Opening Up: Lessons from a Speaker Shutdown

A controversial speaker came to Middlebury in 2017.  Two years later, the national media story largely excludes student voices.  In this episode, Middlebury College students describe what happened, the lessons they learned, and ideas about how to encourage honest dialogue on college campuses.  Narrated by Sarah Stroup, Middlebury College professor.

This episode is part of a podcast series, Opening Up.  Opening Up invites listening and dialogue about different issues in higher education by putting student voices first.  It is supported by the Engaged Listening Project (ELP) at Middlebury College in Vermont. 

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Many people helped make this project possible.  Brett Simison tolerated my poor audio recordings and agreed to produce this episode.  Music by Kevin MacLeod at incompetech.com.  The news clips are courtesy of NPR, Charlie Rose, VPR, CSPAN, and PBS.  Production was underwritten by the Engaged Listening Project at Middlebury College, which is supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.  Finally, though ten students are featured in the episode, thanks to the students and colleagues at Middlebury College who have opened up, argued, and laughed with me over the past several years. 

To learn more about our efforts at campus dialogue, visit our website: go.middlebury.edu/elp.  For questions or comments, email [email protected]. Many thanks to Erin Davis for her careful editorial ear and encouragement and to Nan Guilmette for her feedback and supportive words about teaching. The DLINQ team at Middlebury helped with many technical questions.