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(02/25/10 5:00am)
This weekend marks the 87th annual Middlebury Winter Carnival, and, following the trend of the past few years, the weekend promises to be full of exciting opportunities — including ski races, a comedian, ice sculpting, ’80s music, a top-flight DJ and more. In addition to the tremendous efforts of the College, the town of Middlebury has become even more involved, contributing the immensely popular Chili Cook-Off on Saturday afternoon, and a Mardi Gras dance in the Town Hall Theatre on Saturday night. Without question, MCAB, the Winter Carnival Committee and the town have done an outstanding job of supplying the infrastructure necessary to make this Winter Carnival one of the best in recent memory.
Despite this undertaking, however, the Winter Carnival of today is a far cry from what it was in its heyday, when students and recent graduates from all over New England would travel to our idyllic campus for a weekend of sporting events, dancing and general recreation. A quick glance through the archives of The Campus highlights the palpable excitement that seemed to descend upon the region every year as Carnival weekend approached — a sentiment embraced by both the students and the administration and one that helped turn Winter Carnival into the strongest of Middlebury’s traditions.
While certain institutional changes, such as the raising of the drinking age, contributed to a decline in Winter Carnival’s popularity, students who bemoan the current state of Winter Carnival should look no further than themselves for blame. During the ’70s, each frat and organization on campus would host a party and students, regardless of athletic, academic or extracurricular affiliation, would throw themselves into the weekend with unbridled enthusiasm. What is missing from Winter Carnival is not institutional — it is this grass-roots excitement that made Carnival weekend the most sought-after ticket in the Northeast.
This year promises an incredible Carnival. With the events taking place in town and on campus, this weekend has the potential to live up to the tradition that we all hope can reemerge — but the onus is on us, the student body, to restore it.
(02/25/10 4:59am)
On Friday, Feb. 26, four dancers clothed in recycled clothes will command the FlynnSpace, Burlington stage in a performance titled “Disposable Goods.” However, seemingly antithetical to the environmentally-aware themes pervading the show, they will also share the floor with a brand-new toaster oven. Instead of still holding burnt crumbs from the ’80s, the toaster’s marks are more like scars from having its price tag prematurely ripped from its side. But it’s not the performers’ fault, really.
“I set out to make it very low-maintenance,” Artistic Director and College Artist-in-Residence in Dance Tiffany Rhynard explained. “I tried not to buy anything new. A lot of the costumes are used; I found them on eBay, or I found them in thrift stores. The toaster oven was new. That was the one thing that we had to buy because the first one that we brought in that was used started smoking.”
Preventing the show from going up in flames — literally and figuratively — was only one of Rhynard’s many tasks. While she gives herself a specific title in the program notes, Rhynard has her hand in pretty much every aspect of the performance. At the same time, every production she engages in is extremely collaborative.
“I enter the rehearsal process willingly communicating that I don’t have it all figured out, and that I don’t know yet,” Rhynard said. “And I leave some things open and we’ll come back to it … or I’ll ask them [the dancers], ‘What does that feel like? How does this transition feel when we go from this section to this section?’ They give me feedback and that informs my decisions too.”
In her program notes, Rhynard says the origin of “Disposable Goods” arose from listening to the CEO of Stonyfield Farms, Gary Hirschberg, at last year’s graduation ceremony. “He spoke about a magical place called ‘away’ where everything goes that we don’t want to deal with,” Rhynard’s notes say. “And in this case, he was talking about trash and how his company deals with its waste. So of course I thought about my own crap too. Refuse. Rubbish. Riffraff. Scum. The Unwanted. We ship it out in metric tons by the truckload every day. Gone. Out of sight, out of mind.”
With idea in hand, Rhynard received a grant from the Vermont Arts Council to produce the dance, which has already shown a few times and will premiere in other locations in the next few months. Following Burlington, the four dancers — Ellen Smith-Ahern ’05, Yina Ng ’08, Simon Thomas-Train ’09 and Rhynard — will travel to New York City.
No matter the venue, Rhynard hopes her viewers walk away having had their consciences peaked. “I don’t have this expectation that the audience will all go, ‘Oh. A-ha!’” and have the same conclusion at the end,” she said. “I hope that it poses questions and gives the audience something to think about, to ponder, to chew over … I willingly accept or sign the contract that some people might not like it, or might not grasp on, or have the same interest in the subject matter. There are certain things that are out of my control.”
Despite the realization that not all are ready to be challenged, Rhynard will still attempt to provoke a “shift in perspective” or a “kinesthetic response.” Although it is a comparatively low-maintenance performance, “Disposable Goods” distinguishes itself through the participatory opportunity for the audience. In this way, the dancers hope to further elucidate and convey their message. As the Web site for Rhynard’s dance company, Big Action Performance Ensemble, explains, the group is “not interested in entertaining, pleasing or holding your hand.” Instead, Big APE’s dancing is about forcing you to “think, feel, react, move, sit up, stand up and take action.”
Composed of four parts — “Spill,” “Away (from here),” “Trash” and “Necessity,” — the show centers on the question, posed by Rhynard, of why we are driven to consume.
“There are two threads running through ‘Disposable Goods,’ which is this mass consumption and excess and the frivolous nature that people in our culture lead their lives, myself included. I mean, I recycle, but I’m no saint. I’m not perfect,” Rhynard laughed. “And then the other track is tzhis question: Why are certain people thrown out of the community? Is it because they’re breaking the law? Or not fitting in? Or not able to make the right choices?” People, it turns out, are “disposable goods” as well.
One of the dancers, Ng, elaborated on the piece “‘Disposable Goods’ is a piece that is falling apart, and makes its point falling apart,” she said. “It’s almost like a collage but yet it’s not a piece of choreography that follows the ‘stream of consciousness.’ It makes a more substantial point than that … But the feeling of separation or dissection … each part away from the others … informs us much of the position we are in when we’re disposing unwanted material or consuming excessively.”
With the upcoming performance in Burlington, Rhynard was particularly enthused, urging newcomers to attend. “I would say that if you haven’t gone to a dance performance before, or don’t know that much about dance, I would encourage you to come to the show because I think that it is accessible in that the dancers, the performers, are portrayed as real people . . . The dancers are regular people, they’re not nymphs or fairies or superhero virtuosic dancing machines — I mean, they are fabulous dancers — but there’s not this distance between dancer and performer where the audience is in the dark witnessing this spectacle of virtuosity. My goal is never to just entertain you. It’s never that safe. I think there’s something accessible about the intimacy that happens in the exchange between the dancers and the audience.”
“Disposable Goods,” as a show meant to confine the viewer in towards a message not particularly comforting to most, might not be “safe,” as Rhynard says, but in forcing one to confront the problems of the world, it at least creates the hopeful sense of knowing that someone believes enough to blast it out loud for the world to hear. Or in this case, to see.
(02/18/10 4:59am)
In a heavily attended speech in Mead Chapel on Feb. 12, President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz unveiled a bold new financial model that would rely more heavily on alternative funding sources like the summer Language Schools and the Monterey Institute for International Studies (MIIS) to support the College’s annual operating budget.
The proposal aims to limit the annual increase of the student comprehensive fee to one percent over inflation. Liebowitz’s remarks reflect growing fears in the liberal arts community that the existing financial model is, in his words, “no longer sustainable.” The Board of Trustees is expected to approve the proposal at its coming meetings this weekend.
The announcements made in last week’s address have garnered attention from several national media outlets, including the New York Times and Inside Higher Ed.
Historically, the College relied upon the annual growth of its endowment, along with generous alumni gifts and the tuition of students to fund a large amount of its annual budget.
But high expectations for gifts and endowment performance, along with little preparation for an economic disaster, left the College unprepared.
Strategic shift in financial model
Under the new plan, the College will downgrade its expected returns for interest on the endowment from 9 percent to 5 percent annually. Additionally, the College will reduce its goals for the current fundraising initiatives by 15 percent over the next four years.
In order to make up for the decrease in revenue from traditional sources, Liebowitz will lead the College in exploring alternative funding sources like the summer Language Schools, a potential language software partnership with an online company and the MIIS.
Liebowitz and President of MIIS Sunder Ramaswamy expressed optimism about the potential expansion of the graduate school when it legally joins Middlebury in July 2010 during an open meeting on Feb. 15.
When the College acquired Monterey in 2005, the California school was on shaky financial ground.
Since then, the school has continually remained in the black and generated $10.4 million in surpluses.
In the coming years, the College hopes to promote a “4+1” joint degree program between the two institutions, increased faculty exchanges, study away programs for Middlebury undergraduates that would send them to Monterey for a semester and MIIS collaboration with Middlebury schools abroad.
Monterey has over 800 graduate students, an operating budget of $39 million for the coming year and real estate holdings valued at $43 million. Ramaswamy emphasized the desire to create a community between the undergraduate college and MIIS.
As evidenced by top-ranking programs at Monterey and in Vermont, Liebowitz hailed the College’s superiority in language education over all peer institutions and challenged the community to utilize these assets.
“The idea that we could find a way to take advantage of this strength is not the corporatization of Middlebury College,” he said. “It’s a smart use of our developed strengths and advantages.”
Though he cautioned that the College might not see the benefits of these alternative funding sources for three or four years, Liebowitz stressed the community’s history of taking risks.
“The College has always been willing to take risks,” he said. “People can get complacent and take for granted where the institution historically has been and how it has overcome adversity. It has done a lot to preserve of itself what is most important and to overcome financial challenges that threatened its very existence several times.”
Chief Financial Officer Patrick Norton acknowledged that the administration now looks at auxiliary operations from a business point of view.
“We are known for languages,” he said.
“We are peerless. It’s very important that we use that asset in different ways to make our business model sustainable in the long-term. We’re looking at [alternative funding sources] in a more of a business-type way. [Language software] could add to the bottom line in the long term as well.”
Complementing an increased emphasis on auxiliary operations for their financial potential, the new financial model would attempt to ease the burden of tuition on students and their families.
He explained the need for change during the address.
“We need to recognize that the demand for a four-year liberal arts degree, while still great, is not inelastic,” he said. “There will be a price point at which even the most affluent of families will question their investment. The sooner we are able to reduce our fee increases, the better.”
Although the comprehensive fee does not cover the estimated costs of $80,000 per student for education, Provost of the College Alison Byerly said that linking the fee to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) shows that the administration recognizes that parents and students hold it accountable for the price of the College.
“Even families that can afford to pay full tuition still feel like it’s a lot of money,” Byerly said.
“The message [the change] sends is that our fee increases will reflect actual increased costs of what we do, not expanded programs or new initiatives. That doesn’t mean that we won’t have new programs or initiatives — it means that new priorities have to replace old priorities and fit within the existing cost structure.”
Norton acknowledged that historical comprehensive fee increases outpaced levels of inflation and called the College’s new financial approach potentially “unique” among its peer group.
“Tuition increases have been outstripping inflation and I think that’s the main issue,” he said. “We need to somehow keep the comprehensive fee at a reasonable level that at least tracks inflation or at least [stays] close to inflation.”
In addition to the sweeping philosophic shift to College financial policy, Liebowitz announced a series of more immediate policy decisions.
Barring an economic disaster, no additional staff layoffs will occur.
Student enrollment will increase to 2,450, but the student-faculty ratio of 9:1 will remain.
The current financial aid policy that is need-blind for domestic applicants and need-aware for international students will continue.
Finally, the salary freeze on employees earning more than $50,000 will end next year.
Evolution of unsustainable model
Liebowitz said the old financial model evolved and flourished because of an ongoing “arms race” between liberal arts colleges. The model forced colleges to create expectations that did not allow for economic crises and led many schools to engage in lengthy periods of continual construction of new infrastructure.
“The prior financial models relied on some exceedingly optimistic, never-go-down-projections,” he said.
“It was like the old Soviet five-year plans — rising expectations no matter what.”
Though forced to participate in the system to remain competitive with peers, Liebowitz said he harbored concerns about the current model for years.
“The old financial model we had used for a long time was always a bit screwy to me,” he said.
“I had always wondered why one would not spend one’s endowment to build a building instead of taking on added debt, meaning wasn’t it better to use existing wealth for some projects than to saddle the institution with long-term debt? This was viewed as a naïve question back in the 1990s, but I don’t know how many people would consider it so naïve today.”
Norton said the College acted quickly in the early months of the recent economic crisis to analyze its business model.
“The changes have been in the works for 18 months to two years,” said Norton.
“We can’t state enough the shock that the economy has had on all colleges. It really did give us a wake-up call as to the sustainability of the business model. We did act very quickly to do different planning models and scenarios to not only get our short-term deficits under control but to look long-term for a sustainable model. You will only survive if you ensure that you have a model that is sustainable.”
Both Liebowitz and Norton emphasized the incredible progress made by the College in combating the economic crisis. Over the past two years the College has eradicated more than $30 million in projected deficits and eliminated more than 100 staff positions, with an additional 50 to come.
Liebowitz attributed the College’s success to its quick reaction to the initial crisis.
“We were just about the first ones out of the gate, and were recognized as such,” he said.
“There are many peer institutions that are now considering or offering voluntary separation programs to reduce faculty and staff. I’m glad that we were there more than a year ago. I’m a little surprised that some schools waited this long.”
Norton emphasized that the College could not return to the past financial model even after the economic climate improved.
“The key is that we can’t go back to business as usual,” he said.
“If we see the endowment increase, and it will this year, you can’t start handing those positions back. We’re looking at the model differently now. The whole boom-bust era of the financial situation at the College needs to come to an end. The boom was good, but you don’t want to go through the bust.”
With the budget balanced through 2015, Liebowitz believes the College can begin to grow and thrive once again.
“I hope we can now look forward and close this chapter in our history,” he said.
“I hope people can have some fun now.”
(02/18/10 4:59am)
Though the rumble of construction vehicles has stopped for the winter, the success and implications of the Cross Street Bridge continue to grow. What began as a standard and necessary improvement to town infrastructure has turned Middlebury into a model of action and efficiency for other small municipalities.
The sheer length of the preceding saga made the March 2008 decision to begin construction an achievement in itself — the need for a second crossing of Otter Creek in Middlebury has been on the town docket for over 50 years, with many attempts to build a bridge losing steam without funding.
With most transportation projects of this nature, the Federal Highway Administration contributes 80 percent of the funding while the state and local governments split the remaining 20 percent, but past proposals to the federal and state agencies have ended in a “stalemate,” according to Town Selectman Dean George.
“The [Vermont] Agency of Transportation said it just wasn’t a high enough priority for them, and they didn’t have any money to put into the project,” said George. “In the end we were a bit frustrated because nobody was really paying attention to [the project]; everyone had other priorities for their monies. And when we looked at [the timeframe], even if we were able to get the funding, which we weren’t, we’d still be looking at a decade to get this done.”
With an increasing need for better traffic management in downtown Middlebury, George and his fellow Bridge Committee members brainstormed ways for the town to fund the project on its own. Aware of the financial stress already placed on town residents, they came up with the Local Option Tax: a one percent increase in local sales tax that would go directly into a fund for the bridge.
“We knew we couldn’t simply just add the costs to our property tax assessments — that was just too far out of line,” said George. “It’s hard to raise taxes in general, but everyone understands the importance of this project so the town agreed to move forward with [the Local Option Tax].”
After amending the town’s charter to accept the landmark fundraiser, the town still needed additional funding. When the College expressed a mutual interest in seeing the bridge completed, the goal became a reality. Out of the $16 million budget, the College has agreed to pay $9 million over the next 30 years, beginning when the bridge is finished and operational.
“The fact that there can be a collaboration of this sort is something that most towns of 8,000 people don’t have,” said Assistant Town Manager Joseph Colangelo.
“But I think this is the way it really should work in a college town — the college and the town work together to do projects that are beneficial to both parties.”
After breaking new ground in community funding, Middlebury continued to set new standards for municipal development in both the project contract and the physical bridge design. Mark Colgan is the project manager at Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc., the design-build firm Middlebury hired to conduct the bridge project, and while his company does this kind of work on a regular basis, it is still unique in Vermont.
“This is really the state’s first design-build project for transportation, and not only is it funded so uniquely with the town and the College collaborating, they’re doing it in a process that’s never been done before as well, which is to hire the engineer and the contractor as a team,” said Colgan.
Without the many restrictions and bureaucratic hoops of federal funding, the project is also progressing incredibly fast, which will make it ultimately cheaper, Colgan explained.
“This is what we do all the time, design engineering projects, and they’re generally very slow because of all the federal requirements, state requirements, permitting and paperwork,” said Colgan.
“It usually takes about five or six years, but this project has just taken off. We’re not even two years into it and the bridge is almost done. It is going very fast, and less time saves money.”
The Cross Street Bridge, however fast and efficient its production, has not gone up without obstacles. The original bridge design featured a supporting pier in the middle of Otter Creek, but disapproval from the Agency of Natural Resources sent Colgan and his fellow engineers back to the drawing board.
Instead of changing over to a steel structure, the easiest way to span the entire creek, Middlebury remained committed to in-house production with concrete from local precast supplier Carrara. The result is the longest simple span precast/post-tensioned spliced concrete girder in the United States, another example of Middlebury pushing the limits.
“Literally the ceiling heights at [Carrara’s] warehouse were just high enough to lift the beams up with a crane and get them on trailers,” said Colgan. “Everything was stretched to the max.”
From the funding to the design, by all accounts the Cross Street Bridge is an infrastructural marvel, and the project development will serve as an example to many other small towns. Colangelo and George have already given presentations on the process to the League of Cities and Towns, and Colgan expects to do the same across the state.
“When this is completed, I think the state will see a lot of us presenting how this worked, the success of this project,” said Colgan. “When [Middlebury] started it, it really stuck its neck out trying to do things that had never been done before with the funding and the design and everything. To have it be such a huge success in a short amount of time and all within budget is just something Middlebury should be very proud of. I think other towns and cities will start thinking, ‘Look how Middlebury did it. Why can’t we do that?’”
According to Colangelo, the community is proud, and in fact pride in the community itself may have been the driving force behind the project.
“I think people feeling a sense of pride and community involvement with every step of the process is a pretty powerful motivator for the community,” said Colangelo.
“There’s been dozens of people involved just within this community on every aspect of the bridge, whether with landscape design or doing the financial work. It shows a lot of the character of the people here, and I think it’s more special because of that.”
Online supplement: Traffic simulation produced by and courtesy of Mark Colgan, Director of Engineering Services at VHB Pioneer. Rights Reserved:
(02/18/10 4:59am)
When Patty Dunn’s parents divorced and she and her sister moved away with her mother, Dunn lost all connection with her father. This loss at four years old fueled Dunn’s interest in helping others cope with death and bereavement, and she began volunteering 20 years ago with a hospice in Burlington.
Dunn is now the executive director of Hospice Volunteer Services at the Marble Works in Middlebury, a small nonprofit organization that began in 1984. She trains volunteers and coordinates the placement of each with an Addison County resident who is in the last six months of his/her life.
The hospice movement began as a volunteer service, but in the 1970s, the federal government began to fund hospice care, and it became a medical service. To receive government aid, however, five percent of patient care hours in a hospice organization still had to come from volunteers.
The Addison Home Heath Agency received such funding and asked Hospice Volunteer Services to contract with them, creating the Middlebury hospice center.
“We offer volunteer services, and Addison Home Health provides clinical and medical aid,” said Dunn. “It is a symbiotic relationship.”
The combination of both organizations created a complete hospice program and hospice team. The hospice team is comprised of six positions: a medical director, a nurse, a clergy member, a home heath aid, a social worker and a volunteer.
The nurse talks to the patient and his or her family, and together they discuss possible services for the patient. The hospice team gladly provides appropriate aid to the patients, and the nurse refers a patient to Dunn if he or she wants a volunteer. Dunn’s volunteers provide practical and emotional support and offer companionship to the dying patient.
Dunn has more than 100 volunteers working with her, ranging in age from 15 to 80, and she would love for Middlebury students to get involved as well. The volunteers spend 10 weeks in a training program. Each is required to take a Personal Death Awareness Survey before beginning. The questionnaire asks individuals to write their own obituary, to sketch a picture of death, and to express their feelings and fears about death.
“The volunteers need to feel comfortable talking to our patients,” Dunn said. “Because they are living these questions.”
There are three main ways Hospice Volunteer Services works with the community. The organization has a hospice volunteer center and grief support groups, and it seeks to promote education and outreach.
Dunn believes a group setting is most ideal, and last year she had a small grief support group on campus.
“It is of real value for peers to connect and discuss their loss together because they understand each other,” she said.
According to Dunn, society today does not openly deal with death and grief, and people prefer to remain isolated and alone when they experience loss.
Dunn is thus a firm believer in the ideas of education and outreach, the third main point of the hospice center. She wants people to develop a healthy understanding of the natural life cycle and the inevitability of death. Dunn thinks an open environment helps people transition through their challenging times.
“I want to create a holistic community where death and loss can be generally accepted public topics,” she said.
Hospice Volunteer Services also has a hospice singing group, the Wellspring Singers.
“The groups spreads the universal language of music, easing a patient as he dies and his spirit leaves his body,” Dunn said. Several Middlebury students are part of the singing group. There are also vigil volunteers, who sit with patients during their last 72 to 24 hours of life.
Dunn urges community members to visit Hospice Volunteer Services, and to borrow books and resource materials from their free public lending library. She is currently trying to organize a Winter Term class for students interested in becoming certified hospice volunteers.
Once afraid of death, Dunn has become more comfortable with regard to the future; her hospice work has helped her come to terms with the fact that life must come to an end.
“You can’t change death or make it go away,” she said.
“But I am passionate about helping people find healthy ways to overcome their grief.”
(02/11/10 4:59am)
At 5 a.m. on Feb. 1, Governor Jim Douglas ’72 boarded the first ferry to travel between Addison, Vt. and Crown Point, NY in over 80 years. The Governor’s 10-minute trip marked the beginning of a new 24-hour ferry service that will replace the demolished Champlain Bridge until a new bridge opens in approximately a year and a half.
Before Feb. 1, anyone traveling from Addison to Crown Point had to make a 40-mile detour since the Champlain Bridge was deemed unsafe in Oct. 2009. There is no charge for the new ferry service, which disembarks from Vermont every 30 minutes and will run even in cold weather.
The Oct. 16 decision to close the Champlain Bridge and its subsequent demolition in December came as a surprise to officials who expected the 80-year-old bridge to remain usable until at least 2013.
Vermont and New York shared ownership of the Champlain Bridge and have subsequently agreed to split the costs of both the ferry service and the replacement bridge.
On Jan. 14, Governor Douglas and Governor David Paterson of New York announced that they had chosen a design for a replacement bridge. Construction on the new bridge will begin in the spring.
Lisa Cloutier, an Addison restaurant owner, was aboard the 5 a.m. ferry with Governor Douglas. Cloutier was losing so much business as a result of the bridge closure that she decided to close her restaurant until ferry service began.
Cloutier is a member of the newly formed Lake Champlain Bridge Coalition, an advocacy group composed of approximately 20 business owners on either side of the lake.
She used to call her restaurant the “Bridge Restaurant,” in honor of the Champlain Bridge, which began service in 1929. On Feb. 3, Cloutier reopened her restaurant as the "No Bridge Restaurant,” with a sign outside that read, “Welcome back, NY!”
Over 1,700 vehicles used the ferry service on the day it opened, causing waits of up to three hours. Cloutier was optimistic that the service would improve, explaining, “It’s only day one. There hasn’t been a ferry in here for 80 years.”
Jim Harris, the project manager that Governor Douglas appointed to oversee the implementation of the ferry service, explained that although 1,918 vehicles used the ferries on Feb. 4, waits had in fact decreased dramatically.
Another member of the Lake Champlain Bridge Coalition, Lorraine Franklin, was also happy to have the ferry service up and running. However, Franklin insisted, “We need the new bridge,” and described ferry service as a “Band-Aid.”
Harris predicted that the ferry service will become even more efficient in two or three weeks once both New York and Vermont complete construction on lifts that will allow two ferries to operate at once. These new lifts will also allow officials to increase the weight limit on vehicles from 15 tons to 40 tons.
Claire Ayer ’92, a state senator representing Addison County, was disappointed that “there were still lines of traffic to go through” as recently as Feb. 6. She agreed with Harris that traffic should improve once the new lifts open.
Ayer is one of three Addison County state senators that co-sponsored a Jan. 5 bill to appropriate $1 million of federal stimulus money to businesses and nonprofits affected by the bridge closure. The bill would allocate aid to businesses like the No Bridge Restaurant through a combination of grants and low-interest loans.
Governor Douglas, who is also a resident of Addison County, has also voiced support for allocating stimulus money to Addison County businesses.
However, Ayer explained that the bill has not received much legislative support in part because many state legislators believe the proposal to offer grants to businesses sets an unsustainable precedent.
Ayer was sensitive to this argument against her bill and added that the economic recession has made these types of decisions especially difficult.
Ayer said that the “Addison County delegation will continue to argue its case,” but also predicted that the process of getting funds allocated to affected businesses would take at least another six months.
Business owners like Franklin, the owner of the West Addison General Store, do not expect to receive stimulus money any time soon. “It will be next year, if we see anything,” said Franklin, who estimates that she lost 65 percent of her business over the past three months.
Despite Ayer’s frustration with the situation arising from the unanticipated closure of the Champlain Bridge, she remains optimistic that the replacement bridge will be good for both sides of the lake.
“I rode my bike across the old bridge once, and if I could have swum back, I would have. There just wasn’t enough room,” she said. “I could see people camping in New York and riding their bikes to go to Chimney Point across the new bridge.”
Construction of the new bridge could cost over $100 million. Project manager Harris estimated that the overhead cost of the ferry service will be about $10 million, with an additional cost of $10 for every vehicle that uses the ferry service.
Harris explained that the costs of both the replacement bridge and the ferry service qualify for funding through Vermont’s allocation of federal highway money. Senator Ayer added that this exceptional use of federal money may delay other infrastructure projects in Vermont.
Vermont and New York contracted the Lake Champlain Transportation Corporation to run the ferry service. Updates about service can be found on the company’s Web site.
(01/21/10 8:44pm)
Construction at Sunderland Language Center to make the main entrance compliant with regulations in the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) was completed earlier this month. A handicap-accessible bathroom has also been built off the main lobby.
The construction began on Dec. 14, as soon as students left campus after exams. Staff affected by the renovations moved back into their offices this week.
According to Mark Gleason, a project manager with Facilities Services, the renovation was approved because the building is heavily used by students and the Middlebury community at large because of the 24-hour computer lab in Sunderland and the many programs held at Dana Auditorium.
Another, less visible aspect of the renovation is a plan to increase Sunderland’s energy efficiency by insulating portions of the roof. According to a building energy audit completed in 2008, the heating and cooling of college buildings currently accounts for approximately 80 percent of the carbon footprint, as stated in the 2008 Master Plan.
“The building was constructed in the 1960s without insulation, as was the practice at the time,” wrote Gleason in an e-mail. “With the project funds available, approximately one-half of the building roof was insulated.”
According to Furnishings and Communications Specialist Julie Hoyenski, there are no other major projects planned on campus. The residential carbon monoxide detector project that began last year is being continued, with Gifford and the Ross Complex next in line to receive the detectors. Students living in these dorms will be notified when the construction occurs.
(01/21/10 8:43pm)
With the passage of the Jan. 1 application deadline, the Office of Admissions has begun its process of sifting through thousands of applications to make up the Class of 2014 and ’14.5.
While the final application totals are still being counted, the number appears to be around 7,960, a 15 percent increase over last year. The College has seen a 50 percent increase in the number of applications since five years ago.
“[This increase] speaks volumes for Middlebury’s appeal to some of the strongest students around the country and the world,” Dean of Admissions Bob Clagett wrote in an e-mail.
The increase in applications has not merely been the result of more prospective students of the same quality applying, either.
“We have also seen a steady increase in the quality of our applicant pool,” Clagett said, “based on the academic and other ratings that we use in the admissions office, their SAT/ACT scores, and the special talents and interests that they bring to the admissions process.”
Applicants are noting this increasing competitiveness as well.
With over 40 percent of the class accepted in the Early Decision (ED) round, leaving roughly 330 spots for the class of 2014 and 55 for ’14.5, some Regular Decision (RD) and second round ED students are worried about their chances.
Prospective student Hugh Demers, who applied RD, feels the pressure of these numbers.
“I feel that [applying RD instead of ED] could [be] the difference between getting in and not getting in,” he said.
Clagett maintains, however, that there is no advantage to applying ED, and the discrepancy in acceptance rates is due to a higher quality pool in November.
While some find troubling the appearance that incoming classes are increasingly made up of ED students, Clagett notes that ED matriculates have commonly made up over 40 percent of accepted classes in recent years. Last year, 47 percent of the Class of 2013 was accepted ED; the year before that, the percentage was 46; and in the three years prior, the percentages were 39, 38, and 41, respectively.
“There were years in the past 10 to 15 years when 45-48 percent of the class was admitted early,” Clagett said.
While this increase can be explained by a corresponding increase in ED applicant quality — average SAT scores in this group have risen almost 80 points over the past four years — it remains true that a class made up with more ED applicants requires less financial aid.
Assistant Director of Student Financial Services Jacqueline Davies acknowledged this trend.
“If a higher percentage of the incoming class is admitted early decision, it follows that the amount of aid would be somewhat less,” Davies said.
Senior admissions fellow Kelly Bennion ’10 confirmed that the admissions counselors put in a great deal of time into looking at an applicant’s entire application, not merely one facet, endeavoring to create a strong student body.
(01/21/10 7:55pm)
Open Mic Night
Jan. 22, 7:30 p.m.
Talents of all kinds are welcome at the monthly Carol’s Hungry Mind open mic. Bring an instrument, spoken word art or any other performance you want to share with a crowd. Sign-ups for time slots begin at 7:30 p.m.
Button Up Middlebury
Jan. 23, 8:30 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Efficiency Vermont will provide free training and materials to help Button Up Middlebury volunteers learn how to
conduct energy audits on local homes. Help the local community save energy and reduce its carbon footprint! More information and sign-ups at (802) 388-9478 or
lasermily@yahoo.com.
The Horse Traders Benefit Show
Jan., 9 - 10 p.m.
The Horse Traders return for their second annual “Face Off Against Breast Cancer” benefit show at Two Brothers Tavern, donating all door proceeds and 10 percent of sales to the Cancer Patient Support Program. The Horse Traders are a five-piece band that covers favorites of the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, as well as current pop rock, blues, and soul. Don’t miss out!
Comedy for a Cause
Jan. 24, 5 - 6 p.m.
Four Vermont comedians — Nathan Brady Crain, Jason Lorber, Autumn Engroff and a comic yet to be announced — will perform a show at Carol’s Hungry Mind in which all proceeds go to benefit the CVOEO’s Middlebury Area Food Shelf. There will be no door charge, but passed hat donations will be much appreciated. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to see some of the state’s most talented comics lay it on the line for a good cause. Some of the jokes may be adult themed, so children should stay at home.
Flu vaccine clinic
Jan. 26, 3 - 6 p.m.
If you still need a seasonal or H1N1 flu vaccine, don’t miss this clinic at the
American Legion in Middlebury. For adults in Addison County only, more information at (802) 388-7259.
Snowshoe trek
Jan. 26, 9 - 10 a.m.
Get outside in the snow before it’s gone! Join the Green Mountain Club at the Battell Trailhead in Lincoln for a difficult six-mile outing with a 2,500-foot ascent to the summit of Mount Abraham. Contact leader John Predom to sign up at (802) 377-9654 or john@vtrushfan.com.
Carol’s Dance Party
Jan. 29, 8 p.m.
The first one was such a hit, Carol’s
Hungry Mind is bringing back its dance party for all ages for round two. Join fellow students and community members at the Middlebury VFW and boogie to a mix of swing, rock and anything danceable.
(01/14/10 4:00am)
“The Age of Stupid” is an idiotic name for a film that everyone should see. In its examination of cultural choices that ignore the impending effects of global warming, the film provokes a sense of urgency, disgust with consumerism, and a desire for change.
Actor Pete Postlethwaite poses as an archivist in the year 2055 after the major repercussions of global warming have reshaped the earth in dynamic ways.
He lives in a fortified structure in the Arctic Ocean north of Norway. Once inside, the camera zooms through the various levels of the base.
It contains collections from all national galleries and museums, preserved specimens of most species lined two by two, and a significant computer database.
The camera then takes the perspective of a computer screen as the archivist creates a video log. The first words out of his mouth are, “We could have saved ourselves.”
As he speaks, he fiddles with the screen and pulls up documentary footage of the present, filmed by director Franny Armstrong, to illustrate the consumer culture that led to the world’s destruction.
His archive follows seven stories: an Indian business tycoon opening up a low cost airline, a hurricane Katrina survivor who worked for Shell Oil, the oldest French tour guide of Mont Blanc, two children in Iraq, a woman in Nigeria and a British environmentalist who specializes in wind power.
Documentary footage framed in a fictitious future setting gives immediacy to a tragic future that may not be so far away. Opening images of 2055 are based on mainstream scientific projections of the effects of global warming.
However, in spite of this specification, these dramatizations feel a bit heavy- handed in their demolition of famous landscapes — Coney Island submerged in water, the Sydney opera house burning, Las Vegas covered in sand.
What was so effective about the film was less its apocalyptic imagery and more its focus on the actual present and the problems of today. The archivist considers the next few years leading up to 2015 and dubs them the formative time in human history when we had the chance to mitigate the negative effects of climate change.
The film insists that people now could instate a policy that would cut carbon emissions 80 percent by 2050, only allowing the temperature to rise two more degrees. The challenge: “questioning collective values” that fuel excess and restructuring society to achieve this goal.
Unsurprisingly, the film hits the oil companies hard, presenting alarming statistics about oil consumption and specifically showing the cultural and environmental devastation that a Shell oil drilling project brought to a community in Nigeria.
Yet, just as importantly, “The Age of Stupid” condemns the ignorance of the general public, claiming that “the government will only go as far as its populations demands.”
In the segment that follows Mark Lynas, the British environmentalist, Lynas meets paralyzing resistance as he fights for clearance while setting up a wind turbine project.
The people of the town ultimately reject the idea because they fear that the project will depreciate the value of their homes by obscuring the view of the English countryside.
At this point, the archivist returns to the scene and states: “It’s like looking through binoculars, observing people on a far off beach […] fixated on the small area of sand under their feet as a tsunami races towards the shore.” His comment is perfectly timed. The material is painful to watch, and his words, ominous.
The Archivist finishes his video log by bestowing his information upon whomever finds it, offering it as a cautionary tale. Hope for the audience, then, lies in stepping away from the film experience, knowing that it is not yet 2055 and now is the time to effect change.
(01/14/10 4:00am)
It has already been an eventful 2010 for Middlebury men’s basketball. After setting a school record with a 10-0 start, the team suffered its first loss of the season to Colby-Sawyer last Thursday in Pepin Gymnasium.
After the first half concluded in a 33-33 tie, the second half featured a 17-2 Colby-Sawyer run which proved to be too much, despite a number of late surges by the Panthers.
Nolan Thompson ’13 led Middlebury in the game with 17 points, and co-captain Tim Edwards ’09.5 recorded a game-high 14 rebounds. However, first-year Colby-Sawyer point guard Corey Willis, who was able to overcome his lack of height at 5’7”, hit some clutch free throws to close out the game.
When asked about how the loss would affect the team from this point on, Andrew Locke ’11 seemed optimistic.
“Losing was certainly disappointing but the loss was a good reminder that we have to show up ready to fight every game,” said Locke. “This will be especially true in NESCAC games, where even teams with poorer records are capable of upsetting a great team on a given night.
It sounds counterintuitive, but losing this past week is going to help us moving forward into NESCAC play.”
“Our goal from the outset has been to successfully defend our NESCAC title,” said Locke. “To do this, we need to string together 40 minutes of strong basketball. We are so deep and so talented that if we do this there isn’t a team we can’t beat.”
Although the game could have been a setback, Middlebury refused to acknowledge this possibility, going 2-0 in games at Skidmore and Lyndon State this past weekend.
“We wanted to get back on track before the NESCAC season started,” said Ryan Wholey ’11. “It’s a whole new season when the conference play starts up next weekend.”
The Panthers put Skidmore away 80-67, but the game was never as close as the score indicated. Ryan Sharry ’12 posted a double-double with 19 points and 13 rebounds and “The Locke-ness Monster” (Locke) had six send-backs as he continued to anchor a Middlebury defense that leads the country in blocked shots.
Less than 24 hours after the Skidmore victory, in the final game before the commencement of the NESCAC schedule, the team further improved its record to 12-1 with a 97-69 blowout win at Lyndon State. Three first-years lead the team in scoring as Jake Wolfin ’13 finished with 16, Thompson accrued 13, and Luis Alvarez ’13 netted 12.
In the upcoming week, the Panthers will begin their quest to repeat as conference champions as they open up their NESCAC schedule with home games Friday and Saturday against Bates and Tufts, respectively. Bates enters the week at 6-5 having already begun their conference play with an overtime loss to Colby.
Tufts will go into the week at 3-7, though its team Web site claims, “Tufts University features one of the strongest men’s basketball traditions in New England.
Including contributors like the 1949-50 team that won 20 games, Tufts has a well-established reputation as one of the top programs in the region.”
It is unclear whether the Panthers will be intimidated during Saturday’s game by the success of the 1949 team, but the possibility certainly provides an excellent story line.
Any in attendance will surely be entertained.
(12/07/09 7:13pm)
If the proposal is not greatly altered by outside suggestions, there will be three new expansions, one to the Middlebury Shuttle, another to the Tri-Town Shuttle and the last to the Burlington Link on Saturdays. The goals are to expand services to areas that are not currently covered and to simplify the system to make it more consistent and easier to understand.
Executive Director of ACTR Jim Moulton discussed the difficulties with the current system at the second public meeting, held in the Ilsley Library on Monday, Nov. 30.
“I feel like it’s somewhat difficult to look at the schedule and understand if you haven’t seen it before,” Moulton said. “We want people who have never used it to understand it more easily and more quickly.”
The Middlebury Shuttle
The Middlebury shuttle will be expanded into new neighborhoods and run more frequently with two primary changes. First, the Middlebury bus route will no longer stop on Exchange Street because the new Vergennes and Bristol bus route will stop there, and second, there will be a split in the route between the College and Porter Hospital.
The Middlebury shuttle routes will run every half hour at peak times — that is, in the morning and evening — and every hour during off-peak times. To service more college students, ACTR is considering teaming with Midd-Rides in the future to coordinate routes during off-peak times.
“When I’ve encouraged people to take the bus, I’ve heard, ‘I’m not sure exactly when I’m coming back,” Middlebury resident and College employee Adam Franco said. “But the 30-minute piece will make it a regular, available thing.”
The Middlebury shuttle will run from 6:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. One general concern that people raised was that community members would have no way of taking public transit to an evening event at the College.
“We need the availability of going to a lecture and getting out afterwards and being able to go home,” said Irene Barna, who has worked in Old Chapel for 20 years. “As it is, if there is no bus, I can’t get home.”
Another community member, Laura Asermily, proposed that the bus run later on Fridays.
The Tri-Town Shuttle
The Tri-Town Shuttle currently runs every two hours from Middlebury to New Haven and then either east or south to Vergennes or Bristol. The new proposal will run buses every half-hour during peak commuter times and enable direct transportation from Middlebury to Vergennes and Middlebury to Bristol.
Currently, the trip from Middlebury by bus to either town can take several times longer than it would in a private car.
“I took the bus to Vergennes and it is a long trip,” Barna said.
ACTR is hoping to change the mentality in Bristol and Vergennes by giving the people better public transit options.
“Right now, as a community, Vergennes doesn’t rely on the bus,” Community Relations Manager of ACTR Nadine Barnicle said. “I think this is going to change that.”
The Burlington Link
Currently, the Burlington Link runs two round-trip departures between Middlebury and Burlington on Saturdays. According to the new proposal, the ACTR will expand to four round trips. As the proposal stands, there will be buses leaving every Saturday from Middlebury at 9:50 a.m., 12:10 p.m., 3:50 p.m. and 6:10 p.m. The buses coming back from Burlington will depart at 11:00 a.m., 1:20 p.m., 5:00 p.m. and 7:20 p.m.
Many college students mentioned at the first meeting in Hillcrest on Nov. 17 that a later bus from Burlington would give more students the option of having a more leisurely night in Burlington.
“We are currently trying to find a balance so students can use the bus and not feel pressure,” Moulton said.
Deviations
Along several routes, there exists the option to call for a deviation. People living a few blocks from some routes, for example, can call the ACTR office a day in advance to ask to be picked up by their home.
Franco mentioned that some people might be too timid to call for a deviation.
“I feel like calling for a deviation is an acquired skill,” Adam said. “The comfortable response becomes that ‘I just won’t try.’”
Franco proposed that there be clear signs on the streets where deviations are allowed.
Google Transit Provider
The ACTR is proud to announce that the new routes were selected as the first transit partner in Vermont to be a Google transit provider. This means that Internet users can log onto Google Maps, input the starting location and destination as well as convenient times and Google will match the search with the most convenient bus routes.
Barnicle commented that she hopes college students especially will use this tool on their computers or phones.
The Google Transit option will most likely go into effect in the spring.
Moulton added that the plan is only 80 to 90 percent complete and the rest will rely on comments from community members through Friday, Dec. 4.
“We make certain assumptions on things we hear, but we may get different reactions,” Moulton said.
Moulton also keeps an open mind about adjustments in the future.
“Our broad expectation is that this will evolve,” Moulton said. “It will create leverage for additional funding later on for expansion.”
Barnicle discussed how the current route does not even work for her commute to work.
“We will know it works when we can use the system we have designed,” Barnicle said.
Moulton added that the idea of this more functional transportation system would mean a decreased reliance on private cars.
“You have to break the habit of thinking about the car as the first means of transportation,” Moulton said, which yielded an immediate positive response from the audience.
(12/03/09 6:41pm)
The Panthers’ quick and dominant start to the season — four wins against non-conference teams in one week — has been characterized by large margins of victory and an impressive depth from the injury-plagued team.
“Sweep the week,” said Bill Greven ’10, one of the team’s senior players, when asked to comment on the team’s most recent victory against Johnson State.
It was clear from this response that he was far too focused to provide any further insight. Regardless, any worries that the Panthers would struggle out of the gate, playing without injured co-captains Kevin Kelleher ’10 and Tim Edwards ’10 and losing three starters from last year’s team, were quickly put to rest.
The Panthers began the season with two wins at the Equinox Classic, where both Nolan Thompson ’13 and Jamal Davis ’11 received All-Tournament honors. Since then, the team posted a blowout victory at home against St. Joseph’s before the equally impressive 28-point win over Johnson State to round out the first two weeks of the year.
“We have faced adversity this year so far with injuries, but our first-years have really stepped up,” said Ryan Sharry ’12. “We look to get stronger as the year moves on and are excited to defend our NESCAC championship.”
Undoubtedly, Sharry was referring to the backcourt duo of first-years Jake Wolfin ’13 and Nolan Thompson ’13, who have already made strong contributions to the team. Sharry currently leads the squad with 12.5 points and 7.3 rebounds per game, and is part of a talented starting front court along with Ryan Wholey ’11 and Davis that also features the 6’11” Andrew Locke ’11 coming off the bench. Locke finished the first four games with 11 blocks, establishing himself as a defensive presence in the paint reminiscent of a young Manute Bol — the legendary 7’7” Sudanese NBA player who scorched the courts in the ’80s and ’90s.
Indeed, the squad seems to be faring well despite the considerable setbacks of having both captains out of commission. The team, which completed a record season last year, taking part in extensive post-season play and capturing the NESCAC title, seems fully capable of living up to its recently-minted reputation this winter. From the number of fans packing the Pepin bleachers to Davis’s recent dunk at Swarthmore, it is clear that Panther basketball has become a team to watch this season, giving hockey a run for its money as the crowd-pleasing winter sport.
In the upcoming week, the Panther team has home games tonight at 7 p.m. against St. Lawrence and Saturday at 3 p.m. vs. Union, who are 2-2 and 1-2, respectively. Both teams should present a worthy challenge, however, as St. Lawrence showed in its last outing with a momentum-grasping 71-41 win against a hapless New York City Tech team. Following the St. Lawrence game, Middlebury won’t play another game until the end of the month, when they play Rensselaer on Dec. 30.
(12/03/09 10:00am)
Over this Thanksgiving break, my friends from high school and I got together in Boston for a “Boy’s Night Out.” Of course, we didn’t call it “Boy’s Night Out” — that would have been embarrassing — but as a graduate of an all-boys Catholic school, any attempt to hang out with friends ends up with us rolling 10 men deep into bars that tell us they would really prefer it if we could get a female to come along next time. I spent most of our night marveling at the fact that, in exchange for little more than providing a couple TVs and a place for strangers to make out, a bar establishment can get away with outrageous 800 percent markups on Pabst Blue Ribbon! I have a more cost-effective suggestion for single people: buy your own case (30 beers included! Batteries not) of PBR at an affordable price, sit down in front of your computer, and then see how many beers you can drink before e-Harmony finds a date for you.
Of course, most people, including Luddites like me, prefer the face-to-face method of sex/relationship hunting — though a surprisingly prevalent reason I hear for this is “I don’t want to have to tell people I met my spouse online.” Seriously. I’ve heard this more times than I can count, and at this point my response to hearing such nonsense is to sing, to the tune of Fine Young Cannibals’ “Drive Me Crazy,” “don’t get married!” The reasons for this are simple. We’ve all heard about the 50 percent divorce rate, and most likely the other 50 percent are so worn out and beaten down from inner turmoil over their life choice that they would never tell you they’ve made a tremendous mistake.
So, maybe I’m overstating the case a bit here. But think about it. Let’s imagine I’m leading one of those weird self-help, get-your-life-together type seminars, and I ask the hundred or so people in the room, “Have you ever been able to stand having one person in the role of your “significant other” for more than a year? Two years? Three?” At some point everyone in the room starts shaking their head. Then I ask, “Well, who is planning on getting married?” According to an admittedly small survey conducted among my single friends (and two people who accosted me to sign their Petition for the Environment), 80 percent of the people in this hypothetical seminar would raise their hands, citing the fact that they “haven’t met the right person.” At this point in the seminar, I would pause a moment for dramatic effect, before then cuing strobe lights and playing on the big screen behind me a creepy clip of me pointing at the camera, saying, “That’s because the right person isn’t out there!”
And before the audience could even say, “Why did you play that obnoxious clip when you could have just told us that yourself?” I’d have hit them with my hypothesis about marriage. I call it Desperation Psychosis. Now, I have no basis for this theory aside from my own cynical views about relationships, but I have spent late nights next to a candle with a leaky quill pen writing drafts the of “The Communist Manifesto II: Marriage vs. Masturbation.” Though these writings bear only a loose resemblance to Marx, they do speak extensively of communal living with a mate.
The anti-marriage arguments are overwhelming. There are psychologists guaranteeing that you’ll have to go through whole years where you just don’t like your spouse. You’ll argue, you’ll stop having sex, you’ll start secretly screwing the other members of your bridge club… But this is reality, they say. It’s full of compromise…
But the thing is, though as an idealist I’d proudly tell my seminar not to give in to the “institution of marriage,” non-married life sounds just as terrifying. As far as I can tell, this is the situation we will be faced with in the next 20 years: The longer we wait to get married, the longer we watch all of the good-looking people leave the market. Then all of the sane people leave the market. Then even your hippie girlfriend Sunshine, who promised you she would never, ever get hitched, will be jumping at the chance to legally bond herself to some granola tycoon.
So you look around at the ever-shrinking sex pool and you realize that your options are next to nil. There’s no one left! So what do you do? Oh, God, now you’re an adulterer! Shame! Guilt! H1N1-esque panic!
Is life really this full of fear after Middlebury College? I presume not. I fear I may be getting delusional in my senioritis months. So I apologize. I didn’t mean to bring you down into my own psychosis. But if you continue to look for the perfect person, and you continue to pursue the goal of marriage, all I’m saying is you may want to get that commitment in writing from the guy who agreed to marry you if you were still single by forty.
(11/19/09 7:24am)
Rugby traveled to the UMass-Amherst campus this weekend for the national semifinal tournament. In their first matchup on Saturday, the Panthers took on the Stony Brook Seawolves. The horrendous weather was not ideal for either team, but the Panthers played a hard first half to gain a definitive lead and secure the win.
The impossibly muddy field made it clear that kicking would be the decisive factor in the game. Luckily, Middlebury kicker Brian Sirkia ’12.5 was up to the challenge. In the first half, Sirkia opened the scoring 15 minutes after the whistle with a penalty kick for the panthers. Ten minutes later, Geoff Kalan ’12 answered with a try. Kalan and captain Eddie Cahill ’09.5 were noteworthy for their tenacious play throughout the match. The last score for Middlebury came again from Sirkia, who scored another penalty with six minutes to go in the half.
The second half gave the Panthers a chance to show their strong defensive game. By coming in with the advantage, they were able to adopt a calm and collected attitude, and focus on thwarting the Stony Brook offense. Middlebury’s scrum game was also noticeably improved in the second half. While they were not able to capitalize on any more scoring opportunities, they kept Stony Brook out of the end zone for the entire 80 minutes, ending the game with an 11-0 win.
The other semifinal matchup on Saturday pitted UVM against UMass-Amherst, with UVM coming out on top. The next round of games would match UMass-Amherst against Stony Brook to determine third and forth place. The competition for first and second place matched Middlebury against rival UVM.
This game marked the third time the Panthers faced UVM. In the earlier two matchups, Middlebury delivered two resounding defeats to UVM, and the Panthers looked forward to this opportunity to extend their perfect record. Unfortunately, despite playing a great game, they weren’t quite able to finish on top.
The game was a “clash of the Northeast titans,” said coach Muchadei Zvoma. The game opened as a competition between the two back-lines and the kickers. UVM was the first to find success, scoring a try off of a lucky kick return. Middlebury countered with a run by flanker Zach Bills ’11. Although not finishing with a try, Bills earned the Panthers a penalty kick, which Sirkia easily put away to render the score 3-7 in favor of UVM.
UVM continued to challenge the Middlebury defense, eventually scoring another try and a conversion. Two UVM players received yellow cards near the end of the first half, giving Middlebury the advantage for a few minutes, but the Panthers were unable to capitalize, ending the first half with UVM in the lead 14-11.
Early in the second half, the Panthers fought hard in the scrum and found themselves in prime offensive position. Kalan finished with a try off of a crisp pass from Sirkia to give Middlebury their first lead of the game, with a score of 15-14. The game continued with attacks and counter-attacks by both teams. Middlebury played a strong defensive game, but UVM eventually broke through the line to score another try, ending the game at 19-15 in favor of the Catamounts.
“All of the coaches are incredibly proud of the boys for the character they showed this weekend — we have been plagued by injury this season but they gave their absolute everything in terrible weather conditions Saturday and against a good UVM side Sunday,” said Zvoma. “We lost today but we walk away with our heads high and our eyes on the only prize that counts: the National Championship in the spring.”
Despite the loss, Middlebury is assured a spot in the Sweet 16 tournament in the spring, along with UVM and UMass-Amherst. This is the first step in their road to nationals, where the Muddlebury College Rugby Club will play to defend their championship title.
(11/19/09 7:08am)
When thinking of the words “sustainable” and “Middlebury,” the word “athletics” doesn’t usually fit in between. The first things to come to mind are usually the biomass plant and maybe Dining Services’ efforts to use local foods; the idea of sustainable athletics — not only the idea that athletics can be sustainable, but also the idea that athletics should be sustainable—often gets left behind.
Considering how ubiquitous athletics are on campus, with 28 percent of the student body participating in varsity sports (not to mention popular club and intramural programs) the idea of “green athletics” has been overlooked by most in the College’s ongoing effort to achieve carbon neutrality by 2016.
While the ties between the athletic and environmental cultures at Middlebury may seem tenuous, they nonetheless occupy a major position on the athletic department’s yearly agenda.
Interest in the subject was piqued four years ago when a group of lacrosse players enrolled in one of Associate Professor of Economics Jon Isham’s classes was motivated to make carbon neutrality a reality for the men’s lacrosse team.
Since then, student-athletes from nearly every sport have taken the initiative in bridging the gap between the athletic and environmental worlds.
Under the stewardship of Nordic skiing head coach Andrew Gardner, who serves as liaison between the athletics and environmental offices and co-chairs the environmental council, athletes from almost every sport have been named “green liaisons” and charged with the task of looking after the sustainable interests of their individual teams.
In the past, athletic culture has been marked with waste, “driven,” as Gardner said, “by large consumerism.” This stigma placed the athletic world at odds with environmentalists, appearing counter to the goals of sustainability.
While Gardner continued, noting that at Division III schools that mentality is a little less pervasive, he said that even at Middlebury “the cultures [of athletics and environmentalism] are so separate.”
In conjunction with the green liaisons and the environmental council, he has worked throughout his four-year tenure to prove that the ideals of environmentalism “are not at odds with athletic culture.”
At last year’s sustainability summit, hosted by the environmental council, 18 of the 80 delegates present were green liaisons, representing the athletic interest in promoting sustainability on campus. The efforts of these student-athletes have produced three proposed and approved grants to the environmental council that further the athletic department’s green agenda.
Initiatives ranging from replacing light switches in the athletic facilities with more efficient ones to recycling tennis balls and purchasing a biodiesel transportation van have stemmed from the department’s dedication to eliminating excess waste and drawing the focus away from athletics as consumerism.
In attempts to further encourage collaboration between the College’s athletic and environmental programs, a dinner co-sponsored by the athletics department and Weybridge
house is in the works for sometime in the spring semester.
Athletics can no longer be considered separate from the green movement, heaped into some “other” category, and more importantly, can no longer allow itself to be left behind this movement as it picks up momentum.
As Middlebury moves toward its goal of carbon neutrality, the athletic department has proved its clout in environmental circles. The importance of student-athletic involvement in achieving these goals should not be understated, but as a distinct athletic culture, we still have a long way to go.
One of the overarching goals of the athletics department’s ventures into sustainability is not simply to change practices, but to change mindsets. With the big picture in mind, simple changes, like walking instead of driving to Kenyon, can go a long way in reducing our footprint while forging an environmentally-minded athletic culture.
(11/19/09 4:06am)
Ten minutes is nothing. A 10-minute nap is never satisfying, 10 minutes of running is considered a warm-up, and 10 minutes in bed is, well, not exactly impressive by any means.
But 10 minutes is more than nothing to a farmer. To Sunrise Orchards in Cornwall, for instance, 10 minutes of hail early in the growing season cost the orchard approximately $1 million in apples this year, about one fourth of the farm’s profit.
Perhaps the worst part about this is that the apples taste great. Yet they have slight blemishes or pockmarks that make them unsuitable for wholesale, and are essentially left to fall off of the trees and rot. That’s where gleaning comes in.
Gleaning is the practice of gathering leftover produce or fruit after a crop has been harvested. Gleaners collect the food that farmers cannot sell, either because the produce is not the ideal size, is cosmetically flawed or is simply excess.
Middlebury alum and Compton Fellow Corinne Almquist ’09 works with Theresa Snow, program director of agricultural resources at the Vermont Food Bank, to organize gleanings and deliver produce to Vermont Food Shelves and other community centers throughout the northwestern Vermont area. And with almost 10 percent of the Vermont population categorized as “food insecure,” gleaning is becoming an important resource for the food bank.
But these leftovers are not like cold pizza or take-out boxes of lo mein. They are perfect potatoes, fresh green beans or, as I found out while gleaning at Sunrise Orchards, ripe apples perfectly chilled by the crisp Vermont autumn. For many, this is a refreshing change from the processed food traditionally distributed by food banks.
“I’m really drawn toward gleaning because it serves people who usually don’t get the chance to participate in the growing local foods movement, but who absolutely have the right to enjoy fresh, healthy produce,” Almquist explained.
Eric Elderbrock ’10 agrees. The Sunrise Orchard glean was his first, but he immediately felt the benefits.
“Who wouldn’t enjoy hanging out in the sun, picking apples or carrots, knowing that the healthy food they’re picking is going to make the day of someone a little less fortunate?” Elderbrock said.
Almquist began this venture with help from the Compton Mentor Fellowship Program, which provided her with a one-year grant to pursue “something [I’m] totally passionate about,” she said. She originally heard about the program from Emily Adler ’08, the first Middlebury student to receive the fellowship. At the same time, she began to develop an interest in gleaning through the Middlebury College Organic Garden and Professor John Elder’s Fast Food/Slow Food class.
“The more I thought about it, the more I realized it would be a perfect project for the fellowship,” Almquist said.
She originally considered trying the project in California, but coming from Middlebury, Vermont resonated with her. Now she has fostered ties with supportive farmers dedicated to sustainable food systems, and with the abundance of smaller diversified farms in the area, the gleaning process has been easy.
“I would imagine that it would be much harder to glean in an area that is dominated by industrial agriculture,” she said, “I am so happy I stayed in Vermont.”
Her involvement in the fellowship, after all, has revolved around the goal of using sustainable agriculture to ameliorate our country’s environmental footprint.
“[Gleaning’s] really a simple concept that has been around for thousands of years, yet if implemented on a wide scale it could play a crucial role in reducing our nation’s carbon emissions, strengthening local food networks, and sparking the transition away from industrial agriculture,” Almquist said.
Volunteers have also been a crucial part of the program’s success. Gleaning attracts people of all ages, “from elementary school kids to folks in their 80s,” as Almquist said.
The latest gleaning at Sunrise Orchards, for example, attracted a range of personalities. Will Van Heuvelen ’09.5 and Marcella Houghton ’12 unloaded the back of a minivan packed with empty crates, soon to be filled by volunteers like Almquist’s mother, Muriel, and Middlebury residents Carol and Reg Spooner. Carol is a 1950 Middlebury College graduate, and Reg is a lifetime resident of Middlebury. The two met Almquist through the interfaith environmental group Spirit in Nature, and their involvement with the College remains active through the Friends of International Students Host Program and through auditing various classes at the College.
“We’ve been volunteering with HOPE for years and we’ve known Corinne for a long time. Gleaning was just a gimme,” Spooner said.
Almquist recognizes the importance of volunteers in this program, and she is trying to ensure that gleaning in Vermont continues to prosper after her fellowship has ended. She is working to create AmeriCorps positions focused on gleaning, and HOPE (Helping Overcome Poverty’s Effects) is considering hiring an intern to continue gleaning.
“Now that there’s an expectation of fresh produce from the food shelves, it needs to happen!” said Almquist.
With enthusiastic volunteers, the future is looking bright.
“Given how much fun [gleaning] is, it should sell itself,” said Elderbrock.
Elderbrock acknowledges, however, that with the commitments and pressure placed on Middlebury students, free time can seem like a luxury. But gleaning is time well spent, “spending a couple of hours on a beautiful Vermont farm with friends,” noted Elderbrock.
After all, 10 minutes of hail may have damaged the apples at Sunrise Orchards, but last week, a single hour of gleaning there produced 1,200 pounds of fruit, all of which will be distributed to people who really need it.
(11/19/09 1:36am)
Maryland College cuts carbon by 80 percent
St. Mary’s College cut its carbon dioxide outputs by 80 percent last year thanks to a series of student initiatives. Students purchased Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) to offset 100 percent of their carbon footprint due to electricity use.
Several new buildings on campus introduced geothermal HVAC systems which will cut emissions by several hundred tons. Other buildings have increased the efficiency of windows to both save money and reduce the College’s carbon footprint.
Members of the community believe the changes made at St. Mary’s should inspire members of the community. To solve climate change requires that everyone make sacrifices and look at their own habits, according to David Kung, associate professor of mathematics.
“The students at the college are part of a nationwide movement that is redefining the way society views environmentalism,” said Emily Saari ’12, co-president of the college’s Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC).
—The Baynet
Haverford College to add Enviornmental Studies
After years of discussion and a grant from the Andrew Mellon Foundation, Haverford College will add an environmental studies program.
Members of a faculty committee submitted their application to the foundation and received a $1.5 million grant to start the program. The College will attempt to raise three times that amount through fundraising in the coming three years.
The new program will combine elements of a science and humanities education. A faculty committee will determine what courses will form the program and how many faculty members to hire.
Discussions about adding a similar program have been ongoing for years. The College hired its first professor for the program recently. “I think that a liberal arts college is the perfect place for this sort of thing. My kind of research fits really well into interdisciplinary, small liberal arts college environment,” Professor Helen White said.
“We are still in the data-gathering mode, trying to hear from students, alumni in environmental careers,” Professor Robert Scarrow said. “We are asking faculty which of the courses they already teach have environmental implications, because, although we are bringing in new faculty members, we think the program needs more than three faculty members
—The Bi-College News
Williams students fast for climate change
Environmental student leaders at Williams College will fast through upcoming climate talks in Copenhagen to promote immediate action to stem the effects of climate change.
The students joined with other environmental leaders throughout the world in the Climate Justice Fast following the conclusion of the Nov. 6 climate conference in Barcelona.
The group will organize a relay of fasting so that students do not have to continually fast for the duration of the event. Organizers predict the fast will last 42 days at the very least.
Members of the Thursday Night Group, the Williams environmental club, will wear t-shirts to show their support for the effort.
—The Hamilton Spectator
(11/12/09 4:00pm)
As the number of students succumbing to H1N1 or other influenza-like illness continues to grow — with more than 247 students having been isolated since August — the shipments of the H1N1 vaccine received by Parton Health Center re- main steady yet small.
Following the initial shipment and clinic that took place on Oct. 22, in which the health center received 150 doses of the nasal vaccine only, Parton has received two other shipments. A second, smaller shipment of nasal vaccine went unadvertised; the center relied on word-of-mouth and administered the vaccine to individual students who walked in and requested it.
The third shipment arrived last week and consisted of 200 doses of the injectable vaccine. After separately contacting a group of high- risk students — those with asthma and other chronic ailments — and conducting a clinic for them on Nov. 6, during which 31 students received the vaccine, Parton opened up the remaining doses to all students. On the morning of Monday, Nov. 9, students were invited in a campus-wide e-mail to dial a designated appointment-only phone number between the hours of 9-11 a.m. It took little more than two hours to fill up every available slot during the three and a half hours set aside for the clinic, which took place the next day, on Tuesday, Nov. 10, between 12:30 and 4 p.m.
According to Terry Jenny, Par- ton’s associate director, the phone was ringing off the hook on Monday morning.
“[Bonnie Betourney, the secretary on duty] would hang up the phone and it would ring again,” she said, as students anxious about receiving the vaccine hurried to sign up for the Tuesday clinic.
One of those anxious students was Shane Scranton ’12.5. On Mon- day morning, Scranton had class throughout the two-hour window designated by the health center, and was concerned with having enough time to schedule an appointment.
“I think I called them about 80 times,” he said. “It was kind of ridiculous.”
Scranton eventually reached the health center, but after prolonged efforts was unable to secure an appointment due to scheduling conflicts he had with the only available time slots remaining. “It was pretty frustrating, but given that they’re dealing with such a low sup- ply, I feel like they’re handling it pretty good,” he said. “I still wish that the health center had some better way of assessing who needs the vaccine most, or could as- sure all students an equal chance of getting it.”
Scranton not only had class during the designated appointment call-in time Monday morning, but also during the Oct. 22 open clinic. He expressed dissatisfaction with the health center’s inability to accommodate students’ morning class com- mitments, and suggested Parton include an evening session in future clinic arrangements.
“There’s got to be a better time when more people are available,” he said.
The shipments of vaccine arrive with meager regularity from the Center for Disease Control via the Vermont State Department of Health. Each week, an unknown amount of vaccine arrives; each week, Parton renews its request form, subtracting the amount of vac- cine received thus far from the amount originally requested and requesting the balance.
“I would love if they would drop 1,800 doses of vaccine in our lap,” said Jenny. “Then we could just do the clinics and be done with it ... But what we get is what we get.”
The State Department of Health originally set up a variety of clinics based in schools, but it cancelled most of them because it then decided to distribute the vaccines differently — for example, through individual doctors’ offices.
The piecemeal way in which shipments arrive has caused difficulty and frustration for both Parton and students. Jenny expressed re- gret about the Oct. 22 clinic, in which an ad- vertised five-hour availability had to close after 30 minutes because of sheer demand. She de- scribed it as a “hullabaloo.”
“We had about 225 people in line by 9:30 a.m.,” she said, and only 150 doses available. “So we counted heads, and we sent anyone past 150 away.”
“It’s difficult,” she continued. “It’s a hard position to be in. Everybody’s doing the best they can. We don’t want to raise expectations so high and then disappoint people, which I think is what happened [on Oct. 22]. That was really hard... We’re just winging it like everybody else.” Carolyn Kooi ’12 came down with an influenza-like illness two weeks ago. “I felt normal until I went into the healthcenter and they told me I had a fever. Two days later I was burning up with a 103-degree fever,” she said. Kooi, who has asthma, took advantage of the Nov. 6 clinic for high-risk students. “It was pretty chill,” she said. “You walk in, you turn around, they give you the injection, and you walk out. I think it was handled amazingly well.”
Though the H1N1 epidemic is evidently in full swing, the regular flu season has not even begun. Parton continues to await the arrival of the seasonal flu vaccine, the date of which the Department of Health has not yet indicated.
“I have no idea when we’ll get it,” said Jenny. “They keep saying, ‘The middle of next month, the middle of next week,’ but we’re just not seeing it. When it shows up, it’ll show up.”
(05/07/09 12:00am)
Author: Kara Shurmantine On May 1, three proposed Honor Code recommendations passed after finally being approved by a two-thirds majority of the student body.The honor code referendum, however, was at a standstill for over a week. In order to be passed, the code amendment had to be voted on by two-thirds of the student body, and two-thirds of voters needed to approve the changes. Until this two-thirds majority was achieved at around 2 p.m. on May 1, the honor code decision remained uncertain.All three recommendations passed with at least an 80 percent majority among students who voted. The first amendment simplifies the process by which faculty members can proctor exams, the second aligns the honor code's description of the academic judicial process with that detailed in the College Handbook and the third puts the Judicial Affairs Officer in charge of the first-year honor code orientation process.In a campus-wide e-mail sent on April 29 - almost a full week after the recommendations were supposed to be decided - Acting Dean of the College Gus Jordan urged more students to cast their ballots, particularly seniors, noting that "about half" of the senior class had voted for the referendum."About half" was perhaps a rather generous estimate. In the election that took place between 2 p.m. on April 23 and April 24, which included both the honor code initiative as well as the presidential contest, only 245 seniors voted, compared to 384 first-years, 435 sophomores and 459 juniors. The SGA, the Faculty Council, the Community Council and the Honor Code Review Committee all supported the recommendations, and were eager to get them passed.Among the commons, voting patterns were largely consistent; Brainerd, Cook and Ross commons all had about 300 voters each. However, Wonnacott Commons, with 348 votes, had a full 100 more votes than Atwater.Hiba Fakhoury '09, the current SGA president, expressed enthusiasm about the results. "It has been the most exciting project I have been involved in," she wrote in an e-mail. "It's very nice to finally see it happen!"Jamal Davis '11, a member of the Honor Code Review Committee, described how the group had worked to develop and improve the Honor Code, a process that culminated in these proposals. "We felt like the old Honor Code wasn't working as well as it could," he said. The new amendments, he described, better serve both faculty and students.In the presidential run-off election, the underdog from the first round, Mike Panzer '10, beat out his opponent Vrutika Mody '10, but by a paltry 40 votes. The run-off election had 300 fewer voters than the record-setting election two weeks ago. The first presidential ballot had what Panzer described as an "impressive" turnout.The large turnout on April 23 did immediately produce a clear victor for the SGA presidency, though it was not who many might have expected, given the results from the first round in which Panzer had only 278 votes compared to Mody's 356."Wow, that was a close close close election," Panzer wrote in an e-mail. "I just managed to sneak by."It was indeed a narrow margin of victory. The run-off evidently benefited Panzer's campaign - some students speculated that he may have profited from the elimination of the three other candidates - Andrew DeLoach '10, Nick Alexander '10 and Nick Sohl '10 - by picking up their votes.Janet Gehrmann '09, head of the SGA Elections Committee, believes, however, that Panzer won the election because "students at Middlebury College believe he will best represent them, their interests and their concerns in the 2009-2010 academic year," not because, he received all of the eliminated candidates votes."I think Mike ran a really strong campaign," said Francie Alexandre '12, who voted in both the first and second rounds of the presidential election. "I saw him out there driving around in cars and shouting and holding up posters
