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With lack of storage and low demand, dairy farms resort to milk dumping

The state’s already struggling dairy industry has been destroying its sitting supply of milk in a reluctant response to Covid-19 economic realities. Due to the indefinite shut down of restaurants, schools and businesses, Vermont’s dairy farms have been faced with a steep drop in demand and nowhere to store excess product. A high demand in food retail does not nearly make up for the lack of food service. And across the nation, farmers are destroying the fresh food that they can no longer sell.  “We are deeply concerned about all dairy farms at this moment in time,” said Laura Ginsberg, agricultural development section chief of the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets. “After 4 years of really poor milk prices coming into this, it's not like farmers were set up in a strong financial position, because milk prices have been low for so long now.” Ginsberg anticipates that it will take a toll, but is uncertain how drastic the magnitude of the shock will be in the industry across Vermont and New England.  Prior to the virus outbreak, U.S. dairy farmers overproduced and oversupplied their milk to salvage a shrinking profit. Because agricultural goods are not adjusted to inflation, the surplus lowers milk prices. This forces dairy farmers into a cycle of production expansion in response to price reductions. New England’s small-scale farmers are left especially vulnerable, since the USDA sets milk retail prices at the highly industrialized national standard.  “It’s cheaper to produce milk out west, so their cost of production is lower than ours. And you can't have a large farm in Vermont because of topography and weather, so there's no way we can compete on cost of production. This is a really troublesome spot for our producers,” Ginsberg said. Doug Dimento, director of corporate communications at Agri-Mark and Cabot, speculates that there may be a fundamental shift in dairying in the Northeast. “Small farmers have been financially fragile,” he said. “We were expected to see rebounds in farm prices this year, but now we expect them to go down over the next few months because of oversupply of milk forcing prices downward.” Jon Rooney, owner of Monument Farms in Weybridge, where the college sources its milk, has seen significantly reduced demand from restaurant closures. “Due to the fact that Middlebury College students are consuming less and less milk, the lack of [Middlebury College] Food Service has not had a big impact on our fluid milk usage,” Rooney wrote in an email to The Campus. “Restaurant sales represent a substantial portion of our overall business, but it’s the extras, primarily cream, the most valuable portion of the milk, that are piling up.” Ancillary products, such as cheese, sour cream, heavy cream and half & half play a big role in the farm’s overall revenues, but the milk is being dumped rather than processed.  For example, Cabot, a dairy processing company that sources from 160 Vermont dairy farms, is working overtime to alleviate the effects of oversupply. Cabot has four plants that run for 20 hours each day, leaving four hours to sanitize the facility. “We are running full speed, as hard as we can,” Dimento said. “In Springfield, Mass., we’re making butter and milk powder as quickly as we can, but it's not fast enough to absorb all this extra milk.” The Middlebury plant, located on Exchange Street, continues to employ a full staff.  Monument Farms has already been dumping its skim milk for three years. “We had a great need for the cream, but not the skim milk,” Rooney said. Previously, the farm dumped its skim milk into a digester to generate electricity. Monument Farms would truck its milk to a plant, where workers skim off the cream and return the fat-free milk to the farm. Now, the farm dumps full fat milk without selling the cream.  Other co-ops and processing companies claim milk from farmers, only to dump it in mature pits or co-op facilities, according to Ginsberg. “A farmer may not know their milk is getting dumped out, or a farm might have a milk truck come, pump the milk out of the tank, then back up to the manure pit and dump it there,” she said. Ginsberg said that although there is a misperception that individual farmers are making the decision to dump milk, this is never the case — it is ultimately the decision of the cooperative or company with which the farmer is affiliated. Molly Anderson, professor and director of Food Studies at the college, believes the best solution is for the government to purchase the excess milk from dairy processors and distribute it to food-insecure households. The USDA has allocated $19 billion in Covid-19 relief to the agricultural sector; $3 billion will purchase commodities for food insecure households. “If the processors are selling yogurt, cheese and butter to the government, it means they can take more from the farmers,” Anderson said.  While donating the milk is a potential remedy, it brings new challenges. “We are working on getting that excess fluid milk into the charitable food system,” Ginsberg said. “That is not as easy as it sounds. There are very strict federal regulations on how milk moves through the marketplace.” The Vermont Agency of Agriculture is working with a number of charitable organizations to bypass these barriers.  “I had a conference call involving Cabot and several other groups to get as much food as we can to the food banks, but we don’t borrow any fluid milk; we have no way to get it: no trucks,” Dimento said.  If milk dumping becomes a long term practice, farmers will eventually reduce their herd numbers to decrease the amount of food, water and other inputs. “There is going to be some killing of cows that wouldn’t otherwise have happened in such a quick manner,” Ginsberg said. Despite recent supply management efforts, this poses a serious threat to farmer income.  "There are going to be lots of tough decisions made on farms,” Dimento said. “We are very scared for what may take place on farms in months ahead.” As for Monument Farms, Rooney said that he does not plan on reducing his herd size. “Due to the fact that we need to be ready once restaurants open back up,” he said,” it would not be a good idea for us to reduce cow numbers.” 

4_30_RecordsThatNeverWere

4_30_RecordsThatNeverWere

The college was about to finally break even on its budget. Then everyone got sent home.

Before coronavirus hit, a lot of people thought 2020 was going to be their year. It was certainly going to be college treasurer David Provost’s. Following years of scrupulous financial planning and cost reducing, he had walked back the college’s once-astronomical deficit to a sustainable level. At the end of Fiscal Year 20, which stretches from July 1, 2019 to July 1, 2020, the college would only be $4 million away from its goal. By FY21, it would hit its target. But the seismic shift of Covid-19 set those projections back. Middlebury’s budget deficit is now back to where it was in 2017, with a $13 million loss projected for this year. In the next fiscal year, which starts this summer, that figure could hit $30 million, provided classes stay online. To avoid drawing on the endowment, the college will cut as many costs as it can while also accruing as much revenue as possible. Provost, however, remains optimistic that the college can lower its deficit by FY22. And he says that projections would have been much worse had the college still been operating under its earlier numbers.  “I think our ability to weather through 2020 is fully reflective of the work that the entire institution did the last four years,” Provost told The Campus.  The last five years Middlebury has been trimming the fat on its operating costs for years. In 2015, the school faced a $16.7 million deficit, which Provost said totaled $33 million when accounting for overdraws on the endowment (a practice the college is now trying to avoid for the sake of the endowment’s health). Campus reporting  chronicled rising financial aid costs and flawed tuition policies as some of the many reasons for the hefty deficit. That year, it laid out a “Road to a Sustainable Future,” which included a plan to break even on the budget — and generate a small surplus — by 2021. Last year’s workforce planning process was one of its more conspicuous cost reduction efforts, cutting staff and faculty costs through an at-times controversial voluntary buyout program for staff and incentive plans for faculty.  Overall, the cost reduction efforts were successful, prompting the college in 2018 to accelerate projections for breaking even to this year. But this spring, the college announced that unexpected healthcare costs in 2019 created an approximately $4 million gap that still needed to be closed. Provost previously told The Campus that those healthcare costs could in part be due to the timing of workforce planning — people might have taken advantage of the college’s insurance plan to get medical procedures they have been putting off, for example, before taking the buyouts and separation plans. Additionally, Provost said the deficit was partly due to the staggered nature of the workforce planning process, as some employees — including all the faculty at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS) who took the incentive plans — still had to finish up the year before taking the buyouts. !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")}})}(); Today Those existing losses, in conjunction with the $9 million in losses for FY20 as a result of the coronavirus, contribute to an estimated $17.3 million in losses for this fiscal year. However, offset by cost-saving components like reduction in travel and food expenses, this deficit actually totals about $13.0 million for the year. Those Covid-19-related losses come from four main areas: the $7.9 million in room and board refunds for the spring semester; the $900,000 in refunds for study abroad students; the $1 million in lost auxiliary operations from the bookstore, The Grille and other retail operations, the golf course, and the lost last month of the Snow Bowl’s season; and the $7.5 million predicted fundraising shortfall. The Office of Advancement usually raises between $7–9 million in the last three months of the fiscal year. Now, with reunion canceled, it’s going to be difficult to do that. But the college gave families the option to donate their unused room and board credits as gifts; 19 families have taken them up on this thus far, for a total $83,000 in donations. The college has also been preparing to embark on a capital campaign. The Office and Advancement and the Board of Trustees will reevaluate the timing of that campaign. “Our donors and the largest donors in the world have lost a significant part of their wealth,” Provost said. “So that will play into thinking about that.” The last capital campaign was also launched before a financial crisis, in 2007. It stretched from a five to an eight-year campaign, but ultimately surpassed the college’s target of $500 million. There is also an estimated $800,000 in Covid-19-related expenses that the college will incur this year, which includes the over $110,000 it put toward helping students get home in March, which included travel expenses and gift cards for food costs. Despite the recent buzz about the financial footprint of MIIS, Provost said he does not think Middlebury’s financial challenges stem from the institute. “They have been at times, but Monterey has done more to control costs and has been more successful at it,” Provost said. “They don’t have room and board so their FY20 numbers are looking pretty good. They might have a surplus.” !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")}})}(); Looking ahead to FY21 In a recent memo to faculty and staff, Provost estimated the college deficit could swell to $30 million next year. That is assuming the college continues remote learning in the fall and then moves to in-person operations in the spring, and that there is full wage continuity throughout the year. “If we are able to bring most students back, the lost revenue will be much smaller, and manageable,” he said, noting that they’re prioritizing trying to get as many students back to campus as possible. So how is the college prepping for next year when everything is up in the air? Contingency budget plans. A lot of them. Provost is working on seven or eight possible plans, which he will present to the Board of Trustees for feedback next week at their May meetings. The college won’t make a decision on what it will do this fall — or which budget plan it will follow — until late June. Each potential scenario will contemplate its individual impact on tuition, room and board. Provost said that under no circumstance will the college cease operations completely this fall. Doing so could bring the deficit to a whopping $90 million. Losses from summer programming also factor into the FY21 budget. With some programs not happening at all and others  set to be held remotely, Provost said he expects to see $4–5 million in revenue from summer programs, versus the usual $17.9 million the college usually receives from these programs. Ameliorating losses The college is now pinpointing how it might mitigate the FY20 and FY21 losses. Some reductions happen naturally: the lack of travel expenses, paired with the reduction in food expenses and other operating costs, will save the college $7.5 million or more. Investure — the firm that manages the college’s investments — has deferred its payments for their fees until June, which also helps.  Other efforts will require more active planning, which is where the Budget Advisory Committee comes in. That committee will make recommendations to the Board of Trustees about where to cut in the FY21 budget. Each area of the college is currently reevaluating its spending. All departments may only use “essential” or “contractually obligated” expenses for the duration of the fiscal year. The SGA already pledged to redirect hundreds of thousands of its unused funds to staff wage continuity and student emergency support.  The college has also already instituted a hiring freeze, which will apply to all open faculty and staff positions for the foreseeable future. Likewise, the college will not allow departments to fill positions that open up in the coming months, with limited exceptions granted on a case-by-case basis by the Ways and Means Committee. Typically, employees receive small percentage salary increases each year. The college does not anticipate it will offer those raises in the coming year. It is, however, still contemplating addressing the results of its compensation review — the study it conducted with an external consulting group to gather market data this year. The college is undertaking that review partly to address the increased turnover it has seen over the last two years in positions within the lowest pay bands. In January, it raised wages for staff in its lowest-paid positions as an effort to make itself a more competitive employer amid staff shortages and grievances about low staff pay. “We may not be able to address the [compensation review] results in the first half of the year, but it remains a priority,” Provost said. Members of the Budget Advisory Committee say they have not gotten an update on the review and that it has not been part of their recent discussions. If the college continues remotely in the fall, it will have to address a litany of other concerns. Provost has consistently said that wage continuity is a priority for the college, but to continue to pay everyone, it might have to consider reducing all employees’ pay. Already, President Laurie Patton and some members of the Senior Leadership Group have taken pay cuts, per the most recent memo. Provost said employees with lowest wages would be the least impacted by the pay cuts, if they were to happen. The college will also receive about $1.8 million from the federal government, The Campus reported this week, as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Ultimately, Provost thinks the college can balance the budget by FY22. The effort to balance the budget from a similar deficit took years the last time around, but that was because the college was spending past its means and not taking in enough revenue. This time, revenue, not expenses, is the problem. Assuming the college can maintain its desired levels of enrollment, Provost said things should even out within the next 12–18 months. “So when we return to normal, the revenue should go back, too,” he said. The endowment Throughout all of this, Provost says he does not plan on drawing more from Middlebury’s endowment than he would have pre-Covid-19. In recent years, the college has been pulling roughly 5.1–5.2% from the endowment — the industry standard for non-profits — and FY20 will be no exception. That amounts to about $57,590,000 this year, taken out in four installments throughout the year. Provost estimates those numbers will be about the same for FY21. The dollar value of that 5% will be determined by a period of time before December 2019, pre-coronavirus. Any decline related to Covid-19 in the markets, then, would not take effect until FY22. As for the current state of the endowment, Provost said the numbers are not in the red zone. He said the college has stress-tested the endowment and estimated that if assets were down 30%, it would be in trouble. Currently, those assets are down about 10%.  The college is awaiting the first quarter results of the endowment for the three months ending on March 31. Those results will be presented to the Board of Trustees next week. Editors Bochu Ding and Benjy Renton contributed reporting.

College to receive 1.8 million in CARES Act stimulus

The college will receive over $1.8 million from the Department of Education as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to help offset costs related to supporting students during the Covid-19 pandemic. Under section 18004(a)(1) of the act passed in Congress in March, Middlebury has been allocated $1,862,094, half of which ($931,047) must go to emergency financial aid grants to students. According to the law’s stipulations, the remaining half can be allocated to students according to each institution’s financial plan. Middlebury has chosen to accept its portion of the $12.56 billion Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund. This comes as other elite schools such as Harvard, Yale and Princeton chose to reject these emergency funds, asking the Department of Education to re-allocate their funds to support other institutions in need. According to the provisions of the act, each institution’s amount is calculated using 75% of the enrollment of Pell Grant students at an institution and 25% of the enrollment of non-Pell students. Compared to Middlebury’s peer schools in the NESCAC, Middlebury’s allocation amount is closest to Amherst College ($1,574,582) and Williams College ($1,564,588). Tufts University was awarded $4,765,237 given its enrollment of 5,907 students, the highest in the NESCAC. !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")}})}(); In a letter to college and university presidents on April 9, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said that “the only statutory requirement is that the funds be used to cover expenses related to the disruption of campus operations due to coronavirus,” encouraging each institution to prioritize students with the greatest need. Eligible expenses include food, housing, course materials, technology, health care and child care. Newly released guidance on April 21 clarified who could receive these funds, despite the law itself making no mention of eligibility for federal student aid (Title IV) to qualify for CARES funding. As reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education, international students and undocumented immigrants — including those under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) protection — are excluded from receiving the allocated emergency student aid. David Provost, executive vice president for finance and administration, said that the funds for student emergency financial aid grants will be distributed in the next few weeks in the form of direct checks. “It’s very prescriptive as to what you can use it for,” he said. The school will prioritize its highest need students in the coming weeks. Provost anticipates that the college will use the remaining funds under the second part of the allocation to offset already paid expenses, helping reduce the significant deficit the college is projecting for fiscal year 2020. These expenses include a combination of the refunds that were given to students, travel vouchers and payments given to students for computer and internet access. Provost will report this breakdown following the distribution of the funds. These funds are also supplemented by the Middlebury Student Emergency Fund, an online giving campaign that has raised over $89,000 so far. “If we have those dollars to give to students we won’t be using the Middlebury Student Emergency Fund for any new needs in the short term, but we think there will be additional needs in the fall,” Provost said.

New committee folds faculty, staff, student into budgetary process

A committee that the college convened this winter to democratize financial decision-making is now helping it work through coronavirus-related budgetary woes. The Budget Advisory Committee was created in December and serves the college in an advisory capacity. Budget decisions ultimately fall on the Board of Trustees, which approves the budget in May. Originally, the committee was to come up with recommendations to reduce the college’s $4 million deficit. Now, it is looking into the budget cuts the college can make to mitigate the more severe Covid-19-related losses in Fiscal Year 2021. The committee includes members of the Faculty Resources Committee and Educational Affairs Committee; members of the budget office; two members from the Middlebury institute of International Studies at Monterey; four members of Staff Council; Treasurer and Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration Treasurer Provost; and Kenshin Cho ’20, chair of the Student Government Association Finance Committee. Cho is the only student on the committee. One of the original goals of the committee was to democratize the budgetary process. Before on-campus operations were suspended this March, The Campus spoke with a handful of members of the committee who said that, as representatives of their respective constituencies, they wanted to represent the attitudes of their peers on the committee as accurately as possible. But it was unclear upon the committee’s creation how that could happen when so many of the college’s budget documents and statements remain available only to those on the committee. PowerPoints and notes from each committee meeting are marked “confidential.” The college’s annual financial results webpage has not been updated since November 2018. And committee members seemed unsure about how they might gauge others' opinions without any formal feedback mechanisms. “To me personally, it’s difficult sometimes to know what it is that the faculty thinks,” said Enrique García, a professor of Luso-Hispanic Studies and a member of the committee. “So even though I’m the elected member, sometimes I feel uncomfortable with making certain statements about decisions that are being made because I don't have a venue to discuss and get direct feedback from the faculty body while engaging with the administration.” Since going remote, however, the college has released two public general memos on the state of the budget. It is planning on releasing a survey in the coming week soliciting input from faculty and staff on where to make cuts in next year’s budget. The committee has additionally begun convening without the administrators who sit in on meetings. Members receive the PowerPoint presentations in advance of their general meetings and get to talk about priorities more freely, said Katie Gillespie, an associate director for research compliance who sits on the committee as a representative from Staff Council. “As a staff member, I feel great about that,” she said. “Faculty members have tenure and have been asking really great questions, ones that have been on my mind, but I feel less comfortable asking.” Committee member Rick Bunt, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry, said part of the committee’s work is determining where the college’s priorities should lie and, therefore, where it needs to make cuts. “The budget is not just about how the people in the finance department think,” he said. “We really wanted it to be an expression of our values.” The committee is meeting today, without administrators, before the larger committee meeting on May 4. Gillespie said they’re planning to talk about priorities at that meeting. “Can we all get on the same page, I’m not sure,” she said. “But it feels like by doing that extra bit outside the committee, it’s become a better process.” Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that the faculty and staff survey will be sent out in the coming weeks.

thumbnail_IMG-2668-Charlotte-Sullivan

(Virtual) Downtown Clowne 4 Dance Party with DJ's Miqual and Suzaaron. April 11, 2020.

Zeitgeist takes on love

The Campus asked Middlebury students to participate in the second annual Zeitgeist survey in November, looking to gain insight into campus culture by asking the questions that are often not discussed. This year’s survey included an exploration of love, relationships and the ever ill-defined “hook-up culture.” A total of 1,245 students responded — nearly 48.25% of the student body. !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 vast majority of Middlebury students — 90.82% — prefer a romantic relationship to a hook-up, according to the second annual Zeitgeist 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")}})}(); Despite this indicated preference, 50.44% of respondents said that they have had a one-night stand in the past and 43.53% reported having had an, “unspecified, slightly-monogamous ‘thing.’” !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")}})}(); About 55.37% of respondents, or 686 students, reported having been in a committed romantic relationship before starting at Middlebury. However, only 39.43% of students, or 491 respondents, reported being in a committed/monogamous relationship at Middlebury. Athletes are 7.09% more likely to have partaken in a one-night stand and, on average, have a higher number of sexual partners than non-athletes. Students identifying as part of the LGBTQ+ community are equally as likely to participate in all forms of relationships and sexual activity as non-LGBTQ+ 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")}})}(); When asked about their satisfaction with the romantic scene at Middlebury, 46.01% of respondents answered that they were somewhat dissatisfied or extremely dissatisfied, 30.41% were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, 23.58% said that they were somewhat satisfied or extremely satisfied.   !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 length of relationships for students have varied. 34.90% of respondents said that their longest relationship lasted over a year, while 22.35% have never been in a relationship. !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 one in ten students — 10.17% of respondents — said they have cheated in a romantic relationship. Respondents were asked how many partners they have engaged in consensual sexual activity within the last 12 months. The most common response was 2-4 partners, with 386 students. 263 students reported they had not engaged in sex within the last year. Respondents who identified as cisgender female were more likely to have not engaged in sex compared to their cisgender male counterparts: 24.25% compared to 16.26%. Despite the fact that many students have participated in hook-up culture to some degree, it is not clear what this term actually means. Students attempted — and struggled — to define “hook-up” in the survey. 1,130 students heeded the call to demystify the ambiguous (and popular) term. “Hook-up is a deliberately ambiguous word in English that can connote anything from just making out to full-on sex,” reads one response, adding that “hook-up” is not a term they use when speaking of their own encounters. “I believe that encounters of any sexual nature would constitute a hook-up, but I’d be wary of defining mine as such because of the social implications this term carries.” Many responses stated that hooking up is the range that begins with making out and ends with sex. Some designated hook-ups as an act that must occur privately, while others included infamous Dance Floor Make Outs (DFMOs) in their definition. Many others explicitly defined hook-ups as, “anything more than kissing”, requiring some sort of sexual encounter. One respondent wrote that hook-ups are, “Something sexual in nature that can turn into something more, but [that] doesn’t necessarily have too much meaning or … emotion.” The word “party” appears in responses 40 times. One response says that hook-ups are “having sex with someone after a party and then not getting into a relationship for more than a couple weeks or so afterward.” The words “casual” and “casually” appear 66 times in responses. “Spontaneous” and “spontaneously” appear seven times. A common theme in the responses is a lack of emotional connection or significance. As one respondent puts it, hook-ups are, “Having a sexual relationship with someone without necessarily the need for an emotional/romantic connection or committment to that person.” !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")}})}(); For those involved in the romantic scene at Middlebury, survey respondents were given a range of options to select how they have met romantic partners. The most popular option was through mutual friends, with 527 people, followed by on nights out (495), extracurriculars (275) and through residence halls (225). Respondents also pointed to orientation and on-campus jobs as places they met romantic partners. !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 also shows that Middlebury students tend to download dating apps during their later years at Middlebury. The percentage of students who use dating apps increased as students aged, with only 17.25% of the class of 2023 respondents having used a dating app at the time of the survey compared to 44.19% of the class of 2022, 48.36% of the class of 2021 and 57.32% of the class of 2020. Editor’s Note: All the results from the second annual Zeitgeist survey will be published on May 7, in the special Zeitgeist issue. Riley Board, and Caroline Kapp contributed reporting.

Recipe: Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

In the spirit of the Love Issue, I wanted to share one of my favorite recipes. It was at Middlebury where I discovered how food could be a conduit of love and that it allowed me to create and foster spaces for my friends to find quiet moments together. I first discovered these moments when I lived in Hepburn my sophomore year. I lived in a suite on the first floor with this tiny little kitchen which had a stovetop, an oven and a counter the size of a small cutting board. My room was 107 square feet and shaped like a coffin. I was taking a class called “Food in the Middle East” at the time and for the class, we were reading a cookbook about Turkish food. I impulsively decided to, in my tiny kitchen, cook one of the recipes for my friends. My room was so tiny that we had to sit in the hallway of the suite, legs overlapping in a giant pile to eat. There was something magical about the splayed limbs, the laughs and the smiles shared over something that I had spent so much time and effort creating. The food didn’t matter, what mattered was everyone simultaneously pausing their busy day and sharing this moment. I wanted to share my recipe for chocolate chip cookies with you all because it is my absolute favorite thing to make and the easiest way to show someone you love them without words. My approach to love is a lot like making chocolate chip cookies. I love making them because of how happy they make other people. They have a way of slowing time, creating moments of quiet in the midst of an insane day. Since living in Hepburn, I have come to believe that it isn’t just cooking for someone that shows you love them, it’s putting aside your own stuff to let someone know you care about them, whether that is ignoring homework to spend time with them, going out of your way to walk them home or the most delicious option, making them dinner or chocolate chip cookies. I hope that you enjoy this recipe and that you share it with the people you love.  Ingredients:                     1 ½ cups all-purpose flour                      1 tablespoon of salt                      ¾ tablespoon of baking soda                      1½ sticks of unsalted butter (step 2 in the directions)                      ½ cup brown sugar                      1 cup of cane sugar                      2 large eggs                      2 egg yolks                      3 tablespoons of vanilla extract                      ½- ¾ cups chocolate chunks                      1 cup of rolled oats   Directions: Mix together the flour, baking soda, salt, oats and chocolate chips in a small bowl and set aside. Preheat your oven to 350.  Add the whole stick of butter In a small pan over low heat on the stove. This will take about 4 minutes but you are looking for the butter to take on a golden color and for the milk solids (the flecks in the butter) to take on a golden color as well. It should smell nutty and the butter should be completely melted. Once the butter has browned, transfer to a heatproof, large bowl. Into the bowl, add the cubed ½ stick of butter and stir until it is melted. To the butter, add your sugar and mix to combine. Then add your two eggs, and the two egg yolks (separate over another container if you want to save the whites). Add the vanilla extract to the mix as well. Gently stir in the dry ingredients to the bowl with the wet ingredients. Mix until you don’t see any bits of dry flour. Cover the bowl with a dish or tea towel and place it in the fridge. Ideally, this should rest overnight or for at least an hour. It’s important to let the flour hydrate and to let everything come together. But that being said an hour in the fridge is fine! Grease a sheet pan and form the dough into roughly two-tablespoon sized balls. Place them on the sheet with plenty of room for spreading. These are meant to be tall, gooey on the inside cookies. Bake for 8-10 minutes, checking at 8 minutes for whether the top of the cookie is golden brown. Let sit for 2 minutes before eating so they can set.

What is love (at Middlebury)?

The more I reflect on my four years at Middlebury, the more I am overwhelmed by how much love I felt for my friends and how loved by them I felt in return. In honor of this week’s Love Issue, I reached out to a few senior friends and asked them to answer a couple questions: how they defined love at Middlebury, if there was anything they wish they had realized sooner or done differently with regard to love during college, and when they felt most loved at Middlebury.  When I reflect on those questions,  I always gravitate towards two moments. The first was during the last week of my junior fall, when I was living in Palmer. One night, my friends congregated in the suite across the hall from ours, about 15 people were seated around the room in a loose circle, on the floor, on top of desks and on chairs we had crammed into the suite. One friend, splayed on one of the room’s two twin beds and with a beer in his hand, was receiving a stick-and-poke on the back of his calf. Conversation zipped by and around me as I sat on a lofted bed, next to a best friend and a more-than-a-friend. I felt like I was being held in place by the threads that wove around the room, in between people, across my lap and through my two shoulders. It was quintessentially, even obscenely college-esque; still, it remains one of the best nights from the last four years. The second moment that comes to mind is from the last week of my senior year. On Wednesday, the day following the announcement of our untimely departure from campus, my friends and I rallied for a 4 p.m. Mad Taco salute. Over margaritas and overpriced but decent Mexican food, my six closest friends and I tried to come to terms with what it meant to say goodbye to Middlebury, well before any of us felt ready to leave it behind. When I asked everyone to remember when at Midd they had laughed the hardest, we were left in hysterics remembering all of the famous and infamous moments of pure, belly-shaking, tear-inducing laughter we’d had over the years. Someone once observed that my friends and I are always laughing; until then, though, I never realized just how apt that description was. Right then, as we felt our collective chapter at Middlebury closing, I felt unmistakably, completely loved. That moment with my friends is one of hundreds that I can think of where I felt completely loved, but this one just happens to be my favorite memory of a chapter closing. If nothing else, college helped me understand how I love. I guess that is how I define love at Middlebury: putting aside your time and stress to take a moment to care for someone else, whether that is making them a cookie, or just taking the time to be quiet and present together. In my experience, I have felt the most love in quiet, routine moments: mornings in bed with someone, homework in the library, rambunctious lunches in Atwater and prolonged dinners on the Proctor terrace. I wish I had realized sooner that these small moments of love would be what I would carry with me after I left Middlebury, but I am so grateful to always carry them with me. Without further ado, here is how people responded to my prompts. When asked how they define love at Midd, they answered: For me, love at Middlebury is defined by my incredibly kind, smart, funny, thoughtful, perceptive closest friends who, after four years, are like an extension of myself. I wish everyone at Midd the same deep-rooted, immutable happiness of knowing, beyond all doubt, that you’ve found your people. I still can’t really believe that we all ended up here together— what are the odds? That infamous Middlebury statistic proved true for me: here, I found my soulmates.  I define love at Middlebury the same way I define it everywhere: an intangible sentiment that draws us to people indefinitely in both romantic and platonic contexts.  A meaningful and fulfilling connection between two people that allows each individual to bring out the best in themselves. In essence, love is when two (or potentially more) people come together and are more than just the sum of their parts. I would actually say in my time at Middlebury I have more often come to love someone or some group in a non-romantic way than in a platonic way.  When asked what they wished they had done differently or realized sooner, they answered: At several points, I remember saying to friends, “There’s just no one left here that I’d be interested in dating.” Of course, that never turned out to be true, and a week or two later I’d meet someone great who I never knew existed. I wish I had had more faith in the dating pool at Middlebury. It’s a cliche, but when it feels like you’ve exhausted your options, do try to keep an open mind— you truly never know who you’ll hit it off with.  I was single for a lot of Middlebury and for some reason I always felt this kind of guilt. I knew hookup culture wasn't ideal, but I always felt bad for getting into brief one-to-two month relationships, only to bail out before it got really serious. Now that I'm really happy in a relationship, I see how stupid that mentality was; unless things really feel right, its pointless to feel guilty about not wanting to commit to something, as long as you communicate with the "other" partners ahead of time.  I wish I hadn't felt so rushed to find a long-term romantic partner. This had little to do with Middlebury itself, but I came into college on the back of a long-term relationship, and the only kind of relationship I was interested in was one where I could fill that deep void I had for a very close romantic partner. I think I missed a lot of the growth and learning associated with more casual dating and romantic encounters, and I wish looking back I hadn't been so concerned with something you ultimately cannot force. It either happens or it doesn't, and I shouldn't have been so caught up in it all. When asked about when they felt the most loved at Middlebury, they responded: One friend would make me soup whenever she noticed I was sad. There is no sadness that cannot be eased (at least in part) by a cup of hot, homemade soup.  I think it was after I went to Nationals this senior year, and all my friends were hitting me with a slew of supporting messages, asking me how it went. It showed me how much they care and it hit me in a really special place. The moment I felt most loved at Middlebury, though there have been many other instances where I've felt loved as well, was on a day of no particular importance. I had been feeling a bit down on my luck for a variety of reasons, and I had gotten through the week just putting my head down, not saying anything to anyone else, and keeping all that sadness to myself. I didn't think anyone would really notice, but that Friday morning when I walked into the dining hall, someone had thought to bake me a batch of cookies because they thought it would be a pleasant surprise and make me happy. I highly doubt they knew I was having a rough week, but the reminder that there are people out there, and especially my friends, who do genuinely care about me, changed my entire week. Sometimes it's the smallest acts of kindness that go the farthest. I still have the ribbon that tied that bag of cookies shut to this day.

A quarantine reading list for the lonely

Of all the forms of isolation bred in this national distancing experiment — physical at best, and at worst its insidious cousins of the emotional, mental and social varieties — literature has borne witness to each. Whether we’ve staved them off or found ourselves embroiled in them, we’re all experiencing at least one: the government-mandated type. (The only type that might have driven Thoreau out of the woods.)  But I’m not going to tell you to go read “Walden” — it feels a bit condescending to be told to “live deliberately” when the only thing keeping one compos mentis is a two-pound bag of Swedish Fish and the Apple podcast app. I’m also going to leave off much of the other seemingly go-to isolation literature — Virgina Woolf’s “To the Lighthouse,” Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre,” Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and anything by Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson and James Joyce. (Which is not to say I don’t recommend them.) In lieu, here’s a list of six books to help you lay bare, dissect and anatomize your own isolation in all of its mordant and oft-unseen incarnations.   1. “My Year of Rest and Relaxation” by Ottessa Moshfegh If I could recommend one queen quarantine book, it would be this one. Truth be told, any of Moshfegh’s books could fill this slot — she was once described by Jia Tolentino as  “the most interesting contemporary American writer on the subject of being alive when being alive feels terrible” — but this novel seems particularly germane. Maybe it’s because the book features a recent college graduate in self-inflicted exile from her own life in New York City, or maybe it’s Moshfegh’s all-too-apt shrewdness in accounting the experience of little-to-no experience. Either way, this novel is a bleary-eyed walk worth taking through a life where time itself is held captive. 2. "The Trial” by Franz Kafka Kafka, a literary horseman of self-isolation, is another author whose entire body of work could essentially fit this list. “The Trial,” his standout novel among a slew of short stories and novellas, follows Josef K. around a tortuous bureaucratic carousel as he tries to make sense of a life that does its best to spin him into disoriented monotony. A recent essay in The Los Angeles Review of Books pinpoints this well — of all the doors opening and closing for Josef K. in “The Trial,” we see a frustratingly similar number in front of us in this pandemic. Yes, watching them swing in real time can get disheartening, and yes, this novel understands. 3. “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric” by Claudia Rankine This book engages with a topic that seems to stare down those of us in quarantine: what’s the right role for the individual within this writhing political culture? “An American Lyric” is one of Rankine’s signature literary forms, quilting segments of prose, poetry and television imagery. The first time I sat down with it, I read it twice before leaving my chair. If you don’t know how to think, feel or act on all the things going on in the news, happening around you or stirring within you that make you feel alone, this book will deliver headway. 4. “The Friend” by Sigrid Nunez This novel is at once a meditation on grief and a portrait of the relationships we may increasingly have with our pets as we inevitably spend every hour with them. When the narrator’s worshipped literary mentor dies, she is pressed to adopt his grief-stricken Great Dane named Apollo. Through her own deep grief and waning grasp on her writing, she pushes further into her own isolation with Apollo, all the while ruminating on expression itself. As many of us lean into the solace of our pets in inadvertent replacement of those we can’t see, this book can at times feel like a pat on the head. “I know this is all moronically anthropomorphic,” writes Nunez, “but sometimes that is the form love takes.” 5. “Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life” by J.M. Coetzee Coetzee’s 1998 novel “Boyhood” is one of two fictionalized accounts of his own childhood in Cape Town published in the years leading up to his Nobel Prize. This one, the first, roams through a life cut into sections. Within each, there is a boy under a new identity, reconciling action and self-perception in a life that he has yet to feel comfortable in. This book holds water for the many whose lives have been disrupted by the pandemic, and those who themselves are reconciling with identity when left alone to define it. 6. “The Nickel Boys” by Colson Whitehead In his latest novel “The Nickel Boys,” Pulitzer Prize-winning author Colson Whitehead follows a young Elwood Curtis through the most odious form of isolation on this list. Amid the Civil Rights movement, Elwood, a black teenager about to enroll in college in Florida, is sent to the Nickel Academy reformatory for a mistake. Together yet alone, remembered yet forgotten, the reformatory’s occupants contend with their notions of humanity while forced to source it from within. Though I could not possibly argue that this experience runs parallel to ours in quarantine, Whitehead's insights ring true across them. “If it is true for you,” he writes, “it is true for someone else, and you are no longer alone.” 

Covid-19 exposes long-existing patterns of student food insecurity

While headlines over the past few weeks have drawn attention to mile-long lines outside food pantries and the difficulties people have had receiving benefits from the (already insufficient) Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), there is, in reality, nothing “new” about this news. Rather, Covid-19 has exposed and amplified pre-existing inequities that run rampant in our national food system. College students, many of whom are on scholarships and have no income of their own, have always been particularly vulnerable to food insecurity and are now even more susceptible. However, over the past several months, we have been working with our classmates not only to assess the prevalence of food insecurity among our peers (both during the school year and while at home), but to put together a resource guide for those who are hungry.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) defines food security as “access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life.” Food insecurity, therefore, refers to the lack of that access. Unlike hunger (a condition that often results from food insecurity), this definition encompasses several causal factors: dependability and consistency of food access, quantity and quality of food available, and the ability of all members of a household to meet their nutritional needs. The USDA conducts an annual survey to measure these conditions. This past fall, one of us took Professor Molly Anderson’s class on Hunger, Food Security and Food Sovereignty. The class sent out a questionnaire to the Middlebury student body composed of our own unique questions, modified ones from the USDA and those inspired by a similar project undertaken at the University of Vermont. The questionnaire received 330 responses and found that 9.7% of respondents either sometimes or often didn’t have enough to eat at school, with about half of those individuals experiencing this insecurity while classes are in session and half while on break. The results also showed that 5.4% of students either often or sometimes worried that their food would run out before they had money to buy more while they were at home. This initial survey left open many further areas for research; for instance, it’s unclear why some students who are on the meal plan are food insecure while dining halls are open (perhaps because dining halls aren’t able to provide them with sufficient food that is culturally-appropriate and/or adheres to dietary restrictions). Other findings from the survey were more definitive; for instance, it’s clear that the college must do better to provide students who stay on campus for breaks (when dining halls are closed) with the resources that they need to stay well-fed.  While the above percentages may not seem that significant, it’s critical to remember that ultimately, states of food security reflect the collective. To be food secure requires “access by all people.” Thus, on our local level, we cannot say that Middlebury students are a food secure population if any of us lack consistent access to sufficient and nutritious food. Similarly, the U.S. cannot claim to be a food secure country when millions of Americans lack that access to varying degrees.  Despite students’ struggles, food insecurity remains a relatively invisible issue at Middlebury. Many likely assume that with an unlimited meal plan, no student can go hungry. We must therefore begin by increasing the visibility of the problem in the Middlebury community, not to mention the accessibility of the resources that already exist. Unbeknownst to many students, there are a number of incredible organizations, offices, businesses and individuals that offer aid to the food insecure. We encourage students to check out our resource guide to see the food-related resources that are available to them. This resource guide was originally crafted for use during the academic year and over school breaks. In light of the coronavirus pandemic, however, it has been modified to address students’ current situations. While we are doing our best to adjust the document in response to the pandemic, we are in a dynamic situation with new resources being made available constantly and pre-existing organizations that are working to meet novel needs.  We recognize that the contents of this guide, much of it specific to Vermont, may not be as useful as under normal circumstances. That said, we point students toward Feeding America, a national hunger-relief organization, which has a tool on their website to connect those in need with their closest food bank. For those who do remain on campus and in the town of Middlebury, we hope that this guide is especially useful to you during these challenging times when the regular food offerings on campus are reduced. We will continue to update, distribute and publicize the guide when we return in the fall.  Even though the U.S. may be one of very few countries in the world that doesn’t explicitly acknowledge the right to food in its constitution, morality and common sense can guide how we act locally. Now more than ever, it’s time to recognize that every person deserves food security.  We welcome any questions about or suggestions to our guide, which can be found at go.middlebury.edu/foodresources. Submit feedback here. Grace Weissman and Bella Pucker are members of the class of 2021.5. Molly Babbin is a member of the class of 2022.

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Update: College maintains opt-in Pass/D/Fail policy

The college will not alter its current opt-in Pass/D/Fail grading policy after student groups called for changes to the existing guidelines, but will extend the deadline to invoke the option to May 8, according to an email sent to students by Provost Jeff Cason, Dean of Faculty Sujata Moorti and Dean of Curriculum Suzanne Gurland. The updated policy also establishes an extended window from May 9 to May 15 during which students may revoke Pass/D/Fail. Previously, students had until May 1 to declare the option and could not retract their decision.  The college will add a memo to students’ transcripts, indicating that a grade of “P” is not reflective of diminished academic rigor, but “should be interpreted as a reasonable response to these extraordinary circumstances.”  The announcement follows a heated debate between opposing #OptInMidd and #FairGradesMidd platforms, among others. On Tuesday, the Student Government Association (SGA) sent out a survey asking students to indicate their preferred grading model. The survey received 1,843 responses, with 59.2% of respondents indicating the Dual A model as their first choice. Universal pass/fail followed, comprising 22.4% of respondents’ first choice and opt-in pass/fail 18.4%.  An overwhelming majority — 93.8% — of students also supported extending the deadline to invoke Pass/D/Fail so that students could make a decision after professors released spring semester grades (in the event that the college upholds its opt-in Pass/D/Fail system).  SGA president Varsha Vijayakumar ’20 said in a text to The Campus that, to the best of her knowledge, the SGA had yet to share the survey data with administrators.  Before reaching their decision, administrators considered the arguments of both campaigns, individual students and faculty members, according to the email. The decision was also informed by conversations with individuals from the health professions office, elected faculty committees, registrar’s office and peer schools.   The college maintained its current policy on the grounds that proposed solutions were either inadequately compelling or introduced new issues. “Each time we considered a potential change to the announced policy, we either weren’t convinced it actually did a better job of achieving equity and fairness, or found that it would create a different, even worse problem,” the email read.  Students can invoke Pass/D/Fail using this form provided by the registrar’s office. 

With no end to Covid in sight, college will finish semester remotely

Following the lead of other colleges and universities, Middlebury will not bring students back to Vermont this semester and has ruled out the possibility of an in-person commencement in May, President Laurie Patton confirmed in an all-campus email Thursday afternoon. In a separate email, Treasurer David Provost detailed a plan to partially refund students’ room and board payments. The approximately 120 students who remain on campus will be allowed to stay until the end of the semester provided federal and state governments do not change their policies, according to Dean of Students Baishakhi Taylor. “Students who are on campus can leave campus if they so choose, and we will help them with travel needs as appropriate,” she wrote in a text message to The Campus. All classes will carry on remotely, “continuing the emergency approach to teaching and learning our faculty and students have already begun,” Patton wrote. She promised continued communication from the administration to help maximize students’ remote learning experiences.  Students have waited anxiously for news about commencement as the response to Covid-19 escalated around the country in recent days. Thirty-eight U.S. states had enacted stay-at-home orders as of April 2, and many colleges and universities around the country had cancelled graduation ceremonies. In the NESCAC, Bowdoin postponed its graduation ceremony without considering a virtual alternative, while Tufts will take Middlebury’s route of both a virtual May ceremony and a later, in-person gathering.  Patton acknowledged the disappointment members of the class of 2020 will feel at missing out on an in-person commencement in May, and said the college will still hold an in-person ceremony on an undecided date later this year or in 2021. The email did not describe possible formats for the virtual rendition of the ceremony, which will still be held the last weekend in May. In his email, Provost wrote that the college will automatically place “prorated” credits for room and board fees on students' accounts beginning next Monday. Students will be credited between $1,000 and $4,380 — up to 55% of semester room and board fees — depending on families’ contributions to tuition costs.  Students have the choice of applying the credit to future charges or requesting a refund, Provost wrote. The credits, which will total close to $9 million, come as the college continues to pay all faculty and staff wages through the end of the semester. Families can also opt to make a tax-deductible donation to the college in their credit amount. Middlebury’s annual June reunion ceremony has also been cancelled, according to Patton’s email. The school has not yet made a decision about the status of the summer language schools, but told those on a language schools email list two days ago that they are still accepting applications. However, the email also asked applicants not to make travel arrangements at the current time, and said that it is “looking at alternative options depending on language and level, should our programs be disrupted.” This is a developing story. Check The Campus’ website for updates.

In game-time decision, college ski areas close early to maintain social distancing

The college’s ski areas at both the Snow Bowl and Rikert Nordic Center have cut their seasons short. Despite previous plans to stay open for the weekend of March 13, the ski areas had their last day of the season that Saturday — the day before Middlebury students were required to leave campus, and three weeks ahead of their planned closure date of Saturday, April 4. “Making this about community safety was easy with respect to deciding to close,” said Mike Hussey, general manager of Rikert and the Snow Bowl. “It absolutely made sense to all of us involved in the decision making process.” Closure discussions Hussey and his team began discussions about an early closure once they received word on Tuesday, March 10 that Middlebury was suspending in-person classes and sending students home. “On Wednesday the 11, I met with the team at the ski areas and determined that keeping the areas open would not further the cause of ‘social distancing,’” Hussey said. “The Base Lodge [at the Snow Bowl] is a melting pot of a vast cross section of people.” Hussey recommended to Middlebury’s Senior Leadership Group (SLG) that the ski areas close on Friday, March 13. “The decision was initially left to me then the SLG took it up,” Hussey said. After the college announced it was extending its deadline for departures and that Middlebury students were allowed to stay on campus through Sunday, March 15, the two parties agreed to keep the ski areas open through the weekend. Hussey said that the Middlebury ski areas, which publicly announced their closure plans on March 13, were some of the first ski areas in the country to do so. While Vermont has not issued a state order to shut down ski resorts, as was seen in Colorado, Vail Resorts (including Stowe and Okemo), Alterra Resorts (Sugarbush, Stratton) and Powdr Resorts all announced on March 14 that they would close immediately. As a result, the Snow Bowl became a popular backup option on Sunday to skiers who had been left stranded by the immediate closures at other mountains along the Route 100 valley. However, at 8:20 a.m. on Sunday, 10 minutes before the scheduled opening of the lifts, Hussey made the decision to close the mountain as the lodge was already in excess of a 250 person maximum set by the state government of Vermont. “This was initially a hard decision as it was a great opportunity for new customers to experience the Snow Bowl, something we strive for,” Hussey said, “but in reality it was easy because it wasn’t about the Snow Bowl or the skiing but the safety of the people.” Lost revenue and opportunity The need to shut down quickly — sometimes temporarily, sometimes indefinitely — in response to the virus has greatly affected local business across Addison County and Vermont. Hussey said he doesn’t have an estimate yet of lost revenue from the early closure of the ski areas, but did note that the end of March is not typically a highly profitable time. “The main revenue sources are season pass sales, the holidays, and [the college’s] Feb vacations,” said Hussey. “We missed a few weeks of weekend skiing, mostly for pass holders,  and a couple events.” Jack Brady ’21 was one of the many pass holders seeking to take advantage of the last weeks of the season. “I like to get out at least a couple of times a week through the end of March,” Brady said. “The conditions may not be as great towards the end of the season, especially with the amount of snowfall this year, but it is always fun to ski with friends.” Thanks to the decision to keep both campus and the ski areas open into the weekend, Brady was also one of many students able to take advantage of the Snow Bowl’s last days. “I was lucky enough to go to the Snow Bowl on Saturday, which ended up being closing day,” Brady said. “While many students had already left campus the prior day, I enjoyed this last opportunity to ski at the bowl.” Next steps Hussey and his team are still working hard to officially wrap up the ski areas for the season. “Currently, we are able to do the customary closure work for the ski areas as it is primarily independent work on the mountain and office work that can be done remotely,” Hussey said. He does not expect a major disruption in the work plan, with the early closure being close enough to their normal business cycle, but shares the uncertainty that most small business owners are facing amidst the crisis. “That said, we do not know what this pandemic will bring and are planning for how to work effectively in the next months.”

Developing: Commencements across Vermont and the Northeast affected by Covid-19

Last updated April 20, 1:00 p.m. Colleges across Vermont and Middlebury's peer schools in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) have been faced with the possibility of not conducting commencement exercises as originally planned, due to concerns about in-person gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic. The Campus has been tracking as colleges announce postponements or cancellations for ceremonies in the spring.   !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")}})}(); Amherst College and Bowdoin College have decided to postpone commencement exercises, without yet revealing the specifics of what those postponed commencements will look like. Tufts University was the latest university in the NESCAC to postpone its commencement. "Though we unfortunately cannot be together in person, we will celebrate the class of 2020 on May 17 with the university’s first virtual Commencement ceremony," president Anthony Monaco said in a March 26 statement. The decision was met with considerable opposition, as reported in The Tufts Daily, and a a petition to reschedule an in-person commencement is now circulating online. The petition had received over 4,300 signatures as of Saturday, March 28. The university since walked back the idea of a virtual commencement and announced it would hold an in-person ceremony "when it is safe to do so."   !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")}})}(); Six Vermont colleges and universities have announced that they will postpone their commencements, some as late in 2021.

Developing: Middlebury suspends all programs abroad and in Monterey

!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")}})}(); Last updated March 20, 2:40 p.m. For updates on the suspension of classes at the Vermont campus, check here. All remaining students abroad Middlebury has advised all remaining students studying abroad on externally sponsored programs to return to the U.S. immediately, according to an update from Dean of International Programs Carlos Vélez. This advisory follows the U.S. Department of State’s Global Level 4 Health Advisory announced on March 19 and will impact 108 students. “These decisions never come easily, and we never could have imagined that we would be suspending all of our programs and calling all of our students home from abroad,” the message read.  The State Department has advised all U.S. citizens to avoid international travel and for those currently abroad to arrange for immediate return to the U.S. Many of the universities where Middlebury students were studying this semester have implemented online learning options so students can complete course work remotely. Read the college's March 20 announcement here. Schools abroad in Argentina, Brazil, Cameroon, Chile, Uruguay Programs suspended on March 13 for spring semester The remaining five Middlebury schools abroad were suspended on Friday, according to an update from Dean of International Programs Carlos Vélez. "Despite the fact that confirmed cases of COVID-19 remain relatively low in your host countries, we are very concerned about the imposition of future travel bans and other restrictions around the globe," the statement said. Students enrolled in the programs in Latin America will be given the option to withdraw from the program with no academic credit and a full tuition refund, or to remain in the program with remote coursework for a full semester of Middlebury credit, according to a Friday email to enrollees' parents from Assistant Director of International Programs Alessandra Capossela. The Campus is currently looking into what the academic options will be for students enrolled in programs in other areas. Read the college's March 13 announcement here. Schools abroad in France, Germany, India, Japan, Jordan, Morocco, Russia, Spain Programs suspended on March 12 for spring semester The college suspended eight of its abroad programs on Thursday, two days after the college  suspended on-campus classes at his core campus. An email to all schools abroad students said the decision was based in part on the CDC's newly elevated advisory of all European countries to Level 3 status, as well as the U.S. Department of State's new global health advisory and President Donald Trump's proclamation of a travel ban on foreign nationals from Europe to the U.S. The email asked students to make arrangements to go home "as soon as possible." Read the college's March 12 announcement here. Middlebury Institute for International Studies in Monterey Classes to continue remotely after spring break ends on March 23 The institute had a planned spring break beginning this Friday, March 13. After break, classes will resume remotely on March 23, and will remain so for the rest of the semester.  Read the college’s March 10 announcement here. Middlebury-CMRS program in Oxford Program suspended on March 10 for spring semester The college suspended the Middlebury College CMRS-Oxford Humanities Program in England on March 10. The 35 participating students will complete their studies remotely, including the research project that constitutes a main part of the program. They have been asked to leave the country by March 15.  School abroad in Italy Program suspended on Feb. 20 for spring semester The college suspended its programs in Florence, Rome and Ferrara on Feb. 29, 11 days after the programs there began. Students were given the option to take the semester off and get refunded for the semester’s tuition, or to take online classes taught by professors at Sede Capponi, the Middlebury Center in Florence. Read The Campus’s coverage of those cancellations here. School abroad in China Program suspended on Jan. 28 for spring semester The schools Hangzhou, Kunming and Beijing were closed in late January, before the spring semester began and while the coronavirus was still peaking in the country. The 11 students who had already arrived in China had to evacuate, some of whom were able to reenroll at the college in the spring. Read The Campus’s coverage of those cancellations here. !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")}})}();

Murray visit likely canceled amid coronavirus measures

In September, the Middlebury College Republicans set in motion plans to invite Charles Murray back to campus for a third visit, requiring hours of meetings with administrators and lengthy discussions about logistics. This week, those plans have ground to a halt. All spring semester courses will be moved online beginning March 30 in light of the spreading global Covid-19 outbreak, the college announced Tuesday. Murray’s talk, which was scheduled for March 31, will likely be cancelled as a result of the new steps, according to College Republicans Co-President Brendan Philbin ’21. Philbin says he has not yet conferred with members of the College Republicans as to whether they’ll reschedule. “From what we’ve seen, it doesn’t seem like we’ll even be back at school for March 31,” he said. “If we do end up deciding we want to reschedule, it would be for the fall.” Murray, a controversial conservative writer who garnered national attention from works such as “The Bell Curve,” visited the college in 2007 and 2017. The protests of his 2017 visit led to the injury of political science professor Allison Stanger, and catalyzed conversations about free speech on college campuses. Since the College Republicans announced Murray’s planned return in a January op-ed, many of those conversations have been reignited. Before this week, students and faculty were planning to strike and hold teach-ins on the day of his talk. Philbin said that Murray was notified promptly of the college’s decision to move courses online and that the talk would likely be cancelled. He said that Murray wasn’t surprised. In an interview with The Campus earlier this week, Murray expressed the expectation that the talk might be pushed, as colleges around the country took steps to protect students from the spreading virus.  “The Middlebury thing is way up in the air given the coronavirus situation,” he said. “Given the number of things that are being cancelled—and we’re only talking three weeks away? I’d say, that’s pretty iffy right there.” The planning With the College Republicans’ meager budget of $415, financing Murray’s talk proved a preliminary obstacle. According to Murray, his speaker fee is usually $10,000 for colleges like Middlebury. Yet when College Republican co-presidents Philbin and Dominic Aiello ’22.5 and former Vermont governor and College Republicans adviser Jim Douglas reached out to him to gauge his interest in coming back, he immediately waived the fee. “I’m not charging the college because I thought it was important — still think it’s important — for me to come back to Middlebury,” Murray said in an interview with The Campus. Next came the meetings. Philbin estimates that he, Aiello and Douglas met with the administration at least seven times since the initial proposal in mid-November. Philbin said that originally the administration proposed that the talk take place mid-day, at 1 p.m. Philbin insisted on a typical talk time of 4:30 p.m., so that students weren’t confronted with the choice between attending classes and the talk. “They also proposed another event time that was the Friday of spring break,” Philbin said. “So, spring break starts at 4:15 and the event would have been at 4:30. We eventually ended up getting March 31 — but that took several meetings.” Throughout this entire process, Murray has not had contact with the administration. “I haven’t talked to anybody from Middlebury’s administration about anything,” he said. The visit would have been Murray’s first visit to a college campus in the wake of the release of his new book, “Human Diversity: The Biology of Race, Gender, and Class.” Day-of protocol Organizing day-of logistics for Murray’s visit resembled something between an obstacle course and a jigsaw puzzle. Like last time, the talk was slated to take place in Wilson Hall. There were 140 seats designated for the event.  According to Philbin, a private security consulting group, Blue Moon Consulting, was involved in the planning process. The firm’s website says it deals in “proactive reputational risk and crisis management.”  Philbin, Aiello and Douglas planned on divvying up tickets with a lottery system. The College Republicans reserved 60 of the tickets for their own club members, various faculty and members of Open Campus Initiative — the co-sponsor of the event. Philbin said the College Republicans do not have an official roster, but that 8 to 20 members are usually in attendance at each meeting. Of the original 140 tickets, 80 remain for Middlebury College ID-holders. McCullough Student Center — the building in which Wilson Hall is situated — was to be closed for the entirety of the day. “We’ve been told from the administration that they’ll have McCullough closed down and cleared in the morning,” Philbin said. After the college announced plans to upgrade its security plans last fall, McCullough has been one of the first sites to receive ramped-up security measures in recent months. The plan has cost the college around $200,000, according to Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration David Provost. Components of the plan include the implementation of security cameras and additional key-card access. Provost said the costs for additional security for the Murray event, through Green Mountain Security, would have totaled between $5,000 and $10,000. They were to be funded by the college. There were no planned costs for the local and state police services that the college had requested be in attendance. “Some will say that we will have spent up to $200,000 this year and we will use some of those improvements on the Murray event,” Provost told The Campus. “What would we have spent this year on those investments if Murray wasn’t coming? Close to $200,000. What are we spending now that Murray is coming? $200,000. Was it accelerated? Some could say yes.” Looking ahead There is currently no official confirmation from the administration that Murray’s talk will be cancelled. In a phone interview late Tuesday, Philbin said that “the current status is that the event doesn’t seem like it’s happening.”  After the many meetings and preparations, Philbin sees the cancellation as an upset. “It’s disappointing,” he said. “We put in six months of work. I committed social suicide for this event and now it seems like it’s not going to happen. Things are totally up in the air right now.”   Correction March 12, 2020: A previous version of this article stated that Philbin was present at meetings with Blue Moon Consulting Group. Although they were involved in the process, they were never at a meeting where he was present.