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Monday, Dec 8, 2025

Opinion


The Setonian

The ultimate pass/fail

When was the last time you used the word “awkward?” Was it to describe the time that random guy sat next to you in Proctor who started inquiring about the origins of your last name? Or was it when that other guy gave you a folded piece of paper in the lunch line and made enough muffled noises to ...


The Setonian

Stuck in the middle(bury)

This past January, as the nation collectively reflected on the past decade and prepared for the next one, I bid a fond farewell to my teenage years — and all the awkwardness, angst and acne that accompanied them. Needless to say, I wasn’t too broken up to see them go, but my anxiety about the decade ...


The Setonian

In Defense of the "Dirty Words"

It’s been a frustrating year and a half for liberals. Despite hefty margins in the House and Senate, the Right has seized both the political narrative and substantial leads in most polls. While the Democrats have had some political victories – the stimulus package, health care reform, financial ...


The Setonian

Mad As Hell

I worked in an office this past summer. Around the room were several wall-mounted TVs tuned to financial news channels. The intended purpose, I assume, was to keep the office updated with any breaking news relevant to their occupations. In effect, it was rarely watched. Initially I paid little attention ...


The Setonian

Editorial: A summer of change

Well, it’s that time of year again. Several weeks of e-mails from professors and gradually cooling nights have served as warning, but nothing can ever quite prepare us for the start of a whole new school year. The papers, the tests and the stress are back, but so is our beautiful Vermont campus and ...


The Setonian

Let the adventures begin.

Welcome back, Middlebury. After browsing through the photos you submitted to The Campus’ Summer Photo Contest, I know that many of you did some really spectacular things this summer. You traveled, you spent time with family, you made new friends. You soaked up beautiful vistas, you met exotic animals, ...


The Setonian

The disintegration of the ‘ethnosphere’

For most of the world’s people, climate change is inextricably linked to starvation, migration and extinction; the phenomena cannot be mentioned independently of declining crop yields, rising seas and vector-borne disease. For the overwhelming minority of us living in the developed world, however, ...


The Setonian

The Anthropology of an Unkindness

BEST WEEK EVER. Such a statement, rendered in all caps and spoken with the naïve earnestness of the Double Rainbow guy, is often written off as hyperbole. However, it is my job to prove to you, loyal Campus reader, that such a statement can be spoken with confidence, without inspiring vitriol, EVERY ...


The Setonian

"Lookin' Good"

Across 1. Flamenco music style 6. Ballpark authority 9. Despise 14. Ivan IV and Catherine II, e.g. 15. Sun, to Santiago 16. Only State with just one syllable 17. Muhammad’s God 18. Allergic reaction remedy  ‘___Pen’ 19. Ire 20. Safety measure for a tot 23. URL application (Abrv.) 24. Slip up 25. ...


The Setonian

Just Biden time

Doubtless you believe yourself to have just returned from summer break. You have answered the questions posed time after time: “How was your summer? What did you do?” You are currently saddened by your lack of free time, the amount of homework you now have and, in all probability, the return of ...


The Setonian

Op-Ed: True life: I am a tolerant Midd student

Allow me to invite you to dine with me in Proctor dining hall (where all the cool kids eat) and I will introduce you to my Benetton friends. This is my Indian friend, Prageet, but he’s actually from Texas. Can you believe that he had never eaten curry until I took him out to A Taste of India for his ...


The Setonian

Op-Ed: Tolerance is not transformative

By Lark Mulligan '11 and Viveka Ray-Mazumder '11   Seemingly every year during Gaypril, the Middlebury community witnesses hate crimes that attack non-heteronormative identities. The recent homophobic acts are nothing new to us. Whether they were committed by a single individual, as Dean Longman ...


The Setonian

Editorial - Gender-neutral housing

In the midst of a campaign season, woefully managed at best and shockingly incompetent at worst, the SGA managed to pass a piece of legislation long overdue on this campus — a resolution to support gender-neutral housing. The Administration should quickly sign onto this piece of legislation or risk ...


The Setonian

Notes from the Desk: Last will and Tess-tament

I, Tess Russell, do hereby bequeath the following: To B.M., D.B. and the rest of the ENAM department, I leave: my last residual shred of coolness. When I came to Middlebury, I was, frankly, pretty disillusioned with the whole idea of learning in a classroom, and intended to spend my time here just ...


The Setonian

Letter to the Editor: Doug Sinclair

To the Editor: Over the past nine months, time and again, Middlebury students have extended a helping hand to fellow citizens of our community who are coping with poverty. On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Middlebury Community Care Coalition, I write to thank you for your exceptional, heartwarming ...


The Setonian

Good Morning and Good Luck

Proving he’s the whiner his biweekly pinochle club always thought him to be, Mexican President Felipe Calderon is getting all sorts of whiny over the new Arizona immigration law, which is also known by the robo-sounding name SB1070. Experts are shocked that Mexico’s fearless leader is still talking ...


The Setonian

Behind Andrey Tolstoy

By the time this column makes it to the dining halls, I will already have migrated to my next vessel. I am not authorized to disclose the identity of this vessel, but I can tell you there were 2,350 candidates in the running. Of this number, 90% graduated in the top 10% of their high school class 18% ...