"Surrender Your Booty!!!" Pirate Dance Party poster
This is a poster from the "Surrender Your Booty!!!" Pirate Dance Party held by Cook Commons in Pearsons Lounge in the fall of 2007. This poster, as well as the fact that a pirate porn film would be playing at the party, drew criticism from feminist activists. Despite these criticisms, the event was not cancelled.
Cook Commons
October 5, 2007
“I Went to a Fake Women’s Health Center, and Here’s What You Need to Know”
This blog, published on the National Women’s Law Center website, was written by Kelsie Hoppes. It outlines Hoppes’ experience visiting the local CPC in Middlebury. She provides an overview of the visit including services offered and the information presented in various media forms in the center.
Kelsie Hoppes
July 26, 2018
(1990) Special Committee on Attitudes Toward Gender Report
The DU mannequin incident sparked controversy over the status of women at Middlebury at the end of the 1987-1988. In the aftermath, Middlebury President Olin Robinson appointed a Special Committee on Attitudes towards Gender in the spring of 1988. This committee was tasked with evaluating the status of women and gender in the Middlebury community, and they published what came to be known as the 'Gender Report' in 1990. This report marked the college's first "attempt at self-evaluation on these issues." This document is a memorandum from President Robinson to the Middlebury College community, with the Gender Report attached.
Committee members are listed on this document
1990
(1997) Report of the Task Force on the Status of Women at Middlebury College
At the request of the Student Affairs Committee and the Board of Trustees, a task force was put together to evaluate the status of women in the Middlebury community, to review progress since 1989-1990 school year (when the first ever 'Gender Report' was released), and to make recommendations regarding women's issues at Middlebury. The task force included faculty, staff, and students, and spent months gathering information and writing their report. This is the report that the Task Force wrote.
Task Force members are listed on this document
April, 1997
(2000) Sexual Assault Report to the Trustees
One of the things discussed in the Task Force on The Status of Women reports is the Title IX process and the college's response to reports of sexual assault. One concern is that students will not report their assaults or seek help due to the negative response/policy from the college. This document is the sexual assault report presented to the Board of Trustees at Middlebury in 2000. It displays the minimal number of reports, both from the college's official reporting numbers and from a survey run by the college. The disparity between the reports from the Task Forces and the report presented to the Board of Trustees displays the level of discomfort that students have reporting sexual violence to Middlebury college. It also explains, in part, why the college administration and the Board of Trustees believe sexual assault is not a large problem at Middlebury.
Middlebury Administration
May 5, 2000
(2008) Report of the Task Force on
the Status of Women at Middlebury College
This is the 2008 report from the Task Force, which was appointed in April of 2007. As part of their research, the Task Force engaged the Middlebury campus community through open meetings, small focus groups, one-on-one interviews, surveys, etc. The Task Force also assessed Middlebury's progress on the suggestions from the most recent 1997 Task Force, and made suggestions of their own for the future. This report was presented to President Liebowitz in March 2008.
NOTE: Related content/context on the 2007/2008 Task Force can be found in the FAM folder. Search "Task Force on the Status of Women: Comments from Feminist Action at Middlebury."
Task Force members are listed on this document
March 2008
(2009) Administrative Response to 2008 Task Force on the Status of Women Report and the 2009 Steering Committee on the Status of Women Report
After the Task Force on the Status of Women authored their report in 2008, the Steering Committee on the Status of Women clarified specific action items and goals for the administration in their 2009 report. This is Middlebury's administrative response after receiving both of these reports. Their response details their goals, plans to meet those goals, and methods for monitoring their progress.
Middlebury Administration
October, 2009
(2009) Report from the Steering Committee on the Status of Women
The 2008 Report from the Task Force on the Status of Women, presented to President Liebowitz in March of 2018, contained "72 specific recommendations to improve the status of women at the institution." Due to the broad scope of the 2008 report, a Steering Committee on the Status of Women was created in August of 2008. The goal of the Steering Committee was "prioritizing the recommendations [of the 2008 report] and creating an implementation plan and a process for regularly assessing the extent to which the College has successfully met our prioritized goals." This is the report published by the Steering Committee in January of 2009.
The Steering Committee on the Status of Women
January, 2009
(2020) Oral History of Grace Vedock, Taite Shomo, and Professor Carly Thomsen
This is an oral history conducted by Sophie Hochman for Professor of Religion Justin Doran’s class “Religion and Capitalism.” Hochman interviewed Grace Vedock ‘20 and Taite Shomo ‘20.5, two students involved in the 2018 effort to ban CPCs from Middlebury, and Professor of Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies Professor Carly Thomsen, who served as their advisor for this project. Each of the interviewees describes their role in the effort to ban CPCs as well as the resistance they met from the college.
Sophie Hochman
December 10, 2020
(2022) NESCAC Coalition to Ban CPCs Petition
Petition organized by Elissa Asch (2022.5) in an effort to ban CPCs from all colleges in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC). The petition includes information on CPCs and allows the option to add a statement to the petition on behalf of a student organization, student government, academic department, etc.
Elissa Asch
Summer 2022