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Tuesday, Feb 10, 2026

Opinion


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Brick by brick, we care about how our campus looks

As the Chateau celebrates its 100-year anniversary and the first group of Middlebury students takes up residence in New Battell, we are reflecting on the meaning of the buildings where we study, work, and live. Buildings are part of what makes our campus feel distinctly “Middlebury.” Recent and ...


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Your first year seminar should be fun

I’ve had many moments at Middlebury over the last few years where I marvel at what I’ve been able to learn here. Taking classes that are actually functional — invigorating, even — has been a fairly novel delight in my academic career, coming from a high school which is consistently on the list ...


The Setonian

Sampling error: you

 Two weeks ago, I made the case for specifying the global problems you wish to spend years on. Today I want to place these choices at the right altitude, because from arm’s length everything blurs and from 10 years out it usually becomes embarrassingly clear. Set aside the buzz lines, and your ...


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Middlebury does not protect free speech

President Ian Baucom entered his tenure with multiple public statements asserting “the freedom of our students to express and explore thoughts outside orthodoxy, inside and outside the classroom, without fear or hesitation.” And yet, the reality of students on our campus dictates otherwise. With ...


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I’m re-learning my mother tongue

In February 2024, I wrote an op-ed for The Campus titled ‘I’m forgetting my mother tongue.’ Within one day of publishing, I was contacted by over 30 students who grew up and live outside of the regions where their mother tongue is spoken. Together, we mourned the loss of our linguistic heritage. ...


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Addressing the hole the closure of MiddSafe will leave behind

When the Center for Health and Wellness (CHW) recently announced the termination of the MiddSafe Hotline and Mental Health Peer Educators (MPHE) program, it cited a lack of student use as the reason. They pointed to the increase in mental health resources in the CHW as having supplemented the need for ...


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AI revisited

When I last wrote an op-ed about artificial intelligence (AI) in 2024, submissions created with the technology had sneakily won several art and photography contests. Now, it is consistently deceiving hundreds of thousands of internet users every day. Its content creation capabilities have improved so ...


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Notes from the Desk: What The Campus can (and can’t) do about AI

ChatGPT was introduced to me in my sophomore year, the spring of 2023, by Professor of Writing and Rhetoric Hector Vila. We pasted our writing into the then-novel software, asked it for an improved version and reflected on what we liked about our work vs the robot’s. I watched my essay about my complicated ...


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To maintain free speech, start listening

The recent uptick in political violence across the country paints a very worrying picture for the future of cross-party dialogue and collaboration, both nationally and here at Middlebury. With the killing of a Minnesota democrat legislator, Melissa Hortman and their spouse this past June, and the killing ...


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Dream Big, Get Funneled

A career is 80,000 hours of decisions about where your energy goes. It is not just about building a résumé, it is about determining what your one working life will add up to. Choosing whether those hours are spent maximizing comfort or contributing to problems that shape the century is not a neutral ...


The Setonian

Environmental humanities belong in every environmental degree

Protecting the natural world will require changing the human world. While science is a powerful tool to inform the choices we make in the future, those choices will be made by humans. Politicians, policymakers, business leaders, and consumers need to be convinced to take action now for the long-term ...


The Setonian

What’s Next? Invest in People. Not Projects.

After nearly two decades of polemics, the Monterey campus is set to close in 2027.  As the books are settled, we must ask ourselves: What will Middlebury do with its new windfall of nearly nine million dollars a year?




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