Twilight Examines Minority Life: Black Students Speak ON College Life

Twilight Examines Minority Life: Black Students Speak ON College Life

According to this article, only 54 of the 1,900 students at the College are "minority" students. The College uses many tactics in recruiting black students in competition with other NESCACS and the Ivy League, such as Black Cultural Weekend and a brochure that talks about Middlebury's "commitment" to minority students, which is given to prospective students. Current minority students voice their disapproval of these tactics and basically describe it as a superficial advertising move that does not carry on to affect the day-to-day life/campus culture of black students.

Volume 77, Number 12

Mike Millis

The Campus

1/28/1983

Alicha Stanley '84
Bruce Tate '86
Dorothea Gay- President of the BSU

"'I disagree with black weekend,' said Stanley, 'It's kind of fake. A large percentage of blacks suddenly appear on campus for a weekend, and they think that's the way it usually is when it's actually not."

"The brochure states, 'Middlebury College has made a strong commitment to minority students. We make special efforts to seek out qualified minority candidates.' Bruce Tate, a black freshman who had not seen the brochure, said 'If I had seen a brochure, it would have made me have second thoughts about coming here. I would have felt different from other freshmen."

"'Middlebury fails to realize that if you're going to bring people up here, you have to have a community, a support system, for them to live in."- Gay

"Gay said she believes the administration should make more of an attempt to aid black students in establishing a social life and a support system... Gay said, 'We're forced to create and to maintain our own community. But we're students just like everyone else. We have no time. You can't expect students to do that.'"