Madeleine Kaptein

Editor in Chief

Madeleine Kaptein '25.5 (she/her) is the Editor in Chief.

Madeleine previously served as a managing editor, local editor, staff writer and copy editor. She is a Comparative Literature major with a focus on German and English literatures and was a culture journalism intern at Seven Days for the summer of 2025.

Brett Simison

News

Ian Baucom wants Middlebury to be the best liberal arts college in the world

By Cole Chaudhari, Mandy Berghela and Madeleine Kaptein | December 4, 2025

Since Ian Baucom began his role as Middlebury College’s 18th president in July, he’s mapped out a regular walking route. Starting at his office in Old Chapel, he winds past Old and New Battell, through BiHall, out to the Knoll, back up College Street, around Proctor and down to Axinn. Sometimes ...

Eliza Bernene

News

Committee-led selection process for student Commencement speaker reinstated with binding speech agreement

By Madeleine Kaptein | December 4, 2025

Last spring, the college temporarily changed the process for choosing a student Commencement speaker, selecting Student Government Association (SGA) President Brandon Straker ’25 to deliver a speech without the routine input of a student and staff-led committee. This change was made due to controversies ...

Cole Chaudhari

News

Middlebury mourns the death of Lia Smith ’26

By Madeleine Kaptein | October 26, 2025

Lia Smith ’26 has passed away at Middlebury College. She was found dead in the afternoon on Thursday, Oct. 23 by Vermont State Police (VSP) in a field near the Knoll, the college’s organic farm on the west end of campus. 

News

Search for missing student intensifies

By Madeleine Kaptein | October 23, 2025

Vermont State Police (VSP), New York State Police and the FBI have stepped in to help the Middlebury Police Department (MPD) in investigating the disappearance of Lia Smith ’26, who was last seen on campus at 9 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 17.

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News

Search for missing college senior underway

By Madeleine Kaptein | October 20, 2025

Lia Smith ’26 was reported missing to the Middlebury Police Department on Sunday afternoon. Smith's father filed the report after not hearing back from her via cell phone and communicating with her friends, who last saw her in a building on campus at 9 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 17. 

June Su

Arts & Culture

Garden-fresh grazing: “Knolci" returns

By Madeleine Kaptein | October 2, 2025

When someone places a shot glass filled with beet soup in front of you, you take a sip. When you remember the beets were grown less than a mile away, you take another.

Madeleine Kaptein

Local

Settlement of free speech lawsuit by FLŌRA eases state cannabis advertisement regulations

By Madeleine Kaptein | October 2, 2025

Last week, the Vermont Cannabis Control Board (CCB) and Middlebury’s FLŌRA Cannabis agreed on a settlement of the lawsuit filed last December by Dave Silberman, owner of FLŌRA. The lawsuit alleged that the CCB violated free speech rights by restricting cannabis advertisements. The settlement does ...

Opinion

Notes from the Desk: What The Campus can (and can’t) do about AI

By Madeleine Kaptein | September 25, 2025

ChatGPT was introduced to me in my sophomore year, the spring of 2023, by Professor of Writing and Rhetoric Hector Vila. We pasted our writing into the then-novel software, asked it for an improved version and reflected on what we liked about our work vs the robot’s. I watched my essay about my complicated ...

Courtesy Photo

News

What will it mean to close the Institute?

By Mandy Berghela and Madeleine Kaptein | September 18, 2025

With the decision to shut down several programs at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS) within two years finalized, Monterey-based faculty, staff and students are mourning the future of their school. On the other side of the country, the Vermont community has commended the choice, ...

Oliver Parini

Local

Retro Realm Arcade presses ‘play’

By Madeleine Kaptein | September 18, 2025

Debbie Gardner of New Haven brought her 4- and 7-year-old grandchildren to Middlebury’s Retro Realm arcade on a recent Thursday so that they could play alongside other kids. But when she spotted familiar games from the arcades of her teen years — including an original 1981 Ms. Pac-Man — she joined ...