“Hello” policy - Logan Brown

Although I have a very large bone to pick with issues involving the Middlebury community and our inability to integrate different social scenes on this campus (I hope to address them in future articles), I want to start with a very simple proposition. It may seem a wild idea at first but I think it is worthwhile. What if when walking across campus, instead of ducking ourselves further under our hoods, hiding behind our scarves or turning up the music on our iPods we all made sure to give a simple “hello” and make eye contact with all those we pass as we make our way.

I am positive that each person on our campus has had an experience where they see a peer in the distance, perhaps a lab partner from sophomore year, an opponent in a P.E. badminton class, an incredibly outspoken guy you sat next to in discussion, who you probably do not know intimate details about (unless you sat behind them in class and watched their every move on their laptop), but you know who they are and they know who you are. You are getting closer to meeting and don’t know if they are going to say hi or if they remember you or if you should just smile…or will they think that is creepy? So instead, you look down at your phone and scan the Proctor lunch menu avoiding any sort of interaction.

I believe that Middlebury should implement a “hello” policy. My dad, who attended Colgate University, told me about Colgate’s longstanding “hello” tradition and I think it is a great and very simple way to strengthen a community. It would be nice if we all acknowledged each other’s presence, through eye-contact, a smile, a head nod and hopefully a “hello” or “good morning, good afternoon, good evening,” if we want to get fancy. If the expectation is that we greet one another then there is no room for awkwardness or game time decisions. I am not suggesting that we remember everyone’s name and commons and how they like their eggs but I think that openly addressing one another (yes, even strangers), on a daily basis, will make us more ready to address larger community issues. The truth is that there should be no “strangers” at a school as small as Middlebury. I would be willing to bet that if you randomly selected any two people involved in the Middlebury community and locked them in a room together they would find numerous subjects about which they could speak and would inevitably relate to each other in some way.

I believe strongly that we all have something to learn from one another. Although we may take different paths, there is a larger process that we are all navigating and living through everyday and surely we can take the time to acknowledge that with something as simple as a “hello.”