Last week, the Black Students Union (BSU) was the target of anonymous campus vandalism. Posters they had hung up raising awareness for Middlebury’s black community were defaced with comments reading “racist” and “promotes hate!” Two weeks ago, in another act of anonymity, a student established the go-link “go/doe,” which links to a wordpress account advocating for John Doe’s removal from Middlebury. Additionally, recent Campus editorial “Zero Tolerance: Here or Anywhere” was bombarded with a slew of anonymous comments, including, “You are what’s wrong with academia. You are what’s wrong with America.” We recognize that there are many troubling issues exemplified by these events, but we are choosing to address one in particular that plays into a larger narrative that we have observed on this campus: the culture of anonymity.
Middlebury’s problem with anonymity feels a bit ironic given that when it comes to our day-to-day lives, most of us do not have any. There is accountability inherent to going to school with only 2,500 other students. Wherever you go you will inevitably see friends, professors, acquaintances and other familiar faces along the way. Many students do not shy away from sharing strong opinions in the classroom or in the dining hall – spend five minutes in Proctor lounge and you will overhear a variety of grievances. We frequently hand over opinionated essays with our names at the top to professors that we know personally. At a school where remaining unknown is impossible, our names are attached to our daily academic and personal contributions whether we like it or not.
Additionally, as students at a liberal arts college, we are encouraged to develop our critical thinking skills and voice our opinions in class, in forums, and in our social lives. Not only are we told that our voices matter, but we are urged to use our opinions to foster change and spark new conversations.
But recent events have exemplified a decline in accountability and thoughtfulness in our campus’ political discourse. This is part of a broader trend; millennials have come of age in a society in which every person can instantaneously publish their opinions online. But inevitably, if we are not accountable for our words, we are usually saying things that we are unwilling to defend publicly. This begs the question: If we are unwilling to defend something publicly, should we be saying it at all?
Anonymous vandalism and online discourse are not the only form of anonymity that we find frustrating. We all have friends who are eager to share their complaints about happenings on campus or critiques of what has been written in the paper. When we encourage people to write about them, many shy away from the challenge. We recognize how difficult it can be to attach your name to an argument and stand by it publicly, particularly in the age of the Internet, but that culpability serves to make you more thoughtful about what you are saying and why you’re saying it.
We are not suggesting that an idea has no legitimacy without a name attached to it. There are instances in which marginalized voices require anonymity, and anonymous contributors have catalyzed important change over the course of history. But we don’t feel like any of the on-campus instances previously discussed are on par with the Federalist Papers. So you would-be Alexander Hamiltons out there: there are many forums at Middlebury for sharing our opinions. We encourage all students to seize these available opportunities to contribute constructively.
It’s easy to have an opinion. It’s much harder to stand behind it. Next time you have something to say, we ask you to have the courage to say it with your name attached to it. Craft your opinions with consideration and care. Then claim them as your own.
