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(03/07/18 11:48pm)
I am writing to inform the readers of an important but positive change to The Campus. Beginning with the next issue, Features will no longer be a weekly section.
This decision is not a reflection of the Features team’s work this year. The Features team has been particularly strong despite what we believe is a flaw in how this paper has approached features (lowercase f) in the past. A feature, by definition, is an article that is deeply researched and reported over a long period of time. In other words, it is the opposite of a regular section responsible for reporting several stories a week.
Rather than ask one section to produce long-form investigative journalism in addition to weekly coverage, we have decided to change the architecture of the paper to accommodate both.
As the editors continue to improve this paper, we want to focus on quality over quantity. We believe that dedicating resources and time to features will lead to better, more impactful stories. After input from current and past editors, both here and abroad, we are confident that this is the right decision.
I also want to notify people of a recent change to the opinion pages. We have hired four new editors dedicated solely to working on reader op-eds. This frees up some of our editors to focus on writing the weekly editorial. It also means the paper has the resources to handle more submissions from you, our readers. To submit an op-ed, please email opinion@middleburycampus.com.
Should any member of campus have any questions, or ideas for features you would like to see, feel free to send an email our way: campus@middlebury.edu.
(03/01/18 1:21am)
“There’s one thing I should make clear. There is absolutely no way, in the brief period of time I’m going to speak, that I’m going to convince you of anything in this very complex case.”
Science writer Mark Pendergrast used these words to begin his Tuesday, Feb. 20 lecture “The Malleability of Memory and the Conviction of Jerry Sandusky.” Pendergrast, who has authored 14 books on topics ranging from caffeinated beverages to Japanese renewable energy policies, spoke in the Axinn Center about his latest book, “The Most Hated Man in America: Jerry Sandusky and the Rush to Judgment.”
Pendergrast began his talk by summarizing the well-known case of Jerry Sandusky, the former Pennsylvania State University assistant football coach who is a convicted serial rapist and child molester. In 1977, Sandusky founded a charity called The Second Mile in State College, Pennsylvania, to provide help and support to atrisk youth. The program also gave Sandusky decades of unsupervised access to vulnerable boys. He was arrested on pedophilia-related charges in 2011 and found guilty in 2012. Yet despite the numerous witnesses who have recounted stories of his abuse, Sandusky insists that he was wrongly convicted.
“I don’t think he’s guilty,” said Pendergrast. “I think he’s entirely innocent.”
Pendergrast explained that much of the case against Sandusky depended on repressed memory therapy, a technique meant to retrieve traumatic experiences that children block from consciousness. Therapists helped Sandusky’s witnesses rebuild memories of abuse that they could not recall. “I’m assuming that everyone knows that repressed memories are pseudoscience,” said Pendergrast. “The idea that you would forget terrible things is not true.”
Pendergrast said that when he first learned about the case, “I was appalled by it, and like everyone, I thought Jerry Sandusky must have done this.” Interviews with Sandusky and his children changed Pendergrast’s mind. Of Sandusky’s six children, five defend their father, describing him as “touchy-feely” but in a paternal way. Adopted son Matt Sandusky started out backing his siblings, but he changed his story after attending repressed memory therapy. He eventually released a statement saying that his father had sexually abused him.
Pendergrast saw Sandusky’s lack of maltreatment toward his own children as an early indication that other witnesses’ stories might not add up. He said, “I would think that if [he were] a pedophile and [he] had four of these interviewed boys, that he would try to do something with them. They weren’t even related by blood. But he didn’t.”
Accusations against Sandusky collected over the years, but former Penn State quarterback Mike McQueary ignited the controversy when he overheard slapping sounds in the locker room shower. It was Sandusky with a boy. Pendergrast emphasized that while McQueary initially spoke only of hearing sounds he interpreted as sexual, his story shifted after he, too, attended repressed memory therapy. There, he remembered seeing Sandusky’s hips moving behind a child’s. The boy in the shower, Allan Myers, later testified that he and Sandusky had been snapping towels and that he could recall nothing sexual about the incident.
Pendergrast recognized that the circumstances of McQueary’s accusation were inherently suspicious. People would question a man in his mid-fifties showering, nude, with a child. Pendergrast responded by describing Sandusky as a “supportive goofball” who was oblivious to what others considered socially acceptable.
Most of the witnesses who ended up testifying against Sandusky said that they had pushed away memories of his abuse until therapy allowed them to recognize what really happened. Pendergrast believes that the therapists implanted the witnesses with false memories. He quoted “Victim 7,” Dustin Struble, as saying, “I had everything blocked out.” Struble also said, “I was good at pushing memories of abuse away. [My therapist] explained a lot to me since this happened.”
“I don’t believe he was abused,” said Pendergrast.
Sandusky’s attorney was, as Pendergrast put it, “completely clueless about repressed memory.” He had no idea how to fight a string of victims who defended Sandusky until they went to therapy and remembered the abuse he had put them through. According to Pendergrast, trial mismanagement and blind trust in repressed memory doomed Sandusky, but because Pennsylvania’s judges are elected rather than appointed, he has little hope of being granted a retrial.
Pendergrast did not expect his brief talk to change anyone’s mind. His stance on Sandusky is so unpopular that he could not find a publisher for his book, which can instead be purchased online in paperback and Kindle form. Pendergrast, who hopes that people will consider his perspective before forming their own conclusions, said, “I beg you to actually read the book.”
When asked whether he believed repressed memory played a role in the #MeToo Movement, Pendergrast said that while repressed memory likely influences some cases, he does not think it is a significant factor. While he sees the #MeToo Movement as “shedding light on the way women have been treated,” he is concerned by events such as the firing of Garrison Keillor. “Where are the details?” Pendergrast said. “The man’s life has been ruined.”
(03/01/18 1:13am)
On Wednesday, February 21, over 40 students, staff and faculty members gathered in the Axinn Center’s Abernathy Room to hear black faculty members speak about their experiences navigating primarily white spaces, including Middlebury.
The panelists included literatures and cultures librarian Katrina Spencer, computer science instructor Jason Grant, associate professor of history William Hart, assistant professor of American studies Jessyka Finley and artist and J-Term professor William “Kasso” Condry.
Middlebury’s fall 2017 student body profile reported that only 4.1 percent of the student body identifies as black or African American, and Data USA reported that 0.73 percent of the town of Middlebury’s residents are black. But for many of the professors who spoke on Wednesday’s panel, Middlebury was not the first predominantly white space they had faced. They bring the influences of these past environments to their work here.
Spencer spoke about the significant impression left on her by her undergraduate experience, which she said had a similar environment to Middlebury. “ I felt very unseen,” Spencer said. “I was a human body in the class, but people didn’t see me as a human being, so it definitely affects how I interact with students because I try to see them as whole people.”
Grant discussed being a minority among students pursuing Ph.D.’s in Computer Science. He described an incident that occurred in his last year of school, when his senior work professor told his adviser that he couldn’t reach Grant or his black classmates because of the “cultural gap.” That ostracizing experience led Grant to a new pedagogical outlook.
“I try to find any type of way to connect to my students because once that professor said he couldn’t teach me, I felt like I no longer belonged there,” he said. Grant also added that at Middlebury he feels “extreme pressure to represent the black community.”
Professor Hart said that he and his siblings were the only black students at their high school and explained that at Middlebury he feels subjected to a similar “uninvited hypervisibility.” Hart also said that people in the community outside his department see him as a “black person interested in only black things.” He recounted an interaction with a well-meaning colleague who presumed he had read a book because it was by a black author and also described an encounter with someone he ran into on the street who told him that reading the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” had made him think of Hart.
While these professors are working to positively influence Middlebury through their work, they are also still facing the challenges of living and working in a predominantly white community here at Middlebury. However, it is not only words, but also the lack of discussion, that some of the panelists find problematic about Middlebury.
“There is a lot of silence around race and social justice,” Spencer said. “There is a fear white people have about talking about race. They don’t want to say the wrong thing, so instead of the wrong thing they say nothing, which creates another silence.”
Professor Finley emphasized that despite these challenges, the ability to teach at places like Middlebury is an amazing opportunity that black professors want to take advantage of, and that the administrations at rural schools like Middlebury should be aware of this. “
There is this assumption on the part of a lot of people who are doing the hiring that people like us don’t want jobs here, can’t hack it here, can’t get our [hair cut here], and [that] we’re city people, but we want jobs, and this is a good job,” Finley said. She added that extending more faculty job offers to people of color, as well as increasing financial aid, will help to increase diversity at places like Middlebury.
“This institution is over 200 years old — it’s probably going to take that long, if not longer, for it to be equal as far as white and black here,” Condry said. “But that’s where it comes in with the type of teaching you’re doing, to hopefully inspire that next person to inspire the next person.”
(03/01/18 12:45am)
The Student Government Association (SGA) passed two bills on Feb. 18, one which called for a referendum on Middlebury’s divestment from fossil fuels and one which provided a process by which students may form new club sports teams.
The divestment resolution, proposed by Feb senator Alec Fleischer ’20.5, called for a referendum among students on whether or not Middlebury should divest from fossil fuels.
“We had a successful divestment bill in 2013, a long time ago, but nobody listened to it,” Fleischer said.
He added that the referendum will help to spread the word about divestment and to gauge what percentage of students are in favor of it, rather than relying only on the elected representatives to advocate for change.
“We’ll do a very large ramp up campaign with more events like we saw in the fall, a lot of tabling, doing a lot of just like get out the vote type of things, cause the more people that vote, the better,” Fleischer said.
The fall event Fleischer referred to featured a series of speakers, including professor Bill McKibben, who spoke about why Middlebury should divest. The event was held at the same time as a college trustees meeting.
The referendum will occur during the spring SGA elections.
The club sports bill that passed the same day had been in discussion for several months. Senators John Gosselin ’20, Jack Goldfield ’20 and Rae Aaron ’19.5 authored the bill, which designates any new group hoping to reach club sports status as a “provisional club sport.” This designation will come with $200 in funding for the club’s first two years. After those two years, a joint committee made up of members the SGA student organization oversight committee (SOOC) and the SGA finance committee will decide whether the club will be accepted or rejected as a club sport, or whether it will continue its provisional status.
The bill is an offshoot of an original draft that focused on allowing the club tennis team to become an official club sport, since Middlebury policy previously did not allow club sports where there were existing varsity teams.
“The main motivation behind creating this bill is that there have been a group of students who wanted to start club tennis three or four years ago and they were told no by the student activities office because there already is a varsity sport” said Aaron, who is a member of the club team. “They really just want recognition and they deserve recognition, and I think that the SGA realized that and decided that instead of just opening the rule for one sport, it’s only fair if we open the conversation for all students who are interested in starting a new club sport,” Aaron said.
Doug Connelly, director of club sports, estimated that between four and eight new club sports could apply to be provisional club sports in the first year.
The proposal originally had a number of clauses focused on saving money that were removed because they would have crippled a number of existing club sports teams. The bill ultimately passed in a contentious vote, with eight in favor, one opposed and five abstaining.
“I had a lot of problems with the way the bill was written, how hastily it was written and that it got rid of the only check we had to keeping club sports manageably funded,” said Peter Dykeman-Bermingham ’18.5, chair of the finance committee.
Dykeman-Bermingham noted that when the current club sports bill expires in two years, the new bill will simultaneously allow both new and existing club sports to become more expensive.
“In two years we’re gonna have a really serious budget issue. It opens the door to a whole host of clubs that we are not prepared for financially,” he said, adding that students are concerned that the college will have to raise tuition to accompany the rising student activities fee when the crisis hits.
Club sports make up about 10 percent of the SGA’s annual budget, accounting for $122,000 a year plus an additional $20,000 that was requested this year. Each club sport costs on average $5,000; the cheapest one this year had a budget of $1,305. The current club sports bill caps the any club sport’s funding at 100 percent of its average budget over the last three years.
Though Aaron admitted that the SGA’s biggest concern is the financial aspect of the bill, she had a more optimistic view on the potential costs associated with new club sports.
“I’m not concerned about it getting out of control because our finance committee and our student organization oversight committee are very thorough when they look through which clubs to admit,” she said. “I think it’s just frustrating that the student activities fee has to cover the cost of all club sports.”
After the bill passed, SGA president Jin Sohn ’18, who voted against holding a vote for the bill and then abstained from the vote, called for the SGA to ask for more support from the administration in the handling of club sports.
Dykeman-Bermingham and Gosselin worked on an amendment to the club sports bill that was passed at this week’s SGA meeting on Sunday, Feb. 25. The amendment addresses some of the issues that were immediately apparent in the original bill, such as the inability for teams to purchase snacks.
The SGA also passed the bill calling for the replacement of the dining halls’ disposable containers with reusable foodware at Sunday’s meeting. Students will be able to buy in and get carabiners before spring break, while the reusable containers will be available after the break.
(03/01/18 12:07am)
Literatures and cultures librarian Katrina Spencer is liaison to the Anderson Freeman Center, the Arabic department, the French department, the Gender Sexuality & Feminist Studies (GSFS Program), the Language Schools, Linguistics and the Spanish & Portuguese departments. These affiliations are reflected in her reading choices.
“While I am a very slow reader, I’m a very critical reader,” she says.
If Someone Says “You Complete Me,” Run!: Whoopi’s Big Book of Relationships
By Whoopi Goldberg, 2015
Pages: 244
Happy Black History Month!
The What
Actress, comedian, talk show hostess and film producer Whoopi Goldberg takes some time to reflect on what she has learned after navigating the institution of marriage thrice and a variety of romantic and sexual relationships over the years. In this memoir/self-help hybrid, Goldberg recommends we all apply a heavy dose of common sense and honesty in pursuing unions with others and that we make the pursuit of romantic love less central to our lives and their meaning. In approximately 15 chapters, Goldberg addresses romantic love with a lack of sentimentality and with a good deal of logic. She has embraced her singlehood without denying her sexual appetites.
The Why
As I was collecting works for the Black History Month display, I made sure to include both Sister Acts, movies that were central to many black people’s youth in the 1990s and developed massive cult followings.
It was by accident that I found out that Whoopi Goldberg was an author and filmmaker, too. I started to dig deeper and explore facets of the artist’s and writer’s life. I knew, for example, that she was a comic before she was an actress, but I was unfamiliar with her work. So I took the time to appreciate her stand-up in Whoopi, Back to Broadway, her documentary, Moms Mabley and her words on relationships in this highlighted tome, ...Run!, all of which are available in the Davis Family Library.
In this work, Goldberg asks her readers to critically examine where we get our societal cues on what makes, builds and sustains functional relationships, naming songs as one of the culprits that brainwashed the masses. When I critically examine my past, I realize that Ginuwine’s “Pony,” the Temptations’ “My Girl” and Salt N Pepa’s “Shoop” may not have led me down the path towards a bona fide, edifying, reciprocal love. Not one of these incredibly popular songs references household maintenance, chores, or who takes out the garbage and washes the dishes, payments of a shared mortgage, the revolutionary concept of a pair maintaining separate households, polyamory, love languages, STDs, vasectomies, tubal ligations, IUDs, spermicide, diaphragms, prenuptial agreements or any of the other conversations, products and situations couples encounter when they attempt to cohabitate, reproduce, parent and/or love one another.
Sexually-motivated and cloyingly amorous lyrics are what we are inundated and indoctrinated with. And while they’ve got irresistible beats and conjure historical memory, they hardly, poorly and ill prepare us for relationships that actually work, relationships that survive conflict, demand negotiation and carry us through turmoil. Goldberg challenges readers to be more methodical, balanced and level-headed in approaching unions.
I generally liked the work as it seems to suggest that every relationship is a world of its own that can be shaped by its participants. While Disney has generally suggested that wedding bells are the ultimate manifestation of love, few narratives offered by this cartoon warehouse engages what happens after the nuptials. Goldberg’s ...Run! asks readers to anticipate just that.
...Run! is rarely laugh-out-loud funny; more often it’s gently snaky. But it meaningfully problematizes an institution that we have culturally come to accept as a default. The work leans rather heteronormative yet contains critical thinking prompts that apply to a variety of relationships. I’d recommend it to feminists and/or anyone planning a wedding that will exceed $10,000 in costs.
(02/28/18 11:58pm)
In the wake of Charles Murray’s visit last year, Middlebury students and faculty banded together to salvage race relations on campus. Concerted efforts were made by administrators and student-led cultural organizations to educate community members on inclusivity and white privilege. Unbeknownst to the well-meaning white people who attended these teach-ins and town halls, their crash courses in white supremacy were at the expense of the students and faculty of color who led the discussions. In trying to decolonize the campus of its white hegemonic norms, students of color de-prioritized their mental health. Cultural orgs ceased to be spaces of respite for people of color (POC) and transformed into highly-politicized forums with the sole purpose of combating racism. By the time I arrived at Middlebury in the fall of 2017, the solidarity among black students in particular was virtually nonexistent. The black students of Middlebury — while active participants in campus-wide events regarding race — had neglected to maintain their singular designated place of refuge: the Black Student Union (BSU).
Many attributed the defunct BSU to poor leadership. Others stopped attending meetings because they found asylum in groups such as Umoja and Alianza, which are ethnic, rather than race, specific. Hidden beneath the many known reasons that led to the demise of the BSU was a larger culprit that had yet to be acknowledged: white passivity.
White passivity is the perpetual complicity of white people who do not help to rectify their ancestors’ moral bankruptcy, but instead look to black people to dismantle institutional racism. White passivity is what leads black students to challenge racist sentiments in class when their white professors fail to. White passivity is what caused several black women to demand an apology for a student who had been racially profiled when the predominantly white administration failed to do so. Ultimately, it was white passivity that caused black students to neglect their community of the Black Student Union so that they could aid in the rebuilding of the larger Middlebury community.
The corrosive nature white passivity has on black communities can be seen throughout history. The mammy archetype which rose to prominence in the late nineteenth century characterizes black women as the nannies and homemakers of white families who were unwilling to care for themselves. “Mammy” was not afforded the luxury of taking care of her own children. She was not only willing, but eager to prioritize her white superior’s needs over her and her family’s. Somehow, amid all of the racial hostility, the black students of Middlebury became contemporary renditions of “mammy.” This new and evolved mammy archetype does not assist by breastfeeding white infants, but by coddling white adults whose fragility deters them from listening. “Mammy 2.0,” as I like to call her, is every student of color who has skipped meals, missed sleep or failed to turn in assignments because they were preoccupied explaining to their white peer why they “shouldn’t say the N-word even if its a song lyric.”
In January, a committee of other black students and I planned events with the primary objective of resurrecting the Black Student Union. We hosted a black professors panel, rented out the Marquis theater for a private screening of the Marvel film “Black Panther” and cooked a community dinner that fed about 50 students. At all of the aforementioned events, there was an unmistakable sense of camaraderie. Laughter filled the rooms, new friendships were forged and the black solidarity many of us believed to be extinct appeared to be alive and well. Nowhere to be found in the events’ crowds was “mammy,” eager to pacify, serve and sacrifice.
(02/28/18 11:56pm)
Editor's note: The author of this op-ed has since asked her name be removed from this piece. The Campus has a strict policy that it does not retroactively remove names from stories, but given extenuating circumstances has agreed to do so for this piece.
CW: Sexual assault
Why is it so important for me to hear? Why do I need to be told that I am not the only survivor of sexual violence? Obviously I would not wish what happened to me on anyone. I still need those four words, though. You are not alone.
Growing up, I would listen to the news, hear stories about women in college I had some vague connection to, and watch “Law and Order: SVU.” I thought I understood what sexual assault was. I thought it would never happen to me. I thought that, if it did, I would go straight to the police.
Sexual violence is so much more complicated than that. It is more complicated than paying attention to your drink at a party. It is more complicated than having any signs of physical aggression documented by a hospital. It is more complicated than Olivia Benson slapping handcuffs on the wrists of a perpetrator.
It is my life, and it is the life of everyone else who has experienced sexual violence.
It is very hard for others to understand why it takes so long for survivors to come forward, if at all. People often ask, why did you let it happen to you? Why did you not scream or fight? Then, when the survivor does come forward and say something, they ask, why did you keep it a secret for so long?
I cannot answer these questions on behalf of every survivor, but I can give anyone who is reading this now a glimpse of understanding.
The first time was in the middle of May. I told him not to come over; he did anyway. The second time was in the middle of September. I wanted to go back to sleep after having been woken up by him banging on my door; he did not let me. The third time was Oct. 6th. I said stop; he did not.
Each time I knew something was wrong. Each time I felt gross afterward. Each time I regretted it. I thought everything was my fault. I was the one who must have done something wrong. I was the one who must be weird because I could not get pleasure from sex. I was the one who must have the issues because I did not want him to touch me. I blamed myself for everything.
Would you tell anyone something like that? Something that brings you shame. Something that sexualizes you. Something that can label you for the rest of your life.
It is very common for survivors to not understand what is happening in the moment and then gain a clearer comprehension with the distance of time. Why do you think it takes so long for people to tell their story? Maybe they did not even realize they had one. I sure didn’t.
As time went by, I began to realize how problematic everything that had happened between him and me was. At that time it was my normal. Now I know it should not be.
To this day, I continue to discover more and more violence that existed throughout my “relationship” with him, and that is okay. I do not have to figure out everything all at once, and neither do you. It is a process. The only thing I can do is be patient with myself, and I hope you do the same.
I have realized that a part of my healing process is being vocal. I have to tell people my story because then he loses power. He loses bits of his presence in my being.
However, today he is still here in my soul. Trying to take control. Crawling up toward my throat to choke the words before they even leave my mouth.
I still walk around campus, searching for him. I still ask who is knocking at my door. I still scream when someone unexpectedly touches me. He is always with me, even if not physically.
Using my words to describe my experience is the only way to loosen his grip. Today is not the day when he lets go; tomorrow will not be either. I do not know how long it will take, but I cannot wait for the day when I can look at him, holding on for dear life, and finally say: I am not scared.
Until that day comes, the only thing that brings me comfort is four simple words: you are not alone.
You are not alone.
(02/28/18 11:48pm)
In a recent op-ed published in The Campus, Brendan Philbin cites First Amendment concerns in his opposition to our nation’s hate crime laws. He contends that “the very notion of charging people with hate crimes ... violates one of our most deeply held personal liberties: freedom of thought.” According to Philbin, hate crime laws threaten our civil liberties because they prescribe mandatory increased sentencing based on motive, amounting to what he calls a “legal inconsistency” with near-Orwellian implications. Aside from the potential criminalization of certain beliefs, Philbin raises an additional concern toward the end of his piece that hate crime legislation “punishes people based on others’ emotional damages.” Such contradictions, he concludes, undermine democracy and jeopardize the promises of a fair legal system.
I agree with Philbin that our constitutional rights, particularly those granted to us in the First Amendment, are paramount to the functioning of a just society. Philbin is likewise right to note that we cannot legislate or litigate hate out of existence. Bigoted thought is protected under the Constitution, and so too is bigoted or otherwise inflammatory speech — that is, unless it rises to the level of “fighting words.” As defined in Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 315 U.S. 568 (1942), fighting words are “those which, by their very utterance, inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of peace.” Even then, penalties are never content-based, but are grounded rather in “essentially a ‘nonspeech’ element of communication.” Citing the majority opinion in R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul, 505 U.S. 377 (1992), “The government may not regulate use based on hostility — or favoritism — towards the underlying message expressed.”
As Philbin observes, we do not have hate speech laws in the United States. With respect to freedom of thought, expression, political dissent and the like, Americans have considerable latitude to say what they wish without fear of government reprisal. This brings us to the central question of Philbin’s argument: If the government cannot punish words — or actions, for that matter — based solely on content, what then permits the punishment of motive, an abuse he ascribes to our hate crime laws?
The answer is nothing. Contrary to Philbin’s interpretation, hate crime laws do not punish motive. In the case of a bias-motivated offense, the justification for increased sentencing or penalty enhancement of any kind does not rest in the defendant’s particular bias, which the judge finds especially noxious and therefore worthy of punishment. As upheld by the Supreme Court, the justification rests in solemn recognition of the potential for certain forms of bias-motivated violence to upset the peace and aggravate the deep, most injurious wounds of our cultural memory.
Philbin should consider Wisconsin v. Mitchell, 508 U.S. 476 (1993). In this landmark case, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the ruling of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which held that the state’s hate crime statute punished bigoted thought and was overbroad, thereby having a “chilling effect” on free speech. The state court sided with Mitchell, the defendant, who argued that the penalty enhancement statute was invalid because it punished his “discriminatory motive, or reason, for acting.” Regarding the issue of overbreadth, Mitchell argued that Wisconsin’s hate crime statute suppressed an individual’s freedom of expression, given that evidence of a defendant’s “prior speech or associations” might be used to “prove the intentional selection of a victim on account of the victim’s protected status.”
The Supreme Court rejected both arguments. Responding to Mitchell’s first contention, the court determined the statute was aimed at conduct, not motive, which the state had identified as particularly harmful. Delivering the majority opinion, Chief Justice William Rehnquist, a conservative, remarked that bias-motivated crimes are considered “more likely to provoke retaliatory crimes, inflict distinct emotional harms on their victims, and incite community unrest.” In this respect, Wisconsin sought penalty enhancement not for punishing certain beliefs, but to grant appropriate redress for crimes that have a reverberant impact on society.
Mitchell’s overbreadth claim was dismissed on two grounds. First, that someone would suppress bigoted beliefs in fear of some distant retribution was “simply too speculative a hypothesis.” Second, the court noted that use of a defendant’s prior speech as evidence in criminal trials is permitted under the First Amendment.
If hate crime statutes were found to punish motive, Philbin’s concerns would be justified. His take on penalty enhancement, however, is erroneous. Furthermore, his suggestion that hate crime protections are granted according to “membership in a particular group” is a bit misleading. Along with equivalent state statutes, federal law defines a hate crime as an offense committed because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability of any person. Hate crime is an offense against identity, an affront far too severe for so wispy a word as membership. The distinction is semantic, but significant.
(02/22/18 2:35am)
Kenyon Arena was roaring with a rambunctious crowd last weekend as Middlebury fans spilled in each and every door for the last action of the 2017-18 season. In their first contest on Saturday, Feb. 17, the Panthers fell to Hamilton 1–0 after the Continentals found the back of the net in the final period. On Sunday, Feb. 18, the Panthers tied Amherst 2–2 — demonstrating the strides the team has made throughout the season, as they fell to the Mammoths 4–1 just over a month ago.
Knowing that these two games would be their last of what has been a tough campaign, the Panthers gave it all they had, sliding around the ice to defend their net. Despite their strongest efforts, Hamilton scored the only goal of Saturday’s matchup in the third period to win 1–0.
Stephen Klein ’18 was a hero once again, blocking shot after shot in the first 40 minutes of play.
Although both teams had many offensive opportunities to take the lead, it was Hamilton who finally found a way past Klein six minutes into the third stanza. Nick Ursitti did not give the Panthers a fair chance when he nailed a shot inside right post of the host’s territory.
Klein rounded out the game with a resounding 36 saves compared to the Hamilton goalie’s 27.
The following day the Panthers skated onto the ice looking to close out their regular season with a bang. Earlier this season they lost to Amherst and were hungry to leave their season with a win over their rivals. But, after a hard-fought campaign, Middlebury tied the Mammoths 2–2.
Middlebury opened the competition with flashes of strong offense and nearly got on the scoreboard when a shot by Kamil Tkaczuk ’19 was deflected by the Amherst goalie.
The game held scoreless until the 10:52 mark when Thomas Lindstrom skillfully drove the puck past Klein. But Middlebury was not ready to let their season end on that note. Just over five minutes later, Eric Jeremiah ’21 earned his first goal of the season that would bring the teams back even at 1–1 as they headed in for the first intermission.
The Nescac foes entered the second period prepared to nail down the hatches on the defensive side of the ice. With strong defensive plays from both sides, it was tough for either to breach the opposing barriers.
It was not until the 7:45 mark that Jack Fitzgerald forced his way through and tallied a second goal for the Mammoths, putting the Panthers back into a one-goal hole, 2–1.
In the last game of the season, the Panthers would not go down this easily.
Ten minutes later they answered the purple visitors with the support of a noisy arena behind them. Off a power play, Mitch Allen ’20 stepped up to the challenge and found Owen Powers ’20 who powered the puck home to knot the score.
The Panthers went into the third stanza ready to leave it all on the ice, as this would be their last chance to skate in Kenyon until next winter. While the Mammoths toppled Middlebury’s defense — they got 23 shots off compared to the Panther’s four — Klein held his own in the net and sent the game into overtime knotted at 2, where the score would remain.
It was Klein’s last chance to wear blue and white and he concludes his career in the annals of Panther history with a record 2,122 saves in his four years and 730 career stops in this season.
Klein commented on his final appearance in Kenyon Arena.
“Playing my last game as a Panther came with a lot of mixed emotions,” Klein said. “It’s crazy to look back over the past four years and how fast it all went by. We had a lot of ups and downs in my time here, but after my last game I found that only the really good moments stuck with me and that I am very grateful for all of those memories.”
The Panthers finish the 2017–2018 season with a record of 4–17–3, but they look forward to an optimistic future as many of their top players are underclassmen.
Klein left the team with some words of wisdom from his past four years in Vermont.
“I think the best advice is to treat every game like it means everything for your season,” Klein said. “With only 24 games it is incredibly hard to dig yourself out of a hole. We were in a lot of close games this year that we couldn’t find a way to win and I think there is a great group of players returning next year that are going to find a way to take that next step we were missing.”
(02/22/18 2:34am)
College spokesman Bill Burger requested that the editors of this paper delay publication of an interview with President Laurie L. Patton, which The Campus had originally planned to publish in the Feb. 15 issue, after confusion and disagreement between Burger and Ethan Brady ’18, the paper’s editor in chief, regarding the nature of Burger and Patton’s role in reviewing and influencing the article’s content.
Burger’s request for the delay came twenty-four hours before that week’s issue was sent to print, and after the editors had planned to dedicate more than a page of the paper to the interview and a related news report. Brady agreed to postpone the interview and, as a result, The Campus published a blank page with the text, “This page was originally reserved for an interview,” printed in the center of page A3.
“Laurie and I would like you to hold the interview until the issue that closes next week,” Burger wrote in an email to Brady and Will DiGravio ’19, The Campus’ managing editor. “I have real concerns about ensuring the integrity of the various versions of the Q&A that we’ll need to review. My schedule tomorrow leaves almost no time for me to do this work.”
Brady and editors Amelia Pollard ’20.5 and Elizabeth Zhou ’18 interviewed Patton during winter term on Wednesday, Jan. 31. The editors planned to publish the interview in the first issue back from break, until Brady and DiGravio received the email from Burger quoted above.
The Campus finalizes print editions on Tuesday evenings, and the newspaper is distributed every Thursday morning. Brady and DiGravio received Burger’s email at 10:50 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 12, disrupting the paper’s plan to publish the interview that week. Brady agreed to delay the article’s publication in an email to Burger that night.
Brady and DiGravio first requested an interview with Patton in a Jan. 19 email. Patton replied on Jan. 23 with a directive to discuss terms of the interview with Burger.
“My guess is that we all would want the interview to be fair, accurate, and thoughtful in both tone and content,” Patton wrote. “In that spirit I’ll turn it over to Bill to discuss terms.”
That evening, Burger, Brady and DiGravio settled on a time to discuss the terms and timing of the interview. They settled on terms and scheduled the interview for Jan. 31 at 1:30 p.m.
At the end of the interview, Burger reiterated the previously agreed upon terms, and the reporters again agreed to them.
“Just to review our ground rules for this,” Burger said. “So you’ll transcribe this, I’m presuming, you’ll send it to us for a clarification, any clean up, if we need to expand on something, but not to fundamentally change the meaning of what was said.”
“Does that sound reasonable?” Patton asked.
Brady and Zhou responded in agreement.
On the Wednesday following the interview, Brady sent Patton an email with remaining questions that the editors had run out of time to ask, per an agreement made before and during the interview.
“We will send a transcript of the interview along in the next few days as discussed,” Brady added in the email with the additional questions.
On Feb. 5, Brady emailed Burger with the transcript of the interview. Burger replied on the same day that he expected the editors to compress the interview due to its length.
“No one wants to inflict an unedited 9,000 word transcript on the reader; its of almost no value,” Burger wrote.
Though Burger made some suggestions as to the type of editing Brady should do to the interview, he made no explicit request for an edited version of the transcript.
Brady received no further correspondence from Burger until Monday, Feb. 12., the first day of the spring term, when Burger inquired about obtaining an edited transcript of the interview. But Brady had sent the full, unedited transcript on Feb. 5, and had not finished editing the interview.
Burger expected Brady to send him the edited transcript of the interview that he would read before publication, and to allow him to approve each of Patton’s quotes to be included in the article.
“We will need to approve every quote — and of course the quotes in the piece will need to match the quotes in the abridged Q&A — and the full Q&A online,” Burger replied.
At 10:50 that evening, Burger emailed Brady and DiGravio and asked them to wait to publish the interview until the following week, citing “concerns about ensuring the integrity of the various versions of the Q&A that we’ll need to review.”
Brady agreed to delay publishing the articles. The next day, Burger emailed Brady, again asking for the edited Q&A and article.
“I hope you can get me the edited content (interview and written piece) by Sunday noon so I have time to look at it Sunday,” Burger wrote. “My Monday is pretty booked.”
On Feb. 14, Brady sent Burger an abridged transcript of the Q&A as requested, but did not attach the additional article. Brady said that he perceived Burger’s wish to approve the quotes included in the story as a violation of their original terms.
“The terms of the interview were that we would send you a transcript for clarifications/additions, not negotiate which quotes can or can’t be used in an article,” Brady wrote in the email.
Burger denied wanting to influence the quotes The Campus included in the article, and stressed his desire to instead protect their “integrity.”
“We have no interest in influencing which question/answers you want to touch upon in an article; our interest is in the integrity of the quotes themselves,” Burger said.
Patton sent a document with edits for clarification to The Campus on Monday, Feb. 20. Burger did not ask to approve quotes or view the articles prior to press time.
(02/22/18 2:22am)
Literatures and cultures librarian Katrina Spencer has collaborated with other staff and students to create a display in Davis Library celebrating Black History Month. The display has been in place since Thursday, February 1 and will remain in the library until Wednesday, February 28. It consists of books, DVDs, CDs and recommendations for podcasts created by and about black authors, artists and entertainers, according to Spencer. In addition to the physical display in Davis, user experience and digital culture librarian Leanne Galletly worked to curate a digital space for a series of interviews entitled “In Your Own Words.” Spencer held these interviews with members of the Middlebury community who “trace their origins to the black diasporas of the world,” according to the In Your Own Words web page.
Spencer began working as literatures and cultures librarian last February, on the first day of Black History Month, and immediately felt a need to do more than was being done to celebrate Black History Month at Middlebury. “Succinctly, I saw the need to do more, and once I was in a position to effect change, I did,” Spencer said. “I went all out, as I am wont to do.”
In creating the display in Davis, Spencer focused on contemporary work of individuals such as Kendrick Lamar and Issa Rae, as well as earlier works by Miles Davis, W .E. B. DuBois and others. The display also includes a collection of essays by James Baldwin, “Dear White People” by Justin Simien, Ernest J. Gaines’ “A Lesson Before Dying,” and many others. Spencer worked to balance the collection between the works of contemporary authors and artists and the works of earlier generations.
“My primary concern, I suppose, is to remind people of all colors that we have living black heroines and heroes,” Spencer said. “Celebrating black history needs to include celebrations of people who are impacting the world in our modern era and still have blood pumping through their veins. We are here. Despite what commemorative ceremonies will tell you, the black struggle did not end in the 1960s.”
Spencer said that one of her focuses in selecting the literature was selecting works that came from all over the world, as opposed to focusing solely on the United States. Consequently, the display includes works such as Mariama Bâ’s “Une si longue lettre” and music by Cuban singer Celia Cruz.
“My father is a black Costa Rican, so the concept of otherness, foreignness and the immigrant narrative has hovered about me all my life,” Spencer said. “If I want to tell my whole story, I must tell stories of Africa, the Caribbean, Central America, the Spanish-speaking world, the Americas and the legacies of both slavery and colonialism, too. I can only tell of who I am by engaging those narratives. And for many of the black and brown students on this campus, the same is true for them, as evidenced by the In Your Own Words oral histories project. So, I primarily drew from my knowledge base and experience and invited others to supplement any gaps. Every student should graduate from Middlebury with an understanding of the concept of ‘diaspora.’ The black diaspora is one of the richest and most diverse in the world, from Quebec City to Bahia, Paris to Windhoek, New Delhi to Brisbane.”
In addition to the physical books on display in Davis, students have the opportunity to engage with podcast recommendations, music and the In Your Own Words interview series. Galletly worked to ideate and curate digital components of the display. “I think it’s important that the work going into these doesn’t disappear after the display comes down, so the digital display allows people to see the resources anytime,” Galletly said. “ I think it’s valuable, especially for a largely white campus like Middlebury, to hear the perspectives and narratives of non-white people on campus. Learning the stories of those around us is a powerful way to empathize and build connections with our community.”
The In Your Own Words series (viewable at go/bhmdigital) is a collection of 11 interviews with members of the Middlebury community. In conducting the interviews, Spencer asked her guests questions regarding changing notions of race and ethnicity based on where they are and who they’re with, what her subjects wish others knew about race and ethnicity, and more. Spencer said that working on presenting student stories was equally as important as focusing on media and literature because focusing on abstract figures outside of one’s immediate sphere doesn’t have the same effect as celebrating the identities of those in one’s immediate sphere. “When we talk about Hollywood, we talk about an abstract conceptualization, as Denzel Washington is not my friend and Viola Davis is not my aunt,” she said. “We have to make blackness real, tangible, relatable, concrete and intersectional. Again, blackness is not just Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education. It’s right here. It’s everywhere. This will help us to understand that Sandra Bland is us. Trayvon Martin is us. And Eric Garner is us. We are still fighting to be seen as human. And if I can help one person to see that their black dorm mate is human, the black woman preparing food in the cafeteria is human or the black librarian who keeps putting up displays is human, I’m realizing a greater mission.”
In addition to the In Your Own Words interview series, a digital rendition of the books on display in Davis can be found at go/bhmdigital.
(02/22/18 1:34am)
Much of our campus conversation lately has been about “freedom of speech” and “inclusivity,” as if they were opposing values between which we must choose. We have heard lofty statements like, “Freedom and inclusivity must go hand-in-hand,” yet statements like these preserve the binary. Moreover, while it might look nice as a slogan on a t-shirt, this framing doesn’t help us figure out what we actually mean by “freedom” and “inclusivity.” Some of our students and colleagues have been critical of the assumptions behind the word “inclusive”: Who is being included? Who gets to do the including? And included in what?
This past fall, Professor Shapiro worked with two research assistants (Bryan Diaz ‘20 and Casey Lilley ‘20) to examine what inclusivity means to students. One key finding is that while students have difficulty defining the term inclusivity, they have a lot to say about what exclusion looks and feels like. They talk about the ways in which our institutional culture — both inside and outside the classroom — limits their sense of belonging and agency. They describe struggling to “find comfort” with one another so that they can more productively engage uncomfortable topics. Many students feel a pervasive sense of “imposter syndrome” — particularly in classes where faculty seem not to acknowledge that “people come in with different levels of preparation for this school.” One comment in particular captures the gist of many students’ views: “Integral to inclusiveness [is] the removal of barriers that distance people, and the willingness to form community.”
These comments make clear something we know but don’t always talk about: the recipe for an inclusive environment involves more than simply “add diversity and stir.” Inclusivity requires not just offering new opportunities and resources, but considering who faces barriers to accessing the opportunities and resources already available, and committing to lowering those barriers. To experience inclusivity, in other words, is to experience a sense of freedom to take advantage of all that Middlebury has to offer.
We take some inspiration here from development studies’ concept of “unfreedom” as an alternative frame for talking about social inequality. Amartya Sen, the Nobel-prize winning economist who wrote Development as Freedom (1999), argues that poverty is an interlinked set of “unfreedoms” — i.e., as a lack of political and economic freedom to choose, innovate, and even take risks. Together these unfreedoms limit options for marginalized groups’ full participation in society.
What if, instead of focusing on the tension between freedom and inclusivity, we defined inclusivity as the bundle of freedoms to participate fully in all that this institution has to offer? In our recruitment materials, and on campus tours, we pitch to students and families an idyllic vision of a well-rounded and even “intimate” educational experience that includes a rich array of academic, co-curricular, and extracurricular relationships and opportunities. Yet we have seen that this sort of experience is unequally distributed. For many students, the heavy academic workload, combined with the need to earn money through paid work, limits the amount of time available for social and co-curricular activities. Moreover, we know from studies of campus life that many students feel constrained by the stratified social structure of the college—particularly if they don’t fit the “Middkid” mold — physically, ideologically and/or culturally.
At the beginning of the development era, Franklin D. Roosevelt articulated Four Freedoms as core values of development policy for the United States: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. What if we channeled FDR by asking:
What freedoms do we imagine should be available to all students at Middlebury? We offer the following as a starting list:
- Freedom to choose the course of study which most interests a student, not just what brings economic security
- Freedom to contribute to the institution’s decision-making processes
- Freedom to build new networks and relationships
- Freedom to access support systems, resources, and accommodations to which one is entitled·
- Freedom to achieve one’s academic best
- Freedom from discrimination and stereotyping
- Freedom from threats of physical and emotional violence
- Freedom from fear of social exclusion for speaking one’s mind
- Freedom to take academic and social risks
- Freedom to grow and change — and even make mistakes
- Freedom to bring our family/community histories and life experiences into the classroom and beyond.
Imagine if everyone in the Middlebury community did this homework exercise: Consider the extent to which you feel that these freedoms characterize your own experience at Middlebury. What are ways in which our own actions, and the actions of others, further or impede access to these freedoms — for ourselves and for others? Then, talk to a friend about what you’ve concluded. Scale up the conversation.
This is more than an academic exercise.
Talking about how each member of Middlebury experiences freedoms (or “unfreedoms”) in his, her or their day-to-day experience here can, we believe, lead to more effective action. It can help us attend to inclusivity not just through “adding on” but through “opening up.” In this way, we might move past simple binaries to engage one another in a deeper and more productive discussion about who we are and who we want to become.
Shawna Shapiro is a professor of linguistics. Michael Sheridan is a professor of sociology and anthropology.
(02/15/18 1:57am)
The Middlebury Track and Field team faced competitive challengers in their two most recent meets. The first was a two-part meet, the David Hemery Invitational, on Friday, Feb. 9 and Saturday, Feb. 10. The second was the Gordon Kelly Invitational on Saturday, Feb. 10. Both meets were non-scoring.
In the David Hemery Invitational both teams accomplished great feats. On the men’s side, Jimmy Martinez ’19 achieved a time of 22.23 in the 200 meter dash to place 43rd. Along with that performance, Martinez registered a time of 44.55 in the 400 meter dash to place 21st. Paul Malloy ’18 had ran a time of 1:08.17 to get himself 31st place in the 500 meter dash. A final highlight for the men’s side was the eighth-place finish of the long distance medley relay team of Nathan Hill ’20, Arden Coleman ’20, James Mulliken ’18 and Kevin Serrao ’18. The quartet registered a time of 9:58.61.
For the women, Kate McCluskey ’18 did well in the 400 meter dash with a time of 56.21 which broke a school record. In the 800, Anna Willig ’20 placed in 75th and Brianna Bisson ’18 placed in 79th with respective times of 2:18.68 and 2:19.02. In the distance medley, Tasha Greene ’21, McCluskey, Meg Wilson ’20 and Abigail Nadler ’19 crossed the line with a time of 11:52.53. In the field portion of the meet, Alex Cook ’20 provided a highlight for the Panthers with a jump of 5.19 meters in the long jump, good for a 27th-place finish.
In the Gordon Kelly Invitational, the team pulled out some top notch finishes. Nate Evans ’20 had a time of 2:53.50 in the 1000 meter run to get first place for the men’s squad. Jake Guth ’19 ran the mile in 4:54.84 which was good for a fifth-place finish. Tyler Farrell ’18 placed third with a time of 8.77 in the 60 meter hurdles and Max Memeger ’21 competed in the long jump and reached 6.18 meters to get third place.
The highlight of the weekend, however, had to be the performance of Minhaj Rahman ’19, who broke a school record in the weight throw with a throw of 16.69 meters which happened to net him second place.
Minhaj was excited that his hard work paid off.
“Words couldn’t explain [how I feel],” said Minhaj about how breaking the record made him feel. “I came into Midd after a big accident that set me back far making me take months of therapy and taking medical leave for my first semester. Walking in to Midd, I wanted to make an impact on the team but I was too weak because of the accident and so that feeling pushed to try to improve.
“Ever since I walked into Midd, I wanted my name on that board and it was finally done. Because I’m one of the smallest throwers out there the division, I have to use my form to try to beat out the 250 lbs throwers out there. When I released the throw, I just knew that it beat the record. The throw felt effortless as it should and knowing that I had such a supportive coach and team that brought me to this stage made it more worthwhile.”
Cook and Lizzie Walkes ’20 competed in the 200 meter dash and achieved first and third place respectively for the women’s squad. Cook had a time of 27.15 and Walkes had a time of 27.45. Olivia Mitchell ’20 had a time of 2:30.00 in the 800 meter dash, good for seventh place. Julia Jaschke ’20 placed second in the 3000 meter race with a time of 10:55.41. Kreager Taber ’19 had a height of 3.35 in the pole vault to get fifth place. In the triple jump, Kisha Kalra ’18 got fourth place and Emily Allardi ’21 got seventh place. Kalra had a distance of 10.45 meters and Allardi had a distance of 10.08 meters. Lastly, Emily Ray ’20 competed in the weight throw and achieved eighth place with a throw of 14.18 meters.
“We wanted to create good standards to walk into DIIIs and the rest of the championship season with and I say we’re in a good place right now,” Minhaj said when asked about the last two meets. “We had great pole vault performances, the sprinters got good times on the banked track, our capt. Kate McCluskey also broke the 400 record, and my weight throw partner Emily also had a big pr as well so all in all we are looking solid and happy that we are finally in the championship season.”
Tomorrow and Saturday, Feb. 16-17, both teams will compete in the Division III New England Championships where they will use their experiences of the last few weeks to do their best. The men’s squad will be competing at home while the women’s side will be competing in Springfield.
(02/15/18 1:45am)
On entering the office, I am surprised by the scale, or lack thereof. A name like The New England Review evokes multitudes of desks, each manned by its own grey-haired reader or editor; rooms lined with large, industrial-grey bookshelves filled with manila envelopes; secretaries (one, at the very least) picking up phones to the complaints of rejected authors determined that somebody recognize the genius of their latest 40,000 word, stream-of-consciousness account of a sophomore-year sexual awakening.
What I didn’t expect: Carolyn, Marcy and Eli, three wonderful, local women, middle-aged and trying desperately to make Microsoft Word work on obsolete desktop computers. Two minutes into the staff meeting – a weekly event which consists of these three women, me and the other winter-term intern Hannah sitting around a banged-up kitchen table and drinking co-op coffee – it becomes apparent that this sort of small-scale literary operation is not unique to The New England Review. From what I catch of Marcy’s mug-stifled muttering (witty, witty Marcy the Managing Editor, who has a personal vendetta against every publication out of California and left early Thursday to attend a cat funeral), the entire literary industry is struggling, particularly those magazines who put publication before profit. And while the New England Review remains fairly lucky – Middlebury College funds it like any other academic department – there is desperate competition between journals for each and every subscriber. (“Should we send them all pencils this month?” wonders Eli, whose primary responsibilities include managing the office and negotiating with a dying desk chair Facilities refuses to replace, “can we afford that?”) I am shocked to learn that a magazine like The New England Review has something like a mere thousand regular subscribers – and that number is larger than many of its peer publications. When I get over my initial anxiety at statistics that surely signal the imminent death of literature, I can’t help but wonder who these wonderful people are. I’m as guilty as the rest; if I find an hour or two in a regular school week to read for pleasure, I almost always reach for the Fiction section of the New Yorker – and only then so that everyone else in the library might noticed how Extraordinarily Cultured I am.
Still, the New Yorker is a business, and therefore a different beast entirely. As I continue to learn, running a non-profit operation like The New England Review has perks and downsides. On one hand, the Editor-in-Chief Carolyn remains free to place quality over quantity (“Do things slowly,” I was told in my first hour, “people these days underestimate the value of care and attention.”). This translates into reading each and every cover letter from “Dear Editors” down to “I hope you enjoy the attached story,” and sorting these and the accompanying pieces into personalized categories. It also translates into hours spent agonizing over each webpage, negotiating to little avail with WordPress html code in an attempt to replicate the poet’s original, artistically-indented formatting. More than anything though, it means granting each submission the individualized attention it deserves. During the prose editorial meeting yesterday, Carolyn admitted to reading a thirty-six-page story four times through, only to conclude (as she had after her very first read) that, in spite of “breathtaking prose”, a plot centered around “moon locusts” might be too far out there for the NER’s readership. Nothing could be clearer from Carolyn’s facial expressions than that she cares profoundly about giving new authors a platform for publication. She assumes an expression of great pain (usually accompanied by flurried hand gestures) whenever forced to cross a story from her publication list. She’s picturing the author, I’m sure, sitting at their computer and reading yet another rejection email.
“It’s awful,” she says, as I can’t help but laugh at her distress during the final, decisive moments of the editorial meeting, “caring is awful.”
“Yeah,” I say, “but it’s also kind of awesome.”
On the other hand, a focus on quality rather than content makes it difficult to attract readers already overwhelmed by the formidable masses of content available online. How can The New England Review, a slim volume of carefully selected poetry and prose distributed out of boxes to libraries and coffee shops, possibly hope to compete—especially so long as it keeps its head down and conducts itself decorously? The fact of the matter is that they can’t, a sad reality which isn’t lost on anyone working there.
Still, the publication is anything but undignified, and Carolyn anything but despairing; she and a team of readers pay attention to every submission that shows up in their feed (or even—and this I couldn’t believe in 2018—by post, stamped and hand-addressed despite clear regulations on the website asking for online submissions only), and respond both personally and thoughtfully. Those who they do publish are not only grateful, but get to write The New England Review on their resume, a name which continues to carry serious weight in the literary world. And so the small scale that initially shocked me begins to impress me. As someone who has submitted a few things myself, it’s nice to know that my words are being discussed around a real-life table, by real-life people (because who counts as real more than Carolyn, Marcy and Eli?) who want nothing more than to get those words out and into the world—so much so that they place free copies all over the college.
And so with Carolyn, Marcy and Eli working diligently away to keep The New England Review relevant and afloat, the onus shifts to us – students of the very college with which the magazine is associated – to at very least pick up the fruit of their efforts. It shouldn’t prove too much of an extra-curricular chore: the poetry and prose included is beautiful, and selected with more thought and intentionality than I previously imagined possible. That, and the very thought of The New England Review’s existence is immensely heartening: in an academic environment where a particular brand of beaten-down-liberal, collegiate cynicism underlies every conversation, just down College Street there sits a clapboard house filled with women who refuse to succumb to disillusion. Instead they believe fiercely in the value of stories, and will continue plunking away on yogurt-encrusted keyboards to get them out and into the hands of grateful, if shrinking, audiences.
(01/24/18 11:36pm)
Middlebury trustees are both intelligent and compassionate, the qualities they share with the students they admit to the college. But since the premise of college is that you emerge still wiser after the passage of four years — that new information changes us — it’s probably time to look at the lessons learned over the last half decade since Middlebury’s board first took up the question of fossil fuel divestment. Let’s examine the evidence that has emerged in the course of those years, a learning process that has accelerated in recent weeks as big cities like New York have pledged to sell off billions in oil and gas stocks.
Climate change has gotten far far worse. The last five years have seen global warming move from mostly theoretical to entirely disastrous. We’ve watched vast swaths of the planet’s coral reefs die in the course of weeks; we’ve seen new diseases ride the expanded range of mosquitoes across entire continents; our satellites have shown the north and south poles melting at unprecedented pace. Just in the two percent of the planet covered by the U.S., the last six months has seen the highest rainfall ever recorded (Hurricane Harvey), the longest extreme winds (Irma) and the horrific destruction of Puerto Rico (Maria). Oh, and the biggest wildfire in California history, followed by epic rains that resulted in mudslides that killed 20 people. There is no greater injustice on our planet than the rampant climate change that overwhelms the poor and vulnerable, and since Middlebury invests in fossil fuel, it owns a small piece of each of these sadnesses.
The oil companies have been shown to be dishonest, on a remarkable scale. One knew, five years ago, that they were irresponsible — that their business plan of ever more exploration and drilling was at odds with what every scientist said the atmosphere could absorb. But three years ago great investigative reporting revealed that they had actually known everything about climate change three decades ago, and engaged in a systematic cover-up. That’s why cities from San Francisco to New York have filed suit. But whether it turns out to be technically illegal, it’s clearly intellectually corrupt; were Exxon a Middlebury student, it would have been rightly disciplined for shading the truth.
Oil and gas investments have proven to be unsound, vastly underperforming the broader equities market. Had the trustees heeded faculty, student and alumni opinion five years ago, the endowment would be larger now, and we could afford more financial aid. Many other investors — including groups like the Rockefeller philanthropies that once invested with Middlebury’s own brokers — have broken free and prospered, both morally and financially. But it’s not too late: given the rapid plunges in the price of renewable energy, the fossil fuel industry will remain under unrelenting pressure. So there’s still money to lose, unless we act.
Divestment turns out to play an enormously positive role. Studies released this year show that it has both dramatically amped up the level of concern and action about global warming, and also cost the fossil fuel industry serious money that it would otherwise have spent on exploration. By contrast, Middlebury’s notion that it could usefully “engage” the fossil fuel companies has proven hollow. At a few companies it has produced a few concessions — Exxon, for instance, has said it will start providing “climate risk disclosure” on new projects. But that’s not much help: we can see what the climate risk is. And we can also see that they and their trade groups continue to lobby for ever more openings: in just the past month they’ve won the right to drill off the entire American coast, not to mention inside Alaska’s largest wildlife refuge. “Engagement” has turned out to be “cover.”
This list of new evidence has convinced many who were at first reluctant. New York City, for instance, capital of the planet’s financial system, announced this month it would not only divest from fossil fuel but sue the five largest oil companies for the damages incurred in Hurricane Sandy. In November, the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund took the same step — and that’s the largest pool of investment capital on the planet, a trillion dollars earned off North Sea oil. The smart money, in other words, is now fleeing.
We are all, of course, proud of Middlebury. I’ve spent time on more college campuses than most people, and I’ve never met a finer president than Laurie Patton; the board of trustees proved its environmental concern when it moved all those Breadloaf acres into permanent conservation status. And now they can prove that education really works — that when new information emerges, as it has over the last half-decade, people can change. If it goes for students, it should go for trustees, and from some of the conversations I’ve had on campus, I remain hopeful.
In the Trump years, it’s clear we can’t rely on the government to take care of our biggest problems. We have to do what we can ourselves, and what Middlebury can do is divest. Not “some day,” not after yet another committee offers yet another report, but as soon as possible, while it still makes a difference. Since I believe that education indeed matters, I believe we will.
Bill McKibben is Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury, and the co-founder of the climate change group 350.org.
(01/24/18 10:32pm)
During the winter months, snowy weather becomes embedded in the daily routines of students and staff alike. Snow opens up valuable opportunities, such as pursuit of popular winter sports and outdoor activities, and simultaneously creates challenges for those who live at the college. When a winter storm approaches many students anticipate the coming snow with excitement, preparing to make the trek to Sugarbush or the snowbowl after fresh powder has fallen.
But while students plan their winter sports excursions or hunker down in their dorms to avoid the cold, a huge team works quickly, efficiently and tirelessly to prepare the campus for approaching inclement weather. As a snowstorm approaches, an array of shovel and plow crews run by Facilities Services prepares to clear the campus of impending snowfall.
Clinton “Buzz” Snyder, the college’s landscape supervisor, and Luther Tenny, facilities maintenance and operations director, work together in order to oversee snow removal operations. Snyder has worked at the college for four years and drives a plow during snow removal operations. Tenny has occupied his position for the past 14 years. When word of an impending snow storm emerges, the two decide on the scale and logistics of initiating a removal operation.
“Luther and I stay in close contact because between the two of us, we make the decision and the call on snow,” Snyder said. “We both are constantly looking at the weather.”
Tenny said that he and Snyder consider an array of factors in evaluating how to tackle a typical “snow event.”
“Usually a snow event is when campus is iced over considerably or we’ve gotten more than an inch of snow and we have to check every entry and plow,” he said. “So Clinton and I work together taking all these factors into account. Do we have classes tomorrow? What do we have for events tonight? How many staff members are either unavailable or out sick can tell us how early we need to come in to be campus ready by the morning so folks can come in, park their cars, get to the buildings, get to the dining halls, stuff like that.”
When a typical winter storm hits (Tenny refers to a “typical snow event” as a foot of snow or less), 14 snow plows, each with its own route around campus, as well as ten crews of shovelers, mobilize. Tenny calls workers from a list organized by the distance that the employees live from the college — workers who live in New York are called in earlier than those who live in Middlebury, for example. Plow crews arrive early, around 4:00 a.m., and begin clearing roads and walkways. These crews include both “sidewalk plows” that work to clear walkways and larger plows that work to clear roads and parking lots, both on campus and surrounding campus buildings as far away as Weybridge, Homestead and the Mill. Shovelers arrive two to three hours later and begin clearing the doorways of over 120 college buildings. As ice builds up on walkways, salt has to be laid down.
Steve Santor, who operates a plow for a crew that works on the northern end of campus, said that the early start time allows the plow crews to function most efficiently.
“The idea behind [the early start time] is it’s just less traffic,” Santor said. “We can get out on the sidewalks and roadways where the employees are parking their cars, get that parking lot clear, etc. We can get some of the main sidewalks clear so the shovelers can easily get started maneuvering around when they arrive later.”
The shovelers, who arrive two to three hours after the plow crews, have a grueling job: clearing all entryways by hand.
“Every door has to be cleared,” Snyder said of the shoveler’s work. “Every entry, every ADA ramp. The sidewalk tractors have about 11 miles of sidewalk to do if you want to get into detail. We also have the outside properties, so we’re not just doing the regular campus. We’re doing, you know, the houses down South Street, drives and homes.”
Plow operator Brian Paquette, who works with the north crew along with Santor, said that the snow removal operation has expanded as the size of the college has increased.
“Over just the last five years or so, the campus has grown quite a bit,” he said. “So our workload goes up and our standards go up as well. [Of] some other campuses and other things I’ve seen, we’re definitely up there as far as standards are concerned with safety, snow and ice removal. The first thing we check on every single morning this time of year during the winter is, is there ice? Is there snow? Is everything safe for everybody?”
Tenny said that storms that clash with warm temperatures, which bring ice on the ground and a resulting wealth of safety hazards, are the most challenging to deal with. Fresh, normal snow is much easier to handle.
“I will take a foot of fresh, fluffy snow — it’s so easy to move,” he said. “ The hard storms are the ones like this past Saturday [Jan. 13] where it starts off as rain. It was 57 degrees at 8 o’clock that night, and within a two hour window it dropped to below 32 degrees. And that’s when all of that rain then turns to ice and then sleet.”
Safety is a huge focus for the snow removal staff, which has been injury free for two years, according to Snyder. Snyder said that when a snowstorm hits, there are a number of steps students can take to increase their safety, the safety of those around them, and the ease of the staff’s job. It starts with simple spatial awareness.
“Students should just be aware of us out there,” Snyder said. “We’re driving equipment that’s got lights going, it’s loud, and we literally have to stop, which we should anyway. But there are so many students that will just come out of nowhere and come right around and it’s like, where did that person come from? Be aware, be cautious, stop when you see us working.”
(01/17/18 11:20pm)
The Middlebury community came together early this week to celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King. The events spanned three days. A Sunday talk was followed by a Monday breakfast, then by a mural painting project on Tuesday. The Alliance for an Inclusive Middlebury, the Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life, the Center for Community Engagement (CCE), the Commons, and the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs organized the events.
The first event was a talk titled “Meditation vs. Detention: Empowering Youth with Mindfulness.” (See Page A4) Ali Smith, Atman Smith and Andy Gonzalez, founders of the Holistic Life Foundation, delivered the talk. Their nonprofit is a Baltimore-based organization which helps children develop through yoga, mindfulness and self-care.
The three founders explained that after attending college together, they moved to Baltimore, where they began teaching yoga to middle school students after school for free. The neighborhood they lived in at the time was one of the more violent in the city. As the program developed, the organization “started picking up less and less kids at detention,” said Gonzalez. They also noticed they were breaking up less fights. “We started changing dialogue in community,” Atman added.
Their program began attracting more participants, and even trained some to become yoga instructors themselves. The program initially served 150 students per week, but now serves over 10,000 students per week.
“[The Holistic Life Foundation] provided an alternative way of relating to these kids and it changed their behavior, which is just an incredible concept,” said associate chaplain Rabbi Danielle Stillman, who was one of the coordinators of the talk.
In reaction to the presentation, Mikayla Hyman ’20 said that “they had a lot of love, and that’s really what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was based on.” Using the founders of the Holistic Life Foundation as an example, Hyman added, “There’s so much people can do for social change but they don’t often think of themselves as instigators.”
Students, faculty and other members of the Middlebury community gathered in Atwater dining hall on Monday morning to discuss how to create what Dr. King called a “beloved community” here at Middlebury.
Will Nash, professor of American studies, explained that a “beloved community is grounded in the principles of nonviolence and the idea that power is not the most important thing.” Nash then prompted each table to discuss how Middlebury could work toward achieving such a community.
Many students and administrators discussed this question in light of the divisive events that have affected the campus during the past year. At one table, discussion centered around the idea that many micro-communities exist within the larger Middlebury community, making it difficult to feel connected as an entire school. Another table considered if “community is a given” and whether or not “inhabiting the same place makes us a community.”
Dean of spiritual and religious life Mark Orten said we must build a “beloved” community “as we might define it, by means that are present to us now.” He added, “The President’s support for initiatives like Restorative Practices and Mindfulness, as well as events facilitating dialogic processes around inclusivity and free speech, engaged in by many members of this community, are starting to form hopeful sinews.”
Middlebury College students and middle schoolers gathered at Middlebury Union Middle School on Tuesday to paint a community mural honoring Dr. King and the civil rights movement. Artist and visiting winter term professor Will Kasso guided the painting of the mural. Near the school entrance, Rosa Parks is now depicted sitting bravely in her bus seat, surrounded by words like “bold,” “dream” and “impact.”
“That one act of her not getting up made everybody stand up for themselves,” said Kasso. He went on to explain his belief that a community mural acts as an especially good medium for bringing people together and starting a dialogue. “Art should always remain fun,” said Kasso.
Many of the students at the mural painting were in of Kasso’s winter term class, Origins and Politics of Graffiti. Vishawn Greene ’21 added that the mural was a nice way to “cement [Park’s] legacy.” Alejandra Chavez ’19 spoke to its potential to “leave a little mark, as we all hope to do.”
(01/17/18 11:07pm)
This letter, dated April 16, 1963, is being published in honor of Dr. King. It has been abridged for print.
[...] I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their “thus saith the Lord” far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco-Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.
Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial “outside agitator” idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds. [...]
We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was “well timed” in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word “Wait!” It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This “Wait” has almost always meant “Never.” We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that “justice too long delayed is justice denied.”
We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, “Wait.” But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five year old son who is asking: “Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?”; when you take a cross county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading “white” and “colored”; when your first name becomes “n[—],” your middle name becomes “boy” (however old you are) and your last name becomes “John,” and your wife and mother are never given the respected title “Mrs.”; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodiness” — then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. [...]
I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection. [...]
I wish you had commended the Negro sit inners and demonstrators of Birmingham for their sublime courage, their willingness to suffer and their amazing discipline in the midst of great provocation. One day the South will recognize its real heroes. They will be the James Merediths, with the noble sense of purpose that enables them to face jeering and hostile mobs, and with the agonizing loneliness that characterizes the life of the pioneer. They will be old, oppressed, battered Negro women, symbolized in a seventy two year old woman in Montgomery, Alabama, who rose up with a sense of dignity and with her people decided not to ride segregated buses, and who responded with ungrammatical profundity to one who inquired about her weariness: “My feets is tired, but my soul is at rest.” They will be the young high school and college students, the young ministers of the gospel and a host of their elders, courageously and nonviolently sitting in at lunch counters and willingly going to jail for conscience’ sake. [...]
Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.
(01/17/18 11:03pm)
The phrase “grocery store” does not encapsulate the dynamic environment of the Co-op. Founded in the 1970s, the space has been a pillar of the Middlebury town for both college students and locals. For members, there are constant deals on ever changing products, and for all shoppers the selection of items continually rotates. From prepared foods to household objects, the Co-op carries products that incorporate aspects of environmental protection and social justice. Certifications of “fair-trade” and “organic” are ubiquitous at the store, representing the store’s core values. Furthermore, these qualities attract high membership involvement and partnerships with various Vermont based companies. These strong relationships have led to the transformation of the Middlebury Co-op.
An 8-month-long endeavor has increased the physical size of the space from 5,000 to 9,000 square feet, strengthening the presence of the Co-op. Middlebury locals witnessed the beginnings of the renovation this past summer. Many individuals have remarked on the improved flow and movement within the space. The larger entrance, increased number of aisles, expanded seating areas, and growth of the prepared food section have allowed the space to flourish. The community aspect of the Co-op has only been augmented by its renovation, creating more spaces for people to congregate with friends and family.
In addition to strengthening relationships, the expansion has allowed the Co-op to bring more healthy, sustainable, food to town members. The additional space allows the store to find creative, cutting edge products for its shelves. New features include an aisle devoted to alcoholic beverages as well as the enlargement of the kitchen area. In addition to the cheese section, more available ‘to-go’ options have provided customers with an experiential way to taste items from around the world.
The Co-op has also brought in local producers of items like granola bars to offer tastings for shoppers. In doing so, they not only support the local economy but also bring the individual closer to what they consume. Many have remarked that the Co-op has dramatically changed their interaction with food.
Blake Yaccino ‘20 explained that the cheese selection has provided her with an educational experience to learn about the various types, processes and locations of producers and gain knowledge about the importance of the dairy industry in Vermont. When asked what words come to mind when she thinks of the Co-op Yaccino stated, “healthy, wholesome and welcoming.” She is very happy to see that the new renovations, in particular the indoor seating area, have made it a more spacious environment.
Regular customers hope the Co-op continues to bring in additional food entrepreneurs in the coming year as healthy eating remains a staple to the town community and the state of Vermont. Supporting community initiatives through grocery shopping exists as the crux of the Co-op’s mission statement. Interaction with local business owners enables shoppers to learn more about what they are eating as well as develop relationships with the creative, hard-working, minds behind the store’s products. Furthermore, shoppers at the Co-op are able to personalize certain products such as items from the salad bar, smoothie counter and prepared food section. The store always has many options for any individual, regardless of dietary restrictions.
The Co-op transcends the label of your average store by bringing various foods and community members together. By acting as a bridge between consumers and products, the Co-op possesses the agency to improve our communal food system, guiding the food movement in Middlebury for years to come.
(01/17/18 10:37pm)
Friday Jan. 12, pianist Shai Wosner graced Robinson Hall at the Kevin P. Mahaney ‘84 Center for the Arts. He arrived in all-black, and as the lights dimmed and the hall applauded, Wosner took his place by the grand gold Steinway. As his fingers began to slide and glide on the piano, I slowly fell into a reverie.
Wosner’s renditions of Schubert’s piano sonatas are consecutively violent and delicate, loud and soft, and exaggerate both aspects. The fingers came down hard on the keys, and the pianist’s body mirrored the aggression of the louder parts. These powerful and passionate sections often took us by surprise, as a result of Wosner’s deliberate decision to enhance the contrast.
Wosner was at his best, however, when the piece got softer, subtler, faster. Then his fingers would glide and upon closing your eyes you really would be transported to the fantastic, the ethereal. Then the piano would sing, and you could dance.
In Wosner’s own words, these six sonatas are like, “six thick novels, rich with insights about the human condition.” They have an “enveloping quality” which gives him a sense of “communing” with the audience. On Friday night, as he gradually moved into yet another of the softer sections of the “Fantasie” (Sonata No. 18 in G Major), I began to understand what he meant.
This performance was part of his recently launched recital series “Schubert: The Great Sonatas.” Since the beginning of his career, he’s engaged with the composer’s music and has been described by Gramophone as a “Schubertian of unfaltering authority and character.” In the 2017-18 season, he will go on to perform Schubert’s last six piano sonatas in New York, Washington, D.C. and other venues throughout the United States and Japan.
A resident New Yorker, Wosner was born in Israel and received a comprehensive education in music from a young age, first at home and later at The Juilliard School. Currently, other than performing extensively on the classical music circuit and recording with Onyx Classics, he also sits on the faculty at the Longy School of Music in Boston.
As the pianist in the annual Sophie Shao and Friends concert, Wosner has performed here in Middlebury before. Deeply impressed by his skill and talent, the then series director Paul Nelson immediately engaged him for a solo recital. Now, after the multiple standing ovations Mr. Wosner received here in the MCA on Friday night, I have no doubt we will see him again in the (hopefully) near future.
