It became clear in just a few days here over J-term that the issue of divestment has captured the imagination of the Middlebury population. In a school full of aspiring investors, targeting the endowment is a clever approach, and divestment is not a bad idea. It is the height of hypocrisy to rail against ...
Last week I experienced the curious feeling of missing someone. I actually didn’t realize I missed this person (who I will call Django) until I made what I then thought was an arbitrary and mindless decision to call him. When I hung up the phone I was overcome by an unexpected sensation of loss and ...
The recent increase in fines for parking violations — from $10 to $50 for a single ticket — brings our attention to the complex relationship between students and Public Safety officials at the College. Public Safety plays an important role by protecting students, faculty and staff and working ...
Today is Valentine’s Day. No matter how you feel about this “holiday” — whether you love it, hate it or try to forget about it — Feb. 14 usually makes us think about love. And, even though the two are not necessarily or always related, love often makes us think about sex. Most college students, ...
Are you addicted to your phone? Think about it for a second. How much of your day do you spend glued to your smartphone, checking emails, texting friends and reading articles? I know that when all is said and done, I am guilty of spending a good chunk of every single day on my phone. Before this winter ...
Society creates numerous barriers to become self-aware — mainly that it creates so-called “acceptable” models of behavior that cannot possibly match each person’s set of ethics and beliefs. But higher education compels us to move past the childhood world of social mimicry and to question what ...
The other day it became strikingly clear to me how genuinely unaffected I’ve been by environmental issues. I’ve never been the victim of environmental injustice. I’ve never been oppressed (outright) by oil companies or arms manufacturers. Having clean water was only ever an issue when the town ...
The Breakfast Club did it, Principal Duval in Mean Girls did it and now, Middlebury has done it too. Gather a bunch of students with various social identities, races, genders, sexualities, etc. and, basically, let them go at it: let them talk. Having participated in Middlebury’s first JusTalks event ...
Dear first-year Febs, I’m just a guy in his last semester that wants to welcome those in their first. I want to be an example of one of the many friendly (and weird) members of your college community. In the process, I would like to share a little about what I’ve learned and what treasures ...
As I approach the very end of my time here, I occasionally wonder how much my perspective has changed over the years. I still worry about many of my freshman concerns: Am I happy? Do I have enough friends? Do I like them? Did I take the right class? Presented with an absurd time crunch, these issues ...
Some things I did over winter break: yoga, Catholic mass with my grandmother, an ex-dudefriend. My New Year’s resolution for last year was “be not afraid.” For me, “be not afraid,” meant to shake off my tendency to over-plan and overthink, to take risks and to accept when things don’t ...
On the 10th of January 2013, after Islamist forces from the north of Mali started advancing south towards the capital Bamako, the Malian government demanded help from the French military. Through either post-colonial guilt or neo-colonial greed, the French committed to ensuring political stability ...
Winter term is wonderful for so many reasons: more fun with friends, homework for only one class and ample time to plan elaborately themed parties, make a kickass broomball team or construct an igloo outside your dorm. These are the parts of winter term that we like to remember — the memories that ...
Last week the Campus published an article on Room 404, a new student publication. They ran an early draft of the article that was largely inaccurate. If you’re interested in the publication, here are some notes to give you an idea of what it’s actually about. Last week’s article stated that Room ...
Are you ready to do the math? I am too ... but in the last few days, I’ve also been doing the history. Yes, doing the history, the history of social movements, and I’ve been asking: “What makes movements work?” I’ve looked back to 1960, the year I was born, when four students from the Agricultural ...
From the Aurora Theater shooting to the horrifying Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy, the widely publicized mass shootings of 2012 provoke an important social question on whether or not the Second Amendment right to bear arms should be readdressed. In the wake of these tragedies, politicians and ...
We do not have a unique mental illness problem in this country; other countries also have people who suffer from mental illness. But you wouldn’t know it from listening to NRA Vice President Wayne LaPierre, who supports the right to carry a gun at the cost of any other right. He seems to think that ...
The first thing I did when I got a text message asking if I had seen what was going on in Newtown was check online news sources. After reading a few headlines and skimming a few articles, sparse in detail and high in speculation, I went downstairs to my family room. I sat down next to my mother, who ...
This academic year, there has arguably been no bigger issue on the minds of Middlebury students than divestment. The topic polarizes us at times. Some argue that as an institution with a pledged commitment to environmental and social justice, Middlebury should put its money where its mouth is. Divesting ...
About one year ago, the College launched a new site — ‘go/portal’ — in order to aggregate information about events and activities on campus. The initiative aimed to provide a single, comprehensive resource for students, many of who were tired of their inboxes being inundated daily with all-student ...