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(05/03/18 1:33am)
Data Services Librarian Ryan Clement is liaison to the Economics, Geography, Philosophy and Sociology & Anthropology departments, as well as serving as Middlebury’s Government Documents Coordinator.
“Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind” by Yuval Noah Harari, 2015
443 pages
“We have advanced from canoes to galleys to steamships to space shuttles – but nobody knows where we’re going. We are more powerful than ever before, but have very little idea what to do with all that power. Worse still, humans seem to be more irresponsible than ever. Self-made gods with only the laws of physics to keep us company, we are accountable to no one. We are consequently wreaking havoc on our fellow animals and on the surrounding ecosystem, seeking little more than our own comfort and amusement, yet never finding satisfaction.”
- Yuval Noah Harari, “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind,” “Afterword”
The What
“Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind” attempts a grand and challenging experiment: can the full history of Homo sapiens be properly summarized in fewer than 500 pages? The author, Yuval Noah Harari, certainly thinks so. Despite promising a brief history of “humankind” in the book’s subtitle, he’s smart to focus on one species of humankind (Homo sapiens) and their turbulent 70,000-year history.
“Sapiens” begins when our species began to experience the first of many revolutions that Harari highlights: the “cognitive” revolution. Not to be confused with the cognitive revolution in psychology, which was a reaction against behaviorism, this is the period around 70,000 years ago when humanity developed the capacity for imagination. Our newfound ability to talk about things that don’t exist, and to communicate these ideas with others in our group, led to the “collective fictions,” which, Harari argues, make Homo sapiens uniquely able to cooperate on a grand scale.
Harari then takes us through several other periods of change and revolution, such as the agricultural revolution, the scientific revolution and the industrial revolution, to trace the gradual consolidation of Homo sapiens from separate bands of hunter-gatherers to the increasingly globalized society we inhabit today. Harari’s tracing of humankind’s evolution ends on a cliffhanger, hinted at by the quote above.
He says, of our future, “Indeed, the future masters of the world will probably be more different from us than we are from Neanderthals…[w]hereas we and the Neanderthals are at least human, our inheritors will be godlike.”
This is a fitting ending to a book whose sequel is titled “Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow.”
The Why
Any book that attempts to summarize such a grand sweep of history in such a tantalizingly bite-sized chunk is bound to be a hit with the intelligentsia, and “Sapiens” was no exception. It was recommended by Mark Zuckerberg, Barack Obama and Bill Gates, among countless others. I approached this book to determine two things: could this book accomplish its goals, in the way that Hawking’s “A Brief History of Time” had, and what baggage and interpretation was Harari bringing to the table when writing about such a fraught subject as the evolution of the Homo sapiens?
As for the first question, I think Harari has mainly accomplished what he set out to do. The grand sweep of humanity’s evolution is conveyed in a narrative and engrossing style that still incorporates historical, biological, anthropological and economic scholarship. While Harari does make some authorial missteps (his repeated misuse of the phrase “exceptions that prove the rule” is particularly grating) his general writing is both digestible and informed by significant scholarship. He does gloss over significant controversies and fails to cite a few extraordinary claims, but such is to be expected in a book that attempts such a feat as this.
As for the second, Harari’s biases sometimes come to the forefront in ways that will cause many readers, as they caused me, to want to scribble diatribes in the margins of their copy (which I could not do in my ebook copy, unfortunately). He rails against the changes that the agricultural revolution brought, painting the pre-agricultural period of humanity as a sort of golden age when everyone was more free, despite horrendous child mortality rates. He is no fan of “modern liberal culture,” but his attacks on it veer toward self-parody. Such clear biases are easy to spot though, and taking a critical stance on these did not hurt my enjoyment of this book. I would recommend this to any reader interested in human evolution and history, and will be ordering the sequel, “Homo Deus,” for the library as well.
(05/02/18 8:35pm)
The Middlebury Race to Zero team won the elementary schools contest in the U.S. Department of Energy’s annual Race to Zero Student Design competition held in Golden, Colorado from April 20-22. The college competed against 40 teams from 34 colleges and universities to design marketable, economically feasible and fully renewable buildings.
“In a monumental upset, our rag tag liberal arts team took first place in the Race to Zero Elementary Design competition,” wrote Alex Browne ’18 on the Middlebury Race to Zero team blog.
The contest was designed by the Department of Energy to engage students who are interested in architecture, engineering, construction and similar disciplines in thinking creatively about renewable and clean energy. Students were asked to update building designs and create plans for high-performance, energy-efficient buildings where renewable power could offset at least most of the energy consumption of the space.
Project manager Zach Berzolla ’18 learned of the competition through director of sustainability integration Jack Byrne. He worked with geology professor Will Amidon to develop a student-taught winter term class focused on Zero Energy building design. The course was designed to teach students about the Zero Energy design process by developing a design for a Zero Energy elementary school in Vermont.
Over winter term and the spring semester, the team designed a two-story, 21-classroom, 500-student facility, which they believed would best suit Middlebury’s residents and the Vermont climate.
Representatives from the college’s team presented their final redesign of local Mary Hogan Elementary School at the College’s Student Symposium on April 20 and again in front of a Department of Energy jury at the National Renewable Energy Lab on April 22. The college’s team won the contest while competing against schools with graduate architecture and engineering programs.
“Our team’s victory was a testament to the value of a liberal arts education,” said Browne, who was responsible for making sure Middlebury’s elementary school design was up to code. He noticed that some other teams’ plans were not.
Browne said his experience as a volunteer firefighter made him especially conscious of fire safety and building code compliance. He also said the team’s attention to detail meant all aspects of the final design were carefully thought out, which some other teams lacked.
Many members of the Middlebury team cited the importance of their holistic approach. The group began by studying existing Zero Energy schools before meeting with the principal of Mary Hogan Elementary, Tom Buzzel, to better understand the elementary school’s specific needs.
“Then as a class we decided on key pieces we wanted to include in our design and what the most important components were,” Berzolla said.
“In our early stages, our team spent what seemed to be an unreasonable number of hours arguing about every detail; from the number of faucets in a bathroom all the way up to recent changes in elementary school pedagogy,” Browne said.
Berzolla said the team spent two months refining the floor plans because every decision was intentionally chosen to create the best learning environment possible.
Later on, the team broke into smaller working groups that focused on specific categories including architecture, interior design and HVAC systems. Berzolla said that with every design choice, the group weighed cost, energy-efficiency and the design goals.
“We had to dive into a very detailed analysis of the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems for the building,” Berzolla said, although no team members had sufficient experience with these areas. Assistance from industry partners made the project feasible and gave the final design its depth.
Instead of modifying a standard design for the new elementary school, the college team discussed what the future of education should look like, and used those innovative concepts as the basis for their plan.
“We focused heavily on collaborative and experiential learning and our design tried to make this natural and easy,” said Gigi Miller ’18, a member of the interior design team. She said they aimed to create spaces that kids would be excited to come and learn in everyday.
Berzolla said this focus on the kids and creating the building as a teaching tool that students would be excited to learn in was what set them apart from other schools in the competition.
“We really tried to think about specific social factors such as different learning and teaching styles that may need to be catered to,” said Emma McDonagh ’19, who worked on the building’s architecture. Her group redesigned the current building’s convoluted layout to create more welcoming and flexible interior spaces.
The new school’s location was another important factor. The team selected a space beside the current middle school because of its flexibility and its connection with the outdoors. McDonagh said that such real-world implications made the project a great learning experience.
The team plans to present their plan to the Middlebury Selectboard in May.
(04/26/18 1:00am)
On Thursday, April 19 through Saturday, April 21, the Hepburn Zoo Theatre transformed into Sarah Kane’s “4.48 Psychosis,” widely thought of as her suicide note, for Roxy Adviento’s ’18 senior work and Stephen Chen’s Intermediate Independent 500-level lighting project.
The play was Kane’s last and its initial production began posthumous at the Royal Court in 2000. In 2016 an operatic adaptation commissioned by the Royal Opera and written by British composer Philip Venable was staged at the Lyric Hammersmith.
The play is sequenced in elliptical fragments, fractured and emotionally lacerating, portraying a mind on the brink of a suicidal episode, raging against physicians who do not (and will not) understand. However, it is more than just Kane’s last play. It is also, according to Adviento, “about a universal pain and it’s varying intensities shared among us all. It’s a fight for sanity and an overwhelming need for genuine connection.”
Unlike a conventional play, which includes scenes and acts to demonstrate its transition, the progression of this play was demonstrated through “-------“. Adviento explained that it was this lack of transition, characters and stage direction that drew her in to direct the play for her senior thesis.
The play begins with Caleb Green ’19 sitting through a psychiatric meeting. He looks distraught and in pain, yet still is bombarded with questions. The play progresses to tell a story of four people, playing the various parts of a single character with blurring lines of reality.
Over the span of 75 minutes, the characters deal with contemplations and discussions of suicide and lack of hope. Although the play lacks strict narrative and timeline, desires of the depressed mind come to surface. The longing for love and understanding and the lack of them from society take a toll on the characters’ life. They seek solace in different channels from religion to medication to love, yet fail in finding it.
“4.48 Psychosis” represents a time in her life when Kane was in her depressive state, a time when the brain’s chemical imbalance peaks, when she was visited by depression as well as sobering clarity. The pain emulates a striking journey inside a beautiful but tortured soul. It was saddening to see that irrespective of the treatments she received, she was beyond help and had made up her mind on suicide.
“This play is more than about the ongoing abyss of misery and sadness,” said costume designer Mary Baillie ’18. Undoubtedly, the lyrics and dialogue of the play were carefully weighed and added a lyrical effect to the play. The action of sharing clothes of the characters symbolically represents not only “the same person and her distinct identities,” said Baillie but also how the way that individuals grieve is so codependent.
The most jarring scene was perhaps the end, where the characters reveal their determination, not to get better, but to commit suicide: “Please don’t cut me up to find out how I died, I’ll tell you how I died, one hundred lofepramine […] slit, hung, it is done.” However, this is contrasted with the last line of the play: “please open the curtains.” This line could be seen as the production opening the curtains at the end to allow a new play to take to take the stage. It signifies how in the broader context of our lives, we need to be able to find positivity in the face of depression and dependency.
The show’s leaflets contained a poem by Mary Oliver, entitled “Wild Geese” for a different perspective, offering audiences advice on how to live a worthwhile life. Irrespective of the loneliness that one faces, one simply needs to look outside to see that nature, a living entity, encompasses them and that they have a place amongst everything in this world, no matter the troubles that come with finding it. Overall, this play functions as not only a critique on mental health and its institutions, but also a reminder to find hope in struggling times and to remember that the world around us is still welcoming, even in bleak situations.
(04/26/18 1:00am)
MIDDLEBURY — Standing between the exposed brick walls and raw wooden beams of his office, Evan Deutsch ’12.5 began describing his path from graduation to where he now works, at a design agency he co-founded with fellow Middlebury alum Jon Portman ’13 four years ago. His story— turning down a consulting job in Boston to work for the College’s Center for Creativity, Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship before starting his own company—typified the independent, purpose-driven spirit so entrenched in Vermont culture. And over 2,100 Middlebury alumni share this same spirit, living and working in the state today.
Vermont seems to have it all. The landscape is captivating, with snow-peaked mountains rising behind stretches of gentle, rolling hills. For the most part, the people are friendly, down to earth. The pace of life appears manageable, far from the rat-race of New York City or Los Angeles.
But more and more people are leaving, looking for opportunities in bigger cities in different states. Over the past several years, an average of only 35 students from each of Middlebury’s graduating classes have stayed.
For most, the choice is simple. Vermont has few opportunities and high costs of living. Large cities, while expensive, bring jobs that pay more and provide clearer possibilities for the future.
And because the decision to stay in Vermont can be difficult, it attracts a certain type of person— community minded, with a strong sense of purpose. More than 500 Middlebury graduates in Vermont surveyed by the CCI work in the education industry, from teachers in rural towns to administrators in more urban districts. Even business owners are mission-driven, running companies that contribute to the community in addition to increasing their profits.
When Oxbow, Deutsch’s design agency, began to grow, he directed the company towards fulfilling an agenda of positive social impact. “Okay, we’re founding this business, it’s becoming successful,” he said. “How can we use this as a force for good, that amplifies our impact more than as individuals?”
Other alums say the same. “The amazing thing about doing business in Vermont is that social responsibility is part of the genetic code of the way businesses operate. That’s just not the case in other states,” said Benjy Adler ’03.5, founder and owner of The Skinny Pancake franchise.
Principles, like the commitment to local food, are not secondary to Adler’s business. Instead, he sees them as essential to making his restaurant successful. “The rest of the country looks to Vermont on how we are pushing the envelope,” he said. “To be here and to work on local food means that we are at the center of innovation.”
But for all the excitement surrounding Vermont and its culture of authenticity, there are still challenges. Business owners are often deterred by the perception of high taxes and high regulations.
“The community is amazing, but then when it comes down to filing your taxes, you feel like you’re getting screwed a little bit,” said Deutsch. “But it’s a trade-off. We can be in Delaware and not have the community that we have.”
Others struggle with high costs of living, and the lack of job mobility and opportunity. With few high-paying positions in Vermont, even people who may not have thought of becoming entrepreneurs find that Vermont forces them to be creative.
“Looking back on it, I’ve opted to create my own job more often than not. A lot of that is due to my personality, but there are also fewer job options,” said Chris Howell ’04, founder of a local food tour company. “It was tough making it work in the beginning— I held other jobs ranging from produce delivery driver to supporting developmentally disabled teens.”
Students, perceiving these difficulties, increasingly move away from Vermont, contributing to an outward migration of college graduates and exacerbating the trends of an aging population and stagnant workforce.
To make matters worse, many Vermonters now leave the state after high school. Despite the opportunity of going to schools like UVM, the Vermont State Colleges or Middlebury, over 45% of high school graduates leave the state— and many don’t return. While most states depend on their colleges and universities to increase the number of young workers they can attract and retain, Vermont has to invest in other measures.
“We have to try to encourage young people to become part of our community,” explains Jim Douglas ’72, the former governor of Vermont. Since his time in office, various agencies in the state government have regularly developed incentives to increase the workforce. The current administration, for example, will soon begin a program called “Stay to Stay”, setting up vacation weekends that include visits with businesses and realtors.
Colleges, including Middlebury, are also hoping to show students that there are opportunities in Vermont. “Too many students think that there’s no jobs. But there are,” said Peggy Burns, director of the CCI. “We want to facilitate a path for students to make informed decisions, and I think that Middlebury graduates can contribute to a more vibrant and robust culture here.”
At the end of the day, Vermont provides an opportunity unlike any other for those willing to stay.
As Adler explained, “The cold honest truth is, Vermont needs good people. That’s not a reason for anyone to choose to stay here, but the companies that are hiring are hungry. There’s a shortage, and I certainly appreciate it every time someone chooses to stay in Vermont.”
(04/26/18 12:56am)
MIDDLEBURY — The 9th annual Vermont Restaurant Week presented by Vermont Federal Credit Union and organized by Seven Days, a Burlington-based newspaper, began on Friday, April 20.
One hundred and fifteen restaurants from all over the state, including twenty first-time restaurants, are participating in this year’s event. Each participating restaurant offers a multi-course prix-fixe menu at $20, $30, or $40 per person.
Restaurant weeks happen all over the world, offering reduced or fixed price menus to customers, and nine years ago, Seven Days decided to organize a restaurant week in Vermont.
Corey Grenier, the Marketing and Events Director for Seven Days, said that the event is mutually beneficial for Seven Days, which covers Vermont’s food scene, and its clients and advertisers. The majority of the participating restaurants, she said, are year-round advertising clients of the newspaper. The event also occurs during “mud season,” bringing in crowds during a particularly slow time for tourism throughout Vermont, Grenier said.
In addition to the prix-fixe menus, restaurants and companies host special food-themed events throughout the week.
One new event this year was “Stretch & Sip Yoga” hosted by Soulshine Power Yoga and located at Switchback Brewing Co. of Burlington. On Sunday, April 22, twenty-eight guests enjoyed an all-levels yoga class in the tasting room. Through ticket sales, the event generated $560 for Vermont Foodbank, the state’s largest hunger-relief organization and a beneficiary of Vermont Restaurant Week. Last year, Vermont Restaurant Week donated $21,380 to Vermont Foodbank. This year’s target, Grenier said, is to beat that amount.
In addition to the proceeds from the special event ticket sales, eleven restaurants elected to donate $1 from each Restaurant Week meal to Vermont Food Bank. Additionally, City Market/Onion River Co-op, one of the festival’s sponsors, has a Rally for Change program which encourages customers to round up their bill at the register. For the month of April, City Market, which has two Burlington locations, will donate forty-percent of its proceeds from the Rally for Change program to Vermont Foodbank. Last month, City Market’s Rally for Change program raised $10,500 for its forty-percent recipient.
Seven restaurants in Middlebury are on the list for this year’s Restaurant Week, including first-time participant Coriander, which opened its Washington Street location last June. Coriander’s staff noted that the number of customers this past weekend wasn’t exorbitantly higher than normal for most weekend evenings, but on Sunday night there were customers who came specifically for the Restaurant Week menu. Still, participating in Restaurant Week is beneficial, they say, because it allows them to get the word out about their business to a larger geographic area.
Executive Chef and General Manager of The Lobby restaurant on Bakery Lane, Andrea Cousineau, agrees that statewide publicity is a major benefit of Restaurant Week.
“People get to see the menu online, and they come from all over the state,” she said.
The Lobby has been participating in Restaurant Week for three years, and from Cousineau’s experience, she believes the second weekend is usually the more highly attended by Restaurant Week customers.
Cousineau is excited to use this Restaurant Week as a testing ground for new menu items, and to receive feedback on the new dishes. One main dish on the prix-fixe menu, Masa-Crusted Cod, will appear on the Lobby’s main menu in the next couple of weeks. It comes with a side of garlic mashed potatoes, wilted kale, and gremolata.
Restaurant Week – actually a little longer than a week – wraps up this Sunday, April 28.
(04/19/18 1:15am)
MONTPELIER — The Vermont Supreme Court ruled in favor of Jack Sawyer on Wed. Apr. 11 on the question of bail. The decision means that the 18-year-old accused of planning a shooting at Fair Haven Union High School in Rutland, VT earlier this year cannot be held without bail on the basis that his actions do not meet the charges of felony against him under the legal definition of “attempt.”
During the two days of hearings last month, Sawyer pleaded “not guilty” to charges of four felonies: three counts of attempted murder and one count of attempted aggravated assault with a weapon. Judge Thomas Zonay, who is presiding over the trial, sided with State prosecutors at the time, ruling that Sawyer could be held without bail until his trial date.
However, in an unexpected move, a three-judge-panel reversed this decision last Wednesday at an appeal, which means that Sawyer could be released before his trial takes place.
The panel, made up of Associate Justices Beth Robinson, Harold Eaton Jr., and Karen Carroll held in their published decision that “the weight of the evidence is not great that [the] defendant has committed any act or combination of acts that would satisfy Vermont’s definition of an attempt to commit any of the charged crimes.”
From the beginning of this case, as reported by the Addison Independent, whether or not Sawyer’s actions constitute “attempt” under Vermont state law has been a main point of contention. Under current legislative precedent in Vermont, charges of “attempt” must contain action “towards the commission of the offense.” State prosecutors argued that Sawyer’s acquisition of a 12-gauge shotgun, among other alleged steps he took before the planned shooting, do fulfill the “attempt” statute. According to the same Addison Independent article, Sawyer also ostensibly chose the date of Mar. 14 based on the school’s calendar, procured $500 via Bitcoin with the intent of purchasing an AR-15 (an automatic rifle) and did target practice with the shotgun.
During deliberations, defendants cited the State v. Hurley case, which, decided over one hundred years ago, set precedent for attempt charges in Vermont. In State v. Hurley, the question at hand was whether or not obtaining the tools necessary to carry out a crime constituted an attempt to commit the crime itself. The Court ruled in favor of Hurley, reversing his conviction for attempting to break out of prison. The Court held that an “attempt” is a preparatory act that would – except for outside interruption – end in the intended crime. Sawyer’s defense referenced State v. Hurley in an effort to show that his acts of preparation were not necessarily also acts of attempt.
While Judge Zonay wrote that “absent the police interruption the Defendant’s acts were likely, if not assured, to end in the consummation of his crimes,” the Supreme Court justices said that his past actions were not enough to substantiate an attempt charge in Vermont law.
“Each of [the defendant’s] actions was a preparatory act,” the justices wrote, “and not an act undertaken in the attempt to commit a crime. Therefore, as a matter of law, [the] defendant’s acts did not fall within the definition of an attempt.”
Sawyer’s attorney, Kelly Green, believes that the Court’s decision indicates that the State’s prosecution may not be successful in this high-profile case, reported Seven Days VT.
However, the justices seemed to offer an alternative, saying that while they had to uphold the over 100 years of consistent legislation, “the Legislature can, if it chooses, deviate from this long-established standard by passing a law revising the definition of attempt.”
This decision came on the same Wednesday that Governor Phil Scott publicly signed three gun-control bills into law in a historic move for firearm legislation in Vermont. Following the Parkland shooting and the foiled shooting at Fair Haven, Gov. Scott, a longtime proponent of gun rights in his political career, changed his stance to support more stringent firearm legislation. Scott cited the “near miss” at Fair Haven as a large reason behind his shift in perspective, saying that Vermont has been given “the opportunity to think differently.”
“I thought as the safest state in the nation, Vermont was immune to this type of violence,” Gov. Scott said at the public signing ceremony last Wednesday amid heckles and angry protests from gun rights supporters. “The reality of how close we came to a tragedy forced me to come full circle.”
As of this historic moment, Vermont, previously known as one of the most gun-friendly states, has become one of the least. The bills signed into law include provisions that enable authorities to remove guns from people at “extreme-risk” of violence, expand background checks and place limits on magazine capacity.
“It is incumbent upon the state to combat the epidemic of mass shootings that has swept the country in recent years,” said Gov. Scott in front of the State House. “Today we choose action over inaction, doing something over doing nothing, knowing there will always be more work to do.”
On Thurs., Apr. 12 – the day following the Vermont Supreme Court’s decision to reverse the hold-without-bail ruling in Sawyer’s case - Green filed a motion to dismiss the charges against him. Though she was unwilling to comment for this piece, Green is quoted in Seven Days VT saying: “Jack didn’t attempt any crime, he hasn’t attempted the charged crimes, and they have to be dismissed. When there is not probable cause, the state’s involvement in someone’s life must end.”
The same day, Rutland County State Attorney Rosemary Kennedy served Sawyer with an “extreme risk protection order,” which would not allow him to possess or purchase weapons following his possible release. The order was granted and Sawyer’s attorney does not intend to challenge it.
Gov. Scott announced on Fri. April 13 that he was “appalled” at the Court’s reversal on the issue of bail. He detailed several steps that authorities would take to protect the Fair Haven Union high school community before Sawyer’s possible release, including the participation of nine law enforcement agencies, the obtainment of no-trespass orders against Sawyer and increased “security infrastructure” in the school district.
(04/12/18 12:24am)
MIDDLEBURY — Two months ago, both the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation and the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Foods and Markets reported a sighting of Emerald Ash Borers in northern Orange County, Vermont. An exotic beetle native to China, eastern Russia, Japan and Korea, the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) is an invasive species that targets all types of ash. First found near Detroit in 2002, the Ash Borer has spread rapidly throughout North America, and its invasion in Vermont has long been anticipated. None of Vermont’s native ash trees are known to be resistant to the pest.
“They’re everywhere,” said Tim Parsons, Middlebury College’s Landscape Horticulturist, of the ash trees on campus. “I can stand on the front steps of the Chapel and point to four, and I can stand on the back steps and point to eight more.” The main campus of Middlebury College has 182 ash trees, constituting roughly 8.7 percent of the campus’ tree community. On the Green Mountains, ash makes up about 10-15 percent of trees, but they are not as congregated as they are on Middlebury’s main campus.
Since 2010, Parsons has taught a J-term class every few years called “Trees and the Urban Forest,” which centers on the ecological and aesthetic value of the forest in an urban setting. In past years, the class has developed emergency preparedness plans against the invasion of the Emerald Ash Borers for both the town of Middlebury and the College. In 2015, the class made a plan to survey all the ash on campus, devise strategies for treatment or removal of ash trees and consider options for replanting. On a website called EAB at Middlebury College (go/EAB), two students from the 2015 J-term class estimated the total cost for the injection, removal, and replacement of ash trees on campus would reach approximately $500,000.
A map of trees on campus, made by a group of students in 2002 but last updated in January of 2014, shows congregations of ash behind Ross commons, a grove of almost exclusively ash in front of the Atwater commons house near the Trail Around Middlebury and a patch of ash behind Proctor, most of which was removed before the construction of the Ridgeline Suites. Other conspicuous spots of ash include three large structures near Forest Hall and several in the northwest corner of Battell Beach, on which many students hang hammocks on warmer days. Though ash accounts for less than 10 percent of the campus’ tree population, small stands of ash trees often serve as prominent landscape features, meaning that their removal will result in noticeable gaps in the Middlebury landscape.
Nevertheless, the position of many ash trees near key structures such as residence halls and dining halls may necessitate their removal. Smaller than a penny, an ash borer will bore through the inner bark and likely result in the death of entire trees. A survey in 2015 by students in Parsons’ class located 658 “hazardous” trees found within 50 feet of roads, sidewalks and parking lots.
Once an ash has been infested, it has on average between two to four years to live. Out of concern for the safety of students and members of the college community, landscape facilities will likely have to remove infested trees before a year has passed.
As Parsons explained with a touch of cynical humor, “One of the definitions of a tree is that it’s a large plant that, when it falls on someone, may kill them.”
When implemented on a larger scale, however, mass-removals of ash may become detrimental to local flora and fauna. Professor Stephen Trombulak, a landscape ecologist, said that a drastic loss of ash trees “will mean that there will be a lot of dead trees in the forest, which will almost certainly alter all aspects of forest ecosystems, including but not limited to nutrient cycling, soil retention, abundance of species that specialize on dead and decaying wood, soil moisture content, soil temperature, fire intensity and frequency and the abundance and density of plant species that do well in forest gaps.”
The loss of large amounts of ash could have unexpected repercussions for other industries as well. For example, most Major League Baseball bats are made of ash because the hardwood is not inclined to splinter and shatter. Middlebury College’s own replicas of Gamaliel Painter’s cane, given out to all seniors at Commencement, are made of ash.
The most abundant use of ash by far is as firewood. It is possible that ash removed from campus in the near future may be burned in the biomass plant to provide energy for campus consumption. The invasion of this pest, however, brings with it quarantines and regulations on the transportation of firewood, which will almost certainly affect log prices in the area.
Parsons’ approach is to wait until it is absolutely necessary to cut down the ash. Neither attempts at eradicating the ash borer nor removing all the ash in the area have been successful in the 31 other states that have been infested. It is estimated that only one percent of ash in an infested area survive, so efforts to regenerate ash seedlings and saplings in Vermont forests are crucial.
“An ash borer’s immediate range is not very far. It could take them five, ten years to get here,” Parsons speculated. “Or they could get stuck to the windshield of a car and get here tomorrow morning.” One of the major pathways of travel for the Emerald Ash Borers is facilitated by humans, through interstate transport of infested firewood.
Key in deterring the spread of the Emerald Ash Borer will be observant and conscious Vermonters. The first report of the insect in Vermont was made by a forest manager in Orange County on the Vermont Invasives website.
Professor Trombulak suggested that “Vermonters should be responding to this issue by not moving potentially-infested firewood from one location to another, reporting sightings of EAB immediately and planting ash trees whenever possible in the hopes that the seed pool for those species can be maintained until an effective management plan can be implemented.”
Another method of response, Parsons said, is injecting infested trees biannually with pesticide, but such a short-term solution is neither cost-effective nor implementable on a large scale under facilities’ current budget. Though some are investigating the use of bio-controls such as woodpeckers or parasitic wasps to control ash borers as a “last-ditch effort” to combat the invasive species, the effectiveness of such measures has yet to be determined. Professor Trombulak says that “there is speculation that an increase in EAB will lead to woodpeckers and parasitic wasps feeding on EAB, which might control their populations.” However, he warned of the unpredictability of such an approach, as he is “not aware of any evidence that predator control has been shown in locations where EAB have been established for some time.”
Since its first sighting in the state on Feb. 20, the Emerald Ash Borer has been found in two additional Vermont counties. Tell-tale signs of an infestation include woodpecker damage to living trees in the form of smooth, light-colored patches on the outer bark, S-shaped galleries created by ash borers weaving back and forth underneath the bark and abundant D-shaped ash borer exit holes on the trunk of a tree.
Trees serve an essential, albeit often underappreciated, role in the Middlebury landscape. Parsons’ enthusiasm for the trees on campus is as clear as it is contagious. “I’d say I have about twelve [favorite trees on campus],” he admitted. “They’re like your kids—you can’t pick just one.”
“It’s heartbreaking,” Parsons said, grieving for the ash that we will undoubtedly lose in the next few years. “I can’t stress that enough.”
(04/11/18 9:52pm)
Last Friday, the SGA announced the creation of a new program called Middworks. “Middworks,” an email sent to all students explained, “is a new program created [...] to share information and experiences and to build a greater common understanding among students, faculty and staff.” In short, the program aims to foster better relationships among students and staff at the college. As the email attested, “this process starts not only with sharing our worldviews, but also with sharing our different lived experiences at Middlebury College.”
In addition to outlining the new program, the email called for students to sign up for Work Alongside One Another. This, the first Middworks-sponsored event, offers students the opportunity to work shifts with Dining and Facilities services staff on April 16 and 19. Held in concert with Staff Appreciation Day (April 30), the event provides students with the opportunity to “learn more about the challenges and rewards experienced by the staff who help the campus function day-to-day.”
Those who sign up for shifts on April 16 will join President Patton and the facilities staff to learn about the work done by facilities workers to maintain campus cleanliness and safety. On April 19, the opportunity likewise exists for students to work with treasurer David Provost and the dining staff to learn about the challenges of preparing meals for over 2,500 students. After shifts, participants are invited to share a meal and discuss community interests, issues and experiences which arise. This is a great idea, and the SGA and administration deserve credit for putting it together.
This paper’s March 22 editorial “Our Staff Deserve Better” called for students and administration to increase efforts at recognizing the value of our facilities and dining staff. In light of widespread mess and vandalism in dorms, dining halls and other locations, we asked that students be more thoughtful about their treatment of the college environment, particularly spaces whose cleanliness forms the supposed responsibility of wage-earning staff.
For years, the staff members in question have shouldered preventable messes in dining halls and dorms. This reflects poorly on the student body as a whole. Simply put, we can do better. In recognition that true improvement necessitates collective effort by students and the administration, the same editorial called for improvements in staff wages. Just as students can do their part, so too can the administration. Only then can we demonstrate to Middlebury’s wage-earning staff that they are more valuable to our school than current conditions suggest.
We believe that both Middworks and Work Alongside One Another constitute the first step in such a project. As was pointed out in the March 22 editorial, inconsideracy and carelessness on the part of students formed the core of the problem. As such, students themselves must take the initiative in order to reverse these trends. Work Alongside One Another provides students an opportunity to appreciate firsthand the work that wage-earning staff perform.
Listening as staff explain the intricacies, difficulties and joys of their job cannot be anything but rewarding for both parties involved. It allows the worker to convey the challenges involved in the tasks they perform, so that students might better understand the ramifications of their actions. If enough students attend, a tangible difference might be made in the system of student-staff relations on campus.
Although there are many more steps that our administration can and should take to better convey the value of our dining and facilities services staff, the most obvious being wage increases, the fact that Patton and Provost have chosen to dedicate their time to this program deserves recognition. We hope that their decision to participate is an indicator that more substantive action will come soon.
And so we call upon students to sign up for Work Alongside One Another. Put simply, it is the least we can do. Workers in facilities and dining services take pride in their jobs and are often eager to share their experiences, and the Work Alongside One Another presents us a valuable opportunity to listen.
Students can sign up through the survey in the email sent out by the SGA on April 6.
(04/11/18 8:47pm)
Following a hard-fought, 4–3, midweek victory over Plattsburgh, the softball team took to the road to take on No. 17 Amherst (17–2, 5–0) for a three-game set last weekend.
The Panthers fell to the Mammoths on Saturday, April 7, by a final score of 9–4, and dropped both games of their doubleheader on Sunday, April 8, by scores of 3–0 and 7–2. After getting swept on the road, the Panthers stand at .500, 7–7, as they enter the heart of their schedule.
Though the Panthers had solid offensive and defensive efforts, the Mammoths’ pitching, led by 12.2 innings of Lorena Ukanwa and her 10–0 record, kept the Panthers from doing any meaningful damage.
Senior captain Kati Daczkowski ’18 hopes to look forward from the losses and work on facing the next competition, especially in Nescac play.
“We have to keep moving forward and improving our play,” Daczkowski said, “We’re looking forward to this week and new competition.”
The highlight of the week, and potentially the season so far, was the Panthers’ effort against Plattsburgh. On the road at Cardinal Park, on a cold Wednesday, April 4, afternoon, the Panthers used a total-team effort to come from behind and beat Plattsburgh.
The Middlebury captains’ preseason hope to use their small size to their advantage was validated, as every player had a hand in the victory against the Cardinals.
Emily Morris ’21 pitched a great game for the Panthers. On the mound, she recorded seven timely strikeouts to highlight a strong performance. Plattsburgh was only able to get four hits off of her.
The offensive side of the Panthers put in an all-team effort and a strong start. Early in the first inning, after an Allison Quigley ’18 single moved Olivia Bravo ’20 and Melanie Mandell ’20 to second and third, respectively, Taylor Gardner ’18 came up with the bases loaded. Gardner grounded into a would-be fielder’s choice, but an error by the Cardinals’ pitcher allowed her to reach safely as Bravo crossed the plate. With the bases still loaded, Lisa Tarr ’19 stepped up to the plate and struck out. However, a passed ball allowed Tarr to reach safely, and Mandell crossed the plate for the second run on an error in as many batters for the Panthers.
Heading into the fifth, the Panthers trailed the Cardinals 3–2 when, luckily for Middlebury, Bravo continued her stellar day, sending a two-out triple to center. Mandell then came up and hit what seemed to be an inning-ending grounder to the pitcher. However, for the second time in the game an error by the Cardinals’ pitcher extended the inning. A throwing error to first allowed Bravo to score and Mandell to reach base safety.
If things were not already wacky and exciting enough, the Panthers took back the lead in the sixth on a Plattsburgh wild pitch, which allowed Gardner to score what would be the game’s decisive run as the Panthers came out victorious, 4–3.
After some weather-pending midweek action — a doubleheader against Castleton — the Panthers are set to host Hamilton tomorrow evening at 5 p.m. for the first game of an important three-game set, with a doubleheader scheduled to start at noon on Saturday.
(04/11/18 3:44pm)
The Patton administration faced widespread outrage from professors regarding salary practices for top officials at a faculty meeting on April 6. The faculty railed against bonuses and mismanagement, as well as payouts during the Liebowitz administration, which ended in 2015.
President Laurie L. Patton discussed executive pay during her routine report to the faculty and emphasized that she is committed to using fewer stay bonuses of smaller amounts. Stay bonuses were a main point of criticism in physics professor Noah Graham’s op-ed, “Executive Pay and Why It Matters,” published in the March 15 issue of The Campus.
“I’m still interested in maintaining a very modest use of these bonuses because they are used in higher ed to prevent a kind of constant searching and turning over,” Patton said. “But as you saw from the data, my interest and commitment to them is very modest. They are one tool among many, and I am committed to moving to most of those other tools before we do that.”
Though Patton was unable to stay after concluding her presentation, Provost gave a more in-depth presentation on the subject later in the meeting. Provost provided specifics regarding previously-issued retention bonuses.
“Since 2009, there were 11 different retention bonuses involving seven different administrators, ranging in annual amounts from $50,000 to $100,000. Those yielded pay outs anywhere from $100,000 to $500,000,” Provost said.
“Today there are three retention bonuses that range in the $40,000 to $50,000 range, with total expected payouts of $150,000 to $250,000” he added.
Cason, who presented alongside Provost, told the faculty that he was one of the three remaining employees with a retention bonus.
“This was offered to me in Laurie’s first year when I was interviewing for another presidency,” Cason said. “I’m just putting that out there, that’s just a fact. If I had understood how this was going to go on, I might have asked for a different kind of compensation at the time. I didn’t ask for [a stay bonus], so I’ll say that.”
Provost argued that stay bonuses are effective, given that they have resulted in faculty recipients remaining at the college for the duration of their bonus’ payout. Faculty had additional questions regarding the purpose of stay bonuses, however.
“Any of the previous 11 that were put in place in all cases achieved their anniversary date,” Provost said. “Yes, they worked from the standpoint of keeping that person here.”
Jason Mittell, a film professor, argued that some of the faculty who remained at Middlebury due to stay bonuses actually harmed the college.
“People were highly compensated at the exact same time that they were making financially irresponsible decisions at the college, which then they had left for Laurie and David to correct,” Mittell said. “What type of accountability has the board of trustees talked about for this? It’s the fault of people who made a lot of money from us while spending a lot of our money and mortgaging our future. . . . How do we make sure most importantly, that this never happens again?”
Erik Bleich, professor of political science, argued that stay bonuses actually encourage administrators to leave once they receive their full bonus.
“If I put myself in the position of someone who’s about to get a $500,000 pay out and then look the next year at the measly salary of $240,000, it’s an incentive to leave, an incentive to leverage that moment to exit,” Bleich said.
Earlier in his presentation, Provost stated that he had in fact been the recipient of a retention bonus at Champlain College, where he worked before coming to Middlebury.
“I had one previously at Champlain during the last presidential transition,” Provost said. “I had played a very active role in the transformation of Champlain, so they tied my hands for four years knowing they wanted me there. That had expired this past June, so when I started a conversation with Laurie, that wasn’t hanging over my head.”
In outlining potential reforms to the current executive pay system, Patton said that she and Provost were open to the idea of formulating stay bonuses in accordance with employees’ individual performance. She also said she was committed to maintaining the costs of and reducing the size of the Senior Leadership Group (SLG), citing that the costs of the SLG were already $30,000 less than they were last year.
Patton said that the college had decided not to award any employee making over $200,000 a raise last year, and shared information regarding her own salary, emphasizing that her take home pay is even less than that listed on the 990 tax form where the college reports executive pay.
“I do not have a retention bonus and my salary is $575,000,” Patton said. “I tied in scholarships and in fact I just finished my taxes, and with all the other charitable deductions I actually make about three-fifths of that. I am happy to share anything more about my own finances if you’d like to talk.”
Patton also reiterated her commitment to paying administrators in accordance with a “market rate.”
“To ask anyone to do these really tough jobs, tougher than they’ve ever been, and not pay market rate for folks to do these jobs doesn’t seem fair to either the candidates or to Middlebury,” Patton said.
Provost explained that the college decides on executive compensation by reviewing market information and by analyzing peer institutions. Patton then recommends executive compensation to the compensation committee, which is made up of the board chair, vice chair, resource committee chair and one additional board member. The compensation committee then approves the President’s recommendations.
Provost’s presentation compared peer institutions’ executive pay to Middlebury’s. The college’s total executive pay of $4.1 million dollars was higher than the $3.6 million average of its peer institutions.
Rick Bunt, a chemistry professor, argued that this gap of 14 percent between the peer group average suggested that the compensation committee did not actually base executive pay off of a “market value.”
“These institutions, Williams, Amherst, all have endowments at least twice our size,” Bunt said. “So our compensation for our top executives is supposed to be market driven, but its 14 percent above average.”
Bunt argued that this is unfair to faculty and staff, given their comparative wages.
“I’m pretty sure our faculty compensation is not 14 percent above average, and I’m really, really sure that our staff compensation is not 14 percent above average,” Bunt said. “We’re committed to paying market rate for our executives for running the school, why shouldn’t we pay market rate to the staff and faculty who actually do the hard work of educating the students?”
Provost explained that the stay bonuses, which will apparently continue to decline in number and value, were responsible for this 14 percent difference.
While Provost revealed that the college does not review staff compensation in the context of a such a “market rate” every year, he said that he and Patton hope to establish faculty compensation at an above average rate compared to their peers. He also said that most college staff actually earn above average wages.
“Laurie is not trying to pay the executives here differently than the faculty or the staff. That is not a goal,” Provost said. “It is our intention to pay our faculty at above market median. On the staff compensation, we are for the most part above the median, there are a few exceptions. We’ve been working with human resources to conduct a compensation study that will address that.”
Provost said that he hoped sharing the 990 tax forms with faculty sooner would help increase transparency.
“I don’t want to speak especially for the past board,” Provost said. “The folks on the resource committee are in that way of thinking, of saying if we see a 990 two years after the fact, that’s not prevention, that’s not awareness of what’s going on, so why aren’t we communicating these in real time when that’s happening? And you heard Laurie say she’s open to that conversation. So if that was in place that would help prevent it before it’s old news.”
Provost also announced that former President Ronald Liebowitz received a sizeable payout, the quantity of which will be released in early May with the disclosure of the FY ’17 990.
In their questions for Provost, faculty members criticized the conduct of past and present administrators, as well as some of the potential methods they feared the college would take to save money in the future.
Susan Burch, a professor of American studies, said that Provost and Cason brought up adjusting healthcare plans in their meeting with faculty earlier in the week.
“I’m very concerned to hear that [health care] might be leveraged. Please don’t do that,” she said.
While Provost said that he believes the college spends too much on healthcare, he clarified that they have delayed the decision on changing healthcare another year at the earliest due to employee concerns.
“Our existing health benefits at $25,000 a family, it’s too much, we’re going to spend $422,000 this year on massage therapy,” Provost said. “You as faculty have to come to the table and say this isn’t about destroying people’s healthcare. I couldn’t agree with you more. My concern is we can’t even have the conversation because that is what is inferred. I don’t like that we’re paying $25,000 per family, it’s probably not worth it, but I hope we can find common ground on some things we should talk about.”
Though Provost had no control over the order of the meeting agenda, history professor Rebecca Bennette expressed frustration that Provost’s presentation was the final one in a nearly four-hour long meeting.
“I’m deeply disturbed that you basically waited us out until almost everyone left and Laurie’s not even here to be here for this conversation. This should have been first,” Bennette said.
John Schmitt, a professor of mathematics, defended Provost and encouraged faculty to view him as an ally.
“I’ve been working with David since September and we have an opportunity here that didn’t exist under the previous administration,” Schmitt said. “David is looking to empower us to make good decisions about our future. We’re not going to get Ron’s payment back. And I’m hopeful that we see David as an ally.”
However, faculty continued to voice criticisms. Tamar Mayer, a geography professor, suggested selling the Middlebury Institute at Monterey in order to save money, to which several faculty voiced support.
Provost replied that though this might not be off-limits, it is not a simple fix to the college’s financial problems, and there are reasons to keep the Institute.
“The spirit of my approach is that I want everything on the table,” Provost said. “But if we’re serious about a conversation about things we want to explore, for me we’re the only one of those peer institutions up there that has a physical campus in the backyard of Silicon Valley. We have not leveraged a resource that we decided to invest in and it sits out there.”
Erik Bleich, professor of political science, issued Provost a warning.
“The decisions that have been made in the past, and some of the current administrators were involved in those decisions, were a disaster,” Bleich said. “I want you all on warning. Don’t let this happen again.”
Bennette argued that the current administration should begin to take more responsibility for the financial state of the college.
“We’re three years into this presidency now. And I’m not saying this was the greatest inheritance to come in to as a president. But you can play a hand of cards good or you can play it poorly, and I think a lot of people think it was not played that well.”
Provost urged faculty to view the college’s financial problems as more complex than a simple issue of executive overcompensation, and to recognize some of the positive conditions at the college.
“If we think Middlebury’s financial difficulties are caused by executive compensation, we won’t solve our problems,” Provost said. “Is there some responsibility there? Absolutely. But we are a very privileged organization. We have a lot of employees. We pay people well. Our benefits are off the charts. And if we aren’t willing to put everything on the table, we aren’t going to solve these problems.”
(04/04/18 8:41pm)
In the beneficiary relationship between the college and its donors, the emotional ties that alumni maintain with the larger community cannot be overlooked, as they shape the flow of donations to the college’s office of advancement. This was particularly evident in the fallout from the protests against Charles Murray that roiled campus last year, which may have contributed to a decline in donations last year.
“Our donors pay attention to what happens here. There is no question about that. This instance on March 2 of last year was certainly no exception,” said Alanna Shanley ’99, Middlebury’s executive director of giving.
“At this point, we only have anecdotal evidence about what has happened, and I think time will tell how this plays out in the future. We did see a drop-in participation last year. Is it because of what happened on March 2, or is it because of other factors? Probably a little bit of both. But it’s hard for us to pull that apart.”
According to members of advancement’s “phonathon” team, a student-manned initiative aimed at soliciting small donations via telephone, operations were affected in the immediate aftermath of the protests. The initiative was temporarily paused and after its recommencement, conversations with prospective donors became dominated by requests for information, and sharing of opinions about, the protest.
One phonathon operator, who requested anonymity to discuss internal matters, went on to note that caller opinions were generally split between the necessity of protecting Middlebury’s identity as a “place for many minds” and the need to protect student protesters. From their perspective, people in the former camp tended to be older, but perspectives were largely diverse. In the end, the phonathon program only achieved half of its $300,000 goal.
These concerns proved to be recurrent as the advancement office continued to reach out to alums.
“We spent a lot of time answering questions about what went on. Because of the way the story was picked up in the media, the incident of students protesting within Wilson and the attack on professor Stanger were collapsed,” said Meghan Williamson ’77, vice president for development.
“And so, people thought it was this mob going out from Wilson attacking professor Stanger, and that’s not what happened. So, a lot of my conversations were just to help people understand what did happen. Because the story, as you know, just took off. And it depended on what news outlet you were reading, and some people actually just had a lot of misinformation.”
In addition to clearing away the dust that surrounded the controversy, efforts were made to pacify discontent within the alumni community, which expressed a wide gamut of opinions on the protests. Although no gifts were actually retracted, some potential donors maintained that they would have to “wait and see” about their next gift based on developments on campus.
Bill Burger, the college’s spokesman, said in an interview that the advancement team has been instrumental in maintaining links to donors with particularly serious reservations and allaying their concerns. Although alums from the last five years were generally more sympathetic when the discipline process started, he said, responses and concerns from the wide spectrum of alums were all eventually addressed. It remains to be seen what kind of long term impact may result from this period in the college’s history.
“There’s not one opinion that alumni are expressing on any of the issues that are going on campus,” Shanley said. “The kinds of commentary and feedback that we’re getting are as diverse as I expect you’re seeing among the student body. . . . So I wouldn’t want there to ever be any perception that alumni are universal in the way they’re thinking about this,” she said.
“They just are at a different place in their lives. So they’re peering in, trying to make sense of the situation and relate it to their own experiences, as anybody would,” Shanley said. “Some alumni are absolutely embracing of all change. And some alumni cling to nostalgia.”
For Middlebury, the advancement office forms one of the necessary links between the college and its vast network of alumni. For many alumni, the advancement officers are some of the most consistent links to the college, offering everything from opportunities to donate to financial aid to illuminating information to alumni who were shaken after the protests. Yet despite the advancement office’s central role in the prospects of the college, its activities are largely unknown amongst current students.
In short, the advancement team connects potential donors in the Middlebury community: friends, parents and alumni of Middlebury’s undergraduate and graduate programs. These connections are fostered through the office’s dual strategy of engagement and fundraising. The former involves the organization of major events, such as reunion, homecoming, the alumni leadership conference, faculty lectures and speaking engagements for President Laurie L. Patton. For the fundraising side, print, email and one-on-one meetings are used to raise interest and identify prospective donors, all of which is supported by an extensive network of volunteers.
The annual gifts that the college receives are either spent in the year that they are received, or in the subsequent fiscal year if the resource is not required for the current fiscal year. Gifts are either freely used for any initiative within the Middlebury community, or directed toward specific causes, such as athletics or financial aid, by request of the donor.
The impact of donations in the implementation of financial aid is particularly notable. Endowed funds cover 25 percent of the budget for financial aid for Middlebury undergraduates. Combined with additional funds garnered from expendable annual gifts, these resources make up, on average, 6 percent of the entire operating budget of the college. In other words, it is partly due to endowed and expendable gifts that approximately 44 percent of students at Middlebury are able to receive financial aid.
President Patton and the board of trustees have frequently reaffirmed their goal of not only maintaining this threshold in the face of ballooning tuition cost, but also extending financial aid to 50 percent of the college community, a goal that would require 350 million dollars or about 70 million dollars every year over a five-year period.
In order to help reach this and other financial standards, donation campaigns occur yearly. Outside of these consistent campaigns, the college occasionally undertakes major pledge campaigns whose combined donations can reach the tens of million dollars. These large campaigns begin with a planning phase, followed by a “quiet phase” of requests made to wealthier donors that normally last for two years. After that, a more public phase opens donation requests to the larger pool of potential donors for four to six years.
The most recent of these major campaigns began in 2007, with the goal of raising $500 million. Though the campaign was extended to account for the 2008 financial crisis, by the time it ended in 2015, it had surpassed its goal by $35 million.
Elizabeth Zhou contributed reporting.
(04/04/18 9:00am)
Last week the baseball team headed west to Southern California for their annual spring break trip, and finished 5–4, the first time since 2012 the Panthers finished over .500 on the trip.
Middlebury also started its Nescac schedule with a bang, taking the first two games of its series with Williams, including a 20–1 shellacking in the first game, before falling in the final game. The Panthers return to Vermont with a 2–1 record in the conference.
The Panthers kicked it off with a matchup against Chapman University of Orange, California on Saturday, March 24. Though it ended with a tough 5–3 loss, Middlebury showed great resilience in the fourth inning after a difficult start left them facing a five run deficit.
Junior captain Colby Morris ’19 pitched the whole game and, while he struggled at times and let up five runs overall, he managed to rally and strike out five. Getting back on track to finish strong was easy for the Panthers’ ace.
“Physically it was a small adjustment, I just had to throw my changeup down in the zone and not leave it up,” explains Morris, who found that the bigger challenge was the mental side. “Mentally it was more challenging. I’m from San Diego so I had a lot of family at the game rooting for me and in past years I might’ve folded but I’ve been playing for them recently and more for my teammates. They definitely helped me flush that bad pitch and move on to the next few innings and give us a chance to win even though we couldn’t pull it out.”
Hayden Smith ’20, Justin Han ’20 and Sam Graf ’19 each crossed the plate for the Panthers, pushed across by RBIs off the bats of Kevin Woodring ’20, Alan Guild ’20 and Han.
Next up, Middlebury faced both the Claremont McKenna Stags and the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens on Sunday, March 25. The Panthers started the day with a 10–8 win against the Stags, getting an early lead with a sacrifice fly out from Han to bring Brooks Carroll ’20 home in the first inning, followed by a run from Jack Miller ’21 off a hit from Han in the third.
Middlebury continued to get runs across to rack up their run total in the fourth inning with a critical home run from Phil Bernstein ’19, driving in Grant Elgarten ’20 and Graf to make it 5–0. This was Bernstein’s first home run at the college level, a feat made all-the-more special by hitting it in his hometown.
“It was awesome,” said an excited Bernstein. “My parents were there and it made it that much more special. I knew I hit it well but didn’t realize how far I hit it. I remember seeing the umpire giving the ‘homerun’ sign rounding first base and just having an insane rush of adrenaline. My teammates showed me lots of love coming back into the dugout. It felt great.”
Following Bernstein’s hit, the game took an interesting turn in the eighth inning when the Stags made a comeback to tie it up at six, but ultimately the Panthers pulled through to put four more on the board with scores from Han, Woodring, Smith and Henry Strmecki ’21.
Will Oppenheim ’21 proved his skills on the mound, pitching for five innings for the Panthers, only giving up three hits while striking out six. Also notable was the performance of Han, who went 3-for-4 in the game with three RBIs.
Sunday ended in a tough loss against the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens. Neither team scored until the eighth when Pomona got four runs on four hits.
Middlebury stayed in the game, scoring two runs in the ninth, but it wasn’t enough and the game ended in a 4–2 loss.
However, Middlebury was not without success against the Sagehens. Colin Waters ’19 threw seven scoreless innings in which he gave up only three hits and two walks, striking out four.. Additionally, Han and Strmecki each finished with a 2-for-3 performance at the plate.
Furthermore, Middlebury proved not to be held down by these losses and went on to win their next two games against Whittier College and Caltech.
The Panthers needed 10 innings to dispatch the Whittier Poets on Monday, March 26. After three scoreless innings, Middlebury managed to get a run on the board in the fourth. After Han reached on a fielder’s choice which moved Smith to third, the Panthers executed perfectly a first-and-third situation, confusing the Poets’ defense as Han stole second and Smith scored on a double steal.
In the following inning, the Panthers scored three runs on four hits for a 4–0 advantage. Whittier answered in the fifth, however, with two-run homer to make it a 4–2 game and ultimately tying it up 4–4 in the eighth. Staying at 4–4 throughout the ninth, the teams were pushed into an exciting extra inning.
Carroll started the tenth inning off with a bang, hitting a solo homer -- his first of the season, but likely not his last, considering he hit three home runs last season and has already tallied five RBIs and thirteen hits to account for a .277 batting average and .379 on-base percentage so far this year. Throughout the obvious early success, he has remained humble. “My personal goal is to continue contributing to the team’s success both on and off the field,” says Carroll.
Han went on to seal the deal, taking advantage of a fielding error to get home. The Poets failed to answer, resulting in a 6-4 victory for the Panthers.
Smith’s batting skills were highlighted as he went 3-for-5 at the plate with two RBI and two runs score. Middlebury’s depth was on display against Whittier, as six other players had hits as well.
Middlebury went on to beat the Caltech Beavers 8–5 on Tuesday, March 27th in a back-and-forth game. Caltech scored four runs in the first two innings to Middlebury’s zero, but the Panthers answered with three runs on three hits in the third, making it a 4–3 game. Han had a single to bring home Senior Captain Sebastian Sanchez ‘18 and Carroll, while Graf singled to drive in Han. Hamilton Evans ‘20 belted a two-out homer — also his first home run at the collegiate level — to left center in the fourth to tie the game at 4–4. Caltech managed to get another run in in the bottom of the inning on an RBI single, but Middlebury regained the lead with a run from Smith. The Panthers scored three more with runs from Carroll, Han and Elgarten in the seventh inning to give them an 8–5 lead. Caltech was contained offensively for the last two innings, resulting in a strong win for the Panthers.
Of note is Han, who went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBI against Caltech, and again the team’s depth was easily displayed, as seven other Panthers had one or more hits.
Though pulling off wins against Whittier and Caltech, the Panthers suffered a loss against the then 10th NCAA ranked Redlands bulldogs on Wednesday, Mar. 28. Middlebury had the first run of the game in the third inning when Andrew Hennings ‘20 scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Carroll. The Bulldogs responded strongly with two runs in the bottom of the inning and then two more in the fifth, leaving the final score at 4-1.
Pitcher Justin Legowski ‘19 took a tough loss on the mound, allowing four runs and five hits over five innings of work. Legowski acknowledged this, saying “We made a few mistakes which good teams like Redlands will make you pay for. If you leave the ball up in the zone to good hitters, they will will hit it.” Yet, he knew what changes needed to be made and saw the Redlands matchup as an opportunity to grow and come back stronger. “Moving forward, and in order to bounce back, we have to keep the ball down in the zone from a pitching standpoint,” says Legowski. “We use this to motivate us, and we enjoy the challenge of competing with these more experienced teams to begin our season. We gain confidence as we work through the early-season rust to compete with, and beat, some very strong teams,” an experience he feels will be invaluable looking ahead to more division matchups.
Like Legowski, the team is overall proud of their performance against these tough out-of-conference competitors, despite the mixed bag of results.
“The California teams are obviously going to be more polished than teams like us because they start playing the first week of February. That being said, they’re very good teams, and opening our season with stiff competition challenged us from the get-go. It was a great way to see who on our team is a true competitor,” Smith commented.
After a well-deserved day off, the rejuvenated Panthers came back from their loss on Wednesday ready to take on their first Nescac opponents of the season: Williams.
Middlebury pulled off a season-high of 20 runs in the first game of three against the Ephs. They also limited their opponents to just one score. The last time the Panthers pulled of 20 runs was in their victory against Hamilton, which ended 20-8 in 2010. Furthermore, the Panthers scored in seven different innings and collected a season-best 19 hits.
Their success started early, scoring six runs in the bottom of the first inning with the help of key plays from Woodring, Carroll, Bernstein and Elgarten. Williams’ only run came during the top of the second inning. Many of the Panthers had the chance to show their stuff, as Hennings, Graf, Smith, Han, Andrew Corcoran ’18, and Strmecki, among others, all played vital roles in Middlebury’s offensive success.
On the mound, Morris improved to 2–2 on the season, giving up only one run on four hits in seven innings. Andrew Martinson ‘20 and Evan Stewart ‘21 stepped up to the plate as well as relief pitchers, both throwing scoreless innings.
Saturday, March 31, took a different turn for the team in their double-header against Williams, ending the day with a split.
The Panthers began the day with a 6–1 win over the Ephs. Williams quickly scored the first run of the game in the top of the first inning until Middlebury was able to hold them and take the lead in the fourth inning with a pair of runs by Smith and Guild with two outs. The Panthers tacked on four more runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to put their total for the game at six. Graf went 2-for-2 with two RBIs and Han had two hits with a run scored.
Defensively, Will Oppenheim ‘21 picked up his first collegiate victoring, throwing 5.1 innings during which he allowed only one run on five hits with four strikeouts. Additionally, George Goldstein ‘21 retired all five batters he faced for his second showing on the mound.
Legowski praises the performance of the team’s first-years.
“Our first-year guys did an awesome job all week,” Legowski said. “Coming in as first-year guy, and trying to understand your role and where you fit into the puzzle can be challenging. However, they were more than prepared and were a big reason as to why we won the series.”
Game two of the double header, however, ended on a different note as the Panthers suffered an unexpected loss against Williams. Though Middlebury first took the lead, scoring three runs in the first two innings, Williams answered with three runs in the third inning to tie the game. The score remained 3–3 until the seventh inning, when the Ephs added on two more, bringing the game to its final score of 5–3.
The dramatic shift in the final scores from the first game to the last was certainly on the Panthers’ minds coming out of the series. “I think that we got a bit complacent after winning the first two games,” says Carroll. “We came out flat which allowed them to stay in the game and come out on top.”
Despite this, Carroll remains optimistic.
“We won the series against Williams two games to one and that puts us in a great position as we head into our second series of conference games against Wesleyan this weekend. We showed in California that we are ready to compete for a playoff spot and I really like where we stand in relation to other Nescac teams.”
This positivity is certainly echoed by fellow teammates. “We feel very confident going into our conference matchups,” says Smith. “We have some freshmen stepping into key roles, and our bats our hot. I’m very excited about our potential in these upcoming conference games.”
The Panthers will next face Wesleyan in a three game conference series tomorrow and Saturday, April 6 and 7, followed by a game this Sunday, April 8, against Trinity.
(03/21/18 8:40pm)
SGA Passes Financial Aid Bill
The Off Campus Food Financial Aid Program (OFFAP) bill passed with senator Stephanie Andrews ’18 abstaining [14-0-1] in a Student Government Association (SGA) vote on Sunday. The OFFAP will cover the cost of food for students on financial aid while they are away from campus on trips with student clubs and organizations. The program is expected to cost $17,000 annually and will be reevaluated after a year of operation.
When asked about the status of the budget allocation for the program, treasurer and chair of the finance committee Peter Dykeman-Bermingham stated that it would not be possible to draw from the OFFAP’s allocated funds for use for anything other than the program itself.
SGA members discussed the scope of the financial aid brackets the program would serve and the food expense per diem that the program would support, ultimately deciding that the program would provide a per diem of $15 to all financial aid recipients. - Eric Kapner
CC Passes Inclusive Bathroom Resolution
Community Council voted unanimously to pass an inclusive bathroom recommendation on Monday.
The recommendation suggests that, in all existing buildings on campus, the signage on single stall bathrooms should be changed to be gender inclusive, and that at least one “menstrual friendly” bathroom should house a free tampon dispenser.
The recommendation calls for an all-gender and “menstrual friendly” bathroom on every floor with restrooms in every new public building built on campus. It also calls for a disability accessible bathroom in every new building, with a consideration for disability accessible showers available within close proximity to all campus buildings.
The changes will be implemented in three stages. They will be applied to the planning of any new buildings, implemented when renovations are done in existing buildings and taken into account when maintenance is done on existing building on campus.
The recommendation is intended to increase bathroom access for community members with disabilities and for people of all gender identities on campus. The recommendation aims to address issues such as ableism, classism, gender identity and expression, health, menstrual equality and sexism on campus.
The recommendation also suggests the preparation of two studies which will help to improve accessibility for those with disabilities on campus and will consider similar reforms as the ones listed above to all ancillary properties of the colleges. - Caroline Kapp
President Signs Letter Seeking Endowment Tax Repeal
President Laurie Patton signed a letter on Mar. 7 asking for the repeal of a provision in the 2017 tax act that places a 1.4% excise tax on endowments of private colleges and universities exceeding $500,000 per student with more than 500 students. The letter was sent to Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate by 49 presidents of institutions including Amherst College, Bowdoin College, Williams College and others.
Patton took a stand with other school leaders even though the college would not currently have to pay the tax, as its endowment is currently below the $500,000 per student line.
The letter states that the tax will reduce the capacity for endowments to increase access, affordability and opportunities for success for students in higher education institutions across the nation. On these grounds, it urges lawmakers to re-evaluate this section of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Acts.
The letter works to address the misconception that endowments are left in long-term reserves and unused. It highlights instead how critical endowments are to the functioning of colleges and universities, in some cases providing almost half of annual revenues.
The letter makes clear that the tax will be hurting students above anyone else.
“Students are the leading beneficiary of these resources with each of us committed to significant efforts to enhance affordability,” it said. “Yet this tax will not address the cost of college or student indebtedness, as some have tried to suggest. Instead, it will constrain the resources available to the very institutions that lead the nation in reducing, if not eliminating, the costs for low- and middle-income students, and will impede the efforts of other institutions striving to grow their endowments for this very purpose.” - Catherine Pollack
(03/15/18 2:46pm)
The fight against climate change is a test of human nature; it’s near-impossible to get people to do what is right for society when what is right is inconvenient. In order to make progress, we need to use financial incentives like a tax on carbon emissions, which would motivate people to use less gasoline, rely on renewables for home heating, and generally become more environmentally conscious. As a leader in progressive and socially conscious legislation, Vermont must be an early state to adopt this policy, for which there is already growing interest among residents; so far, over 500 Vermont businesses and institutions have demonstrated support for a carbon tax. Academic institutions are a major factor in this process, and Middlebury’s endorsement, given its image as a pioneer in carbon neutrality, would carry a lot of weight.
Vermont is largely reliant on other states for energy, with virtually all of its non-renewable energy coming from outside Vermont. This represents a hole through which Vermonters’ money is exiting local circulation; the environmental coalition Energy Independent Vermont (EIV) estimates that eight out of every 10 dollars spent on fossil fuels immediately exits Vermont. Instead of seizing money from the hands of Vermonters, a carbon tax would actually return it directly to Vermont’s citizens.
In addition to combatting the climate-related threat to our existence on this planet, a carbon tax would actually stimulate Vermont’s economy by catalyzing growth in the renewable energy sector and keeping money circulating within the Vermont economy. Vermont may not have any natural gas reserves, but it does have the capacity to have a robust renewable energy industry. Already, Vermont’s renewable energy sector employs over 19,000 Vermonters and produces near nine million megawatts of power, according a report commissioned by the Vermont Clean Energy Development Fund in 2017.
Carbon pricing has bipartisan support, with everyone from Barack Obama and Justin Trudeau to Lindsey Graham calling for a tax on carbon emissions in various issued statements and press conferences. In Vermont, opposition to the tax has mainly been on the part of people like Governor Phil Scott, who is generally opposed to any new taxation, and Vermont fuel dealers. One such lobbyist, Matt Cota of the Vermont Fuel Dealers Association, expressed in an op-ed in the Burlington Free Press that a carbon tax would not be effective in Vermont because approximately half of Vermonters live near the borders of New Hampshire, Massachusetts or New York, where they could conceivably fill up on gas and dodge the Vermont carbon tax.
This sentiment rests on several incorrect assumptions. First, New York state already has consistently higher gas prices than Vermont. In addition, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and New York, along with five other states, are currently considering their own carbon tax legislation. More, the carbon tax would not be so extreme as to override convenience; if the plan heralded and introduced in January 2018 by EIV is enacted, Vermont’s carbon tax would likely manifest in a 40 dollar fee for each ton of carbon emitted. This would trickle down to the consumer in the form of a three cent per gallon of gas increase starting off, eventually rising to 36 cents per gallon over eight years (alongside proportional increases to diesel, home heating oil and propane prices). In addition, the stimulus to the local economy gained from keeping energy revenue in circulation with Vermont companies would prevent many people from going out of state to fill up on gas.
At this point in the legislative process, where there is widespread support for the general idea of a carbon tax but no specifics currently set in stone, there are many things that this carbon tax could become. Many legislators and activists aim to make the Vermont carbon tax redistributive. Daniel Barlow, of the Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility, describes his ideal policy as one “that returns the [carbon] tax money in either tax breaks or dividends to low and moderate income families.”
This kind of redistributive policy counters some issues common to punitive taxes — mainly, that they disproportionately affect rural and low-income populations who have less access to renewables and environmentally-friendly amenities like hybrid or electric vehicles and solar panels. A redistributive carbon tax would permit rural and low-income Vermonters to cut down on their carbon emissions in the same way that wealthy Vermonters do.
Not everyone needs to be actively, constantly engaged in protecting our planet. Changes in policy can change the way we act and emit carbon in a significant way without major consequences or activity on our part. This legislation is necessary, and it is also tremendously accessible. All it needs is widespread and passionate support, and soon.
(03/14/18 5:50pm)
With six seconds remaining, Matt Folger ’18 grabbed an offensive rebound, dribbled to the three-point arc, and launched a three that bounced off the back of the rim, ending the men’s basketball team’s NCAA tournament run and its 2018 season last Friday, March 9. Middlebury lost to MIT 79–76 in the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA tournament at Ramapo College in Mahwah, New Jersey. For the third straight year, the Panthers’ season ended with a loss in the NCAA tournament by four or fewer points in games that could have gone either way.
Seniors Jack Daly ’18, Adisa Majors ’18 and Nick Tarantino ’18 have all been a part of those three NCAA teams, including last season’s run to the Elite Eight, and two Nescac champion teams. After a 21–7 season as senior captains, Daly, Majors and Tarantino finished their Middlebury careers with an 83–29 record. They were parts of the first team to win back-to-back Nescac championships and the team that won 27 games last season, the second-most in program history.
For the third straight game, Middlebury threw the first punch on Friday evening, taking a 12–5 lead in the first six minutes of the game. In a game shaped by counterpunches, the Engineers responded with a 13–0 run to go ahead by six. But the Panthers came right back to score 13 out of the next 15 points and led 25–20 with 7:15 left in the first half.
Tied at 34, Daly set up a Folger three with three seconds remaining in the half, sending Middlebury to the locker room up 37–34.
The Panthers held the Engineers to below thirty percent shooting from inside the arc in the first half, as Folger rejected six shots, but MIT stayed in the game by hitting seven out of 17 threes from beyond the arc.
Jack Farrell ’21 stayed hot after scoring 19 in Middlebury’s win in the second round of the tournament, tallying 12 on five of seven shooting in the first half on Friday.
Over the first eight minutes of the second half, every time MIT got within two points, Middlebury answered to keep the Engineers at bay.
But, at the 11:31 mark, MIT tied the game at 54 and then at 57 less than two minutes later. The Panthers rebuilt their lead to five, 67–62, but then the Engineers made their move, scoring the next eight points to go ahead by three.
Farrell drilled a three to tie the game, then MIT went ahead by five to take a 75–70 lead with 3:50 remaining. Middlebury held MIT in check over the next two possessions, but could not score either until the 1:48 mark when Daly laid the ball in to cut the lead to three.
After an Engineer miss and a Folger rebound, Middlebury pushed the ball down the court and Daly finished in the lane to cut the lead to 75–74 with 54 seconds remaining. Out of their own timeout, the Engineers held the ball, but turned it over with 25 ticks left on the clock, as Farrell stole it.
Jack Daly ’18 got the ball and drove it into the lane, where he lofted a floater that rolled off the rim. MIT rebounded the basketball and made two free throws to take a three-point lead. Daly drew a foul at midcourt and sank two free throws, but MIT responded with two makes from the line. Behind 79–76, Daly missed the front end of a one-and-one after being fouled, which was the rebound Folger grabbed to launch Middlebury’s final chance.
In a game featuring four lead changes and seven ties, neither team led by more than seven points. In the second half, the lead was never greater than five—at no point in the second half were the two separated by more than two possessions. But some team had to win and MIT scored when it needed to most, outscoring Middlebury 17–9 over the final 7:10 to eke out a 79–76 victory over the Panthers.
For the second straight season, Middlebury came within four wins, they were within three last season when they made the Elite Eight, and lost in the last minute of each game, making the loss especially emotional for the Panther seniors.
“The closer you get to goals, like winning a national championship, the more crushing it is when you nearly miss achieving it two years in a row,” said Tarantino. “As a result, I think it’s been an emotional couple of days for all us.
“Nevertheless, I’m so proud of all we’ve achieved this year and over my last four years.”
The two Jacks led the Panthers on Saturday, as Daly scored 21 points and nabbed 13 rebounds, and Farrell added 15 points on three three-pointers. Folger tallied nine points, seven rebounds and six blocks.
Daly finished his career atop Middlebury’s career assist leaderboard with 611, and set the school single-season record this year by tallying 237. He also scored 1,067 points, placing him seventh in program history in that category, and grabbed 649 rebounds. Daly is believed to be the first player in Nescac history to tally 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 500 assists.
Head coach Jeff Brown has coached many of the best players in Middlebury men’s basketball history, including 1,000-point scorers Matt St. Amour ’17, Joey Kizel ’14, Ryan Sharry ’12, Ben Rudin ’09, Nolan Thompson ’13, Greg Poulos ’98, Jake Wolfin ’13, and Nate Anderson ’04. And now Daly, who Brown considers to be one of the best players he has ever coached an one of the best in program history.
“Jack will go down as one of the best players ever to play at Middlebury,” said Brown, citing Daly’s senior season as one he will never forget. “He is the only player in the history of NESCAC basketball to accumulate 1000 points, 600 assists and 600 rebounds. He started his senior season with a triple double vs Fitchburg State and had one in our first NCAA game vs Lebanon Valley. He led the country in total assists this season.”
Brown knows his point guard’s skill on the court propelled him to a tremendous career in the blue and white, and that Daly’s drive to win had just as much to do with his individual and their team’s success.
“He is one of the most passionate players that I have ever coached,” Brown concluded.
Majors and Tarantino also played their last game in the Middlebury uniform on Friday.
Majors’ career took off in his sophomore season when he burst into the Panthers’ rotation, starting 11 games and averaging 7.2 points per game in 16.1 minutes. He started 19 games his junior year, while averaging a career-best 9.6 points per contest in 23.2 minutes. Majors embraced coming off the bench in his senior season, playing five fewer minutes per game but still averaging 7.6 points per game on 52.4 percent shooting.
Majors was one of Brown’s many big men who powered Middlebury to the Sweet Sixteen. Coach Brown recognized how important he was to Middlebury’s success this season.
“Adisa made strong contributions the last three seasons,” Brown said. “He provided us with inside scoring and made a lot of medium range jump shots. This season his 15-foot jump shot on the baseline against Bowdoin with 5 seconds left was the game winner. He developed into a great passer for us.”
Tarantino, along with Daly and Majors, was a team captain this season and Middlebury’s starting center. After sitting behind more experienced Panthers his first two seasons, Tarantino started 18 games last season and all 28 games this season. He averaged 6.8 points and six rebounds in his junior year, and career-bests 7.2 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks this season.
Brown is proud of his Tarantino’s, and all of his seniors’, selflessness on and off the basketball court.
“Nick started every game for us in his senior season,” said Brown. “He provided inside scoring, rebounding and good defense at the rim. He was able to create a spark for us with an exciting dunk or block. He was very active and athletic on the court and very unselfish.”
Majors and Tarantino also left their marks on the Middlebury record book, as this year’s team set Middlebury’s single-season rebounding mark by grabbing 1,329. Tarantino secured 6.8 rebounds per game, while Majors corralled five.
As much as Middlebury will miss its three seniors, they will miss being Panthers just as much. Being a part of coach Brown’s team meant much more to Daly than what happened on the court.
“Basketball has been a huge part of my life at Middlebury, and my best friends have all played on the team,” said Daly after Friday’s loss. “That is the unique part about continuing to play at the college level. It’s led me to relationships that I may never have created and has led me to people I may never have met. I am so grateful that I have crossed paths with everyone these last four years, players and coaches.”
“I’m sad to say my basketball career is over, but my passion for it will never stop,” said Tarantino, echoing his classmate’s sentiments. “I’ve taken away so many life lessons from the sport and have met many close friends through it. I have all the gratitude in the world for my teammates and coaches for making these past years the best four of my life.”
Ending their collegiate careers with a loss was certainly difficult for Daly, Majors and Tarantino, but they know their final loss neither represents their careers as a whole nor clouds their memory of their awesome times at Middlebury.
“We’ve had so much success during my four years, from winning back-to-back Nescac championships, to hosting NCAA tournament games, to making the Elite Eight and the Sweet Sixteen,” Daly said. “I can proudly say that I left everything all out on the court and have no regrets, which is why I can keep my head held high because there is nothing more I could have done.
“Obviously it’s sad to not have your last game be a win, but life goes on, and you have to be able to reflect on the good times because they clearly outnumbered the bad times we’ve had on the court.”
Once again, Middlebury will be hard-pressed to replace its three outgoing seniors who helped guide the Panthers to consistent success over their four years here. But Daly knows Middlebury will be in the good hands of his teammates and coaches.
“I wish returners nothing but the best of luck, and I know they will continue to keep this program at a high level,” Daly concluded. “The future looks extremely bright.”
(03/14/18 5:40pm)
Before last season, the baseball team had only qualified for the Nescac playoffs two times in the conference’s 16-year playoff history. In that span of time, since 2001, the Panthers only finished over .500 twice. For some perspective, Middlebury went 11–23 two years ago, and they are just three years removed from a dismal 4–24 season.
Last season, Middlebury finished over .500, going 22–16, and advanced to the Nescac championship round, where the Panthers came within one game of capturing their second Nescac championship and an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament. It was a dramatic reversal for the Panthers who were previously, frankly, known as one of the worst varsity teams at Middlebury and the butt of many jokes on campus.
With momentum on their side, the Panthers opened their 2018 season last Saturday, March 10, with a loss to Stevens in Hoboken, New Jersey, where they fell 8–4. The Ducks had an advantage in that it was their seventh game of the spring, whereas it was the Panthers’ first chance to get outside.
After their first soiree outside, the Panthers went on to face Bard at Honey Field in Annandale-On-Hudson, New York, for a doubleheader last Sunday, March 11. The Panthers split with Bard, winning the first game 7–0 before falling 9–3 in the second.
Despite the weekend’s 1–2 record, the Panthers have lofty goals in mind after one of their best seasons in program history.
“The goal at the front of everybody’s mind this season is winning the Nescac championship,” said Rob Erickson ’18, one of Middlebury’s three captains. “Many of us felt like it slipped through our fingers last year, and with the combination of talent and experience we have this time around, we feel like we are in a tremendous position to get the job done .”
Head coach Mike Leonard enters his second season at the helm aware of the expectations placed on him and his team after last year’s success.
“This year’s biggest challenge will be embracing the expectations that come with having success,” said Leonard.“I think last year we could be an underdog and surprise teams with our ability, but this year we’ll have a target on our back. So far this year, I think that the team has really embraced this, and they understand that having high standards can be motivating and doesn’t have to be a negative.”
After six seasons as head coach of Bates, Leonard took over at Middlebury last season, replacing longtime coach Bob Smith, who was in charge of the program for 32 years.
Leonard is an up-and-coming coach who made the Nescac playoffs twice at Bates and came within a game of winning the conference title in just his first year with Middlebury.
Since last May’s defeat in the Nescac championship, the Panthers spent the offseason preparing to reach last season’s high points and to surpass them. The taste of victory put fire in their bellies to achieve what they came so close to last season.
“Everyone who was on the team last year has worked very hard, especially in the weight room, and as a result we have a much stronger, faster, and athletic team,” said Leonard. He and the Panthers search for ways to get over the hump, something he feels will be a key difference between the success of last year and this year. Among the list of returning contributors to watch this season are shortstop Brooks Carroll ’20, second baseman Justin Han ’20, infielder Andrew Hennings ’20, and outfielders Sam Graf ’19 and Alan Guild ’20.
A trio of sophomore infielders aim to follow up on their tremendous first season in the blue and white. Carroll played 33 games at shortstop last season. He hit .274 with three home runs in 106 at-bats and showed a patient eye with 15 walks. On top of that, Carroll showed some speed on the basepaths, stealing nine bags in 10 tries. He was also in the middle of 14 double plays.
Han often paired with Carroll in the middle of the infield at second base and blasted a team-high four home runs in his first season. He batted .319, with an on-base percentage of .418 and a slugging percentage of .504. Meanwhile, Hennings led the team with a 1.001 OPS in his 67 at-bats.
Kevin Woodring ’20 looks to be the frontrunner to pick up the slack at first base after hitting .281 and hitting two home runs last season to go along with five doubles at first base. He seeks to fill the void left by Jason Locke ’17, who graduated after last year’s conference championship run. Locke and Ryan Rizzo ’18, who hit .301 and stole 20 bases last season at the top of the lineup, are the only major contributors that the team has to replace from last season’s squad.
Sam Graf ’19 is an immensely important piece in the outfield and in the batting order. Graf hit .323 last season, with three home runs and a team-leading 12 doubles and three triples. He also did not make a single error in the field while racking up 48 putouts and five assists.
Along with producing the fourth-most runs in the conference last season, the Panthers also had the second-best batting average, on-base and slugging percentages in the conference.
On the other hand, Middlebury gave up the most runs in the Nescac last season, with the second-worst ERA and fielding percentage in the conference.
Every pitcher who started a game last season, except for Dylan Takamori ’17, returns. Colby Morris ’19, another team captain, will head the pitching staff after tossing 68.2 innings last season in 12 starts, going 6–4 with a 4.46 ERA and a conference-high four complete games.
Spencer Shores ’20, Colin Waters ’19 and Erickson pitched 45, 43.1 and 38.1 innings, respectively. Shores finished with a 4.80 ERA and struck out almost nine batters per nine innings, while Waters recorded a 4.78 ERA. Erickson finished with a 3.99 ERA. Conor Himstead returns after tallying eight saves and a team-best 1.64 ERA last season.
Taking the mound once again will be Erickson; Colby Morris ’19, another team captain; Spencer Shores ’20; and catcher Gray Goolsby ’20, all of whom held key roles and saw significant playing time during the 2017 season.
This year’s team is confident it can replace the lost production from six graduated Panthers.
Jake Dianno ’21, Henry Strmecki ’21, George Goldstein ’21, Evan Stewart ’21, Ryan Hanrahan ’21, Bobby Sullivan ’21, Michael Farinelli ’21, Will Oppenheim ’21 and Jake Miller ’21 make up the Panthers’ first-year class.
Leonard is excited about what this new group of players will bring to his team.
“The new players always bring great energy and enthusiasm to the team,” Leonard said about his first-year class. “I know that the players who are new to the program are eager to contribute, and I believe most of them will in some way.”
Faced with the challenge of adapting to college life, the first-years “are willing to absorb the information thrown at them,” team captain Sebastian Sanchez ’18 believes.
Sanchez also believes the first-years will only add to one of Middlebury’s biggest strengths: its depth.
“We have an amazing depth chart, and if any one single person is put into the game, they will perform,” Sanchez said. “Additionally, everybody on our team can hit the ball hard and far, from our lead off guy to our nine-spot. We also have depth in the bullpen, and each of our pitchers can come into a situation throwing strikes and getting outs.”
Erickson agrees with his fellow senior and captain.
“Everyone on the team, from starters all the way down, knows that he has something to contribute every day,” Erickson asserted.
Erickson observed that each season presents new challenges to a team.
“One of our challenges this year will be forming a new team identity behind new leaders,” said Erickson. One of the challenges this season will be forging a new identity after playing as underdogs last season.
The team’s chemistry both on and off the field is something the Panthers feel will be hugely advantageous this season.
“Our team dynamic embraces not only the players but also the coaching staff,” says Sanchez. “We pick each other up when we are down. We love to play loose and energetic. No matter the score, no matter if we are up or down, we are loud and cheering for our teammates.”
Erickson agrees. “This is the closest team I’ve played on in my four years at Middlebury. When I take a step back and look at my teammates, I see a pretty goofy group of guys, so it makes me very proud that such a diverse group of individuals has been able to coalesce into a very tight unit.”
This weekend, Saturday, March 17–Sunday, March 18, the Panthers have a unique opportunity, as they will get the chance to travel to Atlanta, Georgia, to play another game against Stevens and then two against Emory.
Leonard, Erickson, Sanchez, Morris and all members of the team are ready to prove last season was not a one-hit wonder. Together, they are ready to elevate the baseball program to another level in their quest for a Nescac championship.
ROAD TRIPIN’
The baseball team will spend most of the next several weeks on the road, starting this weekend with their trip to Atlanta.
Based on our rudimentary calculations done here in the back of the newspaper office where the sports section is stationed, that could mean close to 7,000 round trip miles.
Our unscientific guessing also estimates that his is the furthest the team has travelled over the course of a two-plus-week period in its history.
(03/08/18 1:03am)
MONTPELIER — On Wednesday, Feb. 21, the ban on holding or participating in coyote-killing tournaments passed the Vermont House on a vote of 79–45. It now sits in the Senate Natural Resources Committee for further action. The ban was included as an amendment in a major bill on fish and wildlife that passed the House.
Under the amendment, penalties for violation of the ban will include a fine up to $1,000 and 60 days in jail for first-time offenders and a fine of $4,000 for second-time offenders. In deciding whether to support or remove the ban, the House’s debate moved beyond concerns about protecting the coyote population. It also touched upon the social interactions of wild animals with Vermont citizens in general and the significance of hunting culture in the state.
Republican Representative Brian Smith, who has resided and advocated in the small town of Derby in Orleans County, has firsthand concerns about the growing population of coyotes in Vermont and the potential danger brought by the close proximity of coyotes to human beings in rural areas. Smith said that he recently shot a coyote only 400 yards behind a deer at the back of his house.
“There are many more [coyotes] than there used to be ten years ago,” said Rep. Smith. “I can hear them within 500 yards of my house, and it makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up.”
Known to be one of the smartest and most cunning creatures in Vermont, coyotes “eat everything,” “live everywhere” and often howl at night, leaving people with a mystical yet haunting sound.
“Once in a while, one starts screaming and the other will get into fights with its brothers. And the parents get in and they all start howling at each other,” Rep. Smith said. “Or they will get a baby rabbit or a dead raccoon. And they will fight over it. You never know what they are doing.”
Smith believes there are too many coyotes right now and that they do not contribute to the overall ecosystem in any ways other than devouring animals and getting into the garbage.
“There are only a few, very very few, groups that hunt these coyotes and create contests,” Rep. Smith noted. “I don’t see any harm in 25 or 30 coyotes going out or having a fun day or fun weekend of hunting. It’s not affecting anybody.”
With two or three courses during the winter, these coyote-killing competitions are not constant and usually last for one day or one weekend. In comparison to “real hunts,” Smith regards the coyote tournaments as more of a social event or an occasion for people to gather together.
“I don’t believe the non-hunting community understands what these hunts are all about: a bunch of real good people that are very conscientious sportsmen,” Smith said. “They are hunting an animal that is a lot smarter than they are. So the chances of succeeding are very, very slim. It makes for a pretty good gathering of a good bunch of people.”
In contrast, Rep. David Deen, the chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, Fish and Wildlife, supports the ban. “This type of contest violates the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation that has guided our actions in wildlife conservation since the mid 1800s,” said Rep. Deen.
The North American Model of Wildlife Conservation that Deen mentioned was set in the 1800s by hunters and anglers to set certain limits in order to manage wild habitats and protect wildlife.
“The particular principal violated would be: ‘wanton waste of killing an animal must have a purpose and the animal should be used.’ A dead coyote stacked to see whose pile is the highest is not appropriate use of the animal,” Deen said.
According to the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department website, eastern coyotes are not only “incredibly adaptable” as relative newcomers to Vermont, but have also become “successful predators” among the established fauna of Vermont.
“They have become one of the top predators and that means they have a vital role in a healthy ecosystem,” Rep. Deen said.
While the original penalty section of the bill includes a maximum 60 days in jail, it was later removed in the final approved version on Thursday afternoon. Although Deen acknowledged the shortage of time in preparing for the jail-time penalty, he also stressed the seriousness of the crime behind coyote-killing competitions.
However, some House members disagree with the proposed degree of punishment. In an article in Valley News, supporter of the ban Rep. Susan Buckholz expressed her disapproval at the tough penalty of the bill. “This is not something that the judiciary and corrections should have to deal with,” Rep. Buckholz said in an interview. “This is something new, and an animal that you can take out any time during the year. To send somebody to jail for this is beyond me.”
Vermont Public Radio estimated that there are 6,000 to 9,000 coyotes in Vermont. Prior to the ban, there were no time restrictions for hunting them within the state. While some argue that there is a potential danger imposed by the growing population of coyotes and that there is a social pleasure in gathering during these competitions, others aim for an ecosystem that is protected more greatly by wildlife conservation and a paradigm shift of the hunting culture in Vermont.
(02/22/18 2:40am)
The Colby College Museum of Art received a $100 million gift of around 1,150 works by over 150 artists, including Vincent Van Gogh, Georgia O’Keefe and Rembrandt. The gift also provides for the establishment of the Lunder Institute for American Art, which will serve largely as a research center. The art museum at Colby already stood out among those of the NESCACs, but it is now set to become a world-class museum.
“As is true at most college museums, large gifts are more normally in the $1 million to $2 million range, and these occur only sporadically,” said director of the Middlebury art museum Richard Saunders. “This gift to Colby is quite amazing. Rarely do small college museums receive gifts of this magnitude.”
However, this massive gift is not an isolated occurrence for the Colby art museum. In 2007, the Lunders gave 500 works to the museum also valued at 100 million dollars, and in 2013, the museum opened the 15 million dollar Alfond-Lunder Family Pavilion to showcase the newly acquired works. The museum as it stands today already has five wings.
“Amongst the NESCAC schools there is an enormous range in museums,” Saunders said.
A contributing factor to this discrepancy is age, since older museums have had more time to actively grow their collections. The Bowdoin art museum, for example, was established officially in 1894. Colby’s museum was established in 1959. Middlebury’s first art gallery was housed in Johnson in 1968, but the current museum was only established in 1992.
“Given that Middlebury’s museum is relatively young, our museum does not have the depth of collections that some of our peers have, but we have made remarkable headway in building outstanding teaching collections of photography (both historical and contemporary), Asian Art, Antiquities (Near Eastern, Egyptian, Greek and Roman),” said Pieter Broucke, director of the arts.
Another vitally important factor is donations.
“Gifts to Middlebury’s museum are important, but they tend to be anecdotal rather than the result of a proactive process at the institutional level,” Broucke said.
The cultivation of donors and gifts is a vital part of the functioning of self-sustaining museums, and large institutions have an entire department dedicated to this task. As is typical of larger museums, Colby has a “director of museum development.” Middlebury does not.
“The gift to Colby, the result of a proactive cultivation of and targeted outreach to alumni and donors, will only speed up the transformative nature of its museum. The quality of the gift is extraordinary in both size and quality: Van Gogh, Rembrandt …. That, in turn, will make it even more attractive for prospective donors to give,” Broucke said.
The Middlebury art museum, housed in a corner of the ground floor of the Mahaney Center for the Arts, is largely hidden from public view.
“It has long outgrown the spaces,” Broucke said. “We also really need more space for developing our collections and operation into new directions, say African and South-American art, in line with our changing student body and our identity as a global institution.”
In regard to cultivating donorship, “The thinking is a bit like ‘if you build it they will come,’” Broucke said.
However, Colby’s museum is not only notably for its collection and size. The recent gift’s provision for the Lunder Institute for American Art also has the potential to drastically increase the value of the institution. It will create residency programs for graduate students, artists, scholars and curators to research American art, making it the only institution of its type among the NESCACs.
However, this dramatic increase to Colby’s collection and research potential can also have a positive impact on Middlebury. NESCAMA (New England Small College Art Museum Association) — started by Middlebury, Colby, Bowdoin, Smith and Skidmore — now includes around twenty college museums which loan artworks to one another. NESCAMA has also created a consortium to make joint purchases. A few years ago, Middlebury, Colby, Bowdoin, Skidmore and Mount Holyoke jointly purchased a video work which will be shown at Middlebury’s museum next fall. Middlebury has also made loans to Colby.
“I am sure [Colby] will welcome loan requests from any number of college Museums in the future. So, this recent gift to Colby is good news for all of us,” Saunders said.
(02/15/18 1:57am)
The Middlebury Track and Field team faced competitive challengers in their two most recent meets. The first was a two-part meet, the David Hemery Invitational, on Friday, Feb. 9 and Saturday, Feb. 10. The second was the Gordon Kelly Invitational on Saturday, Feb. 10. Both meets were non-scoring.
In the David Hemery Invitational both teams accomplished great feats. On the men’s side, Jimmy Martinez ’19 achieved a time of 22.23 in the 200 meter dash to place 43rd. Along with that performance, Martinez registered a time of 44.55 in the 400 meter dash to place 21st. Paul Malloy ’18 had ran a time of 1:08.17 to get himself 31st place in the 500 meter dash. A final highlight for the men’s side was the eighth-place finish of the long distance medley relay team of Nathan Hill ’20, Arden Coleman ’20, James Mulliken ’18 and Kevin Serrao ’18. The quartet registered a time of 9:58.61.
For the women, Kate McCluskey ’18 did well in the 400 meter dash with a time of 56.21 which broke a school record. In the 800, Anna Willig ’20 placed in 75th and Brianna Bisson ’18 placed in 79th with respective times of 2:18.68 and 2:19.02. In the distance medley, Tasha Greene ’21, McCluskey, Meg Wilson ’20 and Abigail Nadler ’19 crossed the line with a time of 11:52.53. In the field portion of the meet, Alex Cook ’20 provided a highlight for the Panthers with a jump of 5.19 meters in the long jump, good for a 27th-place finish.
In the Gordon Kelly Invitational, the team pulled out some top notch finishes. Nate Evans ’20 had a time of 2:53.50 in the 1000 meter run to get first place for the men’s squad. Jake Guth ’19 ran the mile in 4:54.84 which was good for a fifth-place finish. Tyler Farrell ’18 placed third with a time of 8.77 in the 60 meter hurdles and Max Memeger ’21 competed in the long jump and reached 6.18 meters to get third place.
The highlight of the weekend, however, had to be the performance of Minhaj Rahman ’19, who broke a school record in the weight throw with a throw of 16.69 meters which happened to net him second place.
Minhaj was excited that his hard work paid off.
“Words couldn’t explain [how I feel],” said Minhaj about how breaking the record made him feel. “I came into Midd after a big accident that set me back far making me take months of therapy and taking medical leave for my first semester. Walking in to Midd, I wanted to make an impact on the team but I was too weak because of the accident and so that feeling pushed to try to improve.
“Ever since I walked into Midd, I wanted my name on that board and it was finally done. Because I’m one of the smallest throwers out there the division, I have to use my form to try to beat out the 250 lbs throwers out there. When I released the throw, I just knew that it beat the record. The throw felt effortless as it should and knowing that I had such a supportive coach and team that brought me to this stage made it more worthwhile.”
Cook and Lizzie Walkes ’20 competed in the 200 meter dash and achieved first and third place respectively for the women’s squad. Cook had a time of 27.15 and Walkes had a time of 27.45. Olivia Mitchell ’20 had a time of 2:30.00 in the 800 meter dash, good for seventh place. Julia Jaschke ’20 placed second in the 3000 meter race with a time of 10:55.41. Kreager Taber ’19 had a height of 3.35 in the pole vault to get fifth place. In the triple jump, Kisha Kalra ’18 got fourth place and Emily Allardi ’21 got seventh place. Kalra had a distance of 10.45 meters and Allardi had a distance of 10.08 meters. Lastly, Emily Ray ’20 competed in the weight throw and achieved eighth place with a throw of 14.18 meters.
“We wanted to create good standards to walk into DIIIs and the rest of the championship season with and I say we’re in a good place right now,” Minhaj said when asked about the last two meets. “We had great pole vault performances, the sprinters got good times on the banked track, our capt. Kate McCluskey also broke the 400 record, and my weight throw partner Emily also had a big pr as well so all in all we are looking solid and happy that we are finally in the championship season.”
Tomorrow and Saturday, Feb. 16-17, both teams will compete in the Division III New England Championships where they will use their experiences of the last few weeks to do their best. The men’s squad will be competing at home while the women’s side will be competing in Springfield.
(02/15/18 1:56am)
The Middlebury Panther Swimming & Diving Squads suffered one loss and gained a win in their tri-meet with the Hamilton Continentals and Williams Ephs on Saturday, Jan. 27, at Williams. Both teams lost to Williams, the men 189-94, and the women, 177-114. Against the Continentals, both the men’s and women’s teams claimed a victory, 206-78 and 209.5-84.5, respectively.
Mike Chirico ’20 continued his successful season with a first-place finish on the boards in the 1-meter and 3-meter events, with 287.25 and 284.32 points. Chirico was the only male Panther to win two events for the squad.
The other individual victory on the men’s side came from Will Pannos ’20 in the 100 butterfly (54.15).
The men accounted for many second-place finishes, as Nick Handali ’20 of the panthers touched the wall behind Pannos in the 100 butterfly in a time of 54.21. Morgan Matsuda ’19 and Connor McCormick ’18 were also second on the podium for their events. Matsuda was second in the 500 free with a time of 4:58.34, while McCormick touched the wall second in the 100 breaststroke (1:01.30).
Two Panthers also won on the women’s side on Saturday. Frances VanderMeer ’20 claimed an individual victory in the 50 butterfly (26.43). VanderMeer, along with Sarah McEachern ‘21, who won the 100 individual medley in 1:05.99, controlled the day for the Panther team. VanderMeer contributed further with her second-place finish in the 50 backstroke (27.54).
The 200 free relay team for the Panthers, consisting of VanderMeer, Erin Kelly ‘21, Stephanie Andrews ‘18, and Maya Gomez ‘20, touched the wall first in a time of 1:40.37.
Second-place swimming finishes came from VanderMeer in the 50 backstroke, Gomez in the 50 and 100 breaststroke (31.73, 1:09.54), and Kelly Delane ’18 in the 50 fly (28.15). Elissa DeNunzio ‘18 took second-place in both the 1-meter (255.30) and 3-meter (246.97) diving events.
More recently, in an unscored meet with Williams, Tufts, University of Vermont, and Springfield, on February 2nd and 3rd, the Panthers competed to prepare for their upcoming NESCAC championships, which will start off in a few weeks.
Stephanie Andrews and Maya Gomez successfully conquered the competition in their individual events, Andrews placing first in the 50 free in 24.46, Gomez in the 100 breaststroke in 1:05.83. The 800-yard freestyle relay team, made up of Andrews, VanderMeer, Georgia Houde ’20, and Angela Riggins ’19, also placed first with a time of 7:57.06.
Connor McCormick, the lone top-place finisher for the men’s team, beat his competition in the 100 breaststroke to win with a time of 59.43.
This weekend, the women will travel to Williams again to compete at the NESCAC championships on Friday to Sunday, Feb. 16 to 18. The men have the weekend off before making their way to Bowdoin for the Nescac championships from Feb. 23 to 25.
