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(05/04/17 1:58am)
The Middlebury Track and Field teams kicked off their postseason at the 2017 NESCAC Outdoor Championship hosted by Bowdoin this past weekend. The women, paced by two event titles and a school record, finished third (97.66 points) out of the 11 teams in the conference behind Williams (239.83) and Bates (107); the men, who took home three event victories, wound up fourth (102.50), trailing Williams (175), Tufts (167) and Bowdoin (110).
The top performances for the women came from three different sections of the team: Catie Skinner ’17 represented the long-distance runners by smoking the field in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, beating the field by over eight seconds (11:09.11); Devon Player ’18 did the throwers proud with an event-winning javelin toss of 137’6”; lastly, the 4x100 quartet of Marisa Edmondson ’20, Maddie Pronovost ’17, Natalie Cheung ’18 and Elizabeth Walkes ’20 led the charge for the sprinters, crossing the line in school-record time (48.90) to finish fourth in the event.
For the men, Alex Nichols ’17 put together an impressive day in his last NESCAC meet as a Panther. He took home the crown in the 400-meter dash (48.43), his third win in four years at the conference championships; in addition, with the help of Cameron Mackintosh ’20, Arden Coleman ’20 and Jimmy Martinez ’19, he anchored the winning 4x400 relay team that set a new meet record (3:17.45). In the field events, John Natalone ’19 won the pole vault with a jump of 14’5.25” (teammate Nathaniel Albers ’20 would finish fifth in the same event with a height of 13’11.25”).
Although he was a little hard on himself, Natalone had good things to say about the team’s showing at the meet. “In terms of my performance at the meet, I’m generally happy with how I did,” he said. “I didn’t vault as high as I wanted to, but I was just happy to be able to contribute points to the team. As a squad, we performed really well, and I am exceptionally proud of everyone who went to the meet.”
“NESCACs is a really special competition; the entire team is full of energy and hype. My performance would not have been possible if it weren’t for the vibe set up by my teammates. Everyone contributes to the meet in some fashion, even if it isn’t scoring points.”
The rest of the team followed the leaders with a number of strong performances across all the event types. Pronovost, a multitalented athlete who’s a threat to score in a number of competitions, continued her strong season with a second-place finish in the 100-meter hurdles (14.83) and a fifth-place finish in the long jump (17’0.5”); she also ran the second leg for the fifth-place 4x400 relay team, which was rounded out by Lucy Lang ’19, Kate McCluskey ’18 and Paige Fernandez ’17 (3:59.07).
Other individual highlights for the women included Meg Wilson ’20 in the 800-meter (2:14.49, fourth), Abigail Nadler ’19 in the 1,500-meter (4:36.96, third) and Talia Ruxin ’20 in the 10,000-meter (38:11.38, fourth). Off the track, Kreager Taber ’19 pole-vaulted to a second-place finish (10’8”) and Jane Freda ’17 landed fourth in the triple jump (35’7.75”). In the relays, the 4x800-meter relay team of Anna Willig ’20, Erica Dean ’20, Skinner and Wilson crossed the line second overall (9:22.91).
For the men, additional strong efforts were recorded by a number of Panthers in the 800-meter run: James Mulliken ’18 came in second (1:52.88), Nathan Hill ’20 finished fourth (1:53.88) and Kevin Serrao ’18 crossed the line fifth (1:54.10). Serrao also finished third in the 1,500-meter run (3:52.89). In the sprints, Adam Markun ’17 dashed to third place in the 200-meter race (22.06) and Michael Pallozzi ’18 wound up fifth in the 110-meter hurdles (15.28). On the field side, Alfred Hurley ’19 recorded the second-longest javelin toss of the day (189’6”) and Minhaj Rahman ’19 landed third in the hammer throw (166’9”).
With the Panthers now firmly in the postseason portion of their schedule, every meet and every event means that much more. Natalone felt confident about his team’s chances. “The outlook for the rest of the postseason is great,” he said. “We have many team members who are right on the cusp of qualifying for late postseason meets such as Open New Englands and DIII Nationals, which should make for an exciting upcoming meet this weekend at DIII New Englands.”
“In terms of positives, we have a lot of athletes qualified through this weekend, which should keep the good vibe of NESCACs going strong. Also, a lot of people are hungry for a season PR — myself included.”
He warned that the team wouldn’t just be able to coast through the end of their season, though. “We have some health related things to improve upon,” he said. “I’ve been battling back issues, and many team members are nursing shin and hip issues. Staying healthy through these next couple of weeks will be important.”
Middlebury will head down to Williams this weekend to compete in the Division III New England Championships, the last chance for athletes to qualify for the Open New Englands the following week and Division III Nationals the week after.
(05/04/17 1:51am)
The Middlebury Panthers are currently on a three-game winning streak after doubleheaders versus Trinity College and Skidmore College. The Panthers sit three games above 0.500 with a season record of 16-13.
On Saturday, April 29, the Panthers split a doubleheader against the Trinity College Bantams. In the first game the frames remained empty until the top of the third inning when Trinity’s Erik Mohl loaded the bases and walked in Jason Lock ’17 to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead.
The Bantams got of the jam, however, with an inning-ending double play stranding three Middlebury baserunners. Though the Panthers held a 2-1 lead, things started to go awry for Middlebury as Trinity opened up for five runs in the bottom of the fifth inning. Leading 6-2, the hosts tacked on three more runs in the bottom of the sixth to lead 9-2.
Middlebury secured another run in the top of the seventh, but Trinity’s defense held and the Bantams escaped with a 9-3 win. Colin Waters ’19 recorded the loss allowing six runs (three earned) while striking out three.
In the nightcap, the hosts were not as successful as Middlebury’s offensive found its usual groove.
The Panthers took an early 1-0 lead when Justin Han ’20 homered to deep left in the top of the first. Middlebury scored again in the third when Han tripled into the right center gap and scored on a single by captain Lock. Trinity scored their first run of the game in the bottom of the fourth, but the Panthers were quick to retaliate and did so in impressive fashion.
The top of the sixth started when Bantam’s pitcher Matt Koperniak loaded the bases followed by Han taking pitch to the back for the first run of the inning. Lock blasted a deep fly ball to center field allowing the runner on the third to tag up and score — Sam Graf ’19 followed behind with a triple in the right-center gap scoring two more. Leading 6-1, Johhny Read ’17 came into pinch hit and blasted another triple to right center scoring Graf. Finally, with a 7-1 lead, First Year Kevin Woodring ’20 — on the first pitch of his at bat — blasted a 360 foot shot over the left field wall into the bullpen.
Trailing 9-1, Trinity managed to push one run across the plate, but the Bantams proved unable to overcome the deficit and recorded the 9-2 loss. Robert Erickson ’18 earned the win, pitching five innings and allowing one, while Dylan Takamori ’17 allowed one run in two innings of relief.
After enjoying a home-cooked meal at Alan Guild ’20’s residence, the Panthers headed up to Saratoga Springs for a doubleheader against the Skidmore Thoroughbreds.
Colby Morris ’19 started game one for Middlebury on Sunday, April 30 and could not be touched through seven innings, tossing his third complete game. The hosts scored their only run in the top of the first inning and the Panthers easily matched that in the top of the third when Read drew a walk, stole second and scored on a double by Gray Goolsby ’20.
The Panthers built on their lead in the top of the fourth scoring two more runs thanks to a sacrifice fly by Raj Palekar ’18 scoring Graf and a triple by Grant Elgarten ’20 scoring Guild.
Elgarten drove into two more runs in the top of the sixth smashing a single into left field — he would finish 2-3 with three RBI’s.
In the nightcap, the Thoroughbreds put some offensive pressure on the visitors scoring first in the second; but, the Panthers were unphased as Guild ripped a triple into left center scoring Graf and Han in the top half of the third.
Skidmore fought back pushing two more across in the bottom half of the frame and held the lead 3-2 through a scoreless fourth. In the top of the fifth, Middlebury’s offense once again came alive as Graf reached on first on a single and scored on a double by Woodring. Elgarten, with men on second and third, blasted a moonshot over the left field wall for his first of the season giving the visitors a 6-3 lead.
Spencer Shores ’20 earned the win going five innings, allowing three runs on seven hits with four strikeouts. Conor Himstead ’19 came out in the sixth and seventh, pitching two scoreless innings, and earning his NESCAC-leading sixth save of the season.
“We just took care of business,” said Lock of the doubleheader sweep. “Our goal is to be a championship team. Championship teams go on the road and beat opponents during the week and on the weekends. Like I said, it was us taking care of business.
The Panthers are on a three game win streak and return to action on Saturday, May 6, against the Bowdoin Polar Bears and Sunday, May 7, against the nationally ranked Tufts Jumbos.
(04/27/17 2:50am)
The Middlebury track and field team traveled down to the University of Albany this past weekend to compete at the 33rd Albany Spring Classic, a non-scoring meet featuring over 700 athletes from all three NCAA divisions as well as club teams. Both the women’s and men’s teams turned in a bevy of strong performances, making their presence known on the track as well as in field events.
After the competition had finished, senior jumper Jane Freda ’17 offered her thoughts on the last meet of the Panthers’ regular season. “Albany is always an interesting meet,” she said. “It’s always after the last big week of practices before we start tapering for post-season, so performances definitely vary more than other meets. There’s always some crazy wind at Albany, and the tailwind was great for short sprinters and jumpers, but pretty tough for long sprinters/distance runners. But given the weather conditions and high volume training, I felt like as a whole we did pretty well.”
And according to the timesheet, the Panthers certainly did well by themselves. For the women, the 4x100-meter relay team of Ellie Greenberg ’20, Natalie Cheung ’18, Maddie Pronovost ’17 and Elizabeth Walkes ’20 continued their remarkable string of performances, winning the event with a time of 49.17 seconds. The other Panther victory was secured by Julia Lothrop ’19 in the javelin toss (122’6”), who barely edged out teammate Devon Player ’18 (122’2”).
Other strong track efforts by the women included a second-place finish in the 5,000-meter race by Talia Ruxin ’20 (17:45.28) and two fifth-place finishes by Rose Kelly ’19 in the 1,500-meter race (4:52.51) and Claire Gomba ’19 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (12:05.34).
On the field side, Freda leapt to fifth place in both the long jump (17’) and the triple jump (35’7.75”), finishing behind four Division I athletes in each event.
“I was surprised I jumped as well as I did,” Freda said later. “I took the last meet off to recover from a quad injury so it was a great confidence boost going into NESCACs. I jumped really close to my PR’s so hopefully I can continue these good vibes into the next couple weeks!”
But the men’s team was not without its own share of strong showings, either. For the distance runners, Henry Fleming ’20 crossed the line third in the 3,000-meter race (9:01.41) and Harrison Knowlton ’19 finished fourth in the 5,000-meter event (15:22.70). The Panthers had a pair of strong performances in the 1,500-meter race, with Nathan Hill ’20 winding up fourth (3:59.13) and Connor Evans ’19 finishing sixth (4:01.91). Lastly, Theodore Henderson ’20 snagged sixth place in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (9:59.28).
In the shorter events, the Middlebury men had a pair of sixth-place finishes: Jackson Bock ’18 in the 200-meter dash (21.47) and Paul Malloy ’18 in the 400-meter hurdles (58.66). In the 110-meter hurdle preliminaries, Mike Pallozzi ’18 posted the best DIII time of the day and third-best time overall (15.60). Lastly, Tyler Chaisson ’17 finished sixth in the shot put (44’10.25”) and Taylor Moore ’18 finished sixth in the javelin (151’).
This Saturday, Middlebury will head back to Bowdoin for the NESCAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Amid their preparations, Freda explained what she thought would be the keys for the Panthers at their first postseason meet.
“As cliché as it sounds,” she said, “I think grit and hard work are going to be the keys to our success. Looking at the seeds for this meet, there are so many events that are really really close. Giving that little extra effort to run a little faster, throw or jump just a little further could make a huge difference in the end. We have so much talent and we’ve been training so hard all year—this is the time to get gritty and leave it all out on the track, runway or field!”
(04/27/17 1:47am)
On April 20, Middlebury College’s initiative Oratory Now hosted the second revival of the Parker-Merrill Speech Competition. The event, originally established in 1825, took a 50-year hiatus before being reintroduced last year. This year, the competition’s topic was “What if instead…we try this?”
The six finalists were Anna Dennis ’17.5, Griffin Price ’20, Kyle Meredith ’19, Lynn Travnikova ’20, Sarah Howard ’19 and Tabitha Mueller ’18. Each delivered a 6-minute speech that was judged by three faculty judges: Reginald L. Cook Professor of American Literature Brett Millier, Assistant Professor of Dance Christal Brown and Knox Professor of International Studies Jeff Cason.
The contestants were judged on three categories: persuasiveness of idea, persuasiveness of argument and persuasiveness of delivery.
According to the competition’s organizer, Visiting Assistant Professor of Theater Dana Yeaton, it was important that more value be placed on the content of the speech. “We don’t want you to just dazzle us with your footwork; we want you to say something,” he said.
The finalist’s arguments breached a wide range of topics. Meredith spoke of how “people experience the world in extremely different ways that all feel undeniably real,” which leads to increased negativity and dogmatism. Mueller described the dangers and hurt caused by people’s biases and assumptions of others. Price spoke about the country’s relationship with terrorism and media coverage.
Travnikova, who tied for second and won a $250 prize, argued for the benefits of being conscious consumers. Howard, who also tied for second, discussed the importance of being present in one’s day-to-day life.
Dennis, the competition’s champion and recipient of $500, spoke about “the role of emotional intelligence and vulnerability on campus.” Dennis chose this topic because of the problems she sees with interpersonal communication, believing that “vulnerability is actually the source of our power; the emotions and experiences that are revealed when people are vulnerable with one another are what unite us.”
In order to be a successful speaker, Yeaton believes that one must consider the audience.
“A successful speechmaker grabs an audience and never lets go. Which is almost impossibly difficult, and can only happen if the speech was conceived with that audience in mind. Great speechmakers are more like singer-songwriters than they are philosophers,” he said.
In addition, Travnikova also mentioned the importance of the audience in public speaking. “[Success is reached through] the ability to understand one’s audience and ensure a connection is made through the words being said; being able to eloquently and succinctly convey ideas through words, and also your presentation,” she said.
Yeaton believes that public speaking has a great impact on both societal and individual levels.
“Public speaking is the glue that holds society together. Or fails to. And what could be more empowering than believing you have the heart and mind and body it takes to project your ideas to an audience?” he said. “On the flip-side, if you don’t want to be manipulated, you better learn the tricks people are using to manipulate us.”
Regarding the importance of public speaking, Price also believes in its power.
“Public speaking has the power to reach beyond what is possible with just the written word. It taps into an immense human craving for storytelling that is central to our identity as a species. This makes it immensely important to the way we can understand ourselves and the world around us,” he said.
Oratory Now also works with organizations such as TEDx and other events such as Spring Student Symposium. They also offer coaching to faculty and students.
(04/21/17 5:32pm)
The baseball team swept divisional opponent Hamilton to close last week’s action on April 14 and 15. The Panthers now stand at 9-10 overall and a game over .500 in conference play.
The Panthers won a decisive 3-0 victory over the Continentals Friday afternoon on the right arm of first-year Spencer Shores ’20. Shores went eight innings and tossed 12 strikeouts, giving up only six hits, a walk and a healthy HBP.
The game was scoreless heading into the sixth until Sam Graf ’19 got the Panthers’ Ryan Rizzo ’17 across the plate with an infield single deep into the hole to the shortstop. The scoring continued in the bottom of the seventh where designated hitter Alan Guild ’20 hit a solo shot over the wall in right center to put the Panthers up 2-0. A couple of batters later, Jason Lock ’17 drove in Brooks Carroll ’20 with a single up the middle. That pushed the score to 3-0, which Conor Himstead ’19 preserved in the ninth as he struck out the side.
Shores got his second win of the season and of his career thus far. Himstead racked up his third save of the season, while Rizzo, Graf, Lock and Guild led the way for the Panthers at the dish.
The Panthers were able to carry their momentum from Friday afternoon’s victory when the teams met again for a doubleheader on Saturday.
In the first game, the Panthers pulled out a come-frombehind 6-5 victory.
Hamilton was up 4-0 going into the first when Carroll came to the plate with Justin Han ’20 in scoring position. Carroll was able to hit a sharp single to push Han across and begin a threerun inning for the Panthers. Carroll would score on a Lock single to center before the Panthers had a stroke of luck when Raj Palekar ’18 hit a popup that the Hamilton shortstop lost in the sun and bobbled that allowed Lock to score.
Middlebury scored again in the bottom of the sixth to tie the game at four. However, this was quickly taken away when Hamilton went up one after scoring in the top of the seventh.
On their last legs, the Panthers came up in the bottom of the seventh needing some timely production. Phil Bernstein ’19 answered the call.
Palekar reached the base on a fielder’s choice when an error allowed Graf to score to tie things up at five. Palekar eventually got into scoring position and Bernstein came up with a chance to notch one in the win column for Middlebury. Bernstein continued what has been a fantastic sophomore season with a shot up the middle to give the Panthers a well-deserved win in what was an all-around team effort.
In the final matchup of the three game set on Saturday afternoon, the Panthers once again came from behind and won another thriller by one run, this time 7-6.
Already holding a 3-2 in the top of the sixth, Hamilton scored three more runs and it appeared the Camels had blown the game open and would take a game off the Panthers. However, the Panthers never quit and rose to the occasion.
In the bottom of the sixth, Guild tripled to left center to score both Bernstein and Han. After a ground out by Rizzo, Guild scored on a wild pitch to bring the Panthers within one.
The Panthers kept the pedal to the metal and before the pivotal sixth ended Carroll singled through the left side to bring home Andrew Corcoran ’18 to tie the game at six apiece.
The 6-6 tie held until the bottom of the eighth, by which point the Panthers clearly held all of the momentum. Middlebury got the edge when Graf doubled down the leftfield line to bring home Lock and put the Panthers ahead for good 7-6.
The top of the ninth was not without some measure of fanfare however, but a putout at home and two successive quick outs were enough to seal the deal.
The Panthers will be back in action tomorrow and Saturday, April 21-22, for an important three game set with Wesleyan.
(04/21/17 3:40am)
Dear Middlebury College Bookstore Staff,
In last week’s Campus, you published an advertisement for Apple products, sold by the miniature Apple Store that resides in the back of our campus bookstore, thinly veiled as an op-ed. I herein discuss my three grievances with that piece:
(1) It was factually inaccurate.
(2) It displayed casual financial classism.
(3) It endorses a product/company without explicitly disclosing the fact that the authors (you the MC bookstore staff) are agents of the product/company being endorsed.
Let’s start by making one thing clear. Apple is not some glorious, rebellious liberator, as they portray themselves in their famous 1984 advert, nor are PC users ignorant balding white men as portrayed in Apple’s early 2000’s campaign — though both caricatures shine through in your article — Macs and PCs simply represent two reasonable choices in the world of computing.
Your op-ed asserts that MacOS is clearly superior, but as the laptop review site The Wirecutter wrote in February of this year in its article “What Laptop Should I Buy,” “MacOS and Windows have never been more similar, and most popular apps have versions that work just as well on either platform.” Furthermore, “it’s easier than ever to switch between the two.” Matt Weinberger of Business Insider wrote an article a couple of months ago aptly titled, “The Whole ‘Mac vs. PC’ Thing Is So Over,” where he explains, “because so much of what we do these days is based in the browser and in the cloud, Mac versus PC is no longer a lifestyle decision like it was back when boxed software ruled all. It’s just a matter of taste.”
You also suggest that Macs are no harder to troubleshoot than PCs, yet many people fervently disagree. For example, Shan Zeng, a student worker at the Middlebury Helpdesk, says, “PCs are much easier to troubleshoot than Macs.” She went on to stress that, “The problems that show up on Macs are rather irreversible, most often sudden breakdown of hard drives. In PCs there will be warnings, and other signs that allow one to take preventive measures.” As for Macs needing tech support less frequently, Zeng again disagrees. “I see more Mac issues than PC at the helpdesk.”
Now we reach grievance number two, the subtle classism of your suggestion that everyone come in and buy a Mac. The reality is that, for many, a $1,500 matte-metallic status symbol is out of the budget and out of the question. Senior Klaudia Wojciechowska put it this way: “Writing an article about why Midd kids ‘should choose Macbooks’ without acknowledging that not everyone can afford them — so buying PC’s is not a ‘choice’ — completely ERASES the fact that poor Midd kids like myself exist on this campus (who would have thought?!).” For students and families who struggle to afford Middlebury tuition, your ad suggesting everyone go buy a Mac is pretty tone deaf. To your suggestion that financing options might be available in the future, Wojciechowska notes sardonically, “You’re willing to set up a financing plan for me? Great. Add that to the other tuition loans I have.”
You, the MC Bookstore Staff, are boldly misinformed on the topic of price. It is true that IBM found that it is cheaper for their employees to use Macs instead of PCs, but IBM is a large enterprise with massive negotiated software licensing agreements and niche needs. Their experience is nothing like that of individual students on college campuses. If we really, truly cared about software expense, we would encourage the use of Linux variants, perhaps ChromeOS.
This goes beyond a difference of opinion; your Op-Ed flouted reality. Macs are not cheaper than the equivalent PC, even when the costs are spread out over the lifetime of the product (and even accounting for resale value, about which you also proffered misinformation). Take the Dell XPS 13 versus the equivalent MacBook Pro. The former is $1125 while the latter retails for $1499. Budget can’t stretch that far? You could get an Asus ZenBook with nearly identical specs for only $699. Less than half the price! Even the cheapest MacBook rings in at $1,200 and will offer significantly worse performance. (And for those of you thinking about Apple’s student discount, know this: student discounts are available from most major computer manufacturers, not just Apple).
Need something even cheaper? Modern Chromebooks start at just $179. Any student who needs to store large files, have long battery life, strong portability and use pretty much any web application (as well as upcoming Android app porting) might want to look toward Google.
And finally, we arrive at issue 3: the fact that you all submitted your ad to the Campus as an op-ed. Shame on you, and shame on the Campus editors who agreed to run it. At best, your op-ed qualifies as sponsored content. You, the bookstore, make money off Apple sales so you were plugging your own brand. Most weeks I write a financial markets column for the Campus. You’ll notice I don’t use it to pump penny stocks or hawk personal financial services. If you want to advertise in the Campus, more power to you, but do so the right way. Don’t be disingenuous: pay up. The Campus is not free to produce, and I will not have it taken for a shill.
(04/21/17 3:27am)
Tables are set up in a line, speed-dating style—only instead of dating, think farming. Around 30 Vermont growers (consisting of produce and livestock farmers, cheese makers and product makers of soup and energy bars) gathered at the Buyers and Growers Forum in Middlebury in March of 2016. Hosted by the Addison County Relocation Network, the forum aimed to connect growers with people interested in the local food system.
Vermont farmer Paul Horton approached two Middlebury students in attendance with a statement that caught their attention. “I have over one thousand pounds of leftover onions. Can you guys take them?”
The two students looked at one another and nodded in amazement – the onions could certainly be added to next month’s produce supply for Middlebury Foods.
Middlebury Foods, an entirely studentrun nonprofit grocery distribution program, provides local, fresh and healthy food to families in Addison County every month. Middlebury Foods’ website describes a process in which the organization replaces the supermarket middleman by buying directly from wholesale distributers which, in turn, saves the customers around 20 to 50 percent of the typical supermarket cost. Making healthy food more affordable has a significant impact on a community where, according to Hunger Free Vermont, one in five Addison County children is food insecure.
Started in the fall of 2013 with a grant from the Middlebury’s Center for Social Entrepreneurship, Middlebury Foods delivers produce monthly in bulk to six different sites across Addison County where customers can quickly and efficiently pick up their prearranged box of fresh produce. According to the organization’s current procurement manager Mike Pallozzi ’18.5, Middlebury Foods moves a tremendous amount of local food each month: around 3,000 to 5,000 pounds of produce plus an additional 1,000 to 1,500 pounds of meat, eggs, cheese, pasta, coffee and bread to almost 300 families each month.
“Since the buyers and growers forum last March, there has been a tremendous push towards offering our customers a complete variety of local products,” Pallozzi said.
Middlebury Foods intertwines students, community members and farmers in such a way that everybody benefits: the students work to run this nonprofit while simultaneously meeting people beyond the College’s boundaries; the farmers are able to grow more produce and reach a larger quantity of buyers; the community has access to fresh, healthy and affordable food. But Middlebury Foods is about more than the local produce–it is about the interactions and the relationships formed.
Farmers and Food
Emphasizing the importance of a localized food network, Middlebury Foods has recently pushed to focus on local farms when gathering produce for the monthly food drops. Currently, Middlebury Foods sources from more than 10 different farmers and producers based in Addison County.
“Under my leadership as procurement manager a ton has changed,” Pallozzi said. “Mostly the introduction and ever-expanding line of locally-sourced products that consist of meats, dairy, eggs, bread and pastas.”
The 1,000 pounds of leftover onions farmer Paul Horton offered to Middlebury Foods proved to be the birth of an important relationship between his farm and the organization. Following the onion incident, Horton provided new and more produce to Middlebury Foods each month until he eventually became the most consistent source for Middlebury Foods.
Pallozzi and other members of Middlebury Foods visited Horton’s farm last year to meet with Horton and learn about his production model. Prior to the trip down to Foggy Meadow Produce in Benson, Pallozzi had only spoken with Horton on the phone and met him once during the onion encounter. “I had never gotten to see his farm or how he ran his operation,” Pallozzi recalls.
“He took four hours out of his day … to sit down and carefully explain the process and thinking behind his farm.”
This encounter was important for Pallozzi because it laid the groundwork for a meaningful relationship with not only Horton and Foggy Meadow Produce, but with future farmers providing for Middlebury Foods.
“Meeting Paul Horton made me appreciate a whole lot more what he does. The relationship we built with him pushes us to reach out to other farmers to see how they run their operations,” Pallozzi said.
And the farmers appreciate the effort.
The relationship with Middlebury Foods has enabled Paul Horton to grow extra produce in the fall, keep it in storage facilities throughout the winter and distribute the produce monthly to Pallozzi and the rest of the Middlebury Food volunteers.
“Middlebury Foods has been a good, steady account,” Horton said. “They have a great mission and are wonderful to deal with – I am glad to be a part of it.”
Community
Pallozzi first got involved with Middlebury Foods his sophomore fall. After spending time volunteering at the College’s Organic Farm, Pallozzi knew he wanted to invest more time in Vermont’s local food and agriculture scene.
“I started by just going to deliveries and talking with local businesses,” Pallozzi said. “Middlebury Foods spoke out to me because every month you are interacting with people who live in this community.”
Addison County resident Sue Schweppe, a frequent Middlebury Foods customer, is one of the community members Pallozzi has met through his work with the organization.
“I’ve been very impressed,” Schweppe said of Middlebury Foods, referencing their “easy to use” website, order reminders and several pick-up locations. “They really have it together,” she added.
Middlebury Foods organizes five different bags filled with different produce each month. From the Essentials Bag (containing root veggies) to the Meat Box (a combination of three different meat offerings), the students volunteering with Middlebury Foods come together to prearrange various produce boxes based on what is fresh.
“I don’t choose the monthly produce,” Schweppe said. “And so sometimes I get items I wouldn’t normally buy in a supermarket. This way, I am given an opportunity to try something new.”
The blog, a feature of Middlebury Foods’ website, provides recipes and cooking ideas inspired by the monthly produce available and provided.
But beyond the tangible impact of the produce Schweppe receives every month is the relationship she has developed with, as she describes, the “very passionate and friendly” Middlebury students. “It is very nice to see the College represented in such a strong, positive face,” Schweppe said.
Students
The sense of community trust and relationship building is a two-way street, felt strongly by the Middlebury students as well. Middlebury Foods exposes student volunteers to new people and experiences beyond the confines of a classroom.
In his first semester at Middlebury, Charlie Mitchell ’18 was encouraged by a friend to consider volunteering for Middlebury Foods. Three years later, Mitchell holds a central role in the organization, currently working with the Development Team. Mitchell’s main responsibilities include fundraising and strategic planning for the nonprofit.
Through his work with Middlebury Foods, Mitchell has met numerous members of Addison County’s community from the director of the United Way, Department of Health, Parent/Child Center, to school foodservice directors and principals, Legion Commanders, farmers, cheesemakers, distributors and the local families during monthly pickups.
“Middlebury Foods is my favorite excuse to get to know incredibly smart and dedicated leaders who are working every day to make our community better,” Mitchell said.
With the success of Middlebury Foods, it is easy to forget that the organization is completely student-run. Students pick up and deliver the produce. Students organize, finance and run Middlebury Foods – all on a volunteer basis. Middlebury Foods was founded, exists and is successful today because of the time and effort students have invested into helping Middlebury Foods make an impact on the Addison County community.
While Middlebury Foods does influence the community, the organization is simultaneously imparting lasting effects on the student volunteers.
“I have learned almost everything I’ve learned at Middlebury from Middlebury Foods,” Mitchell said. “It’s taught me how to conduct meetings, organize a business and a nonprofit, improvise and solve problems, initiate, develop and sometimes end relationships, communicate with and try to inspire my peers, network and follow up in the community and College and lead effectively.”
Pallozzi, too, is grateful for the community network he has established through working with the nonprofit. “I think Middlebury Foods has opened my eyes to what this community is actually like,” Pallozzi said. “We spend a lot of time working with dining and facilities; real people that make this place work, even though it’s usually behind the scenes.”
In talking about the community, Pallozzi added, “It is a beautiful place.”
Middlebury Foods is successful in bringing fresh, local and affordable produce to community members each month. But the organization is also successful in creating and building lasting relationships between students and the community.
As the semester and classes wind to a close, Middlebury Foods is working hard to prepare an anxious and excited group of interns to embrace the busiest time of the year. Summer means new produce, new products and new projects as interns are able to devote extra time to Middlebury Foods without the worry of course work. Who knows? Maybe a bag will include a few of Horton’s onions this summer.
(03/23/17 7:35pm)
On Thursday, March 16, Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor who leaked classified information in an effort to expose widespread government surveillance, spoke over videoconference to Middlebury College community members in Wilson Hall as the Middlebury College Activities Board (MCAB) Spring Speaker. This was the first time that students gathered in Wilson Hall to hear a speaker after Charles Murray visited on
Snowden fled the United States in May 2013, and was later charged by the U.S. government with espionage and theft of government property. He currently resides at an undisclosed location in Russia, where he received renewed asylum in January 2017 for an additional three years.
Allison Stanger, Russell Leng ’60 Professor of International Politics and Economics, introduced Snowden and moderated the event. Stanger began by describing the effect Snowden has had on her upcoming book, Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Leaks: The Story of Whistleblowing in America, which was near completion when Snowden’s story broke. “He forced me, more or less, back to square one,” she said, “but it will be a better book, I hope, for the extra effort.”
In his own opening remarks, Snowden said that the problem at hand involves more than the NSA’s activity. “The problem is that this has become easy for anyone with a certain amount of resources,” he said. While government surveillance programs were once costly and cumbersome, Snowden shared that contemporary programs have grown far more efficient. “One guy can track, with precision, an unimaginably large number of people. And that was me,” he said, referring to his work at the NSA.
Snowden criticized the government for participating in surveillance programs that “are not only unlawful, but have always been unconstitutional.” Moreover, he argued that the government misrepresents its justification for the very existence of the programs. “These programs do not and have not saved lives… These programs were never about terrorism,” he said. “[Surveillance] is useful for disrupting social movements, in being able to discredit people whose politics we disagree with... [These programs] are about economic espionage, diplomatic manipulation, and social control.”
Lamenting a lack of effective mechanisms for constitutional oversight, Snowden cited the press and a vigilant public as vehicles that could bring about greater government transparency. “My argument is that we are at this point forced to rely on our press... If we only knew what governments or corporations wanted us to know, we wouldn’t know much at all.” He continued, “If we didn’t have investigative journalism, we wouldn’t be talking about [this].”
Throughout his talk, Snowden articulated a message of empowerment, imploring the audience to remember that “Saying something matters…the reality is one voice can change the world.” He warned against the notion that freedom of privacy is not important if one has nothing to hide, arguing that “Privacy is the foundation of all other rights… if we lose that, we’re losing more than a right; we’re losing ourselves.”
Snowden also stressed the importance of recognizing the relationship between rights and privilege. “Rights don’t mean much to the powerful and the privileged,” he said. “Rights matter to those who are different, to those who stand out… If you say surveillance is okay as long as its not monitoring me, this is selfish and short sighted.
Snowden was careful to explain that he never personally published any documents in his 2013 reveal. Rather, he gave the information to professional journalists, and requested that they contact the U.S. government in advance of publication to ensure that each leak would not put anyone in danger. To Snowden’s knowledge, that process was followed in every case, and “they have never shown any evidence that anyone has come to harm as a result of these disclosures.” Instead, his actions “changed our laws, changed the thinking of the president, [and] won the Pulitzer Prize for public service. I believe that we live in a freer and fairer world because of it,” he said.
Emma Dunlap ’18 and Jocelyn Zemach ’18, co-chairs of the MCAB Speakers Committee, worked with an agent to secure Snowden as Spring Speaker. “We generally use an agent for our larger speakers,” Dunlap wrote in an email. “Our committee unanimously decided to ‘bring’ Edward Snowden to Middlebury believing that he would start an interesting conversation on campus, especially given the current political climate in America, U.S.-Russian relations, and cyber security concerns in general.”
According to Dunlap, “The event reached over 500 viewers on the live stream. I’ve received positive feedback from many attendees and I hope that the Middlebury community continues to discuss the ideas and opinions that Snowden brought.”
Rebecca Simon ’19 had a somewhat different opinion after leaving Wilson Hall, questioning whether Snowden came to Middlebury to push an agenda rather than engage in a discussion. “Though most of what he had to say was rather inspiring for young people to hear, it all seemed like an elaborate plan or a previously constructed lecture on why his position was correct,” she said. “I am so happy I waited 90 minutes in the cold to see him interact with Professor Stanger and students…I just thought that the discussion was going to be a discussion and not a lecture.”
(03/17/17 12:18am)
As a college well-known for its international vision, Middlebury College does a fairly good job of bringing different aspects of diverse cultures to its members. But there is always more to be showcased, and the students never cease to surprise the community.
The Chinese Society, along with the Chinese Department, purchased a “guzheng” (٪j筝), also known as a Chinese zither, last May. On Monday, March 6, the first-ever guzheng recital took place. An audience filled the entire Chateau Grand Salon to listen to the repertoire of student performers and had a chance to observe the Chinese plucked string instrument which has over 2,500 years of history.
With a resonant cavity made from wood, a “guzheng” has 16 or more strings and movable bridges. To pluck the strings, players often wear fingerpicks on one or both hands. Having emerged during the Warring States period (475-211 BCE), the instrument also became the model for some other Asian zithers. The fascinating ancient instrument has obviously not become obsolete in any way – it is one of the most popular Chinese instruments today.
The first scheduled performer of the song “Liuyang River,” Emily Cipirani ’19.5, was unfortunately not able to attend the showcase. According to Jingchen Jiang ’18, one of the other players and organizers, Cipirani was the one who started the whole idea of bringing guzheng music to campus, as she owns one guzheng herself.
“Emily learned to play it from a Chinese teacher in Ohio, and is very passionate about it,” Jiang said. “We thought that many people might like it.”
Lyra Ding ’19, who started playing the “guzheng” at the age of six, carried out the following two pieces to great reception. The first one called “Han Gong Qiu Yue” is a very traditional song with an ancient melody and simplified techniques.
“I played it without the fingerpick because in that way I think it’s more similar to another instrument called guqin, which I also play,” she said.
Ding’s second piece, “Qin Sang Qu,” is a familiar one for her, and the song tells about a young girl parting from her loved ones. The nostalgia was, according to Ding, somewhat in accordance with the reality of being abroad and away from home.
The last piece, “Eternal Sorrow of Lin’an,” was performed by Jiang and Gloria Breck ’18. The unique composition is a concerto of “guzheng” and piano, and the flawless collaboration between pianist Breck and Jiang, who played the “guzheng,” made it the highlight of the showcase.
The piece was perhaps the most powerful one, telling a story about a national hero that was falsely accused by his country and executed. Lasting for more than 13 minutes, the performance shifted between absorbing solos of the guzheng and piano, and the even more captivating ensemble of the two culturally and fundamentally different musical instruments.
“The piece is probably one of the biggest guzheng performing pieces, and I wanted to challenge myself with the difficulty,” Jiang said.
This was not the first time that the two good friends collaborated on a musical piece. Jiang talked about their collaboration for the International Student Organization (ISO) show last November, for which they performed an excerpt of “Butterfly Lovers,” a very popular and more light-hearted piece.
“We felt that for a formal recital, we should have something more serious,” Jiang said. “We needed a piece that would truly convey and express the instrument, and one with more cultural foundation.”
The success of the recital has prompted Jiang to think about what types of guzheng pieces could be performed in the future, as the piece “Eternal Sorrow” was “a bit too heavy.”
“We weren’t sure about to what extent a very Chinese and folk piece like this one will be approachable for foreign audience members,” Jiang said.
The fact that many of the listeners were deeply moved by the music was encouraging.
“So we felt that maybe music really is something universal,” Jiang said. “People can all sense the emotions embedded in it.”
The team put a lot of effort into writing the recital program, hoping that the audience would gain sufficient historical and cultural context for understanding the music.
Jiang believes that these sorts of events should be promoted on campus.
“We have organizations like the Chinese society and ASIA [Asian Students in Action], but people seem to be more interested in talking about politics and social issues,” Jiang said. “I think there should be more things focused on the cultural aspects.”
Now that the college owns a “guzheng” and many people are interested in it, future activities devoted to the instrument are guaranteed.
“The Music Department professors are very excited about this,” Ding said. “They kept asking us if we could do a demo or even a class for them, so that they can understand this instrument.”
Jiang also hopes that students will join, likely through a student-hosted J-term workshop next year.
(03/16/17 7:23pm)
On Saturday, March 11, the streets of Middlebury were closed off to host the Ninth Annual Vermont Chili Festival. Despite frigid temperatures and a wind chill that had “Chili Fest” attendees begging for Proctor’s warmth, over 20 restaurants and organizations showed up with their vats of chili to satisfy the hungry masses.
Chili Fest has been ranked one of the Top 10 Winter Events by the Vermont Chamber of Commerce, and the crowd on Saturday was a testament to that ranking.
“It’s freezing, so I wasn’t expecting it to be that crowded,” said Tristan Boyar ’20 at the event.
Participants in the event paid $8 at the door ($6 in advance, children under eight were free) and received a voting token and a spoon. Upon arrival, attendees walked down Main Street and sampled chili from the dozens of different booths there. After determining their favorite chili, participants were encouraged to vote with their token for the People’s Choice Award Winner.
A panel of six chili judges also attended the event, and they voted on six separate categories of chili which included veggie, beef, chicken, game, kitchen sink and pork. This year, Chili Festival saw the addition of a new category called “Anything But Chili.”
Winners all received cash prizes and then competed for the Best Overall category, which included a cash prize of $1,000, while second and third place received a cash prize of $750 and $500, respectively. Each individual category winner also received a cash prize of $100.
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One popular business represented at the festival was Two Brothers Tavern. It was the restaurant’s ninth year participating in the festival, and already it had established a name for itself: The vegetarian chili (which is on the regular menu) won second place in last year’s “professional vegetarian” category.
This year, the return of the regular chili was accompanied by venison chili made with local meat and complemented with maple sour cream. The tavern also served chips to cut the chili’s spicy aftertaste.
John Davignon, chef at Two Brothers, had confidence in his dishes. “Last year was a big hit,” he said. “We’re hoping to continue on.”
Even for the less zealous chili fans, the festival’s atmosphere and entertainment were more than enough for some participants.
“The guy running around in the Chili costume was the best part of the event for me,” said Sedge Lucas ’19. In the past, there have been dance performances, live music and flash mobs.
Whether you chose to eat chili, vote on your favorite sample, or went for the celebration, Chili Fest delivered lasting memories for many Vermonters.
(12/08/16 5:11pm)
Panther Athletics Middlebury College has made unprecedented efforts to develop a more diverse student body in recent years and those efforts are highlighted by the many faces in classrooms, dining halls and on campus in general, especially in the last ten years. The numbers have soared and the College continues to build its resume of racial diversity. T
his year, the general student body has a total of 2,532 students and of that number, 24 percent identified as a U.S. person of color, which is 628 students who identify as American-Indian, Asian, Black, Hispanic/Latino or Mixed. Ten years ago, there were 2,455 students in the general body and of that number, only 361 students identified as a U.S. person of color, a mere 14 percent.
Despite these advances, the College’s athletic program has not reached nearly the same levels of diversification. In an effort to better understand how membership on sports teams where diversity is low shapes the lives of players, the Campus interviewed several student-athletes of color about their experiences on their team and at the College.
Athletes at the College are often balancing a number of different social spheres: their team, who they interact with generally on a daily basis; those involved in their academic commitments; and those friends they have outside of either of these. For athletes of color, another sphere exists: relationships with non-athlete students of color.
The following accounts come from students with different backgrounds and a variety of experiences before coming to the College. However, each decided to apply and for that reason, each shares a similar appreciation for and commitment to the College.
The Experience
“One of the places we’ve achieved great diversity is through prep schools; like Middlebury, they are investing and changing with the times,” Dean of Admissions Greg Buckles said. Many private schools, including boarding schools and Catholic schools, send their athletes of color to colleges such as Middlebury.
Many athletes of color, especially those from these top-ranked high schools, come to the College to succeed both academically and athletically, regardless of a lack of diversity on the sports teams.
Diego Meritus ’19, who identifies as African American and is a running back for the football team, described coming to the College despite the lack of diversity as almost a no-brainer.
“I chose to attend Middlebury because the opportunities this school has to offer outweighed any other factor,” Meritus said. “I would have regretted the decision to turn down four years at a top-ranked liberal arts school and the potential doors it could open for me.”
Meritus was not shocked after his arrival on campus, because he had grown accustomed to the majority-white campus and locker rooms at his high school.
“Coming from a private catholic high school in Massachusetts, the dynamic with regards to diversity was very similar to Middlebury. There were very few minorities and students of color in comparison to the general student body,” Meritus said. “At times this situation presents challenges for me, but being exposed to this phenomena early on, I was prepared for what was to come at Middlebury. At the same time, just because I am used to being a minority does not mean I am content with the lack of representation of students of color in the student body.”
Jourdon Delerme-Brown ’20, who plays alongside Meritus on the football team, identifies as AfricanAmerican of Jamaican and Haitian descent and attended a private school in Greenwich, Conn. Delerme-Brown, like Meritus, said that the opportunities that come with a degree from Middlebury College far outweigh a lack of diversity. He said his time here at the College so far reminds him of his high school.
“It’s virtually the same dynamic here compared to Brunswick, with respect to diversity,” Delerme-Brown said. “In the past, I’ve learned how to find solidarity between myself and other students of color, while not secluding myself from making friends and being around people who do not share my same ethnic background. This was a crucial lesson before coming to Middlebury because in college, no one will coach you to branch out, you have to take those steps on your own.”
Like Meritus and Delerme-Brown, Griffin Price ’20, who also identifies as African-American, has constantly found himself as the minority on his soccer teams. He said that it is sometimes a challenge, however “you learn that getting along in the locker room is crucial if you want to succeed out on the field. Sometimes you have to ignore the outside noise and come together as a group.” Price, a first-year goalkeeper for the men’s soccer team, attended the Westminster School, a private boarding school in Simsbury, Conn. He and his brother were the only two students of color on the predominately-white team and by his senior year, his brother having graduated, he was the only one.
“I thought about going to a historically Black college or university (HBCU) like Howard and exploring that type of learning experience in an environment dominated by African Americans. But ultimately I fell in love with what Middlebury had to offer,” Price said. “I had never had it easy in my life when it came to race, especially in my sport. Similar to a quarterback in football, the goalkeeper position is typically dominated by white athletes, so I am used to being an anomaly in a sport dominated by white privilege.”
Meritus, Delerme-Brown and Price have all had previous experiences in a predominately-white environments that have helped them transition smoothly from high school to college.
Alex Huffman ’19 and Olivia Bravo ’20 are two students of color who attended public high schools but, like their peers who came from private high s c h o o l s , t h e y had experiences that prepared them for the predominantly-white culture of the College’s athletic department.
Huffman, who identifies as African-American and half-Caucasian, is a guard on the women’s basketball team and went to a charter public school in Massachusetts. Her school furnished the opportunity to attend a camp in Colchester, VT, every summer between ages 11 and 17. Here, she met people who attended Middlebury and surrounded herself with people aware of the College’s academic and athletic esteem.
“I was not shocked at the lack of diversity on the women’s basketball team,” Huffman said. “Throughout my life, the teams I’ve been on, whether it was basketball or soccer, have been predominantly white. There have been few exceptions, but for the most part, being one of few persons of color is normal for me.”
In addition, Huffman spoke of how her bi-racial upbringing helped her maneuver the environment she has encountered at the College.
“Under the conditions of my parents and growing up with two different cultures, I feel that I’ve gotten more experienced at weaving in and out of the two worlds,” she said. “Some people are just learning that when they come here. All of my cross-cultural experiences have proven that my bi-racial identity is not a burden.”
Bravo, who is of Mexican descent and a freshman on the softball team, attended a public high school in northern Virginia. Bravo also recognized the academic and career benefits of coming to Middlebury as opposed to another liberal-arts school. In Bravo’s case, she too experienced an environment dominated by white culture.
“The public high school I attended was in one of the most affluent areas in northern Virginia and there was very little diversity there,” Bravo said. “So the lack of diversity here at Middlebury was not surprising or upsetting. When I applied I knew of the lack of diversity and was prepared to be in the same environment I had been in for most of my life.”
When applying to the College, Meritus, Huffman, Bravo, Price and Delerme-Brown were all prepared for the lack of diversity they would face on their teams. But not all athletes of color experience the same easy transition.
Another Look
Chellsa Ferdinand ’20, a first-year on the volleyball team who self-identifies as an African-American, and Emilio Ovalles-Misterman ’19, a former football player who identifies as Dominican and Caucasian are two athletes of color whose experiences have differed from their peers.
Ferdinand attended Brooklyn Technical High School — a public high school in Brooklyn, New York, with 5,500 students. There, most students were of Asian descent, however a significant portion of those students identified as African-American and/or as a person of color, she said. Ferdi - nand is also a member of the POSSE program, which is a college access and youth development program that identifies, recruits and selects students from public high schools and sends groups of these students to top universities and colleges across the country.
Throughout high school, Ferdinand was surrounded by people of similar experiences of growing up in the urban metropolis of New York. Within her POSSE group, she found solace with friends who not only shared her skin color but the experiences that have come along with it. Now at the College, she struggles to find the people who have had the same experiences as her and can truly understand the differences she’s faced throughout her career.
“Students of color often exist in two communities, one where they lend themselves to assimilating to those around them and another where they can be their true cultural selves,” Ferdinand said. “You have to constantly be aware of things you say and who you say them to. I think many athletes of color have to battle with those two worlds in this predominately-white school.”
She went on to articulate her experience of being the only of person of color on the volleyball team both in high school and in college and the difference in camaraderie among her teammates then and now.
“Being the only Black person on the team is a weird experience, but I’ve known it before,” she said. “On my high school team I was the only Black student, but looking back it didn’t feel like that, and I think in part that had to do with the fact that those girls were used to being around other students of color all the time. At Middlebury, it is not the same. On one hand, I love my team so much. I am able to share jokes, bond with them and train with them all the time. But on the other hand, my teammates share something that I do not: being white.”
Ovalles-Misterman attended St. Francis High School for four years, a private catholic high school with a graduating class of less than 10 people of color out of 120 students. However, after missing his junior year of football due to a severe tear in his patellar tendons, he opted to take a post-graduate fifth year of high school at Phillips Academy Andover in Massachusetts. It was at this prestigious boarding school that Ovalles-Misterman first learned about the College.
“Prior to Andover, I didn’t know a single thing about Middlebury or any other prestigious universities outside of the Ivy League and Patriot League schools, and I only [found out] about them because there were a few kids that ended up going to those places,” he said. “I was never made aware of these schools at St. Francis, partially because I only thought about football and partially because my counselors only tried to sell local schools to me despite the fact I had grades to go further.”
It was his time at Andover that ultimately led Ovalles-Misterman to seek out the College. However, he struggled to see the College as the place he truly wanted to be and as he spoke of his experience, the uncertainty of the College’s white-dominated environment came forth.
“Middlebury wasn’t my favorite place when I came to visit — it was cold, in the middle of nowhere and I don’t think I saw one person of color the entire time I visited, which really scared me,” he said. “The thought I could be going to an institution that was whiter than the places that I had come from was pretty daunting. But fast forwarding, my decision to come to Middlebury was mainly dependent on my financial aid package.”
Ovalles-Misterman’s experience with the football team parallels Ferdinand’s sentiments toward her team and the difficulty that arises in dealing with a team that is predominantly white.
“I don’t in any way regret playing ball at Middlebury and I am forever grateful to the staff and to the team because I knew they would always have my back. I always have a lot of love for those guys, ” Ovalles-Misterman said. “But the thing that affected me about the lack of color was the team culture was dominated by whiteness — it was a different vibe and I found it difficult to find my niche within the team. It just wasn’t a place I felt like I could go to forget about all my other issues.”
Limitations to Diversity
A op-ed piece published in the Campus last February titled “Deconstructing College Athletics,” explored how the NESCAC has limited coaches who try to recruit students to certain forms of communication, setting budget reservations for travel and lodging expenses and setting an extremely high bar for academic standings.
These policies, which aim to ensure academics take precedence before athletics, are a major factor in consistently homogenous sports teams. The majority of students of color who come to the College to play sports have either gone to a prep or private school where they have already adjusted to academic life where they are in the minority, or they have learned of the College through a leadership program such as POSSE. For students without a prestigious high school experience or the support of a leadership program, the culture at the College can come as a shock.
Although the Admissions office is able to pick and choose students based on a number of factors, the Athletics department is prevented by NESCAC policy from approaching potential student athletes who might not otherwise apply to the College, as is common practice in sports recruiting in other divisions across the country.
“At a NESCAC level, we’ve had diversity task forces working for the past ten years that I have been here,” Director of Athletics Erin Quinn said. “However, as a conference we have struggled over the years to balance the core principles of the NESCAC with the need for greater diversity among our teams.”
The NESAC mandates that a coach cannot come up to any player, without previously being contacted first, and pitch the College to them. This puts the College’s diversity initiatives at odds with the goals of the admissions office because of the lack of information that many students of color have regarding the College.
Buckles also noted the problems of the NESCAC policies that hinder the College’s ability to truly diversify their athletics, while the numbers of the general student body have gone up.
“If you look back historically, athletics have provided a very significant portion of the number of students of color represented at the college,” Buckles said. “Now the numbers have flipped as the College has made great structures in the general student body, but athletically, the numbers have not kept up.”
Chief Diversity Officer Miguel Fernandez spoke of the struggles of expanding diversity initiatives when NESCAC recruiting politics are so strict. “Our coaches recognized the lack of diversity and tried to work on it, but the numbers don’t show it,” he said. “The limitations put on NESCAC teams with respect to recruiting makes it very difficult to reach out to athletes who are not aware of NESCAC schools.” Many of the athletes of color that are recruited to Middlebury often enter without the help of a leadership or mentoring program such as Prep-for-Prep, Jack & Jill or POSSE. Often, those students who have the benefit of being a POSSE member and an athlete form tight bonds that their peers miss out on. Fernandez explained how administrators viewed the phenomenon of athletes of color and how the NESCAC has increasingly shaped one kind of athlete of color to come to Middlebury.
“The athletes we recruit have been at predominantly white high schools. They have kind of been through this before — not to say that it eliminates all problems — but they have lived through it and they know what they are up against. It is not a shock when they get here,” Fernandez said. “On the other hand, when we get the rare student of color who comes to one of the College’s teams from a predominately minority school, we, as administrators, are really just shocked.” Moving forward Each minority athlete who was interviewed agreed that an environment with more people of color teaches people how to interact with different cultures and is a positive experience, not only throughout the athletics program but also in the general student body. Ferdinand says her experience has been pleasant but, “Middlebury is just not as diverse as it says it is. There needs to be more students of color, plain and simple. Without having a group here such as POSSE or even your sports team, it is definitely more difficult to find your place here.”
Delerme-Brown also agreed with Ferdinand’s sentiments and reflected on what a more diverse Middlebury would look like. He said that an increase in culture can positively affect the experiences of others around him and hopes that the College notes the importance of expanding their diversity initiatives.
“Personally, I would never say no to more students of color, period,” Delerme-Brown said. “From an athletic standpoint, a more diverse locker room can be an improvement for everyone on the team. By having more people of color other students and fellow athletes can become more cultured, which is something I find important and somewhat of an unappreciated gift. Let’s bring more culture and diversity to our teams and to our school because we can bring new levels of ideas and experiences.”
Price also expressed his thoughts about the benefits of engaging with more people of color. He respects the challenges that any person of color has to face in college and in the real world, especially a person of color who is also an athlete. Price wants to see more of those people come to the College.
“Making an effort to attract and accept more students of color, not just athletes, benefits those students but also benefits our student body as a whole,” Price said. “What is unique about being a student-athlete is that you are expected to uphold the same academic standards as your peers while participating in our sports. When a minority applicant shows that level of determination to fight against the inherent inequalities that persist in their daily lives, to work hard not only in the classroom but on the sports field, it should be accepted that those people have what it takes to survive at Middlebury and we need more of those people here.”
(12/01/16 4:54pm)
Middlebury College moved to increase its support of current and prospective students who are living in the country illegally, according to a statement released by Laurie L. Patton over Thanksgiving break, in an emphatic rebuke of President-elect Donald J. Trump’s promises to end illegal immigration.
The statement on Nov. 23 came a week after about 400 students, faculty and staff staged a “walk-out” in front of Old Chapel protesting Trump’s proposed mass deportations and urging administrators to take direct action.
In the statement, Patton said that the College will “not voluntarily share” student records with federal or state law enforcement officials in deportation efforts.
“We will take every legal measure to support our undocumented students as we continue to live up to our principles of educational access and inclusivity,” Patton said.
The College will continue to provide pro bono legal assistance to students with questions about their immigration status through the office of International Student and Scholar Services. Dan Berger, an immigration lawyer in Massachusetts, will come to campus for two days to host an information session and hold individual meetings with students. The information session will be Dec. 2 in Dana Auditorium at 5 p.m. and individual appointments will be schedule the next day between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m.
Curran & Berger LLP, the law firm where Berger is a partner, advises clients on legal routes under President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, an executive immigration policy that allows certain immigrants to the United States who entered the country as minors to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation and eligibility for a work permit. The federal government has estimated that the DACA program provides temporary resident status to about 728,000 young people.
Beginning with next year’s applicants for the class of 2022, the Office of Admissions will evaluate applications from prospective students living in the country illegally under its need-blind admissions policy, which applies to all domestic applicants. The College will commit to meeting the full demonstrated financial need, as determined by Student Financial Services, of students admitted under this effort.
The Office of Admissions has reviewed applications in the past from prospective students living in the country illegally, but did so on a need-aware basis. About a dozen such students are currently enrolled at the College, according to an estimate given by Bill Burger, vice president for communications.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued a memorandum to its agents in 2011 stating that certain enforcement actions should not occur at “sensitive locations,” including schools, hospitals and churches, without prior approval. The policy, which is still in effect, specified arrests, interviews, searches and surveillance as off-limits. But the memorandum specifically stated that obtaining records and serving subpoenas are not covered by the policy.
The president has wide latitude in enforcing immigration law, meaning that ICE’s policies can change depending on how the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, sets its priorities. Trump is expected to select a secretary for this agency who shares his hard-line stance on immigration.
Lawyers for the Obama administration used this executive authority as legal basis for delaying deportation of certain immigrants, including children and those without criminal records. But the next president would have the same authority to reverse that course.
Trump’s campaign website lists ten steps under immigration. He pledges to “end sanctuary cities” and “immediately terminate President Obama’s two illegal executive amnesties” — referring to DACA and DAPA, Deferred Action for Parents of Americans. Trump promised repeatedly on the campaign trail to reverse President Obama’s executive orders granting temporary resident status to certain classes of immigrants. The plan also says that Trump plans to triple the number of ICE agents employed by the government.
“This is what it means to have laws and to have a country,” the plan reads.
In a 60 Minutes interview on Nov. 20, President-elect Trump said he planned to immediately deport all living in the country illegally who “have criminal records” after his inauguration next January. When pressed on his campaign pledge to deport even those without criminal records, Trump said that after securing the border, his administration would make a “determination” on the remaining immigrants, who number about 11.3 million according to Pew Research Center.
When asked if the College would obey a federal court order requiring cooperation with ICE officials, Burger said the College “will always comply” with court orders.
“We are not above the law,” he said.
Some have doubted that Trump will focus his deportation efforts on nonviolent children of immigrants who are studying in the U.S.
“We find it hard to believe that Trump will suddenly revoke work cards and DACA from 750,000 high achieving students,” said lawyers at Curran & Berger LLP in a notice on the firm’s website. “Perhaps more likely is that he could stop DACA extensions. Moving to deport these students would be another radical step — if they just lose their DACA status, that would be awful, but we can advise them as we did pre-DACA.”
But student organizers of the walk-out protest on Nov. 16 are wary to believe speculation that Trump will moderate his agenda.
“We look forward to continuing conversations with President Patton and other members of the administration to talk about the ways that the college can continue to work in solidarity with students on campus and members of our community,” said Austin Kahn ’17.5, one of the organizers.
Organizers believed that the College’s response to the walk-out was a necessary step in protecting students who are in danger of deportation and in alleviating the concerns of community members.
“In our view, Laurie Patton simply responded to the huge public pressure demonstrated by both the walk-out itself and the letter signed by well over 1,500 students, faculty, staff and alumni,” Kahn said. “While we were definitely excited to see so many people willing to take time out of their daily activities, we would expect nothing less during a time when there exist real and unmistakable threats to the wellbeing of marginalized people on our campus and in our country more generally.”
(10/14/16 12:27am)
On Friday, Oct. 7, the 39th presentation of the Paul Ward ’25 Memorial Prize acknowledged student members of the Class of 2019 who have produced outstanding essays for their first-year writing classes. Over half of the 50 nominated students and their families gathered in the Twilight Auditorium in the afternoon for the hour-long celebration hosted by Mary Ellen Bertolini, Director of the Writing Center.
The Paul W. Ward ’25 Memorial Prize in Writing was established by Paul Ward’s widow, Dorothy Cate Ward ’28 in 1978. For 38 years, the competition has honored excellent writings by students in their first year at Middlebury College across all academic divisions. As a journalist and diplomatic reporter, Paul Ward valued “precise and exact usage of words, exact meanings, phrases expressed lucidly and gracefully,” as put by Mrs. Ward.
Students’ essays are nominated by faculty annually and evaluated by an interdisciplinary panel of judges.
“We are impressed this year, that among the nominees and winners are students for whom English is just one of the many languages they speak,” Bertolini said in her welcome speech. “And we are impressed at the range of interest that your writing represents.”
Among the nominees’ work were personal narratives, critical arguments, creative works and research papers from various departments.
The honorable mention awards went to Gemma Laurence ’19.5 for “The Morality of Happiness: A Comparison of Aristotelian and Kantian Ethics,” Sarah Rittgers ’19 for “Nationalism and the Collapse of the Soviet Union,” Leo Stevenson ’19.5 for “Natural Environments and Human Cognition” and Kevin Zhang ’19.5 for “Natural Selection for E. coli Resistant to Triclosan and its Effect on Developing Cross Resistance to Therapeutic Antibiotics.”
A mere glimpse of the titles of their work gives a sense of how diverse the topics are. Nominating faculty members presented the certificates, and spoke of the students’ work, highlighting how across different areas of academic study, the awarded essays showed the students’ excellent writing skills of formulating effective and lucid communication.
During the presentations of the two runner-up awards and the first-place award, the audience had the chance to listen to the student recipients read excerpts from their winning essays. Each recipients of the runner-up prize received $250 .
Abbie Hinchman ’19 was awarded the runner-up prize for her paper “The Geography of Occupation: Examining the Use of Location in Out of It,” an essay for her first-year seminar on post-colonial literature.
Sarah Yang ’19.5 won the other runner-up prize for her essay “Space Control in the Soviet Union.” The paper fulfilled the task of applying a Marxist concept to a concrete historical example, assigned by Assistant Professor of Spanish Irina Feldman in her seminar Introduction to Marxism. “I barely corrected it,” said Feldman afterwards, commenting on the Yang’s use of precise and elegant language.
The first-place prize, along with a $500 award, was presented to Caroline Snell ’19, for her essay “Mastery at Any Cost: The Dominance and Damning of Standard Oil”, which she wrote for her first-year seminar Power and Petroleum in Asia taught by Assistant Professor of History Maggie Clinton. Notably, the winning essay was Snell’s very first paper for that class, which showed her talents in writing and her ability to follow guidelines even before coming to college.
According to Professor Clinton, the paper topic was not easy, as it asked students to analyze how the rise of kerosene changed the 19th century, drawing from three challenging books.
“Caroline more than rose to the occasion,” Clinton said, adding that the paper “meticulously captures the nuances of historical change.”
Professor Clinton was optimistic that Snell’s talents will bring her more success.
“If she could write beautifully about kerosene, she could write beautifully about anything,” she said.
Each year, the nominees for the Ward Prize are invited by the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Research to train as peer writing tutors.
“We hope you talented writers of the Class of 2019 will share your gifts with incoming classes,” Bertolini said.
Indeed, the students nominated did gain valuable insights through producing these outstanding essays. For Zhang, recipient of honorable mention prize, taking the time to revise was essential.
“Even though it takes time, it is not until I start editing my work when my ideas and arguments truly become a lot more clear and concise,” Zhang said.
As a couple nominating professors mentioned how the prize recipients were active and considerate contributors to class discussion, talking about ideas seems to be equally important. Shan Zeng ’19, one of the nominees, said that speaking to professors and students about her essay was especially helpful.
“When you are forced to present an idea to someone else, you have to clarify it so that other people understand,” Zeng said. “It’s a very effective way to organize the complicated information.”
On the Friday just before this year’s Fall Family Weekend, many of the award nominees’ families were there to celebrate “some of the best 18- and 19-year-old writers in the country,” as Bertolini put it.
She especially expressed gratitude to the family members, stating, “They were there on the spot to recognize and encourage your very first words from the time you were toddlers, posting your accomplishments on Facebook and refrigerator doors.”
On behalf of the faculty, Bertolini also emphasized the College’s vision of writing in a liberal arts education.
“It is our commitment to encourage you to use writing as part of your own life-long learning process, and thus to make a difference in the world,” she said.
(03/23/16 10:44pm)
Four members of the Women’s Swimming & Diving team travelled to Greensboro, N.C. last week, March 16-20, to compete in the four-day NCAA Division III Championship meet.
The first Panther swimmer to leave the blocks on the morning of Wednesday, March 16, was sophomore Isabel Wyer ’18. Wyer sped through the 500 free prelims with a fourth-place, school record-breaking time of 4:52.65. Not only did she break her personal-best set last month at the NESCAC Championships by 1.91 seconds, but it shaved a full 6.22 seconds off the school record that Marika Ross ’07 had held since 2007. Wyer touched the wall fifth in the event finals to earn All-American Honors (4:53.36).
The next day, Morgan Burke ’17 joined Wyer in the 200 free competition. Burke’s 1:53.46 was good for a 30th-place finish out of the 44 swimmers who competed in the prelims, while Wyer lowered another personal and school record by just over half a second, with a fourth-place finish in the preliminary round (1:49.77).
“I’m most proud of my prelims swim of the 200 freestyle,” Wyer said. “When I was done, my coach told me that I almost gave him a heart attack because of the way I swam it. I was in last place at the half way mark but luckily was able to finish strong.”
But after catching the flu, Wyer had to take a medical scratch in the event finals that afternoon. Her preliminary time would have qualified her for another individual All-American accolade and a spot on the podium in third place.
“I was only able to swim 3 races, but I am very happy with how they went!” Wyer explained. “Obviously, I wish I could have finished the meet but I still have two more years and I’m really looking forward to them. I am so proud of how my teammates swam. Getting sick was definitely a set back, but Morgan, Steph and Kristin all had great attitudes the entire meet and were so supportive of me. I am so lucky to have those girls as my teammates.”
Burke, Kristin Karpowicz ’19, Wyer and Stephanie Andrews ’18 also took to the water as a team that day in the 200 free relay, for 23rd place out of the 27 teams that qualified (1:36.82).
The team made a slight change in their relay order for the 800 free relay on Friday, March 19, as the lone first-year of the group, Karpowicz, was first off the block, followed by Andrews, Burke and Wyer. Their time of 7:35.57 garnered 15th place and an all-American honorable mention.
“I am most proud of the 800 free relay because this is arguably one of the toughest relays to compete in,” Karpowicz said. “Isabel managed to put the entire team in front of herself so we could not only finish this relay (and go a best time), but be able to continue until the final day of competition.”
Burke then finished 34th in the 51-swimmer field for the 100 free with a time of 52.12 on the last day of the meet (Saturday, March 20).
While Wyer’s illness prevented her from swimming as scheduled in Saturday’s individual 200 back competition, she was able to contribute to Middlebury’s 19th place finish (3:29.90) in the 400 free relay (Karpowicz, Wyer, Andrews and Burke).
The Panthers ended the meet ranked 34th out of the 55 Division III teams that qualified from across the nation.
(03/17/16 1:39am)
On Saturday, March 12, the 8th annual Vermont Chili Festival was held in downtown Middlebury. From 1 to 4 p.m. the sun was shining and the street was filled with around six thousand Vermonters on the hunt for chili from top restaurants and caterers, as well as good entertainment provided by local street performers. About 40 types of chili were packed into tents along the street, and each business was expected to supply around 15 to 30 gallons of their specialty chilies in order to enter the competition. Sabai Sabai emerged as the victor of this year’s festival, taking the cake (or perhaps the chili) as their kitchen sink Thai flavored chili won the title of “Best Overall” and a cash prize of $1,000. This was the first year that Sabai Sabai has participated in the Chili Festival, and beginner’s luck certainly seems to have applied to their praiseworthy dish. “This is a Bangkok chili. It’s a chicken chili with Thai spices and we’re serving it with tortilla chips and peanuts. A lot of people seem to really like it. It’s a little different,” explained a waitress from Sabai Sabai. “I’ve been trying to talk the chefs into doing Thai nachos and maybe putting it on the menu for an appetizer.” After Sabai Sabai’s success at the festival, Middlebury natives may be in luck if a chili-inspired addition to the menu is brought to fruition. Every chili-eater had the option to vote for their favorite chili and their favorite booth at the festival, and the businesses with the highest number of votes earned a cash prize. In addition, a panel of judges was set to decide the best of the best chili in six categories: pork, game, chicken, beef, veggie and kitchen sink. Two Brothers Tavern followed Sabai Sabai, earning “Second Best Overall,” and receiving a cash prize of $750 for their beef chili. Park Squeeze, a restaurant in Vergennes, placed “Third Best Overall,” winning $750 for their pork chili. The Park Squeeze Restaurant, participating in the Vermont Chili Festival for the third time, fell just short of its goal this year. “This is sort of the traditional style that I would do,” said the Park Squeeze chef as he scooped the chili. “It’s a pork chili and we’re getting our pork from Heritage Farms in Otter Creek. I’m hoping for the top prize this year.” For the content-specific categories of pork, game, chicken, beef, veggie, and kitchen sink, the business winners were Park Squeeze, The Lobby, Indulge Salon, Middlebury College Brisket, La Boca Wood Fired Pizza and Sabai Sabai, respectively. The winners in each of these designated categories were awarded $100. The two final coveted awards were given to Sabai Sabai as the “People’s Choice” and Our House Bistro (in Winooski, Vt.) as the “Best Booth.” These two designations earned the businesses prizes of $500 and $200, respectively. All of the chefs worked hard to defy the typical expectations of a chili dish. Jeff Trump, Head Chef at the Lobby in Middlebury, was certainly no exception. “This one’s on the menu. It’s a venison maple chipotle chili with hazelnut crème-fraiche and fried shallots. We took first place with it last year,” Trump recalled with pride. It seems that this prize-winning chili met its match on Saturday. Some of Middlebury’s own students even put their chili-making skills to the test at the festival. Middlebury Foods, a student-run nonprofit, had a chili stand and their vegetarian chili earned runner-up in its category. “It was really rewarding; the Atwater dining staff that we cooked alongside was incredibly helpful and kind to the three of us,” says Alex Brockelman ’18, who cooked for Middlebury Foods on Saturday. “The crowds were sweet and appreciative for the most part, minus the occasional belligerently drunk student. All in all a great experience.” Competition aside, the town was brought to life with good food, face painting, street performers, live music and positive energy. The Chili Festival has been named one of the “Top 10 Winter Events” for the past five years by the Vermont Chamber of Commerce, and it continues to live up to its praise. The money raised at the festival supports the Better Middlebury Partnership, which plays a key role in organizing and facilitating community events every year. The fun did not stop once the chili bowls were all emptied. There were two after parties with live music for the most zealous of chili lovers. The Horse Traders performed at Two Brothers Tavern and BandAnna took the stage at 51 Main. “It’s fun and it’s nice to be outside,” remarked Trump. “It’s nice seeing people from around town. The festival is a good community gathering event.” This sentiment was echoed by students at the College as well: “I think the chili fest is a really nice event because it brings students and Middlebury residents together,” Julia Hower ’19 said. “It also gives students a chance to get off campus, which can be really refreshing.”
(03/16/16 8:56pm)
This article is not meant to be comprehensive as it neither discusses the depth and complexities of policing, prosecution and incarceration nor the intersections of identities. We encourage you to explore how trans and gender non-conforming people, queer people, people with disabilities and impoverished people might acutely bear the negative impacts of mass criminalization.
Nowhere is it more apparent that we do not live in a post-racial society than in the United States criminal justice system. At an incarceration rate of over 700 per 100,000 people, the United States holds five percent of the world’s population, yet a staggering 25 percent of the world’s incarcerated population (and one third of the world’s incarcerated women). This is not an easy statistic to grasp, considering that the incarceration rates of China and Russia combined are still less than that of the United States. In absolute numbers of people under correctional control, the United States again takes the gold with over 2.3 million people incarcerated and nearly five million more on probation.
Racial discrimination marks every stage of the criminal justice process, from arrest to sentencing to incarceration. While the Fourth Amendment in theory “guarantees [the] right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects” and guards “against unreasonable searches and seizures,” its protections have been largely undermined in recent decades. Beginning with the Supreme Court’s 1968 decision in Terry v. Ohio, legal restraints on police searches began to soften. As Michelle Alexander articulates in The New Jim Crow, so long as a police officer has “reasonable articulable suspicion” that a person may be involved in unlawful activity, “it is constitutionally permissible to stop, question, and frisk [them]—even in the absence of probable cause.” Take New York City’s infamous stop-and-frisk practices, for example. In 2012, 55 percent of the 500,000 people stopped and frisked were Black, despite the fact that the city’s Black population was only 25 percent of the whole population. Although the NYPD reports that rates of stop-and-frisk have dropped within the past three years, over 50 percent of stops target Black people, with a rate of innocence above 80 percent (NYCLU). In Arizona, indigenous peoples were 3.25 times more likely to be stopped and searched, despite no correlation with illegal conduct. According to a database of civil rights complaints brought against law enforcement officers, U.S. attorneys have declined to prosecute cases 96 percent of the time (Justice Department, National Caseload Data; Pittsburgh Tribune Review).
The racial component of police violence can be difficult to track given that many law enforcement agencies do not report arrest-related homicides by race. In 2011, the CDC reported that Black people were more than twice as likely as white people to be killed by law enforcement. Recent estimates from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) indicate that this racial disparity could be even greater. Notwithstanding the potential margin for error in these statistics, the numbers fail to expose the gruesome and violent actions that U.S. law enforcement inflicts on Black and Brown people. As just one example of such action, Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old holding an airsoft gun in a Cleveland park, was shot and killed by two police officers before their patrol car had even come to a stop. Rice received no first aid from the offending officers, and died the following day of gunshot wounds. The officer was not indicted. It is difficult to argue that the same fate would have befallen a white child in Rice’s shoes; in a recording released after the homicide, the 911 dispatcher asks twice whether the suspect was Black or white before sending officers. Rice’s 14-year-old sister arrived at the scene and was immobilized by the police officers, handcuffed and put in the police car, unable to bring final moments of comfort to her little brother.
Incidents of police brutality that do not result in homicide are even more difficult to track. Emergency room records reveal that from 2001 to 2012, Black people suffered five times as many nonfatal injuries from law enforcement than white people. Furthermore, a study conducted by the BJS in 2008 found that “the percentage of Black people who reported experiencing the use or threat of force during their most recent contact with police was nearly three times that of white people.” These are the very people that U.S. police forces pledge “to protect and serve.” Marissa Alexander from Jacksonville, Florida, a survivor of domestic abuse, fired a warning shot through a wall, injuring or killing no one, after her husband threatened to kill her. She feared for her life since her husband had physically abused her. She was sentenced to 20 years in jail. Activism surrounding the case helped get her released after three years of serving her sentence. Florida’s “stand your ground” law didn’t seem to apply to her in the way that it applied to George Zimmerman.
Incarceration and police practices in the U.S. reflect highly racialized criminalization patterns. The U.S. imprisons a larger percentage of its Black American population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid. Latino, Indigenous and Black men are incarcerated at three, four and five times the rate of white men, respectively. This disparity extends to women as well, with Black and Indigenous women incarcerated at a rate six times that of white women and Latina women incarcerated at over two times the rate of white women (Bureau of Justice Statistics).
Like the racial overtones to police violence, racial disparities also plague sentencing practices. Though the War on Drugs may not be the primary driver of the mass incarceration boom, it is perhaps the most striking example of disproportionate treatment of Black people under the criminal justice system. Despite evidence that the rates of drug use and sale do not vary significantly among Black and white people, Black people are disproportionately arrested, charged, convicted and imprisoned for drug crimes. Three-strike policies, mandatory minimums and overall harsher drug sentencing laws mean that drug arrests that previously did not result in extensive time in prison are now four times more likely to result in prison sentences.
According to the International Centre for Prison Studies, 21.2 percent of prisoners in the U.S. (roughly 465,000 people) are un-sentenced at any given time, i.e. held in jail or prison on bail, usually awaiting trial or sentencing. If someone is unable to pay for bail, even though in the eye of the law they are “innocent until proven guilty,” they are still imprisoned, unable to go to work or take care of family members. To cite one case, 16-year-old Kalief Browder, arrested on robbery charges, spent three years in jail without a trial. Two of those years were spent in solitary confinement. Browder committed suicide two years after being released.
Incarceration’s detrimental effects are not isolated to the sentenced individual; consequences ripple within their family and community. Not only do families of incarcerated people generally lose an income, they then have to pay, on average, about $13,000 in fines and court fees for their family member, as shown in the report “Who Pays: The True Cost of Incarceration on Families.” Costs continue throughout the sentence as families pay exorbitant phone rates and travel fees for visitation. These costs impose a tremendous burden.
Once marked by the criminal justice system, a person is also subject to an onslaught of legal discrimination. A person who has been arrested or incarcerated can be barred from jobs and schooling because of requirements to “check the box” on applications. They can also be excluded from SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps), denied public housing benefits and stripped of their voting rights. Moreover, conditions of probation and parole can dictate where a person may live or be at any given time, with whom they can associate and when they must be in certain places. All of this is to say that even despite the most earnest attempts to reintegrate into communities, legal and structural impediments make this extremely difficult, if not impossible.
Hundreds of books on mass criminalization and its racialized components have been published and we urge everyone to further their research on this topic. The implications of what we have highlighted, however, are this: while the majority of Middlebury students regularly break the law without fear of consequences, when Black, Latino and Indigenous people behave identically, their hyper-policed bodies and minds are more likely to be criminalized, disrupting the lives of individuals and communities they interact with. Mass incarceration is part of a chain of institutions designed to strip the constitutional rights of people of color. In other words, law enforcement is not one bad apple within an otherwise functioning system; the entire tree is rotten from its core. These incarceration statistics are the synthesis of quota- and profit-driven policing, over-policing in communities of color and systematic racial discrimination within a judicial system designed in many ways to disenfranchise Black, Latino and Native people. As white people, it is essential to keep asking, whom does law enforcement protect? And how do we maintain these systems of policing and pre-emptive criminalization on the basis of race?
What we are reading:
“Thanks to Republicans, Nearly a Quarter of Florida’s Black Citizens Can’t Vote,” (The Intercept).
“Kalief Browder, Held at Rikers Island for 3 Years Without Trial, Commits Suicide,” (The New York Times).
“Native Americans are the Unseen Victims of a Broken US Justice System,” (Quartz).
“Obama Bans the Box,” (MSNBC).
Senghor, Shaka. (Writing My Wrongs: Life, Death, and Redemption in an American Prison).
Aliza Cohen ’17 is from Chattanooga, TN
Juliette Gobin ’16 is from Harrison, NY
Emma Ronai-Durning ’18 is from Salem, OR
Anna Iglitzin ’17.5 is from Seattle, WA
Annie Taylor ’16 is from San Carlos, CA
(03/09/16 10:59pm)
By Renee Chang
As spring semester gets underway, the College is abuzz with activity. From classes to sporting events, there is hardly room to deny that life at the College is anything but uneventful. But besides classes and extracurricular activities, there is something else that lingers on students’ minds this season: the summer internship.
In addition to navigating the process of applying for suitable internships, students may face the challenging task of securing funding for opportunities that do not provide compensation. While the financial burden of an unpaid internship may deter students from taking on an otherwise exceptional opportunity, the Center for Careers and Internships (CCI) hopes to remedy this situation. Last year, the CCI rolled out a new funding program wherein rising juniors and seniors could apply for a fixed grant of $2,500 that would go towards funding an unpaid opportunity.
Cheryl Whitney Lower, Associate Director of Internships and Early Engagement at the CCI said, historically, students were provided with “significantly less” funding than the current $2,500 grant.
“The grants cover more expenses and allow students decision-making power over how they want to spend their summer and gain experience or explore an interest,” Lower said. “This amount will typically cover a significant portion of a more expensive experience in another country or in a city away from home, for example. Others may choose to do an internship with lower expenses and use some of the money to offset lost summer wages.”
And for Joel Wilner ’18 and Andrew Hollyday ’18.5, the grant did just that. Wilner and Hollyday both received funding to participate in the Juneau Icefield Research Program (JIRP), a program that recruits a select group of undergraduate and graduate students to participate in hands-on research in glaciology, or the study of glaciers.
Wilner, who hopes to pursue a PhD in glaciology, says that his time in Juneau, Alaska, was the perfect complement to his interest in glaciers.
“I have always been fascinated by the Earth’s cold regions, from both scientific and cultural standpoints,” Wilner said. “Even when I was very young, my favorite geographical areas to study were places like Greenland and Antarctica. I became interested in studying glaciology in an academic capacity after climbing the glaciers of Mount Rainier before coming to Middlebury. ”
In Alaska, Wilner’s scientific and cultural interest in glaciers naturally converged. On top of “traversing the entire width of the Alaskan panhandle” from Juneau to Atlin, British Columbia — all on a single pair of cross-country skis! — Wilner also got the opportunity to assist in first-hand scientific research.
“I worked with Dr. Seth Campbell, a research geophysicist from the University of Maine and the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory,” Wilner said. “We used ground-penetrating radar to investigate how surface meltwater percolates from the surface of glaciers to form layers, which has important implications for improving our models regarding how glaciers will respond to climate change.”
Nonetheless, the value of Wilner’s time in Alaska went beyond simply gaining work experience.
“The most memorable part of my experience at JIRP was staying at Camp 8, which is essentially a one-room metal shed near the summit of Mount Moore, a 7,000-ft-high jagged mountain near the US-Canada border,” Wilner said. “Two other students and I took a three-day shift at Camp 8 with the purpose of relaying radio messages between other camps on the Juneau Icefield that couldn’t communicate with each other directly by radio. Because this was our only real duty for those three days, we had a lot of free time. We spent this time looking out over a vast expanse of the Taku Glacier watching the sunset from our sleeping bags on the roof of the shed. The solitude was simply enchanting and life-changing, despite the abundant mold and mouse droppings in the shed where we lived!”
For Camille Kim ’16, the $2,500 grant went primarily towards paying for housing and provided a jumping off point for exploring her interest in software development. As a summer intern at the Wyss Institute for the Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, Kim was given the opportunity to develop her own software.
“The main project I was working on involved writing software to operate a device that researchers would use to automate the process of growing bacterial cultures, as well as a web application and user interface that would allow users to control and monitor their experiments remotely.”
Kim said the most satisfying moment of her internship was when the code she authored was allowed to run on its own.
“I still remember the first time we actually hooked up all the different hardware components and just let our code do its thing — it was a really satisfying moment to see what we’d been working on all summer start moving and coming to life,” she said. “It was a huge feeling of accomplishment to see that happen right in front of me.”
Similarly, Divesh Rizal ’17 says that teaching science and mathematics to eighth and tenth grades at the Udayapur Secondary English School in his native Nepal would not have been possible had it not been for the funding he received from the CCI.
Surrounded by “highly energetic, mischievous and curious” students, Rizal views teaching as an “art” that requires a heightened sense of awareness.
“Teaching is an art that requires an acute understanding of people around us,” he said. “It requires a state of being when you can truly speak to somebody, ensure your words are being heard. An important aspect of teaching is learning about the art of teaching itself, about your audience, about their opinions.”
Although he was only able to spend a month at Udayapur, Rizal found it difficult to distill his experience into a single memorable experience.
“Almost everything was memorable,” Rizal said. “But perhaps the most would be the impromptu singing competition we had in our class one day. It was the day when it rained heavy outside. Since the classrooms do not have glass windows, the water disrupted the class and the students on the opposite side made more room for the students by the window. Since we had a rather dense part in the room, we abandoned our books and took on a suggestion from one of the students. The ‘competition’ was between girls and boys in the class. The girls did a rather great job and they won the competition without a sweat.”
In addition to the $2,500 grants for rising juniors and seniors, the CCI also offers $1,000 “Explore Grants,” which are targeted towards first-year students and first-year Febs who have not yet committed to a particular career path and simply wish to “explore” different fields.
Students who posses a strong passion for dance can also take advantage of the CCI’s “Dance Festival Grant,” which Lower said were designed keeping in mind that “for many dance majors, participation in these festivals is important to their development as dancers and artists.”
To learn more about the different kinds of grants offered by the CCI and how to apply, visit go/funding.
(03/09/16 4:19pm)
The College hosted its fifth annual Miracle Network Dance Marathon last Friday, March 4, as part of a nationwide movement to support local children’s hospitals. The 10-hour event supported the University of Vermont Children’s Hospital and included dancing, live student performances, local food and celebrations.
Across the country, chapters of For The Kids from over 300 different schools are hosting their own dance marathons to raise money that will go directly to local hospitals. The money will provide child-life care, research and medical equipment for the children and families these hospitals serve. This year the College raised $18,500, crushing last year’s record of $12,000.
Erin Miller ’16.5, president of the committee organizing the event, said that “For The Kids has been a huge part of my College experience…This event provides students and community members not only the opportunity, but the privilege, to make a difference in numerous patient's lives.”
The event brought together hundreds of students, town residents and children from the local hospital and this year, there were over 330 registered participants.
“Our campus rarely rallies together in support of a common cause,” Committee Member Rebecca Berry ’16.5 said. “It is an honor, privilege and responsibility for us to fight for the next generation of children in our community. Dance Marathon brings out the best in [the College].”
Although the event already took place, the College’s For The Kids chapter is working to bring their group to the forefront of a movement happening at large colleges and universities around the country. In addition to raising money through the Dance Marathon and other events, they are hosting the Conquering Disease Spring Symposium from April 5-8 this year.
(03/09/16 4:13pm)
Racially-charged comments appeared on Yik Yak last week, an anonymous social media app, that criticized statements made by Student Government Association (SGA) First-Year Senator Charles Rainey ’19 concerning racism on campus. The posts appeared following the publishing of a Campus article that detailed two bills Rainey had written criticizing the College’s MLK Today event and calling on President of the College Laurie L. Patton to condemn former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s comments regarding black students on college campuses.
Among the posts were the following:
We don’t like Rainey because he’s making up stuff about racism at Midd like if we freed you all from slavery what more do you want
Rainey is an attention whore, sexual predator, and anti-white jigaboo. Impeach him
IMPEACH. RAINEY. NOW.
After these posts appeared Rainey sought support and guidance from administrators, including his commons dean, Chief Diversity Officer Miguel Fernández and Dean of Students Baishakhi Taylor. The anonymous nature of the platform left Rainey little remedy; Rainey explained that only violent threats would spur an investigation into the posters, like the ones posted on Yik Yak at the University of Missouri in November.
“Ironically, these comments are only aiding me in my efforts to ameliorate this institution,” he said. “It is my hope that this coordinated, racist attack on my endeavors and character has served as a reminder for the faculty, staff, administration and all of our 2,500 students here that our campus is immensely plagued by racism. According to the responses [on Yik Yak], a substantial portion of our community is not comfortable with idea of an inclusive Middlebury. Personally, it is very distressing that we have members of our community who felt so threatened by the prospect of truly embracing historically marginalized groups on this campus, in this case students of African descent, that they were inclined to resort to racially-charged hate speech in order to voice their discomfort. Nonetheless, with great progress comes great resistance. My goal remains the same. I will continue to fight for true inclusivity on this campus and continue the much-needed conversation around this substantial issue offline, where it will be most productive.”
Patton addressed incidents like Rainey’s in an email sent to students on March 8. In it she reiterated the first community standard in the student handbook, “cultivating respect and responsibility for self, others, and our shared environment,” and urged students to abide by it in their interactions especially as the College has broached sensitive “issues of race, gender, privilege and inclusivity.”
“The anonymity and impersonal quality of some social media sites has at times shown itself to be a less considerate environment,” she wrote. “While they can be places of kindness and generosity, they also can be platforms for disrespect, revenge, and hate. When this happens, it must be condemned by all. Everyone in our community should understand the damaging effect that personal comments or attacks — anonymous or otherwise — can have on individuals and on the community as a whole.”
(03/03/16 2:51am)
Bob James, a representative of Monument Farms Dairy in Weybridge, Vt., gave a talk about the company’s history and practices on Tuesday, Feb. 23, in the Hillcrest Orchard. James, a native of Middlebury and the company’s director of sales and distribution, spoke to an audience of about 25 students and several faculty members who teach environmental studies and the newly created food studies program.
The College has partnered with Monument Farms in some capacity for 65 years. Currently, the farm supplies Dining Services with all of the milk in its dining halls. Bob is the third generation in management, along with his brother Peter James and his cousin John Rooney. James lived at the farm throughout his childhood, and began as a milk driver after graduating from a three-year high school.
The business started with his grandfather in 1930, who had just 28 cows — a modest number by milk standards. He delivered small milk routes to the local grocer and to private homes. As time progressed, James explained, his grandfather was able to buy routes out from nearby farms.
Monument Farms now operates from five locations. Milk production and packaging occurs only at their main location in Weybridge; the other four locations, totaling 2,500 acres, are used for land-based crop work to feed the company’s 500 milking cows. Their main location stays open until 5:30 p.m. on weekdays. “We stay open to get people on their way home from work,” James said.
Monument Farms is classified as a producer–handler, since the excess milk is eligible to be sold wholesale to larger vendors. The farm sells its overflow to Cabot Creamery plant in Middlebury, but James said that this pays little since Monument Farms is not a continuous supplier.
Monument Farms produces whole milk, two percent, skim, half-and-half, heavy cream, chocolate and low-fat chocolate. The farm also buys other dairy products — cheese, eggs, and ice cream — from other producers, including Hood and Maple Meadow.
“That way when we go to a small store in the country, we can offer that store any dairy product they need so they don’t have to go to another dairy company for a substitute.”
James spoke about some unique practices at the Weybridge farm. Unlike other farms, James and his crew begin milking around 11 p.m. and finish by 6 a.m., in addition to milking during the typical time in Addison County from noon to 5 p.m. Legally, a farm can hold milk in a bulk tank for 48 hours, and then picked up and goes down on a truck to New York or Boston, down for a day to get packaged, and then comes back. This midnight milking allows the farm to harvest milk in 12 hours, putting it on the road to New York or Boston for bottling by the early morning.
“We’re very proud that we can get the milk packaged in, a lot of times, 12 hours,” James said.
The company’s Hagar Farm location, James said, is a “freestyle type” of farm where cows can roam around at their will, “go eat and drink at any time, and lay down to sleep if they wish.” In a freestyle farm, cows come to be milked, rather than workers going to the cows. Most farms in Addison County now operate freestyle.
Monument Farms is not a certified organic brand, and has been questioned in the past as to why. James said that local folks could not handle the increased cost if the farm were to switch to organic products.
“If we can do the best possible job in the conventional way, and can have good quality milk using only the essential tools one needs to keep the cows healthy, that is ideal,” James said. “If we were to sell all our milk and switch our equipment over to organic, we would need a territory through Florida to be able to sell it all. The price would be so high that our local folks just wouldn’t be able to handle the increased cost.”
James stressed that Monument Farms is committed to producing local, humane, fair, and ecologically sound milk.
Monument Farms Dairy is located at 2107 James Road in Weybridge, VT. They are open Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
