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(11/01/17 10:28pm)
In response to the Editorial Staff’s ‘Wanted: Student Spaces’ from October 18th: We agree that there are fewer spaces on campus now with converted lounges and changes to the Crest Room. We take issue, however, with the use of the Knoll as the “best example” of this trend.
The Campus claims that the Knoll was rebranded without student input and without reason. The stated result was that the Knoll somehow became less accessible through the name change. The article further reported that students and garden staff were surprised by the new name. This is wholly untrue.
Sophie Esser-Calvi ‘03.5, Director of Global Food and Farm Programs at Middlebury, says that her and Jay Leshinsky, the lead gardening instructor since its founding, “have been discussing the renaming of the farm for years with students, especially the interns and student leaders of MCOF.” Last year, they hosted an open brainstorming session to discuss the name change with students. They decided on the Knoll because “students felt that it was the most inclusive name that goes beyond students only interested in gardening.”
The name change was necessary and long overdue. Fifteen years ago, before the first garden was planted there, the student founders of the farm first called the site the Kestral Knoll. Next it was the Organic Garden, until students changed the name to the Organic Farm. Because the Garden/Farm has always been experimental, students have used not only organic growing techniques, but also permaculture, biodynamic and regenerative methods. This made the “organic” label not only inaccurate, but reductive. Student-led initiatives on the site, aside from tending the crops, have included the construction of a classroom and an outdoor kitchen with a pizza oven.
Not to mention, The Knoll is a literal name; the garden sits atop a “small round hill,” which is the actual dictionary definition of a knoll. Leshinsky added that the Knoll is “clearly descriptive of all that goes on there.”
Esser-Calvi is far from a bureaucratic, commercializing administrator. She is a member of the original team of students who spearheaded this project during her time as a student. Her current job exists because of an ongoing student initiative to create new community spaces that provide academic and social benefit. When we commemorate the Knoll, we are commemorating the College’s support of student-led spaces and initiatives, not the opposite.
When we reached out to Esser-Calvi and Leshinsky for this letter, we heard back within 45 minutes. If the Campus had asked these staff members or any number of students involved with The Knoll, they would know that the rebranding was a move towards a more accessible, open student space on campus.
Let’s address the serious problems in our community before we look for them where they don’t exist.
The Campus editorial board gratefully endorses the clarifications made in this article. We regret the corresponding error.
(11/01/17 8:59pm)
As Middlebury’s board of trustees convened inside Old Chapel on Thursday, Oct. 19, members of the college community rallied outside to renew a years-long call for the college to divest from fossil fuels.
The event, described as a teach-in, was organized by the student group Divest Middlebury. Scheduled to coincide with the trustees’ annual fall meeting, the event featured speeches by three students and three community members.
“The place we love is not behaving in the way that we need it to behave,” said Bill McKibben, an environmental activist and scholar at the college, who headlined the event. “It’s not a very hard thing that we’re asking.”
Divest Middlebury calls for the college’s board of trustees to withdraw all investments that the college holds in any of the top 200 fossil fuel corporations—a ranking maintained by the environmental advocacy group Fossil Free. The college’s endowment, managed by the firm Investure, currently invests $60 million in corporations on that list.
The Divest Middlebury campaign began in 2012, and the board of trustees voted against divestment that same year. A resolution supporting divestment was passed by the Student Government Association (SGA) in 2013, and a 2017 SGA survey showed that 67% of the student body supports divestment.
Alec Fleischer ’20.5 delivered the first student speech, providing an overview of the divestment movement and its goals. Fleischer then led the crowd in a chant of “Stand up, fight back,” intending to be heard by the trustees inside Old Chapel.
Esteban Arenas-Pino ’18 spoke next, focusing on Middlebury’s history of student protest.
“In May 1969, 250 students staged a sit-in in Coltrane to demand the faculty take a position on the role of ROTC on campus and the dissolution of the department of military science,” he said. “Clearly, since then, the campus legacy has been one of activism.”
Arenas-Pino framed divestment as a matter of social justice, calling for the end of “carbon colonialism and the modern climate apartheid that renders those in the global south the most vulnerable to climate injustices caused by global warming.”
Emma Ronai-Durning ’18.5 voiced similar sentiments. “Divestment has called attention to the essential connections between capitalism and racism in creating climate destruction,” she said.
“[The trustees] missed an opportunity to be leaders in environmental justice, climate justice and what they claim they stand for,” she said. “Today, as the board continues to hide behind its guise of neutrality, students haven’t taken no for an answer. We see that there is only one answer: that’s organizing.”
Non-student speakers focused on the impacts of climate change already being felt in Addison County. “It poured rain for three months here,” said Fran Putnam, a Weybridge resident. “The farmers who normally plant their corn the middle of May, they planted their corn on July 6.”
McKibben discussed the trustees’ past failure to divest, and the movement’s continued importance.
“I had high hopes so that Middlebury could be the first place to divest, and we really had it lined up. It was great, everybody here talking” he said. “Sadly, Middlebury whiffed. The trustees weren’t quite up to it then, couldn’t bring themselves to do it.”
McKibben emphasized that the growing renewable energy sector, in conjunction with an unstable fossil fuel industry, makes divestment an economically sound choice. “We’re moving away from fossil fuels. That’s the past, not the future,” he said.
“It behooves, in this place in particular, the board of trustees to pay some attention to the moral authority of the people who will have to live through the crises that we are now creating,” he said, invoking the elder generations of which he and many trustees are a part. “We’re going to be dead before climate change hits at its absolute worst.”
The crowd at the protest matched the leaves on the trees, wearing the orange that has come to symbolize the divest movement. Despite the blustery weather, attendance exceeded one hundred students.
Bea Lee ’20.5 was one of them. “I want to do more than wear a piece of orange felt on my backpack,” she said.
(11/01/17 7:37pm)
On Homecoming weekend, a day filled with returning alums, friends and family, the Middlebury Panthers fell to 5–2 after a 27–5 loss to Trinity College Bantams on Saturday, October, 29. At times they squad look ed promising, but Trinty proved to be well seasoned and ready to extend their 15-game win streak.
On the opening drive, the Bantams took the ball 79 yards on 11 plays for the first score taking an early 7–0 lead. Panthers responded with their own score as Connor Massengill ’19 connected from 28 yards out, cutting into the guests’ 7–3 advantage. Diego Meritus ’19 led the drive with 7 carries while Jake Merservy ’19 completed several passes to bring his team to Trinity’s six-yard line. After Jared Lebowitz ’18 suffered a season-ending knee injury in the 47–14 victory over Bates College, Merservy took the reins at quarterback. Unfortunately, the Panthers could not muster their offense and the defense could only contain the Bantams, a team, at that point, had a 15-game winning streak.
In the second quarter, the Trinity pulled away a little more, scoring four minutes into the second quarter, extending their lead 14–3. Sonny Puzzo led the Bantams down the field, racking up close to 50 rushing yards and aided by a Middlebury face mask penalty.
At the ten-minute mark, Matt Daniel ’19 blocked a punt at Trinity’s 28-yard line Ian Blow ’18 picked the loose ball up and returned in 13-yards to the Bantam five-yard line. The drive looked promising until the Panthers turned it over on downs, four plays later. And in a twist of fate, the Bantams, on the first play of their drive, fumbled. The ball hopped around the edge of the goal line, dangling between the fingertips of several players and was picked up by Puzzo and then tackled for a loss and a two-point safety by Robert Wood ’18.
The defensive unit looked promising, Jourdon Delerme-Brown ’20 backed up his claim saying, “defense is always a fun side of the ball on this team. Everyone loves playing together so the mentality is to just continue to play together regardless of who we play and we tried to do that in this game.”
Unfortunately, the defense received no help from their offensive brethren. Leading 14–5, the Bantams did not look back, recording two field goals and a score in the final two quarters.
For Middlebury, a couple of drives looked promising, as Merservy tried to rally his offensive. With eight minutes left in the fourth quarter and the ball on their own 45-yard line, the Panthers marched up the field. He completed a pass to Maxwell Rye ’19 for 17 yards, rushed for several yards himself and handed the ball off to Drew Jacobs ’18 who rushed for 22 yards on four carries — but could not complete the job as the final play of the drive resulted in an incomplete pass to Conrado Banky ’19.
Middlebury seeks to bounce back with two games remaining in their season. On Saturday, they will compete against the Hamilton Continentals for their final home game before heading down to Connecticut to face the Tufts Jumbos.
(11/01/17 6:34pm)
In the quarterfinal round of the 2017 Nescac Championship this past Saturday, October 28, the Middlebury women’s soccer team fell to the Hamilton Continentals in a hard-fought 1–0 defensive battle. The Panthers came into the first-round game as the number three seed in the tournament, the Continentals as the number six; earlier in the season on September 17, the two teams had played out a 1–1 double-overtime tie. However, Hamilton’s victory this time around bounced the Panthers from the tournament, leaving them to wait until next Monday, Nov. 6 to hear if they’ll receive an at-large bid for the NCAA tournament.
Head coach Peter Kim gave credit where credit was due in assessing the match. “On Saturday we played against a strong defensive team,” he said. “Going down a goal early in the game meant that we had to chase the game for 87 minutes, but we did create a enough chances to at least tie the game. However, we didn’t capitalize on the clear-cut opportunities to score, and turned the ball over unnecessarily throughout the match.”
As Kim alluded, the Continentals took advantage of a misplayed ball in the Middlebury penalty area to score just 2:28 into the first period. The rest of the half was relatively evenly matched as both teams did their best to create scoring chances, the Panthers firing off seven more shots to Hamilton’s four. In the 32nd minute, midfielder Virginia Charman ’20 had a well-placed shot on goal from about 15 yards out that the Continental keeper managed to knock away with a diving save.
Eager to make up ground, Middlebury came out on the attack in the second period, and the record showed it: their ten shot attempts to the Continentals’ four in the half was a good indicator of their control in terms of possession. Charman had another good scoring opportunity that she just barely failed to convert, her header caught by the Hamilton goalie. Later, as the clock wound down, the Panthers had one last scoring opportunity when Clare Robinson ’19 sent a header just right of the goal on a set piece. At the final buzzer, the score still stood at 1–0 in Hamilton’s favor.
This game was an especially tough one for the Panthers, especially in comparison to their stunning victory over Williams the week prior. The Ephs had come into that contest ranked third in the nation; the Panthers, coming off a 5-0 drubbing of Bates just a few days before, couldn’t have cared less as they secured a 1–0 victory.
“We actually should have scored two against Williams,” said Kim, “as we were inexplicably denied a penalty kick after Ellie [Greenberg ’20] was hauled down in the box while on a breakaway. Our possession wasn’t great in that game, but that was partly due to the crazy weather conditions.
“On Saturday [against Hamilton], however, turnovers and failure to capitalize on goal-scoring opportunities ultimately led to our demise.”
Moving forward, Middlebury will hope for an at-large bid to the 64-team NCAA national championship tournament, to be decided by the selection committee next Monday; in the meantime, they’ll remain at home while the Nescac tournament wraps up next weekend in Williamstown, Mass.
That’s not to say that the Panthers will just be sitting around, though. Captain Alissa Huntington ’18 explained that Middlebury will prepare with every expectation of being included in the NCAA tourney. “We’ll continue to train in hopes of seeing the results we want,” she said. “We’re really hopeful, and right now all that we can do is keep the mentality that our season will continue and try to fix the issues that hurt us in the Nescac tournament.
“If we get a second chance, I think the most important part is taking on each game of the tournament knowing it could be the last of our season, or for the seniors, our college careers.”
(11/01/17 5:17pm)
VERGENNES — In the past year, the Greater Vergennes Boys and Girls Club has received funding and undergone extensive renovations to improve the overall attendance and quality of its after-school program. At the beginning of the 2016-2017 school year, daily club attendance ran between 15 and 18 students ranging from fifth to 12th grade, and total membership was 75. This fall, around two dozen of the club’s 109 members stop in after school on any given day. Students can finish their homework on one of a half-dozen new computers; play table soccer, pool and video games; hang out with their friends; make block prints; or enjoy full meals in a new kitchen.
The existing space for the club was finally renovated in 2016. The board voted in 2015 to provide more opportunities for programs, service and outreach. Grants and donations funded the project and brought together local businesses in their support for the renovation. “We celebrated our grand opening in October 2016 with the unveiling of a fully functional kitchen [and] shower and laundry facilities,” said board chair Jeff Fritz.
Vermont is home to nine Boys and Girls Clubs locations. In addition to greater Vergennes, Burlington, Rutland, and Brattleboro all feature their own clubs. Burlington has three locations and serves more than 250 children daily. Their programs highlight their three core areas, which are Art & Technology, Health & Athletics and Career Readiness & Life Skills. Programs include “Reading Buddies,” where volunteers read one-on-one with a child during after-school hours, and arts-and-crafts programs. The Brattleboro location features a “power hour” Monday through Thursday from 3 to 4 p.m. for homework, in addition to many activities such as an open weight room, a climbing wall, an open music room, and a book/teen group. They also have teen night every Friday from 6 to 11 p.m.
The three Rutland locations each offer after-school programs with homework support, a home-cooked meal every day, a physical fitness/wellness program and an evidence-based program called “Positive Action,” an early-age prevention program. They also have a new teen program, which gives teens a safe and fun place to go on Friday and Saturday evenings. They offer academic support, job training, resume writing, and a program called PREP, which focuses on building healthy relationships. Teens can play basketball and video games and go on weekly field trips.
Prior to the renovations in Vergennes, the club was capable of serving only snacks, but the renovations allow the club to provide 400 full meals a month. It also has its own bathrooms with showers, rather than having to share facilities with other tenants of the building on the corner of School and Green streets. The club now houses a washer and dryer, which are used not only for club kitchen linens but also for members who need help cleaning clothes. The space itself is also much more inviting and has undergone improvements in terms of smell and lighting. Newly hired executive director Jill Strube has had an instrumental role in the improvement. Using her experience as an after-school program head, Strube was able to help provide programming, write grants, and oversee the general day-to-day functioning of the club.
In the past year, the club has received many grants that have allowed them to add new programs. The club recently hosted four printmaking workshops after it and the city’s Creative Space Gallery were jointly awarded a $1,182 Vermont Arts Council grant to have a steamroller press prints in the Kennedy Brothers parking lot on Oct. 14. Some club members’ work will be on display and for sale at the gallery through Friday, along with that of professional artists and Vergennes Union Elementary School students. Another arts class led by Middlebury artist Norma Rollette is routinely held for nine young members and is supported by Elaine Raphael Arts Foundation grant. A bus now brings a half-dozen new Ferrisburgh Central School members to the club, courtesy of a three-year, $2,400 Children’s Trust Fund Grant.
“We are working to expand our STEAM programs. We just received a Best Buy grant to buy tablets so we can teach an App Lab class to our teens, and we are hoping to get funding for some Lego Robotics,” Fritz said. This $7,300 grant from the Williston Best Buy funded eight Samsung tablets that the club will use for a class to teach older members to write code for installing Android apps. Another $5,000 came from the TJ Maxx Foundation to support the club’s ongoing efforts to assist members in completing their homework. Strube also arranged a donation from local schools of three desktop computers and three Chromebooks for the same purpose.
The club has been very fortunate with finances that have enabled such renovations and improvements. Many investments have paid off, including those in renovations. In addition, a year ago the club decided to stop applying for a $40,000 state tobacco-cessation grant it had earned annually in recent years, as the board decided the application and reporting process was placing too much of a burden on club employees. Even without that source of money, Strube and the board’s fundraising efforts exceeded the club’s annual budget of $178,000 by about $25,000.
In addition to grant-writing, board members have helped increase the total quantity of funds at the club’s disposal. For example, the board joined with local food professionals and the boards of the Bixby Library, Vergennes Partnership and Vergennes Opera House in staging a successful “Eat on the Green” event on Sept. 30, with proceeds benefitting all four nonprofits. Summarizing the renovations and improvements as a whole, Fritz commented, “The club has never before experienced this level of community involvement and support. We consider this an extraordinary accomplishment.”
(10/19/17 12:10am)
Amidst ongoing conversations regarding grading at Middlebury, the Student Government Association’s (SGA) Student Educational Affairs Committee (SEAC) hosted Lee Cuba, a sociology professor at Wellesley College, for a talk on shadow grading on Oct. 11. Cuba spearheaded a shadow grading pilot program at Wellesley, wherein letter grades are hidden from the first semester transcript of first-year students.
Jeanne Albert, director of STEM support in the college’s Center for Teaching, Learning, and Research (CTLR), introduced Cuba, and described her involvement in prior conversations about grading.
“In January 2016, the CTLR sponsored a discussion called ‘Are Grades Necessary?’ Several faculty continued that discussion, and in the subsequent term we started to look at the format at other institutions,” she said.
“If they weren’t resorting to a no-grade system, what were some other experiments? We were then led to Wellesley’s shadow grading experiment.”
Cuba identified a pattern at Wellesley in which students tend to prioritize grades over engagement with their courses.
“Students can get very concerned with how they’re doing in a class, and that can get in the way of their motivation for learning. One of the things that we found in the study we did is that there’s an inverse correlation between students having in mind academic achievement goals, of which grades are the best example for that, and students having academic engagement goals, like writing a dynamite thesis,” Cuba said.
“We started talking about doing something like Swarthmore has been doing since 1968, and that MIT has been doing for many many years, which is treat the first year differently in terms of grading students.”
In the fall of 2014, after about a year and a half of continued research and conversation, Wellesley College instituted their program.
“For students in the first semester of their first year, all four classes that they take are graded pass or no pass. It appears on your transcript as a ‘p’ or an ‘np.’ A separate grade report is generated for the student that is seen only by the student, her dean, and the student’s faculty advisor,” Cuba explained.
In describing the results of Wellesley’s pilot program to date, Cuba emphasized the high percentage of students who identified shadow grading as helpful in easing their transition to college.
“The policy started in the fall of 2014, so we have three years of data. When you’re a social scientist and you do surveys, you don’t ever see results like this. Over 3 years, roughly 70% or better each year respond to the survey. Of those responding, 94% say it helped the transition to college,” Cuba said.
Cuba is pleased with the ways that the program has benefited student participants in the experiment.
“There was evidence from student responses that they felt like they were doing more stuff outside of academics which is really encouraging,” he said. “They reported spending less time thinking about grades, and students stayed in classes instead of dropping them. Some faculty thought that students were actually more engaged because they were focused on the learning, and some thought students were less stressed out.”
Furthermore, Cuba believes the practice encourages students to experiment with subjects outside of their comfort zones or with activities outside of academics.
“It allows students to explore the curriculum more broadly without thinking about the kinds of grades they might get in classes. It was intended to be focused on balancing multiple commitments that students had, rather than something that was purely academic,” Cuba said.
Cuba also sees the policy as effective in creating more equitable and comfortable environments for students. First-generation college students, students who self-report being from low income families, and students from underrepresented minority groups reported even higher rates of positive effects from shadow grading.
“It’s very clear that not everybody starts college in the same place,” Albert said. “We were thinking that some students would benefit from having a time-out on grades for a little while to focus more on managing the transition from high school to college. If you came from a tony high school or a not so good one, or if you came from far away or you came from nearby or whatever, there was something in it for you in terms of managing the transition to college.”
Cuba did, however, read a selection of student responses, including one in which the student resented the program.
“My grades were much higher first semester compared to second, and it’s extremely discouraging knowing those grades won’t be part of my GPA. It makes me regret the amount of time I put into those classes when none of it will change my grades,” the student said.
Jeanne Albert emphasized that though she has participated in grading conversations for some time, no concrete action has yet occurred to implement such a program at Middlebury.
“The visit by Professor Cuba was entirely so that we could learn more about shadow grading from someone who has first-hand knowledge about it,” Albert said. “While an informal group of faculty have been meeting over the past few semesters to discuss various ideas within the overall realm of grades and grading, as far as I know there have been no ‘official’ efforts by faculty to actually implement a program at Middlebury.”
Despite the lack of action on behalf of faculty, Sedge Lucas ’19 and Dan Klemonski ’19 count shadow grading as one of their top priorities as co-directors of the SEAC.
Klemonski said that Jeffrey Ou ’19 first brought the issue to their attention last year while serving as an SGA senator.
“If it’s something that’s going to provide a smoother transition, that’s the reason we’re pushing for it,” Lucas said.
Lucas predicts that if the SGA passes a bill requesting the introduction of shadow grading, the proposal would likely have to pass a faculty vote before being implemented.
“The way I imagine it would actually go through would be passing a student bill. Then after it’s passed and formalized, you bring it to the faculty who take the bill and make the edits they want. Then you present that at a faculty meeting and that’s where they vote on it and it goes through or doesn’t,” Lucas said.
Klemonski maintains cautious optimism for the future of shadow grading at the college, and stress the importance of student involvement in efforts to implement it.
“Convincing the faculty is not a little thing,” Klemonski said. “I assume there will be plenty of discussions about shadow grading moving forward, but a timeline for immediate action is unclear. Higher ed moves so slowly, but the best lever of pressure in this case would be students getting fired up about it.”
Middlebury faculty have mixed opinions on the merits of shadow grading. While some can already pledge their support for the system, others have reservations.
“I think it’s a very good idea. I would vote for it,” said Michael Newbury, director of the college’s American studies program.
Joyce Mao, associate professor of history, disagrees.
“I don’t think that’s a good introduction to college. But I’m glad we have things like pass/fail because they allows students to take classes they wouldn’t otherwise consider,” Mao said.
Associate professor of history Rebecca Bennette attended Johns Hopkins Unversity for her undergraduate study, and says the institution used shadow grading at the time. Bennette maintains that from her personal experience, the practice has both benefits and drawbacks.
“In some cases it can be a great boon to people, but it can also be a bind,” Bennette said. “Where it doesn’t work so well is in subjects like math, econ and languages where you need that knowledge to move on. It’s easy to use the fact that this is not a real grade as a crutch, and it’s easy to pass, but when you move on, you’ve gotten yourself in a situation where you’re going to pay for that.”
(10/18/17 11:48pm)
MIDDLEBURY — Gun control in Vermont has always existed as an anomaly of legislation in comparison to the state’s otherwise progressive stance. During the 2016 presidential election, in a survey by The New York Times, Vermont was the only state where the majority of gun owners voted for the Democratic candidate. Indeed, the confluence of a rural landscape and progressive ideals has led state politicians to hold a distinctively centrist position when it comes to gun reform.
The mass shooting at the country music festival in Las Vegas on Oct. 1 has again ignited the debate around gun control in Vermont. A Vermont native, 35-year-old Sandra Casey of Dorset, was among the 58 victims killed in Las Vegas. In Washington, lawmakers are focusing on a deadly gun accessory known as the bump stock, which was used in the Las Vegas massacre. And once again, the Vermont legislature has taken up the thorny issue of the state’s gun laws.
Unknown to many at the college, students are allowed to bring their own personal firearms onto campus. Students need to register their guns with the Department of Public Safety, where they are kept under lock and key. But students can check out their weapons for hunting and other related activities whenever they wish.
Vermont law does not require a permit for shotguns, handguns or rifles, and therefore there are no additional proofs of permit required by Public Safety to keep a firearm of this nature on campus. Similar to the dualism present in the state, Middlebury’s crunchy campus also has a group of students who value having access to their firearms while at school.
“There are a small number of students, fewer than, 20, who store a weapon to participate in hunting or related activities,” Dan Gaiotti, associate director of Public Safety, said. According to article C.6. in the College Handbook, weapons are prohibited on campus. However, students are allowed to check out their guns from Public Safety for the activities listed above.
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has engaged in the debate surrounding gun control before, often taking an uncharacteristically conservative stance. After the Sandy Hook massacre, he argued in a statement, “If you passed the strongest gun control legislation tomorrow, I don’t think it will have a profound effect on the tragedies we have seen.”
The difference in the Las Vegas shooting is a firearm accessory that has become a flashpoint in the debate on Capitol Hill over the last few weeks. The “fire bump stock,” or bump stock, is an add-on for semi-automatic weapons to enable them to more closely resemble a fully automatic firearm. A dozen were found in the hotel room of the Las Vegas shooter.
Both Republican and Democratic Congressmen have proposed bills that would ban the production and distribution of bump stocks. Although the National Rifle Association initially backed such a ban, the organization announced on Oct. 13 that it did not support the proposed bills. The N.R.A. cited ripple effect on other firearm accessories for its about-face on a bump stock ban. The group also said it hoped that bump stocks could be addressed through regulation, instead of law, by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF).
Although the partisan divide remains, both sides are narrowing in on necessary reform. At a news conference on Oct. 4, Sanders stressed the need for immediate gun reform. “While it is too late for the victims in Las Vegas, and the victims in Newtown, and the victims in Charleston, and the other terrible shootings we have seen, it is not too late to prevent the next set of innocent Americans from becoming victims,” he said.
In contrast to other shootings, the emergence of the bump stock with the Las Vegas massacres has given representatives a tangible point of reform. The ATF does not see things as clearly. Bump stocks were approved by the agency prior to the mass shooting, and now legislators are scrambling to figure out how and why.
House Speaker Paul Ryan has asked the ATF to provide an explanation for the allowance of bump stocks. During a weekly news conference on Capitol Hill, Ryan called for a regulatory regulation of the automatic accessories, as opposed to a legislative one, enraging Representatives who believe a vote should be brought to the House.
“That’s really just a way of saying they don’t want to stand up and be counted on the question of whether bump stocks should be illegal,” Vermont Rep. Peter Welch (D) said in an interview for Vermont Public Radio. “And it mystifies me, really, because fully automatic weapons are appropriate in combat, [but] they’re illegal in civilian life, they’re illegal.”
The waning fervor surrounding gun reform, only weeks after Las Vegas’s mass shooting, has prompted states to take the debate of bump stocks upon themselves. Last Thursday, the state Senate in Massachusetts voted 33–0 to ban the sale and possession of bump stocks and other accessories that allow firearms to mimic the rapidity of automatic weapons. A day earlier, the Massachusetts House approved the bump stock ban 151–3, leaving the bill ready for the signature of Republican Gov. Charlie Baker. He had already agreed to approve the ban if it passed both the House and Senate.
Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) has joined forces with Senators Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders to back comprehensive federal gun reform in the aftermath of Las Vegas. But at this point, it is unclear whether the elected officials will follow the sovereign route forged by Massachusetts, or will continue pressing Rep. Ryan in the House to allow a vote on the matter.
(10/18/17 11:27pm)
Hosting the Williams Purple Ephs on Saturday, Oct. 14, the Middlebury Panthers dropped a nail-biting contest that came down to the final six seconds of play.
Middlebury dominated the first half of play, much as they have done in the rest of their games to this point. The Panthers burst out of the gate from the opening kickoff, as Jared Lebowitz ’18 found Maxwell Rye ’20 from 19 yards out to cap their first drive of the game with a touchdown. Rye’s touchdown was set up by several rushes by Peter Scibilia ’21 and Diego Meritus ’19, who returned after missing the first four weeks of the season with an injured quad. Carter Massengill ’20 converted the extra point and the hosts jumped out to 7–0 lead with 11 minutes left in the first.
Eight minutes later, Rye flipped the field with a brilliant punt that went 72 yards and was downed at the Williams one-yard line. The Purple Eph’s offense was unable to move the ball given the tough starting field position, amounting in a three-and-out. With no room to maneuver, Adam Regensburg’s punt attempt was blocked by John Jackson ’18 for a safety, tacking two points onto the hosts’ lead in the final scoring play of the first quarter.
In the second quarter, the sole score came from Massengill’s 25 yard-field goal attempt. His opportunity was set up by an 11-play drive by Lebowitz and his offense, giving the hosts a 12–0 lead at the break. Most notably, Lebowitz connected with Jimmy Martinez ’19 and Rye for 29 yards each. The ensuing seven minutes before the half flew by without a score.
In the third quarter, the Panthers sniffed the end zone on several occasions, finishing at the Williams nine-yard line after 13 plays, but Massengill could not complete the 25-yard field goal attempt that sailed wide left.
While Williams cut into the Panthers’ lead on their ensuing eight-play 80-yard touchdown drive that earned the Ephs their first points of the day, the Panthers answered right back. Lebowitz led the team on a 10-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that was highlighted by a 40-yard completion to Rye. The Lebowitz-to-Rye connection set-up a Lebowitz two-yard pass Scibilia for a touchdown.
Middlebury led 19–7 heading into the fourth quarter and everything was looking up for a Panthers offense that had dominated to that point. They even tacked-on an additional touchdown after Williams cut the lead to 19–14, as Lebowitz and company drove 59 yards in just over three minutes. Leading 26–14 and ten minute, the Panthers looked to hold off the Purple Eph’s down the crucial stretch.
Williams’ quarterback, however, answered efficiently and quickly. Middlebury’s defense saw the 12-point cushion erased after the Ephs marched 75 yards on 11 plays, ending in another touchdown. With four minutes left on the clock, Middlebury went to work trying to add an insurance score to preserve a victory and an undefeated record.
Starting at their own 28-yard line, Lebowitz handed the ball to Scibilia and Meritus to run the clock out. The Panthers even received some help from Williams’ defense, gaining 15 yards on a personal foul. However, the Panthers could not move the chains and were forced to punt from their own 48-yard line, giving Williams’ duel-threat quarterback the ball with 2:19 left on the clock at their own 20-yard line.
Williams found their way down the field and, with time running out, Bobby Maimaron stepped up into the pocket, firing a rocket into the open hands of Frank Stola in the end zone for the Williams victory. Alumni Stadium went silent while the Williams bench charged onto the field, celebrating their upset victory.
After the loss, Meritus talked about the importance of moving passed a loss that will be sure to linger with the Panthers.
“Instead of running away from that feeling we felt after Saturday’s loss, we need to embrace all that energy and use it to motivate us to get better.
“A loss is a loss,” Meritus said. “We can’t change what happened, but we can change what we do from here. And that means we have to win out.”
Though the Panthers took the loss, Middlebury outgained Williams 432–378, as 304 passing from Lebowitz. Rye finished the day with 133 receiving yards while Meritus and Scibilia combined for 64 yards on the ground.
With three games left in their season, the Panthers look to resume their win streak and finish with no more defeats. The biggest game left on the schedule, and a contest that both teams have certainly circled, is the Saturday, Oct. 28, date at Alumni Stadium when Middlebury will host undefeated Trinity — and on Homecoming Weekend, no less. It will be a decisive matchup with serious Nescac title implications. But for now, the Panthers head back on the road to Bates on Saturday, Oct. 21.
(10/18/17 11:18pm)
The Panther volleyball team played faced a tough slate of matches last Friday and Saturday that saw the team drop a pair of Nescac games to Tufts and Bowdoin before prevailing over The University of Maine at Presque Isle (UMPI). The Panthers (14–5, 5–3) now sit at fifth in the conference but still have to play Williams and Hamilton, the teams sandwiching them in the standings.
On Friday, Middlebury travelled to Tufts in what was a rematch of last season’s conference tournament final where the Panthers triumphed over the heavily favored Jumbos. Once again, the two teams played a tightly contested match but the Panthers ended up losing in four sets (19–25, 25–15, 21–25, 23–25).
In the opening set, the Jumbos started with a 7–3 run but lost the lead during a 5–3 run by the Panthers which concluded with two Becca Raffel ’18 kills. Tufts, however, regained the lead and never looked back, taking the opening set.
In the second, however, Middlebury controlled the tempo. A Tufts attack error and two Elana Schaefer ’18 kills gave the Panthers a quick 2–0 lead. Later, after being down 15–10, Tufts climbed back in the game, bringing the score to 16–13. Middlebury, capitalizing on numerous service and attack errors by the Jumbos, went on a 9–2 run taking the set to even the match at one game apiece.
In the ensuing set the Jumbos once again started hot, this time jumping out to a 7–3 lead. However, the Panthers fought back to bring the match to within one point and for the remainder of the set Tufts never led by more than two—that is, until Middlebury seized the lead, 19–18, and the hosts scored the next six points capped off by a Middlebury service error.
What proved to be the ultimate set once again fell into a similar pattern. The Panthers took a 2–0 lead on two Tufts attack errors. After a Jumbos point, Middlebury extended the lead to 4–1 on two more Tufts attack errors but the Jumbos were able to knot the match at 8 and, thereafter, the teams largely traded points—there were seven lead changes and 11 ties. The Panthers simply did not have enough in the tank and ended up losing the final two points after the set was tied at 23.
There were bright spots though for the Panthers. Alice Roberts ’18 tallied a season-high 12 kills while Middlebury had more service aces than Tufts (Raffel had two while Gigi Alper ’20, Emma Walsh ’21 and Shea Golden ’21 each notched one). Golden also contributed 11 digs while Alper led the team with 17.
Continuing their road-trip, the squad drove two hours to Brunswick, Maine, where they split a doubleheader against the Polar Bears and UMPI. Middlebury lost the Nescac matchup in straight sets (21–25, 17–25, 22–25) but managed to turn around and absolutely smoke non-conference UMPI in straight sets (25–6, 25–15, 25–18).
Middlebury never found their groove against Bowdoin, a team that has given the Panthers trouble over the last few years. On the bright side, Raffel continued to dominate the competition with 11 kills and 16 digs. Alper managed to finish with a match-high 23 digs.
Following the Nescac losses, Schaefer believes the team needs to continue to compete. While a losing streak can be tough to overcome, her team needs to push themselves.
“We need to step up our game in order to set ourselves up to be in the best position possible for Nescacs,” said Schaefer.
UMPI, however, did not provide a challenge for the Panthers, who easily shook off their losing streak. The Panthers held UMPI to .091 hitting percentage and a single block, while Middlebury saw .355 and seven blocks. Golden led the match in service aces (4), Sessions in kills (10), and Ferdinand in assists (27).
“We are looking forward to regrouping and using this weekend’s non-conference competition to prepare for our final league games of the season,” Alper said.
This weekend’s New England Challenge will be an excellent opportunity to right the ship and prepare for their final weekend of Nescac play for the Panthers. With only two weeks remaining before the postseason, the Panthers look to get back their competitive fire that led them to the 10-game win streak that they were in the middle of just a week ago.
(10/18/17 11:14pm)
Guests Lee Schlenker and Marcel Lueiro Reyes delivered the talk “Grassroots Solidarity in an Age of Hostility: Building Alternative Relationships Between the U.S. and Cuba” at the Axinn Center on Tuesday Oct. 10. Schlenker works for the organization Witness for Peace in Havana, Cuba, and Reyes, a Cuban popular educator, works for the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Center, also located in Havana.
Witness for Peace, whose headquarters is located in Washington, D.C., is an activist organization that strives to protect Latin American nations against oppressive U.S. corporate practices and foreign policies, such as the United States embargo against Cuba. The organization examines the effects of free trade agreements, sends delegations to Cuba, and mobilizes communities within the United States.
The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Center, according to its mission statement, is a “Christian-inspired macroecumenical organization” focused on “solidarity and popular participation.” The organization offers programs that cultivate critical thinking among its theologically educated leaders.
Reyes, who spoke in Spanish and was provided a translator, began the talk with a poem, and then spoke of his interest in the history of Cuba. He described the theme of relations between the U.S. and Cuba as “complex and marvelous,” and then delivered a general history of the relations from the perspective of a Cuban citizen.
According to Reyes, the strengthening of U.S.–Cuba relations started in the 19th century, when Cubans grew tired of an oppressive, bureaucratic Spanish regime that imposed slavery. The nation looked toward American influence, since the U.S. represented modernity and civilization. Reyes also referred to how Cuba benefitted from U.S. capital expansion, since it received important goods such as electricity and railroads. Such goods arrived in Cuba two to three years before they were brought to Europe.
Reyes pointed out that in 1880, there were 170 tobacco factories with Cuban workers and managers in the United States. Many U.S. cities were even founded by Cubans. Conversely, one Cuban city had a population of 70 percent U.S. citizens. The United States and Cuba even sent soldiers to fight in one another’s respective wars for independence.
Reyes spoke of how the cultural and religious exchange between the two nations grew stronger as many Cubans turned away from the Catholicism imposed by Spain, and embraced Protestantism. Additionally, many Cubans who studied at U.S. universities learned to play baseball, and brought the sport to Cuba. Later on, famous Cuban–Americans icons in contemporary culture would include performance artist, sculptor, painter, and photographer Ana Mendieta, and jazz influencer Chano Pozo. Famous athletes include Boston Red Sox pitcher Luis Tiant and boxer Eligio Sardiñas Montalvo, widely known as “Kid Chocolate.”
Reyes went on to mention that three major events in the 20th century would severely impact U.S–Cuban relations. First, the creation of the Platt Amendment, whose conditions defined the withdraw of U.S. soldiers in Cuba after the Spanish–American War, was implemented in Cuba’s constitution. These conditions include: the guarantee that Cuba could not transfer land to any country but the U.S., a limitation to the countries with which Cuba could negotiate; the establishment of a U.S. naval base in Cuba, and the U.S.’s right to intervene in Cuba to preserve Cuban independence. The Cubans felt betrayed by the United States and believed that their nation could only be independent if they confronted these imperialist policies of the United States.
Reyes noted that the second major event, the Cuban Revolution, led to the overthrow of dictator Fulgencio Bautista and the rise of communist leader Fidel Castro. As president, Castro implemented radical socialist reforms and strengthened economic and diplomatic ties with Soviet Union, which upset the United States. Reyes stated that the Bay of Pigs invasion, a failed U.S. attempt at assassinating Castro, made the already damaged relationship between the countries irreparable.
Reyes argued that the third major event, the creation of a blockade, imposed unnecessary suffering onto the Cuban people. The blockade failed to complete its objective of destructing the Cuban economy. Reyes showed that despite such setbacks, health care and education until college was made free, in addition to the advancements in biotechnology and medicine.
Clearly, Reyes provided an economic, political, and cultural history of Cuba that intrigued members of the college community. “Our speaker Marcel [Reyes] gave very interesting details about what trade and movement back-and-forth was like before we had our current boundaries,” said David Stoll, professor of anthropology, who introduced the speakers. “I was fascinated with how [Reyes] said that it was Cuban troops who were part of the [Revolutionary War].”
“In essence, as you go through the typical education system, all that you hear about Cuba is the Cold War era, especially the Cuban Missile Crisis,” said Frank Gavilanez ’20, who attended the lecture. “But in addition to that, you rarely hear about other aspects of Cuba. What struck me in this lecture was the migration of Cubans and Americans, and how both of these people fought for the independence of each other’s countries.”
(10/11/17 10:19pm)
Staff-members of the Open Door Clinic (ODC) arrived at the Axinn Center to train students to become future volunteers and interpreters on Saturday, Oct. 7. The ODC, according to its mission, “provides access to quality healthcare services, free of charge, to those who are uninsured or underinsured and who meet financial ability guidelines.”
Their services “are provided in a compassionate, respectful and culturally sensitive manner until a permanent healthcare provider can be established.” The ODC’s office is located in a trailer adjacent to the Porter Medical Center in Middlebury. Since its inception in 1993, the ODC has expanded its operations, offering seven clinics per month.
Open Door Clinic staffers Julia Doucet, Josh Lanney, and Christiane Kobuko, led the volunteer training session, which lasted from 9:30 a.m to 11:00 a.m. At the beginning, students were given folders containing extensive information about the ODC’s mission and operations and were required to complete a questionnaire.
Volunteer roles available for students included medical provider as an EMT, clinic reception, website design and technological assistance, administrative projects, J-term intern, Spanish and English translation and transcripts, and bilingual medical interpreter. A slideshow, presented by ODC staffers, gave an overview of the clinic’s funding and patient demographics, and provided a comprehensive background on the migrant workers who comprise 60 percent of the clinic’s patients. The presenters also highlighted barriers for migrant workers in receiving care.
Specialized training for medical interpreters lasted from 11 a.m to 4 p.m. The beginning of the session was spent disproving several myths about the reality of medical interpretation. For example, while family, friends, or any bilingual person can be thought of as sufficient at being a medical interpreter, several problems can arise, such as role reversal, editing, accuracy mistakes, guilt, omission and confidentiality.
Another myth included the idea that interpreters should interpret literally. What’s required, ultimately, is that the idea and context behind someone’s message is clearly conveyed. The students were also presented a formula to keep in mind: “Bilingual proficiency in medical terminology + a complex set of interpreting skills + the skilled use of ethical principles = qualified medical interpreter.” The rest of the training session focused on role-playing, where methods of interpretation were tested on the spot.
“Our office and Middlebury College work closely with the Open Door Clinic, and I would say we really appreciate the learning opportunities for students, and how students can make a positive impact for our local community,” said Ashley Laux, associate director of the Center for Community Engagement, when asked to describe the relationship between the college and the ODC.
“For at least five years, we’ve been offering trainings on campus, sometimes for general volunteer positions, and sometimes more specifically for medical interpreter positions,” Laux said. “It’s a rare opportunity to be in a really intimate client-doctor setting, and so that’s why quite a bit of training goes into it.”
“Students have been serving as paid summer interns [at the Open Door Clinic] since the summer of 2013, and that’s through Addison County privilege and poverty internship program,” Laux said. “Middlebury College pays their salary, but they work full-time for the full summer at the Open Door Clinic, which is a wonderful opportunity for them to immerse themselves in the work that the Open Door Clinic does.”
“Our relationship with the Center for Community Engagement is very important,” said Josh Lanney, patient services coordinator at the Open Door Clinic. “They provide us with an intern every year, which is invaluable help to us when none of the volunteers are around.”
“[Volunteerism] requires professionalism, reliability and then, more than a lot of other things, cultural competency, which is kind of an abstract term which refers to treating everybody like people,” Lanney said, when asked about the qualities the ODC looks for in volunteers.
“As far as student volunteers go, and who we’re looking for, the Open Door Clinic provides excellent mentoring opportunities to the students who volunteer with us. They are given a lot more roles and responsibilities than if they were to volunteer for any other organization,” Lanney said.
“I believe that the service through the Open Door Clinic helps students meet community-based needs,” Laux said. “The second half of the CCE’s mission is to strengthen communities, and so helping the Open Door clinic fulfill their mission is strengthening the local communities.”
(10/11/17 10:14pm)
Three weeks ago I touched on the importance of original reporting in this column, and argued that the blogosphere would never replace traditional media because the very existence of news relies on reporters immersing themselves in their respective beats.
In that column, I mentioned newspapers like The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and The Boston Globe, but failed to discuss the role of alternative newspapers like The Village Voice, the Washington City Paper and Vermont’s own Seven Days, cofounded by Paula Routly ’82.
Given their independence and weekly print schedule, alt-weeklies historically have been able to produce some of the country’s finest investigative reporting. Take, for example, last month, when a pair of journalists at the Phoenix New Times, an alt-weekly based in Phoenix, Az., published a story that unveiled how local Motel 6 chains were handing over guest lists to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency commonly referred to as ICE.
One of the story’s coauthors was Joseph Flaherty ’15, who headed The Campus during the 2014-2015 academic year. The report came after Flaherty and his colleague Antonia Noori Farzan received a tip that ICE agents were raiding local Motel 6 locations on a regular basis.
“All we knew was there was talk of undocumented guests being picked up frequently at area motels, and that immigration attorneys were concerned. But we didn’t know the chain of events that led to undocumented guests being arrested after check-in,” Flaherty told me.
“Was it a lone front-desk clerk who was racially profiling guests, placing a call to ICE based on someone’s I.D. or surname? Were the arrests a product of regular police activity at the motels? Or — as it eventually turned out — was it a routine process where the guest list was sent directly to ICE on a nightly basis?”
After New Times published the story, Motel 6 said the practice had taken place unbeknownst to senior management and would be discontinued.
Flaherty believes he and Farzan received the tip because they had experience covering immigration and ICE-related stories in Phoenix.
“From the source’s perspective, my guess is that we seemed like reporters with a proven track record who could cast a critical eye on motel practices related to ICE,” he said. “It probably goes to show that as you report on a subject and establish yourself, sources start to come to you.”
Unlike daily papers, alt-weeklies are not obligated to churn out copy and report news as it breaks. Instead, they are able to focus on important stories we don’t yet know we need to know. With this flexibility, reporters at alt-weeklies can immerse themselves in stories in ways that reporters at daily newspapers or websites may not be able to do.
“In order to track down which Motel 6 locations were responsible, we had to do a deep dive into court records — making note of the motel addresses where arrests occurred, calling attorneys to verify details, and so on. This isn’t to say that a daily couldn’t report this story, and we certainly had to do our fair share of juggling other stories while reporting it,” Flaherty said.
“But cities need publications that are willing to report aggressively and invest time where other news outlets might not. From my perspective, that’s the definition of an alt-weekly.”
Deep dives into local stories with a national twist are a staple of the alt-weekly, and part of what makes them a central piece of American life and journalism. However, this importance does not make them immune to the financial woes that have beleaguered the newspaper business for, well, practically my entire life.
In August, The Village Voice, the country’s foremost alt-weekly, announced the end of its print edition and the beginning of a new, online-only platform. When the decision was made, many Voice devotees deemed it the end of an era.
Though he was sad to see the print edition end, Flaherty is optimistic that alt-weeklies can thrive in the digital age. Last month, after New Times published his piece, it garnered significant attention online, especially on Twitter, which is where I found it.
“Watching a story like this one get picked up and shared everywhere is thrilling and definitely doesn’t happen everyday,” he said.
For Flaherty, online news is the future, in part because it has the unique ability to bring together readers from different locales, and allows for a greater back-and-forth between reporters and their readership. At the end of the day, what’s worth protecting is not the print edition, but the dogged, pavement pounding reporting itself.
“There will always be a place for alt-weeklies and magazines in the digital age,” Flaherty said. “Readers are still going to want the incisive writing and feature-length reporting that these publications offer, whether they’re paging through a physical copy at a newsstand or clicking on the latest story that everyone on Twitter is talking about.”
Will DiGravio is the managing editor of this paper.
(10/11/17 10:06pm)
There is nothing more celebrated at Middlebury College than a student-led business venture. Middlebury dedicates an enormous amount of its financial and human resources to entrepreneurship. This meticulously animated video perfectly demonstrates the way our school tries to attract prospective students with its focus on business. About two years ago, Middlebury lauded the emergence of another one of these student-led entrepreneurship projects: Fiasco (then, Late Night Fiasco).
It’s hard to miss the blatant cultural appropriation that characterized this project. In “J-term Gourmet,” another well produced video on Middlebury College’s official Vimeo account, the business’ founder discusses the inspiration and history of Late Night Fiasco — “an after-hours kitchen” serving “globally-influenced street foods”— as he and a friend (also a cis white man) roll up to the Middlebury Food Co-Op in a Subaru SUV where they source their ingredients for an array of dishes “inspired” by cultures from around the world. Since its inception, Fiasco’s menu has included items such as butternut squash pupusas, kimchi pork fried rice burritos, steamed pork buns, grilled avocado tacos, sweet potato tacos and cochinita pibil tacos.
To cite a very relevant article written by Rachel Kuo at Everyday Feminism, “One of the questions that both chefs and diners should ask themselves is, who is laboring and profiting? Where are these recipes from? Who is this cuisine profiting off, but not supporting – a group that is historically and currently oppressed?”
I should not and cannot claim that all students who identify with Salvadoran culture, for example, were similarly outraged at seeing pupusas on Fiasco’s menu (corrected from initial spelling: “papusas”), or that folks who identify with Mexican and/or Korean culture viewed Fiasco’s “kimchi pork fried rice burritos” with similar disdain. What I can attest to, however, is that Fiasco’s culinary colonialism is not at all exceptional. It represents a widespread phenomenon that is particularly visible in many gentrifying cities across the U.S. Monied white people, and particularly white men, have been emerging as pioneers in an increasingly inaccessible industry of gourmet eateries which liberally take culinary traditions from cultures around the world, the territories of which have been colonized or at least occupied by European and/or U.S. powers over the course of history. Similar to the process of colonialism that extracted labor and raw materials from occupied territories, culinary colonialism is largely driven by men. It seems important to emphasize how this problem is gendered because cooking has been consistently devalued over the course of human history when women have been relegated to domestic work. (Of course most domestic work today is still undervalued and made invisible). I would argue that this fusion food is also being grossly overvalued, in part because cis white men are in the kitchen, which, to a white supremacist patriarchal society, seems really exceptional.
Again, I want to return to Rachel Kuo: “Enjoying food from another culture is perfectly fine. But, food is appropriated when people from the dominant culture — in the case of the U.S., white folks — start to fetishize or commercialize it, and when they hoard access to that particular food. When a dominant culture reduces another community to its cuisine, subsumes histories and stories into menu items — when people think culture can seemingly be understood with a bite of food, that’s where it gets problematic.”
The issue of culinary colonialism takes on even more meaning in the context of Middlebury College, an institution which has largely served the interests of white people and of capitalism since its foundation. Most of Middlebury’s student body is white and wealthy. Maybe Fiasco and its success on our campus foreshadows the ways we (particularly white people with class privilege) go out into the “real world” to become gentrifiers. Throughout my time here, I have seen friends and peers leave this campus to settle in cities across the country, which have become sites of displacement on a massive scale for working class people of color.
I think we, particularly people like me who will be leaving this institution with white privilege and class privilege in addition to a powerful diploma, need to be asking ourselves some critical and difficult questions about life after Midd: Is my presence and my money contributing to the displacement of city residents? How can I see myself as an agent in a process that seems much bigger than myself and the decisions I make? Does my comfort come at the expense of other people’s safety? How can I support working POC’s struggle to resist gentrification without stepping on the toes of those most directly impacted?
This article originally appeared on Beyond the Green.
(10/11/17 9:37pm)
The women’s soccer team had a huge weekend on the road, beating Tufts 1–0 on Saturday, Oct. 7, before heading west to beat Wesleyan in overtime on Sunday, Oct. 8. Middlebury now has momentum looking toward the conference tournament.
“Saturday and Sunday were both important wins for us, against two excellent teams,” Coach Peter Kim said. “We knew it would take a lot of focus and determination to get past both this weekend, and saw it as a challenge to achieve higher levels of play and consistency. Both teams were organized, physical, and direct, and both have very rough field surfaces.
“I think we did a nice job of solving Tufts with quick combinations, while Wesleyan required a more direct approach. Fortunately, our team is very flexible and can therefore adapt to the demands of each game we play.”
The Jumbos came into Saturday’s game with an imposing reputation, having gone undefeated in conference play thus far. Middlebury, however, didn’t allow themselves to be bullied out of their comfort zone. The game resembled most of their previous low-scoring Nescac affairs in which the Panthers, bolstered by their stalwart defense, led in both shot attempts (14–7) and shots on goal (5–3). The first period featured a good deal of back and forth in terms of possession, but both sides struggled to execute successful attacks into the other team’s territory. “I think we spent more mental energy preparing for Tufts knowing that they were undefeated in the NESCAC and would be a really fierce competitor,” she said. “They play a very direct style of soccer and we struggled at first to get the ball down on the ground. Once we figured this out, we were able to be much more successful.”
Middlebury certainly elevated their game in the second half, in which they recorded all five of their shots on goal. Nevertheless, they couldn’t help but keep the fans on the edge of their seats, waiting until the 87th minute to finally convert on an attempt. Virginia Charman ’20 lobbed a cross to Van Voorhis, who headed the ball just off the crossbar. Thankfully, Eliza Robinson ’21 was waiting and ready to gather the rebound and push the ball past the keeper into the back of the net. Neither team scored for the rest of the game, giving Middlebury the 1–0 victory.
The shutout was the third of the season for Ursula Alwang ’20, a total in which the contributions of the Middlebury defense have played a large part as well.
Middlebury didn’t have as much time to celebrate as they might have liked, since they had to hop on a bus to Middletown, Connecticut to take on Wesleyan the next day at 11 a.m. Although the Cardinals came into the match with a record of 1–4–1, the margin of defeat in each of their previous losses was just one goal apiece. Wesleyan demonstrated more talent than their record might’ve shown, especially in the first period of Sunday’s matchup. They outshot the Panthers 7–6, keeping the visitors on their heels for much of the half. After both Eliza Robinson’s shot on goal and a rebound attempt from Sabrina Glaser ’20 were blocked in the 14th minute, the Panthers had difficulty putting shots on goal for the rest of the period; in the meantime, the Cardinals found the back of the net in the 26th minute to give them a 1–0 lead that they would hold through the end of the half.
Middlebury played with more authority in the second half. The defense clamped down to limit the Cardinals to just two shot attempts as the Panthers dialed up their own offensive pressure, coming painstakingly close on a number of occasions. They finally hit pay dirt with just under 11 minutes remaining in the period. Van Voorhis received a corner kick from Barber at the top of the penalty box that she redirected back to Caitlin Magruder ’20, who sent a laser past the Cardinal keeper from 30 yards out.
Neither team was able to score again before time expired, sending the match into an extra period. It seemed that they were headed for another extra period until, with just seconds left before the buzzer, captain Amanda Dafonte ’19 made a charge down the right side of the field. She found Charman running along the flank. In turn, Charman placed a perfect pass just out of Wesleyan’s reach, allowing a sliding Van Voorhis to bring the game to a 2–1 close with her team-leading fifth goal of the season.
“The Wesleyan game was closer than we would have liked it to be,” said Van Voorhis. “I think we are in a great position moving into the final four games of the regular season,” said Van Voorhis.
Middlebury hosts Trinity this Saturday, Oct. 14.
(10/11/17 9:27pm)
The women’s golf team took to Route 7 and headed south last weekend toward Williamstown, Massachusetts, to play for the Nescac championship on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 7 and 8. While the Ephs once again took to conference crown, the Panthers held their own on Williams’ home course at Taconic Golf Club.
The Panthers finished in third, only four shots behind second-place Amherst, shooting a 628 on the weekend. Williams took the trophy with a collective 612 for the weekend, with rounds of 306 on both days.
“Everyone on the team dedicated themselves to improving mentally and technically this fall,” Chloe Levins ’20 said after Sunday’s round was over. “There is nothing but motivation to take away from the season. It’s exciting to be inches from great success as a team.”
It was really a three-team race from end-to-end, as Williams, Amherst and the Panthers were within seven shots of each other after the first day of play (306, 307, 313). The next closest team at that point was Bowdoin, who was a distant 26 shots behind Middlebury.
Even more impressive about the Panthers’ weekend performance at Taconic is the fact that their weekend total of 628 was 13 shots better than their two-day score the last two times the team played at the familiar course, when they shot rounds of 641 twice last season.
After the first day, Helen Dailey ’19 and Chloe Levins ’20 found themselves in a share of the fifth spot on the individual leaderboard. Their rounds of 76 led the way for the Panthers, and it marked a career day for Dailey. Her 76 was the lowest round of her collegiate career thus far. For Levins, the 76 tied her second-lowest score for the season.
Blake Yaccino ’20 turned in an 80 on the first day, which for the third straight round, put Yaccino just on the precipice of breaking the 80 mark.
Hope Matthews ’18, one of the team’s two senior captains, was the last Panther to register in the day-one scoring, as she shot an 81.
In a stroke of bad luck, the Panthers’ other senior captain who almost always is among the team’s lowest scorers, Katharine Fortin ’18, had her highest round of the season on Saturday. She turned in an 83 on a course that has been hit or miss for her throughout her career. Fortin has shot rounds as low as 76 and as high as 87 at Williams’ home course.
However, the scoring played out differently for the Panthers last Sunday.
Fortin followed her tough Saturday with a key 79 on Sunday, which would prove to be the second-lowest score for the Panthers on day two. The lowest scorer was Yaccino, who finally overcame her tendency to add strokes to her score in the second round of tournaments and shaved five strokes off her Saturday score to register a 75. Her two-day total of 155 was the team low and was good for a fifth-place overall finish on the individual leaderboard.
Levins, the team’s no. 1 for much of the fall and the Nescac tournament individual champion at the event last year, fell off the lead on Sunday and fell short of defending her title. Her 84 pushed her from a tie for fifth to a tie for ninth. Although it rained over northwest Massachusetts on Sunday morning, Levins is not going to chalk up her higher score to anything but a tough round and a constructive experience.
“It rained heavily for the first four holes on day two,” Levins said. “This made the course trickier for everyone in the field to manage. My higher score, however, was not a byproduct of course conditions. I’m just still learning how to stay in contention on day two. One of these times, I’ll get it.”
Dailey also fell off of the pace she set for herself on Saturday, as she went from a 76 to an 81 on Sunday, putting her weekend total at 157 and her in a three-way tie for sixth in the individual competition. Matthews managed to shoot an 80 on Sunday, and her two-day total of 161 saw her claim a tie for 10th on the individual boards.
The Nescac tournament marked the end of the fall season for the women’s golf team, which has a lot to be excited about for the spring season and beyond.
“It has been really interesting to watch the team grow and develop over the past few years,” Matthews said. “I think we have gathered a lot of great talent in recent recruiting and it is definitely showing in our results. Although we have not won any tournaments yet, we are getting closer to catching our competitors each time. I’m really excited to see how we can challenge Williams, Amherst, NYU, and other opponents in the spring.”
As was the case for Matthews, the weekend also marked Fortin’s last conference tournament, and although the team did not push Williams as hard as they had hoped, Fortin was able to reflect on how far the program has come.
“This season has been a great show of our ability to compete with the other top NESCAC schools,” Fortin said. “We are driving the program in the right direction.
“When I came onto the team as a freshman, we were good, but we did not have the depth needed to compete with Williams and, eventually, Amherst and NYU,” Fortin said. However, the Panthers’ recent success with recruiting and seeing through the development of new players in the program looks to change that narrative.
“We have acquired some really strong underclassmen and have shown rising collegiate golfers that the Middlebury women’s golf team is in the thick of the competition every week,” Fortin said. “This will certainly help to further develop the program and recruit successful players in the coming years.”
More immediately, however, the short spring season will be here before fans of Middlebury golf know it. Fortin, who will have her fourth opportunity to measure up to the challenge of playing golf competitively in upper-New England Aprils, is looking to make the most of it.
“The short Spring season is definitely hard coming out of a cold winter,” Fortin said, “but we will continue to be up there with Williams and Amherst, especially if we stay on top of our games and keep up our strength through the winter months.
“Everyone is in the same position at the beginning of April, so we will be competing at the same level and will continue to give ourselves a chance to be on top of the leaderboard.”
Like the senior captain, the team’s emerging star—Levins—is looking forward to April and is boiling everything down to what really matters the most.
“It’s important to keep a singular focus on your own game from week to week,” Levins said. “However, on the weekends, we play as Middlebury Women’s Golf. The process of getting better never changes and neither does what we represent.
“The best thing for me, and everyone else, to do looking forward, is to keep it simple and get the ball in the hole for Middlebury.”
(10/11/17 9:24pm)
The men’s tennis team faced a big challenge last weekend, Friday to Sunday, Oct. 6 to 8, as it competed against exclusively Division I teams in the Farnsworth Invitational at Princeton. The doubles pair of Andre Xiao ’21 and Will de Quant ’18 led the way by reaching the semifinals of the A-doubles flight, while Peter Martin ’19 reached the semifinals of the C-singles flight.
Despite the fact that Middlebury was the only Division III team competing at Princeton, the Panthers were confident in their ability to match-up with most other teams there.
“In reality, there were only a handful of teams (UVA, Columbia, Princeton) at the tournament that would clearly beat us in a team match,” said team captain de Quant. “The majority of teams there had strong players, but I would feel confident about our chances when pitting our lineup against theirs.”
De Quant, Noah Farrell ’19 and Kyle Schlanger ’18 all competed in the A-singles flight.
In the first round, de Quant defeated Drexel’s Hamza Laalej 6–2, 7–5, but lost to eventual champion, Virginia’s Aswin Lizen, in the next round 6–2, 6–2. Lizen is part of the team that has won the past NCAA Division I titles.
“The ‘better’ teams at the tournament were UVA, Princeton and Columbia,” said de Quant. “UVA has won two consecutive NCAA Division I titles, so seeing the talent they bring in and how they compete in matches is great for us moving forward. As a team, we know that our level of commitment and our level of training is on par with most DI programs, and seeing these DI teams this weekend only solidified my confidence in our program and the quality that our team has on and off court.”
Farrell lost his first round matchup to Luka Sucevic from St. John’s 7–5, 7–6 (7–2). After a bye in the first round, Schlanger lost a hard-fought match to Monmouth’s Alberto Giuffrida 7–6 (11–9), 1–6, 10–4.
Schlanger and de Quant showed their mettle in the consolation bracket, where Schlanger won twice and de Quant won three matches to finish 4–1 on the weekend in singles.
In the A-doubles flight, de Quant and Xiao advanced to the semifinals by winning their first match over Marist’s Chris Gladden and Carlos Moreno 8–3. There, the Panther pair lost to Drexel’s Bernard Tefel and Sinan Orhon 8–6.
“The top end of Division III Tennis is now very strong and deep, which I think showed when our players competed against some of the top players from the DI schools at this tournament,” said de Quant.
Schlanger and Timo van der Geest ’18, the other Middlebury pair in the A-doubles flight, won their first match as well, defeating Lehigh’s George Cooper and Bryant Born 8–3, but fell to eventual champions Rian Pandole and Michal Rolski from Columbia 8–5. Unlike Cuba and de Quant, Schlanger and van der Geest did not get a bye, so they only made it to the quarterfinals.
Van der Geest and Alex Vanezis ’20 and Andre Xiao ’21 represented Middlebury in the B-singles flight. All three Panthers lost their first matches, but both van der Geest and Xiao were able to win twice in the consolation bracket.
In B-doubles, the pairs of Farrell and Martin and Vanezis and Nate Eazor ’21 lost in the first round. Vanezis and Eazor rebounded in the consolation bracket by winning twice.
Martin made his run into the semifinals of C-singles by beating Lehigh’s Chris Auteri 2–6, 6–2, 10–3, Drexel’s Xandy Hammitt 5–7, 7–6 (7 – 3), 10–8, and Columbia’s Taiya Hamanaka 7–6 (7–4), 6–2. He lost to Princeton’s Kabir Sarita 6–2, 6–1 in the final four of the 32-man field.
“Peter Martin stood out this weekend, as he performed very well in his singles bracket,” de Quant said. “He has historically focused on doubles, but he showed everyone his quality in singles as well this weekend, which is great for him and great for the team moving forward.”
Adam Guo ’21 also had a successful weekend, winning twice in the D-singles flight and once in the C-doubles flight paired with Thorne Gregory ’21. They beat a UVA pair 87.
“The mentality for the weekend was focused on getting matches under our belt, which was a success considering all 13 guys was able to play multiple matches each day,” de Quant said. “This is what the fall season is all about.
“We had confidence going in that we have the level to play and beat players from these DI programs, which showed throughout the weekend,” de Quant said. “Our goal was to learn more about where we stand as individuals and as a team, and we did just that.”
After the challenges the Panthers faced these last several weeks, the team should be ready to go for this weekend’s trip to Cambridge, Massachusetts, for the MIT Invitational Friday to Sunday, Oct. 13 to 15.
(10/11/17 9:22pm)
This past weekend, the Middlebury volleyball vanquished Connecticut College on Friday, Oct. 6, before falling to Wesleyan on Saturday afternoon, Oct. 7, snapping a 10-match winning streak. The Panthers (12–3, 4–1) now sit at fourth in the Nescac standings.
In the weekend opener, the Camels did not provide a challenge, losing to the hosts in straight sets (25–13, 25–13, 25–10), which pushed Middlebury’s win streak was pushed to double digits.
In the first set, an attack error by the Panthers provided the Camels with the first point — the Panthers never trailed after that. After the Camels tied the set at 9, the Panthers went on a 14–2 run behind a plethora of kills courtesy of Eliana Schaefer ’18, Alice Roberts ’18, Sarah Staver ’19 and Isabel Sessions ’19.
The second set developed in a similar fashion, with the Camels winning the initial point, losing the lead, then knotting the score up at 9 only to have the Panthers go on a big run propelled by a barrage of kills.
With the last set underway, the Panthers no longer had any interest in making it seem like they might let the Camels hang around for another set. Middlebury quickly jumped out to an 8–3 lead behind two kills by Sessions and a couple of service aces by Gigi Alper ’20. The Camels won the next point, but it proved to be their real gasp of competitiveness of the day. Middlebury tacked on another long scoring streak (12–3) before Staver closed out the victory with a block.
Middlebury dominated the whole way, especially on defense, tallying 11 blocks, while the visitors could not manage to notch a single one. Staver led the way in the category with a phenomenal eight-block effort — Sessions tacked on four while Schaefer added three.
Becca Raffel ’18 led the offense with a match-high nine kills while Sessions put four shots away. Alper, with 10 digs, also added a match-high four service aces.
On Saturday, the team celebrated senior day, honoring Raffel, Schaefer, Roberts and Emily Kolodka ’18. However, team on the other side of the net was a hot Wesleyan team who came in 13–1 and undefeated in Nescac play. Middlebury’s 10-game win streak was snapped by the Cardinals, but not without a fight from the Panthers who let a 2–0 set advantage slip away. The Cardinals clawed their way back into the match after dropping the first two sets 25–19 and 25–11, winning a pair of 25–19 do-or-die victories before narrowly escaped Pepin with a 16–14 win in the rubber-match fifth set.
In a tight first set, tied at 13, the hosts put together a 5–1 run. The Cardinals managed to close the gap though to 21–19, but four straight home-team points that was capped by a Roberts kill down the line gave the Panthers a one-set-to-zero advantage.
The second set was not nearly as tight as the first. The hosts bounded out to an 8–4 lead and then won the next nine points. During the run, Staver and Roberts both recorded a pair of kills. Middlebury ended up winning handily, posting a sparkling .483 hitting percentage in the process.
The third set saw another mid-set tie, this time at 14. It was Wesleyan, however, that strung together the points this time, and the Panthers found themselves in a 21–15 hole, a point from which they never seemed to recover for the rest of the match. The fourth and fifth stanzas were not as close, despite what the scores indicate, as the Cardinals jumped out to early leads, held off Middlebury advances, ultimately handing the Panthers a loss.
Despite the loss, Raffel continued to dominate Nescac foes as she posted a season-best 21 kills. Schaefer, Roberts and Staver were also instrumental on the offensive, posting kill totals of 11, 11 and 12, respectively. Emma Walsh ’21, thriving when she is given playing time and opportunities, dished out a career-best 55 assists while also adding seven digs.
Even in a losing effort, the Panthers outhit the Cardinals .283 to .208 and managed to pile up more blocks, with 11 to Wesleyan’s seven.
With a weekend of mixed results, Raffel remains confident.
“This weekend was full of highs and lows,” Raffel said. “Connecticut College is a good team and we were able to stay focused and execute efficiently against them. The loss to Wesleyan was obviously disappointing, but I’m so proud of our composure throughout the match and we will hope to see them again down the road.”
The Panthers have a big couple of days ahead, as they travel to Medford, Maine, tomorrow to take on the Nescac front-running Tufts Jumbos in a rematch of last seasons Nescac tournament championship before heading to Brunswick, Maine, to face Bowdoin on Saturday.
(10/04/17 11:53pm)
Ethan Sonneborn, an eighth grade student at Mount Abraham Union Middle School, announced this month his campaign for a spot in Vermont’s 2018 gubernatorial race. Sonneborn, a Democrat, aims to inspire other young people to participate in politics at any level.
“We need to engage young people in the process,” Sonneborn said in an interview.
Vermont is one of the few states that does not place an age requirement on gubernatorial candidates. Vermont’s youngest governor was 34-year-old F. Rey Keyser, Jr., who was elected in 1960. Gubernatorial candidates are only required to have resided in Vermont for at least four years, a requirement that Sonneborn, a lifelong Vermonter, has already passed.
Sonneborn has been interested in politics and history for most of his life, after finding a photo of Robert F. Kennedy in an encyclopedia. He was just five years old. He even talked with his kindergarten teacher about becoming president someday.
His interest in politics turned into action in middle school, when he led a peaceful protest against a school ban on talking during his lunch periods. He and his friends held signs and refused to eat until administrators lifted the ban.
Unlike most 13-year-olds, Sonneborn has developed nuanced positions on many of the issues currently plaguing both Vermont and the nation at large. He supports marijuana legalization and further protections for LGBT individuals. His first priority if elected would be to reform Vermont Health Connect, Vermont’s health insurance marketplace, in order to ensure that more Vermonters have access to affordable healthcare.
“These issues affect the entire nation, but I believe Vermont could lead the way in solving them,” Sonneborn said.
Sonneborn is most passionate about combatting apathy in politics. His mission to engage young people in the political process could prove to be challenging, as historically young people are less likely to participate in politics than their older counterparts. The General Social Survey conducted in 2014 revealed that millennials are less likely to vote than other generations, despite engaging in other forms of political action, as reported by The Washington Post.
“I really see a lot of pessimism in America right now. I’ve always thought America needs a fresh vision,” Sonneborn said.
Sonneborn has gotten many of his friends involved in his campaign as well. He launched his campaign a couple of weeks before the new school year began, and on his first day back, many of his friends asked to work on his campaign.
“My formal senior staff is almost entirely comprised of eighth graders. I think this helps — I was looking for people who cared about our state and wanted to help it through this time,” Sonneborn said.
Despite the challenges that will come with running a gubernatorial campaign and attending the eighth grade, Sonneborn is confident in his abilities to effect change in Vermont politics while still fulfilling his duties as a student.
“So far I’ve been able to balance both [the campaign and school], but I think running for governor is also a valuable educational experience and my parents agree,” Sonneborn said.
If Sonneborn wins the Democratic primary, he will most likely face incumbent Republican Phil Scott, who has not yet announced his reelection campaign but is expected to do so later this year. Democrat James Ehlers, the Executive Director of fishing and clean water advocacy organization Lake Champlain International, also announced a bid for governor in July 2017.
Although his main focus is to win the general election in 2018, for now, Sonneborn hopes the campaign itself will help interest more young people in the political process.
“We really need people engaged in the political process. I really appreciate it when people tweet at the campaign. It’s really important that we get people engaged,” Sonneborn said.
(10/04/17 11:47pm)
With three more wins, the Middlebury volleyball team pushes their winning streak to an impressive nine games, a mark they did not even reach last year when they won the Nescac crown.
“Our team is getting better each time we step on the court,” Gigi Alper ’20. “Our winning streak is fueling our fire and gives us a lot of confidence going into another challenging home week.”
After they swept a mid-week tune-up against Colby-Sawyer, the Panthers were back in action in Nescac play last Friday, Sept. 29.
The Bates Bobcats visited Pepin and left with another loss (25–23, 25–22, 21–25, 25–22), dropping their record to 5–6 (1–2 in the conference). The match was more tightly contested than the midweek affair with four points being the largest point spread in any set.
After falling behind the Bobcats 7–3 in the first set, Middlebury fought back to tie the game at 14 after a Bobcats attack error. Neither team pulled away as the match progressed, so Isabel Sessions ’19’s kill that clinched the first game for the Panthers was clutch.
In the second set, Bates went on top early again, grabbing a 15–9 lead. However, the early hole in which the Panthers found themselves did not intimidate last week’s Nescac Player of the Week, Becca Raffel ’18, who propelled a 16–5 run for the Panthers and capped the set with a kill down the line. During this momentum-setting set, Raffel became just the fifth Panther in program history to reach the 1,000-kill plateau.
Up 2–0 in sets, the Panthers finally found themselves take an early lead, cruising to the point where they had a 12–7 lead. This time, however, it was the Bobcats who made a late run.
Bates’ 10–3 run was followed by a few attack errors that allowed Middlebury to regain the lead, 19–18, but the late-set surge was too much for the Panthers to overcome.
The fourth, and ultimately final, set was by far the closest. Neither team gained more than a two-point advantage as things were knotted up at 20–20.
Yet, having won plenty of close matches during their nine-game win streak, the Panthers were in familiar territory. The Panthers stayed characteristically cool under the pressure and notched five of the next seven points to take the set 25–22.
Raffel and Sessions paced the attack in the Bates match, as each provided 15 kills, while Gigi Alper ’20 dug 27 balls and Emma Walsh ’21, in her first Nescac action, dished out a match-high 49 assists. The Panther victory was due in large part to a dominating front line that roofed the Bobcats on numerous occasions, which Bates tried to counter by altering their strategy to rely more on dumps, but Middlebury adjusted and was unfazed.
“It was really exciting to get to play in conference games, and it was even better to play with such a great group of people,” Walsh said.
With one Maine school defeated, a second came to town to try to take down the Panthers on Saturday, Sept. 30, but also left with an L. Middlebury defeated Colby College in straight sets (25–13, 25–13, 25–15), pushing their winning streak to nine games. The Panthers thoroughly dominated the match, as Schaefer led the charge on both offense, 11 kills on 17 attempts, and defense with four block assists. After being tied at seven in the opening set, the hosts scored the next nine; important in this run was Raffel, who at one point had three consecutive kills.
The rest of the match was not close. Aside from an 8–6 Panther lead in the second set, the Mules, who hit a low .038 compared to the Panthers’ .393, were never within striking distance. Walsh contributed 32 assists and 12 digs while Emily Kolodka ’18 had 11 digs and a service ace.
Middlebury currently ranks first in the Nescac in hitting percentage (.255) and second in kills per set (12.67), while Raffel leads the conference in kills (176). Most important though is the Panthers’ standing in the Nescac: with four wins to zero losses, Middlebury sits atop the league along with fellow undefeated sides in Wesleyan and Tufts.
The Panthers will be back in action in Pepin tomorrow night at 8 p.m. when they start a pivotal homestand against Connecticut College. The premiere game of the weekend will take place in Pepin on Saturday, when Middlebury plays host to Wesleyan (12–1, 5–0), with match-time set for 2 p.m.
(10/04/17 11:41pm)
Hosting the Colby Mules at Alumni Stadium, Middlebury scored 34 unanswered points for its third straight win on Saturday, Sept. 30. The team is tied for first place with Amherst and Trinity and hope to beat “that team in purple” at its field next Saturday.
Middlebury scored the first three points at the eight-minute mark thanks to a Carter Massengill ’20 field goal. The field goal, kicked from Colby’s ten-yard line, was set up by four complete passes from Jared Lebowitz ’18.
The Mules answered four minutes later after Lebowitz fumbled. With great field position, Colby’s completed a pass for their first and only score of the game. The extra point was blocked by Robert Wood ’18, giving the guest a 6–3 lead, but it would be short lived as the Panthers went on to score 34 points, all unanswered.
At the 11-minute mark in the second quarter, Middlebury started the drive on its own 43-yard line. After a fake punt play and 25-yard completion to the Minnesota native Jimmy Connell ’21, Lebowitz found Banky in the end zone with a quick five-yard shovel pass to put the hosts up. Massengill converted the extra point and the Panthers led 10–6.
After a four-and-out series for the Mules, Middlebury started its drive on its 34-yard line. Lebowitz connected with Aidan Power ’20 for 17 yards and Peter Scibilia ’21 rushed three times for a total of 19 yards to put Middlebury at Colby’s 19-yard line. After a Colby timeout, Lebowitz found Banky from 18-yards out for the Texas native’s second of the day. After icing the extra point, the Panthers went up 17–6.
Middlebury did not score for the remainder of the second quarter, as a couple mistakes compounded on both sides of the ball. Even in the third quarter, a couple penalties and a Lebowitz interception were not good signs for the usual crisp Panthers. At the five-minute mark, Lebowitz marched his offense down the field starting at their own 20. Completing passes to Banky and two to Tanner Contois ’18, including an 18-yard pass for a touchdown sealed the drive and expanded the hosts’ lead to 24. Massengill had a great day behind the tee, going five for six on field goal attempts, including extra points.
Leading 24–6 heading into the fourth, the hosts found another surge to their offense after a four-and-out series by the Mules set up a punt from their own 18-yard line. Colby’s punt went 43 yards, right into the arms of Jimmy Martinez ’19, who dodged and weaved his way 61 yards for a Middlebury touchdown.
Four minutes later, the hosts placed Jack Meservy ’19 in the QB slot. He completed a huge 22-yard pass to Power to get the Panthers to the Colby 46, alongside Charlie Ferguson ’21, who rushed for 43 yards, including a 25-yard touchdown dash to put the hosts up for good, 37–6.
Nobody scored for the remainder of the game, and Diego Meritus ’19, who is still injured, commented after the final horn.
“We all agree we made way too many mistakes that game — on both sides of the ball and even special teams. Although Colby is a good team, we are a lucky we were able to get away with some of the mistakes and still win. That will not be the case this week. Any small error can make a huge difference in the game. Last year we beat them by 1 and a block extra point made the difference. We will need to play a fundamentally sound game next week against that team in purple if we want to win.”
The Panthers have no doubt they will clean up their mistakes ahead of one of the biggest games of the season. Banky and Lebowitz need to continue to play the way they are now, as Lebowitz had a stellar performance, passing 389 yard with three touchdowns, moving him up to a career high 40. Banky, who finished with two touchdowns — including the 17th of his career, tying Beau Coash ’17 for the third on the school’s all-time list — and 136 yards, will be an integral part of the offense this coming Saturday.
“[Lebowitz] and I have a developed a solid chemistry from playing three years together,” Banky said. “He is a great leader and elevates everyone else around him, he makes me better. For me, I don’t pay too much attention to my personal stats because a win for the team, is a win for me and that is my first priority.”
The Panthers face their first big challenge against 3-0 Amherst on Saturday, Oct. 7.
