It’s nearing the end (one more week!) of a whirlwind of a semester. While most semesters tend to have at least a couple of contentious moments, this semester has seen an exceptional share of controversy. So let’s be like Buzzfeed and make a listicle about it. Here is this middbeat writer’s top controversies of the semester.
Disclaimer: Yes, I have thrown together a clearly subjective list without any sort of methodology.
5. Cheating
Graphic made by the campus (middleburycampus.com)
The honor code has become a center-piece of campus discourse as more and more incidents appear to emerge. Check out this article from the Campus entitled “Cheating: Hardly a Secret” . While the sensationalism could have been toned down a notch, it does a decent job of using anecdotes and incident reports to reveal exactly what its title describes—persistent cheating in the classroom. But you also have to be a bit skeptical of “moral crises” sometimes. Do we really think there is that much more cheating now than ever before? I’m not so sure. That’s why this issue is only number 5 on our list.
4. Homophobic note
This troubling series of events has driven much of the conversation about sexuality and, in particular, the threads of homophobia that remain embedded in our community. This episode was heavily documented by Middbeat and the Campus, so it doesn’t need an explanation here. But it clearly has had a large impact on our community.
3. Professor Wax
This event happened just a couple weeks ago. Professor Amy Wax, a UPenn Law Professor and demographer, gave an incredibly jarring talk to a packed room of students and faculty in Hillcrest entitled ”Diverging Family Structure by Race and Class: Economic, Moral Deregulation, or Something Else?”. She proceeded to give what many of the professors in attendance said was an “un-academic” juxtaposition of data and moral judgments, which inevitably sparked an outpour of discourse about race in America. If you were there, you know exactly what I am talking about. If you weren’t, read Middbeat more.
2. Chance the Rapper
Better known as Chance-Gate, I initially thought that this was the most controversial incident of the semester. It has all the elements: student activism, MCAB incompetence, Adam Benay, homophobia, and more. Beginning with Adam’s now famous letter, the student body was able to work within the rules and galvanize support so that everybody who wanted to see Chance the Rapper got to see him. But then, just as the dust started to settle and everything seemed fine, the lyrics controversy erupted, leading to a discussion panel about the types of acts that we bring to this school. On the one hand, I totally understand the need for our community to address issues like these in a productive way, but I ultimately think that it was a bit overblown. We don’t need the lyrics police to come every time a 20-year-old rapper says something inappropriate in a song.
1. The 9/11 Flag Incident
Is it that obvious? I mean, this got national media attention. Just a simple Google search and dozens of articles come up about this incident. What started out as a bit of misplaced activism, quickly ignited a nationwide outrage. Again, I’m not here to recap, just to listicize. But, I think its pretty clear that this is the most controversial incident of the semester. Everyone was talking about it. At the end of the day, this was just a shitty situation for everyone involved: the College, Shireman-Grabowsski, the Abenaki, and everyone in mourning. If you want to read more, check out the Midd Magazine article about it featuring our fearless leader Ronny Leebz.
Well that wraps up my list of the top 5 controversies of the semester. Leave a comment if you have something to say.
