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(09/16/19 4:18pm)
Volume 118, Number 17 — March 12, 2020
https://issuu.com/middleburycampus/docs/ilovepdf_merged__7_
Volume 118, Number 16 — March 5, 2020
https://issuu.com/middleburycampus/docs/ilovepdf_merged__6__e71cfdf701a781
Volume 118, Number 15 — February 27, 2020
https://issuu.com/middleburycampus/docs/ilovepdf_merged__6_
Volume 118, Number 14 — February 20, 2020
https://issuu.com/middleburycampus/docs/ilovepdf_merged__5_
Volume 118, Number 13 — February 13, 2020
https://issuu.com/middleburycampus/docs/the_middlebury_campus_feb._13_2020
Volume 118, Number 12 — January 23, 2020
https://issuu.com/middleburycampus/docs/ilovepdf_merged__4_
Volume 118, Number 11 — December 5, 2019
https://issuu.com/middleburycampus/docs/ilovepdf_merged__3_
Volume 118, Number 10 — November 21, 2019
https://issuu.com/middleburycampus/docs/the_middlebury_campus_nov._21__2019
Volume 118, Number 9 — November 14, 2019
https://issuu.com/middleburycampus/docs/the_middlebury_campus_nov._14__2019
Volume 118, Number 8 — November 7, 2019
https://issuu.com/middleburycampus/docs/the_middlebury_campus_nov._17__2019
Volume 118, Number 7 — October 31, 2019
https://issuu.com/middleburycampus/docs/the_middlebury_campus_oct._31__2019
Volume 118, Number 6 — October 17, 2019
https://issuu.com/middleburycampus/docs/oct._17__2019
Volume 118, Number 5 — October 10, 2019
https://issuu.com/middleburycampus/docs/oct._10__2019
Volume 118, Number 4 — October 3, 2019
https://issuu.com/middleburycampus/docs/oct._3__2019
Volume 118, Number 3 — September 26, 2019
https://issuu.com/middleburycampus/docs/sept._26__2019
Volume 118, Number 2 — September 19, 2019
https://issuu.com/middleburycampus/docs/sept._19__2019
Volume 118, Number 1 — September 12, 2019
https://issuu.com/middleburycampus/docs/sept._12__2019
(09/12/19 10:05am)
Drive down scenic Route 125 and you’ll find, situated across from the Robert Frost Interpretive Trail, Middlebury College’s Breadloaf Campus in Ripton, Vt.: home to the Breadloaf School of English graduate programs during the summer as well as various MiddView groups during first-year orientation week. What’s lesser known, however, is that for 44 consecutive years, Breadloaf has welcomed back hundreds of alumni, their friends and spouses, and parents of students for an annual four-day program called Alumni College.
From Aug. 29 to Sept. 1 this year, 139 alumni came to Breadloaf to reconnect with friends, soak in the Vermont scenery and explore one of the weekend’s five course offerings. Most hailed from the New England area, but many others traveled from California, Texas and the UK to participate in the program.
According to Associate Director of Alumni and Parent Programws Lori Mackey, classes filled within the first few weeks that registration was open.
Professor of Psychology Matthew Kimble taught a course on happiness at Alumni College in 2001, and has since 2013 overseen the program’s course programming as its faculty director.
Courses for Alumni College are typically decided upon in February. Generally, Kimble looks for a program of five courses that span the humanities, social sciences and physical sciences. One Alumni College tradition is that there is almost always a field class offered, so that students have the opportunity to take full advantage of Alumni College’s pastoral setting in Ripton.
Kimble said that one of the major attractions of Alumni College is its location at the Breadloaf campus. “I don’t know what percentage of people we would lose if we were like, ‘Oh, we’re going to have classes in BiHall this year,’ but I’m feeling it would be a lot,” Kimble said. “I think people would be very disappointed. There’s something special about being up [at Breadloaf] at that time of year; it’s so beautiful.”
Despite being relatively unknown among current students, news of Alumni College travels fast through word of mouth among alumni friend groups, and the program welcomed its largest group in its 44-year history this year.
Often, classes and friends will come back regularly, using Alumni College as a reunion. “Some of [the participants] are real regulars,” Kimble said. Participants this year ranged from individuals in the class of 1951 to those in the class of 2007. Of the participants, the Class of ’55 has been known for attending Alumni College together as annual mini-reunions. They will be celebrating their 65th reunion in June of 2020.
[pullquote speaker="Bruce Byers '55" photo="" align="left" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]Breakfast, lunch and dinner. You can’t overestimate how important it is for our group to be sitting together, three times a day.[/pullquote]
Sue Byers ’55 and Bruce Byers ’55 have been attending Alumni College for 18 years. “We became kind of famous, the class of ‘55, because we had so many of our class come. And then their spouses would come, and they just loved it, as we did,” Bruce Byers said.
This year, 14 members of the Class of ’55 cohort attended Alumni College. “These people came with us in 1951, and we’ve been pretty close with all of this group for all that time. We’ve lost a few last couple of years, but that’s one reason why we come,” Bruce Byers said.
“The setting is number two,” Sue Byers continued, echoing Kimble’s sentiments about the beauty of late summer in Vermont. “You can hike after your class, or you can play tennis after your class, or you can sit in the wonderful Adirondack chairs anywhere around and catch up on your reading for the nexwt day,” she said.
And sometimes, the pure pleasure of seeing old friends and familiar faces is enough to keep people coming back. “Breakfast, lunch and dinner,” Bruce said. “You can’t overestimate how important it is for our group to be sitting together, three times a day.”
This year, Bruce took a course with Associate Professor of Geology Will Amidon on Geologic Controls on Human History in the Champlain Valley, which took the class on field trips to the Robert Frost Interpretive Trail and to Port Henry. He noted the difference in age between students at Alumni College and undergraduates at Middlebury College. “From the professors’ point of view,” he said, “they’re talking to people in their 60s and 70s and 80s instead of teenagers.”
Sue, however, pointed out that “because of their age, [Alumni College participants] can draw on experiences that are pertinent to what the course is about.” She said that in her course with Associate Professor of Philosophy Martha Woodruff on Socratic Legacies Today, there were about four teachers or school counselors in the class, who were able to provide input about their experiences with the Socratic method in K–12 education.
“The one thing that’s different about Alumni College is that students bring so much experience to the table,” Kimble said. He said that most attendees of Alumni College have “fairly recently retired” and estimates the average age of a student at Alumni College to be around 70, which made for interesting discussions in courses like his on Happiness, which had “individuals with a lifetime of experience” and “will comment on ways that are really different than what you’ll see in undergraduates.” The insights that can be gained from the wealth of experiences of students at Alumni College can often be rewarding for faculty as well. According to Kimble, most faculty who have taught at Alumni College describe it as one of their most rewarding teaching experiences.
“Most alums don’t know about [Alumni College] until they’re older,” said Alumni College participant Bobo Sideli ’77, P’08, P’13. Sideli had been curious about the demographics of the program’s participants, and did a little analysis of his own. “You can get the attendee list online,” he said, “and I sorted it, and 99 out of 140 people are alumni; the rest are spouses or parents. And then I looked at it in excel, and the peak is in the class of ’67. Thirty-five percent of the attendees are from the classes of ’63 to ’68, so they’re in their seventies. It’s a bell curve.”
Sideli is trying to convince friends from his class to come to Alumni College. “They still haven’t gotten around to it. In their mind it’s an old people’s thing,” Sideli said. “They’re still – you know – the go-go. I’m the early group.”
Despite a generally positive experience at Alumni College, however, Sideli also noted a lack of racial diversity in the program’s attendants. “One thing that bothers me is the total lack of diversity — it’s so obvious.” Sideli said. “You look at the Middlebury student population and you come here, and it’s like — what the hell is going on? But you also have to remember, you’re thinking about mostly people who came to Middlebury in the mid-60s. When I came to Middlebury in ’72 I think we had a dozen or 20 African Americans. I always joked that because I’m an Italian from South Shore, Long Island, that I was diversity.”
Sideli took a course titled James Brown, Bob Marley, and Beyoncé: Protest Music as Political Mobilization Across Countries taught by Associate Professor of Political Science Kemi Fuentes-George. The course was based on a J-term course Fuentes-George had taught in the past, and included numbers from a variety of genres and origins and ranged from songs that celebrated subaltern identities, to those that were more provocative and explicit. Fela Kuti’s “Lady”, Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright”, and NWA’s “F**k the Police” were among the songs on the syllabus. “We didn’t just do hip hop music, we did music from Jamaica, we did music from Nigeria, we did Pussy Riots from Russia, and we did music from Egypt and Tunisia as well,” Fuentes-George said.
Fuentes-George went into the weekend with some reservations of his own: “I’ll be honest,” he said, “I was a little bit — I don’t know if nervousness is the word -- but I was a little bit concerned: how are these retirees, older white people, going to deal with Tupac and Kendrick Lamar? But if this is material that’s new to them and subject matter that’s new to them, I think that’s probably even better than just — ‘Oh, here’s more of just stuff that you’ve already read.’”
To prepare his students for the program, Fuentes-George sent them a video in June about the technical construction of rap music, background on the Black Lives Matter movement, as well as the involvement of certain music in that movement, “stuff coming out from Beyonce and Kendrick and so on.” It was Fuentes-George’s attempt to “situate this so that people who might not have a familiarity with hip hop and rap music see that, not whatever their stereotype of it was.”
“It was an opportunity for me to get people to think about things that they ordinarily wouldn’t have thought about,” he said. “The way to do that is to have people do readings and make them engage with material that they ordinarily wouldn’t have engaged with. I didn’t want it to be just a dog and pony show.”
“I think they engaged with it,” Fuentes-George said when asked about how his students had responded to the course material. “I know that there were some who came away from it with a not just a better familiarity, but a better appreciation for some of the artists that they didn’t necessarily know.”
“I know protest music from the civil rights movement, but I didn’t know any other protest music, and I had no knowledge of rap,” Sideli said. “And hip-hop — I mean, that was foreign to me. So I thought it would be good exposure, and it is.”
A recent retiree, Sideli had worked in healthcare for most of his adult life. Now he “does” music, he said. He plays, reads about and studies music, and sees Fuentes-George’s course as a further exploration into the “larger macro level of music.”
Though Sideli doesn’t typically write protest songs, “’cause I have nothing to protest about,” he made an exception for the last night of Alumni College: putting his own spin on James Brown’s iconic 1969 song “I’m Black and I’m Proud,” Sideli and his classmates serenaded the Alumni College with “I’m Old and I’m Proud.”
“We’re so sick of our culture that’s so youth-oriented — and so this is our protest song,” he said.
Sideli is one of many participants for whom Alumni College was an opportunity to rekindle interests and passions they had temporarily set aside in life post-Middlebury.
“For anyone who’s gone to college, there’s just always part of you that misses that environment and longs to go back, and so many do,” Kimble said. “To some extent, my worst fear is that people will learn what an amazing thing Alumni College is and we won’t be able to accommodate everybody. I do feel like it’s a bit of a secret.”
Correction: A previous version of the article suggested that Professor Matthew Kimble assumed the role of faculty director of Alumni College immediately after teaching a class at Alumni College in 2001. Kimble assumed the role in 2013, taking over from Jim Ralph, Dean of Faculty Development & Research and Rehnquist Professor of American History and Culture, who was faculty director from 2008 to 2013. James Jermain Professor Emeritus of Political Economy and International Law Russell Leng was faculty director of Alumni College from 1993 to 2008.
(09/12/19 10:04am)
Russ Lewis Reilly, a beloved assistant men’s basketball coach and former athletic director at Middlebury College, died surrounded by family at his New Haven home on July 24.
As a “pillar of the community” who drove the athletic department’s success, in the words of Athletic Director Erin Quinn, Reilly worked for Middlebury athletics for more than 40 years. He served as the head men’s basketball coach from 1977 to 1996, then as athletic director from 1997 until his retirement in 2006. After retiring, he spent 13 years as a volunteer assistant coach for the men’s basketball team.
Those who interacted with Reilly within the sphere of Middlebury athletics saw him as an exceptionally considerate and thoughtful presence, known as much for the kindness he showed players and colleagues as for his sincere love for sports. He pushed for equality between men’s and women’s athletics, was a lead caretaker for Butch Varno (a longtime Middlebury resident and Panthers fan who suffers from cerebral palsy), and was a regular attendee of other sports games as a spectator and announcer.
“Having Russ on staff was truly a blessing for me and the program,” said Head Men’s Basketball Coach Jeff Brown. “I will miss his wisdom, kindness, generosity and humor, but his positive spirit will remain with the many people that call him a friend.”
As a player for the men’s basketball team, I had the honor of being coached by Reilly for two years. Like everyone else on our team, what I will remember most about Coach Russ is the infectious positivity he brought to our practices every day. As players would stretch during warmups before each practice, he was fond of checking in with each of us individually. He always did so with thoughtfulness and sincerity, asking about families, classes and local sports teams.
“He would always ask how I was doing, and I would answer with a ‘Good, how are you?’,’’ said Jack Farrell ’21, a member of the team. “Every single day he would respond, ‘that’s the only way to be’. It wouldn’t matter what was happening that day — nothing could get in the way of his ability to spread positivity.”
Reilly was unrelentingly upbeat, though never overpoweringly so, which was perhaps part of the reason his optimism was so appreciated by his players; he was always understanding when the frustrations that come with a grueling four-month season reared their heads. But when we became frustrated, he was there to offer gentle and genuine reminders of the gift we’ve been given in having the opportunity to play a game we love, and one that was so dear to him.
“I could truly talk to him about everything and anything and I always admired the positive attitude he had every day,” said Eric McCord ’19, a captain of last year’s team.
As an assistant, Reilly developed an affinity for working with the team’s post players, referred to sometimes as “bigs” — centers and power forwards, positions where physicality and hard work are calling cards. He ran position-breakdown workouts for big men in practice that quickly became “one of the most important parts” of practice, Brown said.
“Our approach was to have Russ coach a team within a team,” Brown said. “He developed our post players masterfully, but he also impacted all the players in our program.”
After our 15-minute workout we would huddle up, and Reilly would deliver his favorite mantra: “Good, better, best, never ever rest, till the good gets better and the better gets best.” Every Middlebury big man who plays on the team now has a shirt with that slogan written down the back.
Matt Folger ’20, a three-year starter and captain for the men’s basketball team this upcoming season, remembers designing a shirt emblazoned with the “good, better, best” slogan and preparing to gift it to Reilly, only to find that Reilly had been one step ahead.
“Just a few days before it was scheduled to arrive, we walked on the bus to go to an away game, and he was sitting on the bus with a large box,” Folger said. “He called us over and gave us all t-shirts with that exact quote on it. We were shocked that he had beat us to our own idea, but we gave our own shirt to him a few days later and he still loved what we had done. I laugh about it to this day.”
Fiercely loyal to his players and fellow coaches, Coach Russ also had a fiery side.
“I think sometimes he took it personally when I would criticize in our coaches meetings how one of the bigs played the day before, which I always thought was funny,” said Kyle Dudley ’09, who joined the men’s basketball as Brown’s lead assistant in 2013 after spending his college years playing for Reilly and Brown.
“There is something special about a veteran coach questioning the toughness of a 20-year-old or expressing his dislike of the color purple, like he did in 2011 when we beat Amherst and Williams in a weekend to win the Nescac Championship,” Brown said.
Mostly, though, the men’s basketball program and athletic community will remember Coach Russ for his penchant for fostering close, caring relationships with those who played the game he loved. Coach Russ was fond of inviting players to his home for dinner — he hosted an annual “bigs’ dinner” each February, an occasion where freshmen big men are first given their “good, better, best” shirts.
Some of my best college memories were made on Thanksgiving with Coach Reilly’s family. As one of the few players on our team not from New England, I’m not able to make it home for Thanksgiving and be back in time for post-Thanksgiving practices. In November of 2017, when I was a freshman on the team, Coach Reilly realized this before I did, and invited me to his family’s Thanksgiving dinner after the very first practice of our season.
Last Thanksgiving I was invited back to the Reillys’ home where I was joined by Will Ingram ’21, from Dallas, and Matt Folger. We played Monopoly with Coach Russ’ grandkids, Russell and William, and ate some of the best Thanksgiving food imaginable in front of a window that looked out on the Adirondack mountains.
Coach Reilly and his wife, Jane, welcomed us like family. The kindness they showed me those two Thanksgivings turned what easily could have been dark holidays away from home into some of my fondest college memories.
My teammates and I were recipients of Coach Reilly’s kindness every day, and got to see it more up-close and personal than most. But the impression he made on the broader Middlebury community was still personal and profound for all he interacted with.
“Russ’ impact cannot be defined by any particular role or job he held over his long tenure at Middlebury,” Quinn said. “It is defined more by his sense of humor, sense of service, and his integrity, regardless of his role.”
A celebration of life for Russ Reilly will be held on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2019 at 3 p.m. at Mead Chapel, followed by a reception in Pepin Gymnasium.
(09/12/19 10:03am)
With the new school year comes a new season of cross country, and the men’s and women’s cross country teams are aiming to surpass the success that they experienced last season. The men ended last season with a third place finish in the Nescac Championships and a 15th place finish in the NCAA Championships. The women ended last season by winning the NESCAC Championships as well as capturing eighth place in the NCAA Championships.
“Our main goal is to keep everyone healthy and see everyone reach their peak at the right time,” Anna Willig ’20 said.
The Panthers took their first step towards reaching their peak at the Vermont Tech Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 7. Both the men’s and women’s teams captured first place in their respective races. For the men, the Panthers captured 12 of the first 17 places, with Henry Fleming coming in first. For the women, the Panthers captured 13 of the first 17 places. Talia Ruxin ’20 placed first amongst all runners.
“Team spirits are very high right now,” Willig said. “We have had a fantastic week of training during preseason and are very excited about everyone who’s new to the team this year. We have a strong, deep, talented team, and everyone is excited to see what we can do this year.”
Already on track with their goals, the cross country team will be prepping for the Bates Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 14.
(09/12/19 10:01am)
Middlebury men’s golf kicks off their fall season this weekend, Saturday, Sept. 14–Sunday, Sept. 15, as the hosts of the Duke Nelson Invitational.
The team returns to the Ralph Myre Golf Course having lost four seniors. The Panthers will have to work to replace the contributions of Reid Buzby ’19 and Philippe Morin ’19, who were mainstays on the course last year.
The team adds three freshmen, Hogan Beazley ’23, Anthony King ’23, and Sean McGarrity ’23 to the mix, who hope to slot in and make an impact. They will be sure to look to captains David Packer ’20 and Jeffrey Giguere ’20, who returns after missing the fall competitions while abroad in Italy.
The men will travel to Williamstown next weekend for the Williams Fall Invitational, in preparation for the Nescac Championship Qualifier the weekend thereafter, starting Saturday, Sept. 28. The team will look to this weekend to kick off their quest to win the conference, in which they placed third last season.
Concluding the fall season will be the Saratoga Invitational in Saratoga Springs, New York from Saturday, Oct. 12th–Sunday, Oct. 13.
(09/12/19 10:00am)
On July 23, the Trump administration announced a proposal to drastically alter the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps. Their proposed changes would revoke benefits for 3.1 million Americans and over 13,000 Vermonters.
For 20 years, 43 states including Vermont have employed an option within SNAP called ‘broad-based categorical eligibility.’ The administration is trying to eliminate it with this proposal.
This option makes 3SquaresVT, the Vermont name for SNAP, “even more effective and responsive to the needs of food insecure Vermonters,” according to a news release by non-profit organization Hunger Free Vermont in August. It allows states to expand access to SNAP to more low-income people, by giving states more flexibility with the gross monthly income limit.
In order to be eligible for SNAP, households must fall under the federal limit, which is 130% of the poverty level. With broad-based categorical eligibility, states can raise the limit. “It allows states to really align the income limit with the need in the state,” said Drake Turner, Food Security Advocacy Manager at Hunger Free Vermont. In Vermont, it’s currently set at 185% of the federal poverty level.
“The federal government says they’re trying to close a loophole, but that’s really misrepresenting what broad based categorical eligibility is,” Turner said.
Hunger Free Vermont explains that the option is “a provision used by our state to help 3SquaresVT reach households that are working and may have slightly higher incomes but significant expenses (such as high housing, medical, and childcare costs).”
All households are still required to apply to SNAP and meet the same requirements as anyone else in order to receive benefits.
Last December, Congress passed a bipartisan Farm Bill that considered and rejected the change the Trump administration is now attempting to make. So, the administration is trying a different avenue, one which allows them to bypass Congress.
“This proposal is another in a long line of actions by this administration to demonize low-income Americans and keep them from applying for programs that help them and their families get what they need to thrive,” said Anore Horton, Executive Director of Hunger Free Vermont, in an article published by the organization.
The broad-based eligibility option “has become a key part of the SNAP program over the last two decades,” Turner said, “so states will have to spend a lot of money to change in accordance with the rule, if it goes into effect.”
Turner is also concerned about free school meals. The proposed rule would “jeopardize more than 500,000 children’s access to free school breakfast and lunch,” according to the Food Research and Action Center.
Children whose households receive SNAP benefits are automatically eligible for free school meals. If their households lose SNAP benefits, they may lose free school meals because of differing requirements, or have to apply separately for free meals.
This will also impact community eligibility, which allows high-poverty schools to offer free breakfast and lunch to all students if at least 40% of their students are certified for free meals without an application. Most students who fall under this category are certified for school meals through SNAP.
“These kids already don’t have enough to eat, and now they’ll be even hungrier. This will impact their ability to grow and learn. Is this how we want to steward the future generation?” asked Jeanne Montross, Executive Director of Middlebury-based nonprofit Helping Overcome Poverty’s Effects (HOPE).
SNAP has been proven to reduce hunger, help bring people out of poverty, and lead to positive short and long-term health, education, and employment outcomes.
“If the Trump Administration was truly concerned about food insecurity, it would be working to increase wages and improve access to housing, health care, and food assistance, instead of repeatedly proposing severe cuts to programs that support low-income Americans,” reads an article on the Hunger Free Vermont website. All in all, $7.5 million in benefits coming into Vermont would be lost per year with the proposed change.
Lily Bradburn, Local Food Access Coordinator at HOPE, is concerned that something as simple as losing SNAP benefits could significantly hurt individuals struggling with poverty, potentially even pushing them towards worse situations than before.
Before the rule can be passed, the Trump administration is required to collect and review public comments about the impact of the proposed change. So, Hunger Free Vermont is fighting it with a campaign to encourage people to submit comments.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture must review every single submission before a final decision is made by the government. There have been collections of public comments that have had substantial impacts in the past, said Turner. “Also, the comments create a record of public opposition,” she added, “so it can be proven that the given decision is going against the will of the people.”
The deadline to submit comments is Sept. 23. More information about the campaign and instructions for submitting comment are available at www.hungerfreevt.org/protect3squaresvt.
(09/12/19 10:00am)
Women’s tennis is back on the Proctor Courts after a successful fourth-place finish last Spring.
The women will battle in four tournaments this fall. Their season kicks off at Williams College for the Lindsay Morehouse Invitational on Sept. 13.
Turnover from last year was minimal, with only Christina Puccenell ’19 graduating, and three incoming freshmen joining this year’s squad. Juniors Emily Bian and Ann Martin Skelly will not be competing this semester because the two are studying abroad in Australia and Scotland respectively.
Despite their absences, plenty of experience will be guiding the Panthers thanks to the presence of five seniors.
Expect Heather Boehm ’20, the 2019 NESCAC Player of the Year and beloved Campus Sports Editor, to dominate singles and doubles. Katherine Hughes ’20, should also excel in singles and doubles when paired with Skylar Schossberger ’20.
Maddi Stow ’20 will be a force on both the singles and doubles end, and Catherine Blazye ’20 will hopefully be making a return to the court after a difficult year off due to an injury.
(09/12/19 10:00am)
Varsha Vijayakumar ’20 knows that being the president of the Student Government Association (SGA) isn’t what her family expected her to do in college. Her parents, immigrants from India who settled in the northern New Jersey town of Harrington Park where she was born and raised, saw college as a place to study, excel in classes and secure a good job. But Vijayakumar saw it as so much more; a place where she could learn from her peers and use that knowledge to give back to them through student government.
While she also thinks classes are important, she explained that she has often found the real value of college has been the personal relationships she’s built with her peers through extra-curricular activities.
“I think that I’ve learned so much more from those activities during my time here than I ever have in a classroom,” she said.
Vijayakumar brought this mentality to her run to office last spring. Her platform, which helped win her 60% of the vote, was generated from direct student input. She created a Facebook event called “Let’s Run for President” and set up shop in the back room of Crossroads for hours as students filtered through, throwing down ideas in conversation and onto a collaborative document. Vijayakumar organized the ideas, categorized them and made them her entire platform.
“If the president is supposed to be representing the entire student body, then the platforms and initiatives that I develop shouldn’t be coming from me, they should be coming from the student body,” she said.
Vijayakumar sees the SGA not as a body with authority, but rather the link between student concerns and sustainable change enacted by the student government and administrators.
“I can’t get every student’s input, but I’m going to get as many as I can and develop my platform around that. My platform is our platform,” she said.
Her parents have long since come around as well — Vijayakumar said her dad wasted no time bragging about her ascent to the SGA presidency when she won the election last spring.
In a welcome email to the student body this week, Vijayakumar listed some initiatives that SGA began working on over the summer, including improving the course review site MiddCourses, expanding the relationship between the college and the local community, discontinuing Panther Day in favor of the arts festival Nocturne and making it easier for international students to complete summer internships in the U.S.
On the eve of her year-long term as SGA president, Vijayakumar sat down with the Campus to talk about her path through student government, her goals for the year and her hope for significant and lasting change. The interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
MIDDLEBURY CAMPUS: How did you end up at Middlebury?
VARSHA VIJAYAKUMAR: I knew that I didn’t want to end up as a number, and I felt that if I went to a big university I wouldn’t be able to have the same relationships with my peers and I wouldn’t be able to know my professors in the same way. Something that has guided my entire life is building relationships with people, and I couldn’t imagine letting go of that in college, or ever letting go of that. This is going to sound ridiculous but I got on campus, parked in front of Old Chapel, looked toward Mead Chapel and I felt it in my bones.
My time here has had its ups and downs, but being abroad last fall has really made me appreciate it here. At one point I was missing the salad bar in Ross. This is a place that I’ve invested so much of myself into. So many people do that, and I’ve met so many brilliant individuals here that have shaped so much of it, and it’s odd being a senior because I’m doing all of it for the last time.
MC: Why did you first decide to become involved in SGA?
VV: I didn’t know about elections the first year until after the deadline, but honestly I don’t think I would have had the courage to run. However, I was on the Institutional Diversity and Inequity committee my first year and experienced the committee side of things. As sophomore year rolled around, I realized that a perspective like mine was not in SGA. But I still didn’t want to run, and I remember asking so many people if they would run for sophomore senator, but nobody wanted to do it. Then there was this moment where I said, “I guess I’ll do it.” I don’t think, at that point, I’d gotten farther than, “We need certain voices in Senate.” I didn’t know what was going on there in that body, but nobody wanted to do it. Then I joined, and realized that it was an important body with the ability to make lasting sustainable change if we utilize it correctly, and that was my motivation to stay in it. Then, I became hooked by the scope of opportunities.
MC: When did you know you wanted to run for president?
VV: Last semester, I was of the opinion that if someone could do the job better than me, I didn’t need to do the job, but then I realized I was the best person for it. Running was a chaotic process, but also a very rewarding one. The day I announced that I was running, there were at least three people a day coming up to me telling me about things they care about. I started thinking: How can we actually channel this energy into accomplishing things that people care about? And that’s how I developed my platform.
MC: What are your first goals in office?
VV: My main vision is to figure out how we can unify: unify the SGA in terms of getting Senate and Cabinet to have conversations with each other and work hand in hand, but also unify students, and get student opinions in a way that we can streamline effectively so that we can harness student interest in a positive way. How can we then build a better relationship with the administration? How can we unify faculty and staff with students?
We’re all important stakeholders in this community, and a lot of the time we don’t really talk to each other. My vision is: How do we find common ground, and how do we work positively from that? My personal goal is to make sure that I can guarantee, come elections in the spring, that I’ve made a lasting positive impact on this campus.
MC: Do you think that the tension with administration at the end of the last semester has affected the way that SGA functions? Has it affected your perspective on the presidency?
VV: If anything, the mobilization of the 13 Proposals has taught me that, bottom line, regardless of how people felt about the situation, people really cared. Immensely. I’ve thought much more intensively about this since that situation at the end of the spring, and I want to know how can we channel that energy so that it’s not something that bubbles up and is tense and overwhelming, but so that students can express what’s bothering them when it comes up.
We all just want to make this a better place. I don’t think that anybody is trying to harm this community. I think keeping that in mind is key, so that we can make the change that students want.
MC: What are some things that you hope have happened by May?
VV: One of my biggest goals is following through on the initiatives that we’ve already developed and committed ourselves to and institutionalizing them better. When senators and directors come up with initiatives, I want them to be tangible, and something that we can accomplish. Everyone wants change but nobody is willing to do the work.The dream is that we can be this body that identifies and fills the gaps.
We don’t claim to be an authority in any way. But there are faculty and staff and administrators who dedicate their entire lives to solving issues. We want to be a body that supports everyone’s growth and grows along with them. I don’t see the work I’m doing as something confined to a year, especially because I see a lot of what we’re doing as maintaining continuity through the years, so it shouldn’t matter that my tenure is up in a year. My work should be continued by the future SGA president.
(09/12/19 9:59am)
SPECS (Sex Positive Education for College Students), a student organization focused on sex positive peer education, initiated new programming for this semester’s first-year orientation week on Sept. 4.
The group hosted an information table in Axinn with boxes of condoms, lubricant, dental dams, and different contraceptive devices and safe sex devices, according to MiddView Orientation Intern Niki Kowsar ’21.5.
“You generally see condoms and know what they are but for other products you might not know much about it,” Kowsar said. “It was really interesting to learn more about them.”
The event was one of 13 optional activities for incoming students, and was aimed at spreading the word about what resources SPECS has to offer, Peer Sex Educator Emma Brown ’21 said.
The impetus for SPECS came out of a class project and first became a club in 2017, said Peer Sex Educator Anna Durning ’19.5. The group underwent several iterations before becoming a group under the supervision of Barbara McCall, Director of Health and Wellness Education.
“Sex positivity is a counter approach to mainstream shaming and abstinence-only sexual health education curricula,” McCall wrote in an email to the Campus. “It means acknowledging that sexuality and sexual expression can be a normal, healthy part of people’s lives.”
SPECS delves into subjects, like pleasure, that may have been ignored or brushed aside in high school or previous sex-ed experiences, Brown said. She also emphasized the group’s focus on consent and sex education beyond the traditional, heternormative curriculum.
However, the discretionary, drop-in format of the orientation event did not allow for substantial programming, and only four new students visited the table, Durning said.
“I was really excited to learn that SPECS was given permission to participate in orientation, but disappointed when I found out that our event had to be during the optional, drop-in activity time,” Durning said
SPECS members felt that orientation would have been an opportune time to institute a mandatory sex ed workshop and reach more new students.
Said Durning, “Given the nature of the workshops, students can find it embarrassing to choose to attend them so making them mandatory would erase the social pressure that keeps people from turning up.”
But the group was still able to have productive conversations with students and put together a “build-your-own safer sex kit” activity at the event, Durning said.
Ella Houlihan ’21, another Peer Sex Educator, was also disappointed that SPECS did not receive mandatory slots for this year’s first-year events but remains optimistic about the (sex) positive influence the group can have moving forward.
McCall did not comment on the details of how SPECS was designated an optional rather than mandatory activity for orientation, but said she would like to see the group continue to participate in the coming years.
“It’s important for every student to have medically accurate, non-judgmental and age-appropriate information about their bodies and safer sex practices,” McCall said. Students go to each other with questions first, she said, so SPECS gives peer educators a chance to address those concerns and provide resources.
Kowsar and SPECS Peer Sex Educators said they’re hopeful the student organization will take on a more significant role during future first-year orientation weeks.
SPECS plans to keep collaborating with ResLife and with the Student Government Associations’s Sexual and Relationship Respect Committee to make sure that all students can receive consent workshops, Durning said.
Students can expect to see other programming in the coming months, including pleasure and communication workshops and trivia nights in Atwater Dining Hall. SPECS will also conduct first-year dorm workshops and is accepting requests from sports teams, social houses and other groups on campus to facilitate workshops.
(05/23/19 4:13pm)
Since the Student Government Association (SGA) presented its 13 Proposals for Community Healing at a town hall on April 23, the administration has agreed to address several of the SGA’s demands. For now, the administration’s actions appeared to appease the SGA Senate, who ended the academic year without fanfare weeks after several members threatened to dissolve the body if the administration failed to address their demands.
The proposals include calls for mandatory bias training for faculty, a black studies program and a new LGBTQ+ center, among others. Travis Sanderson ’19, a senior SGGA senator, said the proposals had succeeded in pushing the administration to act.
“The administration has capitulated to certain proposals due to students' pressure,” he said.
The proposals to which administrators agreed to address include adding another student to the Community Bias Response Team and beginning conversations on an LGBTQ+ center with a working group of faculty, staff and students. The administration also said it would commit further to plans to make the restrooms in all new buildings gender-inclusive, including those in the new building that will house the computer science department and faculty offices starting next year as well as those in buildings awaiting renovations, like Munroe Hall, Johnson Memorial Building and Warner Hall.
Sanderson said he appreciates the heightened level of transparency coming from the administration in announcing to the student body plans that are already underway, including the search for two new Health and Wellness positions who can work with students of underrepresented identities.
“The administration has also shown good faith in committing to bringing up the idea of a second student delegate to the Board of Trustees, increasing student representation in the Senior Leadership Group, and clarifying plans regarding Black Studies,” he said.
At the faculty meeting last Tuesday, faculty voted to accept the proposal for a Black Studies major, beginning in the 2019-2020 academic year. The proposal can be found at go/BLSTproposal.
Chief Diversity Officer Miguel Fernandez said a working group has been working on the proposal for almost two years.
“This is the 3rd attempt I am aware of by the faculty to create an ethnic studies major over the past 20 years,” Fernandez told The Campus. “The previous two failed for different reasons. As our discussions moved along, we ended up focusing on Black Studies.”
Fernandez added that college has not abandoned the idea of creating an Ethnic Studies major, which could further down the road encompass programs like Black Studies, Latinx Studies and Asian American Studies.
The administration also announced plans to offer bias training to faculty and staff come fall. According to Director of Education Renee Wells, the program will consist of a new “continuing education program” rather than stand-alone workshops.
“The goal is to provide space for faculty and staff to center inclusive practice in their individual work and to be part of a community of practitioners who are engaging with each other on an ongoing basis about what that can and does look like,” she said.
All faculty and staff will be able to register for any individual workshop, but none of the workshops will be mandatory.
On Tuesday, May 7, the Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (OIDEI) hosted a community conversation about a campus climate assessment report conducted over the last year as well as about the SGA’s proposals.
“Our goal is to create space for us to come together, discuss the climate concerns we face, share how these concerns impact our community, and collectively imagine a path forward that thoughtfully and intentionally addresses these challenges,” Fernandez wrote in an all-student email.
The first hour of the event was spent in small-group facilitated dialogues, followed by a second hour of a community dinner with remarks given by President Laurie L. Patton. The event as a whole allowed students to engage with representatives of the administration about campus climate concerns, as well as to understand the steps being taken to address such concerns such as the ones pushed in the 13 proposals.
Despite the steps taken by the administration to address specific student concerns, there is still skepticism about how much this progress actually means. John Gosselin ’20, the current Community Council co-chair and incoming senior senator who wrote an op-ed against the SGA’s threats to dissolve in April, said the administration’s response was limited by the rushed timeline the SGA proposed.
“The administration did not give sufficient responses because we did not give them sufficient time to formulate a good response,” he said. “Over the next year, the SGA should support these proposals by clarifying the language used to express them, inviting administrators to our weekly meetings, and asking trustees to Skype into our meetings. Instead of demanding certain proposals from the entire faculty, we should work with faculty amenable to our proposals to target our statements before making public pronouncements.”
Sanderson said he thinks students need to remain vigilant in making sure the administration delivers on its plans.
“Overall, I am moderately satisfied but feel there is a long way to go,” he said. “Financial transparency remains unaddressed, and many of the plans remain unrealized.”
Fernandez wrote in advance of last Tuesday’s event that “all the recommendations will be reviewed by OIDEI as we begin mapping out our strategic plan for diversity, equity and inclusion over the summer.”
Both Sanderson and Gosselin stressed the importance of working with administrators and faculty members on specific proposals to increase the likelihood that the 13 proposals will be realized. The Senate will look to pick up their work on these proposals in the fall and will continue to work with student advocates, faculty and administration on enacting specific proposals.
“This is one step, one of many,” Sanderson said, “and vigilance will be needed from both students and their senators.”
(05/09/19 10:32am)
Hundreds of hopeful half-marathoners took off from the starting line at Porter Hospital to run in the Middlebury Maple Run on Sunday, May 5. The race began at 9 a.m., and runners could look forward to a scenic yet hilly trail crisscrossing Middlebury and featuring views of the Green and Adirondack Mountains. Temperatures hovered in the mid-to-high sixties, and no clouds marred the blue sky. A festive air hung over the entire event as supporters and racers alike enjoyed the warm spring day.
Runners had three options for participating in the Maple Run. They could choose between the full half marathon, a relay half marathon (in which teams of two complete the race in two legs) or a 3-mile fun run. This year, 308 runners elected to participate in the full half, another 66 runners ran the race in two-person relay teams and 133 runners completed the 3-mile fun run. Runners of a variety of backgrounds and ages gathered to race. According to the Maple Run press release, nearly 40 percent of the runners in the field traveled from other states to participate, and the race featured finishers as young as 13 and as old as 79.
Many Middlebury College students also chose to spend their Sunday mornings running. William Kelley ’21 and Emma Brown ’21 made up the second place finishing half-marathon relay team, “Will I Emma ple Run Team.” Though the name may seem like a typo, it is actually a pun that subtly weaves the two runners’ names into the phrase Maple Run. The duo — silly name and all — embodied the casual and joyful spirit of Sunday’s competition.
Kelley reported having a great time at the race. “All of the runners were super supportive and there was a lot of energy all along the course. Every time I got over a tough hill, there were people pushing me on at the top, which almost made me look forward to the next one,” he said.
Brown agreed, and she plans to push herself even further in coming years, saying “the full half marathon is definitely now on my bucket list of things to do while at Middlebury.”
The registration fee for the full half was $45 for students and $65 for non-students. Around 50 of the Middlebury students running the race, including Brown and Kelley, had their registration fee partially covered by Middruns, the college running club. Leila Markosian ’21, who is the treasurer of Middruns and also ran the half marathon, said that this was the highest number of race entries that the club has ever sponsored.
“Middruns aims to make running as accessible as possible for everyone,” she explained. “It’s important for Middruns to sponsor student entrance fees since that cost may be the thing preventing someone from participating in the Maple Run.”
The Maple Run organization uses the proceeds from the race to support a number of causes. This year, the money was distributed between six Addison County area nonprofits including WomenSafe, Addison County Home Health and Hospice and Habitat for Humanity. Since the Maple Run was first held in 2009, the race has generated over $65,000 for local nonprofits like these organizations.
The Maple Run organizers also provided extensive support to the runners. Many aid stations dotted the race courses, and runners were greeted at the finish line by a pancake breakfast and a convivial atmosphere on the lawn outside of Porter Hospital. Finished runners and their friends and families enjoyed pancakes and the beautiful weather as race organizers jubilantly announced the name of each new runner to approach the finish line. Many exhausted runners lounged on the grass, while others cradled bouquets of flowers brought by supporters. There was an air of triumph about the scene as the runners, having completed their collective challenge, milled about chatting with friends and basking in the sun.
In addition to the satisfaction of completing the race, there was also a bevy of prizes available to top finishers. All runners to cross the finish line received a finisher’s medal, but the fastest three male and female runners were awarded $25, $50 and $75 respectively. In addition, the top male and female finishers in each age category were awarded a bottle of Vermont-made maple syrup.
Middlebury College students featured heavily among the top finishers in the race. On the men’s side, Morgan Perlman ’19, Lewis Nottonson ’19 and Ben Arquit ’20 came in first, second and third place respectively. Perlman completed the 13.1 miles in a time of 1:18.40, which comes out to a pace of six minutes per mile. The top finishers for women in order were Kimberly Lord of South Hero, Vermont, Catherine Marshall ’21 and Jennifer Moltz of Hyde Park, Vermont. Lord finished the race in a time of 1:30.28, placing 11th overall and clocking in at a pace of just under seven minutes per mile.
High spirits abounded throughout the entire event. Combined with the timely arrival of lovely spring weather, this made for a highly successful edition of the Middlebury Maple Run. The tradition is a force for good in the community, bringing local residents and college students alike out to compete, drawing visitors to the area and contributing money to local charities. Looking back on this year’s event, one can only hope that the Maple Run continues to host successful races like this one for years to come.
(05/09/19 10:00am)
The Middlebury women’s lacrosse team conquered the Tufts Jumbos for their 10th NESCAC Championship this past Sunday, 10-9. With the conference championship under their belts, the team earned an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, as well as a home game in their first national tournament match.
The competition started with a back-and-forth first half, as momentum changed rapidly between the elite teams. Just as Middlebury’s senior captain Emma McDonagh hit the back of the net within five minutes of the game, Tufts answered with two goals of their own. Kirsten Murphy ’21 and Jenna McNicholas ’19 countered the Tufts response, with assists from Jane Earley ’22. Tufts then regained momentum, taking back the lead right before half, 5-4.
Tufts was able to extend its lead to three goals following halftime. Murphy and Earley then responded with two offensive strikes, eliminating the gap, and bringing the score to 7-6. Another back-and-forth stint brought the score to 9-9 with only five minutes left on the clock.
With four minutes left in the game, McDonagh punched the final goal to seal the win, sending the Panthers into the NCAA tournament.
Jane Earley, NESCAC player of the week for the second time this season, scored a career-high five goals against Tufts. When asked about the team’s performance, Earley dedicated her squad’s success to their composure and motivation, which not only handed them a NESCAC Championship, but a chance at a larger post-season.
Though Tufts fell short of a NESCAC title, they earned an at-large bid into the national tournament, and did so alongside many other NESCAC teams, showing the strength of the conference. Including Middlebury and Tufts, fiveNESCAC teams filled the national bracket: Middlebury, Bowdoin, Amherst, Wesleyan and Tufts.
“I think we stayed composed, especially when Tufts went up a few goals on us. We stayed calm and slowly but steadily won back the momentum,” Earley said, “It feels amazing to share such a huge accomplishment with all of my best friends. We have worked so hard to be successful in such a challenging league and to have all of our hard work pay off was so rewarding.”
This upcoming Sunday, the Middlebury squad will either play JWU (16-4) or Morrisville State (14-5), depending on the results of the JMU vs. Morrisville first-round game on Saturday. Either way, the Panthers will be hosting the game on their home turf.
If the Panthers continue their 13-game streak of holding opponents to single digits, as well as their perfect record against nationally-ranked opponents (12-0), their journey into the NCAA tournament will be exciting and something to watch.
(05/09/19 9:54am)
In by far the most exciting game of the year, the Middlebury Panthers were outlasted by Tufts University 14-13 in the NESCAC semifinals. On a day full of ups and downs and twists and turns, the Panthers left it all out on the field. Despite the loss, Midd held their heads high and were proud of how well they played throughout the game.
Simply put, the first quarter was wild. After Tufts opened up the scoring early in the first, the Panthers answered with three goals of their own. Contributions came all from different players, including sophomore Pierce Frick, his second of the year. The teams really just answered one another right away, with Tufts scoring twice again. However, Midd answered with three more goals of their own, two from sophomore Will Brossman. It was exciting to see all these new guys step up to the challenge and really balance out the team dynamic. At the :34 second mark left in the first, Freshman Jack Sheehan got on the board in big spot to put the Panthers up 7-5. On a firing shot in the latter seconds, star Chase Goree netted one to take a pretty sizable 8-5 lead going into the second. The second quarter was not like the first. As the defense began to settle in and goalies started to feel more comfortable in net, the scoring came to a halt. Each team netted two of their own, pretty evenly dispersed throughout the quarter. First-year phenom, Tyler Forbes scored one of his own, while Brossman added to his total for the game. Going into the half, Midd maintained a sizable 3 goal lead.
The Panthers came out firing in the third quarter. Jack Sheehan scored from a good distance away to open up what was a great quarter for the Panthers. Tyler Bass made some great saves in goal, while the Panthers got two more goals from Goree and Feldman. In a quarter completely dominated by Middlebury’s attack, the Panthers had a demanding 13-8 going into the last stretch. However, the Jumbos knew what had to be done to avoid the upset.
Unfortunately, Tufts showed what they were really capable of in the fourth quarter. By really going on the attack and playing aggressive, stifling defense, Tufts was able to hold the Panthers scoreless, while scoring five goals of their own. The heartbreaker was a goal in the last five seconds of the game to force overtime. In overtime, it really was anyone’s game: first goal to score wins. While Middlebury played great defense throughout, the Jumbos found a way to put it in the back of the net, again in the late seconds.
Contributions came from many new faces in the game. Brossman led the scoring with three goals, Jake Madnick had 14 ground balls on the game, and Bass had 12 saves on 26 shots. It was a fantastic effort by the Panthers and a sad way to end their season, but it was a quite impressive showing on their part. The Panthers end their season at 8-9 and miss the NCAA tournament.
(05/09/19 9:52am)
The Middlebury track and field team competed well in the Division III New England Championships on Friday, May 3 and Saturday, May 4.
Previously, Nick Hendrix ’20 said the team would prepare for the meet with a “business as usual” attitude. “There will probably a bit more of an individual focus as athletes concentrate on their best events and try to get qualifying marks,” Hendrix said. “As far as training goes, we’re all in good shape now, so our volume will go down and staying fresh is the priority.”
The men’s team finished in third place with 64 points. They were behind MIT, who finished with 139.50 points and Tufts, who finished with 89.50 points. To start the meet off, Hendrix finished in third place in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.76. Nathan Hill ’20 came in first place in the 800 meter run with a time of 1:50.56.
On the 800-meter race, Hill said, “It was a great race. New England is particularly strong in the 800, and so tough competition usually breeds fast times. I always look forward to competing against that group.”
In the 1500-meter run, Jon Perlman ’19 and Will Meyer ’20 came in third and fourth place, respectively. Perlman had a time of 3:53.37 and Meyer had a time of 3:53.40. Theo Henderson’s time of 14:56.28 placed him second in the 5000-meter run. The 4x100 meter relay team composed of Noah Wagner-Carlberg ’19, Hendrix, Arden Coleman ’20 and Conor Banky ’19 got third place with a time of 42.08. A throw of 59.73 meters got Minhaj Rahman ’19 the win in the hammer throw event. Also, John Natalone ’19 captured third in the pole vault event, while Jack Litowitz ’20 ended in fourth in the 3000-meter steeplechase.
“I think we performed very well at this meet,” Perlman said. “It can be tough to come back from such an emotional meet like NESCACs, but we were still able to have a large number of people get personal bests and position themselves high up on the national qualifying list.”
The women’s team tied for seventh place in a total field of 34 teams with 34 points, while Williams and MIT came in first and second place respectively. The Panthers scored well in many of the races at the meet. Cassidy Kearney ’22 captured third place and Meg Wilson ’20 captured fourth place in the 800-meter run. Kearney finished with a time of 2:11.55, while Wilson had a time of 2:13.37. In the 1500-meter run, the Panthers were able to finish in the fifth, sixth and seventh spots. Here, Abigail Nadler ’19 had a time of 4:38.86, Rory Kelly ’19 had a time of 4:38.98 and Kate MacCary ’19 had a time of 4:40.35. The 4x400-meter relay team was able to come in fifth place with a time of 3:53.72. This team was composed of Lucy Lang ’19, Ava O’Mara ’21, Julia Munz ’22, Kearney and Gretchen McGrath ’21. Kreager Taber ’19 came in fourth in the pole vault event with a vault of 3.51 meters. Also, a throw of 39.96 meters placed Rebecca Gorman ’20 sixth in the javelin throw event.
Kearney said, “I was really excited and surprised with my performance at the meet this past weekend ... My coach (Nicole Wilkerson) is always cognizant of how to construct workouts so that athletes peak at the right time in the season, and I think that the performances in D3’s overall really showed how everyone is at their highest fitness level. I PR’ed by two seconds in the 800 to run 2:11, and I also was part of the 4x4 relay, in which we just barely broke the school record in 3:53.”
The Panthers’ journey to the end of the season continues, as they will participate in the Open New England Championships on Friday, May 10 and Saturday, May 11, and then the NCAA Championships on May 23-25. This team definitely has the spirit to continue their success as the end of the season nears.
“Open New England’s always has strong competition and we plan to prepare by challenging each other each and every day in practice,” Hill said. “It has been such a successful year thus far from a team perspective and we hope to continue that success.”
Kearney added, “Many athletes realized their potential and are now focusing on what goals they can accomplish next. This end portion of the season seems super fun as the level of competition rises.”
(05/02/19 10:00am)
(05/02/19 10:00am)
Campus lore suggests that varsity athletes at Middlebury are socially liberal, fiscally conservative economics majors. Some stereotypes surrounding varsity athletes are rooted in truth. Zeitgeist reveals, however, that the stereotypical image of a Middlebury athlete is not indicative of athletes as a whole.
Political Views
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When comparing social and fiscal views, most students in general, varsity athletes included, reported being socially and fiscally liberal. For both student athletes and the general student body, individuals’ social and fiscal values went hand in hand
In line with conventional belief, athletes demonstrated a slightly stronger likelihood of holding socially liberal and fiscally conservative values, as evidenced by the bigger size of the dots in the upper left quadrant of the varsity athlete political spectrum graph. However, the range of political values remained mostly consistent between varsity athletes and the overall population sample.
Academics
While 16% of Zeitgeist survey participants were varsity athletes, they are represented disportionately in certain majors. Athletes made up 30% of surveyed economics majors. Additionally, 21% of all neuroscience majors and 23% of all psychology majors were varsity athletes.
Sexual Activity
Another stereotype about athletes is that they may have more sexual partners than non-athletes. Both groups of students most commonly engaged in consensual sexual activity in the last 12 months with one to three partners, with 53% of athletes and 55% of non-athletes falling into this category. However, 23% of athletes had 4-6 partners compared to 13% of non-athletes.
Financial Aid
11% of varsity athletes reported being on financial aid, while 21% of non-athletes were on financial aid. This disparity in financial-aid recipients could reflect the expenses involved in nurturing athletic talent over an athlete’s career. Varsity athletes who are playing at the Division III level likely practiced their sport via private lessons or through a traveling club, both of which can be costly ventures.
Loneliness
One in five non-athletes feel lonely once a day, while one in 10 athletes feel lonely once a day. Research has shown that there is an loneliness epidemic on college campus in today’s age of social media, especially during a student’s first year. Many athletes seem to forge strong bonds with their teammates, which could be why athletes are slightly less likely to feel lonely.
Dining Halls
General student population preferences were fairly evenly split between Proctor, Atwater and Ross Dining Halls, with 39% of the student body preferring Proctor. Varsity athletes were slightly more likely to opt to go to Atwater, which captured 39% of varsity athletes’ top choice.
(05/02/19 10:00am)
Approximately one in six women has been a victim of sexual assault on Middlebury’s campus or during a Middlebury program, according to Zeitgeist survey results. In total, 12% of respondents have been sexually assaulted. The survey reveals that female students are nearly five times more likely to be the victim of sexual assault than male students.
Furthermore, some students may be more likely to be victims of sexual assault or violence based on their sexual orientation. According to Zeitgeist, 22% of students who identified as homosexual, bisexual, or questioning reported being victims of sexual assault, more than twice as likely as the 9% of heterosexual students.
In recent years, sexual assault on college campuses has gained widespread attention across the nation. Student activists at Middlebury have used a variety of strategies to raise awareness surrounding sexual assault at Middlebury. Earlier this year, the student-run organization It Happens Here released The Map Project, a map of Middlebury’s campus that marks the location of an incidence of sexual assault or harassment with a red dot. The 2019 map, which used data collected anonymously from Middlebury students during fall of 2018, had a total of 108 red dots covering buildings of campus, with Battell and Atwater Halls being among the most reported sites.
IHH and Zeitgeist show the prevalence of sexual assault at Middlebury, but rates of official reporting remain low. Only 18 of the 144 total victims of sexual assault reported the incident.Of those who did report the incident, only 3 people reported that they were satisfied with how the college handled their case.
In order to combat campus sexual violence, the college implemented the Green Dot Violence Prevention Strategy in 2015. Green Dot is a program that trains students, faculty, and staff in bystander intervention to help prevent instances of power-based personal violence. The training, which has been included in orientation for first-years since the class of 2018.5, encourages students to be proactive in preventing sexual violence as bystanders.
Zeitgeist asked survey respondents to indicate if they had been a bystander of a “Red Dot event,” referring to suspicious instances of potential or actual sexual assault. The proportion of Red Dot bystanders increased by roughly 5% with each grade level, with 21% of seniors and senior febs having served as a bystander in a Red Dot event compared to 6% of the first-year class. The overall Red Dot bystander rate was 13.91%.
(05/02/19 10:00am)
The Campus solicited input for the 2019 Zeitgeist survey via an all-student email sent by The Campus on March 11, 2019. After consolidating student, faculty, and administrative input, members of the Zeitgeist team generated 31 survey questions as well as 9 demographic indicators.
The Campus distributed the survey an all-student email on the afternoon of April 2. Responses were open for 13 days, until midnight on April 15. Respondents followed an anonymous link to the questionnaire hosted on the Qualtrics platform. After completing the survey, respondents had the option to enter a raffle. The participants’ identifying information was recorded on a separate database from the survey and survey responses and raffles entries were not linked.
Respondents were asked to respond to a series of questions grouped into four general categories: Academics and Institution, Lifestyle, Sexual Health and Wellness, and Political Views. Only the demographic questions were mandatory, with the remainder of questions both optional and offering a “I prefer not to answer” option or equivalent (when applicable).
The survey data was stored on the Qualtrics platform and distributed to a small group of analysts via Google Drive. Sharing permissions for the Google Drive folder were deleted after the completion of data analysis.
All analysts were required to submit a short letter of intent and to go through a vigorous interview process. In order to protect the confidentiality of respondents, the number of analysts was purposely kept small. All analysts signed a confidentiality form agreeing to adhere to the best practices indicated below.
Analysts were required to indicate their potential areas of conflict of interest and exclude themselves from the analysis if those conflicts were significant. Data remained only on the devices of analysts and never shared externally, including the administration, other clubs, or academic departments.
After finishing analysis, the raw data was wiped from the personal devices of all analysts. Analysts were expected to keep findings confidential until official publication.
When analyzing the data, the team did not examine specific entries or attempt to extract the entirety of a respondent’s data, but worked with the data as a whole. In particular, analysts were made aware of deductive disclosure and barred from using demographic indicators to pin down the specific identities of respondents.
In total, 1201 students responded out of Middlebury’s undergraduate student population of 2579, making the response rate 46.57%. We did not disclose findings that we would not have shared had we found the opposite conclusion to be true. In order to protect the confidentiality of respondents, we have chosen not to disclose or report the responses of groups with 5 or fewer members in demographic breakdowns.
The findings were then compiled and published in the May 2 edition of The Campus. In total, 25 students were closely involved with the making of this year’s Zeitgeist.
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(05/02/19 9:58am)
The Middlebury men’s lacrosse team entered the past weekend as the seventh seed in the NESCAC Tournament. After closing the regular season at 7-8, the Panthers were still confident they could make some damage in postseason play. Heading to second seed Wesleyan University on April 27, Middlebury showed just exactly what they are capable of. In a huge upset and the biggest win of the season, the Panthers won 11-7.
Tyler Forbes ’22 showed up to play once again, opening up the scoring at the 13:48 mark of the first. After winning the next faceoff, the Panthers regained possession and senior Luke Peterson netted a goal of his own in the next 40 seconds. Defense remained quite strong throughout the entire game. Wesleyan was able to get two back on the board in the first, but after junior Chase Goree’s goal, the game was 3-2 in Middlebury’s favor.
Wesleyan opened up scoring in the second quarter, but Middlebury’s offense was able to rebound quite quickly. Fans were quite impressed with the constant attack by the Panthers, who scored the next four goals of the half and took a demanding 7-3 lead into the second half. A.J. Kucinski ’20 added two of his own, while Forbes and Will Brossman ’21 netted one each on rifling shots.
In the second half, the Panthers proved just how good they were in the net and on the defense. It wasn’t until more than halfway through the third quarter when Wesleyan scored their first and last goal of the quarter. Middlebury followed with two goals of their own, again by Forbes and Kucinski. The Panthers could start to taste the victory but remained strong to close out the game on the attack. They did not let Wesleyan, fifth in the country, gain momentum. Wesleyan scored at the 11:19 mark, but Middlebury answered minutes later. Trading goals was simply not enough for Wesleyan to come back. After the Cardinals closed within three goals with four minutes to go, Goree put the icing on the cake with a great goal at the 2:26 mark.
The Panthers proved just how well-rounded they can be when their season is on the line. Sophomore Jack Hoelzer, who has played a decent amount throughout the season for the Panthers, praised how solid their team depth is. “We had a bunch of young guys stepping up to the plate and older guys leading us on Saturday. We played a really solid game and put together a solid 4 quarters,” Hoelzer stated.
A.J. Kucinski led the scoring with four goals and two assists, Forbes followed with three of his own. The man in goal earned a lot of praise this past weekend. “Tyler Bass [’21] played an amazing goal in net and with the help of the defense only let in seven goals 24 shots against the defending nationals champs,” Hoelzer said.
The Panthers will continue their postseason run as they head to tournament-host Tufts on Saturday to take on the Jumbos at 12:00 p.m.
