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A “murderously” good time occurred on the evenings of Nov. 13-15, when audiences gathered in Town Hall Theater (THT) to see Middlebury College Musical Theater’s (MCMT) performance of the Tony Award-winning musical “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder.”
“But perhaps I am asking the question the wrong way around,” Zadie Smith writes at one point in her essay “Fascinated to Presume: In Defense of Fiction,” which can be found in her new collection, “Dead and Alive.” It’s a typically Smithian line: an expression of self-doubt signalling the arrival of a new insight whose veracity you, the reader, will likely not doubt at all. What follows, you know, will only further illuminate the subject at hand (and will only be followed by another moment of illumination). The many “but”s in Smith’s essays — the “though”s and “what if”s and “maybe”s — are what you come for, the mark of a writer who stands in pointed opposition to the kind of thinking rewarded in the social media discourse which has become the only real stand-in for our public one.
Last week, I received sudden and heartbreaking news. My aunt, who was traveling from Qalqilya, Palestine (West Bank) to visit my ailing mother in Jordan, passed away unexpectedly. The news left all of us in shock. Yet, I decided to attend the inauguration of Ian B. Baucom as the 18th president of Middlebury College, because the only way we can truly honor and remember our loved ones is by carrying them in our hearts wherever we go.
Small class sizes and intimate academic experiences have long been a core tenet of a Middlebury education. The college proudly boasts our 9:1 student-to-faculty ratio and our average class size of 16 on its website and on every tour. But this has not been reflective of our Middlebury experience for years, and the college announced in the spring that it is raising its target enrollment to balance its budget. Maintaining small class sizes may save monetary costs, but at what deeper price?
In an article critical of the so-called hypocrisy of the No Kings protest in The Campus last week, Ignacio Gamero ‘26 accused protestors of “cheapening authoritarianism.” He argued that other presidents had previously taken similar oversteps of executive power, and that Trump’s activities were not unusual for a president. This is a wildly unfair portrayal of previous executive overreach, and trades a disciplined evaluation of democracy for baseless accusations of hypocrisy.
On Tuesday Oct. 28, prominent environmental activist Tabi Joda visited Middlebury to discuss his work with One Billion Trees for Africa, an organization dedicated to the reforestation of the Sahel, a rapidly desertifying strip of land across Northern and Central Africa. The talk was hosted by a wide range of departments, including Environmental Studies, Anthropology, Sustainability & Environmental Affairs and African Studies.
One day after the 225th anniversary of the college’s founding, Ian Baucom was formally inaugurated as the 18th president of Middlebury College. The ceremony was held on Sunday, Nov. 2 in Virtue Field House, marking the culmination of a three-day celebration highlighting the arts, academics and the greater Middlebury community.
More than half of the junior class at Middlebury studies abroad each year. They leave behind the comforts and benefits of staying on campus to immerse themselves in a foreign language, experience another culture and confront a totally different, often even more rigorous academic environment. Students who choose not to go abroad recognize the treasures and fleeting nature of our time at Middlebury or find themselves committed to extracurricular activities, course work or friend groups that entice them to remain here. There is no one right answer in making this choice. That being said, we believe that the more students who choose to study abroad, the better off Middlebury both in its global impact and in the vibrancy of its community here in Vermont.
CobWeb Antiques opened its doors at 60 Main Street, the former location of Buy Again Alley, on Sunday, Oct. 26. Owners Gary and Jill DeVoe of New Haven have long dreamed of running their own antique store, and they’ve finally found the spot to showcase the carefully curated collection they’ve built over the years.
On Friday, Oct. 24, the Axinn Center for the Humanities hosted the Middlebury Migration Conference in McCardell Bicentennial Hall as part of its “Migrant Justice in Vermont and Beyond” initiative. The event brought together a range of artists, advocates and academics to discuss their experiences and work around migration and migration justice. In a moment where ordinary migrant workers like Guadalupe and Emanual Diaz are kidnapped from South Burlington and transferred to detention centers across the country, the conference created a space for urgently needed mobilization and solidarity.
Four years is a pitifully short time for something so blatantly, absurdly wonderful: being an undergraduate on this campus. It would be remiss of every Middlebury student to take for granted the fact that everyone they know is within a 15-minute walk. It would be remiss to forget that the gym, the ice rink, the tennis courts, the pianos, the computer labs, and all the camping equipment you could ever need are all universally accessible — and free. It would be remiss to forget that, if you are on the dining plan, you could eat eight completely different meals a day without ever driving to the grocery store or spilling a single bubble of dish soap.
Although Covid-19 pandemic restrictions on campus ended over two years ago, the college’s staffing has not climbed back to pre-pandemic levels, and several departments, including Custodial Services, the Davis Family Library, Catering and Dining are struggling with unmanageable workloads and burnout. According to staff, much of this struggle has been caused by the college’s poor human resource policies.
With several English Department faculty on leave, on associate status or recently retired, the department is facing staffing concerns, and no replacement positions have been approved by the Educational Affairs Committee (EAC). According to Professor of American Literature Brett Millier, who retired last spring, the department’s proposal for her replacement was denied.
In August of 2021, the Taliban’s violent takeover of Afghanistan halted the education of millions of women. In 2023, Taniya Noori ’25.5 made it possible for a few of them to continue.
After approximately seven months of renovation and expansion, the Otter Creek Child Center facility, located at 150 Weybridge Street, is set to reopen its classrooms on Dec. 1. The project represents a major step in the broader community effort to address the child care shortage facing families across Addison County, including Middlebury faculty and staff.
As a super senior graduating this coming February, my college experience has spanned two distinct eras: before artificial intelligence (AI) and after AI. My introduction to AI came over Christmas break in 2022, when my tech-obsessed father showed me ChatGPT. My family crowded around my laptop, collectively testing its responses with wide-eyed curiosity. Back then, I felt ahead of the curve, part of a small group witnessing the dawn of something that might change the world. Three years later, as I prepare to graduate, I feel the opposite.
At the Addison County Relocalization Network (ACORN) Food Hub on Oct. 3, a crowd gathered to celebrate the signing of an agreement between Vermont Way Foods, a local farm, and Migrant Justice’s Milk with Dignity. There was cheese tasting, music, Mexican food, and a Vermont staple, Ben & Jerry’s, which signed a similar deal with the organization back in 2017.
In September, the Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life relocated from its temporary location at 46 South Street to its original space in the Hathaway House at 135 South Main Street. In 2021, the center was displaced to make room for student quarantine rooms due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Approximately 50 students filled Twilight Auditorium last Thursday afternoon to hear economist Gary Hoover argue that America's promise of economic mobility may be more of a lottery than a ladder. The talk, part of the D.K. Smith Economic Lecture Series, featured Hoover promoting his book “Ladder or Lottery: Economic Promises and the Reality of Who Gets Ahead.” With his baritone voice carrying a hint of a southern accent, the Executive Director of the Murphy Institute at Tulane University held the audience's attention for an hour. College President Ian Baucom was among those in attendance.
If the professoriate is your true calling, reality dictates that you go where the openings are, rather than where you wish to be. My experience of the job market was a continental compass tour: As a graduate student, the process landed me at campus visits in Virginia and Texas, and later, as a postdoctoral fellow, in Utah and Vermont. I was quite happy in my postdoctoral position, researching and teaching in New Jersey, and I did not have to leave. I, however, had the rare opportunity to go somewhere I wanted to be. When the offer came from Middlebury College, I did not hesitate.