The Campus: 1/22

In an effort to deepen MiddBlog’s coverage of campus issues, we are beginning a recurring column that comments on selected Campus newspaper articles, published most Thursdays of the school year. This allows a place for the Middlebury community to comment, expand, and discuss important issues in a dynamic way.

This Week in The Campus:

• “Alcohol policy to change“: With a secondary headline of “Council weighs hard liquor ban,” this should get students talking even if they don’t really understand the details. So in plain speak: this is a proposal to the Community Council, a council that presents recommendations to the President of the College for review. For the average student, not much practical will change in terms of citation policy, since the majority of students don’t get citations from Public Safety. Reading into the article, I think this will mean less focus will be placed on giving citations to underage drinkers and more focus on those kids doing dorm damage/getting belligerent. The seriousness of a citation, therefore, will go up. As for a proposed hard liquor ban, it applies to registered parties only. Okay, so maybe goodbye Purple Jesus, but most registered parties are kegs anyway. It’s the unregistered parties that serve hard liquor. MiddBlog posted on this topic back in September as part of the “major conversations of the year.”
• “Future of ENAM Comps undecided“: The end of Comps as we know it has been no secret, even to the many kids who are slaving away over the dozens of novels this J-term. Way back into last year, it was very apparent that Comps were in for a major change — in this case, ENAM is going first.
• “Professors push to proctor exams“: Faculty are jumping the honor-code ship left and right. But, Karen Guttentag’s idea of opt-in proctored exams is pretty novel. Perhaps it will allow us to find the right balance on campus even if it somewhat undermines the whole concept of an honor code. Maybe we should chat with our Haverford pals and see how they got so good at the honor code.
• “Panelists give voice to Gaza conflict“: This article is a bit more balanced than the actual panel discussion which was well attended by students. Mori Rothman ’11 is really coming up as a strong voice on campus and he comes off as incredibly level-headed in a hot conflict. Prof. Carmola sorta fell to background in this panel even though her expertise is deep and important.