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(03/04/21 10:59am)
After Jack Langerman’s death on Jan. 17, his former co-workers at Sports Innovation Lab gathered on Zoom to grieve and share memories: the days when the company president teased him for having a worse throwing arm than “the old man,” the time Jack ran out and bought Pop-Tarts for a distraught friend, and the fact that he was so proud of working for the company that he helped recruit another Middlebury student after he left.
Through the tears and laughter, a plan began to emerge to honor his legacy and keep his memory alive at the company and at Middlebury.
The Sports Innovation Lab, in collaboration with the Center for Careers and Internships (CCI) and the Langerman family, created the Jack Langerman Internship. The internship will accept one Middlebury student each summer for a two-month paid position at the sports marketing analytics startup where Jack worked during the summers of 2018 and 2019. In the two weeks the application was open, 30 students applied for the summer 2021 position.
The partnership with the CCI only officially extends over the next three years, but Sports Innovation Lab president and co-founder Josh Walker ’96.5 hopes that the position will continue long past then.
“Selfish[ly], we're trying to just keep him,” Walker said. “Now we have a tool to make sure that future Middlebury students say his name and know why they’re [at the company]. It'll make us remember Jack every year and keep him a part of our company . . . [because] I don't want someone like Jack Langerman to be forgotten.”
Jack’s lifelong love for and dedication to sports started long before he began working at the Sports Innovation Lab.
From the moment Jack first entered Fenway Park at age three, he was hooked on baseball. It was a game for the ages: the Yankees and Red Sox were playing off for a chance at the 1999 American League Championship Series with pitching legends Roger Clemens and Pedro Martinez facing off. Jack’s parents, Scott Langerman ’87 and Vicki Langerman, were determined not to miss a second of it. Evidently, young Jack agreed. His parents had set up multiple contingency plans of relatives and friends who could pick him up if the normally squirmy toddler decided to throw a fuss, but “from the first pitch to the last out,” Jack didn’t move a muscle.
Jack’s love for baseball eventually led him to walk onto Middlebury’s baseball team, where he played at first base his freshman year. However, sophomore year, Jack left competitive play and spoke to the new head coach, Mike Leonard, about creating a position for himself where he could still be part of the team and contribute, even if he wasn’t on the field.
Jack served in the newly created role of director of baseball operations for his last three years at Middlebury. Jack went to every practice and game. He helped as an assistant coach in the dugout, welcomed and mentored new players, scouted teams, analyzed players skills and weaknesses, helped develop strategy and more. But Leonard said Jack’s biggest contribution came in the team culture he helped form.
“Our program would not be what it is today without Jack’s influence on it,” Leonard was quoted as saying in a campus-wide email. “His ability to bring people together, foster team cohesion, and represent the program’s highest ideals in everything he did set him apart. He was kind, thoughtful, and a gifted communicator who welcomed new members of the team to campus and gave them an instant support system. The relationships he built strengthened connections within our group and made everyone who was a part of it feel like a family.”
Jack’s time as the director of baseball operations gave him insight into what he could do within the sports industry off the field. His search for a career path led him to the Sports Innovation Lab, where he hoped to build a resume and set of skills that could serve as a launching point.
“His [dream job] would have been General Manager of the Red Sox,” Scott Langerman said. “I'm not sure if he ever would have accomplished that, but it would have been fun to watch him try.”
Scott Langerman hopes that those who receive the Jack Langerman Internship will learn to love sports and experience the industry in all of its forms, just as Jack did.
“If somebody walks away from the experience and [thinks], ‘Wow, now I understand why Jack made such an impact. I understand why he enjoyed it so much, and I understand why he loved this industry,’ that, to me, is a win,” Scott Langerman said. “And hopefully, they'll walk away from him wanting to do something similar for somebody else.”
For many at the Sports Innovation Lab, the internship is a way of thanking Jack for the multitude of ways he helped the company and its employees. Molly Tissenbaum, one of his former coworkers, recalled being visibly distraught at work one day after her visa application was rejected. Jack, who sat across from her, noticed immediately. When she began crying after telling him what was wrong, he ran off in search of a way to comfort her in the form of her favorite snack.
“The next thing that I knew, he had left the office and come back with a bag full of Pop-Tarts and just put them on a table in front of me. That week he was constantly checking in on me and making sure that I was OK and fully stocked with Pop-Tarts. And that, to me was the epitome of what Jack was all about,” Tissenbaum said. “He did whatever he could do to make somebody else smile or feel better.”
When Eliza Van Voorhis ’21.5, the Sport Innovation Lab’s current intern, reached out to Jack for advice on applying to the company, she was blown away by the outpouring of support she received in return. He immediately met with her at lunch to answer her questions, give advice and connect her with people from the company. After his passing, Van Voorhis spent an afternoon scrolling through their text exchanges and was astonished to see the volume of messages of support he sent, checking in about her application and helping her troubleshoot until she got the job.
One of Van Voorhis’ biggest regrets is not properly thanking Jack for all his help and generosity. She hopes helping to set up this internship in his honor can serve as a way to demonstrate her gratitude, even if he isn’t here to receive it.
While she recused herself from participating in the final decision-making process, Van Voorhis coordinated with the CCI to create the internship and Handshake entry and helped schedule interviews and coordinate with the 30 applicants. Tissenbaum hopes that the first recipient of the Jack Langerman Internship can help find the next recipient and so on in a chain of the kind of acts of service for which Jack was known.
“He was a huge proponent of paying it forward, and we felt that this was a really nice way to pay his legacy forward and keep people from Midd, which is something that he was so passionate about and that he clearly loved, close to us and our company,” Tissenbaum said. “This seemed like a way that we could continue to keep him top of mind, and that we could remind ourselves that he's still having an impact on not just us as individuals, but as our company as a whole.”
Jack’s family was heartwarmed, if not surprised, by the depth of the connections he formed with his former coworkers. Jack loved people and constantly sought out connection with anyone and everyone. For eight years, Jack participated in a fantasy football pool with the Langermans’ 80-year-old neighbor, trading yard chores and Red Sox T-shirts as prizes for the winner and the loser’s forfeit. Once he had befriended someone, Jack held on.
Jack was born in Atlanta and lived there until he turned three, when his family moved to Maryland. Jack kept in touch with the women who worked at the daycare he attended in Atlanta for his whole life. When he traveled with the baseball team to Emory University for a game and spring break trip, he invited them to the game and hung out with them afterwards, despite not having seen them for nearly 20 years.
“I think Jack can be described most simply as everyone’s friend. It didn’t matter who it was — the 90-year-old neighbor next door, the quiet kid in the back of the class, the friend of a friend of a friend — Jack approached each person with the same non-judgement and genuine interest,” his sister, Jenny Langerman ’22, wrote in an email to The Campus. “He had a knack for making people feel special, for making them feel welcome and wanted, for seeing in them what they have trouble seeing in themselves. He was a master of the masses and a great connector of people, and everything was a little brighter with him next to you.”
In the wake of his passing, the Langerman family has created the Jack Langerman Community Foundation. While they are still formulating plans for the foundation, they hope it can serve as another way of carrying on his legacy.
“There are so many things that Jack was so passionate about, so many things that he would have done if he was given more time,” Scott Langerman said. “We feel that the world is a far lesser place without somebody driving those things. We want to drive those and really take care of the people he would have taken care of and take care of the places that were so important to him and shaped him.”
Scott Langerman is also working to establish an additional summer sports internship for Middlebury students in Jack’s honor.
For more information on the Jack Langerman Community Foundation, please email jacklangermanfoundation@gmail.com.
(03/04/21 10:55am)
Daylight, to Ariadne Will ’22, is a phenomenon that is both universal and, depending on a person’s perspective and location, ever-changing. When she decided to launch a recurring publication from her home of Sitka, Alaska during the pandemic, it was this philosophy that led her to name her project Daylight Zine.
Daylight, a “zine” or self-published small-batch print work in the style of a magazine, is founded and curated by Will and based out of Sitka, though it draws submissions and inspiration from all over the country. Will made her first zine in February 2020 as a Valentine’s Day gift, creating all the content and visuals herself, and got instantly hooked on the medium. She found herself totally absorbed in the creative process and knew she wanted to do it again, but this time, she also wanted to open her zine to include outside contributions.
The zine serves as a platform to draw creators together during an exceptionally insulating time, while also acknowledging positionality. With a combination of vivid photography, prose works, digital collage and compelling organization, Daylight Zine manages to do so in a way that is genuine and visually beautiful.
Looking through a copy of the most recent edition, called “Heritage,” there is a wonderful mix of over 20 contributors from Sitka, Middlebury and beyond. From the first page, the reader is treated to a combination of lush visuals and captivating prose. Alternating between photographs, studio art and works of prose and poetry, Will’s carefully balanced curation gives all submissions equal focus and respect. Elements of collage add visual interest and authenticity. Although the layout was created digitally, the zine retains aesthetic features that give it an almost handmade quality.
Will says that submitting to her zine should feel “safe enough for people to take a chance on a written piece when they don't consider themselves a writer.”
For Will, creating the zine is definitely a labor of love — with an emphasis on labor. Reviewing submissions, curating content, deciding the final order of submissions and getting the zines printed and shipped are just a few of the many steps Will must take herself to produce a single volume. All the while, she also takes accessibility into account by pricing the zine as low as possible while still breaking even. Still, the feeling of holding the finished product in her hands and sending it off into the world makes it all worth it.
“It’s exhilarating… like, I created this,” Will said. Because every volume of the zine is unique, each round of submissions is equally exciting and unexpected. In fact, Will encourages unique multimedia submissions.
“You can send a video and you can put in the QR code [and] a still from it, or you can write a song and we can publish the sheet music,” she said. Regardless of the medium, some of her favorite submissions are those that showcase new perspectives, especially unexpected contributions from people she may not personally know.
In Daylight Zine’s most recent edition, one Sitka resident, who is fluent in Mandarin, submitted a piece about Chinese characters and the nuanced meaning and history they carry, focusing on Taiwan. Even a detail as subtle as font choice mattered in this piece, as some fonts did not include the necessary tone markings for the characters.
“Here's a part of history that no one's ever taught me. This, you know, white Alaskan girl … here's this history in this one character,” Will said of experiencing that piece. It’s these moments of connection and learning that the zine aims to lift up, and its celebration of art feels particularly powerful in the context of a global pandemic.
“Making time to create something feels really special. Reading something, or receiving a prompt that makes you want to respond, is also really special, and I think that's especially important right now,” Will said. To those considering submitting but feeling vulnerable or unsure, Will had some final words of encouragement: “Your art is beautiful. I want to share your art with the world.”
Editor’s Note: Ariadne Will ’22 is a Local Editor for The Campus.
If you would like to submit a piece to Daylight Zine, follow this link.
(02/04/21 10:59am)
“I just woke up one morning, and I said, ‘Enough is enough,’” Hig Roberts ’14 told The New York Times in December 2020.
Roberts, who skied on the alpine team at Middlebury and led an accomplished professional skiing career, came out as gay in an interview last year with The Times — the first men’s alpine skiing champion to do so.
He had made 31 starts in the World Cup from 2015–19 and won two giant slalom national titles on the U.S. ski team. But Roberts said hiding part of his identity had held him back.
“Not being able to be who I am and not being able to be openly gay as a professional athlete was truly hindering my performance,” Roberts said in the interview.
Now, Roberts is hoping to lead by example and show younger generations of skiers that sexuality is not a limitation to athletic success.
A Steamboat Springs, Co. native, Roberts grew up immersed in a vibrant skiing culture. He first threw on a pair of skis at two years old, not long after learning to walk. From a young age, Roberts’ talent was clear, and, by age nine, he signed up for his first major competition. That opportunity was thwarted, though, due to a femur injury he suffered before the event. It was an injury that doctors thought would prevent him from skiing again, but with the help of a risky surgery, Roberts got back on his feet and continued to compete.
As Roberts aged, he discovered that alpine skiing was, by reputation, a very masculine sport. He didn’t identify with that status quo, he said, which disconnected him from his teammates and deterred him from coming out publicly.
“I realized I was different from my teammates, and I think they realized it too even if they weren’t sure I was gay,” Roberts said in an interview with The Campus. “However, I took a mature approach to this, and it made me work even harder because I figured I just needed to work harder to make myself equal to my counterparts.”
While his differences from his teammates initially inspired Roberts to work harder and excel, as he grew older, the difference became more of a detractor. Roberts said he felt like an outsider even as he became an established figure in the professional skiing world.
“When skiing became my career, I just thought my brain was playing a trick on me,” Roberts said. “I didn’t think being different was an advantage. It felt like a reversal of maturity to have to hide a part of myself.”
Despite his hidden discomfort, Roberts embarked on a very successful career — although he took an unusual path to get there. He was recruited to U.S. Ski Team B after graduating from Middlebury in 2014, granting him the rare distinction of being a college skier chosen to join the U.S. National Team. His performance in 2013 at the World University Games in Italy, where he placed seventh overall in the giant slalom, propelled him to this achievement..
In 2017, Roberts edged out a seven-time national champion, Tim Jitloff, for a national title in the giant slalom in Sugarloaf, Maine. He repeated that feat in 2018, cementing his place among the most talented skiers of his age.
All the while, Roberts was dealing with intense personal struggles, including grappling with his sexuality and a devastating personal tragedy.
In August 2016, Roberts’ younger brother, Murphy, died from a head injury he suffered after collapsing from a diabetic seizure. The loss was immeasurable for Roberts and nearly ended his career.
“Losing him will never be able to be rationalized,” Roberts said. “It made me realize how short life is. However, I have learned a lot from his example. Murph was always unabashedly himself. I know he would have helped me get through coming out because he taught me how important it was to be authentic and to be yourself. ”
Now that Roberts has come out, he’s been given the chance to kickstart a new chapter in his life — one in which he’s able to be his true self. He had spent his entire life attempting to conform to the standards of masculinity expected from professional male skiers, and his retirement liberated him from those expectations.
“I want my story to reach kids who are fearful of being who they really are, because when I was younger, I didn’t see any kids like me,” Roberts said. “It’s all about adding visibility to the space. It’s important to remember that your story is unique, and that you will find support around you.”
(02/04/21 10:57am)
Karen Miller, former vice president of Human Resources and chief risk officer, left Middlebury for a position at Morehouse College this week. Laura Carotenuto, Cathy Vincent and Ellen Usilton, who all hold senior positions in Human Resources, will co-lead the department on an interim basis, according to an email announcement last Friday.
Risk Operations will also separate from Human Resources to become the Office of Enterprise Risk Management. Mike Thomas, former vice president for finance, is now leading the new department, stepping into the role of Vice President of Administration and Chief Risk Officer. Thomas will also act as an officer on the Board of Trustees’ Risk Committee and remain an authorized signer for contracts and financial matters at the college.
Now that Miller has departed, the administration is faced with continuing her numerous initiatives.
The college will form a search committee, with Vice President for Finance and Administration David Provost as chair, to select Miller’s replacement. Working with Koya Partners and Storbeck Search, two executive search firms, the committee will convene this month and aims to find a new vice president for Human Resources by July 1.
During her five years at Middlebury, Miller led several major projects in Human Resources. Notably, she oversaw workforce planning, the introduction of the Oracle HCM administrative software, the Mercer Compensation Study, the organization of the Leadership Alliance and the formation of the Green Mountain Higher Education Consortium with Champlain and St. Michael’s Colleges.
President Laurie Patton announced via email in December that Miller would leave the school at the end of January. Patton complimented Miller’s impact on the college and her coworkers, saying that Miller brought “renewed camaraderie to her teams, sharper focus on shared strategic goals and a customer-service orientation to our daily business activities and interactions.”
Patton said that she would “begin immediately to develop plans for continuity,” a considerable undertaking given the number of ongoing initiatives and recently completed projects with unsettled results in Miller’s department.
Miller discussed those newly implemented projects in an email to The Campus, many of which share a theme of streamlining, restructuring or introducing new technology into the college’s administrative employment system in pursuit of efficiency.
One of the most visible projects was workforce planning, which was undertaken in 2018 and 2019. The school consolidated employment structures with the aim of remedying budget shortfalls and making departments more efficient.
To meet the objective of reducing employee expenses by 10%, the college eliminated roughly 150 positions (100 of which were already vacant), created about 30 new positions and identified about 50 positions to be eliminated in the years following the project.
Workforce planning had a mixed reception. The employee buyout and position consolidation process was, for some, confusing and frustrating alongside other workforce changes like the rollout of the Oracle software. The project also sparked an unsuccessful unionization attempt among staff last fall.
The Oracle software rollout was another major undertaking of Miller and her department. Adopted as part of the Green Mountain Higher Education Consortium, the Oracle Human Capital Management software is a cloud system that digitalizes and consolidates data of everyday financial transactions at the college.
The rollout of Oracle sparked controversy because staff and students who had to make the switch — including everything from student club expenditures to the college’s accounts payable — felt insufficiently trained and therefore frustrated with the software.
Miller also started the Leadership Alliance, a group of about 120 managers from across the institution that meets weekly with HR leadership. Its goals, according to Miller, include enhancing communication, strengthening leadership and managerial competencies and fostering collaborative engagement and support within the group.
Coming down the road for the HR department is a potential adjustment of the staff evaluation system, called Annual Performance Summary (APS). The school has put the APS process on hold while HR considers implementing changes.
In his email, Provost listed the administration’s many priorities in supporting the Human Resources department during its transition, which were echoed by Patton in an email to The Campus.
“Throughout the spring, we are focused on wage continuity through Covid, completing the compensation study that was interrupted by the pandemic, addressing compression issues and continuing to work with Leadership Alliance and Staff Council on managing change,” Patton said.
Miller will serve as Chief Administrative Officer and Secretary of College at Morehouse College in Atlanta.
(01/28/21 11:00am)
Two in three students broke Covid-19 guidelines during the fall semester. More than three in four experienced worsened mental health. Although the college was successful in its mission of delivering in-person classes with no major outbreaks, the results of a Campus survey reveal that in the apparent trade-off between Covid safety and the emotional well-being of students, we’re losing both battles, and badly.
Let’s get this straight: students are disregarding rules, for one reason or another, and they’re experiencing significant spikes in feelings of hopelessness, isolation and overall despondency as they navigate elevated stress and exhaustion in academic and social situations. Twenty-nine respondents indicated an increase in non-suicidal self-harm; 51 indicated an increase in suicidal thoughts. While this tug-of-war between physical and mental health is an exceptionally complex one — ripe with nuances regarding harm reduction and compromise, one thing is clear: the spring semester cannot be a carbon copy of the fall.
We in no way condone violations that put our community at risk, but our survey reveals that there is room for criticism of how those rules are created, communicated and enforced, and that there are consequences to those rules, particularly on student mental health. And while superspreader parties remain condemnable, the survey suggests that most students broke less dangerous rules, such as having more than four close contacts — violations that also reveal a desire for greater social interaction and connection.
One challenge of the fall suggested in our survey results is a lack of access to spaces for socializing and events. More than 75% of students felt the options for places to safely spend time with friends were inadequate — and a similar proportion said there were not enough spaces to host events. A slow rollout of access to libraries and dining halls introduced early-semester social and academic challenges. Buildings that usually offer ample opportunities for both hanging out and studying — such as Bi Hall and Axinn — were open only to a limited number of students for a good part of the semester. If we’re to live and learn on this campus for another twelve weeks, the college should provide sufficient places for the organic socialization that has been integral to Midd’s community building.
The college must also introduce measures to increase equity for students by providing the equipment and funds for social activities to those who lack them and ensuring consistency in treatment of different groups. Efforts should be made to allow controlled student access to resources such as the gear room and Bergen Lodge, encouraging safe outdoor activities and providing a greater sense of normalcy to students who feel isolated or who spend much of their time in virtual classes on Zoom. Providing these resources also levels the playing field for students who may not otherwise be able to explore Addison County to the same extent as students who own outdoor gear.
Furthermore, while sports teams were able to gather and practice in all of their enormity, other student organizations were relegated to Zoom meetings, even as most of us sat within a two-mile radius of each other. Clubs learned that the college allowed this discrepancy because sports teams had coaches and therefore expert supervision to enforce Covid rules — but if it’s this supervision that is necessary, then the same opportunity should be extended to all student groups that provide meaningful socialization and collaborative opportunities, or the college should find another way to make safe gathering opportunities an option for all student groups.
The survey also illustrated that almost half of students found the college’s Covid-19 guidelines to be poorly communicated, an issue that some suggested led to unintentional rule breaking and anxiety over getting in trouble, especially since disciplinary action for the same violation often varied widely. This problem could be solved with a centralized go-to location that lists regulations, predicts student questions and clarifies beforehand what consequences for breaking regulations will be as they evolve throughout the semester — and by reworking the SafeColleges training video series, which offered lengthy (and often repetitive) information, little clarity on discrepancies and another few hours in front of the screen after long days on Zoom.
When we arrive on campus this February, we will be greeted with the new challenges of a frosty campus quarantine and a more severe Covid-19 crisis in Vermont. It is the responsibility of each student to keep our peers and our broader community safe. But as we students strive to do our part, we hope administrators will understand that these issues run deeper than boredom and impatience.
This editorial represents the opinions of the Middlebury Campus’s editorial board.
(01/28/21 11:00am)
Erin Lacey Robinson led the charge to prevent Ripton Elementary School from closing or being repurposed due to school consolidation efforts. (COURTESY PHOTO)
(01/28/21 11:00am)
Nonproliferation, economic diplomacy and localization management are terms seldomly heard on the college’s Vermont campus.But 2,500 miles away on the coast of California, more than 600 graduate students and hundreds of faculty and staff research these very topics at the Middlebury Institute for International Studies (MIIS), an establishment as deeply institutionally intertwined with the college as its Schools Abroad or Bread Loaf School of English.In 2005, Middlebury College’s then-President Ronald Liebowitz floated the idea of affiliating the college with the Monterey Institute, as it was known at the time. The institute was a graduate school founded in 1955 with a focus on foreign languages that evolved to include programs in areas like international policy, translation studies and terrorism studies. In 2003, it was placed on probation by its accreditation institute because of a pattern of operating deficits.A 2005 Faculty Council vote about the possible acquisition of the institute overwhelmingly opposed the idea, with nearly 80% voting against acquisition. Liebowitz and the Board of Trustees pursued an affiliation anyway, at which point the college absorbed the institute’s debts and assets. Five years later — in 2010 — the college officially acquired MIIS, and by 2015, the school was renamed The Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.Over the last 15 years, administrators have made extensive efforts to bring the two institutions closer together. They’ve created funds to encourage inter-campus interaction, promoted collaboration between faculty and created opportunities for undergraduates to study away at MIIS. However, relations between MIIS and the college remain disjointed, partially as a result of their separate histories but manifesting more recently in financial concerns.In April 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic intensified, Middlebury’s faculty gathered to vote on the Sense of the Faculty Motion submitted by college Professor of Mathematics Frank Swenton recommending detaching MIIS from the college. The motion was spurred by fears of impending financial challenges resulting from the pandemic. Swenton believed disconnecting the schools was the most effective immediate step in avoiding risk of cuts to salaries and services at the Vermont campus.The motion sparked renewed debate in both Vermont and California about the place of MIIS in the college’s mission. In this series, we explore the forces, people, events and decisions that led to the relationship between the schools, the sentiments that persist at both institutions and visions for the future of the relationship.Click through the parts below to read more.
(01/28/21 10:59am)
The college canceled its spring abroad program in Japan on Friday, marking the last of the 16 schools abroad to make the decision to close. While the schools typically generate over a million dollars in surplus, the college is projecting a $3.5–3.7 million dollar net loss from the schools abroad alone in the Fiscal Year 2021. This loss comprises more than one-third of the latest $10.2 million deficit projection, according to Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration David Provost.
In pre-pandemic years, the Middlebury schools abroad program has typically enrolled 700 students annually, accounting for $10–12 million in tuition revenue. Operating costs have amounted to about $9.5–10 million each year, and the collective Middlebury schools abroad have routinely generated an annual surplus of $1 million, according to Dean of International Programs Carlos Vélez.
Though the schools abroad are closed for in-person instruction, Provost estimates that they will generate roughly $1 million in total revenue through FY2021 in tuition from online classes and internships offered through the schools.
While not having to host students cut operating costs in half, Middlebury’s commitment to wage continuity for all of its employees means the college will still spend an estimated $5.2 million on schools abroad in FY2021, according to Provost.
Middlebury schools abroad directly employs 47 full-time staff members across its 16 schools, all of whom are included under Middlebury’s commitment to maintain wage continuity through June 30. They primarily serve in administrative roles as directors, assistant directors, deans and housing and program coordinators, Vélez said in an email to The Campus.
In countries that offer them, the schools have availed themselves of government-subsidized furlough programs to cut costs while still maintaining wage continuity, according to Provost.
The rest of the schools abroad staff are primarily contracted on a short-term basis according to program enrollment. These positions, which include course instructors, orientation assistants and program tutors, among others, do not fall under the umbrella of the college’s wage continuity pledge. As a result, schools have been able to cut costs by not hiring anyone to fill those positions, according to Vélez.
The remaining skeleton staff of the schools continue to work hard despite closures. Staff spent much of the fall semester trying to plan and make possible school reopenings in the spring. Middlebury had hoped to run at least 75% of the programs but ultimately decided to keep them shuttered. The staff will resume planning in anticipation of restarting their programs in the fall of 2021.
In the meantime, several schools are offering online classes, including seven courses that were available to Middlebury undergraduates in the fall, as well as facilitating and coordinating remote internships. Vélez said 83 students — including some graduate students — enrolled in online schools abroad offerings this fall, and the schools plan to hold more than 30 remote courses over J-Term and spring. Some schools have also hosted activities for students within their respective language departments, keeping the remaining staff busy, according to Vélez.
Vélez said Middlebury fully intends to reopen the majority of the schools abroad in the fall of 2021. The college considers a number of factors before deciding to open a school for in-person instruction, including the state of the pandemic in host countries, travel restrictions and availability of medical care and appropriate housing options.
“The safety of the students in our schools is our central consideration in making these decisions, followed then by our ability to maintain the core academic mission of the programs,” Vélez wrote in an email to The Campus.
However, even if some schools cannot reopen for the foreseeable future, the college has no plans to make any closures permanent. “There are no discussions right now about backing away from study abroad. There are no discussions about closing programs,” Provost said.
Although the Middlebury schools abroad as a whole are profitable, some of the individual schools do not turn a profit, even during pre-pandemic times. Provost and Vélez emphasized that the schools are considered a collective regarding finances, so Middlebury does not consider the profitability of any individual school.
“This overall financial picture allows us to place the importance of offering options in specific languages and of having a presence in certain regions of the world ahead of revenue considerations in making decisions about each school,” Vélez said.
The college remains committed to ensuring the quality of a Middlebury education, including the opportunity to study abroad, despite the financial difficulties posed by the pandemic, according to Provost.
“One of the key pillars of [what makes Middlebury, Middlebury] is our distinctive global network, and study abroad plays a critical component of that,” Provost said. “Our thinking this year has been, we can manage through this once-in-a-century pandemic. But it will not change our commitment, or the importance of a Middlebury education, inclusive of that global network.”
(01/28/21 10:59am)
On Dec. 3, 2020, Middlebury’s official Instagram account posted a story encouraging students to join the new Facebook Campus platform, a section of the app wherein college students can only interact with other students at their school, which rolled out at select colleges this fall. “As a Middlebury student you have access to @facebookcampus,” read the Instagram post. “Visit @facebookcampus and start developing a community based on your interests, hometown, class year, fandom, or field of study.” Such language is eerily similar to that used by Facebook in its own advertising for the new feature:
“College is a time for making new friends, finding people who share similar interests and discovering new opportunities to connect – from clubs to study groups, sports and more. In the early days, Facebook was a college-only network, and now we’re returning to our roots with Facebook Campus to help students make and maintain these relationships, even if they’re away from their college.”
This post raises a lot of questions regarding the nature of the college’s relationship with Facebook; it goes without saying that it is uncommon practice for official college accounts to post advertisements for private companies, much less one of Facebook’s size. When I noticed the college’s Instagram story in December, I asked on Twitter what the nature of the college’s relationship to Facebook was. I received a reply from @middlebury clarifying that “there was and is no financial exchange between FB/Midd for access to Facebook Campus.” Middlebury was one of the 30 colleges that was given early — free — access to the new platform this past fall. I’m sure most students are aware of this fact due to regular posting by Campus Ambassadors — students paid to turn their personal social media pages into advertising verticals for Facebook — that has flooded students’ feeds for the last few months. Further emails and direct messages inquiring about the relationship between Middlebury and Facebook remain unanswered.
Moving forward, the college should not only publicly clarify the nature of their relationship with Facebook but also sever whatever relationship that may be. Further advertisement of the platform by the college would serve as an endorsement of the unethical business practices that Facebook employs around the world to take advantage of their users — including Middlebury students.
There are many reasons to critique Facebook both as a company and as a social media platform. Some examples include but are not limited to: its ethically-questionable founding, its well-documented experiments with emotional manipulation, how Facebook subsidiary WhatsApp’s lack of moderation led to lynchings in India, how Facebook’s own lack of moderation led to genocide in Myanmar, its outsized manipulative influence on elections around the world, the inhumane working conditions its moderators are subjected to, Facebook’s fraudulent inflation of video metrics which led to mass layoffs in journalism, its permittance of rampant Covid-19 disinformation, its comically massive lobbying budget, its advertising of weapons accessories following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and many other transgressions.
Any one of these issues is reason enough for the college to distance itself from the platform. But if none of them hit close enough to home, here’s a fact that will: one of the biggest problems with Facebook is its extractive business model that treats users as reservoirs of accessible personal data and little more. Facebook Campus aims this model directly at students.
In that same December tweet clarifying the college’s relationship with Facebook, @middlebury added a claim that “[Facebook Campus] is 100% designed for students” before linking to marketing material from fb.com. This is a lie. Facebook Campus is no more designed for students than an oil rig is designed for the Earth. Facebook needs our user data to profit, and they are willing to go to great lengths to extract it.
At Facebook, the user is the commodity. Ninety-eight and a half percent of the firm’s revenue comes from advertising to users and harvesting user data. By being famously cagey and greedy with their privacy policies, Facebook has perfected mass data collection. Reading the Facebook Data Policy leaves one feeling curious at what aspect of a user’s experience they aren’t surveilling, with nearly every user action quantified and stored for later use.
In many ways, Facebook Campus presents an even scarier opportunity for such data surveillance. By centralizing the college experience onto its platform, Facebook no longer has to make educated guesses about the minutiae of students’ lives; instead, students give it to them. Facebook Campus is able to glean which classes, clubs and majors students are in, along with who they study with and even where they live. This intimately detailed personal data will then be auctioned off for any number of purposes or will be used by Facebook themselves to sell students things. Facebook Campus did not grant us early access because they care deeply about fostering community at Middlebury college. They did it for the free and robust collection of personal data that we provide them.
Of course, most students have already signed up for at least one of Facebook’s platforms and are already being surveilled. I once shopped for a hat by saying “baseball cap” into my phone’s microphone and looking through the resulting Instagram ads. But the purpose of this op-ed is not to shame individual students for using Facebook. The platform is good at doing what it is supposed to do — connecting people. Even if one is able to escape from Facebook and the portfolio of social media platforms it owns, true freedom from Facebook’s data supervision would require almost no usage of any online platform, something that is nearly impossible to do in 2021.
One may ask, then, what the purpose of Middlebury disavowing Facebook Campus is if the data extraction is already happening. Such an observation dismisses the importance of an institutional endorsement. Just as Middlebury rescinding Rudy Giuliani’s honorary degree matters and just as the college’s divestment from fossil fuels matters, so does the stance of the college on predatory products that target its students. Middlebury’s advertisement of Facebook Campus is a tacit endorsement of the shady practices and unethical policies that Facebook uses. Regardless of what individual students decide to do with their own personal data, the college should not be advertising for a platform that will overindulge and invade students’ personal privacy.
Facebook can be fixed — there are reforms, redirections and antitrust lawsuits that can be enacted to improve the company. There are some good, earnest people employed there who are actively working to create a better social media platform. Middlebury has no role to play in advertising these reforms, nor do we have a role to play in Facebook’s inevitable brand rehabilitation campaign. The stated mission of Middlebury — and of the other 29 colleges and universities that Facebook has chosen to test Facebook Campus on — is one that revolves around education, not the wealth of corporations. The college must prioritize students’ privacy over the access — and surveillance — that Facebook Campus is offering.
Jake Gaughan is a news editor and a member of the class of 2022.
(01/28/21 10:57am)
“The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation,” Donna Tartt writes in the opening sentence of “The Secret History.” Within this first line, the victim and the crime are already established. But what is the motive?
“The Secret History” is an inverted detective story centered around a group of eccentric Classics students set in the 1980s at the fictional Hampden College, a small, elite liberal arts school in rural Vermont (not dissimilar to Middlebury).
Our guide through the dizzying academic and social scene is the mellow and mysterious Richard Papen, a Californian transferring to Hampden on a scholarship. He’s not a rich, connected New Englander, and he watches with curiosity as his peers indulge in lavish meals and flock to country homes. Richard wants to continue his study of ancient Greek and joins an exclusive circle of Classics students led by a charismatic professor. Richard’s classmates include the quiet but intelligent Henry, wealthy and quick-witted Francis, beautiful but secretive twins Charles and Camilla, and oddball, brash Bunny. It’s at once mystery, a psychological thriller and an ode to the beauty of Classics and literature.
“The Secret History” chronicles a descent into mania, exploring both guilt and justice and how they complicate friendships. The characters are richly nuanced; they perform evil acts, yet I still found myself strangely sympathizing with them at times. Their lives are messy, plagued with alcohol and drug problems, mental health issues and unrequited love. Coming-of-age is typically associated with high school, and it is refreshing to read about college students struggling to figure out what they want to achieve in school and beyond.
Released in 1992, this novel was Tartt’s literary debut, published when she was only 29. The result is impressive: Tartt spins strange events into a plausible story. Her writing is sharp and crisp, and it is easy to mentally picture each scene, whether it be a seedy bar, a dusty classroom or a sleepless night in a stuffy dorm room.
Although Hampden is based on Bennington College, two hours south of us in Vermont and Tartt’s alma mater, it takes little imagination to envision the story taking place in Middlebury, as it even touches on the difficult and tense relationship between local Vermonters and privileged college students. Tartt approaches college from the perspective of an outsider who feels insecure; Richard even goes as far as to fabricate stories of an idealized childhood filled with swimming pools and orange groves to try to fit in with his peers. Richard’s physical appearance is never openly described, making him the everyday man. But when you see the story and its horrific events only through his eyes, it is easy to wonder how reliable a narrator Richard really is, which adds another layer of complexity to the novel.
With the multiple references to Greek, philosophy, and literature, “The Secret History” can feel occasionally pretentious, although I think Tartt means it more as a love letter to academia. The novel’s tone is dark, and at times the content veers into disturbing.
Although the novel begins slowly and the story sometimes wanders, it quickly picks up speed and whisks the reader along. Tartt’s pacing is excellent, as she drops just enough hints to keep the reader engaged and in suspense but does not drag it out either. There is a juicy payoff as the fog clears and the reader learns more about the students’ twisted lives and motives.
While reading “The Secret History,” I was consumed by it. It is one of those books that make you just want to stay up all night and power through; it was gripping and brilliant, and has earned a spot among my favorite books. Tartt takes her time with her craft and is not a very prolific author — she takes about a decade to write a book.
My mom read this novel as she graduated college and remembers thoroughly enjoying it. Nearly three decades later, it has found a new audience in me and my friends. Although some of the references can feel a bit dated at times, there is a timelessness about the story and its characters; it is a fall from grace into corruption, evil and secrecy.
To many people, Tartt is probably best known for her most recent novel, “The Goldfinch,” which won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize and was adapted into a movie in 2019, but I say it is high time to revive an enthralling novel like “The Secret History,” and I think there is no better audience than Middlebury College students.
(01/28/21 10:56am)
Covid-19 fatigue had hit its highest by the end of 2020. People were sick and tired of virtual holiday celebrations, and college students wanted to return to a more normal existence on campus. By the time we got to New Year’s Eve and the clock struck that proverbial Cindrellian midnight, people were talking as if all that was wrong with the world would be fixed simply because 2020 was ending.
But Jan. 1, 2021 came and went, and the U.S. reported 147,159 new cases of the virus. It seemed like 2021 was going to be as harrowing as 2020 for the time being, a feeling that was amplified tenfold when the pandemic took a back seat in the news cycle because our democracy was under siege by a violent mob.
Watching the events of Jan. 6, 2021 caused me to question my faith in an institution that I had previously taken for granted: the American government. Conversations with friends and family revealed that one thing was for certain: no one was entirely sure how to comprehend what they had just witnessed. Rather than burying myself in political punditry from across the spectrum — as I’d done several times before — I found solace from my intensifying confusion by playing through some Beethoven repertoire on the piano. As I played through the third movement of the “Les Adieux” Sonata, I marveled at how lively and joyful music the music was, especially when the composer himself had such a difficult life.
Beethoven’s story is disturbingly similar to our present reality. Facing progressive hearing loss, he endured the embarrassment of having to explain his condition to the public and the consequence that they would have to speak louder for him to hear them. His affliction led him to isolate himself from society — similar to what we have all been forced to do for the last year. When his deafness became inevitable, he slid into depression.
But that wasn’t all — the lesser known story has to do with his political views.
Beethoven was a staunch supporter of democracy and freedom — views he developed as he juxtaposed what he heard about the French Revolution with his current life in the repressive Austrian regime. Specifically, he admired Napoleon as a heroic revolutionary so much so that he dedicated his masterful “Eroica” symphony to him. But this all changed when Napoleon declared himself Emperor and became the exact thing Beethoven despised, leading him to scratch Napoleon’s name off the symphony.
Napoleon invaded Beethoven’s home country, Austria, in 1809. It was around this time that Beethoven’s hearing had also forced him to stop performing in public. While Beethoven was experiencing extreme sorrow and worry on both personal and political fronts, he wrote his third cello sonata — one of the most positive and joyful works ever written. The even more baffling fact is that the inscription on his manuscript reads, “amid tears and sorrow.” In an interview with The Campus, Middlebury Professor of Music Larry Hamberlin noted Beethoven’s ability to write exquisitely humorous works during his lowest moments in life. Pieces like his second and eighth symphony — full of musical jokes — were written when he was at his lowest point and even contemplating suicide. “This was like a personal skill he had. He wrote his way out of depression,” Hamberlin said.
Beethoven said that his art was the only thing that got him through his depression. Just as it helped him, his music can provide solace to us as well during these uncertain times. The horrific scenes of the Capitol riot left many terrified about the future of our country, but we — like Beethoven — can find hope in the face of fascism. Years after witnessing political turmoil in his country, he wrote his “Ode to Joy” as the fourth movement of his ninth symphony, a piece that has been used as an anthem of protest in many places, including the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Tiananmen Square protest. The fact that Beethoven could set this positive poem about joy and freedom to music at the end of his troubled life is the ultimate symbol of resilience and hope.
Here’s my recommendation: the next time you’re stressed or worried during these troubled times, rather than scrolling through Twitter or reading a pundit’s commentary, try listening to a piece mentioned in this article, or any piece by Beethoven. The refreshing positivity never gets old.
Tejas Srinivasan is a member of the class of 2024.
(01/27/21 8:46pm)
In J-Term of 2017, Thor Sawin swiped his ID card to get into a Middlebury College building for the first time. Sawin, an associate professor at MIIS, was teaching a winter term course in linguistics, and had a moment of realization when he first set foot on the Vermont campus.
“I'm like, ‘Oh yeah, I'm home,’” Sawin said. “I didn't even need to do anything special. I can check out a book out of the library with the ID card that I already had. It works in both places.”
Sawin, who also serves as the current president of the Faculty Senate at MIIS, understands that faculty at the college might not know just how intertwined the two schools are. He had been previously asked by college faculty who his provost was (Jeff Cason, just like the college) and who his president was — to which he replied, of course, “Laurie Patton.”
Financial fears about MIIS and its purported drain on the college aren’t the only barriers to total cohesion between the two institutions. Some college faculty still believe that MIIS simply doesn’t offer anything to the undergraduate liberal arts experience that Middleury provides, while others suggest that a failure of communication has left college faculty in the dark about MIIS’ efforts and values. And for some, a belief that MIIS is a fundamentally independent institution colors these sentiments.
“It's just not Middlebury. It's not Middlebury College to me,” Frank Swenton told The Campus.
From an administrative perspective, that simply isn’t true.
“Monterey employees are Middlebury College employees. These folks are part of the family. They do fantastic work for the College and for Big M,” Provost said, using the term for the whole Middlebury institution, which includes the college, institute, schools abroad, Bread Loaf School of English and more. He also noted that Middlebury’s effort throughout the pandemic to provide wage continuity for employees and educational continuity for students applies unquestionably to all units, including the college and the institute.
However, for Monterey faculty and staff, a division between the institutions described by some college faculty isn’t just less visible — it’s impossible.
“Here in California, we can't help but be constantly thinking about Vermont. Everything that happens in Vermont totally affects our life.” Sawin said, noting that many decisions at MIIS can't be made "without thinking about Vermont first," but that college faculty aren't always obligated to think first of their California counterparts.
Word traveled in pieces to MIIS after Middlebury’s faculty voted 122 for and 133 against ending the college’s relationship with the institute. Even though the motion lost, a nearly-split vote was a blow to morale at the institute, according to Sawin.
“It was a depressing feeling around here,” Sawin said. The vote was especially disheartening in light of herculean efforts taken by institute faculty over the last several years to fit themselves into Middlebury by streamlining work, adjusting their jobs and cutting costs. MIIS reduced its full-time faculty from 84 to 71, 11 of them through a workforce planning process, last year, and the institute’s programs are currently well-enrolled despite an expected hit because of pandemic. However, Sawin said, the college’s faculty didn’t seem to be recognizing these painful belt-tightening measures and intense enrollment efforts.
In reflecting on the climate at Middlebury that led to the vote, Sawin noted, “Either [college faculty] don’t know what we do, and we haven’t done a good job of telling our story,” Sawin said. “Or what if they know our story and they still think that what we do is not valuable?”
Swenton’s proposition to move some current MIIS programs to the Vermont campus rather than eliminating them was met with mixed feelings. Sawin emphasized that while some faculty would be happy to do their job anywhere, many have a deep sense of pride about being Californians, and connect their academic work to the state and local environment. Sawin cited the institute’s close relationship to Silicon Valley, connections to Asia and the Pacific and research on oceans as some of the ways that the California location is integral to the work of its faculty.
“We’re glad that you like us, and we get that ending our campus doesn’t mean you want to fire us and throw us into the street,” Sawin said. “But California is a big part of what we do, and what we are.”
Swenton likens MIIS to an office of a company being moved, or employees being transferred to a different branch, and he says that expecting individuals to move for a job is “legitimate and not unexpected”.
“I don't think it's an unreasonable ask,” he added.
While moving operations to the Vermont campus may be plausible — if not academically practical — for the institute’s faculty, this strategy doesn’t present a contingency plan for staff in California, who would likely lose their jobs were the campus to be dissolved and its programs transplanted.
Swenton acknowledges that job loss would likely occur, but says that this fact does not excuse the expenditures of maintaining MIIS. In his view, Middlebury bailing out a bankrupt Monterey on accreditation probation 15 years ago has already been a service to the employees of MIIS, but the college is not obligated to maintain that employment in perpetuity. “Would I say that for sure every single person who is used is working there, every single staff member and faculty member, would be moved over? I don't know, maybe that's part of the reason for the resistance,” Swenton said.
From an administrative perspective, moving Monterey’s programs to Vermont isn’t on the table — in addition to the benefits of having a West Coast presence, David Provost says that the presence of 600 graduate students alone would be unsustainable for Addison County.
“There isn’t housing stock in Addison Country to support 600 new individuals living here,” Provost said, noting that their existence would require massive new development. “Where would we put them? Where would they learn?”
In addition to unrealistic infrastructure investments, Provost also noted that, without a doubt the closure of the Monterey campus would result in job losses for staff. He said that while he believes the college would hypothetically offer new jobs at the college to those staff first, asking those individuals to transplant from Northern California to the drastically different central Vermont would be logistically difficult for both those staff and the college and would lead to the widespread layoffs that the college has tried to avoid.
Correction: An earlier version of this piece identified the wrong number of faculty who left MIIS through the workforce planning process. It was 11, not 13.
(01/24/21 1:41am)
Although two-thirds of students said they did not regret their Fall 2020 enrollment decision, 76% of students said their mental health was worse during the fall semester than during a typical semester and nearly two in three students broke Covid-19 health protocols, according to a Campus survey. Other major findings include:
More than a third of students — 38% — said the semester exceeded expectations, while almost 40% said that it was worse than expected.
Almost half of students said that they disapproved of the administration’s handling of the fall semester.
A vast majority of students, 75%, said they felt stressed about their relationships this semester.
Students emphasized increasing social opportunities for students, promoting inclusivity and providing greater clarity on Covid-19 safety rules when suggesting improvements for the spring.
At the end of the survey, we also offered students the opportunity to anonymously share their ideas on how to make the spring 2021 semester better and provide any additional anecdotes from the semester. We have included some of these anonymous responses throughout this article and compiled specific student suggestions for improving the spring semester.
Academics
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The data reveal a striking lack of consensus regarding how the fall semester went: while 38% of students said the semester exceeded their expectations, nearly 40% of students said the semester was worse than they expected. About a quarter of students said the semester was about the same as they expected.
In the anecdotal responses, many students wished for more in-person classes. “Middlebury should prioritize its primary duty, which is to educate its students to the best of its abilities by making every possible effort to make classes in-person,” wrote one student.
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Satisfaction with the fall semester also varied by class year. While one in three members of the classes of 2021 or 2021.5 said the semester was worse than they expected, one half of respondents from the classes of 2023 or 2023.5 said the semester fell below expectations.
The vast majority of respondents, 87.5%, said they took four courses during the fall semester. A third of students indicated that two of their courses had in-person components, while 17% of students said they had zero classes with in-person components. The average student had in-person components in roughly half — 45% — of their courses.
Approval of college entities
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Of the six different entities we asked students to evaluate, Middlebury faculty enjoyed by far the highest approval rating. Still, in their anecdotal responses, students said they hoped that faculty would be more “lenient,” “understanding” and “flexible” during the spring semester. Some students wished faculty would go one step further and lighten students’ workloads.
“It seems like professors are concerned that reducing workloads means that we're learning less and not getting enough for our money,” one respondent wrote. “But the stress and depression of this fall made it so hard to learn that covering less material would be beneficial and we would actually learn more.”
Almost half of students, or 47%, disapproved of the administration, while a quarter approved of it. Some students said they thought Covid-19 policies were unrealistic or unclearly communicated in their anecdotal responses. “I hope that there can be more dialogue between students and administrators to understand how to better create rules that students will actually follow and feel safe,” one wrote.
Fall satisfaction and spring intentions
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Overall, two in three students said they did not regret their enrollment decision. One-tenth of respondents said they regretted their decision, and a quarter of students said they regretted the decision “somewhat.”
“I am not returning Middlebury in the Spring as they never fulfilled most of the things they told us they would throughout the semester,” one student wrote.
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If students’ intended spring plans are an indication of enrollment rates for the spring semester, Middlebury may see fewer students on campus this spring. 68% of students who said they intend to enroll as an on-campus student in the spring, compared to the 87% of respondents who identified as on-campus learners in the fall.
Compared to the 3.5% of students who took the semester off in the fall, 10% of respondents said they would not enroll or take the semester off.
One senior student said they were part of a group of friends leaving campus in the spring as a result of the strict rules. “It’s not how I wanted to spend my senior spring but we can’t deal with the rules on campus and just want to be able to be together for our last few months,” the student wrote.
An additional 9% of students were unsure of their spring plans. The number of remote students and the number of students living off-campus but taking classes on-campus is projected to remain the same for the spring at about 7% and under 3% respectively.
Covid-19 policies, rules, and guidelines
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Almost two in every three respondents — 64% — indicated that they broke Covid-19 safety rules this semester. A third of respondents said they exceeded room or suite capacity during the semester and a fourth of students reported having more than four close contacts. More than one in every ten — 13% — of students said they participated in a party or gathering with more than 10 people.
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One respondent said they were with as many as 30 other people in a house or suite without masks “every weekend.” The respondent added, “The rules were too strict. If I had followed them I would have become depressed.”
Some respondents believed that Covid-19 policies were enforced unevenly. “The inconsistency in punishment for breaking the Covid rules was absolutely unreal,” one respondent wrote. “Do not create a rule if it will not and cannot be enforced consistently.”
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Students greatly differed in their understanding of Middlebury’s Covid-19 policies. Nearly half of students said they felt confused by guidelines, compared to the 43% that said they were clear. “I worried pretty constantly that I would get reported for something that was me misunderstanding the rules and be kicked off campus,” one student responded.
Mental Health
The survey finds a striking decline in student mental health during the fall semester.
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Three-fourths of students said their mental health was worse than it has been during a typical semester. The three factors most likely to affect student mental health this semester were stress about an uncertain future amid the pandemic, stress about academic work and anxiety over friendships or “fear of missing out,” according to survey results.
“The one thing that was amazing was my professors, but it is hard to motivate oneself to do work when you feel miserable all the time,” one student wrote.
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Two-thirds of students reported feeling greater social isolation than in a normal semester, and almost a third of respondents experienced significant changes in their diet which led to either weight loss or gain. Nearly one in 10 students experienced intrusive thoughts of suicide which worsened during the semester.
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Three-fourths of students felt stressed about their relationships. Some students expressed that the Covid-19 restrictions implemented by the college were successful in limiting cases of virus, but did so at the expense of students’ mental health. One student put it succinctly: “Mental health is just as important as physical health.” Others said they experienced mental strain due to the inability to socialize with friends or the fear of being punished for breaking Covid-19 rules.
General Demographics
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This survey was sent to about 2,500 Middlebury students studying both remotely and on campus, and 549 — slightly less than quarter — responded. Eighty-seven percent of respondents were on-campus students this past fall, 2.3% of respondents lived off-campus but took classes on campus and 6.9% of respondents were remote students.
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Respondents were fairly evenly distributed by class year, with a slight majority of respondents coming from the classes of 2022 and 2022.5 at 28.2%.
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Three-quarters of respondents identified as white, 8.4% as Asian, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander, 6% as of Latino or Hispanic Origin, 6% as biracial or multiracial, and 1.6% as Black or African American. Thirty-one or 5.6% of respondents identified as international students.
Slightly more than one-third of respondents said they receive financial aid.
Ideas from Student Responses for an improved Spring 2021 semester
Social Life
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80% of students said that they thought spaces for hanging out or socializing were inadequate. 75% of students said they thought there was inadequate space for hosting events.
In the anecdotal responses, students repeatedly said they hoped for more in-person social opportunities in the spring, either facilitated by the college or through extracurricular activities, and improved access to spaces for socializing. One respondent wanted “more opportunities for virtual students to stay connected to campus events with students in person.”
Other student ideas included having heaters for tents, changing policies so that it is easier to register events and providing “funding for students to figure out how to make their own fun.”
Several students said they would be willing to sacrifice off-campus privileges in order to make on-campus rules less strict.
Inclusivity
Some anecdotal responses mentioned the ways in which rules and policies create different playing fields for different students.
“This semester exasperated the divide between the 'haves' and 'have-nots' because the students who had access to a car to drive places in Addison County tended to have a better experience overall than those who didn't,” wrote the student, adding that they wished the college provided a “rent-a-car” service for students.
“Promote inclusivity,” wrote another student. “White students spend time with white students and are intimidating to students of color. There is an apparent divide.”
Other students felt that they had to exclude friends from social gatherings due to capacity limits. One student felt particularly strongly about Covid-19 policies capping the number of people in a room: “Rules [related to Covid-19] essentially required us to ruin our friendships.”
One student said that they hoped students would be allowed to rank their preferred dining hall. “Some dining halls have a reputation of being predominantly white spaces, whereas other dining halls have a perception of being more inclusive to BIPOC students,” the student wrote.
Creation and Communication of Covid-19 Policies
Some students hoped for student input regarding Covid-19 policies. One respondent recommended that new rules should first be run by Residential Life.
Several students perceived the college’s Covid-19 guidelines to be vague and worried that they would accidentally break a rule. “I wish that it was more clear what people [were] disciplined for,” wrote a student. Another student hoped for “more concise guidelines from fewer sources.”
Editor’s Note: Survey questions pertaining to mental health were designed in conjunction with the Student Government Association Health and Wellness Committee.
(11/19/20 11:00am)
This semester, I’ve had the pleasure of producing the first season of the Siefer’s Scoop podcast for The Middlebury Campus. The podcast provides a window into the lives and perspectives of collegiate student-athletes, most of whom compete at Middlebury. For the past three months, I’ve interviewed 11 Middlebury student-athletes – spanning 11 varsity teams – about how Covid-19 has affected their year, the ways being an athlete has shaped their Middlebury experience and why they chose Middlebury, specifically. I also produced an episode diving into the political activism led by student-athletes this semester, which was featured in our Election Issue. There’s a lot to reflect on, but here’s an abbreviated recap of what I have learned from the podcast this semester.
First off, Covid-19 presented predictable challenges to the realm of athletics. Athletes adjusted to masks and social distancing mandates, which introduced novel elements to practices. Some athletes struggled with finding a mask that was compatible with their rigorous exercise, and others longed for the group-wide drills that restrictions prohibited.
“It’s tough [wearing masks],” Noah Whiting ’22 said. “If you're sweating a lot like I do and you're running for a while after a certain point [the sweat] does start to fill your mouth. A lot of us will run with multiple masks on us and just switch them during the run or during intervals.”
Athletes also missed the element of competition this season, with the NESCAC cancelling competition this summer. Many teams turned to alternatives such as intrateam competition or virtual meets, finding creative ways to quench the thirst for competition.
Outside of Covid-19, our student-athletes spoke enthusiastically about why they loved their team. Long rides to matches, for example, are a bright spot for squash player Alex Stimpson ’23. Eli Drachman ’24 spoke highly of meals with the swim team, and Amanda Frank ’23 reflected positively on the adventures she’s taken with the tennis team, such as apple picking this fall. Other athletes described the built-in support system that sports teams provide and the valuable time management skills that they’ve learned through being an athlete.
Perhaps my favorite section of the podcast was my staple “Why Midd?” question. Answers varied, but common responses included the people, culture and aesthetic beauty of the campus. Hearing these responses often brought a smile to my face, reminding me to be grateful for the place I call home.
“The campus is incredible,” Lizzie Kenter ’23 said. “Vermont at any time of the year I’m in love with. Every student that I talked to here seemed extremely passionate about whatever it was that they were doing and that was an intoxicating thing.”
“It became really clear to me that… it’s a special team, and this is a special place,” Drachman said. “[Middlebury] stands out. Coming here and immediately feeling a part of the team meant the world to me.”
This podcast has taught me a lot of things: how to record audio via Zoom, how to navigate editing software and how to generate questions for interviews. But one of my biggest takeaways was that through all the craziness right now — the pandemic, election and social justice issues — our students are able to figure sh*t out. This semester may be abnormal, but our athletes expressed that as long as we are able to live, learn and compete with one another in the heart of the Champlain Valley, we have things pretty d*mn good.
Thank you for supporting the Siefer’s Scoop podcast this fall. Thank you for the kind words, enthusiastic inquiries and feedback. If you or someone you know is interested in being a guest on the podcast in the future, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
I’m looking forward to next semester, where I’ll kick off season two of the podcast.
’Til then, stay well, and go Panthers!
(11/19/20 11:00am)
Eighteen new security cameras have been installed around campus to update the college’s security system following the approval from the 2019–20 Community Council.
After discussing concerns related to privacy and which groups the use of the camera footage disproportionately affects, the council came to an understanding that they would be placed outside of buildings rather than indoors to prioritize surveillance of external threats and not Middlebury students themselves.
“The hesitancy, and everyone on the council agreed, was that cameras disproportionately affect BIPOC students, so we didn’t want the implementation of these cameras to serve as a way to unjustly punish BIPOC students on campus,” SGA Vice President Roni Lezama ’22 said. Lezama co-chaired the Community Council for the 2019–20 academic year, when the body approved the installation of the cameras.
However, cameras have been installed both inside and outside of McCullough. Interim Director of Public Safety Dan Gaiotti, who is new to his role as Director of Public Safety this year, says he was not aware that the Community Council had come to this understanding.
Security cameras had been a priority for the Department of Public Safety for several years before the installment project officially began last December. The plan was first introduced to the Middlebury community in an email sent in September of 2019. The announcement framed the cameras as a safety improvement for the campus and as a response to concerns raised by the community.
“Cameras are standard practice at our peer schools and 90 percent of colleges and universities around the country. Public Safety's research drew attention to the importance of cameras for safety and security, Community Council endorsed their installation, and cameras are part of our efforts to adhere to best practices in campus safety,” Gaiotti said.
The project was interrupted by the campus closure in mid-March but was completed upon students' arrival this fall. Signage posted in McCullough alerted students of the cameras’ implementation. To date, 18 cameras have been installed — 16 at McCullough and two at Bicentennial Hall.
“Information obtained from security cameras is used for safety and security purposes, and for investigations pertaining to violations of law and Middlebury policies,” Gaiotti said. The specific functions of security cameras include deterrence and detection of violations, property protection and investigative assistance.
In the event of a crime or policy violation occurring near a camera, Public Safety would review the footage to determine if it contains any information that would assist in the investigation. The number of theft reports varies throughout the semester, according to Giaotti. So far, Public Safety has only reviewed camera footage once this semester, after a report that laser projectors were stolen outside McCullough in late October.
The college’s Camera Policy Statement states that audio is not recorded through the camera system and that visual recordings are only stored for up to 30 days.
Security cameras on campus have been a topic of controversy in the past. In 2015, the Community Council voted against a proposal to install new cameras, and concerns about privacy, trust and over-policing led to pushback from students. Spray-painted messages such as “no camera” appeared around campus following the proposal.
These sentiments resonated with current students.
“Having security cameras on campus sets a precedent that Middlebury doesn’t trust their students the same way they do academically with the Honor Code,” Jenny Gold ’23 said. “I think this notion of mistrust affects the relationship between the administration and students. Personal responsibility over belongings is important, and I feel students can assess that themselves.”
Although Gould understood that mistrust may not be the intended message behind the cameras, she believed that is how many students would perceive it.
The camera use, however, goes beyond small incidents of theft within the community. Administrators also pushed for installation as a response to an increase in mass shootings nationwide over the years.
“[The administration’s] interest was not in monitoring what students are up to. They cared more about what was happening on the outside, if there [were] a threat to campus,” Lezama said.
A major point of contention was the issue of which groups the use of camera footage would most likely target. The 2015 down-vote was in large part to prevent over surveillance of BIPOC students on campus. The 2019 council also drew attention to hyper-policing of BIPOC students and how these cameras could perpetuate an oppressive system of surveillance towards certain students.
In addition to cameras, police reform on campus has also been a major topic of discussion this semester following national protests against police brutality and systemic racism. These campus initiatives, however, have not been connected to the new security cameras.
The Department of Public Safety intends to install additional cameras, although the details are not yet finalized.
“There are plans to add more cameras in the future,” Gaiotti said. “The timeframe for installation will depend on several factors, including availability from the vendor.”
(11/19/20 11:00am)
Cooped up with her family in upstate New York and facing an interminable period of quarantine boredom, Mara Strich ’22 searched for a project she could focus her restless energy on. She decided to apply to the Miss Vermont competition on a whim in early September and was pleasantly surprised when she was notified of her acceptance a week later.
With the Miss Addison County title already claimed by another competitor, Strich decided to compete under the title of Miss Otter Creek, to represent her love for and connection to the Middlebury community and the meandering river that runs through it.
Strich describes herself as “adventurous” and a lover of learning new skills and frequently takes on passion-projects. Last winter, she learned how to hunt and obtained a license. During her two years at Middlebury, she has taught herself how to ski. In high school, she picked up the timpani and the saxophone on top of continuing to seriously practice the flute. In fact, she is a classically trained flautist and played in Carnegie Hall at the age of 17. Strich views her venture into the world of pageants as the latest in a long string of adventures.
The Miss Vermont competition attracted Strich because of its nonprofit status and emphasis on leadership, scholarship and public speaking, as opposed to beauty. Miss Vermont does not have a swimsuit portion, and Strich was not asked to include a photo of herself in her application.
“We help develop the next generation of Vermont women leaders. We are here to cultivate personal growth, develop professional skills, promote personal connections to community, encourage the pursuit of education and celebrate the unique talents of each individual,” the home page of Miss Vermont Scholarship Organizations’ website proudly states — all above a big gold button asking visitors to “become a candidate.”
While applications are still open, Strich is currently slated to compete against 11 other women between the ages of 17 and 25 in the pageant on May 29 and 30 in 2021.
The Miss Vermont competition is just one of the many pageants that fall under the Miss America Organization, which claims to be among the largest providers of scholarship assistance for young women in the world.
The winner of each of the competition’s segments receives scholarship prizes, with those who place in the overall competition receiving larger sums. Scholarships include both cash prizes and access to personal and professional development courses.
Miss America competitions, including Miss Vermont, are divided into four portions — social impact pitch and on-stage interview, red carpet, talent, and interview.
The Miss Vermont Organization hosts biweekly Zoom workshops to help contestants prepare for the competition in May. Strich views these workshops as learning opportunities to grow outside of pageant preparation, and she has already seen their benefits.
Shortly before interviewing for summer internships, she attended a public speaking and presentation workshop, which taught her how to talk about herself with confidence and gave her additional interpersonal skills that helped her interviews go smoothly.
Besides preparing contestants for the interview portion, workshop topics include crafting a social impact pitch, using social media as a marketing tool and practicing on-stage questions.
With so much time to develop her pitch, Strich has yet to finalize her social impact project. For now, she plans to focus on community mentoring, to which she has dedicated her time at Middlebury. She is involved in several on-campus mentoring groups, including Community Friends, Language in Motion and peer mentoring. She also served on Reslife last year and has led Middview trips.
Drawing from her previously acquired skills, Strich plans on playing the flute for her talent portion.
Should she win in May, Strich would spend the next year as Miss Vermont. Traditionally, Miss Vermont tours the state during her “year of service,” making appearances at events, promoting the Miss Vermont Scholarship Organization and the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and conducting her social impact project. Miss Vermont is also obligated to participate in the competition for the Miss America title in December of 2021.
The Miss Vermont 2020 competition was canceled due to Covid-19 concerns, and it is unclear whether the 2021 competition will be able to proceed or, if it does, what the year of service would look like.
Strich, however, appears unperturbed. With her schedule full of classes, assignments, extracurriculars and pageant preparations, she doesn’t have time to worry about things she can’t control. For now, she’s just happy to be along for the ride.
(11/19/20 10:58am)
The journey from Central America across the southern border of the United States is a frequently traveled path, but its dangers are enormous, and migrants die every year attempting to cross the frontier. Middlebury’s “Hostile Terrain 94” project is a video compilation of members of the community paying tribute to those who have died crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in southern Arizona.
The video is part of the “Hostile Terrain 94” project, directed by Jason De León, a professor of anthropology at UCLA. De León serves as the director of the Undocumented Migration Project, which visually catalogues migrant deaths that occurred as a result of the the U.S.’s 1994 Prevention Through Deterrence policy. The policy took advantage of the strategically increased border patrol presence in urban areas along the southern border, redirecting migration routes through the Sonoran Desert in Arizona to let the harsh environment and hostile terrain do the work of border patrol agents in deterring and preventing migrants from crossing.
The 18-minute video features members of the Middlebury community reading the name, age, reporting date and cause of death of migrants who perished while attempting to cross the border. While most people showed their face, some remained anonymous and spoke with a black screen.
The majority of the deaths are due to “exposure to the elements.” Throughout the video, text ran across the bottom of the screen reading: “As a result of the U.S. border enforcement strategy — Prevention Through Deterrence — at least 3,200 migrants have died while attempting to cross the harsh terrain of the Sonoran Desert of Arizona.”
“I think a lot of Americans just aren’t aware of the involvement that the U.S. has in perpetrating violence against migrants,” Stephanie Soriano-Cruz ’21, one of the students who helped organize the video, said. “The U.S has just distanced itself or deflected blame and placed it on the migrants themselves as if they’re responsible for their own deaths.”
Soriano-Cruz said that she wanted to raise awareness about the violent nature of the U.S.’s strategies in deterring migration.
The idea for the video was conceived when Rachel Joo, an associate professor of American Studies, taught De León’s book “The Land of Open Graves” in her course titled Immigrant America.
“It’s really a book that breaks all sorts of boundaries in terms of disciplines and incorporation of photography and art and academic tests,” Soriano-Cruz said. “It’s an incredibly powerful book about death on the US Mexico border, death of migrants, and who is to blame and what factors contribute to deaths.”
Many of her students were moved by the book and wanted to bring De León to campus to speak. Their wish came true in the fall of 2019 when he came to Middlebury, led several events and invited the school to join his project.
“Jason De León was interested in making it a very visible statement that would contribute to the discourse around immigration up to the election,” Joo said. “He wanted immigration to be a bigger issue than it has been in this last year. It’s been mostly about the pandemic, and obviously that affects everyone, but a lot of the issues around immigration, like these 545 children who’ve been taken from their parents whose parents can’t be located, that was just a blip.”
In October, a report revealed that the parents of more than 500 children separated from their families at the border could not be found.
In a world without Covid-19, the “Hostile Terrain 94” is a traveling visual exhibit. Participants receive a name of a migrant who died, fill out a toe tag similar to those that identify the bodies found in the Sonoran Desert and pin it to the location where their body was found on a large map.
“It becomes this 3D artwork. It really gives you an understanding of the lives that are lost,” said Trinh Tran, assistant professor in anthropology and education studies. “Because it’s individuals who are getting the names of individual migrants and writing it down, I think it starts to sink in, the scale and the enormity of the loss.”
Joo assembled a group of students including Alondra Carmona ’21, Christine Nabung ’22, Ariana Rios ’21, Soriano-Cruz ’21, and Tran. Tran has taken over the project this year while Joo is on sabbatical. Around 180 institutions, including schools, museums and libraries, are participating in the project. Although some places decided to create a Covid-19-safe way to create the toe tag exhibit, Middlebury decided to delay the hands-on component and create a video in the interim.
“I think during this time of Covid, when our freedom of movement is so limited, this project is really important because maybe now more than ever we can understand why the right to movement is so important, and how some people don’t enjoy those rights that we have,” Tran said. “Not only do they not enjoy those rights, but they will pay literally the highest price, which is their lives, in order to get that right to mobility.”
On Oct. 15, the Dean of Students sent an email to Middlebury students detailing the project. It informed members of the community that they could email Hostile Terrain in order to receive a name and record a clip for the larger video. Tran has access to the Undocumented Migration Project’s database of names and assigned them to individuals who reached out. On Oct. 28, the group, which is affiliated with Juntos, screened the video at Crossroads Cafe from 12-4 p.m.
“There's that Middlebury bubble we talk about a lot where it’s easy for us to just stay on campus and not really think about what’s going on in the community, but this impacts students on this campus and folks in the community directly, and we just don’t think about those things,” Rios said.
As a first-generation Mexican-American, this project is personal for Rios. Her father, who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in the 90s, was very excited about Middlebury’s involvement and submitted a video to the larger project.
“He was lucky and he was able to make it across, but there are thousands of people who don’t,” she said.
“The purpose of this project is to give names to the people who have crossed over. A lot of the time we don’t get to see and hear these names or these people who have lost their lives,” said Carmona, one of the other student organizers.
The team hopes to show the video again in the future, possibly projected on Mead Chapel, and make the video accessible on the internet.
(11/12/20 10:59am)
One week after being named NESCAC Offensive Player of the Week, Tiger Lyon ’06, led the Panthers to victory against Tufts. (Courtesy photo)
(11/12/20 10:59am)
On Nov. 12, 2005, the Middlebury football team delivered a strong 21-16 victory in the season finale against Tufts. Quarterback Tiger Lyon ’06 — the reigning NESCAC Offensive Player of the Week — helped propel the team to victory with 24 completed passes for 282 yards and three touchdowns. Lyon’s spectacular performance was complemented by an impressive performance by the rest of the Middlebury offense.
The Panthers came out of the gates strong when Ryan Armstrong ’06 received the ball from Lyon on a reverse and tossed it 30 yards to Cole Parlin ’06. Four plays later, Lyon threw a five yard touchdown pass to Jamie Staples ’07 for an early 7-0 lead. The lead was quickly snapped when Tufts quarterback Casey D’Annolfo launched a 70-yard pass to William Forde for a touchdown.
The teams traded sides in the following quarters but weren’t able to create much offensively.
Entering the fourth quarter, the game was deadlocked at 9–9. But a fumble by Derek Polsinello ’08 allowed Tufts to recover the ball, and the Jumbos capitalized as D’Annolfo found Steve Menty on a 10-yard score to give Tufts a 16-9 lead. With 8:34 remaining on the clock, Lyons completed a 43-yard throw to Parlin for a touchdown. However, the extra point by Steve Haushka ’07 was blocked, holding the game to 17-16 in favor of the Jumbos.
The Panthers increased their lead after Lyon found Armstrong in the end zone with a perfect toss, taking the lead to 21-16, but the two-point conversion failed. In the waning moments of the game, defensive back Phil Ford ’06 delivered his second interception of the day, taking the ball from Tufts at the 37-yard-line all the way to the Panther’s 12-yard-line before being stopped. Neither team scored in its final possession, earning Middlebury a thrilling comeback win in the season finale.
Staples finished the game with 10 catches for 123 yards, and Parlin finished with 92 yards and a touchdown in his last game as a Panther. Ford’s two interceptions loomed large on defense, and Coleman Hutzler ’06 and Eric Woodring ’08 picked up 13 and 11 tackles, respectively.
Although the Panthers ended the season with a 3–5 record, they finished on a 3–1 run in their final four games. Leaving the season on a high note certainly gave the team reason to be optimistic that the 2006 campaign could be the first to finish with a winning record in five seasons.
(11/12/20 10:58am)
Biden won! Woohoo! Problems solved.
We wish.
Voting Trump out of office is just a first step in addressing the extreme structural racism in the United States. In the coming months, we need to hold the emerging administration accountable to moving toward a future that is both just and equitable. A new president of the nation won’t dismantle white supremacy alone; it is the work of every single person on a global level.
Our work is here, now. None of us are outside the racist structures that shape the ways we relate to our communities and each other. It is deeply uncomfortable to realize how unconsciously affected we are and how many of us are complicit in upholding the structures that perpetuate violence towards our classmates and harm all of us.
Communal self-reflection is thus a critical foundation for recognizing our shortcomings and addressing them. What must follow is a commitment to creating mutual acceptance and understanding in any environment we are in.
After the murder of George Floyd and the outcry for equity for Black Americans, many Middlebury students wanted to learn more about racial inequities and find ways to advance racial justice but found that this work can be challenging and burdensome. Conversations around race can be difficult and bring up feelings of guilt, grief, anger, and frustration.
While these feelings are uncomfortable, they are a necessary experience to begin developing an anti-racist and decolonized mindset. By having these conversations and taking action together, we can lean into the discomfort that the topic of race often brings about.
The campus community desperately needs to engage with nuanced perspectives around specific aspects of race so we can see how it affects all aspects of our daily lives. One of the best ways to achieve this is by committing to learning from each other and taking a step forward together. We are calling upon the campus community to recognize our biases, to self reflect, and to stand up for marginalized communities.
It is all too often that BIPOC students on this campus are the ones who have to carve out spaces for themselves. They take on the emotional labor, time, and resources needed to accomplish this. And most programming and initiatives related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, such as the Anderson Freeman Center, the International Students Organization, and First at Midd, are the results of the hard work of BIPOC students. But this work should be a campus-wide effort.
Attending one of the workshops from the current and future JusTalks series on race and privilege can be a starting point in undertaking the self-reflection necessary to dismantle white supremacy and show a true commitment to change. The workshops are structured around specific aspects of the topic of race, engaging with nuanced perspectives that help us see how race affects all aspects of our daily lives. We offer an open space for students to learn from each other and take a step forward together. JusTalks is an entry point for anyone to engage with these issues, regardless of prior content knowledge.
Even if you don’t attend JusTalks workshops, there is no excuse for not committing yourself to these conversations, no matter how difficult they are, and no matter how much they demand that we change. The only place cultural transformation can truly begin to take root is within ourselves.
Citlali Aguilera-Rico ’23, Jasmin Animas-Tapia ’21, Raymond Diaz ’23, Jaden Hill ’22, Hannah Laga Abram ’23, Olivia Pintair ’22.5, Olivia Reposa ’24, Kaila Thomas ’21, Selena Valladares ’23 comprise the JusTalks Team.
JusTalks is a student-led program that operates under the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Director of Education for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Renee Wells works as the advisor and primarily serves as a resource for the student facilitators.
Upcoming JusTalks workshops that can be fully accessed at go/justalksregister/.
