In light of the upcoming election on Nov. 5, 2024, The Campus has published a special edition devoted to the election as it manifests on campus and across Vermont. In these pages you’ll find the product of dozens of hours of work from our reporters and editors, who covered statewide and local races, the impact of celebrity endorsements, how the election changed Middlebury’s classrooms and so much more.
At a time when politics may feel inescapable and the anxiety of election night looms, our work this week stands as a reminder of the importance of objective, factual and earnest reporting.
Our mission is simple: to report information you can trust and to tell stories that need to be told.
As many of our absentee ballots travel back home this week or we plan to visit Middlebury’s polling station next Tuesday, we want to reaffirm our commitment to honest journalism and its importance to civic engagement.
In a time where faith in traditional media has been shaken, this is a more pressing mission than ever before. While local and statewide newspapers in Vermont struggle to get by, this week The Campus is doing our small part to cover local democracy and inform our readers about critical issues in the Green Mountain state. We aspired to cover Vermont stories big and small: Who will be Addison County’s next two state Senators? Will a Republican challenger upset the incumbent lieutenant governor? And why is octogenarian Sen. Bernie Sanders so popular with people our age?
We also hope you will read beyond this note in our opinions section, which authors from a wide range of class years who have shared their views on the election in relation to social media, international humanitarian issues, undecided voters in swing states and the appeal of Washington, D.C. Even our Arts & Culture and Multimedia sections have explored consequential and uplifting stories related to U.S. politics this week — it was truly all- hands-on-deck during the past several weeks.
Hopefully you find something informative, something entertaining or maybe even something that gets you thinking in this week’s Election Issue. For all the pre-election nerves and anxious tracking of absentee ballots, participating in and reporting on democracy during a presidential election remains a remarkable privilege that only comes around once every four years.
Cole Chaudhari ’26 (he/him) is a Managing Editor.
Cole is a managing editor at The Campus, where he has previously served as a news editor, copy editor, and staff writer. He is a junior, and is studying history and literature.
Ryan McElroy '25 (he/him) is the Editor in Chief.
Ryan has previously served as a Managing Editor, News Editor and Staff Writer. He is majoring in history with a minor in art history. Outside of The Campus, he is co-captain of Middlebury Mock Trial and previously worked as Head Advising Fellow for Matriculate and a research assistant in the History department. Last summer Ryan interned as a global risk analyst at a bank in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Madeleine Kaptein '25.5 (she/her) is a managing editor.
Madeleine previously served as a staff writer, copy editor and local editor. She is a Comparative Literature major with minors in German and Art History. In Spring 2024, she studied abroad in Mainz, Germany, from where she wrote for the Addison Independent about her host country. In her free time, she enjoys journaling, long walks and runs, and uncomplicated visual arts projects.
