What does it mean to be an activist at Middlebury

What does it mean to be an activist at Middlebury

While it may seem that Middlebury is a very activist-heavy campus, the truth is that there are many obstacles and challenges that student activists must overcome in order to organize and protest for what they believe in. These can challenges can be anything from apoliticalness/apathy from fellow students to the geographical "bubble" that comes with being situated in rural Vermont, to the administration that seems to be inhospitable to student activism.

118, 9

Hannah Bensen

The Campus

11/14/2019

Annie Blalock '20.5- President of FAM

"'A lot of people who are leading activist charges, it's the same group of people over and over... What I find very frustrating is that I think the Middlebury population constructs itself as aware and involved and liberal. But in my experience, when we asked people to step up and be a part of things, they're not there.'"

"Student activists also must navigate the rules set by the administration for student organizing, a process which Blalock said is 'unnecessarily burdensome.'"

"When students protested and shut down the 2017 lecture of controversial sociologist Charles Murray, the college punished 74 students with sanctions ranging from probation to official college discipline."