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(04/21/22 10:00am)
On Friday, April 8, Middlebury announced its purchase of a 35-acre parcel of land on Seminary Street Extension in downtown Middlebury for $1.5 million, a deal the Board of Trustees approved in February. The college plans to have Summit Properties of South Burlington, a development company owned by Middlebury graduates Charlie Brush ’69 and John Giebink ’77, create mainly affordable and subsidized workforce housing on the lot.
(04/14/22 11:45am)
Early in the morning of Saturday, April 9, an unknown individual, or potentially multiple individuals, poured urine outside of the Muslim Students Association’s (MSA) prayer space in Forest Hall while two members of the group were inside. The individual or one of the individuals returned shortly afterwards and attempted to forcefully enter the prayer space, according to an email sent to the members of the MSA. The students inside the prayer room remained safely inside for the duration of the aggression.
(04/04/22 1:05pm)
On March 26, the Middlebury College Admissions Office sent acceptance letters to 1,502 applicants for the classes of 2026 and 2026.5, adding to the 438 students who were accepted in December and February through the early decision application rounds to make a total of 1,940 admitted students. The overall acceptance rate for this year was 15% from a pool of more than 13,000 applicants. This marks the new lowest rate in years, slightly lower than the 15.7% of 11,908 applicants admitted in last year’s admissions cycle.
(03/03/22 11:00am)
Due to over-enrollment during fall 2021, Bread Loaf became an alternate housing option for Middlebury students as a solution for the lack of space on the main campus. As a result, new staff positions in dining, facilities and transportation were added to accomodate a new housing area 30 minutes away. For this issue, The Campus spoke with some of the staff members who made Bread Loaf possible this year.
(12/09/21 10:59am)
Upon learning on Sunday, Nov. 28 that Morocco was about to halt all incoming flights, three Middlebury students — who had been taking classes in the country during the fall 2021 semester — faced the urgent decision whether to find a flight out of the country within the day or to stay in Morocco and hope the travel shutdown would not extend beyond the original two weeks.
(10/28/21 10:00am)
Content Warning: This article contains mentions of suicide.
(10/14/21 10:00am)
In January 2021, the Middlebury College Art Museum began an extensive rehang — installing a new organization concept that displays permanent collection art by theme rather than based on region and chronology, as is typical of most European and American museums. With this rehang, along with the implementation of related initiatives, museum organizers hoped to increase the museum’s accessibility and inclusivity to reach a wider audience and to showcase a more diverse range of artists.
Jason Vrooman ’03 serves as both the chief curator and director of engagement for the museum, roles that are separated into two distinct jobs at most museums. His experience connecting the responsibilities of each role helped him plan and conceptualize the rehang project. His role as director of engagement challenges him to consider how people connect with the works on display while he completes duties related to acquisition and exhibition organization in his role as curator.
“It’s very unusual to have a double curator and educator, but we like it because the two [roles] inform each other. As I curate, I try to keep in mind how the works will support the museum’s educational goals as a resource for Middlebury classes, local schools and adult community members,” Vrooman said.
Beginning in late 2019, Vrooman worked closely with Museum Director Richard Saunders, Associate Curator of Ancient Art Pieter Broucke, Museum Registrar Meg Wallace and Museum Designer Ken Pohlman to rethink how the permanent collection could be used to tell new stories. Sabarsky Graduate Fellow Sarah Briggs ’14.5 and Sarah Laursen — who served as the museum’s curator of Asian art before departing from the museum staff in summer 2020 — were also closely involved in the beginning stages of the process.
The committee also frequently sought student input from participants in the 2020 summer internship program and conducted a survey of professors who had historically used the museum in their courses to ensure changes would not disrupt existing teaching.
For about a year, the group met weekly to discuss how chronological and geographical approaches to displaying art contribute to Eurocentric biases and to strategize ways to remedy this narrow lens at Middlebury’s museum.
“Our museum has for decades been collecting a diverse array of artists, but the permanent collection has a particular focus on Mediterranean, American and European art while other stories were told in small ways,” said Vrooman. “We’ve been focusing on collecting more work from women, queer artists and artists of color for long before the rehang project began, and we wanted to find a way to highlight this diversity by having themes.”
Vrooman also mentioned that the museum plans to add more works from indigenous and disabled artists.
The group ultimately chose 12 themes to juxtapose works from across time periods and cultures. Some of the themes include Art and Activism, Portraiture, People and the Planet, Ritual and Devotion, Death and Remembrance, Intersecting Cultures and The Art of Storytelling. Under Death and Remembrance, for example, Han Dynasty funereal art shares a space with pieces from ancient Egyptian burial practice.
“We really hope people will look for similarities, but we also want to respect the difference between these works,” said Vrooman. “We want these spaces to open up dialogue and invite conversation about important social issues, as well as ask people to think about how the past influences how we engage with one another in the present.”
To supplement the rehang, the committee enlisted museum ambassadors and other students to help write new labels and edit existing text to bolster inclusivity. Claire Darrow ’22, a museum ambassador since fall 2019, described how the language used in museums can often uphold stereotypes and reify certain cultural biases.
“We used terms that might be easier to understand if you don’t have a specific art history educational background. I hope that something as small as a label or inclusive language can make people feel more comfortable in a museum setting and allow them to see their stories and perspectives reflected in the art,” Darrow said.
One example Darrow referenced as a common misleading use of language in museums is the use of the past tense when describing art from indigenous cultures of the Americas, which can imply that they no longer exist. “These cultures are still very active,” Darrow said.
Aside from descriptive labels, the museum also instituted what it calls its “Label Talk Initiative.” Through this project, three participants respond to each selected artwork from a personal, professional or academic perspective. Vrooman hopes that showcasing three separate viewpoints will show that there are multiple ways to view art and help make the museum a space where many voices are welcome.
“Part of our process was challenging the expectations of who gets to interpret art in a museum,” said Vrooman. “In most museums, you don’t know who wrote the labels, but you can presume they came through a very particular educational path.”
Pearl Akoto ’24, who grew up in Ghana before moving to New York, got involved with the Label Talk Initiative by writing a personal response to a piece called “Untitled (with red)” by the Ghanian artist El Anatsui. “I had never seen any form of representation of my culture, especially in Vermont,” she said.
While the piece is a commentary on the transatlantic slave trade, Akoto hopes her response will help visitors focus on the modern aspects of the work and its evocation of current day issues related to environmental justice.
“I actually tried to avoid referencing the transatlantic slave trade. Of course the struggles and pains of slavery are a part of our history and culture, but we are much more than that and are not allowing it to define us anymore,” she said. “We are emerging from that and creating a new narrative for the present.”
Museum visitors can continue the conversation by scanning a QR code next to the piece and adding their own response on a virtual blog.
In addition to the thematic reorganization, the new design instituted other components to increase accessibility. These changes included lowering the hanging height of most works by about two inches, which can make a substantial difference for visitors in a wheelchair, children or someone who chooses to sit to view a work. Staff also increased the font size on labels and chose to use black sans serif text against a white wall after researching the legibility of different type fonts.
There are fewer works on display in the new organization to open more space for tour groups and classes to visit without getting too close to the pieces. However, approximately 15 works from the permanent collection will rotate at the end of each semester because they are light sensitive. The pieces in rotation will specifically include works from diverse artists.
Vrooman hopes the rehang has been a positive step toward inclusivity but also acknowledged there is still a lot more work to do.
“We are open to responses that may reshape the way we think and invite members of the community to offer feedback directly or at bit.ly/MuseumComments,” said Vrooman.
Currently, the museum is open only to students, faculty and staff by appointment due to Covid-19 precautions. In addition to the permanent collection galleries, visitors can enjoy the special exhibitions “A New Lens: Contemporary Video & Animation” and “Art & Protest: Artists as Agents of Social Change,” both on display until Dec. 12.
(09/30/21 10:01am)
In the early morning of Monday, Sept. 27, the stone slab engraved with “Mead Memorial Chapel” was removed from its place atop the entrance of the chapel. A few hours later, college President Laurie Patton and Chair of the Board of Trustees George Lee sent an email to the community explaining that chapel would no longer bear the name John Mead, Vermont governor from 1910 to 1912 and Middlebury class of 1864, due to his role in promoting eugenics policies in the state that led to the involuntary sterilization of an estimated 250 people.
In 1914, Mead and his wife Mary Madelia Sherman donated $74,000, the equivalent of about $2 million in today’s money, for the creation of a new chapel. As the highest point on campus, the site of freshman convocation and a frequent symbol on college merchandise, the chapel has since become an iconic feature of Middlebury’s landscape and branding. It will now be referred to as “The Middlebury Chapel” or just “the chapel.”
Following unanimous decisions in the Vermont House and Senate in spring of 2021 to “sincerely apologize and express sorrow and regret” for the state’s eugenics campaign, a working group composed of members from the Senior Leadership Group chosen by Patton, as well as student, faculty and alumni representatives, began working in May 2021 to develop a recommendation for the Board of Trustees on the question of removing Mead’s name from the chapel.
The working group members included Provost Jeff Cason, Dean of Admissions Nicole Curvin, Chief Diversity Officer Miguel Fernandez, Vice President for Advancement Colleen Fitzpatrick, Vice President for Communications David Gibson, Alumni Association President Janine Hetherington ’95, Director and Curator of Special Collections Rebekah Irwin, Student Government Association President Roni Lezama ’22, Associate Professor of History Joyce Mao, Executive Vice President David Provost and General Counsel Hannah Ross, who acted as chair of the group.
The committee was gathered with the aim of including a variety of viewpoints. “Different members brought their own expertise and experience to these conversations,” Ross said.
Over the course of a month, the committee reviewed a comprehensive and varied group of materials largely put together by Irwin. The first group of documents were Vermont Public Records, mainly from 1911 to 1914 but including some published onward through the 1930s. One of the reports, submitted to the “Trustees of the Vermont State Hospital for the Insane,” explicitly named Mead as an advocate of eugenics. In the report, a hospital official wrote, “Governor Mead has an idea in view, which in my opinion, should be endorsed by legal enactment, for the sterilization of these degenerates.” The degenerates in question were identified as “dangerous imbeciles,” particularly females during the “procreative period.”
Other resources included the scholarship of independent historians Mercedes de Guardiola, Kevin Dann and Nancy Gallagher, an online archive called “Vermont Eugenics: A Documentary History,” Vermont newspapers from the early 20th century, college archival records, college Trustee minutes, correspondence between John Mead and Middlebury President John Thomas, College Advancement records and documents in the Records of the Office of the Governor at the State Historical Society in Middlesex, VT, according to Irwin.
Irwin further noted that the group considered experiences of other schools in similar situations, such as the efforts of the “Yale University Committee to Establish Principles on Renaming.” This document also guided the University of Vermont’s renaming of the Bailey Howe Library. Other schools that have grappled with the symbolism of building names, mascots and campus symbols include Bryn Mawr College, the University of Richmond, Princeton University and Georgetown University.
Of all the information available, particularly influential was the State Legislature’s background research, witnesses and documentation around Bill J.R.H.2. This Joint Resolution points directly to a 1912 bill put forward by Governor Mead, which was passed by the Vermont General Assembly but then vetoed by Governor Allen M. Fletcher due to constitutional concerns, that led “directly to Vermont state agencies and institutions adopting policies and procedures that carried out ‘the intent of the vetoed legislation and the beliefs of the eugenics movement,’” wrote Irwin in an email to The Campus. “The state legislature itself drew that painful line back to Mead’s proposed legislation,” she continued.
After a careful review of these materials, the group made its recommendation to remove Mead’s name in June 2021. The Board of Trustees made its decision unanimously by late August.
The email announcement stressed the working group’s concerted efforts to recognize the complexities involved in renaming: “We want to stress up front that this was a process involving deep reflection and discussion. No issue like this should be undertaken lightly or often,” it read.
For Lezama, this comprehensive process led to a clear conclusion. “People will praise academia for being a space to have young students deliberate hard topics, but as we actually consider the individual lives of the students that compose Middlebury, it’s also about providing equitable spaces for these students, especially BIPOC and low-income students, to thrive. There is no ‘maybe we should hear them out’ when it comes to a subject like eugenics that is terribly harmful and has very serious impacts on the well-being of students,” he said.
As the only student in the group, Lezama’s main goal was to ensure that the name change itself, though symbolic and powerful, is not the end of the college’s efforts to support students from historically marginalized communities. “This is about moving forward and actively educating ourselves on harm that is done to members of our community, past or present. With these actions, Middlebury has an opportunity to differentiate itself from the rest of academia by actively taking a stance against ideals that harm its students. A space representing eugenics has no place on our campus.”
However, not everyone in the Middlebury community shares Lezama’s conviction that the removal of Mead’s name was the proper choice. James Douglas ’72, a former governor of Vermont and executive in residence at the college, expressed a number of reasons he was unhappy with the decision. The first regarded the process itself: “I was shocked to see the lack of transparency. This was done by a secret committee. The [slab’s removal] was done under the cover of darkness. I don’t understand that mentality, when in other endeavors the college has been open and inclusive,” he said.
According to Ross, the early morning removal of the slab was due to the Facilities Department’s schedule, which begins its workday at 7 a.m.
Next, Douglas explained why he does not feel the removal of Mead’s name is a fair representation of Mead’s career. “I certainly don’t condone the study of or implementation of a eugenics program, but those were different times. There was a great deal of support for eugenics among people with distinguished careers, including Teddy Roosevelt, Margaret Sanger, W.E.B. Du Bois and Helen Keller. So, I think it’s unfair to apply a 21st century lens to another era in our history,” he said.
Douglas also noted that the removal announcement ignores many other positive aspects of Mead’s career, including his support for progressive child labor laws, his creation of a school of agriculture that is now Vermont Technical College, his doubling of highway funding and his efforts to reform campaign finance. “I really believe that someone’s legacy should be determined by the entirety of his or her life, not by comments that are later unfortunate. No one is perfect, especially with the hindsight of history,” Douglas said.
Taking issue with the college’s claim that the name removal does not amount to an erasure of history, Douglas replied, “Of course they are. One important element of history is that he gave the money, and his name has been on it for more than a century. I think it would be appropriate to return the money [for the chapel] and other money that he gave to the college.”
According to the administration, Mead’s financial gift to the college was not conditional upon his name being put on the building, so the college is not obligated to return the gift to the Mead family.
Lastly, Douglas was perplexed as to why the action was taken when the vast majority of students were likely unaware of Mead’s history and connection to eugenics. Nor does he believe the Vermont legislature’s formal apology necessitated the name removal. “I don’t think [the apology] leads to this cancellation of the legacy of the philanthropy of Governor Mead. The college has made a serious mistake,” he said.
Though there have been no previous calls for the removal of Mead’s name by Middlebury community members, Irwin noted that more and more colleges and universities across the country are beginning to engage in honest debates and conversations about what and who they choose to commemorate. “It’s about how those choices express our values,” she said.
Thinking of the broader implications of the decision, Douglas commented, “There is a growing attitude in academia of wokeness and political correctness. We all need to take a deep breath. A college campus is the kind of place we ought to be able to have these discussions, even uncomfortable decisions. This decision runs counter to the purpose of higher education.”
Reiterating the official announcement, Ross stated, “This is not about erasing history, but just the opposite — engaging with it so we can learn from it. Our educational mission is at the center of all these deliberations.”
The Educational Task Force is currently planning to work with a variety of departments and groups on campus to develop recommendations on how to acknowledge and educate about the decision to first honor a member of this community and then remove that honor, according to Ross. “Our educational efforts might include signage, architectural installations and public art – with the goal of encouraging constructive dialogue and debate around not only the issue of the chapel name but also its wider implications as a complex issue of our time,” she said.
As of now, there are no plans to actively enforce the new name or obligate employees to refrain from referring to the chapel as Mead Chapel, according to Ross. The Educational Task Force may consider a publicity campaign to promote a new name if one is chosen for the chapel, but such a campaign is not part of the administration’s current plans.
(09/30/21 10:00am)
When Piper Boss ’23 reached out to Middlebury with concerns about studying abroad in Spain — then a country classified by the State Department as “Level 4: Do Not Travel” — she was informed by her abroad coordinator and Dean of Students Derek Doucet that she had two options: go to Madrid or take a leave of absence.
Concerned about the rise of Delta variant Covid-19 cases in late summer, a number of Middlebury students questioned the safety of their plans to study abroad for the Fall 2021 semester. When they inquired about withdrawing from their international programs and re-enrolling at Middlebury, they were informed that Middlebury’s over-enrollment precluded the possibility of returning to the Vermont campus.
“My family and I were very nervous for me to be living in this large metropolitan area and interacting with local people, which is a large component of abroad programs because the goal is language immersion,” Boss said.
Boss had planned to begin her semester in Madrid in mid-August. Covid-19 cases spiked in Spain toward the end of July, prompting the U.S. State Department to announce its Level 4: Do Not Travel classification on July 26, 2021.
According to Boss, the administration at the C.V. Starr School Abroad in Madrid informed the fall enrollees that the only way the program would be cancelled was if Spain closed its borders to international travel. Covid-19 vaccination, Boss also learned, was not a requirement for host families.
The vaccination rate in Spain has since increased, with 80% of the population having received at least one dose as of Sept. 21. Boss was placed with a vaccinated host family. Thus far, her experience has been positive, but she noted that her time could easily have been much more dangerous and felt that Middlebury did not seem to care about this possibility.
“Considering that Covid is still very much a problem in most of the world, it just seemed like there was a huge lack of forethought for international programs,” Boss said.
Eliza King Freedman ’23 and Abby Schneiderhan ’23 faced similar circumstances, having planned to study abroad in Rabat, Morocco.
Like Spain, Morocco was classified as a Level 4: Do Not Travel destination on Aug. 23, 2021. As of that date, 48% of the population had received at least one vaccine dose, and as of Sept. 22, 59.2% of the population had received at least one dose. Host families were not required to be vaccinated, and the country currently enforces a 9 p.m. curfew that has been in place since Aug. 2.
Despite serious concerns for physical and mental health when traveling to a Covid-19 hotspot with strict public safety measures in place, King Freedman felt she had no choice but to go ahead with her original plans — having received no assurance from the administration that she would be permitted to return to Middlebury.
“I just feel like I couldn’t actually make an informed decision about whether or not it was safe to come [to Morocco] because Middlebury essentially took away any safety net we had throughout the process,” she said.
Schneiderhan made what she called a “now-or-never” choice to travel to Rabat. The day after she left Canada, her point of departure, the country terminated flights to Morocco.
“One of the most stressful parts of this whole experience was deciding what to do when travel was so uncertain,” Schneiderhan said. “Had I waited another day, I wouldn’t have even been able to get to Rabat, and I didn’t have the fallback option of knowing that I would be able to go back to campus.”
Ultimately, all students whose programs abroad were cancelled or who decided not to participate in those programs were able to return to campus this fall and received housing, according to Dean of Students Derek Doucet. The college’s late summer purchase of Inn on the Green allowed for more available space at the Bread Loaf campus than expected earlier in the summer.
By the time the college created a waiting list for on-campus housing, Boss already had plane tickets to Spain departing just four days later.
“I felt very ignored,” she said. “They were clearly prioritizing their struggle with housing over the safety of their students who were going abroad.”
Doucet told The Campus in an email that all college decisions to run study abroad programs were based on a review of pandemic conditions in each country.
“It sounds as though those students definitely had a difficult time working through some very difficult decisions,” Doucet said. “As we continue to manage the effects of the pandemic, we have made every effort to provide students with opportunities to study on campus and abroad when feasible.”
(09/16/21 9:59am)
For the first time in history, Middlebury will house undergraduates at the Bread Loaf campus to accommodate some of the more than 300 extra students enrolled at the college this fall. The college also purchased the Inn on the Green in August and arranged several rooms at the Marriott Hotel on Court Street to house students during the semester.
Disruptions from the Covid-19 pandemic led to a drastic increase in the college’s student population. This fall, several hundred students returned after taking time off during the 2020-21 academic year, approximately 150 more students remained on campus who would typically have been abroad, and high enrollment in the first-year class brought the student body to more than 2,800.
After exhausting campus dorm spaces and allowing all upperclassmen who applied to live off-campus, additional rooms were still needed to house students. Residential Life assigned 63 students to Bread Loaf and an additional 20 to the Inn on the Green, which the college intends to use for student housing over the next three years. Another 15 students will reside in the Marriott Hotel, according to AJ Place, associate dean of students. The decision to reserve 33 Adirondack View and 220 College Street as quarantine and emergency use spaces further limited on-campus housing options.
The college announced the new Bread Loaf housing option via email July 15, presenting it as a “unique opportunity for juniors and seniors” and an “intentional community.”
Middlebury initially tried to incentivize students to volunteer to live at Bread Loaf by offering a $1,500 room and dining credit to Bread Loaf residents. However, the incentives were later expanded to 50% off room and board costs, an advanced housing selection draw for fall 2022, free ski equipment rentals and passes to the Snow Bowl and Rikert Nordic Center, complimentary laundry service and a faculty/staff parking pass to allow parking anywhere on campus aside from ADA-only spaces.
“After further consideration and conferring with some student groups, we decided to offer a more significant incentive to draw more applicants,” Place said. He also said the costs of housing students at Bread Loaf would exceed any revenue from extra tuition but could not offer more specific estimates.
Only 22 students elected to live at Bread Loaf, while another 41 had no other choice due to a late housing draw time slot. The Marriott residents will receive the same discounted room and board as the Bread Loaf students, but those at Inn on the Green will not.
“We got to Middlebury expecting to have a Middlebury experience, paying to have a Middlebury experience, and not being a part of campus life and having a room on campus is in no way that experience,” Sam Lipin ’23.5 said. Lipin was assigned involuntarily to live at Bread Loaf.
For Lipin, the college’s incentives are insufficient compensation for the social and academic costs of living at Bread Loaf. Further increasing Lipin’s frustration is that he has only had about five weeks of normal campus life. He and other members of the class of 2023.5 living at Bread Loaf came to Midlebury in the spring of 2020 and have not yet experienced a full, normal semester on campus.
“The incentives to me are basically nothing. Honestly, it should probably be all of room and board off, and maybe even some of tuition,” Lipin said.
Residential Life has worked to create the advertised “intentional community” at Bread Loaf by planning social and outdoor activities at the satellite campus, but isolation from the main campus and other obstacles have hampered efforts.
“Since the group of students living at Bread Loaf will be fairly small, we’re expecting to help build a strong community for these students,” Place said. “This will include programming that utilizes outdoor spaces and the resources that are abundant at Bread Loaf.”
Bread Loaf students were promised an on-campus student lounge, but as of Sept. 14, the college is still working to identify and designate an on-campus space to serve as a lounge.
Another concern for Bread Loaf students is transportation between the campuses. Shuttles depart from Bread Loaf beginning at 6 a.m., and run every hour with a mid-morning and mid-afternoon break in service. The shuttle also stops at the Marriott before reaching Adirondack Circle (ADK), an estimated half hour after leaving Bread Loaf. On weeknights (Sunday through Wednesday), the final shuttle departs ADK for the Marriott and Bread Loaf at 11:30 p.m., and on weekends (Thursday through Saturday), the last time slot is extended to 1:30 a.m.
Bread Loaf students will have full access to dining halls on the main campus, as well as a continental breakfast from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m., dinner from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. and grab-and-go options offered in the Bread Loaf dining hall. Four positions were added to the dining department to staff the new dining hall; two new hires and two previous employees from the main campus will work at Bread Loaf, according to Executive Director of Food Service Operations Dan Detora. The dining department currently has 12 vacant positions.
Despite the obstacles, Place and Dean of Students Derek Doucet remain optimistic about the success of Bread Loaf.
“We know that there are some inconveniences to the location,” Place and Doucet said in an email to The Campus. “But we are confident this group will find the experience of living at the Bread Loaf campus rewarding.”
Note: Sam Lipin ’23.5 is a Sports Editor for The Campus
(05/20/21 9:59am)
The college is struggling to fill low-wage positions in Dining and Facilities Services — a task many employers have faced this year, sparking a national debate over hiring difficulties and its alleged relation to unemployment benefits. The challenges follow more than a year after student-organized protests for higher staff wages, calls from faculty to address wage compression and requests for higher prioritization of staff needs in budget planning.
Positions in the skilled trades areas of Facilities Services have been open for anywhere between one to six months without attracting qualified candidates, according to Director of Facilities Services Mike Moser.
Likewise, Executive Director of Food Service Operations Dan Detora told The Campus that, despite having seven openings in the department for most of the semester, there have been only one or two applicants at any given time.
Ross Dining Hall currently has two open cook jobs, one of which has been empty since August 2020 and the other since January 2021. Atwater Dining Hall has been looking to hire a line cook for a few weeks without a single interested applicant, according to Ian Martin, Atwater Commons chef manager.
“This is kind of unusual. There have been times we’ve gotten a few applicants and they’re not qualified, and other times we get a lot of applicants, but this time there’s really been no applicants at all for this duration,” said Chris Laframboise, Ross Commons chef manager.
Much of the speculation over why hiring has been challenging for the college, as well as for local and national businesses, involves a debate over whether unemployment benefits, bolstered by federal pandemic relief funds, are to blame — or whether wages were substandard to begin with.
The college’s lowest paid employees earn less than the livable wage in Vermont. The minimum hourly rates in the Operations Level 1, 2 and 3 (OP1, OP2 and OP3) bands are $14, $15 and $16 respectively. The Vermont Legislative Joint Fiscal Office found that the 2020 livable wage for a single person without children was $15.72 per hour, more than the starting wages for OP1 and OP2. A 2020 study by the National Low-Income Housing Coalition set the Addison County two-bedroom housing wage at $20.40 per hour, higher than ten of the hourly rates offered by Middlebury.
Many of the current open positions are those that offer wages slightly above the liveable wage. The line cook position in Atwater Dining Hall and the cook positions in Ross Dining Hall are all benefits eligible and in the OP3 band, which offers a minimum, or starting, hourly rate of $16.00 — just $0.28/hr above the liveable wage. For a single parent with one or two children, the rate falls well below the liveable wage for rural Vermont, which is $26.43 and $33.75 respectively.
In Vermont, those eligible for unemployment can receive between $191 and $513 per week, depending on eligibility. Currently, this sum is supplemented by the $300 federal weekly benefit as part of the American Rescue Plan.
The open cook positions entail a 40 hour work week. Factoring in shift differentials, which are hourly wage supplements for time worked between 6 p.m. and 7 a.m., the total weekly wage for the position ranges from $647.50 to $648.25 depending whether the cook works the first or second shift. In either situation, the weekly wage is significantly less than the maximum unemployment amount available of $813 per week.
In a statement to The Campus, Assistant Vice President of Human Resources Laura Carotenuto cited enhanced unemployment benefits as a significant factor contributing to the difficulties the college has faced trying to fill positions.
“The challenge to fill open positions is one that is being experienced by employers across Vermont and nationally… Recent unemployment incentives have had an impact on application rates, further complicating those challenges. As the State moves to reinstate the requirement to seek employment in order to receive unemployment benefits, it is our hope that the situation may improve,” Carotenuto said in an email to The Campus.
Beginning May 9, Vermont reinstated the Work Search requirement for unemployment benefits, which obligates claimants to submit proof of conducting three job contacts or activities each week while collecting benefits and to accept any work that is offered to them.
Vermont is not the only state planning to alter unemployment programs — many Republican-led states, including Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and Wyoming, are looking to cut the American Rescue Plan’s $300 federal supplement to weekly unemployment benefits before the planned Sept. 6 end date in an effort to incentivize returning to low-wage work.
On a national scale, Republicans like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell support the argument that ARP’s unemployment benefits are to blame for the current stagnation in the labor market, Democratic leaders have countered that the hiring difficulties most likely arise from low wages, the continuing struggle to find childcare and persisting health and safety concerns.
At Middlebury, the ability to advance to the mid-point or maximum hourly rate for a given pay band depends on “historical factors such as previous experience, education, length of employment at Middlebury/MIIS, performance over time, career moves, etc.,” according to the college’s Human Resources webpage. There is no set timeline that allows staff members to anticipate a raise.
For those with children, returning to work first necessitates finding acceptable and affordable childcare services. In Vermont, the child care sector is notoriously underfunded, and most families can ill-afford their tuition payments, even while most child care workers subsist on poverty wages, according to a VTDigger interview with Sarah Kenney, chief policy officer for the child care advocacy program Let’s Grow Kids. According to the group’s website, 62% of children who need childcare in Vermont don't have access to any regulated program.
Fears about the virus and safety concerns also remain as major constraints on returning to in-person work.
Local businesses are facing similar difficulty finding candidates. Mister Up’s, for example, has only been able to fill two of the 10 positions that have been open since February. Rosie’s restaurant has had waitress, server, dishwashing and cooking positions open for a couple months, according to General Manager Ron Sunderland.
As positions at the college remain unfilled, those that have stayed at their posts are working even harder for the same wage. Empty positions result in more pressure on the teams that are in place, as existing staff must absorb the extra workload.
“Being down two cooks is one less on each shift, which ultimately means more work gets put on the other cooks, which tends to burn them out faster,” Laframboise said.
As the academic year comes to a close, Laframboise’s focus is turned toward filling the empty positions on time for fall 2021, when dining shifts from its scaled-down Covid-19 operations back to offering full menus for a greater number of students.
“Next semester we should be getting those students [who deferred] back plus all the other students. We are going to be very busy and need these cooks,” he said.
(05/13/21 9:55am)
What do local residents of Middlebury, often referred to on campus as “townies,” really think of Middlebury College students? Perhaps the best people to answer this question are those who are members of both groups: current Middlebury College students who also call the town home.
Alice Ganey ’24, who moved to Middlebury with her parents and older brother Henry Ganey ’22 when she was in fifth grade, acknowledged that townspeoples’ perceptions of Middlebury students can be complex. “I think there’s mixed feelings. Sometimes it’s like, ‘Oh, MiddKids think they’re above everyone.’ But oftentimes, people really love how [students] are part of the community,” she said.
Certain incidents have caused tensions to heighten, such as the vandalism at Two Brother’s in spring of 2020 and the interactions between business owners in town and students this fall before the campus was open.
Lifelong Middlebury resident Eli Miller ’21 described how these actions can have a significant impact on how the town perceives college students. “It only takes one or two students to do something dumb to do something stupid. And then everybody in the college, every student gets a bad rap or a bad look,” he said.
Kate Wallace ’23, a Cornwall native, echoed Miller’s observation that townspeople have a specific stereotype about Middlebury students. “As a member of the town, you definitely don’t have a full understanding of the different types of students that go to Middlebury. I think that it’s tempting to sort of pigeon-hole students as athletes or rich kids,” she said.
Another cause of frustration for local residents is their sense that many Middlebury students don’t fully appreciate or take pride in preserving the beauty and richness of the town that surrounds them.
Wallace commented on why residents might view students as removed and disinterested in engaging with the local community. “It’s easy to see the kids who cycle through every four years as people who don’t really care about the town. It’s harder for people who have no connection to the college to feel warmly toward students they might think are privileged and have no concern for them or their town,” she said.
These negative perceptions of the college students among Middlebury residents came to a head during late summer of 2020, when some locals voiced their opposition to the college reopening.
“In the fall, no one wanted the students to come back,” Alice Ganey said. “I feel like that showed a lot of distrust in us and our capability to be responsible.”
While perceptions of students may not be wholly positive, the students from town who were interviewed agreed that, overall, the town-gown relationship is a positive one. There are a number of reasons residents of Middlebury greatly value the proximity of the college campus: Students provide locals with services like tutoring, babysitting and volunteering, and community members are welcome to take advantage of the college’s educational offerings by auditing courses and attending guest lectures and performances.
“There’s a lot of assets that the college adds to the town that people really appreciate,” Alice Ganey said.
Students also create positive economic benefits by patronizing local businesses and bringing a sense of liveliness and activity into the small town. In many cases, town members regard Middlebury students as smart, hardworking individuals who have a lot to share with the town.
“I think in general, there’s a pretty positive relationship. I think I think people in town recognize — especially people who own businesses in town — really love having college students around because we just contribute so much to the local economy,” Henry Ganey said.
Miller noted that without the college, Middlebury would likely be much less distinguishable from other small Vermont towns like Vergennes or Bristol. “I mean, having the college here just brings a whole lot of life into the community,” he said.
While there are many positive aspects of the relationship between the town and the college, there remains potential for improvement. According to the students from town, greater integration and interaction between townies and students would be a positive starting point for this improvement.
Nick Wilkerson ’22, who has lived in town since he was two years old, spoke about the lack of connection with a significant portion of the town and his hopes for greater integration. Wilkerson encourages students to take the time to get to know locals and take advantage of the opportunity to learn about experiences vastly different from their own.
“The townies want to get to know the college students and all these different people that are coming from so many different walks of life,” Wilkerson said. “I think students need to start asking more questions, like ‘What is this community around us? Who are these people, and how do they go about their lives?’ I think that people just don't understand what it's like to live and grow up and work in a small town. They don't understand the idea of not going to college. They don't understand the idea of having a family business.”
Wallace agreed with Wilkerson, noting that more dialogue between college students and local residents would yield tangible benefits for both communities.
“Students can always be more involved, and I think that if they’re involved with something off campus it will be really easy to be more mindful of the community they’re living in,” Wallace said. “Students will feel more connected to the community they’re living in, and townspeople will enjoy interacting with students from the college even more.”
Most of the students interviewed, who stuck around Middlebury after high school graduation, don’t have the same intention after college. Most hope to experience living in a big city, even if they plan to return to a smaller town Northeast eventually. And all of the students said that they had initial reluctance about going to college so close to home, but eventually realized that they loved the school, and didn’t deny themselves the experience just because they had grown up here.
(05/06/21 10:00am)
Update — Thursday, May 6
As of today, students may seek in-person employment at Middlebury businesses if they are fully vaccinated and have uploaded proof of vaccination to the student health portal, according to an email update from Dean of Students Derek Doucet this afternoon. Students can now also eat outdoors at restaurants in town.
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Middlebury began offering campus tours for admitted students and their families beginning on April 27. Previously, no visitors — including prospective students — were permitted to enter college buildings and grounds.
Dean of Admissions Nicole Curvin addressed an email to faculty, staff and students on April 26 notifying them that the college was resuming tours. But due to an error in communications, most current students did not receive the message until a second email was sent the following day. College Director of Media Relations Sarah Ray clarified that the announcement was posted on the college’s website on April 26.
The college decided to reopen tours following an update in the Vermont Department of Health guidelines. Revisions to the state’s Safe and Healthy Return to Campus plan permitted a limited number of visits to campus.
“We have been monitoring the guidelines pretty closely and have a group that meets daily to discuss how Vermont guidelines are changing and what that means for us as a community,” Curvin said. “It became clear that one of the new possibilities was bringing campus tours back.”
There will be a maximum of six tours per day, each limited to one family and not exceeding four persons in total. Visitors are expected to adhere to Vermont state health guidelines, which require full vaccination (14 days past the final dose), a negative test result from within three days prior to entering the state or having recovered from Covid-19 within the past three months with no current symptoms.
Additionally, tours have been adjusted to maximize safety precautions, including shortening tours from their typical length of upwards of an hour and a half to a maximum of one hour, requiring face masks and physical distancing throughout, running tours exclusively outdoors and restricting families from interacting with community members other than their tour guide and other admissions representatives.
According to Curvin, the Admissions Office felt that allowing even a small number of families to visit campus was extremely important given how challenging college enrollment decisions can be for students.
Until now, in lieu of in-person tours, the Admissions Office increased its virtual initiatives to introduce prospective students to the college with events such as an Instagram Live campus tour, short TikTok segments showing the campus and webinars during which admittees could engage with faculty and staff.
“We feel really good about the connections we have made virtually and are grateful to expand access through the virtual programming,” Curvin said.
Nevertheless, these programs are not the same as seeing the campus in person.
“We are very cognizant that a big part of figuring out a college search is walking around the place you might call home for the next four years,” Senior Admissions Fellow Abbott LaPrade ’21 said.
The college’s decision to reopen tours serves, at least in part, as an effort to curb illicit visits. Students reported sightings of people who appeared to be families of prospective students walking around campus, sometimes without masks, and taking photos. Some even entered the college bookstore, according to reports that Director of Parton Health Services Mark Peluso received from current students.
“The plan [to reopen tours] would… actually provide a safer campus environment for students by eliminating unsupervised visits,” Peluso said in an email to The Campus.
Curvin also expressed optimism that the announcement would compel families to visit through the Admissions Office instead of visiting independently. She speculated that other Vermont colleges and universities opening their campuses to visitors — including the University of Vermont, St. Michael’s and Champlain College — may have contributed to the increase in unauthorized visits to Middlebury.
“Being surrounded by other institutions that are [opening up to visitors], other families might not really think about it and say, ‘We’ll just drive through.’” she said.
Most other NESCACs, with the exceptions of Trinity and Hamilton Colleges, have not yet opened their campuses for tours. Connecticut College allows 30-minute driving tours, during which families are not allowed out of their vehicles. Tufts University and Wesleyan, Bates, Amherst, Williams, Colby and Bowdoin Colleges remain closed to the public for the entirety of the 2020-21 academic year.
According to the Admissions Office, health and safety precautions have been a major centerpiece of the administration’s decision-making process on reopening tours and in determining the guidelines for doing so.
“We are deeply appreciative of Middlebury students, faculty and staff for the things they have done this academic year to make us successful,” Curvin said. “We recognize too that this is challenging and that we are still under these limitations. We are really, really sensitive to ensure students can finish their semesters and feel comfortable doing so.”
The opportunity to tour campus is currently only available to admitted students who are still interested in Middlebury, which shrank the potential pool of visitors from the 1,871 admittees to a list including several hundred prospective students. The deposit to commit to Middlebury is due May 7, giving undecided admitted students a week and a half to travel to campus. The Admissions Office expects the number of visitors to be constrained by geography and time and that most families will come from within driving distance, according to Curvin.
LaPrade, who had already given three tours as of April 30, said the safety measures required of families — in addition to the fact that he is fully vaccinated — made him feel unconcerned about contracting Covid-19 while giving tours to families.
Both Curvin and LaPrade noted that the Admissions Office is very clear about safety expectations in advance of and during tours, especially considering that families coming from different states or geographic regions may be accustomed to more relaxed approaches to Covid-19 safety. So far, families have been conscientious and respectful of all requirements, according to Curvin and LaPrade.
The decision to reopen tours to prospective students and their families from around the country has led some students to question the logic and consistency of the administration’s Covid-19 restrictions.
LaPrade empathized with his peers’ frustrations over the apparent inconsistency in the college’s policies. “The bigger issue is not that tours are unsafe but that other things are not allowed, like dining outdoors [at restaurants]. We should also enable students to camp overnight or dine outside,” he said.
In response to these concerns, Curvin noted that all decisions are made “as much as possible in consultation with planning groups on campus that have been monitoring the situation and Vermont guidelines as well as with health professionals.”
“It’s about assessing risk, including outdoor versus indoor activities,” she said.
(04/01/21 10:00am)
Before April 1, the official Vermont state Covid-19 vaccine eligibility guidelines did not permit Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) to schedule a vaccination appointment unless they fell into other eligibility categories. However, a number of BIPOC students received contradictory information both by word of mouth and directly from Health Department call center workers and — believing they were eligible — successfully signed up for appointments for as early as April 6.
By Sunday, March 28, word had spread through campus, misleadingly, that all BIPOC students were eligible.
“I heard about it from my friend, who texted me saying, ‘Hey, I don’t know if you saw, but Vermont is vaccinating BIPOC residents,’” said Henry Ganey ’22.
Part of the confusion over BIPOC eligibility in Vermont may have arisen from language regarding eligible groups on the Vermont Department of Health and pharmacy websites.
Kinney Drugs, one of the pharmacies offering vaccination appointments, listed eligible groups on their website including a bullet stating “BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) Vermonters and their households,” seeming to imply that all BIPOC Vermonters would automatically be eligible. However, operators of Kinney’s vaccine hotline clarified to The Campus that only those living in a household with an already-eligible BIPOC Vermonter qualified.
The eligibility section of the Vermont Department of Health’s website read, “If you live with a person who identifies as Black, Indigenous or a person of color (BIPOC), including anyone with Abenaki or other First Nations heritage, and is eligible to get a COVID-19 vaccine, you can also sign up to get a vaccine.”
Although the site later clarified its language, many students were left with the impression that all BIPOC individuals were eligible, leading to screenshots of the page being shared widely on social media alongside guidance to book a vaccine appointment.
While the site did not state that BIPOC who were not otherwise eligible — due to age group, occupation or health conditions — could receive the vaccine, call center workers also repeatedly signed up BIPOC students and reaffirmed their eligibility solely by virtue of their racial identity.
Citlali Aguilera-Rico ’23 was uncertain whether a dorm could be classified as a household, so she called the Department of Health for clarification. “The language was pretty confusing on the website. I called, they went through the list of pre-existing conditions, and I said no to all of them. Then I said I was Latina, and the woman said ‘Yup, that makes you eligible,’” Aguilera-Rico recounted.
Aguilera-Rico shared that she was initially uneasy after realizing that she had actually not been eligible to make an appointment but ultimately feels the fault lies with the Health Department.
“After I found out I wasn’t eligible, I felt super guilty, but then people were telling me, ‘Don’t feel guilty, they’re trying to make this confusing on purpose,’” she said.
Maya Gee ’22, who is scheduled to receive her first dose on April 6, spoke about the mixed messages she encountered about her eligibility before she made her appointment on Sunday.
“At first, I thought I was qualified because I saw an Instagram story that said I was, but then I was told by someone else that I was not because it was only household,” she said. “But then, other BIPOC friends of mine who had signed up told me I was qualified, so I called the Department of Health.”
Ganey noted that the call center worker did not ask for any proof of eligibility or even seem to take the time to check the guidelines after Ganey asked for confirmation about his own status.
“I called to ask if I was eligible, and the person just started asking for my information and said ‘Alright, looks like you’re signed up for Tuesday the 6th,’” he said.
Rasika Iyer ’22 also successfully scheduled a vaccine appointment through the Health Department. But after hearing that she might not be eligible after all, she called the Health Department back the next day to seek clarification and spent about 45 minutes being transferred and put on hold before receiving an answer.
“I was connected to someone who told me that they were also confused about what eligibility is for BIPOC and that others had called to ask about this,” she said. “It seemed like I got connected to someone from a different call center because at one point they gave me the same number to the Health Department I had originally called and told me to ask the Health Department.”
Still unsure after the call, Iyer moved her appointment using the online portal to after April 19 — the date when all residents 16 and over would be eligible to register for the vaccine.
Ganey speculated that lack of training might be a reason for the inconsistency in vaccine policy.
“It seems like sometimes you’ll get a volunteer on the phone and then sometimes you’ll get an employee who actually knows the requirements,” he said.
Katie Warchut, public health communication officer at the Vermont Department of Health, could not offer an explanation with certainty for why some non-eligible individuals were given appointments this week.
“We work with a group of trained individuals who receive updated guidance on a regular basis on how to register people for vaccination. Current guidance is that if someone calls and says they are part of an eligible BIPOC household, they will be able to register,” Warchut wrote in an email to The Campus. “It’s certainly possible there was some misunderstanding or confusion that extended to the call center [over BIPOC eligibility] as policies evolved.”
Some white students were able to sign up for a vaccine appointment under the household rule. Mendel Baljon ’21, who lives in an on-campus suite with two BIPOC students, called the Health Department to confirm his eligibility shortly after his suitemates made their own appointments on March 28. Baljon said he became aware of his potential eligibility after seeing on Instagram that all household members of BIPOC were eligible.
“I called the phone number to make an appointment, I told them twice I was white but both of my housemates were BIPOC, and they had no issue with it,” Baljon said. “I figured they would turn me down over the phone if I wasn’t eligible, but the whole call took a minute.”
Other students have not been able to make a vaccine appointment so easily. Emily Ballou ’21 called the Health Department to check her eligibility as a permanent Vermont resident in a BIPOC household where one member — her father — was vaccinated because of his health condition. Ballou was initially told that both her parents needed to be eligible before she could also sign up for an appointment. Only after her mother became eligible on March 28 under the 50 and up age bracket was Ballou able to schedule her own appointment.
As a native Vermonter, Ballou expressed some discomfort with the reality that, due to the confusion, many college students have vaccine appointments scheduled for earlier than they were eligible — and many before native Vermonters who had been waiting.
“My mom called to register, and her appointment is weeks away. It does not sit right with me that a lot of students have used this loophole of using the college address to bypass so many Vermonters who have already been waiting,” she said.
Comments from various students about their excitement over receiving a vaccination soon, which sometimes seems to arise from a desire to return to normal rather than from actual health concerns, have increased Ballou’s frustration.
“I’ve been hearing Middlebury students say, ‘I’m so excited I’m getting the vax, this means I’ll be safe and can have actual fun for senior week,’” she said.
Starting April 1, the vaccine eligibility in Vermont is officially expanded to all BIPOC permanent residents ages 16 and up, and all permanent residents ages 16 and up will become eligible on April 19.
Even so, Gov. Phil Scott announced on Tuesday that out-of-state college students are not eligible to receive the vaccine in Vermont. This development has left many BIPOC students who are not Vermont residents unsure about the appointments they have scheduled in the coming weeks, as they worry about breaking the newly-revealed guidelines.
Emily Ballou is an Arts & Culture editor for The Campus.
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Ballou's father was vaccinated because of his occupation. He was vaccinated because of his health condition.
(03/18/21 10:00am)
Migrant Justice, a nonprofit organization advocating for the rights of dairy farm workers in the northeast, organized a mass call-in day on March 3. Supporters phoned the Maine-based corporate office of Mike Vail, the president of Hannaford Supermarket, to demand that the grocery chain join the Milk with Dignity program.
The Milk with Dignity program asks corporations like Hannaford to require their supplier farms to comply with the Milk with Dignity code of conduct, which ensures that migrant workers are given quality housing, fair salaries, time off and other standard workplace rights.
Farmworker and member of Migrant Justice’s Coordinating Committee Elizabeth Ramirez explained that the event was organized to increase public pressure on the company.
“These sorts of actions are necessary for large companies like Hannaford to take responsibility for the rights of dairy workers in their supply chain,” she said.
Farmworkers like Ramirez, who provide the labor behind Hannaford’s store-brand dairy products, are vulnerable to exploitation due to consolidation and globalization in the food industry, developments that allow powerful retail brands to leverage their purchasing power and demand low prices from suppliers, according to Migrant Justice’s website.
Migrant Justice gives voice to migrant workers who might otherwise be anxious to speak out about these issues because they fear retribution from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the call-in day was an opportunity for the general population and concerned customers to uplift migrant voices, too.
Sunrise Middlebury, a campus group committed to climate justice, worked closely with Migrant Justice on the call-in effort. Volunteers from the group took shifts calling individuals on a Migrant Justice list of past supporters to encourage them to contact Hannaford directly.
Partnerships Coordinator Sophie Liebel ’23 spoke to the overlap between Sunrise’s climate mission and farmworker rights.
“Environmental justice is about fighting for communities that are left out of mainstream environmental circles and policies,” Liebel said. “Migrant farmworkers are the backbone of our agricultural system, yet they are underpaid, receive few protections and benefits, work in hazardous conditions and have little bargaining power.”
The day resulted in over 350 confirmed calls to Hannaford, and there were likely many more unconfirmed calls that took place, according to Liebel. “We were really pleased with it,” Ramirez said of the turnout. “For over 300 people to call the office of the president and express the expectation that they take responsibility for proper treatment of workers in their supply chain is a positive result.”
After years of negotiating and campaigning by Migrant Justice, Ben & Jerry’s signed an agreement to officially join the Milk with Dignity program in 2017. Following this success, Migrant Justice is determined to convince Hannaford to join as well.
Thus far, the only response from Hannaford has been to release the following public statement: “Hannaford is a proud purchaser of Vermont products, including milk and dairy items. We expect all those who supply goods to our company to abide by the law and ensure that workers are treated humanely and fairly.”
Still, the group is undeterred.
“We are not going to give up until we get a yes,” Ramirez said.
Though Migrant Justice is not advocating a boycott of Hannaford dairy products, the group encourages customers to communicate their support for Milk with Dignity directly to the company whenever they have an opportunity to do so.
Middlebury College students can contribute to Migrant Justice’s mission by participating in events like the call-in day as well as by spreading awareness of the injustice migrant workers face — awareness that seems to be lacking in the student body and state in general according to Liebel.
“Vermont prides itself on its dairy industry. The fact that much of this dairy is produced by exploiting the labor of undocumented workers is not a good look for the state. As Vermonters and Americans, we have to start realizing that the reason we have food on the table is because of the underpaid, overworked migrant families that tend to our farms,” Liebel said.
(03/04/21 10:59am)
Members of the Middlebury Ski Patrol, a powder-loving team of first responders that monitors the Snow Bowl each ski season, were among the college’s first students to receive a Covid-19 vaccination in Vermont. As a state-licensed First Response Unit, the ski patrollers received the first round of shots in early winter under the state’s 1a phase of vaccine distribution.
Ski Patrol is responsible for hazard marking and mitigation, search and rescue operations, emergency medical services (EMS) and the consistent monitoring of all trails during open hours at both the Snow Bowl and Rikert Nordic Center. While many patrollers are in an age group statistically less vulnerable to Covid-19 compared to other members of the community, the high risk of exposure posed by their job was a motivating factor to accept a vaccination — especially due to the higher chance of unknowingly spreading the disease.
“The thought definitely occurred to me that I wished I could give my dose of the vaccine to someone that is more vulnerable to having severe symptoms,” patrol staffer Michael Freeman ’22 explained. “However, there are lots of factors out of our control when it comes to injuries, and the often-unavoidable close contact with patients while treating them puts me at a high risk of contracting and spreading Covid-19.”
Ski Patrol student president Mason Olmstead ’21 cited the team’s commitment to keeping the mountains well-staffed and operational as another reason to get the vaccine. “It was important for us as a patrol to be vaccinated so that the Snow Bowl had the best chance of continued operation throughout the winter,” he said.
Allaying anxieties about potentially contracting Covid-19 has also helped some patrollers better focus on attending to patients. “For me personally, [being vaccinated] does give me peace of mind when I’m treating somebody and lets me focus on my work,” Patrol Director Sean Grzyb said.
However, the additional comfort provided by vaccination has not made any patrollers complacent about following all other safety rules.
The patrollers working this winter have been required to use goggles on the slopes, wear PPE gloves and masks at all times and be fitted for N95 masks to use when treating patients for more serious injuries that require a longer period of exposure. Patrollers have also begun carrying both adult and pediatric masks to provide to patients.
Grzyb stressed continued vigilance in adhering to all new guidelines, and Olmstead acknowledged that because the vaccine is not 100% effective, he still needs to adhere to other precautions. “Having the vaccine has not changed the way I live my life. I still wear a mask, wash my hands more than I probably should and use Purell religiously,” he said.
The Ski Patrol staff consists entirely of Middlebury student volunteers, with the exception of Grzyb. However, with J-Term being conducted remotely, the team of around 35 students, who typically each work one and a half to two days a week, has been reduced to a skeleton crew of eight to 10 patrollers, all working 20 hours a week as paid employees. “We are spread pretty thin, but everyone has stepped up and really focused, and it’s been working well,” Grzyb said.
Grzyb also noted that staffing has been tricky because the number of patrollers who can be in the patrol huts at once is limited, but there must be enough people on duty to cover the mountains and perform a lift evacuation if necessary.
“We have become much more reserved about the number of patients brought into the patrol hut, for obvious exposure reasons,” Olmstead said.
Consequently, much more of the assessment and treatment process now takes place on the slopes or in newly installed outdoor medical response tents with adequate airflow, instead of the normal routine of a rapid assessment outside followed by a more thorough examination in the patrol hut. “That is a big shift,” Grzyb said. “Outside in the elements, it is cold.” Moreover, medical supplies are kept in patrol huts, necessitating a second patroller to bring what is needed while the first remains with the patient.
During instances where bringing a patient inside is necessary, such as in the case of major trauma or another serious emergency, all huts have been equipped with air filters that are kept on at all times. Check-in windows have also been installed at patrol huts so visitors in need of assistance can communicate with patrollers without entering the space.
Another change has been the decrease in the social aspects of the job. “Honestly, the toughest part has been not being able to send a quick smile to a fellow patroller, lift operator or member of the public. As in our everyday lives, we as patrollers have to be more conservative with our interactions with other humans,” Olmstead said.
The plethora of changes to Ski Patrol’s normal operating procedures required a period of transition, but they’ve been worthwhile and effective in keeping staff and visitors alike safe. After a few weeks, patrollers were well-adjusted to the new normal and are optimistic about a smooth rest of the season. “By mid-January, we hit our stride,” Grzyb said. “Everyone is dialed in right now.”
Correction: An earlier version of this article misspelled Sean Grzyb’s name.
(10/29/20 9:58am)
This fall marks Senator Christopher Bray’s (D-Addison) fourth re-election campaign for the Vermont Senate. Despite almost 12 years of service under his belt, including two terms in the Vermont House, Bray has found that the Covid-19 crisis has created a completely new landscape for political activity.
“If you want to represent people, you have to know what is on their minds. Those informal conversations with people walking the dog or shopping at the grocery store have been disrupted,” Bray told The Campus. To supplement the loss of those casual interactions, Bray has increasingly engaged with his constituents over the phone and through email since the outbreak began.
Bray’s interactions with his fellow representatives had also largely been confined to the virtual arena, with the state government covening via Zoom throughout the spring. According to Bray, the Vermont legislature is one of only nine in the country that kept running full-time throughout the pandemic. “It was another example of Vermonters getting things done,” Bray said.
Unsurprisingly, Covid-19 will continue to influence Bray’s immediate priorities next term if his bid for re-election is successful. In an op-ed penned for VTDigger, Bray appealed to the nation’s founding values to advocate for wearing a mask, even when doing so feels like an imposition on individual liberty. Bray reminded readers that securing collective safety often means sacrificing a little bit of personal freedoms.
Bray has been following up on this editorial regularly by posting reminders for people to socially distance and wear masks. He recognizes the inevitable fatigue that results from following these onerous requirements every day, but he emphasizes the need to remain vigilant because “the pandemic isn’t getting tired.”
Fortunately, he said, most people responded positively, making Vermont’s infection rate the lowest in the country, even without instituting fines or other consequences for not wearing masks or failing to social distance. “Vermonters are pretty independent-minded, but, on the other hand, they are also civic-minded,” Bray said.
Bray believes that the virus has highlighted and exacerbated pre-existing weaknesses in Vermont’s infrastructure, and he is prepared to tackle some of these deeper issues through his next term. Some of his priorities include childcare, food insecurity and the accessibility of healthcare.
Bray is Chair of the Senate’s Natural Energy and Resources Committee, and he remains committed to tackling the towering challenges of climate change despite the obstacles of the pandemic. The state has already taken significant steps toward cleaning up its energy use, including passing the Global Warming Solutions Act, establishing Efficiency Vermont (the statewide energy efficiency utility) and achieving the title of cleanest electric grid in the country.
A believer in the power of incremental progress, Bray is pleased that the state is moving in the right direction, but he refuses to be complacent or accept “too little progress too slowly.” Now, he is looking to accelerate the clean grid project and turn to reducing heating and transportation loads, which together account for 80% of emissions in the state. He argues that there is not only a moral imperative to take action on this front, but there is also a huge economic opportunity to buy less power from out-of-state by generating more energy in-state and reducing consumption through efficiency.
In a time of highly contentious national politics in which many people are left feeling hopeless, environmentalists are no exception. Both presidential candidates have rebuked the Green New Deal and lauded fracking during recent debates. Senator Bray is finding a way to stay optimistic and maintain his faith in the political process.
He spoke positively about his experience in the Vermont Legislature, in which citizen politicians don’t just vote stringently along party lines and representatives are actually committed to listening to one another.
“When people come together in a respectful, constructive environment, we get things done. I have seen that over and over in Vermont – not just in the legislature but also more broadly in the work of activists, select boards and other organizations,” said Bray.
Ultimately, Bray is guided by this idea of normalizing goodness. Whether it is a small, practical change like banning single-use plastic bags, or broader-scale progress like changing the very standards of politics back to those of respect and collaboration, Bray’s overarching goal is to embrace change and “make doing the right thing the default.”
(07/06/20 4:18am)
President Patton acknowledged departed professor Marissel Hernández-Romero’s email and echoed the statement sent by Chief Diversity Officer Miguel Fernández
Face masks will be mandated, and the college will install Plexiglass barriers, visual reminders, hand sanitizer stations and other measures to minimize risk
The July 6 deadline is non-binding, and students who withdraw before the start of the semester will be able to receive a full refund and preserve their financial aid eligibility
Spaces will be reconfigured to adhere to “physical distancing” guidelines
Administrators redoubled their commitment to racial equity after SGA Vice President Roni Lezama drew their attention to a question from Joel Machado ’22
Panelists from the Student Leadership Group (SLG) and other administrative offices shared an overview of the school’s plans for fall semester during a June 29 student Town Hall hosted by the Student Government Association (SGA). Afterward, panelists answered students’ specific questions, some pre-submitted and others asked live via chat. SGA President John Schurer ’21, SGA Co-Vice President Sophia Lundberg ’21.5 and SGA Co-Vice President Roni Lezama ’21 moderated the Town Hall.
The letter
Before the presentations began, President Laurie Patton addressed the June 28 email from departed professor Marissel Hernández-Romero and its larger import as a representation of the pervasive presence of racism on campus. President Patton reaffirmed the statement emailed to the student body earlier in the day by Chief Diversity Officer Miguel Fernández, acknowledging Middlebury’s entrenched, underlying culture of racism, the harm caused to Hernández-Romero, as well as all community members of color, and the urgent need to adequately address these issues with anti-racist initiatives.
“Because we must be focused on action, we are working now on a strategic plan… for diversity, equity and inclusion that is focused on a number of different issues, [including], particularly in this moment, anti-black racism,” Patton said.
Though unable to comment on the specifics of individual incidents mentioned in Hernández-Romero’s email because of due process and confidentiality requirements, Patton stated that each case will be investigated.
She also reiterated that the email was removed from servers in order to prevent any additional harm caused by potential misuse of the “reply all” function, such as responses insulting Hernández-Romero or making light of her experiences. However, Patton recognized that the decision to remove the email prevented Hernández-Romero from being heard and had its own negative impact.
Following President Patton’s introductory remarks, panelists shared plans for campus life during the pandemic.
Health and Safety
To ensure the health and safety of the community, ResLife staff, Public Safety, faculty and staff are being trained to handle the new challenges posed by Covid-19 on campus and to support health protocols.
Middlebury has also signed a contract with the Broad Institute in Cambridge, a testing company that uses a less-invasive anterior nares swab (not a nasopharyngeal swab, which goes deep into the back of the nose). In addition, a contact-tracing app is currently being tested for use in the fall.
Face coverings will “absolutely” be required, so Environmental Health and Safety Coordinator Jen Kazmierczak recommends finding a fit most comfortable before returning to campus. “Cloth face coverings should not be considered PPE (personal protective equipment),” added Kazmierczak, who clarified that face masks are a public health measure necessary to protect others, not just an optional protection for oneself.
The college plans to provide two cloth face masks to each student. In addition, administrators are also looking into the possibility of providing clear face coverings for professors to accommodate hearing-impaired students.
The college is preparing to bolster safety in a number of ways, including the installation of directional arrows and other visual reminders to maintain distancing. The college will also install Plexiglas barriers and hand sanitizer stations, as well as providing materials for cleaning and disinfecting.
Once on campus, there will be daily health checks, and students will be required to stay in their rooms if sick. The administration did not elaborate on how health checks will be performed.
A finalized health pledge will be sent to all students and their families. “We are looking at both the internal work that a student needs to do to keep themselves healthy, as well as the ways in which, in our environment, we can be accountable for keeping each other healthy,” Patton said.
Clear expectations of adherence to health protocols will be communicated pre-arrival, along with a rubric outlining what consequences will be administered for specific violations of the protocol. Depending on the seriousness of and level of risk created by the violation, consequences may range from educational sanctions to dismissal from campus housing.
Dr. Mark Peluso, medical director of Parton Health Services, noted that there is no specific threshold of cases that will trigger an evacuation mid-semester. Additionally, because such a measure will be dependent upon local and national data, an evacuation would not be sudden but instead would follow a rolling-back of phases. While the college will aim to send as many students home as possible, requests for exceptions will be possible. “We understand it will not be realistic for everyone to evacuate campus,” said Peluso.
Academic Affairs
The college plans to use the data from July 6 — the deadline for students to request a leave of absence for the fall semester — to create the final course schedule, which they intend to release by the third week of July. All class descriptions will include their modality.
Students who choose to withdraw after the July 6 deadline but before the beginning of the semester will be entitled to a refund and will preserve their financial aid eligibility.
Provost Jeff Cason warned students to prepare for the possibility of all courses returning to the online format as needed with the progression of the semester, but he emphasized that professors are working extensively with DLINQ to address the challenges students faced during the spring semester as a result of the emergency transition to virtual learning.
“Online learning is not inferior to in-person learning,” said Cason, assuring webinar attendees that the college is working diligently to create support systems and other mechanisms to provide the resources and maintain the opportunity for close faculty-student relationships. These initiatives aim to nullify the inequities exacerbated by online learning.
Considering the financial strain caused by the pandemic, many students are wondering if Student Financial Services (SFS) plans on adjusting packages accordingly. Kim Downs-Burns, associate vice president of SFS, noted that the office has begun awarding packages via BannerWeb and will continue to do so. She encouraged students to call SFS with any questions. Additionally, there will be student employment opportunities throughout the semester.
Student Life
Kazmierczak noted that the college is emphasizing the term “physical distancing” in the place of “social distancing” as a representation of their commitment to still provide opportunities for meaningful social interaction this semester.
Common spaces will be open in residential and other areas but at dramatically reduced capacity. Furniture in most spaces will be reorganized to ensure physical distancing. “We recognize that students need to get out of their rooms,” said Dean of Students Derek Doucet.
When asked about the reality of traditional student social life existing this semester, Doucet responded that all gatherings will need to adhere to physical distancing guidelines, capacity limits and face-covering requirements. In other words, sweaty Atwater parties cannot happen. Doucet suggested MCAB and SGA work to “think outside the box” to reimagine social life, as parties are going to look “pretty darn different.”
The Dining Services team will communicate a phased dining plan to students later this summer and “are considering Grille takeout even in phase one.”
The Athletic Center will also follow a phased approach in regards to increasing capacity limits in facilities, according to Director of Athletics Erin Quinn.
In response to a question about Middlebury’s plan to improve its lack of sufficient counseling services, a problem that predated the Covid-19 pandemic, Executive Director of Parton Health Services Gus Jordan said that the college is working to supplement the existing staff with a telehealth company that will provide free access to psychologists online for up to 12 sessions. The service will be accessible whether students choose to return to campus or not, and Jordan is “confident it will meet demand.”
There will be another opportunity this summer to retrieve any belongings left behind for students who choose not to return in the fall. For those unable to travel to campus, the school has storage space available.
Kathy Foley, associate dean and director of the International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS) office, stated that an email with drop-in hours this week and FAQs answers will be sent shortly. Though there is little information available from the U.S. government about travel restrictions, international students should respond to the July 6 form to let the college know of their intentions should entry into the country be possible by the fall.
Commitment to racial justice
Toward the end of the Town Hall, Co-Vice President Roni Lezama brought the administration’s focus to a question from Joel Machado ’22. Machado had entered his submission immediately after the chat function was enabled.
“...Since President Patton at the beginning of this Town Hall identified Covid-19 and racism as two of the biggest crises of our time, we should all be on the same page in the understanding that Middlebury MUST commit the same energy toward tackling both problems,” the question read. “Will the Senior Leadership Group commit to holding a Town Hall meeting like this one to address the specific campus policy adaptations and long term actions the college will be taking to address systemic racism?”
President Patton thanked Machado for his question and said she is “eager to share thoughts and plans.” She noted that the administration is working on a strategic antiracist plan in contingency with the Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity, the SGA, campus cultural organizations and faculty. The five-year plan will draw on feedback from last year’s campus climate external review to bolster diversity, equity and inclusion. Patton thanked students for the many good ideas they have already shared.
Some of the college’s priorities include providing support for Black Studies and Black professors, facilitating better interactions between students of color (particularly Black students) and the administration, as well as decolonizing the curriculum department by department.
Additionally, Patton noted a continued commitment to “intensive fundraising in this area.” She also reaffirmed the college’s focus on the Twilight Project, which will “commission artistic performances and support academic research that confronts Middlebury’s historic treatment of underrepresented and excluded groups.”
Fernández agreed that a separate Town Hall will be necessary to adequately address the topic of racism at Middlebury and that hearing students’ perspectives is important. The college will hold a forum with further information on their plans in late August, at which point students will have the opportunity to give more constructive feedback.
Looking ahead
Although administrators offered initial estimations of how the fall semester will unfold, Doucet noted that these plans are highly flexible and dependent upon both the internal success of keeping campus free from infections and outside conditions locally and statewide. Middlebury will continue its close collaboration with Vermont health officials, and the ability to move into more open phases will be heavily dependent upon state guidelines.
As of now, Vermont is far below the national average of daily rates of new infections, and, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, the state is on track to have fewer than 10 new cases per day in September and October.
“We are optimistic,” said Doucet about the possibility of lifting restrictions to permit travel into downtown Middlebury and possibly throughout the state as well. However, this progress is contingent upon having confidence in community members to hold one another accountable and take personal responsibility for the benefit of everyone, according to Doucet.
The college will continue to update the FAQ page, and a mutual information database created by students is also available.