Over the past few months, an increasing number of incidents have disrupted shared public spaces on campus and prompted punitive responses from the college. After a series of thefts and acts of vandalism, the Anderson Freeman Resource Center (AFC) has decided to close their building after 4:30 p.m., limiting a space where cultural organizations and various students previously met, did work or shared in activities with each other. The college has announced plans to crack down on parking violations due to a high quantity of infractions this year that have frustrated college faculty and staff who need to access parking spots close to their offices. These violations of public space are not unprecedented at Middlebury — last year the college faced issues such as vandalism at The Knoll and computer monitors being stolen from Ross Dining Hall, among other incidents.
As students at a primarily residential college, we have an obligation to one another and our shared spaces, whether it is in our dorms, our community centers or even our townhouses. We should all hold each other accountable for this responsibility: tell your friends to pick up after themselves in Ross, remind partygoers at your social house that other people live there full time, and don’t park in faculty or staff parking spots.
We must also be aware of the people behind the scenes that are impacted by our actions — custodial staff, dining hall workers, the Public Safety department and professors — even if we don’t see them or the problems they deal with every day. Our community has a collective responsibility to create a campus culture that prioritizes respect and upholds the common space we share.
When Saturday night rolls around, some students have a habit of getting drunk and tampering with public spaces. From elevators in Atwater being doused with beer to broken furniture outside of the townhouses, getting drunk has given students an excuse to disregard the spaces around them. At a small, rural school without a major bar or club scene, the monotony of a Friday night routine coupled with pressure to have an exciting time can cause students to act out and destroy something for a laugh. While making memories is important, destruction should not be a part of your night’s lore — especially when it comes at the cost of others’ time and energy in cleaning up your mess. Although our actions while partying may seem inconsequential, there are many people — custodial staff, facilities, residential assistants, and more that deal with the effects.
We understand that beer will get spilled and the occasional mess made on the weekend — such is life at every college in the U.S., after all. By no means do we want to shut down parties or cancel your screws. But the morning after these events, we all have an obligation to pick up after ourselves. Clean up the beer cans left outside your townhouse so that Facilities Services isn’t forced to do it for you; repair what you can and pay to replace what you can’t.
Tampering with public spaces has also had more serious implications, ones that result in concrete losses for students. When study rooms, kitchens and lounges are shut down in dorms, students lose access to basic amenities that improve their college experience. When utensils, pillows, hair care products and other items are stolen — and opportunities to correct the misbehavior go ignored — spaces like the AFC are forced to drastically limit when the building can be accessed. The AFC is specifically meant for BIPOC, first generation and LGBTQ+ students, and its forced shutdown intrudes on these groups’ designated safe spaces. It’s unnecessary for these immature violations to happen at all.
That’s not to say that we as a campus community aren’t capable of doing better. In shared spaces where the equipment is expensive and hard to replace, students tend to respect regulations with a stricter attitude. In these spaces, like the WRMC studio or the Freeman International Center (FIC) music room, simple rules such as not eating or drinking in the space are typically followed, not seen as barriers to having fun. When equipment can be linked to individual use, students take extra care not to break or harm it. We should apply the same mindset to all of our shared spaces.
The college also has a part to play in initiating a change in our campus culture. It often feels like the administration picks and chooses when to respond to problematic incidents — the perpetrators of parking violations are now going to be prosecuted more intensely while the AFC remains with its doors closed after-hours. Different situations do call for varying levels of severity in the administration’s response, but what the college is missing is consistency. The lack of enforced accountability from the administration maintains bad behavior because the perpetrators of vandalism and theft are not consistently sought after.
Middlebury’s administration can take more action by replacing objects that have been stolen or providing funding to help compensate for losses. The college has a responsibility to go pursue culprits of serious transgressions regularly, take their violations more seriously and ensure that whatever objects have been damaged or stolen will be replaced with no burden to the affected people or organization on campus.
The paradox of Middlebury is that it is small enough for us to know almost everyone, yet just big enough to escape responsibility for petty actions. No matter the likelihood of someone tracking the perpetrator down and punishing them, we should all hold ourselves accountable, even our friends and even when partying in someone else’s suite.
After all, Middlebury students are the ones who call this campus their home; we, not staff, faculty or administrators, wake up on Saturday morning to live among the wreckage of the previous night. Middlebury is our home — let’s start treating it that way.
