Oregon, Washington, Utah, Hawaii and Colorado — conduct all-mail elections, in which voters automatically receive a mail-in ballot and limited in-person voting is available the day of the election.
“I had already set up receiving my ballots over email in previous semesters, so nothing changed at all. I still got an email with my ballot, I just have to print it off,” said Anika Heilweil ’21, who votes in Utah.
Nevada, California, Vermont, and New Jersey will join those states for the 2020 election and send mail-in ballots to all registered voters by default. Over a dozen states will also automatically send an application for a mail-in ballot to registered voters.
Many states have also implemented no-excuse absentee voting for the 2020 election cycle, meaning that voters do not need to have an approved excuse to vote absentee. These excuses typically include a voter being outside of the county they are registered in, working a shift during the times the polls are open, physical disabilities or being over 65 years of age. Others have maintained that voters must have an excuse to vote absentee, but have expanded the approved list of excuses to include concerns about vulnerability to Covid-19. Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Indiana will require an excuse beyond a fear of Covid-19.
College students residing outside of the state they are registered in are included in the excused reasons for voting absentee. Middlebury students are eligible to vote in Vermont and can register as late as the day of the election to vote absentee.
Despite the added challenges of voting this year, students were committed to voting in the general election.
“I’ve been getting a lot of texts for canvassing and reminders to register, and this year it feels like people are really pushing for people to vote — more than ever before,” Beach said.
States have different deadlines for registering, requesting absentee ballots, and returning absentee ballots. Some have deadlines based on when mail is postmarked while others have deadlines for when mail is received. Certain states may also require a notarized ballot. Ongoing legal battles may change deadlines for registration and absentee ballot submission in several states. Information on how to vote in your state is available on state government websites or from non-partisan organizations such as vote.org. All listed dates and hours are in local time zones.
ALABAMA
Incumbent Democrat Doug Jones is facing strong opposition from Republican challenger Tommy Tuberville, making the state one of the few with a senate seat likely to flip from a Democrat to a Republican.
Registration deadline: Postmarked by Oct. 19
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Received by Oct. 29.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Postmarked one day before Election Day and received by noon on Election Day.
ALASKA
No close statewide or federal races.
Registration deadline: Postmarked by Oct. 4
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Received by Oct. 24.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Postmarked by Election Day and received by Nov. 13.
ARIZONA
Arizona has voted for a Republican every year since 1952 except for Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential run, but many believe it is likely to flip in favor of Joe Biden this year. Arizona also has one of the most hotly contested senate races, between Republican Martha McSally and Democrat Mark Kelly.
Registration deadline: Postmarked by Oct. 5
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Received by 5 p.m. on Oct. 23.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Received no later than 7 p.m. on Election Day.
ARKANSAS
The Democratic candidate for Senate in Arkansas dropped out, leaving incumbent Republican Tom Cotton (who is heavily favored to win) and Libertarian candidate Ricky Dale Harrington Jr. the two major names on the ballot.
Registration deadline: Postmarked by Oct. 5
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Received by Oct. 27.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Received by 7:30 p.m. on Election Day.
CALIFORNIA
California has no elections for senate or governor this cycle, but congressional districts CA-21, held by a Democrat, and CA-25, held by a Republican, are considered toss-ups. The state is automatically sending mail-in ballots to voters.
Registration deadline: Postmarked by Oct. 19
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Automatically sent to all registered voters.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Postmarked by Election Day and received by Nov. 20.
COLORADO
Colorado has a close senate race between former governor and presidential candidate John Hickenlooper and incumbent Republican Cory Gardener. Colorado conducts elections by mail.
Registration deadline: Received by Oct. 26
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Automatically sent to all registered voters. The deadline to submit a mailing address change for ballots is at least eight days before Election Day.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Received by 7:00 P.M. on Election Day.
CONNECTICUT
No close statewide or federal races.
Registration deadline: Postmarked by Oct. 27
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Applications automatically sent to all registered voters. Deadline to apply is one day before Election Day, but recommended at least seven days before Election Day.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Received by 8 p.m. on Election Day.
DELAWARE
No close statewide or federal elections.
Registration deadline: Postmarked by Oct. 10
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Received by Oct. 30.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Received by 8 p.m. on Election Day.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Although D.C. residents cannot vote in presidential elections, there are several local elections occurring.
Registration deadline: Received by Oct. 13
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Automatically sent to all registered voters. Submit a mailing address change for ballots to be sent to at least seven days before Election Day.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Postmarked by Election day and received by Nov. 13.
FLORIDA
Florida is likely to be one of the closest states in the presidential election, and has a close congressional race in the Democrat-held FL-26.
Registration deadline: Postmarked by Oct. 5
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Postmarked by 5 p.m. on Oct. 24
Deadline to turn in ballot: Received by 7 p.m. on Election day
GEORGIA
Georgia has two close senate seats up for election, between Democrat Jon Ossof and incumbent Republican David Perdue, and between incumbent Republican Kelly Loeffler and a broad field of special election challengers. The state is a toss-up for the presidential election.
Registration deadline: Postmarked by Oct. 5
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Received by Oct. 30.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Received by 7 p.m. on Election Day.
HAWAII
Conducts elections by mail.
Registration deadline: Postmarked by Oct. 5
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Automatically sent to all registered voters. The deadline to submit a mailing address change for ballots is at least seven days before Election Day.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Received by 7 p.m. on Election Day
IDAHO
No close statewide or federal races.
Registration deadline: Postmarked by Oct. 9
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Received by 5 p.m. on Oct. 23.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Received by 8 p.m. on Election Day.
ILLINOIS
The IL-13 congressional district leans in favor of incumbent Republican Rodney Davis.
Registration deadline: Postmarked by Oct. 6
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Received by Oct. 29.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Postmarked by Election Day and received no later than Nov. 17.
INDIANA
A congressional seat in the IN-05 is open and is a toss-up that leans slightly in favor of Republicans.
Registration deadline: Postmarked by Oct. 5
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Received by Oct. 22.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Received by noon on Election Day.
IOWA
Iowa has a surprisingly close senate race, in one of the reddest states with the potential to elect a Democrat this cycle. Incumbent Republican Joni Ernst faces a tough challenge from Democrat Theresa Greenfield. The IA-01, IA-02, and IA-03 are also all congressional seats held by Democrats that have the potential to flip to Republicans.
Registration deadline: Received by Oct. 24
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Received by 5 p.m. on Oct. 24.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Postmarked by Nov. 2 and received by Nov. 9.
KANSAS
Democratic challenger Barbara Bollier has an uphill battle to the senate seat against incumbent Republican Roger Marshall, but has drawn on her credentials as a doctor to make this seat competitive.
Registration deadline: Postmarked by Oct. 13
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Received by Oct. 27.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Postmarked by Election Day and received no later than Nov. 6.
KENTUCKY
Although Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is almost certain to win his re-election bid, Amy McGrath has mounted a serious campaign against him.
Registration deadline: Received by Oct. 5
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Received by Oct. 9.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Postmarked by Election Day and received by Nov. 6.
LOUISIANA
No close statewide or federal elections.
Registration deadline: Postmarked by Oct. 4
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Received by 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 30.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Received by 4:30 p.m. on Nov. 2.
MAINE
Democratic challenger Sara Gideon seems poised to defeat incumbent Republican Susan Collins, in a state that favors Biden but could split some electoral votes in favor of Trump.
Registration deadline: Received by Oct. 19
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Received by Oct. 29.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Received by Election Day.
MARYLAND
No close statewide or federal elections.
Registration deadline: Postmarked by Oct. 13
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Received by Oct. 20.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Postmarked by Election Day, received by 10 a.m. on Nov. 13.
MASSACHUSETTS
No close statewide or federal elections.
Registration deadline: Postmarked by Oct. 24
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Received by Oct. 28.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Postmarked by Election Day and received by Nov. 6.
MICHIGAN
All eyes have been on Michigan this election, since the state unexpectedly went for Donald Trump in 2016 by the narrowest margin of victory in the nation. It seems likely to flip back in favor of Biden this year. The senate race leans in favor of Democratic incumbent Gary Peters over Republican John James, and is one of the only senate seats currently held by a Democrat that is competitive. Several congressional districts are competitive, including the MI-03, M-06, MI-08 and MI-11.
Registration deadline: Postmarked by Oct. 19
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Received by 5 p.m. on Oct. 30.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Received on or before Election Day, pending ongoing lawsuit.
MINNESOTA
Although Trump did not win Minnesota, this was another state where he outperformed polls and came much closer to a victory than predicted. Some say this is one of the only states that could flip in favor of the president, but polls put Biden ahead by a relatively wide margin. Tina Smith, Democratic incumbent who is likely but not guaranteed to hold her senate seat, is also up for re-election. Competitive house races are the MN-01, MN-02 and MN-07.
Registration deadline: Received by Oct. 13
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Received one day before Election Day but recommended at least seven days before Election Day.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Postmarked by Election Day and received by Nov. 10.
MISSISSIPPI
Democrat Mike Espy has run a tough campaign, but incumbent Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith looks likely to keep her senate seat.
Registration deadline: Postmarked by Oct. 5
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: No specific deadline, recommended at least seven days before Election Day.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Postmarked by Election Day and received by Nov. 10.
MISSOURI
Missouri has a somewhat competitive gubernatorial race between incumbent Republican Mike Parson and Democrat Nicole Galloway, and one competitive house race in the MO-02.
Registration deadline: Postmarked by Oct. 7
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Received by Oct. 21.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Received by 7 p.m. on Election Day.
MONTANA
Montana is another deep red state with a competitive senate race, where current Democratic governor Steve Bullock is running against incumbent Republican Steve Daines. Montana’s open gubernatorial race between Democrat Mike Cooney and Republican Greg Gianforte is also close. Gianforte’s current position as the at-large representative for Montana leans slightly in favor of Republican candidate Matt Rosendale, but Democrat Kathleen Williams has polled ahead of him in recent weeks.
Registration deadline: Postmarked by Oct. 26 and received by Oct. 29.
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Received by noon on Nov. 2, but recommended at least seven days before Election Day.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Received by 8 p.m. on Election Day.
NEBRASKA
No close statewide or federal elections.
Registration deadline: Postmarked by Oct. 16
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Received by Oct. 23.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Received by Election Day.
NEVADA
The Democrat-held NV-03 is strongly favored to remain with Democrats, but is competitive.
Registration deadline: Postmarked by Oct. 6
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Automatically sent to all registered voters.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Postmarked by Election Day and received by Nov. 10.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Incumbents are favored in all the New Hampshire races except for president, with Democrat Jeanne Shaheen heavily favored to be re-elected to the senate, the Democrat Chris Pappas likely to be re-elected in the NH-01, and Republican Chris Sununu likely to be re-elected in the gubernatorial race.
Registration deadline: Varies by county, with earliest deadlines on Oct. 21
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Received by Nov. 2.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Received by 5 p.m. on Election Day.
NEW JERSEY
New Jersey has competitive house races in the NJ-02, NJ-03 and NJ-07.
Registration deadline: Postmarked by Oct. 13
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Automatically sent to all registered voters.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Postmarked by Election Day and received by 8 p.m. on Nov. 10.
NEW MEXICO
The Democrat-held NM-02 is a competitive toss-up that leans slightly in favor of the incumbent.
Registration deadline: Postmarked by Oct. 6
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Received by Oct. 20.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Received by 7 p.m. on Election Day.
NEW YORK
The state has several competitive congressional districts, including the NY-01, NY-02, NY-11, NY-22 and NY-24.
Registration deadline: Postmarked by Oct. 9 and received by Oct. 14.
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Postmarked by Oct. 27, but recommended at least 15 days before Election Day.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Postmarked by Election Day and received by Nov. 10.
NORTH CAROLINA
North Carolina went for Trump in 2016 and is a toss-up again in this election. Incumbent Republican Thom Tillis and Democratic challenger Cal Cunningham are in a close race for the senate seat, and the state’s gubernatorial election leans slightly in favor of incumbent Democrat Roy Cooper over Republican Dan Forest. The NC-08 seat leans in favor of its Republican incumbent but is competitive.
Registration deadline: Postmarked by Oct. 9
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Received by 5:00 P.M. on Oct. 27.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Postmarked by Election Day and received no later than 5 p.m. on Nov. 6.
NORTH DAKOTA
No close statewide or federal elections.
Registration deadline: Does not require registration.
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Received by Nov. 2, but recommended at least seven days before Election Day.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Postmarked by Nov. 2 and received by Nov. 9.
OHIO
Ohio has shifted more Republican in recent years but is a toss-up between Trump and Biden. The Republian-held OH-01 is a competitive toss-up.
Registration deadline: Postmarked by Oct. 5
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Received by noon on Oct. 31, but Oct. 27 or earlier is recommended.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Postmarked by Nov. 2 and received by Nov. 13.
OKLAHOMA
The Democrat-held OK-05 is a competitive toss-up.
Registration deadline: Postmarked by Oct. 9
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Received seven days before Election Day.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Received by 7 p.m. on Election Day.
OREGON
The Democrat-held OR-04 leans in favor of the incumbent but is competitive.
Registration deadline: Postmarked by Oct. 13
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Automatically sent to registered voters. Submit address change at least five days before Election Day.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Received by 8:00 P.M. on Election Day.
PENNSYLVANIA
Pennsylvania is a state Biden will almost certainly have to win for an electoral college majority, which he is slightly favored to do. The state has several competitive congressional districts, including the PA-01, PA-07, PA-08, PA-10, and PA-17.
Registration deadline: Received by Oct. 19
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Received by Oct. 27.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Postmarked by Election Day and received by 5 p.m. on Nov. 6.
RHODE ISLAND
No close statewide or federal elections.
Registration deadline: Postmarked by Oct. 4
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Received by 4 p.m. on Oct. 13.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Received by 8 p.m. on Election Day.
SOUTH CAROLINA
Incumbent Republican Lindsey Graham looks likely to hold his senate seat against the strong challenge from Democrat Jaime Harrison, but the race has been close for South Carolina. The SC-01 leans slightly in favor of its Democratic incumbent.
Registration deadline: Postmarked by Oct. 5
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Received by 5 p.m. on Oct. 24.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Received by 7 p.m. on Election Day.
SOUTH DAKOTA
No close statewide or federal elections.
Registration deadline: Received by Oct. 19
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Received by Nov. 2, but recommended at least seven days before Election Day.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Received by Election Day.
TENNESSEE
No close statewide or federal elections.
Registration deadline: Postmarked by Oct. 5
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Received by Oct. 27.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Received by Election Day.
TEXAS
Although the state leans heavily Republican, recent Texas polls generally show Biden and Trump in a statistical tie. Incumbent Republican senator John Cornyn is likely to hold his seat but has seen a strong challenge from Democrat M.J. Hegar. The state has several competitive congressional districts, including TX-03, TX-07, TX-10, TX-21, TX-22, TX-23 and TX-24.
Registration deadline: Postmarked by Oct. 5
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Received by Oct. 23.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Postmarked by Election Day and received by Nov. 4.
UTAH
The UT-04, held by a Democrat, is a toss-up.
Registration deadline: Received by 5 p.m. on Oct. 23
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Ballots automatically sent to all registered voters. Submit an address change at least seven days before Election Day.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Postmarked one day before Election Day. Reception deadline varies by county.
VERMONT
Vermont allows voters to register up to and through Election Day and will mail a ballot to all registered voters in 2020. Middlebury students are eligible to vote in the state of Vermont.
Registration deadline: Received by Nov. 3
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Received by Nov. 2 but recommended at least seven days before Election Day.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Received by 7 p.m. on Election Day.
VIRGINIA
The VA-02, VA-05 and VA-07 are competitive house races.
Registration deadline: Received by Oct. 13
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Received by Oct. 23.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Postmarked by Election Day and received by noon on Nov. 6.
WASHINGTON
The house race in WA-03 is likely to go in favor of incumbent Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler but is competitive.
Registration deadline: Received by Oct. 26
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Automatically sent to all registered voters. Contact the county elections department to request a ballot be forwarded to a different address.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Postmarked by election day and received by Nov. 23.
WEST VIRGINIA
No close statewide or federal elections.
Registration deadline: Received by Oct. 13
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Received by Oct. 28.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Postmarked by Election Day and received by Nov. 9.
WISCONSIN
Trump won Wisconsin by less than one percent in 2016, and it is one of the competitive states Biden will likely need to win to receive a majority in the electoral college. The WI-03 is likely to re-elect Democrat Ron Kind.
Registration deadline: Postmarked by Oct. 14, though this may change due to an ongoing lawsuit.
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Received by 5 p.m. on Oct. 29.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Received by 8 p.m. on Election Day, with possible extensions due to an ongoing lawsuit that is likely to be appealed.
WYOMING
No close statewide or federal elections.
Registration deadline: Received by Oct. 19
Deadline to request an absentee ballot: Received by Nov. 2 but recommended at least seven days before Election Day.
Deadline to turn in ballot: Received by 7 p.m. on Election Day.
Unless otherwise noted, registration deadlines are for registering by mail. Some states offer online registration options, but deadlines may differ from mail-in registration.
Some voter registration and absentee ballot rules may change due to ongoing legal battles in several states.
Sources for race ratings include FiveThirtyEight’s senate election forecast, 270toWin’s house ratings table and interactive map, 270toWin’s presidential election consensus electoral map, CNN’s race ratings map, the Cook Political Report’s house and senate race ratings and the Cook Political Report’s governor race ratings.
News Editor Abigail Chang ’23 contributed reporting.
(10/01/20 10:00am)
Before she was Notorious, before she sat on the highest court in the land, before she argued in front of that very court against gender-based discrimination, Ruth Bader was a dedicated college student who snuck books into the bathroom to study. At a time when women were expected to graduate with little more than an “MRS” degree, Ginsburg was an unflinching academic whose accomplishments paved the way for millions to follow.
Justice Ginsburg was the first woman on the Harvard Law Review, graduated first in her class at Columbia Law School and became the second-ever woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court when appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1993. By the end of her nearly thirty-year tenure, she had asserted herself a liberal champion for her scathing dissents and had become a household name. Ginsburg’s path to the Supreme Court was fraught with obstacles and discrimination, but for each door she opened, she made sure to hold it wide for those who followed.
Justice Ginsburg died on the night of Sept. 18, the first night of Rosh Hashanah. One of two “High Holy Days” in the Jewish calendar, the day marks the start of the Jewish New Year. Justice Ginsburg was the first Jewish woman to serve on the Supreme Court, and it is said that those who die on Rosh Hashanah are of great righteousness. As word of her death traveled around Middlebury, the college community mourned and reflected on the effects of her legacy in their own lives.
President Laurie Patton was home preparing Shabbat dinner when she heard of the Justice’s death. Ginsburg was a role model of Patton’s. She explained that the holiday of Rosh Hashanah celebrates the creation of a new world and, in her view, Ginsburg helped construct a new world for future generations to live in.
“I believe this identity [as a Jewish woman] was one of the things that gave her life-long grit,” Patton told The Campus. “I hope every young person sees in RBG’s words and her life story that discouragement is not a blow, but an opportunity, an opening for another path forward.”
Alex Dobin ’22 was also celebrating Rosh Hashanah in a Zoom service with her friends and family when she received a barrage of messages about Justice Ginsburg’s death. She told The Campus that she watched as others in the call began to hear the news as well.
“There was this moment where I knew that it was circulating among people whom I was sharing this moment with,” said Dobin. “What a day to find out this information about this incredible, strong Jewish woman who has talked about her connection to Jewish social justice. [...] There’s this idea that RBG is an icon for feminists everywhere and people interested in gender equality politics, but also within the Jewish community she’s totally an icon.”
In addition to Justice Ginsburg’s significance within the Jewish community, Patton looked to her as a symbol of intellectual resilience and courage.
“She never gave up — not when she was told she was employable only as a typist, not when she was denied teaching jobs, not when she lost cases,” Patton said. “She focused on the long-term issues, not the politics of the moment.”
Professor of Political Science and constitutional scholar Murray Dry has spent years studying decisions in which Ginsburg wrote the majority opinion, and those in which she dissented.
“I was, like many Americans, surprised and saddened by the news of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death,” Dry said. “She was more influential than any other person in bringing about a judicial recognition of the equal rights of women under the law.”
Dry identifies Ginsburg's “rockstar status” as a testament to her legal accomplishments and past decade of leadership on the liberal wing of the Supreme Court. He also notes that both Ginsburg and her colleague and close friend Sandra Day O’Connor “embodied in their careers the challenges that women had to overcome to be accepted in the legal profession on a par with men.”
Lucie Rochat ’22 remembers receiving a book of Ginsburg’s quotes as a birthday gift from her mother. For Rochat, this book serves as a reminder that much of Ginsburg’s impact came in small moments when she stood up and used her words to fight for equality, inspiring millions. “If I were to think of her legacy, it would be through those little quotes and little moments that were in that book,” Rochat said.
For Rochat, Ginsburg’s legacy will always be highlighted by her ardent efforts to protect the rights of women and minorities.
President Patton hopes that Ginsburg’s story will continue to serve as inspiration for young people, a lived lesson in the power of reason and determination.
“I will always be inspired by the way that RBG used reason relentlessly. She used reason to change the way we reason so that more people could live lives free of prejudice,” Patton wrote.
(10/01/20 10:00am)
We’re four weeks into the semester, and the stakes for violating Covid-19 regulations are high: 44 students have been disciplined and 27 were sent home. As we’ve transitioned into Phase Two, boundaries that previously felt very clear-cut have become ambiguous. Many of us that remain on campus are apprehensive, wondering which lines we’ve crossed, if any, and whether or not these infractions are dire enough to get us sent home. #closecontact has made an appearance in many recent Instagram captions, as the threat of “go/snitch” remains ever-present and people feel the need to “prove their innocence.” In the face of these uncertainties, one thing is clear: while the college had a strong plan for putting regulations in place to bring us back in a healthy and safe manner, the regulations currently in place are inconsistent and unsustainable.
Despite frequent emails from administrators with policy updates, many ambiguities and discrepancies in the Covid-19 regulations remain unaddressed. For example, the Student Health Pledge we all signed this summer stated that students in suites or small houses would be allowed to take off their masks while in their place of residence after receiving two negative Covid-19 tests; however, when new Phase Two guidelines were sent out two weeks ago, they dictated that masks must be worn at all times — even in those same shared spaces. Guidance regarding room capacity also gives pause: four singles in a random hallway be allowed one additional person each, totalling eight, so why is the maximum occupancy of a four-person suite only five?
Students are also left wondering how on- and off-campus policies align. For example, the new solitary, awkward dining hall seating only allows one person per table, and massive picnic tables outside are limited to two occupants. Yet, when students eat inside of restaurants in town, it’s not clear if they are subject to the same standards.
A lack of clarity makes student compliance difficult, and watching 27 of our peers get sent home only ramps up those anxieties.
Compliance with Covid-19 regulations will also be rendered unsustainable once the temperature drops. Most of our current social interactions revolve around being outdoors: picnicking with friends, walking the TAM, outdoor club meetings, going on hikes and enjoying the fall foliage. These options will no longer be viable in a few weeks. As winter draws nearer and days get shorter, loneliness often increases and social interaction becomes invaluable for mental wellness.
Given the college’s current lack of Covid-19-safe in-person activities, students will be left to their own devices, increasing the likelihood of breaking guidelines for the sake of seeing friends, as the only alternative to being left alone in their rooms. This poses a serious threat to our collective socio-emotional wellbeing, especially as we continue to navigate a worldwide pandemic and widespread social inequity.
Those impending winter months coupled with ongoing indoor space access restrictions will also limit students’ ability to work productively or have any escape from their rooms. Providing all students with access to study spaces such as BiHall and increasing the capacity of study rooms in Davis could help mitigate these anxieties. It also ensures that students will not fall into the trap of going days on end doing work with no human contact — a reasonable risk given that so many of us take our classes online from our rooms.
We ask that the college help set students up for success by accommodating our social and emotional needs. While we recognize that loosening restrictions comes with certain risks, we believe that it could ultimately prevent larger-risk activities from occurring down the road.
One such example would be decreasing the amount of time it takes for student orgs to get approved to host in-person events, which would make a big difference in ensuring that students are provided with safe options to socialize with others. We also suggest that the college send out a student survey in order to gauge the types of accommodations students prioritize in order to help guide these decisions.
We hope the college employs the same focus that they used to bring us back to campus to keep us here. Middlebury must prioritize the health of its community — yes, we must do everything to prevent an outbreak of the virus on campus — but we must also do everything we can to make life here as livable as possible.
This editorial represents the opinions of the Middlebury Campus’s editorial board.
(10/01/20 9:59am)
Chicken. Sweet potatoes. Vegetables. Chicken. Sweet Potatoes. Vegetables. Over and over again, I filled container after container of food until it became almost robotic, studiously ignoring my grumbling stomach, parched throat and sweaty hands steaming inside my vinyl gloves. There was no time to rest, only time to prepare for students to arrive.
On Sept. 17, I went to work a dinner shift at Proctor Dining Hall to speak to staff and see first hand what it is like to work in the dining halls under the Covid-19 restrictions.
When I arrived at 5 p.m., the area where staff serve food, known to those who work there as “the line,” was full. Three student workers, four full-time staff members and I stood at the ready. It was the most workers one senior staff member, who wished to remain anonymous, had ever seen. For him, it was a welcome relief.
Throughout Phase One, only three staff worked the line most days due to staff shortages. Three people alone had to manage all the normal operations of the kitchen — cooking extra food and refilling the food pans — in addition to all of the new responsibilities that came with Covid-19 guidelines. The typical self-serve buffet style dining is no longer possible due to Vermont-wide Covid-19 restrictions. Instead, dining staff have had to serve students on top of their normal responsibilities. And they have to do it with fewer staff.
During meal times, staffers are frantically filling and stacking to-go containers in preparation for the dinner rush. At my station, we tried to have more than 50 containers ready to go at all times. The day I worked was the first day of Phase Two, and the rush never really arrived, probably because everyone was enjoying their newfound freedom. But most days during Phase One, especially Mondays and Tuesdays when the Grille was closed, students came crashing in like a tidal wave at 6 p.m., overwhelming the staff and quickly wiping out the stock-piles of meals no matter how diligently staff prepared in advance. The number of meals served frequently reached 800 to 900 during Phase One, according to the staff member.
When three staff work the line, one has to serve pasta, another the meat course, and the third the vegetarian option. When something runs out, they have to interrupt the serving to switch out trays of food, causing the entire operation to fall behind.
One of the most onerous tasks is stacking the to-go containers. They all have to be brought up from downstairs, unpacked, and neatly stacked in a little alcove at the serving stations, a task that can easily take two people over an hour and must be done multiple times a day. If they run out of stacked containers during serving times, one of the three employees has to leave the line, interrupt their work, and get more, throwing the whole operation off balance.
The dining halls have also had problems with food supply, which has been irregular and temperamental. They have frequently had to make last minute changes to the menu and have sometimes run out of food midway through the meal, wreaking havoc on the existing workflow as someone has to frantically whip something up.
With so few staff, the little tasks that make work easier and more efficient — like separating and cross-stacking serving dishes for easy access — have to fall by the wayside in favor of the immediate need to serve students. Instead, staff have to confront those issues as they pop up. Without those crucial time-saving preparations, the work and stress only continue to build, according to William Anderson ’20.5, who has worked as a kitchen staff helper since Oct. 2017.
Each shift thus turns into a frantic race to keep up with the deluge of students. When things get busy, even the short amount of time it takes to leave the swelteringly hot line, take off your gloves, gulp down a few sips of water, and replace your mask and gloves feels like an unaffordable luxury. Each time I pierced the crispy breaded layer of the fried chicken with my tongs to serve hungry students, I was taunted by the scents of rich, buttery deliciousness. With none to spare, my grumbling stomach was left to complain to itself.
Just one shift takes a “physical toll” on your body, according to Betsy Oullette, a catering employee who has been reassigned to work in dining twice a week. This exhaustion only builds for staff who have been forced to work more days and longer hours. Though dining staff’s responsibilities increased, the college’s hiring freeze prevented Dining from hiring new workers to replace those who did not return to work this year due to fears of contracting Covid-19. During Phase One, one staff member worked 21 out of 23 days. Most staff regularly worked upward of 50 hours a week, according to the anonymous staff member.
After returning to my dorm at the end of my shift, absolutely spent, I realized that I had forgotten my camera in the locker room. I rushed back at 9:30 p.m., expecting everyone to be gone, only to find one employee still working. His shift began at 9 a.m. — he had worked more than 12 hours that day.
Things have been improving now in Phase Two. During evening meals, servery staff have been helping serve at the line, freeing dining staff to resume their normal responsibilities. Meal counts are also down slightly as students can now go into town to eat or buy groceries.
Still, even amid all the stress, new Covid-19 guidelines and short-staffedness, the dining hall was cheerful and emanated a welcoming comradery.
“You really, really, really only get through a busy or tough shift with humor and we have that in abundance there,” Anderson said.
Anderson joked with his friend on staff as they planned to go for a hike on their day off, and showed off to everyone the knife the friend had spontaneously given him. Oullette asked one of the new first year student workers about her classes as they served vegetarian meals. Everyone traded tips on the most efficient ways to fill meal boxes, and Oullette or others would often intervene to help me manage my stack of containers. Calls of “behind you with a hot plate!” interrupted the choreographed rhythm and concentration of filling boxes. Anderson described the kitchen dynamic as that of a family, with younger staff joking around like siblings and supervising staff functioning as alternatingly stern and understanding parents, managing the chaos.
The occasional “thank you” from passing students felt like a jolt of energy, a small motivation to hurry my dragging feet. As the shift wore on and I grew more and more tired, these small motivators made all the difference. Anderson says that he appreciates when students treat him and the staff like actual people, thanking them or briefly conversing with them as they pass along in line. Behind the counter, it's easy to feel invisible. Dressed in a dining hall uniform, with a comically big blue chef’s hat covering my hair and a mask covering my face, I made direct eye contact with a number of friends who completely failed to recognize me, only to startle in surprise when I said hello. Many students ignored me completely.
The best moments are when students compliment food from previous meals, according to Anderson. The staff work hard to prepare meals for students and take pride in their work, though it often goes unrecognized. In those rare moments where someone does take the time to compliment their hard work, it makes all the difference.
(09/26/20 10:13pm)
A day of resistance and solidarity was soured by the actions of a pair of students behind Ross last night. Rodney Adams ’21 and Jameel Uddin ’22 were preparing for a relaxing evening after a day of protesting when two white students confronted and harassed them with a racial slur, according to Adams.
Per a campus-wide email from Chief Diversity Officer Miguel Fernández, one of the two students has come forward to the college and is speaking to the Department of Public Safety and Student Affairs.
At around 10 p.m., Uddin and Adams were walking along the north side of College Street turning right into HMKL Way behind Ross. They were approached by two white students walking towards Ridgeline and the townhouses: one was clothed, wearing a gaiter and carrying a traffic cone; the other was shirtless and maskless.
Initially, the masked man warned Adams about carrying alcohol outside as Public Safety officers were in the area. Adams, who is 21 and was carrying a closed bottle of wine, replied, “Okay, thank you.”
The other man, without a mask, then quickly approached Adams and Uddin and said, “Well look here goes them n******.” The man then stared down Uddin, who is South-Asian, and Adams, who is Black. Adams asked the man to repeat what he had said and to identify himself.
“He wanted a response,” Adams said in an interview with The Campus. “And it took everything out of us to not hit him.”
The other man, with the traffic cone still in tow, then called out, “Charlie, Charlie, c’mon, it’s time to go.” Both students then walked off towards the Ridgeline Suites.
About an hour after the incident, Adams posted a Twitter thread detailing the event titled, “Experiencing a hate crime first hand on Middlebury’s Campus a thread:”. The tweets quickly went viral, with students reposting screenshots of the tweets to their Instagram stories and professors and alumni replying to Adams’s original tweet. At time of publication, the top tweet in the thread had amassed over 200 retweets and close to 500 likes. Popular Instagram account @dearpwi, an account with over 31,000 followers, also posted screenshots of the thread.
(09/24/20 10:00am)
For the last month, the unease and anxiety that settled over campus have been matched with restlessness and anticipation as students awaited Phase Two. Starting September 17, students were granted regulated access to indoor athletic facilities, some closer contacts and, most notably, the opportunity to leave campus. We’re now permitted to travel within Addison County, so long as we continue to adhere to strict face covering and distancing guidelines — but this doesn’t mean we’re permitted to be any less careful.
The transition into Phase Two has been characterized by both fervor and apprehension as students depart campus — where we have zero active cases — to spend time in town and elsewhere. As we take this exciting step in this strange and unfamiliar semester, it is more imperative than ever that we remain vigilant of both our actions and our optics.
The relationship between the college and the town of Middlebury has often been complicated. The college is the biggest employer in the county, but it is still often perceived as a separate, exclusive entity that is closed off and disconnected from the rest of the region. For instance, staff members rely financially on the college to stay open, but having students on campus undoubtedly puts them at risk of exposure. Likewise, small businesses in town depend on student dollars, but watching us meander through town isn’t necessarily a comfort either. There is also an added layer of tension present as visitors are still, hypocritically, barred from campus despite the fact that students can enter the town.
Some townspeople have been beyond grateful to see us return, as students report being enthusiastically welcomed at BevCo and other retail establishments. A sign advertising the Stone Mill downtown read “Thank you Midd students [...] you crushed it! Keep up the great work!” in brightly colored chalk. On the other hand, students have also noted worried or scornful looks from passersby and have also experienced more contentious interactions with community members.
Such fears are far from unfounded. Concerns regarding 2,000 students showing up to your home during a pandemic are, well, more than justifiable. In March, students did not depart Middlebury on a positive note when they ransacked both the campus and town on their way out. So while the relationship between the town and students is mutually beneficial in theory, the tension inherent in these unparalleled circumstances requires students to be more conscientious, intentional and gracious than ever.
Leaving campus may mean fewer eyes on your mask wearing or social distancing, but just because there’s no one to publicly shame you — or better yet, go/snitch a picture of you and all your friends — does not mean that anything should change as we step off College Street. [pullquote speaker="" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]Encountering individuals in town or on hiking trails, unmasked or in large groups, should not be an invitation to let down our guard.[/pullquote]
Although it may be tempting to evade regulations when not under the watchful eyes of our peers and PubSafe, we urge students to hold each other accountable no matter where they may be. Our motivations should come from a place of community care and safety, not from a place of avoiding discipline or judgement.
Across the nation, there have been countless incidents of college students risking both the safety of their peers and health of their surrounding communities, and we must do everything we can to ensure we do not follow suit. After all, we are temporary residents here. When we leave — whether it be after four years or unexpectedly due to a Covid-related evacuation — our impact here (in whatever form that takes) remains in Middlebury.
There is an unusual duality present in the fact that despite the homes we forge here, at the end of the day, we are still guests. Even after the physical damage and emotional stress our departure and subsequent return has inflicted, for the most part, we have still been welcomed with open arms. This in itself says more than enough about the goodwill of the people we pass in the aisles of the Co-op, in the line at Otter Creek and on the streets of downtown. There is no better time than now for us to return the favor.
This editorial represents the opinions of the Middlebury Campus’s editorial board.
(09/24/20 10:00am)
Students woke up with renewed energy and excitement on Sept. 17 as the college officially began Phase Two of its gradual reopening, continuing along the steady trajectory toward greater freedoms for students. While many groups of students ventured into town, many of the school’s club sports teams got to work.
Middlebury College is home to 21 club teams, which allow opportunities for students to participate in athletics in a less structured environment compared to varsity sports. These clubs have a rich history at the college and even include a few prolific national champions – namely Quidditch, women’s water polo and men’s ultimate frisbee – and their activity this semester is especially important because of the restricted lives of much of the student population.
“Clubs are active, and it’s really important they’re active because of all the things we can’t do this fall,” said Doug Connelly, the director of outdoor programs and club sports. “All the teams that have wanted to have been able to organize and start practice this week. We’re making sure everyone is working in groups of 10, always with masks on and keeping social distancing rules in effect.”
Due to the college’s temporary hiring freeze, many club team coaches have been unable to return to their seasonal positions this fall. Connelly has therefore taken over the role of supervising most practices along with the help of Rich Connell, the former full-time head coach of the club crew team. Together, Connelly and Connell have been overseeing practices, but as Phase Two begins, a few clubs plan to operate more autonomously.
Regardless of the phase, coaching or student participation, this semester will be different for every club team. Women’s ultimate frisbee, a nationally competitive team of around 45 members, has been meeting since Phase One, but practices look unlike anything the team has done before.
“It’s been a challenge to work things this semester so far because there are a lot of social-distancing and shared equipment rules in place,” captain Brooke Laird ’22 said. “Ultimate is considered a high contact sport, and passing discs to each other is considered shared equipment, so we’re more limited in what we can do.”
Under normal circumstances, both the women’s and the men’s team would practice at the same time and scrimmage after workouts. This season, players are required to bring their own discs and practices are increasingly focused on conditioning and fitness. The biggest challenge, according to Laird, has been recruiting new members to the team and introducing them to the community.
“We had some time at the Activities Fair, and we’ve been able to do small in-person meetups, but this semester we have to be very intentional in how we set up practices and introduce players to the sport and the community,” Laird said. “The emphasis this fall will be [on] having fun and being chill, and we’re all pretty excited to have the opportunity to play at all.”
Other high-contact sports, such as men’s rugby and women’s water polo, have faced similar challenges with their seasons.
“Without a vaccine, you just can’t play rugby like you normally could,” said Nathaniel Klein ’21, captain of men’s rugby. “The good thing is there's so much more to the sport than just running into each other — we’ve been having strength and conditioning practices, and recruiting this semester has actually been higher than average.”
“Everything about water polo this fall will be different,” said Jenna Kotcher ’21.5 of the women’s water polo team. Because of the high-contact nature of their sport, the 2019 Division III Club National Champions will face many unique challenges this season. This, combined with the fact that their coach will not be able to return this season and the inability of the team to have pool time until Phase Three, means the primary focus of the team will be building community and staying fit for the next season.
Water polo’s recruitment is focused around the fall season and running workshops for interested new players, but these will take a hit this fall. Kotcher is hopeful that word of mouth can stand in for a semester.
While teams like ultimate frisbee, water polo and rugby face their fair share of challenges this semester alongside many varsity sports, some club sports face the additional obstacle of having to leave campus to access their facilities. The Middlebury club sailing and crew teams both have facilities off-campus and were unable to use them until the start of Phase Two.
“The whole setup of our practices is different this fall,” said Mollie Ockene ’21, a member of the sailing team. “Before we could leave, we did a lot of dryland fitness workouts, but normally this is the best time of year to be on the water.” Now that the club can get out, social distancing rules will regulate how sailors operate in boats and use shared equipment.
The crew team faced a similar situation, according to captain Dan Krugman ’21. “We’re doing what we can, and thankfully there has been a huge amount of positive energy from the team this fall,” Krugman said.
Like sailing, crew practices were on land during Phase One and involved some erging and cycling. Like rugby, recruiting yielded a higher-than-average incoming class of rowers. “One of the big attractions about crew, and any club sport really, is the balance of social and athletic commitment, and we got lucky this fall that a lot of folks were really interested,” Krugman said.
Like many varsity teams this semester, competitions will look very different (or nonexistent) for most club sports. There is still the possibility for intrateam scrimmaging among certain teams, but that constitutes the extent of any foreseeable post-season.
As the fall continues to progress, club sports will become better adapted to the strange and harsh circumstances of this semester. The remarkable resilience of every team speaks to the enthusiasm of club athletes and their sense of community. “We’re lucky to be here and have this opportunity this fall,” Krugman said.
(09/24/20 10:00am)
I got lucky with Covid. I only lost my senses of taste and smell for a month. Last week when I told this to a friend, her first reaction was, “Did you lose weight? If I couldn’t taste anything, I simply wouldn’t eat.” And — as much as I wanted to respond with, “I was more preoccupied with the terror of having the coronavirus” — I couldn’t because, well, she was right. No senses meant no appetite, and I thought that was great.
Please do not take that paragraph as a lesson. It is SO messed up that my first reaction to having a potentially deadly illness was that I could lose a few pounds. It also reflects the brutal influence of growing up for 22 years in a culture fixated on the false pretense that size equals success.
Now that we’re back on campus, this fixation on weight is even more glaring. I don’t know about you, but I’ve had this conversation at least 10 times now:
“Hey, how was your quarantine?”
“It was fine but ugh, I totally gained so much weight.”
“Me too, yikes. The Covid Fifteen, am I right?”
It’s understandable, of course. We’ve been stuck inside with our bodies, trapped in an inescapable mental and physical hell with only our own reflections for comfort and ire for the last six months. Of course we’re going to fixate on what we look like. But do we have nothing else to say to our friends? Nothing?
Are we, the so-called “liberal-arts-outside-the-box-thinkers,” so stuck in this obsession with our physical forms that we can’t imagine a world outside of our bodies? There must be a way that we can take everything this school has taught us about reimagining the world around us and apply it to our friends and to ourselves.
Let’s have conversations about how we’re actually doing. Some of us got sick. Some of us lost loved ones. Some of us were living in the epicenter of a social revolution. We need our friends now more than ever, and being a good friend includes stanching the flow of conversations steeped in societally ingrained self-hatred, even if it’s much easier to talk about a few pounds than our current mental state.
This sentiment isn’t unique to Covid-19 times. Last year Quinn Boyle’s op-ed “The Skinniest College in America” was one of the most widely circulated articles in The Campus’ history. This was not only because she brilliantly shed light on the college’s failures around mental health resources but also because her struggles with disordered eating were far too relatable to far too many people.
This college — and country — has pandemic-level rates of disordered eating. It’s an intrinsic part of our moral code, with people far too casually tying “good” and “bad” to food groups and exercise.
In a time when we are surrounded by genuine evil, why are we pretending that our standards of good and bad are based on how many leaves we consume, and why are we wasting our time applying these fake moral standards to ourselves? Nobody is winning a Nobel Prize for going on a jog, just as nobody is going to a grand jury for having an extra slice of cake.
[pullquote speaker="" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]And yet, we spend a lifetime being our own judges and executioners. It’s exhausting. [/pullquote]
I recognize that saying “don’t talk about weight” will probably result in a lot more people talking about weight… but if we do have to talk about it, can we at least shift the conversation away from attacking ourselves and onto attacking the culture that has invaded our self-worth?
We do not need to “bottle this all up” — I think we do enough of that on this campus already. But we desperately need to reevaluate our value systems for ourselves and each other before it’s too late. Before we have to pack everything up again and regret missing out on that Flatbread dinner with friends because we equated “healthier” with a salad instead of with a friendship — or regret sleeping through an entire day when we didn’t eat before drinking because we thought that calories counted more than hours on this campus.
This is not to minimize the reality of those struggling with eating disorders here on campus. This semester’s limited food options and strict dining hall hours may be frustrating to some, but they are borderline cataclysmic to others who need control over their meals in order to satisfy the crippling conditions of a mental illness. Eating disorder recovery is slow and nonlinear, and being thrown out of a routine during a larger crisis is terrifying. If you or a friend is struggling with this, please call Midd TeleHealth and/or the National Eating Disorders Crisis Hotline at 800-931-2237.
We have been through a lot this year. Our bodies are surviving a pandemic. Our bodies are sitting in the library taking in information that will help us lead the world out of this mess. Our bodies are hosting dance parties (six feet apart) and holding our friends close (soon). We need our bodies now more than ever, so can we please, please, stop talking about our weight?
Sophie Clark is a member of the class of 2021.
(09/24/20 10:00am)
When Middlebury transitioned to Phase Two last week, students were released from campus quarantine and allowed to traverse Addison County — and traverse they did. For some, their first destination was the mountains for a sunrise hike; for others, the liquor store to restock their dwindling beer supply. While some first years had their first taste of the downtown, off-campus seniors were finally allowed to buy their own groceries.
Many local businesses are glad to have Midd kids around town again, but all eyes are on the students to make sure guidelines are carefully followed.
“We cannot say this strongly enough: we are in a position to proceed to Phase Two because of how attentive and conscientious our students have been in complying with the health and safety mandates of Phase One,” read a Sept. 14 all-community email from President Laurie Patton, Dean of Students Derek Doucet and Director of Health Services Mark Peluso announcing the transition to Phase Two.
For Taran Hopkins, a longtime employee of Middlebury Discount Beverage known colloquially among students as BevCo, the effects of Phase Two were immediate.
“Pretty much as soon as we opened in the morning, we were definitely hit with a huge wave of students. A lot of people were coming in to stock up on stuff before they had to go to their 11 a.m. classes,” Hopkins told The Campus. “I sold all of the Bud Light 30-packs that were in the store. Every single one. In a very, very short amount of time.”
Hopkins also said that there was a run on White Claw hard seltzers and Keystone — and that students had been overwhelmingly attentive to Covid-19 guidelines. “Literally every student that we saw was abiding by the mask-wearing rule,” Hopkins said, noting that students were careful to keep their distance from others and to not loiter inside the shop for too long. “Everybody was very respectful.”
For many first years, Phase Two presented entirely new territory. Ashley Chimelis ’24, a new pole vaulter on the women’s track and field team, had never been into the town of Middlebury — nor had she met most of her teammates due to Phase One restrictions. On Sunday, Chimelis was able to leave campus for the first time since arrival to meet up with teammates for apple picking at Happy Valley Orchard and a meal at the A&W.
“It was really nice to get to meet the rest of the team — or a little piece of it,” Chimelis told The Campus. “Because it’s much more difficult nowadays, especially for first years who don’t even know where to start.” Like many other new students, she is looking forward to exploring more of Addison County in the coming weeks. “There are so many cool little Vermont places I’d like to go to,” she said. “I just want people to be very cautious.”
Otter Creek Bakery, a mainstay of Middlebury’s food scene, was ready to welcome students back with open arms — as long as they stayed outside. Since its reopening during pandemic, the shop has been operating from an outdoor no-contact ordering system, but lines still formed over the weekend for the bakery’s pastries and coffee.
“It’s been nice to see the college community back as part of the local Middlebury landscape,” said owner Ned Horton, who also reported that students had been consistently compliant of protocols. “Everybody’s been really nice and courteous, following the guidelines.”
Chiyo Sato, Otter Creek’s bakery manager, also told The Campus she was happy to have students back safely. “We have definitely noticed an increase of students walking around town and coming to visit the bakery,” Sato said. “It’s great to see Middlebury reviving itself while continuing to respect the guidelines like masks and social distancing.”
For Elise Park ’21, one of the 85 students living off campus this semester, Phase Two meant finally being allowed to go to the grocery store. She and her housemates had been confined to their property and the campus for Phase One and had relied on Instacart grocery delivery for nearly a month. “I think being less dependent on a delivery service that can often be finicky and not very timely is always a huge plus,” Park said. “Also, [it’s nice] having a larger radius to travel in safely.”
While the Middlebury administration describes the transition to Phase Two as “slowly opening the spigot,” — a line stolen from Governor Scott’s state reopening plan — students flooded the downtown this past weekend. They have reportedly been safe and respectful so far, but as Ashley Chimelis said, “We’re only as safe as our least safe person.”
