More Matter The Cycle of Middlebury

Author: Matty Van Meter

I would like to first of all acknowledge the factual error that so many were quick to rightly point out in last week's column: the homophobia display in the library was in fact erected by the Office of Institutional Diversity. The mistake came from a number of assumptions I made, which I did not verify with the right people, and for that I am deeply sorry. I would like also to apologize for my tone, which was, to judge from the reaction, too harshly critical. I am an Ally and a longtime and unequivocal supporter of gay rights, both on- and off- campus, and my sentiments should be taken as a dose of tough love for an organization whose principles I support. I never intended my words to be an indictment of all members of the organization, many of whom do a tremendous amount of good for the community, and did not deserve my criticism.

That said, the main point of my previous column, the larger and more important part, still stands. Though I chose an unfortunate and erroneous piece of evidence to demonstrate the feeling which, as I have discovered, much of the campus shares, my many discussions with members of the community - gay, straight and otherwise - have left me with the assurance that Middlebury Open Queer Alliance (MOQA) has come to represent a minority view within even the community it purports to represent. Additionally, the comments on the library display, regardless of who wrote them and who put them up, show both that MOQA is seen as representative of the gay community, and that many people want to see good things appear, but assume that someone else will do the work for them. Should anyone like to see a MOQA column in The Campus, they should feel free to apply; I, for one, will be putting down my pen, and I think that such a column is wanted and needed.

The final weeks of school see us at our most extreme. Caffeine consumption and carrel invasion rise to new heights with the library's lengthening hours as simultaneously the wine and beer is taken wholesale from the shelves of every store in town. And, for seniors, the tears begin to flow. As most have no doubt noticed, there has been the predictable rash of sentimental writing celebrating the good old days and lamenting the arrival of a newer Middlebury; a Middlebury which is less fun and less friendly. This may reflect the natural change within students more than changes which the College has undergone. College alumni/ae are, at heart, reactionaries. It stems from a strong and deeply felt desire for those who follow us to have exactly the same experience as we had, mixed with the paradoxical need for our own experience to be inimitable. We both want Middlebury to stay the same and to be able to say that we were the ones to know the "real" Middlebury, which has disappeared. This is the case with every class, and speaks to the unique experience of each person, and of each group.

So don't worry for the underclassmen. Middlebury will see them through, just as it saw us through and has seen students through for two hundred years. The truly distinctive things will stay the same: the winters will still be cold, the springs unpredictable, autumns will always light the hills ablaze in incandescent glory, and the summers will bring the fields alive with cicadas and crickets. However many things will change from year to year, there will always be a bond between all of us who have shared the College on the hill. No matter if the buildings are locked, or the parties more regulated, or the library more popular, or the student body larger. These things are secondary. Life is a cyclical movement. Let the cycle begin again.