Editorial Racism issues remain unresolved

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Racism issues remain unresolved
Racial issues have continually made headlines in The Middlebury Campus in the past several years. Three years ago Campus opinions pages were filled with debates over affirmative action. A "Cowboys and Indians" themed party in the fall of 2004 also sparked controversy. A crime alert e-mail that referred to a suspect as having "nappy hair" raised eyebrows in September 2005. Though O'Neil Walker eventually withdrew accusations of racial discrimination in the College's Judicial Process, The Village Voice published a scathing, and ultimately unfounded, criticism of the College entitled "Busted for Blackness at Middlebury."
Many of these recent accusations of discrimination at the College in the past few years have not amounted to much, and some in hindsight even seem blown out of proportion. Ironically, the most recent issue - one that seems to warrant the most attention - has received almost none in the month following its occurrence.
Though little information has come to light, College administrators confirm that a white student directed racial epithets at a black student on the evening of Friday, Jan. 27. Reports are conflicting, but it seems evident that the verbal conflict escalated into a physical encounter in which blows were exchanged.
After hearing about the incident, the African American Alliance called an emergency meeting. College administrators followed up by organizing a meeting with the same students, but have not issued a formal statement to the broader community or formulated an open discussion in response to the incident. The issue deserves consideration by the College community, and the student body should not be excluded from such dialogue. For discussions to have any chance of succeeding, they must bridge racial lines and include distinct groups. The deliberative dialogue program, which encourages a non-adversarial approach to complex societal issues, was widely publicized in the beginning of the school year and its inclusion as part of the first-year orientation program was deemed a success. A similar approach could be highly effective, and attract more interest, when organized in response to an issue such as that which occurred on Jan. 27.
However, Dean of Students Tim Spears emphasized that the College's judicial process limits the College's ability to address the issue in an open manner. A balance must be found to enable the judicial process to remain closed and private while allowing for the prompt and public discussion of broader issues raised by an incident such as a racial conflict. Issues that could be addressed without threatening the privacy of the two students facing disciplinary action include posting information on the proper way to report verbal harassment and how to deal with a friend or colleague who expresses racist views.

Save newspapers
Not surprisingly, members of The Middlebury Campus staff would be greatly saddened to see the permanent discontinuation of the Collegiate Readership Program. Filling dining halls with quality print such as The New York Times is one of the best ways possible to temporarily transport students outside the Middlebury bubble.
If students are failing to clean up the newspapers, putting an unnecessary burden on dining hall staff, temporarily discontinuing the service does not seem to be a way to alleviate the problem. Instead, students should have been issued a warning and granted a period of time to remedy their messy behaviors.
As newspaper readership continually decreases, it is even more important to encourage student news reading habits.