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Saturday, Oct 3, 2026

Opinion


The Setonian

Learning From Hazing

It has been over three and a half years since the day when the women’s swimming and diving team was told that due to hazing allegations, the 2010-2011 season would be cancelled for all upper-classmen girls. We were two weeks from championships. I was sitting in the stands as Coach Solomon delivered ...


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Who Are You?

I am sure we are familiar with the resounding voice of Roger Daltrey screaming out the words “Who are you?” in the smash hit by The Who that bears the same name as the lyric. While I have listened to Daltrey sing this over Townshend’s guitar riffs for years, only recently have I actually taken ...


The Setonian

On Middlebury Interactive Languges (MIL)

In recent weeks some faculty colleagues have questioned the College’s investment and participation in Middlebury Interactive Languages (MIL). MIL is a for-profit, joint venture created in 2010 by Middlebury and K12 Inc., a Virginia-based company that creates online educational and curricular content ...


The Setonian

Does This Pass The Smell Test?

Have you ever wondered how the College makes its money? It seems straightforward: students in Middlebury and Monterey pay, the College provides education and the transaction is complete. What is missing is another revenue stream that we have recently added, which currently has the potential to either ...


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A Real Sex Education

Sexual assault on college campuses is making headlines this month as Tufts was found noncompliant with Title IX and the Department of Education released a list of 55 schools currently under investigation, including Amherst, Harvard and Dartmouth. Though many of our peer schools are being investigated, ...


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Imagining Safety Beyond Surveillance

Here in idyllic rural Vermont, Middlebury College is a bastion of beauty, tradition, stewardship, and of course — safety. In order to foster elite learning, we have a multitude of mechanisms to protect us from any possible interference from danger outside our marble walls. But according to the Community ...


The Setonian

Advice Column, Volume I

Guess what? Advice columns are stupid, but Holy Guac, people of my ilk can’t seem to get enough of them.  There are some decent ones of course — Dear Sugar, written by Cheryl Strayed had its prime in The Rumpus a couple years ago (but now Strayed is hella overplayed, like Dark Horse feat. Juicy ...


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AAL is a No Brainer

If someone asked you if all six inhabited continents should be equally represented in our distribution requirements, what would you say? There is not much our editorial board agrees on, but on this point we agree. We would maybe distinguish North America, as it is the continent on which we reside, but ...


The Setonian

A Call for Compromise

53 weeks ago Congress failed the people it swore to protect. It was then that, in pathetically predictable fashion, Congressional leaders couldn’t muster the strength to take action in the face of a national plague of gun violence. As much as I wish it were, that wasn’t the only time they failed ...


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No Thank You for Smoking

I love to leave my window open in my room. The cool breeze, the smell of the trees and the rain, and the soft white noise of the voices of the people who socialize below all contribute to making my room feel open and more welcoming. I can barely sleep without it open — something seems off when the ...


The Setonian

Imagining Our Multicultural Center

Exactly a week ago, PALANA house hosted PALANA Uncensored: “Multicultural Center or nah?,” a discussion in the Hillcrest Orchard. (This event is related to and in communication with other initiatives happening around the creation of a multicultural center). At the event, PALANA house members and ...


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Prince Among Peasants or Prince Among Kings?

“Sort of going off that point, well not really, but in relation to that, based on what Kant would say, not me, but if we were to take the Socratic method and apply it to Einstein’s relativity, Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath may reveal to be a work of art history but only if you interpret it that ...


The Setonian

“Read Books Written By Those You Disagree With”

I am a student in Professor Dry’s Race, Sex and the Constitution course and for my presentation at the Spring Student Symposium reading a paper I wrote for the class, I’ve been called a racist. First, in beyond the green’s preview of the presentation, Lily Andrews wrote, “To watch out for (MAY ...


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Vote No on Apathy

In this issue every year, the Editorial Board talks with all the candidates running for SGA President and endorses one. This year, however, for the first time in as long as we can remember, there is only one candidate: Taylor Custer. We fully support Taylor for President and encourage everyone to vote ...


The Setonian

CCI Helps Connect the Dots

Last week’s Op Ed piece on “Connecting the Dots with CCI” raised some valid points but also included some misrepresentation of the facts. The invitation from The Campus to respond and help set the record straight prompts me to take advantage of this space to do a little “myth busting” and ...


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Public Nudity and Your Mom’s Vagina

Joanna Rothkopf ’12 wrote a dank column near the end of her time here, which I guess you could call a “feminist column” (squirm) called That Thing Down There.  (I squirm not because I feel uncomfortable to call myself a feminist, but because of how many people abandon ship when they hear a bright-eyed ...


The Setonian

$50 Mil. is a BFD

The college announced this week that it is going to be investing $50 million in a responsible investment fund. This is an amazing thing. Why? Because $50 million can make a big difference if it’s invested in companies with good environmental, social and governance practices. Because the college is ...


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Donation Manipulation

I was eating breakfast outside Proctor on Sunday when I got a phone call from one of my friends. “I’m making calls for the Senior Fund, and you’re on my list of people who haven’t donated. The money goes to a scholarship fund, and if 68 percent of the class doesn’t donate, we won’t have ...


The Setonian

Calling All Prospies

We hope that you are enjoying your visit to Middlebury, and that you can take some time out to educate yourselves about activism happening on campus and how you can support it. In presenting the following demands (which are in response to major issues students have identified), we ask you to use your ...


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Mind and Language, in a Nuthatch?

I watched a video recently of a trio of prominent philosophers discussing what’s been termed as the “linguistic turn” in contemporary philosophy. In a nutshell, the linguistic turn marked a movement, beginning with Nineteenth-Century German philosopher Gottlob Frege and culminating in the work ...