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(02/21/19 10:54am)
The Middlebury men’s basketball yteam, ranked 25th overall, fell to Tufts this past Saturday in the NESCAC quarterfinals at home, Saturday, Feb. 16. The Panthers were seeded first in the NESCAC and remain hopeful for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament after the NESCAC tournament comes to a close.
A back-and-forth game from start to finish, Tufts had its biggest lead over the Panthers with seven minutes remaining in the first half, 26-21. The first half alone had eight lead changes and six ties, one tie produced from a free throw from Eric McCord ’19 with five minutes to spare on the clock to make the game 27-27. Middlebury then edged Tufts by a point with 17 seconds in the first half on the clock, with a layup by Hilal Dahleh ’19 that made the game 39-38.
Tufts scored a three-pointer right as the buzzer sounded before the half, leaving the game 41-39 as both teams broke for halftime.
Middlebury came out hot on the court in the second half and held a 72-67 lead over Tufts with five and a half minutes remaining in the game. The Jumbos, ranked eighth in the NESCAC, closed the game with 18 points, holding Middlebury to only four. Tufts pulled off the victory 85-76.
Eric McCord, co-captain of the Panthers, led the team and the game in points and rebounds, 19 and 10, respectively. Jack Farrell ’21 put up 13 points and four assists.
As Middlebury waits for its opportunity at an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, Tufts will advance to the NESCAC semifinals. With an impressive 18-7 record, Middlebury—the top-ranked team in the NESCAC entering the postseason—will anxiously await the NCAA decision.
(02/14/19 11:00am)
The Middlebury Board of Trustees unanimously voted to divest last weekend, the culmination of a more than six-year effort by student-activists to rid the institution's endowment of investments in fossil fuels.
Divestment is one of four components of the institution’s new 10-year Energy2028 plan, which also includes a framework for committing to 100 percent renewable energy, reducing energy consumption on campus by 25 percent and expanding environmental education initiatives. President Laurie L. Patton publicly announced the plan yesterday before an energized crowd in Wilson Hall.
"I feel like everything I've learned in all of my classes at Middlebury has led up to this moment,” said Alec Fleischer ’20.5. Fleischer is a member of the student-run Sunday Night Environmental Group (SNEG) and works with Divest Middlebury, an SNEG campaign formed in 2012.
“This process has taught me how to be an activist, how to push this institution, and how to create sound environmental policy,” he said. “I'm glad to see this institution implementing the lessons it's teaching its students.”Energy2028, Patton said, is a natural progression in the college’s long history of environmental leadership, dating back to the founding of the nation’s first Environmental Studies program in 1965. Today’s announcement makes Middlebury one of the most prominent institutions to pledge full divestment from fossil fuels, and marks a new chapter in its mission to combat climate change.
The decision does not come without risk, with trustees acknowledging that divestment may pose a small cost to the endowment over time. But the potential loss was a significant part of the trustees’ debate, and Patton described their ultimate decision as the most responsible choice the board could make.
“This plan is true to Middlebury’s culture and values,” Patton said. “It acknowledges that we do not have all the solutions at our disposal at this moment to meet these goals, but it commits us to make every effort to do so. I could not be prouder or more inspired by our institution than I am today.”
DIVESTMENT’S DEEP ROOTS
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(02/14/19 10:59am)
Almost 50 years since the landmark Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade granted the right to abortion, pro-choice Americans continue to be on the offensive. The Court’s new conservative majority has caused many to worry that its stance on abortion will swing to the pro-life right, and promises from President Trump to restrict abortion rights have prompted Vermont lawmakers’ determination to defend the right to choose.
In a nod to the anniversary of Roe v. Wade on Jan. 22, Vermont Representatives Ann Pugh and Maxine Grad introduced bill H.57 to the Vermont Statehouse floor, a bill that would establish the fundamental right to abortion for every Vermont individual under any circumstances. Its introduction adds Vermont to a growing list of states rushing to safeguard the right to abortion, and its approximately 90 tripartisan co-sponsors make it likely to exceed the 76 votes needed to pass.
The bill was drafted in conjunction with Planned Parenthood and may be accompanied by a parallel amendment to the Vermont state Constitution in the future. However, because an amendment’s passage through the House and Senate is a much more arduous process, the House is focused on pushing H.57 through first.
According to VTDigger, Vermont House Speaker Mitzi Johnson addressed the Statehouse in support of the bill shortly after its introduction, telling her colleagues, “We need a Vermont where every Vermonter should feel free to make their personal decisions about their sexual and reproductive health care.”
[pullquote speaker="TIM ASHE" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]Taking action ... will ensure that reproductive rights are not diminished the moment the Supreme Court rules.[/pullquote]
That’s not to say that Vermonters don’t already enjoy these rights. The bill will not actively change anything about the state’s current abortion policy, which is famously liberal. This has left some wondering why the bill is necessary and whether it is worth the Vermont legislature’s time in the first place.
Tim Ashe, President Pro Tempore of the Vermont Senate, spoke to The Campus about the two reasons why he thinks the legislation is critical anyway. He expressed concern for the Supreme Court’s newly precarious position on abortion.
“Taking action in anticipation of [federal restrictions] will ensure that reproductive rights are not diminished the moment the Supreme Court rules.” Ashe continued, “Legal rights are always stronger and less ambiguous when put in statute rather than left to the vagaries of court cases.”
Vermont has no laws that fully ensure reproductive choice, and Ashe referenced cases such as the 1989 Vermont Supreme Court decision of State v. Oliver, which set a precedent that greatly restricted the rights of a fetus in the state, but which could also be easily modified since it is not a law. Bill H.57 originally included a clause reinforcing this decision and thereby eliminating all independent rights for fertilized eggs, embryos and fetuses, though it has since been removed during revisions.
Vermont is consistently ranked as the least religious state in the U.S. and has a population that overwhelmingly supports the right to choose, according to polls conducted by Gallup and the Pew Research Center. Both such factors contribute to the tremendous support from Vermonters and legislators alike for H.57. But not everyone is so eager to get behind it. H.57’s opponents in the House have questioned the bill’s necessity and phrasing, and its opponents on the streets have vehemently protested its sweeping content.
On Jan. 26, the Vermont Right to Life, an organization led by Executive Director Mary Beerworth, held a procession of several hundred people from St. Augustine’s Church to the Vermont State Capitol in protest of the bill, during which the group prayed and demonstrated for restrictions. H.57 has also gained national attention from right-leaning news outlets including Fox News, The National Review and The Daily Caller, the latter of which ran the headline, “If You Think Virginia’s Infanticide Bill is Crazy, Wait Till You Get a Look at What Vermont is Pushing.”
These criticisms stem from the broad nature of the rights within H.57, partially because it lacks specifics regarding a fetus’s viability in the case of a third-trimester abortion. Opposition groups believe this exclusion takes the bill too far.
The bill’s proponents fight back against these objections by pointing to the fact that in Vermont, a state that comprises merely 0.2 percent of the United States’ abortions, far fewer than one percent of these procedures are completed within the third trimester, and they are often necessary for the safety of the mother.
Many agree that abortion rights are a complicated topic and not a black-and-white issue that should be either granted in entirety or restricted completely. “There are a lot of gray areas which I don’t think are acknowledged,” said Elise Park ’21. “But restricting abortion rights doesn’t stop abortion. It just makes it less safe and puts women in danger.”
These gray areas are exactly what’s stopping Governor Phil Scott, a self-described “pro-choice Republican,” from taking a firm stance on the bill. Although he originally said that he would likely support it, Scott has since expressed uncertainty thanks to pushback from Republican colleagues on some of the bill’s provisions.
Nonetheless, H.57 easily passed in the House Committee on Human Services in an 8-3 vote and will be taken up by the House Judiciary Committee this week. The House has held public hearings to debate its content, though its overwhelming support makes it likely to pass with a comfortable majority in the House and move to the state Senate. It is probable that its content will continue to evolve throughout the process, but Representatives Pugh and Grad have already succeeded in sending their message that a women’s right to choose is non-negotiable. Now they just want to set it in stone.
(02/14/19 10:59am)
When the U.S. Department of State was looking for a field hockey delegation to lead a sports envoy program in Jharkhand, India, there was an overwhelming need in the region for strong female role models. Through a serendipitous connection from Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Baishakhi Taylor, Middlebury field hockey head coach Katharine DeLorenzo jumped at the opportunity.
“Their greatest advocates need to be themselves,” she said in an interview following the trip, drawing attention to the Middlebury delegation’s role in building relationships through the program and fostering female empowerment.
From Saturday, Nov. 24 through Sunday, Dec. 2, 2018, DeLorenzo, assistant coaches Rachel Palumbo and Lauren Schweppe ’18 and field hockey alums Lauren Greer ’13, Alyssa DiMaio ’15, Anna Kenyon ’16 and Audrey Quirk ’18 led a week-long field hockey residential program in Ranchi, the capital of the Indian state of Jharkhand. Working with the U.S. State Department, the Indian consulate and the India-based anti-trafficking NGO Shakti Vahini, the East India Field Hockey Project coached 106 women aged 14 to 17 from tribal regions who were at high risk for human trafficking. Considering the hardships the young women endure throughout their lives in an impoverished and sexist society, Palumbo said that field hockey was their only true outlet; the young women would often play with sticks or other materials they could find. “I almost hesitate to say that we taught field hockey,” she said. “They’re tireless.”
Throughout daily workshops, drills, scrimmages, seminar groups and time spent off the field, the delegation focused on giving the young women tools and skills they could take with them beyond the camp and pass on to their peers. “We wanted to show them that their dreams were valid and something they can attain,” Schweppe said. Making a positive impact on their lives was a priority for DeLorenzo. “Those dreams were going to sit there and stay dreams until we kept this going,” she said.
Coming into the program, the coaches realized that their goals for the young women were more than teaching them the skills of the game; the program also focused on creating an expanded vision for themselves of their own future. One of the strategies was to reiterate that the young women could rise up in the societal ranks. “They absolutely matter, and they don’t hear that enough,” Palumbo said.
Shakti Vahini was an integral part of the planning and execution of the program, selecting individuals with the highest social standing — ones the rest of the tribe would look up to — and providing interpreters to assist the Middlebury group. Another goal of the trip was to raise awareness for human trafficking, which is at the core of Shakti Vahini’s mission statement. The organization strives for a “just, free and equitable society” through its various public advocacy campaigns and programs.
“Nari Shakti,” or “women power,” was a phrase the Middlebury coaches used often throughout the program. Reiterating these two words (often as a chant before beginning an activity) was a key strategy to ensure that every girl feels cared for, loved and empowered, since many of the young women did not have parents or siblings to rely on. “Everyone matters. They matter. I don’t think they’ve ever said those words in their life,” Palumbo said.
Through the drills and lessons on the field, the coaches employed strategies similar to coaching Middlebury athletes back in Vermont. “We definitely took the Middlebury way,” Schweppe said. The young women’s backgrounds in field hockey took the form of mostly unstructured games, as many of them have never had any formal training. “It definitely taught us the value of simplicity. We’ve been a team that has embraced that pretty well,” DeLorenzo added.
For DeLorenzo, her first trip to Asia enabled her and the other coaches to try to change the worldview of the athletes they coached. “These young women can develop a different perspective on how they fit into the world,” she said, as tribal traditions often influenced the young women’s future goals. Out of 106 young women in the program, only one said she aspired to be an engineer; the rest believed they would grow up to be policewomen (a powerful position for women in the region) or professional hockey players. Palumbo said that despite the cultural differences and language barrier, field hockey united the coaches and players. “As soon as the whistle blew, I [was] comfortable and they were comfortable too,” she said.
Following the program, the Middlebury delegation went to watch the Hockey World Cup in Bhubaneswar, the capital of the Indian state of Odisha. In a Middlebury team dinner back on campus following the trip, the coaches showed their athletes the high level of competition present over the eight games they watched. “They cover the field,” Palumbo said.
The Middlebury delegation hopes to continue this sports diplomacy program, and its contacts on the ground in India have started to continue connections with the young women from the camp this year. One of DeLorenzo’s highlights of the program was “witnessing such a throng of people in urban India working on behalf of these young women’s betterment. This was a drop-everything; no one was focused on anything else for seven days,” she said.
“These girls have dreams in their hearts,” Palumbo said, referring to a conversation with one of the Indian facilitators of the program. “There’s so much that needs to be done.”
(02/14/19 10:58am)
Members of the Middlebury track and field team have been giving it their all during the past few weeks as they begin to prepare for upcoming championship meets. During the Middlebury Invitational on Friday, Jan. 25 and Saturday, Jan. 26, both the men and women placed first among the competition. The Panthers then had great performances during the Tufts Cupid Challenge on Saturday, Feb. 2. The most recent meet was the non-scoring Fastrack National Invitational in Staten Island, New York, where the team yet again did its best against top opponents.
Gretchen McGrath ’21 stated, “I think that any time we get a chance to compete at a meet it helps us to get ready in a way that ordinary training doesn’t. Even though the meet was “non-scoring,” we all were going 100 percent during the competition, which we don’t do in practice.... Meets also give us an opportunity to test ourselves and do our best under some pressure that can’t be simulated in practice.”
At the Fastrack National Invitational, there were several standout performances by the men. In separate 400-meter finals, Arden Coleman ’20 was able to achieve eighth place while Jimmy Martinez ’19 got third. Coleman had a time of 50.47 ,and Martinez had a time of 48.69. In the mile finals, Jon Perlman ’19 had a time of 4:13.69 and Will Meyer ’20 had a time of 4:19.31. They got fourth and ninth place, respectively. In a separate mile finals, Theo Henderson ’20 placed eighth with a time of 4:22.36. Minhaj Rahman ’19 also continued his strong season as he placed first in the weight-throw finals with a throw of 18.63 meters.
There were also some equally great performances by the women. In the 400-meter finals, McGrath had a time of 59.83, which got her fourth place, and Lucy Lang ’19 had a time of 1:00.80, which got her ninth place. Katelyn Pease ’22 came in fourth in the 800-meter finals with a time of 2:19.45. In the same race, Emily Bulczynski ’22 had a time of 2:21.45, which allowed her to capture 11th place. The women were also able to get fourth in the 4x400 relay as Lang, McGrath, Julia Munz ’22 and Ava O’Mara ’21 led the way with a time of 4:01.83. In another strong performance, Cady Barns ’22 placed first in the triple-jump finals with a jump of 10.39 meters.
The team’s upcoming meet will be the Middlebury Team Challenge on Saturday, Feb. 16. This meet will be further preparation, as the Division III New England Championships are right around the corner.
McGrath echoed this when she said, “It’s our last opportunity in individual events to improve to the point where we feel confident heading into New Englands the following weekend.... Relays ... give us a chance to synchronize working on handoffs and that kind of stuff. It’ll be a good last meet here at home to get excited before New Englands.”
If the team continues on its current trajectory, it should be able to do very well during the next couple of weeks.
(02/14/19 10:55am)
Middlebury received a record number of applications during the 2018-2019 admissions cycle, with 9,750 students vying for a spot in the Class of 2023. The applicant pool increased by 5.6 percent compared to last year’s 9,230. With an increase of 13.9 percent, the number of applicants who identify as students of color also reached a new high.
Over the past 10 years, Middlebury’s applicant rates have increased by about 34 percent, according to Dean of Admissions Greg Buckles. Within that same 10 years, the college has seen a 99 percent increase in students of color, and a 75 percent increase in international students.
“Using an incremental, thoughtful, and responsible approach, we want to grow the pool to reach any potential candidate for whom a Middlebury education might be a good fit,” Buckles said.
In a news release, Director of Admissions Nicole Curvin attributed this year’s growth in part to recruitment by Middlebury’s staff in the South and the West, where growth in applicants was particularly strong. Applicants rose by 16 percent in the South, and 10 percent in the West.
The applicants hail from across the country, with most admitted students coming from New York. Other pipeline states include California, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Illinois.
International applicants were up 10 percent this year. The six countries with the most applicants were led by China, with 628, followed by Pakistan, India, South Korea, Vietnam and Kenya.
Other NESCAC schools, such as Bowdoin, also saw an uptick in applications. Bowdoin received a total of 9,300 applications this year, an increase over its record of 9,081 for the Class of 2022.
[pullquote speaker="Greg Buckles" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]We are trying to pay more attention to students who may fall outside what some may consider traditional norms or mainstream types of Middlebury profiles.[/pullquote]
For the first binding early decision round, Middlebury said it admitted 297 of the 654 applicants this December. A quarter of early admits were students of color. The second round of early applicants and regular decision applicants will receive their decisions in mid-February and March 23, respectively.
The college is looking to continue the development of a diverse and balanced community in the Class of 2023.
“We are trying to pay more attention to students who may fall outside what some may consider traditional norms or mainstream types of Middlebury profiles,” Buckles said.
Looking to the future, Buckles believes the college will focus on reaching international applicants, as well as tackling affordability.
“Middlebury will want to continue to be accessible to anyone who is qualified and admitted regardless of ability to pay,” said Buckles, who is leaving the college at the end of the academic year to take a job at the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey.
The admissions team is busy reviewing applications for next year’s class, which they expect to total between 610 and 630 students in the fall and another 100 to 110 in February. The projected class size of about 700 is consistent with previous years. Last year’s overall acceptance rate was 18.4 percent, down from 19.7 percent the year before.
(02/14/19 10:54am)
The men’s basketball team sealed away its 2018-19 regular season schedule with two NESCAC conference games this past Friday and Saturday, Feb. 8 and 9. Middlebury hosted No. 8 Hamilton (5-3 in the NESCAC) on Friday night, pulling off a 80-79 win over the Continentals.
Max Bosco ’21 shot a three with 2.4 seconds left in the game, propelling the Panthers to a one-point win as the buzzer sounded.
“Anything that we had to do to win and get the chance to clinch home court for [the] NESCAC tournament was big. We didn’t give up, even down a few points, and coming up with a win definitely propelled us with energy into Saturday against Amherst,” said Bosco.
Middlebury faced No. 19 Amherst on Saturday afternoon in Pepin Gymnasium and ultimately fell to the Mammoths 97-93. Jack Farrell ’21 led the Panthers in points, posting up 22, and Bosco and Eric McCord ’19 each had 12. Amherst tallied the final five points for the victory.
The Panthers stand second in the NESCAC, as Amherst and Hamilton will play a makeup game on Tuesday night, Feb. 12, which will determine the final conference standings. Middlebury comes in hot to the postseason with an 18-6 record, and 7-2 in the NESCAC.
“Against both Hamilton and Amherst we played really good, team basketball,” commented Bosco. “We all wanted to win for each other, which was great.”
The Panthers will stay attentive to the outcome of the NESCAC game on Tuesday night, but have a focus at practice this week.
“We feel confident in how we are playing right now, but will continue to work on defensive intensity,” said Bosco. “We came into both games this past weekend with a lot of energy and well-prepared.”
(02/14/19 10:53am)
The sixth annual student-organized global affairs conference, “Beyond #MeToo: Global Responses to Sexual Violence in an Age of Reckoning,” was held between Jan. 22 and Jan. 24. The conference, organized by Grace Vedock ’20 and Taite Shomo ’20.5, began with an Atwater dinner, followed by a series of lectures and screenings over the next two days.
“Beyond #MeToo” emphasized the varied global perception of sexual violence, looking at the #MeToo movement through an international lens in an effort to spark deeper discussion among Middlebury students, particularly those who do not ordinarily take an active stance on such issues. The organizers cited a talk last spring on the global implications of #MeToo by Sujata Moorti, Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies, as their inspiration for the conference.
Vedock and Shomo both saw the conference as a success, describing engaged students and great faculty at every event. The only letdown, Shomo said, was attendance. “I think we both wish that more people had shown up to the events,” she said.
Turnout ranged from an estimated 50-60 people at the Atwater dinner to significantly fewer at most of the screenings and lectures.
“I think a lot of people are really reluctant to engage in these conversations,” Vedock said. “It’s something that, as a society, it’s gained a lot of traction, media attention, things like that, but when it comes to actually showing up and having the hard conversations and engaging, it’s not something that everyone can do — for various reasons, we understand that, of course — but it’s hard to get people engaged. It’s really, really hard.”
“If I could title this article,” Vedock said later, “it would be, ‘Show Up.’”
The first screening, shown in Axinn immediately after the Atwater dinner, was Roll Red Roll, a documentary detailing the complicated aftermath of the assault of a teenage girl by high school football players. The film exposed the extent to which rape culture is ingrained in the United States through the story of one small Ohio town.
The following night, UN Sex Abuse Scandal, which features personal accounts by survivors of sexual assault at the hands of United Nation Peacekeepers, was also shown in Axinn. The Frontline documentary focused on conflict zones in Central Africa as survivors, witnesses and officials described an issue that is still very much unresolved.
Associate Professor of Political Science Sarah Stroup led a discussion immediately after the screening, during which most attendees expressed shock about their own lack of awareness about such a major international issue and questioned why more was not being done.
“When I asked, ‘What else you would want to know to understand this story,’ many of the students reported interest in more insight into how the UN and its peacekeeping missions work,” Stroup said. “Both Professor Amy Yuen and I regularly discuss those topics in our upper level political science classes.”
Other invited lecturers broadened the scope of the conference. Janet Johnson, a professor of political science at Brooklyn College, gave a talk titled “#IamNotAfraidtoSay but not #MeToo: Russian Women’s Ambivalence in Claiming Sexual Autonomy.” Another lecture by Tina Escaja, Director of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at the University of Vermont, was titled “#Cuéntalo: Black Moon/Luna morada and the #MeToo movement en español,” and focused on the interpretation and effects of the #MeToo movement in particular regions. Vedock described Escaja’s talk, which focused on art and poetry as a form of resistance, and the speaker’s poetry reading, as “breathtaking.”
The final speaker was Rangita de Silva de Alwis, Associate Dean for International Programs at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, who gave a talk called “More Than a Public Reckoning: The Need for Laws.” De Alwis is recognized worldwide for her expertise on women’s rights. She started the Global Women’s Leadership Project in 2017 to support UNESCO and UN women’s work on peace and justice and women’s human rights.
The conference concluded with a panel moderated by Karin Hanta, director of Chellis House Feminist Resource Center, called “The Age of Reckoning at Middlebury College,” which explored next steps regarding sexual violence at Middlebury.
“At the final discussion about the future of Middlebury, one thing that we talked about a lot with the people who were there was wanting to implement more preventative strategies, like teaching about consent, and teaching about healthy relationships, rather than reactive things, like Green Dot, or like the sexual assault posters in the bathrooms,” Shomo said.
“In an ideal world, we wouldn’t have to put on this event,” Vedock said, stressing the need to approach sexual assault as a cultural issue.
“We had a great discussion at the end that left it on — maybe not a positive note — but a hopeful one,” she said.
(01/24/19 11:01am)
As the college continues its process of workforce planning and prepares to review its compensation policies, issues surrounding staff compensation garner renewed attention.
For years, members of the college community have called for changes to the staff pay structure, particularly around low-wage positions. They remain concerned over the ability of staff to afford the costs of living in and around Middlebury, and the inability of departments that rely on these positions to fill job openings.
Staff pay follows a multi-tiered scale organized under two wage structures. Structure A applies to most staff positions, while structure B applies to jobs with competitive market conditions and comes with higher hourly wages.
Both contain four career bands: administrator, management, specialist, and operations. These bands are then divided into levels based on the amount of responsibilities associated with the job. At each level, staff can be paid within a certain range, broken up into three with minimum and maximum values shown for every third.
Jobs are categorized into one of these levels and compensated accordingly. For example, a floor crew custodian is paid at an Operations Level 2 (OP2) rate, with a minimum of $11.00 per hour in the lower third and a maximum of $15.58 per hour in the upper third.
Approximately 15 percent of staff, including custodians and dining hall servers, are paid at the OP1 and OP2 levels, the lowest of the bands. As the costs of living increases, many of these employees are finding it increasingly difficult to work at the college.
“I do think that the pay is low. I really do,” said a member of the custodial team. “It’s not keeping up with the cost of living, so a lot of people here work two jobs. It’s tough. Really tough,” he said.
All employees quoted in this article wished to remain anonymous for fear of retribution.
In a report published last year, the National Low Income Housing Coalition showed that a resident of Addison County would have had to earn an average of at least $19.63 per hour or work close to two full-time jobs at minimum wage to afford rent and utilities. The county is now the fifth most expensive in the state of Vermont.
[pullquote speaker="" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]Nobody wants to come here, and when they do come here, they don’t stay.[/pullquote]
The experiences of staff members reflect the figure. “With rent and food, it’s hard to live here on the pay,” a second custodian said.
In response to these concerns, the administration has often cited generous benefits packages the college provides to full-time employees. With good insurance, retirement plans and even subsidized education for children, working at the college remains an attractive option compared to similar jobs in town. It’s a benefit that many members see as a critical part of their livelihoods.
“My friends in construction, they’re getting paid more. But they don’t have good insurance,” said a member of the facilities staff. “Several years ago, I had a medical issue, and that was a big deal.”
Others say that benefits are not enough. Staff earning close to minimum wage may be working from paycheck to paycheck — where money today means the difference between paying the phone bill or not.
“Your first year, you get five weeks time off. The health insurance is top-notch. But if you’re making 12 or 13 bucks an hour, what good does time off do?” asked a second member of the facilities department.
“[Time off] is useless because you can’t afford to go anywhere,” said the first custodian. “Might as well work.”
The level of pay is not only affecting the living conditions of staff, but also contributes to a shortage in certain departments on campus. Managers have struggled to fill open slots, with nine openings left unfilled in custodial positions.
It is a jarring change for college staff used to getting the help they need in order to fulfill the various demands of the expansive campus. A third employee in facilities recounted his first few years working at the college a decade ago, when custodial positions would be highly sought after.
“We would put out a help-wanted ad for floor crew and there will be 10, 12 job applicants,” he said. “You had to beg to get an interview here. And now you can’t drag ‘em in here,” the first custodial worker said.“Nobody wants to come here, and when they do come here, they don’t stay.”
Staff members speak of friends who have chosen to work in similar jobs in the state, foregoing better benefits for a slightly higher base pay. Listings for custodial positions in school districts around Burlington or Essex can start at $15 per hour with benefits, attracting people who in years past may have chosen to work at the college. Even jobs closer to home, including crew positions at Dunkin’ Donuts and cashier positions at the Natural Foods Co-op are paying wages close to what the college offers — around $12 per hour.
Broader trends outside of the college’s control have also exacerbated the issue. Low unemployment rates across the United States have led to a tight labor market where employers struggle to fill entry-level positions. At the end of last year, the unemployment rate in Addison County stood at 2.3 percent, one of the lowest since the Department of Labor began recording the data in Vermont.
Even when departments are able to hire, however, staff turnover remains an issue. Employees are discouraged by a perception that the administration fails to adequately reward good performance — a 2017 staff survey revealed that only 27 percent of faculty and staff were satisfied with the college’s recognition and awards programs.
Over the past five years, pay raises have hovered around two percent across the board, with few opportunities for merit-based rewards in lower-wage positions.
“I came in at the entry level, and now I’m at the top of the wage band. But it’s much harder for people to do that now,” said the first facilities employee, who has worked at the college for 25 years.
The first custodial worker shared the same sentiment. “If you screw off and I work hard, we get the same raise,” he said.
The administration, for its part, has responded to these concerns by launching a review of performance management processes, hoping to wrap up by the fall of 2020.
Still, many remain unconvinced that conditions will improve. “This used to be a great place to work. It still is, it still is," said the first custodial worker. "But it’s too bad."
For full staff issue coverage, click here.
(01/24/19 11:00am)
The monthslong effort by Middlebury to shrink staff costs and reevaluate the way the institution does work is entering its most critical stage, and staff members report varying levels of satisfaction with the process as they wait for buyout offers to arrive in February.
The workforce planning process, announced by President Laurie L. Patton in a June email to college employees, began with the goal of shrinking staff compensation costs by 10 percent — about $8 million — by the end of the academic year. Now, administrators have reviewed proposals to reshape departments across the institution, and buyout offers will be sent to staff in early February. Involuntary layoffs remain a last resort, if not enough employees take buyouts by the end of the academic year.
Faculty, meanwhile, are undergoing a separate process of buyouts and retirement plans, as part of the same effort to reduce the college’s deficit.
LEARNING FROM THE PAST
For several years, college officials have been open about the financial challenges that the institution is facing, with yearly operating expenses exceeding revenues since the 2013 fiscal year. Causes of the deficit include rising financial aid commitments, a flawed policy that capped annual tuition increases and an aborted venture into online language instruction.
The college has since lowered its deficit faster than initially projected, hoping to balance its budget by fiscal year 2021. But faculty and staff pay remains the institution’s biggest expense, often making up about two-thirds of its annual spending.
This is not the first time that budgetary issues have prompted the college to rein in staff costs, and administrators are taking lessons from past mistakes. In 1991, college officials, led by then-President Timothy Light, abruptly fired 17 staff members, causing an uproar that made national news and brought about Light’s resignation. And following the 2008-09 financial crisis, the college offered voluntary buyouts to any employee interested in taking one — an unstructured process that led to excessive loss of crucial staff positions, some of which needed to be restaffed shortly afterwards.
So when administrators realized a new wave of deficit reductions were needed, they took a more deliberate approach. “To do it in a really thoughtful way we needed to think about the work we do, and how we could staff ourselves for a sustainable future,” said Bill Burger, vice president of communications and chief marketing officer.
Beginning in the early fall, staff vice presidents across the institution were tasked with leading discussions within their departments about how their work could be redesigned, and done more efficiently. In December, each department submitted two different proposals to senior leadership, containing alternate plans that would cut compensation by 10 and 15 percent, respectively.
Now, staff across Middlebury can only wait. As of last week, Burger said, senior leadership was almost done reviewing the proposals and finalizing a list of positions to be cut. Before decisions are finalized, Human Resources is required by law to review the proposals to make sure they do not disproportionately affect certain demographics.
In early February, staff working in areas where the college plans to cut positions will get letters giving them the option to apply for buyouts. The college will send more applications than necessary, anticipating that many will decline to apply. By early March, the applications will be due and administrators will know whether enough staff have volunteered to take the buyouts, or whether they will need to resort to layoffs. On the other hand, if more staff than necessary apply, the most senior staff will be offered buyouts first.
The staff cuts in some areas will be partially offset by the creation of about 40 new staff positions in other areas — the result of new needs identified through the planning process. Applications for these positions will first be made available in early February to all staff members who are offered buyouts.
WAITING FOR WORD
Workforce planning will have uneven effects across Middlebury, leaving some staff departments largely intact while transforming others. Likewise, staff contacted by The Campus report uneven feelings about the process. Many said they have been pleased with the level of transparency thus far, while some complain that the drawn-out process has left them on edge for too long. Others say they simply haven’t paid much attention to it all.
“For our area, the communication’s been really great,” said David Kloepfer, the assistant director of Student Activities. “We haven’t heard exactly what the full plan is as of yet. We’re still waiting to hear the final outcome.”
Missey Thompson, box office coordinator at the Mahaney Center for the Arts and a representative of the staff council, said workforce planning has been a major point of conversation at the council’s meetings for some time. The staff council advocates for good working conditions for college employees and has held forums and posted information about workforce planning on its blog since the process was announced.
“We knew that something was coming a while ago — we didn’t know what it all entailed until they were ready to tell us,” she said, adding that some anxiety remains about the potential job cuts. “Whenever people have to leave, it can cause a lot of tension, but I think it depends on the day and how people feel so we’re just kind of going with the flow. That’s all we can do right now.”
[pullquote speaker="" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]You might lose the 40 percent of your job that you like.[/pullquote]
But some staff who feel most at risk of losing their jobs say that the long process has been a source of deep stress. Academic coordinators, who handle the logistics of academic departments and support faculty and student work, fear that some of their positions may be cut, while the coordinators who stay employed will need to deal with new responsibilities.
“Morale is terrible,” said Judy Olinick, coordinator for the Russian, German and Japanese Departments. “Everybody is worried about it, it’s just been going on so long.”
While Olinick, like other staff, participated in the initial planning conversations this fall, she reported feeling helpless as the final say was left to senior leadership.
“We had all these meetings where we discussed it at great lengths, breaking up into little groups — ‘What can you change, and how would you change it?’” she said. “But it doesn’t mean anything unless you have some idea of what is really going to be changed.”
Even staff who expect to keep their jobs face uncertainty about how much their job descriptions will be changed, according to Tim Parsons, landscape horticulturist and president of staff council. An employee who gets to keep 60 percent of their job tasks, for example, may still be disappointed by the results of workforce planning.
“You might lose the 40 percent of your job that you like,” Parsons said.
Still, some staff look forward to the impending changes to their departments.
“I’m looking forward to some changes, to stir things up,” said Christina Richmond, an Atwater Dining Hall I.D. checker and servery worker. “Change is always good. I’m not afraid of it.”
GROWING PAINS
Multiple staff members reported frustration about the way workforce planning has become intermingled with the goals of Envisioning Middlebury, the college’s long-term strategic framework. Patton herself connected the two processes in her June message, saying that they both entail “responsible stewardship of our resources.”
Dan Frostman, manager of the Davis Family Library circulation desk, said that the alignment of the two processes made decision-making difficult.
“We were trying to envision the next five to 10 years while also trying to figure out what it would look like if we got rid of 10 percent of the staff,” he said, noting that he reached out to his circulation staff to get input on both the changes they wanted to see and the cuts that had to be made. “So that was challenging and, personally, a little bit frustrating, to try to do those two sort of opposed things at the same time. There wasn’t a lot of reconciling that could be done between the two.”
Olinick said that she and her colleagues struggled to focus on the future, since workforce planning presented a more immediate issue.
“How can you make recommendations about that if you’re worried about keeping your job?” she said.
BEYOND WORKFORCE PLANNING
Workforce planning is not the only source of staff discontent at Middlebury. Low salaries in certain staff positions have prompted some employees to seek work elsewhere, and a 2017 staff survey showed low confidence in senior leadership and dissatisfaction with the way administrative decisions are communicated.
But Burger said that those concerns have informed this process, prompting administrators to focus on communication and consider changing the compensation structure once the planning is complete.
Though administrators expect to resolve the institution’s budget shortfalls within the next few years, the college remains heavily staffed, with a growing student body. With the newly-completed Envisioning Middlebury project serving as a likely precursor to a major fundraising campaign, this may not be the last time the college has to reconcile its long-term goals with its short-term needs.
For full staff issue coverage, click here.
Correction: An earlier version of this article said that the new positions created by the planning process will first be made available to staff members who took buyouts, when they will actually first be available to all staff members who were offered buyouts.
(01/24/19 10:59am)
Results from a 2017 faculty and staff survey reveal that Middlebury lags well behind its peers in almost all measures of employee satisfaction. Most notably, faculty and staff gave low marks to communication within and between departments as well as confidence in senior leadership.
The consulting firm ModernThink, which has administered similar surveys for colleges and universities across the country, conducted the Middlebury survey in October 2017. 1,046 faculty and staff members across both the Vermont and Monterey campuses took part in the survey — a response rate of 68 percent.
The survey comprised 60 core belief statements included in all ModernThink surveys and seven custom statements provided by the college itself. Faculty and staff responded to each statement expressing their level of agreement on a spectrum from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree,” creating 67 distinct indicators. For example, one indicator asked respondents to react to the statement: “Our review process accurately measures my job performance.” Grouping responses to each statement into positive, neutral and negative categories, the report — if taken at face value — conveys an overall positive image of job satisfaction at Middlebury.
The Campus obtained the complete survey results, significant portions of which have not previously been released to the student body and general public. In particular, these fuller results include a benchmark that allows for comparison between Middlebury and other baccalaureate colleges that have been surveyed by ModernThink.
Administrators delivered key survey findings at a staff meeting in Dana Auditorium in January 2018, led by then-Interim Provost Jeff Cason, Vice President for Human Resources Karen Miller and ModernThink representative Richard Boyer. While the presentation disclosed Middlebury’s low-performing areas, including perceptions of senior leadership and the effectiveness of communication structures, it juxtaposed Middlebury’s results only with ModernThink’s 2017 Honor Roll of small colleges and not with the national average for baccalaureate colleges.
The honor roll benchmark includes only the highest-performing schools surveyed by ModernThink, numbering nine total in 2017, including institutions such as Mississippi University for Women and New York Chiropractic College. In other words, the presentation exclusively contrasted Middlebury’s performance with those institutions with the very highest levels of staff satisfaction in the country while failing to disclose that Middlebury also consistently performed below the national average for colleges of its kind. Middlebury did not simply fail to reach the highest standard, it also fell short of the average benchmark.
Only five of the 60 core belief indicators met or exceeded Middlebury’s peer group average, with 27 falling into the “Red Flag” and “Acute” classifications defined by ModernThink. “Acute” is a category of performance below “Red Flag,” denoting positive response rates lower than 45%.
A college news release published several weeks after last year’s presentation begins by stating that “a majority of faculty and staff have a positive overall working experience, value the sense of community engendered by Middlebury, enjoy a high degree of ‘job fit,’ and appreciate the flexibility and autonomy their jobs afford.’” The release does not discuss how Middlebury’s results compare to the national averages.
Responding to the survey, the college has developed a four-pronged action plan that addresses the onboarding process for new hires, compensation, the Annual Performance Summary tool and performance management. It includes timelines for each of these areas, hoping to complete all of them by the fall of 2020.
According to Bill Burger, Middlebury’s vice president for communications and chief marketing officer, the survey results have also informed how the administration has conducted the workforce planning process.
“It has certainly underscored the importance of communication on this, and I think we’ve made an effort to communicate more,” he said. “Although my guess is you can never be sufficient in that — there will always be some people who feel they haven’t been communicated to enough.”
Burger said that Middlebury is also looking more closely at compensation rewards and incentives, in response to low scores in those categories.
“A lot of staff didn’t feel there was appropriate recognition for work well-done and that work well-done wasn’t rewarded appropriately in terms of compensation,” Burger said. “So we hope that through this (workforce planning) process we will emerge so that we can be not locked into the annual 2 percent or 2.25 percent increase that goes to virtually everyone, but that we’ll have more flexibility to reward people for a really exceptional performance.”
Still, only 45 percent of respondents expressed confidence when asked if they expected senior leadership to take action based on the results of the survey.
“The administration does not seem to want to listen and they do not seem to care. If you say something, it is held against you,” said one staff member who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution. “You are underappreciated no matter what you do.”
By the numbers
A total of 1046 respondents took the survey, with the response rate standing at 68 percent. The majority of respondents work in Vermont and are staff (either exempt or non-exempt).
In the Overall Survey Average, Middlebury performs below the average for Baccalaureate Colleges. 57 percent of responses were positive, 25 percent were neutral, and 14 percent were negative. The percentages do not total to 100 percent because of a “not applicable” option in the survey.
The survey also groups statements into categories. In each sectional average, Middlebury consistently falls below both its peer group and the Honor Roll benchmark.
Breaking down the data into specific statements, the college also fails to meet the national benchmark in each of the individual indicators. Each indicator is plotted with the benchmark score on the x-axis and the Middleburry score on the y-axis. Thus, the 45 degree line represents any point that reaches the benchmark value. Any point below the line represents an indicator not meeting the Baccalaureate average.
There is a stark contrast between perceptions of supervisors/academic leaders and senior leadership. Senior Leadership was amongst one of the three poorest-performing categories — the other two being Communication and Faculty, Administration & Staff Relations.
Faculty and staff expressed a uniform lack of confidence in senior leadership. Only 45 percent of respondents gave positive feedback when asked if they expect senior leadership to take action based on the results of the survey.
Looking forward, morale remains low with workforce planning looming on the horizon. Only 39 percent of respondents expressed confidence in the institution moving forward as a whole.
Graphics by Bochu Ding, using data from ModernThink.
Nick Garber contributed reporting.
For full staff issue coverage, click here.
(01/24/19 10:59am)
In a world of sobering climate reports and inadequate national action, institutions that actively seek to propel the climate movement forward are the catalysts needed for national progress. Middlebury is one of those inspirational catalysts, and in choosing to attend Middlebury, I hoped to join its momentous wave of environmentalism. In learning about the student-led carbon neutrality campaign, the Environmental Studies Program, and the fossil fuel divestment campaign, I saw the drive, intelligence, and hope of the student body. Beyond that, I saw the unflinching support of an administration destined to pioneer true environmental stewardship.
Now with four months under my belt as a Middlebury student, I can positively assert that the Middlebury students of Sunday Night Environmental Group (SNEG), a student climate justice organization, are addressing some of the world’s most challenging problems. With its support for divestment and internal carbon pricing, SNEG is taking comprehensive action to curb the effects of climate change. Upon encountering these initiatives on campus and witnessing the process of their incorporation in the Energy 2028 proposal, my preconceived notions about the College were confirmed.
[pullquote speaker="" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]Middlebury is often recognized as a leader in sustainable higher education.[/pullquote]
The Energy 2028 proposal provides a complete transition to 100% renewables, a 25% reduction in consumption, an internal carbon pricing system, the enhancement of sustainability education, and a response to the student divestment referendum. First proposed in 2013, the student divestment ask advocates for the complete removal of approximately $53.7 million of the College’s endowment from the fossil fuel industry. It was ratified by the SGA with 79% student support, followed by faculty support of 92%. Internal carbon pricing has also received popular support over the years, as have movements for sustainability literacy and emissions reductions. Because Middlebury is often recognized as a leader in sustainable higher education, the idea of sustained fossil fuel use and investments appear contradictory to the College’s identity. Through Energy 2028, the Middlebury community and Board of Trustees have an exciting opportunity to demonstrate their support for environmental justice.
[pullquote speaker="" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]There is a need for a vision, a desire for a “so what” that can mobilize entire battalions of climate activists.[/pullquote]
Being at the College now amidst the whirlwind of the divestment campaign, however, I understand the nuances of this 6-year project. I understand that change can feel impossible; humans have a tendency to wait for the 11th hour, the 59th minute. I understand that each community member acts with the best of intentions for the College and that the Board of Trustees prioritizes fiduciary responsibility to students and the school. Divestment from fossil fuels and the other components of Energy 2028 align with this goal. In acting on Energy 2028, the College can take leadership in the realm of climate action and its mission of global leadership, while also maintaining fiscal responsibility. This positive action provides an unparalleled opportunity for Middlebury to catalyze progress in the realm of environmentalism.
Ultimately, positive action is part of a larger need within the environmental movement, a need for a broadening of the conversation around energy. There is a need for a vision, a desire for a “so what” that can mobilize entire battalions of climate activists. For it will not be fear that motivates and mobilizes but rather innovation and ingenuity that will charge the troops and launch them into action. What do we want to find when the dust settles and the noise dies? We must advocate for that world we want to see, not against an ungodly alternative.
[pullquote speaker="" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]SNEG hopes to show the Board, the students, the faculty, staff, alumni, state, and country what our world can be.[/pullquote]
When I went to Washington D.C. on December 10th to protest with the Sunrise Movement for a Select Committee for a Green New Deal, I saw a movement that painted a picture of that beautiful world so many of us hope to live in one day. I saw a diverse but equal society, a government that truly protects its people from the corrupting influences of fossil fuel money, a clean country, a green country, a society that is healthy and employed and happy. The kind of hope produced from a movement like Sunrise is the type of hope so close you can taste it.
I taste this type of hope in the energy here at Middlebury. Yes, Divest Midd is against the idea of financially endorsing and enabling the activities of exploitative companies and individuals within the fossil fuel industry. However, more importantly, SNEG hopes to show the Board, the students, the faculty, staff, alumni, state, and country what our world can be. We can be a country that puts our money where our mouths are, a country that fully embodies leadership in progress and innovation, a country that actively chases the values of responsibility, integrity, creativity, and contribution we so espouse. Ultimately, though, that transition to a just, responsible, clean country can only come when institutions and individuals push for it, when they break the ground in acts like Energy 2028.
We are asking our school to end its ownership of the industry poisoning our homes and our futures. We are making the economics of green initiatives more feasible. We are truly achieving the carbon neutrality that has been the face of our environmental identity and taking responsibility for the consumption patterns that have created this global problem in the first place. We are empowering students and magnifying voices, challenging the status quo and demanding the higher standards we know our school is capable of achieving. Taking positive action on Energy 2028 can propel our school and our country on a path to change the world. My only question is, why on Earth would you want to stop that?
Note: Anyone wishing to support these causes can attend the following events:
Thursday, 01/24:
Personal Divestment Action 1:00 at ADK
Divest Panel at 4:30 in Dana Auditorium
Friday 01/25:
School-wide Orange-Out All Day
Letter-Writing Event at 1:00 at Mead Chapel
Storytelling Event 2:00 at Mead Chapel
(01/24/19 10:59am)
Two days before the start of the 2004 women’s soccer training season, then-assistant coach Peter Kim learned of an abrupt coaching staff change that left the team without a head. After only a year on the Middlebury coaching staff, Kim became the prime candidate for the head position.
Just over a year before, Kim had been working at a youth nonprofit, continuing a track he had set for himself years earlier when he pursued and earned an M.A. in public administration. He wanted to provide consulting services to nonprofits, helping them to run more like highly effective businesses. But after 10 years in the nonprofit world, Kim wasn’t enthused. In addition to his day job at the nonprofit, Kim had founded and was running a youth club in central Vermont, Capital Soccer. “I felt like I was doing more for kids after work than in my day job,” he explained. He decided to leave the nonprofit and took time to regroup.
It was the summer of 2002 when Doug Holly, a friend of Kim’s and coach of the Vergennes High School soccer team, called Kim. Holly informed him that Diane Boettcher, then coach of Middlebury, was looking for an assistant coach. Kim had no desire to coach college at all, but Holly convinced him to go down to Middlebury to meet with Boettcher. Soon after arriving on campus, Kim realized he had the potential to make an impact on the team. He took the job.
Coach Kim’s eagerness to jump into leading practices paid off when Boettcher left unexpectedly in 2004. “The players didn’t even know [of the staff change] when they got here; they were expecting Boettcher,” he explained. Despite this rapid transition, Kim felt obligated to to maintain the level of success of the previous few years; Boettcher had led the Panthers to the dominant position in the NESCAC in 2000, then second and third places for 2001 and 2002, respectively.
Additionally, when Kim joined, there hadn’t been a long-standing coach in the position for most of the team’s history. Coaches were overextended because of the three-sport coach model where they would head a different team each season of the year, leaving very little room for program growth. This left them with no offseason to help train their athletes, let alone develop training and game strategies.
Kim was the first women’s soccer coach to shun this model, instead devoting a significant amount of time and energy in the offseason to better develop the team. This included making workout packets, conducting bi-weekly training sessions and developing the schedule for the next season. Given more time to settle into the job, Kim found himself loving the position and eager to channel his best coaching ability.
The most noticeable development in Division III athletics during Kim’s tenure, however, has been the explosive growth of recruitment effort made by both teams and prospective players. Approached by more than 800 athletes a year, Kim communicates with each player individually and devotes an extraordinary amount of time seeing her play, ideally multiple times, before “the moment of truth,” when she decides whether to apply to Middlebury early decision. Kim was quick to criticize this American recruiting system. “It leads kids to make their college choice for the wrong reason. They wait to get tapped on the shoulder by the coach on high who dubs them worthy of playing for them, when it should be all about the student choosing the school that’s right for her,” Kim said. Nowadays, it isn’t rare for him to receive emails from sixth- and seventh-graders proclaiming their allegiance to the Panthers. “It’s terribly unhealthy,” he frowned. “In what world would that make sense?”
Kim’s skepticism of this “elite” mentality extends into his coaching philosophy. While an undergrad at UVM, Kim sustained a devastating concussion that pulled him from the sport early in his career. From then on, he had to focus exclusively on a doubled academic course to graduate on time. This profoundly influenced his current emphasis on athletics as part of the greater picture of college life: “Injuries can happen, and if that happens and suddenly you stop loving the school, then you’re probably at the wrong place.” In this way, Kim’s philosophy is perfectly tailored to the Middlebury student. “When I was in college, academics were not prioritized. You got it done to the extent that it was important to you. Middlebury kids, to their credit, love school, and then they come down and play at a Division I level.” He cited how one of his goaltenders played a major role in a theater production last semester and smiled with pride. “That’s a testament to who you guys are as students here.”
Kim’s overarching coaching philosophy is paired with a core set of team values, all of which rolled off his tongue with sharp familiarity. First up was academics. Second, he said, “We play the game; we believe in the technical game and to keep it on the ground.” Next on the list was community service. “I am very proud that we are one of the leaders in community service on this campus. We’re spoiled rotten here, and we try to maintain a culture of gratitude because we are just so lucky.” Finally, with a twinkling smile, he mentioned the family culture of his team. “Class lines are blurred almost to the point of being erased, and students become family with players three years older and younger than them. It’s that chemistry, which is difficult to explain, that is the central aspect of the team. If we didn’t have that, we wouldn’t be successful.”
Upon being asked what success meant to him, Kim, unsurprisingly, presented a long list. “This year was a success because we made it all the way to the finals, and we won the state championship, and we played beautifully, and we won the NESCAC Championship, and we’re a family, and we’re killing it in the classroom, and we’re leading the campus in community service. I think that kind of sums up what Middlebury is about: the word and.”
For full staff issue coverage, click here.
(01/24/19 10:57am)
Single-digit temperatures couldn’t prevent nearly 1,000 women and allies from crowding the state capital last Saturday, Jan. 19 in support of the Women’s March on Montpelier. In part inspired by the 2018 midterms, which brought throngs of women to Congress, Women’s March Vermont organized the Women’s Rally in Montpelier along with sister marches and rallies in cities throughout the world.
The rally in Montpelier was one of many that took place across the nation on Saturday to commemorate the 2017 Women’s March on Washington. In 2017, on the first full day of Donald Trump’s presidency, thousands protested in the U.S capital against the Trump administration and its threat to reproductive, civil and human rights. According to estimates by the Washington Post, 4.1 million people took part in various marches across the U.S., and thousands marched throughout the world in a show of global support for the resistance movement. President Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton outraged many who objected to his offensive treatment of and statements about women, and prompted the idea of the Women’s March on Facebook the day after the election.
[pullquote speaker="KRISTEN VRANCKEN" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]We’ve been organizing locally to advocate for the policies that matter to us, and those that impact women’s lives...[/pullquote]
The protestors in various Women’s March events voiced support not only for women’s and reproductive rights, but also criminal justice, environmental issues, immigrants, Muslims, the disabled and gay and transgender people — all groups threatened under the Trump administration. Organizers of the Women’s March view the protests as part of a larger resistance movement, in which various organizations and companies can play a role in facilitating the civic participation of women.
On the Women’s March Vermont website, they describe their mission to “harness the political power of diverse women and their communities to create transformative social change. Women’s March is a women-led movement providing intersectional education on a diverse range of issues and creating entry points … through trainings, outreach programs and events. Women’s March is committed to dismantling systems of oppression through nonviolent resistance.”
Women’s March Vermont organizer Kristen Vrancken further stated, “We’ve been organizing locally to advocate for the policies that matter to us, and those that impact women’s lives, and we’re flooding the streets in solidarity with our sisters in D.C. to remind the country that Vermont resists — and this time, we’re coming with an agenda.”
The March featured a series of female speakers ranging from women’s rights to environmental activists. They also announced the Women’s Agenda, which includes progressive federal policy demands in addition to local progressive legislative initiatives for attendees to support. The March was sponsored by Ben & Jerry’s as well as the Vermont Women’s Fund and ACLU Vermont.
Women’s March Vermont describes marching as a means of: protecting women’s bodies, affirming women’s diversity, valuing women’s work, respecting women’s contributions and unifying women’s allies. Aside from fighting for specific rights and facets of society, the protestors sought to project an overall theme of anti-oppression and unity leading up to the 2020 presidential election.
Within the March, various organizations advocated for their causes, including Planned Parenthood, which urged attendees to come to a Jan. 22 action at the Statehouse to secure abortion rights in Vermont, reported the Burlington Free Press. In addition, many representatives from groups such as Members of Migrant Justice, Black Lives Matter and University of Vermont Socialists were present. Students at the college expressed support for the Montpelier Women’s March in addition to the global movement as a whole.
“I think there’s something really powerful in the idea that this is not just one protest and one city, but a truly global movement of unified, powerful women standing up for rights and groups that should and must be defended,” said Mariel Edokwe ’20.
(01/24/19 10:57am)
There will be two additional meatless days per week in the college dining halls in an effort to reduce the college’s meat consumption by 30 percent, according to an all-school email sent by the Student Government Association (SGA) on Jan. 15. In addition to Meatless Monday, which already takes place in Atwater dining hall, Ross Dining hall will go meatless on Wednesdays for lunch and Proctor dining hall will go meatless on Fridays for lunch. The step is meant to lower the dining halls’ environmental impact, improve the health of students and save money that can be reverted to higher quality meats and local producers.
This initiative has been led by EatReal, a student organization that promotes more sustainable eating habits on campus, and the college’s Environmental Affairs Committee and Sunday Night Environmental Group. These groups have been working with the college’s dining services to reach at least a 20 percent reduction from 2017 data by the end of 2019.
The college’s dining halls serve 1.5 times the amount of protein recommended per person per day by the U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, according to a 2016 EatReal survey. Based on these results, EatReal passed a bill in May 2017 to reduce meat consumption by 30 percent, in increments of 10 percent for each of the next three years. The bill passed unanimously in the SGA and with the support of 66.86 percent of surveyed students, as well as support from athletes and coaches on campus.
According to the bill, the first phase included a reduction in meat soups and salads, offering a plain meat option at every lunch and dinner, smaller pieces of meat in dishes to promote portion control and reduce consumption and more. Between 2017 and 2018, these changes contributed to a 7.95 percent reduction in meat and around $32,000 in savings.
The Jan. 15 email indicated that the second phase involves the additional meatless days in the dining hall. EatReal found that the Meatless Mondays initially reduced the numbers of students in the dining hall but that gradually the number of students has recovered and there has been limited negative feedback.
Some students still expressed concern in spite of these findings. While many students support the meat reduction initiative as a whole, some, like Nathaniel Blumenthal ’21.5, remain skeptical about the implementation of this second phase.
“Ridding certain dining halls of meat on particular days may cause unforeseen congestion issues if students change their eating habits based on whether meat is being served in the dining hall,” Blumenthal said.
Dan Detora, executive director of food service operations, remains hopeful, however, saying that he believes the college is moving in the right direction by considering the environmental impact of meat consumption on campus.
“Hopefully meat-eating students will at least try some of the very delicious vegetarian entrees,” Detora said, although still maintaining that these changes will have minimal impacts on dining experiences.
Detora said in an interview with the Campus that the financial implications of these changes are still uncertain, however.
“Keep in mind that non-meat entrees can be just as expensive if not more than meat entrees,” Detora said.
The SGA spoke to these some of these and some other student concerns in a second email sent to students on Jan. 20. In response to concerns of inconvenience, they wrote that the current phase only requires students to either eat a plant-based protein instead of protein once per week, eat a sandwich with deli meat once a week or eat in a different dining hall once a week. This second email also reversed course on the implementation; the full meatless days announced in the first email were changed to only meatless lunches on those same days. It encouraged students to submit feedback at go/meatreductionfeedback.
The SGA Athletic Affairs Committee sent out a survey to all varsity, junior varsity, and club teams for reactions towards this second phase and the bill in general. While the results of the survey are still under review, there are also athletes that look to the bigger picture in addition to their own nutritional needs.
“I’m for it, though my initial reaction was negative,” said Willson Moore ’22, a Nordic skier. “I eat a pretty hearty amount of meat myself as an endurance athlete and like meat-included food better in general, but recognize the need to cut back on consumption as a college is much more important.”
(01/24/19 10:55am)
The Middlebury men’s basketball team pulled off its second straight win of the week, knocking off No. 3 Williams in a NESCAC contest this past Saturday, Jan. 19. Middlebury led Williams 47-31 nearly five minutes into the game, and concluded with a 12-point, 80-66 victory.
Co-captain Hilal Dahleh ’19 commented on the momentum: “We were confident after beating a good team in Albertus Magnus. We knew we were looked at as the underdogs, but we didn’t see it that way and were ready to compete as soon as we got off the bus at Williams.”
Jack Farrell ’21 was named NESCAC Player of the Week, and led the game in points and assists at 24 and five, respectively.
With eight minutes remaining in the game on Saturday afternoon, Farrell netted five points while Dahleh scored a three to help the Panthers regain their double-digit lead.
“The key to our win on Saturday was also our defense. Williams is one of the best teams in the country, with a lot of weapons, so we had to dig in and play a great defensive game. They have a lot of guys who can light it up from behind the arc, but we were able to hold them to just 2/20 from three just by being there on every catch.”
Matt Folger ’20 added 17 points, and co-captain Eric McCord ’19 led the game in rebounds for Middlebury.
The Panthers will return to action on Sunday, Jan. 27, hosting Trinity at 2 p.m. in Pepin Gymnasium.
“We’re going to build off of the big win and prepare hard for Trinity on Sunday. Ultimately the goal is the same as it always is, which is to win the NESCAC and be playing our best basketball once tournament time rolls around.”
Middlebury has five games remaining in the regular season before the tournament, and all of them are NESCAC games. The team persists with the goal as it always has been: to win the NESCAC Championship.
(01/17/19 10:57am)
Donald Trump’s election stunned the Democratic Party. An unprecedented campaign yielded an unimagined result. Election night climaxed with televisions splashing images of sobbing Hillary supporters and euphoric MAGA-hatted Trump acolytes.
Democrats were due for this rude awakening. Republicans have dominated the recent political landscape, and, prior to the 2018 election, Democrats held fewer elected positions in the United States than at any time since the 1920s. However, it took someone as appalling as Trump for us to realize our current political inefficacy and start discussing a viable path to restored political power.
The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake summarized the Democrat’s historically bad position in 2016. Republicans in that year controlled:
- 33 of 50 governorships: a record.
- 68 out of 98 state legislative chambers: tied for the record.
- The entire legislatures in 33 out of 50 states: another record.
- 4,171 out of 7,383 state legislative seats (56.5 percent of all seats): yet another record.
Republican power at the local and state levels eclipsed Democrats’ power even before Trump took office. Liberals were either ignorant or complacent about that fact. Our party needed revamping: one that cared not only about getting the issues “right”, but also one that valued winning elections. After all, in a democracy, the losers do not get to make the rules. After the 2018 election, that revamping may become a reality if we can set aside ideological purity for pragmatic decisions that win seats in diverse districts (beyond liberalism’s coastal strongholds).
Once Trump took office, his antics and bigotry energized Democrats. The erratic President and his controversies captured our attention. We watched as Trump and a GOP Congress chaotically pursued a regressive agenda that featured tax cuts for the rich, an almost successful attempt to repeal Obamacare, a ballooning fiscal deficit, a retreat on climate change regulations, and the separation of children from their families at the border.
In last November’s midterm elections, the Democrats, led by Nancy Pelosi, implemented an effective electoral strategy. Rather than repeating Hillary Clinton’s failed strategy during the 2016 campaign, which emphasized Trump’s moral failings but did not articulate a clear alternative vision to cure the country’s ills, Democratic leaders encouraged their candidates to stress health care, increased wages, decreased prescription drug prices, and other kitchen-table issues. The Democrats’ economic message in 2018 resonated with a broad coalition of voters across the country, and the Party gained forty seats and won the House.
Despite their midterm success, Democrats remain divided over how the party should proceed.
One group argues that Democratic candidates won elections because they advocated progressive policies like universal basic income, Medicare for All, and free college, while also calling for the abolition of ICE and Trump’s impeachment. Fearless progressivism, they claim, stirred the base of younger voters, many of whom were women and minorities. This cadre was led by the exciting victories of representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley, and the near victory of Beto O’Rourke in dead red Texas.
[pullquote speaker="" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]Democrats seeking to flip Republican voters and win contested districts must focus on health care and jobs.[/pullquote]
However, Ocasio-Cortez and Pressley did not gain seats for the Democrats. They simply took seats that had been held by reliable, albeit a bit more centrist, liberal Democrats. O’Rourke lost. Moreover, their progressive voices have pushed the party left, endangering moderate Democrats in centrist areas.
More centrist Democrats recognize that, if you want to address Democrats’ lack of political power, you need to win seats that were previously Republican or hold onto Democratic seats in areas that often vote conservative. Last November, Pelosi helped Democratic candidates find success in moderate districts by resisting her party’s pull to the left. Pelosi’s San Francisco voters pushed her to confront Trump on immigration and funding for Planned Parenthood, but she refused. “Those things are in our DNA, but they are not in our talking points,” Pelosi said.
Research shows that Pelosi’s strategy of forsaking hot-button, wedge issues in favor of a focus on economic populism is best. Extensive polling and focus group research collected by the House Majority PAC indicates that Democrats seeking to flip Republican voters and win contested districts must focus on health care and jobs.
There are many examples of Pelosi’s strategy bearing fruit. For example, Conor Lamb won a traditionally Republican district in western Pennsylvania by emphasizing health care and tax equity. This was a big gain for the Democratic Party, and should not be dismissed because Lamb took conservative stances on gun rights and supported Trump’s tariff policy, positions that aligned with the voters in his district. In West Virginia, which Trump carried by the widest margin in the entire nation (an astounding 42 percent gap), Democrat Joe Manchin held on to his Senate seat because voters saw him as fighting for the economically disadvantaged. To do this, Manchin had to show some conservative bona fides, such as voting to confirm Justice Kavanaugh, opposing abortion, and receiving an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association as recently as 2012. While he would not have been an ideal Democratic candidate in Massachusetts or California, he was the only kind of Democrat that has a shot at winning in West Virginia.
[pullquote speaker="" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]Because of the more extreme left’s quest for purity on this issue, the Democrats lost an important Senate seat.[/pullquote]
Liberal purity on social wedge issues often undermines moderate Democrats who campaign in red states and threatens recent Democratic successes. Take the midterm election in Missouri, a state Trump won by nineteen points. Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill lost her seat last November in part because of criticism from abortion activists. Throughout the election, young progressives denounced McCaskill for not being a sufficiently prominent, vocal supporter of women’s reproductive freedoms. What these progressive attacks failed to acknowledge was McCaskill’s strong, pro-choice voting record.
In an interview with the New York Times after her loss, McCaskill called the abortion activists “irritating … It would’ve been one thing if I ever wavered, but I’ve had to take a lot of tough votes on this issue over the years. I have been standing in the breach for women’s rights as it relates to reproductive freedom for all of my adult life.” In the end, Missouri elected Senator Josh Hawley, a staunch pro-life Republican. Because of the more extreme left’s quest for purity on this issue, the Democrats lost an important Senate seat. They also ironically replaced a consistent vote for reproductive rights with a Republican whom Planned Parenthood called “An anti-abortion zealot who wants to take America back to the days of the 1950s.”
The left needs to stop setting up circular firing squads. When activists make contentious issues litmus tests for holding office, it hurts moderate Democrats campaigning in conservative states. Our candidates need to be able to attract votes in socially-conservative districts without fearing retribution from coastal progressives. As former House Speaker Tip O’Neill said, “All politics is local.” Let’s broaden the Democratic tent, and allow centrist voices to campaign in moderate districts.
(01/17/19 10:55am)
A storm of internal controversy at the Burlington-based sexual assault help center HOPE Works led every employee and, as of Friday, Jan. 11, executive director Cathleen Barkley, to resign from the organization.
Despite concerns over the lack of resources, much of the community has come out in support of the eight former staff members of HOPE Works. The group has made its story public, sharing its frustrations on a collective Facebook page where it posted both the legally filed formal grievance that preceded its strike and, on Friday, Jan. 4, its resignation announcement. Its Facebook page now has over 400 likes.
Within the announcement, the former staff expressed their sadness at having felt no other option but to leave. They also unapologetically renounced the actions of executive director Cathleen Barkley and the HOPE Works board. The posts alleged that these parties discriminated against gay, trans and minority staff members, made threats against employee organizing and repeatedly manipulated and emotionally abused their workers.
Also cited in their Sunday, Dec. 16 formal grievance were accounts of carelessness, gaslighting and policy breaches on the part of executive director Cathleen Barkley, all of which caused the team of eight to walk out. This group included three victim advocates, two clinical therapists and three educational and developmental workers, some of whom had been with HOPE Works for as long as 18 years.
HOPE Works had previously served approximately 75 Vermonters per month as Chittenden County’s primary resource center for victims of sexual violence, and the organization’s newfound lack of staff has left many concerned for assault survivors who may now struggle to access resources.
HOPE Works has been active in the Burlington area since 1973, providing victims of sexual violence with a 24-hour hotline, personal advocates, individual and group therapy and an online emergency chat line. Since the mass resignation of eight staff members on Jan. 4. following a three-week strike, however, HOPE Works has been forced to limit its services.
Mary Cronkite, a sexual assault survivor and medical assistant at a local health center, told VTDigger that there has been no known therapy, education or advocacy services from the organization since the staff went on strike. Although the hotline has remained open, incoming callers may now experience delays in service. Victims have been encouraged to consider seeking assistance from Voices Against Violence in Franklin County and WomenSafe in Addison County if HOPE Works is found to be unavailable.
Of the organization’s leadership, the group claimed in its Jan. 4 Facebook post, “They have demonstrated that they have no intention — nor did they ever — of participating in this work with sincerity, empathy or integrity.”
The post goes on to explain that several of the former employees are also survivors of sexual violence and that many of Barkley’s actions have been triggering, adding, “We know that when we choose our safety we choose survivor safety.”
The posts have received a shower of support from the community including messages of thanks, solidarity and job offers. The group has also created a GoFundMe to cover living and legal expenses for the affected staff, which has raised more than $19,000 in the last month.
According to VTDigger, the eight staff members first left HOPE Works after victim advocate Lucy Basa was allegedly fired for messages shared on her private Facebook account, in which she called the organization’s leadership “comic book evil.”
The messages, which were posted but have since been deleted from the group’s Facebook page and are supported by the whole ex-staff, called for her fellow employees to organize against the board’s proposal of selling the HOPE Works lawn and green space to real-estate developer Eric Farrell. Basa explained in the messages that these outdoor areas were often used for therapy purposes. Her firing was considered the last straw for the rest of the former employees, who went on strike shortly thereafter, requiring that HOPE Works both reinstate Basa and terminate Barkley in order for them to return.
Former employee Jas Wheeler explained to The Campus that there were also internal struggles over how much emphasis to place on HOPE Works’ dedication to serving marginalized victims. The employees’ prioritization of intersectionality allegedly clashed sharply with the leadership’s reluctance to take an outspoken stance.
“We found ourselves consistently blocked by our leadership when we tried to institute change,” Wheeler said. This divide is evidenced in the group’s formal grievance, which, among other incidents, cites that Cathleen Barkley barred the staff from posting support for the Black Lives Matter movement on HOPE Works’ now-deactivated social media accounts, which the staff vehemently disagreed with.
Wheeler said, “Retaliation for this work is what pushed us to strike. Dismissal of this work is what pushed us to resign. Commitment to this work is what pushes us into our future as advocates,” said Wheeler of the staff’s efforts to expand inclusion. Wheeler went on to express the staff’s ongoing dedication to helping sexual assault victims and their need for the organization to restructure its approaches toward such issues.
One of the group’s main demands during the strike — the removal of Cathleen Barkley — came to fruition as of Jan. 11, when HOPE Works announced Barkley’s resignation, though she will continue work for the time being. In a statement, the former staff renounced Barkley’s continued attachment to the organization and the lack of further progress from the board, stating, “Cathleen’s leadership was one part of the problem. HOPE Works continues to be an unsafe place to work until the Board intensely and permanently transforms.”
The eight former employees announced that they would meet with the board on Tuesday, Jan. 15 to discuss the future of the organization, though they claim that they are still unsure of what the future holds for them and have shown no sign of returning to the organization. For now, the group has shared that it is taking time to heal, and implores that the HOPE Works board make changes so that the brunt of the fallout no longer has to fall on Vermont’s sexual assault survivors.
(01/17/19 10:54am)
PRESIDENT MAKES NEW ADMINISTRATIVE APPOINTMENTS
President Patton announced the transition of four administrators from interim roles to permanent positions in an email to the community on Dec. 19. Jeff Cason, Baishakhi Taylor, Steve Snyder and Carlos Velez have continued their duties in an official capacity since Jan. 1.
Jeff Cason, who is now executive vice president and provost, previously served as a faculty leader, vice president for academic affairs for the Language Schools and interim provost. In his provisional role, Cason collaborated with the Institute and led the Envisioning Middlebury initiative.
Baishakhi Taylor continues her previous work, now as the vice president for student affairs and dean of students. Taylor previously led the Community Council and helped direct the “How We Live Together” initiative, an assessment of the residential and commons system currently in progress.
Steve Snyder, dean of Language Schools, received an additional title of vice president for academic affairs for the language schools. In addition to his work with the Language Schools, Snyder will also serve on the School’s Board of Overseers.
Carlos Velez has become dean of international programs. In this capacity, he oversees the Schools Abroad, the Study Abroad Program and International Student and Scholar Services. Previously a faculty member in the Psychology department, Velez began his administrative career serving in faculty leadership positions.
- Bochu Ding
ATWATER CRD STEPS DOWN
Students in Atwater Commons were notified last Thursday that the Atwater Common Residence Director (CRD), Doug Desrochers, is resigning his role. Desrochers’ last day at Middlebury will be Jan. 21.
Desrochers resumed his role of CRD at Middlebury last Fall with the creation of the position. In his email to Atwater students, Desrochers thanked students for the opportunity to serve as a CRD and all the positive memories he will have of his time in the role.
While acknowledging the immense stress that can be prevalent at Middlebury, Desrochers encouraged students to fight this standard. “No, Middlebury won’t turn into an amusement park overnight, but changing the culture not only starts with you - it is you,” he advised students in his email. “Appreciate the little things that make this community really special.”
Desrochers was known for greeting students while strolling campus with his dog, Fesik, chatting with residents in the Allen common room and taking the time to build relationships with students on an individual level.
It is not yet known whether the role of Atwater CRD will be filled after Desrochers’s departure next week. However, if someone does fill the position, Desrochers encouraged students to treat the replacement with respect.
- Cali Kapp
WORK ON MCCULLOUGH MURAL EXPANDS
Students received a campus-wide email last Tuesday from David Kloepfer, Assistant Director of Programming & Events for Student Activities, announcing the expansion of the community mural in the McCullough Student Center. The mural was started last spring when four professional artists collaborated with students to transform the walls near the mailroom and box office.
This year’s workshop is a continuation of the work initiated by Jennifer Herrera Condry, associate director of the Anderson Freeman Resource Center, along with her husband, Will Kasso Condry, one of the artists involved.
The project will continue on Sunday, Jan. 13 with a workshop led by Dr. Meagan Corrado. Corrado is a clinical social worker and mosaic artist.
“Participants will reflect on their past experiences, process current experiences, and identify their future vision,” the email explained. The workshop will culminate with students generating a small piece, either written or visual, representing their experiences and identities.
The student’s pieces will then be used by Kasso Condry, a community muralist and educator, as well as Isaias Crow, an international muralist, both as inspiration and collaged into design for a 40-foot mural. Students will have opportunities to assist the artists throughout the process.
“The continuation of the McCullough Mural Project is to further deepen student expression on campus and community connection,” Kloepfer explained in the email.
- Cali Kapp
(01/17/19 10:52am)
The men’s and women’s alpine ski teams took to the slopes at Whiteface Mountain in Lake Placid, New York this past weekend to compete in their opening weekend of races at the St. Lawrence Carnival. It was a strong showing overall from the Panthers, one that included career-best results and “flashes of brilliance” across the board, according to Erik Arvidsson ’21.
Slalom races took place on Friday, while giant slalom (GS) races were moved to Saturday due to strong wind gusts and cold temperatures. On the men’s side of the slalom event, Arvidsson came out firing to lead the Panthers with a time of 1:32.41, securing a third-place finish overall. Max Stamler ’19 was Middlebury’s second racer to complete the course, skiing a career-best finish of 12th overall with a time of 1:36.43. The final scorer for the men’s team, Pate Campbell ’20, whose two-run time of 1:47.61 was affected by hikers, clinched the 32nd spot. Tim Gavett ’22 started out strong, holding the fifth spot after his first run, but was forced to hike on his second trip down the mountain, ultimately placing 43rd.
“We had some unfortunate DNF’s (Did Not Finish), which happens in ski racing. With more reps and improved consistency, the sky is the limit for this team,” Arvidsson said, reflecting on the team’s room for improvement following the weekend’s performances. Despite only a few skiers completing clean runs, Arvidsson maintains that the men’s and women’s teams’ potential coming into the season is enormous. “I am really happy with how the whole team started the carnival season. We are way ahead of where we were this time last season,” he said.
This potential made itself particularly evident on the women’s side, with first-year Samantha McClellan’s first collegiate race culminating in a 19th place finish after her run time of 1:40.84. Caroline Bartlett ’19 was Middlebury’s top finisher in the Slalom event, ending her two runs with a time of 1:38.34 and earning eighth place overall. Finishing second for the Panthers was Madison Lord ’21, whose 1:40.08 time earned her a career best 15th place overall.
Bartlett and Arvidsson continued to dominate Middlebury’s scoreboard in the giant slalom event as well. Bartlett came in with a two-run time of 2:12.20 to lead the women’s team and place fourth overall, and Arvidsson finished second for Middlebury, coming in ninth place overall in 2:13.27. Senior Lexi Calcagni finished second for the Panthers in 2:22.16 in the giant slalom to put her in 12th place, and Lord, the women’s third scorer, finished 16th in 2:23.37. In the men’s giant slalom, Gavett led the Panthers with a time of 2:11.90 to secure the fourth spot, and earning a top-20 finish in 2:14.90 was Stamler, the men’s final scorer.
With UVM and Dartmouth once again being forces to reckon with this season, the team will focus its efforts this week on “building consistency so we can bring our speed in training into races,” Bartlett said. Both the Alpine and Nordic teams will race again this weekend at the University of New Hampshire Carnival.
