There is a trigger warning for this post and the accompanying comment section, which discuss sexual assault and institutional responses and non-responses to it.

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Art Credit: Annie Rodrigue

Nearly three years ago—on Wednesday, May 7, 2008—Middlebury students, staff, and faculty asked what we still consider to be a very important question:

Carbon-neutral by 2016; rape-free by...???

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*We’re still looking for new members of academic year 2011-2012! Click here for more info*

Some exciting updates:

• We’ve added an “About” page to our website! It contains important (slightly adapted) information from the document formally proposing the creation of the Council.
• We’ve also included updated sections from the “Opportunities for Progress” portion of the formal proposal on our “Projects” page!
• The PGCOM Subcommittee on Resisting Discriminatory Military Recruitment Practices has produced a report recommending the College not revert its “Recruitment Policy for Employers” to its pre-Fall 2007 language on the basis of the erroneous belief that the military no longer violates Middlebury’s Nondiscrimination Statement post-DADT repeal. (Hint: The military regularly discharges its transgender members for a variety of inappropriate reasons—a discriminatory practice under a nondiscrimination statement that has at least ‘on paper’ protected our community members on the basis of “gender identity and expression” for nearly eight years.)
• The Propaganda Subcommittee’s new agitprop campaign kicks off today! Stay tuned.

If you are interested in becoming more actively involved in the work of the People’s Gender Council of Middlebury in the academic year 2011-2012, now’s your chance!

Students: Send an e-mail to gendercouncil@gmail.com containing your name, graduation year, and major(s)/minor(s). Then attend, if at all possible, our meeting this Thursday, April 28, at 4:30 P.M. in Axinn 104. (It’s a regularly scheduled meeting with a full agenda—a chance for you to experience how our group operates, and for us to get to know you. It’s not an interview!) If you are unable to attend the meeting, send us that e-mail anyway! We’ll work something out.

Staff/faculty: Send an e-mail to gendercouncil@gmail.com. We’ll be in touch!

And now for some exciting announcements:

• We’ve added a new page to our website: Projects! It lists and describes all of the PGCOM initiatives that have made significant headway at Middlebury. Check it out!
• The PGCOM Subcommittee on Individual Empowerment through Official Self-Identification has released a report detailing some recommendations for what a web form that allows students, staff, and faculty to declare their preferred name, gender marker, and pronouns ought to look like. (Excerpt: “Clearly state that in the directory, the applicant’s name will appear as ‘Off-Beat, My Dancing Is,’ while the applicant’s ID card will state, ‘My Dancing Is Off-Beat.'”) Read it here!
• The PGCOM Propaganda Subcommittee is set to unveil a new piece of agitprop all over campus this week. Stay tuned!