Coincidentally, several friends of mine have gone into the perfumery business. They all just developed new scents and are in the process of marketing them. I mentioned that they might take out an advertisement in the Campus, but they didn’t want to pay top dollar for a spot. Instead, they convinced ...
With this semester’s end, spring flowers and warm days comes the 20th anniversary of the infamous Middlebury College staff firings of 1991. A decade ago, when we noted the 10th anniversary of this shameful chapter in the College’s history, some asked why we were dredging up these unpleasant ...
Race is an issue that deeply interests me, but not because I feel like I have a huge personal stake in it. I think of myself as more of an ethnic tourist. It’s not that I don’t feel a distinct connection with an ethnic heritage: I never felt it more than when I left home and realized how special ...
Middlebury has some of the best facilities and resources of any small liberal arts college in America, but not by chance. As our academic standing improved in the last decade, we invested heavily in our infrastructure. Our once modest campus was transformed through the large-scale building projects ...
Dear loyal Campus readers, Three more weeks left in the semester. Five more weeks before I graduate. It seemed only yesterday that I was a nerdy kid with big hair and big dreams fascinated by college, marble buildings and all-campus emails. Actually, that was yesterday. But it’s still terrifying ...
The last year of a student’s time at Middlebury is distinct in many ways from his or her first three. Socially, seniors are given access to the best housing on campus, and can apply to live off-campus. Academically, they get priority registration and set out to complete work on a degree that has been ...
In a letter to the editor about Middlebury sophomore, Jay Saper ’13, Professor David Stoll wrote: “Since Saper is a SOAN major, and I am a SOAN professor, I am embarrassed that he appears to be using sociological and anthropological concepts to make an ad hominem argument against an invited speaker, ...
Housing registration for juniors and seniors at Middlebury sucks the big one. It’s overly convoluted, illogical, stressful and frustrating. Even when everything goes smoothly, as it did this year, and we avoid debacles like last year’s, the system seems to cultivate stress and anxiety when there ...
This past weekend at Powershift, the proverbial gauntlet for every American young person was thrown down. Hard. On Saturday night, Tim De Christopher — a renowned climate activist in jail for defrauding a land auction for oil and gas development (he outbid all attendant energy companies despite not ...
A good day is a rare event. I’m not trying to be depressing saying this — it’s scientifically proven. If days were rated and put on a graph, laws of probability dictate that the graph would show a bell curve: a few days would deserve the labels of “dumpy” or “wicked awesome,” but most ...
Every Middlebury student possesses an identity in this bubble: this identity can be defined by our friend group, where we live, our major, where we are from, what extracurricular activities we do, etc. I have, however, rarely seen anyone define himself by the commons he is in, during the 3.9 years that ...
Governor Peter Shumlin is right. Health care reform is needed — the sooner the better. One big reason: Health care is busting the state budget. But proposed reforms are not likely to produce real budget savings until 2015 at the earliest. Health care costs will continue to balloon until these reforms ...
Rumors often circulate during the mid-months of Spring regarding big events coming to the College. Last week, Old Chapel finally announced our 2011 Commencement speaker will be National Ski and Paralympic Hall of Famer Chris Waddell ’91. The jury is, however, still out on the identity of this term’s ...
One nondescript afternoon, I was sitting in Axinn pretending to work on my thesis. As if I weren’t already busy enough listening to the sounds of liquid trickling down stones and considering the mental riddle of the in vitrine miniature TV display, a tour came by. The tour guide seemed very sure of ...
Rahm Emmanuel once famously said that he would never let a good crisis go to waste. Only in an emergency can the American people be convinced to allow some kind of drastic change; otherwise, the majority prefers change to plod along at a more manageable pace. So, how does a politician convince his constituents ...
Our community has recently been embroiled in two debates regarding the Foundation for Individuals Rights in Education (FIRE) highlighting of the Aunt Des video series and a guest lecture on the “Culture of Despair.” Consequently, the Campus has published two op-eds and an editorial regarding these ...
I am only here today because Middlebury College, at the time I applied to college, was one of a handful of colleges in the US with a need-blind admissions policy for international students. This is no longer the case. In its first round of budget cuts, back in 2009, the administration decided it was ...
I recently drew inspiration to reply to Jay Saper’s crusade against free expression from my favorite movie, The Big Lebowski. In an early scene, Walter, The Dude’s best friend, counsels The Dude to pursue someone who has trampled on his rights. Walter, borrowing from then-President George H. W. ...