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(12/06/18 10:56am)
A sunny day signaled the end of the Storm Café. The restaurant, located in the Old Stone Mill building on the banks of Otter Creek, had been a staple in the Middlebury food scene for years. Last year, their American cuisine made from local ingredients won the café a spot in Visiting New England’s “12 Favorite Places for Breakfast” list.
On Nov. 11, Beth and John Hughes, who ran the restaurant for the past 13 years, said goodbye to regular customers, many of whom had been coming there since it opened in the lowest floor of the Old Stone Mill 25 years ago.
“It’s bittersweet,” John told Seven Days.
“This was our dream—to own our own business together,” Beth said in an interview with the Addison Independent. In a statement on the Storm Café’s website, they both thanked the Middlebury community for their patronage and promised they would miss all those who dined with them over the years. The Storm Café will be missed by many in the Middlebury community. John estimated that roughly 80 percent of the café’s customers came from the college. “The Storm’s cozy atmosphere, the sounds of the waterfall and [the] delicious food never failed to provide happy meals for me and my family,” Sophie Hiland ’22 said.
The café joins a long list of recently-closed local businesses, but the decision to close was not made solely by the business owners. Middlebury College, which owns the Old Stone Mill building the Storm Café called home, informed the Hughes this past summer that their lease would not be renewed.
However, there is a rainbow after the storm for the Hughes family. Both Beth and John are now working as a paraprofessional and a cafeteria chef, respectively, at Salisbury Community School. And, to sweeten the deal, their twin daughters Molly and Lilly are both students at the school. “For the first time in 20 years, I’ll have my weekends off,” John added.
As the Hughes move on to other things, Middlebury College announced an end to its search for a new partner to move into 3 Mill Street. The lucky tenants? Community Barn Ventures, a group based in town that, in the words of co-founder Stacey Rainey, helps businesses “solve whatever problems they have, getting them from where they are to where they want to be.”
The group started work just over a year ago and already has about 15 clients. It has been looking to expand beyond just its current advisory role, and found the perfect opportunity on the banks of Otter Creek.
Middlebury College bought the Old Stone Mill building in 2008 for $2.1 million. Since then, the college has used the space above the Storm Café as an incubator for student creativity and innovation. The building has been home to students and locals alike, fostering specifically non-academic, self-designed projects ranging from art exhibitions to band practices. However, Bill Burger, vice president for communications and chief marketing officers, explains, “the building needs such investment that it didn’t make sense to go ahead with the same use of the building.”
Community Barn Ventures will close the deal on purchasing the building for $500,000 in early January. The group has already contracted local firm McLeod Kredell Architects to help bring its vision for the historic building to life, opening up to the public in summer 2019. The Middlebury-based modern architecture firm emphasizes a “search for appropriate local expressions of universal qualities and ideals,” according to its website. John McLeod is a visiting professor of architecture at the college, while Steve Kredell teaches at Norwich University’s School of Architecture and Art.
Stacey Rainey and Mary Cullinane, co-founders and partners at Community Barn Ventures, are Middlebury residents who stepped away from corporate jobs and now focus on making their work “have a positive impact on our community,” Cullinane explained. Their plans for the four-and-a-half story, 9,000-square-foot space reflect this desire for community engagement and support for local business.
The top floor and a half will become five Airbnb units, each with its own bathroom and secure access but with a shared living room and kitchenette, intended for parents, visiting professors, or tourists. Just below the mini-hotel will be the Community Barn Network, a shared workspace divided into seating for people working on personal laptops or without a need for private space, dedicated offices and a shared conference room, and telephone booths for those who need to make private calls. The second floor will house a public market with eight to 10 permanent vendor stalls, half of them food-based and half for hard goods, as well as a stall for coffee and a general watering hole.
The objective is to create a “daily destination,” a place where students and town residents can go for a variety of functions. This deliberate attempt to engage with the community was instrumental in the college’s decision to sell to Community Barn Ventures.
“There were a number of different groups interested in the building,” Burger said. “But we wanted to find the right partner who would do something that we felt was best for Middlebury and that would create opportunity for Middlebury College students.”
The iconic space at 3 Mill Street is being brought into a new age by Community Barn Ventures, but the new plans include a nod to the building’s past: the first floor will remain a restaurant, though Community Barn Ventures is still looking for the perfect partner to take over the space. No matter who ends up taking over the first floor at 3 Mill Street, they will have big shoes to fill with the Storm Café’s departure.
(12/06/18 10:56am)
Old Stone Mill, the college’s hub for student entrepreneurs, innovators and student makers, was sold for $500,000 to Community Barn Ventures, a local consulting firm for growing businesses.
The closing date on the sale of the historic building in downtown Middlebury is Jan. 7, which leaves students a month to move out of the space. At that time, the Old Stone Mill programs will relocate to 82 Weybridge Street.
According to college treasurer David Provost, the sale does not represent a change in the college’s commitment to the students involved in Old Stone Mill projects, but rather a financial necessity. The building needed between $2 and $2.5 million worth of changes to bring it up to the college’s safety and accessibility standards.
Meanwhile, the college has $100 million worth of projects that it has already prioritized, including the renovation of Warner, Johnson and Munroe, building a new academic building, a new residence hall to replace Battell and a new museum.
Provost said that the college is committed to finding both an interim space for the spring of 2019 and a space that will accommodate all of the Old Stone Mill’s projects in the long term.
On Dec. 1, the Innovation Hub announced that the Old Stone Mill programs will be moving to 82 Weybridge Street in the short term.
82 Weybridge Street is up the hill from the current space, 3 Mill Street. It has three apartments, which will continue to accommodate the needs of the Old Stone Mill tenants in conjunction with the Annex space on campus. The Annex space is above the ceramics house on Adirondack Street and already serves as an extra space for Old Stone Mill tenants.
The college purchased the Old Stone Mill in January 2008. In the last 10 years, it has served as a creativity incubator for students seeking a space away from their dorm rooms to build and innovate. Each year, the Old Stone Mill has functioned as that much-needed space for hundreds of student tenants.
“Old Stone Mill is unique in that it is not exclusively a business incubator and it is not a space dedicated for specific academic work,” said Heather Neuwirth, associate director of the center for social entrepreneurship.
“We blend a focus on innovation in the liberal arts with an emphasis on opening up space for creativity,” she said.
The projects of student tenants vary greatly from using the space to write poetry to cooking dinner for the Dinner with Strangers program, to managing well-established businesses. Some of these student-run businesses include Share to Wear, Overeasy, BeachIt, SheFly and PatchyTs.
Share To Wear, a dress rental exchange system for femme-identifying students, was founded in 2016, and leader Greta Hulleberg ’19 attributes much of their positive development to the Old Stone Mill space. Currently, the company stores over 700 dresses in the space, making it laborious to move while keeping them clean and organized.
Hulleberg hopes that the new space will still offer opportunities for collaboration. The founders of Share To Wear regularly collaborated and bounced their ideas off of the leaders of Overeasy and other tenants when working together in the shared work space.
Similarly, the founders of PatchyTs, a t-shirt company that irons custom patches designed by collaborative artists onto their shirts, hope that this sharing will continue in the new space.
Ryan Feldman ’21 said they were disappointed to hear of the Old Stone Mill’s closing because they had fully moved their operation into the work space and had enjoyed making friends with and learning from the leaders of Overeasy and Share to Wear. They are looking forward to moving into the new building.
The space is also home to M Gallery, a gallery designed to give students who create art an alternative space to show their work that is distinct from studio art classes.
According to M Gallery Board Member Leila Markosian ’21, their biggest concern was finding another common area that would fit their needs. They are unsure that they will receive the same reparations since they operate slightly more independently from the rest of the Old Stone Mill tenants. They are excited by the news of the move to 82 Weybridge Street and considerations of Meeker basement because of its accessibility.
In spite of the wide diversity of projects, student tenants and board members of the Old Stone Mill have continually remarked on this rich spirit of collaboration within the space. They all expressed their hope that this atmosphere of sharing and the excitement for innovation that currently exists in the building will be replicated at 82 Weybridge Street.
“It’s the end of the building, not the program,” said Old Stone Mill board member Sarah Haedrich ’19.5, who has assured tenants of the continued success of the program.
“We are trying to look at it as an opportunity to make the space better,” Haedrich said.
Hulleberg similarly expressed her gratitude for the college’s support of creativity and innovation and how lucky she feels that they have and will continue to have a space for their dresses, which they once had to store in a suite.
Opportunities still exist for students to engage with the Old Stone Mill space under its new owners.
“We believe we have found a buyer in Community Barn Ventures who will utilize the building to create a hub for innovation and creativity that will align well with Middlebury’s mission,” Provost said.
“It will create a community space that the students, faculty and staff of the college will benefit from greatly once complete,” he said.
The future owners hope to create a community space that will engage as many members of the community as possible on a daily basis. They plan to build a restaurant on the first floor to replace Storm Café, which closed on Nov. 11, a “public market” on the second floor with various vendors selling different products, a co-working space and private working spaces and lodging spaces on the top floors.
The last tenant showcase in the Old Stone Mill space will take place today from 6-8 p.m.
(12/06/18 10:55am)
A sunny day signaled the end of the Storm Café. The restaurant, located in the Old Stone Mill building on the banks of Otter Creek, had been a staple in the Middlebury food scene for years. Last year, their American cuisine made from local ingredients won the café a spot in Visiting New England’s “12 Favorite Places for Breakfast” list.
On Nov. 11, Beth and John Hughes, who ran the restaurant for the past 13 years, said goodbye to regular customers, many of whom had been coming there since it opened in the lowest floor of the Old Stone Mill 25 years ago.
“It’s bittersweet,” John told Seven Days.
“This was our dream—to own our own business together,” Beth said in an interview with the Addison Independent. In a statement on the Storm Café’s website, they both thanked the Middlebury community for their patronage and promised they would miss all those who dined with them over the years. The Storm Café will be missed by many in the Middlebury community. John estimated that roughly 80 percent of the café’s customers came from the college. “The Storm’s cozy atmosphere, the sounds of the waterfall and [the] delicious food never failed to provide happy meals for me and my family,” Sophie Hiland ’22 said.
The café joins a long list of recently-closed local businesses, but the decision to close was not made solely by the business owners. Middlebury College, which owns the Old Stone Mill building the Storm Café called home, informed the Hughes this past summer that their lease would not be renewed.
However, there is a rainbow after the storm for the Hughes family. Both Beth and John are now working as a paraprofessional and a cafeteria chef, respectively, at Salisbury Community School. And, to sweeten the deal, their twin daughters Molly and Lilly are both students at the school. “For the first time in 20 years, I’ll have my weekends off,” John added.
As the Hughes move on to other things, Middlebury College announced an end to its search for a new partner to move into 3 Mill Street. The lucky tenants? Community Barn Ventures, a group based in town that, in the words of co-founder Stacey Rainey, helps businesses “solve whatever problems they have, getting them from where they are to where they want to be.”
The group started work just over a year ago and already has about 15 clients. It has been looking to expand beyond just its current advisory role, and found the perfect opportunity on the banks of Otter Creek.
Middlebury College bought the Old Stone Mill building in 2008 for $2.1 million. Since then, the college has used the space above the Storm Café as an incubator for student creativity and innovation. The building has been home to students and locals alike, fostering specifically non-academic, self-designed projects ranging from art exhibitions to band practices. However, Bill Burger, vice president for communications and chief marketing officers, explains, “the building needs such investment that it didn’t make sense to go ahead with the same use of the building.”
[pullquote speaker="" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]The objective: to create “a daily destination” for students and residents.[/pullquote]
Community Barn Ventures will close the deal on purchasing the building for $500,000 in early January. The group has already contracted local firm McLeod Kredell Architects to help bring its vision for the historic building to life, opening up to the public in summer 2019. The Middlebury-based modern architecture firm emphasizes a “search for appropriate local expressions of universal qualities and ideals,” according to its website. John McLeod is a visiting professor of architecture at the college, while Steve Kredell teaches at Norwich University’s School of Architecture and Art.
Stacey Rainey and Mary Cullinane, co-founders and partners at Community Barn Ventures, are Middlebury residents who stepped away from corporate jobs and now focus on making their work “have a positive impact on our community,” Cullinane explained. Their plans for the four-and-a-half story, 9,000-square-foot space reflect this desire for community engagement and support for local business.
The top floor and a half will become five Airbnb units, each with its own bathroom and secure access but with a shared living room and kitchenette, intended for parents, visiting professors, or tourists. Just below the mini-hotel will be the Community Barn Network, a shared workspace divided into seating for people working on personal laptops or without a need for private space, dedicated offices and a shared conference room, and telephone booths for those who need to make private calls. The second floor will house a public market with eight to 10 permanent vendor stalls, half of them food-based and half for hard goods, as well as a stall for coffee and a general watering hole.
The objective is to create a “daily destination,” a place where students and town residents can go for a variety of functions. This deliberate attempt to engage with the community was instrumental in the college’s decision to sell to Community Barn Ventures.
“There were a number of different groups interested in the building,” Burger said. “But we wanted to find the right partner who would do something that we felt was best for Middlebury and that would create opportunity for Middlebury College students.”
The iconic space at 3 Mill Street is being brought into a new age by Community Barn Ventures, but the new plans include a nod to the building’s past: the first floor will remain a restaurant, though Community Barn Ventures is still looking for the perfect partner to take over the space. No matter who ends up taking over the first floor at 3 Mill Street, they will have big shoes to fill with the Storm Café’s departure.
(11/29/18 11:00am)
“Count well,” Dennis Wygmans’ attorney Willem Jeweet jokingly called over his shoulder, a gesture illustrative of the cordial, friendly atmosphere that characterized the vote recount of the Addison County state’s attorney race.
The recount ended Tuesday evening after two days of counting. Wygmans, the incumbent, maintained his victory over Bevere and widened his winning margin to 21 votes.
In the original count, Wygmans had beaten challenger Peter Bevere by a mere nine votes.
“No one expects to win or lose by such a close margin,” Wygmans said in an interview with The Campus on Nov. 6, Election Night.
On Monday morning, a team of volunteers started the process of recounting ballots in Court Room 2 of the Addison County District Court House, only a few doors down from the very office the candidates were vying to occupy.
[pullquote speaker="ADDISON COUNTRY STATE SENATOR CHRISTOPHER BRAY " photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]I wanted to make the time, just to come in and ensure that people are entirely confident in the voting process in Vermont.[/pullquote]
The recount committee is composed of volunteers appointed by each of the candidates, some of whom are paid $30 a day while others are compensated by their employers.
The process goes town by town, moving through the 17,500 or so ballots that were cast in Addison County. Volunteers sit in pairs at tables of four. Each pair consists of one volunteer appointed by Wygmans and one appointed by Bevere. Ballots are sorted into piles of 50 and counted out by the pairs, who then review each ballot. Ballots in which the ovals are completely filled in are scanned through a tabulator to be counted.
Ballots in which the ovals are overfilled, underfilled or marked in other ways are set aside to be hand counted. Pairs are obligated to determine the intent of the voter and agree on which candidate they voted for. If the pair cannot agree, the ballot is deemed “questionable” and submitted to a judge who decides the voter’s intent.
Will Senning, the director of elections in the office of Vermont’s Secretary of State, was in the room to oversee the process. He supervises recounts across the state every election cycle.
“The statute is really specific in this instance,” he told The Campus. This means that every recount runs in a similar manner, but, he added, “each one has its own character.”
The Addison County recount felt like a community gathering. Committee members chatted with their neighbors, people caught up with friends and many headed out in groups to the Co-op during their lunch break.
Senning said that usually only a small handful of ballots are “questionable” and sent to a judge.
“If the margin coming out of here is less than the number of questionable ballots, the judge’s decision will determine the actual outcome,” Senning said.
During this recount, ten ballots were deemed questionable, and thus will not change the outcome of the race.
Addison County State Senator Christopher Bray served as a member of the recount committee. Bray won his own election this past midterm and volunteered to help with the recount process.
“I had the time, and I wanted to make the time, just to come in and ensure that people are entirely confident in the voting process in Vermont,” Bray said. “I think we do a great job in Vermont.”
Bray explained that the goal of the committee was to move as efficiently as possible — ballot counting, after all, is a labor- and time-intensive process. “The goal is not to have anyone sitting still,” he said.
Election Day is all about politics, Bray explained, but the recount is not. “The politics end when the votes get count,” he said.
Sheila Conroy, another member of the recount committee, has a lot of experience counting ballots. As a Justice of the Peace in Sailsbury, she counts votes every election night. Salisbury, like many of the smaller towns in Addison County, hand counts votes instead of using a tabulator.
Conry was appointed by Bevere. “I can see where mistakes could be made. Counting gets fatiguing after a while,” Conroy said, remembering that they were up past one in the morning on election night. “People are weary at that hour.”
Senning was pleased with the process of the recount. “It’s nice to see how many people are actually willing to come out and help,” he said.
(11/29/18 10:51am)
The Middlebury swim and dive teams opened their 2018-19 season on Nov. 17 with an away meet against Connecticut College. Both the men’s and women’s teams fell to the Camels by 163-99 and 175-119, respectively. The following day, the Panthers traveled to Tufts, where they were defeated by 168-89 on the men’s side and 167-116 on the women’s side.
The women’s team claimed three individual victories against Connecticut College. First-year Audrey Hsi won the 200 backstroke in 2:12.57, out-touching teammate Emma Borrow ’22, who finished second in 2:12.75. Hsi also snatched a win in the 200 individual medley, swimming 2:14.46. In the 500 freestyle, Kristin Karpowicz ’19 claimed first place, finishing in 5:16.56.
Runner-up swims included Angela Riggins ’19 in the 1,000 free (11:11.12), Ellie Thompson ’22 in the 100 butterfly (1:01.80), and Erin Kelly ’21 in both the 100 and 200 breastroke (1:11.56 and 2:36.49). Borrow, Kelly, Hsi and Maddie McKean ’22 swam the 200 medley relay, claiming second with a time of 1:52.48.
The Panther men also took three individual wins. Jack Dowling ’19 whipped through the 200 butterfly in 2:00.69 and finished second in the 100 fly (54.35). Corey Jalbert ’21 won the 50 freestyle in 22.29, then took second in the 100 free (48.94). Charles Quinn ’20 claimed the 200 individual medley (2:02.04), then placed second in the 100 backstroke (55.18).
Other second place individual finishes came from Aska Matsuda ’22 in the 1,000 free (10:14.94) and Cody Kim ’22 in both the 100 breaststroke (1:01.42) and 200 breaststroke (2:15.44). The 200-yard free relay of Jalbert, Bryan Chang ’22 , Keegan Pando ’21 and Brendan Leech ’19 finished second, stopping the clock in 1:29.29.
The women’s diving squad dominated the field in the one meter event. Olivia Rieur ’22 won with 210.07 points, while teammate Mary Cate Carroll ’21 took second with 205.57 points.
In their second meet of the season against Tufts, both the men’s and women’s teams earned another trio of individual event victories.
On the women’s side, Riggins won the 500-yard freestyle (5:24.92), while Maddie McKean claimed the 50 butterfly in 27.25. Karpowicz was first to the wall in the 200 individual medley title with a time of 2:19.57. The winning 400 free relay team of McKean, Hsi, Courtney Gantt ’22 and Kelly finished in 3:46.44.
Second-place efforts came from Thompson in the 200 IM (2:20.04), Sarah McEachern ’21 in the 500 free (5:30.69), Borrow in the 50 fly in 28.60, and Karpowicz ended in the 1,000-yard freestyle (11:03.10).
Divers Kacey Hertan ’20 and Rieur took first and second in the three meter event, earning 205.80 points and 201.52 points, respectively.
The men’s team managed victories in the same events. Matsuda won the 500 freestyle, Dowling finished first in the 50 butterfly (24.85), and Quinn claimed the 200 IM (2:07.36).
Second place finishes came from Max Eihausen ’22 in the 500 free (5:10.82), Kim during the 200 IM (2:07.72) and Alex Corda ’20 in the 50 fly (24.93).
The Panthers capped off their weekend with a win in the 400 free relay. The team of Jalbert, Chang, Pando and Leech stopped the clock in 3:20.69.
Next up, the swim and dive teams face Amherst in the Natatorium on Dec. 1.
(11/15/18 10:58am)
The Middlebury football team fell to the Tufts Jumbos 35-13 this past Saturday, concluding its season with a 5-4 record and a fourth-place finish in the NESCAC conference. Though Middlebury put up a tough fight, Tufts took the game in the third quarter, sealing the Panthers’ fate.
Throughout the first half, both teams were able to come away with a pair of touchdowns. Middlebury set the tone in its first drive of the quarter, plucking away at yardage, until sophomore QB Will Jernigan punched the ball in from the seven-yard line. A high-intensity Panther defense came onto the field in response, looking to deflect a Jumbo touchdown.
Tufts, however, made its way down the field a few minutes later. With 6:12 left in the quarter, the Jumbos connected in the end zone to even out the scoreboard, 7-7. The rest of the quarter went scoreless.
Two more scores created a thrilling second quarter, starting with a Panther interception by junior Coltrane Marcus. After this turnover, Jernigan was able to hit senior wide receiver Jimmy Martinez with a 28-yard reception. Martinez brought the ball down to the nine-yard line, where Jernigan sealed the touchdown. After a missed extra point attempt, the Panthers were up 13-7.
One more Jumbo score right before halftime, making the score 14-13, altered this Panther momentum.
Going back onto the field after halftime, Tufts was able to come out guns blazing. Three more touchdowns later, and a clock set to 0:00, both teams’ seasons ended. The 35-13 win placed Tufts third in the conference, while the Panthers ended up fourth.
Overall, the Panther team’s season was highlighted by a big win against Williams, redeeming the last-second loss of the 2017 season. The team also beat a .500 record, placing them in the top half of the conference.
(11/15/18 10:58am)
The college has long winters, a January term and its own ski mountain: the perfect winter recipe. However, the accessibility of the sport is limited by its steep financial costs. Ski passes and equipment can easily soar into the hundreds and even thousands of dollars, preventing many students from being able to enjoy the slopes.
On Sunday night, the Student Government Association (SGA) passed a Snow Bowl Scholarship Bill allocating $2,500 towards the scholarship fund. The bill was conceptualized by Jacob Freedman ’21 and Alex Gemme ’21, who put together the scholarship fund for students on financial aid to be used towards skiing, telemark skiing and snowboarding lessons at the Middlebury Snow Bowl. Freedman and Gemme both work as instructors at the Snow Bowl. Students will receive up to $200 that can be used for the lessons and equipment rentals for the season, costing $100 each.
[pullquote speaker="Jacob Freedman '21" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]Skiing is a really inaccessible sport for a lot of people. We see the people who come and take lessons and more often than not it’s people who can afford it.[/pullquote]
In addition to the SGA allocation, Freedman and Gemme have already acquired $1,600 and are looking to get $900 more. In total, the $5,000 fund will give 25 to 50 students subsidized lessons and rentals.
“Skiing is a really inaccessible sport for a lot of people. We see the people who come and take lessons and more often than not it’s people who can afford it,” Freedman said. “Skiing is a great sport and a huge part of the culture, so it makes sense to be able to have all sorts of students be able to participate in this thing that’s really cool and unique to the school.”
According to Powder Magazine, 72 percent of the skiers in the United States are white and more than half earn a salary of $100,000 or greater. The scholarship fund will hopefully increase diversity in a sport that has historically been perceived as a homogenous demographic.
The process to set up the scholarship fund has been riddled with obstacles. Gemme and Freedman initially went to the Advancement Office to seek funds, but were told to come back with data about the need for such scholarships. The two students sought money from various campus sources, but were often referred to other places due to the scholarship’s unique distinction of being neither an extracurricular nor an event or speaker.
The students quickly found overwhelming anecdotal evidence that students were interested in taking ski and snowboarding lessons, but were daunted by the costs.
Freedman and Gemme’s first success came from the Seizing Opportunities fund, an allocation designed to ensure that students, regardless of financial status, have access to activities that span all aspects of college life. Chief Diversity Officer Miguel Fernández allocated $1,600 dollars from the Seizing Opportunities fund towards the Snow Bowl scholarship fund in early October.
Freedman and Gemme then worked with SGA Senators William Kelly ’21, John Schurer ’21, and Christian Kummer ’22 to pass a bill that would allocate an additional $2,500 to the Snow Bowl fund. The bill passed nearly unanimously, with only one opposing vote. The $2,500 will come from SGA’s current $175,000 reserves. Senator Rehan Zafar ’21, who voted against the proposal, expressed concern regarding passing an initiative that they may not be able to finance in the future.
The two students are also seeking $900 from the ICC in order to round out their goal of a $5,000 fund. The fund will be overseen by a staff member of the college, who can access students’ financial aid records to determine which students need the scholarship the most.
[pullquote speaker="Alex Gemme ’21" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]Ski culture is something that the college embraces really fully, but it’s not something that everybody at the college has access to.[/pullquote]
In addition, the pair is now attempting to secure a supply of helmets that can be rented out. This process has proven complicated because liability concerns prevent the Snow Bowl from renting out helmets and thus must be purchased individually. The price of a helmet, however, may deter riders from purchasing the protective gear.
“Helmets are optional; it’s not a rule at the Bowl,” Gemme said. “But they’re great. Beginners probably want to wear helmets. We think that some helmet, even if it’s used and shared and a little scratched up, is better than no helmet.”
Students can apply for Snow Bowl scholarships via Handshake. Lessons are taught by Middlebury students every week day at the Snow Bowl during January term and are from 2-3 p.m., and in the morning by request. Last year, 90 students participated in the Snow School lessons.
The ACTR bus offers nearly hourly rides to the Snow Bowl. Students can schedule up to five lessons and can earn Physical Education credit if they attend at least 4 lessons. Freedman compared the Snow Bowl cost, $100 for five lessons, to a day’s worth of ski lessons at Killington, which costs $140.
“Vermont celebrates the winter time as a great time of the year,” Gemme said. “Part of the Feb experience at graduation and at orientation both take place at the Snow Bowl, so ski culture is something that the college embraces really fully, but it’s not something that everybody at the college has access to.”
(11/15/18 10:55am)
Students will no longer have free access to the New York Times website and online archives after the Times increased the cost of campus-wide access in late October. The Student Government Association (SGA), which oversaw and funded the Times subscription program, announced the development last month. The Times changed the price of campus-wide access without notice, according to SGA President Nia Robinson ’19.
According to Robinson, a New York Times subscription representative told her that annual access will now cost the SGA either $15,444 for just students (excluding faculty, staff and visitors) or $27,394 for full campus-wide access.With such a price tag, the SGA has reached out to gauge student support, with Senior Senators Alexis Levato ’19 and Travis Sanderson ’19 sending a class-wide survey to seniors looking for anonymous input on the issue.
“NYT subscription is the norm at all other colleges,” one student wrote. “It would be embarrassing for Middlebury to not have one.”
However, some students also found the cost too steep.
“Midd is already in dire financial straits. We should not spend $15k on NYT,” one respondent wrote.
Other colleges and universities, including Bucknell, Iowa State and Louisiana State, have faced similar problems in recent years when deciding whether or not to fund campus-wide access to The Times. In each of these cases, student governments have teamed up with campus libraries to fund access.
The SGA has reached out to the library to seek funding for the New York Times program. Douglas Black, the head of collections management at Davis Family Library, first reached out to the Center for Research Libraries, a consortium of college libraries, in the hopes of getting a better price. The consortium, which specializes in bulk purchasing of licenses and access to publications and databases, was unable to help lower the annual price for campus-wide access to The Times.
Black calculated that the library currently spends $12,231 on its own New York Times services, which include receiving two of the same print copies per day, academic passes for Bread Loaf students in the summer, digital microfilm and ProQuest Historical Newspapers. The library has never footed the bill for students’ academic-year online access.
While Black said he has no philosophical issue with helping to fund future access, he says the library needs to ensure they have the available funds to do so. At the SGA senate meeting on Nov. 11, Robinson reported that the library was willing to commit to helping fund the online subscription for the 2019-2020 school year, as their budget is already set for the current school year.
Black also noted that The Times has raised and lowered its paywall for group access numerous times in recent years depending on its print sales, which can be frustrating for planning out the cost of future years’ subscription.
One of the main reasons for the high price tag is The Times accounting for potential lost revenue.
“Libraries and colleges are often charged more because The Times feels that participants in the group rate will discontinue their personal subscriptions,” Black said.
According to the New York Times, a student subscription costs $52 per year (compared to $195 per year for non-students). While this is a significant discount, campus-wide access would remove any potential financial burden on students.
The SGA also funds the physical copies of the New York Times that are supplied in all three dining halls. According to SGA treasurer Isabella Martus ‘19, the SGA sets aside $9,500 (subscription) and $1,700 (delivery) per year for these physical copies. It is currently unclear whether the change in the online policy will affect the price of these physical copies or the SGA’s willingness to continue to supply them.
Robinson lamented The Times’ new online policy.
“The NYT change has been a frustration to figure out,” Robinson said. “It’s definitely a priority and necessity, but we have to make sure we can afford it.”
In the coming weeks, the SGA will examine its own budget, continue to consult with the library on its available funds, and possibly look elsewhere for ways to support the program. According to several SGA senators, motivation to do so will be driven by student feedback.
(11/08/18 11:00am)
If nice girls do not file lawsuits, then Ruth Bader Ginsburg sure is not one.
Screened in a packed Dana Auditorium on Nov. 1, the 2018 documentary “RBG” recounts Justice Ginsburg’s path from Brooklyn to the United States Supreme Court. Using archival footage and interviews, directors Betsy West and Julie Cohen highlight her pioneering work against gender discrimination in the 1970s and take us behind the scenes of the 85-year-old’s achievements in the legal world.
It is needless to point out that the film is timely. Between Brett Kavanaugh’s turbulent confirmation to the Supreme Court and the midterm elections, questions of gender equality have been of particular interest to the public. At Middlebury, students have voiced their concerns about sexual harassment in both writing and at protests, and The Campus dedicated an editorial to affirming survivors. As the recent nominations of both Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch have added conservative voices to the bench, Ginsburg’s dissenting statements have received more attention than ever.
In the first few minutes of “RBG” we are reminded that attention is not always positive. Familiar Republican voices and phrases like “this witch” and “Anti-American” echo in the auditorium against sunny shots of the Supreme Court in Washington D.C., followed by an image that by now feels like a rite of passage. Sixty-year-old Ginsburg sits in front of an all-white, all-male Senate Judiciary Committee wearing a blue pantsuit, much like Anita Hill and Christine Blasey Ford would after her. Yet this time we are not dealing with allegations of sexual harassment, but the pinnacle of a brilliant attorney’s career.
Ginsburg entered the legal world at a time when the legal world did not want women. Beginning her law degree at Harvard Law School in 1956 after her graduation from Cornell University, Ginsburg was one of only nine women in a class of 500. The environment proved to be hostile. Female students were reportedly never called upon in classes and were questioned by the dean of students about how they could justify taking up a place that could have been filled by a man.
Nevertheless, she persisted. Completing both her own and her husband’s work during his illness while caring for their young daughter, she established herself as a relentlessly dedicated and disciplined professional.
Ginsburg has since become a champion of gender discrimination cases. West and Cohen give us brief snapshots of the landmark cases that she defended in front of the Supreme Court, ranging from Frontiero v. Richardson in 1973, which determined that benefits of the U.S. military could not be allocated differently on the basis of sex, to Duren v. Missouri in 1979, in which she challenged legislation making jury duty optional for women. Out of the five Supreme Court cases Ginsburg argued, she won four.
It is these scenes that remind us of how recent such developments are. How easy it is to forget that 50 short years ago it was common for a woman to be fired for being pregnant, or to be required to have her husband’s approval to obtain a credit card. At its most fundamental level, “RBG” reminds us of the women who paved the way for us to be here today.
But “RBG” is not only relevant to women. Through its depiction of Ginsburg’s husband Marty, the film reverses an old proverb to show that behind this great woman, there is a great man. Martin Ginsburg, who passed away in 2010 after battling cancer and worked tirelessly to give his wife’s work the credit and attention it deserved. Using his numerous connections in law, business and academia, he rallied to ensure that her name was on President Clinton’s shortlist of Supreme Court nominees in 1993. According to those interviewed throughout the film, it was Marty who allowed the reserved and soft-spoken Ruth to be herself and focus on what she did best.
“We need more men like [Marty]”, said Gioia Kuss ’83 during the brief reflection session which followed the screening. “[Men] that believe in women, that believe in equality.”
Given Ginsburg’s demonstrated legal talent and intellect, it is a shame how little time the film spends exploring it. Oversaturating the film with repetitive computer animations and awkward pop culture references, it seems as though West and Cohen are trying hard to make “RBG” relevant to an imagined millennial audience.
Unnecessarily so: the few instances in which Ginsburg is allowed to describe her relationship to the practice of the law are moving, even electrifying. As she reflects on debates about partisanship in the Supreme Court which followed her disputed comments about President Trump, the audience is heavy with silence, only to be interrupted by yet another playful scene of Ginsburg dressed as the Duchess of Krakenthorp for an opera production.
Footage of 85-year-old Ginsburg lifting bright green barbells while wearing a “Super Diva” sweatshirt is certainly entertaining, but it can hardly satisfy the audience’s yearning to understand the intellect behind four landmark Supreme Court cases and numerous dissenting statements. The result is an almost-but-not-quite account of a woman whom we know to be a legal powerhouse.
Whether or not you agree with Ginsburg’s politics or her status as an internet icon, one thing is clear. In advocacy and resilience, we can all stand to be a little more like the Notorious RBG.
(11/01/18 10:00am)
Until Nov. 9, 2016, running for governor had never been in the playbook. A lifelong environmental activist and decade-long CEO, Christine Hallquist made a sharp professional detour after the election of President Donald Trump.
Hallquist is the first openly transgender person nominated for governor by a major party, and she is taking on Vermont’s incumbent Phil Scott, a Republican, who is finishing his first term. On Election Day, she will appear on the Democratic line.
“I’m not a politico,” she said as she sat down for an interview with The Campus at a picnic table outside Mead Chapel. “I had never marched before, was more a science, engineer-type person. But science isn’t going to solve this. You have to be political.”
After President Trump’s victory, she began participating in a series of marches as a means of dealing with her state of “political depression.” Then she made the leap into politics herself, announcing her candidacy for statewide office in March.
Hallquist arrived in Vermont in 1976 from upstate New York. She quickly settled into her new home while involving herself in an array of local issues, including challenging a mining pit. “I wouldn’t call myself an activist, but I was always doing something,” she said. “That’s what you do in Vermont if you’re responsive — you get involved. But I decided to run for governor without having a clue.”
After spending more than a decade as the chief executive of the Vermont Electric Co-op (VEC), she found that her experience in the utility sector dovetailed neatly with her gubernatorial platform. Hallquist’s political agenda is centered on the junction of economic development and environmental sustainability. The thing that ties the two together, she says, is fiber optic cable, a material made from tiny glass filaments that can transmit data at tremendously high speeds. Currently, only 17 percent of Vermonters have access to fiber optic. Her ultimate goal: providing high-speed internet to all of Vermont.
[pullquote speaker="Christine Hallquist" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]I wouldn’t call myself an activist, but I was always doing something.[/pullquote]
Hallquist is convinced that expanding fiber optic cable across the state would have far-reaching benefits, from drawing young people to the state to reinventing the nature of the dairy industry. For dairy, she envisions a push towards artisanal products that can be sold across the globe via online retailers (she cites the popularity of Vermont maple syrup in Japan as a pioneering industry model). It could even lead to a rebirth of Vermont’s rural communities, she said, many of which remain marginalized due to a lack of internet access.
The emphasis Hallquist places on fiber optic weaves through nearly everything she talks about. In her eyes, fiber optic applies to the range of challenges confronting Vermont: an aging population, a deficit of young people and economic stagnation. Regarding the dairy industry, Hallquist anticipates a looming transformation in the market. “Dairy is a world that’s already shifted,” she said. “We’re producing 30 percent more milk than we did in the 1960s, yet people are consuming fewer dairy products.”
MICHAEL BORENSTEIN
Instead of wholesale milk, she envisions a move towards small-batch, boutique products like organic cheeses, labeled “GMO-Free” and “Made in Vermont” and sold across the world. “That’s where the market is: the artisanal products,” she said.
However, older dairy farmers, who make up the majority of the industry’s demographic, have not had the most enthusiastic response. “Some are migrating, but it’s like any other business; some people made buggy parts while cars were being sold,” she said. “People have a hard time letting go.”
Yet the state’s infrastructure, including fiber optic networks, needs to be there, she said. And the government has the power to spearhead that. She’s emphasized the need for new welfare programs, like Medicare for All — a sharp contrast to Scott’s recent dodging of those sorts of initiatives. Scott’s avoidance has manifested in a slew of vetoes in recent months, which have emerged as a frustration and talking point for Hallquist.
[pullquote speaker="Christine Hallquist" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]Some are migrating, but it’s like any other business; some people made buggy parts while cars were being sold.[/pullquote]
Still, she acknowledged that she supported his initial candidacy more than a year before she decided to run against him. “I voted for Phil Scott, but I think I truly represent the electorate of Vermont,” she said. Despite Scott’s shift to the center on some issues, like gun control and marijuana legalization, Hallquist now believes he has more in common with the national Republican Party than with most Vermonters. After all, Hillary Clinton beat Trump easily in Vermont, winning 56.7 percent of the vote to Trump’s 29.3 percent. “He’s just a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” she said of Scott.
Voters in Vermont are known for splitting their tickets on Election Day, pulling the lever for, say, a Democratic state senator but a Republican governor. “That’s been the trend in the state for some time now,” said Eric Davis, professor emeritus of Political Science at the college. “Half the people who didn’t vote for Trump for president voted for Phil Scott.”
In her first days in office, Hallquist says her number one priority would be to pass a raft of bills that Scott has vetoed in the last few months. Those bills would have enacted a minimum wage increase, paid family leave, the monitoring of toxic substances in toys and toxic pollution producer liability. Hallquist hopes to resurrect them all.
“When it comes to a living wage and Medicare for All, that’s not a political issue — that’s called being a civilized society,” she said. “If your leader’s not heading in that direction, you need to fire them and get someone who is.”
[pullquote speaker="Christine Hallquist" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]When it comes to a living wage and Medicare for All, that’s not a political issue — that’s called being a civilized society.[/pullquote]
Hallquist has followed Sen. Bernie Sanders’ national trail in doggedly supporting a government-financed, single-payer system, where all Vermonters could receive healthcare coverage. Although Scott ultimately looks favorably upon Medicare for All, he is not sure the state’s economy can withstand a single-payer system on its own.
Incarceration is another issue she feels passionately about. Hallquist contests that moving people out of prison is not only more humane but will also save money. Her goal is to cut the state’s prison population in half. Last month, Vermont moved over 200 out-of-state inmates to a correctional facility in Mississippi in an effort to save money and deal with overcrowding. Each year, the state spends $73,000 per prisoner and there are currently 500 people behind bars.
The issue of mass incarceration, she said, is entangled in a bevy of other problems currently facing Vermont. Some prisoners battle alcohol and substance abuse, while others struggle with mental illness. Still, others are forced to delay their release for the simple fact that they cannot find an affordable place to live.
MICHAEL BORENSTEIN
Aside from Scott’s policies, Hallquist is also vehemently critical of his leadership. She has often described his management style as one of “command-and-control,” manifesting in “divisional leadership.” Although she has no previous experience in politics, she says her supervision of the VEC allowed her to practice a collaborative form of leadership that she insists is more effective.
She said the way in which Scott “barks orders from Montpelier” needs to be changed. When asked how she planned to bring the leadership approach she established at VEC to the state capitol, she mused that she might remove the lock from her office door and turn the space into a conference room, something she did at the utility company.
Her campaign coffers — totaling $415,000 — are equally rooted in a cooperative effort. As reported to the Vermont Secretary of State’s Office in mid-October, the bulk of her fundraising has come from small donations. Indeed, more than 3,000 contributions were in the amount of $100 or less. Though Scott’s total contributions exceeded $500,000, only 1,100 came from donations of $100 or less, according to the same report.
“We’ve put all of our money into a ground game,” Hallquist said. “We have over 300 volunteers in the field, 30 people on staff. And we probably make 10,000 to 12,000 phone calls a night.”
Her old-fashioned campaign tactics — phone banking, door-knocking and postcard-writing — are similar to ones that Sanders spearheaded across the country during his 2016 presidential bid. And they have been used by a wave of other progressive candidates running for office this election season, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the democratic socialist who pulled off a stunning primary upset against longtime Democratic congressman Joseph Crowley of New York City.
Though Hallquist’s base of support is centered in Vermont, donations have poured in from across the country. Because of her status as the first transgender person to win a major party nomination, national media coverage spiked in the days following her primary win, with profiles in The New York Times and Washington Post. Sanders’s media team in Washington estimated that more than 3,000 news stories were written on Hallquist globally after the primary, in which she won 48 percent of the vote.
[pullquote speaker="Christine Hallquist" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]If there’s anything we’ve learned in Vermont and nationally, it’s that we have an underbelly of racism that’s finally exposed itself to white people.[/pullquote]
Despite the historic nature of her candidacy and her status as a national role model for transgender youth, Hallquist believes that it is another difficult issue that college students should be paying more attention to: racism. “If there’s anything we’ve learned in Vermont and nationally, it’s that we have an underbelly of racism that’s finally exposed itself to white people,” she said. “People of color have known for a long time that this is a problem that hasn’t been solved.”
Hallquist’s progressive platform and activism have also piqued the interest of Middlebury students. The student organization Sunday Night Environmental Group has held phonebanks for her campaign, and last month, the College Democrats hosted an event that featured a documentary made by Hallquist’s son about her transition, accompanied by a Q&A discussion, though this was advertised as an explicitly apolitical event.
Regardless of the outcome on Nov. 6, Hallquist’s candidacy will have had a profound impact on not only the LGBTQ community, but the state’s Democratic Party. The legacy of her campaign in Vermont has transcended her status as the first transgender person nominated for governor. With her progressive agenda, she’s pushed for the state’s legislative reality to match the Green Mountain state’s crunchy reputation.
(11/01/18 9:56am)
MIDDLEBURY — The race to represent Addison County in the Vermont Senate is shaping up to be one of the most competitive in the state’s history. With the announcement of Claire Ayer’s ’92 (D-Addison) retirement, six candidates are vying to fill the district’s two seats in Montpelier. Total campaign funding has exceeded $100,000, a historic high, making up a disproportionate 20 percent of the total Vermont Senate campaign financing across 13 different districts.
Incumbent Sen. Chris Bray (D-Addison), seeking to defend his seat, is joined by fellow Democratic candidate Ruth Hardy. Two “pro-business” Independents, Blue Spruce Farm owner Marie Audet and Vermont Coffee Company owner Paul Ralston, have also entered the race on a joint ticket, with the support of Gov. Phil Scott (R). Republican Peter Briggs and Libertarian Archie Flower are also running in the highly contested election.
Ayer’s vacant seat prompted Ruth Hardy to put her name on the ticket, but Hardy is no stranger to politics. She serves as the executive director of Emerge Vermont, a non-profit organization that trains and helps women run for office, graduating prominent alumnae such as Christine Hallquist, this year’s Democratic gubernatorial nominee. She also served three terms on local school boards.
“By running for the State Senate myself, I am walking the talk,” Hardy said. “I am doing what I ask of other women – which is to step up and run for office when the opportunity arises and when the need is great.”
This may in part explain why Hardy, a first-time senate candidate, has amassed the most individual donors of any candidate, and obtained endorsements from key Democratic figures like former Governor Madeleine Kunin, the state’s first and only female governor, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Ayer herself. Hardy’s platform focuses on access to healthcare, affordable education and child care, as well as climate change.
After knocking on more than 1,500 doors, she concluded that health care access and affordability is the number one concern of Addison County residents.
“What I am hearing from voters over and over again is that they are worried about health care,” Hardy said. “What I would like to work on is having universal access to primary care as a starter for Vermont.”
Audet, the other first-time candidate, describes herself as an “organic candidate,” saying that her extensive experience in local business and her ties to the community are what pushed her to put her name on the ballot.
“Paul and I are coming at this from a position of experience, having firm ties to our communities, and being leaders in our communities as people who do things for the growth of our communities,” Audet said. “I felt that it would be good for the legislature to have some regular working folks — boots-on-the-ground kinds of folks.”
Audet and Ralston are running together on what they have called a pro-business ticket, focusing particularly on the agricultural business prominent in Addison County. Ralston is a former two-term Democratic member of the Vermont House of Representatives.
The duo have pushed for creating business incentives and inducing bottom-up change instead of levying taxes. When it comes to environmental policies, for example, Ralston says they are generally in favor of lowering carbon fuel emissions, but opposed to a direct carbon tax.
“One of the issues that I have faced every time I speak to people is that they are afraid of Vermont becoming unaffordable,” Audet said. “We need businesses to thrive to pay taxes. We need businesses to want to employ people. We need businesses to pay people well. That is another big hole of representation that we are finding.”
Ralston cited high taxes as a culprit for the recent business closures in downtown Middlebury, pointing to high property taxes as a barrier for entry and operation.
“Many of the things that we would be promoting are not the big, sexy ideas,” Ralston said. “They are the practical, affordable, simple steps that can be made without raising taxes, without dramatic changes.”
Governor Scott’s support for the independent ticket may well have disappointed Republican hopeful Peter Briggs, who has raised less money than any of the candidates except Flower.
In 2016, when Briggs ran against Ayer and Bray on an agricultural-focused message similar to Audet’s and Ralston’s, he won 21 percent of the votes, compared to Ayer’s 31 percent and Bray’s 27 percent. Briggs is running again with a platform that is against taxation, hardline carbon emissions reduction bills and gun control laws.
Audet and Ralston have clashed with Bray, the lone incumbent in the race. During the campaign, the independent ticket questioned Bray’s agricultural and environmental policies, framing them as out of touch with the farming community.
Bray defended his track record, citing bills that he proposed which have provided farm subsidies, protected and maintained current use, and helped farmers integrate to greener options.
“Within two months of arriving, I started crafting legislation, which I have been for a decade, that is highly supportive of farmers,” said Bray. “Bill after bill, program after program, and dollar after dollar, I have stepped up to support farmers to change their practices. Every large and medium farm in this state has received many, many thousands of dollars.”
Bray also added that Blue Spruce Farms, which Audet owns, received millions of dollars worth of government support in the last decade. Citing this example, Bray pointed to the pragmatic flaws of the independents’ policies, stating that subsidies and regulations must go together.
“There is a certain hypocrisy with accepting high levels of subsidies, from government and state, and then rejecting regulation that travels with it,” he said. “It is environmental and economy that go hand in hand.”
Bray’s platform is centered on balancing the environment with business opportunities. For example, he pointed to the Farm to Plate program, which has created new work opportunities while increasing access to healthy local produce.
Bray also jabbed at Ralston, who previously served in the statehouse as a Democratic representative. “One of the opponents in the Senate race has a four year record already in the Vermont house,” said Bray, referring to Ralston. “I would invite and encourage anyone who is considering candidates to carefully scrutinize that record, and look at what contributions that legislator made on issues that we are talking about today.”
According to Sun Community News, Ralston himself sent a perplexing message to potential voters at a candidate forum held in Bristol on Oct. 17, seeming to encourage constituents to vote for Audet and Hardy.
“This campaign has been a bit of a Dickensian experience for me: The best of times, the worst of times,” Ralston said. “I do believe it would be good for us to have fresh ideas... the best decision may be to send two women to Montpelier as our senators”
But, Ralston later elaborated that the message was not to annul his own ticket.
“We are trying to get elected, both Marie and I need to go to Montpelier. We need to go to Montpelier together. That is what I hope happens,” Ralston said. “If that cannot happen, there needs to be a change and that means someone else of the six people has to go. In that moment, I thought, ‘People should think about whether a good alternative is sending two women to Montpelier.’”
Despite differences, candidates coalesced around the importance of college students exerting their voting rights either in local elections or in elections back home.
“Middlebury College students, in particular, are here for four years and live here and it is your home. There are a lot of things that happen in the Vermont legislature that affect you while you are living in Vermont,” Hardy said. “If I am elected, I really hope that Middlebury College students will come to the state house. I can help them make their voices heard.”
Editor’s Note: Ruth Hardy is the spouse of Prof. Jason Mittell, The Campus’ academic advisor. Mittell plays no role in any editorial decisions made by the paper. Any questions may be directed to campus@middlebury.edu.
(10/25/18 9:59am)
A group of students are circulating a petition to ban a local Crisis Pregnancy Center (CPC) from advertising and participating in on-campus activities.
CPCs, also known as Pregnancy Resource Centers, are nonprofit organizations that generally provide peer counseling related to pregnancy and childbirth, as well as financial resources and adoption referrals. The mission of these organizations is to advise women with unintended pregnancies against having an abortion, and offer adoption or parenting as alternative options. Historically, research has shown that 80 percent of CPCs provide misleading or factually inaccurate information regarding the physical and mental effects of abortions. Currently, there are an estimated 2,300 to 3,500 CPCs actively operating in the United States.
The local Pregnancy Resource Center of Addison County is located downtown at 102 Court Street, near Middlebury Union High School. Their mission statement is “Empowering Individuals to Make Informed Choices.” They operate without state or federal funding. In the past two years, the center has attended and advertised their services at the college’s fall student activities fair. Students at the college have also previously worked at or with the local CPC chapter, serving as on-campus representatives.
Toria Isquith ’19 and Kelsie Hoppes '18.5 started the petition to ban the CPC. Several of the students learned about CPCs in Gender, Sexuality, & Feminist Studies Professor Carly Thomsen’s Politics of Reproduction class last year. Isquith was ispired to take action when she saw the CPC’s booth at the activities fair .
“The booth had information about STDs, free flip flops, and business cards, but the CPC did not bring any of their information about abortion to campus,” Isquith said. “This struck me and other students as an effort by the CPC to misrepresent themselves on campus. I followed up with many of these students, who in turn spread the word to their friends and peers, and soon we had a group suggesting ideas for how to get the Middlebury CPC off our campus.”
“Our goal is to protect our peers from misinformation, bias and fear mongering,” Isquith added. “CPCs pose a tangible threat to students’ reproductive autonomy, and our goal is to protect this autonomy while also spreading awareness about CPCs and starting a larger conversation about them in Middlebury.”
[pullquote speaker="Toria Isquith '19" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]This struck me and other students as an effort by the CPC to misrepresent themselves on campus.[/pullquote]
Several college staff and faculty have signed the petition, including the Director of Chellis House Karin Hanta, who read over the petition and offered edits.
Thomsen led the only successful movement to ban CPCs from advertising on a college campus when she attended the University of California, Santa Barbara.
“In my class, we read academic articles about CPCs and watch related documentary films,” Thomsen said. “These texts provide useful tools for discussing many feminist studies concerns far beyond the topic of CPCs, including, for example, the state’s responsibility to counter misinformation deliberately circulated by activists.”
“These scholarly texts do not, of course, provide a simple road map for participating in political activism or for conducting their own research,” Thomsen continued. “This is what we are witnessing at Middlebury. Students are taking information learned in their GSFS courses and applying it in the world. This is happening in the form of circulating petitions, creating websites, writing op-eds and marching in the Homecoming parade.”
Joanie Praamsma, the director of the Pregnancy Resource Center, defended the center.
“The claim that we provide inaccurate information to our clients is categorically false,” Praamsma wrote in an email to The Campus. “Through our free services, our center is helping to build healthy and stable families.”
Praamsma described the center’s commitment to Christian faith and this influence on their health services.
“We make no secret of the fact that our center’s work is motivated by a Christian commitment to the dignity of every life and the preciousness of the family,” Praamsma said. “It is called faith, and it is a faith shared by millions of Americans.”
[pullquote speaker="Joanie Praamsma" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]...our center’s work is motivated by a Christian commitment to the dignity of every life and the preciousness of the family[/pullquote]
Isquith criticized the CPC in an op-ed published in The Campus in November 2017. She has also worked with former Middlebury students to create an interactive map providing information on abortion services in Vermont. For Isquith, the petition is the first step in raising awareness of the issue.
“Beyond this, I’m hoping that students, especially younger, will continue to partake in reproductive justice activism at Middlebury and in the broader community,” Isquith said. “I would love to collaborate with the Middlebury Union High School to educate students about the CPC, especially since they are located so close to the high school and pose a threat to younger students. But I am trying to tackle one project at a time.”
“That students are transforming academic material learned in their GSFS classes into activism and new research reflects the spirit of GSFS as well as Middlebury’s mission to create opportunities for students to ‘learn to engage the world,” Thomsen said.
Correction: an earlier version of this article mistakenly stated that faculty had helped circulate the petition, and misidentified the students who were involved in the effort.
(10/25/18 9:54am)
I don’t remember why I chose to study abroad in Amsterdam. I knew I wanted a semester abroad, some sort of experience that I couldn’t get at Middlebury. The classes at the University of Amsterdam fit my studies, but I didn’t have a clear purpose for spending four months in the Netherlands. I was nervous that I was missing out on a semester of opportunity and high-caliber learning at Middlebury.
I did not realize that I would be learning every second of my time abroad.
When I arrived in Amsterdam in late August, I was thrown into a weeklong orientation with a group of 25 out of the 2,500 total international students. My worries about the semester shifted to the background as I focused on my new surroundings. Our orientation leaders Bart and Borus, the ultimate Dutch dynamic duo, steered us across canals, through squares and into tiny cafes (not coffee shops, which sell marijuana). Dazed and jetlagged, we stumbled through the Red Light District at 2 p.m. on a Wednesday. Bart and Borus cracked up as we tried to figure out how to react to the prostitutes posing in the windows.
Much to my surprise, I was one of the only Americans in my group. The students hailed from all over the world — Australia, China, Germany, Belarus, and so on. As I talked with my group members and orientation leaders, I came to an unsettling realization. Everyone knew so much about my culture, and I barely knew anything about theirs. Of course I got questions about Trump and our peculiar measurement system, but I was also having serious conversations about American culture with students who didn’t speak English as their first language. I could barely ask a reciprocal question about their own culture. Everything I said highlighted how little I knew.
Although exhausted after that first week, I was left with a nagging desire to get up and go learn—about the Netherlands, about Europe, about the cultures of my group members. I had never experienced this feeling in the United States before. I had found the purpose that I was missing.
I have been living in Amsterdam for a month and a half now. The fairy-tale image of the city is true. The canals are beautiful, everyone bikes, and the people are the tallest in the world. The Dutch language sounds like German but looks like English with too many vowels. There really is a Dutch town named Gouda where the cheese was first traded. I can see the tolerance and progressiveness of the Dutch in all aspects of their culture, from the thousands of bikers to the lenient policies on drugs and prostitution. The Netherlands was the first country to legalize same-sex marriage. I’ve come to realize that the cornerstone of the Dutch progressiveness is their “bluntness.” When they think or feel that something is wrong, they say it. In the gym last week a man walked up to me and told me I was lifting incorrectly and not benefitting from the exercise. Even though I don’t know how to react in such situations, I respect this straightforwardness immensely. It is how the Dutch get things done.
One of my first trips outside of the Netherlands and its rich culture was to western Germany with my dad. We visited the cities of Frankfurt, Cologne and Bonn. It amazed me that such a short train ride took me to a place with completely different people, language, culture and history. In Bonn, we walked along the Rhine River and saw layers of history through the drizzling rain. Ruins of ancient Roman walls lined the river, constructed almost two millennia ago to mark the frontier of the Empire. Tucked behind these ancient walls were minimalist government buildings from the post-World War II era, when Bonn was the capital of West Germany. My nights ended in warm pubs crowded with loud Germans and hearty meals of schnitzel and fries.
As I zipped through the countryside on my way back to Amsterdam, I realized the magnificence of Europe. There are 44 countries and over 740 million people in Europe, all packed into an area roughly the same size as the United States. It is a mosaic of cultures, connected through a complicated web of history. Although there is so much I don’t know, I am beginning to understand this mosaic. I am putting together the history of Europe by seeing and experiencing. This is why I am here. I am so glad that I allowed myself to figure that out by embracing the uncertainty of going abroad.
(09/27/18 10:01am)
Each Sunday at noon, the familiar, sleepy view of Battell Beach is disrupted as tens of cloak-wearing, broom-carrying, Snitch-catching students march onto the field. Middlebury’s favorite Muggles have been hard at work, preparing to compete at the annual Middlebury Classic Quidditch Tournament this Saturday, Sept. 29. The Classic, which runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., will feature 13 competing teams and hundreds of fans from all over New England.
“[The aim of the Classic is] to have a family-friendly and community-focused event that celebrates our sport and the fantasy of the Harry Potter series,” tri-commissioner Andrew Plotch ’18.5 said. “[The Classic] focuses on the literary components [of the series] and not just the sport.”
True to Plotch’s sentiment, the Classic will feature Harry Potter-themed face painting and yoga, magic potion demonstrations and a green screen photo booth where participants can “fly” over the field. Food trucks featuring beloved Muggle foods, including the likes of Skinny Pancake and Lu-Lu Ice Cream, will be open during the competition.
According to Plotch the Middlebury Quidditch team has been working hard to prepare for the festival since March.
“Our goal is [to have] 1,200 to 1,500 people,” Plotch said enthusiastically. “We are advertising more aggressively this year. We are reaching out to school districts around Vermont, and we have posters out…[from] Middlebury to Burlington.”
Treasurer Anne Loewald ’21 sounded equally excited, though she said the journey to the Classic has not been easy.
“[The budget has] been pretty restrictive,” Loewald said. “Trying to get the budget for the events has been pretty challenging [because] we have a [budget] cap that we are figuring out. Luckily, we [didn’t] have too many expenses in the Classic in the end.”
All five residential commons teams will be competing at the Classic and the recruitment of players has been intense. In Ross Commons, each first-year walked into their room to find a red advertisement featuring Rocky the Rhino riding a Quidditch broom, in addition to emails asking them to join the team.
Anne Staab ’21 was especially passionate about newcomers joining the Quidditch teams. According to Staab, the Quidditch community is like “a home away from home” and all students are welcome.
Be sure to join the magic and cheer for the Middlebury teams on Saturday at the Classic.
(09/27/18 10:00am)
The Panthers just wrapped up a successful yet brutal week, both at home and on the road. Last Tuesday, Sept. 18 the men’s soccer team traveled over four hours to Newburgh, NY for an out-of-conference matchup with Mt. Saint Mary College. Middlebury had a hot start with Raffi Barsamian ’21 scoring his first career goal in style. Barsamian hit a spectacular 40-yard shot in the ninth minute after an assist from Drew Goulart ’20. Ben Potter ’20 scored back-to-back goals in the 12th and 40th minutes. Fazl Shaikh ’20 rounded out the half by finding the net in the 44th minute. The Panthers cruised through the second half and Matthew Hyer ’21 recorded yet another shutout. After the game, the boys hopped right back on the bus, returning to Midd at 2 a.m. the following morning.
Only three days later, the 2-3 Bowdoin Polar Bears rolled into Middlebury looking to inch back to .500 on the season. Bowdoin took the early lead, as Drake Byrd scored in the 11th minute. The Panthers spent the remaining 80 minutes trying to equalize, but fell short.
“Just look at the number of shots we had to theirs. [Middlebury 12 vs. Bowdoin 5],” said Kye Moffat ’19. “We had the better of the chances. They scored on a nice free kick and we just weren’t able to get it back.”
After the match, the Panthers made their way to New York again for an away game against Hamilton.
The match against Hamilton started slowly. At halftime the scoreline remained at 0-0. Four minutes into the second half, Hamilton’s Jefri Schmidt scored after an assist from Jeff Plump on a free kick. The following 34 minutes remained scoreless, and it looked as if the Panthers were heading for a devastating weekend of back-to-back 1-0 losses. However, the Panthers proved their resiliency once again as Barsamian assisted and Henry Wilhelm ’20 shot an equalizing goal in the 84th minute.
At 90 minutes, the game remained tied at 1-1 and the match went into overtime. The first OT went by scoreless. With time running out, Middlebury was able to convert one of their 22 shots into a goal. Shaikh assisted Davis Oudet ’20, who scored his first career goal for Middlebury during the most critical seconds, with only 1:37 remaining on the clock. The Panthers locked down on defense for the remaining minute and a half to get the win.
“The two goals against Hamilton came because the entire team was fighting for the man next to him,” Hyer said about the win from behind. “Henry and Davis both came off the bench and put their bodies on the line to get the ball in the back of the net. The message for the game was essentially to grind until you can’t anymore, then trust the guys who come on after you. In the end, it worked.”
The Panthers have a more relaxing week ahead of them without a midweek game. On Saturday, Sept. 29 the team will head to Colby before wrapping up the weekend against the University of Maine at Farmington. Hyer said the Panthers have been looking forward to Saturday’s matchup for some time now.
“Colby beat us last year so we’ve had their name marked on the calendar for a long time,” Hyer said. “Like every NESCAC game, getting three points is essential and if we bring the fight we had at Hamilton, I think we can beat anybody.”
(09/27/18 10:00am)
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE FATALITY REVIEW COMMISSION
MONTPELIER — Firearm use and regulation crowd the headlines of local and national news sites as polarizing debates surrounding the demand for legal action continue. After the shooting in Parkland, Fla. that spurred hundreds of rallies across the country in February, the Vermont legislature was one of the state governments most attuned to the unrest.
After the thwarted school shooting plot by Fair Haven High School student Jack Sawyer, Vermont officials began to grasp how close to home unregulated guns can reach. Shortly after the Fair Haven attempt in April, Vermont became the first state to pass a law increasing the minimum age for gun purchases to 21. The legislature and Governor Phil Scott also passed laws to ban the use of bump stocks — which allow guns to fire nearly at the level of a fully automatic weapon — and expand background checks for gun purchasers.
Lawmakers in the Green Mountain State have now turned their attention to another deadly combination — firearms and domestic abuse. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV), over 10 million women and men experience domestic abuse per year. Adding firearms to the equation, NCADV writes, increases homicidal risk by 500 percent.
In response to these statistics and the continued push for increased gun control, Vermont officials recently passed Act 92, which went into effect at the beginning of September.
The new law allows police officers to temporarily confiscate firearms from anyone who is cited or arrested on a domestic assault charge. This seizure is permitted given two conditions: first, the weapon is taken according to a search warrant and, second, the confiscation of the firearm occurs in order to protect the victim, their family members and/or the officer involved.
“[Act 92] takes the gun right out of their hands immediately,” said Avaloy Lanning, executive director of the Rutland domestic violence shelter NewStory, in an interview with VTDigger. “[Domestic abuse arrests] are times that an abuser or a perpetrator is going to feel the most threatened, and it may be the time they are most likely to use a weapon at their disposal.”
Vermont officials, in effect, are attempting to control one facet of domestic violence and create a more stable environment for those at risk of abuse.
Some Vermont lawmakers also see Act 92 as a practical legal step. “I think what it does is clean up and potentially standardize practices about how to go about this statewide,” said Rory Thibault, Washington County State’s Attorney, to VTDigger.
“What’s important with Act 92 is emphasizing the critical time period immediately after an alleged domestic violence incident, to promote safety, and likewise, ensuring there is a mechanism there to review those exigent removals [of firearms] when they occur.”
Thibault endorsed the new law in an effort to put a stop to domestic abuse while temporarily removing firearms from the hands of aggressors.
In theory, his perspectives complement the findings of the Vermont Attorney General’s Office — over half of the domestic violence homicides in 2016 were committed with firearms. Though the link between domestic violence and firearms is indisputable, Middlebury Chief of Police Thomas Hanley offered another perspective. While Hanley believes the law’s intentions are sound, he stated that its execution has structural flaws.
“If you serve an order on a person, [Act 92] doesn’t allow the police to go in and get the guns,” Hanley said. “It mandates the [aggressor] to turn them over to the police or a third party.”
Hanley expressed concern that this process is filled with uncertainty and is procedurally far too complex and time-consuming. “The third party is told that they are responsible for these guns and if they give them back to the [aggressor] then they are held in contempt,” he said. “[The third party] has to hold these guns securely. There’s no definition of what ‘securely’ is.”
While he is worried about the link between domestic violence and firearm usage, he believes Act 92 is heavily flawed. Because there is not appropriate gun registration, the aggressor may not even be giving the third party all of his or her gun supply. Without the ability to obtain a search warrant based on this order or the event, Hanley said, “if [the aggressor] is really intent on harming somebody, this law doesn’t [prevent] it.”
While skeptical of the new law, Hanley believes the relationship between domestic violence and firearms needs to be addressed. Similarly, Kerri Duquette-Hoffman of WomenSafe in Middlebury shares Hanley’s sentiment toward the often fatal link.
“My hope is that we will see more weapons removed at the scene of crimes,” said Duquette-Hoffman on what the implementation of the new law could mean for domestic abuse cases in Addison County. “The requirement that domestic assault charges must be arraigned the next business day may also prove to be an important tool for survivors.”
Lawmakers, police and organizers share her hope.
Although responses to the new law vary, most agree that Vermonters must provide increased support for domestic violence victims and create functional legislation that addresses the problem in a timely fashion.
“The presence of firearms in situations of gender-based violence is such a substantial concern for survivors and such a clear risk that we must take action to reduce it,” Duquette-Hoffman said.
Finding a middle ground between legal action, organizational involvement and community support will ensure a safer Vermont.
(09/20/18 10:05am)
When Koby Altman talks about his time at Middlebury, one of the first things he shares is how he once had a profound dislike for a centerpiece of the liberal arts curriculum.
“Thinking back to my Middlebury experience, I had to write like 500 papers,” he recalled during his visit to campus last weekend. “And at first, I hated that. I hated every second of writing papers.”
The Brooklyn, NY native weathered his early writing struggles, though. Now, in his role as the Cleveland Cavaliers’ general manager -- one of pro sports’ most visible positions, even after a certain big-name star departed for the bright lights of the West Coast earlier this summer -- Altman leans every day on the writing skills his liberal arts education gradually pounded into him.
“I eventually became a really good writer [at Middlebury],” he said proudly. “And that’s needed in any profession because at the end of the day you have to make arguments, support them with data and analytically drive home the points you want to make. Every day that we discuss players, I’m making an argument.”
The story of the former liberal arts student’s ascent to sports management stardom is one of facing challenges, like those droves of essays, head-on and passing them with flying colors. A Posse Scholar and hard-nosed point guard for Jeff Brown’s basketball program, Altman graduated from Middlebury in 2004 with a degree in sociology and anthropology. Afterward, he spent a few years working the treacherous New York City real estate market with no business background (where he “did very well” for himself), but then ditched the lucrative desk job to pursue his dream: a career in pro hoops.
That financial success in the sports world was improbable didn’t matter. He missed the game too much to stay away, and his corporate job just wasn’t doing it for him. Something was missing, he said.
So, he dove into basketball: for several years he coached at Amherst College as a graduate assistant while working towards a sports management degree at UMass Amherst. He then assisted with USA Basketball for a while, where, he jokes, “I was the best towel-washer around.” He rose through the ranks steadily, working as a graduate assistant at Southern Illinois University for the 2009-2010 season then as a full-time assistant at Columbia University.
At no point was it easy.
“Every step along the way, you certainly have to prove yourself,” Altman said of his early years in the world of professional basketball management. “For me, personally, I had to figure out if I had the confidence to do this. When I was with USA Basketball, [I was] working with some of the best Division I coaches in the country and some of the best players in the country that [were] going to be top ten draft picks at the time. That was when I really realized I can play in this space.”
Altman doggedly made connections during those early years, and by 2017 he had been hired by the Cavaliers as a scout and had worked his way up the ranks of the organization’s front office. Then, when David Griffin was let go as general manager that summer, Altman was tapped to take his place.
His peers and mentors say he accomplished it all due primarily to a skill that Middlebury preaches as a foundational part of its educational mission: the ability to sit down with anyone, look them in the eye and connect. Debbie Bial, President of the Posse Foundation, told Middlebury Magazine that Altman has the “unique ability to make people feel comfortable no matter what the topic of conversation is.”
Reflective and self-aware in tracing his development (both as a basketball executive and a human being), Altman remembers Middlebury as a place where his people skills were allowed to develop and shine.
“Being from Brooklyn, which is this dynamic, diverse place, coming here, getting an amazing education, meeting new people...helped me become the person I am and enlightened me,” Altman said. “I grew immensely in terms of my intellectual curiosity at this place. That’s helped me relate to so many different people and this place pushed that on me. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was really growing intellectually and in terms of being able to converse about a variety of topics.”
Altman’s penchant for human interaction was on full display last weekend when he visited campus, attending a variety of gatherings for student-athletes, sociology majors and Posse scholars. At a breakfast for student-athletes interested in careers in sports management, Altman walked around the room, introducing himself to every student present. He looked each attendee in the eye, asked his or her name, where they were from and what they were majoring in. When he came across students from the San Francisco Bay Area, he was quick to poke lighthearted fun at their Warriors fandom.
“He brings such a light and fun, positive energy to the room that was pervasive throughout all of the athletes,” said Kira Waldman ‘20, a varsity basketball player who attended a dinner with Altman and the men’s and women’s basketball teams. “He genuinely wanted to know what we were each interested in and a little bit about our backgrounds.”
Based on Altman’s weekend on campus, it seems he is as appreciative of creating moments of meaningful connection as he is adept at engaging in that process: he spoke to hundreds of students throughout the weekend and not once did his interactions appear anything less than sincere.
“I think what Middlebury gave me was a curiosity for all these different things and different people,” he said. “It’s great to be back.”
(09/13/18 9:55am)
Last semester, a Super Senior and Sophomore Feb came to me with a proposal from the Sustainability Department to implement a system of reusable plastic containers in the dining halls in lieu of the former paper to-go boxes. The students impressed me with their research on the environmental and financial benefits of reusable plastic containers and their commitment to making it a success at Middlebury.
The new system involves putting down a $5 deposit at any retail location (Midd Express, Bi-Hall Kiosk, Rehearsals Cafe etc.) for a carabiner (a clip-like gadget) for accountability. You can then exchange the carabiner at a dining hall for a nice plastic container, which you use and then return to the dining hall. When you return a dirty plastic container, you can either receive a new clean plastic container or exchange for a carabiner to clip onto your bag. You can return a carabiner to a retail location at any time and collect your $5 deposit.
Dining services was very supportive of the idea, and had received positive feedback from a previous trial-run with a group of students in Proctor. As an SGA Senator, I have always seen my foremost responsibility as helping students pursue their ideas and work with the administration to get things done. This was an exciting project that seemed overdue considering how many other schools were already using this common-sense system. While change is always difficult and requires adjustments, I felt confident this progress would align well at a college with a reputation as a pioneer in environmental sciences and sustainability.
After many discussions with Dan Detora and the Sustainability Interns about how many containers to purchase, whether to require a deposit to “buy-in” to the program and how best to advertise the change, I was excited to pass a bill through the Senate to be able to start advertising and transition over after spring break.
The students overseeing the project did an excellent job putting up infographics around campus, creating a website (go/to-go) with Q&A and a form for feedback and tabling in the dining halls. However, many students were upset about the change, complaining that having to return the containers was a hassle and inconvenience they did not ask for.
In only the first couple of months that the program was in place, over 500 carabiners were in circulation, and dining saved thousands of dollars while minimizing our footprint by eliminating the 180,000 one-use containers that ended up in landfills. The money saved is now being reallocated to make improvements to dining. And, the new Tupperware snaps close, so you never even have to worry about salad dressing dripping in your backpack.
I’m ever-impressed by students and college employees who have initiated or embraced the change and who have given suggestions on how to make it work better for everyone. To those who say that for how much you pay to attend Middlebury you deserve a disposable to-go box, or that it’s too much to ask for you to remember to bring your plastic containers back to the dining hall, let’s remember that not only are we capable of taking small actions that make a collective impact, but that we have a responsibility to take our environment into our own hands, even at the expense of our convenience in the short period of time we get to spend at Middlebury.
Let’s all turn over a new leaf this fall (all pun intended) by having an open-minded mentality, embracing the progress and cultural shift we’re making as a community and serving as an example for others. We’re always eager for your thoughts and feedback, so please reach out at go/to-go any time!
Rae Aaron is a member of the Middlebury College class of 2019.5.
(05/09/18 11:53pm)
Last weekend, the Middlebury Theatre and Dance Department presented “Fifth Planet,” the Senior 700 acting presentation of Eliza Renner ’18 and Connor Wright ’18. Katie Mayopoulos ’18 directed the play as part of her Independent 500-level Theatre Project.
The piece was written by Pulitzer-Prize winning playwright David Auburn and was published in his book “Fifth Planet and Other Plays” in 2002. Since its premiere at Beowulf Alley Theatre in Tucson in 2008, the play has been staged by many production houses across the country.
“Fifth Planet” explores the story of two observatory workers, Veronica (Renner ’18) and Mike (Wright ’18). The show is staged on a hill and the scenes move from non-communicative dialogues between the two to an unlikely friendship blossoming from their love for the stars and the discoveries that the cosmos hold for them. Despite their initial setbacks, the two finally turn to each other to find comfort in their lonely lives.
“This play reminds us that while we may be literally star-struck by the cosmos above us, perhaps what is most deserving of our attention are the people around us,” Mayopoulos said,
Indeed, the production not only showed the importance of exploring the unknown but also showed the audience the need to explore human relationships deeply, no matter how familiar we consider them to be.
The play begins with Mark, a janitor for the observatory, setting his telescope on the top of a hill. It is then followed by quick darkness, signaling the ending of the scene. These initial scenes of Mark, solitarily standing on the hill, peering over his astronomy books are then followed by quick encounters of a busy Veronica, on her way to work at the observatory. The two only begin to exchange words after the fifth scene, when Mike looks at her confused, to which she says,: “I’m on my way to work.”
Over the span of 65 minutes, this initially awkward relationship progressed into a friendship with its fair share of fights and misunderstandings. An arrogant Veronica and a misunderstood Mike clash when he loses his job due to her lack of trust in his abilities and her overestimation of the abilities of her other colleague and friends.
As the show progresses, Veronica begins to trust Mike, acknowledging his efforts to track down an unknown object as exemplary, a 180-degree flip from her first comment about his inability to understand the stars as he lacks a graduate degree.
Auburn includes many aspects of a working experience in this play that are often pushed aside. Veronica grapples with her lack of recognition as a female scientist in the male-dominated field of astrophysics while Mike faces the difficulties of marriage for an unemployed man. These narratives are relatable for many individuals across working contexts.
“Through the play, Auburn implores that individuals constantly revise their opinions as he contends that ‘you have to track something to know what it is.’” Mayopoulos said.
Aside from the relatable storyline, the set of “Fifth Planet” was indeed a marvel. With lights attached to strings that glittered as stars and differently elevated circles that symbolize a hill, Grace Zhang ’18 showcased a masterpiece for her 500-level Independent Project in lighting.
“Fifth Planet” demonstrates what unlikely friendships arise when we take the time to communicate with people outside of our comfort zones. This play reflects how admitting our mistakes and swallowing our pride helps mend broken lives as well how one friend can become a source of comfort and light through life’s perils.
(05/09/18 11:39pm)
Every day, over 115 people die from an opioid overdose in the United States. The leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 50 is drug overdose. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the “economic burden” of prescription opioid misuse alone in the United States is $78.5 billion a year, including the costs of healthcare, lost productivity, addiction treatment and criminal justice involvement, according to the National Institution on Drug Abuse.
These statistics are startling. Opioid addiction is a pervasive and dangerous epidemic that continues to plague Vermont and the greater country. While this crisis may seem hopeless, many states, including Vermont, are making remarkable progress in the fight against opioid and heroin addiction.
One major issue that Vermont is tackling is the instigation of opioid-addiction treatment for prisoners; the Senate recently voted to improve opioid rehabilitation programs. On Friday, April 27 representatives from the House pushed to expand the program even further, giving final approval to bill S.166.
The bill was proposed “to enable opioid-dependent inmates to receive medication-assisted treatment in State correctional facilities from providers employed by opioid treatment programs throughout the State.” As the bill defines, “‘medication-assisted treatment’ means the use of certain medications, including either methadone or buprenorphine, in combination with counseling and behavioral therapies for the treatment of a substance use disorder.”
Vermont has had success with their “hub and spoke” system, which offers buprenorphine and methadone distributed by “hubs” spread geographically across the state. These programs also employ 77 physician officers, who provide other options for medication-assisted treatment.
The hub and spoke patient number is approaching 3,500. Additionally, surveys have shown a “dramatic reduction” in drug use, overdoses, hospital visits and arrests (VTDigger), demonstrating the efficacy of these programs.
However, not everyone has access to such programs or to medication-assisted rehabilitation. Currently, prisoners that enter the system without a prescription are not entitled to start methadone or buprenorphine treatments. This causes inmates to have withdrawal, which has proven to lead to higher risk of relapse and overdose (VTDigger).
Without the proper support or resources, prisoners in the state of Vermont suffering from opioid addictions are vulnerable to addiction once released, and the crisis is perpetuated.
To counter this cycle, S.166 adds methadone and buprenorphine to the list of drugs approved for inmates to continue receiving while in the system. Additionally, it allows prisoners who did not previously have a prescription to receive buprenorphine.
It also implements a screening for opioid addiction within 24 hours of the inmate’s imprisonment.
According to the VTDigger, the expansion of methadone prescriptions in prisons represented a source of some concern for the Vermont Corrections Department especially in light of stringent federal regulations on the drug. Consequently, in lieu of setting up an independent distribution system for methadone, the department plans to continue use of the “hub and spoke” system.
The bill also mandates that medication-assisted treatment be required in the release plan for inmates who need it. Additionally, the House added some revisions to the bill that require the Corrections Department to evaluate the success and effectiveness of the program by January 2022. The House also revised the Senate’s 120-day time limit for medical-assisted treatment to “as long as medically necessary.”
The bill now must be sent back to the Senate for approval with the new revisions from the House. In addition to the hub and spoke system and bill S.166, Vermont has implemented several other methods to combat opioid and heroin drug abuse and addiction.
On Saturday, April 28, 2018, several dozen Vermont towns designated locations that were open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for people to get rid of drugs, part of the National Prescription Drug Take Back Day. Last year, state collection sites together collected over two and a half tons of drugs during the state’s one day event (Vermont Public Radio).
As Vermont Health Commissioner Mark Levine told the Vermont Edition, “Drugs that are left at home unused in medicine cabinets are fertile ground for abuse.” According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, about 21 to 29 percent of patients prescribed opioids for chronic pain misuse them. Between eight and 12 percent develop an opioid use problem. Additionally, four to six percent of people who misuse opioids transition to heroin.
A new report from the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont shows that the “state’s new limit on painkiller prescriptions is having a big effect on the number of such pills distributed in the state. Since the rules went into effect on July 1, the “average number of opioid pills dispensed to [Blue Cross Blue Shield] members each month has fallen 25 percent,” the insurer said. Blue Cross Blue Shield estimates that its members will get 672,000 fewer opioid pills annually due to the state’s new rules (VTDigger).
The trends are clear; opioids have huge potential to be abused and are serious causes of addiction, incarceration and death. It is imperative that the state continue taking steps to resolve what has become a national epidemic.
