1000 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(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.”
(09/24/20 10:00am)
After Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced new Title IX regulations on May 6, Middlebury implemented changes to its policies on Aug. 14 in accordance with the new guidelines. Students and advocates across the country fear that Devos’ changes could introduce new obstacles in the process of reporting sexual assault, bolstering the defense of those accused.
The more than 2,000 pages of regulations released last spring address Title IX, a 1972 federal civil rights law which prohibits discrimination based on sex in relation to any education program or activity that receives federal funding. The law covers a wide range of issues, from equality of opportunities in athletics to how schools address incidents of sexual harassment and assault.
The changes released in May alter the definitions of sex discrimination and harassment, changing how schools are required to respond to reports and which complaints the school is required to adjudicate under federal law.
The U.S. Department of Education published a press release on May 6 announcing the changes. It reads, “U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos took historic action today to strengthen Title IX protections for survivors of sexual misconduct and to restore due process in campus proceedings to ensure all students can pursue an education free from sex discrimination.”.
The most fervently contested changes to Title IX involve the investigation procedures for reports of sexual harassment.
A Brookings Institute analysis of the new regulations found that DeVos’s definition of sexual harassment demonstrates a narrowed understanding of the term from Obama-era standards. But it still remains broader than the even narrower definition offered by the Supreme Court.
President and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center Fatima Goss Graves responded to the new regulations with a commitment to taking legal action against the Department of Education.
“If this rule goes into effect, survivors will be denied their civil rights and will get the message loud and clear that there is no point in reporting assault,” she wrote in a May 6 statement. “We refuse to go back to the days when rape and harassment in schools were ignored and swept under the rug.”
Implementing Title IX modifications at Middlebury
The newly labeled Civil Rights and Title IX Office at Middlebury was tasked with implementing these new changes over the summer. Marti McCaleb serves as the college’s Civil Rights and Title IX Coordinator.
“The Department of Education has, for the first time in almost 50 years, issued binding legal rules governing how colleges respond to complaints of sexual harassment,” McCaleb said.
Some of the new regulations provide detailed requirements for colleges to follow, but others grant schools broad discretion in deciding what standards and practices to implement and how to go about writing their policies.
“Middlebury has not changed any of its behavioral expectations for students or employees,” McCaleb said. “We have restructured our policies and created a new investigation and resolution procedure for cases that fall under the new Title IX rules. For matters that don’t meet the federal definition, we will still respond to reports of misconduct using processes similar to those we have used in the past.”
The Middlebury College handbook Non-Discrimination Policy defines sexual harassment to include quid pro quo sexual harassment, meaning “unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal, written, visual or physical conduct of a sexual nature,” when compliance with such requests is explicitly or implicitly seen as impacting one’s employment or education. It also prohibits other discriminatory harassment based on or motivated by an individual’s actual or perceived sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression in the same way that discriminatory harassment based on race or other protected characteristics is prohibited. Sexual assault is considered a form of sexual harassment.
All college employees who are not specifically designated as Confidential Resources are required to report suspected instances of sexual harassment. Confidential Resources include — but are not limited to — MiddSafe, college counseling and medical providers and college chaplains.
The largest change being made to bring Middlebury into compliance with the new federal guidelines is the implementation of live hearings and the informal resolution option, according to McCaleb. For conduct covered under the new regulations, there is a distinction between a “report” and a “formal complaint.” The former can be addressed with various non-punitive supportive measures, while the latter must meet the newly narrowed definition of sexual harassment and triggers a college investigation unless the parties both agree to pursue informal resolution.
“Live hearings will be provided as required by the 2020 Title IX regulations,” reads the Middlebury handbook section on TIX Investigation & Resolutions Procedure. “At the request of either party, Middlebury will provide for the hearing to occur with the parties located in separate rooms with technology enabling the hearing officer and parties to simultaneously see and hear the party or the witness answering questions.” This section of the handbook details the process for reporting sexual harassment, undertaking an investigation, carrying out a hearing and sanctioning.
During the hearing, each party must have an “advisor” who may or may not be an attorney. If either party does not have an advisor, the school will assign them one. Advisors will “conduct direct, oral, real-time cross-examination of witnesses,” according to McCaleb.
Hearings will be supervised by a neutral decision-maker, an individual other than the Title IX Coordinator. This individual is tasked with making evidentiary rulings and determinations during the hearing. Following the hearing, they will release a written decision detailing facts of the case as determined through the hearing and conclusions in relation to the school’s Title IX policy.
Eric López, a human relations officer, will serve as a hearing officer under the new Title IX system.
“We will be responsible for conducting the hearings, making determinations regarding the relevance of questions at those hearings, and ensuring that only evidence that can be considered pursuant to the new regulations is used in determining whether a respondent can be found responsible for violations covered by the Title IX procedure,” López said of his responsibilities.
These new procedures contrast with Middlebury’s previous policy, which did not allow for any contact between the two parties and instead relied on an investigator and decision-maker to examine the available facts and make a decision. Each party could meet with them separately upon request.
Another significant change is the allowance of informal resolutions. Under the Obama administration, the Department of Education released a 2011 Dear Colleague Letter which required all complaints to be investigated in a formal hearing. Yet under the new changes to Title IX, students who make an informal report can opt to partake in a voluntary “adaptive resolution.”
“This structured approach, grounded in the principles of restorative justice, is designed to be adaptable so that a process can be identified that is appropriate for the harm caused and to best meet the needs of the individuals involved,” said Middlebury Director of Education for Equity and Inclusion Renee Wells. Wells emphasized that adaptable resolution facilitators work to ensure the process does not cause additional harm to survivors.
Adaptable resolution processes are all overseen by individuals trained in restorative justice, bias, historical harm and the current Title IX regulations. According to Wells, resolutions could include direct processes — interactions which include those individuals who have been harmed and those who have perpetrated the harm — and indirect processes, or separate meetings that do not require any in-person interactions between the individuals involved. Individuals work directly with facilitators to determine which processes they want to pursue.
Wells sees potential benefits in the fact that all of these processes provide students with greater agency and are crafted to the individual needs of those involved. She acknowledged that the considerable length involved in completing the course of an adaptable resolution could deter some students from participating.
“This creates a different pathway for processing harm and can be used in a variety of situations that could ultimately create significant culture change around how we view harming others and what it takes to acknowledge that and move forward,” wrote Assistant Director of Health and Wellness Education Emily Wagner in an email to The Campus. Wagner, a violence prevention education specialist, played a part in determining how to implement the new changes at Middlebury.
Leah Salzman ’21.5 worked as an intern for the Civil Rights and Title IX office this past summer, helping to determine how to implement the changes to Title IX. “I believe the work we did to implement the new regulations allowed for us to focus on making changes that clarify information and actually enhance connection with the student body,” she said.
Salzman thinks that it is important for students to know that filing a report can allow them to access resources and support measures, even if they ultimately decide not to file a formal complaint and go through the investigation procedures.
“Our commitment to education equity and equal access has not changed in light of these new regulations,” McCaleb and Chief Diversity Officer Miguel Fernández wrote in an Aug. 18 email to the student body.
Changes will have varied impacts on students across the country
Each individual school has some discretion to determine how they will implement certain policies. The new regulations “leave much room for colleges to work with their own communities to maintain and strengthen their protections for student safety, and to assure a fair, impartial resolution to complaints,” McCaleb said. Consequently, the impact of Title IX on students will differ depending on the institution.
There is also an increased emphasis on providing support, such as counseling, academic and residential accommodations, to students who experience sexual harassment. According to McCaleb, these measures reflect Middlebury’s pre-existing practices but could lead to significant changes at other institutions.
“The live hearing model for investigations (required by federal Title IX policy, so Middlebury doesn’t have a choice about this) is generally considered to not be survivor-friendly and could be a deterrent to students reporting violations,” Wagner wrote. McCaleb hopes that the option for students to file an informal report will help prevent the new live hearing requirement from deterring reporting.
McCaleb predicts that changes to mandatory reporting, standards of evidence, supportive practices and investigative processes will have the greatest impact on students at colleges and universities around the United States.
Under the Obama administration, schools generally required most college employees to serve as mandatory reporters of sexual misconduct or harassment. However, the new guidelines relax this standard, and schools can decide whether or not all employees serve as mandatory reporters. McCaleb sees two perspectives on this change: it could reduce colleges’ accountability for reporting and addressing misconduct, or it could allow students more autonomy and control over when and how they choose to come forward with complaints.
“These changes could have a chilling effect on reporting, or it could help reinforce the relationship of trust and privacy that students have with faculty or other college administrators and provide a greater sense of autonomy and fairness over the Title IX complaint and investigation process,” McCaleb said.
Instances of sexual harassment and assault at Middlebury can now be reported through an online reporting form at go/report.
Corrections: This article was updated with more accurate definitions and terminology.
(09/24/20 9:58am)
As a young “Daily Express” correspondent, Evelyn Waugh (1903–66) once explained to a colleague the secret to success in the newspaper business. “The correct procedure [when assigned a story], is to jump to your feet, seize your hat and umbrella and dart out of the office with every appearance of haste to the nearest cinema,” Waugh said.
During what is hopefully the last few months of the Trump era, recommending Evelyn Waugh can seem like a daunting task. Both Waugh's brand of Catholicism and his political views bend towards the uber-conservative, and the novels of his later years increasingly include storylines and jokes that give way to theological tirades and overwrought language.
But when he stays away from untenable beliefs, Waugh’s novels reign supreme in their painstaking style and dark humor. The word “satire” almost doesn’t apply to his books; Waugh’s jokes don’t just strike the reader with their barbed venom but simply induce sheer (if at times uncomfortable) laughter.
Captain Grimes in Waugh’s novel “Decline and Fall,” for instance, has taught at a number of public boys’ schools in the UK for years but is always getting fired for getting “in the soup.” Grimes remains an optimist, though, because he always gets job transfers thanks to his social class. “Besides, you see, I’m a public school man,” Grimes says. “That means everything.” Waugh deftly savages “old boy” networks here, even as he blends the tricky line between satirizing classism and trivializing the horrors of sex abuse. That same cold hilarity is found in his novels “Vile Bodies” and “Scoop,” where characters often shrug at human folly and their own emotions.
For readers interested in more thoughtful literature, I still recommend Waugh for the overwhelming humanity of his two masterpieces “A Handful of Dust” and “Brideshead Revisited.” “Dust,” which recounts the fall of country aristocrat Tony Last after his wife Brenda leaves him for a younger man, has perhaps the meanest scene from any twentieth-century novel. When Brenda’s son John dies in a riding accident, for a moment, she thinks that her lover — also named John — has perished instead. Upon hearing that her boyfriend is alive, the now childless Brenda sighs, “Thank God.” It’s definitely an over-the-top scene, but we’ve all at one time or another met those wantonly self-centered beasts like Brenda Last, and few novelists capture the special banality of their narcissism more acutely than Waugh.
The structure of “Dust” also allows us to — barely — digest such heinousness by balancing genuine darkness with slapstick doom. Shortly after the cuckolded Tony Last flees to the Amazon, he gets abducted by a certain Mr. Todd, a Colonel Kurtz-esque hermit who captures Tony and forces him to eternally read aloud Charles Dickens at gunpoint. I can see an icier satirist like J.M. Coetzee constructing the “Thank God” scene, and perhaps Flannery O’Connor at her weirdest might employ “Nicholas Nickleby” à la Mr. Todd. But in my mind, only one writer adeptly combines these two types of gallows humor, laughing at evil in all its pain and all its absurdity.
And as for the sunnier anomaly of “Brideshead Revisited?” Well, a good deal of the novel’s last 200 pages play out a tad ham-fisted, particularly when Lord Marchmain — an avowed atheist and philanderer — suddenly takes Holy Communion in his last minutes, dying only after making the sign of the cross. But the book’s first 100 pages have an unvarnished sentimentality which has aged well. When the novel’s narrator Charles Ryder reflects on his college years, his comments on the features of Oxford wistfully transition into an ode to being young with one's friends. Charles especially misses “[Oxford’s] autumnal mists, her grey springtime, and the rare glory of her summer days — such as that day — when the chestnut was in flower and the bells rang out high and clear ... It was this cloistral hush which gave our laughter its resonance, and carried it still, joyously, over the intervening clamour.”
Rereading this passage, I find myself forgetting the shock humor of “Decline and Fall” and Waugh’s later persona, that cigar-chomping right-winger outraged over the dawn of a British welfare state and the Great Scandal of the Catholic Church (its 1964 cessation of the Latin Mass). Instead, this is Waugh at his most ornate and sincere. And Charles Ryder’s ruminations about Oxford definitely echo my own joys about returning to campus for this weird, masked, and somehow beautiful semester.
(09/24/20 9:58am)
Hey MiddKids! I’m back just in time to answer all the Covid-19-related sex questions you didn’t even know you had. There’s nothing like six months with your parents and siblings to prepare you for the new and strange social landscape that is this semester. Navigating our social lives in college was hard enough when we could touch one another, and with the new Covid-19 regulations, the Middlebury social scene has practically become uncharted waters.
In Phase Two, we've been told to pick four — and only four — close contacts to associate with. This makes any flirtatious, Proc crush-esque romances seem more unattainable than ever. Being told you can only interact closely with four people for the foreseeable future is very daunting. Do you choose four of your best friends? Do you leave a spot open in hopes of a new intimate partner? Do you sacrifice one of your closest friends for an already established partner? Were you looking forward to having more than four partners? These are all tricky questions with no obvious answers. I’m here to give you some tips and tricks for navigating sex and intimacy when DFMO’s, one night stands and random hookups are off the table (or at least more complicated than they used to be).
Remember that you do not need to be having sex. The Covid-19 pandemic is a really scary time, and possible transmission of the virus is enough to make anyone want to take a break from — or choose not to start — physical intimacy. Also, for many people, sex is not a part of their lives for a little time, a long time, or ever — pandemic or not — and that is perfectly normal. But if you do find yourself wanting a partner or sexual intimacy, here is what I have to say:
As the self-proclaimed Sex Panther, I know that being deprived of physical contact for six months leaves a lot of people craving intimacy and pleasure; maybe even a DFMO (there I said it). And coming back to this weird, dystopian campus is not exactly conducive to the sex lives that people may want or expect on a college campus.
Communication is the key to Covid-safe sex (and all sex, literally). Communicate your boundaries — know what your partner has been up to (are they following Covid-19 guidelines…?), know who they have been seeing, tell them who you have been seeing and what you are looking to get out of your time together.
Just making out? Cool. Something more with those face coverings on? Nice. Condoms and dams non-negotiable while we wait for more research on the virus? #science. Direct communication about what you want and don’t want is sexy and can build trust (also sexy). Maybe Covid-19 is the opportunity we’ve been waiting for to step up our sexual health conversation skills, and the pandemic is the masterclass we all didn’t know we signed up for.
Whether you are looking for snuggle buddies, multiple partners or want to make full use of the four-person close-contact limit, here are some things to keep in mind:
1) These guidelines are in place to help us, not just to complicate our sex lives.
2) Keep a running list of your hookups if you didn’t already (c’mon, we all think about it sometimes…), even if it was a one-time thing or they were a close contact for less than a hot second. This will be extremely important if contact tracing becomes necessary.
3) 2020 is the time to practice your safest sex yet! The Covid-19 virus has been found in poop and semen which means condoms, dental dams and other barrier methods are some of the best tools we can use to protect against STIs, unwanted pregnancy and Covid-19.
4) Don’t just wash your hands, wash your sex toys too! Check the packaging or manufacturer's instructions for the best cleaning method for your toys. It could be hot soapy water, a 10% bleach solution or something else.
5) As I said earlier, communication is key right now and becomes even more pertinent when you are having sex with new or old close contacts. Keep talking!
Good luck, and stay healthy!
xoxo,
Sex Panther
(09/24/20 9:58am)
With many colleges and universities now off limits to visitors, prospective students for the classes of 2025 and 2025.5 are navigating new ways to explore college campuses. Middlebury’s phase-based reopening plan will not allow for any admissions visits or tours on campus until Phase Three — at the earliest. In the meantime, the Admissions Office is providing alternative ways for high school students to learn about Middlebury and get a feel for the college.
“The admissions office is working to meet students where they currently are, and because we’re not offering on-campus opportunities, that means we’re doing a whole host of virtual and remote experiences for students so that they can connect with faculty, staff and students,” Dean of Admissions Nicole Curvin said.
In a normal year, Curvin travels to high schools to engage with students. But this isn’t a normal year, and Curvin, along with other members of the admissions office, will not be leaving the Middlebury area.
However, without travel, admissions officers and student employees have been hard at work for months to build a virtual Middlebury for prospective students to explore.
“The pandemic, and not being able to travel as we usually do in the fall, has pushed us to do some things that we probably could’ve and should’ve been doing for a long time,” Director of Admissions Sam Prouty said.
In place of a typical map with street names and labelled buildings, the admissions website now features an interactive campus map depicting the lush greenery of Vermont and the infrastructure on campus.
In addition to this new way to “tour” Middlebury’s campus, a panel of students and faculty meet weekly to offer prospective students a taste of the programs available at the college. These webinars are recorded, making them available to students across different time zones.
“We’re certainly seeing a lot of good engagement with our webinars,” Curvin said.
Current students still play an active part of the admissions process. Senior Admissions Fellows, a group of senior students who conduct information sessions and assist with admissions programming, serve as “the main conduit between the admissions office and the public,” according to Prouty. These students offer prospective students personal insight into their own lives at Middlebury.
“It’s been incredible to see that, because we’re online, it’s a more equal playing field. You don’t need to book a flight or have a parent travel to Middlebury, Vermont with you,” Senior Admissions Fellow Julia Sinton ’20.5 said. “That eliminates the time and cost it would take to come visit in a normal year.”
Senior Admissions Fellows reflect on and talk about their experiences with future applicants and their families during virtual information sessions. These programs allow for international students, many of whom cannot visit campus even during a normal year, to view campus from the same lens as other prospective students.
“I think that will actually allow us to reach potentially even more students than we have traditionally, because now if you can’t get to Middlebury or we can’t get to you, we have a whole lot of programming that in the past has been sparse.” Prouty said.
(09/24/20 9:56am)
In a nameless country in the Middle East, a civil war breaks out. Not only is this inconvenient for new lovers Nadia and Saeed, it’s potentially fatal if they do not find a route to evacuate as their surroundings rapidly disintegrate into armed strife. The relative simplicity of their lives as working college students is irrevocably disrupted, and while they make their way out of the country, readers journey with them, reviewing all that they leave behind. Will their new lives as refugees ever allow them to return home? If so, what will they find that remains when they return? Can their newly budding relationship survive the upending turmoils of life abroad?
Mohsin Hamid’s novel is a curious one in that he makes intentional choices I have not seen before. For example, by withholding the characters’ country of origin, he makes the story more universal, forcing readers to ask themselves what is more important: the nation from which the protagonists originate or the perils to which they are subjected because of the ongoing conflict at home?
This is not strictly an “Australian,” “Syrian” or “Zimbabwean” story; it’s a story of the lives and normalities that are threatened and disrupted in moments of instability. Nadia and Saeed, irrespective of their origin, need food, shelter and stability — needs often overlooked depending on how displaced people are perceived given their religion, language and state of peace or enmity with powerful countries.
Another choice Hamid made was to veil the routes of passage that Nadia and Saeed use to arrive in countries that are not experiencing warfare. Words like “asylum” and “visa” do not appear in the narrative. Rather, Nadia and Saeed use an unnamed system of doors to “exit west.” Access to these doors comes at a significant monetary expense, but they make it to the other side. Each door leads to a new destination: the Mediterranean, London, California. However, the conditions they find in their new residencies continue to push them farther away from home.
The journey is an adventure, and the physical travels are as important as the narrative’s emotional ones. For another work in the collection that treats the complex nature of being an immigrant or a child of immigrants, check out “How To Read the Air” by Dinaw Mengestu or Fabien Toulmé’s French-language “L’odyssée d’Hakim.”
Editor’s Note: Katrina Spencer was the Literatures & Cultures Librarian, and this book review was written for The Campus before she left the college.
(09/22/20 10:00pm)
UPDATE: Sept. 22 at 7 pm
Students who are removed from campus for Covid-19 violations will not be refunded for room and board, "absent exceptional circumstances of economic hardship," according to Sarah Ray, director of media relations.
——
With Middlebury’s carefully considered reopening plan, students have eagerly awaited every new phase. Last Thursday, students were jubilant to enter Phase Two, allowing them to venture into downtown Middlebury and Addison County. The college even celebrated by hosting food trucks on campus Friday that proffered free pulled pork sandwiches and fresh doughnuts.
But for two groups of students, specifically residents of the notoriously party-centric Atwater residence halls, festivities came to a grinding halt when Public Safety officers knocked on their doors Thursday night. In both cases, officers discovered gatherings over the maximum occupancy limit of six for the spaces, and over the indoor gathering limit of ten people. There were two gatherings of 14 and 15 students in different Atwater suites, according to students present. In the second case, several students managed to leave without incident, dodging the Public Safety officers and escaping from one of the suite’s two exits before the officers demanded student IDs.
The 22 students written up by Public Safety met individually with Brian Lind, the associate dean of conduct, on Friday morning over Zoom, according to two upperclassmen involved in the episode. He notified them that those living on campus would need to leave for violating college policy, and students living in off-campus residences would lose access to the campus and its facilities, including in-person classes. The college has been tight-lipped about the incidents and Lind did not respond to multiple emails for comment.
According to a college media statement sent to The Campus Monday, “students removed from campus because of Covid-19 violations are ordinarily eligible to return in the following semester.” The statement also indicated that the reprimanded students will not be allowed to “visit, study, or take courses on campus” for the remainder of the semester.
The students were given 24 hours to appeal the decision before college officials issued their final verdict on Sunday. Anonymous sources involved in the incidents say that all of the students who appealed received the same letter Sunday night: they were not allowed to remain on campus and needed to move out within 24 hours, by Monday night at 7 p.m. The letters were so identical that two students mistakenly received letters addressed to friends who were also at the gatherings.
From day one, the administration has established a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to Covid-19 policy violations. There are no strikes or warnings: one violation, and you could be out. Despite the glimmer of hope that the appeals process provides, none of the students who appealed were able to remain on campus. The college has already sent home five students for breaching Covid-19 policy, bringing the grand total to 27 students who are now not allowed on campus.
To some, the college’s stringent policy does not recognize students’ varying socioeconomic situations. “I wish there was more of a warning system because the consequence of getting sent home does not have the same effect for all students,” said Tre Stephens ’21, a student who was not involved in the incidents that occurred last Thursday. “But granted, students shouldn’t be breaking the rules.”
Middlebury’s success so far has relied on peer-to-peer accountability, or what some might see as peer pressure. In both instances last Thursday, students at the gatherings suspected that they were “snitched” on by a student who called Public Safety to report loud noise coming from the suites. The link “go/snitch” has become a source of banter on campus as students jokingly — and not so jokingly — threaten to report one another through the college’s reporting page.
The college has so far successfully thwarted a Covid-19 outbreak on campus, with only two students testing positive for the virus who have since recovered. Middlebury currently has 0 active cases on campus, with 6,3969 tests already administered according to the college's Covid-19 reporting dashboard.
The punished students who were registered for in-person courses faced the difficult task on Monday of notifying professors that they were no longer allowed to attend class. Sources close to a few of these students said that while some professors were willing to make concessions, at least one professor notified a student that they would need to drop the class. At this point, it is unclear whether students would receive a refund for room and board.
Since the events Thursday night, the mood in the Atwater complex has been somber. “When I went out Saturday, it was dead quiet,” said Atwater resident Andrew Ng ’22. “The administration definitely sent a strong message.”
(09/17/20 10:00am)
Upon first glance, Andrew Callaghan is like any other news anchor: he wears a suit, holds a mic and stands in front of an ever-present cameraman. That is, however, where the similarities end, for even in his adherence to journalistic conventions Callaghan is most certainly unconventional. His iconic gray suit was purchased from a Goodwill in Tucson for $15 and, according to its eBay description, has never been washed; he adorns the suit with a pair of Nike Air Max 95s and — instead of in a news van — Callaghan and his crew tour the country in a 1999 Coachmen RV.
Callaghan doesn’t belong to any larger news organization, and it is precisely this freedom that allows his YouTube show “All Gas No Brakes” to be as untethered and chaotic as it needs to be. What separates Callaghan from his peers -- and I use that term broadly -- is his profound ability to listen. As the show has developed and matured over the course of its year-long existence, so too has Callaghan’s interview prowess.
Callaghan’s career began with his project “Quarter Confessions,” which was inspired by the drunken mayhem that unfolded in front of him night after night during his stint as a doorman in New Orleans’ French Quarter. The premise of the show was simple: Callaghan and his director/camera operator Michael Moises would roam the streets of the French Quarter in the late hours of the night and film anyone and everyone that could stand in front of the camera. Needless to say, in an area with cheap and plentiful drinks and tourists that had come from all over to lose their inhibitions, there was no lack of subjects to film.
“It’s an honor to be able to document this frenzy of sex, liquor, garbage and drugs,” Callaghan said in an interview with Office Magazine in 2019.
The differences in maturity between “Quarter Confessions” and “All Gas No Brakes” are drastic, though their underlying premises are not too dissimilar. Initially posted to Instagram, “Quarter Confessions” was a series of quick moments, each less than a minute in length, capturing people saying and doing whatever their drunken minds told them to do. These videos are lewd, jarring and pure pandemonium: some people lob insults at opposing colleges’ quarterbacks, others reveal themselves to the camera, and drunkards fight in the street — chaos. “All Gas No Brakes” is a continuation of this format but with an additional appreciation for the subject matter. Many of the show’s core components remain the same, such as the shouting, cussing and overly excited interviewees, yet Callaghan and his crew have expanded the show to be so much more than its predecessor.
Just as soon as Callaghan finished his first year of college, he fled, leaving his clothes, electronics and everything else in his dorm behind to hitchhike across the country. It wasn’t so much a manifest destiny-like want to become a more worldly person; he had just become fed up with the rigid structures of college and wanted to be free and untethered. So, for 70 days, Callaghan hitchhiked across the country, relying on the kindness of strangers to travel and eat. He turned the whole experience into a zine of the same title as his current show, and most interestingly, he removed himself and his stories almost entirely from it.
“I think it’s important to let people tell their own story, to remove yourself from it even if you disagree with what they’re saying,” Callaghan said in the Office Magazine interview. This, above all else, is the mantra of his current show: let people tell their own story.
“All Gas No Brakes” and its crew know no bounds. They have traveled to just about every state in the country, finding its most bizarre convention, event or individual; there are episodes on the Midwest FurFest, a Flat Earth Conference, the NASA/SpaceX rocket launch and a Donald Trump Jr. Book Club, to name a few. My reaction to his videos always follow the same emotional trajectory. The initial impacts of his videos are increasingly a slap in the face, like he reached out through my monitor and shook me awake. After being shocked by the mayhem of it all, I immediately feel a sense of superiority, as every interviewee that steps into the camera’s frame makes a fool of themselves. Yet, as the video progresses, I drop the superiority complex and am taken aback by how understanding Callaghan is of his interviewees.
He is a journalistic chameleon, always seeming to record people from within their own community, finding common ground and empathy everywhere he goes. Callaghan never interrupts anyone, and he always seems to understand and empathize with his subjects, even at their least intelligible. His ability to be a part of the very communities he is researching separates him from other news sources — so much so that when he cuts to footage of Fox News and Democracy Now! covering the very same Portland protests as he does, it makes them seem like uneducated third parties.
If you’re going to his YouTube channel to find ignorant people spout off about this or that, you’ll be satisfied, but if you go in with an open and empathetic mind, you’ll find yourself uncovering pockets of the United States you never knew existed. “All Gas No Brakes” is not a social media freak show. It is instead a magnification of America, a spotlight on its dark corners. What Andrew Callaghan and his crew are doing to modernize and democratize journalism is more than just drumming up viral social media. It is an unadulterated look at a greater collective of individuals; an inside look at America’s outsiders.
(09/17/20 9:59am)
As Phase One neared its highly anticipated end, the college concluded its campus quarantine programming last Friday with a remote lecture and Q&A by Scholar-in-Residence Bill McKibben. During the talk, titled “This Crisis and the Next One: What the Pandemic Suggests About the Century to Come,” McKibben spoke about the relationship between environmental injustice and Covid-19 and the reasons he believes Vermont has been so successful in its battle against the pandemic.
Jim Ralph, professor of American history and culture, introduced McKibben. Following his talk, three underclassman student panelists — Tim Hua ’23.5, Alicia Pane ’23.5 and Daisy Liljegren ’24 — opened the Q&A session with prepared questions.
Before diving into the future implications of the pandemic, McKibben began by speaking about its ramifications in the present moment. He emphasized the disproportionate severity of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on minority communities, even in predominantly white Vermont: one of the state’s few bad outbreaks occurred in Winooski, a city with a large immigrant population.
“If there was a single powerful quote from the last six months, it came, tragically, from George Floyd,” McKibben said. “And, as you all know, what he said was, ‘I can't breathe.’”
He described the many ways in which the compounding crises of the past six months have restricted the ability of people, particularly Black Americans, to breathe: police brutality; poor air quality from coal fired power plants, usually seen in POC communities; the wildfires filling the air with smoke; and the sheer heat of this past summer.
“We have this huge mix of crises on top of each other,” he said.
During his talk, McKibben highlighted three key aspects of the relationship between the pandemic and the climate crisis.
1: Reality is Real
“I've spent the last 30 years trying to remind people that chemistry and physics won't negotiate or compromise,” McKibben said. “And the pandemic was a good reminder that the same is true for biology. It’s fine for the president to get up and say it’s all a hoax and whatever, but the microbe could care less. If it says stand six feet apart, then stand six feet apart.”
2: Reaction Speed Matters
“We've learned a lot about flattening curves this year,” he said. “The U.S. and South Korea had their first cases of Covid-19 on the same day in January. South Korea went, admirably, to work. And it’s not over there, but it's definitely in the rearview mirror, and with a tiny fraction of the suffering and the loss of life that we've experienced here. That's because we wasted a couple of months, as Bob Woodward has demonstrated over the last couple of days, despite the fact that the White House knew very well what was going on. That slow reaction is the equivalent to the way that we've done nothing about climate change over 30 years that the scientists have given us a warning. And so now, of course, we need to move with extraordinary speed.”
3: Social Solidarity is Really Important
“I grew up in the political shadow of Ronald Reagan,” McKibben said. “He was the dominant figure in my early life, elected while I was in college. Unlike most presidents, he really did realign the country around a new ideological idea, and that idea basically was that markets were going to solve all problems — that government was, as he put it, the problem, not the solution. Indeed, the most famous laugh line in Reagan's speeches, always, was, ‘The nine scariest words in the English language are, I'm from the government, and I'm here to help.’ Well, it turns out that the scariest words in the English language are, ‘We've run out of ventilators,’ or ‘The hillside behind your house is on fire and you have to leave now, without any of your possessions.’ Those are not things that are solved by markets. Those are things solved by social solidarity of one kind or another, governments learning to work competently, but people joining together with some trust in those governments — and with each other.”
According to McKibben, about 78% of Vermonters mostly or completely trust their neighbors, compared with 38% of Americans. And 69% of Vermonters say they know most of their neighbors, as opposed to just 26% of Americans. He credits the state’s high level of social trust for the early, effective intervention that limited the spread of Covid-19.
Earlier this year, as armed protesters gathered in many states in opposition to wearing masks and other pandemic-related mandates, “in Vermont, there was a demonstration called for Montpelier outside the state capitol,” McKibben said. “And when the day came, there were seven protesters on the ramp for that demonstration.”
He doesn’t attribute Vermonters’ willingness to wear masks and maintain social distance to particularly liberal politics: though Vermont is home to democratic socialist Bernie Sanders, the state’s governor, Phil Scott, is a Republican. Rather, McKibben ascribes it to the state’s unusual geographical and political structure. Unlike other remote states, which tend to be centered around a small number of major cities, Vermont’s population is spread more evenly across the state, and individual towns manage their own affairs through annual town meetings.
“It is a state of villages, and what that means is that people tend to know each other better,” McKibben said. “More to the point, what it means is it’s enabled this long Vermont tradition of very close, democratic self-governance.”
He believes that local self-governance disincentivizes polarization, “simply because you have to get the business of the town done and everyone knows it.”
Many of the questions from panelists and audience members alike addressed the concept of social trust. Hua, one of the panelists, asked whether anti-mask protests could have decreased social trust elsewhere in the country; attendees raised questions about encouraging trust on a larger scale and the potential for people with more diverse backgrounds, in more densely populated communities, to develop similar levels of social trust.
McKibben emphasized that it is unclear how significantly Vermont’s demographics — being a particularly homogenous state with a predominantly white population — impact social trust throughout the state, and that it is difficult to gauge how well the concept of local self-governance might translate to other parts of the country. He denounced the increasing political polarization perpetuated by the current federal government and spoke highly of efforts like “citizens’ assemblies,” designed to help communities become informed about, and collaborate on ways to deal with, local issues.
Pane, another panelist, asked how McKibben sees Vermont’s motto, “Freedom and Unity,” playing out during the pandemic.
“We have chosen, I think, unity above other freedoms here in Vermont during the course of the pandemic,” McKibben said.
(09/17/20 9:58am)
As students returned last month to a new semester in disparate capacities, 85 have chosen to live off campus in the town of Middlebury. Facing increased surveillance and most of the same restrictions as other students, some say that life off campus, at least during Phase One, is more stressful.
During the summer months, students were mindful of respecting and protecting the Middlebury community while retaining a sense of normalcy in their ability to leave their homes and visit both town and the surrounding areas, according to Chris Gernon ’21.
“I would work from nine to four and then would go to a swimming hole or to Lake Dunmore,” said Van Lundsgaard ’21, who moved back to Middlebury in June.
Conditions changed, however, in late August, when the college followed through on its decision to welcome back its full student body — excluding those who chose to pursue a fully online experience — to campus.
Gernon and Lundsgaard live in a house on Weybridge Street, along with three other seniors and two senior febs. Like the rest of the off-campus students, they are only able to travel to and from campus. No guests, whether from the community or campus itself, are allowed in their home.
Since they aren’t on the meal plan and are not allowed to visit grocery stores, stocking up on groceries was an essential part of preparations for the college’s reopening. Delivery services have become a necessity as well — many of the town’s most popular restaurants offer meal deliveries, and Instacart, an online grocery-ordering service, has quickly gained popularity.
While on-campus students must adhere to a strict set of guidelines, their off-campus counterparts face a reality of rules that are equally unyielding. “For the most part, it feels like we are living in a normal house until we leave the house,” Lundsgaard said.
In fact, life might be more stressful as off-campus students, with “not getting in trouble with the college,” as Gernon puts it, becoming a large component of their respective experiences.
Some feel that the college is policing off-campus students more harshly and to a greater extent than the on-campus students. “The college seems to be more concerned with optics than actual health protocols,” Lundsgaard said.
Students living off campus are subject to the eye of the public, or at least the community of Middlebury and the greater Addison County. College administrators regularly patrol the off-campus housing areas, even stopping by to check on individual living spaces. While this security detail is “very nice,” it can sometimes become overwhelming, Lundsgaard said.
“[Students] have seen in-town community members be accosted by security guards,” he continued. These guards demand to know where each person is going, inquiring after their adherence to campus quarantine, Lundsgaard said.
But while off-campus college life has been drastically impacted by Covid-19 and subsequent college-issued restrictions, students remain focused on the positive aspects of their current experience.
“Thanks to my friends’ enthusiasm and positive attitudes, I have not minded hanging out six feet [apart] or being ‘stuck’ with my roommates at home,” Emily Allardi ’21 said. Allardi lives on Cross Street, near the small roundabout in town.
The realities of this semester have deviated from her expectations as well. She imagined that wearing a mask and “being safe” would be the only restrictions on her life, and that, come fall, she would still be able to go to the grocery store and exercise outside in town.
But the unexpectedly limiting protocols enforced in the last few weeks have inspired her to “[take] full advantage of [the college’s] beautiful campus.” She has run the TAM trail for the first time and enjoys visiting the organic garden and taking in the views.
In terms of outlook for the future, off-campus students are hopeful. The college announced on Monday that the transition into Phase Two will take place on Thursday, Sept. 17, meaning students residing both on and off campus will be allowed to leave campus then. However, students are still not permitted to visit off-campus residences.
“I think [the plan] is effective and the best way to make sure the town is safe,” Lundsgaard said.
Gernon agreed, saying that, “gradually lifting restrictions seems like the best way to ensure everyone is safe while following the rules.”
(09/17/20 9:58am)
While large universities around the country are becoming Covid-19 hotspots, the 11 schools in the NESCAC — which have far fewer students and are generally located in low-density areas — have kept their Covid-19 cases extremely low so far.
Middlebury College has only seen two total active cases, and both students have since recovered. All NESCAC schools except for Tufts University have had fewer than five positive cases. Tufts — which is over twice the size of the other NESCAC schools and is located in a major city — has had nine new positive tests in the last week, with a total of 26 Covid-19 cases.
In contrast, several large universities across the country have witnessed catastrophic Covid-19 outbreaks. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill evacuated students after testing revealed a positivity rate of 13%, while the University of Georgia and University of Wisconsin-Madison both reported over 1,000 cases in the past week.
All NESCAC schools tested students upon arrival, instated a quarantine period afterward, and are now intermittently testing students through the Broad Institute, a testing provider based in Cambridge, Mass. Bates College and Bowdoin College are testing all students twice per week, whereas Middlebury and Connecticut College are performing tests on a portion of the student body each week in addition to testing students who show symptoms.
In late August, Middlebury welcomed 2,161 students back to campus, with an additional 85 students living in off-campus housing and 329 studying fully remotely. Bowdoin College was the only NESCAC not to invite all students back, permitting just 653 students — or 40% — back to campus and prioritizing first-year and transfer students, with some other exceptions. The Bowdoin Orient reported that 75% of students were dissatisfied with this decision.
Some NESCAC schools are adjusting their academic policies to allow increased flexibility. Bates College is proceeding with two 7.5-week modules instead of a traditional semester. Williams College is allowing students to take as many classes Pass/Fail as they want, and Trinity College is allowing students to graduate with 1.5 fewer credits than are usually required. Tufts is allowing students to graduate after only six full-time semesters instead of the previous requirement of eight, offering increased flexibility for students to attend part-time. Middlebury has also modified its academic policy, allowing students to take up to one course during the fall 2020 and spring 2021 semesters on a credit/no-credit basis.
Amherst has moved many classes to outdoor spaces and installed temperature monitors at the entrance to several student buildings. To reduce the spread of germs, Hamilton College spaced out classes by 20 minutes for classroom cleaning and Williams converted most housing to single-occupancy.
NESCAC schools have already had to penalize students for breaking Covid-19 safety rules. Dean of Students Derek Doucet told The Campus that several students have already been asked to leave campus, while more are awaiting appeals for violating guidelines. Bowdoin has also asked a first-year student to leave campus for violating the seven-page community agreement that all students studying on campus had to sign. One reason for this strict enforcement is that most NESCAC schools occupy small towns with limited healthcare services.
The cost of testing and implementing Covid-19 regulations is putting new financial pressure on NESCAC schools. Middlebury has allocated $5 million to cover costs created by the pandemic and increased tuition by the standard of 3%. Bowdoin will spend $875,000 on testing this year. Williams is the only NESCAC school to reduce tuition due to the pandemic, lowering the total by 15% for all students, in addition to eliminating the student activities fee. Trinity is keeping tuition stagnant at the 2019-2020 level.
But not all small colleges have been able to maintain low Covid-19 rates. Colorado College shifted to fully remote learning after 11 of their 800 on-campus students tested positive and an entire dorm of 150 students was quarantined.
Vermont has maintained one of the lowest Covid-19 rates in the country, and only 38 out of 42,109 total tests at Vermont colleges have been positive, according to the Vermont Department of Health. The largest college in the state, the University of Vermont, has seen 15 positive cases so far.
While many large and urban universities are suffering from uncontrolled outbreaks, schools in the NESCAC and Vermont colleges are maintaining low rates by merit of advantageous size and geography, bolstered by strict rules and frequent testing.
(09/16/20 3:51am)
The next period in the college’s “phased approach” to a safe reopening will be pushed back to Thursday, Sept. 17, two days after it was originally planned to begin. Phase Two allows for greater freedoms, including leaving campus for other locations in Addison County and relaxing physical distancing with a small number of close contacts.
The announcement was made in an all-school email in the afternoon of Tuesday, Sept. 14, and came just one day before the widely anticipated start date of Sept. 15, which was described in the Return to Campus Guide as the optimal Phase Two start date, and shared in the mandatory pre-arrival SafeColleges training.
Dean of Students Derek Doucet said that the transition to Phase Two was delayed because remote students and students taking leaves of absence who are living in the area and only recently arrived in town had not yet completed their arrival quarantine phase mandated by the state of Vermont.
“We were concerned that an immediate move to Phase Two would open the possibility that students on campus who had been through multiple rounds of testing might be inadvertently interacting with these recent arrivals, which would pose an exposure risk,” he told The Campus.
Doucet said that, additionally, observations of other colleges and “evolving public health guidelines” led the college to push the start date. He also clarified that Sept. 15 was the earliest possible start date for Phase One, as opposed to a set date.
Only two individuals have tested positive for Covid-19 on campus, both of which were detected during the two rounds of arrival testing. Both of those cases are now listed as recovered, and there are zero active cases on campus after 5,362 tests. A few students have been asked to leave campus for violations of Covid safety rules.
Some of the freedoms that come with a move to Phase Two will include local recreational travel within Addison County and the use of student vehicles. The college will also begin phasing in limited indoor dining hall seating, limited use of indoor athletic facilities and student use of outdoor athletic spaces such as the golf course, Snow Bowl and TAM.
When using personal vehicles, students will be required to wear face coverings, keep the windows open at least two inches for ventilation and maintain physical distancing as much as possible.
Phase Two will also allow students to define a small social circle of individuals with whom they relax physical distancing. The announcement email notes that students will be allowed to have no more than four individuals with whom they are “close contacts”.
A guide called Sex in the Time of Covid-19, published by the Health and Wellness office in August, noted that they “anticipate that any dating/sex partners would be part of this circle.”
Students will need to complete another online training before being released from campus quarantine. Engaging in Phase Two activities without completing the training will be considered a violation.
(09/10/20 2:18pm)
Welcome back to the fall semester! This fall, The Campus will continue publishing content online on a weekly basis on Thursdays. You can browse our stories on our website, as well as check out a virtual front page each week.
The stories
News
Covid rules enforcement falls on student leaders
Staff, cautiously optimistic, face increased workload as students return
Middlebury holds breath as Covid case number sits at two
Unsure of what to expect, first years grapple with a college experience marred by the pandemic
Economic downturn and Covid-19 precautions bring tuition and endowment draw increases
Local
Porter Medical Center prepares for a fall semester transformed by the pandemic
Arts & Culture
Direct Your Attention: Malcolm Gladwell’s perfect hi(story)
Reluctant journeys: International students traverse a world of obstacles as U.S. limits entries
Museum of Art shuts its doors for reorganization, plans to reopen in spring 2021
The only dating guide you’ll need this fall semester
Jay Parini’s “Borges and Me”: Beyond Just a Memoir
Opinion
Editorial: It’s a hard time to be a student, it’s a harder time to be a first year
Middlebury is just learning to deal with students in crisis, but it shouldn’t be
MASK OFF, MIDD: A college senior’s take on romance amid Covid
Snake oil and student loans
Environmentalism at Middlebury has roots in exclusion
The final year of Ask Tré
Sports
Fall coaches adjust to a season without competitive play
Siefer’s Scoop Podcast: An introduction
Life looks different and so does the student body: Athletes on leave
Throwback Thursday: This day in 2016: Sydor’s defense lifts Middlebury
Athlete of the week: Erin Nicholas ’21
Today's Front Page
