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Wednesday, Feb 11, 2026

Opinion


The Setonian

Leave Your Attitudes at Home

Donald Trump has proclaimed April as “National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month,” affirming his commitment to reducing and ultimately ending sexual violence in our Nation. Kind of ironic coming from the man who’s been accused of sexually assaulting more than fifteen women and caught ...


The Setonian

Free Speech vs. Civil Disobedience

March 2, the day of the Charles Murray talk, was never going to be easy for Middlebury. Free speech and civil disobedience, two of our nation’s most challenging and sacred traditions, seemed to collide. In this war ­of virtues, everybody lost; the mob silenced Charles Murray, the media dragged Middlebury’s ...


The Setonian

The Risk of Reversing After The Fact

In the weeks since the Charles Murray event, many of our peers have been called in “to talk” with administrators about their actions. Many have left those talks with punishments. Others of us, myself included, are wondering if we’ll get the email or if our faces were not caught on camera. As uncertainty ...


The Setonian

A Letter From a Professor on Leave

In “A Letter to the Well-Intentioned Liberal Professor” (April 12), Travis Sanderson states that Middlebury faculty whose “support of ‘free speech’ ... does not include protection of shut-downs and other methods of expression” are “on the wrong side of history.” Comparing us to the white ...


The Setonian

We Need to Complicate Dialogue About Race and Class

As I discussed in last week’s column, racial oppression and economic oppression are intimately linked. This week, I want to look a little more closely at the mechanisms of racial and economic oppression to understand their overlap and their divergences. Can white people be oppressed, and if so, how? ...


The Setonian

We Need Healing Not Discipline

This week our editorial focuses on reforming the judicial process at Middlebury, particularly in relation to sanctions the College is giving to Charles Murray protesters — all protestors who were in the room, turned their backs and chanted. We write this as an appeal to the administrators on behalf ...


The Setonian

An Apology from PoliSci Chair to the Community

Earlier this year I, as chair of the political science department, offered a symbolic departmental co-sponsorship to the Charles Murray event in the same way that I had done with other events in the past: on my own, without wider consultation. This was a mistake. Last week, I apologized to my departmental ...


The Setonian

In Defense of an Intersectional Education

The liberal arts curriculum advertises itself as preparing us with skills that will apply to any job we might take while offering a selection of classes that spans a multitude of academic disciplines. In some ways, the curriculum is changing, in others it remains deeply rooted in tradition. Some departments ...


The Setonian

Mobilizing Money

Class is a tricky subject in the US, particularly since it is considered impolite to acknowledge it exists. Surveys show that most Americans, excepting only the bottom 20 percent and the top two percent of income earners, believe themselves to be middle class. Now, in the Trump era, class is often used ...


The Setonian

Reflections on a Service Year at Middlebury

The Center for Community Engagement is hiring for two AmeriCorps VISTA positions, a Poverty Initiatives Coordinator, and a Youth and Mentoring Programs Coordinator, to serve a one-year term starting in August 2017. Emma McDonald ’16 and Katie Carpenter, who are currently serving in these roles, share ...


The Setonian

Free Speech vs. Elevated Speech

“Let him speak,” I hear some of my peers say, looking upon the Charles Murray protest with distaste. “He has a right to free speech.” As a firm believer in debate and civil discourse, I wonder if such a critique may be misguided. For too long a flawed notion of ‘free speech’ has given way ...


The Setonian

Nuance, Free Speech and Responsibility

Like many who have written already, I want to provide my perspective on the events during Charles Murray’s recent visit. I write as a professor of political science, a scholar of free speech and hate speech, a teacher of courses on race, ethnicity, and diversity and a straight, white man, whose childhood ...


The Setonian

From Abroad: A Letter to President Patton

Although we are physically removed from Middlebury, we assure you that we are closely following campus events and are writing to register our disappointment with the administration’s handling and characterization of the events of March 2. We watched through social media as the protests were planned ...


The Setonian

Moving Beyond Rhetorical Resilience

There are a lot of words, links and thoughts being put out into my Facebook newsfeed with regards to last evening’s Charles Murray event by my Middlebury communities right now. Here is my very long spiel on every step of what has unfolded to be a messy, difficult, complicated process for us all. Step ...


The Setonian

Why We Protest

As soon as word got out that Middlebury College would host a lecture by Charles Murray (CM), students gathered and began organizing to ensure that he would not have a platform to share his ideas on our campus. Why did a large and diverse group of students put their lives on hold to plan and participate ...


The Setonian

Coming Together

I went to sleep last Thursday with a sour taste in my mouth, even after an enjoyable dinner with friends and a sitcom marathon. I attended Dr. Murray’s talk on his latest book “Coming Apart,” eager to better understand some of the frustrations of the Trump coalition. But more importantly, I was ...


The Setonian

Letter From The Editors

Each week, the Editorial Board of The Middlebury Campus publishes an editorial, a statement meant to reflect the “official position” of our student publication. As a board of over thirty students, we typically spend two days debating and discussing the nuances of a variety of topics. Our conversations ...


The Setonian

Questions for Those Who Shut Down Murray

On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I would like to thank the protesters who prevented other people from hearing Charles Murray’s last week. The Trump administration is under siege by investigators and subpoenas. But you provided a welcome distraction. From Steve Bannon’s point of view, it couldn’t ...


The Setonian

Why We Should Listen to the Protesters

When I engage with fellow students, I start by asking questions. This past week I often asked, or some form of, “do you think that currently, and historically, there has existed a power imbalance between whites and POC’s/poor people, leading to an overvaluation of white voices and an undervaluation ...




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