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(05/02/19 9:57am)
The Panthers wrapped up their regular season this past weekend as they picked up two victories against No. 6 Amherst (9-0) and No. 16 Skidmore (8-1). On Saturday, the Panthers blanked Amherst at home inside the Nelson Recreation Center before heading to Skidmore on Sunday for a 1:00 p.m. match. The Middlebury women’s tennis team has now won eight straight matches in a row, bringing their overall record to 13-1 and 7-0 within the NESCAC.
“We feel very fortunate to be in the position that we are in right now,” senior Christina Puccinelli said. “We can look back on a season of long practices and grueling matches and know that we’ve done everything we can to prepare ourselves for our goals of winning the NESCAC and NCAA titles!”
The Panthers kicked off the match against longtime “rival” Amherst by grabbing all three points during doubles play. The No. 3 duo of Puccinelli and Maddi Stow ’20 blanked Jackie Ahn and Laura Swenson 8-0, while the top squad of Heather Boehm ’20 and Ann Martin Skelly cruised past Risa Fukushige and Renee Karchere-Sun 8-2. The No. 2 junior duo of Katherine Hughes and Skyler Schossberger posted an 8-1 victory over Lily Feldman and Sofia Carlsson to secure the team’s third point.
The Panthers crushed their singles matches as well, sweeping all six points in straight sets. At the top of the lineup, Boehm won 6-3, 6-0, while Hughes clinched a 6-4, 6-0 victory against Smukler at the No. 2 spot. In the third flight, Puccinelli won 6-3, 6-3 against Dewire, while Schossberger triumphed 6-4, 6-3 over Ivenitsky at the No. 4 spot. At the No. 5 spot, Stow posted a 6-4, 6-1 victory against Camilla Trapness before Emily Bian ’21 rounded out the scoring with a 6-3, 6-4 win against Ramras at the bottom of the lineup.
On Sunday against Skidmore, the Panthers once again took all three doubles points. The No. 3 tandem of Puccinelli and Stow came out firing to earn an 8-0 victory over Jackie Ahn and Laura Swanson, while Boehm and Skelly eased past Risa Fukushige and Renee Karchere-Sun 8-2 in the top flight. At the No. 2 spot, Hughes and Schossberger clinched the team’s third point with an 8-1 win against Lily Feldman and Sofia Carlsson.
In singles action, Puccinelli did not drop a single game as she cruised past Karchere-Sun 6-0, 6-0 at the No. 3 spot. In the second flight, Hughes secured the team’s fifth point and overall victory with a 6-2, 6-0 win against Kaiova, Schossberger clinched a 6-2, 6-4 win against Feldman at the No. 4 spot. Emily Bian blanked her opponent at the bottom of the lineup and Stow posted a 6-4, 6-0 victory at the No. 5 spot. Skidmore picked up one point with a straight-set win at the top of the lineup for the final 8-1 score.
The Panthers are heading into the postseason on a high note as they eagerly anticipate the NESCAC Championships and NCAA playoffs. “We have five days to prepare for the NESCAC tournament and we plan to use them wisely,” Puccinelli said. “We all have individual projects that we come to practice with each day, and we will continue to work on those projects throughout the rest of the postseason. While we are all incredibly excited for the conference tournament, it will be important for us to approach this weekend just as we have every other weekend this spring.”
Middlebury will host the NESCAC Championships next weekend on the Proctor Tennis Courts.
(05/02/19 9:56am)
The Middlebury Panthers (20-9, 5-4) wrapped up a four-game week with a series win over the Wesleyan University Cardinals (14-15, 4-5) in a NESCAC West matchup.
In a 9-4 win versus Plymouth State (13-20, 4-9), Middlebury scored four times in the second inning. Plymouth State scored a run and loaded the bases in the eight, but left runners stranded and the Panthers added a pair of insurance runs in the bottom of the inning to win the game.
Freshman pitcher Alex Rosario allowed just three runs on five hits over four innings. Senior pitcher Colby Morris received the win on a scoreless inning of relief.
“We were successful because we were playing loose and having fun playing instead of feeling like there was a ton of pressure on us to win,” junior pitcher Andrew Martinson said.
In the first matchup against the Wesleyan Cardinals, the Panthers scored in the third inning when junior third baseman Hayden Smith reached base on an infield error and stole second base, moving into scoring position. Junior left fielder Justin Han drove Smith in on an RBI single down right-center field.
The Panthers took the lead in the bottom of the fourth, off a solo home run from junior first baseman Kevin Woodring.
Wesleyan pulled ahead in the seventh, and the Panthers threaten in its final at bat, but were unable to pull ahead.
Junior catcher Gray Goolsby went 2-for-4 with two doubles. Morris threw a complete game, allowing four runs on seven hits with five strikeouts.
In Sunday’s doubleheader, the Panthers swept the Cardinals, winning 5-2 and 8-4.
In the first contest, Middlebury jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first inning. The Panthers extended its lead in the bottom of the second with an RBI single from Woodring and an RBI double from sophomore center fielder Henry Strmecki.
Freshman pitcher Alex Price earned the win with six innings of work, allowing two runs on five hits, and striking out four. Earlier in the week, he tossed a hitless inning against Plymouth State. Sophomore pitcher George Goldstein earned the save on an inning of relief.
In Game 2, Middlebury scored a pair of unearned runs in its first at-bat. In the bottom of the fourth, the Panthers took a 3-2 lead on a sacrifice fly to drive in senior left fiedler Sam Graf. Middlebury scored twice in the seventh, with an RBI double from Graf. In the eighth, junior Alan Guild, who went 1-for-1 pinch hitting, homered and Strmecki scored an unearned run.
Martinson received the win on two innings of scoreless relief. Graf went 2-for-4 with two doubles and an RBI, junior shortstop Brooks Carroll added two RBIs.
On the week, Woodring hit .538, with a double, a home run, and two RBIs. He went 5-for-11 against Wesleyan, with an OBP of .500 and was perfect in the field with 25 putouts.
The Panthers face Amherst College (15-12-1, 5-4) in its next NESCAC West matchup, beginning Friday, May 3rd at 4 p.m. at Amherst.
“We’re preparing to keep the same mentality this weekend by having fun and playing loose and trusting that our work in the fall and winter is going to pay off,” Martinson said.
(05/02/19 9:55am)
From a distance of years and hundreds of miles, it appears Middlebury is unmoored and has lost its distinct sense of self as a place apart: an oasis of rigorous and unfettered intellectual inquiry and personal growth.
Middlebury once was and should always be more than a capitalist boot camp or a totalitarian trade school. Middlebury was and should be an institution dedicated to excellence in the liberal arts.
I hope we have a common understanding that a liberal arts institution, if it wishes to be liberal, cultivates all ideas except its opposite. If a liberal institution encourages the illiberal too, if a liberal institution does not confront and reject those who wish to make it illiberal, then it will not survive as what it was.
[pullquote speaker="" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]Middlebury was and should be an institution dedicated to excellence in the liberal arts. [/pullquote]
Giving totalitarian ideas and impulses equal standing as just another option among the smorgasbord of ideas acceptable at the institution is an invitation to the destruction of the liberal mission itself.
In that context, witness the SGA’s demands at go/13.
This boggles — celebrating the 55th anniversary edition of Mao Zedong’s red book, the SGA wants a cultural revolution in the Green Mountains, complete with mandatory re-education, shaming of elders by the young, who also demand “community standards” for permissible ideas.
This is not just a question of “free speech.” Indeed “free speech” absent of a shared commitment to intellectual rigor, risk-taking, moral equality and a growth mindset may be a cudgel used against freedom itself. Indeed, the illiberal among you already use “free speech” to justify the protests used to bludgeon the liberal among you into silence and compliance.
Freedom is dangerous, unsettling, exciting, frightening, challenging and mind-expanding. As you read that, did you think of freedom for yourself or freedom for others? While most of us crave our own freedom, some fear freedom for all.
Don’t be that person.
A commitment to excellence in the liberal arts requires standards supporting and buttressing the freedom of all. Freedom with the un-waivable expectation of self-governance and personal restraint. Yes, community standards as to the process of inquiry, not the topics of inquiry. Community standards as to rigor in research, analysis, organization, critique, rhetoric and exposition — because a thought well-expressed is always better developed.
These are the liberal arts — the arts of exercising freedom in a world of moral equality. Thugs browbeat, mobs chant, tyrants seek to intimidate and silence.
This is why protesting ideas or speakers has no place at an intellectual institution committed to the liberal arts. The protest culture that has developed there is antithetical to Middlebury’s mission.
Sure, it’s appropriate for each person to have access to a venue or an outlet for their views. Folks of common interest can and should be free to get together to express their ideas, and seek to promote them in The Campus, or with leaflets, or other non-coercive, respectful ways. Indeed, everyone should be challenged to research, organize and express their thoughts as clearly and persuasively as possible.
Are you at Middlebury to pursue the liberal arts? Then, you must stand up against its opposite. Do you have standards and expectations for excellence in the pursuit of ideas and expression and research and creativity? Then you must reject the impulse to browbeat and silence and instead embrace the challenge of persuasion.
Dogs require training. Drones are programmed. The liberal arts are for those who believe free minds operating fearlessly and diligently in the pursuit of excellence will create a better world for all.
A great school is a terrible thing to see laid to waste.
(05/02/19 9:54am)
Middlebury narrowly fell short on Saturday to No. 4 Amherst, who have been on a tear this season and have locked up the No. 1 seed for the NESCAC tournament which starts tomorrow. The Panthers can take away the fact that the match was incredibly close and they missed taking down the upstart Mammoths by just a few points.
In the doubles competition, Andre Xiao ’21 and Nate Eazor ’21 eased to the lone victory for the Panthers, as two upperclassmen pairings fell to give the Mammoths a 2-1 start to the match.
Amherst’s sophomore standout Sean Wei, a former 5-star recruit out of John McEnroe Tennis Academy, handed Midd’s Noah Farrell ’19 a straight-set loss at #1 singles. Wei is an impressive 9-5 on the season out of the top spot. After Xiao lost at #3, the Panthers found themselves with their backs against the wall, down 4-1.
“We were fighting from behind, but our guys definitely dug in and fought back,” said Assistant Coach Andrew Thomson. Panthers vet Lubo Cuba ’19, having recently ceded the No. 1 spot to Farrell, pulled out an impressive straight set win.
More ladder changes for the Panthers have seen first-year Stanley Morris drop into the #6 spot. Morris also charged to an impressive straight-set victory against 4-star recruit William Turchetta out of New York.
Middlebury had two of its most contentious matches of the season while down 4-3 with the match on the line. Sophomores Nate Eazor and Adam Guo have been reliable for the Panthers this season in the bottom half of the ladder, and they were just a tiebreak away from getting the job done for a would-be upset against Amherst.
After winning the first set, Eazor just barely lost an 8-6 tiebreaker in the second set, before going on to lose the third set. Guo finished just after, losing a 7-3 tiebreaker in the decisive third set of his own match.
“It was definitely an extremely close match with Amherst…[they have] a great team and it was a hard fought match. That said, if we continue to put in work, stay healthy, and come ready to rumble for the NESCAC tournament, we will have a great chance to win no matter who we play,” Thomson said.
The Panthers are definitely looking forward to the tournament on their home courts starting Friday, May 3rd. Middlebury earned the No. 3 seed and the right to play No. 6 seed Tufts, who they handed a 6-3 loss a couple weeks ago. A win on Friday would set up a rematch in the semifinals against No. 2 seed Wesleyan, who beat the Panthers 6-3 in early April.
Middlebury has reached the finals of the NESCAC tournament 10 times in the last 13 years. There are big expectations for the Panthers, but they have experience and home-court advantage on their side going into a pivotal weekend.
(05/02/19 9:53am)
There’s something about dumping leftover food on dining hall carousels and watching it slide out of sight that just makes it seem to disappear. A new student-led initiative, sponsored by the SGA Environmental Affairs Committee, is trying to change that by assessing and publicizing data about quantities of food waste that students left behind in Proctor Dining Hall last week. From Monday through Friday, Middlebury dining staff weighed all uneaten food at the end of each lunch period and reported the results back to students Ryan Guttheil ’22 and Jiaqi Li ’22, the forces behind this year’s Weigh the Waste campaign.
The project, sponsored by SGA’s Environmental Affairs Committee, originally started in 2013 by Cailey Cron ’13.5 and Molly Shane ’13.5, is part of a broader effort in cooperation with dining to increase student awareness of food waste. According to an article published by The Campus in 2013, the college was reporting approximately 300 tons of food waste annually, but did not produce data on how much came from students who still had uneaten food on their plates. In the first collection, the campaign found nearly 140 pounds of edible waste in Proctor Dining and 160 pounds in Ross.
Guttheil first proposed a revival of the campaign to Head of Dining Operations, Dan Detora, in Winter Term, after growing tired of seeing students who simply “weren’t hungry anymore” continue to throw away uneaten food.
“Food waste has always been something that bothered me because it is so avoidable,” Guttheil said.
Detora, who agreed to handle logistics, left the design of the campaign primarily up to Guttheil and Li. They then emailed Head of Proctor Dan Boise to devise a way in which to make excess food waste more visible to the student body.
To better discern how much edible waste students are responsible for, they agreed to weigh all excess food coming into the conveyor belt at the end of each lunch period, beginning on Monday, April 15. On the first day, they reported a total of 106 pounds of waste. Before dining staff weighed the waste on a scale, they put it through a pulper to extract excess water and break the components down to prepare the waste for composting.
While composting has promising environmental benefits of its own, composted materials still release greenhouse gases as they decompose. And the campaign organizers believe holding consumers responsible for their actions may better address the underlying causes of food waste, while composting might only ameliorate its environmental consequences after the fact.
“Even though we compost, it’s a matter of not wasting the resources that have been put into making the food,” Guttheil said. “It took a lot of water, a lot of sun energy and a lot of time energy for that food to be made only for it to go to waste.”
Guttheil, Li and Detora discussed the manner in which to best increase visibility of student-generated waste at length. While the previous Weigh the Waste campaign put clear plastic buckets on display into which students dumped their waste, Guttheil said that Detora wanted this campaign to cultivate awareness of the community’s contributions, rather than to “waste-shame” individual students.
Results showed a gradual decrease in the amount of excess food waste as the week progressed. Tuesday’s data reported 119.5 pounds of waste, Wednesday saw 102 pounds, Thursday saw 92.5 pounds and Friday saw 63 pounds. It is unclear, however, how much of this decline can be attributed to student initiative, as Guttheil pointed out that dining was processing a lot more volume than usual that week due to the influx of prospective students during Preview Days.
“We would have liked the numbers to go down in a way that was more clear,” Guttheil said. “Unfortunately, there was not as much of a behavioral change as we had hoped, but the goal was mainly to bring awareness to the issue.”
To balance out the quantitative weight of the campaign, members of the Environmental Affairs Committee and the Green New Deal Town Hall tabled outside Proctor all week to discuss the results and their potential implications. After each day, Guttheil printed signs of the results to hang outside Proctor to encourage students to aim for better results the next day.
Gutheil said that even slight changes to our eating habits, such as “taking less food on your first trip in, or making sure that you are actually going to eat what you take,” could have substantial economic, environmental and community benefits. For next year’s Weigh the Waste campaign, Li and Guttheil hope to implement a sort of friendly “competition” between Proctor and Ross to increase incentive.
The results of this year’s project can be accessed in more detail at go/weighthewaste.
(04/30/19 6:41pm)
The same people threatening to dissolve the Student Government Association voted in favor of raising your Student Activities Fee by $20 next year after just a few minutes of debate. They considered important changes to SGA bylaws in even less time, changes which would restructure the Finance Committee as a special standing committee, changing how your student organizations will be funded in the future. It was impossible to tell whether or not these ideas were good given the time we had to discuss them. In pursuing long debates over the minutia of the 13 proposals, your senators have failed to think about their responsibility for managing the $1.2 million annual budget of the SGA, and more importantly, they have failed you.
To be clear, I support the 13 proposals. However, there is a significant difference between supporting the proposals and supporting the asinine strategy under which they were brought to our community. The lame-duck senators threatening the dissolution of the SGA changed their tune as soon as they realized that they stood to defund MCAB and every other organization with a budget larger than $10,000 for next year by not attending our last meeting. They quickly requested the scheduling of a ceremonial additional last meeting so that they could dissolve the SGA with a symbolic flourish. What does this action symbolize, exactly? These people have already made it clear that they are dissatisfied with their work with the administration this year; otherwise they would not have sent the proposals. To dissolve the SGA only after approving the $10,000 and over budgets would symbolize an annual tradition and nothing more, since SGA dissolves at the end of that meeting anyways to make room for next year’s SGA, just like any other student organization.
I would be in favor of this strategy if it had consensus in the SGA or if the people in support of it would be serving on SGA next year. However, the main proponents of this strategy have been our two senior class senators, who are graduating, and our two first-year senators, neither of whom are continuing on SGA next year. A strategy this audacious requires steady leadership, especially when it begins its most crucial phase at the end of the year, or at least a plan for continuing the fight in the new year; the supporters of these proposals have provided no such plan, leaving those who remain stranded at sea.
I would reiterate that I support the 13 proposals, but that changes this important need discussion, refinement, and time. The SGA set an impossible task for the administration when we asked them to respond to these wide-ranging proposals so quickly. I can only hope that the people staying on for next year’s SGA will remember the terrible mistake of threatening dissolution and modify their behavior accordingly. Newly elected senators, I hope, will want to try to do their jobs before they want to try to quit them.
John Gosselin '20 is the co-chair of Community Council.
Editor's Note: Members of the SGA have signed on in support of this letter and may continue to do so throughout the day. Thus far, they include:
Sophomore Senator Uno Lee
Feb Senator Bobbi Finkelstein
(04/25/19 10:36am)
MONTPELIER — This past Wednesday, April 13, the Vermont House of Representatives held a hearing for State Representatives to listen to constituent testimony about Proposition 5, a proposed state constitutional amendment over the Right to Personal Reproductive Liberty. Feminist Action at Middlebury (FAM) provided transportation for students to the Statehouse in Montpelier, where the hearing was held.
This proposed legislation exists within the context of the United States at large, where a national debate over abortion has been taking place for years, with the 1973 Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade as a legal backdrop. While Roe v. Wade currently protects abortion across the country, five states have recently proposed “trigger laws” which would immediately criminalize abortion if Roe v. Wade were overturned, with potential consequences for those seeking abortions as severe as the death penalty. With this in mind, if legislators act to amend the State Constitution to preserve a woman’s right to choose, it would hold national significance — especially given that Vermont’s constitution is one of the shortest and most difficult to revise.
The proposition is still in the early stages of the amendment process, and has been passed in the Vermont Senate with a vote of 28-2. The next step is a vote in the House of Representatives, but Proposition 5 will need majority votes in the Senate and House legislature as well as a vote of Vermont residents before it is ratified.
Vermont typically cultivates a politically liberal image, something reinforced among other elements by Senator Bernie Sanders’s runs for presidential office as well as recent environmental legislation and activism. However, the reality of Vermont political energy is much more complicated. Vermont did pioneer legislation on same-sex marriage (Baker v. Vermont 1999) and environmental oversight (Environmental Oversight Act of 1970), two incidents of progressive lawmaking that set national precedents. On the other hand, a cultural emphasis on property rights, gun ownership and individual privacy within Vermont tie into typically conservative priorities. Vermont is one of eight states that allow concealed carry without any permit, a classic pillar of conservative policy. Of those eight states — Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Kansas, Maine, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming — only Maine and Vermont have voted Democratic for any presidential election in the past 20 years. Recent decades have seen the Democratic and Republican parties concentrating in urban and rural areas respectively, making Vermont an especially interesting case study.
So, if Vermont tends to act progressively with environmental regulation and more conservatively when faced with, say, gun control, what happens when it’s faced with the ever-divisive abortion debate? The answer is: it’s complicated.
For one, as with many states, the local pro-life movement in Vermont is incredibly well-organized and vocal. A Google search of “Vermont PR.5” brings up four separate links to the Vermont Right to Life Committee within the first page of results. No such links exist to pro-choice groups. That said, many Vermont residents do support the right to choose an abortion, as evidenced by the Senate 28-2 vote in favor of PR.5.
The hearing on Wednesday, then, exposed a wide rift in opinion among voters. Perhaps to avoid confrontation or perhaps just to streamline the process of the public hearing, both those in favor of the proposition and those against entered the Statehouse from different sides of the building. The Planned Parenthood VT Action Fund offered trademark-pink shirts to arriving supporters, and as a result many of those in the chamber wore T-shirts emblazoned with “I Stand With Planned Parenthood.”
Constituents were each allowed the chance to testify for two minutes before a committee and the general public, often reading their thoughts from prepared notes. Several of those speaking in favor of Proposition 5 noted that they had not planned to speak, but were moved to express their support by others’ testimony. Others had pages of printed opinion of which they only had time to read portions. Despite rules against posters in the House chamber, one constituent displayed a poster of a fetus until he was asked to put it away.
Testimonies in favor of the proposition included opinions from health educators and nurses. Students and retirees alike consistently returned to themes of bodily autonomy, liberty and the freedom that comes with a right to choose.
Those against the proposition often spoke of their religious affiliations and the ethical concerns over fetal life, bringing up concepts of sin, crime and the duty of motherhood. Several of those speaking against the proposition cited medically, financially and scientifically inaccurate information about abortions and Planned Parenthood. These claims included that Planned Parenthood made billions of dollars from abortions, used fetus body parts to create humanized lab rats on which to test HIV and engaged in advertising campaigns to “increase demand” among American women for abortion.
“It’s strange to hear such radical opinions and misinformation from people in my own state and community,” said Emma Bernstein ’21, a FAM member who helped organize transport to the Statehouse. “I know those beliefs exist, but I never think of them being expressed by people I could pass on the street.”
Regardless of the divided testimonies, many of those who traveled to Montpelier with FAM expressed their interest in witnessing the process of local politics. “Especially since Vermont is such a small state, I really felt like my presence there mattered,” said Haley Goodman ’21.“I hope it passes.”
The House of Representatives has yet to vote on Proposition 5.
Correction: An earlier version of this article misidentified the final vote total. There are thirty members of the Vermont Senate.
(04/25/19 10:32am)
Tony Neri, local businessman and owner of several retail locations throughout Middlebury, is tackling a new project: reopening the much-beloved Greg’s Meat Market on Elm Street. Greg Wry, the long-time owner of the Market, sold it to Bart Livin in 2010, who ran it for six years before filing for bankruptcy in 2016. The building has since been empty until Neri sensed an opportunity to rebuild.
“Originally, he [Neri] bought it with the intention to lease it to another store or a small grocery chain,” explained the future manager of the soon-to-open Greg’s, Gail Daha. However, given the lack of interest in the space, Neri decided to tackle the project himself, even buying the neighboring Pool World and extensively renovating the space.
Daha and Neri have plans to build on the “corner grocery store” model that worked wonders for Wry. “Greg’s service was personal, and that’s what we’re emphasizing,” Daha said, but there will be some new additions when Greg’s reopens in mid-May. Daha has plans for a hot bar, salad bar and homemade prepared foods for customers on the go.
The new and improved Greg’s Meat Market, which will open at its old location on May 15, will remain remarkably similar to the way it was under Wry’s direction, with the inclusion of a large deli, an emphasis on customer service and the butcher shop that fans of Greg’s will remember well.
Daha also plans to invite former employees of the original Greg’s to return, hoping to retain the similar community spirit the store had in its first iteration. These employees include, as it turns out, Greg Wry himself, who is helping out at the store especially in the preliminary stages of redevelopment. “Greg Wry will be in the store, showing me how to do my job,” said Daha.
The community response to Neri’s project has been overwhelmingly positive. Several threads on Front Porch Forum are dedicated to lamenting the closing of the store back in 2016, and more recent posts impatiently seek information about the opening date. Greg’s had a loyal customer base, and it seems many of these customers will be returning to give Neri’s version of a neighborhood market a chance.
“We’re being thorough with this,” Daha explained of the lengthy wait for the store’s opening. “We’re trying to do this right rather than rush it.”
For most, that project alone would be enough. Before beginning his reopening, Neri had to go through an extensive process of applying to the town’s Development Review Board (DRB), convincing them of the potential of his business plan and undergoing revisions of his traffic flow plan for the Pool World building area. David Wetmore, clerk of the DRB, explained that on May 13, just two days before the opening of Greg’s, the group will meet to look over Neri’s proposal for his property at 55 Middle Road.
Neri’s plans for the building center around dividing it into retail spaces for stores or restaurants. Ideally, the DRB will allow Neri to build the space to its former 10,000 square feet.
Neri is taking on a lot, but Daha feels confident about the Greg’s project. “We’ve stuck to the roots,” she said. “We want to stay consistent with what people expect.” When Greg’s opens in May, Daha and Neri will likely be rewarded for their hard work.
(04/25/19 10:00am)
Fresh off another win against the fifth-ranked team in the nation, the women’s lacrosse team has not looked back, extending their record to 13-1. Rookie Jane Earley ’22, who earned NESCAC Player of the Week, led the Panthers to a 10-9 victory over fifth-ranked Tufts with four goals. Earley clutched the victory with a game-winning goal in the last three minutes of the contest, bringing the Panther record to 13-1 with just one game left in the regular season.
Momentum shifted throughout the entire game, as both teams never fell below a two-point deficit. Just as the Panthers jumped to a 2-1 start, the Jumbos responded with three of their own. This back-and-forth would continue throughout the game, reflecting the intensity of the contest.
With 4:30 left in the game, the score was knotted 9-9. The Jumbos controlled the following draw — just as they had for the majority of the game — and raced down the field to face goalie Julia Keith ’20. Keith saved a Tufts shot and Middlebury successfully cleared the ball to Earley. Earley, with less than three minutes on the clock, took the ball around her defender and rocketed the shot to the back of the net.
The Panthers’ 10-9 victory puts them in a favorable position for the number one seed in the NESCAC tournament. In order to lock in their spot at the top, the Panthers will either have to knock off Williams or bank on Tufts falling to 14th-ranked Bowdoin.
Last week, senior Sara DiCenso said that their final two regular season games would be a challenge. Against Tufts, the Panther squad was able to overcome a difficult battle — one of the toughest they have seen this season. Williams will be the next bout before their postseason run.
This season, the Williams Ephs have a 7-7 record, including a 3-6 record in conference play. Williams and Middlebury both lost to an 8-6 Bates team, but Middlebury has the upper hand with the rest of its impressive play. Middlebury’s sole loss came from their first game, which was decided in a heartbreaking OT. This served to be the wake-up call the team needed, as they have been spotless since that minor setback.
(04/25/19 9:59am)
The No. 3 Middlebury women’s tennis team took a road trip north this past weekend, beating long-time rival No. 6 Bowdoin (8-2), before finishing off Bates 8-1 that same afternoon. With these wins under their belt, the Panthers move to 7-0 in the league and 13-1 overall.
On Saturday morning against Bowdoin, Middlebury came out firing, sweeping all three points during doubles play. The No. 2 junior duo of Katherine Hughes and Skylar Schossberger posted an 8-4 win against Izzy Essi and Tasha Christ, while the No. 3 tandem of Christina Puccinelli ’19 and Maddi Stow ’20 eased past Sarah Shadowens and Fleming Landau 8-3. In the top flight, Heather Boehm ’20 and Ann Martin Skelly ’21 triumphed 8-7(2) over Julia Mark and Devon Wolfe, saving three match points along the way. Additional doubles points have gone a long way for the Panthers this season, as they have historically carried most of their strength in singles.
“It’s so fun to see us improving at doubles because traditionally we have been a very strong singles team with okay doubles, but now our plays are really taking off and you can see us having fun on the court,” Boehm said. “There is no better feeling than beating a top team on their home courts.”
The doubles sweep set the Panthers up well for singles play. At the top of the lineup, Boehm won for the 12th-straight time by 6-1, 6-0 scores against Marks. Puccinelli posted a 6-1, 6-2 victory against Wolfe at No. 3. Singles, while Hughes clinched a 6-4,6-0 win over over Christ at the second spot. Schossberger defeated Essi 7-5,6-4 at No. 4, before Stowe secured the team’s victory after a marathon of a match. At the No. 5 spot, she triumphed over Sasa Jovanovic (5-7, 6-0, 10-7) to give the Panthers the final 8-1 score.
“Beyond the score, we were really happy with how we competed and the positive energy that we were able to bring to every single court,” Puccinelli said. “We played with sportsmanship and class, and we all felt that we represented Middlebury in the best light.”
After easing past Bowdoin, the Panthers traveled further north to Bates, where the Bobcats proved to be no match for the Panthers. Once again, Middlebury took all three double points, as Stowe and Norah Dahl ’21 posted an 8-4 victory at No. 3 over Isabelle Rovinski and Suzanne Elfman, while Hughes and Schossberger cruised to an 8-3 win against Bella Stone and Anna Rozin in the top flight. In the second spot, Skelly and Catherine Blazye ’20 secured an 8-6 victory over Hannah Sweeney and Lauren Hernandez.
In singles action, Stow gave the Panthers a 4-0 lead after she cruised past Elfman 6-0,6-1 at No. 4, before Puccinelli blanked Stone in the second spot to give the team their fifth point and solidify their overall victory. Hughes triumphed over Sweeney 4-6,6-2,10-3 at the top of the lineup, before Ruhi Kamdar ’21 rounded out the scoring with a 6-4, 5-7, 1-4 win at the No. 6 spot.
The Panthers will return to the courts this Saturday when they host No.7 Amherst at 1:00 p.m.
(04/25/19 9:58am)
In an undefeated week, the baseball team (17-8, 3-3) defeated Division I Dartmouth College (12-21, 6-9), 15-7, on Tuesday, April 16, for the first time since 1950 and beat SUNY Plattsburgh (10-17, 5-10) 17-1 the following day.
Middlebury had 18 hits by 11 different players and stole eight bases during the game, four coming from first-year right fielder Alec Ritch. The Panthers unleashed a six-run sixth inning to establish a 14-7 lead over the Big Green. Left fielder Justin Han ’20 capped the inning with a base-clearing triple.
According to director of baseball operations, Jack Langerman ’19, the team was successful by not trying to do too much.
“We are a really good baseball team, 1-34 on the roster, and at times early in the year that added stress because we tried to do too much,” Langerman said. “When we relaxed and trusted ourselves, the results spoke for themselves.”
Middlebury wasted no time taking the lead, when junior catcher Gray Goolsby hit his first home run of the year for a quick 3-0 lead in the first frame. Dartmouth chipped into Middlebury’s lead with a run from senior shortstop Nate Ostmo.
The Panthers responded with two runs on a hit batter, walk, a double steal, wild pitch and infield hit in the third. First-year second baseman Andrew Gough rapped out a triple, and Han added a single to drive in two runs in the top of the fourth. Junior third baseman Hayden Smith hit an RBI double in the fifth to make the lead 8-4.
The team’s pitching staff held the Dartmouth bats scoreless for the final four frames. Sophomore pitcher Evan Stewart received his first win of the season on 1.2 shutout innings of relief.
Han went 4-for-6 with four RBIs to lead the team in the leadoff spot for the Panthers. Senior center fielder Sam Graf added a pair of hits, three runs, and two RBIs. Dartmouth was held to just six hits and stranded 13 runners.
“A win against a Division I team is huge as it’s our first win against them [Dartmouth] since 1950,” Langerman said. “At the end of the day, however, we know we are a good team, and we know if we play how we can, we have a chance to win against anyone.”
In a 17-1 non-conference win versus Plattsburgh, the Cardinals recorded just five hits to the Panthers’ 19.
Middlebury scored in seven different innings in the win with thirteen different Panthers recording hits. Junior shortstop Brooks Carroll went 2-for-3 with a game-high five RBIs for Middlebury and Gough went 3-for-4 with three runs.
First-year pitcher Alex Rosario earned his first career win, retiring his first 13 batters, only giving up two hits over six innings with four strikeouts and no walks. First-year Jackson Atwood got the save on three innings of relief, giving up one run on three hits.
The Panthers return to action at 4 p.m. Wednesday, April 24 at home against Plymouth State (11-17 overall), followed by a NESCAC West matchup versus Wesleyan University beginning at 4 p.m. on Friday, April 26 at home.
“The season is in front of us,” Langerman said. “These next games will be what defines our season, especially the six in the NESCAC. If we show up and play how everybody knows we can, there’s no reason why NESCACs won’t end in a dog pile in Waterville, Maine. That being said, we have a lot of work to do and have to keep at it.”
(04/25/19 9:58am)
(04/25/19 9:58am)
(04/25/19 9:57am)
This past week, we were angry. We were disappointed. We were not surprised. The Political Science Department (PSCI), the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs (RCGA), and Middlebury administration had blatantly disrespected the Middlebury community once again.
On Saturday, April 13, we wrote an open letter (go/openletter), inviting the Middlebury community to join us in urging PSCI and RCGA to rescind their co-sponsorship of the far-right funded Alexander Hamilton Forum’s (AHF) event featuring the Polish bigot (see our open letter for analysis of his bigotry), Ryzard Legutko, scheduled for the evening of Wednesday, April 17. Rescinding co-sponsorship, which we understood to be symbolic (PSCI nor RCGA provided funds), would have meant a lot to current Middlebury students.
By Tuesday night, April 16, our letter represented the concerns of over 840 Middlebury community members, including student leaders, alumni, faculty, staff, and many others. Many of the signees interact daily with and have had their Middlebury educations greatly impacted by these two institutional bodies; their pain and frustrations, caused by these trusted figures’ decision to sign on to the engagement of a notoriously racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, homophobic speaker, are evident.
The responses from PSCI and RCGA (go/responses) were predictable at best and flippant and contemptuous at worst. PSCI and RCGA’s subsequent actions, however, which were undoubtedly carried out in coordination with administration, further disregarded the pain and frustrations of marginalized Middlebury community members and of the 840+ community members and groups on our open letter.
PSCI additionally disregarded the concerns of many PSCI majors, while RCGA Director Tamar Meyer ignored the dissent of multiple faculty members of the RCGA faculty steering committee and the entire student steering committee. PSCI and RCGA were not done ignoring the Middlebury community, however — they also proceeded to host two private events with Legutko, closed to the public, preventing any expression of dissent or protest. Their privately-hosted discussion and dinner events stood in direct opposition to the same free-speech rhetoric that was touted in their responses and at the last minute pre-Legutko panel, where it was reiterated by PSCI faculty that students should challenge Legutko in community, in order to educate peers or third-parties who may not already understand the gravity of bigotry. We ask, where were the third-parties during these private events?
We were angry. We were disappointed. We were not surprised.
Two years ago, administration strung students along, meeting to meeting, empty promise after empty promise. We have seen no meaningful institutional change, and we will not see meaningful change until we collectively demand it.
[pullquote speaker="" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]Up until this point, we, as current students, have been on the backburner of everyone’s agendas.[/pullquote]
This is why we support the SGA’s Thirteen Proposals for Community Healing (go/signfor13).
SGA’s proposals were made in conjunction with members of the student body at a town hall meeting on Monday, April 22. Students were given time and space to discuss, challenge and amend these proposals in small groups, with senators listening and taking notes. Regardless of anyone’s level of awareness about the current campus climate or about SGA processes, senators were patient and receptive to questions, steadily providing answers with whatever insight that they had.
As two seniors who have been here since 2015, this is the first time that we have felt so heard by our elected student senators. It is easy to disregard the role of an SGA senator, especially when you forget who they are a few days after election results are announced. The SGA showed themselves to be taking their work seriously this past Monday.
We crafted these proposals in community, and we believe that the final list of thirteen requests adequately reflects not only the desires of those in the SGA but of a vast number of students on this campus.
Up until this point, we, as current students, have been on the backburner of everyone’s agendas. We have had enough of having our educations dictated to us from someone else’s pulpit and our concerns brushed aside in favor of those coming from non-student voices.
We demand Middlebury College to recenter students and our needs in the education it offers us. Administrative acceptance and dedication to the Thirteen Proposals for Community Healing are a key component to this long-term revisioning.
We were angry. We were disappointed. We are taking action.
We encourage all students and student leaders to pay close attention to the administration’s response to these community proposals. We encourage vocal, explicit support from students for our administration to meet these requests.
We have a few suggestions for what support can look like. Support can come in the form of social media posts, letters of endorsements from student leadership, mass emails to student membership sharing these proposals and why your group supports them.
We wholeheartedly believe in the strength of our collective student voices, and we believe in the capacity of our administration to strive for and to achieve our communal requests.
(04/25/19 9:56am)
While the softball team did not quite live up to last week’s strong performance, the Panthers were able to capture two wins out of five games, splitting the series against Union College and defeating Hamilton in the last game.
On Wednesday, April 17, the team played a double header against Union. They lost the first game 13-5 in only five innings but came back strong in the second game beating the Dutchmen 19-7 in six innings. In the second game, the players started out strong, making three runs in the first inning. With remarkable defense, Union was unable to score until the fourth inning. The Dutchmen, however, managed to pull ahead, bringing the game to 3-5 in the bottom of the fifth. Hungry for a win, the Panthers scored 16 runs in the top of the sixth.
Despite this amazing feat against Union, the team followed it up with a two-game losing streak against Hamilton: 7-8 on Friday and 6-18 on Saturday. They came back on Saturday night against Hamilton, defeating them by a slim 6-4. Having fallen behind in the bottom of the second 1-3, they pulled ahead 6-3 with exciting runs in the top of the third, with Olivia Bravo ’20, Sophie Bolinger ’22, Emily Moore ’21, Melanie Mandell ’20 and Liza Tarr ’19 each scoring runs. The Continentals were unable to bridge the gap and lost the third game in the series.
On Monday, April 22, Middlebury matched up against Castleton and fell to the Spartans in both games. Although incredibly close, they were beat out by one run in both games; 5-4 in the first and 11-10 in the second. Despite the loss, the Panthers achieved notable feats. Mandell, Noelle Ruschil ’22, Sophia Marlino ’22, and Kaylee Gumm ’21 all scored home runs. Ruschil and Mandell both added to their collection of completed home runs against Union and Hamilton, respectively, in the past week.
The Panthers have an incredibly young team; ten of their 16 players are underclassmen (six first-years and four sophomores). In addition, the Panthers have played fewer games (and therefore far fewer series) than the teams they compete against. Hamilton, in addition to having a really solid season, has played 33 games (25-8); Castleton has played 29 (13-16), which can be compared to to Middlebury’s 26 (12-14).
The Panthers will play their final series against Amherst this weekend, and the match is expected to be close given Middlebury has not beaten the Mammoths since 2016. With the ups and downs, these last three games will be critical for a successful end to their season.
(04/25/19 9:54am)
In a matchup against No. 4 nationally-ranked Tufts, the Middlebury men’s lacrosse team was looking to earn a huge win and gain momentum going into its final week before playoffs. Unfortunately, the Panthers could not keep up with Tufts’ fast scoring offense and lost 23-14. They fell to 7-7 on the year, but remain in sixth place in the NESCAC standings.
The game was very tightly contested throughout the first half. Tufts opened up the scoring, but Middlebury rebounded with a goal by leading scorer Tyler Forbes ’22 at the 8:59 mark. The teams kept alternating goals, but Middlebury’s only lead in the game came halfway through the first, when A.J. Kucinski ’20 rattled off two stifling goals to put the team in the lead 3-2. At the end of the first, Tufts led the Panthers 5-4.
Forbes quickly scored again in the second to tie the game. Again, it was back and forth, with both teams displaying great defense and offense. It is fair to say the game was played at a very fast pace, packed with a ton of action and great scoring plays. Middlebury scored a man-up goal towards the end of the half to put them within one of the Jumbos, after Jack Sheehan ’22 ripped a shot from about 15 yards out. At the end of the half, the Panthers were down 10-9.
In the second half, things started to go the right way for the Jumbos. Their offense really picked up and Midd had a tough time controlling the attack. Middlebury was able to hang around for most of the quarter, with Forbes and Alderik van der Heyde ’21 keeping the scoring going for the Panthers. However, Tufts scored the five goals to put them in the lead 17-13 going into the final frame.
Rain started to fall as the game progressed, but that did not stop the Jumbos. In the final quarter, Tufts outscored the Panthers 6-1 and closed the game out. On the day, Forbes had five goals to keep up with his fantastic season on offense. Kucinski also netted five of his own, with two assists. In goal, Tyler Bass ’21 played most of the minutes at 57:04. He had 13 saves on 36 shots. Although it was a tough game for the Panthers, their offense showed their ability to score and the defense showed some signs of hope.
The Panthers have one game left in conference play, as they will travel to No. 8 Williams on Wednesday. With a win, the Panthers can gain great momentum going into the playoffs. They are excited for what they have in store and know what needs to be done to compete in the incredibly tough NESCAC conference.
(04/24/19 12:06am)
At least nine Student Government Association senators have threatened to resign en masse if college officials do not meet a list of 13 demands, a decision that would effectively dissolve the elected body for the remainder of the academic year.
The demands were outlined in a letter emailed Tuesday morning to senior college administrators, including President Laurie L. Patton, with all students copied. Demands in the letter are wide-ranging, and include: “structural changes” to college policy aimed at increasing administrative transparency; “improvements to existing programs” like Green Dot and bringing all buildings into Americans with Disabilities Act compliance; and “new initiatives,” including the creation of an LGBTQ+ Center and a Black Studies department.
In the letter, senators also asked Patton to appear before students at a town hall on Tuesday, April 30 in Mead Chapel. Senior Senator Travis Sanderson ’19 told The Campus that the resignations would occur sometime after then, depending on how and if administrators respond to their demands.
“We just received the SGA communication and are reviewing it. Many of the concerns are already being addressed,” Patton told The Campus Tuesday afternoon. “For others, we believe we can find a way forward to work together. We welcome an opportunity for engagement with SGA and have already reached out to its leaders. We will be providing a response, which we hope we can work on collaboratively, next week.”
While not every member of the SGA Senate has promised to resign, all members approved sending the letter to administration, Sanderson said. The resignation of at least nine of the 18 senators would mean the absence of a quorum at all future meetings, and thus the effective dissolution of the elected body for the remainder of the academic year. With the threat of resignation, senators hope to send a message about inadequate student representation in administrative decision-making.
“It has become evident that the connection between the administration and students has been reduced to a one-way street,” they wrote. “The administration has failed time and again to listen to the desires of its students.”
Their demands, titled “Thirteen Proposals for Community Healing,” are aimed to improve student representation and promote community healing on campus, including several proposals that had previously been brought to the administration but were either tabled or overlooked.
“There is a long history of SGA recommendations being ignored,” Sanderson said.
As it stands now, SGA resolutions are mostly symbolic recommendations to college officials — no real student check exists on administrative authority. But in the letter, the senators claim a right to participate in administrative decisions.
“Our tuition funds the college, and the college’s purpose is our education,” senators wrote. “Middlebury College is first and foremost a school, not a corporation. Why is it that decisions are often made with little to no consent or involvement from us in our own school?”
In an op-ed published by The Campus Tuesday afternoon, SGA President Nia Robinson ’19 supported the actions of senators regardless of where they stand and promised to keep advocating for students in her role.
“For the final weeks, I will continue to support those who come to me and offer advice to any students who will listen. I will continue to advocate for them whether in trustee or SLG meetings when I am the only student in the room,” Robinson wrote. “My sole goal is, and has always been, to help leave this campus in a better state than I found it.”
Reaching a Breaking Point
The letter enumerates instances of administrative neglect of student proposals, from the failure to make Middlebury a sanctuary campus in 2016 to the recent cancellation and fallout from the the controversial scholar and Polish politician Ryszard Legutko’s scheduled lecture, which also resulted in the cancellation of a peaceful, non-disruptive student protest scheduled to take place outside. In the letter, senators condemn the administration for waiting until Friday, April 19 to unequivocally say that the student protesters were not the security concern. That delay, they write, caused misinformation about the protest to spread in the national media.
Senior Senator Alexis Levato ’19 said that the SGA saw the period following the lecture cancellation as an opportune moment to act.
“I think we cared about these issues as individuals, and cared about them as SGA, but didn’t feel there was a possibility of actually doing anything until this happened,” she said. “Which I think speaks to the way the administration is structured, that it only really allows students to be activists in moments in which it’s blowing up in their faces.”
Varsha Vijayakumar ’20, a junior senator and the SGA president-elect, also saw the moment as a culmination of SGA and student activists’ frustrations.
“I personally reached a point where I feel like the administration has been taking advantage of our empathy, and I think that’s unfair to put a disproportionate burden on students to work hard to make this place more like a home for students,” she said. “We’re at a point where it’s not just the SGA, but also a lot of student activism and mobilization that is pushing for change. And we want to support that.”
The letter alleges that it was only when administrators heard that senators were discussing dissolution that they said, in an email sent by Provost Jeff Cason and Dean of the Faculty Andi Lloyd, and forwarded to students by Dean of Student Baishakhi Taylor, that “our assessment of the potential safety risks of Wednesday’s planned lecture did not reflect concerns about threats from student protesters or students attending the event. Rather, we were concerned about the safety of those participants.”
“We are extremely disappointed that only after hearing threat of SGA’s dissolution did an administrator publicly clear organizers of blame as the unnamed security threat that led to cancellation of the Ryszard Legutko event,” the letter reads.
No member of the SGA reached by The Campus would comment on the record about the alleged interaction with an administrator.
Vetting Speakers
After The Campus posted the letter online Tuesday, debate ensued over the senators’ third proposal, which calls for the creation of a due diligence form that includes questions aimed to determine whether a speaker’s views align with Middlebury’s community standards, “removing the burden of researching speakers from the student body.”
The proposal also asked for each academic department to create a student advisory board that would have access to a list of invited speakers one month in advance in order to provide feedback when necessary.
“This is absurd. Students should relish the chance to research speakers, to interact with speakers, to debate with speakers,” Rich Cochran ’91 wrote on The Campus Facebook page. “I am shocked that the SGA would publish this list of unilateral demands.”
Sanderson clarified to The Campus that the proposal would not bar speakers from campus. Instead, the answers to the form would be made public to inform the community in advance of the speaker’s arrival.
“If anything, this ensures a greater degree of informed free speech and assembly,” he said. “Critics are arguing that we want to keep speakers from campus, which is incorrect.”
The Process
Senators first began to discuss what would eventually become the letter on Wednesday afternoon in the wake of the Legutko cancellation. Over the weekend, they began to gather feedback from student leaders, including the heads of cultural organizations and leaders of the Legutko protest. Some senators spent most of Friday drafting the letter, which they then shared with all senators.
Vijayakumar was one of the students who spent the better part of the day working on the letter. She was also notified around midday that she had won the SGA presidency.
“I celebrated for maybe 20 minutes, but that was not my focus,” she said. “It’s the last thing I’m thinking about. Even on Friday, the entire day, I was working on these demands.”
On Sunday, April 21, senators went into executive session during and following their regularly scheduled meeting to discuss the draft. The session lasted one hour.
The following night, senators hosted a student-only town hall in Mead Chapel to gather feedback on the letter and demands. Robinson opened the forum by reading the demands and introduced the senators’ proposed plan to resign. Then, attendees divided into focus groups to discuss further. Each group parsed the drafted demands and suggested modifications to senators, who led the groups. Senators then met later that evening to finalize the letter based on student feedback. According to Vijayakumar, they discussed the suggestions made on every point, and identified major trends in feedback in an attempt to incorporate as many as possible.
In an interview with The Campus, Sanderson stressed the senators’ desire to involve other members of the community in the draft. He said the SGA is only one forum in which students have tried and failed to work with administrators to address the concerns of the student body. Specifically, he cited the title of the letter, which was recommended by members of the community. They also received emails with suggestions and ideas from students who could not attend the town hall.
When asked about the college’s recent work with students to divest from fossil fuels by 2028, Sanderson said that the administration did not adequately credit student activists in their announcement.
“In the case of divestment, it was a massive student campaign for a long time, but it was co-opted by the administration in the end,” he said. The letter addresses this concern: “Students who work on these initiatives alongside faculty must receive credit for their work, and will not be excluded from these initiatives once faculty begin working on them.”
When reached for comment, Community Council Co-Chair John Gosselin ’20 said he supported some of the senators’ demands and disagreed with others.
“I disagree with the general strategy of demands and dissolution because it has forced the student government to express opinions too quickly and without any nuance, reflection, or evidence of serious discussion, despite the best efforts of the SGA meeting on Sunday and the poorly attended student town hall on Monday,” he said.
History Repeats Itself
In 1967, members of the Student Association, then equivalent to the SGA, took a similar approach to addressing feelings of powerlessness vis-à-vis the administration. Members saw the body as a mouthpiece for administrative decisions and doubted its own ability to advocate for students, and voted to hold hold a campus-wide referendum on the body’s dissolution. The proposal passed overwhelmingly among students, who voted 407-70 in favor. Two years later, the current iteration of the SGA, newly-endowed with more representative and legislative capacities, formed.
Today’s SGA is drawing inspiration from its predecessors’ decision.
“When circumstances mirror those faced by student leaders half a century ago, we must consider options similar to the ones they faced,” senators wrote. “In the words of Brian Maier, the equivalent of an SGA senator at the time, ‘we must take power rather than ask for it.’”
But senators are also wary of the unintended consequences their predecessors’ actions had on the student body. Last time, dissolution of the Student Association left student organizations without funding. This time, the resignation of senators would leave the other components of the SGA intact, including the SGA President’s Cabinet and the SGA Finance Committee, which allocates the student activities budget.
“We don’t want to hurt students and nullify all the projects they’ve spent a full semester working on. That’s definitely not our intent,” Levato said. “I think we’re learning from that decision in order to make sure that students are only positively affected by this.”
Senators still think, though, that the threat is substantial enough to warrant a serious response from the administration. Vijayakumar believes the student body is on board.
“We do feel like this is the most productive way to enact change right now on this campus,” she said. “We wouldn’t be doing it if we didn’t think so.”
(04/18/19 10:34am)
Vermont has been ranked number one overall for 2019 in Bloomberg's annual report on gender equality. This is the third year in a row that Vermont has led the rankings in the yearly report. The state was also ranked number 6 for women in leadership, and received high scores in the report’s five categories -- pay ratio by gender, female labor force participation, college degree attainment, health coverage and women in poverty.
Rep. Linda Sullivan, D-Dorset, attributes this ranking to the priorities of the state legislature. “With a strong focus from the legislature on gender equality,” she said, “Vermont will be driven to be a leader in this area.”
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Vermont’s legislature is 39.4 percent female compared to 28.7 percent nationwide. Vermont boasts 71 female members to 109 male members. The legislature recently passed a bill requiring employers to pay sick leave, and is considering a bill allowing paternity leave -- two pieces of legislation that are aimed at increasing gender equality.
“The legislature is working on bills to provide higher livable wages,” said Sullivan, “as well as to work through issues of providing other benefits to families.”
Representative Mollie Burke from Brattleboro and other policymakers recently proposed a resolution which designates April 2, 2019 as Equal Pay Day, with a proclamation signed by Governor Scott that same day. Advocates for equal pay wore red during legislative sessions.
Sullivan also acknowledged that there are challenges in passing legislation to eliminate the gender-pay gap. “However, these bills need to be thoroughly vetted and weighed against the costs to provide the services,” she said, “so while there are projects in the works, the roadmap to getting there must be well thought-out so as not to create barriers for the very populations they are intended to assist.”
Closing the wage gap would have many benefits for Vermont as a whole. Equal pay reduces poverty, adds money to the overall economy and attracts families to Vermont.
According to a report issued by Change the Story (CTS), a Vermont-based organization working towards gender equality, Vermont does well in the categories considered by Bloomberg. Women have a pay ratio gap of 16 cents, compared to a 20 cent wage gap nationally. For labor force participation, 66 percent of women work in Vermont’s labor force, compared to 58 percent of women nationally.
“Education is a key area of focus,” claimed Sullivan. In terms of education, 33 percent of women earn a bachelor’s degree in Vermont, six points higher than the national average for women’s education.
One of the indicators in which Vermont does poorly is rate of women in poverty, in which Vermont is ranked 17 with a rate of 12 percent. The CTS also found that women are significantly more likely to live in poverty than men, and 3 percent of Vermont women who work full-time do not make enough to cover basic living expenses.
It’s also important to note that the Bloomberg report does not break down statistics in terms of race. For example, Vermont ranked well for the gender pay gap, yet this gap is much larger for women of color. As reported by the Vermont Commission on Women, there is a 46 percent gap for Hispanic and Latina women, a 42 percent gap for American Indian and Alaska Native women,a 40 percent gap for Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islander women, a 37 percent gap for African American women, and a 15 percent gap for Asian women.
The CTS found that in Vermont, 13.4 percent of all families with minor children live in poverty, and that this number increases to 37 percent if a women is the single head of the household. CTS also found that the wage gap of women with dependant children increases to 26 percent, as compared to the 30 percent for women nationally.
“Middlebury does well in gender equality, but there are always ways to improve,” said Ellie Broeren ’22, an active member of Feminist Action Middlebury (FAM). The college currently boasts a 48.2 to 51.8 male to female ratio for students, with a staff ration of 49.5 to 50.5 (male to female). Still, such statistics fail to account for some of Middlebury’s underlying problems.
“What comes to mind for me is the lack of transparency about contraception and sexual health on campus, as this is an issue that largely affects women,” said Boeren. To combat this, FAM has created a website at go/sexysources that provides information on sexual health and are currently trying to get Plan B available at Middlebury Express.
Despite the issues in gender equality that are still prevalent in Vermont and at Middlebury College, Sullivan reminds us to also celebrate our successes. “With a strong focus from the legislature on gender equality,” she says, “Vermont [has been] driven to be a leader in this area.”
(04/18/19 9:58am)
The Panther women’s lacrosse team moved to an 11-game win streak, picking up two conference wins this past weekend against Trinity and Hamilton, scoring double digits against two impressive teams. Moving forward, the Panthers are on a blazing trail, hoping to close out the season against Tufts and Williams.
Against Trinity, the No. 3 Panthers cruised into a 7-0 record versus nationally-ranked opponents, beating the No. 12 Bantams 14-8. While the score was tight for most of the game, a spur of Middlebury scoring brought the Panthers the victory.
Senior captain Emma McDonagh ’19 started off the scoring events with a 2-for-2 bout against Trinity’s Mary French. After the teams netted the game at 2-2, McDonagh connected with the back of the net for another goal, heating up the Panther offense. Trinity soon gained momentum back, which created a small 2-3 goal gap between the teams.
The second half, however, proved the Panthers’ resilience. Emily Barnard, Jenna McNicholas and Kirsten Murphy led the Panthers to an 11-6 score, which was then furthered by additional goals on the part of McNicholas. While the Bantams tried to push back, the stellar Middlebury defense held on for a 14-8 win.
The next day, the Panthers also beat No. 24 Hamilton, with a 13-9 final score. Middlebury created an impressive gap in the beginning of the game, setting off the score to 7-2 before the half. The Continentals never caught up to the Panther offense, always in a point deficit that could not be erased.
Jane Earley had an impressive game, putting up seven points (three goals, four assists), while McDonagh also continued her scoring streak to 40 games. Erin Nicholas won the draw eight times, setting up Panther control.
Looking forward, ending the regular season on two conference wins is key for the team’s post-season. With the potential of this year’s squad, Middlebury is looking to work towards ending the regular season well, as a testament to their hard work and strengths.
“We are looking forward to a challenge in the last two games of the regular season. One of the main things we are working on is decreasing the number of turnovers,” senior Sara DiCenso said. “One of our strengths is that we have many people who can score and contribute to our offense. On the other side of the field, our backer defense is high pressure and we have done a good job of winning the ball back.”
If the Panthers can decrease turnovers, keep up the defensive pressure and continually connect with the back of the net, their post-season will be an extension of the regular season’s success.
(04/18/19 9:57am)
Last week, when asked about softball’s recent defeats, captain Irene Margiotta ’19 said that the team was “young but extremely talented [...] and we are looking forward to giving it our all in the next few conference weekends to come.” Margiotta and the rest of the team lived up to the mindset as the Panthers demonstrated strong performances this week, winning four of their five games.
On Wednesday, April 10, they competed in a double-header (both games rescheduled from late March) against Keene State. The team won the first game by the skin on their teeth as Keene let both Emily Moore ’21 and Melanie Mandell ’20 walk. However, they lost the second game 13-9 in only five innings. The game started off looking great for the home team, as the women scored five runs in the first inning. The Owls, thirsty for a win scored six runs in the second inning and four in the third, giving them a lead that the Panthers weren’t able to catch up to.
But the Panthers brought it back strong in a series against Wesleyan this past weekend. Middlebury crushed the Cardinals 19-6, scoring 13 runs in the final two innings of the game. They carried that success into their next two games. The women won 3-2 in the morning and 4-1 in the afternoon. On Saturday morning the women started out strong, completing a run at the top of the first thanks to a single from Rookie Sophie Bolinger and a triple from Mandell. Caroline Thacker ’21 amazed us all, pitching five shutout innings.
Mandell represented the Panthers well, earning herself the title of NESCAC Player of the Week. In the Wesleyan series her hit percentage was at 67%, making eight of her 12 at bats. Mandell also managed to achieve an on base percentage of 71% — an amazing feat. Bolinger also made key plays this week in both the Keene and Wesleyan series. Her bunt Friday against Wesleyan loaded the bases and allowed the women to get three runs at the top of the second. She also helped load the bases in Middlebury’s second game last week against Keene, contributing to the five run lead they earned in the first inning.
The Panthers will play two games against Union college on Wednesday, April 17. They will also head into a series against Hamilton this weekend. The Hamilton games will not be won without a fight. Although Middlebury generally beats Hamilton, a clean sweep will be critical for the team this weekend.
