(March 21) The Campus: "PC does not exist at Middlebury"

This op/ed is a direct response to Daniel O'Neil's article a week prior on March 14. This article says that though political correctness can be problematic, there is no point to O'Neil's op/ed, as PC does not exist at Middlebury. Ryan and Stillinger point to O'Neil's own words about the SGA rejecting a possibly mandatory "Cherishing the Earth" course, to show that the student body clearly does not consider itself to be PC. They further push back on O'Neil's "dangerous" opinions, saying "The label of PC at Middlebury provides a convenient escape from the very real issues of sexism, racism, elitism, and other “perceived” social inequities" ("perceived" is a quote from O'Neil's article). Finally, they defend the faculty who they say are as much a part of the Middlebury community as the students, though they were criticized harshly in O'Neil's article. Ryan and Stillinger condemn O'Neil's argument that PC limits diversity of thought and speech, "In the future, if Mr. O’Neil would like to glorify fascism, please do not masquerade it under the cloak of diversity. Silence equals death." Here is the article from The Campus' archives, as well as photos of the article as it was originally printed.

Melissa Ryan and Cynthia Stillinger

March 21, 1991