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Middlebury was chartered as an institution despite a mild controversy over its attempt to take funding state funding away from the University of Vermont which was being founded at the same time. Read more.
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The Philomathesian Society, founded by Henry Chipman '03 as the first student society at Middlebury, was open to all students to discuss questions of politics, religion, education, and morality. Read more.
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Emma Willard opened a Female Seminary in her home, writing around that time, "My neighborhood to Middlebury College made me bitterly feel the disparity in educational facilities between the two sexes; and hoped that, if the matter was once set before the men as legislators, they would be ready to correct the error" (quoted in Stameshkin 117). Read more.
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In a petition written to the Board of Trustees, 50 Middlebury students claimed that once-admired math professor Frederick Hall should be fired over "recent occurrences which have transpired in his department, occurences in their nature so aggravated and cruel" that they were keeping students from attending the school. Read more.
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Alexander Twilight, often touted by the Middlebury administration as the first Black student in US history to receive a college degree, was likely admitted to Middlebury College because he "passed" as white. This says more about the bigotry of the administraiton and trustees at the time than Twilight's qualifications as a scholar. Read more.
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In an act of forcing the institution to act in accordance with its nominal non-sectarianism, student Thomas J. Sawyer '29 "used his good standing in the college community to convince the trustees to bestow an M.A. degree upon his religious mentor," Samuel C. Loveland. Read more.
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After students were reprimanded for going to Burlington to hear Daniel Webster speak without obtaining permission from the school, several students -- "some our best scholars" as James Simmons '41 put it to David Stameshkin -- transferred out of Middlebury in protest.
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When Chi Psi was allowed to continue to meet underground after the college administration banned fraternities because "its early members included men who were known for their academic excellence and outstanding Christian character," a group of students organized a student meeting to condemn the existence of secret fraternities at Middlebury (Vol. 1; 175). Read more.
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Martin Freeman, the only black student at Middlebury between 1840 and 1880, matriculated in the fall of 1845. Read more.
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In a small act of collective bargaining, students successfully petitioned for their morning prayers and recitation to be pushed back after breakfast. After 60 years of the "quasi-monastic" routine of waking before the sun to pray, this was no small win for the students (Stameshkin Vol. 1; 171). Read more.
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The faculty in 1870 -- Webber, Albee, Parker, Robbins, Seely, Kellogg, and Brainerd -- were, in the words of Stameshkin, "an aggressive and demanding faculty who were difficult, at times, for the new president and trustees to handle" (Vol. 1; 158). Read more.
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For the first time Middlebury College made national news. Why? In the fall of 1879 the entire student body went on strike. Read more.
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Middlebury accepts female students
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May Belle Chellis, winner of a Waldo Prize for academic excellence and first in her class, graduated as the first woman to receive a Middlebury College degree. Read more.
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A little-known piece of Middlebury College history is that starting in 1888 the College began to receive funding from the state. Read more.
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In an act that came "not from motives of devilry and distinction, but for improvement," students broke into Old Chapel, ripped out the old wooden benches, and burned them (quoted in Stameshkin Vol. 1; 208). Read more.
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In 1905, ten "neutrals" (students who were not part of the dominating fraternity system) formed the Kappa Delta Rho (KDR) fraternity in the hopes that it "would not condone the pranks, drunkenness, and elitism allowed by the other fraternities" (Stameshkin Vol. 1; 263). Read more.
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Pres. John Thomas commissioned the building of the large and luxurious Hepburn Hall in the hopes that it would attract more "paying students" to Middlebury (271). Read more.
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In 1911 talks began about creating a union of the colleges in Vermont (UVM, Middlebury, and Norwich). Read more.
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In 1912 Middlebury's Women's Athletic Association formed and marked the beginning of years of women organizing for athletic rights. The organization started by organizing basketball games that were only open to "women of the college, faculty wives, and friends" (Stameshkin Vol. 1; 270).
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In a move that on the surface appeared to be a win for student power, the Middlebury administration established the existence of student governments (one for the men's college, one for the women's). Read more.
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In late 1913, after President of Middlebury John Thomas proposed an expanded new curriculum for Middlebury that stressed subject matter and lived experience over mental discipline (following the philosophy of Vermonter John Dewey), the state government commissioned the Carnegie Foundation for Advancement of Teaching to investigate higher education in the state. Read more.
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The Women's College at Middlebury formally named as a separate institution from 'Middlebury College' the men's school.
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Three-quarters of the freshman class in the Women's College petition for indefinite postponement of sorority rushing.
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The Liberal Club formed in 1932 as a way for students to discuss politics left of center.
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Of the 194 female students at Middlebury in 1934, 158 petition the President to abolish sororities. Sororities were forced onto the women as a justification for the existence of fraternities; in order to prove that there was 'equality' amongst the sexes, women were forced to continue their own Greek life against their desires up to this point of resistance.
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A poll of the student body conducted in 1934 found that the majority of the student body identified as Socialist over Republican or Democrat. Though the results shifted in the years to come, this was a remarkable difference from the preceeding generations.
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The Liberal Club, the Women's Forum, and the Middlebury Peace Council join 13 groups from town to organize a "peace strike" as part of the national collegiate movement.
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Students politicized during World War II form the Student Action Assembly and bring the American Marxist writer Granville Hicks to campus.
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A navy V-12 unit of 500 officers enters the College as the school struggles with enrollment and funding.
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Half a century after Middlebury first admitted women, Ruth Wheaton becomes the first female student to be Editor-in-Chief of The Campus.
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Middlebury's Phi Mu sorority protests their National for not allowing them to pledge a Jewish student.
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After the war and the disastrous relationship between the faculty, staff, and President Stratton, faculty at Middlebury form a chapter of the academic-protecting American Association of University Professors.
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In a move that David Stameshkin considers to be the start of the making of Middlebury as the 'elite' institution that it is today, Middlebury administrator and recruitment officer Stanley Wright begins to recruit under-performing, wealthy students from prepartoy schools who before would not have been admitted to the school.
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51 faculty members sign a petition out of dissatisfaction with salary and President Stratton.
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Middlebury's Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity becomes the first in the nation to break with its national over racial and religious discrimination.
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68 buildings, grounds, and maintenence employees who formed a local with the United Mine Workers uion walked off their jobs to protest poor working conditions and pay.
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WRMC starts operating out of a converted chicken coop
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Alumni refuse to give Middlebury money after W. Storrs Lee -- a beloved teacher and key figure in the Middlebury community -- was fired.
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Ron Brown becomes the first Black member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity.
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Female students successfully petition to extend curfew from 10pm to 11pm. Though a small win, it was the first step on the road to many more changes for women who, for decades, had been treated differently and infantilized more obviously than the men at the College.
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The first Civil Rights student organiztion is founded at the College in the fall of 1963 and one of their first actions is to hold a Civil Rights Conference.
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Exchange program with the HBCU Talladega College in Alabama begins. Unfortunately, though the founders wanted the program to continue, 1965 was its first and last year.
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In the spring of 1965, 26 students and faculty members participate in the Civil Rights march from Montgomery to Selma, Alabama. On the Middlebury campus there is a "sympathy march" on the same day.
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Students travel to DC to protest the war
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After years of female and male students being kept apart and only being allowed 'parietal hours' to visit each others' rooms for a short time in the evenings or on the weekends (with the door open!), students organizine a sit-in to extend parietal hours and win.
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Torie Osborn (founder of the future Middlebury College Women's Union-- the first feminist group at Middlebury) begin an "abortion underground," driving students seeking abortions across the border into Canada for affordable and safe care.
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From 1967 to 1970 many members of the Middlebury community challenged the status quo through the following actions: international solidarity work: fighting for 24-hour parietal hours and co-ed dorms; anti-war teach-ins, bringing about the end of ROTC, protesting against Dow Chemical interviews, sitting-in at the local draft board, and organizing activities related to moratorium against the war,
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The student government dissolves itself to bring attention to the fact that it was rendered powerless by the administration.
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8 of 11 members of the Gifford Dormitory Council resign in protest after being denied autonomy by the administration.
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Faculty request six seats on the Board and are denied them.
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Black Student Stephanie Davis charges that the Sigma Kappa sorority discriminated against her because of her race
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In the fall of 1969 the faculty approves a student-supported "modified" plan to limit ROTC participation. This action likely led to its eventual phasing out in 1976 due to lack of participation.
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In the spring of 1970 -- after the Kent state shootings -- the College suspended classes and normal activities for an entire school week. Read more about it here.
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In the spring of 1970 -- after the Kent state shootings -- the College suspended classes and normal activities for an entire school week. Read more about it here.
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In the middle of Middlebury's student strike week, an arsonist burns down the building Recitation Hall. Read more here.
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The newly-formed Student Investigating Committee threatens a student strike if the faculty do not vote to end distribution requirements and they win.
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"Middlebury Women’s Union founded: 65 women of college formed group; met every week to talk about the role of sexism played on campus
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Environmental Quality, the first environmental student organization, forms in 1971.
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16 of the 50 Middlebury students who went to Washington, DC to protest the Vietnam War are arrested.
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Students involved with the Radical Education Action Project occupy part of Adirondack House where the ROTC offices were and turned it into a "Peace Center' after the Nixon Administration bombed North Vietnam.
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Black students establish Coltrane Lounge as a safe space
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The Gay People at Middlebury -- the first LGBTQ student group at Middlebury -- has its first meeting.
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Marjorie Lamberti becomes the second woman to become a full professor (the first was a Home Economics professor in 1925)
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After years of feeling left out of conversations that affected their schooling and their lives, 1,000 students sign a petition calling on the administration to engage in more consultation with students beforemaking decisions.
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Students stage an overnight sit-in in Old Chapel to protest French professor's firing
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Over 600 students attend a meeting organized by the ad hoc Middlebury Awareness Development (MAD) group to approve solutions for specific areas of student conern.
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The faculty calls for complete divestment from South Africa.
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Students successfully petition the school to hire a woman as director/nurse practioner at the until-ten all-male health center.
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The Black Student Union meets with the Undergraduate Life Committee to ask the college to divest
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Professors Richard Cornwall and David Prouty organize to have the faculty pass a recommendation that the college include sexual orietnation in its nondiscrimination statement
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Anti-apartheid student group the Armadillos builds a rock wall on campus to symbolize Apartheid as part of the faculty and staff movement for divestment from South Africa.
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Theough the now-entitled Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies major had yet to be included in the curriculum, a Women’s Studies Concentration is offered in the Sociology Department in 1986.
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The Middlebury College Staff Council is formed in place of a union in order "to provide a forum that will regularly address staff-related concerns and ideas and thus contribute to the well-being of the Middlebury College Community."
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As the divestment movement on campus heats up, students Against Apartheid organize a sit-in in President Robison's office
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After an almost decade-long struggle (and after many other universities had done so before them), trustees vote to divest from South African Apartheid.
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The Report of the Admissions Long-Range Planning Committee forces the administration into taking up issues of race and racism at the College by naming the fact that the school has put race on the backburner since the Twilight Report was published five years earlier critiquing the school's lack of awareness and programming.
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Faculty, staff, and students organize against CIA recruitment (teach-in, etc.)
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The Gay People at Middlebury is reorganized as the Middlebury Lesbian and Gay Alliance (MLGA) . The following year it is renamed again as the the Middlebury Lesbian Gay Straight Alliance.
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The Women's Union and other members of the community petition the Community Council to disband the Delta Upsilon fraternity after they suspended from their balcony a mutilated female mannequin covered in red paint with with the phrase "Random Hole" written on it.
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In a move that challenged Middlebury's Protest past and present, 10 Islamic students observe Ramadan, attend an Islamic Symposium, and form a prayer group from 1989 to 1990.
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The Gamut Room opens
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Professor Paul Cubeta retires after multiple students organized to file a suit against him for sexual harassment. Part of the outrage was due to the fact that the school hid this information from the public for an extended period of time.
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Women's studies major is introduced
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Faculty, students with the group ACT NOW, and townspeople sing and chant outside of a CIA interview session at the top of their lungs, preventing the interviews from taking place and effectively banning the CIA from campus for years to come.
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After plenty of organizing by the staff (and an urging in the Special Report on Gender), the College fails to offer subsidized childcare.
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The Special Committee on Attitudes toward Gender releases their findings that discrimination against women on campus is pervasive.
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Students form STARTUP (Students Against the Rise in Tuition and Unjust Policies) and half the student body boycott classes and stage a sit-in on the Old Chapel steps to protest the immense rise in tuition from the year before.
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What is now called the Chellis House - Women's Resource Center is opened and becomes home to many student organizations such as the Women’s Union, Artemis magazine, Middlebury Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Alliance, Feminist Action at Middlebury, students from African- American Alliance, Alianza Latinoamericana y Caribena and the International Students Organization.
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The College instituded parental leave for faculty, allowing them to take one term off from teaching with full pay when giving birth or adopting a child.
