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(09/10/20 9:57am)
Middlebury College increased tuition by 3 percent for the 2020-21 academic year, sparking criticism from students, parents, faculty and staff. The Board of Trustees voted in January to raise tuition and revisited the decision after the Covid-19 pandemic hit, but decided to move forward with the increase.
“At that time there were so many uncertainties,” Treasurer David Provost said. “We’d just refunded about nine million dollars … so the 2020 loss is going to be about $12 million.”
The planned FY21 budget draws an extra 2.5 percent from the endowment, in addition to the typical 5%. This amounts to a maximum of $23.5 million extra this year, according to Provost. The FY21 budget also includes approximately $5 million to cover costs created by the pandemic, such as testing, PPE and classroom modifications.
While fewer students will be on campus in the fall, no faculty or staff have been laid off. More intense cleaning regimens and complicated food distribution necessitated by Covid-19 have increased costs this semester, according to Provost.
“At the time, because of the level of the deficit, with $23.5 million dipping into the endowment, the board did not feel comfortable reversing its decision like some schools have,” Provost said.
Annual tuition increases are not unusual at colleges and universities throughout the country, even in years without the financial uncertainties of a global health crisis. In spring of 2019, the board voted to increase Middlebury’s tuition by 3.25 percent for the 2019-2020 school year, and other NESCAC schools implemented similar increases. In April of 2019, Provost said he expected an annual tuition increase of roughly 3 percent for the next three to five years.
This year’s increase has been controversial given the impact pandemic precautions will have on college life, with a shift to largely online courses, new physical distancing and gathering-size guidelines, and many students enrolled as remote learners.
During the spring term, students across the country petitioned universities for partial tuition refunds because of the shift to remote learning, and some students brought class-action lawsuits demanding reimbursements. A Middlebury Language Schools Masters student began a petition urging the college to refund tuition for all affected students, but the college refunded only room and board fees for the spring.
Many have questioned why the college is not relying more heavily on the endowment, how the increase is justified when the liberal arts college experience shifts to remote learning and why tuition is increasing amid faculty and staff wage freezes.
“I understand why they are raising tuition in theory, but I wish that they had not done it in a time where so many families are financially vulnerable,” Eva Stanley ’23 said.
Several other colleges have adjusted their fall tuition rate because of the pandemic’s effects on in-person education and the financial circumstances of families. Georgetown, Princeton and Lafayette have announced a 10 percent discount for students studying remotely, and Williams is cutting tuition by 15 percent for both in-person and remote students.
One of the reasons Middlebury cannot do the same, according to Provost, is the donor-restricted portion of the endowment. When donors give to the college, they can earmark their contribution for a particular program or purpose, making those funds unavailable for emergency use during the pandemic. Middlebury has a comparatively high proportion of donor-restricted funds in its endowment, Provost said.
“Of the 1.157 billion, 1.126 billion is restricted, of which 946 million of it is donor-restricted, so we can’t use it for any other purpose,” Provost said. “We could go back and ask donors — if they’re still alive — if we can change it, and we still may have to do that if things get much worse.”
Another $180 million of the endowment is board-restricted, meaning the board could choose to change the designation of those funds for other purposes. However, many of the top board-designated endowments are for faculty salaries, student financial aid, the museum and athletic facilities, leaving less funding available for future years.
The Middlebury chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) issued a statement on their website and Twitter expressing surprise at the tuition increase. “All employee salaries have been frozen (and with cost of living [increase] about 1.6 percent this means all employees are earning less than in 2019). Employees also face threats of 15 percent compensation cuts that remain in the current budget plans depending on whether students can remain on campus this fall,” the statement said.
The response also said publicly available IRS forms from previous years indicate that the college regularly draws more than 5 percent from the endowment, contrary to the college’s claim that they are taking more from the endowment this year than they normally would. According to Priscilla Bremser, professor of mathematics and member of the Middlebury AAUP, the college’s goal has been to annually draw 5 percent from the endowment for many years, but it has consistently drawn more than 5 percent for the last 10 years.
“We are concerned this is an excuse to justify future further cuts to worker compensation, inevitably creating tension between Middlebury workers and students, which only hurts us all as we enter into an uncertain and highly stressful fall semester,” the AAUP statement said.
“I do think long-term it will have an impact on future increases,” Provost said. “If we get through this year, I think the pressure not to increase tuition next year will be much greater than it’s been.”
In addition to an increased tuition, Middlebury’s student activities fee has also remained the same. Some colleges have also discounted the mandatory student activities fee for the academic year because of restrictions on in-person events and travel. Middlebury students studying remotely will not pay room and board, nor will they pay the mandatory student activities fee. Students studying on campus will pay the full $436 student activities fee this year, although many events will happen entirely online and remain open to remote learners.
The SGA Finance Committee distributes the student activities fee collected by the college through a budgeting process that may change this year. The committee does not set the activities fee but is adjusting their budgeting process to reflect the unusual semester.
“We have to go back and look over everything we funded in the spring, so we actually have pushed off a lot of our budgeting process to this fall because it is looking so different, and we want to be up to date with the requirements on campus for health and safety,” said Mason Olmsted ’21, director of the SGA Finance Committee.
Approximately a third of the student activities funds go to the Middlebury College Activities Board (MCAB) each year to pay for popular events like concerts. This year those events will not be possible, so the Finance Committee has been working with MCAB to reassess how funds will be distributed and used.
“I’ve been wholly impressed with MCAB’s creativity and ability to start planning events despite the circumstances, especially considering many of their programming and events typically function around being together and being in person around many people,” said Alison Hudson ’21, the other director of the SGA Finance Committee.
The committee is also working to evaluate how the student organization budgeting process, usually completed in the spring of the previous school year, will potentially change during the fall.
“It’s gonna take the first month to figure out what’s going on, what are the rules, what can we do, what can we not do. That’s where I really hope organizations come in with great ideas via new money requests, and we can fund those events on campus,” Olmsted said.
(06/16/20 2:25am)
An email sent from the Office of the President to the Middlebury community on May 31 concerning the death of George Floyd sparked criticism from students at the college, who expressed discontent with its tone and content in the context of nationwide protests against police brutality and race-based violence.
Students wrote a letter responding to the president’s email and shared it with the college community in a document titled “Black At Midd: 06/3/20 Email to Laurie Patton,” which was distributed widely on social media platforms and among student organizations. While the letter is signed by “Concerned Students of Middlebury College,” the organizers’ Instagram account later announced that Myles Maxie ’22, Gifty Atanga ’23, Charice Lawrence ’23, Andrés Oyaga ’23, Daleelah Saleh ’23, Jarlenys Mendez ’23 and Kaitlyn Velazquez ’23 were its co-authors.
In the letter, students criticized several offenses in the President’s message, including the conflation of the coronavirus and racism, the hypocrisy of “verbal allegiance to racial equity but lack of action” and the use of “gasping for air” as a metaphor to bridge discussions about Covid-19 and police brutality.
The letter also highlighted past events when “Middlebury College has been complicit in allowing pervasive racism to exist on our campus.” These instances included a lack of action following insensitive comments at the Martin Luther King Today event in 2016, the invitation of Charles Murray in 2017 and 2020 and the invitation of Ryszard Legutko in 2019.
The students concluded the letter with a series of actions, immediate and for the coming academic year, that would help build a “more equitable and aware community.”
After sending the email to President Patton, the group turned the letter into a petition and asked college students, faculty, organizations and alumni for their endorsement through a Google Form. As of June 15, the petition had 1781 endorsements, including the signatures of over 950 students, 650 alumni and 55 student organizations, as well as numerous faculty, staff and other community members.
Myles Maxie ’22, an organizer of the petition, said that the number of alumni who signed onto the petition — despite not having received the president’s email — illustrated the college’s history on race and support for change.
“There are some people who complained about this who went to school here in 2003, and it still hasn’t changed,” Maxie said. “I think it’s also important for the faculty members who signed it to voice their concerns. There was an abundance of faculty who signed and had interesting things to say about the way that staff of color and of marginalized communities are treated at Middlebury, so that makes it not just a student issue.”
The president’s message was also posted on college social media accounts but was taken down on June 4 in response to the criticism. The president sent a second email on June 5 addressing systemic racism against Black people and expressing eagerness to implement the petition’s proposals.
“Our initial goals were to make sure Middlebury understood how hypocritical they were being and how performative this letter was. We got an apology, sort of,” said Andrés Oyaga ’23, another organizer of the petition. “But a big part of going beyond performative activism is to really learn from your mistakes and to think about what happened.” The way that Middlebury can learn, according to Oyaga, is to go through its own letter and address every sentence that may have been offensive.
“I don’t want this to be a thing where it’s over. We see that very often with different types of activism. People tend to be upset for a few weeks and then quickly move on from it. This is an important conversation we need to continue having as a campus community,” Maxie said.
Through their Instagram page, @blackatmidd, organizers invited students to apply to join their team. According to Maxie, the group plans to charter as a club — Concerned Students of Middlebury College — in the fall, working to realize the changes outlined in the petition and improve the culture at the college.
The Chief Diversity Officer, Miguel Fernández, also sent two emails addressing the petition’s request that the college provide resources to support Black community members and to empower non-Black community members to become better allies for their peers.
Although Oyaga and Maxie both expressed optimism about the response email, they said that a greater level of specificity is needed to demonstrate learning, that students of color are often unfairly burdened with having to educate others and that change will be an ongoing process.
“We think it’s really important to make sure that students and faculty of color have some representation in decision-making bodies, specifically in the board of trustees and with the senior leadership group,” Oyaga said. He hopes that the college will embrace the petition’s call to include the voices of students of color on campus to demonstrate action beyond performance.
“This is another instance of having to point out problematic-ness, and students who are at school to be students having to become teachers,” Maxie said. “For me, it’s fine. But it’s also not really my job as a person of color to have to consistently teach others how to properly address the concerns of students of color and of marginalized communities.”
Editor’s Note: Author Tony Sjodin ’23 signed the petition mentioned in the article. Daleelah Saleh ’23, one of the authors of the letter, is an Opinion Editor for The Campus. Saleh played no role in the reporting. Any questions may be directed to campus@middlebury.edu.
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(05/14/20 9:59am)
Middlebury students have seen their summer plans upended in recent weeks, as Covid-19 restrictions and the economic downturn impact internships and jobs. The Center for Careers and Internships (CCI) is working with students to create alternative summer plans, even while staff members shift to working remotely.
The center has continued regular advising appointments with staff through Zoom, and Peer Career Advisors host daily virtual “Quick Questions” to review resumes and provide internship search tips, as they typically do on campus.
The CCI is also launching several new initiatives this spring to support students in career exploration and job searches.
“We’ve done some things that I think are particularly creative that, if things were normal, might have taken six months to a year to get off the ground,” said Ursula Olender, the CCI director of career advising and employer relations.
Seniors graduate into a difficult job market
Many seniors have had their job searches derailed as they head into an uncertain job market. While Middlebury reported a record high post-graduation employment rate last year, the class of 2020 faces an economy crippled by Covid-19 closures and the highest rate of US unemployment since the Great Depression.
Rachel Veneziano ’20 had planned to stay in Vermont after graduation to do environmental service work in the state. Now, she is looking at moving to Boston, where she hopes there will be more job opportunities.
“Even in the past few weeks, I've become increasingly flexible with the types of jobs I'm applying for as well,” Veneziano said. “As an Environmental Policy major, I was originally hoping to dive into that and find environmental work after graduation.” She has since accepted the possibility of not finding work in her field right away.
Veneziano said she has found the CCI’s online programming effective and helpful in recent weeks. She and 54 others have joined the center’s new Senior Career Action Groups, in which five to seven seniors on similar career paths meet virtually with an advisor to talk about their job searches, interview experiences and ideas.
“We've been having robust discussions regarding our thoughts and concerns on the post-graduation job search,” said Jack Carew ’20, who joined an action group led by Associate Director of Career Advising Tim Mosehauer, who focuses on consulting, government, law and public policy. “I've appreciated the opportunity to hear from my peers about the strategies they use when job searching and hearing Tim’s feedback as well,” Carew said.
Carew, along with another student, was planning a series of theater and dance workshops with high school students who are writing personal statements for college, sponsored by grants from the Kathryn W. Davis Foundation’s Projects for Peace program. He is waiting to hear if the grants have been postponed until next year or canceled. In the meantime, he has found an opportunity to intern remotely with the National Council for Science and the Environment this summer.
The CCI also hosted a panel titled, “Dear Class of 2020, We've Been There! Advice from Alumni of ’07–’09,” during which Midd alumni who graduated during the Great Recession shared their stories and suggestions about entering a difficult job market.
“One of the things that we’re really working to counteract too is all the doom and gloom, and while we are certainly aware of all of the challenges…there are many organizations that indeed are still hiring and are very interested in our talented Middlebury pool of applicants,” said Peggy Burns, executive director of the CCI.
“I think it’s super important to understand that your first job doesn’t define you, it doesn’t define the rest of your life,” Olender added. “You’ve got to get your foot in the door — and it doesn’t even have to be the right door, it can be any door — but get yourself out there.”
Summer internships change amid uncertainty
Many summer internships, jobs, research positions and opportunities abroad have been canceled or postponed, leaving a gap in many students’ summer plans. The CCI’s webpage now lists “Ideas for an Impactful Summer,” which lists several recommendations for students: asking an organization to continue an internship remotely, completing a micro-internship, volunteering, studying for graduate school exams, working on senior independent research and using various online learning tools.
The center also plans to launch a new micro-internship program called MIDDGigs in the near future, connecting students with alumni for one- or two-week internships.
“This is a great way for a student whose internship may have fallen through to still be able to get some experience, do a concrete project, build some skills, network a bit and be able to get a recommendation down the road,” Burns said. “And, it’s a relatively low commitment on the part of an alum.”
The CCI is also still funding internships this summer, but they have only been authorized at this time to fund remote positions, according to a page on the website. They are also funding internships that are currently remote but that have the expectation of transitioning to in-person later in the summer — after June 15, students who have been granted this status will be able to apply to make their internships in-person, though the ability to do this will be based on CDC guidelines and local restrictions.
The CCI is not funding any international internships unless students are conducting remote internships from their hometowns abroad.
Many students have been able to adapt and create new summer plans. Gwen Davis ’22 was applying to consulting firms near Philadelphia when she got the news that Middlebury was sending students home. The internships she had applied to were canceled or unresponsive. Davis had worked with Mosehauer during the semester to create her initial summer plan, and spoke with him on Zoom after those positions disappeared.
“He sent me a whole list of resources, but reminded me that this will be a summer like no other for everyone, and that networking and our Middlebury community is one of our greatest resources,” Davis said.
She eventually found an internship with her father’s friend at a moving services company. “It certainly is not the industry I saw myself working in, but I know I have to be flexible at a time like this,” Davis said. “I now have the chance to be exposed to something totally new.”
Celeste Levy ’22 was planning to live on campus this summer as an intern with Oratory Now, working with language school programs and traveling to Burlington and Boston to coach clients. She is currently working to brainstorm how that experience will continue remotely.
“Coaching is so personal and physical, and doesn’t have the same effect over a screen. I think it will be less useful for our clients and less beneficial for me improving as a teacher. But, it will make us be creative and possibly expand our range of offerings,” Levy said.
The CCI is also partnering with Oratory Now to provide virtual interview workshops, where students record videos of themselves responding to interview prompts and send it to Oratory Now coaches for annotations. After receiving feedback, students reach out to a Midd2Midd alumni volunteer to ask for a practice interview.
The center planned to partner with Oratory Now before the pandemic, but sped up the process as recruiting shifted online. The CCI anticipates that virtual recruiting will become the new norm for first-round interviews even after students return to campuses, because it is more cost-efficient for employers.
Employment at the college may also change this year. According to Middlebury’s decision-making calendar, researchers and workers can expect a decision on their summer positions by Friday, May 15.
Francis Shiner ’23 intended to work as Music Professor Jeff Buettner's summer choral assistant. In that capacity, Shiner would have worked to digitize Middlebury’s choral archive, plan for the choir’s 2021 Japan tour, organize volunteer opportunities for music students in town and learn about running a college choir.
“In case Midd doesn't keep summer research positions, I've been figuring out other options, including a possible grant from the CCI,” Shiner said. “As of now, I don't know what my summer will be like, and that terrifies me.”
Shiner applied for an art grant to fund a summer project preparing the choir for the impacts of Covid-19, including how to have rehearsals and concerts without large group meetings.
Although the CCI will continue providing advice and resources through the summer, staff members are also trying to allay students’ anxieties.
“We talk about how this will always be the summer that has an asterisk. If there’s a gap in your resume and it happens to be this summer, I’m sure that you will be forgiven. But employers will want to know, how did you use your time?” Oldender said. “And it doesn’t have to be an internship for it to be productive.”
Correction May 14, 2020: An earlier version of this story used the incorrect pronoun for Francis Shiner '23.
(05/14/20 9:54am)
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) received $75 million in supplemental funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to be distributed to cultural institutions impacted by Covid-19. Associate Professor of Political Science Keegan Callanan joined the NEH board, the National Council on the Humanities (NCH), in August of last year and is working with the council to advise its chairman on stimulus funding.
Thirty million dollars of the appropriations will directly fund state humanities councils, which will support local cultural nonprofits. The remaining funds will be allocated by the NEH to cultural organizations such as museums, libraries, colleges, historic sites, research institutions and other institutes.
“Almost every type of cultural institution in the U.S. is eligible for funding, and the aim of the funding is to save or create humanities jobs. This focus on jobs is new to the NEH,” Callanan said in an email to The Campus.
Callanan also said that the pace and structure of deliberations has changed because of the pandemic. The NCH usually meets three times a year with periodic teleconferences in between, and has met remotely since the CARES Act was signed to address the additional funding. While deliberation on grants typically occurs in specialized subcommittees for education, research and other programs, stimulus funding has not been divided the same way.
To receive aid from the NEH, nonprofit institutions could apply for grants of up to $300,000. Grant applicants will be notified of their status by June 15.
“Two primary challenges are declines in philanthropic giving and the loss of visitors for cultural institutions that rely upon them — chiefly museums,” Callanan said.
Museums and other institutions across the country closed in accordance with state guidelines designed to slow the spread of Covid-19, but the strain of losing visitors and revenue may make it difficult for some to reopen. Once visitors return, restrictions aiming to prevent a second wave of the outbreak could also limit the number of people admitted at a time, reducing revenue over a longer period.
According to the NEH website, this funding will “help these entities continue to advance their mission during the interruption of their operations.”
“I do expect the funding to save many humanities jobs and to contribute to broader efforts to keep smaller cultural institutions afloat,” Callanan said.
Callanan will continue to serve on the NCH until 2024. Next year, he will be a visiting fellow in Princeton’s Department of Politics, working on a book about Alexis de Tocqueville among other projects.
(05/07/20 10:04am)
Hunter Graham ’20 was nominated for the Pallas Athene Award from the Women’s Army Corps Veterans’ Association, an award given to the top two graduating female Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) cadets in the nation. The UVM ROTC program, which hosts Middlebury’s ROTC cadets, held its annual award ceremony online in April, where Graham and other cadets were celebrated.
“I am both shocked and honored to receive it,” Graham said about her nomination in an email to The Campus.
Middlebury and other schools, including Castleton University and Saint Michael’s College, have satellite ROTC programs that send cadets to train with the Green Mountain Battalion at UVM. Graham joined ROTC near the end of her first year at Middlebury and has since driven an hour north with other cadets from the college every Wednesday afternoon.
“The weekly drive to Burlington is burdensome when you come home to a full night of homework at 9 p.m.,” Graham said about her experience in ROTC. “Knowing that my friends at Castleton are right there with me — and still have to drive another hour south after we get home — kept me pushing.”
She said that ROTC had made her mentally tough, and expressed gratitude for the instructors at UVM, as well as the career opportunities and the community the program provided.
“[Graham] has been a huge role model to me, and is someone who I think has been really critical in shaping the culture of our program here at Middlebury into one that’s looking forward to making the Army a better place,” said Alec Wilson ’21, who has been in ROTC with Graham for several years.
The evacuation of college campuses due to Covid-19 has disrupted the graduation traditions for Graham and other cadets. The Commissioning Ceremony — where seniors celebrate their commission as officers, receive their first salute and take their oaths — will be held online on May 16.
Graham said her family originally planned to drive from Ohio to Vermont for the ceremony. Traditionally, family members would place the hat on a new officer’s head and uncover their shoulder boards, which are colored to represent the branch of the Army that they are joining. Graham had been looking forward to sharing her work with friends from Middlebury, and said the graduating ROTC seniors are disappointed that they can not celebrate together.
“There is a silver lining,” Graham said. “My 90-year-old next-door neighbor, Woody, will now be my first salute, as he was unable to make the drive to Vermont originally.”
After graduation, Graham will be attending the Army Medical Department's Basic Officers Leadership Course at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio.
ROTC continues training remotely
As remote learning upends traditional classroom experiences across the country, the college’s six ROTC cadets have adjusted to training to the unconventional circumstances. Using Microsoft Teams, a communication platform similar to Zoom, students have continued attending military science lectures. In addition, they have also been updating a “Covid tracker” to communicate their circumstances with instructors.
Middlebury’s ROTC cadets would normally work out three times a week as a group, and were also encouraged to pursue additional physical training on their own. Wilson said that with online instruction, training has been more individual. The cadets are trying to stay motivated through workout challenges and team support, but Wilson says that training and maintaining grades amid the uncertainty of the pandemic has been difficult.
“This is really just going to be a test of individual discipline, because when we get back to campus in the fall — hopefully — we’re going to have an assessment on our physical fitness very quickly,” Wilson said.
Wilson has been planning mock missions and working on tactics in his online classes to prepare for Advanced Camp this summer. Each year, rising seniors from ROTC programs across the country — approximately 7,000 cadets in 2020 — travel to Fort Knox, Kentucky for a month-long training camp where they are assessed on their skills, especially as leaders.
Cadet rankings based on GPA, extracurriculars and performance at Advanced Camp help determine cadets' placement after graduation. The Army has not yet announced changes to this summer’s Advanced Camp but have cancelled other summer training programs at Fort Knox, Ky.
The group has continued to meet socially online and has stayed in contact through their training. Wilson says he is proud of the underclassmen ROTC members’ professionalism, discipline, and spirit despite their current circumstances.
“Every time we meet up together, even if it’s just to hang out, they’re smiling, they’re happy, they’re making the best of a sticky situation,” Wilson said. “I have such a sense of admiration for them.”
Correction May 8, 2020: The article was updated to reflect the fact that Graham was nominated for the Pallas Athene Award. The winner of that award will be announced until later this year.
(04/16/20 9:58am)
After weeks of impassioned discussion and a number of all-school emails, the debate over Middlebury’s grading policy for the spring term has generated many questions regarding the decision-making process. Among them: who will have the final say over grading?
Reinforcing opt-in
The ad hoc academic continuity group, composed of administrators, faculty and staff from various departments and committees, formed to address academic policies on an accelerated schedule after students left campus in March. It made the original decision to enforce an opt-in Pass/D/Fail system and then revised the policy on April 3 to extend the deadline to invoke the option, a decision that Dean of Curriculum Suzanne Gurland said involved responses from several groups of students and faculty.
“There were compelling arguments on all sides of the issue, with students who wanted a binary or Pass/D/Fail system offering strong arguments for that, and students who wanted letter grades offering strong arguments for that,” Garland said. “There seemed to be no one perfect solution for everyone. The fairest way forward still seemed to be a system that would allow each student to go with what worked for their needs.”
The group hopes that extending the deadline will allow students to obtain more information, such as feedback from professors and greater insight into how circumstances at home will affect their academic performance, before deciding to invoke Pass/D/Fail.
Separately, the SGA met with both the organizers of #FairGradesMidd and #OptInMidd on March 29 to hear their platforms. They sent out an all-student survey on March 31 in hopes of getting feedback about which campaign to endorse, then agreed to wait on a formal decision when they found out dual A/A- was not a viable option and when the administration seemed to have made a final decision, said Senior Senator John Gosselin.
The academic continuity group made the updated decision before receiving the SGA survey results; thus, the data on student opinion was not included in the decision.
“Although the survey results might have provided interesting information, as professional educators, we took into account a variety of factors, including the extraordinary nature of the current moment, the issues of access students are experiencing, and equity considerations in determining what might be best for all our students’ education,” Gurland said.
She added that the group was created specifically to make academic decisions like these on an abbreviated timeline due to the Covid-19 emergency, and that faculty were consulted extensively in the original process.
A new option
The Campus reported this Friday that faculty were set to vote on a new motion — a proposal for a mandatory credit/no credit system. The vote is scheduled for this Friday, April 17. One of the qualms made in the motion is that grading policy is an issue that should be decided on by the faculty at large. Accordingly, if this motion passes a majority vote on Friday, the proposed mandatory credit/no credit policy will be instituted for the spring term.
Following this proposal, the SGA voted to endorse the mandatory credit/no credit resolution this past Sunday. Thirteen senators voted in favor, with one voting against and two abstaining.
The resolution, which encouraged the faculty to vote for the mandatory credit/no-credit proposal, was co-sponsored by Junior Senator and Speaker John Schurer ’21, Sophomore Senator Paul Flores-Claval ‘22 and Wonnacott Senator Myles Maxie ’22. While it does not have any formal influence over the decision, it is meant to indicate student opinion — something for which faculty have been asking students as they prepare for the Friday vote.
“Central to all of our deliberations on this topic is this: how can we approach more equity while also staying attuned to what is feasible?” Varsha Vijayakumar ’20, president of the SGA, said in an email to The Campus. The SGA began talking about endorsing #FairGradesMidd.
“This issue goes beyond just the grading system; it is also an issue of how the college responds to information from students,” said Maxie, who has been active with #FairGradesMidd. “In my capacity as a senator, I will be pushing to hold our college accountable in hearing student voices and weighing those accordingly.”
The SGA also voted in favor of a bill that advocates for accessible and equitable online learning, co-sponsored by Community Council Co-Chair Roni Lezama ’22 and Feb Senator Mistaya Smith ‘21.5. The bill outlines several steps that they hope the administration and faculty will take, which aim to address issues of equity in remote learning. It includes asking Middlebury to provide resources and information to students that would expand access to online classes, and it encourages faculty to be flexible with assignment deadlines and class attendance.
The bill also requests that professors send provisional grades to students by May 5 so they can make an informed decision on whether or not to invoke the optional Pass/D/Fail before the May 8 deadline.
Abbie Chang ’23 contributed reporting.
Correction: A previous version of this article failed to name one of the SGA resolution's sponsors, Sophomore Senator Paul Flores-Claval ‘22. The article has been updated to include that information.
(03/29/20 12:10am)
The transition to remote learning sparked debate about equitable grading during the Covid-19 pandemic, after most students were sent home to continue the spring semester on digital platforms such as Zoom and Panopto.
On March 16, Middlebury announced a grading policy that would allow students to continue working toward a letter grade or to opt for a Pass/D/Fail grade in any class. Because of the emergency nature of the pandemic, decisions about changing academic policies — which would typically require several months of debate and be made with the input of a broader range of faculty — have been taken on by the college’s “ad hoc academic continuity group,” composed of five faculty and five faculty administrators.
Following the email announcing the new grading system, some students organized a petition — originally titled #NoFailMidd — to advocate for a universal pass/fail grading system.
The five student organizers of #NoFailMidd raised concerns in the petition about socioeconomic inequalities inherent in an opt-in Pass/D/Fail system, citing a lack of resources or added responsibilities at home as challenges that might push some students toward the Pass/D/Fail option, while allowing their more privileged peers to pursue GPA-boosting letter grades.
Following the launch of #NoFailMidd, other student advocates launched a sister campaign pushing for a Dual A policy modeled after some Harvard students’ “Double A proposal”. The two campaigns have since merged, evolving into #FairGradesMidd. An updated petition and an op-ed in The Campus, written by organizers, have since been publicized.
“People have come out and acknowledged how this approach that the college is taking is really blind to privilege,” said Arthur Martins ’22.5, one of the organizers of the petition. “When we talk about any argument that’s about choice, we need to see it as a material reality. If you have two people that have very different material circumstances, you can’t ask them to make the same choice.”
Martins said the petition now has over 1,000 signatures. The petition encourages students to contact their representatives from the Student Government Association (SGA), as well as faculty members, to advocate for their prefered grading method.
“At Middlebury … everyone had the classroom to go to, everyone could go to the dining hall, have a meal, go back to the library, do their work. All the work that was happening had support, and everyone had access to a very similar structure of support,” Martins said.
Other educational institutions across the country have also been grappling with an unprecedented shift to online classes, and the consequences that shift has for existing grading systems. Several other universities have adopted universal pass/fail or similar systems, including undergraduate programs at Dartmouth College, Columbia University, Bowdoin College and MIT, as well law schools at Harvard University and Stanford University. Organizers at Yale University — another institution considering a shift to mandatory pass/fail — sparked the movement with their “No Fail Yale” petition.
At Harvard, dynamic debates and frequent stance reversals reflect the complexity of the fair grading movement on all fronts. The college’s undergraduate council — its SGA equivalent — reversed its stance three times in 24 hours on which grading system to endorse, The Harvard Crimson reported earlier this week. The latest update from the college announced that it would follow a universal satisfactory-unsatisfactory grading system.
Middlebury’s SGA does not currently plan to endorse any one model, but will hear the different proposals at its Sunday meeting so that it can develop a survey to gauge student opinion.
Movements collide
The initial #NoFailMidd petition was met with opposition on two fronts: some students called for the opt-in system to continue, while other students believed a Dual A system — where every student receives either an A or an A- in each class — would be fairer.
The organizers of #NoFailMidd, who see it as their mission to generate conversation on equitable grading this semester, reached out to the students advocating for Dual A and incorporated their ideas into the new #FairGradesMidd petition, which outlines the strengths of both the universal pass/fail system and the Dual A system.
Meanwhile, opponents have voiced concerns, both in class Facebook groups and in Campus op-eds, about students being insufficiently motivated or not properly learning the material if they are not given the option of pursuing letter grades. There are also questions about whether graduate programs that typically require letter grades will accept pass/fail classes taken this semester, and that students — especially seniors — will not have the chance to boost their GPAs with grades from this semester.
Priya Kaur, ’22, Yasmine Signey ’22, Nellie Zhang ’23 and Maya David ’23 started a counter petition, titled #OptInMidd, describing the case for a continued opt-in pass/fail system.
Advocates of the Dual A system say it can operate as a middle ground between the two proposals. Students would still receive letter grades for their work, but the system would be more uniform and therefore more supportive of students in vulnerable situations, according to Chloe Fleisher ’21.5, an organizer who joined #FairGradesMidd when Dual A was added. Students applying to postgraduate programs, internships and jobs or looking to maintain scholarship eligibility would see their GPA positively impacted, while allowing greater accommodations for their new situations.
“This rewards students for the work that they have already done and for being able to work in really adverse conditions in a global pandemic, and basically creates, in my view, the most equitable system,” she said.
In an email to The Campus, the organizers of the #OptInMidd counter petition said they were glad that the #NoFailMidd organizers recognized its call for maintaining a grades-based grading system for the semester. “We also support a Dual A grading system, but with some hesitations,” they wrote.
The organizers of #OptInMidd expressed hope that under a system like Dual A, Middlebury students would adhere to the Honor Code and work for their grades. But they maintained concerns that students would abuse the system or not put in enough effort to learn the material.
“We believe that opt-in Pass/D/Fail encourages students to do their best since they are still graded in the typical manner, but can also provide a choice for all,” the #OptInMidd organizers said.
Calling the shots
Neither the updated #FairGradesMidd proposal nor the #OptInMidd petition were available when the academic continuity group last met on Thursday morning. But the committee did discuss the universal pass/fail proposal at length.
“We are most definitely interested in a solution that guarantees as much equity as possible,’ said Luso-Hispanic Studies Professor Daniel Silva in an email to The Campus. Silva serves on the academic continuity group as a representative for the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion faculty committee.
“We will be meeting again early next week and will likely discuss the new developments and options,” he added. “Many of our students are facing tremendous challenges back home due to the pandemic that are unimaginable to many other members of the Middlebury community. My hope is that we find a solution that addresses their needs first and foremost.”
Some professors have already voiced their support for pass/fail grading. Allison Stanger, a Middlebury professor currently on sabbatical and teaching at Harvard, recently wrote an op-ed for The Chronicle of Higher Education advocating for colleges to move to pass/fail. The Campus reprinted that op-ed online.
“It is unjust to assume that there is a level playing field for students who have been forced to leave campus,” Stanger said in an email to The Campus. “We assume that it is so when we bring students together on campus, even though it isn’t the case, but it is a bridge too far to maintain that assumption in a global pandemic.”
Going forward, Martins, the #FairGradesMidd organizer, invites students to share testimonials about their experiences, sign onto the various petitions and contact their representatives about the changes they want to see.
“I think [students] are already being impacted positively through the process,” Martins said. “This is a grassroots movement … I hope it leaves this question of what can student activism look like, what can engagement with the community really look like? I think that it’s really been a beautiful exercise of community-making.”
Editor's note: The Campus has published multiple op-eds on suggestions about grading policy. Read them here.
If you would like to submit your own op-ed, please email campus@middlebury.edu.
(03/05/20 11:01am)
The Campus reported last week that the college was collaborating with a local committee to ensure a complete headcount for the 2020 Census. The Middlebury/Addison Complete Count Committee, established last spring to directly aid the U.S. Census Bureau, is conducting similar efforts across all of Addison County.
Dana Hart, director at the Ilsley Public Library and representative on the committee, said that the committee has been meeting monthly with a Census Bureau representative.
“[The group] is sort of organized into subgroups, so we’ve all been working within our own sector to reach out to people and educate them about the census,” Hart said. “We’ve sort of taken a divide and conquer approach and then we get back together, report what we’ve been doing and brainstorm.” Vermont also has a Complete Count Committee that focuses on state-wide outreach to complete the census count.
The Census Bureau usually starts counting rural populations in Alaska at the end of January. By mid-March of the census year, most U.S. households will have received invitations to participate in the census, with information on how to do so. Each household completes one form, which includes questions about all individuals who live in the house, on April 1, Census Day. In April, trained census enumerators perform quality check interviews and — from May to July — visit houses that have not yet responded to perform in person interviews to finalize the count.
There are other processes in place for people living in U.S. territories, group quarters such as colleges and military barracks, and people living in transitory housing such as RV parks and hotels.
All staff at the Ilsley Public Library have attended census trainings, equipping them with the tools to respond to common questions from library visitors. The library will also have a computer reserved in the computer lab this month for people to fill out the questionnaire — the census is being offered online for the first time this year.
Social service organizations in the area are also coordinating to diffuse helpful info. The Counseling Services of Addison County has worked with partners including Charter House and the Addison County Community Trust to provide support in the process.
“I’m reaching out to agencies who are involved with housing […] just trying to spread the word so people see information about the census and have lots of possibilities to complete the census or get help if they need to,” said Ingrid Pixley, the housing coordinator for Counseling Services of Addison County and a representative on the Complete Count Committee. She said she sometimes finds participants mistakenly think they must share a great deal of information about themselves on the census, in part due to the thickness of the paperwork.
Distrust of the government also poses challenges to census enumeration.
“It can be difficult to persuade individuals to participate in a count of the population and to offer up information about their homes and family members if they feel suspicious about how that information could be used,” said Chris English, the assistant town manager of Middlebury and chair of the Middlebury/Addison Complete Count Committee. “By law, the Commerce Department cannot share census data with any other government agency, but mistrust can be a significant barrier to getting an accurate count.”
English mentioned that the U.S. Census Bureau has built safeguards to protect the collection process, storage of and the ability to access census data.
The government uses census data at a macro level to determine where to direct federal funding resources. The library receives federal funding based on census data through the Vermont Department of Libraries, according to Hart. Other government initiatives, including Medicare, infrastructure spending, housing assistance programs, Pell Grants, the National School Lunch Program and dozens of others use census data to allocate funds. “The census is an important, mandatory questionnaire that all Vermonters should feel safe filling out. Their data is protected and kept private,” Hart said. “Anyone who has questions can certainly stop by the library.”
(02/27/20 11:57am)
The U.S. Census Bureau will conduct the 2020 Census in the coming months, a decennial count of every person currently residing in the United States. Households throughout the country will receive mail from the federal government beginning March 12 containing information on how to complete the census.
Residents are recorded in the census according to where they live as of April 1, the day of the census, meaning Middlebury students who are on campus this spring count as Vermont residents and should not be included on their families’ census questionnaires. Students can expect an email in the coming weeks with instructions on how to do the census.
The census will be offered online this year for the first time ever. Previously, it was only conducted via questionnaires sent to households and mailed back to the government. Census enumerators would make follow-up visits to residences that did not submit filled-out questionnaires.
The Census Bureau approached the town last spring about forming a Complete Count Committee. According to Chris English, the assistant town manager of Middlebury and chair of the Middlebury/Addison Complete Count Committee, the role of a Complete Count Committee is “ to conduct public outreach — especially to vulnerable communities that often don’t self-respond to the census — regarding the importance of the census and what getting an accurate count of the population means to Vermonters.”
According to English, people experiencing homelessness or lacking a permanent address, households with non-traditional or extended family structures, migrant workers, and people living in remote areas are typically considered “hard-to-count” communities and are the focus of the town’s committee.
Ashley Laux, program director for the Center for Community Engagement, and Kady Shea, assistant director of residential life for housing operations, serve on the Complete Count Committee as representatives from Middlebury College.
Students living off-campus are the focus of the college’s census outreach, according to Laux, because they will be receiving questionnaires directly mailed to their addresses and are responsible for completing the forms as households. Census enumerators will visit students who do not fill out the census form but choose to do the census in person. Middlebury students who are currently studying abroad will not be counted in the census.
Counting students within the college will differ from the general census process. Many students will be counted as part of group quarters enumeration, a classification that also includes hospitals, nursing homes, correctional facilities and other communal living spaces. In the college, residential life staff serve as the administrative contacts for the Census Bureau and will complete this part of the process for students.
Census data is necessary for the state and federal government to allocate funding to communities and track population changes which affect representation in Congress. Middlebury students are counted in Vermont because they are often beneficiaries of federally funded services such as transportation and health care.
“I think for me, building understanding and participation in a process that only happens once every ten years is the biggest challenge,” Laux said. “This is one of the largest peacetime mobilizations that the U.S. government does, so we’re not wanting to barrage students and faculty and staff with information. But we do want people to be informed about the process that has real-world impacts on funding and resources allocated to Vermont.”
Sociology Professor Matt Lawrence a class on the census over J-Term. The class covered the history of the census, its impact, recent controversies and the use of census data for research.
“I think the census is super important — Its stated purpose is to count every citizen, every person in the country and then use that to not only reapportion the House of Representatives, but also to give services and money to where it’s needed,” said Cooper Kelley ’22, who took the J-Term class.
(02/13/20 11:00am)
Atwater Dining tested a new initiative to only use local meats during J-Term. The dining hall has previously worked on initiatives that integrate sustainable sources for food, including the purchase of in-season local produce and Meatless Mondays, which feature vegetarian lunches.
Ian Martin, commons chef of Atwater, said that the test had been successful, but that J-Term is a slow period for the dining hall, so the change is more likely to pose challenges during the spring semester.
“We’re going to test this coming up,” Martin said. “we’re going to stay with local meats, at least to the best of our ability based on supply.” “We’ll buy as much as we think we’ll need… and then if we need to back up, we’ll use non-local products.”
Emma Clinton '21 and Raechel Zeller '22, co-directors of the SGA Environmental Affairs Committee, worked on the J-Term efforts as part of a campaign for greater sustainable consumption in the dining halls.
“I saw the month as not only an opportunity for students to eat higher quality, more sustainable meat in Atwater, but also an opportunity for dining services to support local food producers to a greater extent than they already do,” Zeller said. “To me, sustainability and food are not only about the carbon footprint behind what you’re eating, but how it connects you to the community and environment around you.”
The Environmental Affairs Committee sponsored a plant-based dinner in Atwater Dining hall, held a movie screening about plant-based athletics and set up posters to educate students about the local farms the dining halls source from.
“We have yet to go over the numbers to see if this initiative had much positive impact on our efforts to reduce meat in the dining hall,” Clinton said, “but the local meats served in Atwater during January were assuredly more sustainable than those that come from factory farms hundreds of miles away.”
The price of local meats poses some cost challenges, because locally sourced meat can be two to four times as expensive, according to Martin. However, the cost drops in the summer due to lower transportation costs and the dining hall remains committed to sustainable sourcing.
“I think it’s just better: the quality is better, it’s the right thing to do. It makes sense,” Martin said.
(02/13/20 10:58am)
Nadine Strossen, a former president of the American Civil Liberties Union (ALCU), gave a talk titled “HATE: Why We Should Resist It with Free Speech, Not Censorship” in Bicentennial Hall on Jan. 28 as part of the Critical Conversations series. The lecture included a response from Professor Erik Bleich, chair of the Political Science department, who offered a perspective on the topic that contrasted with the one Strossen provided.
Strossen spoke about the historical importance of free speech for civil rights movements and the rights of minority groups.
“I have seen through experience,” Strossen said, “that equality and liberty are mutually reinforcing, that we cannot have meaningful freedom of speech unless all of us are equally able to and encourage to contribute our voices to the discussion.”
“I thought it was interesting when she talked about how often, minorities are the groups who are negatively affected by censorship laws they were originally meant to protect,” said Maya Saterson ’22.
Strossen and Bleich also explored issues of hate speech and the unintended consequences of laws designed to censor it. They discussed situations in which anti-hate speech laws have had varying levels of success in reducing discriminatory acts.
“Not surprisingly, the social media companies and other online entities have been enforcing their anti-hate speech laws completely as subjectively as governments have been doing, with disproportionate adverse impacts on advocates of human rights, including racial minorities,” Strossen said.
“It turns out that when hate speech cases get to the Supreme Court in France… they are very much more likely to restrict speech that targets minorities, and very much less likely to restrict speech that targets majorities,” Bleich said. “So, the assumption that it’s commonly turned against minorities, well I would say its wrong, it’s statistically wrong.”
“I found it interesting when the speakers referred to countries in Europe and their policies in regard to censoring, like in Germany after WWII,” Evelyn Lane ’23 said.
Both during the lecture and in the following question and answer session, Strossen touched on Charles Murray’s invitation to campus. She expressed hope that it will be a positive experience for the exercise of free speech.
“I was happy to read the letter that was published by the students who had invited Charles Murray, and it seemed to me that they were stating a spirit of openness to protest, welcoming discussion, consulting with other members on campus about this event in a way that didn’t happen the last time he came here,” Strossen said.
She also offered thoughts on how people can use free speech to oppose hateful speech.
“Think about this: hate speech itself is only words, and we know that those words can be extremely harmful… We protect words precisely because they are so powerful, and that power can do an infinite amount of good as well as an infinite amount of harm.”
Jim Ralph, dean for faculty development and research, curates The Critical Conversations series, and several other organizations sponsor the lectures. The Alexander Hamilton Forum sponsored this lecture.
“I hope that the full array of events featured by Critical Conversations reveals that there are many important topics that deserve robust discussion,” Ralph said. “As for the specific events on Race and Racism, I hope that they will attract large numbers of members of our community and engender meaningful engagement with the perspectives of renowned and thoughtful presenters.”
The next speaker in the series is Nikole Hannah-Jones, creator of the New York Times’s “The 1619 Project” and host of the podcast “1619.” Her lecture is sponsored by the Office of the President, MCAB and the Black Studies program, and will take place in Wilson Hall at 7:00 PM on Feb. 25.
(12/05/19 11:04am)
This semester, the Community Council has discussed several issues concerning Middlebury’s future, including the addition of security cameras on campus, the implementation of the How Will We Live Together report, recurring problems with unreturned dining hall dishes and an upcoming review of the college’s social houses.
Staff members from several departments have attended meetings to present their work to the Community Council and answer questions posed by council members.
Public safety spoke about updating the ID card access systems on buildings across campus and installing security cameras, beginning this winter, in areas that experience heavy foot traffic from members of the college and from visitors.
Staff from the recently-expanded Health and Wellness Department presented on their work on Tobacco 21 and the college’s policies related to tobacco use reduction. They also spoke about methods for promoting health and wellness among students, as well as the department’s goals of providing more preventive and holistic care going forward.
“Community Council is a great way to get information out to students, and to get a great snapshot of how students might feel about things we’re developing,” said Maddie Hope, the assistant director of health and wellness education and mental health promotion specialist. “I think it will continue to be a fertile ground for sharing of ideas, receiving feedback from community council and disseminating information, so I’ve been thankful.”
The council also discussed the implementation of the How Will We Live Together report in a meeting, with presentations by Hope, Senior Associate Dean of Students Derek Doucet and AJ Place, associate dean of students for residential life.
According to Hope, a key part of the new BLUEprint housing model is the increased level of cooperation between the Residential Life staff and the Health and Wellness department.
“So the BLUEprint for Life, that section of that education model, is thinking about what can we do to make sure students get the information they need and feel like they’re in a place where they feel like they can build their skills around thinking about themselves as whole people,” Hope said.
Recently, Community Council has also focused on ways to encourage students to respect staff and shared spaces. Problems with students taking dishes from the dining halls and leaving them in residential halls, both in dorm kitchens and around other common spaces, have been of particular concern to the council, and members have begun working with dining hall staff to reduce the issue.
“I think there’s an overarching narrative of privilege on our campus and the problems that go into that, the big one being the dining plates conversation, was very insightful and impactful,” said Roni Lezama ’22, the Co-Chair of Community Council. “That conversation was kind of the tipping point for us as students ... so we chose to start meeting every week.”
According to Lezama, these conversations in part propelled student members of Community Council to begin meeting more frequently on their own time, to push individual projects and make progress on efforts they care about. This is a change in the structure of the council that Lezama hopes will continue.
Community Council has also been working on an upcoming review of the college’s social houses, including an examination of the role that they play in campus social life, the houses’ abilities to fill beds and how to better support the houses in their missions.
“Our conversation about the social houses is pretty huge because there seems to be a lack of structure and information being dispersed about how we can help the social houses, because they play such a crucial role on our campus,” Lezama said.
A committee is being formed to conduct the review next semester. Lezama also expressed an interest in discussing the well-being of the staff with regards to recent changes at the college during the next semester.
“I think a lot of the action is going to be J-Term and spring term,” Lezama said.
(11/21/19 11:03am)
Meat reduction efforts have ramped up since last fall, when the Environmental Affairs Committee (EAC) began working with dining services on the cause.
On Tuesday, Nov. 19, the EAC hosted a food sustainability dinner in Atwater Dining Hall. The dinner was the first in an ongoing series of events meant to educate the study body on the meat reduction effort.
“We know meat reduction has gotten a lot of negative feedback, so we’re focusing on education this year,” said Brenna Wilson ’20, director of the Dining Affairs Committee, at the dinner. The EAC is planning events for J-Term including speakers and several consecutive days of meatless lunches in Atwater to inform students about sustainable eating.
While attendees at Tuesday’s diner enjoyed carrots, beets and brussel sprouts from the Knoll, locally sourced tofu, vegan chocolate mousse, and more, leaders in dining service and food studies spoke about the efforts to reduce meat and increase local foods in dining halls.
Molly Anderson, a professor of food studies, touched on everything from the environmental impacts of meat production to the health impacts of consuming too much protein, specifically in the form of red meat, in her presentation. She concluded by offering students solutions, such as avoiding processed and red meat by seeking out grass-fed and local beef and lamb, and advocating for better wages and working conditions for people in meat-processing plants.
In 2017, SGA passed a bill proposed by EatReal mandating a 30% total reduction of meat consumption in the dining halls over three years, in 10% annual increments. Since the initiative began in 2018, the dining halls have reduced meat consumption by 9%.
The EAC, co-directed by Raechel Zeller ’21 and Emma Clinton ’21, and the Dining Affairs Committee have been working on the project for the SGA since fall 2018.
As part of the efforts, Atwater Dining Hall shifted to Meatless Mondays last year, in which only vegetarian entrees are served during lunch. The following spring, the other two dining halls followed suit — with Ross serving meatless lunch on Wednesdays and Proctor on Fridays.
Many students have expressed their dismay with these changes, and voiced concerns about having access to enough meat protein sources, which the dining halls attempt to balance with vegetarian protein options. The dining halls also still serve deli meat on meatless days.
“I just think that the best change to make would be to reduce meat options on most days and not have a meatless day. I think having one meat option every day instead of two or three most days and zero on one,” said Tom Sacco ’20.5.
According to Atwater dining staff, having meatless Monday changes the flow of students into the dining hall on those days.
“[Monday] is our slowest day by far,” said Ian Martin, commons chef of Atwater. “It’s a nice thing to say we need to reduce meat, but I think by and large the students are not on board.”
Atwater also only serves one meat protein entree per meal each day, unlike the other dining halls, which serve two.
“Typically we’re only serving one protein now, other than that, to be honest it doesn’t change much of anything because if you only run one meat, you just run a lot more of it because vegetarianism is a minority,” said Dean Bachard, a cook in Atwater Dining Hall.
Despite vocal opposition, many students find the change helpful in trying to eat healthier or eating a vegetarian diet.
Max Lucas ’21, a vegetarian, appreciates the efforts of the EAC and dining halls “because such efforts provide vegetarians, vegans and others with meat-based dietary restrictions the opportunity to eat meals that are not only healthier, but also much better tasting than before these changes were implemented.”
Thea Joseph ’22, a vegetarian who also tries to avoid dairy, would like to see more vegetarian days as well as vegan days.
Wilson said that one problem her movement faces is the difficulty that comes with educating students about the purpose of meat reduction.
“The biggest challenge is trying to convince people that we’re not trying to make them vegetarian or vegan,” she said. “Independent action doesn’t fix much, we need to make institutions change.”
Meat reduction also helps aid efforts by dining staff to purchase local foods. According to Martin, local meat can cost three or four times as much.
“The savings that dining services have made so far have been directed towards sourcing the meat that is served from local, more sustainable providers, such as chicken from Misty Knoll Farms in New Haven and ground beef from Meeting Place Pastures in Cornwall and Lewis Family Farms just across the lake in Essex, N.Y.,” Zeller said.
Zeller explained that this allows Middlebury to support the local economy and consume products that are produced with environmental impacts in mind.
“Our philosophy in dining services is if that if we can get it locally, we do,” said Dan Detora, Executive Director of Food Services, during the Atwater Dinner Tuesday. “We do purchase a lot of local beef and chicken, as much as we possibly can.”
For Clinton, these efforts also address the issue of accessibility.
“We want to make the option to reduce the environmental impacts of personal dining habits to be as accessible as possible for the student body,” Clinton said.
To design menus that would allow Atwater to be vegetarian for several days in a row this winter, the EAC has worked with Dining Services to possibly bring in chefs specializing in vegan and vegetarian cuisine that appeal to a wider segment of the student body.
“We’re really aiming to not polarize people because I feel like people can shut down when food is being talked about because it’s a very personal thing, but we really want to empower people to be able to make healthy choices within the constraints of the dining hall,” said Essi Wunderman ’22, a member of the EAC.
News Editor Nora Peachin ’21 contributed reporting for this article.