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(09/30/21 10:00am)
Since Vermont Coffee Company, supplier of coffee to the college, was sold to Maine-based specialty foods producer Stonewall Kitchen last spring, the company has been able to accelerate its growth while maintaining commitments to social causes and sustainability.
Mike Brown, general manager at Vermont Coffee Company, told The Campus that Stonewall Kitchen has acted as a partner in taking the company into its next phase by expanding its retail footprint.
Prior to joining Stonewall Kitchen, Vermont Coffee Company exclusively supplied whole bean coffee. Last year, Vermont Coffee Company was in the process of launching a new line of ground coffee, and Stonewall Kitchen embraced the idea and expedited the launch process.
“They’ve helped us make connections with retailers and tap into distribution channels, and [are] also helping us invest in manufacturing capabilities that help accelerate our original idea,” Brown said.
Vermont Coffee Company is now selling eight types of ground coffee.
Even while undergoing accelerated growth and expansion of products, Stonewall Kitchen is focused on maintaining Vermont Coffee Company’s commitment to social justice and the environment. Vermont Coffee Company’s products have remained 100% organic and are produced by roasteries that use 100% renewable gas, according to Brown.
Vermont Coffee Company has also maintained its social justice outreach promises through its Friend Philosophy, which has been a value-anchor that differentiates the brand from the larger company at Stonewall Kitchen. For example, Vermont Coffee Company continues to give back to the local community and farmers at coffee origins, focusing specifically on food security initiatives.
These commitments are further demonstrated through the introduction of products that give back to the community.
“We just launched a new blend of coffee called Friend Blend in 15 pound whole bean bags. The purpose of that is to really strengthen our commitment of giving back, so 5% of the sales of that product will continue our community support,” Brown said.
While making the transition to Stonewall Kitchen, the founder of Vermont Coffee Company, Paul Ralston, was hopeful that this partnership would benefit the Middlebury community. Brown emphasized that this is a priority to Stonewall Kitchen; however, they are still evaluating the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the local community, in hopes of figuring out the best support plan moving forward.
The Vermont Coffee Company café in downtown Middlebury has been closed since the pandemic with no plans for reopening soon. However, Ralston has taken it on as a personal project, and he is currently talking to Stonewall about this possibility.
(05/06/21 9:58am)
More than 200 students gathered outside on the McCullough lawn the evening of April 24 to honor the life of Daunte Wright, Adam Toledo and other victims of police brutality. Huddled under umbrellas and rain jackets, they sheltered their candles from the cold drizzle as they listened to speeches and observed multiple moments of silence in honor of the lives lost.
Jarlenys Mendez ’23 spearheaded the vigil to hold space on campus for students mourning the life of Daunte Wright.
“There’s so little chance we get to stop and pause to show respect and honor for the victims,” Mendez said in an interview with The Campus. “Especially with how fast-paced the school moves, it’s important to take a pause to recognize the real world and not be stuck in the Middlebury bubble.”
Across the country, protesters have poured onto streets to express anger and demand justice for Wright. Mendez was actively involved in protests in New York City for the Black Lives Matter movement, and she was inspired to pursue activism at Middlebury.
Daunte Wright’s funeral was held on April 22, where he was remembered as an outgoing young man and the father of a two-year-old toddler. Mendez, whose own father was 19 years old when she was born, said the event hit close to home for her emotionally.
“Seeing his child was definitely painful,” Mendez said. “And to think that at that age to lose your life and leave your child behind you. I’m just sick of it. Each time I hear about another victim — it’s a lot.”
Genesis Rodriguez ’23, who attended the vigil, said the atmosphere was heavy with the mourning shared between the students. To Rodriguez, it is the responsibility of Middlebury students to acknowledge the events happening in the world.
“We’re in such a privileged space, so it feels necessary to show up for these issues,” Rodriguez said. “These might be conversations I have with my friends, [but], in general they are not talked about on campus.”
Although the number of white students at the vigil outweighed the number of students of color, Mendez hoped that such a reality did not drown out the presence of BIPOC students at the event — who she said needed the space for healing.
“White people tend to make a lot of things about them, and this vigil wasn’t for white people to feel better. It’s not for them to show they’re here for us. It’s never about the white people,” said Mendez, “I hope they can step aside and acknowledge what is happening, internally and physically by being there.”
(04/15/21 9:58am)
Eight people, including six women of Asian descent, were killed when a gunman entered three Atlanta spas on March 16. The tragedy drew attention to the increase in anti-Asian hate crimes that has coincided with inflammatory rhetoric surrounding Covid-19 throughout the past year. Following the shooting, various Asian and Asian-American affinity groups at Middlebury have responded to the tragedy, voicing their solidarity alongside each other and working to start larger conversations around anti-Asian racism and oppression.
RAISINS (Radical Asians)
RAISINS (Radical Asians), a collective of Asian and Asian-American student activists with a focus on community building and social justice, hosted a public forum over Zoom following the shooting.
Max Walters ’24, a RAISINS member who spearheaded the event, said the purpose of the forum was for Asian and Asian American students to share their experiences of anti-Asian racism and for non-Asian students to hear those stories. The 16 attendees shared an intimate space to voice vulnerable emotions.
“The main reason for me to do this is that I am feeling strained, conflicted and uncertain about what I was feeling, and I was hearing so many different stories and reactions, being angry, sad or devoid of emotions,” Walters said.
Many themes were brought up during the event such as the fetishization of Asian women and the myth of the “model minority.” Walters said he felt motivated to speak up as a response to the shooting because he felt the Asian-American experience is often silenced or sidelined in national discussion. Walters hopes that the attention from mainstream media can build momentum for further conversations through RAISINS and in the community.
Each year, RAISINS releases a digital zine highlighting a social issue affecting the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. To provide resources and further information on the shooting, RAISINS member Melanie Chow ’22 made revisions and redistributed the RAISINS zine from 2019 on Asian Americans’ sexual experiences. The zine includes historical context of Asian fetishization and the sexualized portrayal of Asian Americans in the media.
ASIA (Asian Students in Action)
ASIA (Asian Students in Action), a pan-Asian cultural organization aiming to provide structural support for Asian students on campus, helped advertise the RAISINS open forum event. ASIA is currently working on opportunities for workshops, conferences and career-oriented networking, and aims to build community through cultural gatherings and peer connections.
Anton Gallegos ’21, co-president of ASIA, emphasized to The Campus the importance of amplifying Middlebury’s Asian voices to uplift other activist work and encouraged Asian and non-Asian students to continue educating themselves.
“There’s a lot of value talking amongst yourselves and becoming informed on the history of what’s going on. Make that dedicated effort, and you’ll learn a lot,” Gallegos said. “There is so much room for educating.”
SEAS (South East Asian Society)
SEAS (South East Asian Society) is the cultural organization for people who are interested in Southeast Asian culture. In the last year, SEAS has been working on community building through bi-weekly meetings, hosting events such as professor talks, trivia, letter writing and cooking.
“We’re dancing together for the ISO nocturne show, which lifts our spirits. It’s been about coming together as a community to stand in solidarity and feel each other’s presence,” said Pim Singhatiraj ’21, president of SEAS.
KASA (Korean American Student Association)
KASA (Korean American Student Association) is a cultural organization established for students with Korean cultural backgrounds or those who appreciate the Korean language and culture. KASA events have previously centered around food, but in the past year, KASA has also been holding regular Korean language table sessions for students to practice speaking Korean, along with weekly language workshops.
Following the shooting in Atlanta, KASA sent out an acknowledgement of the event and offered space for support in the organization’s Facebook group. Eunice Choi ’21, co-president of KASA, told The Campus that many members of the group were strongly impacted by the Atlanta shooting, as some of the victims were of Korean descent. Choi, whose mother owns a nail salon, expressed fear and concern for her family’s well-being.
“My heart ached for the family members of the victims,” Choi said. “I couldn’t fathom the pain the victims at the moment went through and their family members afterward, but I still resonated a lot with the event, which was really hard for me to take in.”
While the shooting in Atlanta was captured by mainstream media, anti-Asian hate and racism is the ongoing reality for members of the Asian community. During the RAISINS public forum event, Walters observed that while everyone expressed grief, most Asian students were unsurprised by the shooting due to the escalating hate and violence against Asian-Americans in the last year.
“From my personal experience, I was hearing about these events every day,” Walters said, “So when I heard about the Atlanta shooting, I was not surprised, and I didn’t have a big reaction. Through the talk, I learned that a lot of people felt the same way.”
Editor’s note: Rachel Lu ’23 is a member of RAISINS.
(03/25/21 9:59am)
Update — Wednesday, May 5
Despite initial projections, MiddCourses is still down. The Campus has not been able to confirm a new estimated date for the return of the site.
——
Students who rely heavily on MiddCourses — the site that allows students to anonymously review their professors and classes — may have feared the worst when their attempts to reach the platform brought them to a page stating only that the domain was registered at NameCheap.com. The site became a mainstay for course registration when it was first developed in 2014, allowing students to see student-sourced information about individual classes and professors, including weekly time spent preparing for class, lecture quality and grading expectations.
Though MiddCourses is currently out of order, the Student Government Association Innovations and Technology Committee is working to fix the outdated features that led to the site's shutdown. Committee members estimate that MiddCourses will be up and running again in about a week. The committee has also planned some new upgrades for the future.
MiddCourses is run through the cloud hosting service Heroku, which requires a working stack of code that makes up all aspects of the website, according to Innovations and Technology Committee Director Lizeth Lucero ’21. In order to continue running, MiddCourses’ stack needed to be regularly updated, but it had not been touched since the creators graduated. The SGA Technology and Innovation Committee is currently upgrading the codebase and checking on any other dependencies to make sure the website can run smoothly in the future.
While the site is under maintenance, SGA is also planning to make other upgrades, including adding new professors and courses to the website.
SGA also hopes to incorporate textbook reviews on MiddCourses. Lucero hopes this will help students know in advance what textbooks are required for a course, how much they cost and whether they might be able to get them for free.
The site was originally conceived as a computer science project by then-SGA Director of Technology Dana Silver ’15 and Teddy Knox ’15. The SGA Innovation and Technology Committee took over the site as part of the Student Project Pipeline (SPP) initiative in spring 2014.
The SPP allows students to submit their projects to the SGA to be managed and upgraded even after the student has graduated. SGA members can also acquire projects by reaching out to the original owners. Lucero believes this process ensures that projects remain up-to-date and in line with current students’ needs.
In order to browse MiddCourses, students needed to make an account and post two reviews. The platform has received a steady stream of sign-ups each semester, according to Lucero. While the website has been down, Lucero said many students have reached out to inquire about its status, showing that they are eager to use MiddCourses as a course selection resource.
Niamh Carty ’23 told The Campus that MiddCourses has been a trusted resource for her during the course selection process, especially when the same class is taught by different professors.
“MiddCourses has been so helpful in choosing classes,” Carty said. “Whenever I have been deciding between two courses, I’ve gone onto MiddCourses to see which professor has better reviews. It hasn’t steered me wrong yet, so I definitely trust it a lot.”
Professor of Political Science Matt Dickinson is unaware of MiddCourses but recalls its previous iteration, MiddKid, which he found unreliable because his reviews were often erroneously listed on the page for Professor of Computer Science Matt Dickerson.
Dickinson is equally unimpressed by MiddKid’s successor, noting that the data captured is likely skewed.
“I would guess students who take the time to weigh in on courses outside of the normal course evaluation process are likely motivated by strong views — either very positive or very negative — about a particular course or professor, and thus aren’t likely to be indicative of students’ views in general and therefore wouldn’t be very useful to professors, or other students,” Dickinson said.
(10/29/20 9:55am)
The matter of professors bringing social justice and activism into the classroom has always been a point of contention in academia, and Middlebury is no exception. Professors in the social sciences have often found themselves deciding whether or not to remain neutral in their courses.
Kemi Fuentes-George, professor of political science, said he recalled feeling discouraged from involving activism in his teaching practices at the beginning of his career.
“When I first started thinking about activism and my own take on the world, there were a lot of signals that indicated that professors should not have a political opinion, that we’re supposed to be completely neutral,” he said. “That’s a nice-sounding sentiment, but it’s completely wrong, because everyone has an opinion on everything.”
Fuentes-George said he formats his syllabus to talk about issues that are important to him and not just part of the political science canon. He includes a section in his class about colonialism and the scientific racism that has been used to justify imperialism. Fuentes-George believes that every professor brings a position to the classroom, and their perspectives should be acknowledged.
“My concern, especially after speaking with many of my co-workers, is that many of them do believe that their understanding of the world is neutral, unbiased and untainted by prejudices,” he said. “For people who think that way, it’s hard for them to recognize when they are acting in a biased or bigoted way.”
Professor of Political Science Bert Johnson acknowledged these biases but holds the teaching philosophy that classrooms need not be overwhelmed by personal political bias.
“We certainly all carry biases with us, and I’m not immune to that,” Johnson said, “In political science, I’d rather know whether a scholar is sympathetic to rational choice theory or historical institutionalism than whether they are a liberal or conservative. That information places their professional work in perspective better than who they voted for in the last election.”
Professor of Sociology Jamie McCallum has participated in activism since he was 17 and continues to be involved as a professor on campus. He proposed the idea of a strike or teach-in among Middlebury professors, inspired by the #ScholarStrike movement, but did not pursue the plan further after gauging a lack of interest.
“I think that we’re facing the largest political and social crisis in the American political system of the last 60 years,” McCallum said in an interview with The Campus. “I think you should care about that.”
McCallum noted that his teaching practices are uncommon. “It sounds crazy, but I bet if you ask any non-social sciences, non-humanities faculty, ‘Could you teach a one-hour class on racial justice issues?’ they would have to do a lot of research,” McCallum said.
Professor of Education Studies Tara Affolter incorporates an exploration of civil rights issues in education into her classes. One of her courses, “Education in the U.S.,” dives extensively into the history of racist ideas and their effects on education.
“I can’t imagine teaching, at least teaching about education without focusing on race, disability and access,” Affolter said. “Those issues are central to the project of education. I would feel like I’m not doing my job if I didn’t do those things.”
For Affolter, building a classroom should involve constant consideration of perspective and bias, and she actively includes material that is not traditionally taught.
“We need to pay more attention to women of color, particularly Black women, who are producing the best scholarship out there on racial justice,” she said. “Who we listen to, who we center, who we consider as serious scholars, who we include in our syllabi… these all go back to the question of racial justice.”
Affolter said her passion for activism has not been tempered by her position as an educator. In 2017, she was arrested for protesting white supremacy at Jeff Sessions’ confirmation hearing for the Senate Judiciary Committee. Her experience with activism permeates her scholarship.
“There’s a critique out there that if you’re too involved in activism then you’re not a serious scholar, but I don’t buy that dichotomy,” Affolter said. “We’re in a really hard time, and the time to sit on the sidelines is over. Wake up, get involved, ask questions, don’t be afraid to be unpopular.”
Though Johnson first became interested in political science through activism, working on campaigns and attending or organizing protests, he has pivoted his approach since becoming a professor.
“Political science is a different matter,” he said. “Although I’ve continued my activist engagement in some ways, I’ve done so more privately since becoming a professor.”
As a Black professor, Fuentes-George carries an extra level of awareness because racial justice issues impact him personally.
“It’s mixed pressure because a lot of these issues affect me in a very personal way, so when people talk about racist incidents or when we bring racist speakers to campus, I am hyper-aware, especially as someone who’s been called racist things and who’s been threatened by racism,” he said. “A part of me feels like I have to get involved for my own well-being.”
Fuentes-George has been actively involved on campus and admitted that he feels more secure in his activism since gaining tenure. This summer, Fuentes-George published an op-ed in The Campus about a racist incident he experienced. At a predominantly white institution, Fuentes-George is caught between a pressure to be involved for his own well-being and an unease about coming across as the “angry black professor.”
Fuentes-George said that he sometimes feels resentment that, within his department, he is the only faculty member involved in activism.
“Why does it have to be the Black professor getting involved in all these things? Why can’t some of the white professors stand up and do something?” he said. “It’s complicated; to some extent I feel more pressure to be involved, and to some extent I feel more pressure to stay out of it. The pressure to get involved usually ends up winning.”
(05/14/20 9:56am)
From a virtual two-hour performance of "Julius Caesar" to a museum tour accessible from your home, the college has transformed its interaction with technology since Covid-19 spurred the transition to remote learning. Behind it all is the Information Technology Services (ITS) team, which has been working tirelessly to ensure smooth technology access for the college community.
As the world adjusted to the crisis in early March, the college’s technological infrastructure was well-prepared. Many resources already take place online, such as Webmail, OneDrive, and Canvas. During the two-week spring break, ITS worked to engage with online vendor partners, and updated licenses to meet the growing need.
Even with those existing services, Vijay Menta, associate vice president and chief information officer for ITS, shared that home internet access has been a significant issue for the community. Faculty and staff residing in rural Vermont have experienced connection instability. To respond, the ITS team has put forward best practices to suggest improvements and contacted home internet providers to stay updated.
Prior to Covid-19, the college had 80 VPN users per day. Now it has 500 VPN licenses, peaking at just over 300 concurrent users per day—an increase of 300%. By the end of spring break, these measures were put in place for users.
Another major concern for the ITS is internet equity for the community.
“We were working on this (internet equity) from the very beginning, because we knew there will be students who don’t have the full internet access that is needed,” Menta said. “We have a program in place where we can recommend students to the student financial services for help.”
The department also recommended that professors remain flexible with students and adopt an asynchronous mode of learning. The department has loaned around 80 laptops, webcams, headphones and other accessories to students.
The financial needs behind these decisions were immediately approved by President Laurie Patton and the cabinet. There was also a savings offset as travels to conferences and professional developments were canceled, and the money was used to purchase VPN licenses in response to growing need. ITS also accelerated its planned laptop purchases, to ensure sufficient inventory in stock for anyone who requests them.
Virtual learning posed other challenges for academic instruction, and ITS partnered with Digital Learning & Inquiry (DILINQ) to work on innovating modes of learning.
“We’re trying to do as much as possible in a virtual manner, and if we notice something is needed for students to learn in a different way, we are able to look into those opportunities to see if we can provide that assistance too,” Menta said.
Not surprisingly, Zoom is the most popular service ITS has implemented during the transition remote learning. Prior to Covid-19, the college hosted roughly 700 Zoom meetings per week. In contrast, 8,000 Zoom meetings have been held since May 1. On a typical day this May, there are 500 meetings per day on a weekend and between 1,250 and 1,500 meetings on a weekday. The college currently owns 6,000 Zoom licenses, and has added 3,300 new users since early March, when it already had 2,600 active users.
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“Not only are we prepared to use Zoom, ITS is prepared to use alternative devices such as [Google Meet] and [Microsoft Teams] if backup is needed,” said Menta.
One way ITS supports virtual learning is through the help desk Zoom room. Traditionally, ITS help desk has staff and student helpers located in the Davis Library on campus. Now, this service can be accessed via Zoom.
Checko Mkocheko ‘22 worked at the help desk on campus and continues to do so from home. Mkocheko feels fortunate that the help desk is one of the few jobs that can go fully online, and he receives compensation as he did prior to Covid-19.
“I do not deal with personal computers, network issues, printing issues, software issues and classroom support anymore. I help clients mainly on credentials and accessing college online resources,” said Mkochecko.
Menta warned that there has been an increase in phishing attacks since Covid-19, with people posing as genuine organizations to compromise users’ accounts.
“I want people to be very vigilant about this, and when in doubt, when you don’t recognize the sender’s email, please make sure you contact infosec@middlebury.edu, which will help you protect in the long run and keep our data safe and secure,” Menta said.
But with new multi-factor authentication in place, Menta is confident in the college’s internet security.
The workload for ITS has been high as members of the team act in support of many members of the community. On top of the Covid-19 response, ITS is also planning to go live with its Oracle implementation as part of the Green Mountain Higher Education Consortium initiative. While other projects are on hold, regular maintenance, security, and upgrades must go on.
“As the leader of the group, one of the things I make sure is to categorize our tasks into must-do, important, and defer,” Menta said. “We need to better prioritize to make sure we are helping the community on Covid-19 responses and remote learning first. We are in a much more steady place now than we were in March.”
Menta expressed gratitude for his team, and their partners at the college, including DLINQ, communications and marketing, and other departments to make sure services are delivered. He is thankful that students and faculty have been working patiently with ITS, and emphasized that they are here to help with any questions.
(04/22/20 9:56am)
First-years’ identities are inevitably tied to the dorms they live in — Allen, Battell, Ross and Stewart — where neighbors forge friendships. These relationships, generated by proximity, often become the support systems that carry students through the transition to college life. Yet they are sometimes the least expected friendships.
Emma Wheeler ’23 and Emma McKee ’23 are hallmates in Battell. Recalling the first time they met each other over lunch, both admitted that the connection was not immediate.
“I was so uncomfortable that I’m pretty sure I didn’t speak at all,” Wheeler said. “For some reason, I had this false assumption that I wouldn’t end up being best friends with my hallmates.”
Orientation offers first-years many opportunities to interact with their hallmates through Commons-based activities. Through workshops, which are designed to build relationships and push students out of their comfort zones, first-years are often constantly around the same people.
Ella Jones '23 lives in Hadley Hall and her core group of friends consists of her roommate, suitemates and a few hallmates. She traced the roots of these friendships to her first weeks at Middlebury.
“It is just so convenient. Going down to meals with people, hanging out after class, it all becomes easier the closer together you live,” Jones said.
McKee described the pressure first-years feel to go everywhere in packs during orientation.“It’s comfortable to have a group of friends right away, even if you’re not going to stay friends with them forever, just so you feel less alone,” McKee said.
But as first-years become more integrated into the rest of the college community, they often seek ways to branch out. Clubs, classes and parties all become important vehicles for social interaction.
Wheeler and McKee both became part of the water polo team. The team gave them a passion for the sport — and a new group of friends.
“I feel a close sisterhood with my waterpolo gals and guys,” Wheeler said. “And I feel like I’ve also met so many amazing people through my water polo friends.”
While students have agency to find and choose their friends, placements of first-years in dorms and halls is arbitrary. Friends by proximity are a testament to a combination of chance and fate that becomes the perfect recipe for human relationships.
“There are so many people on campus, and I think there are a lot of people that I am compatible with enough to form a friendship,” Wheeler said. “But it takes the combination of being compatible and having a shared experience to bond over.”
Three years later
For some students, these “proximity friends” carry them through all four years of college. As a first-year, Jack Kagan ’20 lived in the basement in Allen. He was not close with the other students on his floor, but a friend from high school looped him into his floor in Hadley. The floor was close, and many of the students who lived there have remained in a tight-knit friend group.
“We all got along so well and I'll never be able to thank those people enough for being so open to me, letting me crash on their floors and their couches, and being true friends,” Kagan wrote in an email to The Campus.
For Kagan, the keys to these friendships lasting through the ups and downs of college life were openness and humor. Even when the people in his friend group do not see each other for a while, they always pick up where they left off when they get back together.
His group of friends has expanded over the years, collecting new people and remaining open to new friendships, ideas and activities.
“I think we can always have fun together and joke around together and that's when we're at our happiest. We all would be so happy to just sit in a room and talk and just laugh,” he wrote.
Kagan, who does not identify as outgoing, considers himself lucky to have found the people he now considers some of his closest friends so early on.
“I think the lesson out of this is, freshman year, you really have to push hard to leave any expectations of college at the door. You have to try not to blame yourself or anything for your situation,” he wrote. “You have to trust that it will work out if you try to do what makes you happy because you'll find those people doing the same thing.”
The Sophomore Shuffle
As MiddKids return to campus for their sophomore years, they often observe shifts in their friendships.
With a year of college under their belts, many sophomores discover that they have a greater sense of self-confidence and familiarity with themselves and their surroundings, as well as a better understanding of what they care about most. Daily routines adapt as they delve deeper into their academic specialties and dedicate themselves to a handful of extracurriculars. These factors can all shape the changing landscape of existing — and developing — friendships.
Gracey Carroll ’22 believes that college friendships are more fluid than commonly thought. “I think a common myth about college friendships is that you have one circle of friends,” she wrote. “I don’t know anyone who has that! I have my roommates, my Model UN friends, my Radio Theatre friends and friends from classes.”
Carroll explained that she made fewer new friends this year than she did last year and is no longer as close with some of her first-year friends. Instead, she opted to strengthen her existing relationships.
“There were a few people I was very close with last year that I don’t talk to as much anymore,” she wrote. “I think part of it was that Battell got separated into Gifford and Pearsons, but I also realized at some point that I just didn’t like some of the people I’d grown attached to.”
New activities, new friends
While first-year relationships are decided by proximity, sophomore connections are often based on common interests. Claire Moy ’22 expanded her social circles in her sophomore year while also prioritizing certain extracurriculars.
“Like a lot of MiddKids, I joined so many orgs my freshman fall that I barely had time to attend any of them,” she wrote in a message to The Campus. “This year, I dedicated more time to my extracurriculars like ISO and Riddim, took on leadership roles and was just more confident, which helped me to reach out and really get to know people.”
This increased confidence also helped her connect with her peers outside of class. “As I took higher-level courses in Economics, I found I was spending a lot more time with more of the same people,” she wrote. “It was an incentive to get to know them and hang out outside of class.”
Moy explained that, although she made several new friends this year, her main friend group from her first-year hall hasn’t changed much. “Sophomore year definitely solidified this friend group, while expanding my network to include really diverse-thinking and interesting people,” she wrote.
Justin Cooper ’22 reflected on the role of confidence in his personal relationships. Like Moy, he found that his first-year friendships strengthened after returning to campus in the fall.
“I think what really allows us to both solidify and expand our social circles in sophomore year is confidence and comfort on campus,” he wrote. “With these as the building blocks for the sentiment coming back to a now-familiar place and lifestyle, it is easier to reach out to someone you wouldn’t have before or to spend your time with your friends how you please.”
Long distance friendships
The transition to distance learning strained social life at Midd for students and clubs alike. Michael Simons ’22.5 said he finds it challenging to build and maintain connections from a distance.
“I’ve tried to keep my relationships going, but it seems hard to build new friendships over Zoom,” he wrote. “I’m not connecting as regularly because everyone has busy schedules and it’s a lot harder to plan meetings when we live in different parts of the country and have changing family and work responsibilities.”
Like many other students, Simons began to branch out from his main group of friends in his second semester. He said that while he enjoyed having a group of Febs that he could reach out to at any time, it isn’t until the fall that many Febs start to meet new people.
Simons chose to live in Weybridge House and joined the sailing team this fall in order to broaden his network of friends. He has also been a member of Community Friends since his first semester and currently serves as a community coordinator.
“Joining the coordinator team was a great way to meet a kind, sincere group of friends,” he said. “It was nice having a friend group centered around giving back to the community.”
For now, Simons is staying connected through snail mail. “Writing lots of letters and postcards to friends is the biggest thing that I’m doing to stay connected,” he wrote.
Carroll acknowledges the difficulty of constantly saying goodbye to familiar faces at the end of each semester. "Middlebury is a revolving door of new people," she wrote. "Given the Feb program and the popularity of study abroad, I always feel like I am saying goodbye to someone and hello to someone else."
However, she remains optimistic about her next two years at Middlebury. “While the constant change can be challenging, I welcome the opportunity to maximize my pool of wonderfully diverse and ever-transforming friendships!” she wrote.
Editor's Note: Jack Kagan ’20 is a sports editor for The Campus.
(04/16/20 9:57am)
Two-and-a-half weeks ago, President Laurie Patton signed off her college-wide email with Middlebury Discount Comedy’s rendition of “Imagine,” urging the community to use imagination and support each other while off campus. Embodying the message, student clubs have continued to function as creative outlets and community spaces amid the Covid-19 crisis. To some clubs, the unexpected halt is a great challenge and disappointment, especially since the spring is typically a time of celebration; for others, it’s allowed for innovation and new perspective.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/yqVBGj0ibGA
Middlebury Discount Comedy, a sketch comedy club, was pleasantly surprised by Patton’s shout out in her email. Their original intent was to satirize the viral video of celebrities singing “Imagine,” as the group champions humor and a good laugh. Before leaving campus, they were beginning to write for their final show of the year, a performance which may now happen on Zoom.
President of the club Will Koch ’21, is pleased that the tight-knit group is able to communicate and laugh virtually but admits that the energy of creating collectively is lost when the group cannot be together.
“The unique part of the group is that we all love to create, but we create the majority of our stuff together. In that respect it's tough to be apart right now, but we still maintain our banter within the group despite the distance,” said Koch.
The group is looking forward to their return and future shows. For now, they will be active on social media, where fans can still engage with their content.
An all-male a cappella group, The Dissipated Eight, is working on an album recording to keep motivated. The group had to cancel its spring break trip and concerts for the remainder of the semester, which were all fundraising efforts for the album. However, having budgeted wisely in the past, the group still plans to record its album at Two Visions Studio later in May.
Eli Abbasi ’20, president of The Dissipated Eight, said that the creative vibe is different when making music remotely, especially because rehearsals are self-taught and solo auditions will take place via Zoom. Nevertheless, Abbasi is confident in the group.
“The bond of this group is that we hold each other accountable and we can put things like this in perspective. That’s a testament to the bond we created at Middlebury and while touring,” Abbasi said. As a senior, he’ll be leaving the group for good this year, but said the album is keeping all the group’s members from being too sad about missing out on its final concert and saying a real goodbye.
Members of Radical Asians (RAISINS) are seeking alternative ways to connect with each other as they navigate a novel political environment brought on by the crisis. RAISINS is a non-institutionalized Asian and Asian American student collective, together with a network of Asian professors, that raises political consciousness for their racial experiences with a focus on community building.
The club has shifted into a book club format. Co-presidents Jasmine Chau ’21 and Anton Gallegos ’21 were inspired by an ethnic literature class and took book recommendations from professors.
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“Personally, I find it really hard to not have a space like RAISINS. It’s definitely hard to talk about [Covid-19] with my parents because I’m not sure if they really understand what’s happening in the world,” Chau said. “They express concern differently, so I really miss those RAISINS conversations where we can share without feeling like we won’t be understood.” With the rising racial tension surrounding Covid-19, literature is a way for the club members to talk about their experiences, particularly those who are struggling with feelings of not fitting in with the current political landscape.
“This crisis really brings out the foundation for Asian resentment and yellow peril,” said Gallegos. “The perception of foreignness mixed with being seen as a danger is similar to Asians being seen as bringing in the coronavirus. It’s also amazing to see people navigating towards building grassroot support for Asians, which I have not seen before.”
GlobeMed has also shifted focus for the semester, making its meetings more optional and infrequent than before. GlobeMed at Middlebury is a chapter of a national organization that focuses on public health issues for marginalized groups. The club had to cancel fundraisers for its partner organization in Rwanda and re-evaluated the schedule of its weekly meetings due to the sensitivity of Covid-19.
In a survey conducted by the club’s leadership, members expressed strong interest in meeting over Zoom and sharing webinars and articles.
“We know it would be a burden for us to talk about global health now as it affects everyone,” said Ansley Harralson ’20.5, co-president of GlobeMed. We decided that we would create a separate group for an opt in process. This is a way to support people’s needs and reevaluate commitment.”
Members discussed Covid-19 at meetings before it escalated in the U.S. and kept awareness of the interconnectivity of public health issues. The constructive framework of the club in addressing the seriousness of every issue has prepared them to talk about Covid-19 in a strikingly similar manner.
Co-president Margaret Maxwell ’20 shared that the club now talks about the U.S healthcare system more than it had before. They are actively in touch with their partner organization in Rwanda, who have tailors making masks, and it appears that they have the crisis better controlled than the U.S.
Across the collegiate community, many debate tournaments have migrated online. Justin Cooper ‘20, president of the Middlebury Debate Club, had to cancel a tournament at Middlebury and a chance to compete at the Pan-American Universities Debate Championship in Curaçao. The team will resume practices virtually via Zoom, and other debate tournaments are held over online platforms such as Discord and Minecraft.
“The team has stayed largely connected through the last couple of weeks, doing group calls and staying in touch to support each other,” said Cooper. “It’s really great to see everybody making a real effort to stay connected and in touch with each other in times like these.”
(03/05/20 10:56am)
The Student Government Association Finance Committee is dedicating $100,000 of budget surpluses to fund student-run projects through the MiddKid Mega Project. The committee is accepting applications on a rolling basis until March 20, or whenever money runs out. Project proposals can include events, experiences or other investments to enrich student-life on campus and will be carried out this spring and next fall.
Kenshin Cho ’20, chair of the finance committee, explained that this initiative is a one-time competition to incentivize creative ideas and expedite the process of funding them.
The Finance Committee identified the $100,000 surplus in the student activities budget in its mid-year report. The student activities fee this year was $426 as included in the tuition, an $8 increase from last year. The Finance Committee allocates this fee, a cumulative $1,080,000, to student organizations and other events.
The Finance Committee attributes this surplus to both the $8 increase and an abnormally high rate of student organizations returning allocated funds. They attribute this increased return rate to confusion generated by the college’s switch to a new finance system, Oracle — clubs spent less money because they did not understand how the system worked and were cautious about overspending.
Cho and the Finance Committee wanted to spend the money deliberately, so they turned to the community for ideas.
The committee determined that it is best to spend the money this year because it is a portion of tuition paid by current students, Cho explained.
Cho is aware that funding can be complicated, but he hopes that this project will allow students to start projects while avoiding many of the complex obstacles that frequently accompany funding.
“We don’t want student organizations to make decisions based on how much money they get, and instead start making decisions based on what they want to do and ask for money afterwards,” said Cho. “We are thinking about ways to open up funding to individuals and organizations, particularly without the commons system, because that’s where a lot of individuals used to go to plan small events.”
Amanda Reinhardt, director of student activities, serves as an advisor to the Finance Committee. Reinhardt stressed that an important role of SGA is identifying gaps in student activities.
“This opportunity is here so students can get creative, and you don’t have to be part of a student org to do something. It’s an opportunity to name what’s missing,” said Reinhardt.
A board consisting of the 13 members of the Finance Committee, two SGA senators and one cabinet committee member will judge the project proposals.
The application process includes an initial online form followed by an in-person pitch to the committee. Cho wanted perspectives beyond those of Finance Committee members represented in the consideration. Furthermore, the committee will prioritize proposals that address concerns highlighted by past surveys, such as Zeitgeist and exit surveys completed by graduating seniors.
As of last weekend, the committee received six applications. One application has already stood out to Cho: the SGA’s technology committee’s proposal to fund a Hackathon. This initiative will probably be the first to receive funds from The MiddKidd Mega-Project. Cho noted that the Hackathon will involve collaboration between various organizations and requires a large budget but he thinks that the event will be meaningful.
“We definitely want to spread the word because it’s a great opportunity. It’s one of the few times the SGA is putting money behind what they want to do, which is to listen to student concerns about social life and extracurricular life,” said Cho. “We want to take advantage of that and hear a really diverse range of ideas. We want to unleash the creative energy of the community.”
Editor’s note: Kenshin Cho ’20 was formerly a Local editor for The Campus.
(03/05/20 10:55am)
I am not a climate change denier. Still, I struggle to connect with the green movement, and find myself lapsing in and out of doubt about proposed solutions such as the Green New Deal. While listening to Naomi Klein’s recent talk, I identified my position in the climate movement for the very first time. Klein described the movement as a “burning fire” which must shed away the “debris” of disapproval and disbelief. I rolled my eyes and thought, that’s me, the debris. She then said there are people at the margins of the issue who see the problem but are not committed to the cause. They are not debris — they are the people she hopes to reach in order to help fuel the fire. I am one of those people.
Why am I at the margin? How do I differ from my peers who are devoted to the movement? Klein’s words compelled me to ask myself these kinds of questions. The answer is that I cannot commit to a cause I only believe in sometimes.
I grew up in China, a country miles ahead of the U.S. in terms of the damage inflicted by anthropogenic climate change. In elementary school, I was taught about global warming. I made presentations of polar bears barely staying afloat in the melted glaciers. I saw pictures of factories emitting smoke that shrouded the sky. “Don’t let the last drop of water be our tear” read a slogan pasted in my elementary school bathroom. I had asthma because of the air pollution. To me, a “night sky” meant a subdued orange hue. The first thing my mom did in the morning was to check the PM2.5 scale for air quality. On days when the smog was most severe, we wore masks to school and were not allowed to play sports or go outside. In high school, I was told to use the phrase “climate change” instead of “global warming.” I remember thinking that was strange, because the earth is clearly warming, at least in China.
Growing up as the first generation of Chinese children most directly affected by human-induced climate change, it would be reasonable to assume that I am passionate about reversing its damages. Instead, the opposite is true: I have normalized climate change. I may have had asthma growing up, but so did all my friends. The smog was a nuisance, but we adjusted to it. The orange nights were accompanied by a spectacular skyline. As for the polar bears and the factories, I never actually saw them — they existed only in PowerPoints.
In high school, I took a quiz from the Global Footprint Network and learned that if everyone on earth lived like me, we would need six earths to sustain our consumption. I wasn’t proud of the result, but I knew if I wanted to see my family in China on holidays from boarding school, this is what it took.
And so I am not scared of the immediate effects of climate change because I have lived many of them myself. I know that our planet has exceeded its healthy temperature, but I also know that you can enjoy a childhood accompanied by inhalers and masks. I know that in times of crisis, I have adequate resources to combat the immediate damages.
And yet, as Naomi Klein stressed in her talk, these resources are not available to everyone. Perhaps I can’t see the permanent effects of climate change today, but I have begun to recognize the importance of equity and outreach at the flint of this movement. Klein’s talk made me realize how narrow my perspective has been up to this point. Climate change affects more than just me, my family, and my community; in fact, it affects everyone on this planet. It also often disproportionately affects those of greater age, or lower income.
As someone who needs six earths, I cannot be an activist and tell other people how to make the earth greener; I would be a hypocrite. I can, however, start by doing my small part. Right now, that means recognizing my place on the edge of the movement, so that maybe one day I will catch on fire too.
Rachel Lu is a member of the class of 2023.
(02/27/20 11:00am)
Michael Oren, former Israeli ambassador to the United States, spoke about the multifaceted alliance between the United States and Israel on Monday in Dana Auditorium. The talk, entitled “Ultimate Allies: America & Israel, 1620 to the present,” was hosted by the Alexander Hamilton Forum. Student protesters confronted Oren with prepared questions following his lecture.
Oren outlined four pillars that defined what he called the “deepest and most multifaceted alliance” between Israel and the U.S. The first pillar is the countries’ spiritual connection, which is reflected in America’s religiosity and empathy towards Israel.
“America was and remains the most religiously observant country in the industrialized world,” Oren said. “More people in this country go to a church, and those people read the same Bible, and they see the same promises that God made to the Jewish people. They make conclusions about them and it has a profound impact.”
The second pillar, he said, is the democratic connection. He emphasized Israel’s founding as a Jewish state with democratic values in common with America’s, describing a multi-partied Israeli political system with less polarization and more female government representation than in the United States.
He also admitted that Israel has a volatile and unpredictable government that shares some of the same problems that plague all democratic states.
The third pillar he described is the strategic alliance between the two nations. Today, the U.S. and Israel share some of the most sophisticated military intelligence, joint maneuvers and cyber cooperation in the world.
The final pillar is Israeli technology. Israel houses 550 high-tech corporations, including branches of American companies.
“To say that this relationship is free from tensions and disagreement would be very misleading,” Oren said. “It is a profound disagreement, a philosophical and tactical disagreement.” He listed disagreements such as the final disposition of the West Bank, the status of Jerusalem and the criticisms of excessive forces used in treating the Gaza Strip.
He said another source of tension is that young people from the two nations differ in their political trajectories.
“Generally speaking, Israel as a society has become egregiously more observant every week, it is more conservative, it is younger,” Oren said. “Whereas the United States is going a different way.”
Tension was evident during the question and answer portion of the event, when student protestors confronted Oren with prepared questions. Protesters handed out supplementary materials prior to the talk and several students put tape over their mouths that said “Free Palestine.” Some of the same students staged a silent protest against Ishmael Khaldi, Israel’s first Bedouin diplomat and a former soldier in the Israeli Defense Force, in November.
Cara Levine ’20 organized the protest, which she said was prompted by remarks Oren had made on Twitter and in news reports articles on Palestine.
“I chose to protest the Michael Oren event not because I wanted to silence him, but to point to the way in which him and people like him silence others, especially Palestinians but also Jews who don’t agree with him,” Levine said. “This [Israeli-American] alliance and these shared values should not make us feel proud or safe but, rather disgusted and angry.”
One of the student protesters, Marisa Edmondson ’20, said that the group’s mission is to shed light on the plight of Palestinian people. Edmondson found Oren’s talk to be one-sided, neglecting Israel’s humanitarian abuses against Palestinians. She hoped that her protest would combat this narrative.
“We wanted to engage in that uncomfortable dialogue, but unfortunately we felt like he did not actually answer a lot of the questions that we asked,” Edmondson said. “I hope that people in the room were able to sense that there is more to the story than what he is telling about Palestinian human rights. We wanted to bring that to the center stage.”
In response to the group’s questions, Oren highlighted the parts of Israeli life that extend beyond political conflict and urged students to visit Jerusalem.
One student in the audience expressed discomfort towards Israeli militarization, and questioned Oren on Israeli patriotism under these circumstances.
“I’d rather protect my family than to make you feel better,” Oren responded. “We focus on the rockets because that’s in the news, but Israeli life is so much more vibrant than that.”
Middlebury professor Zohar Gazit, an Israel Institute Teaching Fellow currently teaching a class on contemporary Israel, attended the event. Gazit said he found the talk informative to his class, but disagreed with Oren on the Palestine issue. Gazit was surprised by Oren’s emphasis on the religious connection between America and Israel.
“One thing I try to convey to my students, and what I did not like in the lecture, was the dichotomy he presented between the Israeli and Palestinian identities,” Gazit said. “The way I see it, you’re not either pro-Israel or pro-Palestine. The solution is to disengage from this dichotomy. You can claim your Israeli identity and still want Palestinians to be free, have claim to their land, and have basic human rights.”
Overall, Gazit said the talk was academic and respectful.
“What I really liked was that people were asking tough questions and receiving answers. I don’t know if they liked the answers, but from what I experienced, it was a good atmosphere, and it wasn’t hostile,” Gazit said.
(02/20/20 11:00am)
Renee Wells, the college’s director of education for equity and inclusion, hosted workshops to review the school’s new protest policy. Workshops were mandatory for new members of the class of 2023.5 during their orientation, and available last Thursday and Friday to interested students.
Last week’s workshops were titled “Informed Activism: Understanding and Navigating Open Expression and Demonstration Policies on Campus.” The Feb orientation version of the workshop was titled “Free Speech: Effective Protests & Demonstrations.”
The workshops come three years after Charles Murray’s last talk on campus, less than a year after Ryszard Legutko’s controversial canceled lecture and six weeks in advance of Murray’s impending revisit. The workshop specifically aimed to provide explanations about the new Policy on Open Expression, which came into effect this past November, and to answer specific questions for students planning advocacy events.
Wells has extensive experience workshopping with students, staff and faculty, and a primary component of her role is to assess campus climate concerns and identify ways to address them. Last spring, she observed a nervousness surrounding students’ approach to planning protests in response to Legutko.
“I realized that there were a lot of students who wanted to participate in the protest, but were concerned about possibly being sanctioned.” Wells said, noting that the college sanctioned 74 students for their roles in the protests against Charles Murray.
Wells does not want students to feel discouraged from engaging in activism, as she believes it is an important component to the non-academic development of higher education.
“Preparing students to critically think about what’s going on around them and to respond and advocate for things they believe in actually prepares them for the greater context we live in.” she said.
This is the first year a workshop about activism has been mandatory for an incoming class. Wells believes this is part of the college’s effort to provide more transparency on what activism can look like at Middlebury.
“Returning students would know that we passed a new open expression policy, but that title would not mean anything for the Febs,” Wells said in regard to the differences in the titles of the workshop, and its mandatory attendance. “My idea behind the workshop is that I want students to feel like they can protest if they want to.”
The Feb workshop focused heavily on curiosity surrounding Charles Murray’s impending arrival. Wells had expected this to happen and was prepared to answer Febs’ questions, while being informative about campus activism in general.
Tim Hua ’23.5, who attended the workshop during Feb orientation, said he is open to participating in protests during his time at Middlebury. Hua said that the workshop did not change his general impression of activism at the college.
“I thought it was super helpful when Wells clearly laid out what’s allowed, what’s not allowed, and what the punishments are for actions taken during an activism event,” said Hua.
The Campus reporter was the only student who attended last Thursday’s workshop.
“When I read the description of the event, I initially thought it would be from an administrative perspective, so it might be trying to teach students why not to protest, or how to protest solely in a peaceful manner,” said Lily Jones ’23. “But after learning what the workshop actually was, I think I should have looked into it more because that wasn’t the intent of the workshop.”
(02/13/20 10:57am)
Since the arrival of Andrew Cassel, the college’s new director of social media and content producing, Middlebury’s social media platforms have taken a step closer to the everyday lives of its students, professors and staff. Cassel arrived at Middlebury after 11 years of experience as a higher education social media director at the University of Alaska, with a philosophy of connecting followers with the everyday happenings on campus.
“My tone is what people are doing here, to find the day-to-night life of someone at Middlebury,” Cassel said. “I look to tell authentic stories about what goes on every day. This helps prospective students see themselves here, and graduates see their giving efforts continue on.”
Since his arrival, Cassel’s emphasis on authenticity has been particularly evident on Middlebury’s Instagram page, @middleburycollege. Previously, the page curated occasional posts from professional photographers who mainly shot images of the college’s architecture, celebratory achievements and important announcements. This January, under Cassel’s, the page featured more casual images and videos from a J-Term class in which students explained a project they were working on. Another post captured a message, “I’m sad sometimes,” scrawled on a wall in BiHall, with a caption reminding students to seek counseling help when necessary.
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Cassel says he tries to post raw and relatable content, which he hopes will speak, in particular, to prospective students.
“It’s making a student, no matter where they are in the world, see themselves here in this school,” Cassel said. “They should be able to see someone doing something they’re interested in who looks like them.”
To find worthy content within the community and also gauge interest from his target audience, Cassel uses a skill he calls “social media listening,” where he actively seeks users’ engagement with Middlebury to find issues to address.
“I look at what people are saying about Middlebury on various platforms,” Cassel said. “If there’s an issue out there that needs to be addressed, then I pass it along to the people who need to see it.”
However, Cassel’s more personal approach is not reflected well through social media algorithms such as “likes” on Instagram, which have significantly declined under his watch. He says he is not defeated, though, and is persevering with the outlook that value in social media comes from more than superficial engagement through likes .
“Personally, it bothers me, but my experience tells me it’s just an algorithm,” Cassel said. “Even if it’s only 500 people who like it and not 1,200, I know these people saw it and engaged with it, and that meant something to them. It’s not how many people see it, but the value of these people seeing it.”
One of the projects Cassel feels most passionately about is Energy2028, which Cassel believes best exemplifies the value of his work.
“Middlebury is on the forefront of movements such as Energy2028,” Cassel said.“And it’s a project that I can use the institutional accounts for, to focus all the efforts, from students, faculty, and staff, and share the message out.”
Cassel is the first director of social media and content producing at Middlebury. Before his arrival, many people shared the responsibility of managing the college’s social media. His role falls under the purview of the college’s Office of Communications, which is based in Kitchel House on College Street.
Cassel’s influence on social media strategy, particularly Instagram, has received mixed responses from students. Some find the familiar approach to lack aesthetic qualities of professional photography.
“While the new content is interesting to current students because we see our classmates featured, prospective students want to see professionality exemplified in a college’s social media, and curated content can achieve this,” Abby Schneiderhan ’23 said.
Other students appreciate the content’s intimate perspective into daily life at the college.
“I always read the whole caption on Instagram posts because it’s about something I wouldn’t have known otherwise,” Niamh Carty ’23 said. “I think finding a balance between professional and community content is important to creating a well-rounded image of the college.”
Cassel hopes that students can engage with Middlebury’s social media by using #middleburycollege.
(12/05/19 11:05am)
Middlebury welcomed two scholars to debate whether affirmative action in higher education should be class-based or race-based on Wednesday, Nov. 20. The event, which nearly filled Dana Auditorium, was co-sponsored by the Middlebury Independent, the Alexander Hamilton Forum and the Political Science Department. The debate was moderated by Joey Lyons ’21, the founder and editor-in-chief of the Independent.
At the event, Randall Kennedy, a professor at the Harvard Law School, argued in favor of race-based affirmative action. Kennedy is the author of seven books, most notably “For Affirmative Action: Race, Affirmative Action and the Law.”
Richard Khalenberg, the director of K-12 equity and a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, spoke in favor of class-based affirmative action. Kahlenberg has written extensively on affirmative action, having authored six books, including “The Remedy: Class, Race, Affirmative Action.”
Kennedy took the podium first at the event to deliver his stance on race-based affirmative action.
“I champion such policies because, on balance, they are conducive to the public good,” he said.
Kennedy said during the debate that race-based affirmative action can be used as a form of distributive justice to integrate people from marginalized communities into educational and political spaces where they have historically had little access. This helps facilitate reparative justice, a philosophy by which systems are able to right historical wrongs and benefit people who have and continue to be disadvantaged and oppressed.
Kennedy added that race-based affirmative action also provides insurance against ongoing racial discrimination.
“We know there is an invisible wind of racism in American society,” Kennedy said. “It’s a wind but you can’t catch it through litigation. Affirmative action gives preference to those who are marching forward in the face of that stiff, racist wind.”
The most popular argument in favor of race-based affirmative action, according to Kennedy, is that it promotes diversity in higher education. By ensuring a racially heterogeneous atmosphere, college campuses create a space for good conversations across a wide range of views.
Kennedy also reflected on his experiences as a black man who frequently speaks about race-based affirmative action at public events. He said he is often asked to speak on the issue among many others who disagree with him.
“Over the years I have been to many forums that are actually very hostile to affirmative action, yet they sought me out,” he said. “I think my blackness was part of the reason they sought me out, is that if they had a debate about affirmative action and not have a black person involved at all, it would be weird, it would be viewed as illegitimate, no one would pay much attention.”
“The trend of legitimation is part of the affirmative action conversation,” he added.
Kennedy also emphasized that he is in favor of all varieties of affirmative action, ranging from race to gender to class, because the policy is one of inclusivity and mutual support.
“Affirmative action, just like any other policy, has weaknesses and it has costs. There is no social policy that is costless,” Kennedy said. “You can have affirmative action policies that are badly designed, you can have stupid affirmative action. On balance, well designed affirmative action has served the nation well.”
Next, Kahlenberg took the podium and began by stating the similarities he shares with Kennedy — namely that they both support racial and class diversity on campus. However, he differed on the means by which to achieve equality on campuses.
Kahlenberg made what he called a moral argument in favor of class-based affirmative action in higher education
“Colleges have racial diversity but no income diversity,” he said. “Multiracial aristocracy is still aristocracy.”
Kahlenberg traced his argument back to Martin Luther King Jr., who himself struggled with endorsing affirmative action. In King’s book “Why We Can’t Wait,” King wrote that ending discrimination is not enough, but the nation is in need of a proactive remedy. King wanted to alleviate discrimination for disadvantaged people of all races, and said this indirect remedy would also disproportionally benefit the racially overlooked.
“Two insights here,” Kahlenberg said. “One is that a class-based affirmative action would provide an indirect remedy to past discrimination because it’s the victims [of racial discrimination] who are disproportionally poor and will disproportionately benefit. The other insight is that there are other sources of unfairness in American life; there is also deprivation.”
Legally, Kahlenberg believes class-based affirmative action is more readily accepted in the eyes of the court. Currently, institutions such as Harvard University and the University of North Carolina are engaged in court cases over affirmative action. Kahlenberg sees hope for a class-based alternative.
“Class-based affirmative action, properly structured, can provide racial diversity as well. The good news [is that] legally, the Supreme Court treats race and class differently,” Kahlenberg said. “A supreme court that is striking down the use of race that favors students of color is very unlikely to strike down a policy that gives preference to low income students.”
Politically, class-based affirmative action can also band together a larger coalition of supporters, according to Kahlenberg. 61% of people think it’s appropriate to conduct class-based affirmative action, compared to 37% of people who support the policy through race, according to a handout that Kahlenberg distributed during his talk
“Whereas race-based affirmative action divides the progressive coalition, class based affirmative action reminds the working class of different races what they have in common,” he said.
In his rebuttal to Kahlenberg, Kennedy argued that despite affirmative action being a relatively niche political issue, the uproar it elicits demonstrates the insecurities and permanence of white privilege today.
Kahlenberg responded by saying that the specific difficulties of achieving socio-economic diversity make class-based affirmative action the sole solution. While race is readily visible, class differences are more discreet, and institutions are more willing to disregard class because financial aid is expensive. Only when race-based affirmative action is eliminated, Kahlenberg argued, will higher education place an emphasis on socio-economic diversity.
According to Lyons, this topic is especially salient to Middlebury because he believes the college can benefit from increased racial and economic diversity. Lyons was pleased by the debate between the speakers.
“The Middlebury community benefits when we can debate in good faith,” Lyons said. “Two people with opposing views provided convincing arguments for their positions. Every student I talked to said they learned a lot from this competition of ideas.”
(10/31/19 9:59am)
President Donald Trump’s election in 2016 disrupted the country’s understanding of politics, conservatism and national identity. As a conservative op-ed columnist at The New York Times, Ross Douthat grapples with this disruption every day.
On Thursday, Oct. 17, Douthat joined moderator and former Vermont Governor Jim Douglas on campus in a discussion titled “Conservatism After Trump: Reaganism Restored or Populism Forever?” as part of the Alexander Hamilton Forum.
Douthat began his talk by describing the modern conservative movement, which he said is rooted in an understanding of American exceptionalism. Douthat defined American exceptionalism as a set of qualities and ideologies that sets this country apart from other nations. He included on this list competing religiosity, commercial culture, suspicion for a centralized government, communitarianism and a mission of liberty. In Douthat’s opinion, these are the elements that modern conservatism should seek to preserve.
“Those exceptional qualities have sustained our society and enabled our republic to flourish, and therefore, while allowing reforming change, they’re qualities worth defending and trying to preserve in changing times,” Douthat said at the talk.
In the last 20 years, however, Douthat said that American life has continued to defeat conservative belief by becoming less “exceptional.” In his mind, this stems from an increasing secularization of American life, a diminishing dependence on communalism, a recession from peak capitalism and a skepticism toward foreign missionaries. More importantly, according to Douthat, a decline in anti-government sentiments has led to a rise of socialism and populism.
According to Douthat, it was Trump’s understanding of this shift away from American exceptionalism that has allowed him to move the Republican Party away from both its politicians and intellectuals. Trump saw that everyday Republicans no longer cared about defending these exceptionalism, but simply finding a voice in a liberal trending community.
“If you look at the other Republican politicians running for president, there is always a sense that what worked for Ronald Reagan in 1980 will work again in 21st century America,” Douthat said. “Trump is none of that. There is the spectacle of him on the debate stage saying things that are not conservative. He didn’t care. Enough Republican voters didn’t care about these orthodoxies either.”
Douthat offered a distinction between conservatism and reactionism, two fields of thought on the right that he believes are often conflated. He defined conservative policy as one that is confident in its ability to endure despite dramatic changes, and a reactionary policy as one in defensive after defeat has already occurred. Douthat believes that globally, the conservative right has abandoned a conservative era for a reactionary one.
According to Douthat, Trump brought a different perspective to the party that spoke to the reactionary era.
However, Douthat believes that Trump’s style of populism has been politically unsuccessful in furthering traditionally populist goals. In other words, Trump’s spontaneous approach to politics does not allow him to fulfill his lofty promises, resulting in the Republican administration’s repeat of a typical conservative agenda.
“He has failed to build the larger support you need for populism, failed to transform the upper echelon of the Republican party that brings it in line with what a populist agenda would be,” Douthat said. “He’s likely to lose re-election, because there is no sustained agenda building of any sort.”
Looking into the future, Douthat hypothesized that some Republicans are expecting to return to a traditional Reagan-era conservative agenda post-Trump. However, in Douthat’s opinion, American conservatism can no longer re-live Reaganism, because the American exceptionalism that existed when Douthat came of age as a conservative no longer exist today.
Donovan Compton ’23, who attended the talk, thought it was interesting to hear from a conservative who does not support Trump. While Compton said his political beliefs do not align with Douthat’s, he felt he was able to learn about the future of conservatism from a different perspective.
“I have friends who didn’t go to the event simply because of the topic,” Compton said. “Politics is not about only hearing one side of the story, but finding a happy medium to have a policy we all agree on. It is important for everyone to be educated on both sides.”
Political Science Professor Keegan Callanan organized the event. Callanan said he was impressed by Douthat’s extensive reading of Alexis de Tocqueville in shaping his view of the current political atmosphere.
“Mr. Douthat writes a twice-weekly column for the New York Times. He often uses these columns to explain the conservative movement to readers and, of course, to criticize elements of the movement,” Callanan said. “He possesses a historical sense that is fairly uncommon in newspaper columnists.”
(10/03/19 10:24am)
PALANA’s first party in its new digs was a resounding success —by the end of the night, people crowded on the back porch to join the excitement.
Starting this year, PALANA (Pan-African, Latino, Asian and Native American) is recognized by Community Council as an official social house, and has been granted a new, larger living space in Palmer House, previously reserved for superblocks.
“PALANA has grown into a bigger community, so we needed a bigger space to live and create the environment we wanted to see,” said Jayla Johnson ’21, co-president of PALANA and resident of the new house.
Johnson said PALANA envisions itself as a “multi-cultural innovation hub” where everyone feels welcome. According to some of its newer members, this vision has already proved successful.
“PALANA is a space to come and decompress from the stresses that we face during the academic school day,” said Kayla Richards ’22, a member of the new pledge class. “Community is the first word that comes to mind.”
Richards said she also appreciated “not feeling like you’re being watched or expected to say the right thing when talking about certain issues and just be people.”
PALANA was first established in 1991 as the Black and Latino Bi-Cultural Center in Fletcher House. Later, it was moved to Carr Hall, which now houses the Anderson Freeman Resource Center, and renamed with its current moniker. Until this year, PALANA had been an academic special interest house at 97 Adirondack View.
PALANA has long served as a sanctuary for marginalized students at Middlebury and has formed a significant part of its members’ college experience.
“The people in PALANA are the only ones I really connected with, and I felt close to,” said Luis Daza ’22, a member of the new pledge class. Daza said he joined the organization knowing that he is supporting the work of his friends.
When PALANA’s physical space could no longer accommodate the house’s growing membership, its members appealed to Community Council for a bigger place to host activities and social events.
According to Tre Stephens ’21, treasurer of PALANA, the process of becoming a social house was time-consuming and involved a lot of planning, but Community Council was overall supportive of PALANA’s ideas.
“PALANA itself has served many functions throughout its time here,” Stephens said. “I think the [Community Council] knew it wanted to give us Palmer, but it wasn’t sure if we were actually about it. We definitely showed them that we are.”
Members of PALANA hope the new space will prompt increased inclusivity at Middlebury. In the previous eight-person house, according to Stephens, the tight-knit group of PALANA members who lived together became closed off to the rest of the organization, due in part to the intimacy of the small space.
In its transition to social house, PALANA leadership knew it needed to change the atmosphere to welcome more people.
“This has become a place for people of all different backgrounds — and not just racial diversity. It is a predominantly POC [people of color] space, and that is really important because there are a lot of people on this campus who feel like they can’t interact in the social atmospheres,” house resident Christian Kummer ’22 said. “We are not trying to isolate ourselves from the community. People here care about inclusivity and talking about it based on our experiences.”
A few weeks into living in the new house, PALANA’s members are already feeling its impact. PALANA members agreed that Palmer had previously been a predominantly white space on campus. With PALANA’s new location, its members feel more comfortable being around the other social houses in the area because they have a place to claim as their own.
“Culture is a part of identity, and PALANA is a place I get to share in other people’s cultures and where I am surrounded by my culture, too,” Richards said. “I feel like without PALANA as a space, a huge part of myself would be lost. I would feel like there is a war between who I am and how I’ve grown up and how I’m expected to be while at Middlebury.”
According to Stephens, PALANA will release its official events calendar soon. PALANA leadership hopes to host community dinners and residential events for people to interact with each other.
However, its members also hope to keep their new space casual, spontaneous and full of surprises, to preserve the comfort of their living environment.
“We are not going to go out there and spread the word. It’s an open space where people can come to us and learn, but we’re not going to do all the emotional labor and spread the word about being POC, because everyone has very different experiences,” house resident Alondra Carmona ’21 said.
Stephens encourages students to come visit and explore the space.
“It is a place where not only under-prepresented students at Middlebury go to chill out and live, it is a home away from home,” he said. “Anyone is welcome here.”
Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the leadership titles of PALANA board members Tre Stephens and Jayla Johnson.