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(11/13/14 5:02am)
On Oct. 30, Michael Geisler, vice president for Language Schools and Schools Abroad, Chief Risk Officer, and Professor of German and Dr. Mark Peluso, the College Medical Director and College Physician, sent out a school-wide “Important Ebola Update.”
The message included new policies that will be instituted to minimize the threat of Ebola to students on campus and abroad. It said, “Effective immediately…Middlebury will not support sponsored travel to countries identified by the Center for Disease Control as high-risk areas.”
This means that the College will offer neither credit nor assistance to students, faculty or staff who perform any type of activity in Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone, the only exception being if the community member can provide evidence that they have “special expertise and training to assist in the humanitarian effort.” If a College community member were to travel to any of the high-risk areas, they would be required to abstain from returning to campus for 21 days — the maximum amount of time the virus takes to incubate.
This announcement comes on the heels of months of sensational news headlines, most of which have focused on the few cases that have been diagnosed in America. The severity of the virus and the lack of readily available cures have unquestionably contributed to the media circus.
Despite the amount of attention the American Ebola outbreak has gotten in the media, both Geisler and Peluso insist that the threat of an on-campus outbreak is incredibly low, especially with the College’s new policies.
Peluso said, “The risk of getting infected with Ebola is extremely low at this time…with Middlebury’s policy of asking people to wait for 21 days before returning to campus, the risk of someone becoming sick on our campuses and spreading diseases is extremely low.”
Regardless of the incredibly low risk of an Ebola case on any of the College’s campuses, members of the College Emergency Planning and Preparedness Team and the Emergency Core Team decided that it would be helpful to notify the community of the travel restrictions to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone while also informing them of the required 21-day leave from campus that a community member must take upon return from one of these countries.
If a community member were to disregard the new policies set forth and return to campus immediately after coming into possible contact with the Ebola virus, the College would be prepared. Peluso said that the team would “ask the person to stay where they were, and immediately notify the Vermont Department of Health. Consultation with infectious disease experts and CDC would quickly determine the next steps, and Vermont is prepared to transport and treat people with possible Ebola virus disease.”
Fortunately, Geisler is not aware of any student whose study abroad or traveling plans were or will be affected by these new policy changes. In addition, no student has come forward to say that they have been in any of the high-risk countries.
There are students abroad in European countries that have announced cases of Ebola, like Spain. However, the risk is still extremely low and the College is not taking any extra measures for students abroad in Madrid or any other places outside of Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone with confirmed cases.
Geisler said, “We assume that local health authorities will do their job as do ours over here. We do not anticipate that this is going to impact any of the Middlebury students in one of the Middlebury programs that we have.”
In response to national media outlets’ handling of the Ebola virus, Peluso thinks that the stories have become more balanced now that there is more experience with the illness. There has been a lot more coverage on people recovering from the Ebola virus in U.S. hospitals.
He added, “What I would like to see more of are stories that focus on the need for more health professionals in West Africa to prevent spread in that region, as well as stories about people who volunteered and did not get sick.”
(11/13/14 2:46am)
For this week’s escapade, we were on the hunt to try something particularly adventurous — something truly unknown to the Middlebury community.
On Sunday afternoon, we made our way over to the natatorium (you can’t use the word pool for a cement hole in the ground filled with chlorinated water that cost over 10 million dollars). Maddie exclaimed upon passing the Center for the Arts and seeing the Athletic Center (“Woah! What happened to the front entrance?!”). Although our brightly patterned Victoria Secret bikinis felt like the right decision in our rooms, that feeling quickly changed once we entered the pool. Who knew the status quo attire at a college natatorium was different than our spring break experiences in Mexico? Although our insubstantial pieces of string and cloth were waterproof, spandex and sports bras are strongly encouraged for drumroll … logrolling! After we apologized for our idiocy, Hilary Woodworth ’14.5 — a member of the club — assured us that, other than some potential ‘slippage,’ our attire would be fine.
We both took turns walking out onto the log and following instructions on what to do. Surprisingly, it wasn’t impossible. Ten nip slips and a more revealing exhibition than Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl halftime show later, Izzy was successfully rolling on a log in the water. We have decided to define the word ‘successfully’ in NARP terms to mean at least two seconds of flailing arms and incomprehensible yelps while at least one of our feet maintained contact with the log. Although this may not seem like an accomplishment to most, we have decided 98.5 percent of our readers have never gone logrolling and, therefore, have no say in the matter. Sorry we’re not sorry.
Maddie was also getting the hang of it shortly thereafter and, unlike Izzy, managed to keep her swimsuit on. The day got even better when Danielle, the logrolling coach, told Maddie she had a “beautiful, elongated thigh.” A beautiful thigh! Unfortunately, it was working to her disadvantage because that meant her butt sat further back, which ruined her balance. Maddie understood that it wasn’t her beautiful thigh causing the balance issues, but her fat a$$.
There came a point when Maddie was asked if she knew what a squat was, and she had glaring flashbacks to the gym session with personal trainer Goran last year. The memory was so traumatic that she fell off the log and hit her back on the way down. This may seem minor, but the log has carpet around it for gripping purposes and she got a big rug burn. In other words, it was minor for everyone except her.
We discovered that the hardest feat of logrolling is to maintain composure. It is truly an art to resemble Jesus walking on water; keeping your upper body still as your feet move daintily on the log to keep yourself upright.
Watching Hilary and Danielle get on the log together and compete was inspiring enough to convince us both to sign up for their J-term workshop this winter and get a P.E. credit. All in all, we had a blast and the rug burns between our thighs only lasted a few hours, causing Maddie to say “I feel like I rode a carpeted mechanical bull” twice.
(10/23/14 12:44am)
It’s no secret that it has been our lifetime dream to be extras in a Step Up movie. Those dreams were temporarily crushed when Maddie’s application to MTV’s show Made to become a hip-hop dancer went unanswered in 2010, and Izzy’s career in Irish Dancing quickly came to a halt when it became clear she genetically could not point her toes.
However, our dancing confidence made a triumphant return after a crowd of “fans” (belligerent partygoers?) catcalled us during a late-night Atwater dance-off last year. It only made sense that during our semester of experimental adventures we would make a stop at a Riddim dance practice. For those of you less-cultured readers who are unfamiliar with Riddim, we will give you the 411. Riddim is the coolest group on campus; end of story. Rhythmically-gifted students band together every term for weekly practices that culminate in an end-of-the-semester final performance slash the ultimate showdown. The performances are well-choreographed, sexy, creative and full of great mood lighting. Basically, it’s the closest a Middlebury student will ever get to attending the Video Music Awards.
Luckily for us, the members of Riddim were more than willing to let us join in. In fact, they even offered to let us crash a Tuesday night hip-hop/twerk class taught by Lauren Black ’16, the ULTIMATE hip hop expert. We had about a week to prepare for our dancing debut. The most obvious question we had to address was: what do we wear? Maddie really pushed for an off-the-shoulder sweater with a cheetah leotard and cropped leggings look, while Izzy was dead set on drop-crotch sweats, Nike dunks and a T-shirt with homemade gaping armpit holes. Due to our inability to pick one over the other, we compromised with loose fitting tank tops, leggings and barefeet. Every night before bed, we would watch three critical YouTube videos: Beyonce’s Superbowl Halftime Performance, “The Carlton” from French Prince of Bel-Air and Channing Tatum’s Magic Mike Black Vest Dance (just ‘cause). When it was finally Tuesday, we felt as ready as we would ever be — unable to touch our toes and full of energy.
As we entered the dance studio below Proctor Dining Hall, we clung to the back wall in order to get as far away from the full length mirror as possible. We watched the dancers run through what they had learned the week before with starry eyes and perhaps a little bit of drool running down our chins. Lauren instructed the dancers on the floor to “let that booty do its thing” as the lyrics “kill him with it” blasted out of the speakers. Naturally, we immediately felt at home.
It was finally our turn to join in once Lauren started teaching everyone a new dance. We were flooded with questions. What is a kick-ball change? Do I look like Missy Elliot? Why does my face look like I’m in pain when I’m trying to be sexy? Honestly, we felt like we were awkward attendees at a bad indie concert struggling to sway with the beat. Even our simple strut paled in comparison to the hot women of Riddim. Maddie particularly struggled with a move that required her to push up her cleavage that is, unfortunately, nonexistent. A GIRL CAN DREAM. During the final run-through we managed to keep up with roughly 25 percent of the choreography — even the on-the-floor gyrations to the lyric “big fat pu**y mufasa.”
All in all, the Riddim girls were incredibly nice and welcoming. At no point did they burst out laughing at our flailing limbs, and we immediately felt a part of the group. It was honestly shocking how quickly everyone learned the choreography. Lauren would repeat the new moves once before all of the girls fell in line and were ready to move on to the next while we were still catching our breath. Not only did they retain the choreography but they looked incredibly sexy the entire time. The Riddim girls have a confidence that radiates from their dancing, and it makes their performances that much more fun to watch.
Don’t forget to buy your tickets for the December performance as soon as they go on sale – we recommend the 10:30 timeslot as the crowd is much rowdier.
(10/01/14 11:36pm)
Ladies and Gentlemen, Izzy and Maddie a.k.a. the NARPs are back and ready to make a comeback that is hopefully more successful than Hilary Duff’s latest single (#duffwillrise). For those who are new to The Campus and our column, welcome. To returning fans, where was our fan mail this summer? And to all of you froshies out there who spent your high school career sleeping in a bed covered with SAT books and don’t know what NARPs stands for, first of all, was that really worth it? Secondly, please introduce yourself to Urbandictionary.com ASAP and memorize the following acronym: Non-Athletic Regular People. If you are one of those people who thought throwing those SAT books across your room counted as your daily exercise, you are one of us.
Last semester, we spent twelve weeks struggling to train for a half-marathon that culminated in our not running a half-marathon. Although this appears as a failure, we were finally able to join in the ranks of people who use foreign phrases like “I just went on a run … voluntarily” or “My leg is cramping.” This semester, the NARPs have decided to explore other unknown realms of the campus. Ever wonder what happens when you put two rhythmically-challenged people in a Riddim twerk practice? Or when two die-hard karaoke fans who, after months of practice, have failed to master Seasons of Love from Rent join an a capella practice? Fortunately, this column will chronicle our awkward, embarrassing, and enlightening journeys into those uncomfortable predicaments.
As Izzy and Maddie contemplated the subject of their first column while heading into Atwater dining hall for macaroni and cheese last week, the answer appeared right in front of their faces. Otter Nonsense Auditions Thursday/Friday 4:30-6:30 Forest East Lounge. What better way to kick off a column about stepping out of one’s comfort zone than diving head first into an improv group audition. In order to maximize anxiety and potential asthma attacks, Maddie and Izzy decided to eliminate any safety blankets and try out on different days.
Izzy arrived on Thursday otterly flustered (see what we did there?) — Brainerd’s Fall Fest had run out of free pie. She then had a performance some would say was worse than Ashlee Simpson getting caught lip-syncing on Saturday Night Live. Halfway through the audition, an Otters member advised the auditioners to “switch up” their characters, if they had been gravitating toward a certain personality — go for the opposite. Izzy realized this directly applied to her as she had been embodying a loud-mouthed and hyper scatterbrain. In other words, she had been playing herself. For the next skit, Izzy found herself in the corner of the room, hiding behind a chair, failing to respond to any of her fellow actor’s questions. The audience called scene shortly thereafter.
Maddie was exceptionally nervous for her audition as her last encounter with the word “tryouts” involved getting cut from her no-cut-policy freshman basketball team. Her skits found her in a range of strange predicaments including, but not limited to, stealing a peacock from the zoo in order to use its feathers for dorm decoration. Things only got weirder when her improv partner set her up to kill someone by wrapping shoelaces around an invisible person’s neck. Thankfully, the audience called scene before the murder was mimed. Maddie hopes that the skit that started approaching incestual territory outshined her flubbed felony.
Although the auditions went very poorly for us, we could agree that the adrenaline rush after the tryouts was unbelievable. Putting themselves completely out of their comfort zones caused an incredible amount of anxiety, but surprisingly no embarrassment. As much as we would love to attribute the lack of humiliation to our never-ending levels of self-confidence, it had more to do with the environment. The Otter members were incredibly welcoming, and ended the auditions in a supportive group huddle (is this what being on a team feels like?). To the Otters, thank you for a hilariously fun and awkward time. To our readers, we’ll catch you in two weeks when we chronicle our attempted gyrations during a Riddim hip-hop practice.
(03/06/14 2:23pm)
Room 404 may not be the most recognizable student-run publication on campus, but its little-flaunted presence could be intentional. The publication’s distribution strategy, developed by the organization’s founders Moss Turpan ’14.5 and Dylan Redford ’14.5, does not rely on the typical grab-and-go allocation that other organizations utilize. For those who do not even know what Room 404 is, here is some background information on one of the College’s hidden gems.
The publication features poetry and prose with a purpose, creative graphics, comic quizzes and other ramblings that Turpan says “don’t have a place in any other campus publications.” All of the components are created, edited and designed by a team of contributors at meetings that occur “wheneverly.”
Although the idea for Room 404 sprouted during Turpan and Redford’s freshman year, the first publication did not come out until Winter 2013, but a Spring 2014 edition quickly followed, leading the club to run on a twice-a-year publishing basis. The Spring 2013 edition featured a Choose Your Own Friday Night Adventure at Middlebury, an erasure poem from a book by Freud, Unconventional Love Letters and a comedic Genealogy of Herbals (a family tree portraying personified and characterized herbs with Bay Laurel and Sage as the common ancestors). If the content itself did not make the publication unique enough, its distribution process is notable as well.
The members of Room 404 work hard to compile an email list of prospective contributors and interested readers to get their word out. Leading up to a new edition of Room 404, the staff organizes a non-exclusive release party. All attendees receive an issue of the most recent publication. However, that is not the only opportunity for students to get their hands on a copy. Posters are plastered around campus inciting people to request their own copy via email. A requester is entered into the email server and a personalized copy of the publication is delivered promptly to his or her mailbox.
This is a key feature that separates Room 404 from other student-run publications on campus like Blackbird, the literary magazine, or even the Campus issue you are reading right now. Publications can be as easy to leave behind or throw away as they are to obtain. Everybody has picked up a newspaper or magazine lying around and skimmed it during a spare minute, only to abandon it as quickly as they had found it. Turpan and his peers believe that requiring readers to order their copies, and then presonalizing each copy, increases the chances of students reading the publication thoroughly and also hanging onto it.
I experienced this myself during my interview with Turpan as he brought out the Spring 2013 edition of Room 404, and neatly wrote my name in block lettering along the black line that was preceded by “This Book Belongs To.” I immediately wanted to read every line and every post script and admire every drawing including a very well-constructed ring pop. And, indeed, I did just that as soon as I went back to my room.
The idea of receiving an aesthetically-pleasing and personalized gift in a mailbox that is more commonly designated for tutoring flyers and useless advertisements is tantalizing, and if nothing else, simply new. Although this tailored distribution of magazines is a factor in why Room 404 is less of a “big name” compared to Blackbird or the Campus, it arguably could produce a more dedicated and stronger readership.