editorial Welcome to the 21st century

Author: Campus Staff

On a relatively quiet news day in July, we at The Middlebury Campus watched as a few students clamored on Facebook.com about a new logo that appeared on the College's Web site. Invitations to the group were sent out, electronically of course, and our news editors, scattered though they were across the world, exchanged a few e-mails. There was the requisite discussion about the new logo itself, a product of a fancy New York firm and the brainchild, it would appear, of College administrators. The story that caught our attention, however, was the student outcry. Within a matter of hours the Facebook group boasted hundreds of members. By the time the College, in a somewhat abashed e-mail to the student body, abandoned their beloved new logo, over 700 students had mobilized to collectively complain.

The lesson here has little to do with corporate branding or graphic design. The logo debacle illustrates instead the growing vitality of the College's online life. While the community remains rooted, we hope, in dinners at Proctor, in conversations shared over seminar tables, it is impossible to ignore the sometimes overwhelming, often powerful role technology plays in our lives at Middlebury.

And yet the College has done just that for a long time. Long promised wireless access is still missing from dormitories. The College's Web site, while enticing to prospective students and donors, offers little in the way of an effective portal for current students. And slews of e-mails are delivered every day to inboxes across campus, and the barrage is enough to discourage even the most dedicated among our ranks.

Change is in the air, though, and even the administration is embracing technology in new, meaningful ways. Dean of the College Tim Spears launched a weblog - the hip kids are calling them "blogs" these days, we hear - this fall. President of the College Ron Liebowitz has promised to follow suit. This summer Old Chapel led the way in making the College one of the first institutions in the region to embrace text messaging as a viable solution to in emergency planning.

Students are not far ahead. Last year, the Student Government Association unveiled a well-meaning, if somewhat ineffective blog. In October, a then first-year student quietly organized MiddBlog, a site that has since grown in readership and coverage to fill a valuable niche as an alternative source of news on campus. And as students returned to campus this week, talk turned time and time again to ways to connect in meaningful ways with one another.

We applaud the efforts of students, faculty and staff to utilize what are undoubtedly exciting opportunities for better, more meaningful communication on campus. But we recognize the potential for growth. Follow in the footsteps of professors who have already brought blogging into the classroom. Utilize the resources the College already has in place, like Segue, to continue conversations outside of the classroom. Forums like Deliberative Dialogues provide a valuable outlet for debate, but such discussions should not be limited to two-hour blocks of time during first-year orientation. In that continuing effort to gaze beyond the campus, continue to build bridges to other communities.

At The Campus, we know we too have a long way to go, and as we look to the year ahead we hope to lead the way in embracing technology designed with the Middlebury community in mind. Look for increased online features in the coming months, including online exclusives and extended coverage, video and audio clips, as well as links to blogs and commentary from bloggers. We invite our readers to contribute online to polls, and comment on stories you read over those much-loved dinners at Proctor.

We hope we'll see you online.