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 ...
One afternoon last October, I descended the stairs of Davis Family Library for a foray into the College Archives. My purpose was an article on the Archives and its staff, but in truth I was simply curious about what the Archives was all about. Before that article debuted, I had not spent time in what ...
With the start of every school year comes inevitable change as a new wave of students and faculty arrive, setting the tone for the coming year. This fall, however, the College is set up for even more momentous change than usual. With President Liebowitz and Dean Collado leaving at the end of the year ...
My home state has been in the news a lot recently, neither for maple syrup nor for skiing, but as the face of drug use and crime in the U.S. Since the Feb. 27 New York Times article, “A Call to Arms on A Vermont Heroin Epidemic,” the rest of the country has reached the startling realization that ...
You may not know it, but there is a very real military presence on the Middlebury campus. Maybe you’ve seen someone wading through the crowds of flannel and Toms in camouflage and combat boots. Maybe you’ve wondered what the U.S. Army was doing occupying ADK on a Wednesday afternoon. Maybe you’ve ...
In honor of my final contribution to the Campus, I wanted to mention some things I love about Middlebury. I love that everybody is on the same housing and meal plan. I love that we all have access to top-notch athletic facilities, to mental and physical health services, and to innumerable devices and ...
Affirmative action doesn’t work and it’s unconstitutional. The state cannot change destructive culture that inhibits black success. Those who benefit from affirmative action are unqualified. Do you believe these statements, dear reader? Despite the often cited election of President Obama and the ...
It’s not uncommon that college students turn to the Internet to seek relief from the papers, exams, problem sets and job applications that lie ahead. For Middlebury students in particular, a site called Middlebury Confessional is one option for when morale is low during a late night in the library. ...
It took 43 minutes for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections to execute Clayton Lockett. Sorry, that figure is wrong. It took fourteen years and 43 minutes for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections to execute Clayton Lockett. As if the decade and a half on death row wasn’t cruel and unusual enough, ...
The United States is growing, in general, increasingly liberal with each passing year. With this liberalization comes greater equality, but perhaps more importantly, a greater sense and understanding of how unequal our society remains. Thus, people speak out. In greater numbers and with greater voices, ...