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(03/24/20 3:29am)
While students on Middlebury’s Vermont campus worried last week about when they would next see friends, how to navigate remote coursework and where to go after school shut down, those enrolled in programs abroad were confronting the same worries, but with an added caveat: To make it home, many of them would have to travel halfway across the world amid a rapidly-spreading global pandemic.
Concerns over the Covid-19 virus have led colleges around the world to cancel study-abroad programs, and Middlebury’s own 16 programs have suffered the same fate. The college’s schools in China and Italy closed earlier this spring as the virus spread in those countries. Between March 10 and March 13, all remaining Middlebury schools abroad, from programs in Europe to Latin America, suspended their operations.
The college later put out a call for all students remaining in foreign countries — those in externally-sponsored programs or who had stayed in host countries after their Middlebury programs canceled — to return to the U.S on March 19, the day the State Department issued a Level Four Global Travel Advisory.
The result was several days of chaos and uncertainty for roughly 250 Middlebury students whose study abroad experiences had forcibly come to an end, as they sought to find their way home amid quickly-implemented travel bans and emerging facts about a mostly-unknown virus.
“‘Chaotic’ is the best way to describe it,” said Porter Bowman ’21.5, who was studying in Stockholm, Sweden through an independent program canceled on March 11.
Communication breakdowns
Students reported that occasionally poor communication from program coordinators, combined with rumors and bewildering information bites from national news sources, increased the stress of navigating cancellation of their programs and journeys home.
Kenzo Okazaki ’21 was enrolled in Middlebury’s CMRS program in Oxford, England, which was suspended on March 10. Students in his program became confused that morning, Okazaki said, after some of them received screenshots of the March 10 email in which Professor Héctor Vila leaked that the college would send students home from its Vermont campus later that week. Several nervous hours passed between when students first read Vila’s email and when they finally learned the fate of their own program from coordinators.
“I think everyone was frustrated that there wasn’t much of a heads up that our program might be shut down, so that at least people could start thinking about leaving more than six days in advance,” Okazaki said.
Abroad program coordinators have had to work “around the clock” to give direction to the movements of hundreds of students in programs across many time zones, according to Dean of International Programs Carlos Vélez. Vélez said the study abroad office made “every effort” to make decisions and update students on their programs’ status as quickly as possible, but that in any given country, information about travel advisories and restrictions “would change without warning, both from U.S. and local agencies.”
“One of the biggest challenges has been the relentless pace at which things have changed during this crisis,” he said.
Sometimes, lack of transparency from parties beyond students’ host institutions — like the president of the United States — caused problems. For students enrolled with Bowman in the DIS (Study Abroad in Scandinavia) Stockholm program, the hours between President Trump’s March 11 press conference, which aired at 2 a.m. Stockholm time on March 12, and the program’s official cancellation three hours later were “chaos.”
During that press conference, Trump announced he was banning all non-essential travel to and from Europe effective that Friday, failing to mention that U.S. citizens would still be able to travel freely. After the conference, assuming they would be unable to get back into the U.S., the Americans in Bowman’s program frantically rushed to make travel plans even without receiving confirmation that their program had ended.
“It was crazy,” Bowman said. “Flights were going like concert tickets.”
In an open letter written by Helene Gusman ’21 (who studied in Yaroslavl, Russia) and Megan Salmon ’21 (Santiago, Chile) and circulated the week of March 9, students in programs abroad called on the administration to provide clarity on their situations. They had never received President Laurie Patton’s email outlining the Vermont campus’s plan to shut down, according to the letter, and had to wait hours and sometimes days before receiving clarity on the status of specific schools abroad.
Vélez later clarified that messages sent to the “all student” mailbox are typically sent to students in abroad programs, but that a technical issue prevented the delivery of some such messages that week.
Gusman and Salmon’s letter received signatures from 40 students around the world; however, its writers ultimately chose not to send it to the administration after Trump announced his travel ban and abroad programs began to provide more information to students.
Trump’s travel ban caused panic for students across Europe. Gretchen Doyle ’21.5, who was studying in Middlebury’s program in Madrid, Spain, said she received a call from a friend at 5 a.m. local time on March 12 alerting her of the travel ban. Like Bowman, she was so concerned that she immediately bought a plane ticket home to New Jersey without waiting for confirmation of her program’s cancellation.
Doyle recognized the challenges posed to abroad program coordinators in uncertain times, but said she was still frustrated by a lack of communication from Middlebury.
“After Trump announced the travel ban and the majority of us had bought tickets to fly home, we didn’t hear anything from our program for a long time,” Doyle said. “I don’t blame anyone for the way things were handled because it was a stressful time for everyone, but I was frustrated.”
As confusing as Trump’s language in his press conference was for students, Vélez said that it was equally disruptive for the study abroad office. Though the press conference made it seem as though the travel ban would apply to all travelers, the study abroad office was not certain this was the case and decided to wait to make announcements until the U.S. State Department released its official proclamation on the travel ban, Vélez said.
“At that point, close to midnight in Vermont, all of our program directors communicated the correct information to all of our students abroad,” Vélez said.
Students worry about academic continuity
Just as students enrolled at Middlebury in Vermont worry about how coursework will continue as the college shifts to remote learning, those in programs abroad are wondering how curricula taught in different languages and across time zones will translate to life at home.
Okazaki’s coursework within the CMRS-Oxford program was largely focused on individual research in Oxford’s libraries, and weekly one-on-one check-ins with professors during which students are given rigorous feedback on written work. That intimate structure will not be easily replicated thousands of miles away from Oxford’s famed libraries, he said.
“The idea was to use Oxford's library and to become familiar with the resources you can get there that you can't get anywhere else in the world,” Okazaki said. “Well, now we are anywhere else in the world without a library.”
Other students, like Lila Sternberg-Sher ’21.5, had not even begun classes at their host universities when their programs shut down. Students in Sternberg-Sher’s Middlebury program in Temuco, Chile — as well as in all other programs in Latin America, where local university classes begin in mid-March — were given the option of receiving full refunds and forgoing academic credit for the semester or taking online classes through Middlebury’s program in Chile (not the public university where they had planned on taking classes).
Sternberg-Sher, a linguistics major, said she was disappointed that she will have to pass up on in-person linguistics research she was planning on doing in Temuco, but still plans to take remote classes from home.
“I’m lucky enough to be set up well within my major that it shouldn’t be a huge issue for me,” she said, adding that the Chile program is well-equipped for remote learning after navigating university shut-downs last fall.
Many students expressed relief that the Pass/D/Fail option would extend to those in abroad programs, like Hailey Kent ’21.5, who is directly enrolled in the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, where classes began in January.
“This did not make for a very academically fulfilling semester, and I am glad that Middlebury is extending its pass/fail policy to students abroad because I feel my grades are not accurate representations of the quality of the work I have completed,” she wrote in an email to The Campus.
Experiential learning
Though the week of March 9 was mostly stressful for students, many said it was eye-opening to see the varied responses of governments and populations of their host countries during one of the more frantic times in recent history.
In Madrid, Doyle and other students were surprised by the lax approach residents seemed to take to the virus in a city that news outlets have reported as a Covid-19 hotspot. They watched Madrid’s metro system, restaurants, cafes and sporting events running like normal, even as they heard from friends in the U.S that worry over the virus was heightening there.
“There were people out in the central park, Retiro, and out at bars until the day I left,” said Lilly Kuhn ’21.5.
Jess Cohen ’21, who was studying at the main public university in Buenos Aires, Argentina through a Middlebury program, observed similarly low concern over Covid-19 at first. Students’ host families, he said, were quick to denounce anxiety over the virus as overblown, and students in the program were similarly unworried. Once the Argentine government began to shut down public spaces on March 13 (the day Middlebury canceled its program there), Cohen said the seriousness of the situation began to sink in.
No matter the reaction of varying countries’ populations, students said worry over the virus significantly impacted the truncated time they had in their host countries.
“I read the news every night before going to bed and right when I woke up, and I usually couldn’t sleep through the night,” Doyle said. “It was difficult to immerse ourselves fully in Spanish culture because we didn’t know how much longer we’d be there, so it wasn’t the study abroad experience I had hoped for, to say the least.”
Some students, disappointed at the prospect of losing a semester of language and cultural immersion, pondered staying in their host countries even after Middlebury had suspended programs or their host universities had closed entirely.
Cohen initially planned to continue living with his host family and taking remote classes after the Middlebury program in Buenos Aires was suspended. By doing so, he thought, he could still obtain the Spanish-immersion experience he had gone to Argentina for in the first place while weathering the storm of Covid-19 in an area that seemed relatively unaffected.
“I felt like all of the students in my program who had decided to leave were surprised that I was going to stay — but they had all wanted to stay,” he said.
In the 24 hours after he made his initial decision, though, as Cohen watched the city shut down, he decided to head back to his home in Colorado. Even Buenos Aires, a part of the world that was largely untouched by the virus at the time of the Middlebury program’s cancellation, was closing bars, soccer stadiums, museums and restaurants — steps that were being replicated around the world to prepare for unknown effects of the rapidly-spreading pandemic.
“Streets that were usually totally full of people and cars were completely dead,” Cohen said. “All the shops other than the grocery stores and a couple of cafes were closed that normally would be full.”
Cohen scrambled to buy a ticket home on Saturday, March 14, and got one of the last flights out of the country before Argentina shut its borders on Sunday.
Okazaki said that, between the Oxford program’s cancellation on Tuesday and his Sunday departure, there wasn’t much time to be preoccupied. When he finally found his seat on a direct flight from Heathrow to Salt Lake City, though, he said a sense of calm washed over him.
“As soon as I got on the plane I realized how relieved I was and how lucky I was to get out of there,” Okazaki said. “I got home and realized that the U.K. was going to start being shut down, and realized how much crisis I had averted.”
Editor’s note: Porter Bowman ’21.5 is a news correspondent for The Campus.
(03/19/20 6:14pm)
In an unprecedented decision meant to address concerns over the global Covid-19 pandemic, the college ordered students to leave campus last Tuesday. While the majority of students were expected to head home, those who wished to remain on campus — because of travel distance to home, high numbers of Covid-19 cases in their hometowns or other reasons — had the option to petition to remain on Middlebury’s campus.
Many who did so, however, were disappointed, as deans tasked with communicating the decisions pushed most applicants to find alternatives. At the same time, most of the students The Campus spoke with expressed understanding of the college’s safety concerns as the number of Covid-19 cases in Vermont increases.
Now, even those who were eventually granted permission to stay face uncertainty about the rest of the semester, as the college contemplates closing its campus to students completely depending on continual reassessments, according to emails sent by deans to students remaining on campus.
From 2,500 to 175
Administrators originally predicted that a few hundred students would be allowed to remain on campus. Ultimately, they permitted roughly 175 students to stay, according to an email sent by President Laurie Patton Saturday night. By Wednesday, March 18, as major U.S. cities instituted lockdowns and the U.S. closed its border with Canada, some students left campus for home; now, fewer than 140 students remain physically on campus, according to Dean of Students Baishakhi Taylor.
Deans were expected to tell students who petitioned to stay whether they could remain on campus for at least three weeks by Friday, March 13, the same day students were originally told to leave campus. The college later moved the departure deadline to Sunday.
The tight turnaround left students who were denied permission — many of whom were confident their situations warranted staying on campus — scrambling to find alternatives. The college advised those who were able to stay with family or friends stateside, which many are now doing, and is offering financial aid to those who need help traveling.
Deans were unable to respond for comment before this story was published. But many of the emails students received from their deans emphasized the importance of getting as many students off-campus as possible due to safety concerns arising from a potential Covid-19 outbreak. The emails encouraged students to exhaust all other potential options before petitioning to stay.
Donovan Compton ’23, a U.S. citizen who calls Italy home, had his petition to remain on campus rejected. With Italy on lockdown, he says returning home to that country’s Veneto region — one of the regions most heavily-affected by Covid-19 in the country — is not an option.
“If I were to actually attempt to go back to Italy … I would most likely not be able to access the country, and in the case I would be let into Italy, my parents wouldn't be able to retrieve me at the airport since the roads are blockaded so as to make driving extremely limited,” he wrote in an email to The Campus.
Compton’s request to stay was denied through a mass email sent to many students in Ross Commons. He said the decision so surprised him that he screamed aloud upon reading the email.
While Compton has family in the states, they are all located in Seattle, another coronavirus epicenter. For now, he is staying with family friends in Massachusetts.
Shahmeer Chaudhary ’21, who is from Dubai, also had his request to stay on campus denied.
“The decision did surprise me,” Chaudhary wrote in an email to The Campus. “I did not feel like I had any room or opportunity to negotiate. In fact, I was told by my dean, ‘You’re welcome to stop by and talk with me about that, but the answer will unfortunately be the same.’ I felt like I was out of options and the administration was unwilling to even hear me out.”
Domestic students also had concerns about leaving campus. Kai Milici ’21 is from Seattle and petitioned to remain on campus. She did not plan to stay there indefinitely, but felt that she needed a few more days beyond the Sunday move-out date to assess whether it would be smarter to return home or to stay with friends on the East Coast.
When Milici’s application was denied she, like many of her peers, reacted with frustration.
“I felt like I was being forced into a potentially dangerous situation,” she said, adding she was stressed by how the required self-quarantine would exacerbate existing feelings of isolation.
But in hindsight, with the possibility of travel restrictions and lockdowns looming in the coming days and weeks, she understands the college’s decision.
Milici has since returned to Seattle, where she said the high degree of social isolation has already resulted in increased stress. She does not expect to be able to leave for “at least a couple of months.” While she hopes to return to the East Coast to participate in summer internship opportunities, she is grappling with the potential that this may no longer be a possibility depending on how the situation progresses.
Tre Stephens ’21 was granted permission to remain on campus. Stephens is from Chicago, Illinois and petitioned to stay due to “extraordinary personal circumstances” regarding his home situation. He explained that he wrote to his dean out of fear, more than anything else.
“I wanted to stress that if I am requested to leave campus, I will literally have no place to go,” Stephens wrote in the email he sent to his dean. “I am honestly scared. Please please please consider letting me stay.”
This past summer, the stove in Stephens’ house exploded, causing a house fire that so completely destroyed the house that his family is currently living with other relatives. Stephens simply does not have a home to return to, he said.
The school initially denied Stephens’ request, instead offering to pay for his travel home. Stephens responded with another plea to stay. In his email, he wrote that he was not able to stay with family and close friends because they said they did not have space for him.
Following this secondary plea, Stephens was granted permission to stay.
Many students allowed to remain on campus have been warned that they may need to return home if the situation does not improve when the college re-evaluates its plan in three weeks.
An email from Assistant Director of Community Standards Elaine Orozco Hammond to multiple students last week insinuated this possibility. “It is possible we will be back in session, or asking people to leave in a few weeks,” it said. “We are taking this one step at a time.”
In that situation, Stephens has no idea what he will do.
“Where will I go? How will I get there? Money? Food? Clean clothing? These are all concerns that rush through my mind,” he said. But Stephens believes that college administrators are doing their best to act in the interests of students.
Other students applied to remain on campus for health concerns. Marisa Edmondson ’20 is from rural Colorado and has severe asthma. This condition compromises her immune system, and makes her particularly vulnerable to Covid-19.
Edmondson’s hometown is a two-hour drive from the nearest hospital, and her health condition posed a serious risk of possible contamination if she tried to fly home, she said. She considered living with friends in Rhode Island indefinitely when the school denied her request, but ultimately decided to road trip home to Colorado, where she will stay in quarantine with her parents.
Jake Guaghan ’22, from Honolulu, Hawaii, was denied permission to remain on campus. In his petition to stay, Guaghan cited the length and difficulty of traveling home and the likelihood that he may be exposed to coronavirus while in airports.
At the time of his petition — last Tuesday — he felt that it would be irresponsible to risk the possibility of bringing coronavirus back to an isolated locale. The denial of permission to remain on campus left Guaghan feeling anxious and scared, but not surprised.
“Throughout my time here, I've realized that American students who don't live in the contiguous 48 are often forgotten by the school,” he said. Students from Hawaii and Alaska face many of the same challenges as international students, he said, but there are no institutional structures to assist these students.
Owen Marsh ’20, from Scarsdale, New York, where there are multiple confirmed cases of Covid-19, has also been denied permission to remain on campus. After a middle school teacher in his town tested positive, many have been placed in quarantine.
Those living in Scarsdale are only leaving their homes when it is absolutely necessary and are constantly maintaining a distance of six feet away from all other people, according to Marsh’s parents. He was surprised, he said, when he received an email alerting him that he would not be able to remain on campus.
“I am lucky enough to have friends who have been willing to house me, but I don't know how long that will last, and I am sure that there are many much less fortunate than me,” Marsh said.
As of now, Marsh plans to move from place to place and avoid returning home. He hopes to be back at Middlebury before May — but at the time, it is unclear whether or not that will happen.
Gaughan’s plans changed constantly throughout the two days following the denial of his request to remain on campus. Ultimately, he has decided to go home. Given the escalating crisis, he is concerned that if he remains in the continental U.S., he would eventually be unable to return home.
During his flight home, another passenger seated in the row in front of Gaughan fell ill. The passenger was quarantined mid-flight and required the assistance of emergency medical services to deplane.
“While no one knows necessarily with what he is afflicted, I couldn’t help but think about how this type of scenario was exactly what I outlined in my petition to stay on campus,” Gaughan wrote in an email to The Campus on Saturday night.
Returning home will also impact the lives of students beyond the possible transmission of Covid-19. Due to the six-hour time difference between Vermont and Hawaii, there is the possibility that Gaughan will need to take his online courses at 2 a.m.
Chaudhary, the student from Dubai, expressed similar concerns. Dubai has a nine-hour time difference from Vermont. He is worried about how this will impact his ability to partake in classes that many professors are planning to conduct in a “video-chat” format.
Chaudhary said he is anxious about the impact returning home could have in the long-term, especially because he is hoping to do an internship in the states this summer.
Jiaqi Li ’22 is from China and, like Stephens, was granted permission to remain on campus. Li was concerned that flying home was not a viable option for her logistically or financially.
“I love Middlebury College dearly and at present, I truly consider this my home, my only home. The news on Tuesday really made me feel as if my world is falling apart, when the support system I rely on is no longer feasible,” she wrote in the email she sent to her dean requesting permission to remain on campus.
If Li’s request to stay had been denied, she felt that the best option would have been to explore housing options in Middlebury, off-campus, with the financial support of the college.
“This is a scary time for all of us. I know many people were sad to leave for multiple reasons, and for some of us leaving has never truly been an option,” Stephens said.
Editor’s note: Jake Gaughan and Owen Marsh are both Opinion editors for The Campus.
(03/13/20 9:00am)
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Last updated March 20, 2:40 p.m.
For updates on the suspension of classes at the Vermont campus, check here.
All remaining students abroad
Middlebury has advised all remaining students studying abroad on externally sponsored programs to return to the U.S. immediately, according to an update from Dean of International Programs Carlos Vélez. This advisory follows the U.S. Department of State’s Global Level 4 Health Advisory announced on March 19 and will impact 108 students. “These decisions never come easily, and we never could have imagined that we would be suspending all of our programs and calling all of our students home from abroad,” the message read.
The State Department has advised all U.S. citizens to avoid international travel and for those currently abroad to arrange for immediate return to the U.S. Many of the universities where Middlebury students were studying this semester have implemented online learning options so students can complete course work remotely.
Read the college's March 20 announcement here.
Schools abroad in Argentina, Brazil, Cameroon, Chile, Uruguay
Programs suspended on March 13 for spring semester
The remaining five Middlebury schools abroad were suspended on Friday, according to an update from Dean of International Programs Carlos Vélez. "Despite the fact that confirmed cases of COVID-19 remain relatively low in your host countries, we are very concerned about the imposition of future travel bans and other restrictions around the globe," the statement said.
Students enrolled in the programs in Latin America will be given the option to withdraw from the program with no academic credit and a full tuition refund, or to remain in the program with remote coursework for a full semester of Middlebury credit, according to a Friday email to enrollees' parents from Assistant Director of International Programs Alessandra Capossela. The Campus is currently looking into what the academic options will be for students enrolled in programs in other areas.
Read the college's March 13 announcement here.
Schools abroad in France, Germany, India, Japan, Jordan, Morocco, Russia, Spain
Programs suspended on March 12 for spring semester
The college suspended eight of its abroad programs on Thursday, two days after the college suspended on-campus classes at his core campus. An email to all schools abroad students said the decision was based in part on the CDC's newly elevated advisory of all European countries to Level 3 status, as well as the U.S. Department of State's new global health advisory and President Donald Trump's proclamation of a travel ban on foreign nationals from Europe to the U.S. The email asked students to make arrangements to go home "as soon as possible."
Read the college's March 12 announcement here.
Middlebury Institute for International Studies in Monterey
Classes to continue remotely after spring break ends on March 23
The institute had a planned spring break beginning this Friday, March 13. After break, classes will resume remotely on March 23, and will remain so for the rest of the semester.
Read the college’s March 10 announcement here.
Middlebury-CMRS program in Oxford
Program suspended on March 10 for spring semester
The college suspended the Middlebury College CMRS-Oxford Humanities Program in England on March 10. The 35 participating students will complete their studies remotely, including the research project that constitutes a main part of the program. They have been asked to leave the country by March 15.
School abroad in Italy
Program suspended on Feb. 20 for spring semester
The college suspended its programs in Florence, Rome and Ferrara on Feb. 29, 11 days after the programs there began. Students were given the option to take the semester off and get refunded for the semester’s tuition, or to take online classes taught by professors at Sede Capponi, the Middlebury Center in Florence.
Read The Campus’s coverage of those cancellations here.
School abroad in China
Program suspended on Jan. 28 for spring semester
The schools Hangzhou, Kunming and Beijing were closed in late January, before the spring semester began and while the coronavirus was still peaking in the country. The 11 students who had already arrived in China had to evacuate, some of whom were able to reenroll at the college in the spring.
Read The Campus’s coverage of those cancellations here.
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(03/12/20 2:00pm)
UPDATE — Thursday, March 12
The college is now allowing students to stay until Sunday, March 15 at 5:00 p.m., according to an email sent to students and parents yesterday. Students who wish to stay until then, but have already indicated to the school they will leave on or before Friday, should fill out this form indicating their plans.
The email also promised students who are leaving refunds for room and board "for the time students would have been on campus."
"Understanding that students may be returning to campus to finish the semester, we cannot at this time know the amount of the credit or when it will be applied to student accounts," it said.
——
Wednesday, March 11
The college released a series of statements Tuesday afternoon elaborating on next steps following its announcement that it will suspend in-person classes indefinitely after March 13.
Evacuating campus
Students must respond to a form indicating whether they will leave campus or petition to remain on campus for the duration of the semester. The criteria used to determine who can stay on campus will be stricter than for winter break, according to Baishakhi Taylor, vice president for student affairs and dean of students. To gauge whether it is unsafe for a student to return home, the college will consider factors such as travel advisories for those areas.
“This is preventative — we want students in safety sooner rather than later,” said Baishakhi Taylor, vice president for student affairs and dean of students.
Dean of Faculty Sujata Moorti and Provost and Executive Vice President Jeffrey Cason have recommended that professors lighten the workload for their classes as students prepare to leave campus. But the decision ultimately rests in the hands of faculty members.
Middlebury students are required to leave campus by Friday at 8 p.m. Amherst College, which yesterday announced a similar plan to suspend classes and asked students to remain home after spring break, is giving students until next Wednesday to depart campus.
While departing students will not be required to fully move out of their dorm rooms by Friday night, all of their belongings must be packed in boxes and labeled with their name, student ID number and their building name and room number. Boxing materials can be found in Commons Offices. Posters are plastered around campus with the slogan “Box, label & leave.”
Students are encouraged to pack whatever belongings they might need for the remainder of the semester and summer.
The college is currently working with SGA to provide break buses to students. The details are still uncertain, but the college will update students as necessary. The college will also provide eligible students with travel-based financial assistance.
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Remote learning
Remote learning, beginning on March 30, will remain in effect until the administration gives further notice. Middlebury will re-evaluate the status of remote learning during the first two weeks of April.
Moorti has confirmed that classes will end as scheduled on May 11 and professors will adjust their syllabi to accommodate the shortened semester.
While some classes are easily transferable to a digital platform, others will be more challenging to shift. Amy Collier, associate provost for digital learning, will be overseeing the remote learning process. Collier cited the unique challenges posed by teaching classes such as language courses and lab sciences remotely.
“We are recognizing that there are some kinds of remote teaching and learning options that are more challenging for faculty and some remote teaching options that are more challenging for students,” Collier said.
Collier is working with faculty on a case-by-case basis to assist professors in translating their classes to a format that will work for both faculty and students.
“We're trying to make recommendations based on what we hope will be very inclusive for students and very manageable for faculty and students and that respond to the teaching goals the faculty are bringing to us,” Collier said.
Moorti explained that the college is considering the possibility of making all classes pass/fail for the remainder of the semester, in response to requests from students and faculty members. “We are looking into the implications, which are more complicated than they appear,” she said.
Making the call
Consultation with the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the Vermont Department of Health informed the college’s decision to suspend classes, according to Taylor.
She explained that a myriad of factors — including the inability to control who comes to campus and concerns about students returning from traveling over spring break — impacted the school’s decision.
“We just don't have the capacity — we cannot wait for a case to break on campus because then it's too late in many ways and we are a small school with limited resources,” Taylor said. “The state of Vermont is pretty small. We just don't have the capacity to have testing for everybody and we don't have enough personal protective equipment.”
The Crisis Management Team (CMT) oversees the evolving planning related to Covid-19. The group comprises a variety of stakeholders on campus including Collier, members of the Senior Leadership Group (SLG) and Mark Peluso, director of health services and college and head team physician, among others.
Peluso explained that the college’s decision to suspend in part hinged on a policy of what he called “social distancing.”
“Social distancing is one of the most effective mitigation strategies when pharmaceutical treatments (vaccines, medications) are not available and there is the potential for high numbers of cases,” Peluso wrote in an email to The Campus. “Close living quarters and shared dining facilities place students at higher risk for exposure if there is an illness outbreak
This is a developing story and will be updated accordingly. The Campus will also continue to chart the impact these changes have on the greater Middlebury community over the next few weeks, including how they affect staff, local business owners, and those at the Monterey campus and the C.V. Starr Schools Abroad. Visit middleburycampus.com for updated coverage.
(03/12/20 9:58am)
On the night of November 8, 2016, I was shell-shocked by the news of Donald Trump’s victory. I spent most of the night struggling over my calculus homework, expecting a decisive victory for Hillary Clinton. After peeking my head into our common room and seeing the looks of terror on peoples’ faces, I realized the unthinkable happened. The media narrative that a moderate democrat was best suited to defeat Trump was wrong. That night taught me that beating Trump will require a bold, progressive agenda that speaks to the needs of everyday Americans, not a pursuit of incrementalism. I’m afraid that the country has forgotten this lesson. Bernie Sanders was the antidote then, and he is the antidote now; I believe only he can beat Trump.
Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the 2016 general election through victories in key swing states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. An NBC news report found Trump visited these states 46 times more than Clinton in the final 102 days before the election. Alarming? Definitely. There’s no way that another democratic nominee repeats these same mistakes, right? Unfortunately, Joe Biden is on pace to match the 2016 strategy. He skipped campaigning in most Super Tuesday states.
It’s not just his absence of campaigning in key states that should raise eyebrows. Biden’s record, current base, and policies will lose in November. Based on the evidence below, Joe Biden loses to Trump.
Biden voted for the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China, which cost the Rustbelt over 4 million jobs, per a 2019 NBC News analysis. We’re up against an incumbent president who won white working-class voters by 67% nationally, according to NYT exit polling data. Defeating Trump will require an unprecedented turnout of youth and disaffected voters who sat out the 2016 election. In a general election campaign with Biden as the Democratic nominee, Trump could hammer Biden on his anti-worker record and win among blue-collar workers again.
I believe Biden’s current platform and policies will lose to Trump. As of now, Biden’s essentially been running on a platform of “I can beat Trump.” That sounds great, but he rarely articulates how he will win. Trump’s campaign team has already fought this battle once before. Instead of bold and comprehensive plans to combat climate change, income inequality, or our dysfunctional healthcare system, Biden is advocating for a “return to normalcy” (which only plays well with his current base).
Bernie Sanders, on the other hand, will beat Trump.
Sanders’ voting record speaks to the key swing state voters we must win over in November. He voted against disastrous trade deals like NAFTA and PNTR with China. Sanders has proven to be the most pro-union member of Congress. Per the AFL-CIO, a federation of 55 unions, he has a nearly 100% lifetime pro-union voting record. Most importantly, Sanders didn’t trust Cheney and Bush when they lied about weapons of mass destruction In Iraq. Sanders led the effort against the war in Iraq. Biden supported the war.
Sanders’ base would be enough to defeat Trump. The Washington Post’s exit polling shows that Sanders’ median support in Super Tuesday states for voters under the age of 29 was 43 points above Biden’s, and his median support in these states for independents was 8 points above Biden’s. NBC News exit polls found that Sanders won 43% of first-time voters on Super Tuesday, significantly more than the other candidates. To beat an incumbent president, the younger voters, independents, and disaffected voters who overwhelmingly back Sanders must be acknowledged. Also, a study by the Democracy Fund found 92% of Biden supporters would vote for Sanders in the general election. On the flipside, 94% of Sanders supporters would vote for Biden. Both of these statistics prove a vast majority of Democrats’ main goal is defeating Trump.
Sanders’ current platform and policies would beat Trump. The Washington Post’s exit polling found that Super Tuesday voters agree with Sanders on the issues by 13 points above Biden. These issues include Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, and a $15 federal minimum wage. Sanders’ vision would not only benefit the entire country by combating climate change and guaranteeing healthcare as a human right, but also inspire key voters.
It’s imperative we, as Democrats, unite against an establishment which is following the same 2016 playbook. Inspired by Sanders’ grassroots movement, I co-founded Midd Students for Bernie in October of last year. Through canvassing, phonebanking, friend-to-friend outreach, we are building a progressive movement to oust Trump. I hope supporters of Elizabeth Warren, a progressive champion for working-class families, choose to join our movement to beat Trump and transform our government and economy. Will we choose the moderate lane which ends in perpetual defeat to populists like Trump, or will we choose the progressive lane which can defeat Trump and improve the lives of millions of American families? If you haven’t voted yet, consider voting for the best candidate who can beat Trump: Bernie Sanders. Reach out to friends and family in states which have yet to vote like New York and Connecticut and remind them what we’re up against. If you’re inclined to volunteer for the campaign, visit BernieSanders.com/volunteer! While Biden has a SuperPac and Wall-Street donors behind him, Sanders’ has the support of millions of grassroots activists. Only Sanders has the agenda that can defeat Trump and bring-about much needed change. When it comes to defeating Trump, whose side are you on?
Tarik Shahzad is a member of the class of 2020 and co-founder of Midd Students for Bernie.
(03/12/20 9:56am)
The Panthers recently participated in the Tufts National Qualifying Meet on Saturday, Mar. 7. The non-scoring meet featured quite a few impressive performances.
Both the men and the women’s squads competed hard. In the 800-meter run, Nicole Johnson ’22 captured second and Emily Bulczynski ’22 captured fourth. Other impressive performers were Meg Wilson ’20, Katie Glew ’21, and Katelyn Pease ’22. The women’s 4 X 400-meter relay “A” team captured first.
“I am so proud of how we did as a team this weekend,” said Grace Desmond ’23, a member of the 4 X 400 “A” team. “We went out and competed hard and were able to drop over 5 seconds from our time at D3 New England’s. We had our eyes on NCAAs and just wanted to go out and do our best!”
On the men’s side, Will Meyer ’20 came in sixth place in the 1-mile run. Jonathan Fisher ’20 placed second in the high jump event and Nathaniel Klein ’21 got sixth in the shot-put event.
“High jump didn’t go quite as well as I had wanted, but it was still a solid performance,” said Fisher. “I had put together a string of really good practices and meets…and was hoping to set a new personal best.”
Up next will be the fated NCAA Championships which will take place on Friday, Mar. 13 and Saturday, Mar. 14. “The team is looking forward to nationals with great anticipation,” said Fisher. “Though only a few of us are going to compete, we will all be watching and cheering on our teammates from campus. We also have a number of first-time qualifiers, which is always exciting to see and bodes well for the team in the future.”
“We are all so excited for the upcoming NCAA Championships!” said Desmond. “I think we will just continue to do some fine tuning this week, making sure we are taking care of the small details to gear up for Friday night!”
(03/12/20 9:56am)
After a victory on Friday, the Middlebury men’s basketball team was defeated on Saturday by SUNY Brockport in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Their season is now over.
The two teams stayed close for the entire contest, with Middlebury overcoming an eight point deficit early in the first half and trailing by only two going into the break. They proceeded to come into the second half on a full head of steam thanks in large part to Matt Folger ’20 who provided eight points in the span of a 13-5 run, giving the Panthers a 50-44 advantage.
That lead didn’t last long, as Brockport came back on a 10-0 surge to take the lead right back. A subsequent 9-2 run for the Golden Eagles followed, and suddenly the lead had ballooned to nine. Middlebury wouldn’t be held down either as they would go on a 10-2 run. With the score at 75-74 , the game would go right down to the wire. The score sat at 83-81 in the final seconds, giving the Panthers an opportunity to come away with a miracle victory but couldn’t pull it off, falling by a final score of 84-81.
Griffin Kornaker ’21 contributed a career-high 28 points in the loss, Jack Farrell ’21 had 18 points, and Folger put together an all around solid performance with 16 points, 9 rebounds, 3 steals, and 3 blocks. Middlebury ends their season on a sour note, but with an impressive 21-6 record.
(03/12/20 9:55am)
This team is dominant. The Panthers showed up on Saturday and Sunday as they produced two road wins that extended their current win streak to 25 straight games. The women’s lacrosse team is firing on all cylinders and it seems as if no one can stand in their way, even this early in the season.
On Saturday, the women traveled to Connecticut College. The lopsided 13-3 first half set the Panthers up to calmly cruise to a 16-5 final game score. The frightening offensive duo that includes Emily Barnard ’20 and Julia Earley ’22 thrashed the Camels’ defense by recording 7 points each. The Panther defense didn’t let much past them, but in the rare chances they did, goalie Julia White ’20 stepped up and made 4 great saves.
“At this point in the season we are excited to have 3 strong wins under our belt and are looking forward to unlocking our teams potential as we continue to face tough opponents,” said Barnard, team captain and leading point scorer. “We have an amazing group of 28 girls that connect really well on and off the field and just want to take advantage of every opportunity we get to improve!”
The Sunday game included even more fervor as the Panthers relentlessly overpowered Springfield. The early lead was continued by an onslaught of scoring for Middlebury that left the final score at 23-4. This game can truly be considered a team effort as six different players tallied a hat trick, including first-year’s Susan Rowley ’23 and Nikki Mormile ’23.
“In terms of how the freshmen are feeling, we’ve all been looking forward to the start of the season since the fall, so it is super exciting for it to be finally here and to have our first college lacrosse games,” said Rowley, leading scorer among first-years. “We can’t wait for the rest of a fun and hopefully successful spring!” said Rowley.
The Panthers seem to show no signs of slowing down. Their next game will be this coming Saturday, when they host Trinity at 2:00.
(03/10/20 5:41pm)
For updates on the situation at Middlebury, check here.
For updates on the situation at Monterey and at the Middlebury programs abroad, check here.
President Laurie Patton confirmed Tuesday afternoon that students will be required to leave campus on Friday, March 13 to begin an extended two-week spring break in response to the Covid-19 viral epidemic. Following this break, Middlebury will begin remote classes on March 30. Students will be expected not to return to campus “until further notice,” according to Patton’s statement.
Students who may be compromised due to additional health conditions are permitted to leave campus before Friday. Those who cannot leave campus — such as some international students and domestic students who will be at a greater risk in their home community — can petition the school to remain on campus, where they will also resume courses digitally.
All students must indicate to the college their intentions to depart or petition to remain on campus. Students who wish to remain on campus must complete the form before 3 p.m. on Thursday, and will be notified of a decision before 9 a.m. on Friday.
The announcement outlines a myriad of other stipulations for the coming weeks.
The Campus will continue to update our coverage online as necessary.
(03/10/20 4:28pm)
Update: Since this article was published, the college officially and indefinitely suspended all on-campus classes. Check out our update here.
A campus-wide anxiety has ensued following a widely circulated email that said Middlebury will suspend all in-person classes starting this Friday, March 13 as a response to the Covid-19 viral epidemic. The email was sent by Héctor J. Vila, associate professor of writing and rhetoric and a member of faculty council, to students in two of his classes.
The college has not yet sent out an official statement about plans for suspension. The Campus is waiting for confirmation of the statements in the email, which explained that students will have a two-week spring break and classes will resume remotely beginning Monday, March 30. Vila and the college will not comment before the college's official email is sent out.
Most students are required to leave campus “until further notice,” the email read. Those who cannot — including some international students and domestic students who will be at a greater risk in their home community — can petition to remain on campus, during which they will take classes digitally.
Colleges and universities across the country have been taking steps to contain the virus. Many are moving students off campus and switching to remote instruction. New England schools that have acted accordingly include Amherst College and Harvard University. A list of schools that have taken action, curated by Campus Editor at Large Benjy Renton ’21, can be found here.
This story is developing and will be updated accordingly.
(03/05/20 11:28am)
A season-long pattern of poor home performances continued on Saturday, as men’s puck was bested by Wesleyan in the NESCAC Quarterfinals in Kenyon Arena. Despite entering the third period with a 2-1 lead, the Panthers conceded three straight goals to the Cardinals, who booked their ticket to the NESCAC Semifinal with a 4-2 victory. The Panthers finish the season 10-12-3 overall, an improvement from last season’s 8-13-4 record.
The Cardinals dealt the first blow with 48 seconds remaining in the first stanza when Cam Peritz punched home a rebound. Senior netminder Brian Ketchabaw ‘20 made a nice effort to save an initial shot, but Wesleyan’s power play was simply too much for the Panthers to handle.
Just under two minutes into the second period, Zach Shapiro ’22 found the back of the net after Emack Bentley ’22 stole the puck and delivered a deftly placed assist. The Panthers seemed primed to grab a second goal after tying the game up, but failed to capitalize on two consecutive power play opportunities. However, they finally snatched the lead with 40 seconds remaining in the second, after a slap shot from Brendan Dawson ’20 smashed into the back of the net.
The third period was one to forget for the Panthers, who conceded three consecutive goals en route to a 4-2 home defeat. Men’s puck were not devoid of chances in the final period; Wesleyan keeper Tim Sestak rarely had a chance to breathe in the last 20 minutes, facing multiple Panthers shots, one of which ricocheted off the post. This marked the second year in a row that Wesleyan defeated Middlebury in the NESCAC Quarterfinals.
Captain Owen Powers ’20, who finished the season with a team-high 22 points, was quick to find the positives in the season. “Although we were disappointed with the end result, I am really proud of the steps this team has taken over my 3 years here at Midd. I look forward to watching their continued success. Cheer boys cheer.”
Co-captain Brett Dineen ’20 shared a similar sentiment. “We accomplished a lot as a group including the team’s first home playoff game in six years. I’m excited to see what the returners continue to achieve in the rest of their Middlebury career.”
The Cardinals head to Williamstown next weekend, where they will face off against the top-seeded Ephs in the NESCAC Quarterfinals.
(03/05/20 11:21am)
The women’s lacrosse team is still hot off of its dominant season last year and continues to prove it deserves to be the number one team in the country. The squad notched a win against No. 13 Bowdoin in their season opener on Saturday, Feb. 29. Extending their win streak from last season to twenty-three games, the top-ranked Panthers stood the test of a worthy opponent.
Early in the game, the Panthers rushed out to an early lead, but the Polar Bears crawled back later in the half to ultimately settle the game at 6–6 by halftime.
After the half, the Panthers again pulled out to a cushiony lead but Bowdoin would not quit. As the game moved on, the Panthers displayed their power as they amassed a lead the Polar Bears would not be able to close. The game ended in a Panthers win by a score of 16–12.
The performance was led by dominant performances on offense by Emily Barnard ’20 and Jane Earley ’22, who each scored five goals. On the defensive end, Julia Keith ’20 had seven saves for the Panthers and Addy Mitchell ’21 forced five turnovers.
Looking at the team’s success, it’s evident that they play as a unit, dependent on both their offense and defense to be reliable and to keep their streak alive.
Next up, the women head to Connecticut College on Saturday, March 7 for their second game of a hopefully dominant season.
(03/05/20 11:03am)
This is the second article in a series on school consolidation. Read the first article in that series here.
Over the last three years, Middlebury and the surrounding towns have shifted from conversations about district consolidation to school mergers and closures.
Act 46, the 2015 legislation that is often connected to the closure of small Vermont elementary schools, was initially focused on the former and not on school mergers.
“The goal of Act 46 is to improve education outcomes and equity by creating larger and more efficient school governance structures,” reads the State of Vermont Agency of Education’s website. By this meter, many believe that Act 46 has been successful not only in saving money but in streamlining school governance structures: it is under Act 46 that Addison Central School District (ACSD) formed in 2016, a decision that joined eight different school districts into one governing body.
“Act 46 was not about closing small schools and it’s not to blame [for school closures],” said Amy McGlashan, a member of the ACSD School Board and the director of Adirondack House at the college. “What’s to blame is declining enrollments, increasing costs and the equity gap.”
The decline in enrollment, McGlashan says, has led to strains on resources. In smaller elementary schools, a drop in enrollment cannot be met with budget cuts, as can be done at larger schools, including Mary Hogan Elementary School in Middlebury.
McGlashan explained that at larger elementary schools like Mary Hogan, an enrollment decline of 20 students — about the number of students in a class — leads to the elimination of a staff position. At smaller schools with between 50 and 100 students, such as McGlashan’s local Rutland elementary school, the loss of 10 pupils does not affect the number of staff employed at the school.
That the smaller school continues to use the same amount of fiscal resources as its enrollment declines promotes tension between district schools. It is viewed as unfair that the loss of a larger percentage of the student body at these smaller schools does not affect their resources and staff, while larger schools are forced to cut positions in response to budget cuts.
Schools and districts, which are funded in part per pupil, lose state money when enrollment dips. Asking larger schools to support smaller schools takes a toll on the larger schools, since all schools in the district are sharing an amount of money decided, in part, by the number of pupils in the entire district.
Since the creation of ACSD, state funding for the elementary schools that previously resided in eight different districts is now given to the single, overarching district. This makes funding and resources easier for smaller schools to access but forces larger schools — in this case, schools situated in the town of Middlebury — to support funding shortfalls occurring at all schools in the district.
Because even larger schools are experiencing declining enrollment, pooling funds takes money disproportionately from larger schools.
In Middlebury and surrounding towns, it is this strain that brings up the prospect of school closures. With seven out of 13 ACSD Board Members representing Middlebury, it is likely that declining enrollment at smaller schools will eventually lead the board to vote to close and merge smaller schools.
Population distribution makes this representation possible, explained Angelo Lynn, editor in chief of the Addison Independent. This proportional representation gives Middlebury more sway within ACSD — the town holds a majority of the board’s votes.
Since Middlebury is the town that would benefit most from closures and mergers of smaller schools in the district, Lynn says that the representative makeup of the board has caused some smaller towns to worry about the wellbeing of their schools and has fostered an environment that may soon vote to close smaller institutions.
“When we created the articles of agreement for [ACSD], that took the power away from towns, and when that happened, the conversation around that was, ‘We need to do this because we need to run schools in a more effective economically efficient way. And we’re not going to close your school,’” Lynn said.
Now, the prospect of keeping small community elementary schools open appears overly optimistic to many, including Lynn.
“I think there are lots of people feeling a little betrayed by where the board is at,” he said. He added, though, that there comes a point when the math does not add up: “Certainly some schools are going to be too small to continue,” he said. “I think there is a number that’s not efficient.”
(03/05/20 10:56am)
The Student Government Association Finance Committee is dedicating $100,000 of budget surpluses to fund student-run projects through the MiddKid Mega Project. The committee is accepting applications on a rolling basis until March 20, or whenever money runs out. Project proposals can include events, experiences or other investments to enrich student-life on campus and will be carried out this spring and next fall.
Kenshin Cho ’20, chair of the finance committee, explained that this initiative is a one-time competition to incentivize creative ideas and expedite the process of funding them.
The Finance Committee identified the $100,000 surplus in the student activities budget in its mid-year report. The student activities fee this year was $426 as included in the tuition, an $8 increase from last year. The Finance Committee allocates this fee, a cumulative $1,080,000, to student organizations and other events.
The Finance Committee attributes this surplus to both the $8 increase and an abnormally high rate of student organizations returning allocated funds. They attribute this increased return rate to confusion generated by the college’s switch to a new finance system, Oracle — clubs spent less money because they did not understand how the system worked and were cautious about overspending.
Cho and the Finance Committee wanted to spend the money deliberately, so they turned to the community for ideas.
The committee determined that it is best to spend the money this year because it is a portion of tuition paid by current students, Cho explained.
Cho is aware that funding can be complicated, but he hopes that this project will allow students to start projects while avoiding many of the complex obstacles that frequently accompany funding.
“We don’t want student organizations to make decisions based on how much money they get, and instead start making decisions based on what they want to do and ask for money afterwards,” said Cho. “We are thinking about ways to open up funding to individuals and organizations, particularly without the commons system, because that’s where a lot of individuals used to go to plan small events.”
Amanda Reinhardt, director of student activities, serves as an advisor to the Finance Committee. Reinhardt stressed that an important role of SGA is identifying gaps in student activities.
“This opportunity is here so students can get creative, and you don’t have to be part of a student org to do something. It’s an opportunity to name what’s missing,” said Reinhardt.
A board consisting of the 13 members of the Finance Committee, two SGA senators and one cabinet committee member will judge the project proposals.
The application process includes an initial online form followed by an in-person pitch to the committee. Cho wanted perspectives beyond those of Finance Committee members represented in the consideration. Furthermore, the committee will prioritize proposals that address concerns highlighted by past surveys, such as Zeitgeist and exit surveys completed by graduating seniors.
As of last weekend, the committee received six applications. One application has already stood out to Cho: the SGA’s technology committee’s proposal to fund a Hackathon. This initiative will probably be the first to receive funds from The MiddKidd Mega-Project. Cho noted that the Hackathon will involve collaboration between various organizations and requires a large budget but he thinks that the event will be meaningful.
“We definitely want to spread the word because it’s a great opportunity. It’s one of the few times the SGA is putting money behind what they want to do, which is to listen to student concerns about social life and extracurricular life,” said Cho. “We want to take advantage of that and hear a really diverse range of ideas. We want to unleash the creative energy of the community.”
Editor’s note: Kenshin Cho ’20 was formerly a Local editor for The Campus.
(02/27/20 11:02am)
In a time when Kindle is on the rise and most books are instantly accessible online, it has become a rarity for people to pick up hard-cover, good old-fashioned books. We have forgotten to appreciate the age-old craft of bookmaking in the midst of a technological frenzy, and the hidden treasures inside these books have become as dusty in our minds as the shelves they sit upon.
“Under the Covers: The Hidden Art of Endpapers” reminds us of these forgotten treasures by outlining the history of endpapers, sheets of paper pasted onto a book’s inside covers. In the 15th century, endpapers simply served the purpose of protecting the first and last pages in books; however, as time went on, they began to be seen as works of art. From the earliest minimalistic paste papers to the increasingly common applications of marbling, printing, illustrating and modern-day photography, the exhibit shows the evolution of endpapers through the centuries, succeeding in reigniting an appreciation for what is hidden in plain sight.
“With this exhibit, we wanted to showcase books not just as neutral containers for any old text but as a material object that tells stories of the time and place that it first came into being,” said Rebekah Irwin, Special Collections & Archives director and curator of the exhibit. “When I look at a book, the text — the actual words under the covers — is rarely what I look at first. Especially old books. I look at the binding, the feel of the paper, the heaviness of the book, the smell (yes, old books do have a unique smell!). I also look for illustrations, annotations and doodles, and I always look for remarkable endpapers.”
Irwin adamantly believes that the physical features of books serve as a looking glass into its history. “We might remember the story of Dr. Suess’s “The Lorax,” but do we remember the freaky endpapers? Or the showy and spectacular decorated papers popular in the 1700s through the 1900s?” asked Irwin. “Our hope is that our exhibit sends you back to your shelves to open up long neglected books. Not to read them of course, but to take a closer look at the book and to see it, rather than read it — especially the endpapers. I suspect we all have at least a few surprises on our bookshelves if we took the time to look under the covers for these concealed works of art.”
Kaitlin Buerge ’13, special collections and archives fellow, discussed her experience working on the exhibit.
“Selecting books for this exhibit was the best. In my head, I’ve been referring to the process as ’shopping’ the stacks, because I would venture into our rare books section and try to guess which kinds of spine and covers might suggest beautiful endpapers within,” Buerge said in an email to The Campus. “I started to recognize that books with more expensive-looking bindings would often have marbled endpapers, but I was often surprised by the marbling hiding inside books with much plainer, old-looking (17th and 18th century) covers.”
Buerge recalled that while she was a college student, museum and library exhibitions rarely caught her attention. Yet through the eye-catching glass cases in Davis Library, she hoped students could spend some time enjoying “a glimpse of N.C. Wyeth’s illustrations or the marbled endpapers.” Often overlooked, Buerge sees this exhibition as an opportunity to give endpapers the overdue credit they deserve.
“Under the Covers: The Hidden Art of Endpapers” is on display in the Davis Library atrium now through May 31, 2020. Whether you stop in for a quick visit on a study break or are inspired to look a bit more closely at the books lining your desk back home, the endpapers display reminds us to acknowledge the aspects of our lives that take a little more work to find and understand. If we all challenge ourselves to seek these surprises hidden on our bookshelves and in our lives, who knows? The worlds around us and the worlds written, hardbound in our palms, may just become a little more exciting.
(02/27/20 10:55am)
Exploring the role of education in a time of global uncertainty, an interdisciplinary panel and Q&A served as a follow-up to writer and climate activist Naomi Klein’s Feb.13 talk. Moderators Hannah Laga Abraham ’23 and Ivonne Serna ’23 asked five faculty members from across the disciplines — Carolyn Finney, scholar in residence in environmental affairs; Jamie McCallum, professor of sociology; James Sanchez, professor of writing & rhetoric; Kirsten Coe, professor of biology; and Tara Affolter, professor of education studies — to discuss their fields’ relevance in the midst of the climate crisis.
The event aimed to create an ongoing dialogue on environmental issues. The overarching question guiding the conversation was, “Why are we here?”
“Being at an institution that is deeply enmeshed in the systems perpetuating this crisis doesn’t give us an excuse to avoid these conversations,” Serna said. “It makes it our responsibility to have them.”
Dan Suarez, professor of environmental studies, opened the panel by asking what exactly it would mean to reform institutional pedagogy in light of the increasing severity and scope of compounding environmental changes.
Affolter and Finney both discussed the importance of intersectionality in engaging with issues of climate change.
“We first need to look at whose voices matter, who’s in the room to ask the questions, and who’s not here and why,” Affolter said. “Part of the importance of our place here is to decenter ourselves and learn to care beyond what we know and understand.”
Finney urged her colleagues and the audience to consider the history of marginalized groups — many of whom are now disproportionately affected by climate change — in environmental discourse.
“I keep hearing the term, ‘state of emergency,’ but there are people who have been living in a state of emergency for the past 400 or 500 years,” she said.
McCallum emphasized the importance of including the sociological lens in climate change analyses. “There is a social crisis that has to do with alienation, isolation, division, and loneliness that is influencing the climate crisis,” he said.
Sanchez spoke about the impact of rhetoric in environmental discourse.
“There’s a difference between being convinced and being persuaded,” he said. “I could be convinced that climate change is real, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to actually get out and do anything.”
Finney said that persuasion will only come by making climate change personal to everyone. She said that means finding emotional links with others who may not agree.
“If someone told me they were skeptical about climate change,” she said, “I wouldn’t ask them why — I would ask them what they value and what they prioritize,” she said. “Skepticism from climate change arises because people have fears about something else in their lives.”
During the Q&A, the panelists responded to questions about how to move from white guilt to white accountability.
“I see moving from guilt to accountability as a personal question, but also one that can be reflected in our pedagogy,” Coe said. “I think it has to do with investigating and understanding the origins of our privilege and being interested in those questions.”
(02/27/20 10:54am)
The Green New Deal, a legislative proposal seen by many as a radical answer to the question of climate change, went up for debate in Dana Auditorium last Thursday. The Alexander Hamilton Forum and the Political Science Department co-sponsored the debate.
Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst Robert Pollin argued in favor of the Green New Deal, while Oren Cass, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, argued against it. Christopher Klyza, Middlebury’s Stafford professor of public policy, political science and environmental studies, moderated the debate, which came during an election year when Democratic voters are more worried about climate change than ever before.
“We thought the topic was especially timely, as the Green New Deal is an issue in the Democratic primary and is likely to be an issue in the general election,” said Associate Political Science professor Keegan Callanan, who serves as director of the Alexander Hamilton Forum.
The Green New Deal, sponsored by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), mandates a transition to clean energy in order to reduce greenhouse gas emission, offers a program to support those who are impacted and creates a variety of job and entrepreneurial opportunities.
Pollin first spoke to defend the Green New Deal on the grounds of its absolute necessity, and centered his definition of the Green New Deal around a zero-emissions deadline for the year 2050.
“If you believe in mainstream climate science, we are looking at a world that could be calamitous over the next couple of decades,” he said. “My version of the Green New Deal is to get to net zero emissions in a way that also creates more opportunities, raises living standards [and] expands job opportunities.”
He then proposed a multi-step course of action to achieve his vision of a Green New Deal globally. He suggested that governments begin by placing massive investments into energy sufficiency, including into operations of buildings, industrial machineries, transportation and more. Next, he advised investment in solar and wind power in order to reduce fossil fuel infrastructure down to zero.
He expressed belief that his Green New Deal, although costly upfront, is economically responsible in the long run. According to his research, investing in building the green economy generates about three times more jobs per million dollars than investing in the fossil fuel economy.
“Let’s understand that investment in energy efficiency, by definition, saves money,” Pollin said. “Yes, there are costs, but over time, those costs will get covered by the savings that are engendered by delivering this new energy system.”
Cass spoke second, voicing his objection to the Green New Deal on three fronts: feasibility, high-cost and poor outcomes.
“With the existing technologies we have, there are tremendous disputes over whether wind and solar [power] have any capability to actually solve the problem,” he said. “To the extent we put all of our eggs in the wind and solar basket, we are actually distracting ourselves from the kind of innovation we are actually going to need.”
He offered the example of Germany, where despite the government’s 30-year long project, the country failed to meet its goal of decarbonizing its economy. While the state of Vermont is politically progressive, it has not developed any wind projects for five years and has seen a rise in emissions in comparison with past decades.
Cass also emphasized the high price tag of the Green New Deal, then criticized Pollin’s claim that the Green New Deal generates jobs.
“The jobs that it [the deal] would destroy are particularly good ones: fossil fuel economy jobs are among the best for blue collar workers that we have,” Cass said. “[They are] the highest paying and they in turn support our manufacturing sector.”
Additionally, countries in the developing world have no incentive to join such a deal, he said, and the effort from the United States alone will not be enough to reduce emissions globally. He pointed to how the developing world pledged “no useful contribution” in the Paris Agreement, a United Nations agreement on mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.
The assumption that the rest of the world would follow America’s lead is, according to Cass, “an extremely condescending and colonial point of view, as it suggests that the leaders of other countries do not know what is good for themselves.”
He proposed to invest in innovation to find an alternative energy source that is both cheaper than fossil fuel and reliable, so that people will have incentive to adapt.
“I believe that some version of a Green New Deal — or a project to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions and stabilize the climate — will be implemented soon, for the simple reason that we truly have no alternative,” he said. “Mr. Cass is not reading the overwhelming body of evidence accurately.”
Students cited myriad reasons for attending the debate. Evelyn Lane ’23 chose to attend because writer and climate activist Naomi Klein’s Feb. 13 talk deepened her interest in the topic of climate change.
Elizabeth Kroger ’22.5, a conservation biology major, feels that she is often surrounded by people who hold the same opinion as she does, so she attended the lecture to learn about any potential downfalls of the plan.
“I am curious as to what opponents of the Green New Deal would propose in place of it,” Kroger said. “Cass did not speak of any specific policies or programs to replace the deal.”
Other students, concerned with the Alexander Hamilton Forum’s funding, held another climate-focused event at the same time. Organizers wrote about that event, “What Does it Mean to be a Student at Middlebury in the Age of Climate Catastrophe?: A Koch-Free Conversation,” in an op-ed published in The Campus on Feb. 13.
(02/20/20 11:37am)
Sometimes, competition is fiercest with whom you’re most familiar. Eleven women’s swimming and diving squads from around the NESCAC converged at the Middlebury Natatorium from Feb. 13-16 for the conference championships. Middlebury, who hosted the event, placed seventh and compiled a score of 684 points. Williams took first with 1930.5 points, Tufts second with 1593.5 points, and Amherst third with 1369.
Some notable performances include a first-place finish by Frances VanderMeer ’20 in the 50-yard freestyle, a seventh-place finish by Haley Hutchinson ’23 in the 200-yard breaststroke, and an eighth-place finish by Olivia Rieur ’22 on the three-meter diving board.
Despite not finishing first as a team, the Panthers’ showing could still be deemed as successful.
“A lot of the younger swimmers on the team really stepped up and were able to suppress their nerves and get the job done,” said VanderMeer, who is also a captain. “At a meet of this size and with a high level of competition, it’s easy to be overwhelmed and let the nervousness take over. I’m really proud of how our team was able to focus on our races, both in terms of individual performance and supporting each other on deck.”
The championship also capped off many remarkable careers for the seniors.
“The meet was definitely an emotional one for the seniors,” said VanderMeer. “We’ve been looking forward to having NESCACs in our home pool since freshman year and we really tried to savor every moment of it.”
“I think I speak for us all when I say that we wouldn’t have wanted to go out any other way,” said VanderMeer.
(02/20/20 10:58am)
On a typical day, Torre Davy ’21 will see maybe one or two posts on the “Middlebury Memes for Crunchy Teens” Facebook page, which he administers. But on Jan. 22, when an op-ed published in The Campus announced the return of Charles Murray, a whopping 39 memes were posted in the group, followed by a continuous barrage of content over the next few days.
The page, which boasts nearly 3,000 members, is home to a flurry of online student activity that usually centers on day-to-day student grievances — dining hall lines, class registration, job searches and finals-week panic. However, the page can also serve as a safe haven for students to air deeper frustrations during campus controversies.
Katie Corrigan ’19 founded the page in 2017 as a forum to vent with her friends after the events of Murray’s most recent visit to campus. Now, as Middlebury prepares for Murray’s third visit, many students are once again leaning into humor as both a coping mechanism and a means of opining on the invitation.
“I think humor’s great, especially for our generation, because it’s a space where people can get angry but still make jokes about it so it’s not purely a bad thing,” Davy said. Davy also said he recognizes the importance of having a forum that exists for independent student expression, which also has the ability to unite thousands of students through comedy and shared experiences.
Davy did not anticipate the influence that the meme page would have when he took over for Corrigan last year.
“The growth has just been crazy to the point where it has become a major source of information for students,” Davy said. “It’s giving you real news in a satirical way.”
The other major source of comedic relief on campus is the satirical publication The Local Noodle. Originally the brainchild of Ellie Simon ’19.5, an independent scholar who majored in Humor Studies, The Noodle is now spearheaded by Editor in Chief Henry Cronic ’21.
“I do think comedy serves a very important role in regard [to larger issues] because it allows people to talk about it in a way that doesn’t always lead to a fight,” Cronic said. In reference to Murray’s return, Cronic said he thinks the role of satire will be to “call out the administration on how ridiculous this is.”
Simon noted that while news articles are more concerned with facts, satirical articles can chronicle the emotional response people might have to a situation.
“I think we’re more trying to get at what people are feeling about something than what that thing is. And if the joke lands, it’s because we expressed that well,” Simon said.
The Noodle, which published in print for the first time last year, now publishes print editions around twice a semester and has an active website, as well as Facebook and Instagram pages. The group currently has 13 active members and is accepting applications.
The Noodle’s adviser J Finley, a professor of American Studies and Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies, also recognized the importance of satire in times of controversy.
“Humor is always going to point to some of the deepest problems in our culture and our society, and satire cuts even deeper because it’s always meant to expose and shame,” she said. “Middlebury as an institution leans towards pushing some issues of power underneath the carpet, and satire doesn’t let you off the hook for that.”
As The Noodle’s faculty adviser, Finley won’t give a final ruling when it comes to publishing a potentially contentious article. But she will look at it and sometimes send it to other faculty before giving her advice to the editorial board.
Last April, The Noodle was embroiled in controversy when it broke the story of former chemistry Professor Jeff Byers referencing Nazi gas chambers on an exam. Both the incident and the satirical article were condemned by the Community Bias Response Team (CBRT) in a school-wide email, which stated: “While satire can be an effective form of social critique, the article’s light-handed references to and engagement with the Holocaust have caused additional harm.”
In response, The Noodle published an article satirizing the CBRT. “Community Bias Response Team Gets Mad at Noodle For Making Them Do Their Job,” read the headline.
This spring, The Noodle again finds itself positioned to take on heavy material. Quickly following the January 22 announcement, The Local Noodle released a story titled “Administration Places Bulk Order for Neck Braces in Preparation for Charles Murray’s Return.” Cronic estimates that this may now be The Noodle’s most viewed piece.
“They’re not perfect of course, but they’re courageous,” said Finley about the publication’s staff. “It takes a lot of courage in moments like [Charles Murray] to not only address the issues but to find a way to get people engaged and thinking about what is at stake. And hopefully people laugh in the meantime too.”
A previous version of this article incorrectly reported the number of posts to Middlebury Memes on Jan. 22 to be 29. The correct number is 39.
(02/20/20 10:57am)
Five first-year students who arrived on campus in the fall of 2018 were saddened, though not surprised, by the lack of diversity on campus. In response, Maya Gee, Roni Lezema, Dennis Miranda-Cruz, Cynthia Chen and Myles Maxie, all of the class of 2022, partnered with the admissions office to establish a Student Ambassador Program, which was put into practice last fall.
The program enables Middlebury students from rural, low-income and ethnically diverse areas to serve as admissions ambassadors to high schools in their hometowns and surrounding areas — areas that the college’s admissions counselors don’t visit often.
“We believe that, above all else, students want to go to a college where they envision themselves being happy,” the program’s founders said in an October Campus op-ed. “In our experience, the best way to help them have that vision in the first place is by watching and listening to someone from their own hometown speak about the school.”
The five students met on the SGA Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee (formerly known as the Institutional Diversity Committee) in the fall of 2018.
“The Middlebury community as we see it right now reflects a lot of what Middlebury used to be, but also the evolving efforts to include more students of marginalized backgrounds that typically weren’t represented in higher education,” said Gee, who grew up in rural Hawaii. Gee visited a number of high schools in her capacity as an ambassador when she was home this winter break.
“If we want to be fostering a diverse community on campus, we have to make sure that we are inviting those communities to campus,” she added.
Although they discussed developing this program as a student organization, the founding members agreed that they wanted it to be institutionalized under the umbrella of the admissions office. Nicole Curvin, the dean of admissions, and Santana Audet ’13, the senior assistant director of admissions and coordinator of diversity, inclusion and access initiatives, have been integral in this endeavor, according to Gee.
The founders began collaborating with the admissions office that fall and ran what they call a “pilot program” in spring 2019.
While the program is now an official part of the admissions office, it remains entirely student-run.
“Five first years came to us two years ago and I left that meeting so energized and motivated by their infectious enthusiasm and engagement,” Audet said. “I want this to always be a student-led initiative because that’s where the energy comes from. Our office’s support will maintain the longevity and historical knowledge of the program as students come and go, but this will become a student legacy.”
Now, the program is made up of three coordinators— Gee, Dennis Miranda-Cruz ’22 and Cynthia Chen ’22 — and 18 student ambassadors. They hope that the program will double in size each year, eventually employing over 100 student ambassadors.
Off the beaten path
The Office of Admissions has about a dozen admissions counselors that each travel approximately six weeks out of the year, visiting four or five schools a day. They attempt to balance visiting schools that traditionally send applications and visiting schools from which they hope to see applications.
Still, many of the schools that the student ambassadors are now hoping to reach are often left out. To maximize each counselor’s outreach, they often forgo visits to rural areas with few students.
New Student Ambassadors are trained to give information sessions about the college to prospective students, while adding personal touches to connect with high school students in their own hometowns.
“We know that nothing works better than personal contact when it comes to helping a student see themselves at Middlebury,” Audet said.
Student Ambassadors intend to do most of their outreach in the spring, which is the opposite of the fall travel schedule for the college’s admissions counselors. Each high school on the list has never been visited by the college, and is in an area considered either high poverty or extremely rural.
Ambassadors get paid $20 per two-hour visit. Although visits are typically only one hour long, the extra hour accounts for potential travel time. The admissions office recommends that students travel to high schools no more than 30 miles away from their home addresses.
Gee estimated that student ambassadors have already completed 15–20 visits in 2020.
“We are reaching out to an entirely new demographic. For me personally, there were a lot of students I visited in Hawaii who ended up applying to Middlebury from high schools who had previously never had any applications to Middlebury,” Gee said.
