The Campus 5/7

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 last issue of) The Campus:

• College puts pandemic plan on hold: As much as I love the description of the “Meeker Conference Room” emergency operations center (I imagine it’s like CTU on an episode of 24), this as a above-the-fold front page story is a little overblown. The new redish “wash your hands, cover your cough” signs around campus (one in every dorm bathroom) tell the whole story here.
• Cuts to save College $20 million: In short, language school tuition goes up. Breadloaf fees up. The school will balance the 2010 budget but need to make even more cuts to get to 2011. You have to wait for the real hard hitting recommendations coming out within the week from the Budget Oversight Committee (BOC). It’ll be interesting to gauge reaction from students as they hit finals and leave campus for the summer.
• Twitter takes College, classes by surprise: I am surprised that MiddBlog’s list of Middlebury twitterers (or tweeps) didn’t make the article (list yourself). But I digress. Overall, this article is a good introduction of Twitter at Midd.
• Editorial: Man, we love College: I agree silence on the social life issue means that it has improved, but I would hesitate to attribute that to the superblock system. Students, responding to incentives, are applying to live in superblocks not based on any special interest but rather based on scoring good housing and a few extra dollars to throw parties that have nothing to do with the interest of the house. Adding another superblock worsens this problem. Yes, it’s true that Brooker, of the two superblocks this year, has done some good programming but overall, this system is furthering seperating out the types of Middkids: environmental, hipster, etc. Social houses have improved this year but I think it’s really the diversification of options with the final rollout of The Bunker and 51 Main that have made the difference. We now have the venues. Where does social life go from here?