'Open meeting' provision gives green light to recruiters

Author: Claire M. L. Bourne 04'

In recent years, Middlebury has made great strides towards fostering a social climate hospitable to diversity. However, by allowing the U.S. Marine Corps - armed with its disgraceful discrimination policy - to recruit on campus, the College is taking a giant leap backwards. Last year, as the managing editor of this publication, I reported on Middlebury's burgeoning - and increasingly visible - GLBTQ community. When my three-part series was published, the Middlebury Open Queer Alliance (moqa) was enjoying a spike in membership, the Ally Group was on the threshold of official student organization status and, for the first time in six years, the symbolic closet constructed on McCullough Lawn by moqa as part of Visibility Week did not suffer vandalism. Judging from recent conversations with friends still on campus, these small milestones were just the beginning. That is, until now.

I believe that open discussions about difficult topics like the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy are vital to the success of any intellectual community. However, the "open meeting" provision in Middlebury's recruitment guidelines treats a potential employer's failure to fully comply with the College's non-discrimination policy as nothing but a traffic light on the road to recruitment. After all, an hour's worth of interaction with the community was enough grant Captain Doucette a green light to interview interested students.

By opening its doors to the Marine Corps, Middlebury has already missed the perfect opportunity to distinguish itself from its peer institutions by publicly standing up against prejudice and in support of the most inalienable of all our rights - the freedom of speech. When recruiters visit campus, ALL students should have an equal chance to pursue potential job opportunities without having to conceal a part of who they are.

It's such a shame that, at the very moment Middlebury's GLBTQ community was finding a voice on campus, the College managed to silence - albeit symbolically - members of its own student body. This said, I strongly encourage the administration to right this wrong by accepting the faculty's overwhelming vote to eliminate the "open meeting" provision.