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(04/29/15 5:42pm)
On Tuesday, April 21, students, faculty and members of the community gathered in Mead Chapel to hear Middlebury College Activities Board’s (MCAB) spring speaker, veteran Democratic political strategist Donna Brazile, in her talk titled “Political Outlook: A Comprehensive Picture of What’s Going On in Washington.”
Brazile is the vice chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee as well as an author, syndicated columnist, television political commentator and adjunct professor at Georgetown University. She has worked on every presidential campaign from 1976 to 2000, and was the first African American woman to manage a presidential campaign when she served as Al Gore’s campaign manager in 2000.
Brazile opened her speech by presenting the audience with background information on her own life and the events that sparked her interest in politics, noting the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as a turning point. Even though she was only eight years old at the time, it inspired her to get involved in her community and to use her voice to make sure that political opportunity is open to all people.
This, she explained, remains her goal. And she stressed that even though the mold was broken with the election of Barack Obama in 2008, there is more to be done. She spoke of the ills of a hyper-partisan Washington that often results in gridlock, but also said that for the first time the American people are tired of it. She claimed the U.S. is looking for new leaders and values.
Brazile spoke on the upcoming 2016 U.S. presidential election. She reflected on potential candidates for the Republican and Democratic parties, as well as those who have already announced their candidacy. The Republican primary, she predicted, will be especially interesting to watch because of the sheer number of candidates including Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. She also stressed that top-tier candidates will be those who are well-positioned in the polls, will raise a lot of money, and will be able to mobilize their bases.
On the Democratic side, Brazile spoke highly of Hillary Clinton, but also cited Joe Biden, Lincoln Chaffee, Jim Webb and Vermont’s Bernie Sanders as possible contenders for the nomination.
A large portion of Brazile’s talk centered around campaign finance reform. She expressed her opinion that we, as citizens, should demand that candidates disclose all of their donors, and that Super PACs are “destroying our democracy.”
Lauren Alper ’16, a political science major, appreciated Brazile’s focus on Citizens United.
“We are spending billions of dollars on anonymous attack ads, inhibiting politicians without the same resources to get their voices heard,” Alper said.
She added: “Brazile reminded us that this money could be going to infrastructure, education, healthcare and much more. Currently, elected politicians are usually the ones with the most money, not the ones with the best ideas or the ones who represent the people.”
Charlotte Boghossian ’16 echoed
Alper’s sentiments.
“I liked that she focused on campaign finance, as someone whose career depends on those policies,” Boghossian said.
However, the overarching theme of Brazile’s talk was not the work she has done in politics or her predictions for 2016. Rather, it was the issue of millennials’ apparent unwillingness to run for public office, or to get involved in politics at all.
“We need you,” Brazile said at numerous times throughout her speech, “If you’re a leader, we need you in public office…if you’re willing to stand up for what’s right, we need you.”
She urged those students in the audience to consider running for office, or to serve at some level in their community.
“We can finally break the mold,” Brazile said, explaining that we need new ideas and new people who are willing to sit around the table.
Brazile ended her talk with a call
to action.
She said: “So go out there and give them hell. Stir it up. Don’t be afraid to step on some toes. It’s your nation. Why you? Because there’s no one better. And why now? Because tomorrow is not
soon enough.”
There was then a question and answer segment, in which Brazile responded to student inquiries on issues ranging from key senate races in 2016 to Hurricane Katrina. In response to a question regarding Hillary Clinton’s campaign announcement video and use of social media, Brazile emphasized that Clinton had won the most votes in 2008 but did not have the most delegates.
Because of this, Brazile explained, she believes Hillary needs to be on the ground, talking to people and hearing their ideas, in this election cycle.
“She’s running the right kind of campaign,” Brazile said.
(01/14/15 11:48pm)
On Jan. 7, President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz announced the launch of Middlebury’s new brand identity system. In an email to students, Liebowitz explained that the new system intends to clarify what had been a somewhat unclear relationship between the undergraduate institution and the other Middlebury schools and programs, such as the language schools, Bread Loaf and Monterey.
Vice President for Communications and Marketing Bill Burger explained that it became clear that this ambiguity needed to be addressed in 2012.
“We hired a consultant to conduct the research,” Burger explained, “both qualitative and quantitative research, to find out how people perceived Middlebury. We learned a lot from this about how those perceptions aligned with how we saw ourselves.”
One thing that stood out during this research was that there were some misconceptions regarding how the schools and programs at Middlebury fit together. Burger noted that this issue had also come up previously, in the 2010 reaccreditation of the College.
Burger believes that the new identity system will help make the College better known. “Our lack of a clear and shared identity actually served to suppress awareness of Middlebury,” he said. “Many people know about the College, but they didn’t necessarily know that our other schools and programs, which they also may have heard of and which are so respected, are actually connected to Middlebury. Our primary goal is to make it clear that the Bread Loaf School of English, the Language Schools, the Institute in Monterey and the rest are part of one institution, all part of Middlebury.”
In addition to the new naming system, a new logo was also introduced. Burger reflected on the process, saying that the initial plan did not include a logo. Ultimately, however, it became clear that a visual was needed to tie everything together. While Burger admitted that the Middlebury seal was familiar, it also had some disadvantages. He noted its intricacy, making reproduction difficult at times, but also that the text contained abbreviated Latin.
“We needed something bolder,” Burger stated, which is how the shield came to light. “We began to focus on those elements we thought were important to emphasize and that most reflected what is distinctive about Middlebury,” he said, which included its international focus, sense of place and academics, along with the date of the founding.
In terms of difficulties faced throughout the process, Burger explained maintaining tradition in the new logo was important. “That’s why you see Old Chapel, the book, the mountains, the globe, and the founding date,” Burger said.
Burger referenced Middlebury’s 2007 attempt at a new logo – a maple leaf, which ultimately failed. “The problem with the so-called maple leaf logo,” he reasoned, “was that it didn’t really honor the traditions of the institution. It didn’t resonate with alumni or with students. When we embarked on this project, we knew we needed to take a different approach, you could call it a conservative approach, that incorporated familiar symbols.”
Reception to the new identity system, Burger says, has been supportive.
“I have read at least 100 comments that have come in through email, Facebook, Twitter, or through the form that we created on the website.” Burger revealed. “Overall, the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive.”
However, several alumni on the Facebook page expressed disappointment with the new logo and rebranding. These graduates voiced frustration that last week’s announcement was similar to the 2007 maple leaf rollout (which recieved such negative feedback that it was ultimately discarded), where they felt removed from the process.
Likewise, in a Campus poll that asked for feedback on the new logo, 44 percent of the 194 respondents indicated that they “dislike” the new logo while 34 percent said that they “hate” it.
Students also took to forums such as YikYak to express their disappointment in the new logo. One such anonymous “Yak” read, “Sh***y tailgates and stupid logos...One day we woke up and they were just there without explanation.”
Addressing the two different components of the transformation, Burger said that he hasn’t yet heard anyone express disdain over the naming system.
“I’m sure some people will take issue with the particular design of the logo,” Burger said. “Whenever you introduce a new graphic symbol, no matter what it is, some people won’t like it initially, or perhaps ever. That comes with change. But already I’ve heard from a few people who said they had a negative initial reaction, but began to like it more after seeing it for a day or two.”
(11/05/14 6:08pm)
Each year Middlebury students apply for internships and jobs, and look to the College for support through the application process. The Center for Careers and Internships (CCI) aims to make this part of the Middlebury experience a little less stressful by creating a network of alums and providing students with job and internship opportunities described as “Middlebury-friendly.” Sites like MOJO and MiddNet help students peruse through job opportunities and contact alumni.
Jeff Sawyer, CCI Director of Employer Outreach and Development, offered some insight into the process.
“We start with understanding where the opportunities are and what students are interested in,” Sawyer explained. “And then we start to actually go out and target organizations to bring opportunities to the table.”
The CCI then invites companies or organizations to post with them. “We go out and actively encourage employers to kind of work with us,” Sawyer explained. “The preponderance of opportunities in MOJO are brought by organizations that want Middlebury students. They aren’t necessarily alums. In fact, the majority of opportunities are not sourced by alums,” although connecting students to alumni networks is one of the CCI’s strengths.
The CCI encourages alumni to get involved in their company’s recruiting processes as well as to help the CCI understand how these recruiting processes work. In addition, Sawyer admitted, the CCI asks alumni to advocate for Middlebury students if possible.
One of the biggest challenges that the CCI faces, according to Sawyer, is making students aware of the wealth of opportunities that come with their liberal arts degree – that they are capable of pursuing a number of career paths or even a number of occupations within one industry.
Career Adviser Tracy Isham echoed Sawyer, explaining that the CCI is “trying to highlight that within a sector, there’s a lot of diversity.”
After building awareness in terms of different career paths, the CCI works to make students as prepared as possible by reviewing their resumes and offering practice interviews. But not all students have had especially positive experiences with MOJO. Emily Snoddon ’14.5 shared a recent experience with the site during an application process.
“A job for an investigator position at the Bronx Defenders was posted on MOJO in early September and was due October 24th,” Snoddon explained. “The week the application was due, I reached out to an alum, Daniel Loehr, who currently is in the same position at the organization.” Loehr regretfully informed Snoddon that the company was holding their last round of interviews the next day, but encouraged her to send him her resume in an attempt to convince his supervisor to extend the process. Though Loehr’s attempt ultimately failed, he informed Snoddon that the position for which she was applying would start in November, meaning she would have been unable to accept the position regardless, since she would still be in her last semester at Middlebury. In an email to Snoddon, Loehr noted that the date posted on MOJO was the final deadline but that the organization was interviewing candidates prior to the Oct. 24 deadline.
Snoddon expressed her frustrations with the process. “To my knowledge, the CCI has never warned students of the fact that the application due date means the final day they will accept and not when the company starts to consider. Any student who applied on the date posted on MOJO would not be considered for the position, considering the final round of interviews had already occurred. Furthermore, I am not even sure they [the CCI] are aware of these facts. [Career Advisor] Tim Mosehauer sent out an email 2 days before the ‘deadline’ reminding students of this particular position. Clearly, he was not aware that the final round of interviews had already taken place.”
Similarly, Snoddon expressed her irritation with MOJO’s description of the job, as it did not list the start date as November – which would actually disqualify any student who has access to MOJO, as graduating students only have access to MOJO until September after their graduation date.
When asked about the potential deadline confusion on MOJO, Isham and Sawyer both noted that it was certainly an issue worth addressing. “I would say that there’s a culture here on this campus…of waiting,” Isham said. “One of the things that we think might be one of our communication campaigns for the future is telling students that…how do we get students to understand that you need to apply early? When you see an opportunity, not to wait until the deadline.”
Isham and Sawyer discussed the possibility of listing deadlines as “rolling” or even going so far as to post false deadlines. But ultimately they both agreed that students must be the ones to take the initiative to apply for a job that they want as soon as possible. “You don’t wait until your milk goes bad,” Isham stressed, “We don’t want our students to lose out.”
“It’s important for students to understand that’s not the way the employment world works,” Sawyer articulated. “Don’t treat it like a term paper. You want to get it as soon as you can, first come first served type of thing,” he concluded.
(10/22/14 7:31pm)
New to the College this fall, the Party Assistant program will engage students in the duty of regulating parties held by their peers. In late September of this year, students received an email from Barbara McCall, Director of Health and Wellness Education, inviting them to apply for the position of Party Assistant. The program has been considered for a number of years but was initially proposed by a student member of the Task Force on Alcohol and Social Life from 2011-2012.
McCall explained that the process of creating this position has involved interviewing and reviewing materials at schools with similar programs, such as Swarthmore, Haverford, Dartmouth and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. It also involved meeting with consultants, engaging with stakeholders at the College and consultation and review by the College’s legal team.
The goal of the Party Assistant program, McCall explained, “is to increase safety and reduce risk at registered parties through peer-to-peer support.” Due to concerns regarding the responsibility and amount of work required of hosts, the Party Assistant program was created to “expand the team of folks looking out for each other at events,” as well as to “support the hosts in making important safety decisions.” Ultimately, the Party Assistants will act as a resource for both the hosts and attendees. Party Assistants will also be responsible for providing the required amounts of food and nonalcoholic beverages for registered parties with alcohol.
Party Assistants will play an active role in registered parties every step of the way. They will arrive early to parties in order to survey the social space, as well as meet with hosts and a Public Safety officer. Their shifts will typically last from about 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. When the event is over, they will reconvene with the hosts and officer in order to assess the night as well as to make suggestions for future events.
In addition to being paid for their Friday or Saturday night party shifts, they will be compensated to attend monthly meetings that will involve ongoing training, as well as providing the administration with feedback on the program. As McCall put it, “Party Assistants will essentially act as extra eyes, ears and hands at events to support the hosts in creating and maintaining a safer and enjoyable event environment.”
The Final Report of the Task Force on Alcohol and Social Life, published in May 2012, details the Party Assistant Proposal, explaining the role and expectations of the Party Assistants (or Party Monitors, as they are referred to in the report). In addition to coordinating with the hosts and Public Safety, Party Assistants are entitled to take steps to remove persons who are intoxicated or belligerent. If possible, they will do this in coordination with the hosts. If they experience trouble removing an intoxicated or belligerent person, they are able to call Public Safety for assistance.
Party Assistants will also deal with capacity issues. If the party fails to comply with College policy (for example, underage alcohol consumption, incorrect marking of hands at the door, etc.), Party Assistants may contact Public Safety.
As of now, there is no set number of Party Assistants that the College plans on hiring. Applications are being accepted on a rolling basis and the administration is looking for more applicants. Ultimately, McCall explains, the hope for the Party Assistant program is that it “becomes part of the fabric of Middlebury’s social life.” Stressing the importance of peer-to-peer support, McCall hopes that upperclassmen will help contribute to a “culture of safety that they experienced as first-years and sophomores” that will ultimately provide for a safer, united campus environment.
(10/01/14 10:44pm)
In June 2015, the first annual Bread Loaf Translators’ Conference will be held at Middlebury’s Bread Loaf campus in Ripton, Vermont. The weeklong summit, modeled after the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, is intended to offer training and community to translators of all abilities while improving accessibility to high quality literary translations.
Poet, literary translator, and Director for the Master of Arts in Literary Translation at the University of Rochester Jennifer Grotz is the director of the “BLT,” as she calls it. “It would be hard to overstate the importance of the literary translator in our culture,” Grotz said, touching upon the often-overlooked yet complex role of the translator.
Grotz said, “First, it has to do with importing into our culture and language something that isn’t already there, something that will breathe new life into our current conceptions and ideas. Secondly, it has to do with making a substantial work of literary art in the target language. This is where the Bread Loaf Translators’ Conference comes in. Our goal is to help train translators as literary writers.”
Bill Johnston, Professor of Comparative Literature at Indiana University and faculty member at the inaugural Bread Loaf Translators’ Conference, echoed Grotz’s statements regarding the importance of the under-appreciated translator.
“The translator is pretty much essential in ensuring a flow of literature around the world,” Johnston said. “In the case of a language like mine, like Polish, where there aren’t that many translators or alternative translations available, you’re frequently responsible for singlehandedly creating the tone of a particular work or even author in the English language.”
Grotz, with Director of the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference Michael Collier, designed the program and described it as a “culmination of at least five years of thought and work.” During this time, their plans and ideas have evolved. Grotz originally intended for the conference’s workshops to be language-centered.
Grotz said, “I came to decide that the more innovative and, ideally, productive approach would be to keep the workshops genre-based…the BLT is not a workshop that helps with the acquiring of foreign languages but instead with acquiring the skills of successful literary translators.”
Another element that evolved over time, Grotz revealed, “was the idea of having one workshop specifically for those interested in learning more about and practicing translation even if they didn’t have a foreign language sufficiently acquired or if they didn’t have a project they were already working on.” Grotz expressed her excitement for this introductory workshop alongside the others.
Grotz was also involved in selecting the faculty members for next summer’s conference. They include Susan Bernofsky, Maureen Freeley, Jennifer Grotz, Bill Johnston, and Don Share. Grotz described all of them as tremendously accomplished.
My criteria for the faculty,” she revealed, “are that they be successful literary translators who are also accomplished and published creative writers. Additionally, all faculty members have substantial teaching experience and are known to be gifted and dynamic teachers.”
In terms of the future of the conference, Grotz and Johnston expressed their excitement and hope for success. “I hope that it will become a regular thing,” Johnston explained. “I think it’s an important indication and component of the fact that more and more people are becoming aware of translation, taking an interest in it, appreciating it. It’s important in the world of writing and the flow of literature across national borders.”
Grotz reiterated Johnston’s sentiments, stating, “My hope is that the establishment of this conference will provide new and helpful ways of training the current and upcoming generations of literary translators, and also that it will increase their exposure in the larger literary and publishing world.”
In a moment that conveyed his dedication for literary translation, Johnston explained that he was most looking forward to working with texts during the conference. He said, “There’s a tremendous excitement when you get to work with texts that have never previously seen the light of day in English.”
(09/24/14 8:42pm)
On Wednesday, Sept. 17, the College’s Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE) held a Teach-In to discuss the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. The room was packed to standing room, as students and faculty listened to the panel and engaged in discussion.
Roberto Lint Sagarena, Director of the CCSRE, began the teach-in with a brief chronology of the events that transpired in Ferguson on the day of the shooting and days thereafter.
In addition to his basic timeline of events, Sagarena addressed the differences between the police and witness reports surrounding the circumstances regarding Brown’s death, as well as the pure chaos that erupted in the community following the shooting, including the issues surrounding the media.
Sagarena closed with the results of a Pew Research Poll of 1,000 adults that was conducted in the middle of the protests. There were stark racial and political divisions in the reactions to the shooting, as 80 percent of African Americans surveyed said that the shooting “raised important issues about race” while 47 percent of whites said that the issue of race “was getting more attention than it deserves.” Similarly, 68 percent of Democrats thought that the incident raised important issues of race compared to 40 percent of Independents and 22 percent of Republicans.
Associate Professor of History William Hart addressed the issue of historical precedent – more specifically, the history of violence between police and black civilians. He drew upon a study conducted by Stanford professor and MacArthur Genius Grant recipient Jennifer Eberhardt, in which she determined that “the blacker a defendant looks, the more likely it was that the defendant would receive the death penalty if the victim was white,” and concluded that “it’s almost as if people are thinking of blackness as a crime.”
Hart explained that throughout American history, there is evidence to support the preconditioning towards blackness versus whiteness. If whiteness is viewed as law and privilege,
“The converse would be blackness as crime,” he explained.
He looked back as far as the colonial era, in which laws were meant for white colonists, not for those of color. Progressing throughout history, he explained that police officers either facilitated, or did not hinder, the lynching of African American men and women. Hart then asserted that many urban uprisings in the 20th century were due to police violence, concluding that historically, relations between the black community and the law have been uneasy at best.
Dean of Faculty Development and Research and Rehnquist Professor of American History James Ralph picked up where Hart left off, discussing various attempts by the African American community throughout history to organize in order to address economic, civil, and social injustices. He used the creation of the National Negro Congress in the 1930s as well as the Black Panther Party in the 1960s as examples of efforts to combat oppression and protect African American interests.
Ralph then examined the role of law enforcement during these times, explaining that in the South especially, the police had directly supported segregation. Ralph encouraged us to think of the implications Ferguson may have on the future, suggesting we ask what will come of the Ferguson protests and unrest.
“Is this the beginning of a mass mobilization?” he asked, adding that it has attracted not only national but also international attention.
Assistant Professor of Sociology Rebecca Tiger was last to speak. She first addressed the issue of focusing on the militarization of the police force.
“The militarization of police is significant, but not necessarily for the reasons we have been hearing about,” Tiger said.
Tiger asserted that a large part of the militarization of the police is asset forfeiture. As a part of a 1984 crime control bill, Tiger explained if someone is stopped because they are suspected to have committed a crime, their on-person assets can be seized and not returned to them even if they are not charged or found guilty of a crime. Any money they have can be confiscated, and it is not going to be returned to them even if no crime was committed unless they start judicial proceedings, which are very expensive.
The seized assets, which are supposed to go to schools, end up going to police departments and help fund this militarization of the police. Ultimately, Tiger explained, the Ferguson residents are paying for the police to use militarized equipment on them.
Tiger urged the audience to think of the militarization of the police force as a part of “mundane routines of degradation that happen in the criminal justice system,” warning us that focusing on the militarization of police may result in missing the broader issue.
“We have to start having some serious questions about the police,” Tiger declared. “What role do the police have? Fundamental questions about what their function is. Not questions about how they can be better or more responsive to the community.”
“[We need to] start thinking a little more carefully and critically about what it is that we are actually protesting,” Tiger said. “Because when we take these things all together, you can see that this is the end result of policies and criminal justice practices that have led to this…dispossession of certain segments of the population.”
The floor then opened for questions and discussion. Students and faculty engaged the speakers and each other in dialogue, addressing issues ranging from Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson to the GoFundMe page in support of Officer Wilson that raised over $430,000.
“Do we have the same sort of deep, dense networks of organizations working together…to help put pressure on the political actors in the country so that there can be ongoing sustained work that brings about social change?” Ralph asked.
Hart explained that Ferguson is a relatively new predominantly black community and hasn’t yet had time to establish these networks.