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(02/19/15 12:28am)
In spite of the pending blizzard, men’s and women’s track and field traveled to Boston on Feb. 13-14 to compete in a pair of meets: the Boston University David Hemery Valentine Invitational and the Gordon Kelly Invitational hosted by MIT. “Valentine,” as the BU meet is colloquially known, is one of the largest meets in the country with over 3,500 athletes toeing the line. Several Olympic medalists have raced in the meet. As such, it is one of the best opportunities for Middlebury athletes to run fast.
The women raced at BU on Friday, Feb. 13 and put up some spooky-good times. Alex Morris ’16 continued to drop time in the 400m, running 59.10 seconds, her first time under one minute this season. In the mile, Erzsie Nagy ’17 ran a swift time of 5:02.95. Two heats later, Summer Spillane ’15 and Robin Vincent ’18 took the top two spots in their section, finishing with times of 5:03.72 and 5:04.34 respectively. Sarah Guth ’15 also ran a strong race, completing the distance in 5:07.22. Many hours later, running after 10:30pm, Adrian Walsh ’16 raced the 5000m, finishing the 25-lap race in 17:32.53.
After a long day on Friday, Nagy, Vincent, and Paige Fernandez ’17 were joined by Alison Maxwell ’15 in the 4000m distance medley relay (DMR) on Saturday morning. The DMR consists of 1200m (Maxwell), 400m (Fernandez), 800m (Vincent) and 1600m (Nagy) legs, in that order. The quartet raced to a time of 11:44.92 — marginally faster than the All-American team the Panthers fielded last year, the third fastest time in school history, and the fastest Division III time in the country in the meet by over 16 seconds.
Nagy said of her weekend, “The double wasn’t bad. I did feel Friday’s race a bit in my legs during the last half of my leg in the DMR. I had no idea what my pace was, and it was nice to know that it felt faster than the open mile because I really was running faster, not just because I was tired … I am so impressed by the mid-distance/distance runners who ran this weekend! We have only done speed work in the pool, and most people still had amazing races! Running an 11:44 certainly wasn’t the plan, but it’s nice to start fresh and get a benchmark that exceeded all of our expectations.”
The mile race highlighted the men’s day. Wilder Schaaf ’14.5 set a new school record with a time of 4:09.89, a time that ranks him seventh in Division III according to NCAA track indexing. Sam Cartwright ’16 and Sam Klockenkemper ’17 ran two heats after Schaaf and both set indoor personal bests, clocking times of 4:13.58 and 4:16.86 respectively.
Schaaf’s race was by far his best of the season.
“It always takes me a couple races to figure my swag out,” Schaaf said. “So I never really know how fast I can go until I get into a good heat. I felt like I could run a lot faster than I had before, but I was a little surprised at getting under 4:10.”
In the 800m, Kevin Serrao ’18 and Luke Carpinello ’16 raced to fast times in the same heat. Serrao took second in the section in 1:55.59 and Carpinello was not far behind, finishing in 1:56.74, an indoor personal best.
At the lower-key MIT meet, Taylor Shortsleeve ’15 broke his school record in the high jump by a centimeter, leaping 1.95m (6 feet 4.75 inches).
The teams start the post-season this weekend, competing in the Division III New England Championships on Feb. 21. The women will race at MIT while the men will race at Springfield.
(02/11/15 10:23pm)
On Saturday, Jan. 24 Middlebury Swimming and Diving faced Williams College at home for their last dual meet of the season. The Panthers fell to the Ephs on both the men’s and women’s sides, losing 190.5-103.5 and 185-109 respectively. The highly ranked Ephs proved hard to beat, but the Panthers put up a fight with some fast swims, as Jamie Hillas ’15 even broke her own school record for the second time this season in the 100-yard individual medley (58.91).
The following weekend on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 30-31, the teams hosted the Middlebury Invitational, where they were able to compete with teams from Williams, Springfield, Tufts and the University of Vermont. Team scores were not recorded in this meet, but Middlebury swimmers placed highly in many events.
The men faced stiff competition from all of the teams at the meet. Only Michael McGean ’17 was able to win the 1000-yard free (9:35.08), but the Panther men secured a total of 10 second and third-place finishes in both relays and individual events. Both Stephan Koenigsberger ’16 and Matt Lantin ’18 placed in the top three in two different events, Koenigsberger in the 50-yard free (second, 21.65) and 100-yard fly (second, 51.99), and Lantin in the 200-yard free (third, 1:46.92) and 500-yard free (third, 4:43.51).
The women’s team found a bit more widespread success, starting and finishing the meet on top, with a win in the 200-yard freestyle relay by Hillas, Lydia Carpenter ’15, Ann Carpenter ’15 and Courtney Haron ’15 (1:38.98) to kick off the meet, and a victory in the 400-yard free relay by Hillas, Morgan Burke ’17, Ann Carpenter, and Haron (3:34.74) at the end.
For the rest of the meet, Middlebury women battled swimmers from Williams, Tufts and UVM for first-place finishes, earning five event victories as well as several second-place finishes. In addition to Hillas’s usual wins in the 200-yard individual medley (2:07.21) and the 100-yard fly (56.60), Kimberly Roos ’18 touched the wall first in the 1000-yard free (10:52.25), Claire Treesh ’17 won the 100-yard back (59.97) and Maddie Pierce ’16 clocked a 2:09.28 to win the 200-yard back.
“Four straight wins when not being well rested makes us excited to swim at our full potential at NESCACs,” co-Captain Teddy Kuo ’15 said.
“At this point, the women’s team is a week out of NESCACs and the men’s team is two weeks out. We’re fine tuning our swimming, sleeping a lot, and avoiding stairs to rest our legs,” co-Captain Lucas Avidan ’15 said.
The 28th-ranked men and the 8th-ranked women look forward to showcasing their hard work this season in the upcoming NESCAC all-conference meets. The women will race at Wesleyan on Feb. 13-15, while the men will host the meet here on Feb. 20-22.
(02/11/15 9:51pm)
“Where are all the fat Americans?”
I overheard an international student joke in Proctor Dining Hall during the first week of first-year orientation. And he’s got a point. Middlebury’s student body is often labeled not only as very attractive, but also fitter — and much wealthier — than the average American.
“Middlebury, in particular, is a very fit school,” said Abigail McCeney ’18. “People are really active and really ‘healthy’ or it appears to be that way. I think that it’s hard for people to talk about having an eating disorder or having a body image problem because they want to appear they’re just healthy.”
It’s true most college dining halls don’t have all-natural peanut butter and homemade granola; YouPower spin classes are so popular at the College, there is now an online pre-registration system. But after her first semester, McCeney and her friend, Victoria Pippas ’18, began to notice the shared passion for health and fitness spiraling into a dangerous and unhealthy obsession among their peers.
“But we didn’t see any support available, like there is for sexual harassment or other issues,” said McCeney.
She and Pippas then decided to reach out to Sayre Weir ’15 and Barbara McCall, the director of Health and Wellness, to see what they could do to raise awareness and start conversations about eating disorders and a more holistic approach to health, instead of just physical health and fitness.
“[Mental health] gets put on the back burner because there’s so much going on with school and extra-curricular activities and sports,” said Pippas, “but focusing on your mental health makes you more successful in everything you do, too.”
With the help of Weir, they fundraised $4,500 for an interactive library exhibit and a guest speaker to address the issue of body image and self-confidence issues during National Eating Disorder Week, which begins on Feb. 15.
The interactive exhibit will invite students to reflect and share what they find most beautiful, either about themselves or others. It will be on display in the lobby of the Davis Family Library.
“The best way to break the taboo is to engage in conversation about body image, beauty, and wellness. The idea of the exhibit in the library is to spark conversation and reflection on what beauty means in our own eyes,” Weir said.
The speaker, Rosie Molinary, will give a talk titled “Ten Truths to Your Self-Acceptance Journey.” She is the author of the book, Beautiful You: A Daily Guide to Radical Self-Acceptance. The event will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 24 at 7 p.m. in Wilson Hall, followed by a book signing.
“[Molinary] has been one of my mentors and inspirations over the last several years. I was inspired to bring her to Middlebury after reading her book,” said Weir. “After seeing so many people grapple with body image on campus, I am confident that her positive messages and realistic advice on self-acceptance and empowerment will be meaningful for our community.”
(02/11/15 2:59pm)
The Vergennes solar project just completed its first year of operation, but energy output results were not as great as its developers had hoped. In 2012, the city of Vergennes leased land by its wastewater treatment plant to Encore Redevelopment, which installed a solar array in that area with the value of $500,000. This array began producing energy on Dec. 31, 2013.
As one might expect, Vermont is not the sunniest place around, especially not this time of year. On average, Vermont has a 51 percent chance of seeing the sunlight during daytime hours. Not only are solar panels inhibited by the lack of sun, but they are also blocked by several inches of snow that may pile up over the winter. Despite the lack of ideal weather and climatic conditions, Vermont continues to prioritize the solar power industry. The Vermont government has instituted policies to incentivize solar for individuals, businesses and municipalities.
Throughout the first year of operation, the Vergennes solar array was expected to produce about 200,000 kilowatt hours of electricity. However, the actual output fell short, producing only 176,502 kilowatt hours, which was 88 percent of what was expected. The city of Vergennes was estimated to save between $4000 and $5000 annually, but only saved $3960, leaving them just shy of the initial estimate.
This lower-than-expected energy output may be due to uncontrollable variables, such as weather, snowfall or shading from nearby trees. However, engineers can predict this outcome given their ability to predict energy yield with high levels of certainty.
“Generally, a bad year and an exceptional year do not vary a tremendous amount,” said Nathaniel Vandal, co-founder of GreenPeak Solar, a solar development company out of Waitsfield, VT aimed at reducing the cost of solar energy for customers.
“Typically there is a 90 percent probability that the generation in a given year will meet or exceed the estimate,” Vandal said. Given this statement on the accuracy of estimates, 88 percent production does not appear to be too far off target.
Ironically, while solar panels are an effort to reduce carbon emissions and slow climate change, the very effects of climate change may actually be stifling the production of solar power in New England. Climate change models predict that New England will experience more cloud cover and precipitation.
(01/21/15 11:46pm)
On Dec. 17th, Governor Peter Shumlin announced that he was terminating his four-year quest to begin single-payer, government-run health care for residents of Vermont. In his press conference, Shumlin emphasized the economic risks that would have accompanied the single-payer plan.
“The cost of that plan turned out to be enormous, requiring an 11.5 percent payroll tax on all Vermont businesses and a public premium assessment of up to 9.5 percent of individual Vermonters’ income,” Shumlin wrote in his blog. “Further, the phase-in for smaller businesses and those that do not currently offer insurance would add an additional $500 million to the system. These are tax rates that I cannot responsibly support or urge the Legislature to pass. In my judgment, the potential economic disruption and risks would be too great to small businesses, working families and the state’s economy.”
Vermont has been involved in a long search for affordable health care. In 2010, the state established a commission to study different forms of health care the state could implement. Single-payer was chosen as the best option. In 2011, the Vermont state government passed H 202, which established Green Mountain Care. Green Mountain Care was a step towards universal health care for Vermonters. The Green Mountain Care Board was created in the same year to oversee Green Mountain Care’s design, and to make sure that it remained a health care system that could serve the needs of every Vermonter.
The state had expected to get $150 million in federal help to put the Green Mountain Care system in place and an additional $150 million in Medicaid assistance.
Single-payer health care involves the government paying as an insurer for all health care costs, rather than private insurers. Unlike single-payer health care systems in countries such as Canada or the UK, private insurers in Vermont could still operate, and even offer general health care.
The decision to try single-payer was a controversial one, and many argued from the beginning that a single-payer system would never work. Four days after Shumlin’s decision to end the program, Forbes published an article titled “Six Reasons Why Vermont’s Single-Payer Health Plan Was Doomed From the Start.” Scott Milne, Shumlin’s close opponent in the gubernatorial election, called for abandoning single-payer early on in the election season.
However, the decision to stop the single-payer program has been highly protested. On Thursday, Dec. 18, approximately 80 protestors gathered on the steps of the Statehouse for a demonstration in favor of single-payer health care. The protestors chanted slogans berating Shumlin, such as “which side are you on, Shumlin?” Several demonstrators burned their medical bills. After the rally, the demonstrators delivered a tray of burnt toast to Shumlin’s office with a note that said, “Dear Shumlin, your career is toast.”
On Jan. 8, more protesters rallied against the demolition of the single-payer system for Vermont, and later sat on the floor of the House and refused to leave. 29 of these protestors were arrested when police tried to close the building at 8 p.m. that night. Nine out of the 29 were charged with resisting arrest.
The Vermont Workers’ Center has played a crucial role in organizing the protests, and started a campaign called “Healthcare is a Human Right” in 2008. According to its website, “Since 2008, the Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign has been organizing to make universal healthcare a reality in Vermont. In 2011, our people’s movement succeeded in getting a groundbreaking law passed: Act 48, which commits Vermont to creating a healthcare system providing healthcare as a public good and ensuring everyone can get the healthcare they need, when they need it.”
The campaign members argue that if Vermont can successfully implement publicly financed universal healthcare, other states will follow suit.
An open letter titled “Now is the Time for Green Mountain Care,” which urges the government and legislature to stand by Act 48 and the creation of a publicly financed healthcare system under Green Mountain Care, has been signed by over 60 organizations, including Amnesty International.
“I know this is a huge disappointment to many Vermonters,” said Shumlin on his blog. “I know because I am one of those Vermonters who has fought for this to succeed. While the time is not right today, we must not give up on health care reform. We are doing transformational things in Vermont when it comes to the way we deliver health care.”
Some critics claim that Shumlin’s timing in announcing his decision to drop single-payer efforts was politically motivated. However, Shumlin’s staff insists that he did not have the complete financial analysis on single-payer’s tax increases until after the Nov. 4th election. Shumlin failed to win the majority of votes in the general election, and was only voted in as governor by the Vermont Legislature on Jan 8.
Shumlin has not given up hope for healthcare reform in Vermont, but believes that pushing for single-payer system now, when the state is not yet ready, will jeopardize its future.
“Those reforms can and must continue,” he wrote on his blog, “and our success will lay the groundwork for future efforts to implement a publicly-financed health care system. While now is not the right time for Vermont to take such a step, the time will come.”
(01/21/15 2:53pm)
In an away meet last weekend on Saturday, Jan. 17, the Middlebury men’s and women’s Swimming and Diving teams outscored Union College in Schenectady, NY. The women sped to an easy 149.5-86.5 victory, adding to a 6-2 record on the season, while the men (4-4) continued their 4-meet winning streak, edging the Dutchmen 122-119 by just three points.
A victory in the opening event set the women’s team up for more success as the crew of Sarah Bartholomae ’18, Jamie Hillas ’15, Megan Griffin ’16, and Morgan Burke ’17 clocked a 1:50.92 to win the 200 medley relay.
As reflected by their high overall score, the women recorded many first-place finishes, including Jennifer Koide ’17’s finishes in both the 200 individual medley (2:15.82) and the 200 breaststroke (2:29.93) along with Jamie Sawyer ’16’s finish in the 200 butterfly (2:13.21).
In fact, the women swept every freestyle event except for the 50 free, with wins by Burke in the 100 freestyle (54.44), Hillas in the 200 freestyle (1:58.95), Elinor Reinhardt ’17 in the 500 freestyle (5:27.20), Kelly Delane ’18 in the 1000 freestyle (11:05.02), and finally, Hillas, Burke, Stephanie Andrews ’18, and Courtney Haron ’15 in the 200 freestyle relay (1:40.27).
Matthew Lantin ’18 again managed to win both 200 free (1:47.23) and the 500 free (4:45.70), while Michael McGean ’17 also earned a first place finish for the men in the 1000 free (9:59.86). Senior captain Teddy Kuo ’15 led his heat in the 200 butterfly (2:01.36) to earn nine points.
The swimmers with second, third, and even fourth-place performances made especially valuable contributions on the men’s side. Every point counted, including the total of 10 points accumulated by Dylan Peters ’16 and Adrianna Baker ’15 in the one and three-meter diving competitions. So when it came time for the last event, the 200 freestyle relay, the men’s team was trailing by six points.
“We were all really pumped because we knew that if we won that relay we would win the whole meet,” said Taylor Moore ’18, who swam the first leg. Luckily, Moore, Noel Antonisse ’17, Andrew Lee ’15, and Paul Lagasse ’16 touched the wall with a time of 1:29.37 to win the event and the meet.
The Panthers will host Williams Swimming and Diving in a dual meet this Saturday, Jan. 24 at 1:00 p.m. at the Middlebury Natatorium. Middlebury will see how its recent successes can measure up to Williams’ almost perfect record of 5-0-1 for the men and 6-0 for the women.
(01/21/15 2:47pm)
On Friday, Jan. 16, the track teams traveled to New York City to run in the Gotham Cup at the historic Armory track. The meet featured top NCAA Division-I teams and professional athletes, giving the Panthers a chance to square off against some of the best athletes from around the country.
On the women’s side, Alex Morris ’16 made her season debut in the 400-meter dash after studying abroad in the fall in Uruguay, racing to a time of 61.20 seconds. Right behind her was first-year Kate McCluskey ’18, who finished in 61.27 seconds.
Morris, a two-time All-American and individual NCAA qualifier in the 400 meters, commented on her first race back.
“I didn’t really have many expectations for this race,” she said. “For me, it was a way to start getting back to the level I was last year and almost try to race myself back into shape. It was helpful not just physically, but mentally as well because now I know where I am and can only move forward.”
“Practice has definitely been a reality check,” Morris said. “I tried to keep up with the workouts as much as possible when I was abroad, but life often got in the way. There’s not a feeling I love more though than really training hard and feeling like I’m making progress. I’m most excited to be back and see where the rest of the season goes.”
In other sprinting events, Paige Fernandez ’17 and Perri Silverhart ’16 both competed in the 500 meters, finishing in 1:19.86 and 1:22.23 respectively. Gigi Miller ’18 was Middlebury’s top finisher in the women’s 60 meters, crossing the line in 8.65 seconds.
A small contingent of distance runners made their season debuts in New York as well. Most notably, Sasha Whittle ’17 competed in the mile, running 5:23.99 while winning her heat by more than 10 seconds. In the field, Maddie Pronovost ’17 had her second good meet in a row, jumping 4 feet 11 inches in the high jump and a personal record 16 feet 10.75 inches in the long jump.
For the men, Will Bain ’15 led the sprinters in the 60-meter dash, running 7.19 seconds — slightly off his mark of 7.15 from the previous week. Captain Fritz Parker ’15 cut more than a second off his 400-meter time from the previous week, finishing the dastardly distance in 51.58 seconds.
The men also had distance runners make their debuts in New York. Wilder Schaaf ’14.5 opened his season in the mile with a run of 4:23.29. Schaaf, an NCAA qualifier in the event with his personal best of 4:10.98, started his season last year by running 4:30, so his improved result is indicative of more fast times to come later in the season. Accompanying Schaaf in the mile was Panther assistant coach Jack Davies ’13, who took a fourth-place finish in 4:14.08, continuing his trend of never losing a race to Schaaf. Luke Carpinello ’16 just broke the two-minute mark in the 800 meters, running 1:59.73.
The teams were originally scheduled to host Virtue Field House’s inaugural meet on Friday, Jan. 23, but construction delays have led to the meet’s cancellation. The teams will take the weekend off from competition before hosting the Middlebury Invitational on Jan. 31, which will take the place of the cancelled meet as the inaugural competition in the new indoor track facility.
(01/15/15 7:16pm)
This January is set to be a big month for the Middlebury Divestment from Fossil Fuels Campaign, otherwise known as DivestMidd, as we lay the groundwork for a presentation to the members of the Board of Trustees in the spring, when we will ask them to once again to consider and vote on divestment. In order to achieve success in the spring, the Middlebury community must unite in support of divestment to signal to the Board of Trustees the necessity of our ask.
We as DivestMidd realize, however, that in order to unite in support of divestment we must all understand the reasons for divestment, at least to the extent that one feels he or she can have an informed decision on the subject. Thus, in pursuit of an “educated electorate” on divestment, we are holding three “teach-ins,” or information and discus- sion sessions, each one focusing on a different pillar holding up the argument for divestment, which include financial, political and social justice reasons.
The subject of this article and of the first teach-in, which was held yesterday, is the financial argument for divestment. In many ways, this is a great place to start in launching Divestment 2.0, for the financial argument proves the surprising and well-substantiated reasons why we’re advocating for divestment. To those who think supporters of divestment are just ignorant tree-hugging environmentalists whose sole goal is to save the Earth, be warned: the financial argument for divestment is sound, even independent of environmental concerns. So listen up. We know our stuff, and we think you should too; we just might save the planet in the process.
For starters, one of the great myths surrounding divestment is that the elimination of investments in the top 200 fossil fuel companies from our endowment would necessarily result in lower returns and subsequent budget cuts in areas such as financial aid. In fact, the investment literature repeatedly shows that fossil free portfolios have higher risk-adjusted returns.
So, what does this mean? Essentially, fossil fuel companies generally have more risk due to their presence in often politically and economically volatile countries. Additionally, the increased costs fossil fuel companies would have to incur as a result of new legislation placing a price on carbon would prove substantial in adding costs to production. And, a price on carbon sometime in the near future is not farfetched considering recent advances in discussions related to climate change and international agreements on carbon emissions, not to mention the growing urgency due to climate impacts.
Yet we don’t even need a price on carbon for divestment to make financial sense. As a matter of fact, one of Blackrock’s numerous iShares ETFs (with the ticker DSI) is composed of 400 companies with positive environmental, social, and governance practices (compared to industry competitors), includes only one of the top 200 fossil fuel companies, tracks the S&P 500 Index, and, since inception in 2007 has outperformed the S&P 500 by over 3 percent. This is sub- stantial, as the S&P 500, which includes 14 of the top 200 fossil fuel companies, is considered to be one of the broadest benchmark indexes of large U.S. publicly traded companies. In this way, DSI has steadily demonstrated high returns in spite of, or rather because of, a lack of reliance on the most impactful fossil fuel companies.
Furthermore, we are not advocating divestment because of some antiquated obsession with peak oil. Of course, fossil fuels are a finite resource and thus a theoretically unsustainable resource, but we’re not kidding ourselves. We know that recent technological advances have shed light on enormous reserves of oil. Total reliance on this fact, however, may lead us into dangerous territory. Oil companies are valued by their proven or predicted reserves, which means that if these reserves cannot be burned or taken out of the ground for a variety of reasons, such as carbon pricing or water constraints, the value of these compa- nies would see a significant negative impact. For oil companies, reserves in the ground are future revenue streams, and if reserves cannot be drilled, refined, and sold, revenue will be hurt. Shocks to revenue would lead to changes in profit- ability, which impacts stock prices and returns to shareholders.
Just because oil companies have the knowledge that reserves are available, that doesn’t mean that they’re easily accessible or necessarily worth the cost of extraction. This could be due to a number of factors including the changing resource landscape to shale gas and phosphate or the falling costs of clean technology costs, especially for solar PVs and onshore wind. In this way, we may be grossly over-evaluating fossil fuel companies, an idea commonly known as stranded carbon asset theory, which essentially predicts the presence of a carbon bubble that when it breaks, could result in severe losses for owners of long positions in fossil fuel companies.
If that’s not reason enough to divest from fossil fuels, let’s consider the fact that fossil fuel companies are still vehemently spending enormous amounts of money on capital expenditures (CAPEX) to develop and discover new reserves that have the potential to become unburnable, a prospect which, according to a 2013 Carbon Tracker Initiative report, could result in up to $6.74 trillion in wasted capital investments by the top 200 fossil fuel companies over the next decade. Why, you ask, are fossil fuel companies not investing more into research and development of clean technologies? One would assume fossil fuel companies are rational actors and would obviously want to increase efforts at developing clean technology sources that, given our concerns above, are most likely to prove profitable in the energy market of the future. These companies, however, are also stuck in their ways and have a hard time imagining a world not dependent on fossil fuels. But we at Middlebury, on the other hand, should certainly have within our capacity the ability to imagine a world powered by clean technologies and should therefore have the foresight to divest from fossil fuels and reinvest in clean technologies.
Finally, if we were to divest, the process of selling off our holdings would not be done in a haphazard manner that could in any way endanger our financial performance. In all likelihood the process would take between two and five years, which proves even more reason to announce divestment from to top 200 fossil fuel companies as soon as possible.
In sum, it makes clear financial sense to divest from fossil fuels. If you agree please sign the petition at go/divestmidd and come to the next divestment teach-in on Wednesday, Jan. 21 at 4:30 p.m. in BiHall 438!
SOPHIE VAUGHAN ’17 is from Oakland, Calif.
NATE CLEVELAND ’16.5 is from Devon, Pa.
(01/15/15 3:57am)
Getting on and off the chairlift for the first time can be terrifying. It can also be quality comedy. There is even a short film by Warren Miller, an iconic action sports filmmaker, solely devoted to the potentially traumatic experience: “Chairlift-Funny Disasters” – check it out on YouTube.
But the lift operators at the Middlebury College Snow Bowl work hard to prevent any real trauma to skiiers and boarders. Some, like Tim Kerr of Brandon, Vt. have over 20 years of experience.
“We’re kind of unique, in that in bigger areas, they have lift operators who are lift operators and snowmakers who are snowmakers,” said Snow Bowl ski-area manager Peter Mackey. “[Here], one of our operators will be making snow at night and a couple days later, working on a lift.”
According to 23-year old lift operator Stephan Kerr, snow-making is the more difficult part of his job.
“It can be dangerous,” he said. “The air hydrant can hit you with up to 500 lbs of pressure if you discharge the line incorrectly.”
Despite the inherent dangers, there is very little turnover among Snow Bowl employees according to Mackey. He explained this is likely due to the ski area’s small size and family atmosphere. Many of the lift operators also work together at the Bread Loaf campus in the summer.
In the case of Tim and his son Stephan, operating Worth Lift on a “chausty” (a hybridization of ‘chilly’ and ‘frosty’ made popular by Snow Bowl manager Peter Mackey) Sunday afternoon is quite literally a family affair.
“We have some days we like each other, some days we don’t,” chuckled Stephan. “We ride in together, so if we fight, some days are long days. But what I love about my job, especially this ski area, is how much of a family we are.”
Stephan Kerr started working at the Snow Bowl when he was 16, and has been snowboarding here since he was eight. He recalled planning his runs to rotate between lift huts to hang out with different lift operators. “I grew up here,” he said.
Given the cost of lift tickets, gear and travel, skiing and snowboarding is an ironically difficult sport to access for some Vermont residents. Foster Provencher, a Sheehan lift operator, has never skied or snowboarded in his life. Asked if he ever considered it, he replied without hesitation: “nope.”
Stephan Kerr said most of his high school friends were more into riding snowmobiles than chairlifts. “If my dad didn’t work here, I never would’ve gotten into [snowboarding]. Because he worked here, I got to take lessons for free,” he said.
Stephan was an avid snowboarder until he had a snowboarding accident at the bottom of Allen in 2011.
“I went to stop and caught an edge,” he said of the accident. “My face hit the ground, my board came up over the top of my head and flipped me on my back. I did a scorpion.” He ended up with two compressed vertebrae and a month of rehab. “[My mobility for snowboarding] is pretty limited now,” he said. “Plus my dad told me if I even grabbed my board from the closet, he’s going to stuff it up no man’s land.”
While Stephan admits to feeling a little jealous watching snowboarders shred down Allen on powder days, he’s happily taken up ice-fishing and hunting with his dad. On slow days, Stephan plays games on his Kindle (especially Game of War) or completes crossword puzzles and reads daily comics as a distraction. The lift huts also conveniently have Wi-Fi.
As for the cold, it doesn’t faze him. “We work in shifts,” he said. “Thirty minutes on, then thirty minutes off,” Stephan said. “We dress for it.” While some skiers swear by hand and toe-warmers on single-digit days, Stephan relies on steel-toed boots and his hardy local upbringing. “It’s very rare that I wear hand warmers or toe warmers. I’ve kind of known what to wear just over years of growing up here in Vermont.”
Provencher, like my shivering self, is not so immune to the feels-like-negative-22-degrees wind-chill.
“There’s a lot of nice days, but also a lot of cold days,” he said, pausing to secure the chair for me. I clumsily plopped down. As the lift begins to lurch forward, he sent me off with a little wisdom in his slow and unwavering Canadian drawl. “But you gotta take the good with the bad.”
(01/15/15 2:28am)
Getting on and off the chairlift for the first time can be terrifying. It can also be quality comedy. There is even a short film by Warren Miller, an iconic action sports filmmaker, solely devoted to the potentially traumatic experience: “Chairlift-Funny Disasters” – check it out on YouTube.
But the lift operators at the Middlebury College Snow Bowl work hard to prevent any real trauma to skiiers and boarders. Some, like Tim Kerr of Brandon, Vt. have over 20 years of experience.
“We’re kind of unique, in that in bigger areas, they have lift operators who are lift operators and snowmakers who are snowmakers,” said Snow Bowl ski-area manager Peter Mackey. “[Here], one of our operators will be making snow at night and a couple days later, working on a lift.”
According to 23-year old lift operator Stephan Kerr, snow-making is the more difficult part of his job.
“It can be dangerous,” he said. “The air hydrant can hit you with up to 500 lbs of pressure if you discharge the line incorrectly.”
Despite the inherent dangers, there is very little turnover among Snow Bowl employees according to Mackey. He explained this is likely due to the ski area’s small size and family atmosphere. Many of the lift operators also work together at the Bread Loaf campus in the summer.
In the case of Tim and his son Stephan, operating Worth Lift on a “chausty” (a hybridization of ‘chilly’ and ‘frosty’ made popular by Snow Bowl manager Peter Mackey) Sunday afternoon is quite literally a family affair.
“We have some days we like each other, some days we don’t,” chuckled Stephan. “We ride in together, so if we fight, some days are long days. But what I love about my job, especially this ski area, is how much of a family we are.”
Stephan Kerr started working at the Snow Bowl when he was 16, and has been snowboarding here since he was eight. He recalled planning his runs to rotate between lift huts to hang out with different lift operators. “I grew up here,” he said.
Given the cost of lift tickets, gear and travel, skiing and snowboarding is an ironically difficult sport to access for some Vermont residents. Foster Provencher, a Sheehan lift operator, has never skied or snowboarded in his life. Asked if he ever considered it, he replied without hesitation: “nope.”
Stephan Kerr said most of his high school friends were more into riding snowmobiles than chairlifts. “If my dad didn’t work here, I never would’ve gotten into [snowboarding]. Because he worked here, I got to take lessons for free,” he said
Stephan was an avid snowboarder until he had a snowboarding accident at the bottom of Allen in 2011.
“I went to stop and caught an edge,” he said of the accident. “My face hit the ground, my board came up over the top of my head and flipped me on my back. I did a scorpion.” He ended up with two compressed vertebrae and a month of rehab. “[My mobility for snowboarding] is pretty limited now,” he said. “Plus my dad told me if I even grabbed my board from the closet, he’s going to stuff it up no man’s land.”
While Stephan admits to feeling a little jealous watching snowboarders shred down Allen on powder days, he’s happily taken up ice-fishing and hunting with his dad. On slow days, Stephan plays games on his Kindle (especially Game of War) or completes crossword puzzles and reads daily comics as a distraction. The lift huts also conveniently have Wi-Fi.
As for the cold, it doesn’t faze him. “We work in shifts,” he said. “Thirty minutes on, then thirty minutes off,” Stephan said. “We dress for it.” While some skiers swear by hand and toe-warmers on single-digit days, Stephan relies on steel-toed boots and his hardy local upbringing. “It’s very rare that I wear hand warmers or toe warmers. I’ve kind of known what to wear just over years of growing up here in Vermont.”
Provencher, like my shivering self, is not so immune to the feels-like-negative-22-degrees wind-chill.
“There’s a lot of nice days, but also a lot of cold days,” he said, pausing to secure the chair for me. I clumsily plopped down. As the lift begins to lurch forward, he sent me off with a little wisdom in his slow and unwavering Canadian drawl. “But you gotta take the good with the bad.”
(01/14/15 4:43pm)
Coming off of a training trip to Florida during the first week of winter break, men’s and women’s Swimming and Diving started the New Year with a splash. The men have had a three-meet winning streak in their matchups with Colby on January 3 (206-83), Springfield College on January 10 (175-123), and Bates on January 11 (151-137). The women have also performed well, edging Colby 199.5-84.5 and Springfield 156-142, and suffering a mere six-point loss to Bates (152-146) last Sunday.
According to Maddy Berkman ’15, one of the women’s captains, the team has further improved upon the strong endurance base developed during their training in Florida and throughout the season by “really honing in on technique work and more specific training.”
On the deep end of the pool, divers Adrianna Baker ’15 and Dylan Peters ’16 have made important point contributions, with Baker claiming both the one-meter and three-meter titles against Colby, and Peters ’16 sweeping the 3-meter competition against Bates.
In the Panthers’ first two face-offs against Colby and Springfield, both the men and women’s 200 individual medley and 200 freestyle relays finished first, showing off the depth of the team with swimmers contributing from every class year. Especially impressive at Colby was both teams’ ability to win 12 out of the 16 contested events.
In facing off against Colby, Connor McCormick ’18 demonstrated his skill in both short and long distance with wins in the 1000 freestyle (10:05.82) and the 100 breaststroke (1:03.93), Justin Cho ’17 took the 100 back (56.59), and Bryan Cheuk ’16 won the 50 freestyle (21.88). Alex Smith ’18 edged Stephan Koenigsberger ’16 by just .01 in the 100 fly (53.94).
On the women’s side facing Colby, Caitlin Carroll ’17 won the 1000 freestyle (11:09.14), Kelly Delane ’18 the 500 freestyle (5:24.27), Jennifer Koide ’17 the 100 breaststroke (1:11.88), and Lydia Carpenter ’15 the 50 freestyle (24.87).
The Colby and Springfield meets —which included 50 yard sprinting events not just in freestyle as usual, but also in backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly, and the shorter 100 yard individual medley — provided more opportunities for the Panthers to show their speed.
Some of these victories against Colby included Jamie Hillas ’15 (30.23) and Andy Lee ’15 (28.65) winning the 50 breaststroke, Claire Treesh ’17 and Justin Cho clocking respective times of 30.26 and 25.97 to dominate the men’s and women’s 50 back, Bryan Cheuk ’16 won the 50 fly (24.23), and Andy Grant ’17 (56.94) claimed the men’s 100 individual medley title.
In the Springfield meet, Hillas ’15 broke her own school record by .01 seconds in the 100 individual medley with a time of 59.50, edging the second place finisher by almost 5 seconds. Hillas also won the 50 fly (26.54) and the 100 fly (58.88), while Sarah Bartholomae ’18 (29.19) won the 50 and 100 back (29.19 and 1:01.90).
The men won 10 out of 16 events against Springfield. Matthew Lantin ’18 had two personal victories in the 200 freestyle (1:46.86) and the 500 freestyle (4:46.19), and other highlights include wins by Teddy Kuo ’15 in the 100 fly (55.12), Paul Lagasse ’15 in the 100 freestyle (49.84), McCormick ’18 in the 100 individual medley (56.40), and Michael McGean ’17 in the 1000 freestyle (9:54.06).
The most recent home meet against Bates on January 11 featured some longer distance events, with 400 yard instead of 200 yard relays, and a 1650 freestyle. The women won the 400 individual medley relay (3:59.45) and the 400 freestyle relay (3:36.41), while McGean touched the wall first after 66 laps in the 1650 freestyle (16:28.26).
First-years Taylor Moore ’18 and McCormick came out on top of their heats in the 100 freestyle (49.15) and 400 individual medley (4:17.56), respectively.
Koenigsberger ’16 dominated the breaststroke events with a 59.22 in the 100 breaststroke and a 2:09.58 in the 200 breaststroke. In a repeat of previous performances, Cheuk won the 50 freestyle, and Lantin claimed the 200 and 500 freestyle.
“This team is great at taking on challenging workouts while having fun,” said Kuo, who attributes the team’s success in the past three meets to their ability to “feed off each other’s excitement and energy.”
“Though the women’s team lost to Bates this past weekend, we’ve still had some awesome swims,” said Berkman ’15. “I think our confidence level is slowly building. As we get closer and closer to NESCACs I think we’re starting to focus on what we need to.”
The future looks bright for Panther Swimming and Diving as they head into a matchup against Union College on Saturday, January 17 in Schenectady, N.Y.
(12/03/14 11:19pm)
I know that there are plenty of issues floating around just in time for holiday conversations with your politically extreme family members. So in anticipation of this inevitable reality, I have chosen to revive an old topic that has recently lost some of its steam: the minimum wage.
For those of you who don’t remember, there were two serious proposals put forth by the Democrats with regards to the minimum wage. The first idea was to raise the wage to $10.10 an hour, or by about 40 percent. The second was to more than double the wage to $15 dollars an hour. The idea behind this was to help minimum wage workers make it through a rough economy by increasing their take home pay. Well, that all sounds great. However, raising the minimum wage is harmful to both workers and, more often than not, to the small businesses and franchises that employ them. Economically speaking, there are a few similar yet slightly different ways of viewing this issue from both the business’s and the worker’s point of view.
Let’s start with the business’s point of view. There is one assumption I am going to make here that shouldn’t really surprise anybody: businesses want to maximize their profits. So, the minimum wage is raised. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) cheers as business owners and CFOs scramble to figure out what they are going to do. The basic concept that needs to be grasped is that the value of the marginal product of a worker’s labor (VMPL) will equal the wage rate at the point of optimal employment (when profit is maximized). Also, due to the concept of diminishing marginal returns, VMPL is decreasing as more workers are hired. Therefore, if the wage increases, the new level of optimal employment will reflect a decrease in workers. To put it more simply, workers will get fired. That’s a very microeconomic way of thinking about the minimum wage.
The more macroeconomic description utilizes the tried and true concepts of supply and demand. The minimum wage is what economists call a “price floor.” In other words, it is a legally set lower limit on wages. This lower limit is put in place to stop markets from adjusting to the true equilibrium price, which is almost always below the price-floor. This causes there to be more labor supplied than labor demanded, and therefore there is a surplus of labor.
Yet a third way that businesses could view a raise in the wage is simply as an additional cost of production, which will most likely be passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices. So businesses face a choice: whether to fire workers, increase prices, or take lower profits. Duke University wondered how the business community would react, and in 2014 conducted a poll of CFOs, asking them how they would react to a higher minimum wage. Over 80 percent said they would lay off workers. Moreover, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that a raise in the minimum wage would cost 500,000 jobs. So instead of “giving America a raise,” #raisethewage would give many Americans an effective income of $0. Pair that with our abysmal job market, with labor force participation at a 35-year low and the increased costs to business due to the new healthcare law, and the outlook isn’t stellar.
The drawbacks don’t stop there. A higher minimum wage would disproportionately harm young workers (16-25), especially young minority workers. This is because by raising the minimum wage, the risk towards the business of hiring a younger worker has increased. After the last minimum wage hike in 2007, the Cato Institute found that unemployment in young workers jumped from 15 percent to 25 percent. So for those of you hoping to find a summer job flipping burgers, a wage hike could set those plans on the back burner.
A minimum wage hike would have very different effects in different parts of the country. This is due to differences between regional costs of living. A $10.10 minimum wage would disproportionally hurt workers in areas with lower costs of living, because the VMPL there is less than in areas like New York City. Moreover, if one area — let’s say Seattle — decides to raise their minimum wage to not $10.10 but instead $15 (and the areas around the city don’t), then Seattle is going to see increased unemployment. This is increasingly unfortunate because the workers who got laid off probably can’t afford to commute to the suburbs each day for work. So, how are they better off? They are not. With the macroeconomic climate as uncertain as it is, “giving America a raise” could be detrimental for many businesses that already operate on thin profit margins.
Finally, I know everybody reading this has been thinking, “Well, what about big business?” It’s important to note that according to the Small Business Administration over 99.7 percent of employers are small businesses, and over 64 percent of private-sector job growth comes from small businesses. Even so, the remaining 0.3 percent of employers who allegedly are exploiting their workers need to be addressed. The American Enterprise Institute has done some work on this very subject of CEO-employee pay gap. They decided to use the parent company of Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut as an example, and found that even if all executives took a 100% pay cut, wages for their 400,000+ workers would only increase by five cents an hour. So would it be better for the board of directors to give all workers a nominal pay raise, or secure the best possible executives to run the company? I’ll let you ponder that one.
(12/03/14 10:02pm)
2013-14 record: 11-11-3
Captains: George Ordway ’15 & Derek Pimentel ’15
The Middlebury men’s hockey team is looking to improve upon their .500 record from last year. The 2013-14 season could only be described as up-and-down, with three three-game losing streaks and two three-game winning streaks, one of which came at the very end of the season, which earned them fourth place in the NESCAC. After qualifying for the conference tournament a year ago, the Panthers fell 6-3 at home in the quarterfinal game against Bowdoin.
The men’s hockey team returns this year with a young core. The six seniors who graduated last year left space on the team for nine incoming first-years this season.
Three seniors return to the team this year, with co-captains George Ordway and Derek Pimental, the team’s top scorer from last year, leading the way along with goaltender Mike Peters.
Other significant returning players include forward Jake Charles ’16, who registered 17 points in 15 games played last season, defenseman Ronald Fishman ’16 and goaltender Liam Moorfield-Yee ’16.
Unfortunately, the team has not gotten off to the start that they hoped for.
After six games, the men’s hockey team sits with a 1-3-2 record in 5th place in the NESCAC standings. The season is still young, however, as there are at least 18 games left to play.
With many key NESCAC games still on the schedule, including a late home-and-home against rival Williams in February, the team’s fate remains very much in their hands.
(11/20/14 12:25am)
One week ago, I saw the Tony-nominated Broadway production of John Steinbeck’s American classic Of Mice and Men - in Middlebury. Due to technological advancements and a recent partnership between major performance companies and theaters around the world, the financial and geographic barriers to experiencing professional, top-market productions are rapidly vanishing. Following the lead of programs like the Public Broadcasting Series’ Lincoln Center Live, which has brought acclaimed New York theatre, concerts and special events into the homes of millions of Americans for free since 1976, New York City’s Metropolitan Opera began streaming live productions to small theaters and over public radio in 2006, and the National Theatre in London followed suit in 2009, now broadcasting to over 1,400 theaters worldwide.
With production costs for a Met Opera running upwards of $500,000, and tickets for popular Broadway productions selling anywhere from $100 to $400, it is no wonder that live broadcasts, with more reasonable ticket costs of $10 to $30 per person, have been gaining in popularity.
The Town Hall Theater started broadcasting the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD series soon after they opened in 2008, purchasing and installing the initial necessary satellite technology that allowed any of the world-renowned opera’s broadcasts to appear before a small-town Vermont audience. When the National Theatre in London started their own HD broadcasting service, the Town Hall Theater already had the correct technology to bring some of the most acclaimed productions in the world to its repertoire.
The latest broadcast, the 2014 Broadway production of Of Mice and Men, was shown at the Town Hall Theater twice on Tuesday, Nov. 11. In an afternoon matinee, a full house of high school students watched the broadcast in conjunction with their study of the play.
“We especially like to carry the plays that we know are on school reading lists, and of course Of Mice and Men is something that every high school kid reads, so we booked it specifically for that reason,” said Town Hall Theater Executive Director Doug Anderson.
Attendance levels have varied widely for the screenings, and the evening showing of Of Mice and Men featured more seats that were empty than filled. The Town Hall Theater does not carry all of the broadcasts offered by National Theatre Live simply because some may be too obscure to market to a local audience.
“It really depends,” Anderson said. “The National does terrific work, but a lot of it is plays that don’t necessarily sell in this country. If they don’t have a major star or title or it’s a brand new play that people don’t know, we tend to sell less. We had Helen Mirren in Phedra in 2009 and it was absolutely packed, because she’s Helen Mirren. There was a National Theatre broadcast of a play called The Audience, which is about Queen Elizabeth meeting every week with the prime minister. [Mirren] played Queen Elizabeth over forty years meeting with 8 different prime ministers, and it was a real tour de force that sold out so much that we showed it again, so you really never know who is going to come to what.”
Of Mice and Men is so definitively an American play, a masterpiece exploration of the struggle to reach the American dream as viewed through the inseparable friendship of two working class men, that it may be surprising that London’s National Theatre picked up the show. Though National Theatre Live had made many attempts to expand its marquee British theatre events to include international offerings, Of Mice and Men was the first Broadway production to be accepted for full production and broadcast by the program. When the production, which is the first Broadway version of the play in over forty years, began its 19-week New York City run at the Longacre Theatre, a filmed broadcast was not even considered, but after the show’s two 2014 Tony Award nominations and the complete recuperation of the show’s $3.8 million capital investment, the National Theatre Live team saw the potential in broadcasting the limited-engagement, star-filled play, even offering to cover the $1 million production and distribution cost to create a broadcast. Touting the Broadway debuts of Oscar award nominated actor-director-author-poet-artist-professor (yes, really) James Franco, Bridesmaids’ Chris O’Dowd and Gossip Girl’s Leighton Meester, as well as the directorial talents of Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critic Circles award winner Anna D. Shapiro, the production possessed the unique combination of star power and mainstream appeal ideal for a Broadway broadcast test case.
As for the production itself, filmed live on its closing night, July 27, 2014, reviewing is almost pointless. A richly imagined yet subtle set design, superb acting - especially by O’Dowd, who was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his role as strong simpleton Lennie - and smart directorial choices speak to the production’s multi-million dollar budget and performance in the most prestigious theatre system in America. These literally are the big leagues, and the production did not disappoint.
After investing in the initial satellite technology, projector and screen, The Town Hall Theater does not have to incur any cost per show, allowing an unlimited choice of broadcasts that brings in extra income for the local theater and benefits the original productions.
“We split the ticket costs with the National Theatre or the Metropolitan Opera, so even if its something that I think may only draw 50 or 60 people, I’m still making money on a night I would normally be dark, so I feel I can go ahead and do that obscure 19th century English comedy because it’s just a matter of turning on the equipment,” Anderson said.
Though I was experiencing the theatre through a new fifth wall which takes away the spontaneity and audience-actor participation of the live theatrical experience, the multiple camera angles and beautiful HD rendition of the play allowed me the unique opportunity to process the big picture of the sumptuous set design only seconds before viewing the pained emotions, lines and tears on Franco’s face, which would never be possible from the balcony of a Broadway theater.
“The National Theatre is the greatest theater in the world and the caliber of the work they do is astonishing,” Anderson said. “I used to make special trips to England just to go to the National Theatre and see their work, and the fact that we can get it live, here in the comfort of our little theater in Middlebury, Vermont, is miraculous and not to be missed.”
On the Tuesday of the broadcast, I had a healthy number of papers to write, novels to read and responses to draft, and it was difficult for me to justify making the trip into town for a two and a half hour mid-week play. In reality, I could have chosen no better distraction. Watching this professional execution of Steinbeck’s tale moved me, broke my heart and reignited my love for the theatre, and I only needed to walk down the road. Tickets to National Theatre Live productions are available through the Town Hall Theater Box Office for $10 for students, and information about upcoming broadcasts will be available at go/tht as productions are chosen and announced.
(11/19/14 10:02pm)
Men’s and women’s Swimming and Diving started their 2014-2015 season last Saturday, Nov. 15 by traveling to New London, Conn. to take on Connecticut College in a dual meet. Both teams fell to the Camels, the women losing 153-127 and the men falling short with a score of 172-90. Despite Middlebury’s losses as a team, many athletes still had impressive results in the meet.
“Conn is really good,” Andy Lee ’15 said. “We did much better this time around than we’ve done in this meet in the past. This was by far our best performance against [Connecticut College].”
The men dominated the long distance arena, with Michael McGean ’17 going a 10:03.03 in the 1000 yard free to secure a first-place finish, helping Middlebury outscore Conn. College in the event 14-5. Andrew Rosenthal ’16’s second place finish and Eric Stanton ’17’s fifth place finish also contributed.
A few events later, first-year Matthew Lantin ’18 won the first event of his college career, clocking a 1:46.09 in the 200 free. Lantin’s score combined with with the third and fourth place scores of Connor McCormick ’18 and Andy Grant ’17 allowed Middlebury to edge Conn. College in this event as well.
The Panthers swept the 100 breaststroke on both the men’s and women’s side, with first-place finishes by Stephan Koenigsberger ’16 (58.67) and Jamie Hillas ’15 (1:06.17). Lydia Carpenter ’15 and Christina Denbow ’16 earned additional points on the 100 breast with their fourth and fifth place finishes.
As sprinter Bryan Cheuk ’16 won the 50 free with a time of 22:12, and Lantin collected another win in the 500 free (4:45.80), the men’s team continued to shine.
On the women’s side, Hillas registered two more victories in the 100 fly (59.19) and the 200 individual medley (2:12.90). To cap off the meet, Morgan Burke ’17, Megan Griffin ’16, Ann Carpenter ’15 and Courtney Haron ’15 were able to edge out the competition in the 200 free relay (1:41.69).
Elissa DeNunzio ’18, Middlebury’s only diver entered in the meet, contributed 18 points total for her performances in the 1-meter and 3-meter dives, faring particularly well in her first competition on the 3-meter board. Coach Kimi Schmidt looks forward to helping both DeNunzio and Stephanie Andrews ’18, who will be participating in future meets, realize their potential this season.
Head Coach Bob Rueppel said, “I was very “happy with the weekend. Out of the water the team dynamics were great, and I was very pleased with what we did in the pool” despite the losses. Rueppel emphasized that although dual meets are important, “our dual meet record doesn’t necessarily gauge what’s going to happen at the end of the year.” He is “excited about where we are as a team,” and remains “very optimistic as to where we can take this by NESCAC’s.”
The team members share Rueppel’s optimism. Lee noted, “This is the best shape we’ve been in as a team at this point in the season.” This is partly due to the successful and well-attended preseason training sessions. “The intensity and yardage were definitely better than they’ve been in my time at Middlebury,” Lee said. “Every year we seem to step it up a bit.”
Lee also mentioned the first-years as a valuable new asset to the team. “[They] are a big class and they’re very fast. They’re also great with the team and have been doing well in workouts, which is always good to see.”
Panther swimming and diving will return to the pool on Saturday, Nov. 22 at 2:00 p.m. at the Middlebury Natatorium to face Tufts and Keene State in a tri-match meet as they continue to build upon last weekend’s start to their season.
(11/19/14 9:38pm)
On Oct. 30, a letter was delivered to the Vermont Governor’s administration and to political candidates advocating for the return of Vermont prisoners that are being held in out-of-state, private, for-profit prisons. Nearly thirty Vermont organizations, groups and businesses signed the document. The effort to bring prisoners back has been spearheaded by the grant-funded group,
Vermonters for Criminal Justice Reform, established in 2013.
On its website, the group states, “At VCJR we believe the state will save money and create more productive communities by limiting incarceration to what works, based on evidence, and redirecting spending to job training, treatment, and education.”
Currently, approximately 500 of the state’s 2,000 prisoners are sent to institutions in Kentucky and Arizona. The practice started in 1998 due to overcrowding at Vermont facilities. These private prisons are owned by the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). Activists reject the CCA’s business model, which they state in their letter, “is driven by a perverse incentive: the more people incarcerated…the more money for shareholders.”
The CCA has responded by asserting that the company has provided its inmates from Vermont with an array of educational, mental health and faith-based programs over the years they have held prisoners from Vermont.
The contract with the CCA is up for renewal next year. Suzi Wizowaty, a state legislator from Burlington and the leader of VCJR has stated, “We’re trying to use this opportunity of expiring of the contract with CCA to bring people’s attention to the fact that we use CCA, and it’s an ineffective response.”
The cost of housing prisoners in Kentucky and Arizona is seemingly cheaper than keeping them in Vermont, $67.43 and $74.30 a day, respectively, compared to $159 a day. However, other costs offset this disparity, including the funds necessary to send employees to visit these out-of-state prisoners, such as caseworkers who meet with inmates.
The real cost of holding inmates out of state, activists say, falls on families. Many do not have the financial means to visit their relatives in out-of-state prisons. Video communication options, such as Skype or FaceTime, are not available, and phone calls can be expensive as well. This disconnect also has adverse effects on the prisoners. Many have written letters from prison describing the isolation of their sentence, which research has shown negatively impacts a prisoner’s reintegration into society.
Another point of contention surrounding use of out-of-state prisons is that only males are sent to such facilities. This practice was declared unconstitutional in a court decision over the summer written by Judge Helen Toor, a Vermont Superior Court Judge. She claimed that males were being denied equal protection and that there is no constitutional justification for treating male and female inmates differently. Michael Carpenter, a Vermont inmate being held in a Kentucky prison, challenged the law and brought the case forward.
The decision included particular emphasis on how the system separates inmates from their children and cites national data that shows prisoners who visit with their children are more likely to get a full-time job upon release and are less likely to be repeat offenders. The Department of Corrections defended itself by insisting that there is no constitutionally protected right to visitation.
As it is unlikely that a fiscally struggling state government could find the estimate $100 million needed to build a new prison to expand its capacity, the proposed solution is to reduce the number of incarcerated people. The letter cites success in reducing prison populations in New York, New Jersey and California as affirmation that such a goal is feasible. The state Corrections
Commissioner Andy Pollito has expressed hesitancy toward change by telling the Associated Press that the state has managed to stem sharp growth of its prison population. Though the Vermont prisoner population is decreasing steadily by about 13 inmates per year, the activists wish for more aggressive change.
Some suggestions to help realize this goal include treatment for mental health issues and addiction instead of incarceration, particularly for those who have committed non-violent drug-related crimes, as well as helping inmates find housing after their sentence so they are not waiting in prison. Karen Richards, executive director of the Vermont Human Rights Commission, stated that funds should be repurposed “to provide the treatment and services necessary to help former offenders be successful and productive members of their communities.”
The groups have called for a meeting at the Statehouse on November 19th in the House Judiciary committee. However, a tepid state response to the movement – called Locked Up & Shipped Away – makes its success uncertain.
(11/12/14 7:14pm)
As registration for spring semester approached during my first year at Middlebury, I remember the stress and excitement that came with it. And, like any enterprising first year with nearly a semester of experience under his belt, I immediately began trying to figure out all the important course information not listed in the catalog’s surprisingly brief course descriptions. How did students like the professors teaching these courses? How demanding would the workload be for each of them? Was I going to be writing papers, completing problems sets, or taking tests all semester? First, of course, I sought advice from the handful of upperclassmen I had managed to befriend during my first few weeks on campus. While helpful, only one of them had actually had any of the professors on my list of potential classes. They did, however, point me to what I thought was the holy grail of course information — middkid.com.
Initially, I thought I had found all the information I needed. By reading through these reviews written by actual Middlebury students, I could figure out how much time others spent on the class each week, what they thought about the professor’s teaching ability and whether they would recommend taking the class. Slowly, however, I became increasingly disillusioned with the value of the information middkid.com provided in helping me make informed decisions about my classes. For starters, many of the reviews felt dated, with newer faculty having few if any reviews at all — an important gap, given they often teach introductory level courses. In addition, the organization of the site made it difficult to find courses and professors. Multiple pages containing different reviews referred to the same professor, sometimes with different spellings of his or her name. Finally, while I found many of my fellow classmates at Middlebury to be thoughtful students, they did not seem to be the ones writing the reviews on middkid.com. Rather than a general review of how most students felt about the course, the middkid.com reviews were frequently of the “loved it” or “hated it” variety.
Last spring, to improve upon all of these shortcomings, the SGA launched MiddCourses, a student-run course evaluation site. MiddCourses makes sure all the most recent courses are accurately listed by pulling that information directly from the College’s course catalog. More importantly, though, it limits access only to those with a middlebury.edu e-mail address and requires users to complete two new reviews each semester to view the existing database of over 1,500 reviews. This keeps our reviews up-to-date and makes them far more representative of general student opinion than those found on middkid.com. Rather than continuing to sing the praise MiddCourses, however, I’ll stop here and just recommend that you simply visit both and compare. I’m confident you’ll find MiddCourses the better option.
Even if you find the two comparable in quality, however, I think there remains a compelling reason to spend your time on MiddCourses — the student body owns it. We can, quite literally, change anything we want about the site. Middkid.com, by contrast, is a for-profit enterprise over which we have no control. We have already incorporated student feedback into MiddCourses so that it better serves students, and we are currently in the process of adding more features. That level of student ownership makes the future of MiddCourses far brighter than middkid.com. Students will always be in the best position to know how to improve and update the site so that it continues to be a helpful tool prior to registration. In addition, writing a review on MiddCourses increases the likelihood that future Middlebury students will be more informed when making decisions about which courses they should take. I have yet to meet anyone who has actually spent their own time reviewing courses on middkid.com. MiddCourses, on the other hand, creates the right incentives to encourage students to thoughtfully review their courses.
The reflections we have on our academic experience at Middlebury are incredibly valuable, and we ought to share them with one another. While those reflections obviously extend beyond merely reviewing a course or a professor, MiddCourses gives us an opportunity to capture at least one element of our academic experience and pass on that information to future students. The site offers an invaluable opportunity to reduce the confusion and stress many feel when trying to figure out which classes to take. It is a unique platform through which we can institutionalize the type of information we all try to figure out by word of mouth before we register each year. Since we created it, MiddCourses can ultimately make sure that future students benefit from a large reservoir of past students’ experiences — and, quite frankly, that is something middkid.com will never to be able to offer.
TAYLOR CUSTER '15 is the SGA President and is from West Brookfield, Mass.
(10/30/14 3:05am)
Vermont’s next biggest business venture has nothing to do with maple syrup or ice cream – that is, unless you want to share a picture of it. Ello is the newest social networking website sensation that was founded in Burlington, Vermont. Dubbed as the “anti-Facebook,” Ello is a social networking website that mirrors Vermont’s own decree against billboards dedicating itself to being completely and totally ad-free. With a minimalist design platform, Ello is, as its slogan states, “Simple, beautiful, and ad-free.”
On Ello, users can bump friends into two different categories: “friends” for people with whom the user is closer or interested in following and “noise” for everyone else. Currently, users can only post text or pictures, but creators have said that video and audio capacity is coming. It has a reputation for being the artsier, hipster version of Facebook and has been called a “Twitter-Tumblr hybrid.” Ello designers say that the website was created “to display large images beautifully.” Unlike other social-media websites, Ello tolerates users posting pornographic images, but asks that users flag their posts to warn those who do not wish to view it.
In the last month, Ello saw its user popularity soar. The spike in popularity was mostly credited to the rift between Facebook and the drag queen community. In September, Facebook disallowed drag queens to hold accounts in which they did not use their legal names. As a result, drag queens, much of the LGTBQ community and their supporters started flooding Ello, which allows users to create a profile under whichever name they want. “We embrace the LGTBQ community … including their adult-oriented content needs,” CEO Paul Budnitz said.
The network is invite-only and at its peak in September, Ello was receiving 40,000 user requests per hour. The website’s booming success has caused the creators to slow the number of new users. Creators of the website say that this is partly to keep up with the overwhelming activity the site has seen, but also to echo the idea that Ello is not meant for everyone.
“We don’t want every person in the world to be on it, so we don’t have to design for the lowest common denominator,” one of its co-founders, Lucian Föhr, said. Currently, those hoping to gain access to the website can only do so if they are invited by an existing user. These invites were in such high demand that they were being auctioned on eBay for a whopping $500. The website has picked up national attention as Budnitz has been interviewed by several prominent business magazines such as Forbes, Fortune, and Bloomberg.
While Ello has triumphed with its users, business elites have questioned Ello’s ability to remain a for-profit company. The question is how Ello will make any money without advertisements. Ello plans to be a “freemium” social network, which means that users will be able to add on features for a small fee of one to two dollars. Ello users can personalize their homepage through these features, like buying an app on an iPhone. Just last week, Ello legally filed as a public benefit corporation (PBC). As Budnitz puts it, the moves to become a PBC lets Ello “embed a cause in our charter that the company has to consider on par with making money.” That means there will never be any ads, nor can a future buyer ever change their mantra. Along with their promise to be ad-free, the website also states in their mission their view against data mining.
“Every post you share, every friend you make and every link you follow is tracked, recorded and converted into data. Advertisers buy your data so they can show you more ads. You are the product that’s bought and sold … we believe there is a better way. We believe a social network can be a tool for empowerment. Not a tool to coerce and manipulate – but a place to connect, create, and celebrate life,” says their manifesto.
So what does Ello mean for Vermont? Ello began with $435,000 from FreshTracks Capital, an investment company out of Shelburne, Vt., that works with New England businesses and has since raised $5.5 million for Ello. Budnitz said that they will continue to accept from investors, but only those who share his philosophy. Budnitz is already a well-known name to entrepreneurs in Vermont. He currently runs Budnitz Bicycles and Kidrobot out of his Maple Street, Burlington office.
“Paul is the perfect type of person that we love to see found Vermont companies,” commented Lee Bouyea, the managing director of FreshTracks Capital. “We invested in Paul and his team because we believe in their ability to grow a successful company without the billboardization of this media platform.”
Why not try Vermont’s own social networking site? User requests are currently so backed up right now that requests usually have to wait six to eight weeks to be accepted, which is plenty of time to change your mind. For a quicker alternative, Ello invite prices on eBay are now selling for only five bucks.
(10/30/14 2:53am)
Ever wondered about the mysterious “steam” coming out of the in-ground grate near the Mahaney Center for the Arts? (Hint: it has to do with something that Google headquarters and Middlebury College have in common).
“I have no idea,” Emma Hamilton ’17 said. “Is it a snow melter?”
“Well, it doesn’t smell,” Daniel Plunkett ’16 guessed. “I would assume its steam from the biomass plant. I don’t think there’s anything happening in the CFA that requires exhaust.”
“It’s steam, right?” Maya Woser ’18 echoed Plunkett’s prediction. “I don’t think it can be hot air. That just sounds dangerous.” But it is!
“It’s not steam (that’s being emitted from the grate),” supervisor of the College’s Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning system (HVAC) Raymond Gale said. “If you walked on there [the grate], you’d see it’s just hot air, only about 110 degrees or so.”
I walked on, and felt I had stepped into a sauna.
“When the air is cool, like this time of year, it just saturates the (surrounding)air with moisture, which makes fog,” Gale said, as I quickly wiped my sweat (fog?) ‘stache.
The whole underground contraption is part of the CFA’s air-conditioning system.
“Inside the building is what’s called a chiller,” explained Gale, and that hot air is what comes out of the grate. “It pumps chilled water around to different areas and it picks up heat as it goes through the building. The pipes take the water back into the chiller, and the chiller transfers the heat into the cooling tower. There’s a fan that blows hot air up through the water so it takes the heat out.”
Built in 1989, the chiller air-conditioning system runs almost year-round, from March to December, in order to maintain the humidity and temperature in the Museum’s galleries.
“Even when it’s fifty degrees outdoors, you need the chilled water to remove moisture from the building,” Gale said.
Most of the air-conditioned buildings on campus are not water-based but Freon-based and use DX coils and gas compressors. The cooling tower system is preferred for larger buildings because it is more efficient and more effective in cooling (measured in tonnage), than the Freon system, which is also a larger structure.
However, the water-based system uses more chemicals.
“The cooling tower needs a lot of maintenance, a lot of water treatment,” Gale said. “The water is warm and at a good temperature to grow bacteria, so you have to treat it daily with chemicals. The other [Freon-based] system is all internal, it’s all locked in. There’s no treatment.”
The chemicals used to treat the water are a microbiocide, A-202, and bromine. The microbiocide is biodegradable, according to Gale.
“We’ve switched [the chemicals] up from when I came 20 years ago,” he said. “We used to have chemicals that, when they went into the sewer to the treatment plant, messed up the [sewer treatment plant’s] bacteria. So we switched to biodegradable chemicals that don’t mess with the bacteria.”
There are also chiller systems installed in the Johnson Memorial Building and in BiHall.
“At certain times, if you look at the top of McCardell Bicentennial Hall you’ll see a plume coming up from there,” Gale said. “The CFA’s cooling tower is underground for aesthetic reasons, according to Gale. “There’s no place to put the cooling tower on top of the roof due to its shape and structure.”
In the near future, the chiller system in Johnson might be renovated into a new HVAC system that uses geo-thermal energy.
“The College is really going towards efficiency. Over by Battell Hall, they would drill all kinds of wells and use the local town water,” Gale said.
Although Gale is optimistic about the College’s commitment to sustainability, he has a few qualms about the 500 individual window air-conditioners they install each year for the summer language school students.
“It doesn’t seem very green to me,” Gale said. “Students often turn on their air conditioners and leave their windows open. They like to keep their room 70 degrees, rather than 75.”
The campus set points for cooling are 75 degrees and for heating 70 degrees. “We’re working towards a standardized AC system for some dorms,” he said.
And so, as another Vermont winter approaches, if you ever need to defrost your nose at the end of the long trek from BiHall to the CFA, this “foggy” grate is arguably the biggest hot spot on campus.
(10/29/14 6:05pm)
One of the hardest parts of being a fan of hip-hop is being asked the following question: “how can you listen to music that revolves so much around the glorification of violence?” I usually deflect the question by saying something about how you can consume art without endorsing its message, but really that’s all that is, a deflection. Consuming art, or rather understanding it, is the act of extending one’s humanity and allowing the artistic expression to join with that humanity (paraphrasing Ralph Ellison there). Listening to rap music is a central part of my life, and my relationship with the art is too deep to pass off some CNN sounding B.S. about not “endorsing a message” to such a probing question. The real truth is, I’m not sure how to answer that question.
Part of the challenge is nailing down what is meant by violence. What kind of violence are we talking about? Is it Eminem’s maniacal “Kill You,” a veritable laundry list of fantasies ranging from chopping people up with chainsaws to developing pictures of the devil, or is it Bobby Shmurda’s “Hot N----,” the enormously popular summer anthem which describes Shmurda and his homies mowing down enemies with every kind of machine gun you can name and several you can’t? It may seem like a ridiculous question, but the kinds of violence described and celebrated in these two songs are extremely different and hold varying significance to the question at hand. While “Kill You” can be pretty chilling to listen to, it hits that level of crazy that pushes it nearly into abstraction. Eminem isn’t trying to make us think he’s actually done these things, he’s trying to convince us that he actually wants to. Beneath its brutal descriptions, the song’s real purpose is to ask us just how crazy we think he is.
Shmurda’s “Hot N----,” on the other hand, has its own element of fantasy, in the sense that it isn’t documentary. But the activities he’s describing, gunning down his enemies in the street and “selling crack since like the fifth grade,” reverberate with a violence that feels markedly more live-action than the cartoonish blood-splatter of “Kill You.” Shmurda’s lyrics remind one too much of what is actually happening in the collective hood of cities across the US. Chicago had over 500 murders in 2012, and police data indicated that somebody was shot in the city every 3.57 hours. In Bobby Shmurda’s hometown of New York, over 60 percent of 2012’s 419 murder victims were African American and were largely the result of gun violence. While Eminem’s serial killer persona threatens us with the idea of Saw come to life, Shmurda focuses on a wave of death that is terrifyingly real. As such, I find the kind of violence portrayed in “Hot N----”, and songs like it harder to rationalize.
But what makes this issue so difficult is that I don’t even feel comfortable with that previous sentence. I’m essentially saying that it feels more acceptable to listen to somebody rave about sadistic fantasies than it does to listen to another somebody turn the bloodshed of inner-city violence into a feel-good club banger. Doesn’t it seem weird that I find it harder to justify listening to a 20-year-old kid rap about what he’s seen all around him as he has grown up? If hip-hop is going to be used a venue to discuss violence, and it most certainly will, it seems wrong to pass judgment against expression of actual experiences.
I guess the part of me that shudders for a moment whenever I listen to “Hot N----” is responding to the overt celebration in Bobby’s words. Its his eagerness to embody this character that makes me ask myself, “is this wrong?” But as Rembert Browne of Grantland points out in his excellent piece on the song, that energy is what makes the song so infectious and irresistibly joyous when listened to with a bunch of people looking to forget about everything other than becoming one undulating blob mimicking Shmurda’s trademark Shmoney Dance. The most amazing thing about “Hot N----” is that for all the machine gunnery and descriptions of how victims “twirl then they drop,” the song is somehow uplifting. The part of me that squirms when I hear him and think about the hundreds of kids out there shooting at each other is swiftly shoved out of the way by the exuberant charisma of this dude.
Again, this is the challenge of discussing violence in hip-hop. I started by explaining how “Kill You” and “Hot N----” depict two different kinds of violence and in no time at all, this somehow devolved into a description of turning up on the dance floor. Maybe that’s the best way to explain it. Rap music provides a means to express and entertain violent ideas in a way that transforms them into something else. At least that’s the best way I can describe it. If you don’t agree, or if you’d rather not listen to music that uses violence and aggression in that fashion, I don’t blame you. But I can tell you in full confidence, you’re missing out.
