Delta Upsilon, 1988

Middlebury made national news on May 7-8, 1988, when Delta Upsilon hung a “mutilated” female mannequin with "Random Hole" scrawled on it from their balcony. The Women’s Union and other members of the community protested. As a result, DU was suspended for one year by the college. In 1990, single-sex organizations were banned from Middlebury. In the aftermath, a surge of pre-existing student activism resulted in the eventual establishment of Chellis House (the Women’s Resource Center), the major in Women’s Studies, and a student group called Feminist Action at Middlebury (then called The Coalition for Women). After the DU incident, President Olin Robinson appointed the Committee on Attitudes Towards Gender and tasked them with "[developing] recommendations as to how the College community should continue in future years to educate people about attitudes towards gender." The committee's report, published in 1990, marked the college's first "attempt at self-evaluation on these issues."

NOTE: Related content/context can be found in the "Reports on the Status of Gender and Women" collection. Search "1990 Special Committee on Attitudes Towards Gender" to find the report.