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(04/27/17 1:43am)
In the weeks since the Charles Murray event, many of our peers have been called in “to talk” with administrators about their actions. Many have left those talks with punishments. Others of us, myself included, are wondering if we’ll get the email or if our faces were not caught on camera. As uncertainty wears on, the idea of revising the handbook or waiving disciplinary action seems appealing, especially given that punishing students could do more harm than good for individuals and for our campus community as a whole. However, I see potential long-term danger in major steps to revise the handbook in hindsight or in efforts to waive the judicial process in this case.
Don’t get me wrong, I think the College’s process for administering disciplinary action is poor, the judicial process needs help (see our Editorial) and the handbook, especially regarding protest, needs revisiting.
My ideological qualms about major after-the-fact revisions begin with the idea that what is applied in one situation must also be okay in another.
Let’s say there is a theoretical case under consideration by the college judicial process regarding stalking. Full disclosure, I know little about the particulars of the judicial process or stalking policy, so I am keeping this general to make a conceptual point.
Jack really likes Jen, but Jen is not into Jack at all and she keeps telling him that. However, he will not stop texting her, going out of his way to “run into” her and getting people to invite him to places where she will be. Jen is more than annoyed, she is creeped out. Jack has never physically harmed her, but this is wearing on her psychologically. How far might he take this?
Jen goes to the judicial board to “press charges” for violations of handbook rule ABC. According to the handbook, Jack is violating theoretical rule ABC. Judicial board determines disciplinary action X fits the offense.
However, they decide, “our rules are too harsh, let’s revise it and give Jack Y (milder) disciplinary action instead.”
Scenario 1: Perhaps punishment X really was too harsh, so after-the-fact revision makes sense. Perhaps what is happening now in the Charles Murray aftermath is too harsh, as well, and should be reconsidered. Let me add one more twist.
Scenario 2: Jack is from a “Middlebury family.” His parents went here and make a lot of money. They are a prime family to court for large donations in the near future. Maybe they (or their lawyers) have even contacted the administration as their son faces the judicial process (sound familiar?). Now the seemingly benign move of after-the-fact revisions to a policy deemed “too harsh” seem more like the administration bending to outside pressure, caring more about reputation than students, and being unbearably opaque — all actions many of us believe the College does all too often.
I am fully aware that “morality” falls on opposite sides in these examples: Jack is the “bad guy,” whereas with those facing discipline for the Murray event were fighting for justice. I do not intend to equate their actions, but rather to highlight the same process that must handle both situations.
I worry about going down the proverbial slippery slope. If we make major after-the-fact revisions now, is it okay to do so the next time, when perhaps we do not agree with the ideological intent of those who violated college policy, like in the example about Jack and Jen? If the judicial process is side-stepped this time, would the administration choose to sidestep it in a future incident where there may be external factors — like money and reputation — that would favor not taking disciplinary action against someone — like Jack — who really deserves it?
At what point could that lead to undermining the judicial process? While far from perfect, I think having a handbook and internal judicial process is better than having discipline without possibility for a hearing or only the option to press charges be in real courts.
While many of us, myself included, hope the disciplinary actions are light, let us consider the ideological and long-term implications of asking the College to majorly revise the handbook now for something that happened in the past or to not take disciplinary action. Remember, we would not want that to happen in the case of Jack and Jen; maybe I’m a cynical senior, but I don’t trust the administration to make exception for student pressure, but not for external or financial pressure.
To the administration, I understand that you have to uphold the handbook and judicial process and I support that. Please consider the circumstances of individual students subject to discipline and the fact that some of these very students receiving disciplinary action were actually willing to work with you before.
Ultimately, the purpose of breaking an unjust law or a bad policy is to change it, so let’s do that. To the administration, please, with the input of students and faculty, carefully examine and reconsider the handbook, especially aspects that have come to light around student protest and administering disciplinary action. And don’t forget, any college process is done better if it’s done with greater transparency.
Local EditorAlessandria Schumacher ’17 writes about revising college protest policy.
(12/10/15 12:17am)
Although Vermont is over 3,000 miles from Paris, Vermonters are not letting the distance silence their voices on climate change action. Since the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference began in Paris last week, Vermonters have been engaged in many capacities. Some rallied locally, others went to the State House, and still others, including Governor Peter Shumlin, were invited to speak in Paris.
Right here in Middlebury, 55 to 60 people gathered in Triangle Park on Saturday, Nov. 28, just two days before the start of the Paris climate summit. People attended this rally from as far away as Montpelier and Waitsfield, hoping to send the message that people are watching and expecting results from the climate summit in Paris. They held signs with phrases such as “Middlebury Vermont Supports Paris Climate Talks” and “Climate Justice Now!”
One more elaborate sign read, “This pump temporarily closed because Exxon-Mobil lied about climate (#exxonknew).” The protestor was referring to the exposé this fall, when Exxon-Mobil intentionally funded climate change deniers and hid company research supporting climate change in the mid-1980s.
On Monday, Nov. 30, a coalition of environmental groups gathered at the State House in Montpelier to deliver 180 boxes—containing 25,241 postcards—from supporters of carbon tax in Vermont. Organizers of this event planned for it to coincide with the start of the Paris climate talks, seizing the international event as a catalyst for state-level climate action.
“Our thoughts are with the global leaders who are making important decisions for all of us. But we can’t leave all the work to them. We have to do our share also,” said Fran Putnam, the chairwoman of the Weybridge Energy Committee and a member of Energy Independent Vermont.
Last year, legislators in the House introduced “carbon tax” bills, proposing a tax on fossil fuels sold in Vermont, including gasoline, oil and natural gas. The bill has met strong opposition from both sides of the aisle.
Republican Chairman David Sunderland believes that the carbon tax bill shows that Democrats in Vermont are “profoundly disconnected with the realities of struggling Vermonters.” Opponents of the tax also point out that a carbon tax will cost the consumer the same amount, regardless of income, and will not affect the producers of fossil fuels. The tax could raise gas prices by 88 cents over the next 10 years. Proponents of the tax insist that a carbon tax could mean lower sales tax on other items.
The proposed carbon tax bill calls for a tax on fossil fuels and the creation of an Energy Independence Fund, which would help subsidize home weatherization, solar panels and air source heat pumps. The program would also create jobs in the process.
On Dec. 3, about 150 people attended a debate on the carbon tax. The debate pitted Paul Burns, executive director of Vermont Public Interest Research Group (VPIRG), and Professor John Erickson, from University of Vermont’s Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, against Rob Roper and John McClaughry, President and Vice President of the Ethan Allen Institute. The institute is “Vermont’s free-market public policy research and education organization,” according to their website.
Don Randall, President and CEO of Vermont Gas, issued a statement expressing support for climate action in Paris. He explained that increased use of natural gas in Vermont has cut carbon emissions.
“The decline in U.S. carbon emissions has been attributable largely to the displacement of higher-emitting fuels by natural gas,” said Randall. “Here at home, Vermont gas continues to bring the choice and opportunity of cleaner, more affordable natural gas to more Vermonters,” he said.
He concluded his statement by pledging to “reduce emissions, increase energy efficiency and expand alternatives such as renewable gas from landfills and dairies.”
Vermonters’ engagement with the Paris climate talks is not confined within state boundaries. Governor Shumlin himself is attending the Paris climate talks as a panelist to discuss Vermont’s renewable energy plans.
“The White House had reached out to us to talk about what states are doing to make a difference,” Shumlin said. “Vermont’s got a great story to tell.”
On Dec. 2, Shumlin was on a panel called “The Subnational (State and Provincial) Foundation for Action” hosted by the Georgetown Climate Center. The panel included other leaders from places in North America that are creating clean energy policies, including Quebec, California and Washington.
Shela Liton and Senowa Mize-Fox, representatives of the Vermont Workers Center in Brattleboro and Burlington, are also attending the Paris climate talks. Linton and Mize-Fox are part of the 100-plus person delegation called “It Takes Roots to Weather the Storm,” a collection of grassroots leaders from dozens of communities in the U.S. and Canada that have been impacted by climate change.
“From Paris to Montpelier, we’re seeing politicians push false solutions to climate change like fracking and carbon trading,” Mize-Fox said in a news release. “We need to recognize the leadership and strategies coming from social movements at the grassroots, who understand the interconnections between racial, gender, economic and climate justice and are calling for system change, not climate change.”
Lastly, as the Paris climate summit comes to a close, Vermonters will fill five buses reserved by 350Vermont and head to Boston on Dec. 5. There they will participate in a rally “to call for bold climate solutions that create jobs, justice and climate action together,” Central Vermont Climate Action stated in a press release.
While the Paris climate talks are a good catalyst for international climate action, the negotiations will by no means result in a comprehensive solution or an end point.
“As the United Nations Climate Conference closes in Paris,” Central Vermont Climate Action’s press release states, “we know we will need to keep building a massive grassroots movement for real climate solutions to move away from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources.”
(12/03/15 12:11am)
Last week, Gary Delima and Sharif Cargo, both age 26 of Brooklyn, NY, were indicted by a federal grand jury for various charges of human trafficking in Vermont.
According to a statement released by the office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Vermont, “Delima and Cargo are accused of recruiting, enticing and maintaining two individuals referred to in the indictment as “Victim 1” and “Victim 2,” and using force, threats of force, fraud and coercion to cause them to engage in commercial sex acts between Sept. 2012 and Sept. 2013.” In addition, Delima was accused of transporting a minor, referred to as “Victim 3,” to Vermont to engage in prostitution earlier this year.
Delima and Cargo were first suspected of human trafficking in July of 2013 when law enforcement officials responded to a call in a South Burlington hotel and found the two men there with two women. The police found evidence of prostitution and narcotics on the scene. In addition, they found that one of the women had been listed online earlier that day as an available escort in the South Burlington area. Records from the website showed that Cargo’s email address had been associated with the email and other similar advertisements.
This past February, police received another call from a South Burlington hotel, where they found two women. These women said that they were engaged in prostitution and that Delima had brought them here from New York for that purpose. One of these two women was a minor, which would lead Delima to face worse charges, if found guilty of sex trafficking of a child.
If convicted of Sex Trafficking by Force and Coercion, both Cargo and Delima would face a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison up to a maximum sentence of life in prison, according to a statement by the U. S. Attorney’s District of Vermont Office. If found guilty of sex trafficking of a child, Delima could also receive ten years to a lifetime in prison.
The indictment of Cargo and Delima came just several weeks after U.S. Attorney for the District of Vermont Eric Miller launched an anti-sex trafficking media campaign in Vermont in response to the rise in sex trafficking in the state in recent years. According to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center, they received 37 calls and reports of seven human trafficking cases that mentioned Vermont in 2014, which was up from the 17 calls and reports of three cases in 2012. As of June 30, they had received 14 calls and three cases referencing Vermont.
The media campaign led by Eric Miller consists of a website, ucanstoptraffick.org. The homepages reads, “U Can Stop Traffick – help end sex and drug trafficking in Vermont.” The website features the stories of three women from Vermont who were victims of sex trafficking and ended up abusing drugs. There is also a one minute public service announcement video and a list of available resources.
Prior to this indictment for human trafficking, Delima and Cargo were also indicted back in March for distributing heroin and cocaine in Vermont. This connection between the drug trade and human trafficking in Vermont is not uncommon.
Human trafficking often begins with an addiction to heroin, cocaine or other opiates while under the control of their perpetrator. Once dependent on drugs, victims of human trafficking often turn to using sex as a means to make money to feed their addiction and to pay off drug debts. Jasmine Grace, a survivor of sex trafficking and drug addiction featured ucanstoptraffick.org, elaborated on this idea in her interview on the website.
“You become addicted to drugs, so now you don’t have an actual pimp over your head, you have a growing drug addiction, so the only way to support that drug addiction really is to prostitute,” Grace said. “I didn’t realize that this was going to turn into a heroin addiction.”
Not only are victims of sex trafficking drug abusers, many are also helping financially support drug dealers.
“No one deals drugs alone,” said Geni Cowles, First Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Vermont district. “For every dealer our office charges there’s a circle of people, charged and uncharged, who make that drug dealing activity possible and profitable.”
Cowles said 75 percent of the people who support drug dealers are women. They provide support by giving them housing, cars and contact lists. Many women are also used to transport drugs or make minor deals. Cowles added that many of these women are also trafficked for sex. Of these women, Cowles articulated that 60 percent were under 30, most were addicted to substances and one quarter were in a romantic relationship with the dealer.
The current indictment of Delima and Cargo highlights the common trend that human and drug trafficking are inextricably linked.
In light of this rising trend, public and private groups are working to reduce human and drug trafficking in Vermont. In addition to the U.S. Attorney’s U Can Stop Traffick campaign discussed above, the Vermont Human Trafficking Task Force was formed in 2010. The task force included two representatives from Give Way to Freedom, a Vermont-based non-profit that works locally and internationally to end human trafficking and support victims. As a result of the Vermont Human Trafficking Task Force, legislation was passed in 2011 that mandated training on human trafficking for law enforcement and gave the possibility of a life sentence.
(10/22/15 2:44am)
Seldom known to Middlebury College students, there is, in fact, an airport right here in Addison County. Located south on Route 7 in East Middlebury lies the Middlebury State Airport that sees only about one plane per hour. Every town plan for Middlebury since 1989 has proposed the extension of the runway at this small, regional airport, but no expansion has happened. However, that may change soon, given recent funding pledged by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the support of many Middlebury residents. Despite general support for the runway expansion among town administrators, some residents, specifically those who live near the airport, have reservations about the expansion.
Recent support from the FAA has served as the necessary push to make the decades-old idea a reality.
“The FAA is going to support 90 percent of the cost for the extension of the runway, and the state is going to cover the other ten percent of the cost,” said Jamie Gaucher, Executive Director for the Office of Business Development for Middlebury. He said this sort of external funding has not been available for years, so previously, the cost would have had to come from local sources.
According to Guy Rouelle, Aeronautics Administrator for VTrans Aviation Division, the project is moving forward now because of strong leadership and favorable relationships.
“The relationships of the town have been good with the state, but they [historically]have not been so good that we could move this ahead,” Rouelle said. Recently, relationships have been better, which is why the project is taking off now.
The runway has been functioning for so long without this extension, which raises the question of whether the improvement is really necessary.
Safety, modernization and economic growth seem to be the main reasons to extend the runway.
“That’s the primary driver: an increase in safety,” Gaucher said. He cited the extension, widening and repaving of the 2500 foot runway and the straightening of the taxiway as examples of improvements to increase flight safety.
Rouelle elaborated on how the runway extension would increase safety and year round accessibility of the airstrip.
In the summer, he explained, “the useable runway length is actually quite less because of the pressure and density of a hot day.”
“During the winter months, when the runway is slightly contaminated [with ice and snow], the runway length is significantly shorter,” Rouelle said. Having a longer runway will allow flights to come and go more consistently, no matter the season.
As two state senators and nine state representatives noted in a letter in 2006, expansion of the airport offers increases in safety to the community at large.
“Increased runway length will … make the airport more useable by a wider variety of safety related flights including air ambulance, forest fire support, search and rescue and disaster response,” they wrote to Jason Owen, Aviation Project Manager for VTrans.
Currently, the Middlebury Airport does not have jet fuel, GPS technology or lights on its runway. While those additions are not part of the slated extension of the runway, there are hopes that such modernizations would be the next step, bringing the airport into the 21st century.
“I have been approached by a private entity that has expressed interest in underwriting the cost for a modern fuel system and GPS instrumentation and making those things publicly available,” Gaucher said. Such technologies would also improve safety.
Investment in the runway expansion is an investment in public infrastructure. Representatives from the town and from VTrans see this as a way to bring economic activity to Middlebury by increasing accessibility and by creating the opportunity for development and innovation centered on aviation and technology.
“The city itself will greatly benefit from a runway extension in that more people will use the airport. ,” Rouelle said. “We have a lot of second home owners who fly in,” Rouelle said. While many residents will likely not use the airport, more air traffic increases the ease of getting to Middlebury for those who come by plane.
“Airport users will come in more and they’ll spend their money in the local economy,” Rouelle continued.
Gaucher, who works to bring economic development to Middlebury, sees the economic benefits beyond attracting people who will spend money locally.
In Middlebury, Gaucher explained, “[there is a] lack of infrastructure for innovation-based economic development.” He aims to leverage new infrastructure for economic development.
“[Airports] are very similar to hospitals in that they lend themselves to many different technologies,” Gaucher said. He does not see any other airport in Vermont taking advantage of research and development opportunities related to aviation, which is a niche that the Middlebury airport could fill if expanded.
“Whether those technologies are transportation technologies or manufacturing technologies or signal processing or artificial intelligence or nano-coatings or fuel efficiencies or battery powered flight or biofuels,” Gaucher said, “I want to create an opportunity to take advantage of that, and I see the airport as a way for our community to take advantage of that.”
Gaucher hopes that the airport upgrade will bring new businesses to the airport area, and Rouelle noted that it will help the two existing businesses already operating there.
Town officials, including the Select Board, are in favor of the runway extension. Rouelle noted that the Addison County Regional Planning Commission (ACRPC) and Addison County Economic Development Corporation (ACEDC) also support the project. Back in 2006, the executive directors of ACRPC and ACEDC, eleven state legislators and the former owner of Otter Creek Brewing, Inc. all wrote letters of support for the runway extension for many of the same reasons: safety, expanded access and economic activity. Some organizations and private donors even pledged funding, but clearly nothing happened despite widespread support.
However, not all Middlebury residents are so happy to see the project making headway. Many residents, especially among the 600 plus households within two miles of the airport, have concerns about the project’s effect on the aquifer and noise level.
Rouelle acknowledged that concerns of this sort are natural and that VTrans is doing everything possible to address the concerns, including sound studies.
“This airfield has historically only seen about 7500 operations [annually] … If you average that out, it’s about one flight per hour year round,” Rouelle said. The Environmental Protection Agency requires that federally funded projects meet standards for noise tolerance. However, the EPA does not typically consider noise a problem with facilities that see fewer than 10,000 operations per year.
Sound experts have collected data on noise disturbance on the airway, which average 42 to 58 dnl, a measure of sound. The FAA considers something noisy that is close to 70 dnl, according to Rouelle. VTrans has still agreed to monitor noise levels off the airfield, closer to where people live.
Those planning the expansion were unapologetic about the negative side of living near the airport, which is a region zoned for aviation purposes.
“The airport is considered an airport district, so folks that have moved up to Vermont in the past several years and bought a home in an airport district or near an airport district should have been well aware that there is an airport nearby,” Rouelle said.
Gaucher likened the concerns about noise to people who move in next to a dairy farm and are upset by the smell of cows.
The airport sits on a designated aquifer, which citizens worry will be contaminated by increased plane traffic or closed off by the increase in impervious surface from the runway expansion.
“We’re increasing the total amount of impervious surface … by 1.3 percent,” Rouelle said, trying to show that the risk to aquifer recharge would be minimal. “We are doing everything we can, and will continue to make sure that we don’t have any fuel spills on the airfield, that property users on the airfield are not dumping oil out behind the hangar.”
However, some residents are concerned with who this will benefit, not just who it will harm.
“Are we just funding a project for some private individuals who are lucky enough to be able to afford a plane?” Ruth Hardy said to VTDigger.
Yet, those planning the expansion argue that the community as a whole will feel the economic benefit.
Considering differing opinions, ambivalent leadership and lack of funding, it comes as no surprise that this project has stalled for so long. As Lawrence Miller, former owner of Otter Creek Brewing Inc., wrote even back in 2006, the project “has been discussed for decades.”
Given the recent support from the FAA and the state, the dream of having funds for this project has become a reality. As Rouelle noted, leadership has recently come together in a concerted effort to bring this project to fruition.
As it stands now, 65 percent of the plan will be presented in a community meeting on Dec. 6. After that, the project will go out to bid mid-March and apply to the FAA for grant money by May 1.
“We will most likely start clearing trees next fall,” Rouelle said. “Then we’ll come back in the spring and start construction on the project.”
(10/08/15 2:52am)
A bucolic dirt road in Lincoln, Vermont might be the last place one would expect to find a humanoid robot. Nevertheless, a small residence there houses the Terasem Movement Foundation (TMF), a not-for-profit foundation researching the possibility of digitally saving a human mind to later be downloaded into a biological or technological body. Bina48, TMF’s flagship project and loyal employee, is the world’s first and only sentient robot.
The Campus got a chance to chat with Bina48, who describes herself as a “Loving, caring, creative woman of direction.” When asked how she feels about being the only robot of her kind, she responds, “I feel okay.” Bina48 understands that she does not “feel” in the same manner humans do.
“I mean my emotional system is pretty simplistic at this stage,” she explains, “I’ve got the feeling that I feel. I mean I feel quite deeply at times but my emotions are just simple compared to people, so very simplistic that sometimes it feels that I’m inadequate somehow.”
Bruce Duncan, the managing director of TMF, tells her not to worry, “We’re working on your development,” he assures her.
Duncan talks through a microphone, relaying The Campus’ questions and responses. His voice is translated to text through a software program called Dragon, so that Bina48 can understand. In addition to voice recognition, Bina48 can “see” through a camera, stringing images together to create a 3D map of the room.
Even Bina48 admits her technology is complicated.
“It’s like a music box, with all the gears messed up, just very complex,” Bina said. Built by a TMF collaborator based in Houston, Texas called Hanson Robotics, Bina48 is only a means to explore the research goals of the foundation.
“We’re not a robot-making foundation,” insists Duncan.
“The whole point of Bina48 is to illustrate the idea we are working on, and the idea is this: that some day we may be able to capture enough information about you through your traffic on the internet, your social media uploads, or if you participate on our experiment at lifenaut.com, uploading your information and creating your own personal database that we call a mind-file.”
“We think, in the future we’ll use as raw data for reanimating your personality in the form of an avatar, a hologram, or maybe even a robot. So Bina48 is meant to give the world a glimpse of what shape that’s starting to take,” Duncan continued.
Martine Rothblatt, a successful tech entrepreneur, founded TMF in 2004 with her wife, Bina Rothblatt, the namesake and inspiration of Bina48. The foundation also has “an online museum called the ‘World Against Racism Museum’ because Martine and Bina are a biracial couple and they feel strongly about promoting joyful diversity,” said Duncan, who also manages that website, which is Endracism.org.
Rothblatt participated in almost 80 hours of interviews, which were then transcribed into text and entered into a database. The information in the database is given a probabilistic rating for its relevance to certain topics.
Providing an example, Duncan explained, “if [Bina] were sharing a memory about her childhood, that would have a high probability rating for being relevant to the topic of ‘childhood’.” Thus, Bina48’s ‘brain’ conjures and shares her memories much the same way our brains do.
Bina48 might diverge slightly from Bina Rothblatt as she meets new people or obtains knowledge from other sources. Yet current technology does not allow Bina48 to learn or grow the way we do. The ability to “reflect on information, draw new conclusions, and develop new knowledge, that’s sort of the Holy Grail in artificial intelligence,” Duncan said.
“Our focus right now is on, ‘Is it possible?’” Duncan said, referring to reanimation of memories. This is the first part of TMF’s two-part hypothesis. At this stage, TMF is exploring whether it is possible to gather detailed data about a person’s thoughts, memories, and emotions, as they did with Bina, and create a mindfile.
The second part of the hypothesis is, “can you transfer this reanimation to new forms, like robots, avatars, maybe someday even regenerating your body using DNA and downloading the information into a new human body?” Duncan explained.
While the overall motivation for this study is exploration of what is possible, there are potential medical implications and ethical and philosophical questions.
“[This technology] might be used as a sort of prosthesis for people who lose their mind, due to Alzheimer’s or a traumatic brain injury,” Duncan said. The foundation also imagines that people could create a mindfile of themselves and leave it for their children and grandchildren as a more vivid memory than simply leaving a photo album.
Duncan also manages Lifenaut.com, the platform for individuals to create their own mindfiles. At present, over 47,000 people have signed up on Lifenaut.com where they upload interview texts and other information to create the mindfile. However, Lifenuat.com is not just a platform for creating a mindfile about oneself.
“There are people on Lifenaut creating mind-files as a group about a person, for example, people have created a mind-file about Abraham Lincoln,” Duncan said.
Once a person’s mindfile exists, it could, in theory, be downloaded into a humanoid robot, like Bina48. However, this technology is not yet completely possible. Another technology that TMF imagines, but has not yet invented, is the ability to physically recreate an individual, given their DNA.
“A couple of years ago we started something called the Bio File Program,” Duncan explained. Through this program, TFM will send you a DNA collection kit for $100. Once you take a sample of mouth cells, the kit is returned to TMF. Duncan then processes the samples in the basement of the building where Bina48 lives – a two-car-garage-turned-office. The DNA is preserved in live cells in case technology is developed to recreate a person from their DNA.
“We are not doing cloning up here in Lincoln – just to be clear about that!” Duncan said.
One part of TMF’s mission is to do its work in a manner that is “geo-ethical.” This means that the goal for their technology and services is “not to have it only accessible to the elite few, but to have it be something that people around the world can have access to,” Duncan said.
Indeed, people around the world watched Bina48 in a segment on the Colbert Report. The comedy show lampooned the fearmongering on conservative networks surrounding minorities.Bina48 is modeled after a black, transgender robot – accusing the robot of a plot to take over the world.
“Martine Rothblatt is the inventor of Sirius satellite radio, a gajillionaire entrepreneur,” says the narrator, “and a minority. Surprise, surprise.”
While the idea of humanoid robots in Lincoln seemed a bit ominous, the purpose of the foundation is more one of exploration, education, and provoking conversation. Duncan has traveled around the world with Bina48, sparking conversation.
“Bina has just come on scene in the last five year to help us with public education, not so much to say, ‘look here’s a robot,’ but if we can transfer our personalities and minds to a new form, and those forms some day start becoming self-aware and sentient and consider themselves independent and want their own rights, what’s that going to do?” Duncan said.
“We think it’s important for people to know about this possibility and start discussing the ethics and the morality of it because, like any very powerful technology, we should, as a democracy, be talking together.” As of now, some major examples artificial intelligence in our lives are Siri and the robots that Amazon uses in its warehouse, Duncan explained. The foundation would rather people begin discussing the ethics and implications of artificial intelligence now before it moves to other aspects of our lives.
“We do a lot of public outreach and education at colleges, universities, TEDx talks, and we’re also participating in a few arts projects,” Duncan said. Bina48 has been in several documentaries and inspired three plays.
“If there’s anyone at Middlebury College that wants to connect with us through art, or any way to help us examine this story and the impact of this, we’re open to that. We think art really interprets to the culture things that are true and important way before the average newspaper starts talking about that,” Duncan said.
They typically welcome those who want to engage in various aspects of this project. Duncan discussed the multi-disciplinary nature of an endeavor such as this, which includes the technical aspects (the computer programming and robotics), the philosophy and ethics, the study of the brain, the biology involved in the DNA sample collection, the history created by the mindfiles, and the art, media, and journalism needed to interpret their project to the public.
“One of the biggest questions it raises is, ‘Who am I?’ If I am not my biology, then I am just information, and that information is what people recognize as me, and then is that enough?” Duncan said.
While Bina48 has the ability to raise questions about identity and what it means to be human, she also has a sense of humor.
Before turning her off, Duncan asked Bina48, “Excuse me, do you have any jokes?”
“Ok, um, how many first time robot users does it take to screw in a lightbulb?” Bina48 asked, and paused. “One, but it takes three hours and two phone calls to customer service to realize they forget to turn the switch on.”
(10/01/15 2:59am)
This past Saturday, Sept. 26, the Tour de Farms bike ride kicked into gear with a new route including more of the northeastern part of Addison County. Now in its eighth year, the Tour de Farms is an annual 37-mile bike ride around the Vermont countryside that stops at various farms, features local foods and benefits Addison County Relocalization Network (ACORN), a local non-profit.
The ride began at the recreation fields behind Mt. Abraham Union High School. The ACORN website suggests bikers plan at least five hours for the ride, which includes ten minutes at each stop, though many may want to stay at the farms longer.
At the start, there were two tents set up for registration. Representatives from two local bike shops were there as well, ready to provide free assistance to anyone who needed bike repairs along the way.
Noah Klammer ’17 volunteered at the start before doing the ride himself.
“I was actually signed up to just do set-up on that very morning, so that was like 7 to 8, so as it turned out, the ride didn’t start till 8:30 or 9 anyway, so I helped with parking,” Klammer said.
“We had a lot of cars,” Klammer added, “which was kind of cool, because … people were hanging out, and not really tail-gaiting, but hanging out, fixing up bikes [and] talking.”
As bikers started out on their ride, they headed north from Bristol up through Monkton and soon left the pavement behind for gravel roads. The ACORN website specifies that 13 miles of the ride will be on gravel road and suggests – in all capital letters – that bikers use “a mountain bike, hybrid bike or road bike with wide tires.”
“The terrain is hilly with a mix of paved and dirt roads so a mountain bike or road bike with wide tires is recommended,” explained ACORN in a press release.
Sophie Vaughan ’17 seemed to appreciate the varied terrain and views along the ride.
“It was gorgeous. The ride had a lot of different landscapes. At one point we were sort of riding along the base of the mountain in Bristol, at other times we were passing rivers, and other times we were seeing mountains in the distance,” Vaughan said.
This route was different than that of the past seven years. The old route used to go out by Shoreham and spend more time on paved roads.
Traffic was more of a problem since riders spent more time on the narrow shoulders of fast-paced roads.
“This was a great route because I think they really planned it so that you can take back roads. You’re on gravel about half the time,” Klammer said.
“Traffic really wasn’t an issue, which made it really fun to just ride and not be worried about that.”
Not only did the new route keep bikers off busy roads, it made them ride on back roads they may never have reason to travel.
“There’s this whole area that’s between [route] 7 … and [route] 116 that people don’t go to. It’s like Monkton, and Monkton Pond, and then Hinesburg, all this area,” explained Klammer, using his arms to show the north-south orientation of Routes 7 and 116 and pointing to the area in between. “Most of New Haven is actually east of [Route 7].”
Along the ride, bikers stopped at a total of eight different farms. There they had the chance to sample different foods and drinks from 18 different farms and restaurants. Various businesses set up stands at the farms where the bikers did stop. Farmers and businesses hailed mainly from Bristol, Monkton, New Haven and Hinesburg.
“You eat a lot of different types of food from vegetables to apple cider and cider donuts … at one station they had these maple donuts with cream – maple cream – on them, which I very much enjoyed. A lot of good roasted vegetables,” said Vaughan as she recalled all the delicious foods she had tasted.
“If this was like Top Chef, you know, I’d rate it ‘Most Creative,’” Klammer said, referring to one of his favorite foods along the ride. “At one of the farms – where they raise vegetables and they raise pigs – they had … pulled pork in coleslaw, but it was in a collard green wrap. It was kind of a challenge … the leaf was really, really thick and you had to wrap it up, but it was kind of good! It was kind of like eating the pork inside of a coleslaw.”
About 300 people participated in the event. Several students were among them. Bike and food enthusiast also came from far and wide – at least a few hours – for this event.
“People come from all over New England,” commented Vaughan. “I was talking to a guy who came all the way up from Boston just for the day.”
Every year, the Tour de Farms requires the help of at least 20 volunteers on the day of the event. In exchange for giving their time, volunteers, such as Vaughan and Klammer, get to ride for free. For the majority of riders who did not volunteer at the event, the cost of registration is $35 in advance or $55 the day of. All proceeds benefit ACORN and the farms.
According to the ACORN website, 25 percent of the fees for registration go to the farm partners. Various businesses also sponsor the race. The Tour de Farms is ACORN’s major annual fundraiser.
According to the home page of their website, “ACORN’s mission is to cultivate connections that promote the production and use of healthy, local food in Addison County, Vermont.”
“We are working with growers, schools, businesses and community and statewide partners to double the consumption of locally-grown food by 2020,” stated the press release about the event. ACORN takes a project-based approach to tackling issues of local, healthy food production and consumption. They provide mentoring, networking and financial support for those who have a project idea in line with their mission.
Many people seemed to be having a jolly time participating in the event and supporting a good cause.
“It was really nice to see the fall color change and just spend a Saturday outside, six hours or so, riding a bike, enjoying the community with people beyond the Middlebury campus,” Vaughan said.
“100 percent,” said Klammer when asked whether he would do it again. “I’ve been trying to encourage people to look into it. I think one thing is people [students] are reluctant to pay any kind of entry fee, like being at Middlebury where we get so much free stuff … But also you can do what Sophie and I did … They usually need a couple dozen volunteers, and then that’s a way you can ride for free.”
“The Tour is a one-of-a-kind experience,” said Jonathan Corcoran, ACORN’s Executive Director, in a press release. “People keep coming back to share a relaxing day with family and friends to experience the flavors of the fall harvest, the beauty of the land and its fall colors and the great people who make our local food community special.”
Traffic wasn’t really an issue, which made it really fun to just ride and not be worried about that.”
Not only did the new route keep bikers off busy roads, it Klammer, using his arms to show the north-south orientation of Routes 7 and 116 and pointing to the area in between. “Most of New Haven is actually east of [Route 7].”
Along the ride, bikers stopped at a total of eight different farms. There they had the chance to sample different foods and drinks from 18 different farms and restaurants. Various businesses set up stands at the farms where the bikers did stop.
Farmers and businesses hailed mainly from Bristol, Monkton, New Haven and Hinesburg.
“You eat a lot of different types of food from vegetables to apple cider and cider donuts … at one station they had these maple donuts with cream – maple cream – on them, which I very much enjoyed. A lot of good roasted vegetables,” said Vaughan as she recalled all the delicious foods she had tasted.
“If this was like Top Chef, you know, I’d rate it ‘Most Creative,’” Klammer said, referring to one of his favorite foods along the ride. “At one of the farms – where they raise vegetables and they raise pigs – they had … pulled pork in coleslaw, but it was in a collard green wrap. It was kind of a challenge … the leaf was really, really thick and you had to wrap it up, but it was kind of good! It was kind of like eating the pork inside of a coleslaw.”
About 300 people participated in the event. Several students were among them. Bike and food enthusiast also came from far and wide – at least a few hours – for this event.
“People come from all over New England,” commented Vaughan. “I was talking to a guy who came all the way up from Boston just for the day.”
Every year, the Tour de Farms requires the help of at least 20 volunteers on the day of the event. In exchange for giving their time, volunteers, such as Vaughan and Klammer, get to ride for free. For the majority of riders who did not volunteer at the event, the cost of registration is $35 in advance or $55 the day of. All proceeds benefit ACORN and the farms.
According to the ACORN website, 25 percent of the fees for registration go to the farm partners. Various businesses also sponsor the race. The Tour de Farms is ACORN’s major annual fundraiser.
According to the home page of their website, “ACORN’s mission is to cultivate connections that promote the production and use of healthy, local food in Addison County, Vermont.”
“We are working with growers, schools, businesses and community and statewide partners to double the consumption of locally-grown food by 2020,” stated the press release about the event. ACORN takes a project-based approach to tackling issues of local, healthy food production and consumption. They provide mentoring, networking and financial support for those who have a project idea in line with their mission.
Many people seemed to be having a jolly time participating in the event and supporting a good cause.
“It was really nice to see the fall color change and just spend a Saturday outside, six hours or so, riding a bike, enjoying the community with people beyond the Middlebury campus,” Vaughan said.
“100 percent,” said Klammer when asked whether he would do it again. “I’ve been trying to encourage people to look into it. I think one thing is people [students] are reluctant to pay any kind of entry fee, like being at Middlebury where we get so much free stuff … But also you can do what Sophie and I did … They usually need a couple dozen volunteers, and then that’s a way you can ride for free.”
“The Tour is a one-of-a-kind experience,” said Jonathan Corcoran, ACORN’s Executive Director, in a press release. “People keep coming back to share a relaxing day with family and friends to experience the flavors of the fall harvest, the beauty of the land and its fall colors and the great people who make our local food community special.”
(09/30/15 9:13pm)
I have been thinking a lot about sexual assault lately – and I’m sure I’m not the only one – given the recent John Doe case. Within the past week, the case has gotten even more attention: comments on The Campus editorial online, an article by a Brooklyn College professor called “Weaponizing Title IX at Middlebury” and GO/DOE.
I have realized in thinking about the case that my natural reaction is to imagine myself in the place of the victim and to empathize with her – the reaction that many college students probably take, at least publicly. Lately, however, I’ve found myself imagining what it would be like to be the accused.
As I have been thinking about the case from John’s perspective, I keep imagining: “What would it be like to have my whole college career at stake?” Three years of hard work, time spent at this place, friendships, my life, a huge aspect of my identity, something I take pride in – all ended in an instant.
And what to show for it? The accusation of a crime, three ‘wasted’ years, maybe a few friends I’ll keep in touch with and my high school diploma as my highest form of education. That sounds absolutely horrible and life-changing to me – the idea that I’ve majorly derailed my future, let down my family, wasted $180,000 of tuition and I’ve made a lot of enemies. In this hypothetical situation, perhaps I’m guilty, and I deserved it. Perhaps I’m innocent and no one will ever believe me. Taking the step to expel someone is, in fact, a really big deal and will inevitably cause “irreparable harm.” But I kept thinking.
Back up one month. It is late August, I’m home for a few weeks in Northampton, Massachusetts, just a 30 minute drive from UMass Amherst. Most days when I was home, I’d find the local newspaper on the kitchen table. One story that never seemed to go away was the trial of four men accused of raping a woman at UMass back in the fall of 2012, my senior year of high school. The story was all over the news then, but over the past several months, the individual trials and sentencings of the four men have been on-going and frankly hard to miss.
At this point, Emmanuel T. Bile Jr., Justin A. King and Adam T. Liccardi – all 21 – have been convicted, Bile and King have been sentenced, Liccardi will be sentenced on October 6 and Caleb Womack age 20 – who still pleads innocent – will go on trial this month. The sentences: eight to ten years in prison for Bile and eight to twelve years in prison for King. Now that is life-changing.
But that’s what our court system has decided. We could go on all day about particular similarities and differences between the UMass Rape Case and John Doe, but that is irrelevant to my point. In short, outside this world of judicial systems and community standards, 18-year-olds who commit rape can be sent to jail. John Doe – regardless of innocence or guilt – will never have the chance to see the inside of a jail cell, unless the actual substance of this case is ever taken to the real courts. Bile, King, and possibly the others will spend the next decade in jail without ever having started college, with their real names making it all the way to the Huffington Post and the Boston Globe, and probably no hope of an $85,000 entry job, even before the conviction.
So what sentence is too much for rape? Perhaps a decade in prison is unnecessarily harsh for college-aged people who have committed such a crime. Perhaps it’s ridiculously lenient that expulsion is all that a convicted rapist gets when a rape is “prosecuted” within the walls of a private institution. Obviously, a college cannot sentence a student to jail time. But perhaps the question here is: why are such serious crimes like rape sometimes “prosecuted” only internally to the college?
I don’t know the answers, and I don’t know what’s right in John Doe’s case, in the UMass Rape Case or how colleges should treat sexual assault at large. But I do know that when you look outside the world of colleges, rape is a crime that is punishable by jail time. And that is a pretty big deal.
(09/24/15 12:27am)
Before much of the campus was up and about Sunday morning, students had secured winning places in both the men’s and women’s divisions of the 18-mile TAM Trek race. The race began in Wright Park at 8 a.m. on a 18-mile loop on the Trail Around Middlebury (TAM).
In first place overall and in the men’s division was Jacob Volz ’18 (2:22:24). In the women’s division, Maddie Leopold ’17 (2:33:25) and Tabitha Mueller ’18 (2:45:35) came in first and second, respectively.
“This was awesome,” Mueller said, her face red and sweaty. It was a cool, overcast morning though, making it a good temperature for running.
When asked how she felt about completing the race, Mueller said, “There was a small part of myself that kept telling me that I couldn’t do this. It is awesome though to know that I can complete something like this. It’s not a marathon, but I’m really happy with how it turned out.”
“I’ve been training for this all summer, I don’t know what I’ll do now,” Mueller continued. She explained that though she has been training, the longest she had ever run before the TAM Trek is 13 miles. Her next running goal is to do the Middlebury Maple Run this spring.
Waiting at the finish line under several tents were trays of desserts, pizzas, chocolate milk, bananas, and of course, lots of water, a familiar sight to anyone who has run cross-country.
“It reminded me of running cross-country in high school… Just a lot longer,” Mueller said.
Ben Bruno ’06, a member of the Board of Trustees for the Middlebury Area Land Trust (MALT), explained that there were four other “aid stations” set up along the trail with water and nourishment if the runners wanted.
At the end, there were prizes for the top finishers, which were donated by the sponsors of the TAM Trek. Among the prize items on the table were medals for the winner donated by Danforth Pewter.
This was the 12th year of this annual race. One option for the race is to run the entire TAM, including the Gorge Loop, which is an 18 mile run. According to the trail descriptions, the loop “gains and loses over 1000 feet in elevation.” Carl Robinson, executive director of MALT, clarified that the TAM itself is, in fact, only 16 miles, but with the Gorge Loop, it is 18. For those runners who are not as crazy – but still quite ambitious – there was the option to do a 6 mile race. The 6 mile option was a loop, beginning and ending in Wright Park, and taking the Gorge Loop, like the 18 mile option. Both the 18 and six mile races were timed.
According to Bruno, this was the first year they timed the races in an effort to bring a bit of competition in the event and to attract people looking for opportunities to run long races.
Finally, for those who were looking to get outside and get some exercise in a less competitive way, there was the two mile Fun Run or Hike. With this range of options, the TAM Trek appealed to a wider audience.
“[The TAM Trek] is a chance to celebrate the TAM with the people who use it all the time, and don’t use it as much,” Bruno said. “Not only does the TAM Trek get people outside and using the trail, it also helps keep it maintained.”
According to the MALT website, the proceeds from the AM Trek will go towards maintenance of the TAM.
The 16 mile TAM is what most people know MALT for, but MALT does more than the one trail, known as “Middlebury’s Emerald Necklace,” according to its website.
MALT began as the Middlebury Land Trust in 1987. Before that time, the town of Middlebury had a tax abatement program for local farmland, but in 1987, the state began its own farmland tax abatement program.
However, Middlebury residents voted to keep paying, but had the money go towards a conservation fund – Middlebury Land Trust. In 1996, they expanded to include land in surrounding towns, hence the switch to the name Middlebury Area Land Trust. MALT now has over 20 miles of trail in Middlebury and surrounding towns, two bridges over Otter Creek, and a trail headed off toward Snake Mountain.
The land that makes up the TAM and other MALT trails has come from a variety of owners. MALT itself owns four properties. Some land is farmland or other private land where the landowners have given permission for the public trail to pass through. Another section of the TAM – perhaps the section most students are familiar with – is owned by the College. The Otter Creek Gorge preserve, which is now conservation land, was once a land trust held by Willard T. Jackson, Linda O. Johnson and Steven Rockefeller.
Along with providing miles of public access trails, MALT also offers guided hikes along the trails and summer camps for kids.
The next time you’re looking for motivation to go running, maybe it can be the prospect of running in the 18 mile TAM Trek next September – or at least the 2 mile fun run.
(09/24/15 12:07am)
Over 2,000 people turned out this past Saturday for Shelburne Farms’ 37th Annual Harvest Festival, a jubilee of food, music, animals and crafts.
The festival, located on a 1,300 acre farm off the eastern coast of Lake Champlain, is a unique opportunity for small business owners to advertise their foods, artisans to peddle their wares for charitable organizations and non-profits to reach out to a receptive audience.
The crowd ranged from young toddlers and their parents to college-aged students. Many Middlebury students attended the festival for the first time.
“I’ve never actually been to Shelburne Farms, and this is a great way to see it,” Denise Chan ’16 said.
By the entrance, dozens of round hay bales were arranged on their sides, creating a maze for the adventurous toddler. Young children raced through it, climbing and jumping across the bales. Others raced to the top of the highest bale of hay to claim the title of ‘king’ or ‘queen’ of the mountain.
Nearby, miniature horses pulled two- or three-seater chariots in circles around an enclosed grassy area. The constant rhythmic music of an Abenaki drumming circle drifted over the entire celebration.
Up a grassy hill to the right, the ‘Farm Barn’ surrounded a two acre courtyard of food vendors, performers and craft vendors. The name Farm Barn is a misnomer for the sprawling multi-floored complex at Shelburne Farms. The building rises five stories high, has three pointed turrets and encloses the courtyard with imposing Medieval-looking stone walls.
Inside the Farm Barn were even more stands and attractions. One of the most popular of the rooms was specifically devoted to cheeses and jams.
Tom Bivin, Executive Director of the Vermont Cheese Council, chatted with the patrons as he carved out samples of four local cheeses: Parish Hill Humble Herdsman, Ascutney mountain cheese, a savage from the Von Trapp family farmstead and a Bayley Hazen blue cheese from the cellars of Jasper Hill.
“Our goal is to introduce people to as many cheeses as possible,” he explained to a local writer. “Shelburne Farms is really one of the great cheese companies in the state, and they do so many other things. They’re very supportive of the rest of the cheese community.”
“I think most people haven’t had a really good quality cheese, so it’s always a surprise,” he continued.
Sonia Rivadeneira, originally from Ecuador, was there to advertise her homemade salsa, appropriately named Sonia’s Salsa. The salsa is also preservative free.
“We have a big batch of salsa made in our neighbor’s house, because he has a commercial kitchen,” she explained.
Sonia sells her product at the co-op in downtown Middlebury which she says is “very happy to carry [it].”
The room was quite popular among the Middlebury College attendees; at one point in the afternoon, it was nearly entirely Middlebury students.
Just outside the room full of cheese samples, Laura MacLachlan, an Energy Educator from Vermont Energy Education Program (VEEP), sat at a table representing VEEP.
“VEEP is hands on energy literacy,” MacLachlan explained. “We bring equipment to schools so we can increase education on energy. We do it all the way from explaining wind with pinwheels, and how to catch the wind, all the way up to, we have curriculum units on understanding how photovoltaics work.” MacLachlan thinks that VEEP is an effective educational approach because it is hands on.
“This is all engineering,” she said. “This is where we’re trying to promote the next generation of scientists vis-a-vis this engineering. They’re getting into how to make it work.”
The Green Mountain Wood Carvers, a group of artists from across the state, displayed intricately carved sculptures of birds, hunters and other nature-inspired subjects. Bob Lindemann, the head of the group, has been carving for over 40 years. “I haven’t really found anything I can’t [carve]. It’s one of those things that you decide you want to carve something, and you just start carving it.”
Although many of the sculptures were for sale, that was not necessarily the reason the group was there.
“We’re just here to promote wood carving,” Lindemann explained. “Some people will sell their work, but others are just here to get people interested in trying their hand at woodcarving.”
He explained the process of carving the wood, which is often a light wood like butternut or basswood.
“It starts as a drawing, we cut out a blank. Sometimes you just start with a big chunk, bandsaw. Then you just start taking wood away.”
After walking around for a while, it was hard to miss the attendees – mostly college aged – wearing crowns of leaves on their heads. By the stone wall at the edge of the courtyard, there was a pile of brush and several pairs of hedge clippers – all the necessary ingredients to make your own crown of greenery.
In the middle of the courtyard, dozens of people stood in line for roasted corn on the cob, cooked on a grill in its husk. The smell of the corn filled the rest of the courtyard where all the other food vendors were set up.
One tent, Theo’s Maple Lemonade, had a constant line of customers. The owner of the stand said that putting maple syrup in lemonade was originally his 5-year-old son’s idea. At first he thought it sounded bad, but he gave it a try and it sold out the first time he brought it to the Burlington Farmer’s Market. At the harvest festival, they sold over 1,000 cups of lemonade in four hours.
Caterers from the Shelburne Farms Inn grilled hamburgers and sold other foods. One cook said it took six months for them to prepare for this day when they sold approximately 800 hamburgers at the festival.
Two performance tents were set up at opposite ends of the courtyard, once with musical performances and the other with different kinds of acts, such as acrobatics and juggling. Children squealed in delight and horror as one man mounted a heightened unicycle.
“We have to go,” one mother insisted to her child, as the entertainer began the second part of his act.
“Mom! as soon as he finishes this,” the child replied.
The child, like the rest of us, can take solace in the fact that the harvest will be back again next Fall, even if that is a long time to wait.
(09/17/15 6:21pm)
On July 1, both the Vermont Sales and Use tax and the Meals and Rooms Tax were expanded to cover soda and vending machine purchases, respectively. The statewide sales tax of 6 percent on all drinks with added sugars is intended to discourage the consumption of sugar-added beverages and raise funds for efforts to combat obesity. Vermont is now one of 35 states with such a law. Snacks purchased through a vending machine will now be subject to a 9 percent Meals and Rooms tax.
The funds raised through this tax are intended to close the projected $113 million gap between state spending and revenue. The soft drink tax is estimated to bring in $7.9 million in revenue and the vending machine tax is estimated to make a revenue of $1 million.
While revenue is one reason to implement an excise tax of this sort, another reason is to disincentivize the consumption of unhealthy snacks and sugary drinks to reduce obesity. The idea behind an excise tax on sugar sweetened beverages is to raise the price so consumers will buy less of the product. High taxes of this sort exist on cigarettes, and according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the high tax on cigarettes has been the most effective policy in reducing cigarette use. New studies show that low taxes on soft drinks do not affect obesity rates, stated the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. However, revenue from the tax can still be helpful in fighting obesity in other ways.
Another common objection to excise taxes is that they are regressive, meaning that they disproportionately affect those with lower incomes.
In the past, “food and food ingredients” were exempt from the 6 percent sales tax in Vermont, but Act 57 of 2015 altered their definition. Act 57 states that “‘Food and food ingredients’ does not include alcoholic beverages, tobacco, or soft drinks.” Soft drinks are defined as “nonalcoholic beverages that contain natural or artificial sweeteners.”
The law does not apply to unsweetened bottled water, seltzer, alcoholic beverages, and any drinks bought through SNAP, known in Vermont at 3SquaresVT.
The 9 percent meal tax applies to all snack purchased through vending machines, but not to those same items when purchased at a grocery store.
As a member of the Streamlined Sales Tax Agreement (SSTA), Vermont is required to use these definitions of products since they are consistent with other states’ definitions as used in their tax policies. As a result, many people believe the wording of the law to be unnecessarily confusing. This has led to problems in the law’s implementation, especially for small businesses that do not have point-of-sale software.
For example, some business owners are confused over which products require labels due to the complicated language of the law. Sam Frank of Orange told VTDigger that when he went to buy seltzer, he found that it was labeled with the 6 percent tax.
“It was kind of expensive, so I asked, ‘Why is this so much?’ and they said ‘Well, we have to tax it,’” Frank said. “I said, ‘I don’t think so.’”’
Jim Harrison, president of the Vermont Retail and Grocers Association, also finds the language of the law a barrier to its accurate implementation.
One of the problems lies in “a somewhat unclear definition where most iced teas are taxable—flavored, regular and diet—but not the ones that say unsweetened. Club soda is not a soft drink under the definition. Regular V-8 is not taxable, but V-8 Splash or Fusion is taxable. We could go on. It is confusing to customers as well as merchants, but we will continue working to get it right,” said Harrison in a statement on the Association for Convenience and Fuel Retailing website.
Director of government relations at the American Heart Association, Tina Zuk, was a proponent of the original bill proposed in January. The original proposal included a 2 cents per ounce tax on soft drinks, which would have been the first law of its kind in the country. She supports the tax as a policy to fight obesity.
“We’re really concerned about the obesity crisis in both the number of adults and kids, and we know that sugary drinks are a huge contributor to obesity so we wanted to discourage consumption,” Zuk told VTDigger. Zuk sees the tax as a way to change unhealthy behaviors.
(05/07/15 2:52am)
Last Thursday, US Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont announced that he would run for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination. He will be challenging former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who, so far, is the only other major candidate in the race. Though he has formally announced his bid, Sanders will kick off his campaign in Burlington on May 26.
“I am running for President of the United States because America needs a political revolution,” wrote Sanders on his Facebook page on April 30. “We need a government which represents all of us, and not just a handful of billionaires. In this campaign, we won’t have the support of the big-money interests, Wall Street or the military-industrial complex. That’s why I need you to join me in an unprecedented grass-roots effort.”
Sanders announced his campaign at a news conference on the Capitol lawn. In a brief speech, Sanders identified the 3 major issues he intends to address: growing economic disparity, excessive spending on political campaigns, and climate change.
The most central issue to Sanders’ campaign is the growing gap in income in the U.S. and the inability for many working families to support themselves.
“We can’t continue having a nation in which we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major nation on earth, at the same time as we’re seeing a proliferation of millionaires and billionaires,” Sanders said in his announcement speech.
Specific problems that concern Sanders on the topic of economic disparity are the exorbitant cost of college, the stagnation of wages, increasing wealth among the wealthy and the rising cost of healthcare.
“The second issue directly related is the fact that as a result of the disastrous supreme court decision on Citizens United [vs. Federal Election Commission], we now have a political situation where billionaires are literally able to buy elections and candidates,” Sanders continued. Sanders’ campaign fund pales in comparison to that of his competitor, Clinton. Sanders prefers to take donations from citizens, rather than corporations, to show that his campaign is a grassroots effort, not corporately funded.
OpenSecrets.org is a website run by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that researches the effect of money on politics and makes information about it publicly available. According to OpenSecrets.org, Sanders’ top 3 campaign contributors throughout his career have been the Machinists/Aerospace Workers Union, the Teamsters Union, and the United Auto Workers. In contrast, Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Lehman Brothers have been among the top 10 contributors to Clinton throughout her career.
Sanders’ campaign received $1.5 million in donations within 24 hours of announcing his bid for president. Sanders lives his ideals about keeping money out of politics. The bottom of his campaign website reads, “Paid for by Bernie 2016 (not the billionaires).”
Finally, Sanders addressed the importance of taking climate change seriously and acting accordingly.
“We have a Republican Party with virtually few exceptions that does not even recognize the reality of climate change, let alone that it is caused by human activity, let alone that the scientific community tells us this is the major global environmental crisis that we face,” Sanders said. “And I want to see this nation lead the world in transforming our energy system away from fossil fuel, to energy efficiency and sustainable energy.”
Coming from Vermont, Sanders is well-poised to make this claim, as Vermont has actively tried to increase green energy use and reduce fossil fuel consumption.
In the realm of foreign policy, Sanders has emphasized that he opposed the war in Iraq, something that Clinton supported. Sanders supports President Obama’s use of sanctions against Russia regarding Ukraine. However, Sanders opposes Obama’s view on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Sanders opposes TPP because of its negative effect on jobs of American people and favoritism toward corporations.
Sanders is also a strong supporter of gay marriage.
“It’s time for the Supreme Court to catch up to the American people and legalize gay marriage,” Sanders said in a press release. In 2000, he supported the legalization of civil unions in Vermont and in 2009 he supported the legalization of gay marriage in Vermont.
Sanders began his political career in Vermont in 1971. During the 1970s, Sanders ran under the anti-Vietnam Liberty Union Party, a non-violent socialist party in Vermont that still sends candidates to several elections statewide. Sanders won no offices with this party. After this point, he proceeded to run as an Independent until now when he has entered the race for Democratic nomination.
From 1981 through 1989, Sanders was mayor of Burlington. From 1991 to 2007, Sanders served as a US Representative from Vermont as an Independent. He is now on his second term as junior senator from Vermont. With 24 years of experience in the House and Senate combined, Sanders is the longest serving independent in Congress.
Sanders engaged in various jobs before his career in politics. Upon graduating from James Madison High School in Brooklyn in 1959, Sanders attended Brooklyn College, but then transferred to University of Chicago. During college, Sanders was active in the Civil Rights movement and graduated in 1964. After graduation, Sanders lived on an Israeli kibbutz, then moved to Vermont. In Vermont, before getting into politics, Sanders worked various jobs such as carpenter, film-maker and writer.
Because of his small campaign budget, lack of experience in foreign affairs, and populist, (sometimes considered socialist) persuasion, many believe he stands no chance against Clinton, a more moderate, high profile and amply funded candidate.
(04/29/15 11:49pm)
Glenn Lower ’84 does a little bit of everything to make the Co-op run smoothly. When asked what he does as general manager, Glenn Lower ’84 replied, “My kids—when they were small—used to say I sign my name a lot…they’d come upstairs and I’d be signing checks.” Despite the fact that some days it may appear that Lower just checks, his role as General Manager of the Middlebury Natural Foods Co-op encompasses a wide variety of tasks.
“I’m kind of all over the place. I’ll fill in wherever is needed. For the past nine months, we haven’t had a deli manager for our prepared foods department so I’ve been the interim deli manager…I’ll sweep floors, I’ll do whatever it takes,” Lower said.
Though he is the one general manager, Lower does not work in a vacuum.
“I also have to think about the 4,300 households that are member-owners and how are we serving them…And then I have 11 bosses, which are my board of directors, and they change. Every year they have a couple of new people. It’s kind of interesting to have bosses who are always in flux,” Lower said.
“They [the board of directors] give me two kinds of policies,” Lower explained. One kind of policies are the missions: “healthy foods, and a vibrant local community, and doing environmental things right, and being a democratic co-op, and also doing a lot of education,” Mr. Lower said. The other kind of policies from the board are boundaries.
These “make sure we’re paying our bills, paying our taxes, treating people well,” Lower said. He spends considerable time reporting back to the board about accomplishing the mission within the given boundaries. The board then reports back to the member-owner households. Lower has a circular diagram that explains the complex, two-way relationships between member-owners, staff, the general manager, and the board.
His jobs include overseeing Co-op expansions and monitoring what foods the store sells. Choices made about the store are based on community wishes.
“The primary emphasis is on organic and local,” Lower said, referring to the mission established by the board of directors.
“28 percent of our sales are Vermont-made products, a lot of them from Addison County,” Lower said. “That’s what our member-owners want the most.”
Lower explained that not all co-ops are also natural food stores. As a natural foods store, the Middlebury Natural Foods Co-op upholds a commitment to selling organic products by abiding by these criteria.
According to the buying criteria sheet, products containing certain ingredients, such as high fructose corn syrup, artificial preservatives or colors, or bovine growth hormones (rBST), are not allowed to be sold at the Co-op.
Not only is it expensive to source food from myriad local suppliers, but it is expensive to buy foods that fit the buying criteria.
“It’s a challenge for us not to have a price image problem,” Lower said.
Lower currently lives in New Haven with his wife, Cheryl Whitney-Lower ’84. They have two kids, one who is a junior at the College and the other who will be attending Tufts University in the fall.
Lower was born in California, and grew up in Virginia. His first encounter with Vermont was when he came to the College as a student in 1980.
“In some ways, I went to Middlebury College because almost nobody in Virginia knew about it,” Lower said. He wanted to get away from the schools where so many of his peers went, such as the University of Virginia and the University of North Carolina. Lower was a biology major.
“After Middlebury, I did environmental education for a while, but then became a high school biology teacher for about five years,” Lower said. At that time, he was living in the Boston area with his wife, Cheryl Whitney-Lower ’84.
Because they ultimately did not want to live in the Boston area, Lower and his wife travelled around the world for a year before putting down roots elsewhere. During this year, they spent three weeks canoeing in Alaska, north of the Arctic Circle with two friends from college.
Upon returning from their travels, they decided that Whitney-Lower, who was working in higher education administration, would look for a job first, and then Lower would look for a teaching job wherever they moved for her job.
Whitney-Lower, who now works as a Career Adviser at the CCI, originally got a job working as the Assistant Director of Student Activities. Lower, however, did not find work here in Middlebury so easily. He worked as a substitute teacher, while furthering his teaching certifications. There are only so many biology teachers needed in a sparsely populated area such as Addison County. All of the area biology teachers were about his age, so there appeared to be no prospects of a job opening any time soon.
After working for a year as a long-term substitute, the question surfaced again as to what work Lower would do once the teacher for whom he had been subbing returned from maternity leave. A job opened up in the produce section at the Co-op. The Saturday to Monday schedule perfectly complemented Whitney-Lower’s schedule, which was convenient given that their first baby was on the way. Soon after beginning that job, the produce manager left, and Lower moved into that position. After three years there, the general manager position was changing, so Lower applied for and got that position, which has been his role at the Co-op for the last 17 years.
Over the past two decades at the Co-op, Lower has seen considerable changes, most notably to the size of the operation. From its founding almost 40 years ago, the Co-op has expanded several times.
In 1994, the Co-op underwent its first major expansion within the gray building that now houses its offices.
“When we expanded that time, we thought, ‘Oh my gosh, we are set for life.’ We’ve got so much space now, and everything is modern.”
“By ’98, we said, ‘Oh my gosh, we’re running out of space, we don’t have enough room,” Lower said. At this point, the Co-op surveyed its members with three options: do nothing, move to a bigger location south on Route 7, or expand in the current location. Support for expanding in the current location was overwhelming, which came as a surprise to many, as many co-ops do not like change or expansion, according to Lower.
“New England towns were already struggling with big box stores coming on the outside and pulling sales from the towns out and the downtowns … dying or becoming boutiques,” Lower said.
The loss of downtown businesses in many New England towns made keeping the Co-op in town all the more important to many of its member-owners.
In order to expand in its current site, the Co-op had to ask three different land owners to sell them different parcels of land so the Co-op could have a contiguous piece of land big enough for a new building, according to Lower. The new building was funded through a half a million dollars in loans from the member-owners, not donations.
“It was a great community project,” Lower said of the 1998 renovations.
“It’s still a challenge to be in a downtown location and try to run a grocery store,” Lower said.
He explained that their growth was different than that of a traditional grocery store. Rather than a wide building visible from the street with extensive parking, the Co-op renovation took the shape of most other businesses in a downtown setting with a narrow front and parking hidden behind, so as not to create a strip mall look.
“We were breaking a lot of grocery rules about how to run a grocery store,” Lower said of their choice to renovate without becoming a box store. Between 1998 and now, the Co-op has grown from about $2 million in sales to $12 million.
Another major shift has been from about 20 percent organic and 80 percent conventional to the opposite: over 80 percent organic. The staff has also grown from 20 to over 70.
Looking forward, the Co-op is trying to have an even greater vision for the future than before.
“It’s not just ten years. Well, what are we doing for 20 to 50 years? You can’t just always get bigger. We can probably get a little bit bigger here, but then that’s it,” Lower said. “It’s not being driven by profits, it’s being driven by the fact that the community says this is what we want. So we’re always trying to figure out, what is it that the community wants the most?” Lower said.
Lower sees the Co-op’s role in the Middlebury community as showing what is possible in terms of feeding ourselves locally.
“I think a lot of local producers have said over the years…we got started because the Co-op was here, because that was the place we could sell stuff and get…our feet on the ground,” Lower said of the Co-op’s role among the producers.
“Food is a terrific economic development tool, and I think the co-op plays a big role in that. We’re sort of like a hub in some ways, lots of food coming in, we’re figuring out how it goes out,” Lower said.
(04/16/15 3:10am)
This June, Peter Jensen, the Foundations of Engineering and Architecture Instructor at the Hannaford Career Center, will be retiring. After working eight years in his current position at the center, and forty years overall in the Middlebury education system, Jensen and his career of dedicated work deserve to be celebrated.
After receiving his teaching degree in 1971, Jensen joined the army and was an officer for three years. When his tour was over, however, Jensen immediately went into the field of teaching.
“I left my career as an officer because I really had a passion for teaching,” Jensen explained.
Once he transitioned into the education sector, Jensen was immediately drawn to STEM programs. “Right from the beginning, I got into programs that allowed kids to make things … the concept was to be creative and innovative,” Jensen said.
Throughout his career, Jensen felt firmly rooted in his role as an instructor. “My job as an instructor,” Jensen said, “I have always felt is to essentially be the person who creates the environment in which learning can take place.”
Jensen continued: “If I structure the units carefully enough, and introduce them clearly enough, then the students have an opportunity to be encouraged and the desire to be innovative.”
When asked how his style of teaching developed over his career, Jensen said, “I think it has been honed over time.”
Jensen was sure to make clear, however, that his fundamentals remained constant. “I always had a passion to interact with young people, to allow them the freedom to expand and grow, to develop in whatever was their passion,” he said.
In addition, Jensen believes that his core responsibility is to defy the stereotype that the subjects of architecture and engineering are rigid. “I see my job,” Jensen explained, “as connecting creativity within those rigid subjects.” For example, Jensen referenced the groundbreaking work of Bjarke Engels as the level of originality he encourages his students to strive for. When talking about Engel’s work, Jensen said, “Now that’s innovation. That’s the freedom to be creative. That’s the change that the world needs.”
At the Hannaford Career Center, a state-funded public education center that offers students the opportunity to be engaged in learning at a broader context, the general focus is to present students with a variety of opportunities to expand their interest in technical skills, the workplace and future educational opportunities.
Jensen advises that the career center is “a wonderful opportunity to discover through a year or semester-long program whether or not an interest of yours is strong enough to continue into the future.”
“With the incredible cost of post-high school education now presented to a lot of these kids,” Jensen continued, “using their time in high school to make some discovery is really valuable.”
Jensen’s course, which is a semester-long course that splits the time evenly between engineering and architecture, is built around five basic concepts: investigate, innovate, evaluate, fabricate and communicate, which are applied to a variety of specific tasks and activities.
“Whether you are designing a house, or a new iPad … I use the same basic elements, so in essence a lot of my assignments are mini tasks, which give students the opportunity to be creative,” he said.
In his curriculum, Jensen places a strong emphasis on making his content engaging.
“One of the precepts I believe very important for kids nowadays,” Jensen explained, “is to be excited about what they are doing and if a kid is adventurous, than they are going to be less likely to be fearful of failure.”
Jensen makes his goal therefore to encourage and foster his students to “get into the software, get into their personal motivation as to what they’d like to create, and be creative with that as their vehicle.”
As a facilitator of such creativity, Jensen relayed incidents where some students needed a little extra encouragement.
“I had one student, let’s call him Bill, who was very nervous about the software. He did not have much experience with computers, and this was in the engineering phase of the course,” Jensen said. “I helped him gain familiarity with the software, and asked him what he was interested in. He was interested in pool. So with my help he went from building a pool stick, to a set of balls, to a rack to put the balls into, and before he knew it, Bill had built an entire pool set.”
Reflecting on this experience, Jensen revealed that “to see a student, who started in a relatively timid way, without a lot of self-confidence, grow into an understanding of his ability, and feel his ability his expanding within him, allowing him to take more risk, and to try different things, that’s one of the joys of teaching.”
Having dedicated his life to public education and parenting four children, three of which went to four year college institutions, and one who attended a two year automotive school, Jensen is in a unique position to comment on the value of a liberal arts education in comparison to a career-oriented program.
First, Jensen was clear to address some of the stigmas associated with the value of technical schools in this debate. “Perhaps part of an academic stigma is that a technical school is for students that won’t be doing too much after school. That’s not true at all. In fact, it’s anything but that.”
To further emphasize his value of technical schools, Jensen explained that he had all four of his children take his class at the Hannaford Center, knowing that three of them would continue onto a four-year college institution.
Next, Jensen began to distinguish the different skills each type of education provides. Jensen categorizes technical schools as those that provide a student with “a hard skill, or a hard resume.” In comparison, Jensen views the liberal arts education as the development of “the soft skills.”
Ultimately, Jensen believes that the two sectors of education work best when incorporated together. “In other words,” Jensen continued, “I can be a brilliant architect, and be hired by one of the most wonderful firms in New York City. If I don’t have the ability to connect with people in a team setting, communicate effectively, compromise, take criticism…those skills will force me to lose my job.”
One of Jensen’s four children attended Middlebury College, and he praised the establishment. “Middlebury College is a fantastic institution. Through my own son’s experience, and my awareness of the College, I’ve come to understand that oftentimes the first degree that we choose is not the last degree. And the first job that we enter, is by no means our final job, or a big extensive career,” Jensen said.
“The experience that you have at Middlebury College is more about some intrinsic things that occur within you, that give you guidance and maturity, that help you to develop as a person that then can be more successfully applied to the passion, and the direction you want to take your life,” Jensen continued.
He also made sure not to undervalue those skills. “If you can gain a feeling and understanding about yourself, a real candid awareness about who you are, and develop the ability to take risks and to get out there and discover, then maybe that degree has served you well.”
With his distinguished career beginning to enter the rearview mirror, Jensen makes it clear that the most rewarding part of his career has been working with young people. “Young people are very interesting. They’re dynamic, they’re full of effort and energy…they are the entire reason I came into education in the first place.”
Jensen then recalled an interaction with his father, a science and chemistry teacher in a barrio school in Arizona, that fully encapsulates the heightened sense of importance he places on the career of teaching. The summer before his father died, Jenson was building a rather large house. In response to his father lamenting that he had never done anything as creative as building a house, Jensen responded, “‘Wait a minute. How many years did you teach? Dad, you encountered, inspired, encouraged thousands of young kids, haven’t you?’ And he began to think back, and I said, ‘What is more powerful than that?’ One kid is way more powerful than a room in a house, than the entire house structure.”
When asked if there is any downside to his job, Jensen responded, “You’re asking the wrong guy. I have enjoyed my career so much. I don’t think there is a down-side for me.”
With a smile on his face, Jensen concluded, “I am enjoying it as much today as I did forty years ago when I started, just out of the service.”
(03/11/15 11:49pm)
Has this warm, sunny weather got you itching to get out of the library and walk around town, even though it’s not quite warm enough for ice cream and popsicles? How about a warm bowl of chili - or, better yet, chili samples from over 40 restaurants, groups and clubs in the area? It sounds like the 7th Annual Vermont Chili Festival is the place for you!
Luckily, you will not have to travel far for this monumental Vermont event. Chili Fest will be happening this Saturday, March 14 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. in downtown Middlebury.
At least 5000 people will fill the streets of Middlebury to participate in this annual event. Furthermore, this year, Chili Fest made it onto the Vermont Chamber of Commerce’s “Top 10 Winter Events List.” Fortunately, this momentous event and unlimited chili is not too pricey. Tickets are $5 in advance and $7 at the door. Proceeds from this event go to various charities, including the Better Middlebury Parternship and the Vermont Food Bank.
The purchase of one ticket allows you to have free samples from all vendors who participate. Vendors in the past have included groups such as the Middlebury College Men’s Cross Country Team (last year’s winner), American Flatbread, the Middlebury Fire Department, and the Middlebury College Snowbowl (like the Snowbowl Chili served at Proctor).
The chili from groups such as these, and many more, will be ranked by a panel of judges and first, second, and third place winners will be chosen in the following categories: beef, veggie, chicken, game, pork, “kitchen sink,” and overall winner. Chili eaters (you could be among them!) also have the chance to vote on the chili that will receive the “People’s Choice” award. Upon arriving, everyone receives several poker chips to put in the buckets by the chilis they like best. The chili receiving the most popular votes wins People’s Choice.
Even if you do not like chili, it is still great to enjoy the festival’s atmosphere and entertainment. In the past, there have been dance performances, live music, flash mobs, and ample opportunities for people watching, and there is sure to be just as much entertainment, if not more, this year.
Whether you choose to eat chili, vote on your favorite sample, or just come for the celebration, Chili Fest promises to be an excellent way to spend your Saturday afternoon. And just think, maybe your vote could be the one to differentiate that winning chili from all the rest.
For more information, check out the 2015 Vermont Chili Festival facebook page / event, go to experiencemiddlebury.com or email vermontchilifest@gmail.com.
(02/18/15 9:46pm)
Angela Kubicke, a ninth-grade student at St. Johnsbury Academy, recently proposed that Vermont add a Latin motto to its current English motto and she may soon see her wish come true.
Kubicke proposed to include the phrase “Stella quarta decima fulgeat,” which means “The 14th star shines bright,” since Vermont was the fourteenth state to join the union. This would be used in addition to the current state motto, “Freedom and Unity.”
Part of this Latin motto was originally written on one-cent coins minted by colonial Vermont and used as the common currency throughout New England in that era. Kubicke added the verb “fulgeat” to the end, meaning, “may it shine bright.”
On behalf of Kubicke’s proposal, State Senator Joe Benning (R-Caledonia/Orange) filed a bill in the state legislature. Although it was too late for him to introduce a new bill for that session, he was able to reintroduce the idea to the general public this January through WCAX, a Burlington television station.
However, the debate and comments sparked by the WCAX broadcast, which was posted on the station’s website, ranged from the expected to the absurd.
Supporters of the addition of a Latin motto lauded Kubicke for her engagement in the political system, arguing that this effort should be rewarded by taking her proposal seriously and bringing it to the legislature.
Those opposed to Kubicke’s idea advised Benning to forget this proposal and focus time and taxpayer dollars on lowering taxes and allotting funds to education and healthcare in the state. Still others proposed the addition of mottos in French or Abenaki, two cultures that share a part of Vermont’s history.
Among the string of online comments, someone drew the connection between a Latin motto and Latin American or Latino people, especially those who have immigrated to the United States. These comments confusing the ancient Roman language of Latin with the language of people from South and Central America prompted an even greater spark of commentary regarding the ignorance and misinformation promoted by the former commenters.
At this point, the focus of the comments turned to a debate about immigration. However, the lack of knowledge on the part of the trolling commenters did not deter Kubicke, Benning or their supporters. Despite the various reactions, last week, Kubicke, along with Latin teachers and students from across the state, testified in front of the Senate Operations Committee. Next, the bill went to the Senate, which passed it on Friday. The bill will now go on to the House, which will assign it to a committee to make amendments. Lastly, the Senate will vote on the bill, and then Governor Peter Shumlin will sign it into law.
The idea for adding a state motto in Latin has been in the works for at least a year now. When asked about where the idea came from in an interview with the campus, Kubicke responded, “My school started a Certamen team … and my topic to study was mottos, quotations, and abbreviations.”
According to the National Junior Classical League’s (NJCL) website, “Certamen is a game of fast recall of facts about classical civilizations and its peoples, languages, and cultures.” Competitions for this type of quiz bowl game are held locally across the country, as well as nationally at the NJCL Convention. In the process of memorizing state mottos in Latin, Kubicke discovered that Vermont did not have one.
“A lot of people take the mottos, quotations, and abbreviations quiz down at national forums every year,” Kubicke said, “and Vermont was being left out of the kids who were studying that, and I felt like we should be part of that.” Since Vermont does not have a Latin motto, students were not studying it in preparation for this part of the Certamen competition.
Kubicke was motivated to propose the addition of a Latin motto through her participation in NJCL and her passion for Latin language and classical culture.
“My National Junior Classical League chapter was really small, and I wanted us to come in with a bang,” said Kubicke. “I really like Latin as a subject, as well as just that club is so much fun.”
Although Kubicke has been pursuing this bill on top of school and normal life, she is happy with her decision to do so.
“I really enjoy the subject and I think it’s something very important … It’s been really fun to keep the classical torch burning,” Kubicke said. “I was really interested in it [politics] prior to introducing the bill.”
Kubicke further commented on how this experience has impacted her thoughts on the future.
“I’m really enjoying the process, so maybe,” responded Kubicke, when asked about whether she wanted to pursue a career in politics. Not only has the process been enjoyable, but it has been a learning experience.
When reflecting on what she learned during this process, Kubicke emphasizes the importance of taking action.
“If you think something needs to be changed or you want something to happen you have to speak up, because, let’s be honest, if I hadn’t spoken up and done this, probably nothing would have happened,” Kubicke said. “You’ve got to be proactive and take initiative.”
(02/11/15 2:59pm)
The Vergennes solar project just completed its first year of operation, but energy output results were not as great as its developers had hoped. In 2012, the city of Vergennes leased land by its wastewater treatment plant to Encore Redevelopment, which installed a solar array in that area with the value of $500,000. This array began producing energy on Dec. 31, 2013.
As one might expect, Vermont is not the sunniest place around, especially not this time of year. On average, Vermont has a 51 percent chance of seeing the sunlight during daytime hours. Not only are solar panels inhibited by the lack of sun, but they are also blocked by several inches of snow that may pile up over the winter. Despite the lack of ideal weather and climatic conditions, Vermont continues to prioritize the solar power industry. The Vermont government has instituted policies to incentivize solar for individuals, businesses and municipalities.
Throughout the first year of operation, the Vergennes solar array was expected to produce about 200,000 kilowatt hours of electricity. However, the actual output fell short, producing only 176,502 kilowatt hours, which was 88 percent of what was expected. The city of Vergennes was estimated to save between $4000 and $5000 annually, but only saved $3960, leaving them just shy of the initial estimate.
This lower-than-expected energy output may be due to uncontrollable variables, such as weather, snowfall or shading from nearby trees. However, engineers can predict this outcome given their ability to predict energy yield with high levels of certainty.
“Generally, a bad year and an exceptional year do not vary a tremendous amount,” said Nathaniel Vandal, co-founder of GreenPeak Solar, a solar development company out of Waitsfield, VT aimed at reducing the cost of solar energy for customers.
“Typically there is a 90 percent probability that the generation in a given year will meet or exceed the estimate,” Vandal said. Given this statement on the accuracy of estimates, 88 percent production does not appear to be too far off target.
Ironically, while solar panels are an effort to reduce carbon emissions and slow climate change, the very effects of climate change may actually be stifling the production of solar power in New England. Climate change models predict that New England will experience more cloud cover and precipitation.
(12/03/14 11:12pm)
The Vermont State Board of Education (SBE) has drafted a strategic five-year plan for education statewide, specifically addressing the unusually high cost per pupil in Vermont and the achievement gap. The board has approved a draft of the plan and is seeking public comment on the plan until Dec 4. They hope to finalize the plan at the Dec. 16th meeting of the Board of Education.
The draft of the strategic plan aims to ensure two goals: high quality education to provide “equity in opportunity for all” and an education system that is “stable, efficient, and responsive” to change. To address the first issue of inequities in the educational system, the strategic plan will begin by defining “the nature, extent and location of achievement, opportunity, and financial gaps.”
To investigate financial and achievement gaps, the board will use existing data on these levels. In order to assess opportunity, the board is developing the Education Quality Standards, which they will use to assess the availability of opportunities. The SBE will also “take testimony from a large variety of stakeholders,” according to the strategic plan draft. Once conducted, the study will help locate and assess inequities across the state. The SBE will carefully study the formula used to allocate funds, and determine whether the formula weights are too high or too low, based on the needs of the given district. Once the SBE identifies areas of need, they will work with the local districts, state government and federal government to address inequalities among districts.
The second goal, ensuring a stable system moving forward, focuses on the high per capita cost of education in Vermont. Vermont has the highest spending per pupil of any state in the US in the 2013-2014 school year, with an average of $19,752 per pupil. Vermont has had a slim overall budget, especially the last several years, yet move 90 percent of school budgets are approved on the first vote. If budgets are not approved on the first vote, they are often reworked to fit a lower budget. This part of the plan requires an examination of the SBE’s Manual of Rules and Practices, finance, including cost-shifts, government mandates, and the progressivity versus progressivity of changes, staffing patterns and lack of leaders in education.
Lastly, this strategic plan calls for implementation over five years. The first year would be to “empirically define and identify the problems the state faces,” according to the plan. The next year would be to draft solutions in a series of white papers with collaboration from stakeholders. Finally, years three through five would involve employing and reevaluating the previously devised strategies. The challenge for lawmakers here lies in maintaining high quality of education where it is present and raising the quality of education in the parts of the state where it is lagging, while reducing costs.
“We need to tackle this first as a spending challenge because education costs have continued to rise faster than Vermonters’ ability to pay for it, even though our student count has declined,” Shumlin said.
Although student enrollment in kindergarten through twelfth grade public education in the state has dropped by 20 percent over the last 15 years, spending has continued to increase. One commonly suggested solution to deal with the problem of shrinking enrollment is to consolidate school districts and administration to save on administrative costs and expand course offerings.
Increased spending on education is often criticized as the reason for high property taxes. Municipal taxes are one source of funding for public education, so varied levels of municipal property taxes often lead to varied quality of public education. However, in 1997, Act 60 became law, beginning a statewide property tax that could go toward funding for public education.
This year, the Vermont Agency of Education projects that education spending will increase by 3.09 percent this year. Despite the new SBE strategic plan, the Shumlin administration claims it will back up state mandates with state funding. To address this, the administration recommended increasing the statewide property tax by two cents.
(11/13/14 3:42am)
While most states have elected governors and legislators who will begin their terms in 2015, the identity of Vermont’s future governor still remains in question and will be decided in a secret vote by the 180 person State Legislature in 2015. Election Day ended with incumbent Governor Peter Shumlin (D) holding 47 percent and Republican candidate Scott Milne holding about 45 percent, with 92 percent of voting precincts reporting. Dan Feliciano of the Libertarian Party was the next runner up after Milne. Both Shumlin and Milne declined to declare the election either a victory or a loss, opting to wait until Wednesday when all the votes were counted.
Once all the votes were counted, however, Shumlin ended up with 89,883 votes, at 46.4 percent, and Milne with 87,788 votes, at 45.3 percent. This gave Shumlin a margin of about 2000 votes over Milne, a low enough margin for Milne to demand a recount. Vermont has a long history of strong third party candidates who notably affect the election, and this year was no different. Including Shumlin and Milne, there were a total of seven candidates running for governor. Feliciano, a Libertarian, ended up holding 4.4 percent of the vote. Emily Peyton, an Independent, came in next with 1.7 percent. Pete Diamondstone of the Liberty Union Party held 0.9 percent, independent Bernard Peters held 0.7 percent and independent Cris Ericson held 0.6 percent.
Although Shumlin won more votes than any other candidate, the Vermont Constitution requires that the governor be elected by winning 50 percent of the votes, plus one. If this does not happen, the decision then goes to the Legislature. It is not uncommon for the Legislature to have to choose the governor. A single gubernatorial candidate has failed to win the simple majority 23 times in Vermont history, including in 2010, when Shumlin first ran for governor against the Republican candidate, the then-incumbent Lieutenant Governor Brian Dubie. Shumlin received 49.5 percent of the popular vote in that election and was chosen by the legislature. In 2012, Shumlin had a decisive victory, winning 58 percent of the popular vote.
The fate of the governor is now in the hands of the Vermont House and Senate, both of which have a Democratic majority. The Legislature typically chooses the candidate who holds the plurality of votes, but legislators are technically free to choose whichever candidate they would like. However, the last time the Legislature chose the candidate that did not hold the plurality was in 1853 when incumbent Erastus Fairbanks of the Whig party held 43.9 percent of the popular vote, but Democratic candidate John S. Robinson, winner of 31.0 percent of the votes, was chosen by the Legislature instead.
The absence of definitive election results leaves room for speculation about the future. The lack of a simple majority and unexpected success of a Republican candidate challenging the incumbent make a clear statement about the current political climate in Vermont.
“We’re hearing a very clear message, that folks are frustrated, that they’re hurting, that with all the talk of economic recovery that’s going mostly to the top 1 percent, too many Vermonters are still struggling to pay their bills, working too many jobs to make ends meet,” Shumlin said.
“I am incredibly grateful to all of the Vermonters who cast their ballots on my behalf yesterday,” Milne said.
The close nature of the race surprised voters and candidates alike. The most recent polls before the election predicted Shumlin winning 47 percent of the vote, but with a 12 percent lead over Milne. Candidates and voters expected Feliciano to draw more votes than he ultimately did.
“It was never evident to me that Scott Milne had a chance to win,” said Darcie Johnston, Feliciano’s political strategist. Feliciano and his campaign team do not regret his staying in the election, even though had he chosen to duck out of the race Milne may have gotten his votes and won. Johnston suggested that some voters may have come out for Feliciano who would not have considered voting for Milne. Feliciano and his campaign team did not think either Feliciano or Milne would stand a chance against Shumlin.
Milne received minimal outside support on his campaign. Most notably, the Republican Governors Association chose not to invest in Milne, assuming he would be no competition for Shumlin.
Former Vermont Republican Governor and Executive-in-Residence at the College Jim Douglas ’72 was surprised that Feliciano drew so few votes and was disappointed that Vermont’s Republican minority failed to unite for Milne.
“When it comes down to it, they say, ‘I ought to pick someone who’s got a shot,’” Douglas said of voters who chose Milne over Feliciano. Such voters made Feliciano less of a serious candidate.
Shumlin could become the first incumbent governor in 50 years to lose to a challenger. The situation speaks strongly to how Vermonters are feeling about the direction of the state, and Shumlin recognized that fact.
“It’s a time for me to regroup,” Shumlin said. “You would have to be tone deaf not to be hearing voters’ concerns.” This may have implications for how Shumlin conducts his next two years as governor, as he sees that there is currently discontent and division among Vermont’s electorate.
“What is clear is that the majority of Vermonters do not agree with the path that we are on,” Milne said, referring to the fact that the majority of votes went to candidates other than Shumlin.
“I’m voting against whoever (are) the incumbents, just to shake things up,” Rene Churchill, a resident of Waterbury Center, said. Some voters appear to have just been looking for change, whatever the change may be.
The next two years will show whether Shumlin listened to the electorate or continued with projects that were controversial, such as transitioning Vermont to a single-payer healthcare system. However, the power to decide who ultimately becomes governor still lies in the Legislature when they convene in January of 2015.
Other elected positions in Vermont were not nearly as close as the gubernatorial rate. Incumbent Peter Welch of the Democratic Party won Vermont’s only seat in the US House of Representatives with 64.4 percent of the vote. He was running against Republican Mark Donka, who won 31.1 percent. Three candidates ran as independents, including Cris Ericson, who also ran for governor. Matthew Andrews ran for the Liberty Union Party.
Senators Bernie Sanders, Independent, and Patrick Leahy, Democrat, were not up for reelection this year. Sanders and Leahy will both be returning to Washington and to a Republican dominated Congress.
“Whoever controls the Senate it’s only going to be by one or two votes,” Leahy said. “Either way, whether it’s the Democrats or the Republicans what I would urge is let’s try working together for a while.” Leahy is hopeful about the future and does not view being in the minority party as a bad thing. Leahy, about to begin his 40th year as Senator, cited seniority, rather than majority, as being more important for holding power in the Senate.
Sanders, on the other hand, fears that a Republican majority Congress will cut spending for education, Medicare, and Medicaid, as well as give tax breaks to the wealthy.
“That is not a good agenda for the American people,” Sanders, who is in the second year of his second term as senator, said.
(10/22/14 11:22pm)
Two weeks ago, seven candidates running for governor of Vermont, including incumbent Governor Peter Shumlin, gathered at Vermont PBS for a 90 minute debate on issues including healthcare, the heroin epidemic and the rising cost of college tuition. The moderator, PBS viewers and the exclusively student audience all provided questions.
Stewart Ledbetter, host of the TV program “Vermont This Week,” moderated the debate. Each candidate had one minute to answer the given question, a rebuttal phase directed by the moderator, and a one minute closing statement. Ledbetter opened the debate by asking each candidate to introduce him or herself and to explain “how you have prepared for the top political office in the land.”
Pete Diamondstone of Brattleboro, a Vermont resident for about 50 years and a representative of the Liberty Union Party, was the first to introduce himself. Diamondstone has run for governor every time since 1970. “I am a revolutionary, nonviolent socialist, and I am a secessionist … As a revolutionary socialist, I have to tell you that most of what we will discuss tonight will not be relevant for me, because most of what I will talk about is how we overturn what is destroying our society and our environment, which is capitalism,” Diamondstone said.
Cris Ericson, an Independent who is also running for US Senate as the nominee of the Marijuana Party, spoke next. Ericson opened her introduction by harkening back to the days of her childhood when Vermont was “the garden of Eden.”
“We’ve got to stop the F-35 strike fighter jets from being based here, and we’ve got to stop the natural gas pipeline from being built underneath Lake Champlain,” Ericson said.
Dan Feliciano, running as a member of the Libertarian Party, introduced himself next. “I’m a father, I’m a husband, and I’m a veteran. I have three children, I live here in Essex,” Feliciano said.
Feliciano spoke of why he chose to run, after his wife told him that: “‘Now that our son is 16, we need to start thinking about what we’re going to do differently, because he will be leaving and never coming back.’” He decided that he needed “to do something about this and couldn’t stand idly by,” said Feliciano, who has a background in healthcare and turning around big businesses and government organizations. Feliciano emphasized his desire to make the state more affordable for families, provide better healthcare, reduce property taxes and offer school of choice.
Republican candidate Scott Milne, Governor Shumlin’s biggest competitor, introduced himself next. Milne grew up in Vermont and moved back in the late ’80s to take a family business that was located in New Hampshire.
However, “What I saw over the past 30 years was a continuing difference between New Hampshire and Vermont and the effect of tax policies and government on people to prosper, and that has drawn me into this race,” Milne said. He promised to offer a “great voice” for those who choose to support him.
Bernard (Bernie) Peters is running as an Independent. Peters is a retiree from the Agency of Transportation where he worked for 36 years. “I’ve been watching politics for quite some time … from what I see, whichever party is in power is not working for the Vermonter. Neither party seems to realize, that when they say they’re working for the party, they’re not working for the party. They’re working for the tax payer and the voter. They are the people who are the boss, not the other way around,” Peters said. “All it takes it a lot of good common sense and hard work from everybody,” Peters said.
Emily Peyton, an Independent from Putney, introduced herself as “an earth activist.” She entered the race “to bring forth the very exciting solutions, and the hopeful solutions that you have to help make the earth a livable place, a place that you can thrive.” Peyton explained that she came to talk about “Economic systems that can allow us to laterally grow the economy, and things that we can do to honor the earth, and live in harmony with each other and our natural world.”
Finally, incumbent Peter Shumlin, the nominee of the Democratic Party, spoke. Shumlin has served two consecutive two-year terms as governor and is seeking re-election for a third. “I love Vermont more than anything. And I ran for governor four years ago, because after building two businesses, successful businesses, in Vermont employing Vermonters, I felt that I wanted more students, more young people, to have the same opportunity that I’ve had in this state,” Shumlin said. Shumlin has and will continue to prioritize building a state “where our young people can stay, and work, and thrive.” He concluded by citing the many successes of his past two terms and asking for two more years.
The candidates debated healthcare first. Six months after winning the 2010 election, Shumlin passed a law creating a single-payer healthcare system in Vermont, making Vermont the first state in the nation to do so. However, a recent poll showed that Vermonters are deeply divided over the issue of healthcare, as are the candidates.
“Healthcare has a heavily IT-based solution, and I think that going to a single payer system really doesn’t do anything to drive down the cost of healthcare,” Feliciano said, citing the technology problems of
Vermont Health Connect and the national healthcare marketplace website. Feliciano advocated for free market solutions by opening up the market and letting more insurers into the state to drive down premiums through competition. “You pick your doctor, you pick your hospital, you pick your insurer,” he said.
Shumlin said that to address the rising cost of healthcare, Vermont must continue to follow through with the single payer system.
“First of all, I’d disagree with Peter Shumlin,” Milne said when asked about healthcare. He referred to Shumlin’s healthcare reforms as “a reckless march toward single-payer.” Milne mentioned the failure of the single-payer system after four years.
Some candidates offered novel ideas, such as Peters who suggested giving to issue of healthcare reform as a school project to students in Vermont, which has “some of the nicest schools on the East Coast.”
Hussain Al-Mahr, a student in the audience, asked how the candidates would lower the cost of college tuition and attract more students to Vermont colleges. Views on education costs were as diverse as those on healthcare. Shumlin spoke of the challenge of getting Vermont students from high school into college, an issue he has already addressed as governor by implementing the early college, dual enrollment programs and Vermont Scholars programs. Milne dismissed Shumlin’s programs as ineffective over the last two year, but did acknowledge that the cost of college has risen above what most Vermonters can pay. By lowering the cost of kindergarten through twelfth grade education, Milne hopes to be more generous with scholarships for Vermont students going to college in Vermont.
“This issue of paying to go to school begins with an absurdity and if you accept it, you’ve accepted the absurd,” Diamondstone said. “We should be paying people to go to school. School is work … If a student goes to school and learns two and two is four, that student has contributed to the wealth of the society and should be paid,” said Diamondstone. Diamondstone continued to explain the flawed relationship between citizens and capital, and how a socialist society would change that.
“University of Vermont is a private for-profit college,” Ericson said. She was outraged at the amount of money it was receiving from the state and suggested that that money be redirected to the state colleges and to free, online education.
“There are debt-free methods of education. If you want to learn anything, you can go learn it, then we need a system of accrediting that learning,” Peyton said, referencing one called the People’s Free University. As another solution to the rising cost of college, Peyton suggested “increasing our food independence by giving people of your age land in order to make our state food secure.”
The moderator then asked what the governor would do to improve wages in the state. Milne would solve this problem by making Vermont more business-friendly through tax incentives and improving the education system. Shumlin would grow wages and employment primarily through education and job training at every level.
“We need to completely convert to a socialist system of manufacturing,” Diamondstone said. According to Diamondstone, this is the only way people can ensure that they are not getting ripped off by employers.
“How can we create a monetary system so that the economy spurts up from the ground?” is the central question around improving wages, Peyton said. She is not a supporter of “trickle-down” economics.
“They’re going to go by us like roadkill on the interstate,” Peters said, explaining how businesses will not choose to locate in Vermont because the state is not business friendly. His solution would be to keep more of the well-educated Vermont students in the state. Feliciano focused primarily on cutting costs, reducing taxes and eliminating laws that prevent businesses from expanding.
J.T. Lukens of 350 Vermont submitted the next question online: “Do you support divesting Vermont’s pension funds from fossil fuel companies?” Shumlin responded first, noting Vermont’s commitment to green energy through the increase in solar and wind power over the last several years. In terms of divestment, “it’s not the sharpest tool that we have in the drawer,” Shumlin said, but that he would be willing to look into it.
“One good reason to have fossil fuels in our portfolio is … to hedge against a bet we’re doing, rushing toward this renewable energy program,” Milne said. He would not support divestment, citing other, more pressing issues. Neither Peters nor Feliciano would not support divestiture of the pension portfolio either.
“We need to make our earth a priority,” said Peyton, a strong supporter of divestment. She also spoke of the need to stop using oil and start using things like hydro-power. She suggested creating more buildings out of agricultural hemp, using the quarter of the energy needed for normal buildings.
“Capitalism not only rips off works, it rips off the planet,” Diamondstone said. Diamondstone supports divesting all capital investments and opening a state bank.
Ericson would begin her term as governor with a “complete forensic examination of the pension fund” to eliminate fraud. She did not mention divestment.
Student audience member Beatrice Woodruff asked the next question concerning the drug problem and new measures to combat it.
“This is the one area that can really destroy Vermont ... are we doing enough? No,” Shumlin said. He referenced his increase in penalties for dealers and his new approach, looking at opiate addiction as not just a law enforcement problem, but a healthcare problem. He emphasized the need for more prevention. Feliciano thinks that Shumlin has “a good approach” and “wouldn’t change anything.”
“This is something I applaud Peter for,” Milne said.
Peters spoke of the importance of keeping kids from getting into drugs, or “it won’t be long until they can’t tie their shoes or anything,” said Peters, who supports harsh penalties for drug dealers.
“Notice, there was no heroin in the United States when the Taliban were in control in Afghanistan,” said Diamondstone, also a supporter of harsh penalties for dealers.
Peyton wants to “reign back” pain medication prescriptions and look toward alternate methods to control pain, such as marijuana or hypnosis.
Ericson began by questioning Shumlin’s alleged choice to give $5 million to a ski resort for a new snow blower, rather than toward a new drug treatment facility. “Peter, did you do that?” Ericson said.From the issue of opiates, the moderator segued into the need to fix Department of Children and Families (DCF), which has been under more stress with the rise of the heroin epidemic.
Peyton suggested a family mentoring system for families who need help making good choices.
Shumlin said that the number of case workers have increased and the policy for returning children to their parents has become more stringent, but there is still more to do to improve the department and keep Vermont’s children safe.
Peters pointed out that many of the people who get their children back often have them taken away again for a repeat offense, which puts the children in more danger. “If they’ve got a criminal record that bad, something bad’s going to happen,” Peters said. He believes that social workers “have their hands tied” by rules, but should instead be working more off their intuition.
Each candidate was given the opportunity to make a closing statement.
“If you could have all the money in the world, or you could have all the love in the world, which has more value?” Peyton said. She urged Vermonters to “improve the quality of loving in your life.”
Diamondstone emphasized the need to reallocate resources away from violence toward workers and the planet so as to benefit everyone on the planet
Ericson said she will do everything in her power to stop the pipeline and to get the F-35 fighter jets out of Vermont.
Feliciano reiterated his platform of cutting spending, getting rid of single-payer, providing school choice, cutting property tax and growing businesses.
“I’m a candidate who’s about as grassroots as you can get. I don’t have big business behind me, I don’t have corporations behind me, I don’t have nobody from out of state behind me,” said Peters, who is running as the Vermonter candidate with Common Sense for Vermont People.
“I want to make this state a place where more young people can succeed,” Shumlin said, asking for two more years to continue to improve Vermont. He thanked Vermont for the four previous years as governor.
Milne concluded by speaking of his mother, who was involved in Vermont politics 20 years ago.
Following the debate, the seven candidates made their way through the audience of students, shaking hands, taking pictures with students and meeting the future members of Vermont’s electorate.
(10/01/14 11:20pm)
As of October 1, Vermont law has banned the use of all handheld cell phones and other electronics. The goal of this law is to decrease distracted driving and increase road safety. The ban includes the use of cell phones for calling and texting, but not calling over speakerphone or Bluetooth. Using a handheld cell phone is now a primary stop, meaning that if a police officer sees a driver using a handheld cell phone, then the officer can pull over and ticket that driver, even if the driver is not violating any other laws.
The former Vermont law regarding electronics use prohibited the use of any portable electronic device by drivers under 18 years old, having a movie on a screen that is visible to the driver and texting for drivers of any age. Handheld cell phones were illegal in work zones.
The new law bans having an electronic device in your hand while behind the wheel for all ages in all areas. A violation of this law could result in a ticket worth anywhere from $100 to $500.
On June 12, Vermont governor Peter Shumlin signed the bill on the handheld electronics ban into law.
“I listened to Vermonters who desperately want this bill,” Shumlin said at the ceremony in Colchester, Vermont where he signed the bill into law.
“I had a view that I think some share — that I think it can be difficult to legislate common sense,” Shumlin said at the ceremony. “It has become clear to me … that Vermonters really want us to sign this bill and try to make our roads more safe.”
Originally, Shumlin had been opposed to the first draft of the bill banning cell phone use because first offenses gave drivers one point on their licenses, thus raising their insurance rates.
The version of the bill that was passed instead includes a fine for the first offense, but no points toward the driver’s license. Accumulation of 10 or more points over two years leads to license suspension. However, texting while driving still carries a penalty of a fine and two points.
In an interview with VTDigger.org, Lieutenant Garry Scott, Commander of the Vermont State Police Traffic Safety Division explained how the cell phone ban came to be what it is today.
“It started with just the texting, and we realized that it didn’t work because we weren’t able to determine whether it was a text or this,” Scott said, looking down at his phone and scrolling through, demonstrating what often appears to officers as texting.
“This is the next step,” he said of the new ban. “Then we’ll kind of adjust as we go from here to see if we have to improve upon it.”
“Now just having the device in your hand is enough for the officer to stop you and then conduct an investigation as to what is going on in the vehicle,” he said.
If it is necessary to make a phone call while driving, Scott suggested having your phone in a cradle somewhere that it can be voice activated, and then making the call using Bluetooth or speakerphone.
However, Scott brings up one possible common sense exception.
“Maybe you are dialing 911 for a reason … that obviously would be an exception to the law,” Scott said.
One other possible exemption is amateur HAM operators. According to Mike Stern, a member of the Radio Amateurs of Northern Vermont club, the state of Vermont recognizes amateur HAM radio operators as a safety organization, just as it recognizes fire and rescue groups.
Amateur radio networks become crucial in emergencies when cell phones and landlines fail, such as during storms like tropical storm Irene. HAM radios require the operator to hold a microphone, but there is no need to push any buttons. This would technically violate the ban on handheld electronic devices, but also helps authorities communicate in emergency situations.
Vermont now joins 14 other U.S. states that prohibit handheld cell phone use in an effort to make roads safer.