“I believe in God, and the right to self-determination of transgender people. Do you see a contradiction in my beliefs? Can I still be a Christian?” This is the question I asked Dr. Peter Kreeft, a recent campus speaker who was invited by the Newman Catholic Club, and whose views I deeply disagree ...
I think that it is a sad reality that inviting a Catholic intellectual who believes all the teachings of the Church to Middlebury is scandalous, but such a state of affairs is not nearly as surprising to me as it once was. In my nearly three years on campus, I have seen multiple instances of intolerance ...
As a trans student, I have always been constantly aware of transphobia on Middlebury’s campus. As is the case everywhere else, it’s impossible to avoid. Here, almost everyone keeps their transphobia close to their chest if they know it’s there, and far from their minds if they don’t — but ...
This editorial is a reflection on the Zeitgeist 2021 survey results. You can read all of the results here. As we near the end of our second Covid-era college semester, we should take a pause and allow ourselves to mourn what could have been. What could have been a student’s first year characterized ...
This past summer, the Movement for Black Lives inspired conversations on race and white supremacy to a larger extent that the United States has experienced in decades. Many individuals and institutions asked themselves seriously for the first time: what actions do we have to take to combat racism? Although ...
What do you think of when you hear the phrase BDSM? How about kink? Maybe you think about handcuffs, feathers, role-play and Fifty Shades of Grey-type sex. Or maybe you think of Rihanna’s song “S&M,” and maybe now I’ve gotten that song stuck in your head. But I’m here to tell you the BDSM ...
The editorial board is proud to endorse Roni Lezama ’22 for SGA president. As the current vice president, former co-chair of Community Council and member of the Institutional Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee, he has copious experience working alongside institutional bodies to advocate on ...
Dear Middlebury College Administration, This year has been marked by tragedy, sacrifice and loss for the Middlebury community. We seniors are also mourning the loss of the normal, triumphant ending to our time here, which we and our families have anticipated for the last four years. Senior week, baccalaureate ...
On March 11, 2021, the oldest auction house in the world anointed a new mega-artist, Beeple (a.k.a. Mike Winkelmann), a digital artist famous for his dystopian political cartoons. Christie’s sold Beeple’s work through a non-fungible token, or NFT, for a closing bid of $69.9 million. This makes Beeple ...
Last July, the United States celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), the civil rights law that sought to end disability-based discrimination and guarantee the right to accessibility in public spaces. Though the ADA was a monumental step forward towards disability ...
In the recent weeks, we’ve witnessed students scramble to sign up for Covid-19 vaccinations amid widespread confusion as to whether BIPOC students — and members of their households — are eligible to receive a vaccine. In the wake of this rush to get vaccinated, many BIPOC students were left feeling ...
To Our Middlebury Community, The last few months have marked a potential turning point in the Covid-19 pandemic. The release of multiple vaccines and continued progress towards greater public vaccine access work to grant all of us a great deal of hope in making it through this difficult time, one in ...
The world has waited with bated breath, and today we break our silence. A little over a week ago, the infamous Ever Given container ship ran aground in the Suez Canal, blocking the channel as well as the 12% of global trade that flows through its waters. Although she has recently been freed from ...
We’ve all been there. Literally, all of us have been stuck quarantined in our rooms. It can get pretty boring. And lonely. So it is only natural to download Tinder, right? I mean, it’s a pandemic. If class is online, I guess my romantic life will be, too. Unprecedented times call for unprecedented ...
As graduation approaches, I find myself gripped by a painful nostalgia. It’s as if all of my regrets from the past four years have materialized in the form of an inescapable specter. Sitting in class, I suddenly see myself making a joke at someone’s expense. Eating lunch, I cringe recalling when ...
Confusion, shock and anger rippled through the Middlebury community yesterday when Gov. Phil Scott announced that out-of-state college students in Vermont are ineligible to receive the Covid-19 vaccine. The announcement was a surprise to many as it conflicted with information shared by the college, ...
America’s painful history of discrimination against individuals of Asian-descent has been centuries-long. It did not start with the Covid-19 pandemic and certainly won’t end with it.
“We don’t have a place here.” I looked up — mid-bite into my noodles — at my mom, whose matter-of-fact tone surprised me. She paused. “I don’t feel safe here,” she continued, more wistfully. “And it frightens me when you’re away.” It broke my heart then. But this past week, ...
Sabrina Templeton We hear time and time again that Middlebury is a “bubble.” It’s a liberal bubble, a student bubble, a cultural bubble. All of this talk pushes us into believing that we really are protected; that we live in a campus that can hold us in and push danger out. A bubble implies ...
Do you ever think about the history of your state’s license plate? This topic came up when I was talking to a friend who grew up thinking that all license plates in the U.S. included the words “Taxation Without Representation” as a reminder of our roots. But over time, she noticed that this was ...