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(01/23/14 1:50am)
The Middlebury College Activities Board (MCAB) has announced that DJ Earworm will be headlining the Winter Carnival Ball on Saturday, Feb. 22. According to MCAB President Elizabeth Fouhey ’14, “Earworm was selected as the DJ for Winter Carnival ball because his mash-ups are always a huge crowd pleaser, he was the right price and he was available. MCAB has already gotten a lot of enthusiastic feedback about the choice, and so we are excited for a great show and Winter Carnival.”
Earworm has performed at the College once before, at Winter Carnival Ball 2010, and the positive feedback resulting from his performance also played a role in inviting him back in 2014, according to Fouhey.
Earworm, whose given name is Jordan Roseman, is a San Francisco-based mashup artist known for his annual “United States of Pop” series, tracks that combine the top 25 pop songs of the year into one song.
The MCAB Traditions Committee has also announced a new event to the Carnival line-up, a yet-to-be-announced musical performance that will replace the traditional Orange Crush dance.
Increasingly low attendance over the past three years among the student body at Orange Crush, an ’80s music event traditionally held on the Friday night of Winter Carnival, has prompted the Traditions Committee to reconsider and ultimately replace the event with an alternative that Fouhey said was inspired by the popularity of the Small Concerts Initiatives.
“This year’s event is supposed to be a fresh take on a great tradition, Orange Crush. To me, this is what the Traditions Committee is really about,” Fouhey said. “Middlebury is constantly updating, and while we need to keep our traditions alive, we do also need to change alongside the student body. In a weekend full of age-old traditions, we are hoping to start a few new ones of our own as well.”
(01/16/14 4:11am)
MiddCORE Receives Innovation Award
MiddCORE, the mentor-driven experiential learning Winter Term and summer course on entrepreneurship and innovation, received the Ashoka U Cordes Innovation Award. MiddCORE was one of six recipients of this year’s award, which is given annually by Ashoka, the world’s largest network of social entrepreneurs.
“This is a tremendous honor and we’re proud to be in the company of the other winners,” Jessica Holmes, director of MiddCORE and associate professor of Economics, said in a press release. “We also recognize the strong support we received from our incredible mentors, the administration and our colleagues at the Center for Social Entrepreneurship and the Programs for Creativity and Innovation. We are fortunate to be part of such a strong ecosystem for innovation at Middlebury College.”
The award is given to programs which “demonstrate how students, faculty and community members can achieve social impact through colleges and universities — from admissions, curriculum and career services, all the way to community and alumni engagement,” according to Ashoka’s website.
The six winners, including MiddCORE, will be featured at the annual Ashoka U Exchange, an annual international conference featuring 140 institutions from 40 countries which will take place at Brown University on Feb. 20-22.
Mellon Recognizes Dance Department
In early December the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded a $310,000 grant to the College in support of “Movement Matters,” which a College news release described as “a multi-year interdisciplinary endeavor to bring emerging artists in the field of dance together with Middlebury faculty and students for creative and curricular development.”
According to a College press release, Assistant Professor of Dance and Chair of the Dance Program Christal Brown will be the director of the project, which will address the literal and metaphorical interactions between the human body and “our physical and political worlds.”
As part of the project, “emerging movement artists” will come to the College during Winter Term 2015, and one of those artists will receive an appointment as the Mellon Interdisciplinary Choreographer at Middlebury.
In the press release, Brown said that the grant could make the College a home of dance innovation.
“This is an investment in the field at large which we hope will lay the groundwork for our dance program to grow into a hub for creativity and innovation among emerging movement artists.”
According to Brown, the grant is likely to boost the prestige of the College’s dance program, attracting both students and visiting artists alike.
College Mourns Armstrong, 12th President
Dr. James Armstrong, the 12th president of the College, passed away on Dec. 16, 2013. Armstrong helmed the College from 1963 to 1975. During his time in office, he instituted the College’s first system of tenure, created a professional leave program, worked furiously to surpass fundraising goals, increased faculty salaries and worked to improve curricula first-hand.
Armstrong’s tenure was marked by social and political unrest, along with financial difficulties. Nevertheless, Armstrong successfully posited the College as one of the nation’s top liberal arts colleges.
Armstrong was born in Princeton, New Jersey where his father was a member of the faculty. He attended the Taft School in Connecticut, and then Princeton, where he studied Classics. After Princeton, he served in the U.S. Army during World War II, and was recalled for the Korean War.
Armstrong was an instructor at Princeton and Indiana University before he was approached in 1963 by the Board of Trustees to replace Samuel Stratton, the College’s 11th President.
After his term as president, Armstrong headed the Charles A. Dana Foundation. In 2010 the College established the James I. Armstrong Professorship in Classical Studies, currently held by Professor of Classics Jane Chaplin. Armstrong and his wife Carol had three children and numerous grandchildren.
With Additional Reporting by NATE SANS
(12/05/13 2:50am)
On Friday, Dec. 6, a coalition of student activist groups on campus will host a day of reflection and resolution. Representatives from the various student groups will set up stations in each of the three dining halls during lunchtime with posters for students to write on: one will be a timeline intended to help students reflect upon and identify important events on campus over the past year and the other will be titled “Middlebury’s New Year Resolutions,” which the student organizers hope will be a place for fellow students to write their wishes for the College’s future.
Student participants running the stations include members of Divest Middlebury, the Socially Responsible Investing club, It Happens Here, MiddSafe, Arabesque and the Sunday Night Group. The event marks a renewed effort on the part of student organizers to foster more collaboration among student activists on campus, and to improve communication and align the actions of the separate groups to spur social change on campus.
The objective of the awareness initiative is to push the student body to consider the time sensitivity of the issues many of the student activist groups have been organizing around.
“How much longer are we going to wait until we will act?” Adrian Leong ’16, a member of Divest Middlebury, said. “How many more natural disasters and years of extreme droughts and record floods can we stand before we will divest from companies that are contributing significantly to this global warming crisis? How many more episodes of homophobia, racial discrimination, and sexual harassment do we need to see on campus before we will stand up and say, ‘enough is enough?’”
“Before we transition to the new year of 2014, we want to take this chance to reflect on past events that happened this semester and make wishes for the new,” he added.
The stations will be set up in Proctor, Ross and Atwater Dining Halls from 12:00 to 2:00 p.m.
“The College administration, as well as the student body at large, have a responsibility to listen to the voices of this coalition of student groups, and rethink the College’s priorities in this coming year,” Leong added.
(11/14/13 12:27am)
Six sophomores have been selected as the second annual cohort of fellows by the Middlebury Center for Social Entrepreneurship (MCSE).
The six students — Gaby Fuentes ’16, Sarah James ’16.5, Rabeya Jawaid ’16, Winson Law ’16, Debanjan Roychoudhury ’16 and Prestige Shongwe ’16 — will each receive $8,000 over the next two and half years, along with access to training and mentorship that will enable them to implement social change within the community and issue-area of their respective choices with the guidance of the MCSE.
The MCSE was founded in January 2012 as a part of the Projects on Creativity and Innovation (PCI), an umbrella organization on campus that oversees entrepreneurial programs such as MiddCORE, the Old Stone Mill and TEDx, among others. The funding for MCSE’s programming comes from a large charitable donation from Alan Hassenfeld and the Hassenfeld Family Foundation.
This year’s group of six was selected from a pool of 12 applicants.
“Twelve applicants may seem low, but the fellowship is a 3-year, $8,000 commitment,” Heather Neuwirth, associate director of operations at the MCSE, said. “So I would attribute that to the fact that it might be intimidating to a sophomore who hasn’t even declared their major yet to make that kind of intense commitment. It’s impressive to see these sophomores apply, given the standards and expectations of the program. So we were really happy with our applicant pool, and it was so hard to choose from the 12 that applied.”
The MCSE fellows will matriculate in Social Entrepreneurship in the Liberal Arts (INTD 1122), taught by Professor of Economics Jon Isham during J-Term. They will spend the spring semester participating in skill-building workshops before participating in an internship at a social enterprise or organization that supports social enterprise next summer. When they return to campus next fall, they will spend the school year working to tie their interests and experiences with social issues to their academic work, before planning and implementing a self-designed social enterprise the following summer. In addition to this work, fellows are expected to act as ambassadors of the MCSE by attending relevant on-campus events and helping younger students access the programming offered at the center.
“I think as a group, these six capture what Middlebury is starting to become,” Isham said of this year’s cohort. “They represent a diversity of experience — in terms of background, in terms of where they were born and where they’re from, in terms of racial and ethnic diversity. Two are Posse scholars, one is a [University World College alumnus], there are three men and three women. In some ways they really capture who Middlebury is becoming. They’re great leaders, they are well known on campus and they are highly regarded by their peers. And all of this is important because one of the things we count on for the fellows is that they give back not only to each other as a cohort, but also to the broader community. From our point of view, the key thing about the fellowship and the investment of time, money and resources — it’s all an investment in the Middlebury student, as opposed to an investment in a project by itself.”
(11/14/13 12:25am)
On Oct. 28, Associate Professor of Theatre Claudio Medeiros sent an email with the subject line “Invitation to African, African-American and Latino Women” to nearly 100 recipients, soliciting female students of color for the part of Elizabeth in Sarah Ruhl’s play “In the Next Room.” The role of Elizabeth, according to Medeiros’ email, is a wet nurse hired by a white couple to care for their newborn child, and was advertised to women of color through an email addressed to the Alianza and African American Alliance email list and to some individual students of color in addition to Dean of College Shirley Collado and Assistant Dean of the College Jennifer Herrara.
Within 24 hours, students and faculty began to “reply all”, creating a string of emails expressing both outrage at the “invitation” and, more broadly, a conversation around the acute frustration of being a student of color on this campus.
“I am declining your invitation to audition, as I am not interested in playing ‘Mammie’, a wet nurse, or a slave, and the prospect of being casted in a part with the ‘only fulfilling sexual experience in the entire show’ while being the object of a white male character’s ‘jungle fever’ are anything BUT appealing to me,” wrote Missan DeSouza ’14 in one of a series of email replies obtained by the Campus, referencing the role description in Medeiros’ email. “So please, in the final year of my Middlebury experience, I would appreciate if the theater department only think to solicit me for roles that are fitting for EVERYONE to be casted in, if it is that my creative contribution is truly valued.”
As more and more students began to respond to the Theatre Department’s “invitation” and the conversation veered away from the invitation to audition for this role and towards a broader conversation regarding race relations at the College, Assistant Professor of Dance Christal Brown responded.
“Criticizing the efforts of the Theater department without taking a class, speaking to [Medeiros] directly, or reading the play for yourselves is as irresponsible as perpetuating stereotypes,” Brown wrote. “I believe the retort to this invitation is convoluted and mis-directed.”
“While I understand that at times the frustration and responsibility of being a minority on this campus can be consuming, I urge you to address the issues that present themselves as incongruous directly so that the response is not counterproductive.”
Students continued the conversation over email and over Facebook, where it caught the attention of Collado. A forum moderated by Collado was held on Thursday, Nov. 7 to discuss student concerns around the email, and the conversation that unfolded stemmed from Medeiros’ email but quickly began to speak to the experience of minority students on campus.
“Classrooms at Middlebury are very exclusive…. Across any department, in any classroom, its apparent,” said Tim Garcia ’14 at the forum. “Often it feels like there is an extra burden if you are of color within the classroom, because you are asked to be an expert, play a role that other students aren’t.”
“Being a student of color at Middlebury is like taking a fifth class,” added Debanjan Roychoudhury ’16.
Medeiros’ email has since been referred to as “the straw that broke the camel’s back” and “the drop that made the glass spill” in terms of what Assistant Professor of Dance Christal Brown called a “powder keg issue” on campus.
“We’ve seen all of these issues relating to race that keep bubbling to the surface, but we’re not addressing the deeper issues: individual responsibility, communal investment and a holistic view on what it means to be a human being working towards something that is not yet realized,” said Brown in an interview. “Change is not something that happens quickly, and in the midst of change people get their feelings hurt. If we continue to tell people to just get over it and keep going before we get through it, then we’re going to have a lot more anger.”
“That’s what the email was about. People have been told to ‘get over’ things — and this was only one of all those things. It was a powder keg. It didn’t have anything to do with theater.”
Medeiros denies that he was typecasting because the email was an invitation to audition and did not guarantee a part in the show, and added he was caught off guard by the flood of negative responses he received.
“I was totally, totally shocked. But not surprised, in retrospect,” Medeiros said. “My intention was so clear in my mind and in my heart, and then the reaction — I didn’t even imagine it. I did not know there was all this tension around campus, about race, about Chance the Rapper or anything. I didn’t know any of that was going on when I sent the message.”
While exactly how many students of color are Theatre majors is unknown and the College does not provide public data on major preferences by race, Medeiros maintains that the number of women of color who audition for productions has been historically low, which prompted his invitation to audition for what he termed a “feminist and empowering role.”
“In casting a show, the question might be, does it matter what race the character is? And in this case, the answer was absolutely yes. It would change the role dramatically to have a white woman play that part. It is therefore important to try to honor the intent of the playwright,” Medeiros added.
“I think there are students on this campus who want to see more of their experiences in the curriculum, in their classrooms and among the faculty. The reaction to this email and production in the Theatre Department is signaling to us that we have more work to do,” Collado said. “I think students also heard the need for them to keep pushing the boundaries of what is expected of them even if it puts pressure on the institution to change. I see these tensions as good for the future of the College. It is the only way we will address the natural tension that comes with becoming a more diverse campus.”
(11/06/13 11:13pm)
Old Chapel released a comprehensive report of student policy violations via a new webpage on the College’s site unveiled Monday, Nov. 4. The page details incidents and consequences of student conduct violations and disciplinary actions since 2007, and its release marks a new commitment to transparency in the College’s judicial affairs process.
While the administration has released limited information surrounding judicial affairs in the past, the new reporting system entails a much more transparent and detailed annual report available to all students, faculty and staff on the full range of student conduct violations and subsequent disciplinary actions.
Last year’s report included 447 reported policy violations that resulted in some form of official sanctions during the 2012-2013 academic year. Of these violations, 105 were alcohol citations, and 27 constituted cheating, plagiarizing or some other form of academic dishonesty. The report also included five incidents of sexual misconduct, three of which were met with sanctions by the Sexual Misconduct Review Panel.
Compared with national statistics of incidents of sexual assault on college campus, the number of incidents that received sanctions at the College last year is relatively low.
“[National] statistics indicate that one in 36 college women are sexually assaulted within any seven month period,” Ian Thomas ’13.5, student co-chair of the Academic Judicial Board, said. “Applying that math to Middlebury, that works out to be approximately 34 sexual assaults per one academic year. Looking at last year’s numbers, there were five reported instances of sexual misconduct. I do believe that sexual misconduct is under-reported on our campus, and everything must be done to counteract that. If survivors see that their school has an effective judicial process for them, then perhaps they would be more likely to report what happened.”
Dean of the College Shirley Collado said in an all-school email on Nov. 4 that it is disheartening to not live up to community expectations.
“Only by being honest with ourselves about where we struggle, as individuals and as a community, can we chart an effective course for progress,” she said.
The report found that alcohol played a key role in the majority of policy violations resulting in sanctions. While many alcohol citations are met with a warning, alcohol played a key role in more severe cases of policy violations and discipline: 67 percent of violations that resulted in expulsion involved alcohol.
“I don’t think it would surprise anybody in the country familiar with alcohol use on college campuses to find that policy violations are often, though not always, tied to alcohol use,” said Katy Smith Abbott, dean of students and co-chair of the Task Force on Alcohol and Social Life. “But I think the thing that’s hard about alcohol, to be honest, and one of the things that’s so discouraging, is that when you are working with students who have violated college policy at a level such that they are looking at a CJB [Community Judicial Board] hearing, or are staring down the possibility of official college discipline, or suspension, or expulsion — most of the time, had the student been sober, they never would have acted in such a way that would leave them facing that kind of disciplinary action.”
Smith added that the students who receive such disciplinary action rarely think that they would have been the ones to be in their positions.
“They think they have control over their drinking, but they actually don’t always have the ability to determine what their actions are or control their impulses,” she said. “And that’s part of what is difficult to address about this problem.”
Associate Dean for Judicial Affairs and Student Life Karen Guttentag said that the increased transparency was meant to educate students on all parts of the judicial affairs system.
“Our goal is not only to educate the community about conduct outcomes, but about the disciplinary system itself,” she said. “It’s important for students to understand the guiding philosophy we bring to conduct concerns, the various systems we have that address them and the range of outcomes that can result.”
Thomas said that the release of the data is an important step forward.
“I am very pleased to see these reports,” he said. “The previous method of posting judicial outcomes left much to be desired. These reports are an important part of the judicial process’s transparency, and they reinforce the Judicial Board’s accountability to the community.”
(10/17/13 12:44am)
Nine professors at the College are currently piloting a trial run of turnitin.com, an Internet-based plagiarism prevention service and electronic grading system.
The implementation of the pilot program comes on the heels of recommendations made by the Honor Code Review Committee (HCRC) last spring.
Last year’s Honor Code Review Committee report, which includes the results of a survey circulated to faculty members, reported that professors often feel that source identification for suspected plagiarism is “difficult and time-consuming” and many faculty members indicated a desire for a more robust tool for detecting plagiarism. This semester-long trial of Turnitin is part of a larger anti-plagiarism agenda put in place as a response to the findings of that committee.
The executive summary of the 56-page document detailing the findings of the HCRC’s report concludes, “Middlebury’s Honor Code is not facing a moment of crisis, nor is it functioning with optimal effectiveness.”
According to Associate Dean of Judicial Affairs Karen Guttentag, 10 to 15 students face official allegations of plagiarism each academic year, although she added that the problem is likely much more prevalent than the numbers would suggest.
The nine professors were invited by Dean of Faculty Development and Research Jim Ralph to participate in the pilot program based on their varying degrees of comfort with educational technology, levels of initial skepticism towards the platform, and previous experiences with incidents of plagiarism and the Academic Judicial Board. All of the professors are teaching writing-intensive classes this semester, such as first-year seminars and college writing courses in the humanities.
“Often as a faculty member in a large course in the humanities where the assignments are typically essays, it’s hard to know,” said Assistant Professor of American Studies Holly Allen, who served as a member of the Honor Code Review Committee last spring. “Sometimes a work sounds like it’s not the students work, and so to put one’s mind at ease, it would be useful to determine one way or the other. There’s a sense that plagiarism is something that might be slipping under the radar, and that we needed to contemplate new ways of addressing plagiarism.”
“I always assume that students are exhibiting academic integrity in all of their work,” Allen said. “I don’t want to be a policeman. It’s not my job. My job is to teach. The students’ job, among other things, is to abide by the honor code that they entered into when they came to Middlebury.”
While some professors are embracing Turnitin, citing its function as a “learning tool” and a platform that might be used only to confirm suspicion of plagiarism, other professors expressed reservations about the service.
“Personally, I’m very skeptical about outsourcing something — a skill that I think should be taught and discussed and customized to each individual course and discipline — to a technology that treats everything more or less the same,” said Jason Mittell, professor of film and media culture and one of the pilot program participants. “Ultimately, I think that the way to prevent plagiarism is to educate students. Turnitin would encourage students to check their work in order to avoid plagiarism, but it wouldn’t help them learn what’s actually happening. It’s focused on the product not the process.”
Reactions from students enrolled in courses using Turnitin this fall ranged from indifference to skepticism.
“We care about plagiarism for both philosophical and practical reasons,” Guttentag said. “Not only does [attribution] allow the contributions of others to be acknowledged and appreciated, but it allows faculty to distinguish the work of the student from that of others. Understanding the student’s own intellectual journey and comprehension of material is obviously critical to the educational process, and that includes not only what a student thinks about a topic, but the student’s ability to express those thoughts cogently. Without a roadmap to help professors make these distinctions, the process of teaching is critically compromised.”
The nine professors participating in the program along with the students enrolled in their courses will provide the College with feedback on Turnitin at the end of the semester, which will help shape the decision whether or not to extend the scope of the Turnitin platform at that time.
(10/17/13 12:38am)
Student Suspended for Removal of Sept. 11 Memorial
Anna Shireman-Grabowski ‘14.5, the student accused of pulling nearly 3,000 American flags from the ground that had been placed on the lawn in front of Mead Chapel to commemorate the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, was handed a one-year suspension by the College. Shireman-Grabowski was found responsible for violating the College’s General Conduct Standards, Respect for Persons and Respect for Property by the College Judicial Board, a sentence which was upheld on appeal on Oct. 9. While five individuals participated in the act, only Shireman-Grabowski was identified as a student at the College.
Sexual Assault Case Goes to Trial After Long Deliberation
Dong Song’s attorney and the Vermont District Attorney met for a status conference hearing on Oct. 14. At the last hearing, both sides announced they would meet outside of court. But talks broke down and did not yield a resolution between the last two conference meetings. As a result, both sides will begin conducting depositions and selecting experts in preparation for a jury trial. There are complications for both sides: Song, a citizen of South Korea, now holds an expired student visa, and Federal funding for the State Attorney’s office is set to run dry in the coming week due to the government shutdown. The court set an expert disclosure deadline for Oct. 31 and the jury hearing for Dec. 4 at 8:30 a.m.
Queers and Allies Club Hosts Discussion on Homophobia
Students gathered in Redfield Proctor on the evening of Tuesday, Oct. 15 for a discussion about homophobia on campus, led by the Queers and Allies Club (Q&A). The meeting was prompted by an anonymous homophobic letter left on a first-year’s door last month.
Students and faculty began the discussion in a roundtable format, sharing reactions to the letter incident and brainstorming ways in which the community can move forward. The discussion then expanded to include all attendees, building upon ways in which the community can take action and prevent similar incidents in the future.
Attendees agreed that solidarity within the community and raising awareness about tolerance as a means of countering not just homophobia, but broader prejudices, as well, would be a good start. References were made to similar situations at other colleges, in which mandatory all-student discussions were held as a means of showing solidarity for the affected persons. Many in attendance wondered why the College didn’t take similar action, grieving the fact that the responsibility to create change frequently falls upon the oppressed.
Further discussion criticized an email sent by Dean of the College Shirley Collado on Monday, Oct. 7 on the subject of the letter. Collado’s email stated, “a Middlebury student reported receiving a disturbing and threatening printed note left at the door to her residence hall room.”
A number of students at the discussion were frustrated with the vagueness of Collado’s email, wondering why she didn’t mention the letter’s homophobic content. In a follow-up email to the College on Tuesday, Oct. 15, Collado confirmed that the letter contained “threatening and extremely homophobic language,” and cited an ongoing investigation as having restricted the information she and others could divulge.
With additional reporting by KYLE FINCK and EMILY SINGER
(10/03/13 12:44am)
Armel Nibasumba ’16 and Rabeya Jawaid ’16 were invited to attend the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting in New York City from Sept. 25-27.
Established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), an initiative of the Clinton Foundation, convenes global leaders to create and implement innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges.
Nibasumba and Jawaid, who are both alums of United World College (UWC) international schools, were invited through their affiliation with UWC, a CGI member organization, to join over one thousand leaders from across sectors in participating in the ninth CGI annual meeting.
The theme for this year’s annual meeting was “Mobilizing for Impact,” and the meeting’s agenda was designed to enable the participants — largely a mix of chief executives, heads of state and celebrities — to consider how they might improve the ways in which they leverage people, organizations and resources in their achieving the Commitments to Action made by all attendees.
Jawaid and Nibasumba both attended the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) conference in St. Louis last April, a similar conference which invites university students from all over the world to make commitments to global social issues. The two students also received summer grants from the Middlebury Center for Social Entrepreneurship (MCSE) to implement their Commitments to Action made while at CGI U.
Jawaid, who hails from Karachi, Pakistan, received $3,000 from MCSE to implement her Commitment to Action over the summer to provide deaf women in Pakistan with vocational training. Nibasumba, a native of Burundi, also received a grant from the MCSE to teach peace-building and entrepreneurship skills to young adults in his home country.
The two sophomores were invited to participate in a panel session moderated by Chris Isham, Vice President of CBS. The two Middlebury students, along with a third UWC alum, spoke about their respective social enterprise projects and how UWC alums can continue working towards the school’s commitment to sustainable peace after graduation.
“It was inspirational to be among such talented, successful individuals,” said Jawaid of the experience. “I talked at length to UWC coordinators, [CBS Vice President] Chris Isham and [Standard Chartered Bank CEO] Peter Sands all of whom inspired me to not give up on Pakistan, which can be a challenge. It enabled me to look for networks and people who can help me in the future to work for global harmony and peace.”
“There were so many people doing incredible things, and it just inspires you,” added Nibasumba. “I was surrounded by other people who are committed to helping people.It was great to feel like I was a part of the movers and shakers. And it was a good reminder that there are so many problems and issue around our communities that we can actually change. You don’t need to be Barack Obama, you don’t need to try to change the whole country. But you can change your community, change your school, change your hallway in your dorm. That’s what CGI is about.”
(09/18/13 10:59pm)
On Aug. 28, students and faculty received an email from President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz with the subject line “Statement on Divestment.” The message read, “Ultimately, the call to divest raises a number of important questions that must be answered … At this time, too many of these questions either raise serious concerns or remain unanswered for [the Middlebury College Board of Trustees] to support divestment. Given its fiduciary responsibilities, the board cannot look past the lack of proven alternative investment models, the difficulty and material cost of withdrawing from a complex portfolio of investments, and the uncertainties and risks that divestment would create.”
After a year of a high-energy activism, intense debate and impassioned protest on the part of student advocates, it seemed that the door was closing on divestment.
But when asked about the future of divestment, Adrian Leong — a soft-spoken sophomore called “a rising star” by divestment advocates on campus — simply shook his head.
“Divestment is not off the table,” said Leong. “This email is certainly not a defeat. In fact, I appreciated how clearly [Liebowitz] laid out his questions, and I found his willingness to commit to stronger responsible investment principles quite encouraging.”
“As long as that willingness is there, divestment is still alive.”
A Tumultuous Year
Just under a year ago, on a Friday afternoon in October as students departed campus for fall break, an email with the subject line “Middlebury College Divests from War on Eve of Dalai Lama Visit” scrolled our inboxes across campus.
The email, announcing the College’s divestment of its endowment from war, was met with excitement from some students and confusion among others. But two days later, when Tim Spears, vice president for academic affairs, issued an email to all staff, students and faculty clarifying that the press release was a “hoax,” the campus started to buzz with speculation about what this might mean. And when five students published an open letter to the community “coming clean” for sending the fake press release, signed, “The Dalai Lama Welcoming Committee,” it became clear that this was more than just a prank, and the buzz surrounding the incident grew to a dull roar.
Greta Neubauer ’15 returned to campus last fall committed to continuing her work on socially responsible investment and determined to start a divestment campaign at the College. While she had some prior knowledge of the Dalai Lama Welcoming Committee’s press release before its dissemination, she was caught off guard by the momentum it created on campus.
“The fake press release was really powerful at that moment because there was such an element of surprise, and if they had done it at another time, it wouldn’t have had the huge effect that it did on the dialogue here,” said Neubauer. “It’s a tough thing, because on the one hand, it undoubtedly made a huge impact on divestment, because the administration felt compelled to respond and it changed the way in which the campaign unfolded. But it also didn’t follow the typical arch of a campaign, and I think that alienated some people early on. And then throughout the year we saw this increasing dislike of anything that looks like or sounds like activism on this campus. That’s a hard thing to work against.”
Even as the storm of controversy surrounding the press release and the ensuing public trial faded away, divestment took hold as a mainstream topic of conversation among the student body. The campus witnessed the divestment movement move from a niche concern among a select group of student activists to a full-fledged campus-wide debate — in the dining hall, the classroom, the trustee’s boardroom, and the front pages of the Campus.
The conversation was characterized by heated debates over the College’s moral responsibility, impassioned students citing the works of civil rights leaders and adopting the mantra of Bill McKibben’s oft-repeated reasoning: “If it’s wrong to wreck the climate, then it’s wrong to profit from its destruction.”
There was also a lot of work going on behind the scenes — students engrossed in late night conversations, preparing thoroughly researched reports to back up recommendations made to sober administrators and a boardroom full of trustees. And yet these conversations were punctuated by loud rallies, demonstrations of students standing outside Proctor or Old Chapel with megaphones, pots and pans, sporting the bright orange felt square that emerged as a symbol of the divestment movement.
The flashes of orange sent a message: this conversation was loud, it was in your face, and it was impossible to ignore.
Looking Towards the Future
Now, at the beginning of a new school year, the movement is pausing for a breath.
“There is a cool opportunity at the beginning of the year to stop and reflect on how we worked together last year,” said Neubauer. “Hopefully we can take some lessons from that and be able to move forward this year and be better for it.”
As some students have graduated and others have gone abroad, there has already been some room created for new voices.
“We have some new faces this year,” said Ben Chute ’13.5. “I think you’ll be hearing a lot more from some of our younger members — we have some rising sophomores and rising juniors who are some real powerhouses.”
Chute, now in his final semester in college, is the source of much of the movement’s institutional knowledge; he served as the co-president of the Socially Responsible Investing committee for two years before his appointment to Student Liaison to Investment Committee of the Board of Trustees last fall, and he speaks about his younger peers the way a coach might talk about his players.
“We have a lot of kids this year who are really smart activists. They’re very knowledgeable and they’re very pragmatic. We’ll see how this year shapes up, and it comes down to who is in the room.”
Leong, an environmental policy major, joined the movement only a few months into his first year at the College, and is on the younger side of the cohort of students.
“I hope that people will see our movement as a whole, and not just associate it with one group of people and just think, ‘Those are the kids that disturbed my sleep with their pots and pans.’ We’ve done so much more than that. I really hope that more people can share our vision.”
“What I see is being the most powerful tool for us in terms of convincing the administration is having there being a huge crowd swell behind this issue, and there being very visible signs of mass support from students,” said Kristina Johansson ’14. “That means making spaces that are really inclusive and finding ways for people to get involved, no matter what their ideology or methods for making change. Just creating audiences for great engagement.”
“My hope is that a lot of the action taken last year acted as a catalyst,” said Teddy Smyth ’15, a member of the Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investment (ACSRI). “Now we have enough momentum to be somewhat more pragmatic so that we can focus on the strategic vision of the divestment campaign. I think we’ll spend some time considering what actions need to happen versus what actions aren’t as essential; what would be distracting versus what’s necessary and practical.”
“That being said, we need to keep the conversation going in a public way,” added Smyth. “Last year, other people filled the role of making noise and of attracting public attention, and so I might need to do more of that this year, although its not necessarily my skill set.”
“I think we’re going to try to have a really public, visible presence on campus and be the source of a lot discussion,” said Jeannie Bartlett ’15 while discussing possible tactics for the coming year. “But I think one thing we’re really looking to do is connecting with Trustees and talk with them on an individual basis to discuss research, because I think that having that kind of more isolated and direct conversations is what, at this point, is lacking in the discussion.”
“The fact that we’re not divesting right not is obviously disappointing,” Bartlett continued. “The commitments [Liebowtiz] laid out in his email are wonderful and I care about them a lot, but they don’t achieve the political statement that divestment does.”
“But I am optimistic. And if they actually do those three things laid out in Liebowitz’s email, that would be the biggest win that SRI has ever had at Middlebury, by far. So its really exciting. And I’m going to work to make sure that those things do happen.”
(04/24/13 4:49pm)
The annual Boston Marathon came under attack on April 15 when two explosives detonated near the finish line, killing three people and injuring over 140, according to a report from the Associated Press. While located over 200 miles away, the college community watched in horror as the bombings and the subsequent week-long manhunt for the Tsarnaev brothers unfolded in and around the city of Boston, Mass. The week’s events resounded on a campus where many students hail from the Boston area.
One such student was Dylan Whitaker ’13, a biology major from Cambridge, Mass. who attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (CRLS) with Dzhokar Tsarnaev, the younger of the two brothers allegedly responsible for the bombings at the marathon’s finish line.
Whitaker was a senior and the captain of the high school wrestling team when Tsarnaev was a sophomore at CRLS. When news and media outlets began circulating photos of the two suspects last week, several of Whitaker’s old classmates and teammates recognized Dzhokar Tsarnaev as one of the two men.
“When I woke up on Friday morning, I had all these texts and Facebook messages from people at home saying, ‘Is that Dzhokar? I think its Dzhokar,” said Whitaker. “All of my friends were sending me pictures and messages being like, you have to check this out … but I didn’t actually think it was him.”
The phone calls and messages Whitaker received came not only from peers, but also from several news organizations hoping to speak with someone who might be able to shed some light on the Tsarnaev brother’s past.
“The news outlets started contacting me immediately Friday morning,” said Whitaker. “My friend works for The Harvard Crimson, so he contacted me first. But then once my name got out, they all started calling. I got calls from MSNBC, from the Associate Press, from CNN … from a lot of places.”
Despite feeling overwhelmed by circumstances and the flurry of phone calls, Whitaker went on the air in an interview with Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC on Friday night.
“Dzhokar was a good wrestler, and I never knew him to be malicious in any way,” Whitaker told MSNBC. “Knowing that, and knowing him to be a strong individual and not one to be easily bullied or swayed by peer pressure, it makes it especially surprising to think that he might have been influenced to do something like this.”
Kylie Atwood ’12 also contributed to the news coverage of the events in Boston, reporting live from the scene in Copley Square on Monday night.
Atwood, on a day off from work as an executive assistant to Bob Scheiffer, the host of CBS’s Face the Nation, had traveled to Boston from Washington, D.C. to watch her friend compete in the race. Her friend had crossed the finish line at four hours and one minute, and Atwood was standing in the street celebrating and congratulating her friend one block away from the finish line when they heard an explosion.
“It was such a loud noise that I didn’t realize what it was at first,” said Atwood. “But when I turned and looked, it became blatantly evident. Smoke was coming out of the blast, and people were racing towards us, faces mounted in fear. No one knew where to go.”
Luckily, Atwood kept her wits about her and her journalistic instincts kicked in.
“[After the second blast] I freaked out, and there was such mayhem, but I realized I needed to take pictures and document what was happening.”
When she called CBS to let them know that she was unharmed, the network recognized that Atwood was in a unique position to report on the situation.
“At the time, I didn’t really realize I was one of the few people who worked for the media who happened to be standing directly between the two blasts when they went off. I was one of the first people to be able to give a first-hand account of what was happening.
“[CBS] told me at 5:00 p.m. that they wanted me to be on the evening news, and I wasn’t even thinking about the fact that I was going to be reporting live,” remembered Atwood. “I was thinking, ‘What do I need to tell people?’ and trying to explain what was right in front of my eyes. Let me tell you, I was scared. But in those two hours, I learned more about the profession of reporting than I had ever learned before.”
Several current students and alumni either competed in or attended the race.
Lauren Barrett ’11, who was running in the race, was barely half a mile from the finish line when the explosions happened.
“When the bombs went off I was at mile 25.8,” said Barrett. “So I couldn’t actually see the explosions, but felt and heard them. I had no idea what had happened at that point and it didn’t even cross my mind that it might be a bomb. At first I just stood there waiting to see if we were going to begin running again and then realized I wasn’t going to cross the finish line that day.”
Several hours after the bombing, Barrett eventually located her family and made her way to her brother’s apartment in Beacon Hill.
“We sat and watched the news for a few hours to see what had happened. Everything felt surreal. While we were watching the news I completely forgot I had run the marathon. It was no longer about the runners and finishing but about bombs exploding and people being rushed to the hospital."
Many of the students and alumni who were present for Monday’s events and in Boston over the past week have described the city as tense yet unified.
“As horrifying as Monday was, the following days were really just a testament to the human spirit,” said Atwood. “There have been so many random acts of kindness, and Boston has come together through this.”
(03/06/13 5:33pm)
Alumni Appreciation week kicked off with a dinner on Monday, March 4 in Atwater Dining Hall hosted by Mark Benz ’56 and Eric Benz ’88. Throughout the week students are encouraged to head to the Davis Family Library to write thank-you notes to donors. This initiative is part of the annual giving plan and is designed to thank donors to the College and to raise awareness among students about how donors make their college experience possible.
Among peer institutions, the College ranked sixth in the dollar value of total giving last year but was second in the giving rate of its alumni. 50.6 percent of college alumni donated in 2012, just trailing Williams College, which received donations from 53.3 percent of its alumni.
While the College fell short of its 56 percent participation rate in 2012, the College Advancement and Development offices are hoping to reach an alumni-giving rate of 58 percent for 2013 through fundraising initiatives such as Spark a Match. Through the “Spark” challenge, an anonymous donor has promised to donate $20,000 if 2,000 alumni donate by March 31.
“The Spark program is something people respond to pretty well,” said Maggie Paine, director of advancement communications. “A time limit is effective in helping people who are planning on giving anyway to give their gift now, rather than waiting until [the end of the fiscal year] on June 30.”
The College raised just over $42.4 million last year. While this figure is down slightly from $43.2 million in 2011, this change can be attributed to “normal fluctuations in year-to-year fundraising,” according to Associate Vice President for Development Megan Williamson.
The largest overall donation the College received in 2012 was the gift of 377 acres of land by Will Jackson ’51, a member of the Board of Trustees, last January. The donated property, located west of the campus along Route 125, is worth $4.7 million.
The College also received $1.5 million for the construction of the new field house, which constitutes its largest cash donation received in 2012.
“The field house was an important [fundraising] campaign last year,” said Jim Keyes, the vice president for college advancement. “The trustees made the decision to build a field house, but felt strongly that [the project] not be funded through debt. It cost about $46 million to build, and we raised 100 percent of that.”
The offices of College Development and Advancement Services have sought to develop ways to help donors realize the direct impact of their gifts to the College.
“What I’m seeing as a fundraiser is that increasingly, people are interested in restricting their gifts and knowing exactly where their money is going to go,” said Williamson. “But Middlebury has cultivated a high level of unrestricted annual giving, among parents in particular, who know that the impact for their student is going to be immediate and they want to give the College the greatest flexibility to do the best thing for their students, and we really try to cultivate that.”
MiddStart is an example of a recent fundraising campaign designed to make connections between donors and current students, which helps entrepreneurial students find funding for their projects through gifts from alumni and friends of the College.
“MiddStart is a way for annual fund donors to see their impact and to actually connect with students here on campus and support a student project and then watch it be carried out,” said Paine. “It’s been rewarding, and we are getting donors who have no connection to the College, other than they are interested in the project or they know the student.”
Charitable contributions to colleges and universities in the United States increased 2.3 percent in 2012, according to the Voluntary Support of Education survey, conducted by the Council for Aid to Education. At $31 billion, the total is still below 2008’s historical high of $31.6 billion.
(01/17/13 1:08am)
In the wake of high-profile student protests and amid a growing university movement to combat climate change, President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz announced that that the College will host a panel of experts to discuss the feasibility of divesting its endowment from the fossil fuel industry on Tuesday, Jan. 22 at 7:30 p.m. in the McCullough Social Space.
Two days in advance of the panel, Schumann Distinguished Scholar Bill McKibben and other special guests will speak at “Midd Does the Math,” an event hosted by various student groups in conjunction with the environmentalist-activist organization 350.org. The event will occur at Mead Chapel on Sunday, Jan. 20 at 8 p.m.
Tuesday’s panel will feature McKibben, renowned climate activist and founder of 350.org; Ralphe Earle, a renewables-focused venture investor; Alice Handy, founder and president of Investure, the firm that manages the College’s endowment; Mark Kritzman, adjunct professor of finance at MIT; and John Tormondsen ’82, a trustee of the College’s Board of Directors, and a member of the Finance Committee.
As the divestment movement has gained traction on campus this fall, many students have raised questions about the benefits and consequences of withdrawing the College’s investments in fossil fuels manufacturing companies and arms manufacturing companies. In December, Liebowitz announced in an email to all staff, students and faculty that the College has roughly 3.6 percent of its endowment invested in fossil fuel industries and approximately 0.6 percent in defense and arms manufacturing companies.
Questions have also been raised regarding the College’s investment structure, a model which sees the management of the institution’s approximately $900 million endowment outsourced to Investure LLC., which pools the College’s funds with the endowments of 12 other institutions or foundations.
“We’re going to learn and we’re going to see what our options are,” said Liebowitz. “Is divestment the only option? Is divestment the best option? What are the consequences?”
“Nothing is off the table,” he continued. “We have an open mind to hear as much as we can, and for the board to engage this as well.”
For many, this has represented a significantly positive first step, especially when considering the tepid reaction that divestment movements have been met with at other institutions. While Maine-based Unity College became the first to divest its endowment in December, Harvard University representatives have stated that their institution will not consider divestment.
“I’m really excited that Middlebury is initiating a dialogue about the ethics of our endowment,” said Assi Askala ’15, a member of Divest for Our Future Middlebury.
Though pleased with the opportunity to engage in dialogue, some student divestment organizational leaders on campus have questioned the College’s choice of panelists.
“The panelists may be experts, but they still have biases,” said Molly Stuart ’15.5,one of the five students unofficially disciplined by the College for the dissemination of a fake press release announcing that the endowment had been divested from fossil fuels in November.
“The panel should include a member of a community significantly affected by climate change, or a student, in order to represent facts and opinions primarily concerned with a livable planet, rather than maximum returns on our investments,” added Stuart.
Student were also critical of proposed format for the question and answer period, in which panelists will only respond to questions submitted and screened ahead of time by the administration and the Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing (ACSRI).
In response to such criticism, Liebowitz explained that the College would use student submissions as a way to incorporate their voices into the discussion.
“We want professionals to talk about the effectiveness of these approaches, and of divestment generally speaking. The goal is to have a fact-based, in-depth discussion, rather than [a discussion based upon] emotion,” said Liebowitz. “Student opinions are important, but for this first panel we wanted opinions based on the deep experience that the panelists will bring to the discussion.”
Liebowitz explained that many of the panelists have devoted their entire careers to understanding and engaging with investment, making them well suited to help educate community members on the benefits and consequences of divestment.
In a telephone interview, McKibben lamented the lack of a student panelist, but was supportive of the College’s decision to host the panel and stated that he was pleased to participate. In addition to his role on Tuesday, McKibben will also speak at Sunday’s Midd Does the Math event.
The event will loosely follow the model used by McKibben’s highly successful Do the Math tour, a month-long cross-country campaign that saw the renowned climate change activist and others speak before thousands at sold out venues in 24 cities.
At the Middlebury event, McKibben will be joined by faculty, alumni and student speakers. Community members will also have an opportunity to watch taped messages from prominent social change activists Naomi Klein, Van Jones, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Clayton Thomas Muller.
Years ago, facing political roadblocks and recognizing what he described as the “extreme political power of the fossil fuel industry,” McKibben consulted with many experts, including Archbishop Tutu, on a plan to decrease the power of the wealthiest industry ever in human history.
According to McKibben, “One of the only really successful examples in American history [of diminishing such entrenched power] was the student-led divestment movement that helped to, from a distance, liberate South Africa in the 1980s.”
“I hope people come out of the event with a greater understanding,” said McKibben. “At this point everybody understands that global warming is an overwhelming problem, but I hope that everyone will come out feeling that there is something really powerful that they can do close to home that is on a scale that makes some kind of real difference.”
“I also hope that the college understands just how logical it is — since they’ve done a good job greening the campus — that the logical next step would be to green our portfolio. It’s another part of our shared campus life.”
(12/05/12 11:01pm)
The College has been identified as one of 15 Colleges Fighting World Hunger by Best College Online, a website that ranks colleges and universities in various categories. The ranking highlights Bumu, or Bug Munch, a company founded by Alex Bea ’12 that produces energy bars made from crickets.
Since its founding a year ago, Bea’s company has evolved to become Jiminy, an energy bar company that funds cricket farming systems that empower mothers to provide themselves and their children with much-needed iron and protein. The bars themselves are made out of crushed cricket powder, as well as a combination of chocolate, peanut butter and honey.
Bea first got the idea for his company last winter in his MiddCORE class. MiddCORE requires each student participant to pitch “the next big idea” in a competition that is the culmination of the month-long winter term course. While trying to come up with a “big idea,” Bea asked his friends for help.
“The most interesting thing I heard back was from my friend Max [Bacharach ’13.5],” said Bea. “He told me that grasshoppers are super high in protein. So I went back to my dorm room that night and sat on my bed and thought, ‘Why don’t we just farm them, if they’re high in protein?’”
Since last January, the company has expanded. In addition to Bea, its members now include Bacharach, Sebastian Schell ’14.5 and Bjorn Peterson ’15.5. Bacharach is in charge of developing the cricket farm, Schell has been working to perfect the recipe and Peterson manages the brand and oversees advertising.
The company continues to attract attention for its efforts to solve global malnutrition and hunger. Last spring the company placed in the Top 40 in the Dell Social Innovation Challenge, a global social entrepreneurship competition with over 1,700 entries. The team subsequently was awarded a $3,000 grant by the Middlebury Center for Social Entrepreneurship, one of five grant recipients among 22 applicants.
“Above all, we are looking for things that are scale-able and applicable,” said Professor of Economics and Director of Center for Social Entrepreneurship Jon Isham of the criteria used in selecting grant recipients. “The world needs sources of protein, so that’s what we all liked. Protein is important, we need inexpensive protein and this is a source that is proven and with a little help can taste pretty good.”
While eating bugs may seem unconventional — if not unappetizing — to some Americans, the Jiminy team is doing its best to overcome what the team refers to as a “stigma” against eating insects.
“Crickets make sense,” said Bea of his main ingredient. “I’m a math and economics major, it’s sort of like a math equation — well, it’s a lot more than that — but when you’re solving a problem, you have to say, ‘What’s another way to write this?’ You just have to separate yourself from the idea of ‘it’s a bug.’
“There are many different ways to look at this problem, and this solution made sense nutritionally and supply-wise,” he added.
Marketing a cricket-based energy bar to American consumers has had its challenges, but the team seems confident of their abilities to overcome that setback.
“Marketing this bar is incredibly challenging,” acknowledged Peterson, who is in charge of the bar’s design, marketing and brand management.
“The trick is getting people to cross this line,” he added. “But it’s a line that’s been crossed before with food products. We eat Jell-O, which is made from horse feet. We eat hot dogs, and who knows what animal or combination of animals is in those. So why not crickets?”
(12/05/12 10:53pm)
University of Virginia Student Dies During Semester at Sea (The Huffington Post)
Casey Schulman, 22, of the University of Virginia (UVA), died tragically on Saturday, Dec. 1 in a tragic boating accident while studying with the “Semester at Sea” program. Schulman and some friends were snorkeling off of a boat near the island of Dominica in the Caribbean when the driver of the boat backed over Schulman. She sustained fatal injuries and was declared dead at a local hospital.
The MV Explorer, the ship Schulman was aboard during her semester at sea, held a memorial service on Sunday, Dec. 2. A close friend, Katie Dorset, spoke about her friend saying she was “the only person I’ve ever known whose smile could actually light up an entire room.”
UVA’s Vice President and Chief Student Affairs Officer Patricia Lampkin released a statement from the university saying, “Casey Schulman’s death is a cause of much sadness at the University. She was an exceptionally bright light — both in and outside the classroom — and she will long be remembered as a vibrant member of our community.”
Hip-hop Icon Names Visiting Scholar at Cornell University (The Huffington Post)
Cornell University has invited DJ Africa Bambaataa to serve as a visiting scholar at the prestigious Ivy League institution for a three-year term. Baambatta, a renowned social activist, electronic music pioneer and influential DJ will join the ranks of prominent hip hop artists who have taken time away from their musical careers to teach at prominent institutions of higher education. This year, New York University asked ?uestlove to teach a two-credit music course, and Swizz Beatz to serve as the school’s producer in residence for the Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music at the Tisch School of the Arts. Though many are pleased to see the inclusion of such prominent hip-hop artists amongst the faculty of many of the United State’s top institutions, others have wondered about the accessibility of these classes for those with lower economic status.
Harvard Approves Student Group Supporting Kinky Sex (The Harvard Crimson)
On Nov. 30, Harvard University approved an on-campus student organization for students with a shared affinity for kinky sex, called Harvard College Munch. The group’s mission statement characterizes itself as a “forum for students interested in alternative sexualities to explore their identities and develop a community with their peers.” Formal recognition by the university allows the group to receive grants, post campus notices and use campus meeting spaces. The group, which already counts 30 student members, acknowledges that kink is often associated with bondage, dominance and submission, but does not seek to define kinky sexual behavior and “accepts students with any kinky interest,” according to the group’s constitution. One club member explained that many students feel uncomfortable discussing their sexual practices with some people for fear of being judged, and that the group provides students with the help they need from people who are educated about the kink community.
(11/28/12 11:26pm)
On Nov. 6, the College announced its decision to suspend its school abroad in Xalapa, Mexico. The program, which was based at the Universidad Veracruzana in Xalapa, will not accept students from next semester onward, unless the decision to suspend the school is reversed. The suspension of the Mexico program eliminates the only Spanish language C.V. Starr School Abroad Latin American location in the Northern Hemisphere.
Acting Dean of International Programs Paul Monod cited low enrollment as the primary reason for closing the program. Only one student opted to study abroad in Mexico this academic year, and the program has seen an average of only 2.7 students per semester over the past eight semesters. For comparison, the Middlebury C.V. Starr School in Argentina sees an average of 18.375 students per semester and the school in Chile has an average of 15.5 students per semester. The College has decided that the few students who choose to study in Mexico are not enough to sustain the costs of the program.
Monod suggested that reports of drug-related violence in the region might have contributed to the program’s unpopularity.
“It's unfortunate to have to close any site abroad, but Mexico was a special case,” said Monod. “Reports of drug violence in that country have saturated the media in the United States, which seems to have discouraged students from applying for the program. There was no sign that this situation was going to change; in fact, it appears to have worsened in the last year or so.”
The Middlebury School Abroad in Guadalajara, Mexico was closed last year after reports of violence prompted the U.S. government to issue a travel warning, but the Xalapa program remained open as it was deemed safer.
Alan Sanders ’13.5, the only current student who studied abroad in Xalapa last spring, said that there was not significant violence in the area.
“There were police patrols, and that was the extent of the violence that I saw,” Sanders noted. “There were a couple of shootings while I was there but they were very much in isolated areas of the city that the school was not anywhere close to.”
While Spanish language students still have plenty of options in considering studying abroad locations — the College has programs in Spain, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay — there are certain drawbacks to eliminating the Mexico location. Mexico was the only Spanish-speaking Latin American country available to students at the College who wished to study abroad in the Northern Hemisphere. Universities in the Southern Hemisphere follow a different academic calendar, with the fall semester beginning at the beginning of August and the spring semester ending in the middle of July.
For students at the College who have summer obligations and jobs back in the states, this calendar rules out locations like Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. Students in the international and global studies or international politics and economics majors, who are encouraged to focus on a specific region and are required to study abroad, now must travel to the Southern Hemisphere and adhere to that calendar if they choose to focus in Latin American studies.
Students studying Spanish and Latin American cultures still have many options available to them, and the Office of International Programs maintains that the there was nothing unique about the curriculum offered at Unversidad Veracruzana in Xalapa.
As an international and global studies major with a focus in anthropology, Sanders disagreed.
“The archeology program is really good, because they’re right in the middle of where the Olmec civilization used to be,” said Sanders. “So there’s a lot of archeological dig sites around the city and it’s a very culturally rich part of the world. So they have a lot of opportunities for anthropologists.”
Sanders expressed his disappointment upon hearing the news of the program’s suspension.
“I think that Mexico has such a vibrant culture that is misrepresented in the media in the United States,” Sanders added. “We share a 2,000 mile border and it’s so important to our politics, I think its really important that Middlebury students get past the rhetoric that is involved in political discussions around Mexico, and that’s really only accessible through living there. “
(11/28/12 11:18pm)
Student Opinion Split on Homecoming Shirts (The Amherst Student)
A provocative t-shirt distributed at Amherst’s homecoming weekend last week has reignited controversy surrounding sexual assault on its campus, coming in the wake of an open letter written by a sexual assault victim, Angie Epifano, printed in the school’s student newspaper on Oct. 17.
As an effort to keep campus-wide conversation alive in response to Epifano’s letter, a group of students handed out t-shirts to students and alumni in attendance at the homecoming athletic events. The front of the shirt features Lord Jeff, Amherst’s mascot, gripping a broom in one hand and lifting a rug, accompanied by the words, “Amherst: Sweeping Sexual Assault Under the Rug since 1821.” The back of the shirt reads, ‘Silence has the rusty taste of shame. We will be silent no more. Demand zero tolerance for sexual violence now.’
A petition was circulated alongside the t-shirts calling for the administration to undertake greater initiatives to prevent sexual assault on campus. The students handing out the t-shirts expressed fear that meaningful progress would cease as soon as media coverage surrounding Epifano’s open letter dies down, and hoped that the t-shirts would keep discussion alive.
Oil Dialogue at UVM Dissolves into Disruption (Burlington Free Press)
On Nov. 14, University of Vermont students affiliated with Rising Tide Vermont, interrupted a presentation at the UVM campus by Olav Ljosne, senior manager of international operations for multinational petroleum giant Royal Dutch Shell.
Ljosne was speaking on a panel discussion titled ‘Big Oil in the Niger Delta,” during which he was joined by two co-panelists, UVM Professor of Political Science Greg Gause and Visiting Professor at the UVM Law School Benjamin Sovacool, who manages Vermont Law School’s Energy Security and Justice Program.
Rising Tide Vermont is a climate justice organization based out of Burlington, VT. Nine activists stood up throughout Ljosne’s presentation, rendering it impossible for him to speak.
The activists shared testimonies of Nigerians living in the delta to protest Shell’s role in the destruction of Nigerian ecosystems and communities through its extraction activity and relationships with Nigeria’s various military dictatorships.
The protestors left the room after finishing their remarks, followed by members of the audience as well as some of the presenters. The event was postponed and the police were called, though no arrests were made.
(11/14/12 10:21pm)
Recently, the College decided to reduce the amount of money it keeps in its Toronto Dominion (TD) bank account overnight on a day-to-day basis. While the Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing (ACSRI) has touted this as a “win,” the College contends that this change is a result of cash management decisions and is not a response to ACSRI’s recommendations. This comes in the wake of ongoing conversations between ACSRI and the administration regarding ACSRI’s request that the College withdraw its money from its account in TD bank.
Toronto Dominion is the bank the College uses to hold the $286 million that finance the College’s annual operating budget. The College has been banking with TD since 2004.
The College’s annual operating budget is funded by different sources of cash inflow to the College throughout the year — an influx of tuition dollars at the start of each semester, a monthly fixed amount from the endowment and periodic inflows from donations and other sources. This money is deposited into the College’s TD bank account, and then is drawn out on a daily basis to finance the costs of operating the College and all its entities.
Toronto Dominion, as one of the top five largest Canadian banks, potentially funds more than 20 percent of the total fossil fuel extraction activities in Canada through its loans, according to a 2008 Rainforest Action Network study. This figure is largely based in speculative estimates, but Ben Chute ’13, co-president of the Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) club and ACSRI member, contends that the possibility is cause for concern.
“It’s just the nature of Canada — a lot of their economy is mining and extracting fossil fuels. There are five big banks in Canada, and TD is the second-largest of them. It seems incredibly likely,” said Chute.
“And it may just be the nature of the economy that a bank in Canada is going to be investing heavily in extraction efforts, but Middlebury doesn’t uphold that in our mission statement. That might just be the way things are, but we don’t have to sign on to that,” he added.
Recently, ACSRI members have voiced concern to the administration that the College’s decision to bank with TD is not consistent with the College’s values or commitment to sustainability and carbon neutrality. The administration, however, has no plans to switch banks.
“The [College’s] relationship with TD has been very good,” said Patrick Norton, vice president for Finance and Treasurer’s Office. “TD provides an array of corporate banking products to the degree and specialization that the College requires and TD is a strong AAA-rated bank.”
Additionally, Toronto Dominion extended a $50 million line of credit to the College in 2007.
Members of the ACSRI have called for the College to move its money out of TD in conversations over the course of the past year, and the College’s decision to reduce its overnight holdings in TD bank was characterized by these students as evidence of the group’s “great strides working with the administration” in an email to SRI members in October.
However, Norton maintains that the decision to reduce its overnight holdings is not related to ACSRI’s efforts.
“When I met with the ACSRI, they urged me to consider minimizing the college’s overnight holdings at TD as a way of reducing the college’s carbon footprint,” wrote Norton in an email. “Since it is a cash management practice anyway to minimize overnight cash holdings to the extent the balances would cover bank and related fees, our treasury operations as a standard practice will … minimize bank holdings at TD.”
The minimum cash amount to be left in the bank account overnight is $8.5 million. Any leftover funds will be withdrawn and invested in other assets that may yield higher returns for the College than the interest rate.
“In the case where there is more daily cash inflows then cash outflows, any amount over our target minimum cash amount is transferred [out of the TD account overnight] to short-term investment vehicles, primarily dominated by U.S. Treasuries,” explained Norton in an email.
The timing of this decision can be explained by improvements in the global economy. During the economic crisis, the College’s money was more secure earning interest in a bank account, yet the College is now seeking higher yields.
“I do want to reiterate that the amount of overnight cash holdings at TD is a result of cash management practices and not as a result of a college position on TD’s sustainability practices,” wrote Norton.
Despite the fact that TD may count fossil fuel extraction and mining companies among its clients, the financial institution has adopted several corporate responsibility and socially responsible investing initiatives.
In February 2010, TD became the first carbon-neutral North American-based bank. It has officially adopted the United Nations principles of sustainable investment, and recently launched its TD Forests program, an initiative aimed at reducing paper consumption and increasing protected forest areas, among other projects.
In TD’s Q3 Investor Relations Quarterly Report, the bank reported that only 5 percent of its total financing involves clients operating in environmentally and socially sensitive industries such as mining and fossil fuel extraction. As of July 31, TD held $806 billion in assets and $405.2 billion in loans.
The bank’s sustainability and corporate responsibility report, which was assured by third party accounting firm Ernst & Young LLC, states its position on socially responsible investing.
“TD recognizes that … banks have a role to play financing extraction of traditional energy reserves and laying the groundwork for renewable energy development and deployment,” reads the report. “TD does not lend money for transactions that would … result in the degradation of protected critical natural resources. We do not lend money for transactions that are directly related to the trade in or manufacturing of material for nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.”
Despite TD’s official policies, Chute maintains that a better banking alternative exists.
Members of the ACSRI club have identified a regional bank, the name of which they would not disclose at press time, that they feel would be a more socially responsible banking relationship for the College.
“We want to keep the money in the area,” said Chute of the proposed alternative bank. “In Keynesian economics, you see the multiplier effect — money comes into an area, and then it gets used a couple of times, and the community benefits. With the TD relationship, there’s no multiplier effect there, and it’s a lost opportunity to help develop our community and improve the surrounding area.”
“We operate under the assumption that there’s always something better — there’s always a way to marginally, incrementally improve things,” Chute added. “Yeah, some banks may be bad, but … there’s only so much we can do as students. Instead of just seeing the world and all of its complexities and throwing our hands up in the air, we try to look at it more critically and we try to find a better solution.”
(11/14/12 10:11pm)
Green Mountain College Slaughters Beloved Ox (Vermont Public Radio)
Green Mountain College in Poultney, Vt. euthanized its retired farm ox Lou on Sunday, explaining that the 11-year-old ox’s hind leg injury was worsening and was expected to continue to deteriorate during the harsh winter. The school announced plans to turn the body into beef products that will be served in the college dining hall.
Lou and another ox, Bill, were retired from the college’s farm this summer. Green Mountain College has a long-standing tradition of utilizing livestock in the dining halls in keep with the school’s emphasis on sustainable agriculture. The plans for Lou’s remains, however, were met with opposition for animal rights activists who wanted Lou to be spared and sent to a sanctuary.
Bill the ox will continue to live at the college.
NYU Library Suffers Storm Damage from Sandy (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
On Oct. 30, Hurricane Sandy drew up a 14-foot surge of water from the East River into the Ehram Medical Library at New York University.
The storm ruined most of the library’s on-site print collections, study spaces and work areas. Access to electronic resources and services was also wiped out by the storm, and the staff has been working overtime from a remote location to retore online operations.
Paula De Stefano, head of the university's preservation and conservation department, described the foroce of the water as “tremendous.”
"Furniture was moved, metal was twisted,” said De Stefano. “It was really pretty amazing."
Jason Kucsma, executive director of the Metropolitan New York Library Council, a nonprofit membership group representing more than 250 New York libraries, said that Sandy forced the group to craft and implement disaster-recovery plans.
“It’s a stark reminder [of] how vulnerable our infrastructure is,” said Kucsma.
(10/31/12 4:46pm)
On Monday, Oct. 29 Library and Information Services (LIS) announced the launch of a new online discussion board.
The online forum is intended to serve as a way for the campus to communicate through a less formal medium than all-school emails. The forum allows for members of the college community to create topics and add comments to online conversations.
The College has been experimenting with new forms of all-school communication over the past year. In the past, it was possible for students to simply hit “reply all” to emails sent to the college community, allowing students the capability to send emails to over 5,000 recipients.
In 2009, the College implemented policies requiring students, faculty and administrators to obtain permission before sending out emails to the large all-campus distribution lists. LIS later enacted technological restrictions to prevent all-school emails.
Despite these restrictions, some groups — such as participants in the Hunt and more recently, members of the Dalai Lama Welcoming Committee — have nonetheless found ways to access large all-campus listservs.
Even with the serious limitations on all-campus emails, students continued to complain about the high volume of messages flooding their inboxes. These complaints, and a desire for improved forms of all-campus communication, led to the creation of the Portal system.
LIS launched Portal in January 2012. The platform combines campus news, sports scores, dining menus and quick access to other pages on the College’s website. Despite LIS’s attempts to make Portal an interactive and customized experience, students failed to embrace the platform, citing the site’s lack of user-friendliness and accessibility.
Since Portal proved to be an ineffective way to reach many members of the community, the College took a new approach to all-student emails this fall through the introduction of MiddNotes.
MiddNotes, which aggregates and summarizes campus-wide announcements into a weekly email sent out to students and faculty, aims to broadcast campus announcements while decreasing the overall number of all-school emails.
In addition to limiting the number of emails students receive, Dean of LIS and Chief Information Officer Michael Roy hopes MiddNotes will address a current gap in communication on campus.
“For the very personal, there’s things like Facebook; for the purely academic, there are things like Moodle, but there’s this space that bridges between those two worlds,” said Roy. “There’s a gap there, and this [discussion platform] could potentially fill that gap.”
Last spring, in an effort to try and fill this space, Brian Foster ’13 sought funding first from the College and later from the Student Government Association (SGA) for the creation and implementation of a new site, EdLiberty.
Foster’s site would have included a ThinkTank discussion board feature, a virtual bulletin board events platform and a Newsroom function for sharing web content. While Foster’s EdLiberty failed by a vote of 10-7 in the SGA, due in part to the large sum of funding the project required, Foster maintains that the institutional need for this platform still exists at the College.
“We have so many students working independently on amazing projects, art and businesses,” said Foster. “But there is no go-to way for them to collaborate and communicate. This is where great technology can make all the difference. It can connect, inspire and accelerate.”
Roy cited Foster’s original proposal as part of the genesis for the concept at the administrative level.
Roy described the new discussion board, which can be found at go/discuss, as a forum for announcements, discussions or debates.
“In many ways, its an open question to the student body to see what are the things [they] want to talk about,” said Roy.