Last week, our fellow editor Edward O’Brien ’17 wrote an interesting Notes from the Desk calling out a group of straight Middlebury guys who verbally berated men who tried to dance with them at a Q&A (Queers and Allies) party, telling them to “fuck off.” We were talking about that situation ...
Within minutes of Jared Leto taking the stage to accept the award for Best Supporting Actor at this year’s Oscars, there was a predictable, yet no less inane, post on my newsfeed in protest of his win. It was a link to an article titled, “10 Actors Who Could Have Played Jared Leto’s Role in ‘Dallas ...
We need to change the way we interact with each other. Words are disconnected from speech, and the subsequent loss of emotion, rationality, and intent that comes with them has harmed all of our relationships. But everyone has heard the prophecies of the end of all meaningful interaction, how society ...
I had the unique opportunity of speaking at The Moth this past Thursday (the Moth, for those of you who don’t know, is a live story telling event held in the Gamut Room). The experience proved to be extraordinarily fun and exciting, yet I realized something as I stood up there recounting my tale. ...
What do you want to do when you graduate? Although I only have a year left, that question is quickly joining the list of things strangers ask you when you’ve just met them and they have nothing left to say. The answer is that I have no idea. When I think about how much I have changed every year since ...
You cannot use the word “faggot” and not mean it offensively. You cannot say “no homo” around your friends and say it doesn’t matter because none of you are gay. You cannot claim that because “some of your best friends are gay,” that you are an ally. Last Tuesday, Queers & Allies and ...
On February 12th, Max Kagan ’14 wrote an op-ed in The Campus entitled “Just Call AAL Other” in response to a recent student-led campaign that seeks to modify the current Cultures and Civilizations requirement. The current system requires students to take one class with a large focus on each of ...
Last week, the Campus updated us on Middlebury’s plan to become carbon neutral by 2016. The degree of precision found in this initiative is incredible. To cite but one example, Middlebury collects data on where each and every woodchip burned in our biomass plant is harvested and milled. This seems ...
The discipline of political science has come quite a long way since Aristotle’s Politics, arguably the classic work in the study of politics, which asked and answered questions about our nature as political animals. Whereas Aristotle’s methods in that book were primarily observational and logical, ...
If I were to try to describe it, I would root my answer in dichotomies: overwhelming yet exhilarating, unknown yet expected, intimidating yet motivating, and most importantly fearful yet rewarding. No, I am not talking about skydiving or meeting Will Ferrell, but rather the trials and tribulations, ...
Google’s effectively unparalleled capacity for high-level innovation may prove to be the source of many of the technological innovations that will define human advancement in the 21st century. Inherent in the spectacular potential of companies like Google to reshape society, however, is the profound ...
A sea of blonde and brunette ponytails filled the social space for a discussion on body image disorders and ideals for women led by Courtney Martin, author of “Perfect Girl.” She argued that a dire consequence of college women pursuing the image of “the perfect girl” is the self-hate of the ...
In the fall of senior year at my high school, the question people were constantly asking each other was not ‘where are you applying ED?’ but rather ‘to which Ivy are you applying ED?’ Given this attitude of my classmates, I hope that none of you will judge me on the following dilemma I faced. I ...
I did not plan to write for the Campus this semester. I am studying abroad and had hoped to spare the Middlebury community my whining and myself the dangerously inflated ego that being published in the Campus might cause. And, frankly, I was looking to get away. Alas, many things are easier said than ...
You don’t control where you came from or how you were born. You don’t have control whether you were born with privilege any more than you can control whether you were born without it. The one thing you do have absolute control over is your actions. I don’t want anyone to think that I am blaming ...
What pops into someone’s head when you tell them you go to Middlebury College? Languages? 350.org? The price tag? Or have they never even heard of it? This past week Bill Burger, vice president of communications, pondered these questions when soliciting feedback from students, faculty and the board ...
I am sure that many of you, like me, fall into certain familial rituals after spending a few days back home on break. Laundry is done in collective family-sized loads, your normal dinner schedule is thrown horribly out of sync or perhaps you must perpetually update your parents as to your whereabouts, ...
Here at Middlebury, we live by an extensive set of rules. Some are necessary to maintain our safety, but many are superfluous and actively undermine our autonomy as students. A student body that lacks agency also lacks community standards. I simply propose that we deserve more trust. The presence of ...
When I read the article by Jeanette Cortez, class of 2015 and from Los Angeles, not Philadelphia, as reported in last week’s issue, “Not Like a Fifth Class,” I had an immediate, almost visceral reaction. In her article, she criticized the negative reactions of students of color to incidents of ...
My parents often ask about my future and about what I’m doing to prepare for a career. Most of these conversations descend into arguments, during which they become frustrated with my steadfast uncertainty about what I want to do. During one such discussion, my father exclaimed in frustration, “Where ...