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(04/17/14 12:02am)
The Community Council and President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz have approved a proposal for a new social house on campus located in Prescott House, the former location of Delta. The new Chromatic House will provide artistically-minded students with a place to live, practice, collaborate, and showcase their work.
Hannah Giese ’16, Emma Gee ’16 and Jackie Wyard-Yates ’16.5 are behind the proposal for the new social house.
“We were looking at housing options for next year and saw that applications for a new social house were being accepted,” said Gee. “There is not a house on campus where arts-oriented people can live, so we decided to jump on it and take the opportunity.”
Giese, Gee and Wyard-Yates submitted their proposal through several organizations, including the Residential Life Council, Student Government Association (SGA) Constitution Committee, SGA Budget Committee, and finally to President Liebowitz.
“It’s a great environment for creativity to flourish on campus,” Giese said. “The house also gives students room for activities that they could not do in a dorm room. We want to make a ‘mess room’ in the house where you can paint, which is not practical in a dorm room. If you play an instrument in a dorm, you may disturb neighbors. It is a good way to benefit musicians who don’t want to trek to the Mahaney Center for the Arts.”
A diverse array of interests will occupy the house next year.
“We have members from all seven a capella groups, choir, orchestra, jazz band, jazz combos, independent student musicians, DJs on the radio, members of the pep band, people in musicals, music majors, actors, directors, people in improv groups, people in Riddim, writers for the Campus, writers for MiddBeat, people interested in culinary art, people interested in photography, Film and Media Culture majors and more” Giese said.
“The group of students living in the house next year is truly a group of arts and musically inclined people who are seeking a place to perfect their craft,” Wyard-Yates said.
Chromatic House will provide a space for a capella and improvisation groups to practice, as well as a space for students to display their work for students and staff to admire.
“Down the road, we hope that this house will encourage more live performances on the radio and more collaboration among students,” Wyard- Yates said.
The founders of the house focused on inclusivity as a defining feature of the new social house. “One of the reasons why we think we’re going to be different is that we want to include all people who are interested in art, even those who do not consider themselves particularly talented,” Gee said. “It’s not about talent. It’s about level of interest and about having a place where people can share this.”
“That’s why it’s great that this is a social house,” Wyard-Yates added. “It can act as a central arts hub, and we can have people who are members of the organization without living there.”
Other students are excited about the opportunity for variation in the social scene.
“I hope that Chromatic will provide a new kind of social scene on campus,” said SGA President Rachel Liddell ’15, a member of the Community Council. “I think they will host events that appeal to students who are not drawn to other parties thrown in Ridgeline but who still desire to socialize on the weekends. Chromatic will foster the artist in all of us.”
“Middlebury also lacks a middle ground in our party scene, especially for first-years and sophomores who don’t have their own party space,” Liddell said. “Chromatic could fill that middle ground with smaller, music- and art-based gatherings.
“There are always going to be arts organizations on campus and the interest will always be there, so this is a sustainable idea,” Gee said. “It makes sense in the long run.”
(02/20/14 4:15am)
According to a press release from the Peace Corps, the College ranked 14 on a list of top volunteer-producing small colleges. There are currently 12 former students volunteering worldwide, serving in Botswana, China, Jordan, Kenya, Malawi, Paraguay, Rwanda, Senegal, Togo and Uganda. Since the Peace Corps was founded in 1961, 481 alumni have traveled abroad to aid in the humanitarian effort.
Zoe Armstrong, the Peace Corps volunteer recruitment and selection representative for the College, credits Middlebury’s success with the Peace Corps to the global citizenship of students and their commitment to finding sustainable solutions.
“Of [the College’s] 150 student organizations, almost all of them are dedicated to either service or cross-cultural exchange,” Armstrong said. “Middlebury students are already global citizens and that makes them great candidates for Peace Corps service.”
“[The College] shares the Peace Corps’ commitment to finding sustainable solutions to community challenges. Middlebury students always impress me with their commitment to helping marginalized populations and also their passion for finding environmentally sound innovations to combat climate change. They humbly talk about amazing work they are doing in environmental conservation, sustainable farming, LGBTQ rights, empowering youth, refugee outreach, and immigrant advocacy,” she added.
The College’s intensive language programs also makes students more attractive candidates for the Peace Corps, according to Armstrong.
“Students consistently come to interview sessions with files that reflect years of language study. They highlight their commitment to linguistic study because they want to use these skills to serve cross-cultural goals,” she said.
Assistant Director in Career Services and Careers in the Common Good Tracy Himmel-Isham emphasized this commitment to language as a driving factor for students.
“Two huge driving factors for students who are interested in the Peace Corps are an interest in using language skills and an interest in living internationally,” Himmel-Isham said, adding that the International Politics and Economics and Environmental Studies majors are two particularly attractive majors in the eyes of Peace Corps recruiters.
A commitment to international development, language study, and sustainability is evident among College alumni who are currently working as Peace Corps volunteers.
“I am working as a sustainable agriculture extension agent and speak the local language,” said Rosalind Vara ’10 of her experience working in Senegal in a press release. “I work with farmers to increase their crop yields, improve soil fertility, and reduce chemical inputs.”
Margaret Bale ’10 drew a parallel between her education at the College and her experience in the Peace Corps.
“I came to Botswana as a health volunteer, but my work has predominantly been in a primary school assisting with improving education for almost 200 children. Remembering what I had learned from my interdisciplinary experiences at Middlebury, I have been able to turn this into one of the best learning experiences I’ve had in my life,” she said in a press release.
Armstrong emphasized that the accessibility to small villages around the world is a unique draw for the Peace Corps program.
“Peace Corps uses a last kilometer approach; volunteers serve in many small villages and thus make resources available to an expansive number of people,” she said.
“Volunteers may learn a language that very few people in the world speak, volunteers gain new and unique perspectives to community challenges; when they come back to the United States, they bring leadership skills home with them and innovative ideas about how to become community leaders here,” she added.
(12/05/12 11:10pm)
A video titled “I Feel So Close To You” created by Will Gibbons ’13 and Melake Getabecha ’13 was posted on YouTube on Nov. 4th and has already received over 20,000 views. In this video, Gibbons, dressed as the College’s panther mascot, hides in portable toilets at a cross country meet at Williams College and greets unexpected bathroom-goers with hugs.
“I've had a lot of injuries the past couple years and haven't really been able to race, so I started filming some goofy videos last year to keep people loose at meets,” said Gibbons. “I was wearing the panther outfit that day at Williams for the shenanigan potential but also to keep warm.”
The video has gone viral on the Internet; in addition to its nearly 30,000 views on YouTube, it was also featured on Huffington Post and on the blog #whatshouldrunnerscallme.
“Getting some publicity on those sites racked up a lot of hits, but it also brought in a lot of random subscribers and random people commenting,” said Gibbons. “I think it first hit home with the running community, then the hugging community and then the mascot community. In that order. Three worlds colliding.”
“It’s fun for people who know the people in it, or [students] in the NESCAC or [people who] like hugging,” added Getabecha.
The popularity of the video was unexpected by Gibbons and Getabecha.
“Honestly, I only expected our team, my mom and maybe some creepy internet trolls to watch it,” said Gibbons.
Gibbons and Getabecha said that creating a viral video was never their goal or expectation.
“It should always be about making something that you enjoy in the moment,” said Gibbons. “If people like watching it, that's great, but you can't lose sight of your own creative process.
“It’s amazing what you can get away with if you’re the mascot,” he concluded.
(11/06/12 1:03am)
The Office of the Dean of the College, Community Council and the Student Government Association (SGA) will hold the first Community Open Forum on Wednesday, November 7th at 7:30 in Crossroads Café.
The Community Open Forums will take place once a month and are designed to be an additional open space where students, organizations, faculty, staff and other community members can discuss any issue.
“The idea is to have a monthly forum for students to express their ideas on a range of issues to the broader community,” said SGA President Charlie Arnowitz ’13.
“It’s a way to build community, create dialogue and address issues of concern to students.”
Each Community Open Forum will have a topic in order to guide discussion.
The topic for next Wednesday’s forum is sexual assault on campus — in part selected because of the active community discussion surrounding Angie Epifano’s account of sexual assault at Amherst College.
“I think [the Amherst] article has had an amazing effect on Middlebury by mobilizing students to investigate ways that we can better aid survivors in accessing the justice and support that they need,” said Emily Pedowitz, student chair of the Sexual Assault Oversight Committee and a member of It Happens Here.
It is expected that the Sexual Assault Oversight Committee and It Happens Here as well as Active Minds, and Women of Color will co-sponsor the event with the SGA, Community Council and Dean of the College’s Office.
Such collaboration between organizations is the model that the organizers expect to use in future forum discussions.
Dean of the College Shirley Collado believes that these forums will “create a space where students can have conversations around important topics of their choice.”
The idea of having an open forum for students to speak their minds was first brought up last spring, born of the desire on the part of students and community members to have an open space to discuss relevant issues.
While the forums are expected to be largely driven by students, input from faculty, staff and community members is also essential to the creation of an open space.
“Anybody at the forum can be a full participant,” said Collado. “The topic of pass/fail that came up last year would have been a great forum topic because it involved both faculty and student interests.”
“During this first forum, we would like students to give their input on how these Community Open Forums should be used, since they are designed to reflect student interests,” she said.
While the topic of future Community Open Forums is largely up to students, Dean Collado listed social life, improving the use of spaces across campus, and communication across the student body as possible future topics of discussion.
“Ideally, we’ll spend half to three-quarters of the meeting on our featured topic and then open the floor to other topics—but we’re going to play it by ear and see how this first one goes,” said Arnowitz ’13.
“I think it’s vital for students and members of the community to have the opportunity to express themselves on important issues — it makes us all more connected and strengthens the work that all of us are doing,” said Arnowitz ’13.
The Community Open Forums will last for 1 hour and will be held on different days of the week at different times each month in order to accommodate the schedules of the most students.
(10/24/12 5:44pm)
The FUN. concert that was originally scheduled for Friday, Nov. 2, has been rescheduled for Thursday, Jan. 17. The band cannot perform at the College in November due to a scheduling conflict with a Saturday Night Live performance.
Middlebury College Activities Board (MCAB) Concert Commitee Co-Chairs Molly Sprague ’13 and Nick Mallchok ’15 explained that representatives for FUN. contacted MCAB just recently to notify them of the conflict.
“MCAB was contacted by the band the week before fall break notifying us that FUN. had been offered a spot on Saturday Night Live for Nov. 3,” wrote Sprague and Mollchok in an email. “Unfortunately, the Middlebury show conflicted with a mandatory SNL rehearsal for the band on the Friday before [on Nov. 2].
“Despite our efforts to circumvent this scheduling conflict, we were forced to cancel the Nov. 2 show.”
After news of the cancellation, MCAB worked with FUN.’s tour management to find an alternate date.
“The choices were limited as FUN.’s tour schedule was booked for the remainder of the fall, in addition to a European tour in the spring,” wrote Sprague and Mallchok. “FUN. had only two dates to offer, and one of them conflicted with an athletic event, leaving Jan. 17 as our only option.”
Scheduling concerts requires the approval from various departments across campus, which limits the dates the MCAB concert committee can choose from.
“After a lot of work and coordination, the Concerts Committee was able to confirm this date with the approval of Facilities, the Athletic Department and members of the college administration,” wrote Sprague and Mallchok.
Students are reacting to the rescheduling in a variety of ways. For some, the rescheduling has no effect. However, others who cannot attend the January show are disappointed.
“I was really looking forward to seeing the band live, but I am going abroad so I will not be able to attend the show now,” said Hana Kahn ’14.
On the other hand, some students who could not attend the November concert are excited about the new date.
“When I heard that FUN. was playing this fall, I was so upset that I couldn’t go. Now, with the rescheduling, I have the chance to see a great live band play,” said Danielle Hirshberg ’14.
Overall, MCAB feels optimistic about the rescheduling of the show.
“If anything, FUN.’s name and reputation will be even bigger when they come in January, and we are sure that it will be a fantastic show,” wrote Sprague and Mallchok. “While we are obviously upset about the date change, MCAB is planning a live screening of the SNL performance on Nov. 3rd in Crossroads Café to get ready for January.”
All tickets for the November show will be honored at the January show, and refunds will be available for those who are unable to attend.
The refund period begins Wednesday, Oct. 17 and ends Wednesday, Nov. 7. There will be a resale period beginning on Wednesday, Dec. 5 for students and Wednesday, Dec. 13 for the public.
(10/03/12 4:18pm)
In a nation-wide study evaluating the dining programs of every four-year college in the U.S., Fox News has ranked the College 11th on its “52 Best Colleges for Food in America” list.
Fox cited the College’s emphasis on the origins of its food and its efforts to incorporate local ingredients into its menu items as a basis for its ranking.
Director of Dining Services Matthew Biette pointed out that the College’s location allows Dining Services to take full advantage of local sources.
“We live in an area that grows and produces many different food products, such as milk, cheese, vegetables, maple syrup, eggs and various meet cuts, and we take advantage of much of that,” said Biette.
“We aggressively spend 20 percent of our food dollars toward local products that are either produced, raised or cultivated within a 125 mile radius of the college,” added Executive Chef Bo Cleveland.
In addition to using local sources, the College’s small size creates a friendly environment in the dining halls and contributes to its national recognition as one of the top collegiate dining services program.
“We are a small enough college where we can learn your name and recognize your face when we see you enter the dining halls,” said Cleveland. “I think that we convey a sense of community here that you are a part of while you are away from home. We also are a small enough department [that] we are able to more effectively react to suggestions, concerns and recommendations about ingredients, recipes, and menus.”
The kitchen staff also prepares special dishes for those with dietary restrictions, another element of the Dining Services program that some students say adds to the community feel of the College’s dining halls.
“As a gluten-free eater, I really appreciate the fact that the dining staff is so approachable and accommodating to my food allergy,” said Alyssa DiMaio, ’15.
Cleveland pointed to his staff members as the reason for the strength of the College’s Dining Services program.
“I really think that we are fortunate to have a Dining department that is comprised of individuals who are committed to enhancing your Middlebury College experience through the food and friendly service you receive in the Dining Halls,” said Cleveland.
(09/19/12 11:36pm)
The Middlebury College Activities Board (MCAB) has announced that FUN. will perform as the fall concert on Friday, Nov. 2. FUN. will be visiting the College as part of its Campus Consciousness Tour, a tour originally started by Guster in 2006 that seeks to combine entertainment with education on important issues.
"FUN.'s Campus Consciousness Tour has both an entertainment and an educational side," explained MCAB Concert Committee Co-Chair Molly Sprague '13. "Students can not only enjoy music from one of the most popular bands today but can also learn about LGBTQ and environmental issues."
The MCAB Concert Committee was drawn to FUN. because of the band's widespread appeal.
"FUN.'s music spans several genres including hip hop, rock, ballad and alternative, and has popular hits that make it an appealing concert across campus,"Â said Nick Mallchok '14.5, MCAB concert committee co-chair. "After Guster was so well received last spring, we chose FUN. for the fall concert because it has a similar vibe. With light and lively music and a talented band, FUN. will be a great, high quality show."
Sprague and Mallchok stressed that they were looking for a musical group with a great instrumental band and upbeat music as opposed to a group with a "dance party" vibe.
FUN. will be teaming up with Ben and Jerry's and REVERB, an environmental non-profit organization that targets musicians and their fans and encourages them to take action toward a more sustainable future. Ben and Jerry's will  be serving free samples at the concert.  FUN. has not yet released information about an opening act for the concert.
In addition to REVERB and Ben and Jerry's, student groups on campus that are associated with environmental and LGBTQ issues will also take part in the educational side of the concert by setting up informational tables at the concert in order to spread awareness and inform students and the public.
"The Campus Consciousness Tour ... is a good opportunity for student groups on campus to join in on the effort to spread campus awareness about some of the most important issues of today," explained Sprague.
Tickets become available to students on Sept. 24 and to the general public on Oct. 1. MCAB expects a sold out show and encourages students to get tickets as soon as they become available.