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(09/27/18 9:57am)
The Lobby, a family weekend go-to and popular date night restaurant at 7 Bakery Lane, closed last month. Stepping up to the plate with a new culinary undertaking are Matt Corrente ’06, previous head chef of Two Brothers Tavern, and Caroline Corrente, current owner of Haymaker Bun Co., located in Middlebury.
Amidst a buzz of construction and activity, Matt and Caroline confirmed plans to take over the riverside property and open a shared restaurant and café – The Arcadian and Haymaker Bun Co. The building is currently being revamped to make way for the combined Italian restaurant, pastry and espresso shop, which will open in early November.
“I think it’s going to be interesting because we’re basically running two separate businesses out of the same location,” Caroline said.
“So I will be running a bakery and café in the morning and Matt will be running a restaurant at night,” she said. “It’s a unique concept and we’re really focused on creating a comfortable space.”
Matt and Caroline both have a grounding and significant knowledge of Vermont, Middlebury and the food industry in general. Matt is a Middlebury College alumnus and Caroline graduated from the University of Vermont.
The two were employed in various roles at restaurants throughout their time in college and even met while working at Pistou, a now-closed restaurant in Burlington. Most recently, Matt worked as the head chef at Two Brothers Tavern while Caroline worked as a pastry chef at Otter Creek Bakery before opening her own business, Haymaker Bun Co., a little over a year ago.
“I really liked the version of this place that was around when I was a student,” said Matt, reminiscing about the restaurant that filled 7 Bakery Lane during his days at the college. “It was like the place to go; it was where I’d take my parents if they came up for a visit.”
So when the couple saw that The Lobby was on the market, they leapt at the chance to create a restaurant and a space of their own.
“It’s a big project but we’re really excited to be bringing something new and exciting to the community,” Matt said about the coming restaurants. “We’re happy to be a part of the upswing. It’s a lot of work and it’s daunting at times but we’re pretty optimistic about the end result.”
Caroline, who went to pastry school in Paris at Le Cordon Bleu, will employ her baking expertise to serve a daily rotation of buns and other sweet and savory treats in the mornings.
“Pastry-wise, I’ll always have a couple different rotating sweet, chocolate, savory brioche buns that I’ve been doing, as well as some gluten free options,” she said. The savory buns will have the option of an egg served on top, she said, making a delicious breakfast sandwich. Additionally, Haymaker Bun provides free delivery within Middlebury, with a minimum of six buns per order. The couple will work with Brio Coffeeworks, a coffee company based out of Burlington, to craft specialty espresso drinks.
“It’ll be fun to just come in here and always be able to get something new and something different with some classics in there as well,” she said. Matt and Caroline hope to cater to various needs of college students and community members — whether that means sitting by the river with a morning bun or sipping a latte while getting some work done.
Matt will draw from his culinary background at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City as well as his years as a chef and sous-chef at multiple Vermont restaurants in order to construct The Arcadian’s menu.
“For dinner the menu is going to follow a traditional Italian menu design,” Matt said. He plans to feature antipasti, a selection of nine handmade pasta dishes and five to six entrée plates emphasizing fresh seafood and Vermont ingredients. The Arcadian will also serve wine and cocktails at the bar in the evenings.
“Part of the spirit of the place is to say that in Italy the cuisine is driven by tradition,” he elaborated. “There are a lot of [ingredients] that are hugely seasonal and are impacted by what’s available and what’s fresh at the moment and so our outlook is to really do that with Vermont. To say […] how do we highlight it in a simple way that’s going to let people really enjoy it.”
“Arcadia, from antiquity, was a place where humans existed in harmony with nature,” Matt said, describing the name. During the renaissance period, the ancient region of Greece called Arcadia was celebrated for this peaceful relationship, he explained. “It was sort of like the step that preceded technology and big cities and it’s a metaphor for our life here in Middlebury.”
Matt and Caroline are both hopeful and enthusiastic about the opening of the restaurants despite the abundance of downtown business closures in the past months.
“I think that it’s going to look worse and get worse before it gets better,” said Matt, “but I’m more focused on the ‘it’s going to get better’ part.”
Caroline echoed this optimism.
“I think that with our location here—and we definitely thought about that a lot moving in—we feel like we’re going to be a little bit immune to [the rail bridge construction] just because even if Main St. closes all the way down we’ll still have the Cross St. entrance and traffic will have to be funneled that way,” she said.
The couple, however, emphasized the importance of community and student-wide support of local businesses and restaurants, especially through the temporary period of construction. “I think that it’s important for us — even if you have to park a little bit further, walk a little bit further — to continue to visit downtown, to be patrons of the businesses here,” Caroline said.
Matt said, of his time as a student at the college, that he recognizes how tough it can be to get off campus and take advantage of the town and surrounding areas. The couple highlighted a desire to help bridge the gap and facilitate more student crossover into town and involvement in the greater community.
“It’d be wonderful to see a town -wide effort to support local businesses through the transition,” he said, “but also having a student aspect to that would be really cool. Just to feel like the support extended all the way out.”
While some may be disappointed to say goodbye to The Lobby and half-priced burger nights, it seems The Arcadian and Haymaker Bun Co. have a lot to offer.
“Although I was sad to see the The Lobby close, I’m excited to have a new restaurant in town,” Charlie Diprinzio ’21 said, of the coming changes. “Both of the new places sound really creative and interesting, and I can’t wait to try them.”
Diprinzio, who is an executive manager of Dolci, the student run fine-dining service on campus, believes that having an Italian restaurant and a new coffee shop in town will make a great addition to the food scene.
Matt and Caroline are welcoming everyone — students included — to apply for available positions.
“I love working with Middlebury College students. I had awesome help at Two Bros from people on campus and a good attitude and a good work ethic is really all that gets you in the front door,” said Matt.
The two are looking forward to spreading the joy of “simple life and simple food” with their food and drink in the coming months. Tuesday through Saturday, Haymaker Bun will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and The Arcadian will be open for dinner starting at 4:30 p.m.
(09/24/18 3:16am)
In September 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency disclosed that the German automaker Volkswagen (VW) had installed devices in 11 million cars that cheated emissions testing, permitting their cars to emit hazardous nitrogen oxide. The reporting of Jack Ewing, Germany correspondent for the New York Times, led to Volkswagen paying a more than $20 billion settlement. Ewing’s 2017 book “Faster, Higher, Farther: The Volkswagen Scandal” digs deeper into the corporate scandal, tracing it back to the company’s history since the Nazi era and its top-down management culture.
Ewing will discuss the topic this week in a lecture organized by the college's Environmental Studies program. His talk will take place on Tuesday, Sept. 25, at 4:30 p.m. in The Orchard, Franklin Environmental Center 103.
Last Friday, Ewing spoke with The Campus by phone about his book, lessons to be learned from the scandal and role of journalists covering the corporate world today. The interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Yvette Shi (YS): When and how did you start to realize the role played by the company’s corporate culture?
Jack Ewing (JE): I had dealings with Volkswagen off and on for years, and I was already aware that it was a very kind of rigid, authoritarian type of company culture, and I knew who some of the leaders of the company were and sort of how they operated. So I think that was from the very beginning — not obvious — but I immediately had a feeling that the corporate culture certainly played a role.
And then we looked at the way the company responded to the scandal, and how close they were and how long it took them to confront it, to start investigating. And then when I started to develop sources inside the company or people that have worked at Volkswagen. At last, it just became clear pretty quickly that it was the kind of company where you couldn’t admit failure, you couldn’t say no to somebody above you and where there was not a strong moral underpinning or strong moral standard that people believe they are supposed to adhere to.
YS: Do you think that this sort of top-down culture is typical for large corporations?
JE: I think it’s certainly not uncommon. I think it exists to some degree almost in every big corporation. I think Volkswagen was the particularly extreme example, but at the same time I think it’s definitely the case that it’s something that can happen at any company. If you look at other scandals, like Enron, going back that’s been more than a decade, or Wells Fargo Bank in California, you know they were defrauding their clients on a massive scale, you always have this ingredient. The main ingredients are that you have a culture where people don’t feel they have any recourse when they are asked to do something unethical, and where you have top management setting extremely ambitious goals, and making it clear that if you fail, you are going to be fired.
So to that extent, and there’s lots of companies that operate that way, where they are constantly asking more and more employees and if you don’t deliver, your job is in danger. And that’s just an invitation for people to start to commit wrongdoing, because most people, even if they know that they can get caught in two years or five years, they’ll still try to hang on to their jobs for as long as they can.
YS: How do you think this kind of culture was formed in the first place?
JE: That’s a good question. I’m not sure I can totally answer that, but it definitely came from one person. The original Beetle was designed by Ferdinand Porsche for Adolf Hitler. Many years later, his grandson, who was named Ferdinand Piëch, in the early nineties became the chief executive of Volkswagen, which at that time was at its crisis. He turned around the company, but he himself was a very authoritarian figure. Brilliant engineer, but very, very hard on people and was very out-front about the fact when people don’t deliver, he’ll fire them.
So he was the one that really created that culture beginning in the nineties, and he was the chief executive for about a decade, and then he became chairman of the supervisory board, which is technically an oversight position, where you are overseeing the operational management. But he was still very involved and still the dominant person in the company up until just a couple months before the scandal became public. So it definitely came from him. To what extent it was already there, I’m not sure I’ve totally figured that out. That’s a hard thing to pin down.
YS: You talked about having sources inside the company. What was that process like? What were the challenges that you faced?
JE: That’s always difficult with a corporation. It’s particularly difficult with a company like Volkswagen. Volkswagen has over 300,000 employees. The first thing was to figure out the people we should concentrate on. What we did is that we found academic papers, where they have talked about their mission and technology, the engineers who have published papers in journals, and we found some papers that have names of engineers on them. Also we looked at patent registries that list the names of the people who get credit as inventors, and also helpfully their home addresses.
Then we just set about contacting those people. We did the usual thing, trying to call them a couple times, knocking on their doors — that wasn’t successful. I had the most success actually writing letters. So I would write people letters, tell them why I thought it would be in their interest to talk to me. I probably sent at least 50 [letters], and a much smaller number got back to me, but a number of people did get back to me who wanted to talk, and that was sort of the beginning where I was able to then figure out how the whole thing happened, the process with the whole illegal software being developed and then deployed over many years.
I guess the other thing was the lawsuits also had a fair amount of useful information. When the lawyers started filing lawsuits, they had some access to documents that I didn’t, which they then described in the lawsuits.
YS: What do you think motivated you when you were writing the book?
JE: The short answer is just that when the story broke, it’d been only about two weeks, and then the editor of Norton Books sent me an email saying “would you be interested in doing a book.” For a journalist, the chance to write a book is always a good thing. So I said yes, and we pretty quickly worked out a deal with the help of an agent. So the short answer is: I wrote the book because they asked me to write it.
But also, it was the topic that I just found very fascinating — it has so many aspects to it and it touches so many things, environment, corporate culture, technology. It’s an interesting cast of characters, interesting legal story. So I never got bored with the subject matter, I’m not sure “enjoy” is the word because writing is always hard, but it was a satisfying story to do. I never got bored with it.
YS: What can students interested in entering the corporate world after school can learn from the scandal?
JE: I think that you are going to learn a lot from the scandal. If you work in a corporation, there’s tremendous pressure to conform, people will possibly be asked to make moral compromises, and companies do not always help you to know when you are being asked to step over a line. I think that the clear message is that you have to maintain your own sense of what is right and wrong, independent of what your employer might be telling you. And if you feel that that’s being violated, you have to take action, you can’t just go along, you have to have moral courage.
I think that the people that were involved in this, a lot of them, their careers are ruined and in some cases they might go to jail. Also, a lot of them were fairly idealistic. They originally went into emissions technology because they wanted to make cleaner air, and then wound up being part of this fraud. So I think that the message is that you have to have the courage and the strength to stand up when you are being asked to do something like this.
One thing that I still find amazing is that at the very end there were a couple Volkswagen employees who went to the California regulators and said this is what’s really going on that’s wrong. But this is after they hid [the device] in cars for ten years. And the whole time, nobody went to authorities and said that there’s something really big illegal going on. Volkswagen would have been better off if they had. Everybody would have been better off. But nobody did that.
YS: And they are also now trying to have a whistleblower program in the company.
JE: Yeah, they have to — that’s part of the settlement with the United States. The question is whether it will be effective, because they had it on but it’s been a program where you’re supposed to be able to go for complaints, but nobody trusted it. People have to believe that if they blow the whistle that they will be listened to, that there will be action taken, that they and their career will not suffer. You have to be very careful the way you set these things up, so that they really do some good. There was just this case involving Goldman Sachs where somebody went to the whistleblower, but then instead of taking action, they went to somebody on the board and the person lost their job. That’s not the kind of whistleblower program you want to have if you are really sincere about preventing wrongdoing.
YS: What challenges do you think journalists today who are trying to cover the corporate world face?
JE: Corporations are rich, so they can hire a lot of people whose job is basically to keep you from finding things out. So that’s a constant challenge, and we are pretty much at permanent war with corporate PR industry. And people are afraid to talk to reporters. It’s hard to get beyond the PR department when you are trying to find out what’s going on, and that’s always one of the biggest challenges. At Volkswagen, you can do it but it takes a lot of work.
YS: What would you say is the role that a journalist should have there?
Traditionally I think that journalists were very focused on government and what government was doing right or wrong, but these days corporations have such influence on our lives, maybe even more influence than government — if you look at Facebook, Google — just how much they know about us and how much we depend on them. It’s really, really important to hold those companies accountable that takes a lot of resources, so I think that’s just an incredibly important thing for journalists at the moment.
YS: Is there anything else that you would like to add?
I guess the one thing that I always like to try to get across about this book is that some people think it’s a car book, and it’s not. I really tried to write it for people who don’t care about cars, don’t know about cars. My editor John Glusman, before we started working, he said: “Jack, you know, I really don’t care about cars at all.” And he doesn’t even know the difference between an automatic and a manual transmission. So he says: “You’re going to write a book that I’m gonna want to read.” So that’s really what I tried to do.
I sometimes hear from people, “I don’t really want to read a car book,” and what I always try to get across to people is that it’s not a car book, it’s about people and people’s weaknesses, ethics and bigger issues than just emissions.
(09/20/18 10:04am)
Middlebury extended its winning streak to five games and remains on top of the NESCAC after defeating Amherst and Hamilton this past weekend.
The Panthers took an early lead in Saturday’s home game against Amherst, with Emma Johns ’20 (this week’s NESCAC Player of the Week) scoring two goals in the first eight minutes. Toward the end of the first half, captain Grace Jennings ’19 carried the ball up the left side of the field and sent it toward the net, where Molly Freeman ’19 tipped it in. Jennings set up another goal early in the second half, passing to sophomore Danielle Brown, who scored her fourth of the season.
Amherst initiated a quick comeback, managing to score three goals in less than 10 minutes to make the score 4–3 at 47:08. Responding to the challenge, Johns completed a hat trick just a few minutes later, scoring Middlebury’s final goal of the game. Though Amherst managed to find the back of the net one more time, the Panthers walked away with a 5–4 win.
“Every game is an opportunity for us to learn and grow as a team,” assistant coach Lauren Schweppe ’18 said. “The Amherst game was very competitive and showed us which areas of our game we could improve upon.”
Sunday’s decisive 4–0 win against Hamilton exemplified the team’s ability to adjust quickly. Middlebury posted 12 shots on goal — three times as many attempts as Hamilton. Goalkeeper Megan Collins ’19 stopped all four Hamilton shots, adding another shutout to her record and upping her save percentage to .692.
“Every year we start out with so many unique ingredients, and we are still trying to find out exactly what this team will look like and how we will accomplish our goals,” Jennings said about the ups and downs of the weekend. “But, even now, we are pretty excited about what we have so far and our journey ahead.”
Next up, the team takes on its longstanding rival Bowdoin at noon on Saturday, Sept. 22 at home. Come out to cheer on the Panthers as they battle to keep the top spot in the NESCAC.
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(09/20/18 10:00am)
For three days following the tragedy, the public did not know his name.
It was in the early morning of Saturday, Jan. 13, that Middlebury police found the body of a man who had frozen to death overnight off a path on the Town Green, covered with snow and sleet. The following Monday, local media began to report his identity: Suad Teocanin, a 45-year-old Middlebury resident who had been living at the Charter House during a recent period of homelessness. Following a night of drinking, Teocanin tried to make his way back to the Charter House before apparently collapsing, just yards from the shelter’s front door.
Reports of Teocanin’s death circulated around Middlebury that week, accompanied by photographs of his smiling face, descriptions of his recent homelessness and statements by police that alcohol had been a “significant factor” in his death. What these relatively brief media accounts could not capture, however, was the totality of Teocanin’s experience before his death — a life that began in the Bosnian city of Zvornik and led to ten years of employment at Middlebury College and another decade in the kitchens of several restaurants in town.
To the many people who knew him at the college and in town, Teocanin was not only a friend and coworker, but also a generous neighbor, a fellow immigrant and a bright spot amid the stresses of college life whose broad smile was cited without exception.
“The best antidote”
Teocanin came to America as a war refugee.
From 1992 to 1995, Bosnia was torn apart by ethnic conflict, as Serbian forces targeted the Muslim Bosniak population, burning cities and towns and massacring entire communities. In Teocanin’s hometown of Zvornik, tens of thousands of residents were driven from the area, and almost 4,000 were killed.
Teocanin was not Bosniak, however, but Romani, the historically itinerant ethnic group known colloquially as gypsies. Romani people, persecuted in Bosnia as they are in much of the world, were targeted specifically in the killings that took place in Zvornik. Those who knew Teocanin in Middlebury would recall that he rarely spoke about his life in Bosnia, or about the family he left behind. One former Proctor Dining Hall colleague, however, said Teocanin had spoken of witnessing the deaths of his parents and siblings.
Over 1,700 Bosnian refugees were resettled in Vermont between 1993 and 2004, and Teocanin was one of them. In Middlebury, a small community started to form by the mid-1990s, centered in the Pine Meadow Apartments near the Pulp Mill covered bridge. From their homes in the apartment complex that became known as Little Bosnia, Teocanin and his fellow refugees began to rebuild their lives in Vermont.
Jovanka Jandric was among the Bosnians who settled in Pine Meadow during that time, along with her husband, Refik, and their children. Refik came to the United States first in 1994, to a New Hampshire hospital, having lost both of his legs in Bosnia after stepping on a landmine. Jovanka came with their children several months later, and the family moved to Middlebury.
The older couple found jobs in town — Refik at Danforth Pewter, and Jovanka at the now-closed Greg’s Meat Market — and cared for Teocanin, who, in his early twenties, had arrived in town alone. “I loved him like a son. I’m old enough to be his mother,” Jovanka said. “He was too young.”
Teocanin’s childhood education had been minimal and he never learned to read or write. In order to communicate with his brother, who fled to Germany, Teocanin brought his letters to Jovanka, who would read them and help him compose replies.
Teocanin, after a stint at Mister Up’s restaurant, found his way to the college, where he began work in 1998 as a pot washer in Proctor Dining Hall. His coworkers, several of whom remain at Proctor today, were struck by his ability to adapt in what must have been a daunting new environment.
“You always start out in a different place, not being sure of yourself,” said Claudette Latreille, who still works at the college. Colleagues watched Teocanin transform from an inexperienced new hire who spoke little English to a skilled worker who mastered the language and the intricacies of food service.
“He was the kind of guy who fit in by watching, and then doing what the cooks were doing and saying,” said Richard O’Donohue, now retired, who worked as Proctor’s head chef. Coworkers helped Teocanin study for a driving test, went with him to college hockey games and invited him to Middlebury Union High School to watch their children play sports.
A few years into his time at Proctor, Teocanin began to work in the main dining area known as the servery, and students began to gravitate toward his warmth and near-constant smile.
“College can be a little intense, and literally, Suad was the best antidote for that,” said Megan McElroy Rzezutko ’04, who formed a close bond with Teocanin at Proctor. She recalled the feeling of “being in the library for many hours and then seeing his smiling face, so elated to see you.”
Libby Pingpank ’04 remembered meeting Teocanin soon after her arrival on campus. “It was the first time we were away from home,” she said. “He was just this welcoming, friendly face that we always knew we would see when we went to eat.”
Teocanin became known for stopping by tables to chat and joke with students, and for his vast collection of movies on VHS tape that he offered up as gifts and even as betting payments, when a group of fellow employees began placing bets on football games.
“Suad had some money, but not a whole lot, and he’d make side bets,” O’Donohue said. “When he couldn’t pay the bet, he’d bring in a bag of VHSs. Everybody got to the point of, ‘No, Suad, we’re not doing VHS.’”
To employees like Dawn Boise, the current Proctor manager, memories of Teocanin’s socializing feel like symbols of a bygone era, when the smaller student population meant that staff could talk freely with students without the looming threat of the mealtime rush.
“You used to have a little down time, where you could chat with people,” she said. “Now, you really don’t have time to get to know a lot of the students, which is hard.”
For the students who knew Teocanin, memories of those conversations have only grown in value in the years since their graduation.
“Honestly, when I think back, it’s my advisor and Suad who had the most impact on my time in college,” McElroy Rzezutko said. “There’s obviously faculty and administrators there that are a part of your life, but this was different. It was comforting, and wasn’t forced.”
“He was too good”
After over a decade, Teocanin left the college in 2010 after accepting a voluntary separation package offered by Middlebury following the 2008 financial crisis.
“When he decided to leave, we were pretty upset,” O’Donohue said. “But we couldn’t talk him out of it. He had his mind set.”
Years earlier, during his stint at Mister Up’s, Teocanin had worked alongside Megan Brady. When she and her husband Holmes Jacobs prepared to open Two Brothers Tavern, Brady insisted they hire Teocanin.
“He had a reputation of being a golden soul, a great person, a great work ethic and just a big heart,” Jacobs said.
Teocanin remained at Two Brothers until his death, working his way up from dishwashing to food preparation. There, like at the college, he became a beloved and visible figure, famed for his humor and, of course, his enormous grin. “Even though he had so many things stacked against him, he brought out the best in other people,” Jacobs said.
Work was steady, but Teocanin’s personal life was not. Over the years, the Bosnian community in Middlebury splintered along many of the same ethnic lines that had been present during wartime, and prejudices welled up against Teocanin’s Romani heritage.
“Not so many people liked gypsies,” Jovanka Jandric said. “Some people would open the door for him, some people would close the door.”
To make matters worse, friends say that a girlfriend extorted Teocanin out of what little money he had. Generous to a fault, Teocanin supported her unquestioningly. “Suad was one of those rare people who gave of himself to anyone without expecting anything in return,” Jacobs said.
For years, Teocanin had moved around frequently, often camping or living out of a truck when he had no reliable source of housing. As cold weather approached in the fall of 2017, Jacobs helped Teocanin move into Charter House.
“We’re so grateful for the Charter House,” Jacobs said. “But if he had been less generous with all of his time and money he probably would have had a housing setup that was more permanent.”
“He was too good,” Jovanka Jandric said. “Too naïve.”
“Richer and happier”
Jacobs remembers the day of January 12 vividly.
“It was a really weird, beautiful, sunny, 60-degree January day,” he said. “As the sun fell, the weather turned really quick.”
Temperatures that night dipped to 30 degrees and falling rain turned to snow. And Teocanin failed to make it home to the Charter House after a night of drinking in town.
The amount of alcohol that Teocanin had ingested came as a shock to those who knew him, as alcohol did not seem to play a major role in his life. News of Teocanin’s death left many in the community with the impression that he had long struggled with drinking, a notion that Jacobs feels compelled to refute.
“I don’t believe that he had a real substance abuse problem,” Jacobs said. “But that’s how he died, and that’s perhaps part of the perception that comes from that.”
In the days and weeks following his death, posts made on the Two Brothers Tavern Facebook page memorializing Teocanin garnered hundreds of reactions and dozens of comments.
“We have lost one of the biggest hearts we have ever known,” the first post read. “But deep down, somewhere hard to find tonight, we realize, as we always have, that each of us is so much richer and happier for having had Suad in our lives.”
However, months later, his friends still puzzle over the circumstances of his last night, and why Teocanin was in such a situation in the first place.
“It still confounds me a bit how he was left alone,” Jacobs said. “It’s unclear to me why the police weren’t called sooner to try to find Suad, especially when there had been witnesses to where he was. I feel like a phone call to the police could’ve saved him.”
Of all the ironies surrounding Teocanin’s death, including that he passed out just steps from shelter and that alcohol, a substance he seemed to use only rarely, was involved, what most disturbs those who knew him is the disjunction between the way he lived and the way he died.
“To me, the most horrific thing is that he was alone,” McElroy Rzezutko said. “This person that created such warmth, human-to-human.”
Amid their grief, James and Jacobs planned a memorial befitting Teocanin’s legacy at Middlebury’s Congregational Church. After first offering a small room, a church official eventually agreed to open up the entire building for the January 27 service.
Among the many attendees were Jandric, Jacobs and several Proctor employees. Speakers recounted how Teocanin made an impact on their lives in Middlebury.
“Everyone had a story, even if they didn’t really know Suad, about how he would help them cross the street, or [how] he would hold the door for them when he was walking into their shop with a big smile,” Jacobs said.
Since January, mementos of Teocanin have accumulated inside Two Brothers Tavern. A framed photograph hangs on the wall in the dining area, near the bar. Another sits above the sink, where Teocanin spent many hours washing dishes. And Jacobs is proudest of the life-sized poster of Teocanin, showing him beaming in his cook’s uniform, that now sits in the kitchen to greet Jacobs every day as he walks into work.
“It’s not Suad,” he said. “But it still makes me smile.”
(09/20/18 9:58am)
The Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS) has received a $4.5 million gift from the estate of Samuel F.B. Morse, a conservationist and developer. Morse founded the area now known as Pebble Beach on the Monterey Peninsula.
The donation is the largest that MIIS has received.
After the recent passing of Morse’s longest-living child, Mary Morse Osborne Shaw, Morse’s trust was divided between three educational institutions, including his alma mater Yale University and two schools located on the Monterey peninsula, the Stevenson School and MIIS.
Morse was an early supporter of MIIS, and worked throughout his life to support education with an international and foreign language focus.
While MIIS has known of the bequest since Morse’s death in 1969, the amount remained unknown until the gift was recently divided.
There are no restrictions or conditions on how exactly this money should be used, but according to Jeff Dayton-Johnson, dean of MIIS & vice president for academic affairs, they plan to integrate it into its endowment so that it will contribute to student support and their educational experiences.
“My priorities are very much in line with President Patton’s,” Dayton-Johnson said in an interview.
“Number one is support for students, that includes financial aid to offset the cost of their tuition, but also support for programs that our students do here, just as undergraduates do at Middlebury, where they will spend a semester or a year at one of our cites abroad or doing field research or doing an internship-like opportunity,” he said.
Dayton-Johnson also plans to use the money for faculty development.
As resources increase, he hopes that this will encourage collaboration and further connection of faculty and students between MIIS and the undergraduate college.
“What we have found is that to have third or fourth year undergraduates here in our classes is tremendously successful,” Dayton-Johnson said.
“Our classes are pretty mixed in terms of age and disciplinary background and professional background,” he said. “And so if a few current Midd kids are thrown in there, they do great and they add a lot to the process.”
Bill Burger, vice president for communications and chief marketing officer at the college, also hopes for a greater connection between the schools in order to fully take advantage of the opportunities the college and MIIS have to offer.
MIIS has been steadily recovering from previous financial problems, and this gift will aid to further its recovery.
“This kind of a gift most definitely helps to strengthen the financial liability of the institute, and it is important for us to diversify the sources of revenue for academic programming,” Dayton-Johnson said.
“The principle source of revenue here, as it is at the college, is what students pay to be here,” he said. “And while that will always be true, to the extent that we can increase the inflow of resources whether from gifts like this or grants that sponsor research, the better we are.”
(09/20/18 9:56am)
MIDDLEBURY — After months of hard work and preparation, the long-anticipated Addison County Makerspace will open to the public at the Patricia A. Hannaford Career Center beginning the first week of November. After a pilot period this summer, the Career Center plans to roll out various programs at the Makerspace throughout the fall, launching with an open house on October 4.
Attendees of the open house will even have the opportunity to sign up for secondary education and adult education courses being taught throughout the fall. According to the Career Center website, the Makerspace will be integrated into existing programs offered on site for students before opening up to the greater community. Three of the space’s “labs” will be open for one day each week from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. for the rest of the year as a way to gauge interest and collect data on how the facility can best fit the needs and interests of the community.
Since the Career Center was founded in 1971, it has focused on providing experiential learning opportunities for teenagers and adults from around Addison County. The new facility will combine its existing resources with new tools to help facilitate the creative process.
The Makerspace project comes amidst a larger nationwide movement to promote and assist a “do-it-yourself” attitude among potential inventors that has arisen over the past decade. The maker movement encourages collaboration and the recycling of ideas to invent new technology and improve old models, a process aided by design sharing or “open-sourcing.”
Makerspace sites take the idea of “open-sourcing” one step further, by not only creating an in-person forum for the exchange of ideas and methods, but also by providing the physical tools and materials that makers might need for their inventions. But the Makerspace is not just oriented around inventing new technology.
“The impression should be of making anything, not just things with heavy machinery,” said Devon Karpak, a Career and Tech Ed instructor at the center. Indeed, the facility has various “labs,” that range from costumrey to 3D printing and woodworking.
The launch of the Addison County Makerspace coincides directly with the opening of the Middlebury Environment for Making Everything (MEME) on campus. The creators of this student-inspired makerspace share similar aspirations for MEME as the Career Center has for its own facility. Bill Koulopoulos, the Director of Academic Technology for the College, sees the practical value of these new makerspaces, as well as their educational potential.
“Places like the Makerspace are involved in the liberal arts education and principles,” he said. “Communicating with somebody, critical thinking skills, problem solving, articulating your design, plus actually building something, I think it all comes together.”
Administrators from the Career Center and from the College are attempting to unite their efforts to make the two new facilities as beneficial as possible for both the College and the community of Addison County.
“There is the desire to make the connections, to have members of the Middlebury College community participate in the Middlebury community, sharing expertise and seeing where we can connect,” said Koulopoulos. “There is a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of interest. It takes a lot of work, effort, understanding and back and forth to make this happen but it is highly rewarding. Once you open the door, more and bigger things can happen.”
Dana Peterson, interim superintendent of the Career Center, agreed, adding that the space is intended to be one “where people of all ages come together to learn and share, and where everyone can be both a learner and a teacher.”
Koulopoulos has also taken advantage of the enthusiasm for collaboration in the maker community across Vermont.
“I visited the Williams makerspace, I went to St. Mike’s, Champlain College and the Generator in Burlington,” Koulopoulos said. “We’ve had conversations, and what I like about all of these people and what they support is that they are all very willing to share expertise and advice.”
Many others are on the same page as Koulopoulos. Last year, Professor Noah Graham of the Physics Department, David Cole ’91 and Dana Peterson were awarded the Middlebury Fund for Innovation Grant. The three put the grant towards creating paid internships for Middlebury students both at MEME and the Career Center Makerspace.
“Our goal is for the college students to gain both technical and teaching experience while also contributing to technical education at the career center and in the broader community,” said Graham.
While Graham sees the Makerspace as a great opportunity for STEM students, he added that there may also be internship opportunities in other areas, including architecture, education studies, environmental studies, the sciences, studio and performing arts. They are currently accepting applications for the internship through Handshake.
Cole does not want student involvement to stop there.
“Beyond the Fund for Innovation grant, there are a lot of incredible things that Middlebury students have to offer from their experiences that they can share,” Cole said, encouraging lasting student involvement.
(09/17/18 2:17am)
Volume 118, Number 25 — May 9, 2019
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Volume 118, Number 24 — May 2, 2019 (Zeitgeist)
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Volume 118, Number 23 — April 25, 2019
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Volume 117, Number 22 — April 18, 2019
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Volume 117, Number 21 — April 11, 2019
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Volume 117, Number 20 — April 4, 2019
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Volume 117, Number 19 — March 21, 2019
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Volume 117, Number 18 — March 14, 2019
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Volume 117, Number 17 — March 7, 2019
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Volume 117, Number 16 — February 28, 2019
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Volume 117, Number 15 — February 21, 2019
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Volume 117, Number 14 — February 14, 2019
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Volume 117, Number 13 — January 24, 2019 (Staff Issue)
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Volume 117, Number 12 — January 17, 2019
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Volume 117, Number 11 — December 6, 2018
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Volume 117, Number 10 — November 29, 2018
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Volume 117, Number 9 — November 15, 2018
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Volume 117, Number 8 — November 8, 2018
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Volume 117, Number 7 — November 1, 2018 (Election Issue)
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Volume 117, Number 6 — October 26, 2018
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Volume 117, Number 5 — October 11, 2018
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Volume 117, Number 4 — October 4, 2018
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Volume 117, Number 2 — Sept. 20, 2018
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Volume 117, Number 1 — Sept. 13, 2018
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(09/13/18 10:03am)
The returning NCAA Champion field hockey team is off to another strong start, remaining undefeated after three games (10-0 v. Castleton, 4-0 v. Connecticut College, 7-0 v. University of New England). After putting in countless hours of hard work in the classroom and on the field during preseason camp, the Panthers are excited to be back in action. Joining the top-ranked team are five first-year athletes: Joan Vera, Hanna Sullivan, Riley Marchin, Nicole Johnson, Grace Murphy and Grace Harlan. They will be looking to fill the shoes of the star-studded senior class of 2018 — Audrey Quirk, Annie Leonard, Eva Dunphy, Caroline Knapp and Carson Peacock — who won two NCAA Championships during their time at Middlebury.
“The team is looking great so far,” said goalkeeper Meg Collins ’18.5, known for her ability to remain composed under pressure and also for her warm-up dance moves. “We have a 3-0 record so far which is awesome, but we are much more focused on the process of the game and perfecting our way of playing.”
This year’s team is stacked with talent and depth. Grace Jennings ’19, who scored the game-winner in both the 2015 and 2017 National Championships, is one of the few lefties to play college field hockey and is nearly impossible to defend. Amanda Bozorgi ’19, known for her aerial style corner play, brings strong offensive presence while also coming up big in defensive situations. Rounding out the senior class is Molly Freeman, who is great in the circle and contributes a lot of goals on offensive corners as a tipper.
Lauren Schweppe ’18, who graduated last year, now uses her expertise as a two-time National Champion and All-American in her new role as assistant coach. Also new to the program is Rachel Polombo, who comes from an assistant coaching position at Salisbury University. They will be working alongside assistant coach Andrea Way who has spent five years at Middlebury.
Returning for her 18th season is National Coach of the Year, Katharine DeLorenzo. DeLorenzo has led the Middlebury Field Hockey program to five NESCAC Championships and two NCAA Championships. She has been recognized multiple times as NESCAC and National Coach of the Year, and is known for cultivating team cultures rooted in love and excellence. As she noted in a press conference at the end of last season, “We never talk about winning. We just talk about playing.”
Make sure to head down to Peter Kohn Field this Saturday to support the Panthers as they take on Amherst at 11:00 a.m.
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(09/13/18 10:00am)
Sarah Staver ’19 (right) begins a serve during this past weekend’s tournament. To start off the season, the women’s volleyball team competed in the Wheaton Invitational. The Panthers started off strong, beating Worcester State 3-0 on Friday, September 7.MICHAEL BORENSTEIN
The team continued their momentum on Saturday, winning against Farmingdale State 3-0 in the morning. The ladies eventually fell to Wheaton College in the afternoon, finishing their last tournament match with a score of 3-1. Junior Chellsa Ferdinand was a key player in the tournament, with 62 assists, 14 kills and 4 service aces, and was named to the all-tournament team. On Tuesday, September 11, on the road at Plymouth State University, the Panthers won 3-1, setting their overall record at 3-1. Women’s volleyball looks forward to their first home game against Amherst on Friday, September 14.
(09/13/18 10:00am)
The women’s tennis team is coming into the 2018-19 season well decorated. Not only did they finish off their 2017-18 season with a record of 17 wins, but they were also ranked 4th place nationally by the ITA and 2nd in the northeast region. Though Heather Boehm ’20, Katherine Hughes ’20 (right) and Skylar Schossberger ’20 — all of whom were named All-Americans last season — are studying abroad this semester, Ann-Martin Skelly ’21 is a name to look out for. After trailing behind at 4-1, doubles partners Hughes and Skelly won seven straight games against Emory University at the NCAA Semifinals, eventually defeating the Eagles 8-4. The Panthers will kick off their 2018-19 season this weekend at the Lindsay Morehouse Invitational hosted at Williams.
(09/13/18 10:00am)
There’s a new man in charge of the Middlebury men’s soccer team. Last season’s assistant coach Alex Elias ’08 is taking over the program from David Saward, who retired after an illustrious 33-year career coaching the Panthers. During his time, Saward amassed a whopping 347 wins, as well as 10 NCAA tournament appearances and the program’s first NCAA title in 2007.
Saward’s last season was a special one for the Panthers, despite ending with a loss in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Kye Moffat ’19 noted that last year the boys rallied around the energy of shutdown goalkeeper and senior tri-captain Jeremy Yeager.
“[We] were fired up to be playing with [Yeager] and to extend coach’s last season,” Moffat said.
Moffat also referenced many special moments for the 2017 team. Moffat described one weekend when senior tri-captain Jed Sass scored an exciting winning goal against Amherst and then another one at home against Hamilton. In reference to the final 2017 captain Enzo Weiner ’18, Moffat said he will miss how “Enzo tackled harder than anyone in the league.”
This year, sophomore Matt Hyer looks to fill Yeager’s goalkeeper shoes on the field and in the locker room. Moffat, stepping in at center back for Weiner, hopes to carry on Weiner’s tradition of tough-nosed play. Moffat will additionally continue the legacy of his oldest brother Corey Moffat ’08, who played center back on Saward’s 2007 NCAA Championship team.
Elias, who also played for Saward’s 2007 team, looks to continue the legacy left behind by his former coach. Moffat describes Elias’s coaching style as more low-key than his predecessor. According to Moffat, Elias puts major emphasis on old-fashioned hard work.
“Elias demands hard work, and he wants the results to speak for themselves,” Moffat said.
Although he was an assistant last year, Elias is preparing to bring his own flavor to the men’s soccer program. Moffat noted that it has taken some time to get used to the new team formations and tactics. The transition has led to a slow start for the Panthers. Already the Panther’s record includes an overtime tie at home to Norwich University on September 4 and a devastating last minute 1-0 loss to Connecticut College on September 8.
The Panther’s next game is Saturday, September 15 at home against Amherst at 12:00 p.m. Moffat urges the student body to turn out regardless of the slow start.
“I am not worrying about the results so far and neither should you guys,” Moffat said. “So come out to the game this Saturday.”
(09/13/18 9:59am)
MIDDLEBURY — In response to a recent community appeal and the ever-growing need for homeless shelters throughout the country, the Charter House Coalition (CHC) in downtown Middlebury opened six weeks early this year, on Sept. 1.
The decision came following an online post on Front Porch Forum, in which a local resident noted the number of people sleeping under Middlebury’s Cross Street Bridge and asked why the police were not involving themselves in the issue. The online post resulted in a passionate community-wide discussion about homelessness in the area and caught the eyes of both the town manager Kathleen Ramsay and the police chief Tom Hanley.
While the community discussion was spurred by an apparent increase in the numbers of homeless people around Middlebury, this may not exactly be the case. According to Vermont’s annual statewide single-day count of the homeless, The Point-in-Time Count Report, the state’s homeless population has not increased significantly in the past five years. It is likely that homeless people in Middlebury and Addison County have simply become more visible to the rest of the population in recent months.
Despite whatever statistical truths may lay behind the issue, the community’s fervent online discussion gave the Charter House the push it needed to finally put in motion the longer season it had been considering for years.
“It seemed like the time had come to address the additional need for shelter that exists,” said Co-Executive Director Samantha Kachmar about the Front Porch Forum discussion.
Kachmar’s co-executive director Doug Sinclair agreed. “We hope this initiative will foster continued community discussion so that none of our neighbors will have to sleep under a bridge, on someone’s porch or under someone’s deck next summer,” Sinclair said in an interview with the Addison Independent.
And, so far, the early opening has been going “extremely well,” Kachmar said. Since they opened nearly two weeks ago, an average of ten individuals have stayed in the Charter House shelter each night, and while about four times that amount stay during the winter months, every person they can help matters to the volunteers at the Charter House.
“The dedication of staff and volunteers and the belief by all in the importance of providing shelter for those outside was illustrated by the excitement and dedication to preparing the building for our guests six weeks earlier than expected,” Kachmar said.
Each year, according to Kachmar, the Charter House is able to provide 34,000 free community meals, grow several thousand pounds of produce, and house 75 to 80 people, and all this is thanks to the 1,200 community members who volunteer throughout the season.
“This is tremendous for a volunteer organization,” Kachmar said.
One-third of the volunteers working with Charter House yearly are Middlebury College students, and Luna Shen ’19.5, the student chair of CHC, will be spearheading the College’s volunteer effort during the early opening.
“I hope that more people in the community, especially Middlebury College students, understand that home and food insecurity are relevant and urgent issues in our community,” Shen said.
As Shen noted, none of this success comes easily for a non-profit, volunteer-based organization. The Charter House is on a perpetual search for more volunteers and funding, which is why the early opening had remained only an idea for so long. In an interview with the Addison Independent before the Charter House opening on Sept. 1, Kachmar and Sinclair estimated that the extra six weeks would cost an additional $12,000.
“There will be a financial risk to opening early,” Sinclair told the Independent. “We’re jumping in and then will ask for resources from the community. The community is the reason we exist, and the community will determine if we stay open year-round.”
According to Kachmar, this approach has been relatively successful so far. Most of the Charter House’s funding comes from private donations or community foundations, and Kachmar said that “the community support generated through the Front Porch Forum conversation is bearing fruit in both volunteer interest and material donations.”
In addition to funding needed for daily housing and food costs, in order to stay open the Charter House needs money to maintain the building itself. The Charter House building in its entirety was gifted to the Coalition by the Congregation Church this past July (the organization had been renting part of the building previously), but volunteers have been working on renovations for the past three years.
“This was an amazingly generous gift that is much appreciated by CHC,” Kachmar said. “However, the building is 230 years old and there are several items that need to be addressed in order for Charter House to continue to operate a shelter.”
To name a few, the Charter House needs to bring the building up to meet updated regulation codes, replace the heating system, renovate the bathrooms and address issues regarding accessibility. One of the campaigns the Charter House is involved in, Neighbors Helping Neighbors, is specifically designed to raise money to address such issues.
“[Neighbors Helping Neighbors] is an opportunity for the community to help us make our house a home for those in our community without a home of their own,” said Kachmar.
Particularly with their early opening, but also throughout their regular season, the Charter House is always interested in working with new volunteers. Opportunities vary quite a bit: volunteers can work with the meal programs, take shifts supervising the winter shelter, work in the garden, or join the maintenance team.
Trainings are provided on site for new volunteers during the following times: Monday Oct. 1, 6:30-8:30 p.m.; Thursday Oct. 4, 6:30-8:30 p.m.; Saturday Oct. 6, 9:00-11 a.m.; Monday Oct. 8, 10 a.m.-noon; Saturday Oct. 20, 9-11 a.m. Anyone interested in donating or volunteering is encouraged to contact Samantha Kachmar at mskachmar@gmavt.net.
(09/13/18 9:58am)
(09/13/18 9:58am)
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This summer, one of our writers took a road trip around parts of New England before returning to campus. She took a journal and a camera with her.
Our adventure began with a text message sent in early April, suggesting an end-of-summer, sophomore year send-off trip. We had one week to travel, a limited budget and no ideas for a location. So we picked the obvious choice: road trip. Four months later, we found ourselves sitting on top of a mountain in Maine, snuggled up in our sleeping bags, watching the sunrise and sipping hot, bitter tea out of a thermos.
After spending the summer on campus, getting to know Vermont, I was ready to discover more of the Northeast. So, my friend Nancy and I made up a half-baked plan to drive from Middlebury across to Maine and back through New Hampshire. We bought a road map, chose a couple destinations along our route, and began counting down the days until our “junior,” as we branded it, road trip.
On the morning of August 24, we set off for Maine. Our first stop was Killington, Vermont, to pick up our friend Gabe. Forty minutes later, we passed over a deep gorge (Vermont’s deepest, in fact), and pulled over to explore. Standing on the bridge, we dangled our arms over the guard rail and stared down into the 13,000-year-old canyon.
We hit the road again. We arrived in downtown Portland in the late afternoon. After hours spent on interstate highways, we found ourselves yearning for the ocean. We wandered past red brick storefronts and seafood restaurants advertising a seemingly endless array of lobster dishes. We headed down a pathway bordering the water, and slipped under a wooden fence onto a rocky stretch of beach, the perfect place for basking in the warm evening sun.
We breathed a collective sigh of relief. For all of us, having grown up in New Jersey, the crashing waves and salty sea breeze smelled and sounded like home. Portland was a welcome respite before the anticipated grunginess of the coming days.
August 25: We stuffed ourselves and our already disorganized gear back into the car, and set the GPS to Acadia National Park. We took the scenic coastal route, stopping to purchase blueberries from a bearded old man on the side of the road and to fuel up on coffee at a combination diner and shoe store.
It took us twice as long as the GPS had predicted to get to Acadia. The park was overrun with families fighting for parking spots and arguing loudly over who should stand where for vacation photos in front of picturesque mountains and lakes.
We drove the winding road around the island to the infamous Thunder Hole, where we were told the waves smashing against the rocky cavern would make a sound just like thunder. They did not, but we found a nearby cliff with a lovely view of the moon and the sea, where we cooked dinner over our camp stove. I was only slightly disappointed by the thunderless evening.
August 26: At 4 a.m., we were up and en route to the summit of Cadillac Mountain. The car was running on empty. So were we. But we made it to the top.
We hiked through the dark woods, wrapped in our sleeping bags, until we found a secluded spot to watch the sunrise. We passed around a mug of thick mate, watching the sky turn pale pink and purple over the water.
Post-sunrise viewing, we drove one and a half hours to Orono, to meet up with another friend. After a (very) brief discussion, Nancy and I decided to break our vegetarianism for some Maine lobster. We decided it was an essential part of the quintessential Northeast road trip. We ordered at a roadside restaurant that serves an all-you-can-eat fish fry three times a week. When in Maine, we agree.
Stomachs full, we determined it was time for a hike. Our friend directed us to her favorite trail in Orono, where we trekked to the summit in the 90-degree heat. We reminisced about previous, similarly poorly planned camping trips as we took in the incredible views.
Next stop, New Hampshire. We left Maine in the late afternoon, driving back inland towards the White Mountain National Forest.
August 27: The White Mountains offered a change of pace with campgrounds and hiking trails much emptier than those in Acadia.
We started the day off with another hike, another spectacular view. We stopped at a stream, where we attempted to scrub off some of the grime that accumulated over the past few days without showers, sleeping in the back seat of my car.
We packed up the car a final time, and all piled in. Despite griminess and sleep deprivation, I left the White Mountains that afternoon feeling recharged and balanced — two feelings I was sorely in need of by the end of freshman year.
As we headed back to Vermont, I had a strong sense of returning home. I loved the rocky coasts of Maine and impressive mountains and forests of New Hampshire, but something about the familiar rolling green hills and sprawling pastures of Vermont resonated with me upon my return, in a way that I had not experienced before.
(09/12/18 1:14am)
A power outage struck the college and parts of town Monday, plunging students here into darkness the night before the first day of classes.
The outage occurred just before 10 p.m., when a fallen branch struck utility equipment on the portion of Weybridge Street between Shannon Street and Murdock Court. Within the span of a few minutes, the power came back on, but then went out again for more than an hour.
According to Michael Moser, director of the college’s facilities services, the outage left the entire campus without electricity. The damage originated at the local substation, not on the college campus, and so the staff in Facilities Services did not immediately know the cause of the problem.
“A branch went down on some lines and knocked out power to about 600 customers,” said Kristin Kelly, the director of communications at Green Mountain Power, the electrical company from which the college sources its power.
GMP was able to restore electricity to the college by 11:36 p.m. that night.
Some students described hearing a jarring sound just before the lights cut out. Leena Chawla ’19.5, was walking across the field between Shannon and Weybridge Streets at the time. She was thus one of the closest people to the scene of the downed tree limb.
“There was a loud explosion sound and a flash of light before everything went completely dark,” Chawla said. “The power briefly came back on, and then the same explosion and light flash happened again before the power was out for a longer chunk of time.”
During the outage, Lisa Burchard, the director of Public Safety, was tasked with keeping the campus community up to date through a series of emails.
The local substation, located at Marble Works, is responsible for distributing electricity across the region through transmissions. When interfered with, disrupted substations can result in an electricity shortage to a region.
The college last experienced an electrical outage this summer on July 4. In preparation for outages, Moser explained that 15 buildings on campus have emergency generators in place.
“These machines provide backup power to critical systems in these facilities,” Moser said, referencing heating as one such critical system.
Situated in Vermont, the college makes maintaining heat through the harsh winters a top priority. Facilities has full emergency power designated to the Central Heating Plant in the event that the campus loses electricity.
Student responses to the blackout were mixed. Some students were scrambling to finish assignments on laptops that were low power, while others found it quaint to breach the fire code for the evening and illuminate their dorm rooms with candles.
One first-year, Samara Scharf, said that the lack of light evolved into a makeshift social event in her dorm.
“The hall ended up having a mini-flashlight party,” she said.
(08/29/18 4:33am)
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We spotted the marker of the day’s purpose to the left of the giant stone gates, a sign inscribed in black Sharpie: “Cheese Festival SOLD OUT."
We had decided some weeks before that a summer spent in Vermont called for a quintessential end. Attending the 10th Annual Vermont Cheesemaker’s Festival was our celebratory send-off. I had been studying French at one of the college’s language schools when I learned of the cheese event and immediately thought of my friend Griffin — a fellow French student, cheese lover, and a begrudging lactose intolerant. I sent him a text message with a picture of the poster, a quasi-ironic invitation that somehow evolved into our investing a New York-music-festival amount of money, all to indulge in a ritual well-suited to the state with the highest number of cheesemakers per capita.
The event was held at Shelburne Farms, which sits on 1,400 acres overlooking Lake Champlain. We quickly came to the realization that the ticket price wasn’t the only element of the Cheesemaker’s Festival that mimicked a music festival: with deft arm movements, volunteers directed vehicles to park in meticulous rows while colorful wristbands indicated the various tiers of prestige.
The leisurely hours of 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. left many festival goers, like ourselves, rolling into the event about an hour late; sampling cheeses and ciders for six hours on a humid mid-August day seemed like overkill.
The shuttle bus rattled over the estate’s dirt paths, guiding us along the lake to the cavernous Coach Barn, a temporary temple of cheese. Dismounting the bus, we promptly received a branded tote bag and glasses for sampling wine and beer throughout the day.
Entering the first of two steamy tents and overtly overwhelmed, we were approached by an enthusiastic volunteer. “Not sure where to start?” he inquired. Nope, no idea. Hoping he would tell us there was some structure to the swarms of people flooding the nearly 200 vendors, we were told instead that there wasn’t a clear way to tackle the crowds or the cheese. “I’d suggest heading to a corner and just working your way through,” he offered.
We started at the far right with Jasper Hill Farm. The Northeast Kingdom producer is renowned for its on-site “cellars,” a 22,000-square-foot underground facility devoted to cheese maturation, also known as affinage. Its selection of a dozen cheeses ranged from the spoonable Harbison, a runny substance swaddled in strips of the innermost layer of tree bark to the nutty Haley Bazen Blue, which I deemed one of the day’s frontrunners.
Despite the volunteer’s advice, the crowd was no more penetrable at the far end of the tent. Fifteen minutes in, we had already brushed against a few too many sweaty shoulders for our liking. The aisles were congested and the cheese patrons overly excited. It was the dairy equivalent of a mosh pit.
But I was undeterred. My lifelong love affair with cheese dates to my earliest months. My first two-word combination, in fact, was “more cheese,” and by age four, I was attacking tubs of cream cheese with a spoon. In middle school, while other kids were stuck on Swiss and American, I was consuming ripe slabs of sheep’s milk cheese from the Hudson Valley and stinky rounds of aged goat from southern France.
Despite my amorous relationship with cheese, I was out of my league here. This event was filled with professional cheese purveyors who had come from across the country to sample potential candidates for their shelves. As we ducked out of the tent in search of fresh air, we made our way into the Coach Barn, which had workshops and seminars led by experts in the field. Intrigued, I leaned through the doorway during “The Future of Cheese with Rory Stamp,” only to hear him discussing something along the lines of “prime time cheddaring.” Other seminars included “Cheese Science 101” and “What is a Cheesemonger?”
The festival went well beyond cheese and beer to encompass other forms of dairy. In the courtyard of the Coach Barn, Griffin and I stumbled upon a homemade butter demonstration. Gripping clear, round basins, children churned handles round and round, turning cream into butter. A woman behind the stand offered us sweet-peppercorn and chive butter created moments earlier.
Of course, if anything can reinvigorate two overwhelmed cheese tourists, it is soft butter and fresh air. We were finally ready to head back into the tent. This time, we had a clear goal of finding the makings for a picnic. We spotted Red Hen Baking’s stand, a bakery located just outside of Montpelier, and were instantly allured by the bread’s offbeat ingredients. The company adds polenta or potatoes to bolster flavor and texture.
Adjacent to Red Hen Baking’s stand, family-owned Parish Hill Creamery handed out cheese samples while explaining the unique source of its milk. Co-owners Rachel Schall and Peter Dixon use cream produced at the Putney School’s farm. In keeping with the school’s philosophy, students not only study agriculture but also handle chores on the farm, which include milking cows. That leaves them with a surplus of fresh milk. Parish Hill transforms this raw milk into memorable cheeses, with whimsical names like Humble, Reverie and West-West Blue.
After sampling a dozen more cheeses, we were feeling more than a little sated as the crowds began to thin. At this pause in the action, Griffin remembered to take another lactaid pill. Then we walked past the V.I.P. area where we spied a man, semi-comatose, sprawled on a lawn chair sleeping with his mouth wide open. Hoping to avoid the same fate, we walked toward the lake. As the buzz of cheesemongers faded into the background, the lake’s surface mirrored the gathering clouds above. Griffin waded in up to his knees and, without saying a word, dunked his head in the water.
(07/30/18 11:08pm)
E Lot is no more, kind of.
The college broke ground on a temporary office behind Wright Memorial Theater last week, demolishing the Atwater tennis courts and rendering much of the parking lost behind Wright and Allen Hall inaccessible. Some parking spaces are still available.
As reported in The Campus last November, the board of trustees approved the $4.5 million project to house the college's computer science department, which is currently located in McCardell Bicentennial Hall. The temporary building will also house faculty and staff during future renovations to Monroe and Warner Halls. The building will stand for 12 years, according to the college.
The Atwater tennis courts were demolished to make room for more parking spaces.
The project will be completed in June of 2019, the college said.
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(05/10/18 12:08am)
The women’s lacrosse team earned another piece of hardware last weekend when they became the Nescac champions for the ninth time. Despite cruising past Trinity and Bowdoin in the regular season without breaking a sweat, the two rivals came out with nothing to lose and gave the Panthers a run for their money. But the Panthers fared well under pressure and toppled their rivals. Middlebury skated past Trinity 16–13 on Saturday, May 5, in the semifinals, followed by a championship win over Bowdoin on Sunday, May 6.
Last year in the conference tournament, the Panthers did not fare as well, falling to Colby in the second round. During this year’s regular season, Middlebury fans watched as the Mules once again took the women down in a regular-season matchup, 14–12. The women were prepared to avenge that loss in a game with higher stakes, but they didn’t have to worry about the pesky Mules because they were knocked out by Amherst in the quarterfinal to end a down season for Colby.
Although the Panthers had beaten Trinity handily 14–8 in the regular season, anything can happen in a conference tournament. The heightened pressure of qualifying for NCAA’s invigorates an underdog and creates a lack of security. On top of that, they were the top seed.
“There definitely is a lot of pressure being the No. 1 seed in the tournament as well as hosting,” Zecca said. “After losing in the semis last year and watching two other teams compete for the championship on our own field, we knew there was nothing stopping us from getting there this year. No. 6 Trinity upset No. 3 Tufts in the quarterfinals, so we knew that they [were capable of pulling off an upset].”
The Panthers were reminded of this lesson this weekend when they had a tight matchup with the Bantams, once again coming from behind in the second half to win 16–13.
The Panthers had some trouble getting off to a strong start throughout the season but seemed to overcome this weakness in the conference playoffs. The hosts punched first, swatting three goals past the Bantam goalie within two minutes of play when Hollis Perticone ’18 scored her 29th goal of the season. She was quickly followed by Erin Nicholas ’21, as well as Emma McDonagh ’19, who would go on to score three more goals.
The hosts needed to be more than a second-half team because they couldn’t afford to put so much pressure on themselves in the final stanza given the high postseason stakes. The Bantams were able to sneak two more goals by Julia Keith ’20 to narrow the margin until Casey O’Neill ’19 found the back of the cage. With a score of 4–2, Trinity continued to climb back, adding one more tally to their total at the 21-minute mark.
With about 20 minutes left to go in the period, the visitors would go on to outscore the hosts 5–3, claiming the 8–7 advantage as the teams headed into halftime.
Middlebury was not concerned with this one-goal deficit, as they had dug themselves out of much deeper holes earlier in the season. They were a second-half team and would prove it today, with their home crowd behind them.
The Panthers did not win the race to the scoreboard this time. The Bantams found openings in the Middlebury defense and capitalized on their quick breaks. After the visitors continued to increase their total to a 10–7 lead, Emily Barnard ’20 found Georgia Carroll ’18 to bring it back to a two-goal game. The visitors continued to preserve their edge, climbing to 12 goals. Sara DiCenso ’19 and Jenna McNicholas ’19 hammered two shots past the Bantam goalie in between the two visitor goals.
After feeling the sting of another Bantam goal, something clicked for the Panthers. Middlebury picked up four goals within the next six minutes of play. Kate Zecca ’20 was the first of the four, exploiting a perfectly executed pass from Carroll. The Panthers were now confident at a 14–12 lead and could not let their margin be ripped from their hands. In the final 10 minutes, the hosts allowed only one Trinity ball to enter their cage, while nailing two more shots past the Trinity goalie.
Once again, Keith and Kate Furber ’19 split time between the poles, with Keith making three integral saves in the first half and Furber making one in the final stanza to bring the Panthers to victory.
It was all smiles on Kohn Field when the last whistle blew to finalize the score of 16–13. They were on to the final and were ready for a fight.
“Overall, our team felt really confident about facing Bowdoin again in the championship,” Zecca said. “Though we played them earlier in the year, it was in the very beginning of the season. We knew they had been able to develop and better their play since we last saw them, so we knew that this game couldn’t be taken lightly.”
On Sunday, the Panthers had nothing left to lose and planned on leaving everything on the field. They took the field with confidence, knowing they had defeated Bowdoin by 10 goals earlier in the season. From time to time, this confidence did waver, as the women remained neck and neck throughout the game.
The first half kept fans at the edge of their seats, as both teams had a response for each goal scored. Bowdoin tallied the first goal as Allison Williams snuck a shot in after the first five minutes. Hannah Hirchfield’s goal was then sandwiched in between two Middlebury goals, one from McDonagh and one from Grace Getman ’21. Bowdoin increased their lead by two in the next five minutes. With under ten minutes to go, Kirsten Murphy ’21 showed up once again to toss a goal in the hosts’ direction. Carroll contributed her share, following the freshman, just before the Polar Bears were able to knock one more back. Then, McDonagh knotted the score 5-5 to finish out the period.
Once again, the pressure fell on the Polar Bears with the sound of the second-half whistle. Middlebury was now infamous for its second-half runs. But the visitors were the first to earn a goal. Three minutes later, we heard from McNicholas, who kept her team in the game. This momentum was followed by Perticone and Zecca, making the score 8–5. The Polar Bears were willing to leave it all on the field as they fought back to a tie game. With a little more than five minutes to go, the Panthers found their lungs to preserve their one-goal lead. McDonagh and Carroll were able to slap back two more shots to secure the trophy for Middlebury.
The Panthers’ defense once again played a major role in their victory. The seniors led the stats, knowing this would be their final conference tournament. Evie Keating ’18 grabbed three ground balls and forced two turnovers, while Perticone helped her out with seven draw controls and another two turnovers. Susana Baker ’19 contributed her share with three turnovers and three ground balls.
Keith and Furber showed up where they needed to. In the first period, Keith prevented three balls from netting the cage. In her second-half appearance, Furber made a tremendous effort with eight stops.
The fourth-ranked Panthers will host their regional this weekend. They will play the winner of Babson and Castleton on Sunday, May 13, and are preparing by focusing on the fine points of their game, according to Zecca.
“In both the [conference] semifinal and championship, we have had to come back from three- to four-goal deficits,” said Zecca. “Although we have come out on top in those close games, it would be undoubtedly better for us to come out strong and prove that we are playing to win for a full 60 minutes.
“We are confident that we have what it takes to make it all the way to the Final Four,” Zecca added. “We just need to play the way we know we can.”
(05/09/18 11:50pm)
On the evening of Friday May 4, bright neon glow sticks illuminated the packed crowd in Wilson Hall. The audience’s energy was palpable as they anxiously waited to celebrate Middlebury College’s second annual Korean Culture Show. The show began at 8 p.m. and ran for about two hours (with 18 individual acts), featuring a diverse collection of Korean performance art including dancing, singing, rapping, poetry reading, instrumental music and more.
The only requirement for participation in the show was a love of Korean culture and a desire to share it with the Middlebury community. A diverse cast, comprising ethnically Korean and non-Korean students alike, graced the stage for each performance.
“Through the Korean Culture Show, I started to engage with community members that I hadn’t been exposed to,” said Max Lucas ’21, who danced in the show. “[It’s about] bringing together different people from different backgrounds… It’s really nice because you get to learn more about traditional Korean culture but then you can also just to have fun and dance on stage. Our group had a ramen night where we had different Korean ramens, did facemasks, and watched a bunch of Korean videos to build the community and get everyone excited about the performance in general.”
The Korean Culture Show is a significant event on campus because it is one of the only formal platforms for celebrating and sharing Korean culture. While organizations such as Korean American Student Association and Asian Students in Action exist, their events usually take place on a smaller scale and in informal settings. Students praised the Korean Culture Show for giving the Middlebury community such accessible exposure to this culture.
“It was really nice to see how a lot of people came out from the Middlebury community who may have not necessarily known what K-pop is or about Korean culture, but they were willing to come and see what people had produced,” Lucas said.
This entirely student-led production showcased the talents of over 50 students and was coordinated by a logistics team made up of Abby Escobar ’20, Karl Lin ’20, and Lia Yeh ’20. These students began organizing the program as early as this fall while team-wide rehearsals began at the start of spring semester. The individual performances were conceptualized by a group of team leaders who finalized the show’s setlist and led rehearsals. Members of the Leaders Team included Mika Dab ’20, Jeffrey Formen ’19, Monica Galbraith ’20, Abla Laallam ’20, Karul Lin ’20, Nathan Nguyen ’19, Alan Ohikuare ’20, Miko Dai ’20, Jilian Ohikuare ’20, Anton Gallegos ’20 and Lia Yeh ’20. Four lively emcees, Keun Young Ko ’21, Sean Rhee ’21, Jin-Mi Sohn ’18 and Miles Tyner ’18, kept the show moving with detailed introductions of the performances and their cultural significance and helped maintain a vibrant energy among the crowd and performers alike.
Upon entering Wilson Hall, audience members were given a yellow ribbon sticker in honor of the Korean Culture Show’s theme: commemorating the heartbreaking sinking of the Sewol Ferry in South Korea and suicide awareness. Sean Rhee ’21 delivered a speech at the end of the show dedicated to these issues.
“Even though four years have gone by [since the sinking of the Sewol Ferry], the tragic accident continues to pain the people of South Korea,” Rhee said. “Tonight, we continue to honor those 153 students who lost their lives on April 16, 2014. The yellow ribbons [are] to remember the Sewol Ferry disaster and to keep pushing for justice for those students and passengers we lost that day.”
“South Korea is known for its youthful culture and viral K-pop performances like the ones you have seen tonight,” Rhee said. “However, underneath that vibrancy exists a growing concern of depression and suicide. South Korea, unfortunately, has one of the highest rates of suicide in the world, and is even referred to as the ‘Republic of Suicide.’ Tonight, we support those who suffer from society’s immense pressures. Within this society that pushes against us, stigmatizes mental health and expects us to accept these adversities as a part of life, let us push back against these ideas.”
For the show’s final performance, the entire cast gathered onstage to lead the audience in an interactive dance. Audience members exited Wilson still practicing their dance moves and smiling from ear to ear. It is safe to say the second annual Korean Culture Show was a wild success. The audience ate up every bit of the show and erupted in applause at the end of each act. Congratulations to the entire team who put on this passionate and striking performance. Your dedication truly shined through.
“It’s a baby — it’s only two years old so hopefully it becomes a tradition,” Rhee said. “I really hope that it continues because it was really exciting for me as a Korean to share that culture on this campus. As hard as it was and as stressful as it was, it was really rewarding at the end of the day.”
(05/09/18 11:16pm)
“To be perfectly honest, given the talent on both teams, I think the match could have gone either way,” said Christina Puccinelli ’19 after the women’s tennis team’s 5–4 loss to Williams back on April 7. “They happened to come out on top this time, but we came away from the match with absolute confidence that we have what it takes to win in the future.”
On Sunday, May 6, the two teams met again, this time in the Nescac championship at the Bay Road Tennis Club in Amherst, Massachusetts. Once again top-seeded Williams (18–0) prevailed, this time by a score of 5–3, to win its third consecutive conference crown over second-seeded Middlebury (14–3).
But Puccinelli’s words rang true once again on Sunday. Despite losing the match and being swept in doubles, the Panthers outscored Williams because all their singles wins came in straight sets, while their losses all went down to the wire, requiring the full three sets to finish.
Trailing the Ephs 3–0 after doubles, the Panthers mounted a comeback, winning the first two singles matches to pull within one. All at once, Middlebury had fought its way back into the contest. Christina Puccinelli ’19 and Maddi Stow ’18 bounced back from first-set losses to win their second sets, and Catherine Blazye ’20 won her first set in dominant fashion, 6–1.
For the second time this season, the match between the conference’s best could have gone either way, but Williams outlasted Middlebury to win its sixth championship in the past eight years, riding its doubles’ dominance to victory even after the Panthers’ surge in singles play.
Going into the playoffs, the Panthers knew they had some work to do in doubles after losing two out of three against Amherst in the last match of the regular season.
“We did not come out as strong as we would have liked in doubles, so this week we are going to focus a lot on our doubles play,” said Katy Hughes ’20 after the Amherst match. “We want to — we must — have a stronger start.”
In their semifinal match against Wesleyan on Saturday, the Panthers came out stronger than they did against Amherst, winning two of three doubles matches — the only loss came to the reigning NCAA doubles champions, Eudice Chong and Victoria Yu, in the first slot.
In fact, just like in Middlebury’s first match against Wesleyan, Chong and Yu were the only Cardinals to score victories on Saturday, as the Panthers controlled the rest of the ladder to win 5–3 and earn a spot in the conference championship match the next day.
Stow and Catherine Blazye ’20 won 8–2 in second doubles, while Heather Boehm ’20 and Ann Martin Skelly ’21 remained undefeated as a pairing by defeating their opponents 8–6. Blazye, Boehm and Stow all won in straight sets to set up Middlebury’s match with Williams, who shut out Tufts 5–0 in the other semifinal to move into the championship.
Middlebury could not replicate Saturday’s doubles success against Williams on Sunday. The Ephs leapt out to what seemed to be a commanding 3–0 lead for the winners of 30 consecutive matches overall, a streak dating back more than a year to April 8, 2017, when Middlebury beat Williams 6–3.
But then the Panthers made a move of their own. Hughes made a statement by dominating Leah Bush 6–2, 6–0 in second singles. Then Boehm, after trailing 5–2 in the first set of her match with Chloe Henderson in the third slot, rattled off 11 straight games to win in straight sets as well. Both Hughes and Boehm pushed their doubles struggles out of their minds to bring Middlebury back within one match of Williams.
“It is really hard to lose all 3 doubles to a team as good as Williams,” said head coach Rachel Kahan. “But after the doubles points, regardless of who we are playing and what happened in the doubles, our mindset is that the match resets. We look to go out and win all six singles matches.”
Meanwhile, Puccinelli lost her first set 6–1 to Juli Raventos in first singles, as did Stow, 7–6, to Korina Neveux in the sixth slot. But both of them bounced back too, as Stow wasted no time winning her second set 6–1, and Puccinelli came back in her second set to win in a tiebreaker 7–6 (7–5).
Williams regained some hold of the match when Neveux beat Stow in the third set to put Williams one win away from the conference championship. But Blazye countered in fourth singles, winning 6–1, 6–1 over Mia Gancayco to keep Middlebury alive.
Raventos won Sunday’s decisive match, outlasting Puccinelli in a three-set victory, 6–1, 6–7 (5–7), to secure Williams’ third-straight Nescac crown. At that point, Skylar Schossberger ’20 led Julia Cancio 3–0 in the first set of their match, but they stopped when Williams clinched the match.
Since Williams last lost in that match to the Panthers over 13 months ago, the Ephs have won one national title and two conference championships, and will enter this month’s NCAAs 18–0.
But Middlebury inched a little bit closer on Sunday. The Panthers dominated three singles matches, led in a fourth, and lost in three sets in the other two.
“The team fought extremely hard, and I felt the belief that we could win through the whole match,” said Kahan. “Every match with Williams has been close and has come down to a couple of points.”
More than anything else, Sunday’s match demonstrated the fickle nature of sports.
“Once again, the results could have gone either way, and once again we drew the short end of the stick,” Puccinelli said.
She and the rest of the Panthers remain firmly convinced that they can beat Williams and any other of the top teams in the country. Simply viewing Sunday’s match as a loss is a waste of time because of how well Middlebury played.
“My team competed with energy, composer and grit, and I could not be more proud,” said Puccinelli. “We came out with energy and determination, and we did not waver in either throughout the full five-hour battle.”
Not only did the Panthers play extremely good tennis, they did so in the face of adversity after falling into a daunting 3–0 hole.
Middlebury’s full body of work this season is much more representative than one loss. And because of their hugely successful spring, the Panthers will host one of the NCAA Regional brackets, starting today and running to Saturday, May 12. The Panthers have a bye through the first round of the seven-team draw and will play their first match tomorrow. No. 18 Skidmore is the only other ranked team in the regional.
If the Panthers win on Friday and Saturday, they will advance to the quarterfinals which will be held in Claremont, California. The Panthers are one of five Nescac teams in the NCAA tournament, along with Williams, Wesleyan, Amherst and Tufts. And Middlebury and Williams are on opposite sides of the bracket, meaning a rematch between the two squads would not come until the national championship.
Middlebury has demonstrated throughout the season it is one of the nation’s top teams, having defeated No. 5 Wesleyan (twice), No. 6 Tufts, No. 7 Pomona-Pitzer and No. 8 Amherst, while giving No. 2 Williams two of the biggest challenges the Ephs faced all spring. And it’s become increasingly clear how little separates Middlebury from Williams, and the other two teams ranked ahead of them, No. 3 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and No. 1 Emory. CMS beat Middlebury 7–2 on March 30, but that feels like the distant past, given how well the Panthers played in the Nescac.
“I believe that the results in the final rounds will simply come down to who wants it more,” Puccinelli said.
Sunday’s loss stoked the Panthers’ fire even more.
“Each opponent we face from here on out will be determined and resilient, since a loss means the end of a season,” said Puccinelli. “We love the challenge and want the title more than we ever have.”
In 2003, Middlebury qualified for its first NCAA tournament. Two seasons later, the Panthers reached the semifinals of the tournament, but then did not return to that point for another 11 seasons, when they were one of the final four teams in 2016. Last season, Middlebury reached the semifinals again, where Williams beat the Panthers. The Ephs have now beaten the Panthers in four consecutive matches, while CMS has defeated Middlebury six straight times and Emory has knocked them out of the tournament three times since 2013.
To put it lightly, the Panthers want to beat these teams ranked above them. And they have shown they can compete with them. Is now the time for the Panthers to finally conquer the perennially dominant DIII teams?
