op-ed Midd is bullying the 'Nerd

Author: James Riley

For three years I have resisted contributing to the noble tirades of The Campus's op-ed section. Through the great residential lockdown of '05, through the gradual boa constrictor-ization of the administration, through the curiously inconsistent disciplinary action taken against The Mill, through three productions of "The Vagina Monologues" and through the laughable outbursts against Jordan Nasser's fashion column that have appeared on this page, my pen has remained dry. Yet none of these outrages incited me to the same degree as did the news of the most recent deprivation handed down by the powers on high at Middlebury College: the mid-semester closing of Proctor's lounge and terrace.

I will leave the discussion of how the lounge and terrace are unique and invaluable student spaces to the other similar editorials that will certainly accompany mine in this week's Campus. What is more baffling to me is that the College would allow the burden of this sacrifice to be shouldered, yet again, by the same sect of the student body that has suffered from the administration's many previous miscalculations - Brainerd Commons, particularly its class of '08, who will endure the consequences of Proctor's renovation during their final weeks on campus, simply because of the unexplained and probably mistaken timing of what will surely be a long and extremely unpleasant endeavor.

In an attempt to exonerate myself from accusations that this opinion is a purely self-serving complaint, I will point out that I am neither a member of Brainerd nor in the class of '08. It is not necessary, however, to be a member of either group to realize the inequity to which they have been subjected. In a decade-long, disastrous attempt to divide the campus into arbitrary factions that would dictate with whom we may live and in which buildings, the College ingeniously decided to develop one commons at a time, and proceeded to devote a monstrous portion of its fleetingly ample budget to constructing enormous and strikingly unattractive mansion complexes on the north side of campus, in which Ross and Atwater students have been pampered for years, while the rest of us made do with egregiously inferior upper-classman housing. After the College decided, at last, to allow all seniors an equal chance to inhabit the housing of their choice, the hopeful Brainerd juniors of '08 reached the middle of the e-mailed announcement to find that this long overdue abandonment of the commons system would be enacted immediately after their graduation.

Due to what seems an effort to exacerbate this frustration, the Brainerd seniors of this year, while confined to Hepburn, enjoyed both the enormous construction project that blemished the entire southern section of campus and the persistent threat that the only dining facility near them would close and undergo another lengthy construction process. Perhaps the Proctor renovation was delayed by the student outrage with which the proposal was received, or perhaps the delay is due to the lingering debt from constructing Ross's private gym or Atwater's relatively impeccable laundry facility, but now the time for Proctor's gutting has arrived and the seniors on the south side of campus will be embittered by one final screwing handed down by the wisdom of the administration.

Perhaps they will be comforted by the fantasy of spending the spring evenings of their final weeks at Middlebury on that wonderful terrace, or by the memory of the quiet sanctuary provided by Proctor lounge, or maybe they can pass the long, cold walk to dinner on the other side of campus by pondering why Middlebury will not show the mercy to delay the demolition of Brainerd's most redeeming features until the summer. More likely, they will trudge past this new monstrosity while contemplating how the current administration's apathy toward the will of the student body shall be detrimental to their future alumni donations.

James Riley '08.5 is a History major from Lake Forest, Ill.