Notes from the Desk: Turning a new page
By Cole Chaudhari, Ryan Mcelroy and Madeleine Kaptein | September 12, 2024Welcome back to the college’s only student-run weekly newspaper, The Campus!
Opinion
The Real Presidential Debate: Laurie Patton’s Successor
By The Editorial Board | September 12, 2024In January 2025, after almost 10 years at the college, President Laurie Patton will step down from her post to become President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dean of Language Schools Stephen Snyder will serve as interim president this coming spring, with the Board of Trustees and presidential ...
Across the pond: Looking at Britain from America
By Anonymous | September 12, 2024I never expected to end up in the United States. When researching and applying to universities, the U.S. seemed like the last place on my list. However, two and a half years later I find myself here, in America. I moved here thinking I would learn about the U.S. But now I can say with confidence that ...
I plead the first!
By Lucy Schembre | September 12, 2024Two weeks before Middlebury College opened its doors for the 2024–25 academic year, students received a lengthy email from lead administrators clarifying their policy on open expression.
Informing ourselves about more than just one side of divestment
By Danielle Stillman | May 9, 2024Whether or not you support the divestment measures outlined in the Student Government Association (SGA) referendum that was sent out on Monday, we should all be concerned about the process by which the case for this referendum is being carried out. I appreciate that the SGA addressed the concern about ...
An open letter to Middlebury College from alumni in support of the Middlebury Gaza Solidarity Encampment
By Middlebury Alumni For Justice In Palestine | May 9, 2024To date, more than 1000 Middlebury alumni have signed the Open Letter to Middlebury College pledging to withhold donations until student demands at the Middlebury Gaza Solidarity Encampment are met. We are immensely proud of the students who are embodying Middlebury’s mission statement principles ...
Staking out our position on the encampment
By The Editorial Board | May 9, 2024Throughout our meetings this year, we have often wondered whether Middlebury students still have the resolve to agitate for political change on campus. From the pushback to Charles Murray to the fight for Energy2028 and divestment from fossil fuels, Middlebury students of the past have shown their ability ...
Empowering Middlebury: a call to action for student-led change in campus organization administration
By Cole Siefer | May 9, 2024My name is Cole Siefer and I am the co-director of the Student Government Association Finance Committee (SGAFC). While I agree with the general sentiment on campus that there are issues with the current system of student organization administration, I think that instead of criticizing it from the sidelines, ...
Why you should vote in this week’s referendum on divestment
By Aksil Boughida and Lucy Schembre | May 9, 2024On May 6, our Student Government Association (SGA) released a referendum giving the student body the opportunity to vote on divesting our endowment from any company that is involved in arms, arms manufacturing, war profiteering more generally, or is funding Israel’s current “war” effort in any ...
From greenhouse to crisis: the evolution of climate discourse in U.S. media
By Eli Richardson and Noah Rizika | May 9, 2024This past summer, our basement flooded. We had rented a house with five friends here in Middlebury, and were looking forward to Vermont’s sunny days, swimming holes, cookouts and hikes in the woods. Instead, we were met with wildfire smoke, monthslong rainfall and flooding. Carrying wet, moldy furniture ...
Media coverage on the encampments — whose voice is intended to be centered?
By Jacob Burnett | May 9, 2024As Gaza Solidarity Encampments at universities have spread across the country, major media outlets have directed their attention to covering free speech rights, encampments as a valid form of protest and the history of student movements.
A call for improvement in on-campus accessibility
By Alex Evangelidis | May 9, 2024I broke my foot in Davis Library at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 21, 2023. The moment I realized, I began to cry — not because of the pain, but out of frustration. I immediately knew that my life was about to get a lot more inconvenient and exhausting.
From my archives: Second guessing as a second semester senior
By Charlie Keohane | May 9, 2024For the past three years, I’ve been hoarding issues of The Campus in my closet. I’ve passed dozens of issues, some with faded ink, from my tiny Gifford room with a slanted ceiling to summer storage units to different corners of Forest Hall. With graduation approaching and limited space in my suitcase, ...
Sarah Says: Signing off
By Sarah Miller | May 9, 2024I have worked for The Middlebury Campus since the second week of my freshman year, primarily as an Opinions Editor. When I assumed the role of Editor at Large this year (a wonderfully vague title), I was granted almost total discretion over my writing. Soon into the fall semester, I decided to start ...
AI: Academia on death’s door
By Joey Disorbo | May 9, 2024In the 1990s, chess grandmaster Gary Kasparov was defeated by IBM’s “Deep Blue” computing system. Many people thought this was impossible — an AI system could never be complex enough to emulate the creative and intuitive processes required in high-level chess. Of course, the final score was ...
Students love their clubs — the college should, too
By The Editorial Board | May 2, 2024Upon perusing the results of Zeitgeist 6.0, we noticed an interesting change from last year’s results: Middlebury students now rate student organizations as more important than outdoor recreation, with more respondents indicating a higher level of value placed on clubs than time outdoors.
In opposition to SGA’s solidarity statement and in support of student activists
By Shane Silverman | May 2, 2024The following day, President Shafik called the New York Police Department (NYPD) to clear the protestors on trespassing charges. Half of the arrested students were enrolled at Barnard and faced disciplinary actions such as interim suspensions, but nearly all of them have made agreements with their administrators ...
RAs: The last line of defense
By Marlow Saucier | May 2, 2024Residential Life (ResLife) is a lifestyle more than it is a job. During my four years at Middlebury, I’ve been an Residential Assistant (RA) for three and I am the Head RA of Hepburn Hall this year. Legitimately, some of the kindest and most open-minded people I have met on campus have been those ...
Sarah Says: That’s Why They Call Them The Blues
By Sarah Miller | May 2, 2024Every April, when the days get long again and we shed our winter coats, I remember that I am an essentially joyful person and am, perhaps more importantly, committed to cultivating joy. This is the writerly way of saying I suffer from a low-grade form of seasonal depression. Seasonal Affectiveness Disorder ...
Middlebury’s process of creating new student organizations requires serious structural changes to satisfy student needs
By Francesca Bradley and Rosella Graham | May 2, 2024For all the students who eagerly toured Middlebury College before committing, you surely heard some version of the line, “It is always possible to start a new club on campus if it doesn’t already exist! You just need ten or more interested members.”