New homophobic graffiti found after forum

Author: Leslie Lim

Two days after a town meeting in McCullough Social Space to discuss hate speech on campus, another instance of homophic graffiti was found written in permanent red marker on the white board of a student's door in Starr Hall. The incident underscored recent concerns that an earlier case of homophobic graffiti in Ross Commons was indicative of a larger problem at the College.

On April 11, roughly 130 students, faculty and staff gathered in McCullough Social Space for a town hall meeting to follow up on an earlier meeting that was held in Ross Dining Hall to discuss homophobia. Despite the College's attempts to engage a widespread audience, faculty and staff greatly outnumbered only a couple dozen students present at the meeting.

Going into the meeting, President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz expressed his desire to generate regular discussion beyond the gathering.

"My hope is that our conversation will deal with the expression of homophobia at Middlebury," Liebowitz wrote in an e-mail April 7 regarding the meeting, "and also enable us to address the broader question of why members of a community like ours would resort to such expressions of disrespect and hate."

Illuminating an ugly side of the College's identity, Dean of the College Tim Spears introduced a slideshow of homophobic statements, which played on a screen in McCullough throughout the meeting. Spears explained that the homophobic images and graffiti in the slideshow were collected from all over the campus by leaders of the Middlebury Open Queer Alliance (MOQA).

"What's prompting this language?" Spears said. "Where is it coming from?"

The main theme of the meeting became an examination of the College's environment and its role in fostering such emotions. Dean of Institutional Diversity Shirley Ramirez commented that the town meeting was a natural next step after the initial discussion regarding homophobia two weeks ago, and that the need to address direct and indirect homophobia and hate speech was eminent.

MOQA Co-President Ryan Tauriainen '08 highlighted the importance of the campus-wide response to the Ross graffiti and its subsequent discussions. According to Tauriainen, Liebowitz' e-mail was the first message from the Office of the President to the entire College community addressing homophobia in the College's history. Liebowitz offered a question to start off the exchange of ideas and opinions.

"Why here? Why at Middlebury?" he said. Many students offered their opinions in reaction.

"Not 'why here,'" said Max Nardini '08, "but 'why anywhere?'"

One theme discussed at the Ross meeting as well as during the town meeting was the problem of how to address the perpetrators of such homophobic crimes.

"How do you bring them to this space?" one female student asked.

In reply, Kelly George '08 suggested forcing a mandatory discussion for the entire college.

"From there," Max Kanter '10 said, "we need to assess what we are proud of and what we want to be known for. This could maybe break down apathetic walls."

Other themes included how the College's acceptance of different opinions and promotion of tolerance made it difficult to address conflict. Nick DeSantis '07.5 said that the College was "paralyzed by political correctness. Agreeing to disagree is a conversation stopper - not dealing with the issue."

To DeSantis' comment, Liebowitz posed related questions.

"What makes us so civil?" said Liebowitz. "Why don't we come forth against such things?"

Cook Commons Dean David Edleson also brought up the issue of the College being a small liberal arts school.

"In a city, there is more anonymity and space," he said. "We need to examine fear of other people's thoughts."

As to why such incidents occur here, Christine Etienne '07 supported Edleson's statement, saying, "We're afraid."

"A safe, respectful environment can prompt discussion and even change minds," said Assistant Professor of Writing Hector Vila.

"It is unreasonable to expect the admissions process to be able to screen for bigotry," said Associate Dean of Student Affairs Karen Guttentag, a former Admissions employee. "But it is particularly upsetting when incidents such as these occur."

Guttentag proposed offering more training to confront issues, without underestimating peer influences.

Nick Ballen '09, Co-President of MOQA, echoed the sentiments expressed by Professor of Spanish Eduardo Bejar in calling for a means of expression for diversity on the campus such as a column in The Campus, a literary journal and more programs promoting diversity during First-Year Orientation.

Despite the lively exchanges that occurred at the meeting, one of the attendees expressed her disappointment at the lack of students attending the event. The crowd consisted of roughly two-thirds adults and one-third students. The discussion then tuned toward student apathy, work overload and event overlaps.

Though many other issues were only briefly touched upon, Spears explained that these conversations would continue in smaller groups. Spears and Ramirez are planning to meet with Commons Heads and Deans to reexamine residential life, orientation and training programs. Additionally, MOQA and Ally Group will be sponsoring a meeting on April 19th, "Break The Silence: Are There Allies At Middlebury?" at 4:15 p.m. in Pearson's Lounge.

"The answer is to be proactive, not reactive," Ramirez said, "and to look at it multi-dimensionally as a college campus."