Published in the Mountainview
Two recent, seemingly separate actions by Middlebury Col lege
The first, an internal event, is the termination of the Sig
Ep social house. The circumstances surrounding this event are serious, and
demonstrate tremendous culpability on the part of all involved, including
potential negligence by College officials. Over the years, single-sex
fraternities have been driven off-campus and underground; now it appears that
co-ed social houses will face the same fate. Current students complain that the
specter of the Commons system as the only source of social events is bleak. The
major criticism of the Commons system, and indeed of recent changes in the
social house system, is that small, specialized groups are forced into
all-inclusiveness. This ruins a sense of common identity which first
fraternities, and then social houses, felt within themselves and used to
distinguish themselves from the other houses on campus.
I am not suggesting that we return to the days of
discrimination, sexual harassment, and worse. I am, however, suggesting that
the opposite of discrimination, all-inclusiveness, has clearly not solved the
deeper social problems of sexual politics and intoxicated misconduct. The
College's attempt at a "quick fix" has failed. Social houses, Commons,
and academic interest houses will always have deeper societal problems until
the College takes them on directly.
This in no way absolves students of responsibility or
accountability; it does, however, place the College in its proper role: a model
of behavior and community participation and improvement. At this time, the
College has abdicated that role.
The second event, the College's master plan, recently
conditionally approved by the town Planning Commission, further indicates
College abandonment of responsibility. The first major blemish on the plan is
the priority given to renovation of Starr Library: in the third tier, to begin
within five years. For a College with almost an entire top administration made
up of faculty members, this is a tragic flaw. The library is in drastic need of
renovation immediately; the mold on the first floor in 1994-1995 was only the
beginning of the end for a building which still lacks a proper
ventilation/climate control system.
The administration has forgotten what, above all else, makes
Middlebury attractive to students: academics. President McCardell has declared
that this will be the "college of choice" in the twenty-first
century. By deciding that the library will not be renovated until two years
into that century, he has doomed that goal to ignominious failure. He has taken
a decisive action to decrease the value of every Middlebury degree ever
granted, including those to be conferred this weekend, and in May.
President McCardell and his administration are the employees
of every student and every graduate. We employ them to keep the value of a
Middlebury degree at its peak. He asks, "What does it mean to have gone to
Middlebury?" The answer, all too soon, will be, "A very large tuition
bill and a meaningless piece of parchment from an institution whose reputation
is at its nadir."
Executive Vice President and College Treasurer David Ginevan
has written of the College's fiduciary duty towards its land. He and his
colleagues have neglected to consider its fiduciary duty towards its alumni and
to its students.
Administrative neglect is rampant at Middlebury. It is a
time when it is difficult for the trustees to make significant changes in the
administration: we are halfway through a major $100 million capital campaign
for the College's bicentennial. Yet the trustees must see that the damage being
done to the College at present will be almost impossible to reverse. Action
must be taken now, before our degree values plummet at the same time as tuition
and enrollment skyrocket. Students must refuse to acknowledge an administration
which is doing them nothing but disservice. Students must demand that change
occur immediately. Alumni must support the students in their efforts, and
contact their friends and colleagues to ensure the success of this initiative.