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Middlebury welcomed students back to campus for J-Term amid a sharp increase in Covid-19 cases nationwide. Arrival testing and testing throughout the first week of the term brought the case count on campus to 122 active cases, 96 student cases and 26 employee cases, on January 13.
According to an article published in the previous issue of The Campus, during J-Term registration, about 963 upperclassmen not involved in independent work attempted to register for 875 available seats in J-Term classes. While these numbers are striking, they don’t convey the full impact of what it was like to be one of those upperclassmen. It was chaotic, stressful and disappointing.
The men’s and women’s ultimate frisbee teams, known as the Pranksters, are nationals bound following comfortable wins at the New England regional tournament on Nov. 13 and14.
Crisp air and bare trees can only signal one thing: the dawn of the winter sports season. As fall sports wind down at Middlebury, it’s time to turn our attention to the 14 varsity winter sports teams that are set to compete over the next few months. Here are previews for every varsity winter sports team.
Men’s cross country
Middlebury College is located in a beautiful autumnal environment. Amidst the peaks of the mountains and turning leaves, Midd students bustle through rolling hills to class, practice and meals, but on Halloween and the days leading up to the holiday, what can Middlebury students do to celebrate? From scary to sporty to beautiful, here are The Campus’ recommendations as we go into Halloweekend.
Two students tested positive for Covid-19 upon arrival to Middlebury and one student tested positive post-arrival, according to Julia Ferrante, associate vice president for public affairs, putting into action the college’s policies for confirmed cases on campus and outbreak prevention. Fourteen additional students tested positive as part of Middlebury’s pre-arrival testing program and had to delay their arrival to campus. These cases were announced to students via email last Friday. The figures provided in the email — included under the heading “Face Covering Reminder” as an example of the necessity of mask-wearing — were 16 pre-arrival cases (combining the two who tested positive upon arrival and the 14 who tested positive before coming to campus) and the one student post-arrival case. “We do not define these three cases as an ‘outbreak,’” Ferrante said in an email to The Campus. According to Ferrante, the college’s contact tracing efforts in response to the most recent case are ongoing. “As soon as we identify a positive student case, we instruct them to isolate away from others and they are moved to isolation housing or to a location off campus where they can safely recover,” Ferrante said. Ferrante said that the school then conducts contact tracing to identify any students who may have been infected with the virus. Fully vaccinated close contacts are required to wear masks and be re-test in three to five days, but do not have to quarantine. Unvaccinated contacts must quarantine until they receive a negative Day Seven test result and have no symptoms, unless given other directions by the Vermont Department of Health and CDC guidance. Other NESCAC institutions have also managed positive cases — and significant outbreaks— at their campuses since the return of students this fall. Most have responded to growing case counts by increasing the frequency of their already regular and widespread testing. Some schools also increased their campus’ level of alert, placing restrictions on dining and gathering limits, and instating other measures to increase physical distancing. At Connecticut College in New London, Conn., 169 students tested positive for Covid-19 in a single week, prompting a campus lockdown on Sept. 7, according to the school’s Covid-19 dashboard. On Sept. 13, after a week of the school’s highest alert level, some restrictions were relaxed, allowing students to return to in-person classes and athletic practices, while dining remained take-out only, and gathering limits stayed low. Connecticut College students are tested twice per week, and the college’s administration said it believes the outbreak was related to a large number of gatherings indoors in crowded spaces — both on campus in dorms and off campus in bars and apartments — causing a “chain reaction” of spread among the student body. There are currently 20 cases on campus. On Sept. 3, Bowdoin College in Brunswick, ME announced it would increase student testing from once a month to twice per week after a substantial increase in identified cases — at that time there were 30 students in isolation. Bowdoin also increased its alert level, restricting indoor dining capacity and gathering sizes. Bowdoin has not identified a positive student case since Sept. 14. After identifying eight positive cases on campus the week of Aug. 31, Bates College in Lewiston, ME announced that students would be tested twice per week, as a measure to prevent a large-scale outbreak, on top of other health and safety guidelines. “This ongoing testing is critical to understand the transmission of Covid-19 on campus, particularly among individuals who are asymptomatic, and will provide the data we need to determine whether additional public health measures are necessary to protect the health of the community,” Joshua McIntosh, vice president for campus life at Bates, told students. McIntosh also said the school is prepared to further increase testing — as well as restrict building access, off campus travel and gathering sizes — if case counts increase substantially. Tufts University also increased their regular student testing from weekly to twice weekly on Sept. 14 after a rise in cases. The Medford, Mass. school identified 85 cases on campus in the last seven days. Middlebury is the only NESCAC school not testing students across the student population at least once per week, with most schools testing all students once or twice per week. “We are ready to ramp up testing for all students if needed and would do so if prevalence indicates it is needed,” Ferrante said. Ferrante did not say what threshold would trigger widespread testing. The Fall 2021 Campus Guide states that “Decisions about testing — including how often and how many students or employees are tested throughout the semester — will be informed by the health conditions of Addison County and Vermont, campus health conditions, and applicable guidance or requirements.” Vermont registered its highest single-day increase in positive Covid-19 cases of the entire pandemic last week. “We know that the best course of action is for all students, faculty, and staff to follow the protocols in place and do everything we can to prevent an outbreak,” Ferrante said. “That is one of the reasons we decided to require pre-arrival testing”— a measure not undertaken by most NESCACS — “and masks indoors, and we will consider additional measures as conditions evolve.” A Sept. 16 email from Dean of Students Derek Doucet noted that the college’s pre-arrival testing had identified 16 positive Covid-19 cases. Though Ferrante did not outline Middlebury’s specific plan for managing an outbreak, she described the options available to Middlebury if case counts increase. “If we were to identify an increase in cases on campus, we have several options: limiting travel to Vermont, or to Addison County or implementing a campus quarantine for a period of time,” Ferrante said. “Given that 99 percent of our students will be vaccinated, we also offer the option for students to recover at an off-campus location if they are medically cleared to do so.” The Campus spoke with Jessie* ’24, who tested positive for Covid-19 and is currently in isolation housing. Jessie said they had begun to feel unwell early last week but did not believe they had Covid-19. Jessie was tested as a part of the international student arrival-testing process. According to Middlebury’s Fall 2021 Campus Guide, all students arriving from an international point of origin completed a week of arrival testing — students received a test upon arrival and were tested again twice in the following week. Jessie said that while they provided the student health center with their list of close contacts, they felt, with the increased transmissibility of the Delta Variant, it was difficult to know if they might have exposed anyone else. Jessie said they attended classes last week before receiving their positive test, but ate meals in their room. Ferrante said that students experiencing even mild symptoms should immediately seek testing at the Health Center. *Jessie is a pseudonym used to protect the anonymity of a student. Further resources and information on the Covid-19 protocols and policies can be found here.
We print on Thursdays throughout each semester and during J-Term. You can find print copies of the paper for free at 7 a.m. in stands around campus, and you can find stories on our website at 6 a.m. on Thursday mornings.
The Transparency and Accountability section of the Action Plan (Section V) was designed to assess and communicate progress towards strategic goals and ensure responsible parties complete them. The section also commits to ongoing assessment and planning to ensure the mission behind DEI continues into the future. Section V aims to create intentionality behind the work and enable the completion of tangible progress and goals rather than merely written promises, according to Director of Education for Equity and Inclusion Renee Wells. Of the 13 strategies in this section, two have been completed, seven are underway and four have not yet started due to a later timeline. The section differs from the rest of the plan due to the greater variety amongst the strategies. Many of the strategies are based on sharing progress and data, while others introduce key initiatives and projects to the college. This has made the Transparency and Accountability section more challenging to work on, according to Miguel Fernández. “The thing about this kind of work is that if there's no intentionality around being accountable and no process for being held accountable, it's really easy for stuff to just not get done,” Wells said. “So we're saying to ourselves that we need to be accountable for doing this work, but we're also saying to the community we need you to hold us accountable for doing this work. We're going to try to be as transparent in an ongoing way about where we're at, so that we don't just issue a plan and then assume that everything is magically happening, because that rarely is the case.” Communication with the college community is a central theme in the Transparency and Accountability section, and the opening strategy of the section commits to developing a communication plan to “ensure the centrality of diversity, equity and inclusion to Middlebury’s mission is clear and messaged both consistently and effectively.” “The communications plan to be developed will take into account the needs and voices of all Middlebury stakeholders and include all means of connection—letters to the community, podcasts, news and magazine stories, social media, press outreach, and more” David Gibson, vice president for communications, said. Four of the strategies in the section propose a timeline for the 2020-2021 school year, most of which are still currently in the works. Strategy #4 of the plan, one of the four of the 2020-2021 strategies, aims to create and maintain a dashboard that tracks progress towards institutional DEI goals and anti-racist initiatives. The Office of Institutional Diversity Equity and Inclusion (OIDEI), however, has had difficulty trying to create a proper model for the website, and a dashboard has not yet been made available to the community. “We have found that a dashboard is very hard to create when you don’t have numbers, this work is qualitative and not quantitative ...we have work to do in that area; we’re trying to improve our communication,” Fernández said. OIDEI has a mock-up for the dashboard and is working with Information Technology Services and the SGA Innovation and Technology committee to complete the project. While OIDEI works towards a way to properly present this material, Fernández has started a monthly update sharing information addressing aspects of the plan. These alternative forms of communication have included newsletters via email and webinars with students, alumni, parents and faculty. Both Fernández and Wells noted the importance of the dashboard in regards to creating transparency and accountability and hope it can be up and running soon. Two other 2020-2021 strategies include the creation of the Anti-Racist Taskforce (Strategy #7) and a DEI committee within the Board of Trustees (Strategy #8), both of which have been formed and are ongoing initiatives. The Anti-Racist Taskforce was created last fall and meets twice per month with a consistent group of 18 members comprised of faculty, staff and students. The force is divided into three working groups: funding transformative projects, launching an Anti-Racist learning hub in the Davis Library and creating a community dialogic standard. The task-force also facilitates monthly Story Circles, which seeks to understand the school’s collective history through sharing personal stories. “The Anti-Racist Task Force is interested in creating pathways towards anti-racism by educating and empowering individuals to evaluate their dependance on racist principles and ideologies,” Associate Professor of Dance Christal Brown, who heads the task force, said. “By creating personal accountability and relational understanding, we believe sustainable institutional change is possible; being accountable to one another is the first step.” In addressing strategy #8, the Board of Trustees voted to create a DEI subcommittee last October which reports to the Strategy Committee within the Board. The group had their first meeting as a subcommittee last January and plan on having more meetings to best identify ways the Board can align with and support efforts outlined in the DEI action plan. The fourth and final strategy for the 2020-2021 school year involves collecting and reporting out aggregate data on the diversity of students, staff and faculty. This data, however, will not be collected until the end of the academic year, according to Fernández A majority of the remaining plans have a later timeline, so many initiatives have not yet been implemented. This includes providing an annual State of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion address starting in the 2021-2022 school year (Strategy #5), hiring an external consulting firm to conduct campus climate studies (Strategy #9), and integrating inclusive excellence goals and benchmarks into the evaluation of senior academic and administrative leaders (Strategy #13). Other strategies, however, are in the early stages of progress and are more difficult to concretely track. Strategy #12, for instance, aims to “support unit-level efforts to identify and implement DEI goals and strategies relevant to individual departments, units, programs or offices.” Although it is more difficult to track the progress on strategies such as these, OIDEI is giving time for different departments to lay out their DEI goals. “I'm working with different departments and currently that's more of them reaching out proactively versus me reaching out to every department on campus. A lot of folks have been really trying to think about and identify what this support looks like in their respective units,” Wells said, in reference to Strategy #12. “Some of those are academic units, some of those are student affairs and student life units. So some of that work is already starting to happen.” Wells and Fernández both hope these goals within the Transparency and Accountability section will help create ongoing conversation and responsibility in the school’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion that goes beyond just numbers. “Diversity is about numbers and bringing people in, but the real work is in equity and inclusion,” Fernández said. “You can bring in all the people you want, and if they don't feel that they are a part of this community or a sense of belonging then what have you really achieved? You haven't achieved much right? And so the hard work as far as I'm concerned is that equity and inclusion.”
The Fostering and Restoring Community section involves strategies that are concerned with creating restorative mechanisms to address harm, facilitating spaces for critical conversations and workshops, creating avenues for dialogue between different stakeholders and providing opportunities to report incidents of bias and discrimination. These strategies are wide in scope, addressing students, faculty, staff, administration and community members. Director of Equity and Inclusion Renee Wells said that being in a community means that people will both experience and cause harm that is often unintentional. “Harm is happening all over the campus all the time,” Wells said. “I think that cultural change requires that we acknowledge where systemic, institutional, interpersonal barriers and harms exist and the ways in which we are either unintentionally complicit in or sometimes benefit from that.” “Due to differences in lived experience, every individual has a different comfort level navigating and talking about harm, and it is important to meet students where they are at in their journey,” Wells said. Though some people may feel discomfort during conversations about diversity, equity and inclusion, ultimately, they are feeling discomfort with a threat to the status quo, Wells explained. “But what we have to acknowledge is that this status quo is a whole bunch of interconnected systems of oppression that perpetuate inequity and harm,” she said. “So we have to get comfortable with the fact that people are going to be uncomfortable with that.” Of the 14 strategies detailed in the Fostering and Restoring Community Section of the Action Plan, 10 were scheduled for completion this year. Twelve of the fourteen have either been accomplished or commenced at the time of publication, and eight strategies are ongoing. Responding to incidents of harm Strategy #1 is about developing a system for using restorative practices, which is a framework used to proactively build community in response to incidents that cause harm on campus. There is a current framework in place, but the Restorative Practices Steering Committee — which includes several staff and administrators — is constantly tweaking the framework and is still integrating it into bodies around campus. Associate Dean of Community Standards Brian Lind said that restorative practices, which have been employed by the college for several years in place of traditional disciplinary avenues, consist of three pillars: community building, responding to harm, and leadership. Residential Life and staff members have been trained in facilitating community building circles and restorative frameworks to address breakdowns in community, such as when communities cause harm to each other. The restorative practices framework can be used in a variety of contexts, but often involves bringing parties who have experienced and caused harm together to discuss the impact of a behavior or breakdown in community. “Restorative practices give us a meaningful framework to develop relationships so that we have stronger bonds when we cause or experience harm,” Lind said. “And we have a shared practice of how to respond to [harm] appropriately.” Strategy #12 establishes alternative options for responding to incidents of relationship misconduct outside of the traditional adjudication process. Before this alternative pathway was available, students who wished to report misconduct filed a complaint with the Title IX office and underwent a formal investigation, according to Lind. This strategy creates another option. “The [adaptable process] gives us a way, I think, to address it in a form that isn't punitive, that will hopefully help repair the harm that's been caused, and help everybody involved kind of process and work through writing the situation. Establishing opportunities for critical conversations Strategy #2 is about engaging students in critical conversations around healthy relationships including sexual encounters and consent, and strategy #4 is about critical conversations about consent, sexual violence, and misconduct. These initiatives have commenced and are ongoing. According to Emily Wagner, assistant director of health and wellness education, their office has already had successful engagement with a variety of programs, including ProjectConnect, a six-week group series where students learn about developing authentic relationships, and Finding Your People, a panel for students to share ideas about expanding your friendship circle and creating community at Middlebury. Green Dot, a pre-existing program that aims to prevent sexual violence and promote healthy relationships through bystander intervention and conversation, will begin providing training at each of the Middlebury schools abroad. The training will be tailored to the cultural and linguistic differences of that country beginning in the fall of 2021, Wagner said in an email to the Campus. Sex Positive Education for College Students (SPECS) and confidential advocacy services such as MiddSafe have also sought to create a safer space on campus regarding relationships and consent. For the past three semesters, the Title IX office has also incorporated Speak About It — a program about consent and communication — into first-year student student orientation. The Title IX office also hosted a book club for students for the book Sexual Citizens, which discusses sexual assault on college campuses, according to Wagner and Civil Rights and Title IX Coordinator Marti McCaleb. “As we move into the 2021-2022 school year, we are working closely with Residential Life and other campus partners around strategic ways to reach more students in person,” Wagner said in an email. Avenues for dialogue and feedback Several strategies in this section are concerned with establishing channels of communication between students and staff, faculty, and administration. Wells hosts weekly office hours on Fridays from 12 to two and by appointment where students, faculty and staff can share concerns, seek support, and explore strategies to address concerns, an initiative introduced in strategy #6 of the Plan. Per strategy #7, the Senior Leadership Group (SLG) — a collection of senior-level administrators — has been meeting monthly with a group of BIPOC students who “represent key stakeholders and leadership of different cultural organizations to have collaborative discussions that aim for the implementation of institutional change,” according to a school-wide email from Dec. 15. Strategy #8 calls for the creation of a Student Advisory Council for the Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity and Inclusion to provide feedback and recommendations related to campus concerns, barriers to marginalized students on campus and forms of oppression. According to Chief Diversity Officer Miguel Fernández, this strategy has not yet been implemented. Strategy #9 tasks Faculty Council and the Educational Affairs Committee with “explor[ing] the possibility of including a question about accessibility, equity, and classroom climate on Course Response Forms.” This strategy is slated for 2021–2022, and work has not yet begun on this initiative, according to Faculty Council member Natalie Eppelsheimer. Strategy #13 tasks Community Council (CC) with exploring the role of Public Safety and collaboration with police and security. CC will then present a proposal to SLG outlining their findings. According to Co-Chair of Community Council Christian Kummer, CC has been in conversation with administration to create a formal recommendation on this topic, which will likely be completed next fall. Workshops Strategy #5 calls for regular workshops for faculty and staff to better understand the reporting requirements and investigation process for discrimination, harassmaent and sexual violence, and appropriate resources for members of the campus community. OIDEI provides the workshops and has presented them to various offices and groups, including Directors of the Language Schools, faculty and staff at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, staff of the Schools Abroad and incoming new faculty at Middlebury, according to McCaleb. “Every Middlebury employee has the responsibility to participate in and promote a respectful environment at Middlebury,” said McCaleb in an email. “Our conversations in this area are geared towards individuals understanding their personal impact and obligations within our community.” Strategy #14 calls for “regular education opportunities related to diversity, equity and inclusion in the local community.” Wells has spearheaded these efforts, and has facilitated various workshops in the past year about anti-racism, microaggressions and stereotyping for local non-profits, the Rutland NAACP, campus and community members, Middlebury Co-op managers and the Ilsley Public Library. Communication and Reporting Strategy #3 is concerned with clear communication about behaviors prohibited under the Non-Discrimination Policy and how to report breaches of this policy. This strategy has already been implemented. Strategy #10 advises the creation of an online form that can be used to report incidents of discrimincation, harassment and violence. This form has been in use since at least last fall, and can be found at go/bias. As of January of this year, the form had received 28 incident reports representing 16 incidents, according to Fernández. Strategy #11 recommends that an online form be used to report incidents of discrimination, harassment and violence. This form can be found at go/report and has been promoted through various social media channels and partners, though it is not yet widely utilized, according to McCaleb.
The section of the Action Plan for Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion that focuses on students is broken down into four categories of initiatives: recruitment, financial aid, development and support. Renee Wells, Director of Education for Equity and Inclusion, hopes that these initiatives address the questions about community “How do you help students understand what it means to be a part of a community and to foster community with and for others?” Wells said. Wells, working alongside Chief Diversity Officer Miguel Fernández and a variety of other staff members across the college, have aimed to interact with students when there are opportunities to engage with the entire student body, specifically through ResLife and Orientation. Fernández has also aimed to increase the amount of direct student feedback for the respective initiatives, and has met consistently with Concerned Students of Middlebury and the SGA Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee. They hope to use these initiatives to make DEI a key component of the Middlebury experience across all parts of campus and academic life. “Part of what it means to be at Middlebury is to be a part of a community and to think about how you are part of a community in a way that's intentional,” Wells said. Out of 15 total initiatives in the student section of the Action Plan, eight have been completed, four have been partially completed, one is unknown, and four have not yet been completed. The initiatives that have not been completed at all have completion dates in future years. Recruitment Nicole Curvin, Dean of Admissions, has relied on demographic data and institutional research to integrate DEI initiatives into several aspects of the admissions process. Strategy #1 is to increase the admission of historically underrepresented groups. Curvin reports that 40% of the incoming class of 2025 is BIPOC. In 2019, for comparison, only 27% of the student body were BIPOC. Strategy #2 outlines the creation of a Student Ambassador Program, which was formed in the last academic year in order to reach underrepresented prospective students. The program, which typically sends ambassadors to high schools around the country, has temporarily moved online because of the Covid-19 pandemic. “We plan to continue to develop this program and eventually return to in-person visits with high school students once it is safe to do so,” Curvin said. Strategy #3 involves introducing DEI as a core value in the recruitment process. This has involved training staff and student employees on DEI in a variety of ways. “In the past two years, we hosted facilitators during our annual staff retreat and as we embarked on application review to consider how we approach our evaluation of lived experiences and school context,” Curvin said. Staff have also read texts, listened to podcasts, and attended conferences and workshops focused on DEI in order to better understand how to best recruit a diverse student body. “We become better recruiters by understanding and acknowledging our applicant pool for who they are,” Curvin said. Strategy #4, to increase the accessibility of campus visits, has been put on pause as in-person campus tours did not resume until May 6. Now that in-person tours are allowed, Curvin hopes to consult the community about how to make them more accessible to all prospective students. “We have already begun discussions and have added features to our website and videos to support prospective students,” Curvin said. Financial Aid Strategy #5 outlines a plan to offer opportunities for critical conversations about DEI among staff in both Admissions and Financial Aid, both of which have taken part in DEI workshops. ResLife staff have also attended four mandatory DEI workshops this year, according to Dean of Student Life AJ Place. According to Kim Downs-Burns, associate vice president of student financial services (SFS), SFS has initiated several strategies to implement DEI in their work that aim to better support low-income students. The SFS office has met with incoming Posse cohorts to review financial aid decisions, collaborated with other NESCAC schools to reach out to low-income students to answer questions about financial aid, worked with SGA to provide an emergency assistance fund for J-term, and participated in Discover Middlebury to meet first-generation students. Strategy #6 aims to increase accessibility to Middlebury by creating a financial aid policy that goes “beyond need blind and covering full demonstrated need.” One example of this policy that the college has started implementing, according to Downs-Burns, is that many students in Posse cohorts receive financial aid that goes above and beyond their demonstrated need. SFS has also worked to use fundraising as a way to increase financial support available. “One of our upcoming fundraising campaigns is prioritizing new gift funds to expand our current pool of eligible students,” said Downs-Burns. Strategy #7 also addresses accessibility by aiming to reduce the barrier of the cost of course materials such as textbooks. “SFS has done some work analyzing the costs of textbooks, average course costs, and comparing textbook allowances with what our peer institutions offer in their aid packages,” Fernández said. SFS already conducts an annual review of their average textbook costs compared to peer institutions. More work will continue on the project in upcoming semesters. “Currently Midd incorporates a $1000 annual book allowance in the individual student aid budgets which is the median of all Consortium of Financing Higher Education (COFHE) colleges,” said Downs-Burns. COFHE contains 35 other selective liberal arts colleges. In the fall of 2020, 489 students qualified for SFS’ book advance program, but many students didn’t take advantage of their qualification, which has led SFS to reevaluate the program. SFS plans to work with the Office of Advancement to fundraise for a book grant program to assist aid recipients with purchasing textbooks, which has been hampered by Covid-19 costs. “Currently the funding is limited, but we hope a successful pilot will lead to an increase in eligible students,” Downs-Burns said. Fernández will be working on the textbook accessibility initiative, as well as Strategy #8, which aims to grow an endowed fund to enable students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds to participate in the full Middlebury experience, including funding for travel home or trips to Burlington. An endowed fund entails investments of capital that can be periodically withdrawn. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the demand for funds has been so high that all donated funds have been put in use and not placed in an endowed fund. According to Fernández, President Patton plans to make the fund a priority in upcoming fundraising campaigns. The college aims to have the textbook accessibility initiative complete within the next year, while the endowed funds for underprivileged students is expected to be completed in two years. Development Strategy #9 extends Wells’s work with DEI workshops to student leaders in Orientation, ResLife, International Student Services, MiddSafe, SGA, and other student organizations. Similarly, Strategy #10 aims to embed DEI into Orientation programming, and Strategy #11 outlines increasing opportunities for critical conversations among the general student body. “I have been meeting weekly with the JusTalks students throughout the 2020-2021 academic year, and they have developed and facilitated dozens of peer education workshops during the fall, J-term, and spring semesters,” Wells said. JusTalks also collaborated with Orientation to offer workshops for the class of 2024.5. While the scale of activities has been inhibited by social distancing requirements, there are plans to expand these initiatives once operations go back to normal. Amanda Reinhardt, Director of Student Activities, said that the virtual workshops are just the beginning. “As we start planning for MiddView 2021 and Feb Orientation 2022, we will continue to explore ways to incorporate and assess additional DEI content into Middlebury’s Orientation programming in order to meet the goals outlined in the Action Plan,” Reinhardt said. Rob Moeller, Associate Professor of Psychology and Director of Residential Education and Innovation has been involved in adding DEI components to the ResLife program. “This spring we have been partnering with the Anti-Racist Task Force to join and support their work fostering these important conversations. ResLife has also been working in collaboration with JusTalks to hold workshops for first-year [residential hall] communities in-person and virtually this past fall and in the planning process for doing the same this spring,” Moeller said. To help with these initiatives, Crystal Jones, who will join the staff in July as the inaugural Assistant Director of Education for Equity and Inclusion, will help to develop and facilitate these critical conversations. Strategy #12 aims to provide more mental health resources to students and support for historically underrepresented groups. Moeller has worked with ResLife to create skill building sessions on making friends, addressing friendship myths and creating panels for students to discuss navigating the social contexts of Middlebury. “Additional collaborations are underway with CTLR to help reduce stress by offering tried and true time management strategies,” Moeller said. Maddie Hope, Assistant Director of Health and Wellness Education, has also worked with ResLife to promote mental health strategies through several events and training. Some of these events include ProjectConnect, stressbuster series, speed friending events, mental health peer educator workshops and ResLife student staff training. Support As listed in Strategy #13, the College plans to join the Consortium on High Achievement and Success (CHAS) to focus on advancing the academic success of BIPOC students at selective liberal arts institutions by 2023. Strategy #14 is a broad goal, hoping to increase resources to underrepresented groups, specifically in the Parton Center for Health and Wellness and Anderson Freeman Resource Center (AFC). The initiative to assess staffing at the AFC has been initiated and a new director will be starting July 1. “We have just hired a new Director of Counseling who is a person of color and has years of experience providing counseling to these communities,” Fernández said. The new director, Alberto Soto, specializes in advocating for diverse populations and the intersection of social justice and mental health, according to Fernández. Ben Gooch, associate director of clinical operations for counseling services, said that social justice practices and experiences with multicultural counseling are a required component of counselings’ application process. “We work with programs that we know have a strong stance on supporting underserved communities and training their future counselors to be social justice advocates and allies,” Gooch said. The counseling department has also recently adopted a new model of counseling called the Flexible Care Model (FCM). FCM, which Soto is an expert in, aims to move care away from systems that perpetuate white and Eurocentric concepts of counseling. “Our overall goal with this model is to increase immediate access to counseling for students, incorporate multicultural counseling understandings into our session to make sure that we are providing good care that takes into account the diversity of our campus community, and to provide more options to students for what their relationship to counseling can look like,” Gooch said. The counseling deparment also participates in anti-racist reading groups and training oppurtunities. The Center for Health and Wellness has also collaborated across departments to form working groups for specific issues. “An example of this is our Trans Care Working Group, which is designed to help make sure staff are up-to-date on the best practices and to work toward dismantling barriers to care for trans-identifying students,” Gooch said. The Office of the President has completed Strategy #15 by creating a taskforce that has been meeting since the start of the year to explore the creation of a center to support LGBTQ+ students. Fernández explained that there is a multi-year plan to move forward. “The first year, we will work to find a designated lounge or another existing meeting space; the second year, we will explore the possibility of using a College-owned house; and during a subsequent year, once the new student center is built, we recommend that the center for LGBTQ+ students be located there,” said Fernández.
In their first competition since March 7, 2020, Middlebury women’s track and field dominated in their season opener, beating Union College 97–58. Middlebury finished first in 14 of 18 events. Eva Kaiden ’23 had a big day for the Panthers, placing first in the 100-meter dash (13.03) and the 200m dash (26.92) — as well as the 4x100m relay (50.85), where she was joined by Liza Toll ’24, Jackie Topping ’22 and Joely Virzi ’24. “I haven’t run the 4x100 relay since my senior year of high school,” Kaiden said. “Just being out on the track and doing real handoffs felt really nice.” Middlebury also won the 4x400m relay (4:07.67) by eight seconds, a team consisting of Dana Glackin ’22, Michelle Louie ’24, Ashley Raynor ’24 and Gretchen McGrath ’21. Cady Barns ’22 also had a solid day in the field, winning both the long jump (5.32m) and the triple jump (11.36m). Both were personal records for Barns. “I was at home last semester, working and training, hoping we’d have an outdoor season,” Barns said. “I think that served me well because I feel really fresh coming into the season.” Mary Scott Robinson ’24 dominated in the field events, winning both the hammer throw (38.76m) and the shot put (12.12). Her shot put distance broke the Middlebury record set by Helene Rowland ’20 in 2017 (11.95m). “Recruiting her, I knew she was a good thrower and that she’d do well for us eventually,” head coach Martin Beatty said. “I didn’t know she would do this at the first meet!” In addition to those who competed at Dragone Field on Saturday, nine Panthers traveled to Tufts to compete in longer distance events against Connecticut College, Wesleyan University, Tufts University and Trinity College. At Tufts, Cassie Kearney ’22 and Nicole Johnson ’22 finished first (2:11.81) and second (2:13.66), respectively, in the 800m. Eliza Broughton ’22 also finished sixth in the 3000m steeplechase. Middlebury will host Hamilton College this Saturday, May 8, at Dragone Field with the action starting at 12 p.m.
This year, 1,041 students completed the third annual Middlebury Zeitgeist survey. This represents 43% of degree-seeking undergraduate students, according to the Spring 2021 Enrollment profile, a compilation of demographic data collected by the Registrar's Office this spring. The 903 on-campus learners in the sample size represent roughly 45% of the student population on campus this semester !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var e in a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.getElementById("datawrapper-chart-"+e)||document.querySelector("iframe[src*='"+e+"']");t&&(t.style.height=a.data["datawrapper-height"][e]+"px")}}))}(); Participants in Zeitgeist 2021 were divided roughly equally among classes. The class of 2024 had the highest number of participants, with 208 respondents. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var e in a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.getElementById("datawrapper-chart-"+e)||document.querySelector("iframe[src*='"+e+"']");t&&(t.style.height=a.data["datawrapper-height"][e]+"px")}}))}(); This year’s survey allowed students to select all racial groups they identify with, meaning that some students are counted more than once in analyses that break down responses by race. Seventy-one percent of respondents identified as white, compared to 59% of domestic student respondents who identified as white in the Spring 2021 Student Enrollment profile — though the student profile separates international students into a distinct racial and ethnic category. The second-largest group of respondents — at 12.6% — was students who identified as Asian, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander. About 7% of respondents identified as Hispanic or Latinx, and about 2% of respondents identified as Black or African American, while 5.4% of respondents identified as biracial or multiracial. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var e in a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.getElementById("datawrapper-chart-"+e)||document.querySelector("iframe[src*='"+e+"']");t&&(t.style.height=a.data["datawrapper-height"][e]+"px")}}))}(); Respondents were also given the option to indicate multiple gender identities in this year’s survey. Nearly 56% of respondents identified as cisgender female, while only 36% of respondents identified as cisgender male. The remaining respondents identified as nonbinary (nearly 5%), transgender male or female (0.85% combined), or chose not to respond to the question. The Spring 2021 Enrollment profile, which used a binary classification of gender, reported that 53.4% of degree-seeking students were women and 46.6% were men. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var e in a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.getElementById("datawrapper-chart-"+e)||document.querySelector("iframe[src*='"+e+"']");t&&(t.style.height=a.data["datawrapper-height"][e]+"px")}}))}(); Nearly 40% of Zeitgeist survey participants are on need-based financial aid, and just under 9% of respondents are first-generation college students. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var e in a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.getElementById("datawrapper-chart-"+e)||document.querySelector("iframe[src*='"+e+"']");t&&(t.style.height=a.data["datawrapper-height"][e]+"px")}}))}(); There was also an uptick in the number of queer respondents — students who identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer or questioning — at about one-third of respondents, compared to 28% from last year’s survey.!function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var e in a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.getElementById("datawrapper-chart-"+e)||document.querySelector("iframe[src*='"+e+"']");t&&(t.style.height=a.data["datawrapper-height"][e]+"px")}}))}(); Nearly one in three respondents hail from New England states. One in five students are from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, or the D.C. area. Twelve percent of respondents are from the South, 12% are from Pacific states, 9% from the Midwest and 5% are from the Great Lakes region. Nearly 8% of respondents selected “International” as where they are from. More than half of respondents consider their hometowns to be suburban. Twenty-eight percent are from urban hometowns and 18% are from rural areas, results that are consistent with last year’s Zeitgeist.!function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var e in a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.getElementById("datawrapper-chart-"+e)||document.querySelector("iframe[src*='"+e+"']");t&&(t.style.height=a.data["datawrapper-height"][e]+"px")}}))}(); More than half of respondents (52%) attended public high schools, and a third of respondents attended private/parochial day schools. Nine percent attended boarding schools, and 5% attended a charter/magnet school. These demographics are roughly consistent with last year’s results. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var e in a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.getElementById("datawrapper-chart-"+e)||document.querySelector("iframe[src*='"+e+"']");t&&(t.style.height=a.data["datawrapper-height"][e]+"px")}}))}(); !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var e in a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.getElementById("datawrapper-chart-"+e)||document.querySelector("iframe[src*='"+e+"']");t&&(t.style.height=a.data["datawrapper-height"][e]+"px")}}))}(); Fifteen percent of respondents were varsity athletes. Notably, nearly 40% of all varsity athletes respondents attended private/parochial schools, compared to 31% of non-athletes. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var e in a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.getElementById("datawrapper-chart-"+e)||document.querySelector("iframe[src*='"+e+"']");t&&(t.style.height=a.data["datawrapper-height"][e]+"px")}}))}(); Ten percent of this year’s respondents reported having one or two parents who attended Middlebury College. The class of 2024.5 had the highest proportion of legacy or double legacy students, at 15% in total. Differently-Abled Students Nearly 13% of participants identify or have identified themselves as differently-abled. According to the Disability Resource Center (DRC), one in every six students at Middlebury contacted the DRC for a form of disability-related accommodation during the 2019–20 academic year. Major Groups of Respondents Nearly 20% of respondents have yet to declare their major(s). The most popular majors among respondents are Economics (8%) and Environmental Studies (Joint Majors) (8%), followed closely by Neuroscience (6%) and Political Science (5.5%). About one in four students indicated that they have a second major. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var e in a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.getElementById("datawrapper-chart-"+e)||document.querySelector("iframe[src*='"+e+"']");t&&(t.style.height=a.data["datawrapper-height"][e]+"px")}}))}(); On-campus learners are overrepresented in Zeitgeist results. Eighty-seven percent of Zeitgeist respondents were on-campus students, 7% were remote learners and 5% were taking the semester off. According to the Spring 2021 Enrollment profile, 436 students are studying remotely, comprising 18% of the student body. With 76 remote respondents, 17% of remote students participated in Zeitgeist. The Fall 2020 semester saw 2,210 on-campus learners, a figure that dropped to 1,998 students this spring, according to the Registrar.
Middlebury students have become accustomed to quarantining when they have been exposed to Covid-19 or as a preemptive move-in measure, but a new and unannounced policy temporarily places students into quarantine housing after they’ve committed Covid-19 policy violations if those violations included high-risk behavior. This new measure, which Dean of Students Derek Doucet said has impacted around a dozen individuals, puts students in quarantine for Covid-19 protocol violations that the Office of Community Standards deems “a credible allegation of behavior that might lead to transmission.” Doucet said that the policy is designed to combat potential public health risks. The policy The college enacted the policy of quarantining students who violated Covid-19 guidelines at the beginning of this semester, according to Doucet. Administrators realized that existing disciplinary procedures did not take into account the immediate public health risk posed by certain types of Covid-19 protocol violations like large gatherings in small spaces without masks. “When we have those incidents, we're really worried about the possibility of exposure and transmission, and so we ask those students to go into quarantine as a public health measure,” Doucet said. “It's not intended as a punitive measure.” Though this policy has reportedly been in place for months, the college never informed the student body of its implementation. While the Spring Campus Guide Conduct Expectations section does inform students that they must “participate in isolation and quarantine when directed,” it does not mention the possibility of being placed in quarantine for a Covid-19 rule violation. Instead, the Contact Tracing, Isolation, and Quarantine section describes quarantine as “a way for individuals who may have been exposed to Covid-19 through close contact with an infected individual to limit their contact with others while it is determined whether they have Covid-19.” Students were not placed in quarantine until up to two days following their violation. Doucet says administrators try to process Covid-19 conduct incident reports and meet with students within the first two days of the incident because “the science suggests that the chance of passing on the virus remains low in that time period.” Students may then be instructed to complete a quarantine if it is found that there is a credible allegation that the student engaged in unsafe behavior. Unlike students under quarantine as close contacts, who are tested separately at Parton to avoid exposure to other students and in accordance with the exact timing of their day-seven tests, students quarantined for violations are tested at the Virtue Field House during the normal testing times with the rest of the student body, according to Environmental Health and Safety Coordinator Jennifer Kazmeirczak. Doucet said the discrepancy is “related to a different level of perceived risk.” “Quarantining students who have violated the covid guidelines is done out of an abundance of caution because of the heightened chance of exposure. Quarantining close contacts is done when there is known exposure,” Doucet said in an email to The Campus. “Sending students with confirmed exposure into close proximity with others [at general testing] is higher risk than asking a student about whom we're concerned about a heightened possibility of exposure.” Students whose Day Seven test falls outside of the college’s regular testing schedule may be able to schedule a test at Parton or at the Vermont Department of Health’s Creek Road testing center in town, according to Kazmeirczak. Students quarantined for Covid-19 guideline violations also do not receive daily phone call check-ins from the college’s Covid Operations office asking about their health status as close contacts do. They are expected, like all students on campus, to fill out daily Policy Path health surveys for symptoms, according to Kazmeirczak. The college also does not extend the disciplinary amnesty policy, which allows violations revealed through contact tracing to go undisciplined, to those quarantined for Covid-19 guideline violations. Students quarantined for Covid-19 guideline violations are not asked who else attended the gathering, but if other students are revealed to have attended, they will not be exempt from disciplinary action, according to Doucet. These students quarantining for conduct violations are not listed on the Covid-19 reporting dashboard, which only displays the number of quarantining close contacts. According to Doucet, that is not an intentional omission, and the college is “considering adding conduct-related quarantine numbers to the dash.” A timeline of a Covid-19 violation quarantine The Campus spoke to 10 students who were quarantined for Covid-19 guideline violations in early March. Here’s a look at how the policy — which was confusing to many of the students quarantined under it — works. 11 p.m. Friday, March 5 - A group of 15–20 first-year students gather in the cavernous student activity room in the basement of Forest Hall on the night of Friday, March 5 to celebrate their return to campus. 11:30 p.m. - 12 a.m. - Several Public Safety officers and Reslife staff members block two of the three entrances and demand IDs from the students. Some bolt for the open exit but others mill about in confusion, unaware that, though a sign on the wall advertised a 30-person occupancy limit, students are only able to gather outside and in groups of ten. DPS reports 10 students to the Office of Community Standards for Covid-19 violations. Weekend - The cited students go to the dining halls, attend in-person classes, practice with their sports teams and spend time unmasked with close contacts. Monday, March 8 – Cited students attend in-person classes. Cited students go to mandatory testing. 7 p.m – Students receive an email from Dean of Community Standards Brian Lind asking them to schedule a disciplinary meeting. 3:39 p.m. - Nine of the students receive an email from Dean of Students Derek Doucet instructing them to begin room quarantine immediately and to prepare to move into temporary housing. They receive no guidance about their roommates who had not attended the gathering, with whom they had interacted closely. “We are concerned this gathering could have presented the opportunity for transmission of Covid-19,” Doucet writes in an email to cited students. Doucet says it was unlikely that any students were contagious yet if exposed, but that the choice to isolate students is necessary as they entered the period where transmission of the virus is most likely, had they been exposed to Covid-19 at the Forest gathering. One cited student reportedly receives no such email. Midday Tuesday, March 8 - Students receive a call from Covid Operations telling them to move into quarantine housing at Porter, about three and a half days after their possible exposure Friday night. Students ask why they were being quarantined, but Covid Operations staff are reportedly not aware of the policy and unable to provide clarity. Covid Operations Coordinator Daniel Celik confirmed administrators had not informed them of the policy. 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 9 - Lind emails students informing them of the disciplinary decision of removal from campus held in abeyance, which means that students will likely be kicked off of campus if they commit another Covid-19 rules violation this semester. They are informed that they will be released from quarantine pending a negative test result and are reminded to get tested at Virtue Field House the next day. Thursday, March 10 – All students get tested at Virtue Field House alongside the rest of the student body. Friday, March 11 - All 10 students receive negative results and expect to be released from quarantine. Upon further inquiry, they discover that this does not count as a Day Seven test, and they will have to wait until the next general testing day on Monday in order to be released on Tuesday, 11 full days after the gathering. By this point, they have already missed several in-person classes. Saturday, March 12 - At their request, Doucet allows the students to temporarily leave quarantine and walk to the Department of Health’s Creek Road testing center in town to get tested before the next college-administered student testing day on Monday. Morning of Sunday, March 13 – All students receive negative test results and inform Covid Operations. 4-6 p.m. Sunday, March 13 - All students are released from quarantine — nine days after the Forest Hall gathering and seven days into their quarantine. The gathering is shown to have resulted in no positive cases.
Middlebury’s acceptance rate dipped almost 10 percentage points to 15.7% from last year’s irregular 24%, marking its lowest point in public record; the acceptance rate for the regular decision round was 13.3%. Nearly 1,900 students received offers of admission out of a record-breaking pool of 11,908 — a 30% jump in applications compared to the year before. Middlebury was not alone in seeing a larger-than-normal applicant pool this year. Peer institutions also saw a significant hike: Amherst saw a 32% increase and Colby broke its own record from last year with a 13% increase. Applications to Colgate more than doubled. Of those admitted, 47% are students of color — a nine percentage-point increase from the previous year. Hailing from 91 countries, 13% of accepted applicants are international students. More than a third of those accepted are first generation students. This is the first class admitted while the college pilots a three-year test-optional policy; nearly half of all applicants did not submit ACT or SAT scores with their application. The college anticipates that roughly 720 students will matriculate next year — 620 in the fall and 100 in February.
All Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) who are permanent Vermont residents over the age of 16 will become eligible for Covid-19 vaccination on Thursday, Apr. 1, Gov. Scott announced today. Any BIPOC individual eligible for the vaccine can also sign up members of their household. The news comes as state officials attempt to combat the slower vaccination rates for BIPOC communities nationwide. As of March 30, 30% of white Vermonters of all ages had received at least one dose of the vaccine. In contrast, only 13.6% of Vermont’s non-white residents had received a dose. Of all non-Hispanic white residents 16 and up, 33.7% had received a dose compared to the 21.0% of BIPOC Vermonters in the same age range. BIPOC Vermonters have also been disproportionately affected by Covid-19. A December 2020 Vermont Department of Health report found that “BIPOC Vermonters with Covid-19 have significantly higher hospitalization and chronic disease rates,” a trend that is present in other states. At the end of last year, BIPOC residents represented 6% of the state’s population but 18% of Covid-19 cases. The Vermont Health Department has cooperated with non-profits to sustain BIPOC-focused clinics. The Windham County NAACP leads vaccination clinics in Brattleboro, Bennington and Rutland and a Burlington clinic is operated by Racial Justice Alliance and the Vermont Professionals of Color Network. Mark Levine, Vermont’s health commissioner, explained in a press conference that vaccination rates continue to lag for BIPOC Vermonters despite the work of targeted, community-based clinics. “Data that I have shared reveals the almost twofold risk BIPOC face for being hospitalized,” he said. “Now that all Vermont residents who are the highest risk of death from Covid have been vaccinated, we can put focus on preventing the other most serious risk of the virus: hospitalization.” For Levine, both under-vaccination and higher hospitalization rates necessitate further action. “It is unacceptable that this disparity remains for this population placed at higher risk,” he said. Some BIPOC students at the college were able to make vaccine appointments before the policy was even announced, which has lent to the spread of confusion about eligibility throughout the student body. Call center workers repeatedly signed up BIPOC students and confirmed eligibility based on racial identity. Now, the students are left unsure whether or not they can — or should — show up to their appointments. Additionally, out-of-state students – even BIPOC students – are not eligible to receive the vaccine in Vermont at any point in the current timeline, according to comments from Gov. Scott’s at a March 30 press briefing. In an email to Middlebury students on March 31, the college advised students not to cancel appointments and shared that the college has a plan to facilitate vaccination on campus if doses become available. In addition, the college noted that they have been working closely with Vermont government and health officials throughout the pandemic. The email also reminded students that they can seek approval to travel to their home state for vaccinations if it is within driving distance. All Vermonters over the age of 16 are expected to become eligible on April 19, regardless of race or health conditions.
Tayler* started working full time at Middlebury right after high school, with a starting wage of just over $8 an hour. Twenty-one years later, through Middlebury's compensation program, they are making $14 an hour. A single parent, they find themselves in line at the local food bank several times a month to make ends meet, and HOPE Middlebury helps Christmas come together for their child. Many of Tayler’s fellow service workers at Middlebury also have second jobs, an option unavailable to those without childcare or other support mechanisms. How did we get here as an institution, where over 20 years of service and dedication to Middlebury still merits only a poverty wage? Sure, endowment woes and a poor job market play a role, but one of the deeper problems is more insidious. In the last 20 years, Middlebury has prioritized faculty wage increases over those of staff. Every year, when possible, a sum of money is added to the Middlebury budget for salary increases, which is then distributed to faculty and staff as a percentage increase of their current wage. By my calculations, in most years, rather than dividing wage increases equally between faculty and staff, faculty have gotten a larger percentage increase than staff. In a particularly egregious example from 2001, faculty received an average pay increase of 7.5%, while staff saw only 4.3%. Inflation that year as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was about 3.4%, so faculty got over a 4% raise above inflation, staff less than 1%. More recently, in both 2019 and 2020, faculty saw a 4% increase, while staff saw a mere 2%. However, inflation was greater than 2%, so the value of the staff raise was ultimately canceled out, while faculty wages increased over inflation. Small changes in the CPI have proportionally larger impacts for lower-wage workers. The cost of items that factor into the CPI can vary by year, but a seemingly minor change in some items can tear a budget apart. For example, a 50-cent increase in the price of gas may barely affect more affluent families, but these same changes can be crippling for a service worker with little discretionary income within their budget. On average, faculty have gotten a 1.4% greater yearly compensation increase compared to staff in the raise pool. Cumulatively, from 2000 until last year, faculty received a 113% increase in salary, while staff have only seen a 73% bump. Subtract inflation, and faculty net a 40% increase, staff only 13%. So, for example, a staff member making $50,000 two decades ago is now making $86,500, while a faculty member at the same starting pay would now be making $106,725. Middlebury pays staff by length of service — the longer you work here, the greater your wage. Had staff wages not been increased to $14, staff like Tayler who had been working at Middlebury for 20 years would now be making $13.84. If they had received compensation increases at the same rate faculty did, they would instead be earning $17.04. Adjusted for inflation, $14 in 2021 is the equivalent of $9 in 2001. So, in our pay-by-tenure system, that's only an additional five cents a year over inflation for all of their experience, commitment and dedication. But the starting wage for a new employee at Middlebury is now $14 an hour, so we aren't valuing experience and commitment at all. Imagine working your whole life at an institution and getting the same pay as someone who just walked off the street. When Middlebury raised the starting wage for lower-paid service jobs, it caused this wage compression, where a range of pay for work is now non-existent and independent of the length of service. How can we do better? Middlebury has proven a strong commitment to staff, seen not only by wage continuity during the Covid-19 shutdowns but by the recent staff reductions during workforce planning without resorting to layoffs. We need to build upon and strengthen this commitment, by first fixing wage compression for affected staff. Long-time workers at Middlebury deserve to be paid more than new hires and should see a one-time increase in pay under our pay-by-tenure system. This needs to be the top priority for the next fiscal year when the Budget Advisory Committee prioritizes items in the budget. All employees of Middlebury need to commit to the "ongoing alignment of staffing and budgets to the strategic goals of the enterprise," but staff cannot do this without our faculty and administrative partners. Faculty and the administration need to decide, post-Covid, where their values lie, and reflect those values in the budget. The solution is not to reduce the number of staff positions, allowing the excess work to roll onto those who remain. Will we go back to pre-pandemic travel and entertainment spending, where catered lunches for departments are prepared by workers who leave work and head to food shelf lines? Or do we build on our current successes some departments have seen in workforce planning and together determine what sacrifices need to be made to return to our student-centric mission? Staff also need a voice in this process and should have representation on the appropriate faculty committees, including Faculty Resources. Staff representation on the Budget Advisory Committee has been a welcome step, but it is not enough. After a recent Board of Trustee financial decision, the Middlebury AAUP chapter stated the decision was made "without any input from either Faculty Council or the Resources Committee so that also brings up serious concerns about 'faculty governance' if none of the relevant faculty bodies were consulted." The last 20 years of faculty wage increases show that staff need their own voice, without relying on faculty governance. Lastly, let's think of the hundreds of invisible staff cooking meals, cleaning buildings, and doing countless other tasks that keep our institution running. Someone at Middlebury considerably smarter than I once told me if we were brave as an institution, we'd make our starting pay $20/hour, rather than the $14 we pay now. As Karen Miller said, Middlebury needs to become an "employer of choice for the next generation." If faculty and the administration want to achieve this distinction, they need to ensure everyone at Middlebury is fairly compensated. *Editor’s note: “Tayler” is a pseudonym used to protect the identity of a staff member. Tim Parsons is the college’s landscape horticulturist.
After Middlebury took a financial hit due to the pandemic, the Board of Trustees met in the last week of January to establish a plan for financial stability. The Board of Trustees established three main conditions the institution must fulfill to achieve financial stability: operating at a surplus by fiscal year 2022, growing the endowment and paying off half of the institution's outstanding debts. To achieve those goals, the board increased tuition and fees by 2.5%, limited the endowment draw to 5% and instructed the administration to begin making principal payments on half of the institution's outstanding debt. Middlebury will not make any decisions about extending or ending the wage and hiring freezes until May. Generating a surplus Middlebury has operated at a budgetary deficit since 2012. When the board appointed President Laurie Patton in 2016, they established the “Road to a Sustainable Future,” a plan to break even on the budget by FY21. Middlebury was on track to achieve that goal by FY21 before the pandemic arrived, but instead closed out FY20 with a $11.6 million dollar deficit due to the pandemic. Middlebury initially projected a $18.5 million deficit for fiscal year 2021 — which stretches from July 2019 to July 2020 — but the latest projection estimates a $10.2 million deficit instead. Middlebury experienced worse-than-expected losses from the shuttered schools abroad and a lack of revenue from room and board fees for remote students. However, unexpected “federal and state support for Covid-19 related costs and lost revenues” decreased operating costs and better performances by the summer Language Schools and the Monterey Institute made a significant difference, Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration David Provost said in an email to The Campus. Despite recent losses, the board decided to resume the effort to balance the budget in the January meeting. They instructed the institution to produce a small surplus by 2022 and operate at a surplus of at least 1% by FY23, or $2.6 million. A major part of balancing the budget relies on the college raising tuition. Though the college’s 3.25% tuition hike for the 2020-2021 academic year was met with staunch protest from students, parents, faculty and staff, the board decided to raise tuition and fees by another 2.5% for the upcoming year. Students will pay a total of $76,820 — $59,330 in tuition, $17,050 for room and board, and a $440 student activities fee. But tuition increases alone will not close the budgetary gap, at least as the college defines it. The college has defined the deficit based on the total revenues, which include the annual amount drawn from the endowment. If the college kept the draw on the endowment to a consistent figure closer to the endowment’s actual rate of growth — between 6 and 7% on average — instead of limiting the draw to 5%, the college may well be operating at a surplus instead, according to Professor of Economics Peter Matthews, who serves as co-chair of the the Middlebury chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) Finance Committee and as a member of its Executive Committee. A hard cap on the endowment draw artificially limits the resources available, a decision that may force the college to make unnecessary cuts and sacrifices in the future, according to Matthews. “It's one thing to say that the sacrifice is absolutely essential to the well-functioning of the institution,” Matthews said. “But I am at the least incredibly uncomfortable with sacrifice on the altar of some arbitrary definition of deficit and surplus.” Limiting the endowment draw Between July 1 and Dec. 31, 2020 — the start of FY21 and the end of calendar year 2020 — the endowment grew by more than 15.4%, a $170.21 million increase. The institution is still awaiting information on the fourth-quarter returns, but Provost estimates that growth may actually exceed 16% or even 17%, making it the largest growth in more than a decade and more than twice the rate of growth in 2019. As of Feb. 2, Provost estimated that the total value of the endowment exceeded $1.25 billion. The annual endowment draw is calculated based on a rolling average of the endowment balance for the previous three calendar years. The 5% Middlebury will draw for FY22 will come from the mean size of the endowment over 2018, 2019 and 2020 as of Dec. 31 2020. This strategy ensures that an individual year’s spike or decrease does not cause massive fluctuations in the amount of the draw, according to Provost. Middlebury increased the endowment draw to 7.5% in FY21 in response to the pandemic, but the board elected to limit the endowment draw to 5% for FY22 and beyond. Middlebury assumes that the endowment will grow an average of 6 or 7% annually over a 10 year period. A 5% draw would therefore allow the endowment to grow by 1 or 2% each year, according to Provost. Financial mismanagement by the previous administration ate through the institution's unrestricted reserves — the portion of the endowment not earmarked for specific purposes or programs by either donors or the board — which currently amount to just $4.7 million. Provost said the institution has to grow the endowment so it will be prepared for the next “rainy day” after the pandemic ends. “The endowment is a multi-generational investment tool to support multiple generations of students and programs,” Provost said in an email to The Campus. “It is not a bank account, and we cannot use it to solve the dilemma of the college living beyond its means for the last decade nor solve the short-term strains of the pandemic.” But Matthews questions why Middlebury is trying to grow the endowment for a future rainy day while the institution is currently in the midst of a crisis. “It's important that we preserve a Middlebury for the next generation that is at least as good as the one that you're enjoying,” Matthews said. “But it works in both directions. [Current students are] entitled to a Middlebury that is at least as good as the Middlebury that future generations are going to enjoy.” The AAUP advocated for an annual endowment draw of at least 7% in a statement published in May of 2020. A draw of that size would keep pace with the endowment’s average yearly growth. While the endowment would not grow, it also wouldn't shrink, fulfilling what Matthews views as the extent of the institution’s duties to future generations at this current moment. “Especially during the period of Covid, [limiting the endowment draw to] five or even 6% effectively punishes this generation [for the sake] of future generations,” Matthews said. “[Current students are] one of the generations that count when we talk about intergenerational equity.” Repaying debt Rather than increase the endowment draw, the Board of Trustees during their summer meeting authorized the institution to borrow up to $30 million over the next five to seven years to make up for budget shortfalls. The institution will decide on how much money they will borrow in April or May, according to Provost. Provost estimates that the loans will have interest rates between 1.75% and 2.25%. However, the real interest rate — what the institution will actually have to pay back after adjusting for inflation, typically around 2% — may very well be negative, meaning that the institution would pay less than they originally borrowed, according to Matthews. “If one needs to borrow in order to cover shortfalls, this is not a bad time to do so,” Matthews said. Even as the institution is proposing taking out more loans, the board’s latest plans prioritize paying back its current $268,093,000 debt. Rather than continue to pay only interest and defer payments on the principal of the loan, Middlebury amortized half of the outstanding debt, meaning the institution will make principal payments of $5 million to $13 million annually over the next ten years. Provost believes that continuing to refinance the loans, even given current financial hardships, would not be “fiduciarily responsible” and unfairly punish future generations. “With interest rates so low, some would argue that we should push out debt and not pay back the debt, just keep rolling it over,” Provost said in an email to The Campus. Instead, Provost advocates for paying back debt taken on to acquire assets as they are being used. This way, future generations are not burdened with the responsibility to pay for amenities that previous generations enjoyed. The board also authorized renovations to Warner and Voter Halls as well as Dana Auditorium in Sunderland Hall in their January meeting. Construction is set to begin this summer and is projected to cost $10.8 million. The majority of those funds come from 2010 bonds, which have to be used within 36 months of the date the institution refinanced them last year. The decision to focus on paying back debts and continuing with large-scale infrastructure renovations directly contradicts the AAUP’s call to “prioritize people before buildings and debt retirement” in their May 2020 statement. “It is people, not capital assets, that define the Middlebury community, and funds otherwise set aside for infrastructure or accelerated debt repayment should be diverted in a crisis,” the statement said. Middlebury has yet to make any decisions about many of the people-oriented issues the AAUP referred to in their priorities — including lifting the hiring freeze, adjusting faculty and staff compensation and ending or extending wage continuity. Provost said such decisions will come in May, when the institution does its normal budgetary planning for the coming fiscal year. Moving forward The Board of Trustees’ announcement came as “a complete surprise” to faculty, according to Matthews. Not only were they not consulted or part of the decision making process at all, faculty were not even informed that these decisions were being made. Matthews views these financial decisions as central to the values Middlebury prioritizes, values which he says the entire Middlebury community — faculty, staff and students included — should be a part of determining. “We still need a conversation about what our common goals are and what kind of financial practices would allow us to achieve those goals that aren't unilateral and don't presuppose some assumptions about the way financial markets work that's completely untethered from reality,” Matthews said. The AAUP will meet in March to discuss the Board of Trustees’ announcement and to develop a formal response.
Although two-thirds of students said they did not regret their Fall 2020 enrollment decision, 76% of students said their mental health was worse during the fall semester than during a typical semester and nearly two in three students broke Covid-19 health protocols, according to a Campus survey. Other major findings include: More than a third of students — 38% — said the semester exceeded expectations, while almost 40% said that it was worse than expected. Almost half of students said that they disapproved of the administration’s handling of the fall semester. A vast majority of students, 75%, said they felt stressed about their relationships this semester. Students emphasized increasing social opportunities for students, promoting inclusivity and providing greater clarity on Covid-19 safety rules when suggesting improvements for the spring. At the end of the survey, we also offered students the opportunity to anonymously share their ideas on how to make the spring 2021 semester better and provide any additional anecdotes from the semester. We have included some of these anonymous responses throughout this article and compiled specific student suggestions for improving the spring semester. Academics !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var e in a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.getElementById("datawrapper-chart-"+e)||document.querySelector("iframe[src*='"+e+"']");t&&(t.style.height=a.data["datawrapper-height"][e]+"px")}}))}(); The data reveal a striking lack of consensus regarding how the fall semester went: while 38% of students said the semester exceeded their expectations, nearly 40% of students said the semester was worse than they expected. About a quarter of students said the semester was about the same as they expected. In the anecdotal responses, many students wished for more in-person classes. “Middlebury should prioritize its primary duty, which is to educate its students to the best of its abilities by making every possible effort to make classes in-person,” wrote one student. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var e in a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.getElementById("datawrapper-chart-"+e)||document.querySelector("iframe[src*='"+e+"']");t&&(t.style.height=a.data["datawrapper-height"][e]+"px")}}))}(); Satisfaction with the fall semester also varied by class year. While one in three members of the classes of 2021 or 2021.5 said the semester was worse than they expected, one half of respondents from the classes of 2023 or 2023.5 said the semester fell below expectations. The vast majority of respondents, 87.5%, said they took four courses during the fall semester. A third of students indicated that two of their courses had in-person components, while 17% of students said they had zero classes with in-person components. The average student had in-person components in roughly half — 45% — of their courses. Approval of college entities !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var e in a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.getElementById("datawrapper-chart-"+e)||document.querySelector("iframe[src*='"+e+"']");t&&(t.style.height=a.data["datawrapper-height"][e]+"px")}}))}(); Of the six different entities we asked students to evaluate, Middlebury faculty enjoyed by far the highest approval rating. Still, in their anecdotal responses, students said they hoped that faculty would be more “lenient,” “understanding” and “flexible” during the spring semester. Some students wished faculty would go one step further and lighten students’ workloads. “It seems like professors are concerned that reducing workloads means that we're learning less and not getting enough for our money,” one respondent wrote. “But the stress and depression of this fall made it so hard to learn that covering less material would be beneficial and we would actually learn more.” Almost half of students, or 47%, disapproved of the administration, while a quarter approved of it. Some students said they thought Covid-19 policies were unrealistic or unclearly communicated in their anecdotal responses. “I hope that there can be more dialogue between students and administrators to understand how to better create rules that students will actually follow and feel safe,” one wrote. Fall satisfaction and spring intentions !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var e in a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.getElementById("datawrapper-chart-"+e)||document.querySelector("iframe[src*='"+e+"']");t&&(t.style.height=a.data["datawrapper-height"][e]+"px")}}))}(); Overall, two in three students said they did not regret their enrollment decision. One-tenth of respondents said they regretted their decision, and a quarter of students said they regretted the decision “somewhat.” “I am not returning Middlebury in the Spring as they never fulfilled most of the things they told us they would throughout the semester,” one student wrote. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var e in a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.getElementById("datawrapper-chart-"+e)||document.querySelector("iframe[src*='"+e+"']");t&&(t.style.height=a.data["datawrapper-height"][e]+"px")}}))}(); If students’ intended spring plans are an indication of enrollment rates for the spring semester, Middlebury may see fewer students on campus this spring. 68% of students who said they intend to enroll as an on-campus student in the spring, compared to the 87% of respondents who identified as on-campus learners in the fall. Compared to the 3.5% of students who took the semester off in the fall, 10% of respondents said they would not enroll or take the semester off. One senior student said they were part of a group of friends leaving campus in the spring as a result of the strict rules. “It’s not how I wanted to spend my senior spring but we can’t deal with the rules on campus and just want to be able to be together for our last few months,” the student wrote. An additional 9% of students were unsure of their spring plans. The number of remote students and the number of students living off-campus but taking classes on-campus is projected to remain the same for the spring at about 7% and under 3% respectively. Covid-19 policies, rules, and guidelines !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var e in a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.getElementById("datawrapper-chart-"+e)||document.querySelector("iframe[src*='"+e+"']");t&&(t.style.height=a.data["datawrapper-height"][e]+"px")}}))}(); Almost two in every three respondents — 64% — indicated that they broke Covid-19 safety rules this semester. A third of respondents said they exceeded room or suite capacity during the semester and a fourth of students reported having more than four close contacts. More than one in every ten — 13% — of students said they participated in a party or gathering with more than 10 people. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var e in a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.getElementById("datawrapper-chart-"+e)||document.querySelector("iframe[src*='"+e+"']");t&&(t.style.height=a.data["datawrapper-height"][e]+"px")}}))}(); One respondent said they were with as many as 30 other people in a house or suite without masks “every weekend.” The respondent added, “The rules were too strict. If I had followed them I would have become depressed.” Some respondents believed that Covid-19 policies were enforced unevenly. “The inconsistency in punishment for breaking the Covid rules was absolutely unreal,” one respondent wrote. “Do not create a rule if it will not and cannot be enforced consistently.” !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var e in a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.getElementById("datawrapper-chart-"+e)||document.querySelector("iframe[src*='"+e+"']");t&&(t.style.height=a.data["datawrapper-height"][e]+"px")}}))}(); Students greatly differed in their understanding of Middlebury’s Covid-19 policies. Nearly half of students said they felt confused by guidelines, compared to the 43% that said they were clear. “I worried pretty constantly that I would get reported for something that was me misunderstanding the rules and be kicked off campus,” one student responded. Mental Health The survey finds a striking decline in student mental health during the fall semester. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var e in a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.getElementById("datawrapper-chart-"+e)||document.querySelector("iframe[src*='"+e+"']");t&&(t.style.height=a.data["datawrapper-height"][e]+"px")}}))}(); Three-fourths of students said their mental health was worse than it has been during a typical semester. The three factors most likely to affect student mental health this semester were stress about an uncertain future amid the pandemic, stress about academic work and anxiety over friendships or “fear of missing out,” according to survey results. “The one thing that was amazing was my professors, but it is hard to motivate oneself to do work when you feel miserable all the time,” one student wrote. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var e in a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.getElementById("datawrapper-chart-"+e)||document.querySelector("iframe[src*='"+e+"']");t&&(t.style.height=a.data["datawrapper-height"][e]+"px")}}))}(); Two-thirds of students reported feeling greater social isolation than in a normal semester, and almost a third of respondents experienced significant changes in their diet which led to either weight loss or gain. Nearly one in 10 students experienced intrusive thoughts of suicide which worsened during the semester. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var e in a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.getElementById("datawrapper-chart-"+e)||document.querySelector("iframe[src*='"+e+"']");t&&(t.style.height=a.data["datawrapper-height"][e]+"px")}}))}(); Three-fourths of students felt stressed about their relationships. Some students expressed that the Covid-19 restrictions implemented by the college were successful in limiting cases of virus, but did so at the expense of students’ mental health. One student put it succinctly: “Mental health is just as important as physical health.” Others said they experienced mental strain due to the inability to socialize with friends or the fear of being punished for breaking Covid-19 rules. General Demographics !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var e in a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.getElementById("datawrapper-chart-"+e)||document.querySelector("iframe[src*='"+e+"']");t&&(t.style.height=a.data["datawrapper-height"][e]+"px")}}))}(); This survey was sent to about 2,500 Middlebury students studying both remotely and on campus, and 549 — slightly less than quarter — responded. Eighty-seven percent of respondents were on-campus students this past fall, 2.3% of respondents lived off-campus but took classes on campus and 6.9% of respondents were remote students. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var e in a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.getElementById("datawrapper-chart-"+e)||document.querySelector("iframe[src*='"+e+"']");t&&(t.style.height=a.data["datawrapper-height"][e]+"px")}}))}(); Respondents were fairly evenly distributed by class year, with a slight majority of respondents coming from the classes of 2022 and 2022.5 at 28.2%. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var e in a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.getElementById("datawrapper-chart-"+e)||document.querySelector("iframe[src*='"+e+"']");t&&(t.style.height=a.data["datawrapper-height"][e]+"px")}}))}(); Three-quarters of respondents identified as white, 8.4% as Asian, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander, 6% as of Latino or Hispanic Origin, 6% as biracial or multiracial, and 1.6% as Black or African American. Thirty-one or 5.6% of respondents identified as international students. Slightly more than one-third of respondents said they receive financial aid. Ideas from Student Responses for an improved Spring 2021 semester Social Life !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var e in a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.getElementById("datawrapper-chart-"+e)||document.querySelector("iframe[src*='"+e+"']");t&&(t.style.height=a.data["datawrapper-height"][e]+"px")}}))}(); 80% of students said that they thought spaces for hanging out or socializing were inadequate. 75% of students said they thought there was inadequate space for hosting events. In the anecdotal responses, students repeatedly said they hoped for more in-person social opportunities in the spring, either facilitated by the college or through extracurricular activities, and improved access to spaces for socializing. One respondent wanted “more opportunities for virtual students to stay connected to campus events with students in person.” Other student ideas included having heaters for tents, changing policies so that it is easier to register events and providing “funding for students to figure out how to make their own fun.” Several students said they would be willing to sacrifice off-campus privileges in order to make on-campus rules less strict. Inclusivity Some anecdotal responses mentioned the ways in which rules and policies create different playing fields for different students. “This semester exasperated the divide between the 'haves' and 'have-nots' because the students who had access to a car to drive places in Addison County tended to have a better experience overall than those who didn't,” wrote the student, adding that they wished the college provided a “rent-a-car” service for students. “Promote inclusivity,” wrote another student. “White students spend time with white students and are intimidating to students of color. There is an apparent divide.” Other students felt that they had to exclude friends from social gatherings due to capacity limits. One student felt particularly strongly about Covid-19 policies capping the number of people in a room: “Rules [related to Covid-19] essentially required us to ruin our friendships.” One student said that they hoped students would be allowed to rank their preferred dining hall. “Some dining halls have a reputation of being predominantly white spaces, whereas other dining halls have a perception of being more inclusive to BIPOC students,” the student wrote. Creation and Communication of Covid-19 Policies Some students hoped for student input regarding Covid-19 policies. One respondent recommended that new rules should first be run by Residential Life. Several students perceived the college’s Covid-19 guidelines to be vague and worried that they would accidentally break a rule. “I wish that it was more clear what people [were] disciplined for,” wrote a student. Another student hoped for “more concise guidelines from fewer sources.” Editor’s Note: Survey questions pertaining to mental health were designed in conjunction with the Student Government Association Health and Wellness Committee.
On Nov. 12, 2005, the Middlebury football team delivered a strong 21-16 victory in the season finale against Tufts. Quarterback Tiger Lyon ’06 — the reigning NESCAC Offensive Player of the Week — helped propel the team to victory with 24 completed passes for 282 yards and three touchdowns. Lyon’s spectacular performance was complemented by an impressive performance by the rest of the Middlebury offense. The Panthers came out of the gates strong when Ryan Armstrong ’06 received the ball from Lyon on a reverse and tossed it 30 yards to Cole Parlin ’06. Four plays later, Lyon threw a five yard touchdown pass to Jamie Staples ’07 for an early 7-0 lead. The lead was quickly snapped when Tufts quarterback Casey D’Annolfo launched a 70-yard pass to William Forde for a touchdown. The teams traded sides in the following quarters but weren’t able to create much offensively. Entering the fourth quarter, the game was deadlocked at 9–9. But a fumble by Derek Polsinello ’08 allowed Tufts to recover the ball, and the Jumbos capitalized as D’Annolfo found Steve Menty on a 10-yard score to give Tufts a 16-9 lead. With 8:34 remaining on the clock, Lyons completed a 43-yard throw to Parlin for a touchdown. However, the extra point by Steve Haushka ’07 was blocked, holding the game to 17-16 in favor of the Jumbos. The Panthers increased their lead after Lyon found Armstrong in the end zone with a perfect toss, taking the lead to 21-16, but the two-point conversion failed. In the waning moments of the game, defensive back Phil Ford ’06 delivered his second interception of the day, taking the ball from Tufts at the 37-yard-line all the way to the Panther’s 12-yard-line before being stopped. Neither team scored in its final possession, earning Middlebury a thrilling comeback win in the season finale. Staples finished the game with 10 catches for 123 yards, and Parlin finished with 92 yards and a touchdown in his last game as a Panther. Ford’s two interceptions loomed large on defense, and Coleman Hutzler ’06 and Eric Woodring ’08 picked up 13 and 11 tackles, respectively. Although the Panthers ended the season with a 3–5 record, they finished on a 3–1 run in their final four games. Leaving the season on a high note certainly gave the team reason to be optimistic that the 2006 campaign could be the first to finish with a winning record in five seasons.