The Campus 3/5

In an effort to deepen MiddBlog’s coverage of campus issues, this is 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:

• 12,000 students lobby for change: Professors back here at Middlebury were getting a bit antsy when rumors were that Middkids would be arrested and might not make it back for class on Tuesday. But fear not, no Middkids or any other protesters were arrested. In fact, Scholar in Residence Bill McKibben writes how Poweshift “pre-won our main victory anyhow, when Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid preemptively cried uncle last week and announced they weren’t going to burn coal in their plant any more.” Oh and recently, a conspiracy theory surfaced: Michelle Obama organized Powershift to rid a coal plant from her backyard.
• Distrust leads to H.C. Vote / Editorial: The issue of the honor code has been brewing for months. It’s time to show your cards on this issue. Where do you stand on this? I’m a little bit tired of the wishy-washy opinions that, while interesting and “subtle,” aren’t going to help much when this comes to a vote. Better get talking about this now because it’s not going to be long before students will be asked to weigh-in. I am in favor of keeping our current honor code language and taking the hard route of trying to reform our academic culture, in particular for test-taking. It’s far too easy to give up and say, “well, we don’t trust ourselves so let’s just let professor proctor the exams.” Other thoughts?
• Liberal dining may disappear: I know this is just The Campus raising a ruckus over some small comment from Director of Dining Services Matt Biette. But I’ll indulge in the argument anyway. I’m about 97% sure students will fight to the bitter death to keep dining halls free-and-open. By now, “liberal” dining is embedded in our school culture. It’s one thing to close Atwater, it’s another to set up a meal plan system. Oh wait, maybe this is the way toward establishing the famously-promised-by-SGA-Preseidents “MiddCard”? No. I wouldn’t trade a universal “MiddCard” for liberal dining ever.