Dear Readers, I  first met Jacob Udell at a meeting with the Religious Life Council, at the very beginning of my first year as Dean of the College. His intellectual fire, fierce leadership, and disarming honesty instantly impressed me. Subsequently, he followed up with a meeting in which we explored how to bring together students [...]

An alum recently told us that he had just learned that Alexander Twilight—the first black person in America to receive a college degree—earned his degree from Middlebury in 1823. He wanted to know why we don’t speak more frequently about this amazing man and this noteworthy historical fact. His question made me think—not only about [...]