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(02/26/15 1:48am)
Taken aback I was when I read all the hullabaloo regarding the benefits of being an athlete on campus. I find the apparent miscommunication between athletes and non-athletes to be particularly shameful, considering how moderate and levelheaded Middlebury students tend to be when discussing social issues. Regardless of the extent to which we participate in athletics, a substantial majority of Middlebury students are Non-A cappella Regular People (NARPs).
As a two sport athlete with close ties to the a cappella community, I am constantly reminded about the benefits a cappella students enjoy – benefits of which most athletes can only dream. One of Middlebury’s premier a cappella groups, Dissipated 8, recently travelled around the Northeast to perform dozens of live concerts. What makes me so irate is that this school organization can profit by selling compact discs (i.e. CDs) to their adoring fans. The double standard is nauseating; if I as an athlete tried to sell my autograph or jersey to any of the 30 student fans at a football game, or even if I tried to profit from my likeness being used as part of Middlebury’s promotional material, I would be severely disciplined.
Tis the plight of a NARP, both for athletes and non-athletes – athletes cannot profit from playing their sport and non-athletes cannot profit from anything (what would they sell? Art? Literature? HA!) These a cappella students, supposedly on equal footing with other students, clearly rise above the rest. The puppets (a.k.a. Middlebury students) venerate a cappella people to absurd degrees. We pack Mead Chapel for their “Jambos,” we attend every show they casually offer to appease the masses, we vie for their love and attention. I so often hear women swooning for Zach Weiss ’15, a member of the Dissipated 8, that when I tried to keep track of how many times it happened I lost count in the low triple digits. Athletes certainly do not enjoy these luxuries (except the men’s basketball team, but whatever).
Comments made by Will Fleming ’17, also in Dissipated 8, affirm my thoughts about the social privileges enjoyed by a cappella groups. “Yeah we throw parties and stuff,” Fleming describes, “girls love you for it, guys love you for it.” As a NARP, I could not imagine throwing a party with my athlete friends and having people ‘love me for it.’ I truly admire the a cappella culture where one is able to have social gatherings with friends yet not have others deem your culture toxic and exclusive. When asked a carefully worded follow-up question about this very point, Fleming responded, “both.”
Next, I asked Fleming about the bonds of friendship formed in a cappella. He explained that, upon his entering into the a cappella world, he “immediately had a group of brothers,” denoting the friendships formed with his singing mates. As Hannah Bristol ’14.5 and Isaac Baker ’14.5 rightfully acknowledge, it is unfair for these people to gain friends based on shared group membership while “the [non-athletes] are hunting for their own community, building friendships around any other shared interest.” We might as well make some big NARP group just so everyone can say they are included in something, our inability to sing well uniting us all.
Last week, Harry Zieve-Cohen ’15 wrote an Op-Ed exploring if Middlebury leaves us with better values than when we entered. The answer, Harry, is no – Middlebury as an institution is failing us. “We are paying into a system that fetishizes” a cappella. How can we let our students graduate into a world that does not share the same fetishization of a cappella that we do? It will rip apart the fragile minds of all but the mentally toughest Middlebury alumni.
To conclude, I’ll again invoke the words of Bristol and Baker (with a slight twist):
“We are a DIII school. Very few, if any, of our current [singers] will ever seriously [sing in an a cappella group] again after college. And yet for these four years, they are disproportionately valorized and require a tremendous time commitment [sic]. Students get tremendous enjoyment out of [a cappella]. They have learned teamwork and leadership, made their best friends and love their [singing] experience. But let’s be honest. You can reap these benefits without dedicating most of your time to your [a cappella group].”
Bristol and Baker are correct in recognizing that NARPs can have experiences rivaling or surpassing those of a cappella people. Do not feel intimidated by the social reverence the sheeple grant to a cappella groups. Whether you’re a NARP or a singer, your Middlebury experience is what you make of it.
(02/25/15 11:38pm)
Due to the deficit of available professors and the overwhelming popularity of the major, the Economics Department has been unable to accommodate many students trying to register for classes at all levels at the beginning of this spring term. While limited capacity has always been an issue for this department, the problem has increased in severity, with many accounts of students forced to sit on the floor during the first week of classes.
The severity of the issue has been attributed to a number of different reasons. Charles A. Dana Professor of Economics Peter Matthews wrote in an email, “At the risk of oversimplification, over a prolonged period, the student/faculty ratio has increased to the point where it is no longer sustainable or, for that matter, equitable.”
He continued, “On the one hand, whether one counts enrolled students or majors, the numerator has increased. There are, for example, about 370 economics majors at Middlebury, more than double the number of the next largest department or program, and more than several whole academic divisions whose combined resources dwarf ours. On the other hand, the number of ‘full time equivalent’ economists on campus has not kept pace and, in some cases, even fallen: we have lost colleagues to retirement and, this semester, unexpected death, but we have also ‘lost’ FTEs to College initiatives like MiddCORE, MCSE and Liberal Arts Plus.”
These issues have culminated in the over-enrollment by as many as twelve extra students in some classes, leaving many other students unable to access these classes.
Hayley Howard ’17, an Economics major, attended both Economic Statistics classes offered this semester with the hopes of adding one. “One of my [economics] classes already had to move classrooms to make room for more students, but we still have too many,” she said.
Assistant Professor of Economics Erick Gong, noted that he, too, was unable to accommodate everyone in his statistics class.
He said, “I think there is a lot of interest in economics on campus, which I attribute to many of my colleagues in the department who convey a passion for their areas of expertise.”
Therein lies the challenge for professors who want to enroll interested students but then are forced to teach a greater amount of larger classes with less one-on-one time with students.
Matthews said, “In a word, it diminishes and dilutes what is otherwise one of the best available liberal arts educations in economics. I have remarkable scholar-teachers as colleagues, and we attract remarkable students, but there aren’t enough of the former to engage the latter as much as either group wants or deserves. Furthermore, the consequences manifest themselves throughout the curriculum, from overcrowded first level courses to insufficient opportunities to engage in ‘research-based learning’ for seniors, a centerpiece of the department’s pedagogical philosophy.”
Paige-Wright Professor of Economics Paul Sommers pointed out that the number of negative seats available on Bannerweb underscores the magnitude of the problem that the department is facing. He has faced overcrowding in his Economic Statistics lab class, where many enrolled students were without seats.
Some short-term solutions to the issue of overcrowding in these classes include switching classrooms, opening new sections, reshuffling professors, and increasing enrollment caps. Matthews also noted that a greater flexibility has been given toward transferring credit as another way to ameliorate some of the problems the department is facing. However, these tactics work more as quick fixes rather than sustainable long-term solutions that address structural issues within the department itself.
The Economics Department has consequently hired three new faculty members and extended an offer to a fourth as a potentially more durable response to the high demand of economics classes.
Sommers said, “We are actively working to increase the number of faculty in economics so that our majors can actually enroll in core courses and that classes can be smaller.”
Matthews commented on the department’s recent growth and its future. “The last two years brought us the remarkable quartet of Professors Racha Moussa, Tanya Byker, Leila Davis and Emiliano Huet-Vaughn,” he said. “Next fall, we shall add Professor Amanda Gregg from Yale, an economic historian with a focus on late imperial Russia, Professor Julia Berazneva from Cornell, who works at the intersection of environment and development economics, and Professor Marquise McGraw of Berkeley, who researches local economic development and will allow us to expand our urban studies curriculum. I am certain that students will love learning from, and working with, all of them. And we’re not done.”
(02/25/15 7:07pm)
Last week, I was on my way to town, when a man poked his head out of a navy blue truck and called me a faggot. Mind you, my first reaction to the event was confused: I thought I’d be targeted for the color of my skin and called the n-word, but instead I was called a faggot. Thus, part of me was thrown off by the way I was insulted. In other words, I find myself to be more oppressed as a person of color rather than my sexuality here at Middlebury. Nonetheless, I was called a faggot. I don’t know whether the color of my corduroys was a little too bright or the sway of my walk didn’t read masculine enough.
The last time I was called a faggot, I reclaimed the word right in front of the person. I gave him a twirl and said “Faggot, faggot, so what I’m a faggot?” This event was much different because I didn’t get a chance to respond. The car drove away quickly and I was left with a sunken mind and bitter taste. My reaction was sealed in me.
Similar to other words like queer and even the omnipresent n-word in the black community, faggot is in the works of being reclaimed. The difference, however, is who is saying it. Growing up, I thought the word queer was an insult, and it wasn’t until high school that I started seeing the word being used by queer and non-queer people, as it has been reclaimed by academia.
The n-word was way different. I’ve seen it be used all around me growing up in Washington Heights and it wasn’t until I enrolled in a New England prep boarding school that the word became taboo. I had now been surrounded by whiteness. Some white people say it because they understand the history and weight of the word, while some other white people can’t wait until they hear a rap song so they could shout it at the top of their lungs. The n-word has, in a way, been reclaimed in pop culture.
The word faggot, however, is still seen by the majority as a highly offensive word and is more difficult to reclaim. It is a more universal bad word since it has been used to discriminate against all types of men with all types of skin colors. I have never used it against a lesbian women, and so I am painting the word faggot as an attack to all who are not masculine enough.
Unlike the n-word and queer, which have both been reclaimed, faggot makes people uncomfortable and I am still trying to figure out why. Is a word reclaimed when it is often used? Because surely I have heard the n-word so many times it would be ludicrous for me to try and call out someone or a song for saying it. The rapper YG’s song “My Nigga” won the 2014 BET Hip Hop Award for Track of the Year. How exactly does Black Entertainment Television perpetuate our oppressor’s language and make it a center point of success for the black man? In a way, it is used as an ironic device, a dialogue that goes along the lines of “look at how successful and powerful a nigga can be.”
Where is the faggot anthem? Who is going to write a mediocre song that goes #1 in all countries and liberates the fags? Despite how wrong this idea sounds, the same could be said about other reclaimed words decades ago. We must change the language so that oppressive words can be manipulated by those they oppress. We must hold the oppressor accountable for the damage he has been done but importantly, we must show the oppressor that we are resilient and stronger than he deemed us to be.
(02/19/15 1:43am)
For most Middlebury students, Winter Carnival means having an extra day to procrastinate on homework and to party in fun locations at new times like on a mountaintop at 11 a.m. However, for Maddie and Izzy, it means one thing and one thing only — the College’s annual Ice Show spectacular! It has always been a dream of ours to shake what our mamas gave us on as many different surfaces as possible. Now, we can proudly check ice off of our list.
We knew this would be one of our more difficult challenges, due to our personal histories with the art of ice skating. Maddie had only stepped on the ice once before her Middlebury skating debut. She was six and had to use an old person walker to prevent herself from falling. Just kidding, she was 12. Just kidding AGAIN it was actually last year. Izzy on the other hand always got distracted by the hot chocolate booth next to her local rink.
In preparation for our figure skating debut, we did what any sensible NARPs would do: watched Blades of Glory and Ice Princess, fell asleep listening to the Miracle speech for at least a full week leading up to the big event, and called our moms to yell at them for giving away our leotards.
Kendall Wyckoff ’14.5, Middlebury College’s own celebrity figure skater, had kindly agreed to show us the ropes of the sport. Our dreams of one day joining the ranks of other Olympic skaters on the Cheerios cereal box quickly faded when we realized we could only move at snail pace. We discovered the Harry Potter soundtrack provided a more motivational element to the lesson than T-Pain telling us to move our bodies like a cyclone (please note: difficult to do on ice). Naturally, we were soon pursuing a production of Harry Potter the Musical: On Ice with Maddie playing the role of Voldemort and Izzy playing Harry.
What’s a wizard-themed ice extravaganza without an audience? For those of you who do not know, the hockey rink doubles as a YMCA-esque walking track for the local elderly community. Fully equipped with visors, Skechers shape-ups and yoga pants, our audience was ready for a show. Unfortunately, when Maddie was supposed to yell “Avada Kedavra!” at the climax of Hedwig’s Theme, she ate s**t. Izzy found Maddie in the penalty box five minutes later, punishing herself for ruining the routine.
We really thought that after an hour of skating, we would be able to do at least a triple axel, but Kendall told us the simplest trick a beginner skater can do is skate on one leg. It became really clear that that trick would not be an option for us since neither of us has enough balance to downward dog without tipping over. We never learned how to stop so most of the time we ran into the walls, but we considered that to be character building.
After an hour in the rink, Izzy wondered aloud “When is the gazebo coming to clean the ice?” For Izzy’s sake, we will blame her pitiful mix-up of the words gazebo and Zamboni on “sleep deprivation.”
While Izzy waited for the “gazebo,” Maddie punished herself for running into a wall rather aggressively with more time in the penalty box. When Izzy questioned why she was spending so much time in the penalty box, Maddie responded, “Character is doing the right thing when nobody is watching.” Izzy is still unsure how this applies considering Maddie fouled nobody in the course of our ice skating adventure.
We know that the start of second semester is always brutal — with the shivers that accompany your alcohol withdrawals and the fact that your nostril hairs freeze when you step outside. Remember to take time for yourself and unwind by indulging in your hobby or trying something new. If you don’t, what would be a minor setback becomes a full-blown meltdown when the person in front of you takes the last piece of hearth bread at Atwater.
(02/19/15 12:34am)
In his last piece, Phil – to use an expression picked up over Feb Orientation – “yucked my yum.” He took us through what he painted to be President Obama’s “harmful budget,” paying special attention to the tax increases, ending of sequestration and community college plan. While I won’t address all of these issues because each subject deserves its own article entirely, I will say this: President Obama’s new budget proposal is a step in the right direction. Though it is not perfect, it cuts America’s deficit and decreases our debt, all while increasing funding to programs that desperately need it.
For starters, let us establish that, thanks to tax increases and, therefore, more revenue, the proposal would flatten deficits out to around two and a half percent of gross domestic product (GDP.). This is significant because under current policies the deficit would actually increase beginning in 2018. Furthermore, the proposal cuts our debt back to 73 percent of G.D.P. rather than the 79 percent it was estimated to reach by 2025.
You may be thinking (especially if you lean right like Phil), “OK, that’s great that the deficit and national debt would decrease, but do we have to do that through tax increases? Why not just cut spending?” The answer to that question is that we cannot afford to. Let’s zoom in on the issue of infrastructure.
America used to have the best infrastructure in the world. Our bridges, our rails, our electrical grids, et cetera were better than the rest of ‘em. This is no longer the case. Because of insufficient funding, 77,373 of our 604,493 bridges have become functionally obsolete and 69,517 have become structurally deficient. They are, on average, 42 years old. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ACSE) gave U.S. infrastructure the letter grade, “D+.” In a 2013 study, the ASCE estimated that we needed around $3.6 trillion by 2020 to bring all U.S. facilities back up to par.
So, yes, Obama might be asking for a whopping $4 trillion in this new budget plan, but just $478 billion of that is going to public works programs. In other words, of the $3.6 trillion the ASCE recommended for infrastructure, Obama has tightened the purse strings so much that not only is he giving them less than a quarter of what they asked for, but he is also spending the amount that one department needs on the entire federal budget. It might be easy to say that Democrats are the party of big spenders; however, the new budget proposal illustrates that while Democrats indeed want to spend more than Republicans, they are spending (get this) conservatively and with purpose.
You should know what this increase in government spending is getting us. According to a report by the Congressional Budget Office in 2014, for every dollar invested in infrastructure, the economy grows by $1.15 to $1.25. Additionally, Standard & Poor’s Rating Services released a report in 2014 stating that an immediate $1.3 billion infrastructure investment could add 29,000 jobs to the construction sector and even more jobs to other infrastructure-related industries. The study also found that this investment could boost economic growth by $2 billion and reduce American deficit by $200 million for 2015.
I think we can all agree that no one wants to spend extra money if they don’t have to, but so many programs in the U.S. -— infrastructure, Medicaid, Medicare, et cetera — necessitate the additional spending. The benefits of paying up far outweigh the costs.
Therefore, while it would be great to take the Republican way out — cut spending and leave taxes alone, or even lower them to solve the deficit/debt problems — that plan is infeasible. Our country needs the increased spending and, unfortunately, that may mean raising taxes.
That is why it is all the more important for Republicans to work with the President – so that they have a say in how the taxes will work, and can quit complaining about them. Obama has some pretty palatable ideas. For example, to fund the $478 billion public works program, he has asked Congress to approve a one-time 14 percent tax on profits that American companies have amassed overseas, lower than the standard 35 percent corporate tax rate.
We may all whine and moan about the sad reality that sometimes we have to cough up a little extra dough, but I expect all policy makers in Washington to step up to the plate. Therefore, I hope Phil’s prediction that Republicans will not let this budget go unaltered is incorrect. Furthermore, I hope that the general opinion on Obama’s budget plan will not be tainted with false notions of overspending. For if this article has done nothing else, ideally it has shown you that there are a lot of naysayers or “yuckers” out there, but there is unquestionable “yum” to be gained from President Obama’s new budget proposal.
(02/19/15 12:31am)
Last Tuesday, representatives from Kirchoff Campus Properties, the Dean of Students Office and Facilities Services unveiled new plans for a long-awaited housing project. The proposed Adirondack Apartments and new Ridgeline construction will be available in 2016’s upperclassmen housing lottery. These buildings, which will include townhouse-style apartments, will open up new beds for those students opting to live on campus. Overall, we at the Campus cautiously applaud this development.
The building project will replace the modular homes, which have served as housing long past their expiration date. The announcement of this new development arrives as the College comes to terms with a minor housing crisis. Increased enrollment has packed College dorms to the gills. And now, the overenrolled, 629-person sophomore class will enter the upperclassmen housing lottery this year, competing for a small number of housing units relative to their class size.
Without new housing options on campus, these students will be more likely to live off campus. This year, with an unusually large number of students living off campus, the College has already faced conflict with students’ neighbors. We saw a rift beginning to open between the College and the town. In an interview, President Liebowitz acknowledged that the College needed a solution to remedy the current housing situation, both on and off campus.
While we at the Campus recognize that there have been problems with off-campus living, we also feel that it has a certain value. Students who live away from the school learn how to navigate landlord relationships, how to be a part of a neighborhood and how to manage utility costs. In other words, they learn how to be independent and start to integrate themselves into life outside the college bubble. While some students struggle with these responsibilities, most thrive.
Furthermore, students who responsibly live off-campus help harmonize the town and the College. Students living alongside townspeople help to break down the psychosocial barriers between the two. We believe that if the College were to drastically lower the number of students living off campus, it would only serve to widen the divide.
The new housing, which was fast tracked during the most recent Board of Trustees meeting after having been postponed years ago due to prior budget constraints, is intended to entice older students living off campus to come back. This way the College can start to cut back on the distribution of off campus spots while at the same time more easily monitoring a greater number of students.
In doing this, however, the College risks losing a popular on-campus spot. Though the mods’ social scene has been less raucous in recent years, the memories of the quirky trailer park-esque neighborhood and their Modapalooza parties are strongly connected to the experiences of many Middlebury students. We at the Campus believe that the new on-campus housing should maintain a similar social sentiment. We hope that the Adirondack Apartments can fill the role that the the mods played in student life and continue to encourage community, unlike the Ross townhouses, which are similar in nature to the new housing plan, yet do not foster much of a neighb0rly attitude for their residents.
Ultimately, we at the Campus support these actions to remedy the housing situation. In fact, creating new housing around the Ridgeline area to bring seniors back on campus was one of the solutions we recommended to the College back in the fall. That being said, and building on our last editorial about the end of tuition increases calculated by CPI+1, the administration must be transparent about the origins of this new housing’s funding. While we commend the College for seeking student input on housing plans thus far, this pattern of transparency must continue, and it must be well-received by Middlebury students. All students, but particularly underclassmen who are likely to live in this new housing, should not pass up this opportunity to contribute to the plans and ensure that these townhouses will be made into homes.
(02/18/15 11:33pm)
Amidst the flashy festivities of Winter Carnival, this past weekend marked the second annual performance of The Vagina Monologues in the Hepburn Zoo. An episodic play written in 1996 by Middlebury alum Eve Ensler ’75, the production delves unabashedly into various elements of the female experience, including sex, love, menstruation, masturbation and birth. Proceeds from each sold-out performance Feb. 12 to 14 went toward WomenSafe, a 24-hour hotline dedicated to ending domestic and sexual violence.
Sponsored by the on-campus women’s resources center, Chellis House, and directed by Jiya Pandya ’17 and Sandra Markowitz ’15.5, The Vagina Monologues consisted of “happy facts” and “not-so-happy facts” about vaginas, as well as deeply personal, real-life stories of empowerment, inner turmoil and self-reflection. The heavy monologues came interspersed with moments of humor and warmth, bringing the audience on an emotional journey of sympathy, discomfort, bemusement, joy and everything in between.
While the original, off-Broadway performance featured actresses delivering monologues alone onstage, the College production branched off to include group scenes, interpretive movements and interactive dialogues. The result was a fascinating and elegant narrative on sexuality, female identity and the challenges of womanhood, as performed by a cast of 14 female students.
“These monologues have been done a countless number of times,” explained actress Akhila Khanna ’17. “For more feeling of unity and community, this production incorporated many actors.”
Indeed, in the intimate performing space of the Hepburn Zoo, where the actresses often stood within an arm’s reach of the front row and some audience members sat sprawled on the floor, an overwhelming sense of support and solidarity resonated throughout the performance. Before the opening scene, Pandya and Markowitz led the audience in a rousing chant of “vagina,” explaining that it was crucial that everyone become comfortable with the word before sitting through the highly uncensored 90-minute performance.
If anyone thought that “vagina” was bad, then they certainly must have felt squeamish during the opening scene as the cast named off a rapid-fire list of alternate names for the organ. From “Pussycat” in Great Neck, New York to “twat” in New Jersey to “Pooki” in Westchester, it quickly became clear that the vagina is the bearer of many colorful titles.
Yet, as narrator Jeanette Cortez ’15 noted: “There’s so much darkness and secrecy surrounding [vaginas] – like the Bermuda triangle. Nobody ever reports back from there.”
Building from that, the play proceeded to unravel much of society’s misperceptions surrounding the vagina – what it is like, what it goes through and what it needs. A sense of candid honesty pulsed through the monologues, a few of which ranted furiously against tampons, advocated for a greater love of vaginal hair (described sweetly by Becca Hicks ’15 as “the leaf around the flower, the lawn around the house”) and recounted one woman’s first pleasurable, lesbian experience. In the latter enticing monologue, “The Little Coochi Snorcher That Could,” KJ Davidson-Turner ’17.5 took on a fascinatingly complex character with a traumatic past.
“I realize later [the lady] was my surprising, unexpected and politically incorrect salvation,” Davidson-Turner stated in her vivid closing lines. “She transformed my sorry-ass Coochi Snorcher and raised it into a kind of heaven.”
As the play charged on, the crowd clapped, laughed and snapped appreciatively at each new striking commentary and witty insight. At other moments, when the scenes broached on incredibly dark themes of rape, genital mutilation and abuse, the room fell silent.
“Female genital mutilation has been inflicted on approximately 130 million girls and young women,” narrator Cortez stated at one point. “In the 28 countries where it is practiced, mostly in Africa, about three million young girls a year can expect the knife – or the razor or a glass shard – to cut their clitoris or remove it altogether.”
Like many audience members hearing this fact for the first time, actress Mary Baillie ’18 found it difficult to deal with such heavy material.
“I still can’t listen to that,” she said. “I was really happy because my monologue was right after [the genital mutilation piece], so I could just go to the dressing room and get ready for that. I would just sit there with my ears covered.”
One scene in particular managed to strike a touching balance between deep vulnerability and lightheartedness. Wrapped in a dark red shawl and hunched over on a stool, Michelle Kim ’17 enraptured the audience in a poignant tribute to one elderly woman’s closeted relationship to her “down-there.” Following a nervous sexual encounter in her teens, she now refers to her vagina as damp, clammy, and “closed due to flooding.”
“I haven’t been down there since 1953. No, it had nothing to do with Eisenhower,” she said, prompting giggles from the crowd.
With no theatrics or fellow actresses for onstage support, Kim spoke directly into the audience, putting her earnest storytelling skills and endearing mannerisms on
full display.
While the power of her performance lay in its quiet, thoughtful honesty, another highly impactful scene featured a dynamic self-written monologue by Khanna and Sally Seitz ’17. Hailing respectively from New Delhi, India and Nashville, Tennessee, the two women channeled the strict sexual standards of each of their cultures by preaching impassionately to the audience. Khanna wore Hindu prayer beads around her neck, while Sally donned a large cross necklace.
“Thou shall not touch thyself. Thou shalt have no idea what it looks like down there,” Seitz said.
“Do not sleep around. Bilkul Nahi,” Khanna announced sternly. “We choose your single sexual partner.”
Their lines played off of each other, crafting an intriguing parallel between two seemingly far-removed places. Near the end, their monologues began to intersect even more closely, as both actresses paused and asked simultaneously, “Why do I feel guilty? Is this my fault?”
While the entire show ventured outside normal boundaries of comfort, perhaps the most unforgettably daring moment came down to a scene in which each actress mimicked a certain type of sex moan. The cast arranged themselves in various positions onstage – standing, sprawled out with their legs slightly open, and lying down – and took turns simulating such sounds as the “doggy” moan, the “college” moan (“I should be studying. I should be studying”) and the “tortured Zen” moan, an exaggerated, twisted cry that left the audience in hysterics.
Though Khanna initially felt uneasy about the moaning scene, she eventually came to terms with the bold material.
“The minute you imagine yourself as an advocate for female sexuality and for other people who are as shy and as uncomfortable about the word ‘vagina’ as you are, it’s a lot easier to go onstage,” she said. “You’re representing other people’s stories and hardships.”
With every piece of biting social commentary or provocative phrase uttered onstage, The Vagina Monologues burst open a subject that remains largely untouched in everyday conversation. Through its unapologetic forwardness, the show put on stunning display both the fearlessness of the cast and many inconvenient realities of the female experience. Uncomfortable as some of the topics may be, the messages of empowerment, exploration and acceptance behind the production deserve to be heeded. As such, perhaps it was fitting that this year’s rendition of The Vagina Monologues coincided with Valentine’s Day weekend.
“Everyone should take the time to appreciate the women in their life,” Baillie said. “The power of the female is unstoppable.”
(02/18/15 11:21pm)
There are few disciplines which naturally complement each other as well as theatre and English, and an exciting inaugural event aims to bridge the literary and performing arts worlds while creating deeper connections between the student body and the larger Middlebury community.
On Tuesday, Feb. 24, New England Review editor-in-chief Carolyn Kuebler, Professor of Theatre Dana Yeaton and Kevin P. Mahaney ’84 Center for the Arts (MCA) Director Liza Sacheli will present a collaborative, multi-faceted evening, combining recent works from the internationally renowned, Middlebury-based literary magazine with the talents of student orators and writers. The event, “NER Out Loud,” will feature seven dramatic student readings of New England Review material in the Concert Hall of the MCA at 7:30 p.m., followed by ‘S’more Readings,’ a unique showcase of work from three student-run literary magazines, Sweatervest, Blackbird and Room 404, accompanied by a s’mores-themed treat reception in the lobby of the MCA.
The event takes inspiration from the ‘Selected Shorts’ program, a weekly radio podcast broadcast on Public Radio International to over 300,000 listeners that enlists the talents of prominent actors to read both established and emerging fiction, usually centered on a theme, author or special collaboration. Kuebler, who took the reins of the New England Review from 20-year editor-in-chief and Director of Literary Studies Stephen Donadio in Jan. 2014, saw a diversity of artistry present in the College and town communities that presented a rare opportunity to establish a distinctly Middlebury version of the show. The idea began percolating in her mind in the spring of 2014, and with the help of Sacheli and Yeaton, an event quickly formed.
“I’ve been to a lot of theatre productions at the College, and I have always been impressed by the acting and how sophisticated and poised the students are, so the idea of putting on an event with some students was always interesting to me,” Kuebler said. “I approached Liza because she was interested in doing some more literary programming, and when I talked to her, she said that Dana would be a good candidate. It turns out that Dana wears a number of different hats, and in addition to teaching and playwriting and the other involvements in the Theatre Department, he also heads this new group called the Oratory Society.”
The Oratory Society began with a group of students taking Yeaton’s J-term 2014 Speechmaking course who wanted more opportunities to practice public speaking and the increasingly rare art of oration. Students from the Theatre Department and many other disciplines soon expressed interest in joining, and the group has quickly grown, performing officially for the first time at the 2014 Martin Luther King, Jr. Oratorio before offering workshops in spring 2014 and making strides to be recognized as an official organization last fall. As of this spring, the group has almost 20 members under the leadership of Oratory Society President Liam Knox ’17.
“It’s been fun to do a little matchmaking and discuss which of the pieces we’ve published over the past year would make for good live reading,” Kuebler said. “We were more concerned about readability, range and immediacy of the text. We wanted to have a variety and a way to showcase the New England Review and the different kinds of writing that we publish. Some works have a storytelling feel that grab the listener, but some are more abstract and poetic or philosophical.”
After selecting appropriate pieces from the New England Review to send to Yeaton, he in turn sent out the possibilities for further review by student actors and members of the Oratory Society. Caitlin Duffy ’15.5 is one of the seven students reading at “NER Out Loud.”
“Dana sent students four documents that each had a collection of short stories and poems, and we suggested which ones we’d like to read,” Duffy said. “I’m reading a short story, so we will pare it down for oration. The idea is getting a literary text into a performance realm. I think approaching literature from this perspective is really special, and it helps me understand it more.”
Melissa MacDonald ’15 will also be reading a literary selection at the event.
“Sometimes you read in your head in a way that maybe misses all the connotations and rhythms that a word can carry if you say it out loud,” she said. “The idea is that we can bring clarity to texts that sometimes you don’t quite understand fully when you read them to yourself. Hopefully when we read out a story we place enough emphasis and character within it that the insight that the piece is trying to provide shines.”
Following the main portion of the evening will be ‘S’more Readings,’ a collaborative idea devised by Kuebler and Sacheli in which students will read their own work from Sweatervest, Blackbird and Room 404 student literary magazines in the lower lobby of the MCA. Mini amps will be accompanied by mini ovens for toasting marshmallows for s’mores, and attendees of the reception will be able to freely browse the magazines and talk with representatives from each.
“It is in my best interest to get more people to know about and engage with the New England Review, but I think that there are a lot of literary students on campus who wouldn’t mind coming out of the woodwork with their magazine,” Kuebler said. “They might have more of an opportunity to show what they’ve been up to under the umbrella of the New England Review. We have all of the same interests as literary magazines.”
In addition to Duffy and MacDonald, Kevin Benscheidt ’17, Brenna Christensen ’17, Cole Ellison ’17, Jabari Matthew ’17 and Sally Seitz ’17 will read selections at the event. Sweatervest and Room 404 will be represented by Nick Kaye ’17 and Dylan Redford ’15, respectively, and Blackbird will feature delegates Emily Luan ’15 and Doug LeCours ’15. The event is free and open to the public.
(02/18/15 11:13pm)
“When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.”
— Henry Thoreau
Or, in the words of Albus Dumbledore, “Ah music, a magic beyond all we do here.” As I sit in Davis, writing this article with the melodies of this week’s Performing Arts Series artist quickening through my headphones, I am inclined to agree.
Granted, I have been known to cast a spell or two, but as I listen to songs composed half a world away, in a different time by a different people, it is clear music transcends language, time and distance in a way my Winter Ball antics never will. Music makes the world smaller.
Herbert Kinobe is an exceptional Ugandan multi-instrumentalist, a vocalist, and a composer known for his inspired synthesis of African roots and global fusion. With his music comes an incredible amount of history and culture. His performances all over the African continent and the world are not just shows, they are opportunities to teach and learn, to bring people together through the universality of music.
When preparing to write this article, I watched several of Kinobe’s concerts and although I recognized few of the instruments, I was amazed by how familiar the melodies felt, as if I had spent my life with them.
The familiarity with which Kinobe interacts with and enfolds the audience into the performance fades the formality of the event into background. What we are left with is a homey, comfortable environment that welcomes us to embrace our global citizenship and to appreciate music so foreign yet so familiar.
Kinobe talks about the various instruments, their names and roots and cultural value, bringing the audience on a journey through his identity. This Friday, Feb. 20 at 8:00 p.m. in the Mahaney Center for the Arts (MCA), Kinobe and three musical collaborators will perform a free, acoustic-spirited concert to share this experience with us.
Born near Lake Victoria in Uganda, Kinobe now performs all over the world, bringing a powerful World-roots-dance sound to festival main stages and theatres, and captivating solo and acoustic shows that showcase the diversity of traditional African instruments. He uses koras, kalimbas, adungus, endongos, ngonis and percussion to invite audiences into his culture, describing the instruments and their roles in African society and history.
In many ways, music is one of the most revealing and expressive parts of any culture. This concert is an incredible opportunity to not only bask in soothing melodies and dance with frenzied beats but also to peek into humankind.
Kinobe is not only a musician; he is also a World Ambassador for the Harmony Foundation. There, he supports work on environmental protection, social development, and the improvement of the lives of children and their families around the globe.
In 2013, the Foundation sponsored his band WAMU Spirit in recording the CD “Searching for Survival,” an uplifting expression of hope that people around the globe can work together to make the world a healthier, more peaceful, and just place to live. Kinobe has also campaigned with UNICEF to support education for girls, and works extensively with schools and communities on outreach and education programs globally.
Kinobe’s concert is the first of several lead-up events to an early April residency with the Nile Project. The Nile Project brings together artists from many of the 11 Nile countries to make music that combines the region’s diverse instruments, languages and traditions.
The concert experience aims to inspire cultural curiosity, highlight regional connections, and showcase the potential of trans-boundary cooperation. In this case, Nile Project participants hope to use music to facilitate cooperation over the region’s water supply.
The next lead-up events are three lecture/demonstrations on Nile region music, dance, and cultural collaboration by ethnomusicologist Sylvia Nannyonga-Tamusuza, to take place Mar. 2, 3 and 4. Go/nileproject for further information about the Nile Project at Middlebury!
Kinobe’s concert is a rare opportunity for Middlebury students to hear and learn about authentic, moving music from Africa, right here in our own arts center. “Music From Africa” will take place on Friday, Feb. 20 at 8:00 p.m. in the Concert Hall of the Kevin P. Mahaney ’84 Center for the Arts.
Professor of Music and ethnomusicologist Damascus Kafumbe will lead a pre-concert talk with the artist at 7:00 p.m. in MCA 221. Both events are free and open to the public—no tickets required.
(02/18/15 9:25pm)
During Winter Term, the SGA conducted its biennial student life survey, with 1,438 students completing the survey of eight sections, from Academic Life to Dining. Of that number, only 40 percent of respondents were male students.
In constructing the survey, SGA Chief of Staff Danny Zhang ’15 said he and SGA President Taylor Custer ’15 solicited questions from Senate and Cabinet members. Additionally, they reached out to “stakeholders” in the College community, including Health and Wellness, CCI, Public Safety, and Student Activities in adjusting the wording of questions.
“Many of the questions were taken from the previous survey two years ago, since one of President Charlie Arnowitz’s goals of starting the survey was to have some continuity in the questions so we could track student opinion over time. There were also a lot of new questions on issues more pertinent to the campus now,” wrote Zhang in an email.
In consulting with SGA members, Zhang shared some results he had found surprising. There were a number of questions on academic life, many of which were contributed by the Student Educational Affairs Committee.
“Even though the first year seminar program is focused on writing skills, the skill that students most think should receive more attention in their first year seminar was writing and editing,” wrote Zhang.
In the social life category, Zhang pointed to results that seemed to contradict vocalized unhappiness with social life. 58 percent of students are either satisfied or strongly satisfied with their social life at Middlebury and only 3 percent more students said their social life has gotten “much worse/somewhat worse” than “somewhat better/much better.”
Zhang felt that there was a lower percentage of students than he expected who knew who was the SGA President (69 percent) and Student Co-Chair (19 percent) of Community Council, saying that the SGA had to better market itself.
“11.5 percent of students who answered the survey said they sometime take dishes from the dining hall and forget to put them back. That seems incredibly high to me and would explain why so many dishes go missing so quickly!” said Zhang.
The Student Life Survey began two years ago under Arnowitz. The survey has retained some of the same problems, most prominently the underrepresentation of male students, but the questions have been finessed, according to Zhang. He estimates that 150 more students completed the survey this year than in 2013.
According to Senator Michael Brady ’17.5, the SGA under Arnowitz initially planned to conduct the survey every other year due to a fear of “survey fatigue.”
As the SGA looks to the future, it will take into account the overwhelming (92 percent) willingness students expressed to fill out the survey annually.
“The yearly survey is definitely something that Taylor wants to move towards. I think that says something about how much students on this campus care about their community and reflects a strong desire to be heard in the college decision-making process,” Zhang said.
When asked about tackling the gender imbalance in the survey, Brady considers the selection of prizes as perhaps being slanted towards female students as a possible reason for the disparity between genders in completing the survey.
“I hope that with prizes and other incentives that this valuable data can be collected every year. It’s a valuable tool to communicate some student sentiment to the administration about what they want to see changed on campus,” said Brady.
(02/12/15 3:19am)
When the op-ed “It’s Actually Just a Game” was published in the Campus on Jan. 22, what followed was an explosion of conversation about athletics on campus. With almost 60 comments online and multiple responses to the opinion piece, the topic dominated conversations until the end of Winter Term.
In light of this, the College has been forced to consider a divide between the athletes and non-athletes on campus. This divide has given rise to a number of questions surrounding the role of athletics at a school like Middlebury and the existence of athletic privileges.
As a member of the NCAA and NESCAC divisions, the College athletic department abides by two sets of rules, both of which strive to create an athletic environment consistent with a commitment to academics. However, as the College and so many other institutions have discovered, finding the right balance between athletics and higher education can be difficult.
The NESCAC established itself as a conference in 1999 and currently sponsors 26 conference championships for 11 institutions. NESCAC member schools offer an average of 30 varsity sports programs. The College offers 31 varsity programs and 15 Club programs, putting it near the top of that list. The decision to offer certain sports as varsity programs versus Club programs at the College was made in collaboration with the other members of the NESCAC years ago.
Because 28% of the student body is involved in the varsity sports program, the College has committed itself to supporting the varsity sports program on many different levels. These commitments must work in harmony with the College’s dedication to academics and a diverse and engaged student body.
Financial
Each year, the College budget reflects a number of different needs. According to the College’s budget office, “Budget decisions reflect the College’s mission and core values. Our top priorities are our academic program and our need-blind admissions policy for U.S. students.”
In the 2014 fiscal year, the College’s budget was $292 million. Of this, approximately $5 million (or 1.7%) is allocated to the athletics department on a yearly basis.
According to Athletics Director Erin Quinn, budgets are constructed to pay for the essential elements of each varsity program, including items such as food, lodging, travel and the basic equipment. This process is the same across all varsity sports at the College, including the Alpine and Nordic ski teams and the Squash teams, all of which are not traditional Division III sports but instead compete with only one division. In these sports, the College and other DIII institutions compete against DI institutions, while retaining the DIII classification and following DIII rules.
Specialized equipment is not anticipated in these budgets but can be applied for through the same process as any other department of the College.
“Some of the stuff that students might say that they paid for themselves might be the choices of those students to buy those things…Things that go beyond what a normal budget might cover, that a team arguably could do without, shouldn’t necessarily be covered by the budget,” Quinn said. He added that if the budget does not provide the entire cost of an item, teams may raise money and then families often contribute the difference; for example, spring trips are not fully funded by the budget. (see spread in Features)
Other organizations on campus are not included in the College’s budget. They rely on the comprehensive Student Activities fee, which was $407 per student for 2014. This money is pooled together and allocated to student organizations through the SGA Finance Committee.
Between last spring and this fall, approximately 140 clubs came in for both budget and new money requests, including a number of Club sports programs. Club sports rely on the Student Activities fee for all expenses except that of any coaches.
According to Katie Linder ’15, captain of the Women’s Rugby Club team and SGA Athletic Affairs Committee chair, figuring out finances is a large part of Club sports. “Staying in hotels the night before versus driving up at five in the morning is something that we would love but we make it work, it’s the only way we know how to operate. It’s a process, but we get as much money as we need… I can’t say that I wouldn’t like more money, but it’s manageable,” she said.
SGA Treasurer Ilana Gratch ’16.5 said, “It’s not that we run out of money, it’s that we have to discern which requests are going to have the widest reach and be the most beneficial to the most students because, at the end of the day, it’s coming from the Students Activities fee which we all paid for. It is a finite amount of money so we can’t fund everything.”
Because athletic facilities are open to the College and town communities, a separate section of the College budget provides for these facilities. However, the construction of the new Virtue Field House and the Squash Courts was not included in these numbers. The $46 million project was the first of its size completely funded by donors, many who have previously given to the College’s financial aid, to academic programs, or to other College initiatives outside of Athletics.
Although College fundraising efforts are not directed towards athletics, research shows that often athletics are a source of inspiration for alumni donations. In 2006, Professor of Economics Jessica Holmes published a paper using 15 years of data from the College which concluded that alumni, regardless of whether they were involved with athletics or not, tend to donate to the College when athletics are doing well or when academics are doing poorly. Although the data is not recent, these results remain relevant to the College according to David K. Smith ‘42 Professor of Applied Economics Phani Wunnava.
Tim Spears, Vice President for Academic Development and a leader in fundraising efforts at the College, said, “In the larger world of intercollegiate athletics, one of the reasons why booster clubs exist at universities and the like is because through successful athletics programs, you raise awareness for the school and build loyalty. There may be merit to this approach, but that’s not the strategy that’s at work at a place like Middlebury.”
Admissions
Under NESCAC guidelines, the College may not admit recruited athletes until they have gone through the same process as any other applicant. However, coaches can get feedback from Admissions about where to prioritize their recruiting and, according to Dean of Admissions Greg Buckles, “The boundaries of that get pushed a lot.”
Recruited athletes are often given extra and earlier advance notice as to their viability as a candidate for the College based on criteria set by the NESCAC, which can often lead athletes to premature assumptions about their admittance. Instances have occurred where students in the recruitment process have claimed a “commitment” to the College similar to those allowed at Division 1 institutions. As a matter of protocol and process, Buckles said, Admissions will track down these claims to correct them when they see them.
“[The NESCAC recruiting process] is at the same time the most confounding but also the most noble undertaking of any athletic conference I know of,” said Buckles. “In other words, it’s complicated, it can be confusing, frustrating, and sometimes it will seem like it’s hypocritical but, in the end, it works well. We keep a lid on the appropriate amount of emphasis on athletics and at the same time we’re very successful.”
Recruitment success is a significant part of assessing the performance of Coaches, and so they are part of the admissions conversation. However, the same process exists for the Arts department. Through the same evaluative system as the Athletics department, members of the Arts may convey to admissions which candidates they would like to see admitted. Furthermore, any department or any faculty member can oversee potential candidates in whom they have an interest and may open a conversation with Admissions.
In the Athletics department, the ability to evaluate applicants has proven beneficial to the overall application process. In any given year, about 25 percent of the incoming class is recruited athletes. This number has remained constant while the total number of recruited athletes who apply has been shrinking (see graphic on front page).
The recruiting process also encourages more athletes to apply Early Decision. In 2014, 44 percent of Early Decision 1 applicants who enrolled were recruited athletes. “The upside of that is that interestingly leaves room for more non-athletes because it’s typically one-for-one…That leaves us, in some sense, with more room to consider a whole host of other needs and goals for the class,” said Buckles.
The recruiting process at the College across all varsity sports is consistent with those of the ten other NESCAC institutions. This process is one of the most restrictive in the country and has caused a lack of diversity in athletics. Between these restrictions and a lack of resources to travel extensively or reach out to athletes, Coaches are often limited to those athletes who have the ability and the connection to NESCAC institutions to approach coaches themselves.
“Almost everywhere else, a lot of times athletic conferences and athletic teams will support more diversity…As we’ve made great progress and strides in the overall student body…that has not been reflected in the athletic teams as much,” Buckles said.
“A coach puts together the class holistically just the way the College does,” Quinn said. “We try to be very consistent and we try to have the athletic department be representative of the College. We have some limitations on our ability to recruit as broadly due to practical, financial considerations as well as NESCAC restrictions on recruiting. The NESCAC has looked carefully at some of these practices as well. How can we create the most diverse pool as possible? Are there league restrictions that prohibit us from doing so?”
One way a lack of diversity in athletics might be addressed is by looking at athlete GPAs or how financial aid is allocated to athletes and non-athletes on campus. According to Quinn, athlete GPAs are tracked internally by the Athletics Department periodically to evaluate the academic success of student-athletes, but these numbers are not open to the public, just as GPA numbers are not available for any other campus constituencies.
Additionally, because of the College’s need-blind policy, financial aid numbers for specific groups are not tracked except through annual audits on the Student Financial Aid office, of which the results are not shared unless an issue becomes apparent.
Time Commitment
Students’ commitment to athletics is often seen as a diversion from the College’s commitment to academics. Although the College outlines specific procedures for students, coaches, and professors, it is often left to the discretion of those involved how to balance athletics and academics.
“One of the things that we think about a lot as faculty is student time and whether or not students have the time that they need to devote to their academics,” said Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty Andi Lloyd. “What’s the right amount of time to devote to academics relative to extracurricular activities? It’s a question about time as a scarce resource.”
Lloyd also commented on claims that student-athletes are given access to easier classes. Although unaware of any specific practices concerning this she said, “The kinds of things I hear—and the kinds of conversations I have with my advisees—have more to do with time management than with taking easier classes… I think people are making choices about classes based on any number of different factors, including athletics and other extra-curricular commitments. I would not define it as an issue of athletic privilege in the sense that it is playing out at other schools.”
By College and NESCAC regulations, varsity athletes are limited in the amount of time they are allowed to practice, how long their season is, and how many games they may compete in, among other things. However, the time commitment to a varsity sport is still substantial and, for many students, a deciding factor for participation.
“I came in and I picked rugby because I wanted to learn the sport but also because I didn’t want to try to play a varsity sport,” Linder said.
She added, “We have a lot of girls who played sports in high school and didn’t want the commitment of a varsity sport because it’s a huge time commitment and we’re sort of looking for a middle ground where it was a structure, a team, but wasn’t that much of a high competitiveness level.”
Lloyd added that this conversation extends beyond athletics. “Having been here for almost 20 years, I have seen that students find any number of different pathways through this place, they distinguish themselves in any number of different ways, they find a range of things outside of the classroom in order to stretch themselves and challenge themselves, and athletics is one of those things but, it’s not the only thing,” she said.
Social Life
The divide between athletes and non-athletes on campus goes beyond areas in the budget, admissions and time commitments. The op-ed published in The Campus, a response by basketball player Jake Nidenberg ’16, and another published on Middbeat by Lizzy Weiss ’17 and Aleck Silva-Pinto ’16 are all part of the ongoing conversation around this divide.
Many have pointed to freshman orientation as the origin of this separation between athletes and non-athletes. In the 2015 SGA student life survey, participants were asked if they think the staggered arrival of fall athletes, international and non-athlete domestic students during orientation impacts relationships between different groups. Results showed that 16.13 percent of participants saw a positive impact, 59.04 percent saw a negative impact, and 24.83 percent saw no impact.
In their column “NARPs” in the Campus, Maddie Webb ’17 and Izzy Fleming ’17 have explored how non-athletes at the College can get involved with both athletics and other activities on campus. “‘NARPs’ is a term I had never heard before I came to Middlebury,” Webb said. “Most people use it as a term of endearment but there are also people who use it to put other people down.”
She added, “There are so many people on this campus who think that sports are everything and you are nothing without athletic ability and so a point of our column is to not only take back the term NARPs but to show people all the opportunities there are on campus to get involved that they might not have known about.”
As head of the SGA Athletic Committee, Linder works to bridge this gap. “A lot of what we do is how to get more people to come to games and support the team and school spirit…I think we run into issues less with privilege and more with the disconnect between athletes and non-athletes and trying to find ways to make a connection between those two sides,” she said.
Whether athletics are seen as an outlet for extra privileges or a source of diversity and connection on campus can be attributed to how students at the College embrace the divide. “This is college, and we love to refer to Middlebury as a bubble, and that’s not a bad thing—to an extent, it should be a bubble,” Spears said. “This place, of all places, of all moments in students’ lives, should be where people are crossing those boundaries and getting to know people who are different from one another.”
(02/11/15 11:31pm)
NOTE: I would like to take a paragraph this week to apologize for a line in my last Op-Ed. While many of you were focused on the strange new rivalry between NARP’s and athletes, a poorly thought-out, badly phrased hypothetical appeared at the end of my piece. Had it been merely an opinion that was unpopular, which it certainly was, I would let the words speak for themselves. However, this was not the case. By simple bad writing, I expressed a sentiment I myself do not believe. I have written this column for a large part of my Middlebury career and I have to take responsibility for what appears in it. It was not my intent to belittle the cause of feminism, demean women or do any of the host of other things the line in question implied. I hope many of the readers who are familiar with this column would understand this was a blunder of carelessness, not of malice. Thank you to all the people who cared enough to contact me with some really powerful and interesting responses. I made a mistake, I am accountable for it, and I apologize if I have hurt or betrayed the trust of any friends and readers.
While many of us lamented (or praised) the string of blizzards that pounded New England over break or cheered (or cried) during the events of the Super Bowl, our peer over in the granite state made a dramatic announcement. No, they were not replacing their logo with clip art, or building more houses in the woods behind their Campus. No, no, Dartmouth was banning liquor on its campus. Yes, as of the start of their Spring term, all beverages containing over 15 percent alcohol will be banned.
Alums are debating the effects of this policy heatedly, certainly, but also, to my surprise, adults I encountered over break. I, of course, answered that we were not Dartmouth. Please, we prefer not to be associated with those across the river. This policy appears to be unique to Dartmouth as Dartmouth has its own set of issues surrounding Greek life that simply do not exist at Middlebury. Yet, issues regarding alcohol are not Dartmouth’s alone. While it may not be as heavily publicized, Middlebury is not immune to the issues surrounding alcohol consumption; hazing and sexual assault come immediately to mind. So while the consequences of Dartmouth’s policy will be endlessly debated, perhaps we have an opportunity to reflect on our own social experience and alcohol culture.
It is no secret that a large number of Middlebury students have grown discontented with social life on campus and to be honest, who can blame them? Underage students take shots so they are not caught with a beer in hand, Atwater suites pick up the slack for social houses often bogged down in administrative procedure, the closed door party has become preferable to large events. These issues are not without substance and while it may seem petty to advocate for a better “social life” of all things, we do have a vested interest in all aspects of our experience. The question at hand is whether our current predicament is a function of the College or us?
The cop-out answer is a little bit of both. To be fair, I have had a Public Safety officer mark me down for not having bags of chips accessible enough to a party. But I have also had a string of drunk individuals attempt to fight me for not allowing them into said party. So yes, neither side looks particularly good. However, there needs to be some give and take. In our heart of hearts I think we could all admit that liquor tends to do more harm than good. However, if a policy like Dartmouth’s is to be effective there needs to be reciprocity of some kind. In the perfect world this would be a leniency towards alcoholic beverages under 15 percent.
Despite its good intentions the Dartmouth policy is doomed to fail for largely the same reasons. Yes, ban liquor, liquor is bad, liquor leads to bad things. Can something be given in return though? A little discretion? Some better laws? If not, threats of punishment ring hollow. A liquor ban looks good on paper but it would only serve as a Band-Aid for issues that occur when students, a college, and alcohol intersect. Enacting policies that provoke fear of punishment will only push dangerous behavior behind closed doors. We could take a lesson from this in examining our own policies. Is it worth looking good on paper if it means pulling the blinds and locking the door to take a shot?
(02/11/15 11:29pm)
I am Jake Nidenberg, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y. and a junior here at Middlebury College. I am a declared Mathematics and Economics double major and a member of the Men’s Varsity Basketball team. I am writing in response to “It’s Actually Just a Game,” the Notes from the Desk by Hannah Bristol ’14.5 and Isaac Baker ’14.5 that appeared in the Campus on Jan. 22.
I am here to offer an alternative view and, hopefully, cast some light on just how “privileged” we are as athletes. To compare our experiences as DIII athletes at an undersized college in New England to the NFL, or even to a large DI athletic powerhouse like Florida State, is comparing apples and oranges. I want to paint an accurate picture for the both of you and anyone else interested in what it feels like to be treated as “superiors” and to benefit from the funding you have so much to say about.
Just as you mentioned in your Op-Ed, the divide between ‘NARPs’ and athletes is indeed apparent from day one at orientation. Did having a sports team give me a leg up in finding a friend group early on? Yes. Were there times when I was nervous and unsure of solidifying not only the ‘right’ friends but true friends at all? Also, yes. Building friendships is often simply a product of bonding over similar interests. Just because my interest was basketball and I was able to find others equally as interested and dedicated to the sport so early on makes me fortunate but should not be held against me. Clubs and groups offer the same opportunity to meet people.
You say we rarely prove our worth. I feel as though I have “proven my worth” in the 14 years of serious commitment to playing basketball preceding my time at Middlebury. It takes a certain amount of exposure, talent, hard work, and luck, to get recruited over the vast sea of others so desperate to play in college. Middlebury has only so much money and can allocate it in only so many places if it wishes to have successful sports programs. Those who had an undying passion for, like you said, Fly Fishing or Crew or any other extracurricular should have put more consideration into what they wanted out of their college experience and maybe picked a place better suited to their interests and desires.
Moving on to our “bloated budget”: Yes, our budget covers Pepin Gymnasium, which is completely open to the public aside from the two hours a day we are practicing. Yes, it covers our locker room; which, by the way, we share with both the soccer and baseball teams. Yes, it covers travel (sometimes in buses or vans which are comically too small to fit my 6 foot 7 inch, 240 pound frame). Also, please tell me if $25 to feed myself for road trips spanning Friday through Sunday or if $100 to feed myself for the mandatory two weeks while I am at Middlebury during the holidays with no dining services seems “bloated” to you. The athletic “gear” you might see us wear around campus is created and purchased by yours truly with not even a discount provided for by the school. Lastly, yes, it covers coaching but not for two of the four on our staff who are simply volunteers. Head Coach Jeff Brown is one of the most respected and successful basketball coaches in the nation over the past decade. Having graduated 100 percent of his players in his 17 years of coaching at Middlebury, Coach Brown’s “pull” proves to be consistent with the College’s admissions standards.
Your second point left me nearly speechless. I would love to hear some elaboration on how we are “disproportionately valorized.” As active writers for the school newspaper, I would imagine you understand the implications of word choice and must have considered the weight of those two words before publishing the Op-Ed. So, please, I would love to hear some evidence in support of your claim as the rest of your piece does not seem to back it up.
The only person who can say “you can reap these benefits without dedicating most of your time” is someone who has clearly never experienced something comparable. You are under an impression that games and practices are given priority over class as something beneficial for us. Quite the contrary. We have less time to put toward our studies and as a result we must work harder to achieve our academic goals. We are faced with a massive disadvantage whether we have been given our professors’ blessing or not. Just because these professors understand doesn’t mean they bend the rules on our behalf; assignments are due on time and accommodations are rarely made. Any sort of accommodation I have experienced would have been extended to any non-athlete with a similar work ethic and conflict.
The point at which I picked up my pen and paper and began writing a response to your Op-Ed was when I read, “Some students start businesses, or volunteer or learn other valuable lessons that are honestly more applicable to the job market than the ability to chase a ball.” In your proceeding sentences, you act as though you are acting on our behalf. Anyone who sums up my now 16-year career playing basketball as time spent “chasing a ball” certainly doesn’t respect what we do or have any concern of our well-being as student-athletes. So, thanks for looking out for us. Thanks for begging for reform so that we can be freed from the shackles of playing the sport we love for just two hours a day...but no thanks. If your concern is discrepancies in funding, make your concern funding, but do not make efforts to ‘fix’ a situation you seem to know absolutely nothing about.
As for admissions: my captain freshman year was a thousand point scorer, graduated with the most wins that a Middlebury player has ever had, had the highest GPA on the team and last, but certainly not least, was an un-recruited, ‘walk-on’ to the team. There is a walk-on on our team currently, Liam Naughton, who happened to post a Facebook status which first drew my attention. As for those recruited, they still have to exhibit academic proficiency to get into a school like Middlebury.
The NCAA characterizes DIII athletes as follows: “Participants are integrated on campus and treated like all other members of the student body, keeping them focused on being a student first.” If you feel as though your sport or club should be recognized by a national organization, then you should make an effort to get it sanctioned and accredited, and maybe that will help convince Middlebury to grant you the budgets I am sure you are in need of and deserve. Most of the funding you believe we get through Middlebury is actually provided through alumni donations, which are not a “cop-out” but rather the reality. And further, many of these enormous donations are used towards facilities completely open to the general student body.
Though the world beyond the walls of Middlebury may be different, I find that here is exactly the place where the kid who loves chemistry is celebrated in the same way as the kid who loves hockey. In my opinion, you are misinformed about the “premium” we receive as athletes in both monetary aspects and elsewhere. You took a potentially interesting topic of debate—Middlebury’s allocation of financial resources or maybe a social dichotomy—as an opportunity to smear inaccurately and inconsiderately in black and white what sounds like your bitter distaste for sports. If only you had kept your concerns and comments to (what I hope was) the real focus of your Op-Ed, I would have gladly considered your position and possibly joined in support.
A version of this op-ed first appeared on middleburycampus.com on Jan. 24, 2015.
(02/11/15 11:09pm)
Not long ago, Middlebury was one of the most expensive schools in the United States. We charged a higher comprehensive fee than any of our peers and, as a result, began to accrue a reputation of extreme wealth and financial exclusivity. Then, in 2009 the school adopted its CPI+1 policy. The program has restricted tuition increases over recent years to only one percent higher than inflation and has achieved significant success. However, President Liebowitz wrote in an email over break that the administration has recommended to the Board of Trustees to abandon our CPI+1 policy in order to significantly increase tuition, citing increasing faculty salaries and pressure from new federal compliance programs as the predominant additional costs that the College struggles to meet. The sight of a rising price tag is never appealing. As a result we as a board would like to highlight how we should not abandon CPI+1, or other measures intended to control costs, without a great deal of thought.
At the time of the program’s introduction, Middlebury College was the most expensive out of 21 of our peer schools. Now it sits in the eighteenth spot in terms of absolute cost. In other words, we are significantly less expensive than almost all comparable schools, demonstrating that the College has succeeded in both reining in the seemingly runaway increases in tuition price and, more importantly, in making affordability a priority. The effect of this effort can be seen in a gradual expansion of students on financial aid over the years and culminates in the class of 2018, of which an historic 48 percent receive some form of financial aid. We expect neither this progress to be undone nor this trend to change, provided that the College considers the following factors.
Given that the brunt of these increases will be borne by families who pay full tuition, the College ought to be mindful of those students stuck in the financial limbo of not being well-off enough to afford full tuition while still not qualifying for the school’s financial aid packages. The contrast between paying for something and not being able to afford it is perhaps most stark to families who are forced to pinch pennies and take risky loans to finance each semester of their children’s Middlebury education. Increasing tuition at a significantly higher rate will force more families into this precarious position and make it harder on those who are already there. The College will need to expand its financial aid to match this widening divide and ensure that they are not exacerbating an already crushing financial burden.
The College should also be wary that we will likely surpass the $60,000 mark. Even if it is only a nominal change for those who otherwise receive aid, we need to consider how potential applicants will see us and react to the sticker price. Many students, particularly first generation and those that do not come from academic families, are not familiar with Middlebury’s financial aid resources and immediately write off the school for its price tag. The College should prioritize marketing its financial aid programs to middle- and low-income applicants so that the rise in tuition does not cause an unintentional deterrence from the school.
Nevertheless, we understand that same increase in tuition could potentially increase accessibility to the College, especially considering President Liebowitz’s assurance that students on financial aid would remain unaffected. We understand the higher education is a tricky business and that a rise in tuition could provide the College with many benefits and opportunities. We also understand that money can be lost in administrative bloat and unnecessary regulations and expenses. What we want, therefore, is transparency. The College needs to tell us where this money is going and why. If it is paying for students on financial aid, we want to know that. If the financial aid budget will remain unchanged and it is going to faculty salaries, we want to know that, too. It should be the college’s responsibility to tell us exactly what their reasons for raising tuition are and how they plan to determine future years’ tuitions. As we said in our last editorial on tuition, this degree of transparency should be a given when the college decides to change its financial policies.
Finally, there is no reason why the College should buy into the collective higher education “arms race” and resign itself to the inexorable rise in tuition. We call on Old Chapel, and particularly incoming College President Laurie L. Patton, to take on this challenge in the months and years ahead. Are there opportunities to cut costs where needed and to fight administrative bloat? And can the College rely on the revenue from the language sources, schools abroad and any prospective online learning ventures to give families caught in the middle a reprieve?
President Liebowitz’s promise that the price spike will not affect students on aid appears to be a good start to a people-oriented approach to what may be an inevitable rise in tuition. In the absence of CPI+1 as a measure to control the comprehensive fee, the College needs to ensure that the change will make the college more accessible, and they need to convince us, the students, that that is what they are doing. Old Chapel could do this by showing us a projection of what the school will look like if tuition stays the same, if it rises by a certain amount, or if it fell by that amount. Transparency and a people-oriented approach will be necessary to make this price change work to improve our school.
(02/11/15 9:38pm)
Imagine going online and with just clicks having access to the status of all the laundry machines at the College. No dragging your gargantuan laundry bag down snowy paths only to discover the machine you wanted is full. No waiting hours for a machine to open up. No forgoing laundry for weeks because every machine you try seems to be broken.
This is the Middlebury that Sophomore Senator Karina Toy ’17 envisions. Toy has been working since January 2015 to create legislature implementing LaundryView, a new technology that would allow students to check the status of the College’s laundry machines remotely. With a site similar to Papercut, Toy describes, students could log on and instantly view whether laundry machines in any building are “Available,” “In Use,” “Idle” (stopped but have not been emptied) or “Unavailable.”
In the SGA’s 2015 Middlebury Student Life Survey, 71.77 percent of students who participated in the survey voted “Yes” in approval of the LaundryView system whereas only 33.8 percent of students said they were satisfied with laundry services as they currently are.
Toy explains the appeal of LaundryView: “I am a person who plans my day down to the T. So being able to plan when is best to do my laundry, showing up and having a machine available, or to know that there is a machine available before I even leave is a great thing.”
Toy says the system would also allow the school to monitor laundry machine use, collecting data that would allow them to decide where best to put future machines. This data could help the College please the 39.01 percent of respondents who complain that there are not enough machines near where they live, according to the SGA’s survey.
Additionally, through the system, Facilities Services would be able to be notified when machine are broken or malfunctioning, permitting them to address problems more quickly; currently, Facilities relies on students or custodians reporting broken machines to get their information. 32.55 percent of students who responded to the SGA survey said there were not enough functioning machines at the College.
LaundryView is already in use at many of the College’s peer institutions including Williams, Bowdoin, Trinity, Tufts and Wesleyan. Its use was suggested in SGA meetings in 2012 by former SGA President Charlie Arnowitz ’13 but was shifted to the backburner at the time because of other more pressing budget issues.
Of the fifteen buildings on campus with laundry facilities for students, Toy proposes LaundryView be implemented in ten: Atwater, Coffrin, Forest, Gifford, Hadley, Hepburn, Kelly, LaForce, Painter and Stewart. The proposal excludes facilities in social houses for the time being because, according to Toy, they are less in demand and easier for students to check the availability in the traditional way than the other, larger student residences.
The hurdle standing between Toy and the approval of LaundryView is funding. LaundryView is a system produced by Mac-Gray, the College’s current laundry machine provider, but would require the addition of Ethernet in the laundry rooms. Assistant Treasurer Tom Corbin, who has been working in conjunction with Toy on this project, estimates that the installation cost of LaundryView would be 6,000 to 7,000 dollars in addition to the cost of putting Ethernet capacities in every laundry room. Furthermore, according to Toy, the annual costs of LaundryView would be $2.75 per machine per month. This means that funding LaundryView could cost upwards of $11,000 in the first year alone.
The SGA believes these costs should be paid for by the administration not by the Student Activities Fee, the money the SGA has available to spend, because, in the words of SGA Chief of Staff Danny Zhang ’15, LaundryView is an “infrastructure-related cost.”
Corbin, however, takes the opposite opinion, affirming that funding should come from the SGA because “LaundryView is a convenience item for students.” To address student dissatisfaction with laundry services, Corbin’s office and the College’s Residential Life team has already added several additional laundry around campus in the past five years to address student complaints that laundry facilities were too far from their living spaces.
This question over the funding of LaundryView situates itself in the larger context of the debate about where the administration’s funding should begin and where should the SGA be responsible, a debate that Zhang says is constant. Still, Zhang is hopeful that the shared desire for efficiency on behalf of students and the College will push LaundryView and other similar technological improvements into approval.
“We’re always looking to do things more efficiently on this campus and members of the SGA [are] not the only people who are looking for that. […] [LaundryView] is part of a larger trend. We want to make use of technology if it is beneficial to students and the survey shows that LaundryView would be beneficial to students.”
If approved this spring, LaundryView could be available to students as early as Fall 2015.
(01/24/15 8:14pm)
I am Jake Nidenberg, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y. and a junior here at Middlebury College. I am a declared Mathematics and Economics double major and a member of the Men’s Varsity Basketball team. I am writing in response to “It’s Actually Just a Game,” the Notes from the Desk by Hannah Bristol ’14.5 and Isaac Baker ’14.5 that appeared in the Campus on Jan. 22. In case you may think I fall into some sort of stereotype of yours, I would also like to inform you that I am currently taking Black & White photography for J-term, I am a class shy of a minor in Classics, and enjoy exploring the nature surrounding this wonderful town and state as much as the next Midd kid. There are few aspects of this small liberal arts college in Vermont that I have not taken full advantage of. That is who I am and that is the point of view from which this opinion is created in my first ever submission to a school newspaper.
Just as you mentioned in your Op-Ed, the divide between ‘NARPs’ and athletes is indeed apparent from day one at orientation. However, here is my first clarification: I went through orientation and I was able to fully commit to both my preseason ‘captain’s practice’ for basketball as well as all orientation events and activities. If there were instances where kids were not able to fully commit, it was specific to that individual’s own priorities and capabilities. Did having a sports team give me a leg up in finding a friend group early on? Yes. Were there times when I was nervous and unsure of solidifying not only the ‘right’ friends but friends at all outside the two kids in the class of 2016 that went to high school with me? Also, yes. Building friendships is often simply a product of bonding over similar interests; just because my interest was basketball and I was able to find others equally as interested and dedicated to the sport so early on makes me fortunate but should not be held against me. As you said, clubs of many kinds exist and serve the similar purpose of bringing together people of similar interests. Just because there might be a slight time delay in terms of access to these groups when compared with a varsity team does not make the two unequal.
I am here to cast some light on just how “privileged” we are as athletes. To compare our experiences as DIII athletes at an undersized college in New England to the NFL, or even to a large DI athletic powerhouse like Florida State, is comparing apples and oranges. Your first point about the allocation of financial resources is an area where I am poorly educated and a topic your piece may be able to reasonably draw attention to. But again, I will respond to the things you have said and also paint an accurate picture for both of you and anyone else interested in what it feels like to be treated like “superiors” and to benefit from the funding you have so much to say about.
You say we rarely prove our worth. I feel as though I have “proven my worth” in the 14 years of serious commitment to playing basketball preceding my time at Middlebury. A high school athlete must have had enough exposure and perceived talent to get recruited to come here amongst the vast sea of others so desperate to play in college. In contrast, though I am sure of some exceptions, I know of dozens Rugby and Crew members (I choose these two sports to mirror your examples) who began their career playing the sport here at Middlebury—what have they done to deserve funding? There is a reason some extracurriculars are funded as varsity programs and others are not. Middlebury has only so much money and can allocate it in only so many places if it wishes to have successful programs in nationally competitive sports. Those who had an undying passion for, like you said, Fly Fishing or Crew or any other extracurricular at which they have spent somewhere around 80% of their lives pursuing should have put more consideration into what they wanted out of their college experience and maybe picked a place better suited to their interests and desires. I made a calculated decision to come to Middlebury and the deciding factor was my decision to play basketball at a nationally competitive level. Middlebury was a place to pursue that level of competition, both on and off the court. If you disagree with Midd’s financial allocation, I think you should have spent more time interviewing someone who deals with such matters before publishing an Op-Ed with baseless facts.
Moving on to our “bloated budget:” Yes, our budget covers Pepin Gymnasium, which is completely open to the public aside from the two hours a day we are practicing. Yes, it covers our locker room; which, by the way, we share with both the soccer and baseball teams. We get let in to our locker after our season has already begun once soccer is finished and get kicked out of it early because the baseball season is starting up, right around the time we are competing in the NESCAC playoffs (and hopefully the NCAA tournament). Yes, it covers travel (sometimes in buses or vans which are comically too small to fit my 6 foot 7 inch, 240 pound frame); also, please tell me if $25 to feed myself for all but one or two provided meals for road trips spanning Friday through Sunday or if $100 to feed myself for the mandatory two weeks while I am at Middlebury during the holidays with no dining services seems “bloated” to you. If it weren’t for our parents’ dedication to (and financial subsidization of) us as passionate, young student-athletes we would not eat on road trips. By the way, the athletic “gear” you might see us wear around campus is created and purchased by yours truly with not even a discount provided for by the school. Lastly, yes, it covers coaching but not for two of the four on our staff who are simply volunteers. Head Coach Jeff Brown is one of the most respected and successful basketball coaches in the nation over the past decade. Having graduated 100% of his players in his 17 years of coaching at Middlebury, Coach Brown’s “pull” proves to be consistent with the College’s admissions standards.
Your second point left me nearly speechless. I would love to hear some elaboration on how we are “disproportionately valorized.” As active writers for the school newspaper, I would imagine you understand the implications of word choice and must have considered the weight of those two words before publishing the Op-Ed. So, please, I would love to hear some evidence in support of your claim as the rest of your piece does not seem to back it up.
The other half of your second point is about our tremendous time commitment. The only person who can say “you can reap these benefits without dedicating most of your time” is someone who has clearly never experienced something comparable. You are under an impression that games and practices are given priority over class as something beneficial for us. Quite the contrary. We have less time to put toward our studies and as a result we must work harder to achieve our academic goals. Given the time commitment you just can’t seem to wrap your head around, we have less time to study and may actually miss class which puts us at a massive disadvantage whether we have been given our professors’ blessing or not. Just because these professors are understanding doesn’t mean they are bending the rules on our behalf, but rather speaks to their compassion as humans. In other words, with or without approval, assignments are due on time and accommodations are rarely made. In my experience, the only accommodations that have been made for me as an athlete are because I am a hard-working, committed student dealing with a professor nice enough to hear me out. I believe such accommodations would have been extended to any non-athlete with a similar work ethic and conflict. There have been plenty of instances where I am dealing with teachers and people like the both of you who have no empathy for my situation, which is a type of adversity I must deal with in my pursuit of DIII athletics.
The point at which I picked up my pen and paper and began writing a response to your Op-Ed was when I read, “Some students start businesses, or volunteer or learn other valuable lessons that are honestly more applicable to the job market than the ability to chase a ball.” In your following sentences, you switch gears and begin to act like you are writing on our behalf, but that is not going to fool me. Anyone who sums up my now 16-year career playing basketball as time spent “chasing a ball” certainly doesn’t respect what we do or have any concern of our well-being as student-athletes. So, thanks for looking out for us. Thanks for begging for reform so that we can be freed from the shackles of playing the sport we love for just two hours a day...but no thanks. If your concern is discrepancies in funding, make your concern funding, but do not make efforts to ‘fix’ a situation you seem to know absolutely nothing about.
As for admissions, though this surely applies to every varsity team, I will speak about the team that I am a part of. My captain freshman year was a thousand point scorer, graduated with the most wins that a Middlebury player has ever had in the school’s history, had the highest GPA on the team and last, but certainly not least, was an un-recruited, walk-on to the team. There is a walk-on on our team currently, Liam Naughton, who happened to post a Facebook status with a link to your Op-Ed which first drew my attention. As for those recruited, they still have to exhibit academic proficiency to get into a school like Middlebury. Many of us are just as adorned—if not more—than many of our non-varsity classmates from an academic standpoint.
Our varsity sports at Middlebury are sanctioned by the NCAA. The NCAA characterizes DIII athletes as follows: “Participants are integrated on campus and treated like all other members of the student body, keeping them focused on being a student first.” If you feel as though your sport or club should be recognized by a national organization, then you should make an effort to get it recognized and accredited, and maybe that will help convince Middlebury to grant you the budgets I am sure you are in need of and deserve. Offer publicly held events that viewers can and will show up to for their own entertainment, get a team of voluntary Film and Media Culture majors to make an eight-part documentary on your program and its history, demonstrate success on a national platform six years in a row, offer community service as a group or team: I would imagine these are types of things that help draw attention to the programs and get them funding. Further, most of the funding you believe we get through Middlebury is actually provided through alumni donations, which are not a “cop-out” but rather the reality. Many of the enormous donations given to this school by alumni who played a sport during their time at Middlebury are used towards facilities completely open to the general student body.
Though the world beyond the walls of Middlebury may be different, I find that here is exactly the place where the kid who loves chemistry is certainly celebrated in the same way as the kid who loves hockey (I will disregard your use of hockey as it is Vermont’s favorite sport and attracts more local attention than all other varsity sports combined). In my opinion, you are misinformed about the “premium” we receive as athletes in both monetary aspects and elsewhere. You took a potentially interesting topic of debate—Middlebury’s allocation of financial resources or maybe a social dichotomy—as an opportunity to smear inaccurately and inconsiderately in black and white what sounds like your bitter distaste for sports. If only you had kept your concerns and comments to (what I hope was) the real focus of your Op-Ed, I would have gladly considered your position and possibly joined in support for all students’ benefit.
Jake Nidenberg '16 is from Brooklyn, N.Y
(01/22/15 1:25am)
When one spends 100 bucks on a bikini wax over break, it is important to make the feeling of a thousand fires being ignited on your “coochie” worth it. (“Is this what death feels like?”- Maddie Webb). One may assume that a bikini wax is part of the school-wide mission to secure that J-term cuddle buddy YikYak has told us all about. But let’s be real. That dream is too good to be true. The laziness of J-term only becomes exponentially greater as time goes on. Being hygienic and peppy enough to confront sunlight and let alone, people, is REALLY REALLY HARD, WE KNOW. So naturally, we chose aquajogging; an activity that involved swimsuits so we could show off our otherwise-pointless waxes (if it isn’t clear, we are single and ready to mingle). It should be noted, however, that the Cliteracy workshop came in at a close second. Professor Juana Gamero de Coca, also known as Izzy’s mom, always reiterates that it’s important “to know your body.”
It came time to head over to the athletic center, and Maddie still didn’t understand that her barely-there Victoria Secret’s bikini has a time and place to be worn – not in January, not in Vermont and not in Middlebury’s athletic natatorium. Izzy learned her lesson from her recent log rolling NARP adventure and borrowed a racing suit from a member of the swim team to avoid nip slips. HOW WRONG SHE WAS. When submerged under water, the swimsuit became remarkably transparent. Combined with the cold water, well, you get the picture.
The instructions were simple once we arrived at the deep end. Step 1: Securely buckle into the provided aquajogging buoyancy belt. Step 2: Get in water. Step 3: Jog. Before we knew it, we pushed off the wall and embarked on our first lap. The best comparison we could come up with to explain the sensation of running in water is when you are in a nightmare and trying to run away but you end up staying in place. After thirty minutes of endless questions ranging from “If I pee in the pool, will they know?” to “Are we allowed to use the hot tub for the diving team after this is over?” to “Is this how astronauts train to walk on the moon?” Izzy had an epiphany. In the middle of discussing the new presidential candidates (lol, as if we are intellectual enough to hold that conversation), she exclaimed, “Maddie, I can feel it, I’ve finally got it, I’m aquajogging.” Ten minutes later, Maddie pretended to have the same epiphany. Together, they flew through the water – Izzy in good form, Maddie subtly doggy-paddling to keep up. Eventually establishing a PR (personal record) of a solid 2 minutes to cross the length of the pool, I think it’s safe to say you can call us Michael Phelps Missy Franklin! Girl Power!
PSA: Just to be clear, our PR definitely suffered from our refusal to shave our legs in the winter months (speaking for all girls here). Sorry boys, but once the shorts are put away, there isn’t a strong enough reason for us to accidentally touch the shower walls while attempting to shave. With stronger aerodynamics (is that even an applicable word if we are in water? aquadynamics?) we think we could’ve had a more impressive PR.
After the hour-long session ended, we decided to take things to the next level, and attempt to aquajog like true athletes – without the floatie belt. It only took ten seconds for the water to go over our mouths. It was at that moment that Maddie sneezed, inadvertently inhaled water and started to choke. Lesson of the day? Never be too confident, people! Apparently, we didn’t look too amateur because we got invited to practice with the swim team! Yes, it may have been the elementary school swim team. And yes, we would have been the oldest ones there by 10 years. I know this is starting to sound more insulting than complimentary, but we felt really good about it.
We know that J-term is all about wearing pajama sets, drinking wine, getting through all of the Oscar-nominated movies, and planning for spring break, but it is also the least busy time of the year for most. Even if it’s only for an hour per week, try something new because you may find something you like. If you hate it, just know that watching Netflix in bed is a workshop in our books.
(01/22/15 1:23am)
I’ve been in Madrid, Spain for the past week, beginning my semester of study abroad at the Middlebury School in Spain. Though Madrid has been amazing thus far, there are times of homesickness, stress, exhaustion and culture shock.
Though these experiences are normal and common amongst those who study abroad, they are often glossed over when recounting experiences abroad. Though it is usually good to focus on the positive parts of study abroad, it’s also useful to be realistic and prepared for the some of the low points.
Being abroad is not going to be 100 per cent comfortable all the time. It can be frustrating and hard to adapt to a new culture and new language. These difficulties can have an impact on mental health and wellness, which makes it of paramount importance to be prepared mentally to study abroad.
If you struggle with mental health, there are many useful steps to take prior to going abroad that can ease the transition and reduce chances of serious problems arising. With a little preparation, studying abroad with a mental health condition is certainly possible and may even help you manage your condition.
If you take medication, it’s important to have a plan for how to access medication while abroad. In some cases, doctors can prescribe enough medication in the United States to last your entire time abroad, but you should still get educated on how to properly carry medications while travelling internationally (check out the State Department’s website for useful information on traveling with medication: http://travel.state.gov/content/studentsabroad/en/health/prescriptions.html).
Those going abroad for longer periods may need to get prescriptions filled while abroad. Working with your psychiatrist or doctor and the staff in the study abroad office can help sort out prescription issues prior to going abroad – make sure you know the names (including generics) and dosage of your prescriptions, and, if you’re going to a country that operates in another language, learn the vocabulary words for your condition and medication. Make sure your doctor knows you’re going abroad and discuss possible challenges beforehand.
Doing research online and talking to the counseling center about mental health resources in various cities can be a great start to a healthy semester abroad. Some larger cities will have mental health resources in English – for example, Madrid has a variety of psychiatrists and psychologists who operate in English. Smaller cities or less-developed countries may have limited resources or no resources in English.
If weekly therapy is a part of managing your condition, it may be wise to choose a study abroad site with mental health resources available. You can also talk to your psychiatrist or psychologist about the possibility of Skype sessions or strategies for self-management while abroad.
Another factor is international insurance and mental health. In Madrid, for example, we received a list during orientation of health and mental health resources that accept HTH Worldwide Insurance, the standard Middlebury Schools Abroad insurance. You may want to check in advance whether the place you plan on studying has mental health resources that accept this insurance, and if not, plan accordingly.
Take time to consider how housing options, university options and program size will affect your time abroad and impact management of mental health issues. It may be that a smaller program with more individualized attention and housing with other students you already know may be a better fit for you. If you feel comfortable, you can discuss mental health resources abroad with the study abroad office or students who have studied abroad before. This may give you a better idea of what to expect and how to approach any issues that arise while abroad.
It’s important to have realistic expectations. Studying abroad can be overwhelming. Don’t expect everything to go perfectly, but don’t expect to be miserable all the time (that’s a sign that something may be wrong). Reading other student’s blogs can help prepare you for possible cultural differences and give you an idea of the typical range of reactions to studying abroad.
Once abroad, it’s important to maintain contact with others – don’t isolate yourself just because you feel overwhelmed and out of place. Chances are other students feel the same way.
Do your best to make connections to people in the host country and explore your surroundings, but don’t feel bad if you need time to indulge in American comforts, like favorite TV shows or peanut butter.
Finding ways to get outside of your apartment or house to get some exercise and stimulation is vital.
Researching beforehand can help make it easier to find your favorite activities abroad – in large cities, there are likely to be sports teams and gyms you can join, dance classes to take and free walking tours of the city.
Make a list beforehand of things you’d like to do and see in the place you’re going; pre-made lists can provide extra motivation to get out of the house and experience the culture of an unfamiliar place.
Journaling can be helpful to reflect on your experiences abroad and your feelings toward various aspects of the semester or year.
This sort of reflection may help you identify healthy and unhealthy patterns of coping in a new setting and can better prepare you for future mental health issues that might arise.
Keeping in contact with those at home is important but can become a problem as well: make sure you aren’t spending too much time in contact with those back home, even at the beginning. This can lead to more extreme homesickness and dependence and can start an unhealthy pattern for the rest of the semester.
Nutrition, adequate sleep and moderation in use of alcohol and drugs are important as well. Make sure to eat enough and eat well; branch out and try new foods, but don’t use that as an excuse to eat unhealthily (e.g. do not go to France and eat only croissants and Nutella).
It can be hard to get adequate amounts of sleep while abroad, especially with the different eating and sleeping schedules of many cultures. Putting in the extra effort to get enough sleep can have a huge impact on how you handle being abroad; fatigue combined with the unfamiliarity of a different culture can make small problems seem like crises.
Alcohol and drugs can also make small problems more severe. Though being abroad is a great time to try wine in Italy and beer in Germany, moderation and control are important, especially at first, when you may not know the layout of the place you’re studying, sketchy areas and how to avoid being mugged, or who to contact in emergency situations.
It is important to be realistic in your expectations for how you’ll feel abroad. It’s normal to feel sad, frustrated and angry while abroad, perhaps even more frequently than at home.
A new culture can be challenging to adapt to. That said, it is not typical to be sad, depressed or miserable all the time. If you’re having trouble getting out of bed every day or find yourself crying all the time, you should talk to someone and find out what resources are available to get help.
If you’re in a place with limited resources, there is lots of helpful information online for ways to cope with feelings of depression, anxiety and more while abroad.
Many universities have guides for mental health condition management while abroad; one example is Northwestern University’s “Mental Health Abroad” (found here: http://www.northwestern.edu/studyabroad/guide/health-and-safety/health/mental-health-abroad.html).
Studying abroad is an invaluable experience for many students; having a mental health condition does not mean you can’t take part in it. Like physical health issues, mental health conditions require extra consideration when deciding whether to study abroad and extra preparation when getting ready to go abroad; with a little preparation, study abroad can still be a success!
(01/22/15 1:18am)
Early on Tuesday night, when the sun had completely set and the temperature dropping by the minute, the room slowly fills with chattering students. Some sink into beanbags. Others stretch out on one of the many couches in the cozy, lamp-lit space. At first glance, this could just be a get-together of friends about to watch a movie on the pro- jector or the weekly meeting of one of the College numerous clubs. Then Becca Hicks ’15 stands up, smiles and introduces this ses- sion’s topic of conversation.
“We are focusing on female pleasure to- night,” she said.
Clearly this is not just any old gathering.
At 6 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, between twenty and thirty people gather in the Gamut Room to partake in the student-run J-term workshop Cliteracy. Founded by Priscilla Odinmah ’15, Hicks,
Cupcakes decorated with clitoris frosting served at the student-led sex positive workshop.
Stebbins ’14.5’s bread-making process involves more than just dough: it is a craft, a science experiment, a recollection of childhood memories and a basis for friendship.
Cliterary Devices, Rhetorical Phallacy
Jeanette Cortez ’15 and Eriche Sarvay ’15, the program aims to provide a safe space to talk about something considered largely taboo in most cultures today: female sexuality.
“I felt like the conversation was miss- ing at Middlebury,” said Odinmah, explain- ing why she wanted to start Cliteracy, which was inspired by a 12-week long workshop called FemSex at the University of California, Berkeley.
“Occasionally there are cool talks on the subject and they are usually really well- attended, but there’s nothing consistent.” Hicks agrees. “At Middlebury, we’re so good at feeding the mind,” she adds. “But we need to know how to feed the body as well.”
The organizers also cite female empow- erment and discriminatory societal norms as a motive for starting the discussion group.
“Female sexuality is an area in which there is more shame, more taboos and more
compromise than male sexuality or sexuality in general,” says Odinmah.
She further explains that so much of what is talked about in modern culture is about women trying to please their partners, and that girls are taught that sex is something that should be done to them, rather than by them.
The overall goal of the workshop is to cre- ate a safe space for women to discuss subjects that people find uncomfortable or unladylike. In order to do this, the informal sessions con- sist of watching videos, playing ice-breaking games, sharing stories, asking questions and the occasional guest speaker. Each hour-and- a-half meeting focuses dialogue on a different topic. So far the workshop has covered sex myths, anatomy and pleasure and will turn next to periods, followed by language and body language.
Designed as only a J-term workshop, the leaders and participants will use the last meeting to look to the future.
“One of my goals personally is planting a seed,” Odinmah said. “Just hearing the word ‘cliteracy’ roll off the tongue is a big thing for me.” All four of the workshop’s organizers are seniors, but they hope the issue won’t die when they graduate in May.
“The more people know, the more that conversation can be spread,” Hicks said. Hav- ing received strong initial turnout and over- all positive feedback from the mostly-female group of attendees, the leaders want the pro- gram to be expanded in the future.
“My dream is for Cliteracy to exist on the same level as FemSex with a 12-week long syllabus, facilitators and guest speakers,” Odinmah said.
They also express the hope that males on campus would continue to attend.
“The way we envisioned it, it is mainly a female space. But that’s only half the popula- tion,” Hicks said. “Guys refer to a vagina as a sort of fearful black hole, but chances are, you came out of one. Just because you don’t have a clitoris, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t know what it is.”
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My family members have never been “gun people.” Nobody has ever owned one; it is doubtful any of us could tell you how to load one and it is highly unlikely any of us will be buying one in the future. I was always told as a boy that guns were like needles on the street or strangers, that you should never touch one and the only people who carry them are cops, bad guys and the military. You can imagine my surprise when my mother announced one Saturday this summer that she had purchased the family a Groupon for a beginner-shooting lesson at the local gun range.
This had to be the start of some kind of joke. “So the DeFalco family gets a Groupon to the gun range…” I’m not sure what the punch line would be but I was already laughing at the lead-in. A gun range? A Groupon? From my mild-mannered mother? We are city people, my parents grew up in New York and we have spent our lives in other large metropolitan cities like Toronto and Boston. Most city people can tell you that a gun in the city carries a different connotation than a gun in the country. Yet, there we were. The DeFalco family had piled into the car to go cash in our Groupon and go shooting.
I was terrible. The instructor assured me that it’s hard the first time, but after sending three bullets ricocheting off the ceiling he politely took the AK-47 out of my hand and suggested I try the pistol. I spent most of the afternoon watching my family send bullets flying through paper targets while I tried to feel proud about my abysmal accuracy. As funny as the whole production was, I was not particularly interested in the antics of my family. Instead the “regulars” fascinated me. Ordinary looking men and women who calmly entered the range, firearms in sleek looking cases, loaded and prepped their weapons professionally and didn’t think twice about sending entire clips into a target. I still tried to feel proud about my four-for-ten accuracy.
Now, I live in Massachusetts, a state with perhaps the strictest gun regulations. It is not a common thing to run into people who own guns or talk about guns and, more often than not, the whole idea is frowned upon. Here was an entirely new group, who appeared to have a real passion for what they were doing and handled it with a degree of professionalism I had never associated with gun ownership. To be fair, I was a little turned off by how easy it would be for any of these people to take me down at fifty yards, but damn it looked cool.
I later learned that we had all gone on this odd excursion as more than just a charming family activity. I think the Aurora and Newtown tragedies had struck a chord in my parents and they realized that maybe they should know at least something about these metal sticks that kept making the news. It was a curiosity bred out of anxiety. The whole exercise was a way to understand something that was completely foreign, even if nobody in the family was in a rush to do it again. And it did change my perspective. I was unnerved by how easy it was, how simple it was to simply point and shoot, but impressed by the thrill of it. I was no crack shot but to my surprise it was a lot of fun.
So what is the long-winded, long-coming moral of the story? Try new things, even if they directly contradict your beliefs? Well, sure. We do that all the time though, right? (I’m looking at all you people who have yet to fill your distribution requirements.) I went to the gun range and I am still not overly fond of guns. My political views stayed largely the same, but at least now I had the experience of being able to understand what I didn’t like about them. Before the experience, I was only using news clippings and statistics to support my beliefs. It wasn’t until I actually went shooting that I could understand what it was that I didn’t like about it. To be fair, I also learned that while I’m a terrible shot, I also felt like a badass.
So here are my words of wisdom: try even the things you hate. If you’re a communist, take an Econ class, just to make sure you still believe what you belief. If you are a feminist, get a male in your life to try to talk about the experience of being a man. Listening and experiencing new things doesn’t mean you advocate them, but at least you can understand.
