When simple solutions and polished narratives are applied to complex issues, there is often something fishy lurking beneath the surface. Such is the case for Teach for America (TFA), which presents itself as an organization that recruits graduates of elite colleges, like Middlebury, and provides them ...
Too often, our politics is corrupted by advocacy, leaving no time for reflection or critical thought. Every new piece of information serves only to bolster or refute an argument we were already trying to make. The danger of such an approach to politics is evident: it is close-minded and simplistic. ...
Ah, Thanksgiving: a time for giving thanks for friends, food and family; a time when we can put aside our differences and come to terms over pie and turkey. It is one of the most noble of traditions. It is also the weekend when your little sister comes home from college and tells you that an online ...
We are the generation that is the least aware of how technology is changing our lives. Our gadgets, and the virtual realities that we can enter through them, can make us forget why we need to be present in the here and now, but only if we allow them to. I am writing in response to Cheswayo’s brilliant ...
On Friday, a week into “new member education” — “pledge” for those not versed in doublespeak — the leadership of Kappa Delta Rho received a letter from Dean of Students Katy Smith Abbott stating that in response to “an allegation of potential hazing,” all functions of the house would ...
From across Ross dining hall you spot a girl. It’s the same brown face you often see in passing around the campus. Long black braids swinging past her shoulders in the mid-lunchtime frenzy, you smile at her and she smiles back. You’ve never spoken to her, or maybe you have? You shake the idea from ...
“Privilege” is a word we love to use at Middlebury. It works well with our classroom discussions on the global south, how we perceive our relationships with the town, and even how we treat waste at our dining halls. It is not a term that often enters our bedrooms. I had a shocking reminder of exactly ...
This week our paper looks a little different because we have a few new writers — high school students! Two weeks ago, middbeat posted a video made by an English class at Middlebury Union High. Although the video was made a few years ago, it is still relevant and highlighted an issue we, as the College ...
To the Editors of the Middlebury Campus, We would like to offer some comments and clarification on the article entitled “Reading and Ranking: Shaping the Class of 2018” in the November 14, 2013 issue of the Middlebury Campus. First, thank you for spending time with the Admissions Office to shed ...
Akrasia is the ancient Greek word for “weakness of will,” or, in other words, acting against one’s better judgment. This past week makes me think that the U.S. might have itself a bad case of the stuff when it comes to climate questions. As Greenwire and The New York Times report, the EPA lowered ...
Cheating at a competitive place like Middlebury will never go away, but it is possible to change the incentives that currently allow its tolerance. Beyond being lazy and counter-productive to education, cheating is a collective action problem. The best way to prevent cheating — in addition to investing ...
Double-tap. Explosion. Dust. Blood. Celebrations. It reads like a resume of a more traditional military confrontation but in these modern instances no one has to touch a gun or even look their enemy in the face. Welcome to the world of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. Many governments, private firms and individuals ...
8,446 miles. That is how far it is from Middlebury to Tacloban City, Philippines. When the Earth suffers, we suffer with it, but not everyone suffers equally. Today, the Philippines is bearing much of the burden. Since our community often tends to feel apathetic towards the people and communities that ...
Unpaid internships have become a nearly ubiquitous feature of the modern economy. For many students, they offer the opportunity to explore their field of interest before later attempting to find a paid job. While the prevalence of unpaid work opportunities creates a number of problems for those who ...
Dear friends, Today, on Nov. 14, I am going to voluntarily fast for a whole day in solidarity with the Filipino delegate to the UN COP19 climate talk, Mr. Yeb Sano. I chose this day because on the same day, Divest Middlebury is holding a candlelight vigil to commemorate the lives that have been lost, ...
As we once again gripe and groan about the inadequacy of BannerWeb, it’s easy to lose sight of other registration frustrations many students face as we choose how to spend the chilly month of January. Instead of enrolling beachside at some Southern Californian college or braving the hustle and bustle ...
If anyone has ventured down to the CFA recently, they will see a bizarre looking sculpture perched on top of the hill by the pond. With its door open, one can look inside Vito Acconci’s “Way Station,” which had been previously displayed outside of Bihall starting in 1983. The piece was open to ...
Last week in Oslo, Marius Holm of the ZERO Foundation presented a report that I co-wrote this summer along with a number of environmental and financial professionals making the case for fossil fuel divestment in Norway’s government pension fund, a portfolio so large that it dwarfs the size of all ...
Four Fridays ago, for the first time since I’ve been a student here at Middlebury, I felt truly invisible. I don’t mean that my presence caused some trickery of the eye triggering an inability to see, but rather that something about me caused people not to acknowledge my presence. I wasn’t a student ...
In all our high level seminars, hours in the library and dusty tomes on our bookshelves, have we missed something? Has our education here left something out? Something, perhaps, more elusive than a GPA or a thesis? Does Middlebury create smarter people or better people? This is a somewhat melancholy ...