Middlebury College
Location: Middlebury, Vermont
Website: http://www.middlebury.edu
Type: Private
Federal Circuit: 2nd Circuit
Speech Code Rating
Middlebury College has been given the speech code rating Red. A red light university has at least one policy that both clearly and substantially restricts freedom of speech. Read more here.
Red Light Policies
Middlebury College Handbook: Anti-Harassment/Discrimination Policy
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: September 20, 2017Other examples of sexual harassment include, but are not limited to, the following:
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- regularly telling sexual jokes or using sexually vulgar or explicit language in the presence of a person if it is known or reasonably should be known that the person does not welcome such behavior;
- derogatory or provoking remarks about or relating to a student’s or employee’s sex or sexual orientation;
- harassing acts or behavior directed against a person on the basis of his or her sex or sexual orientation.
Middlebury College Handbook: Respectful Behavior
Speech Code Category: Policies on Tolerance, Respect, and Civility
Last updated: September 20, 2017Middlebury expects all members of the Middlebury community to respect the dignity, freedom, and rights of other persons. Violence in word or deed against another; incitement or provocation to violence; negligent or reckless use of physical force; conduct that may reasonably be expected to exploit or coerce; prevention of another’s ability to communicate or move freely; defamation; violation of another’s privacy; unauthorized entry and/or uninvited or unwanted presence in another’s room or office, are examples of disrespectful behavior that is inconsistent with our shared values and expectations of behavior.
Middlebury College Handbook: Demonstrations and Protests
Speech Code Category: Protest and Demonstration Policies
Last updated: September 20, 2017Anyone who wishes to stage a demonstration or protest at any event on College property should contact and arrange a meeting with Public Safety to discuss College policy, demonstration-specific regulations, and safety issues.
Middlebury College Handbook: Community Bias Response Team Policy
Speech Code Category: Policies on Bias and Hate Speech
Last updated: September 20, 2017The Community Bias Response Team (CBRT) is charged with assessing and communicating an appropriate and comprehensive institutional response to bias incidents and acts of intolerance involving students. The CBRT will involve other members of the community in its response when appropriate. The CBRT’s goal is to take appropriate measures in responding to bias incidents and to provide educational interventions to the Middlebury community.
The CBRT does not have the authority to conduct disciplinary proceedings or impose discipline on students, staff or faculty. Disciplinary matters will be referred and handled in accordance with Middlebury’s policies, as applicable.
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Middlebury defines a bias incident as a single act or multiple acts directed toward an individual or group on the basis of actual or perceived race, creed, color, place of birth, ancestry, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, marital status, service in the armed forces of the United States, positive-HIV-related blood test results, disability, culture, socio-economic status, spirituality or any combination of these or other related factors, with the purpose or effect, from the point of view of a reasonable person, of negatively impacting another. Bias incidents include, but are not limited to: slurs, degrading language, epithets, graffiti, vandalism, intimidation, symbols, and harassment; that are directed toward or affect the targeted individual or team. Incidents of bias may contribute to a hostile campus environment and can occur even if the act itself is unintentional or delivered as a joke, prank, or having humorous intent.
This definition is meant neither to proscribe nor to inhibit discussions in or out of the classroom of complex, controversial, or sensitive matters such as those listed above.
Note: This definition of a bias incident is intentionally broad to reflect our values to create and sustain an inclusive, safe, and productive community for all of our members.
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Members of the Community Bias Response Team
- Associate Chaplain
- Associate Dean for Judicial Affairs
- ADA Coordinator
- Commons Dean
- Chief Diversity Officer
- Human Relations Officer
Middlebury College Handbook: Policies Governing Student Conduct, Residential Life, and Student Organizations- Introductory Matters
Speech Code Category: Policies on Tolerance, Respect, and Civility
Last updated: September 20, 2017Middlebury’s Student Life policies are meant neither to proscribe nor to inhibit discussions, in or out of the classroom, of complex, controversial, or sensitive matters, including sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, race, color, ethnicity, religion, marital status, place of birth, ancestry, national origin, age, or disability, when in the judgment of a reasonable person they arise appropriately and are conducted with respect for the dignity of others. Middlebury also recognizes that verbal conduct can be used specifically to intimidate or coerce and to inhibit genuine discourse, free inquiry, and learning. Such abuses, including but not limited to conduct that violates Middlebury’s General Conduct Standards policies, Anti-Harassment/Discrimination policy, and other Middlebury-Wide Policies, are unacceptable.
Middlebury College Handbook: General Conduct
Speech Code Category: Policies on Tolerance, Respect, and Civility
Last updated: September 20, 2017Behavior that violates common standards of decency, fails to comply with community laws or statutes, or demonstrates contempt for the generally accepted values of the intellectual community is prohibited.
Middlebury College Handbook: Anti-Harassment/Discrimination Policy
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: September 20, 2017Harassment is defined as verbal, written, visual, or physical conduct based on or motivated by an individual’s actual or perceived sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, race, creed, color, place of birth, ancestry, ethnicity, religion, national origin, age, disability, marital status, or other characteristics as defined and protected by law in the location where a particular program is operating, that has the purpose or effect, from the point of view of a reasonable person, of objectively and substantially:
a. undermining and detracting from or interfering with an individual’s educational or work performance or access to Middlebury resources; or
b. creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive educational, work, or living environment.
Harassment may include repeated slurs, or taunts in the guise of jokes, or disparaging references to others, use of epithets, stereotypes, comments, gestures, threats, graffiti, display or circulation of written or visual materials, taunts on manner of speech, and negative reference to customs when such conduct is based on or motivated by one or more of the protected characteristics identified above, or other characteristics as defined and protected by applicable law.
Middlebury College Handbook: Responsible Use of Computing and Network Facilities
Speech Code Category: Internet Usage Policies
Last updated: September 20, 2017Abusive or threatening messages to others can be prosecuted as harassment.
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All users of our computing and networking facilities bear the responsibility to avoid libel, obscenity, undocumented allegations, attacks on personal integrity, and harassment.
Middlebury College Handbook: Student Organizations and Activities- Freedom of Inquiry and Expression
Speech Code Category: Other Speech Codes
Last updated: September 20, 2017Student organizations bear full responsibility for arranging and financing any Department of Public Safety services that may be necessary in connection with controversial speakers. The DOS has the right to receive full and accurate information regarding Department of Public Safety measures at any time they so request. The DOS also has the right to specify security measures to the organizations as seem appropriate. If Middlebury, through the DOS or the president, judges that security arrangements are inadequate and that the sponsoring organization is either unwilling or unable to make proper arrangements, the event may be canceled by the dean or president.
Middlebury College Handbook: Freedom of Expression
Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
Last updated: September 20, 2017Middlebury is a community of learners and as such recognizes and affirms that free intellectual inquiry, debate, and constructive dialogue are vital to Middlebury’s academic mission and must be protected even when the views expressed are unpopular or controversial. Moreover, as the College Faculty Handbook statement on academic freedom recognizes, an institution of higher education’s service of the common good “depends upon the free search for truth and its free exposition.”
Middlebury College Handbook: Anti-Harassment/Discrimination Policy
Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
Last updated: September 20, 2017Middlebury is a community of learners and as such recognizes and affirms that free intellectual inquiry, debate, and constructive dialogue are vital to Middlebury’s academic mission and must be protected even when the views expressed are unpopular or controversial.
Middlebury College Handbook: Demonstrations and Protests
Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
Last updated: September 20, 2017Students, student organizations, faculty, and staff at Middlebury College are free to examine and discuss all questions of interest to them and to express opinions publicly and privately.
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Will free speech prevail on campus?
November 6, 2017
By Donald Downs at the Washington Examiner. Alarm over the state of free speech and academic freedom on American campuses is nothing new under the collegiate sun. But it has reached fever pitch in the past few years… Read more here.
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Free speech at American universities is under threat
October 12, 2017
“Liberalism is white supremacy!” shouted the students, as their hapless speaker—Claire Gastañaga of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)—looked on. The protesters at the College of William and Mary, the alma mater of Thomas Jefferson, went further still… Read more here.
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Middlebury College Will Cancel Speakers If Students Make ‘Imminent, Credible Threats’
September 18, 2017
by Robby Soave at Reason Middlebury College—ground zero for one of the most sordid censorship episodes of last year, the physical attack on Charles Murray and Alison Stanger—has announced a new policy regarding guest speakers. Proposed events will be evaluated by a Threat Assessment and Management Team; if the team feels that an event attracts an “imminent and credible threat to the community,” it could be cancelled… Read more here.
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Middlebury College has punished 67 students for the protest of a controversial lecture which later turned into a physical confrontation
May 25, 2017
By Business Insider UK More than two months after Charles Murray visited Middlebury College and was shouted down there, the college has finished reviewing and in some cases punishing students who were involved in preventing him from giving his talk. . . . Read more here.
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College students violently protesting conservative speakers tend to come from wealthy families, study finds
March 21, 2017
By Staff at Fox News The recent wave of protests – sometimes violent – at U.S. colleges and universities that have forced the cancellation of conservative speakers’ lectures take place predominantly at liberal schools, many of whose students are progressive and come from wealthy families, the Brookings Institute said in a new study… Read more here.
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Entire Campus Should Be Safe Space for Free Speech
March 16, 2017
By Robert Holland at Townhall In a simpler age, one major argument for a young scholar going to college was the exposure he or she would receive to a wide spectrum of viewpoints, vigorously and freely debated. Sadly, many institutions of higher learning now seem determined to protect students from free speech, especially if controversial views run counter to progressive orthodoxy… Read more here.
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Are students at elite colleges more likely to protest controversial speakers?
March 15, 2017
By Chris Quintana at Chronicle of Higher of Education Shortly after a planned talk by the controversial sociologist Charles A. Murray was interrupted by violence this month at Middlebury College, some observers quickly condemned the small private institution in Vermont as an elitist haven incapable of tolerating challenging opinions. Read more here.
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Students at Elite Colleges are the Most Hysterically Opposed to Offensive Speech, Data Shows
March 15, 2017
By Robby Soave at Reason It seems the most privileged students in the country are also the most fragile. Highly expensive, elite college campuses are more likely to play host to the kind of censorious madness on display at Middlebury College two weeks ago… Read more here.
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The obliteration of free speech and civility on campus
March 13, 2017
By Al Maurer At Communities Digital News On March 2nd, at Middlebury College, Vermont, perhaps 100 protesters mobbed Dr. Charles Murray, preventing him from delivering a speech and injuring a university professor. One month previously, protests against conservative commentator Milo Yiannopoulos caused UC Berkeley to cancel his speech. The university sustained $100,000 worth of damage… Read more here.
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How violent protests at Middlebury and Berkeley became a warning for other schools
March 13, 2017
By Katie Reily at TIME Recent student demonstrations that escalated into violence have fueled a national debate over free speech on college campuses, forcing universities to rethink how to effectively prepare for controversial speakers — and the accompanying protests. Read more here.
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Conservatives: As left gets violent, never be itching for a fight
March 8, 2017
By Tom Knighton at PJ Media With the two incidents of violence in Berkeley — riots that occurred at a scheduled Milo Yiannopoulos talk and at a pro-Trump rally — and the mob attack at Middlebury College, it’s clear that something alarming is happening on college campuses in this country. While American universities have been bastions of progressivism for some time, the move from activist to combatant is particularly worrisome… Read more here.
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Attention, student protesters: use your words
March 6, 2017
By Megan McArdle at Bloomberg Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words will never hurt you. Or so we were told by our mothers. But events on both sides of continent in recent weeks seem to belie that old adage. A new generation of protesters has come to the conclusion that words do hurt — and that therefore, extreme measures, up to and including physical force, are justified to keep them from being spoken… Read more here.
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The ideology behind intolerant college students
March 6, 2017
By Stephen L. Carter at Bloomberg Here’s what’s scariest about the last week’s incident at Middlebury College, where protesters shouted down the social scientist Charles Murray and injured a professor who was escorting him from the venue: It felt like an everyday event. So common has such odious behavior become that it’s tempting to greet it with a shrug… Read more here.
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Out of Balance
April 14, 2016
By Jake New at Inside Higher Ed Last week, the California Court of Appeals ruled against the University of Southern California in a lawsuit brought by a student suspended for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman during group sex… Read more here.
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Court Wins for Accused
November 5, 2015
By Jake New at Inside Higher Ed Last week, Brandon Austin, a former college basketball player, filed a lawsuit against the University of Oregon for $7.5 million, arguing that administrators there violated his rights when they suspended him over his alleged involvement in a gang rape. Austin was able to transfer to a community college and play basketball there last season, but has since left to (so far, unsuccessfully) pursue a professional basketball career. In the lawsuit, Austin claims that the punishment caused him emotional distress and lessened his chances of one day playing in the National Basketball Association. His […]
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For Students Accused Of Campus Rape, Legal Victories Win Back Rights
October 15, 2015
By Tovia Smith at National Public Radio College students can’t miss the warnings these days about the risk of campus sexual assault, but increasingly, some students are also taking note of what they perceive as a different danger. “Once you are accused, you’re guilty,” says Parker Oaks, one of several Boston University students stopped by NPR between classes. “We’re living in a society where you’re guilty before innocent now.” Xavier Adsera, another BU student, sounds a similar theme. “We used to not be fair to women on this issue,” he says. “Now we’re on the other extreme, not being fair […]
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College’s Hypocrisy on Standard of Evidence When It comes to Accused Students
September 22, 2015
By Ashe Schow at Washington Examiner A Vermont college was ordered to halt the expulsion of a student who was expelled for sexual assault without being given a hearing. But what the college argued in its defense was rather interesting. Middlebury College used a “preponderance of evidence” standard (meaning campus administrators have to be just 50.01 percent sure an assault was committed) even before the Department of Education mandated colleges to lower the bar on proof of charges against students. But when it came to defending itself from this student’s lawsuit, the college demanded the higher standard of “clear and […]
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Following violent protest, Middlebury begins issuing sanctions
May 5, 2017
Middlebury College has begun issuing disciplinary sanctions against students identified as participants in the violent March protest that prevented academic and writer Charles Murray from speaking on campus and left the talk’s moderator, professor Allison Stanger, with a concussion, according to The Middlebury Campus. Reporters Will DiGravio and Alex Newhouse write: As of April 17, the College has identified “more than 70 individuals it believes may be subject to disciplinary procedures under student handbook policies” due to their participation in the March 2 protests that prevented Dr. Charles Murray from delivering a scheduled lecture, according to an official statement released […]
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Murray at Middlebury: the cost of disrupting ‘provocative’ speech
April 18, 2017
Cornell University professors of human development Wendy M. Williams and Stephen J. Ceci report in The New York Times’ SundayReview column “Gray Matter” on an intriguing experiment they ran using the text of political scientist Charles Murray’s talk at Middlebury College. Wondering if his views were as “provocative” as the response seemed to indicate, they decided to put the speech he gave (by livestream, from another room, after he was disrupted from speaking in the original venue) to the test: [W]e transcribed Mr. Murray’s speech and — without indicating who wrote it — sent it to a group of 70 […]
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More than 100 Middlebury faculty sign ‘Statement of Principles’ on free inquiry
March 16, 2017
Commentators have rightly wondered how the state of discourse on campus has deteriorated such that Middlebury College professor Allison Stanger was injured earlier this month during protests sparked by Charles Murray’s invitation to speak. It’s easy to fixate on what went wrong, but we should also note what went right in a potential watershed moment for free speech on campus. As we first noted last week, Middlebury faculty wrote and circulated a statement on free inquiry in the wake of the Murray incident. Now, 114 Middlebury faculty members — approximately a third of the faculty — have endorsed it. This impressive […]
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Middlebury faculty speak out
March 7, 2017
Yesterday evening, in the wake of last week’s attack on invited speaker Charles Murray and Middlebury professor Allison Stanger, the talk’s moderator, a group of Middlebury College faculty shared an open letter setting forth a set of “core principles that seem to us unassailable in the context of higher education within a free society.” As of this afternoon, 50 members of Middlebury’s faculty had signed on to the principles. The principles affirm students’ right to peacefully protest speakers with whom they disagree, but roundly reject both the use of a heckler’s veto and many of the common arguments made in […]
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The death of liberty on campus? Some reflections on Middlebury
March 6, 2017
By now, you have likely read about last week’s debacle at Middlebury College, where violent protests shut down a speech by academic and author Charles Murray and resulted in physical injury to Allison Stanger, a Middlebury professor who was there to moderate the Q&A portion of the event. Both Murray and Stanger have since publicly shared their accounts of what happened. Stanger wrote that she “feared for her life,” and Murray talked about the moment that “protesters surrounded the car, banging on the sides and the windows and rocking the car, climbing onto the hood.” In the days leading up […]
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Violent Middlebury protesters injure professor, force invited speaker to flee lecture hall
March 3, 2017
A successful heckler’s veto and an injury to a professor: that’s what academic and writer Charles Murray was met with when he arrived at Vermont’s Middlebury College yesterday to deliver a public lecture. Inside Higher Ed reports: Murray had been invited by Middlebury’s student group affiliated with the American Enterprise Institute, a think tank at which Murray is a scholar. Many of his writings are controversial, but perhaps none more than The Bell Curve, a book that linked intelligence and race and that has been widely condemned by many social scientists (even as Murray has been supported by others). Prior […]
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Middlebury Student Paper Condemns Judicial Scrutiny of College’s Disciplinary Processes
October 5, 2015
In a shocking editorial published last week, the staff of The Middlebury Campus railed against the ability of “outside individuals” like lawyers and judges to demand basic fairness from Middlebury College’s disciplinary processes. The editorial followed a Vermont federal court’s decision to halt Middlebury’s expulsion of a student accused of sexual misconduct, pending further legal proceedings. The court issued a preliminary injunction, which may be granted only when a party can show both that they have a likelihood of success on the merits and that they would suffer irreparable harm without the injunction. The staff of The Middlebury Campus is […]
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Federal Court Halts Middlebury’s Expulsion of Student Accused of Sexual Misconduct
September 22, 2015
Last week, a Vermont federal court halted Middlebury College’s expulsion of a student accused of sexual misconduct, pending further legal proceedings. The court issued a preliminary injunction, which may be granted only when a party can show both that they have a likelihood of success on the merits and that they would suffer irreparable harm without the injunction. According to the plaintiff, he was accused of sexual misconduct by a non-Middlebury student while on a study-abroad program in the fall of 2014. Using its own policies and procedures, the study-abroad program held a hearing on those allegations and found the […]
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The State of Free Speech on Campus: Middlebury College
February 8, 2013
Today, FIRE continues our blog series on the state of free speech at America’s top 10 liberal arts colleges, as ranked by U.S. News & World Report. Up for discussion today is U.S. News‘ fourth-ranked liberal arts college, Middlebury College. Like third-ranked Swarthmore College, Middlebury receives a “red light” rating, which means that it maintains at least one policy (in Middlebury’s case, two policies) that both clearly and substantially prohibits what would otherwise be protected expression. Although Middlebury is private, its College Handbook states that “The College recognizes that its students are citizens of larger communities—local, state, and federal—and should […]
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Middlebury Update: Students Guilty, But No Punishment for Hoax Press Release
November 5, 2012
After a six-hour hearing in front of more than 250 students, faculty, and staff members, Middlebury College will not punish the five students responsible for sending out a hoax press release in advance of a recent visit from the Dalai Lama. However, the students were found guilty of violating two Middlebury policies and will receive a reprimand, as MiddBlog reports: [The Middlebury Community Judicial Board] found the students guilty of violating the Community Standard of communicating with honesty and integrity in the College Handbook, and the “ethical and law-abiding behavior” clause in the Library and Information Services (LIS) policy. However, their […]
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At Middlebury, Embarrassing the Administration Has a Cost
October 30, 2012
Middlebury College, a private institution in Vermont, has decided to teach its students a lesson about the cost of dissent and the danger of criticizing the powers that be. Here’s the story in a nutshell: Earlier this month, the Dalai Lama visited Middlebury, and in advance of his visit, local media outlets received a press release that appeared to be from Middlebury. The release, which contained Middlebury’s logo and purported to be from “Tim Schornak” of the “Dalai Lama Welcoming Committee,” trumpeted eye-catching news: “Middlebury College Divests from War in Honor of Dalai Lama Visit.” The lead paragraphs, complete with […]
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‘MiddBlog’ on Middlebury College’s Double Standard
February 9, 2011
MiddBlog, an “alternative news and events blog for Middlebury College students,” has picked up on Sam’s arguments about the college’s new videos featuring fictional character “Aunt Des.” The character, described by The Chronicle of Higher Education as “a redheaded, acrylic-nailed caricature of a Greek-American New Jerseyite,” stars in a new series of videos encouraging Middlebury students not to steal dishes from dining facilities. As Sam pointed out on Monday, the use of the stereotype violates the college’s overbroad harassment policy, which bans the use of “stereotypes,” “circulation of written or visual materials,” “taunts on manner of speech, and negative reference […]
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Middlebury College Administration Violates Its Own Speech Code
February 7, 2011
According to Middlebury College’s Anti-Harassment Policy, prohibited harassment may include the use of “stereotypes,” “circulation of written or visual materials,” “taunts on manner of speech, and negative reference to customs” on the basis of, among other things, “place of birth, ancestry, ethnicity” and “national origin.” What, then, can we make of Middlebury’s new video campaign aimed at ending dishware theft on campus? The campaign, which was profiled last week by The Chronicle of Higher Education, is a series of videos featuring the fictional “Aunt Des,” described by the Chronicle as “a redheaded, acrylic-nailed caricature of a Greek-American New Jerseyite who’s hell-bent […]
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May 2009: Middlebury College
May 4, 2009
FIRE announces its Speech Code of the Month for May 2009: Middlebury College in Vermont. Middlebury’s ironically named policy on Freedom of Inquiry and Expression provides that Student organizations bear full responsibility for arranging and financing any Department of Public Safety provisions that may be necessary in connection with controversial speakers. The policy further states: The Deans’ offices and [Center for Campus Activities and Leadership] also have the right to specify security measures to the organizations as seem appropriate. If the College, through the offices of the deans, CCAL or the president, judges that security arrangements are inadequate and that […]
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Middlebury’s President on the ‘Value of Discomfort’
June 5, 2007
At Middlebury College’s commencement last week, President Ronald D. Liebowitz delivered the 2007 Baccalaureate Address to the school’s graduating seniors, as is customary around this time of year in central Vermont. Rather than reciting the all-too-common collage of clichés reprised in so many graduation speeches, however, President Liebowitz used his bully pulpit to focus on what he terms the “value of discomfort” in a modern liberal arts education. Specifically, in observing that “[d]iversity sure can be messy,” Liebowitz argues that “well-educated individuals like yourselves, who have been made to feel uncomfortable and understand difference, are more likely than others to […]
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Due Process at Middlebury
June 3, 2005
The Village Voice had an interesting article recently about a senior at Middlebury College who was expelled from school for allegedly entering a classmate’s dorm room without permission. The article highlights one of the major problems at many American colleges and universities: the complete lack of due process—one of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution—in university judicial systems.
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