Everyone knows that as soon as you create an account anywhere online, there’s a danger of having everything in your life taken from you by a teenager in an internet café somewhere. Somehow, that fear isn’t enough for me to take an active, defensive stand when it comes to my cyber-privacy. Perhaps ...
Religion has been crucial to human cultures for millennia, but it appears to have been dwindling in importance for the about the last century. Although God does not change, our culture has been rapidly transforming since the Industrial Revolution. It seems that our desire for happiness and accumulating ...
What seems like a long time ago, I made a choice I proceeded to doubt. It was not until a few years had gone by that I understood why coming to Middlebury was one of the most important and best decisions I have made. However, I am sure by this point that sounds cliché. Lately it seems our institution ...
The 2014 midterm election approaches and there is one issue around which I hope every one can rally: the environment. It feels like we have been talking about the problem for a while. You know it as “global warming,” or maybe “climate change” if you are trying to appease the old geezer who ...
Ever since the new tailgating policy was announced, we’ve been outraged. Outraged at the outrage. In MiddBeat’s coverage and subsequent online comments and Jack Dolan’s op-ed on the Campus’ website, there are several troubling trends that demand discussion. The more dangerous of these tendencies ...
I’m writing this op-ed to express my support for the recently announced tailgating policy, but I’m going to start with a slightly different chord: I love tailgating. Don’t believe me? I once drove from D.C. to New Orleans to attend a tailgate (it was awesome). I have tailgated at schools up ...
To the Editor, Along with many of my fellow alumni, I read with dismay that alcohol and music have been banned from tailgating at Middlebury athletic events, including Homecoming. It’s part of a broader pattern that we have observed with disappointment from afar since graduation, as officials at ...
From SGA to Community Council, we have a system of student liaisons to the administration whose key purpose is to keep the two groups on the same page. Yet last week we were all surprised to receive an email announcing that alcohol would no longer be allowed at tailgating events. Though students are ...
In response to the changes in the tailgate policy effective this Tuesday, there have already emerged a number of great arguments against this new policy, and some weaker ones for it. I am impressed by the initiative and zeal displayed by my schoolmates, and am equally disappointed by the actions and ...
Dear Middlebury College Community, I know some of you have taken exception to our decision to ban alcohol at football game tailgate events. Let me tell you in the plainest terms why we have done this. For some time, we have been dealing with issues arising from incidents of overuse of alcohol by some ...
When Erin first approached me about writing this column I had some…reservations. I just couldn’t help but feel I had been down the path of being a vocal Republican in a very liberal environment. Well, that would be because I have been down that exact path many times, and I have come to embrace it. Much ...
The summer before my senior year of high school I joined a pretty radical group working for environmental justice in the Fruitvale neighborhood of Oakland, Calif., my hometown. I had read about the new group in an article online and asked to join in its efforts. We ran a free environmental education ...
Jolted out of bed at 2 a.m. by the wailing of the fire alarm, I flail around in my dark room to find some resemblance of an outfit. After what seems like an eternity, I reluctantly go outside to join the other Battell residents huddled together in the cold, experiencing what has become a rite of passage ...
You have probably heard of the rapper Gucci Mane. You might have a song or two of his. Or you remember his cameo in 2013’s Spring Breakers, in which he played Big Arch (and actually fell asleep while filming a sex scene). Perhaps you’ve seen his Bart Simpson chain or his ice cream cone tattoo ...
Editors’ note: The following text contains vulgarity and obscenities. Printed with Ada’s permission. They say that if you forget your history, you are doomed to repeat it. So, Middlebury, I think it’s time to do some remembering. A year ago today a student received a rape threat at Middlebury ...
To the Middlebury Community, This weekend, we at Tavern hosted our annual first weekend party. We’d like to thank everyone who showed up and helped make that party the success it was — we saw a lot of people having a great time, and we were happy to host you. While we got a lot of positive feedback ...
This is a public service announcement: registering to vote and voting absentee is now easier than ever thanks to Middlebury College’s recent partnership with TurboVote, a nonpartisan, nonprofit that mails students pre-filled out registration forms and vote-by-mail applications and sends text and email ...
My summer internship plans did not go well. I spent my Spring semester, as many Middlebury students do, hurriedly scribbling cover letters and attaching resumes to anyone willing to take on a lowly college student for little or no pay. The end result after email chains that lasted for months, ...
It’s often said that we at Middlebury live in a bubble. Our little college sits deep in the Vermont woods, hours from the nearest major city and 45 minutes from Burlington, a town that’s hard-pressed to consider itself metropolitan in any way. We’re insulated from societal upheaval and cultural ...
Sunday was my 20th birthday. The occasion called for some self-reflection — Do I like who I am and how I’ve spent my time? What kind of impact am I leaving on this planet? — but it also marked the two-year point of my political involvement. When I entered kindergarten in 2000, we had a mock election ...