Mistreatment at Middlebury: The Trailer
I chose Middlebury because I wanted a college where I would thrive as a polyglot with a passion for science. I never imagined my school would try so hard to get rid of me once I needed accommodations, something that they have been doing since Fall of 2020.
During this past J-term, over 100 students and alumni signed a petition asking for me to get my diploma. Even before that, the president of the local NAACP contacted my college, calling for me to be allowed to graduate and for Middlebury to reaffirm their commitment to marginalized students. Instead of meeting with her, the administration had their scheduling person tell her to never directly contact Middlebury administration again. Middlebury College, during MLK Jr weekend, refused to speak with the NAACP when they attempted to advocate for me.
I left campus with no guarantee of a diploma and the person deciding if I would graduate after finishing an additional class now being the Dean of Faculty- who has claimed no rules were broken and sent emails that seem to suggest I will not graduate at all if I continue to try to talk about discrimination or faculty misconduct.
During this spring, after a month of telling me they would investigate and then changing their minds and deciding that they could not move forward with any investigation unless I named and accused all involved parties (at the time over 15 different employees), something that terrified me as the college had already failed at protecting me from retaliation, my college's civil rights office announced in April that they would be investigating my situation- but only the biology professors- and doing so whether I wanted them to or not. They told me that once again, this investigation would do nothing to address the harms done to me by this situation (meaning it would not allow me a diploma or any grade changes even in the event of discrimination being proven), but that the investigator would contact me shortly and I needed to prepare, leading to me going through my timeline of events and discovering that during the past 4 years, over 40 different Middlebury employees knew of or were involved in my situation- none of whom ever went to my college's civil rights office or told me that I could, despite me using clear signs and words about experiencing discrimination, such as the words "discrimination," "illegal," and "discriminatory.” I used these words in meeting after meeting and email after email, all to no avail.
It has since been over a month since I was told that the investigator would contact me. There’s been nothing but silence. A silence I know all too well after four and a half years of the same silence. And now, as I try to finish this course for my diploma in the next two weeks, knowing that the college will only use my diploma as a reason to further refuse to address my situation, I wanted to release this and make clear my intentions to tell my story. I’m done letting fear keep me silent.
I’ve done a lot at Middlebury- I’ve been an orientation leader, been selected for Community Council, Environmental Council, and even spent a semester on student government. I’ve been a newspaper photographer, biology research assistant, part of an improv troupe for 4 years, and taught countless students ceramics as a ceramics monitor. I’ve worked for the college’s sustainability center on Energy 2028, and been a prestigious Climate Action Fellow for the past year and a half. I lived in Weybridge Academic Food House for the past two years, a house that centers on community meals and local food. I tried my hardest to contribute to my community and to make things better for the students around me.
I deserved to have a college experience where I was treated with respect and dignity. I couldn’t get that, no matter how hard I tried. So now, I want to have the resources to have representation, to do advocacy work, and have actual justice.
