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Sunday, Oct 4, 2026

Opinion


The Setonian

Roll the Windows up on Cruz

Ted Cruz really does not want you to get health insurance. Through a combination of snark and a false bravado that might trick his constituents into thinking that the Canadian-born Senator from Texas was actually at the Alamo, Cruz, Utah Senator Mike Lee, and the Tea Party were able to convince the ...


The Setonian

Charred Paper

At around 9:30 AM, my friend's mom arrived to pick him up from school. Fifteen minutes later, three moms and two dads came by to collect their children. By eleven, most seats in the classroom were empty. I asked my teacher, now for the seventh time, why everyone was leaving. My heart began to beat ...


The Setonian

A Call for Civility

As faculty members at Middlebury College, we were extremely saddened by the lack of civil debate following the removal of the American flags that comprised the 9/11 Memorial on campus. Regardless of how you might feel about 9/11 and the use of American flags to represent those who died or about Abenaki ...


The Setonian

Community Letter of Support for Anna

Anna Shireman-Grabowski ’14.5 is a member of the Middlebury College community. She is our classmate, our co-worker and our friend. She has cared for us, taught us, learned with us and challenged us. We acknowledge that Anna’s actions on Sept. 11 were deeply offensive and/or triggering for many ...


The Setonian

Ben and Margaret

Imagine Ben. He’s outgoing, incredibly kind and extremely bright. When he was 16, he witnessed global poverty for the first time while traveling abroad. It was an experience that changed his life. While in college, he did community service every week as he pursued a dual degree in economics (which ...


The Setonian

The Responsibility of Education

Learning is painful. It took me a summer to realize that, but our liberal arts education can be unpleasant. Or at the very least allow us to see unpleasantness that already exists. The jump from our cozy bubble of educated students and professors into the real world can be jarring. You find that people ...


The Setonian

Closed Doors on Town Offices

While students have been away for the summer, the citizens of Middlebury have been debating the merits of a College Town plan to move the town offices to the site of the Osborne House (77 Main Street, adjacent to the Ilsley Library). Opponents of the plan have criticized it for the lack of parking, ...


The Setonian

Lessons on Life and Loss

Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the year for me as a Jew. While fasting this past Saturday, I reflected on my own actions that have caused harm. I prayed for forgiveness and in the year to come better fulfill my highest obligation of tikkun olam – repairing the world. During the afternoon break ...


The Setonian

It was a Bright, Warm Day

One of Middlebury’s strengths is the drive with which students endeavor to make the world a better place. We don’t always agree on how to do this, and thus the College has recently witnessed impassioned debates on a number of important issues. Many, including myself, have been enriched by these ...


The Setonian

Addressing our College's History

The action on Sept. 11, 2013 carries intense emotions for a few reasons. On the one hand, the 9/11: Never Forget Project plays on the heartbreak of the day year after year to maintain the emotion of being attacked. On the other, using the American flag carries a long legacy of American imperialism, ...


The Setonian

Thoughts from a Soldier

As a member of the Middlebury College alumni community, I feel compelled to share my reflections on the offensive and deeply saddening act that occurred on its campus on the twelfth anniversary of September 11, 2001. I graduated from Middlebury College in 2012. This year, I spent the anniversary of ...


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In Response to the 9/11 Flag Incident

As a close-knit liberal arts college tucked gently away in the bucolic Vermont countryside, it becomes easy to think of our actions and the scope of our influence as contained within a bubble. But in truth, our actions on campus reverberate far beyond our small community. The insulation between Middlebury ...


The Setonian

In Defense of Intervention

“I want to make it absolutely clear to Assad ... [that] the use of chemical weapons is and would be totally unacceptable ... if you make the tragic mistake of using these weapons ... you will be held accountable,” President Obama stated last December. However, while Secretary Kerry has now confirmed ...


The Setonian

Dive$ting for Dollar$

Forget everything you thought you knew about why Middlebury College must divest. It is not about abandoning profitable investments for moral reasons. It is about abandoning investments with little hope of future growth. It is about getting out of a bubble that is about to burst. Last year, we watched ...


The Setonian

The Content of our Character

On Aug. 28, each member of the Middlebury community hoping for a statement from the College concerning the divestment of our endowment from fossil fuel companies received what they had desired. However, the news contained in the email sent out by President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz wasn’t ...


The Setonian

Pandora's Sarin Box

He didn’t want to tell us the story, but he did. The man at the dinner table this summer had dug up the bodies of murdered Kurds in the early nineties. He had recovered samples in order to help prove that Saddam’s regime had been responsible for using Sarin against defenseless citizens. He was then ...


The Setonian

Divestment 101

What is this “divestment”? To those of you new to Middlebury or just returning from abroad, I wish to say welcome and keep an eye out for us.  The issue of divestment from fossil fuels and arms manufacturing has been a hot topic for the past year, and it will continue to be.  Let me get you up ...


The Setonian

Doubling Down to Bring You the Best

The Campus has two contracts to uphold this year. A contract with you, the reader, and a contract to pursue the truth at all costs. We don’t write for Old Chapel. We don’t write for the Board of Trustees. We write for you, the Middlebury student. This year, we have made slight changes to try and ...


The Setonian

Our Balancing Act

Student newspapers, especially at a place like Middlebury, face many challenges when it comes to our coverage of difficult stories. We exist within a small, transitory and tight-knit community. Middlebury College is a unique space to try and report the news, where the subjects of each story come into ...


The Setonian

In Response to 'A Signed Professor Evaluation'

This piece is in response to Michelle Smoler’s '13 “A Signed Professor Evaluation.” The professor to whom she refers advised our senior theses as well, but our experiences were so different that we felt compelled to respond to her evaluation. At the beginning of the academic year, our adviser ...