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Thursday, Feb 12, 2026

Opinion


The Setonian

On douchebaggery and the like

Danil Rudoy ’11 is from Moscow, Russia The problem of douchebaggery at Middlebury College, a proud educational institution with a long history full of copious resonant episodes, is something that, despite its obvious relevance, has not yet been addressed on the pages of this periodical. Your humble ...


The Setonian

Emoticons ftw :)

This past week, Middlebury joined Williams and Bowdoin as the third NESCAC institution to enact gender-neutral housing legislation. Starting in Fall 2011, any sophomore, junior or senior will be allowed to live with whomever they choose, regardless of either party’s gender. While College policy already ...


The Setonian

Sarah Palin and How to Ruin a Family Get-Together

Discussing politics is one of the easiest ways to ruin any family gathering. In my past I have managed to spoil visits from several of my relatives. One time involved my lobbyist uncle and his “artist” wife — who, depending on the incident, either would not stop complaining about how they could ...


The Setonian

Editorial

This past week, Middlebury joined Williams and Bowdoin as the third NESCAC institution to enact gender-neutral housing legislation. Starting in Fall 2011, any sophomore, junior or senior will be allowed to live with whomever they choose, regardless of either party’s gender. While College policy already ...


The Setonian

Editorial

Most students at Middlebury are athletes. Just over one in four students participate in varsity sports, and the percentage increases dramatically if we include JV, club and intramurals. In fact, if you don’t participate in an organized sport of some kind, you are in the minority on campus. Even then, ...


The Setonian

Rulers and the ruled

Last December hopes were high, and expectations soared as 197 countries sent representatives to the city of Copenhagen to take part in the United Nations sponsored talks on greenhouse emissions and global climate change. Despite President Obama’s comment that these talks were “meaningful,” these ...


The Setonian

Balance and the pass/fail system

This past week, we once again awoke in the early hours of the morning to stare at the lifeless blue screen of BannerWeb. Typing in those CRNs we made choices — we chose the shape of our spring semester, our possible majors and perhaps our future careers. Some of us registered for classes like The ...


The Setonian

Aid appreciation

I was excited to get an email in my inbox with the words: “You are the 2010-2011 recipient of the Anonymous Scholarship, a donor-funded scholarship that supports your financial aid. Congratulations on this special honor!” But when I looked at my new financial aid balance, my joyful bubble popped: ...


The Setonian

Cuddle for carbon neutrality

The Vermont winter makes a solid argument against the existence of global warming, especially when gusts of icy snow get involved. Admittedly, this time of year provides some evidence for climate change — from chilly to colder to Winter Term — but except for a few strangely sunny days, Middlebury ...


The Setonian

“Line by line and point by point”

When the woman in the most significant position of international climate policy power says that she does “not believe we will have a final agreement on climate change … in [her] lifetime,” one would approach work in this sphere with precious little hope. The woman is Christina Figueres — a 53-year-old ...


The Setonian

Midd Quidd!

To the Middlebury Campus, My family drove from New Hampshire to New York City this weekend to attend the Fourth Annual Quidditch World Cup. This was our third cup. Our son is a senior at Middlebury and has played quidditch all four years. In fact, he saw someone in a Middlebury Quidditch t-shirt on ...


The Setonian

Dressing up your subconcious

In the HBO series, Bored to Death, Ted Danson’s magazine-editing character hears that the board of his publication has voted to cut his column — to which he responds, “I am my column.  I mean, I’m writing it in my mind, all the time.” Similarly, I too write my column in my mind, all the time.  ...


The Setonian

“Keep Affolter”

Last fall I had the tremendous benefit of arriving on this campus and beginning my Middlebury journey in the classroom of Visiting Assistant Professor of Education Studies Tara Affolter. I was immediately challenged in numerous ways to critically analyze the complexities of systems of oppression and ...


The Setonian

Remembering a fellow sports editor

Technically speaking, Jeff Klein ’09 and I were co-editors of The Campus Sports section for three semesters in 2008, but that distinction doesn’t do justice to either our friendship or the weekly lessons he gave me in sports reporting. A small and somewhat sterilized office, the Hepburn basement ...


The Setonian

MacGray conspiracy

How many times have you had your laundry in the washer and ready to go, having snagged a precious available washer on a busy Sunday afternoon, only to find that the balance on every one of the five MacGray laundry cards you had lying around your room is a quarter short of the price of a wash? Or had ...


The Setonian

“Credit” where credit is due - Lisa Mulcahy

To the Middlebury Campus, The article published in the most recent issue of the Campus, entitled “Students debate course credits,” struck a nerve with me and many other non-natural science majors on campus. The issue itself is definitely worth consideration, but solely on the basis of hours spent ...


The Setonian

Liebowitzing

My dream is to find a career where I can be a hybrid of Tina Fey, Jon Stewart and Sam Seaborn. So far, I am found wanting in embodying the characteristics of all my role models. My shortcomings thus far haven’t caused my enthusiasm to wane, and I continue to prove my worth by studying my heroes in ...


The Setonian

The birth of small talk

This world has its ups and downs, but parts of it really suck. Airlines that decide it’s OK to strand me in a dirty motel on New Year’s Eve fall into this category. I could also do without hangovers, Proctor tempeh dishes and sadness, all of which are arguably the same thing. But by far the worst, ...


The Setonian

Looking for trust

College students get a bad rap. Among any population there will be a few misbehaved deviants scattered among many upstanding individuals; but at Middlebury, it seems that some faculty and administrators overestimate the prevalence of these malcontents. My friend Charlie and I recently walked through ...




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