809 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(10/01/14 8:38pm)
A year after winning the NESCAC championship, the Middlebury men’s golf team took a big step towards repeating that accomplishment, earning a first place finish at the 2014 qualifying tournament. The event, held at Hamilton College, comprised ten teams vying for the chance to take part in the four-team NESCAC championship in the spring and also to host the conference tournament.
Middlebury finished the weekend with a 599, only one ahead of Hamilton’s final tally of 600. Eric Laorr ’15 dominated play this weekend with a 74 on day one and a 73 on day two. Fitz Bowen ’17 tied Laorr’s total, earning a 72 on day one and a 75 on day two. Laorr and Bowen were only two strokes off the first-place finisher for the weekend.
Charlie Garcia ’15, John Louie ’15, and Chris Atwood ’14.5 shot 152, 153 and 154 respectively.
Laorr commented on his team’s ability to perform under pressure over multiple days.
“For the most part, our level of play remained steady over the course of the weekend,” he said. “We were able to remain consistent because of our approach to the final day while holding a lead.”
The women’s golf team also had a great showing at home this weekend by finishing in second place behind Williams. Williams totaled 619 while Middlebury shot a 660.
Michelle Peng ’15 led the Panthers with a 158 for the weekend in which she shot an 80 on day one and a 78 on day two. Jordan Glatt ’15 kept pace as the second finisher for the Panthers. Glatt shot a 78 on day one and an 82 on day two to finish the weekend with a 160.
Theodora Yoch ’17 shot a 170 and Hope Matthews ’18 finished the weekend with a 172. Emma Kitchen ’14.5 rounded out the competitors for Middlebury.
“The team played with focus and commitment this weekend, in front of many of our families and friends,” Kitchen said.
Next weekend, the women’s team will travel to Williams to compete in their invitational on Oct. 4 and 5, while the men’s team has next weekend off and will not be competing until the ECAC championship in two weeks.
(09/24/14 8:42pm)
On Wednesday, Sept. 17, the College’s Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE) held a Teach-In to discuss the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. The room was packed to standing room, as students and faculty listened to the panel and engaged in discussion.
Roberto Lint Sagarena, Director of the CCSRE, began the teach-in with a brief chronology of the events that transpired in Ferguson on the day of the shooting and days thereafter.
In addition to his basic timeline of events, Sagarena addressed the differences between the police and witness reports surrounding the circumstances regarding Brown’s death, as well as the pure chaos that erupted in the community following the shooting, including the issues surrounding the media.
Sagarena closed with the results of a Pew Research Poll of 1,000 adults that was conducted in the middle of the protests. There were stark racial and political divisions in the reactions to the shooting, as 80 percent of African Americans surveyed said that the shooting “raised important issues about race” while 47 percent of whites said that the issue of race “was getting more attention than it deserves.” Similarly, 68 percent of Democrats thought that the incident raised important issues of race compared to 40 percent of Independents and 22 percent of Republicans.
Associate Professor of History William Hart addressed the issue of historical precedent – more specifically, the history of violence between police and black civilians. He drew upon a study conducted by Stanford professor and MacArthur Genius Grant recipient Jennifer Eberhardt, in which she determined that “the blacker a defendant looks, the more likely it was that the defendant would receive the death penalty if the victim was white,” and concluded that “it’s almost as if people are thinking of blackness as a crime.”
Hart explained that throughout American history, there is evidence to support the preconditioning towards blackness versus whiteness. If whiteness is viewed as law and privilege,
“The converse would be blackness as crime,” he explained.
He looked back as far as the colonial era, in which laws were meant for white colonists, not for those of color. Progressing throughout history, he explained that police officers either facilitated, or did not hinder, the lynching of African American men and women. Hart then asserted that many urban uprisings in the 20th century were due to police violence, concluding that historically, relations between the black community and the law have been uneasy at best.
Dean of Faculty Development and Research and Rehnquist Professor of American History James Ralph picked up where Hart left off, discussing various attempts by the African American community throughout history to organize in order to address economic, civil, and social injustices. He used the creation of the National Negro Congress in the 1930s as well as the Black Panther Party in the 1960s as examples of efforts to combat oppression and protect African American interests.
Ralph then examined the role of law enforcement during these times, explaining that in the South especially, the police had directly supported segregation. Ralph encouraged us to think of the implications Ferguson may have on the future, suggesting we ask what will come of the Ferguson protests and unrest.
“Is this the beginning of a mass mobilization?” he asked, adding that it has attracted not only national but also international attention.
Assistant Professor of Sociology Rebecca Tiger was last to speak. She first addressed the issue of focusing on the militarization of the police force.
“The militarization of police is significant, but not necessarily for the reasons we have been hearing about,” Tiger said.
Tiger asserted that a large part of the militarization of the police is asset forfeiture. As a part of a 1984 crime control bill, Tiger explained if someone is stopped because they are suspected to have committed a crime, their on-person assets can be seized and not returned to them even if they are not charged or found guilty of a crime. Any money they have can be confiscated, and it is not going to be returned to them even if no crime was committed unless they start judicial proceedings, which are very expensive.
The seized assets, which are supposed to go to schools, end up going to police departments and help fund this militarization of the police. Ultimately, Tiger explained, the Ferguson residents are paying for the police to use militarized equipment on them.
Tiger urged the audience to think of the militarization of the police force as a part of “mundane routines of degradation that happen in the criminal justice system,” warning us that focusing on the militarization of police may result in missing the broader issue.
“We have to start having some serious questions about the police,” Tiger declared. “What role do the police have? Fundamental questions about what their function is. Not questions about how they can be better or more responsive to the community.”
“[We need to] start thinking a little more carefully and critically about what it is that we are actually protesting,” Tiger said. “Because when we take these things all together, you can see that this is the end result of policies and criminal justice practices that have led to this…dispossession of certain segments of the population.”
The floor then opened for questions and discussion. Students and faculty engaged the speakers and each other in dialogue, addressing issues ranging from Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson to the GoFundMe page in support of Officer Wilson that raised over $430,000.
“Do we have the same sort of deep, dense networks of organizations working together…to help put pressure on the political actors in the country so that there can be ongoing sustained work that brings about social change?” Ralph asked.
Hart explained that Ferguson is a relatively new predominantly black community and hasn’t yet had time to establish these networks.
(09/17/14 10:49pm)
After starting the season strong with a decisive 3-0 win over Castleton State College, the Middlebury Women’s soccer team faced mixed results in their three games this week against Amherst, Keene State and Connecticut College,
Coming off the Castleton win, the Panther women hosted conference rival Amherst on Dragone field. The Panthers came out firing in the game, outshooting the Lord Jeffs by a total of 18-6, although they were unable to finish any of the attempts. This was in part due to stellar play by Lord Jeff goalie Holly Burwick, who saved all nine of the Middlebury shots on goal to earn the shutout. Amherst’s goal came in the 70th minute after miscommunication among the Middlebury defense resulted in an own-goal. Middlebury goalie Kate Reinmuth ‘17 finished with one save on two Amherst shots on goal.
Following the Amherst loss, Middlebury faced out of conference Keene State College at home. Keene State was first to strike in the match after Shannon Summers finished a ball to the far left post off of a pass from Rebecca Costello in the 41st minute of the game. Despite this, Middlebury did not relent and continued to pepper the Keene State goalie. Jamie Soroka ‘16 finished her first of two that day, two minutes into the second half off of a pass from Day Robins ‘17 to tie the game. She later connected off of a pass from Katherine Hobbs ‘17 at the 83rd minute mark to take the lead. The Panthers would finish the day by outshooting Keene State by a total of 23-6.
Reinmuth earned the win for Middlebury, finishing with two saves off of three shots on goal, while Keene State’s Victoria Crenson finished with eight saves off of 10 shots on goal. Soroka would finish the day with seven shots, five of which were on goal.
Following the win against Keene State on Wednesday, the Panthers faced NESCAC powerhouse Connecticut College in their first away game. Middlebury went down early in the game after Conn. College’s Astrid Kempainen finished a penalty kick 20 minutes into the game.
The Panthers continued to fight back throughout the game with a number of good attempts at the goal, but none were successful. Conn. College continued to pressure Middlebury throughout the game with Grace Bilodeau finishing a shot from 35 yards out, and Kempanien adding another goal in the 78th minute mark.
Middlebury goalkeeper Reinmuth finished by saving eight out of the 11 shots on goal, while Conn. College’s Bryanna Montalvo earned the win for the Camels with a tough 11-save shutout performance.
The Panthers took the lopsided loss despite having as many shots on goal as their opponent.
After last week’s mixed results, senior Carter Talgo ’15 spoke of significant rom for improvement for the team going forward.
“Whether its individual technical mistakes, tactical awareness, or capitalizing on goal scoring opportunities, we have a big week to prove we can achieve the goals we set for ourselves back in August,” Talgo said.
Back in action for a midweek out-of-conference matchup with regional rival Plattsburgh, the Panthers were able to get back on the winning track.
A goal from Adriana Gildner ’17 near the 80-minute mark was all that Middlebury needed to edge the Cardinals, as they were able to hold on for a tight 1-0 victory.
Reinmuth recorded a trio of saves in goal for Middlebury against Plattsburgh for her second shutout of the young season.
The loss to Middlebury also halted a four-game winning streak for Plattsburgh.
Standing at 3-2 overall and a surprising 0-2 in conference play, the Panthers face another tough NESCAC opponent this weekend in Bowdoin.
Coming off a pair of considerable conference wins over Wesleyan and Amherst, the undefeated Polar Bears will provide a stiff test for a Panther squad that needs a statement win to turn their season around in hopes of launching another postseason run in 2014.
(09/17/14 3:42pm)
Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin recently announced his bid for a third term in office. As the Democratic nominee, Shumlin will be running against Republican Scott Milne and Libertarian Dan Feliciano.
Shumlin’s platform emphasizes economic matters, including job creation, income inequality, healthcare reform, renewable energy sources and resolving Vermont’s opiate problems.
Shumlin insists he has focused on increasing job opportunities “like a laser.” During his time in office, approximately 9,200 jobs have been added to the market. Vermont’s unemployment rate is one of the lowest in the country.
However, Eric Davis, the retired Middlebury College Professor Emeritus of Political Science, says Vermont’s labor statistics are not as clear-cut as they seem. The low unemployment rate fails to reflect the lack of income growth in the middle class or the insufficient income tax revenues that have been plaguing the state.
Davis said that households in the middle class “have seen their incomes be stagnant for the last four years while health care costs are going up, property taxes are going up, and other aspects of the cost of living are outrunning their income gains.”
Shumlin, however, is aware of these challenges.
“The wealthiest are seeing their incomes expand, middle class Vermonters are continuing to get kicked in the teeth and lower income Vermonters are losing ground,” Shumlin said. “So we’ve got a lot more work to do.”
Shumlin has recently implemented a plan to raise the minimum wage in order to combat Vermont’s income inequality problem. In 2014 he signed a bill into law that will increase the state minimum wage, which is currently $8.73 per hour, each January over the next four years until it reaches $10.50 an hour by 2018. Shumlin advocated the gradual increase to mitigate the impact of the bill on business owners.
“Our challenge is to make sure that this state is affordable,” Shumlin said, “that we balance budgets, that we don’t raise taxes, income sales ... which I haven’t done in four years as governor, because we need to keep the state competitive.”
Despite these goals, Shumlin has been accused of ignoring in-state economic problems. Milne criticized the governor for focusing too much on national issues when he should have been addressing issues such as rising property taxes. Vermont has struggled with school properties, and Shumlin acknowledges that rising taxes combined with shrinking school enrollment are unsustainable.
He has stated that his administration will be working to find solutions for schools that are too small to be economically viable. However, Shumlin ultimately feels that such measures must take place on the local level.
“Changes need to come from the ground up and not the top down,” he said.
One of Shumlin’s most significant projects is his push for Vermont to be the first state in the country to implement a single-payer health care system. He has taken strong stances on health care, stating that “[healthcare] is holding us back as a nation.” He further says that adopting a single payer system will help the Vermont economy as out-of-state businesses will want to move their operations here.
“We think we can come up with a much better system moving from premiums to one where you pay for health insurance based on your ability to pay,” he said.
Shumlin has received criticism for the state’s handling of Vermont Health Connect, the state’s version of the federal Affordable Care Act. Technological difficulties made signing up for the program a challenge for many users and have yet to be completely resolved.
“The most frustrating job [I’ve] had to undertake is dealing with the health care situation,” Shumlin said, “There is no silver bullet.”
Vermont Health Connect was created to keep Vermonters’ health benefits higher than the federal exchange benefits. If Vermont joined the federal exchange, Shumlin has said he believes that health care costs in Vermont would rise.
By January, Shumlin aims to create a plan for implementation of the single payer system for the Vermont legislature to discuss, which will include a two billion dollar tax package to finance it. However, as a result of the Affordable Care Act, states cannot go to single payer health care until 2017.
Another key point in Shumlin’s platform is his strong support for renewable energy options.
“Climate change is the biggest challenge that we are facing,” Shumlin said.
He has expanded solar energy usage in Vermont during his time in office, and boasts that Vermont has more solar jobs per capita than any state in the country.
Shumlin is also an advocate of energy efficiency and affirms that his administration is serious about Vermont’s goal of being powered by 90 percent renewable energy by 2050. Shumlin was decidedly in favor of closing the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.
Under Shumlin’s leadership, Vermont became the first state to ban hydraulic fracturing in 2012. Shumlin called the science surrounding the safety of fracking “uncertain at best,” citing potential water pollution caused by fracking.
Despite Shumlin’s strong stance on fracking, he is in favor of the Vermont Natural Gas Pipeline, which will transport fracked natural gas from Canada. In a recent interview on Vermont Public Radio, Shumlin commented that the pipeline would take people that are currently burning dirty oil and move them to a cleaner fossil fuel. He sees natural gas as a “transition fuel on the way to renewables.”
Shumlin is also dedicated to reducing Vermont’s opiate problem. During his 2014 State of the State Address, he spent his entire 34 minutes speaking about the heroin addiction problems plaguing the state. Each week, the value of the quantity of heroin and other opiates entering Vermont totals over two million dollars. Additionally, almost 80 percent of prisoners in Vermont jails are in jail due to drug charges.
Keeping these Vermonters in jail is costly, adding up to approximately $1,120 per week per person. To ease these costs, Vemont decriminalized marijuana in July of 2013, becoming the 17th state to decriminalize marijuana, making possession of less than an ounce punishable by a small fine rather than arrest and jail time.
Shumlin remarked that this was just “common sense,” adding that Vermont’s limited resources “should be focused on reducing abuse and addiction of opiates like heroin and meth rather than cracking down on people for having very small amounts of marijuana.”
To deal with the heroin problem, Shumlin is pushing for the creation of more treatment centers for drug addiction, which would cost $123 per week per person. This would allow the more than 500 heroin users currently on waiting lists to get receive treatment and potentially avoid jail time.
Additionally, Shumlin would like to create a system in which the police direct addicts to treatment centers when they are arrested, as this is the moment when addicts are most likely to agree to treatment. Shumlin also advocates imposing tougher laws to prevent drug dealers from entering the state.
Shumlin is also in favor of increased gun restriction. He has commented that “we should not be living in a country where someone can walk into a school and shoot up 23 little kids.” He added that semi-automatic weapons - like those used in the Newtown Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting - have no place in society. However, Shumlin does not advocate for a total ban on guns. He wants to allow guns to be used by hunters in Vermont and rural areas across the country.
In May of 2014, Shumlin signed into law a bill that will make Vermont the first state to require foods that contain genetically modified ingredients to be labeled as such. The new law is supposed to take effect in July of 2016 but faces challenges from food manufacturers who threaten to sue and from congressional legislation that would prevent states from implementing labeling requirements.
The implementation of this GMO labeling law and the handling of the state after Hurricane Irene are some of Shumlin’s most important accomplishments. Irene struck in 2011, his first year in office, destroying 500 miles of roads, hundreds of private homes and businesses, and damaging the state office complex in Waterbury. Despite the praise he has received, Vermont continues to rebuild to this day.
Like all incumbent politicians, Shumlin has a number of accomplishments and failures. Seeking a third term in office is a fairly recent phenomenon amongst Vermont governors. However, voters tend to favor incumbents, and Shumlin is currently heavily weighted to win the seat in November.
(09/11/14 2:15pm)
The White House recently asked Governor Peter Shumlin if Vermont can harbor immigrants fleeing their homelands in Central America. Vermont is one of several states being considered to host the immigrants – predominantly children from Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.
Governor Shumlin’s office responded that the adminstration was “...willing to investigate locations and logistical requirements...to determine if Vermont would be an appropriate host state for some of the children who have crossed the border and are in custody.”
Currently, around 1,500 undocumented immigrants live in Vermont. Most of them – around 80% – work on dairy farms, shoveling manure or milking cows. The wave of immigrants crossing the border in recent weeks often meet up with family members, like the aforementioned farm hands, already settled in the United States.
The sites Vermont proposed to house the new immigrants vary in size and type, from the Vermont Technical College in Essex Junction to the Ethan Allen Cinema in Burlington. Although all of the proposed locations do not meet the Department of Health and Human Services (HSS) 90,000 square feet minimum, intended to provide adequate living space for the immigrants, it is unclear whether the requirement will change.
Both of Vermont’s Senators, Patrick Leahy (D) and Bernie Sanders (I), have advocated heavily for immigration reform. Although Leahy was far from enthusiastic about all of the amendments on the failed bill, he vowed to support it and said that “legislating is about making tough choices.”
“Vermont has a long history of supporting refugees in need,” said David Carle, a spokesman for Senator Leahy. “Governor Shumlin and his team reflect that history and that ethic, and Senator Leahy applauds the Governor for the state’s willingness to explore ways that Vermont may or may not be able to help.”
Historically, Vermont has been accomodating to refugees fleeing violence in Central America. In 1987, Vermont Refugee Assistance, now the Vermont Immigration and Asylum Advocates (VIAA) was founded to “support refugees fleeing civil wars in Central America.” The VIAA provides legal counsel to immigrants hoping to avoid incarceration or deportation, provides health assistance to survivors of torture, and “logistical and legal support” to refugees hoping to immigrate to Canada.
State Refugee coordinator Denise Lamoureaux stated that most refugees have adapted extrordinarily well to a climate and culture very different from their own. Still, “...all transitions require effort, flexibility and adaptation,” she warned Seven Days Vermont.
Other outreach workers warn that a combination of xenophobia and economic hardship could endanger the traditionally placid relationship between the immigrants and their host communities.
“We’ve been going through a long recession,” said Laurie Stavrand, an outreach worker for the Colchester-based Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program (VRRP) “and everybody has been trying to look out for themselves.”
For residents accustomed to living within hours of the Canadian border, the immigration issue can seem a world away. Yet racial tension in Vermont could actually be compounded by the state’s ethnic homogeniety; 93.7 percent of Vermonters are white, and only 1.7 percent are Hispanic or Latino.
The White House’s request for shelters comes on the heels of intense debate in Washington over immigration reform legislation, which Congress failed to pass before the midterm break. Although the Senate did pass the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act (S. 744) in April of 2013, it will likely die in the GOP controlled House.
President Obama has come under heavy fire for failing to secure the southern border, which an estimated 60,000 children have crossed in recent weeks. The head of U.S. Border Patrol has said that Federal agents are inundated with the amount of immigrants, and are unable to fulfill their traditional anti-terrorist and anti-cartel roles.
The President had previously promised to sign reforms into law before the end of the summer, but abandoned the timetable Sunday. Republican leaders claim that Obama is avoiding the volatile subject until after the November elections to avoid endangering Democratic candidates.
After the elections, Obama has warned he will utilize executive action.
“In the absence of action by Congress,” stated President Obama, “I’m going to do what I can do within the legal constraints of my office, because it’s the right thing to do for the country.”
Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner said that “the decision to simply delay this deeply controversial and possibly unconstitutional unilateral action until after the election — instead of abandoning the idea altogether — smacks of raw politics.”
(09/10/14 8:03pm)
As students prepare for a new semester, silent competitions between textbook retailers intensify.
New book sales at the College Store declined 23.8 percent between 2012 and 2014, while rental profits rose 123.2 percent during the same two-year period. Sales of used books increased by 12 percent, which can be largely attributed to inflation.
Collegiate retailing is a $10 billion industry. But with the explosion of online textbook vendors in the past decade, the College Store faces increasing competition to entice students to shop on campus. Big online retailers include Amazon, which collected an annual revenue of $5.25 billion in book sales alone. Amazon and Chegg, an online textbook vendor, boast $1.1 billion in publicly issued shares, promise up to 90 percent off the list price of textbooks and offer free shipping on many orders. The runaway success of sites like Amazon and Chegg have even prompted brick-and-mortar store Barnes & Noble to start its own textbook rental business in 2010, promising an average of 42 percent off text- book list prices to compete in the market.
Roksana Gabidullina ’16 turned to Amazon for a price break on textbooks because she had already shopped with the online retailer before she started her Middlebury career.
“I do shop online for books, and the reason is purely financial,” she said. “Bookstore books tend to be really expensive, although sometimes, you do find books that are cheaper in the bookstore than online. If I choose to buy at the school, it is because the books are cheaper and instantly accessible. Renting is sometimes less expensive, so I do that in- stead.”
With online retailers advertising significantly lower prices for items available with the click of a mouse, declines in new book sales at the College Store have prompted new efforts to both lower prices and recycle profits back to the student body.
While some college bookstores are owned by chain giants like Barnes & Noble — which controls 636 collegiate book shops nationwide — the College has independent ownership over its bookstore. Books can therefore be obtained from a wider variety of publishers, and prices are lowered without permission from a higher corporate office.
All profits from the College Store are distributed to the College’s General Fund.
“The entire Middlebury budget is $300 million,” Vice President for Finance and Treasurer’s Office Patrick J. Norton said. “Any surpluses from any operating unit go to sup- port various Middlebury commitments.”
These commitments include recruiting and retaining faculty, funding students’ financial aid, and constructing, maintaining and renovating the College’s academic, residential, dining and athletic facilities.
As a small brick-and-mortar business, the College Store faces some costs that simply do not exist for online retailers.
“We [the College Store] have a higher cost of labor,” Store Manager Georgia Best said. “There are three full-time people and one to two part-time people devoted to the process of ordering, receiving and setting up textbooks and pulling and packing to return overstock. Our freight cost was over $40,000 this past fiscal year.”
The cost of this manual labor and shipping must be incorporated into the cost of the textbook.
The Store purchases textbooks from publishers at a discount of anywhere from 20 to 45 percent off suggested retail, which are then sold to students at the original suggested retail price, translating into an average profit margin of 23 to 24 percent for the store.
“If we make a change, it is to lower the price,” Best said. “On a national level net priced textbooks are sold at a 25 percent margin. Here at Middlebury any text that is $100 or more net cost has a 20 percent margin.”
Online retailers like Amazon can occa- sionally sell books below cost, or for less than the original purchase price. This benefits the buyer, but is not a sustainable strategy for a physical bookstore.
“There are reports that Amazon has never made a profit selling books,” Textbook Co- ordinator Dean Leary said. “Recently it was reported that Amazon as a whole makes only less than a penny in profit for every dollar of sales.”
At the College Store, items like clothing, miscellaneous merchandise and school supplies carry a higher profit margin of 35 to 50 percent to account for lower textbook profits.
The College Store promises for each student enough copies of the required reading— new or used. Since used books are a hot com- modity both in the bookstore and in the larger market, the competition among the colleges for these used books are stiff.
“If a title has just been published there aren’t many, if any, used on the market,” Best said. “We compete on a national level with other colleges and universities for used books, and the later the order from faculty, the less likely we’ll get used copies. We try to buy back as many as we can from students.”
In an attempt to entice students with competitive prices, the rental program allows the purchase of books for one semester at about 54 percent off the retail price.
“For rentals, we partner with a wholesaler that guarantees us a certain amount for each book at the end of the term, which allows us to offer it at a reduced price,” Best said.
A quick price comparison: this semester, a Biology 140: Ecology and Evolution textbook, Tangled Bank: Introduction to Evolu- tion, is being offered at a used rental price of $32.50 and a used purchase price of $60.00. The new purchase price of the book is $80.00 compared to the $42.50 charge for a new rental copy.
The availability of a book for rental depends on the wholesalers’ offerings.
Trying to sell the book back to the store is a game of supply and demand. The frequent publication of new editions makes many relatively new textbooks obsolete to the College Store or wholesalers if faculty members request the newest edition or the wholesalers are trying to move only the newest product.
If a book is being used in the next semester, students can recuperate about 50 percent of the purchase price through the buyback process at the store. If the book is not being used, the student may receive a less lucrative wholesale value for the book or try selling the book at another time.
In comparison, customers typically recuperate about a 60 percent return when selling back a textbook through Amazon, 65 percent with Barnes & Noble and up to 85 percent on Chegg.
eBooks are also available to students at 40 to 45 percent off of the suggested retail price, but the option is not as popular, with less than 20 eBooks sold at the College Book- store last semester.
A Spring 2014 study by OnCampus Research showed that only 10 percent of students prefer an electronic textbook, for reasons ranging from ease of use to the ability to sell a book back.
At the College Store, items can be returned by the Friday of the first week of classes with no questions asked for a full refund on a bookstore gift card. After the first Friday, textbooks are only returnable with proof of a dropped class.
Online retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble offer free shipping on orders from their warehouses over $35 and $25, respectively. Chegg charges a flat $3.99 fee per order when they aren’t offering free shipping promotions at the beginning of the semester.
Additionally, Barnes & Noble has a 14- day return policy, and Amazon and Chegg ac- cept returns within 30 days. Chegg pays for return shipping, but the customer is responsible for this fee at Barnes & Noble. Amazon will fund a return shipping fee only if the return was a result of the company’s error.
Shipping typically takes anywhere between three and 14 days from online retailers.
“Shopping online is not for ease because shipping often takes some time, and I’ve had experiences with going through the first weeks of classes without books,” Gabidullina said. “I’ve also only tried to sell one book back to Amazon, which was not easy. I only received a tiny fraction of the price I was selling it for, which is the reason I don’t sell online. I have a lot of books still on my desk at home.” Individual sellers on Amazon forfeit a 15% commission, a $1.35 fixed closing fee and 99 cent selling fee per item.
“Since Amazon charges an annual fee plus a percentage of each title sold to use their site for selling books, they are making money off a book they aren’t shipping,” Best said. “They are then allowed to take a smaller percentage off the publishers net price than we [the College Store] are.”
The College Store implements its own programs to recycle profits back to the stu- dent body and entice customers. An estimated 75 to 80 percent of the student body uses Panther Points, a program that allows students to redeem points earned by making purchases at the Store for gift cards, and in 2013, students redeemed 692,000 points.
In addition to the Panther Points Program, the College Store started a raffle four years ago to benefit student groups.
“We partner with a company that has a program called ‘One Planet Books,’” Best said. “For every box of books we send to them they give us $10. These are books that have no value either to used book wholesalers or online vendors. The books come from students who donate them and from the recycling center. The money that we earn from these books is donated to SGA groups that sign up for the drawing. Since we started we have donated almost $3,500 to different groups.”
In addition to textbooks, the College Store aims to be a one-stop shopping destination for students, offering supplies, clothing and a Mac Store selling Apple computers at educational discounts. In recent months, the store acquired a Boots makeup kiosk, and this semester they are introducing a scarf kiosk, rack of posters and an increased selection of dorm supplies to provide students more of an incentive to look to the College Store for a convenient and complete inventory of products.
Though the store cannot lower their textbook prices to be as competitive as online retailers like Amazon, Chegg and Barnes & Noble, loyalty programs and personalized services are just some of the ways the College Store is trying to compete.
Leary cites three reasons why he thinks students should shop at the College Store.
“Amazon does not offer true cost prices, so it’s easy for people to make decisions with less than best long-term outcomes, there are efficiency and environmental savings of mass shipping to one distribution point and the competition may not offer the same working conditions and compensation as the College,” he said.
In the future, competition from online retailers will likely only increase, forcing changes in sales techniques from all sides. It is hard to say which method for buying textbooks is the best, but retailers are fighting for students’ business, which, in the end, can only benefit the student by offering more options.
Image: http://www.witherbysonline.com/iStock_Books.gif
(05/08/14 12:30am)
Sexual assault on college campuses made national news last week when Tufts University was found noncompliant with Title IX for mishandling complaints of sexual assault. In the wake of this finding, the Department of Education released a list of the 55 schools currently under investigation for such violations, including Amherst College, Harvard University and Dartmouth University.
Title IX bans gender discrimination on campuses and, along with the Cleary Act and the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination (SaVE) Act, dictates federal guidelines for college response to sexual assault. In the wake of a Dear Colleague Letter released by the Office of Civil Rights on April 4, 2011, colleges have been revising their sexual assault response policies to meet such regulations to respond promptly and effectively to sexual violence. The guidelines, however, are murky, and in recent weeks, the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) has been working to clarify what is expected of colleges.
“A lot of folks are doing their best and trying to follow the spirit of the law, but we don’t have a lot of guidance on Title IX, and we only find out what not to do when another school does that thing and gets called on it,” said Director of Health and Wellness Barbara McCall.
While a school’s appearance on the list does not mean they are not compliant, Tufts student John Kelly ’15 has seen the failures of college sexual assault policies and doubts the compliance of many schools. Kelly is the Special Projects and Events Coordinator for “Know Your IX,” a campaign that aims to educate students about their rights under Title IX.
“I’ve worked with students from about a dozen of the 55 schools at least [through “Know Your IX”], and I would not be surprised in the slightest if all of the schools I’m working with are found out of compliance as well,” he said. “In fact, I would be pretty surprised if they were found in compliance.”
At Tufts, student outrage led to a protest outside an administrative building last Thursday, May 1, when students held a rally and encircled a building in which 12 students, including Kelly and Olivia Carle ’17, met with administrators to negotiate their reentry into the Title IX voluntary resolution.
“The police officers watching over us said we hadn’t had something this big since the ’80s,” said Carle. “Someone said the protestors could ring around the administrative building three times.”
As a result of these negotiations, Tufts acknowledged the findings of non-compliance and agreed to hire a Response and Resource Coordinator. Administrators will continue to discuss the Title IX findings with the OCR in Washington, D.C. this week.
“Tufts has not looked good recently, and I think this is serving as a warning to other schools to take sexual assault seriously, to take our students seriously, and that there are real impacts when they find schools out of compliance,” said Kelly.
Kelly and Carle both think this should serve as a wake up call for other colleges.
“The idea of waiting for the government to find you compliant is such a backwards way of looking, and if a school hasn’t had that big moment yet, now is the time to really take the bull by the horns and make changes so it doesn’t come to that,” said Kelly.
“For me, this kind of noncompliance with Title IX is almost an epidemic among colleges,” said Carle. “Do I think that there’s a long way to go? I think we both [Kelly and she] do… but I think there might be more organization and more solidarity between students trying to fight this non-compliance with Title IX.”
For Middlebury, which is not under investigation, the media buzz around sexual assault provides an opportunity for reflection, although many of the College’s policies are already leading the field. One noteworthy recognition of the College’s commitment to sexual violence prevention was a $272,528 grant from the Department of Justice received this fall.
“Middlebury has been active in national conversations about best practices and legislative initiatives in this area for many years,” wrote Human Relations Officer Sue Ritter and Associate Dean for Judicial Affairs and Student Life Karen Guttentag in an email. “While we are still reviewing the fine points of the White House Task Force report, the recommendations are consistent with many of our current practices as well as the initiatives that we are pursuing with the assistance of the Office of Violence Against Women grant.”
This consistency is due to a history of thoughtful engagement on sexual assault in the administration. Even before some of the existing guidelines were in place, the College was reviewing its policy. The College’s Sexual Misconduct Policy, which was introduced in the fall of 2011, has been recognized as a model for others by national experts in the field.
“I’m really new to the community — this is only my first year — but one of the things that drew me to the community was the really thoughtful approach that the College has taken on sexual assault,” said McCall. “The institution was really working on making sure our policies and our procedures reflected best practices before national mandates started coming down the pipeline.”
A hallmark of this system is our judicial process, which uses the single investigator model, called “promising” by the White House Task Force, to eliminate in-person hearings and ensure that students do not need to tell their story more than once and to multiple people with the hope of alleviating some of the stress of this process.
“While we continue to fine-tune our policy each year, we feel confident that our approach is the most fair, compassionate and effective way for us to respond to sexual misconduct complaints,” wrote Ritter and Guttentag.
However, Sarah Boyd ’14, an organizer with It Happens Here (IHH) has qualms with the existing system.
“The investigators have already made up their minds when they present the situation, and their job is to investigate and to find the facts, but in that way, you don’t have someone rooting for both people,” she said. “That’s something that’s really lost in our system.”
But other students speak positively of this system, including Sexual Assault Oversight Committee (SAOC) chair Jordan McKinley ’14.
“I think our community judicial board and our policies are very fair,” said McKinley. “It makes an issue that is always complicated and very messy a little more cut and dry when you can say, ‘this didn’t turn out the way I wanted, but I see why because of the policy.’”
“Of course there still are a lot of problems where when you think about how many stories are submitted to IHH and how few of those go through the judicial process,” said Katie Preston ’17, a member of IHH and SAOC. “It’s not a perfect system, but Middlebury is working very hard to be there.”
One place the College could improve, as suggested by students interviewed by the Campus, is programming during first-year orientation. McCall will be working with MiddSafe advocates over the summer to develop programming about sexual assault prevention, including bystander intervention and defining consent, as well as optional programming about sexual education for the incoming first-year class.
“We plan on upping the ante on a lot of awareness in the next year,” said Jackie Voluz ’14, a MiddSafe advocate. “We’re being compliant for sure… but there’s always room for improvement and constant consideration of survivor’s needs.”
(05/07/14 7:53pm)
Nail biting. Isolation. Tiredness. Irritability. Anxiety. These are all ways to tell when you’ve reached the boiling point. As most students have probably experienced, stress manifests in a variety of forms, intensities and lengths. According to the American Psychological Association, “stress can be a reaction to a short-lived situation, such as being stuck in traffic. Or it can last a long time if you’re dealing with relationship problems, a spouse’s death or other serious situations.” In Middlebury terms, this means that stress can be a finals week fling or a four-year romance.
This week The Campus explored how students at the College define their relationship with stress. We surveyed 112 students about where their stressors come from, how their stress levels at the College compare to past stresses and how they deal with their stress.
According to our survey, 30 percent of students reported high stress — identified their stress as 7, 8, 9 or 10 on a one to ten scale — from daily academics at the College. This number spiked to 70 percent during midterms and a whopping 80 percent during finals. The leading causes of stress outside of academics were extracurricular activities and athletics.
These findings paralleled the observations of Counseling Director of Parton Health Center Ximena Mejia.
“The leading causes of stress at Middlebury are anxiety regarding high academic expectations, over commitment of extracurricular activities, and unrealistic social life expectations,” said Mejia. “Students at Middlebury have high expectations of themselves, which isn’t all bad, but can become problematic when concentrated on multiple demands at the end of a semester.”
Counseling Intern Mark Nash, who led an eight-week workshop this year on “Mindfulness, Stress Relief and the Art of Being Enough,” adds that student stress often stems from expectations that they set for themselves in high school.
“Students worked very hard to get here, and now that they’ve arrived, they feel like the bar is set even higher, and they stress about never really being able to reach that bar,” said Nash. “I’m not sure there’s anything about the atmosphere here, as much as the school’s reputation. When you’re attending what is often referred to as one of the best schools in the country, you can feel a lot of pressure to live up to that standard.”
Often students deal with their high stress levels in unhealthy ways including sleep deprivation, missing meals, increased caffeine intake and increased substance intake, including alcohol, prescription medications and illegal drugs. Our survey confirmed that drinking alcohol was the eighth most popular way to deal with stress and drug use was the twelfth most popular.
The most popular stress busters at the College proved to be much healthier options. The top three ways for students to deal with stress were exercising, sleeping, and socializing. These methods of stress busting were recommended by Mejia in addition to stress management techniques such as mindfulness, meditation and yoga.
Many students also combat their stress by talking about it with their friends and family. Talking to family was the fifth most popular way to deal with stress at the College and sixty-one percent of students reported that they choose to express their stress rather than hide it. Despite this apparent openness about stress, 62 percent of students believe they are less stressed than their peers when there are relatively uniform levels of high stress among students at the College.
Put these numbers in context and we see stress at the College as part of a larger trend. According to a 2011 University of California Los Angeles survey, more than 200,000 first-year students across 300 four-year colleges say their overall emotional health is “below average.” At the same time, 52 percent of students say their emotional health was above average. In 1985, that number was 64 percent. As emotional health among college students decline nationally, Middlebury is not immune to the trend.
“Middlebury student stress is similar to stress at other student stress at other similar institutions,” Mejia said. However, 95 percent of surveyed students say they are more stressed out compared to students at other institutions.
While stress is part and parcel of a rigorous academic experience, it’s never really clear when we’ve pushed past a breaking point. Students for looking resources to deal with their stress should check out Parton Health Center’s weekly yoga for stress classes, guided meditation during finals week and online mindfulness resources. Nash also recommends that stressed students speak with a counselor because they will not have to worry about burdening them with their problems unlike family or friends.
“Another great way to deal with stress is to talk about it with someone who is there for the sole purpose of listening,” said Nash. “When you talk to a counselor, you don’t need to worry about taking care of them. And while a counselor rarely gives advice or offers solutions, they can offer new perspectives that can help you find your own answers and strategies.”
For more information about resources to deal with your stress, visit go/parton.
(05/07/14 4:12pm)
In honor of my final contribution to the Campus, I wanted to mention some things I love about Middlebury. I love that everybody is on the same housing and meal plan. I love that we all have access to top-notch athletic facilities, to mental and physical health services, and to innumerable devices and software. I love that students started Middbeat, JusTalks, beyond the green and Womp. I love that we’ve got need-blind admission (if imperfect). We’ve got major problems at Middlebury, but for these (and other) reasons, Middlebury is arguably more inclusive to its members than American society as a whole. What these things share in common is the commitment to equity amongst students.
We should be celebrating rising tuition in the same spirit. Tuition that rises faster than inflation is not a bad thing; in fact, I believe our tuition should rise faster than it does now. It would be a key piece of one of the most inclusive policies that our college can choose to adopt.
To clarify, rising public college tuition is not only a force that is exacerbating systematic inequality, but the accumulation of student debt is a major macro-economic problem in the United States. Rising tuition at state universities around the United States is a major obstacle to our nation’s economic competitiveness; it restricts upward mobility and squeezes the middle class. Protesting public tuition hikes is well founded.
But in the decade before 2012, the total annual cost of college (defined as tuition plus room and board, controlling for inflation) increased 40 percent for public schools, compared to only 28 percent for private non-profits. From 2004-2012, 71 percent of Americans lived in states where public school total costs grew faster than private schools. This is harmful: as the economy grows private school rates would ideally rise to accommodate increasing proportions of qualified, upwardly mobile, aid-dependent students, while public school rates should decrease to expand access, especially in times of economic distress. We can’t control public tuition, but we should strive to absorb the very best students who are squeezed by the system.
A private, non-profit institution like Middlebury is different from state universities, most relevantly, because the government cannot impose different prices for the same good depending on the individual payer. The government may be able to tax as it sees fit, but it cannot charge rich people more for stamps. In contrast, as a private non-profit institution, Middlebury can, in effect, charge different rates because of our commitment to “meet demonstrated need.” Arising from that commitment, charging a higher “sticker” tuition price (which only 58 percent of students actually pay) would function as a progressive tax that would free an enormous amount of grant aid funding.
Financial aid comes at a great cost, but is absolutely fundamental to our community. The Board of Trustees increased the total cost of college 2.94 percent for this upcoming year, but if that number had been 5.00 percent, we would free enough money for the provision of “average” aid grants to more than 28 students. Demonstrated need would still apply: anybody who could not foot the tuition increase could be covered with freed funds. Those that could afford full sticker price would pay, roughly, an additional $2,900 per semester; given the wealth of many Middlebury students, this is a small price to pay for admission to one of the best liberal schools in the world. Indeed, many families gracefully give beyond tuition costs as alumni donors. Half of applicants would pay no increase in price. This is an example, not a prescription: I do not know the ideal rate, but I believe growth in tuition costs should increase more than it currently is. I’m not advocating any other use for tuition hikes, nor am I opposed to other sources of funding for student aid; my point is we can improve the system meaningfully at the margins.
Frankly, many Middlebury students get in every year because they have money. I am a good example. I got into Middlebury off the waitlist — the fourth student from my private high school class of 80 — and part of it was because my family could pay sticker price. Increasing “sticker price” could end our need-blind-except-for-the-waitlist policy and bring greater socioeconomic diversity to campus.
Based on the amount of people who have shared experiences of marginalization based on race and class — which have been widely expressed in public forums — increasing need-based student aid could help Middlebury’s ability to attract a critical mass of identity groups to campus. Students here should not have to be representatives of their entire race in classrooms and parties, and Middlebury should not be as overwhelmingly white as it is. Most importantly, we could attract more of the top students who cannot pay their way to Middlebury.
I respect Middlebury as an institution. I value the people I met here as highly as anything. We should welcome this reform — despite the cost — for the betterment of the college that will always be my Alma Mater.
(04/30/14 4:37pm)
For my last column of the year, I wanted to touch on a more serious issue. Inspired by recent events in my life as well as many friends, and also various Middfesh stories, I believe it is important to discuss the very serious issue of STDs (sexually transmitted diseases). While sex comes with a lot of great things, if people aren’t safe, it can come with some scary aspects, too.
From speaking with my peers on this campus, it seems that there is a general attitude of “it happens, but not here” with regards to STDs. I’m not sure why this is — perhaps it’s the relatively affluent make-up of the school, or the fact that no one seems to talk about these problems. But Middlebury is no exception. In fact, I have personally known more than a few kids with a scare or two. Getting tested is terrifying and nerve-wracking, but definitely important.
I myself have had my own scare. After a friend who I had been with notified me that they had tested positive for an infection, I was terrified. I had done everything right, put everything on correctly, but still went to get tested immediately. Luckily, everything ended up negative, but after getting tested, I realized how easy and how necessary it was, and how rarely college students actually seem to get tested.
Many people might believe that as long as you use a condom, everything will be fine. And to some extent, this is true. But what a lot of people forget is how easy it is to forget to use protection. The girl is on the pill, the last condom broke or expired, you are drunk and it feels better. The list of excuses for refraining from using protection goes on and on. And a lot of people feel that, with their 3.8 GPA, perfect figure and 3 job interviews lined up, that they are untouchable. Whatever the reasons may be, a fair amount of college students don’t always follow the seemingly “obvious” rules of sex protection. In fact, the National College Health Assessment estimates that up to one half of college students don’t use condoms during sex.
However, the lack of awareness about these issues actually makes the problem more serious. Some stats say that up to 80% of people infected with STDs show no immediate symptoms. This, combined with the College’s known hookup culture, makes spreading diseases that much easier. And even for those that get tested, going back and informing past partners is awkward, especially if they were a random one-night stand.
Some of the major diseases, such as HPV and chlamydia, can show absolutely no signs in men or women. However, in order to practice safe sex, it is extremely important to get tested. The CDC states that nearly one half of the 20 million people newly diagnosed with STDs year fit under the 15-24 age bracket. So remember, any time you think you’ve been in a risky situation, or even if you have recently switched a few partners, get tested. Yearly. The worst thing you could do is ignore these issues and potentially hurt yourself and the college community.
FYI: The Parton Health Center does STD and HIV testing, as well as the Planned Parenthood in town, and these are both normally confidential. There is a lot more information online so you can find the best method for you.
(04/30/14 2:55pm)
The Middlebury golf teams completed their regular seasons this weekend, with the men capturing the NESCAC championship on their home course on Saturday and Sunday, April 26 and 27, and the women traveling to Williams for the Northeast Elite Invitational.
The men played host to Williams, Trinity and Amherst at the Ralph Myhre Golf Course and won the event with a weekend score of 625. They defeated runner-up Williams by one stroke and third-place Trinity by four, with Amherst finishing 35 strokes behind the Panthers. The NESCAC crown is the third team title for Middlebury in four years, and the program’s sixth overall. With the win, the team automatically qualifies for the NCAA championships to be held at Grandover Resort in Grandover, N.C. on May 13-16.
On Saturday, Middlebury took advantage of their home course, and for the first time this season came out strong on the first day of play, jumping out to an eleven-stroke lead. The Panthers were led on day one by one-over rounds of 72 from Rob Donahoe ’14 and Fitz Bowen ’17. Charlie Garcia ’15 sat in a tie for third going into Sunday after carding a 75. Max Alley ’14 shot 80 and John Louie ’15 shot 84, giving the Panthers a one-day team score of 299.
Playing with the lead for the first time this season, Middlebury dropped shots early on a cold, wet, windy day two on the course. Bowen led the Panthers on Sunday by shooting a round of 77. The first-year tied for the best round on both Saturday and Sunday and took home medalist honors on the weekend.
“This weekend my goal was to attack the course from tee to green, and stay conservative when I had a putter in my hands,” said Bowen. “The greens were difficult to judge and I knew that if I played two rounds without a three-putt, I would be in contention.”
Bowen finished four strokes in front of Williams senior and 2013 champion Cody Semmelrock to become the first first-year to win the tournament since 2006.
Donahoe was second for the Panthers after shooting 82 on Sunday to finish tied for third. Garcia finished tied for sixth after matching Donahoe’s 82 on day two. Alley shot 85 for 15th place, and Louie shot 87 to finish in 20th place.
Garcia’s round looked to be in shambles after a quadruple bogey on the par-five 11th, a hole that gave most of the Panthers fits on Sunday.
“I sat nine over on the 12th tee and I thought the championship was slipping through my fingertips,” said Garcia. “Coach Beaney pulled me aside and said, ‘We need you to grind it out. There is a lot of golf left. I know you are mad but the past is the past.’ I ended up getting up and down for par on five out of my last seven holes, which was vital.”
Williams nearly made up their 12-stroke deficit, thanks to consistent play across the board, but Middlebury’s strong play down the stretch held off the Eph’s charge.
At the Division-III NCAAs, the Panthers look to become the first NESCAC team to make the 15-team cut at the tournament. The Panthers missed the cut by 14 strokes the last time they made the tournament, in 2011-12.
On the women’s side, the Panthers played at Taconic Golf Club in Williamstown, MA at the final tournament of the season. In the tournament, Middlebury played against the usual slate of NESCAC opponents and Methodist University, who won the tournament by two strokes. Ithaca College finished third, fourteen strokes behind Methodist, followed by Middlebury in fourth place with a weekend total of 676.
While the third straight week of finishing behind Williams and Ithaca would seem to take the wind out of the team’s sails, top Middlebury scorer Jordan Glatt ’15 does not see it as such.
“This season’s outcome has only made us more determined to improve next year and overtake Williams and Ithaca at the top of the leaderboard,” said Glatt.
Glatt led the Panthers over the weekend, as she has for much of the spring season with rounds of 78 and 85, landing her in 12th place. Monica Chow ’16 shot 82 and 83 to finish tied for 15th, Michelle Peng ’16 shot 88 and 82 to finish 22th. She was able to lower her score by 6 strokes despite the tough conditions.
“The second day the wind really picked up, which made the conditions much tougher at an already challenging course,” said Peng. “Going into the second round I tried to relax and not overthink things.”
Because the NESCAC does not sponsor a women’s golf championship, the Williams tournament marks the end of the season for the team. Caroline Kenter ’14 played in her final tournament at Middlebury and shot 83 and 97 to finish 29th. Theodora Yoch ’17 rounded out the competing Panthers and finished 31st.
The team – which failed to qualify for the NCAA championship – will welcome two new recruits in the fall to replace departing senior captain Kenter.
(04/24/14 12:40am)
Bakery at Crossroads Cafe
The school bake sales as you knew them pale in comparison to the kind of creative baked goods the student-run Crossroads Café are selling. From lemon-frosted blueberry cake to banana peanut butter finger cake, from white chocolate sweet potato cake to pumpkin bread, the range of pastries conceptualized and made by the baking team at Crossroads never stops expanding. Head chef of Crossroads Sandra Markowitz ’15.5 said, “Once we had an overabundance of coconut flour and so we wondered, ‘what are we going to do with all this?’ and so then we found a coconut banana bread chocolate chip recipe,” a melting pastry that now sells over the counter.
Creativity cooks here even without a kitchen. “The main difficulty is that the kitchen we have access to is the Grille’s—which isn’t a baking kitchen,” Markowitz said. “They’ve been really helpful in supplying us with the things we need. They have a good oven, they have whisks, and I’m hoping next to ask for bundt cake pans!”
Pastries sell by the slice here, but they can also be bought whole. Because it takes four hours to bake a cake, chefs would optimize and take to baking three cakes on Sunday—two of them decorated for Crossroads and the third replica would be sold whole. Markowitz says that the difference between buying here and buying pastries at Carol’s is that “you don’t know the person baking them. It’s a chance to support someone and their passion here, and I think that’s a really great thing.” Food, and all the creativity that goes into it, doesn’t get any more local than this.
Prices: $1.25-$3.25
Contact: smarkowoitz@middlbury.edu
Team Members: Sandra Markowitz ’15.5 (Head Chef), Mariah Levin ’16.5, Georgia Wei ’16, Birgitta Cheng ’17, Connor Bentivoglio ’15.5
Wash & Carry
Since 1987, Middlebury men’s hockey team has been running Wash and Carry, a laundry washing and delivery service. Serving about 200-230 people per year, Wash and Carry picks up your laundry once a week in a special bag outside student’s doors, transports it to Mountain Fresh Cleaners where the laundry is washed, dried and folded, and returns the laundry in the evening. This one-day service takes about nine players doing ten shifts to get the job done. Wash and Carry is not exclusively a hockey team job but the company was founded by a men’s hockey player and since the ‘80s has been passed down through the team because, in the words of current head Thomas Freyre ’14, “it’s easier to trust someone to do their job when they’re a teammate and close friend.” Freyre, who will be passing his leadership on to David Loughborough ’16 next year, says, “Sometimes things take longer than you’d like but mistakes are part of learning how to run a business. I like to think at the end of the day people feel like we tried for them and they had a positive experience.”
Prices: $425 for laundry service once a week for the year; $290 for every other week for the year
Contact: dloughborough@middlebury.edu or visit middleburywashandcarry.com
Team Members: Middlebury Men’s Hockey & friends
Summer Spillane Haircuts
Summer Spillane ’15 has been cutting hair since her first year on campus. A self-taught cosmetologist, Spillane started learning the trade of haircutting through YouTube tutorial videos before she decided to pick up a buzzer and cut clean the hair of her male friends. But since then, she’s gotten more practice. “I started out with close friends who trusted me with their hair but have expanded my client base as word spread. I have more experience with short styles but I really like working with long hair.”
She has dealt with a client range of personalities from laid-back to people very particular about their hair. “I’ve invested my name,” she said. “My name is going to be attached to the style, so as much I love talking and getting to know people I’ve never met, I focus. I always want them to like it.” Students who don’t want to trek out to town go to Spillane for a cheap cut. Since she is not a licensed professional, she accepts tips. For a small tip, you’ll get “the full treatment, blow-out and finished product.” Want the view from a barber’s chair and the full experience of the wearing a plastic styling cape? She’s got that too.
Prices: $5-$10 (plus tip)
recommended
Contact: sspillane@middlebury.edu
Team Members: Summer Spillane ’15
Otter Delivery
“I hatched the idea while assembling a TV stand early in the school year,” said Teddy Gold ’16 of the nascence of Otter Delivery, a new student-run delivery service launched this semester. “I realized that the stand needed a screwdriver and I, along with the entirety of Gifford, did not have an adequate screwdriver.”
Though in this incident, Gold fell prey to the ease of Amazon delivery, the situation sparked an idea and has grown ever since.
Otter Delivery’s business model took its full shape in Gold’s J-term class, Midd Entrepreneurs, with the help of visiting Professors Andrew Stickney and Dave Bradbury, as a simple call and response system. Customers email or call in orders—Gold cites “diapers, a birthday cake, brownie mix, shampoo, local cheese from Scholten family farmstand or pizza at an hour when Ramuntos doesn’t deliver”—and items are delivered by around 5 p.m., with a $5 surcharge per business visited.
Otter Delivery receives ten to fifteen orders a week, which are handled by Gold and Brandon Gell ’16, the company’s marketing director. At this point, the business is manageable with two “otters,” or deliverers, but Gold hopes to expand in the near future.
The next step is developing a website and app through which customers can place orders, and which can then allow the franchise to expand to other NESCAC schools, where friends of Gold are interested in drumming up business.
Gold and Gell believe the model is sustainable and beneficial to small town college life.
“Amazon is easy, convenient, and omnipresent,” Gold said. “But nowhere in the Amazon equation does anyone account for the brick and mortar, mom and pop shops that drive local economies. At the very heart of Otter Delivery is convenience for customers and support for local economies.”
Prices: $5 per store visited (plus cost of item)
Contact: Teddy@Otterdelivery.com
Team Members: Teddy Gold ’16, Brandon Gell ’16
Middorm
Extra long twin size beds seem to be an unavoidable aspect of residential life on campus, until you meet the minds behind of Middorm, Jack Steele ’16, Dylan McGarthwaite ’17 and Eliot Neal ’17. Inspired by a friend’s similar endeavor at Dartmouth College, Steele co-founded the bed buying business at the beginning of his first year. The company rents full size beds and futons for semester or full year terms.
“Crazy comfort” is the company’s goal, according to Steele, and its one that has found great success across campus, as rentals almost doubled this year. Middorm’s model is simple: an all student email over the summer informs Midd kids of rental options, and the team delivers the order at the beginning of the term.
With business growing steadily, the company is committed to consistent comfort across campus.
Prices: full size beds at $250 for one semester or $399 for the year; futons at $150 for one semester or $250 for the year.
Contact: middorm.com
Team Members: Jack Steele ’16, Dylan McGarthwaite ’17 and Eliot Neal ’17
Morning Glory
Ever find that dining hall brunch simply won’t cut it? Morning Glory seeks make breakfast a gourmet experience. A Gamut Room gig started by Olivia French ’16 and Caroline Decamp ’14, Morning Glory sells breakfast sandwiches from 11 am to 1 pm on Saturday mornings for only a dollar! Morning Glory was born last spring out of French’s sampling of regional cuisines abroad and the desire on behalf the former roommates to spend time together in a new way. Now, the pair serves up savory breakfast sandwiches such as the Cleopatra (a breakfast sandwich with roasted red pepper and eggplant, garlic yogurt sauce, fried egg, feta, and cilantro) and Pillow Talk (bacon, caramelized onion, arugula, maple vinaigrette, fried egg, and cheddar), debuting new recipes each week inspired by food blogs, travel and their favorite restaurants.
“It is important to us that each recipe is original,” emphasizes French, however, who wrote a local foods inspired cookbook for her senior thesis. “We have a lot of fun deciding what veggies, cheeses, herbs, and meats to use on our sandwiches each week, and make sure to change it up--for both our customer’s enjoyment and our own.”
The pair, which describe breakfast sandwiches as “a wonderful canvas to experiment with new flavor combinations,” concoct about 50 handmade creations each Saturday to sell. French and Decamp have no plans as yet to continue Morning Glory after their graduation this spring. Students interested in keeping up with Morning Glory’s gourmet recipes, however, can check out the blog French is starting this summer called the Foodie and the Farmer, featuring photojournalism profiles of food workers like farmers and chefs and original recipes based on their stories. In the meantime, hit this delicious deal while it lasts!
Prices: $1 per sandwich
Contact: ofrench@middlebury.edu or edecamp@middlebury.edu
Team Members: Olivia French ’14, Caroline DeCamp ’14
(04/23/14 5:57pm)
One chilly September morning in 2011, Kristin Lundy heard someone ascend her front steps and knock on her door. When she opened it, police Sgt. Mike Fish asked her to gather everyone living in the house. "Your son is dead," he said.
"I ran up the stairs," Lundy later recalled in an interview with the Burlington Free Press. "I just screamed until I went into shock...I thought he was coming out of the woods. I thought we were beginning to understand this opiate thing.” Joshua Lundy, at just 23 years old, had passed away from a heroin overdose.
Sadly, Kristin's horror story is a tired one in Vermont. Statewide treatment for heroin addicts has increased 250 percent since 2000, and the number of deaths from by heroin overdose has doubled in the past year.
In last year's State of the State Address, Governor Shumlin asserted optimistically that Vermont was "... healthy, resilient, and strong. We are blessed to live here," he said, "and we care deeply about our shared future."
In his 2014 State of the State address, Shumlin's tone changed dramatically. "In every corner of our state, heroin and opiate drug addiction threatens us," said Shumlin.
Unfortunately, the stigma attached to heroin addiction makes it much harder for users like Joshua Lundy to get clean. Heroin addicts face intense social pressure to hide their addictions, and candid public discourse about heroin abuse is difficult.
In response, Governor Shumlin sought to reclothe the crisis as a medical emergency in his 2014 State of the State Address. "We must address it as a public health crisis," said Shumlin, "providing treatment and support, rather than simply doling out punishment, claiming victory, and moving onto our next conviction," he said. "Addiction is, at its core, a chronic disease."
Many health care professionals and recovering addicts agreed with Shumlin.
“I think that’s hard for some people that struggled with addiction to move on, if they’re always being labeled an addict forever,” said Gina Tron, a recovering addict and local journalist. “If you’re trying to fix a problem as a person or a state it should be something admirable instead of something to be looked down upon.”
“I imagined a heroin addict as, you know, some super-skinny guy laying on the ground in a back alley of New York City,” Tron said. Her perception began to change in 2002, when she heard about a high school classmate — a “very Vermont girl” — struggling with heroin addiction.
Dr. John Brooklyn, cofounder of the state’s first methadone clinic, refuted the idea of a ‘typical’ heroin user. “We think it’s some gangsta in a hoodie sticking up a convenience store,” Brooklyn said. “Not the person serving your coffee, pumping your gas or taking care of your kids at a daycare center.” In reality, Brooklyn knows recovering addicts at each of these professions.
In an interview with ABC, Dr. Richard Besser even asserted that the term ‘Ex- addict’ is a misnomer, because heroin addiction is a lifelong battle. All of the users Dr. Besser spoke with self-identified as “recovering addicts.”
The intensity of this battle is largely attributed to heroin’s extremely addictive nature. About one in four users becomes dependent after their first injection – an addiction rate higher than that of crack-cocaine or crystal methamphetamine.
Whether snorted, smoked or injected, heroin instills its trademark ‘blissful apathy’ by binding exogenous endorphins to opiod receptors in the user’s brain. After extended use, a heroin addict will no longer endogenously produce endorphins, and an ensuing dependency spiral can be lethal. Since opiod receptors are located in the brain stem — the part of the brain responsible for automatic processes like breathing — respiratory arrest is the leading cause of heroin related deaths.
Despite these dangers, “You’re gonna get hungry,” said recovering addict ‘Jen,’ who asked to remain anonymous during her interview with VICE. “Childbirth was nothing compared to kicking heroin."
Another recovering addict said that heroin addiction consumes all other priorities. “The first thing you think about [is] not feeding your kids,” she stated, “It’s how am I going to get high ... ”
Even heroin users brave enough to overcome the social stigma and seek help may not be able to find it. Over 750 people are relegated to wait lists at methodone clinics and rehabilitation centers across Vermont.
In order to supply this burgeoning market, smugglers have ramped up their efforts across the Northeast.“We’re seeing thousands of bags at a time, multiple raw ounces and grams, levels of heroin that we’ve never seen before” said Lieutenant Matthew Birmingham, the head of the Vermont State Police Narcotics Task Force.
Approximately two million dollars worth of heroin is trafficked through Vermont every week. Yearly, this means heroin smuggling is a 100-million dollar industry.
Even a small package of the drug can cause big problems. Heroin is most often sold in 25-40 milligram bags, or ‘folds,’ which are half the size of a sweetener packet. Just one kilogram of heroin provides nearly 30,000 of these bags.
Heroin’s pervasiveness can partly be attributed to Vermont’s geographic location. Interstate highways from Montreal, New York, Boston and Philadelphia all converge in Vermont, in what some analysts have described as ‘the perfect storm.’
During one sting, Burlington police and DEA agents traced Videsh Raghoonanan through his cellphone. The signal traveled from Burlington down interstates 89, 91 and 95 to Ozone Park, Queens. Less than 24 hours later, Raghoonanan retraced his path and arrived in Burlington before midnight.
New York is one epicenter of Vermont-bound heroin. Another particularly lethal type of heroin, known as “Chi” or “Chi town dope,” comes from Chicago. Authorities are often able to pinpoint the heroin origin because of signature ‘stamps’ on the packaging.
If the heroin comes into the state in its purest form, dealers will often cut it with other substances. “I’ve ripped people off by throwing hot cocoa in an empty bag,” ‘John’ told VICE in one interview. “Scoop a little dirt off the ground and throw that in there, dude.”
To make matters worse, some dealers have begun to cut their heroin with Fentanyl, a deadly synthetic narcotic. The powerful drug — between 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine — has been attributed to dozens of grisly deaths throughout the northeast, including three in Addison County. Some of these users were found with the needle still sticking from their arm.
In October of last year, Vermont state police arrested two New York smugglers in one of the largest busts in state history. When Marcus Davis and Eddie Eason were brought into police custody, Davis admitted to having bought 30,000 dollars worth of heroin in New York City.
If smugglers like Davis succeed, their potential profit margin is nearly impossible to comprehend. One dealer in Colchester buys heroin out of state for 6 dollars, and resells it in northern Vermont for 30, a markup of 500 percent.
Accordingly, the drug has brought organized crime with it. “There are real and legitimate organized gangs and organized criminal groups that are operating drug rings … and establishing themselves in Vermont,” said State Police Lt. Matthew Birmingham, commander of the Vermont Drug Task Force.
Still, a stronger police force is not the only solution, said Lt. Birmingham. “You can’t just keep arresting people coming in as runners,” he said.
Already, 80 percent of Vermont’s inmates are incarcerated for drug related crimes. The state pays more to incarcerate its prisoners than it does on higher education.
Behind the empty syringes, plastic baggies and gun-toting drug dealers lies a darker reality: heroin addiction often starts with legally prescribed painkillers like Oxycodone.
The opiate crisis arguably exploded in 2010, when Purdue Pharma changed the formula of Oxycodone. By making pills harder to crush up and slower to dissolve into the blood, the pharmaceutical company successfully reduced prescription abuse, from 47.4 percent to 30 percent in the past thirty days. Yet in the same period, rates of heroin abuse nearly doubled.
“It’s like Whac-A-Mole,” said Barbara Cimaglio, Vermont’s deputy commissioner or alcohol and drug abuse programs. “We address one thing and then something else crops up.”
“Let’s be honest about this,” said Shumlin in an interview with ABC. “OxyContin and the other opiates that are now prescribed and approved by the FDA, lead folks to opiate addiction.”
Shumlin’s assertion was not just political maneuvering. According to one poll, 4 out 5 new addicts turned to heroin after abusing prescription painkillers.
Even more tellingly, Shumlin’s claim resonates with many current addicts. 32 year-old Andreia Rossi asked: “Why spend 80 dollars on an Oxy 80 when you can get a bag of heroin for 20 bucks?”
“You’re pretty much doing heroin anyway,” said another anonymous user. “It’s much cheaper than doing Oxys.”
In 2012, roughly a million doses of Oxycodone were prescribed in Rutland county alone.
“Not many things make my jaw drop, but this did,” said Clay Gilbert, director of Evergreen Substance Abuse Services. “[It] figures out to 17 pills for every man woman and child in the county.” Per capita, Grand Isle and Bennington had even higher prescription rates.
Furthermore, just like prescription painkillers, heroin can also be snorted and used intravenously. Combine this with its price and availability, and heroin is the ‘logical’ next step.
To parents who have lost their children to heroin, like Kristin Lundy, painkillers are far from logical. In an interview with The Burlington Free Press, Lundy recalled when her 17 year-old Joshua was administered morphine for a severe stomach bug.
“He lit up like a Christmas tree,” she said. “He said it was the best feeling he ever felt and that he wished he could do it forever.”
Lundy attended the sentencing for Kevin Harris, the smuggler who allegedly sold her son the deadly heroin, five years later. Harris was born in a jail, and both of his parents died before he turned 11.
“I’m sorry you didn’t have a good childhood,” read Lundy’s statement to Harris. “We have something in common. We have both suffered great loss due to drugs and addiction. My hope for you is that someday you will experience the love I felt for Josh, and that he felt for his daughter.”
Local Westland native and rehab worker Michelle Flynn was concerned for her own children. “It scares me for people’s well being that it’s this available,” she said in an interview. “I have two young kids – 18 and 20 year old boys – who have not found [heroin], which I am grateful for. But it scares me for that generation. Your generation.”
“I know what addiction life is like,” she recalled, “and I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. It’s not an easy change to give up on what used to be mind altering. What used to be your escape.”
Paramedics and EMTs on the front lines witness this loss firsthand. When the heart and lungs have stopped, a quick response is critical. Permanent brain damage can occur after 4 minutes without oxygen, and death just 5 minutes later. And even by medical standards, heroin overdoses can be messy. EMT Lisa Northup recalled when one semiconscious patient began to vomit onto her on January 9.
“I kept talking to him,” said Northup, “telling him he was going to be alright. I mean, that’s just what we do.” The patient was lucky. Just hours later, Middlebury Regional EMS arrived too late for another heroin victim. For him, “Everything we could do we had done,” recalled Paramedic Kevin Sullivan. “Unfortunately, he had been down too long at that point.”
Consequently, one wonder-drug has helped pull many patients back from the brink of death, including the Salisbury patient that Northup revived. Naloxone hydrochloride — whose trade name is Narcan — is an µ-opioid antagonist that kicks heroin off opiate receptors in the brain.
The drug is administered intravenously by paramedics, or nasally through a device known as an atomizer. The effects of the drug, which untrained civilians can administer, are almost immediate.
Mike Leyden, Deputy Director of Emergency Medical Services at the Department of Health, said the atomizers are an ‘infallible’ safety net. “[They’re] a good reliable safe route,” he said. Still, since heroin in the patient’s system can outlast the Naloxone’s effects, administration should always be accompanied by a 911 call.
In 2013, Vermont Legislature passed Act 75, which aims to provide a “comprehensive approach to combating opioid addiction and methamphetamine abuse in Vermont ... ” As a result of the legislation, the Vermont Department of Health began developing a statewide pilot program to distribute Narcan, which is now available at many health clinics.
“They’re just going to hand it out to folks,” said Chris Bell, director of emergency medical services at the Vermont Department of Health.
“It is a relief for any family member to know there is something they can do immediately if that horrible occasion might occur,” said Nancy Bessett, who lost her husband to heroin last November. “I will always feel guilty because I wasn’t there. If I had been there. If I had Narcan. Maybe I could have revived him.”
For legislators and medical professionals, preventing overdoses is only part of the battle. Establishing programs to rehabilitate heroin users may prove to be an even larger hurdle.
One such positive initiative is Chittenden County’s Rapid Intervention Community Court (RICC). The program is designed to allow addicts to avoid further prosecution if they accept medical treatment shortly after their arrest. Governor Shumlin has called the program a ‘humane’ option for heroin addicts.
After attending just 90 days of counseling, drug treatment and life skills training, RICC attendees can get their charges dropped. At its best, the ‘pre-charge’ initiative helps recovering addicts avoid a criminal record and take back control of their lives.
Heroin users tried in conventional courts often reoffend shortly after their trials. RICC reduces recidivism by focusing on repeat offenders with no violent record and a clear indication of addiction.
“What we’re trying to do is break the cycle,” said Chittenden County State’s Attorney T.J. Donovan. “We can do the same thing that’s not working, or we can do something different.”
The program is effective: only 7.4 percent of recovering addicts that completed the program reoffended. Of those who did not, 25 percent reoffended.
Despite their success, the novel programs are imperfect. Not everyone who applies is accepted, and rapid intervention is harder to implement in rural areas where applicants cannot easily commute.
Emmet Helrich, a manager at the RICC, said the program strikes at the underlying trigger of criminal activity: the user’s health. “Forget about the court case,” Helrich said. “Get healthy.”
Anonymous recovering addict and Burlington mother ‘Jessica’ appreciated the second chance.
“I just needed somebody, one person, to give me a chance and have a little bit of hope,” she said.
Inspired by the success of RICC, Addison, Lamoille, Rutland and Franklin counties have begun to implement similar programs. Governor Shumlin advocated investing $760,000 to expand and strengthen the programs.
Like Shumlin, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick labeled opiate addiction a public health emergency. “We have an epidemic of opiate abuse in Massachusetts, so we will treat it like the public health crisis it is,” Patrick said in a statement.
Because of the interstate nature of the crisis, officers from across the Northeast convened to discuss cooperation. On March 28, roughly 90 officials from Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, as well as members of the US Drug Enforcement Administration and Department of Homeland Security met at the Sheriff’s office in Washington County, NY.
The discussion largely focused on two heroin pipelines, Routes 149 and 4, which pass through Washington County into Vermont.
“This will also help us exchange information and tie all the pieces together,” said Washington County Sheriff Jeff Murphy.
Officials determined routes of travel, trends in drug distribution, and began to formalize a cooperation agreement.
Still, Shumlin recognized that solving the heroin crisis in Vermont will take more than just good police work. “We’ve got to stop thinking we can solve this with law enforcement alone,” said Shumlin in an interview with ABC.
Imprisoning a heroin dealer in Vermont is incredibly expensive – around $1,120 a week – or ten times the weekly cost to treat an addict at a state-funded center.
“Today, our state government spends more to imprison Vermonters than we do to support our colleges and universities,” noted Shumlin in his State of the State address.
To many officials, this is an untenable path. Rutland beautification project Rutland Blooms has responded to the influx of heroin with a resilient positivity. The beautification project plants flower gardens around Rutland. It was established by Green Mountain Power and Rutland officials to “highlight the community’s incredible spirit and beauty.”
Yet, Rutland Blooms is more than just flowers. According to their website, the organization consists of over 50 local groups all intent on “supporting and increasing the sense of community that will be necessary to solve the issues the city faces.”
Rutland Mayor Chris Louras has helped spearhead the effort. “This is one more step in efforts to improve the economic and social climate of the community,” Louras said. “Its impact will be visible and symbolic. The outpouring of interest, even before today’s announcement as GMP quietly began planning, has been extraordinary.”
This sense of community is important, especially to those who have lost loved ones to the drug. Skip Gates, whose son Will was studying at UVM when he overdosed, now works to spread awareness of the devastation heroin can cause.
“I never knew anything in human experience could be this hard,” Skip said. “I never knew any human being could feel this much pain. It has redefined the rest of my life.”
In his 2014 State of the State address, Governor Shumlin explained that Skip “speaks for all grieving families.” At the end of the speech, Shumlin called the state to arms: “All of us, together, will drive toward our goal of recovery by working with one another creatively, relentlessly, and without division. We can do this. I have tremendous hope for Vermont, and for our efforts to overcome this challenge and keep the Vermont that we cherish for generations to come."
Graphics by OLIVIA ALLEN
(04/23/14 3:10pm)
As Museum curator Emmie Donadio began her introduction to the talk given by Frida Kahlo in the Kevin P. Mahaney ’84 Center for the Arts last Thursday, she amended the cursory warning to turn off cell phones with the consolation, “There’s a good chance you won’t be able to hear them anyway.” While her remark was received with amusement in the audience, it also seemed to make sense. After all, we had spent the time after filing into the dance theater jamming to throwback pop songs and looking at a collage of women in ferocious gorilla masks. Frida Kahlo is one of the founding members of the Guerrilla Girls, the anonymous collective that took the art world by storm in the ‘80s with its brash, statistics- and sarcasm-laden posters demanding an end to sexism and discrimination.
It was something of a surprise, then, when Frida Kahlo took the stage. Dressed all in black, from low boots to ever-present gorilla mask, Kahlo was soft-spoken, almost quiet. This mildness, of course, did not translate to content of her lecture. Beginning with a series of sexist quotes from luminaries such as Pythagoras, Martin Luther, and Renoir and ending with the advice to “Use the f-word – feminism,” Kahlo’s talk was delivered in the same pithy, humor-laded style as the Guerrilla Girls’ posters. Particularly amusing was her discussion of the Guerrilla Girls’ upcoming book The Hysterical Herstory of Hysteria and How It Was Cured; the book explores the historical pathologizing of female sexuality.
The bulk of Kahlo’s presentation was dedicated to a survey of the Guerrilla Girls’ history, explaining the way in which their tactics and message have shifted as the group gained first an audience and then acceptance in the broader art community. Over time, their posters have moved from being wheat pasted to the streets around museums to being framed within them. While admitting that it’s a “thrill to criticize an institution on its own walls,” Kahlo nonetheless acknowledged that maintaining resistance while working within a system can be a challenge. “What do you do,” she asked, “when the system you’ve spent your entire life attacking suddenly embraces you?”
This is a particularly salient question to have asked at the College. There is something seemingly incongruous about seeing the Guerrilla Girls’ inflammatory posters tidily framed and hanging on the quiet gray-green walls of the college museum. Nonetheless, Guerrilla Girls: Art In Action is consonant with other ongoing efforts by the museum to call into question both what kinds of art are suitable for Middlebury audiences as well as how art is defined more generally.
“Knowing that an exhibition of performance art was coming to the museum this spring and that the Performance exhibition would be concurrent to some extent with the Guerrilla Girls’ show – and also that next spring we would be presenting an exhibition of work by graffiti or street artists,” Assistant Director and Chief Curator Emmie Donadio said. “I wanted … to explore the broader parameters of 20th century and contemporary art practice.”
This question was explored in great detail by the course “Art, Performance and Activism,” taught last J-term by Donadio. The twelve members of the class worked over the month to whittle down the 82 pieces in the Guerrilla Girls’ Compleat Portfolio: 1985-2008 to the 13 posters and ephemera pieces that appear in the exhibition. While revolving around the Guerrilla Girls, the course also worked to thoroughly contextualize their work.
“[The course] was designed to some extent to survey the topic of object-less art,” Donadio said. “That means art as a form of activity rather than a means of producing objects.”
In pursuit of this goal, students researched and presented on topics ranging from Dada to the Judson Memorial Church to the NEA 4. The course and exhibit were also strongly influenced by an exploration of the 1970s feminist movement, particularly within the art world.
“Linda Hershman Leeson’s video !WAR (Women-Art-Revolution), which we watched in class, turned out to be one of the best ‘finds’ for an introduction to the Guerrilla Girls in the context of feminist art action of the last half-century,” Donadio said.
A theme that emerged strongly from both of these sources – object art and feminism – was the importance of collaboration. While the intrusion of the spring semester made on-going collective work on the exhibit difficult, the class nonetheless strove to make sure that each member’s voice would be present in it’s final form.
“Each student did research on one of the selected posters and wrote a wall text to accompany it,” Donadio said. “The idea was to present each work in its particular historical context.” Each student also created a visual response to their piece; these were then compiled, along with background information on the Guerrilla Girls, into a zine that accompanies the exhibit. The importance of collaboration was also recognized as extending beyond the efforts of the class.
“We had a lot of ideas for interactive features for the exhibition,” Donadio said. “All of the students seemed eager to engage the public and invite them to comment.” Hopefully Kahlo’s talk last Thursday has helped to kick-start this conversation. Those involved with the exhibit emphasized that the issues of sexism and discrimination addressed in the Guerrilla Girls’ work are very much ongoing.
“It’s exhausting to look at art prices for male artists and female artists today,” Maisie Ogata ’14 said. “Shouldn’t we help demonstrate to the viewer that we have not reached full equality between male and female artists?” As Kahlo emphasized near the end of her talk, the Guerrilla Girls are not the only voices capable of criticizing the status quo. “People who want to do work like this don’t need us,” she remarked, putting the ball squarely in our court.
(04/23/14 3:00pm)
53 weeks ago Congress failed the people it swore to protect. It was then that, in pathetically predictable fashion, Congressional leaders couldn’t muster the strength to take action in the face of a national plague of gun violence. As much as I wish it were, that wasn’t the only time they failed us. Indeed, Congress fails the American people every day it chooses not to act against the gun violence which leaves 30,000 dead every year.
On December 14, 2012, 28 people were shot and killed in Sandy Hook, Conn. Of them, 20 were students at the local elementary school and another six their teachers and supervisors. There were 15 other mass shootings that year, including in Aurora, Colo. where over 80 people were shot at a midnight premiere for The Dark Knight Rises. But just looking at these mass shootings isn’t enough; guns killed another 12,000 Americans that year, not to mention the 18,000 firearm-assisted suicides.
Given a national media devoted to headlines (see: MH370) in place of news (see: Russia invades Ukraine), it should come as no surprise that it would take a single mass shooting to wake the public up to the tragedy of guns. As unfortunate as this dichotomy is, such rhetoric did appear to provide a platform for the fight for safer and more sensible gun policy. And while we somehow failed to respond as such in the wake of Aurora, it seemed that Sandy Hook would finally galvanize the public into a state of collective action.
Op-eds were written by the dozen, and for every voice calling for tighter gun measures there were two others, assuredly louder, echoing the truism, as destructive as it is absurd, that ‘guns don’t kill people, people do’. The weeks since Sandy Hook grew in number, and the images of children being rushed out of the school were forgotten. By April, Congress had spent six slow months negotiating broad reform down to a relatively benign vote on expanding background checks. That the measure was benign isn’t necessarily a cause for concern in itself. Indeed, the vast majority of Americans support background checks on the purchase of firearms, and such a law would certainly have had a positive impact on gun violence. No, the cause for concern lies in the fact that this measure couldn’t make it out of the Senate.
Public health is a field ripe with low-hanging fruit. In development, low-hanging fruit, or goals than can be easily achieved with little effort, are the gold standard defining policy decisions. Tomorrow is World Malaria Day, and while we need to remember that 600,000 people die every year from this disease, it is also important to recognize that since 2000, malaria mortality has been cut by 42 percent. This stupendous achievement, though far from eradication, is the result of a policy approach that focuses on low-hanging fruit. From insecticide-treated bed nets and indoor residual spraying to the simple delivery of medicine, ending malaria is an achievable goal. Broad-based and multi-faceted approaches are the stuff of development policy, but why do we never see the same level-headed strategies employed here in the United States?
The answer is simple: partisanship precludes such policy. Let’s reconsider the debate over gun control. More than three-fourths of the guns used in mass shootings are acquired legally, including the Bushmaster .223 — a so-called civilian version of the military’s infamous M-16 — Adam Lanza used when he murdered twenty children in Sandy Hook. But, when people on the Left suggested we reconsider our policy on assault weapons, those on the right of the aisle argued that banning assault weapons won’t end murders and pointed instead to human flaws in the system surrounding mental health. To be sure, a more robust mental health system is critical to improving our nation’s gun problem, but so is taking militarized weapons out of the hands of civilians. Ensuring that criminals can’t fire 30 bullets in a crowd of people without having to reload should be a low-hanging fruit, but the deep divisions in our political climate ensure that it is not.
There is a lot of evidence to suggest that we as a people are not as divided as those who represent us. Oxymoronic, I know. Consider, for example, that extremists are more likely to vote in primaries and donate to campaigns. This plays out on both sides of the aisle, but especially on the Right, where ideology too often trumps reason. For a balanced analysis of this phenomenon, I would suggest you read It’s Even Worse Than It Looks by Thomas Mann of the liberal Brookings Institution and Norman Ornstein of the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
Compromise, a shibboleth of democracy, is nowhere to be found in today’s Washington. If you don’t have the full solution you are seen to have no solution at all, as with the example of gun control. Progress has always been the product of accepting incremental success, a game of give-and-take. When the opposition is seen as the enemy, we lose sight of the true goal. We focus on preventing victory on the other side rather than achieving it on our own. It’s time we work together to tackle the low-hanging fruit of the world; progress is an achievable goal.
(04/16/14 4:09pm)
On Wednesday, April 9, Vermont Senate Government Operations Committee considered new legislation that would regulate taser use across Vermont.
Bill H.225, already passed by the house, would implement statewide training standards for all law enforcement officials armed with electronic control devices (ECDs).
According to the proposed bill, “The Criminal Justice Training Council shall ensure that a law enforcement officer receives appropriate and sufficient training before becoming authorized to carry or use an electronic control device.”
The weapons induce involuntary muscle contractions, enabling the an officer to safely apprehend the suspect. Concomitantly, the shock can disrupt basic neurological functions, causing seizures, heart attacks and even death. Despite this risk, ECDs are often praised as a safe alternative to traditional firearms.
Jim Masland (D-Thetford) proposed the bill. Masland witnessed ECD’s lethality last summer, when his neighbor was killed by a taser.
Macadam Mason, a 39 year-old man with a history of mental illness, threatened to commit suicide. Officers arrived quickly at Mason’s Thetford home, but he refused to comply and moved toward one officer with ‘clenched fists.’ Moments later, the officer fired a taser that disrupted Mason’s heart and ended his life.
Masland attributes the accident to inadequate training and improper protocol. Communicating with mentally ill citizens is a particularly delicate skill that requires special training.
“It’s clear that what we really need is for all officers to have the same training, having to deal with individuals having a mental health crisis,” Masland said.
Accordingly, one of the bill’s newer provisions requires that any officer hoping to carry a taser undergo Act 80 training. This training focuses on de-escalation and non-violent intervention.
If the bill passes, by the end of June, 2017, “every State, local, county, and municipal law enforcement agency” must ensure its officers complete training outlined in 2004 Acts and Resolves.
The bill directly references the challenges that Masland describes: "The use of electronic control devices shall include recognition of the heightened risk that misuse can result from situations in which subjects have cognitive disabilities or are in emotional crises that interfere with the ability to understand consequences of action."
The training will be overseen by The Criminal Justice Training Council (CJTC).
According to their website, CJTC aims to “ ... enhance public safety and promote law enforcement excellence by establishing policies, certification standards, training, and resources that embrace best practices in criminal justice.”
Critics of the bill have cited its rigidity as a weakness. Instead of codified taser protocol, the bills' opponents stress the importance of an officer’s personal discretion.
“[The bill] leaves no room for the officer to make a judgement,” said representative Donna Sweany (D-Windsor).
Representative Joanna Cole (D-Burlington) was worried that the bill was too broad and stripped of essential provisions.
“I wanted to see something much stronger,” she stated.
Other opponents are concerned that the bill will propagate the myth that tasers are safe, and will tacitly condone irresponsible taser use.
“I think the bill makes the situation worse,” said Defense Attorney Robert Appel, the former head of the Vermont Human Rights Commission. “They’re codifying a poor public policy ...”
Appel described the bill as giving officers the “green light” whenever they anticipate violence. “I would rather see them do nothing than pass this language,” he said.
Winooski Police Chief Steve McQueen recognizes the difficulty in applying a blanket solution to a complex dilemma. "Trying to come up with a piece of legislation that says 'you will do A, B, and C under A, B, and C set of circumstances,'" stated McQueen, "is extremely difficult to do, and I would discourage you from doing it."
The current bill allows an officer to use a taser whenever a suspect actively resists arrest — a relatively opaque definition. “Active resistance includes something as simple as pulling your arms across your chest,” noted Allen Gilbert, the executive director of the Vermont chapter of the ACLU. “This is a very low threshold.”
Furthermore, the proliferation of such high-tech weaponry has financial repercussions. In a study released by the ACLU, the state has paid approximately 269,000 dollars in seven different settlements since 2004.
“Tasers are powerful weapons that should only be deployed in unusual circumstances,” Gilbert told the Senate committee on Wednesday.
Governor Shumlin noted that although ECDs are dangerous, they are relatively safe if used correctly.
“Anything can kill someone,” he stated in a June press conference. “It depends how you use it. The point is, Tasers are less likely to kill you than a bullet, which is why we use them.”
(04/16/14 4:06pm)
Last week’s Op Ed piece on “Connecting the Dots with CCI” raised some valid points but also included some misrepresentation of the facts. The invitation from The Campus to respond and help set the record straight prompts me to take advantage of this space to do a little “myth busting” and provide a sense of what the Center for Careers & Internships is up to these days, all in the service of 2500+ students who could not be more diverse in their four-year paths to their post-graduate pursuits.
We get what students want and think they need, and we are working hard to deliver on that. But what do we want? We are ambitious for our students and ambitious for our center. It is our goal to create a signature career education planning experience that is interwoven throughout the undergraduate years and provides ample guidance and opportunity for exploration, reflection, and decision-making. We’re looking for students to be partners in the process. To be engaged with CCI early and often. To be open to possibility. To stop deleting e-mails when they may have just ignored an opportunity of a lifetime. To understand that it is their future to embrace — and that planning for it needs to be as much a part of their undergraduate journey as choosing their major, studying abroad, playing a sport or volunteering.
We have a deeply committed staff here to work with students throughout their time at Middlebury, from their first semester to Senior Week (and beyond!) to provide advice on opportunities; review cover letters and résumés; conduct practice interviews; offer self-assessment tools; run workshops, career action groups, career conversations, and employer information sessions; and much more. In the spirit of encouraging independence, exploration and aspiration, we are working hard to engage students earlier in their time at Middlebury to make the process of personal and career development less stressful, more intentional and even exhilarating. It’s a partnership we are striving to develop with each and every student on this campus.
President Liebowitz, Dean Collado, the Board of Trustees and College Advancement could not be more supportive in their commitment to make real-world experience a touchstone of a Middlebury education. Three summers ago, the College provided approximately $125,000 in internship funding; this summer it approaches the half-million-dollar mark. And in terms of overall experiential funding provided directly to students (including PCI, URO, academic departments, etc.), last year College support hit $1.5 million collectively, primarily for summer and Winter Term experiences.
There is not a career center among liberal arts institutions in the country that is not undergoing or considering profound change in how it best serves students (and future employers). Conversations about the cost and relevance of a liberal arts education are occurring on campuses everywhere. Despite economic recovery, graduates still must address an uncertain job market. Students face pressure from family members who challenge them on “what in the world can you do with a history — or fill in the blank — degree” (by the way, for a great answer, check out go/alumprofiles). Employers still laud the benefits of hiring interns and employees who are the product of a liberal arts education but bemoan their lack of practical experience and even workplace etiquette — not to mention unrealistic expectations for a first job. Parents and students carry a greater debt load than ever. Most faculty continue to support traditional pedagogy, acknowledging that internships have their place — but never as a credit-worthy extension of the classroom experience. So, what’s a Career and Internship Center to do?
Here are a few steps we have taken already. Last year, the College created a new Director of Employer Outreach & Development position, with Jeff Sawyer joining us this summer. We have already added 25 new employer organizations and 125 new “Midd-friendly” opportunities to MOJO, ranging from the arts to media & entertainment to healthcare. We have developed an in-depth plan for future development in this area that addresses both the interests of Middlebury students and “where the jobs are.” To complement these efforts, we have created several new programs. “UpNext” (which debuted in February with a focus on Media & Entertainment), brings together students, employers and faculty over two days, building student awareness of the breadth of pathways within various industries and to help them prepare to compete for these opportunities. The “Field Guide” series works with departments to bring back alumni for panel discussions on the paths they took to a wide range of careers (in the spirit of “major doesn’t necessarily equal career”), followed by a dinner for further in-depth conversation and advice; the first was held in March with the Geology Department, with one student saying that “this event was the single most practically valuable experience we have had at Middlebury.” We currently have finance advisory and mentoring groups that include both monthly phone calls and ongoing individual summer meetings in New York and Boston. In addition, we’re working with the new “Middlebury in DC” office to set up a mentoring program for our summer DC interns with young alums. And we’re in the process of setting up two new advisory boards in Technology and Media & Entertainment, again to provide a network of real-world advice and mentoring.
One initiative in our efforts to meet students “where they are” is to hold drop-in hours and appointments in BiHall, in the Commons and in the evenings. We have also reached out to academic departments to meet with faculty to determine how we might work together to connect their majors to career exploration in special evening working sessions; our work with the Psychology Department is a great example of such a collaboration. In September, we will be launching a new integrated and inclusive advising model, providing students with highly individualized and cohesive academic and career advising. This focus will increase the depth and breadth of our individual advising content expertise, improving the quality and relevance of our programming, our outreach efforts and our work with faculty and students. In addition, a new online appointment scheduling system will enable students to make their own appointments with the advisor best suited to their needs. But we will still serve those students with the quick question and those who are in exploratory mode, the many “undecideds,” looking for general advice. CCI will never become a place just for those who already have determined their paths.
Some other clarifications regarding concerns voiced by the Campus:
Opportunities in areas other than finance and consulting are hard to find on MOJO — and when do, they are often outdated: We have posted more than 500 internships this year (a new record) in every field. The Campus mentioned just a “smattering” of postings, with particular concern about the lack of media opportunities, yet there were more than 100 postings in Media & Entertainment alone this year, including dozens of new ones at NBC Universal, ABC Disney, Sports Illustrated, CBS, The Christian Science Monitor, PBS, and more. And the comment that MOJO postings are often outdated by a few years — that’s impossible, as all postings are automatically deleted from the system within two days of the application deadline.
We’re out of touch when it comes to internships and student needs in terms of funding deadlines: Over the last four springs, we’ve gone from one deadline to three to two and now back to one again. Despite advice throughout the year regarding starting the internship search early, so many students wait until the last minute. Because we are responding to student feedback for full funding to be awarded (i.e., in their bank accounts) by June 1 to enable them to buy airline tickets, put a deposit down on a sublet, etc., we therefore need to have hundreds of applications reviewed by staff and faculty committees and then multi-step paperwork processed and pre-departure workshops held — all done in time to hit that June 1 goal and which necessitated the April 6 deadline. It is no easy feat — and it’s worth noting that it was very clear in the Funding FAQs that if there were extenuating circumstances, a student just needed to e-mail or meet with me to discuss — as a result, 20 extensions were granted. Let’s not lose sight of the fact that our funding has more than tripled in three years and the number of students supported quadrupled. It is also worth noting that paid internship postings on MOJO have increased by 50 percent in the last two years. And one last point: students who got their unpaid internships through MOJO absolutely do not receive funding priority as stated in the Campus piece.
The deluge of e-mails and why we need a weekly newsletter instead: Two major points here: 1) We do have a weekly newsletter — it’s called CCI Connect (visit go/connect), and it is sent out every week to all students and department coordinators, with all new MOJO postings, upcoming deadlines and events, etc., and is categorized by industry field. 2) The recent deluge of e-mails is due to the number of deadlines tied to the end of “internship hiring season” — and both student surveys and focus groups told us that students wanted to be reminded of upcoming deadlines three days in advance. Believe me, we would love to eliminate these e-mails and all the work they involve and have students use their weekly CCI Connect as their primary source of information on opportunities. But the fact that the Campus editorial board didn’t even know of its existence demonstrates why the reminders are important — and that we need to do a much better job in communicating about our resources.
CCI has limited effect with the exception of a few fields: Since September, we’ve had 2,500+ student visits in drop-ins and appointments, with interest in every field. On the recruiting front, we held 80+ employer info sessions in a variety of industries and 29 related special events, with more than 400 on-campus interviews to date. Our record number (500+) of MOJO internship postings in every field has generated 2,900 applications to date. More than 2,600 students have attended a variety of dozens of CCI workshops and programming, including a series of sophomore dinners focusing on summer internships, LinkedIn workshops, The ABCs of Finding Work in the Government, Grant-Writing for Not-for-Profits, Preparing for Your Finance Interview, The Business of the Arts, and many more
We are happy to respond to constructive criticism and welcome new ideas on how we can better work with students and faculty to “connect the dots.” But we ask that the critique and ideas reflect an accurate understanding of what is already in place and what lies ahead. Meanwhile, on behalf of my CCI colleagues, I’d like to remind students that there is nothing we would rather do than work with them throughout their time at Middlebury on the creative process of inventing their futures.
PEGGY BURNS is Director of Internships and Interim Director of the Center for Careers and Internships
(04/16/14 4:00pm)
We hope that you are enjoying your visit to Middlebury, and that you can take some time out to educate yourselves about activism happening on campus and how you can support it. In presenting the following demands (which are in response to major issues students have identified), we ask you to use your buying power to change the structural policies of this college.
Before presenting our demands and asking you to sign on to them, we want to tell you who we are. We are a coalition of students who have come together to build sustained political community on our campus. As members of this community engaged in multiple initiatives for institutional change, we seek to challenge systems of marginalization and oppression that are currently operating at Middlebury. We are committed to working for a more just, inclusive, safe, and supportive environment. Part of this work requires drawing attention to structural issues that negatively impact our academic pursuits, well-being, and safety in our time here. We are committed to combining critique with action to ensure that the administration is accountable to the broader community, and that students are active participants in shaping this institution. We make all decisions in a democratic process, and our demands are dynamic and responsive to the current conditions. The following are our current demands (for more details and citations see beyondthegreenmidd.wordpress.org):
1. AAL TO ALL:
The Coalition demands that the College change its Culture and Civilizations requirements to reflect a more inclusive and less eurocentric approach to studying the world (as proposed by Midd Included).
Under the current requirements, the college seems to place an emphasis on the study of Western cultures and civilizations, while minimizing the importance of all other cultures and civilizations of the world by lumping them together into one category. Not only are these requirements failing to reflect our college’s belief about the importance of the study of different cultures and civilizations, but they are also limiting educational opportunities for students.
Under the new requirements, students would be required to take:
1. Two courses, each of which focuses on the cultures and civilization of: a. AFR: Africa; b. ASI: Asia; c. LAC: Latin America and the Caribbean; d. MDE: Middle East; e. EUR: Europe; f. OCE: Oceania
2. NOR: one course that focus on some aspect of the cultures and civilizations of northern America (United States, Canada and Mexico)
3. CMP: one course that focuses on the process of comparison between and among cultures and civilizations, or a course that focus on the identity and experience of separable groups within cultures and civilizations.
Making the EUR credit an option rather than a requirement does not mean that students will never be exposed to European thought. Rather, even in classes that are not explicitly region focused, such as literature, science, theater, and economics, the material taught usually comes from the European tradition. Changing the EUR credit into an option only means that students who wish to study other regions of the world will have a greater opportunity to do so, while students who wish to pursue the study of Europe can still do so. We therefore demand that this change be made by no later than fall semester of 2016.
2. CREATION OF A MULTICULTURAL CENTER:
The Coalition demands that the administration provide funding and other necessary support for a Multicultural Center. We, as MANY students before us have, demand a space that visually represents the students it seeks to serve, that is equipped with qualified staff to serve students seeking multicultural resources and services otherwise unavailable on campus, and that educates the entire campus community on issues of identity and privilege.
While the college has invested in initiatives to attract students from diverse backgrounds, such as Discover Middlebury, it lacks initiatives to support the students that it brings here. It is time that the College create a center that supports the students it uses to bolster its diversity statistics.
Some might argue that such spaces already exist in the Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE) and PALANA, but these spaces do not and cannot play the role that a Multicultural Center would. The CCSRE serves as an academic resource, which has an ambiguous role on campus seeing as how having a center that studies race and ethnicity without any racial or ethnic studies programs is akin to having a basketball gym with no basketball team or basketballs. PALANA only serves as an informal residential house.
Others might argue that Dean Collado as Chief Diversity Officer exists to provide the support that we speak of. However, we find it unethical to diminish the attention diversity and multicultural affairs require by boiling it down to simply one of the many hats that Dean Collado must wear. CDO is a title that requires at least one person to allot their entire schedule to, working daily to support underrepresented students. Most other esteemed NESCACs already have CDO’s who do just that, including Williams, Amherst, Tufts and Colby, just to name a few.
Seeing that PALANA, the CCSRE, and the Chief Diversity Officer do not provide the support and resources that a Multicultural Center would, we demand the creation of such space no later than the fall of 2016.
3. BAN SODEXO:
The Coalition demands that Middlebury College puts in writing that it will not work with Sodexo Inc. because its history of violating human rights, infringing upon labor laws, and stripping away workers’ benefits threaten the livelihoods of the College’s dining hall staff and do not reflect the values of the college. Furthermore, we demand that the administration make public its current relationship and terms of contract, if any, with Sodexo.
Representatives from Sodexo Inc., a European multinational corporation that specializes in food services, were brought to campus in early October to do a two-day observation and assessment of the college’s Dining Services and Retail Food Operation. Sodexo has a long-history of workers’ right abuses. In the fall, the Vermont Fair Food Campaign wrote an open letter about Sodexo’s slash of workers’ benefits — reductions in retirement packages and healthcare, as well as elimination of paid sick leave and vacation time, a practice they have implemented at the University of Vermont with considerable faculty and student resistance. Its union-busting techniques were detailed in a 2010 Human Rights Watch report, and it has been found guilty of National Labor Relations Board violations multiple times. In 2005, thousands of African-American employees of Sodexo accused the company of racist practices for not offering promotions to people of color and segregating the work environment. Ultimately, Sodexo settled in an $80 million racial bias suit. The Sodexo Alliance is also the leading investor in private prison profiteering. It has a seventeen-percent share in Corrections Corporation of America and a nine-percent share in CCA’s sister company Prison Realty Trust, meaning the corporation is profiting off of mass incarceration. We demand that Middlebury College puts in writing that it will not work with Sodexo Inc. and that it make public its current relationship/terms of contract, if any, with Sodexo.
Preview Days and the presence of hundreds of prospective students on campus presents a unique opportunity to make effective demands to the administration and bring about institutional change. As a Coalition of Students, we ask you – prospective students – to support us (and ultimately yourselves) in the pursuit of the above goals. Please send an email, entitled “Fulfill Coalition Demands” to liebowit@middlebury.edu; please include your name as well as a note that you would like to see these changes. We thank you for your support.
Signed by the following STUDENTS: Gaby Fuentes ’16, Debanjan Roychoudhury ’16, Alex Strott ’14.5, Alice Oshima ’15, Alex Macmillan ’15, Fernando Sandoval ’15, Ally Yanson ’14, Daniela Barajas ’14.5, Kate McCreary ’15, Jackie Flores ’16, David Pesqueira ’17, Jackie Park ’15, Francys Veras ’17, Maya Doig-Acuna ’16, Nicolas Guadalupe Mendia ’16, India Huff ’15, Clair Beltran ’16, Victor Filpo ’16, Octavio Hingle-Webster ’17, Matthew Spitzer ’16.5, Lee Schlenker ’16, Molly Stuart ’15.5, Reem Rosenhaj ’16.5, Rebecca Coates-Finke ’16.5, Janiya Hubbard ’16, Angelica Segura ’16, Adriana Ortiz-Burnham ’17, Cindy Esparza ’17, Kristina Johansson ’14, Anu Biswas ’16.5, Afi Yellow-Duke ’15, Kate Hamilton ’15.5, Molly McShane ’16.5, Jenny Marks ’14, Anna Mullen ’15, Eric Hass ’15, Philip Williams ’15, Lily Andrews ’14, Levi Westerveld ’15.5, Jiya Pandya ’17, Robert Zarate-Morales ’17, Keenia Shinagawa ’17, Jeremy Stratton-Smith ’17, Klaudia Wojciechowska ’17, Greta Neubauer ’14.5, Adrian Leong ’15, Feliz Baca ’14, Josh Swartz ’14.5, Tim Garcia ’14; signed by the following ALUMNI: Adina Marx Arpadi ’13.5, Hanna Mahon ’13.5, Ashley Guzman ’13, Elma Burnham ’13, Kya Adetoro ’13, Chris De La Cruz ’13, Katie Willis ’12, Jacob Udell ’12; signed by the following ORGANIZATIONS: Alianza, Midd Included, Feminist Action at Middlebury, Juntos Migrant Outreach, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Women of Color, Umoja, JusTalks, Middlebury Student Quakers
(04/09/14 4:50pm)
The next time you walk by a tree, and a dead branch does not come crashing down, knocking you off your feet, you can thank the College’s Facilities Services Maintenance and Operations. As spring thaw approaches, the College’s landscaping crew is busy pruning trees on campus before the snow melts and reveals quads of yellow grass and muddy shortcut eyesores that need to be dealt with.
At 8:30 a.m. on a crisp and sunny Thursday morning, I met with Horticulturist Tim Parsons, Crew Chief Jon Quelch and the rest of the landscaping crew to learn about tree pruning at the Emma Willard House. Walking from Atwater Dining Hall, the 45 degree temperature and sunny clear skies made athletic shorts and sneakers feel like a great life decision — much better than waddling around in sweatpants.
Fast forward another 30 minutes, shivering underneath the shade of trees in need of pruning and slip-n-sliding across the half-frozen lawn trying to keep up with Parsons, as he flitted from one tree to another, getting more and more excited about each one — now I understood why these men were all wearing jeans and winter jackets.
Meanwhile, Parsons was busy explaining to me why pruning is done mainly for safety and aesthetic reasons.
“In the wild, trees don’t need to be pruned,” he said. “I’m not saying a tree won’t be healthier because of pruning, but generally we don’t prune for the health of the tree, but for our own safety.”
Though pruning happens naturally in the wild, this can be dangerous in the “urban forest,” such as the College campus, if a dead branch could finally give and land on a pedestrian, though Parsons admits “the chance of this happening is very slim, but still.”
As he clipped off the lower branch of a young crab apple tree, Parsons explained the three D’s of pruning: “Dead, Diseased and Dumb. For example, these two branches growing on top of another, competing for the same sunlight? That’s dumb.”
Behind the Emma Willard House, Parsons noted how “cavernous” the backyard appeared with overgrown and overhanging branches. After pruning, the backyard felt more “spacious and welcoming” to visitors.
Late winter is an ideal time to prune trees because the branches are easier to examine and handle without leaves while the temperatures aren’t as cold and harsh. Some little critters also appreciate this timing.
“Because we prune in the winter for the most part, there are no birds in the nests,” said Parsons.
But not all little critters leave their nests empty.
“There was a subcontractor that was doing some tree work on a tree down at the Kitchel House, and a squirrel ran three feet above his head, and ran down into the limb he was on. It was a hollow limb and he couldn’t get the squirrel out to save his life. He didn’t want to work on the tree because he was scared he would hurt the squirrel. So, he was waiting for the longest time for that squirrel to leave because he didn’t want to hurt it.”
Parsons also showed me the three main tools used in pruning. For smaller trees, hand pruners are used. Parsons own several pruners, which he hand-sharpens at the end of every winter pruning season. For medium-sized to large trees, hand saws are used. For even larger trees, pole-saws are the tool of choice.
“The pole-saw”, he pointed out, “has a fitting name.” Picture a hand saw stuck on top of a long, re-tractable pole.
Hand saws are the most commonly used, especially in conjunction with the tree climbing method. Workers climb trees, secured by a special rope on a limb, and prune within the branches. According to Parsons, there haven’t been any accidents (knock on wood).
“As long as you go slow and think carefully about what you’re doing, climbing with a rope is a safe way to prune trees.”
For Buzz, a member of Facilities Services, who learned to climb trees just last winter, the shift to pruning as the days get warmer “breaks up the long cold winter, especially this year, when we did a lot of shoveling. From up there [in the tree], it’s a whole different view.”
Some crew members, like Groundsworker Steve Rheaume, have been climbing for over 10 years.
“You can probably learn to climb a tree [using the rope] in a day or so, but it could take you 12 years to get as good as Steve.”
Rheaume was busy climbing and pruning when we stopped by, but he shouted down at us, “It’s a good workout; you definitely break a sweat! The highest tree I’ve ever climbed was 25, maybe 30 feet.”
As a photographer tried to get Parsons to pose next to the tree being pruned, he pointed at Rheaume and said, “Well, he would be the star, here. Doesn’t that look like fun?”
During my Pruning 101 session, Parsons also pointed out some of his favorite trees on campus, including what he believes is the oldest tree, a huge sprawling 80-foot Bur Oak right by the CFA. Insisting it was worth seeing in person, Parsons offered to drive me down to take a look. I’ve always wanted to ride one of those green John Deere tractors and who wouldn’t want to see a tree that was alive at the same time as George Washington, so of course, I jumped at the chance.
“How fast does this thing go?” I asked as the motor hummed.
“A lot faster than I’m allowed to drive it.” He chuckled.
Parsons is not sure exactly how old the Bur Oak is.
“I’d say 200 years or more. The only real way to age a tree is to count the rings, and to do that, you have to use a special bore technique or cut down the tree and count the rings. I’m not willing to do either on this tree. But, this has been here at least as long as the school, if not more. It is spectacular.”
When asked about pruning an old specimen like this, he said, “You can see all the dead wood here, there’s a large piece of dead [wood] right there that would have to come off. But for the most part, when trees are this old, they don’t need anything.”
Parsons hopes the Bur Oak has another 200 years, but knows this might be far-fetched. Health-wise, though, the tree seems to be in good shape.
“There’s not a lot dead [branches], it has a lot of nice young shoots, new twigs, it’s still putting out a decent amount of growth this year,” he said. Though 200 might be unrealistically long, Parsons believes the tree sill stick around for a long time.
(03/19/14 11:42pm)
A late winter blizzard on Thursday, March 13 blanketed the campus with over a foot of snow. Despite treacherous roads, high winds and inaccessible sidewalks, the College conducted daily operations as usual, albeit with a limited staff.
Many of the College’s staff members were unable to come to work due to impassable roads or had to stay home with their children because schools were closed for the day.
Before sunrise on Thursday, facilities services began clearing emergency access areas from buildings on campus. According to Assistant Director of Maintenance and Operations Luther Tenny, there are typically 14 equipment operators and 30 hand shovelers clearing snow across campus. Depending on the day, custodial teams in certain buildings may also offer assistance in removing snow.
“Thursday was not a typical storm,” Tenny wrote in an email. “Many staff were unable to make it in because of the drifting snow but thankfully most of our plow operators were here. We also utilized two additional pieces of heavy equipment (a backhoe and a front-end loader) through a local contractor for help.”
“For shovel crews we had about 25 working most of the day moving snow from the entries,” Tenny added. Non-essential tasks, such as plowing less-trafficked sidewalks, were left for either late Thursday afternoon or Friday.
While Facilities Services staff was busy ensuring that the College’s roads were clear, surrounding routes were not so accessible.
“One of my employees was heading out on Wednesday afternoon and almost went off the road at ‘The Ledges’ on Route 125 just a few miles west of here,” wrote Director of Dining Services Matthew Biette in an email. “Others reported not being able to see the road and when they did, they were in the wrong lane. Bottom line, it was white out conditions and very dangerous to drive or walk.”
Biette began preparing for Thursday’s storm over two days before it hit, contacting suppliers and making purchases days in advance with the concern that the storm was going to hinder travel.
“The bakery had already delivered breakfast and lunch products for Thursday on Wednesday, the Proctor salad preparation was stocked up and the refrigerators and stock rooms were full with a double order to be sure our students would be taken care of,” said Biette.
“Our staffing on a regular day is enough to produce the various foods and extras offered each day — everyone’s day is full,” Biette wrote, alluding to the Panini presses in Proctor being shut off and the Proctor Fireplace Lounge remaining locked on Thursday to allow staff to focus on more important tasks at hand.
When Biette left for work on Thursday morning, the sidewalks in town were inaccessible. By 6 a.m., Facilities Services had already begun digging pathways on campus.
“Arriving at the dining rooms and kitchens, I was surprised and happy to see very few people out and/or late,” Biette wrote. “In some areas, schedules were changed so those who lived closer [to the College] were [given] opening [shifts], thus giving those who lived farther away more time to make it to work safely.”
Custodial Services was not as fortunate as Dining Services — out of 80 custodial staff, 43 were unable to come to work because of the weather and another 10 had scheduled the day off in advance.
When attendance is low, “staff are reassigned to buildings other than those they normally work in if another team is very short [on people],” Assistant Director of Custodial Services Sylvia Manning wrote in an email.
Dining and residence halls were prioritized over most academic buildings on Thursday, and priority tasks included checking for hazards such as broken items, checking trash bins and restocking paper products in restrooms.
Due to impassible road conditions, Parton Center for Health and Wellness was unable to open at its usual 8 a.m. hour for the first time ever. In past years, and only on very rare occasions, Parton has closed early or announced limited hours because of the weather.
The first staff member arrived at 9:30 a.m., and more people arrived as they were able to, said Administrative Director of the Parton Center for Health and Wellness Terry Jenny. By 10:30 a.m., there was sufficient staff for Parton to open its doors.
“Everyone does their best to get in on time and as soon as they can,” Jenny said, noting that safety is a priority and that staff members across campus put in maximum effort to ensure that operations run smoothly.
While Parton was delayed in opening, its back-up network of health and counseling services was activated and advertised.
“When the need is urgent and Parton Counseling is closed, students can get the help they need by reaching out to Public Safety … or to the Addison County emergency team or Porter Hospital,” Director of Counseling Services Ximena Mejia wrote in an email. “We always have a counselor on call … and during unexpected closures, we check our phone messages and emails several times each hour.”
While the snow prevented some from arriving at work, many braved treacherous roads and white-out conditions to arrive at the College.
“Bottom line is there is a tremendously dedicated staff who brave the elements to get here when it is necessary,” wrote Biette. “Thankfully, everyone arrived safely.”
