The philosopher George Santayana stated, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” While that is true, the memory of the Civil War also shows that the misuse of history can be as damaging as the failure to remember it. Those who can control the memory of the past can manipulate ...
Last Wednesday, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz entered Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and shot and killed 17 people. Many of us were devastated. When innocent people (to say nothing of children) lose their lives, we are compelled to hold loved ones close and consider who we are and what ...
“How was abroad? It looked amazing from your Instagram!” was the most frequent greeting I received on returning to campus in January after spending my fall semester abroad in Santiago, Chile. I knew that the “how was abroad” question was inescapable, and even though I had spent the last few ...
Men — white men specifically — seem to have this obsession with interrupting me. Over the course of one conversation, it regularly happens five times or more. Throw more white men in the mix and the amount of times they cut me off is multiplied. Rarely do they apologize or realize their rudeness. ...
Isn’t it funny how often we tend to view historical figures in ways they most certainly would not have approved? I think about that a lot these days, since political leaders seem to grow more and more certain that they know the answers the Founding Fathers would provide to Wolf Blitzer and Rachel ...
Editor's note: The author of this op-ed has since asked her name be removed from this piece. The Campus has a strict policy that it does not retroactively remove names from stories, but given extenuating circumstances has agreed to do so for this piece. CW: Sexual Assault We have all heard the statistic: ...
Much of our campus conversation lately has been about “freedom of speech” and “inclusivity,” as if they were opposing values between which we must choose. We have heard lofty statements like, “Freedom and inclusivity must go hand-in-hand,” yet statements like these preserve the binary. Moreover, ...
Transparency in the administration is an issue our board has raised numerous times over the past years, yet we still find ourselves writing the same editorial. In the aftermath of recent discussions that have taken place in community forums and town halls, this issue has been raised again. The question ...
On entering the office, I am surprised by the scale, or lack thereof. A name like The New England Review evokes multitudes of desks, each manned by its own grey-haired reader or editor; rooms lined with large, industrial-grey bookshelves filled with manila envelopes; secretaries (one, at the very least) ...
In 2016, arguably one of the most divisive years in recent American history, the FBI reported 6,121 hate crimes nationwide. This number, the highest in the past five years, is startling and extremely concerning. The very notion of charging people with hate crimes, however, violates one of our most deeply ...
Middlebury’s Board of Trustees invests our billion-dollar endowment in a fashion that resembles a clandestine mission, code-named Operation Profit. We know little about where our money is invested, the global impact of these investments appears purposely obscured, and the college community of faculty, ...
Even though not all students spend time as part of the Residential Life staff, they all have contact with them over our four years. Whether it is putting in work orders or feeling homesick as a first-year, the Residential Life team spends hours of their time upholding the Middlebury’s values as a ...
As our campus entered finals period a month ago, a list, inspired by the #MeToo movement, was published on Facebook. This list cited many male students, approximately 35 of them, as being complicit in gender-based violence, describing each of their behavior in parentheses next to each name. The list ...
Since its founding in 2012, It Happens Here has provided an anonymous storytelling platform to highlight survivors’ voices. As we have engaged in this work, we have also acknowledged that survivors don’t owe anyone their stories, and that sharing one’s experiences with sexual violence can come ...
Re: “A New Presidential Tradition Is Needed,” Jan. 18. I was delighted to read The Campus’ editorial calling for a new presidential tradition of an annual address to students. It is exactly the spirit of constructive, solutions-oriented engagement that will help us move forward. I also greatly ...
Middlebury trustees are both intelligent and compassionate, the qualities they share with the students they admit to the college. But since the premise of college is that you emerge still wiser after the passage of four years — that new information changes us — it’s probably time to look at the ...
So many of the people of color (POC) that I’ve talked to on this campus are exhausted. When I first started to tell my white friends that I can’t wait to get off this campus, they responded “Really?” Yes, really. And I think most students of color feel the same. A short documentary called, “Abroad ...
Daniel Silva (Faculty Advisor for DMC): Current circumstances have provided, and indeed, pushed for a long-overdue discussion within DMC concerning its role in relation to the college community and larger society. Thankfully, the current board is overwhelmingly supportive of not only the sexual abuse ...
Racism is a contemporary problem in South Africa. However, its roots are deep. In Cape Town, monuments to colonialism and apartheid are physical reminders of the city’s racially troubled past. Many of these memorials celebrate oppressors, falsely portraying them as heroes. Such misguided historical ...
On December 13th, a list was released on Facebook that fractured an already tense student body. The list published the names of 33 “Men to Avoid” on campus next to their stated offenses. Upon reading the register, I could feel the pain and frustration of its author. This was the action of a person ...