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Bikeshare Program Rolls Out

The College bike shop introduced a new bikeshare program giving students, faculty and staff the opportunity to borrow bikes for up to a day from the College. Spearheaded by Paul Quackenbush ’14 and the College bike shop, the pilot program is expected to begin sometime early next week. The program will allow students to borrow one of eight bikes stationed at the Davis Family Library that have been refurbished by the bike shop. Quackenbush was inspired to pursue the bikeshare program by the efforts of Ellory Kramer ’13.5 last spring and a similar program from a few years ago called the yellow bikeshare program where yellow bikes were spread around campus for student use. Although the yellow bike program ended because of a lack of accountability, the concept remained of interest. Kramer received negative feedback last spring, however Quackenbush was able to see the program through with the support of Public Safety Administrator and Museum Manager and Events Coordinator, Wayne Darling, and Circulation Services Manager Dan Frostman. Support from both the Department of Public Safety and the Library Circulation Services was crucial because of their role in the program. Darling and the Office of Public Safety help the bike shop with funding by providing them with unclaimed abandoned bikes that can be refurbished and resold. “We have a role in providing the essential resource that makes the bike shop work both financially and as a facility to create bikes that can be rented or in this case borrowed,” Darling said. “This has become their primary form of funding.” To maintain accountability, students will have to check the bikes out from the library. Quackenbush worked primarily with Frostman to engage the use of the library check out system. “Bikes could get stolen and there needs to be some sort of accountability which is why I though to attach it to the library system. I figured we have a good system already for checking things out,” Quackenbush said. The program is being introduced as a pilot in order to gauge interest and identify any faults. “The pilot program is to see if there’s anything we’re forgetting,” Quackenbush said. “In order to go to a bigger scale, you are going to need more resources. So if we can demonstrate this is a viable program and there’s interest for it suggests that the school should allocate some resources to it.” Darling added that this program could lead to an expanded version in the future. “There was a version of this discussion about three years ago that reached a topping point where we were thinking about multiple places around campus where you could take a bike and drop them off at bike check stations,” he said. In order to become a part of the program students are required to sign up online at go/bikeshare where the terms and conditions are stated. Once registered, students must go to the bike shop during their office hours to get a sticker on their ID that will indicate to the library that they can borrow a bike. “I hope it achieves the mission of getting bikes in as many people’s hands as possible. Our whole mission is that bikes are great because they provide freedom,” Quackenbush said. “Many people don’t have cars on campus and I think it’s a shame that they can’t get out more into the surrounding areas and bikes are a great and fun way to do that.”

Middlebury Parent Talks About Gravity Wave Discovery

Regardless of your scientific background, you’ve probably heard of the Big Bang. Approximately 13.7 billion years ago, all of the energy in the Universe was concentrated at a single point and then suddenly underwent a rapid expansion, sending matter, energy and the fabric of space and time itself out in all directions. The Big Bang is a heuristic concept; we have observed that everything in the universe is expanding away from us in all directions, and by running that idea in reverse, we hypothesize that everything must have started at a single point. It has proven to have incredible predictive power — the true test of any scientific concept — but there hasn’t been any direct observational evidence of the Big Bang and inflation. Or at least there wasn’t, until a team working on the Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarizations (BICEP2) instrument released their findings on Mar. 17. The team, led by John M. Kovac of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and working at the South Pole, used BICEP2 to look for subtle changes in the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB). The CMB is radiation that was released when the universe was relatively young — only a few hundred thousand years after the Big Bang — and is spread uniformly across the sky. It is the hallmark of the field of cosmology and allows physicists to study the very early universe. The team found patterns in the polarization of the CMB caused by gravitational waves in the early universe that were almost certainly amplified by a rapid rate of expansion. Polarization indicates the orientation of the electromagnetic waves; all radiation has a preferred direction of vibration. This phenomenon comes into play in our everyday world any time you wear polarized sunglasses: the glasses block light that is polarized in a certain direction and reduce glare. On April 10, Robin Stebbins, the father of a Middlebury student and a physicist at NASA’s Gravitational Astrophysics Laboratory, came to the College to give a lecture on the BICEP2 discovery and give members of the College community some insight into its importance and the nature of gravitational waves. “[The lecture] really helped to put this discovery into context for anyone who has been following the news, regardless of their scientific background,” said Assistant Professor of Physics Eilat Glikman, who is currently teaching a course on cosmology at the College. “This is truly science at the margins,” Stebbins said at the start of his lecture. “This is a field that has been trying to make progress for over 50 years … Gravitational waves are to gravity what light is to electromagnetism, propagating changes in the field strength.” Part of Einstein’s theory of relativity describes time and space not as separate concepts, but rather as a larger, interconnected concept called space-time. Gravity, in Einstein’s theory, results from a bending in space-time caused by the presence of matter and energy: the more matter and energy, the more space-time is bent. Gravitational waves are created when incredibly large masses are in motion, causing ripples in space-time that propagate just like ripples on the surface of a pond. In his lecture, Stebbins spoke briefly about the nature of gravitational waves, and then went on to explain in incredible depth the experiments in place to attempt to detect these waves. As gravitational waves propagate through the universe, they cause slight variations in the distances between objects. In essence, the waves are squeezing and stretching space-time. In the very early universe, before the CMB was released, gravitational waves strained space-time and created variations in the distribution of energy. Then, as the universe underwent rapid inflation, these fluctuations amplified and left a pattern in the polarization of the CMB when it was released. There are many different ways that gravitational waves could, in theory, be detected, and Stebbins clearly outlined all methods currently being used and methods that are more theoretical and may be put into place in the future. One method involves observing a binary star system, two stars bound to each other by gravity. As these stars orbit one another, they will create gravitational waves that carry away energy from the system, causing changes in their orbits. Another involves observing variations in pulses coming from pulsars. Pulsars are incredibly dense, rotating stars that emit radiation we can detect here on Earth. These pulses come with incredible regularity, making them some of the most accurate time-keepers in the universe. As gravitational waves propagate past a pulsar, their rate of pulsing will change, revealing the presence of the passing wave. One of the terrestrial experiments outlined by Stebbins is the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) located both in Washington and Louisiana. Interferometers split beams of light and send them down perpendicular paths. The light beams are then reflected and recombined and patterns of interference in the light can reveal slight changes in the length of the two arms. LIGO uses arms 4 kilometers in length and some of the smoothest mirrors ever designed and can detect changes in length down to one-thousandth the diameter of a proton. As gravitational waves pass through Earth, LIGO should, in theory, be able to measure the fractional changes in distance. So far, we have only found indirect evidence of gravitational waves, such as the variations in binary star orbits and pulsar rotations. It is important to note that even BICEP2 did not directly observe gravitational waves. Rather, the pattern of polarization in the CMB is just a footprint left by these waves. The BICEP2 results are the sort of discovery that takes the scientific community by storm. For decades, scientists have depended on and used the theory of the Big Bang and now we finally have direct evidence. Though the results still need to be verified by other teams, they are incredibly robust, with a 5 sigma detection, meaning a confidence level of 99.9999 percent. It is a testament to the power of science that we are able to look back to the earliest stages of the universe and describe what happened to create the universe we live in today. “The day that the results were announced, I couldn’t help but think ‘science won today,’” Glikman said. “This is the sort of discovery that makes me proud of humanity.

Calling All Prospies

We hope that you are enjoying your visit to Middlebury, and that you can take some time out to educate yourselves about activism happening on campus and how you can support it. In presenting the following demands (which are in response to major issues students have identified), we ask you to use your buying power to change the structural policies of this college. Before presenting our demands and asking you to sign on to them, we want to tell you who we are. We are a coalition of students who have come together to build sustained political community on our campus. As members of this community engaged in multiple initiatives for institutional change, we seek to challenge systems of marginalization and oppression that are currently operating at Middlebury. We are committed to working for a more just, inclusive, safe, and supportive environment. Part of this work requires drawing attention to structural issues that negatively impact our academic pursuits, well-being, and safety in our time here. We are committed to combining critique with action to ensure that the administration is accountable to the broader community, and that students are active participants in shaping this institution. We make all decisions in a democratic process, and our demands are dynamic and responsive to the current conditions. The following are our current demands (for more details and citations see beyondthegreenmidd.wordpress.org): 1. AAL TO ALL:  The Coalition demands that the College change its Culture and Civilizations requirements to reflect a more inclusive and less eurocentric approach to studying the world (as proposed by Midd Included). Under the current requirements, the college seems to place an emphasis on the study of Western cultures and civilizations, while minimizing the importance of all other cultures and civilizations of the world by lumping them together into one category. Not only are these requirements failing to reflect our college’s belief about the importance of the study of different cultures and civilizations, but they are also limiting educational opportunities for students. Under the new requirements, students would be required to take: 1. Two courses, each of which focuses on the cultures and civilization of: a. AFR: Africa; b. ASI: Asia; c. LAC: Latin America and the Caribbean; d. MDE: Middle East; e. EUR: Europe; f. OCE: Oceania 2. NOR: one course that focus on some aspect of the cultures and civilizations of northern America (United States, Canada and Mexico) 3. CMP: one course that focuses on the process of comparison between and among cultures and civilizations, or a course that focus on the identity and experience of separable groups within cultures and civilizations. Making the EUR credit an option rather than a requirement does not mean that students will never be exposed to European thought. Rather, even in classes that are not explicitly region focused, such as literature, science, theater, and economics, the material taught usually comes from the European tradition. Changing the EUR credit into an option only means that students who wish to study other regions of the world will have a greater opportunity to do so, while students who wish to pursue the study of Europe can still do so. We therefore demand that this change be made by no later than fall semester of 2016. 2. CREATION OF A MULTICULTURAL CENTER:  The Coalition demands that the administration provide funding and other necessary support for a Multicultural Center. We, as MANY students before us have, demand a space that visually represents the students it seeks to serve, that is equipped with qualified staff to serve students seeking multicultural resources and services otherwise unavailable on campus, and that educates the entire campus community on issues of identity and privilege. While the college has invested in initiatives to attract students from diverse backgrounds, such as Discover Middlebury, it lacks initiatives to support the students that it brings here.  It is time that the College create a center that supports the students it uses to bolster its diversity statistics. Some might argue that such spaces already exist in the Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE) and PALANA, but these spaces do not and cannot play the role that a Multicultural Center would. The CCSRE serves as an academic resource, which has an ambiguous role on campus seeing as how having a center that studies race and ethnicity without any racial or ethnic studies programs is akin to having a basketball gym with no basketball team or basketballs. PALANA only serves as an informal residential house. Others might argue that Dean Collado as Chief Diversity Officer exists to provide the support that we speak of. However, we find it unethical to diminish the attention diversity and multicultural affairs require by boiling it down to simply one of the many hats that Dean Collado must wear. CDO is a title that requires at least one person to allot their entire schedule to, working daily to support underrepresented students. Most other esteemed NESCACs already have CDO’s who do just that, including Williams, Amherst, Tufts and Colby, just to name a few. Seeing that PALANA, the CCSRE, and the Chief Diversity Officer do not provide the support and resources that a Multicultural Center would, we demand the creation of such space no later than the fall of 2016. 3.  BAN SODEXO: The Coalition demands that Middlebury College puts in writing that it will not work with Sodexo Inc. because its history of violating human rights, infringing upon labor laws, and stripping away workers’ benefits threaten the livelihoods of the College’s dining hall staff and do not reflect the values of the college. Furthermore, we demand that the administration make public its current relationship and terms of contract, if any, with Sodexo. Representatives from Sodexo Inc., a European multinational corporation that specializes in food services, were brought to campus in early October to do a two-day observation and assessment of the college’s Dining Services and Retail Food Operation. Sodexo has a long-history of workers’ right abuses. In the fall, the Vermont Fair Food Campaign wrote an open letter about Sodexo’s slash of workers’ benefits — reductions in retirement packages and healthcare, as well as elimination of paid sick leave and vacation time, a practice they have implemented at the University of Vermont with considerable faculty and student resistance. Its union-busting techniques were detailed in a 2010 Human Rights Watch report, and it has been found guilty of National Labor Relations Board violations multiple times. In 2005, thousands of African-American employees of Sodexo accused the company of racist practices for not offering promotions to people of color and segregating the work environment. Ultimately, Sodexo settled in an $80 million racial bias suit. The Sodexo Alliance is also the leading investor in private prison profiteering. It has a seventeen-percent share in Corrections Corporation of America and a nine-percent share in CCA’s sister company Prison Realty Trust, meaning the corporation is profiting off of mass incarceration. We demand that Middlebury College puts in writing that it will not work with Sodexo Inc. and that it make public its current relationship/terms of contract, if any, with Sodexo. Preview Days and the presence of hundreds of prospective students on campus presents a unique opportunity to make effective demands to the administration and bring about institutional change. As a Coalition of Students, we ask you – prospective students – to support us (and ultimately yourselves) in the pursuit of the above goals. Please send an email, entitled “Fulfill Coalition Demands” to liebowit@middlebury.edu; please include your name as well as a note that you would like to see these changes. We thank you for your support. Signed by the following STUDENTS: Gaby Fuentes ’16, Debanjan Roychoudhury ’16, Alex Strott ’14.5, Alice Oshima ’15, Alex Macmillan ’15, Fernando Sandoval ’15, Ally Yanson ’14, Daniela Barajas ’14.5, Kate McCreary ’15,  Jackie Flores ’16, David Pesqueira ’17, Jackie Park ’15, Francys Veras ’17, Maya Doig-Acuna ’16, Nicolas Guadalupe Mendia ’16, India Huff ’15, Clair Beltran ’16, Victor Filpo ’16, Octavio Hingle-Webster ’17, Matthew Spitzer ’16.5, Lee Schlenker ’16, Molly Stuart ’15.5, Reem Rosenhaj ’16.5, Rebecca Coates-Finke ’16.5, Janiya Hubbard ’16, Angelica Segura ’16, Adriana Ortiz-Burnham ’17, Cindy Esparza ’17, Kristina Johansson ’14, Anu Biswas ’16.5, Afi Yellow-Duke ’15, Kate Hamilton ’15.5, Molly McShane ’16.5, Jenny Marks ’14, Anna Mullen ’15, Eric Hass ’15, Philip Williams ’15, Lily Andrews ’14, Levi Westerveld ’15.5, Jiya Pandya ’17, Robert Zarate-Morales ’17, Keenia Shinagawa ’17, Jeremy Stratton-Smith ’17, Klaudia Wojciechowska ’17, Greta Neubauer ’14.5, Adrian Leong ’15, Feliz Baca ’14, Josh Swartz ’14.5, Tim Garcia ’14; signed by the following ALUMNI: Adina Marx Arpadi ’13.5, Hanna Mahon ’13.5, Ashley Guzman ’13, Elma Burnham ’13, Kya Adetoro ’13, Chris De La Cruz ’13, Katie Willis ’12, Jacob Udell ’12; signed by the following ORGANIZATIONS: Alianza, Midd Included, Feminist Action at Middlebury, Juntos Migrant Outreach, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Women of Color, Umoja, JusTalks, Middlebury Student Quakers

NESCAC Opponents No Match for Both Tennis Squads

The Middlebury women’s tennis team continued its season over the weekend on April 11-13 with two wins against Wesleyan and Trinity and losses against Emory and Williams. After losing two matches in a row against top squads Williams and Emory on Friday, the 10th-ranked Panthers came back to decisively beat number 15 Trinity and Wesleyan both 7-2. The Panthers traveled to Bowdoin to play Emory for their first of three matches over the weekend, falling to the Eagles 9-0. In doubles, Lauren Amos ’16 and Margot Marchese ’16 fell 8-6, as did pair Alexandra Fields ’17 and Jennifer Sundstrom ’17. Emory swept singles in straight sets to shut out the Panthers. Marchese believed that the team did not perform as well as it could have, but it did not hamper the team’s performance the rest of the weekend. “We knew that in those two matches we lost that we didn’t show Williams or Emory our best performance,” Marchese said. “We chalked it up to two bad days and told ourselves, we still have plenty of chances to prove what this team is actually capable of. We went into Trinity with the weakest elements of our last two matches in mind and made a special effort to turn those around. I was particularly proud of the energy, fight, and resilience that the team showed in the long weekend.” The team continued its weekend with a match against Trinity on Saturday, winning two out of three doubles matches and all but one of the six singles match-ups. In singles, Dorie Paradies ’14 and Katie Paradies ’15 won with straight sets, while Fields and Kaysee Orozco ’17 won in three sets. On Sunday, the team traveled to Middletown to face Wesleyan. They finished out the weekend strong with a 7-2 win, grabbing all but one of the doubles games and five out of six singles contests. In doubles, Sadie Shackelford ’16 and Lily Bondy ’17 as well as duo Amos and Marchese were victorious. In singles, Orozco, Bondy, Katie Paradies and Marchese all won in straight sets. A three-set victory by Dorrie Paradies brought the Panthers up to seven points and an 8-4 record. “The team’s goal for the remainder of the season is to heal up and prepare ourselves for each match as if we were entering the first round of NCAAs,” Marchese said. “All 10 of us know that if we walk onto the court with the same type of tenacity, sheer will, and unity that we saw on Saturday and Sunday, the next three matches will take care of themselves.” The Panthers will host Bowdoin next Saturday. The Middlebury men’s tennis team captured three wins in three days with victories against Williams, Wesleyan and Trinity, bringing its record to 12-2. In the matchup against Williams, the Panthers swept doubles, with pairs Alex Johnston ’14 and Andrew Lebovitz ’14, Palmer Campbell ’16 and last week’s NESCAC Player of the Week Brantner Jones ’14, and Peter Heidrich ’15 and Ari Smolyar ’16 all proving victorious. Coach Bob Hansen believes that this was instrumental in the win against Williams. “Sweeping the doubles is a great thing and certainly set the table for our win against Williams,” Hansen said. “I was very proud of all our teams but especially our third doubles team of Ari Smolyar and Peter Heidrich who fought off a match point before winning the final three points to win 8-6 in the tiebreaker.” In singles, Campbell, Jones and Smolyar won again, while the Ephs grabbed three points, defeating Jackson Frons ’16, Johnston and Courtney Mountifield ’15. The Panthers went on to play Wesleyan on the road and brought their winning streak up to four with a 7-2 win. The teams of Campbell/Jones and Johnston/Lebovitz put points on the board in doubles, and the Panthers won five of six singles matches with a hard win by Johnston in the number one singles spot. Jones, Smolyar, Mountifield and Frons added singles points to bring the Panther total to seven. On Sunday, the eighth-ranked Panthers added another win to the season with an 8-1 victory. Johnston/Lebovitz and Campbell/Jones were again victorious in doubles, and the Panthers swept all six singles match-ups for a decisive win over the Bantams. Coach Hansen was very positive about the Panthers’ weekend. “The biggest key to our success both this weekend and all season long has been the total team effort from top to bottom,” Hansen said. “We got key victories from everyone this weekend and our motto of ’14, ‘Strong,’ was on full display. We are very deep in both talent and character and the unselfish nature of this team has been a critical and enjoyable aspect of our season.” Hansen praised Jones for his leadership as well as his play over the weekend as well. “Brantner Jones had a great weekend,” Hansen said, “going 6-0 with three keys wins in both singles and doubles. His attitude, skill and leadership have been key to our recent successes. He has been a great leader and his recognition as NESCAC Player of the Week was well deserved and he continues to impress.” The Panthers continue the season on April 19 when they host Bowdoin and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Baseball Secures First NESCAC Wins of Year

The Middlebury baseball team got back on the winning track this weekend, pulling out a series win over Hamilton. The Panthers split a doubleheader with the Continentals on Saturday, April 12 before riding their bats to a win in the rubber match on Sunday, April 13. The Panthers jumped out to an early lead in the series opener on Saturday, following up a three-run first inning with a five-run second that featured a two-run double from catcher Max Araya ’16. The Continentals were able to force extra innings by scoring four runs in the seventh, but Middlebury rallied again in the top of the eighth to secure the series-opening win. Third baseman Joe MacDonald ’16 led the Panthers in the win, going 2-4 with three RBIs, including a two-run home run in the decisive eighth inning. First baseman Jason Lock ’17 added a pair of RBIs while going 2-5, while shortstop Johnny Read ’17 reached base three times for Middlebury. Starter Cooper Byrne ’15 allowed four runs over five innings while earning the no decision, striking out three and walking four. Jake Stalcup ’17 tossed two runs of scoreless ball in relief to earn the win for Middlebury. In Saturday’s shortened game, RBI singles from Danny Andrada ’15 and MacDonald gave the Panthers a two-run lead through the fifth inning. Meanwhile, Middlebury starter Eric Truss ’15 was dominant through five innings, allowing just three hits while striking out three. Truss was able to strike out the first two Continentals he faced in the sixth before allowing a string of hits that included a pair of two-run home runs. The problems were exacerbated by some shoddy defense, an area that the Panthers’ have improved in markedly since returning from Arizona. By the inning’s end, Truss had allowed seven earned runs before being pulled by Coach Bob Smith. The Panthers were unable to respond in the top of the seventh, and went on to lose by a final score of 7-2. Alex Kelly ’14 went 2-4 with a pair of doubles in the leadoff spot to pace the Panthers. Back in action for Sunday’s rubber match, the Panthers looked to junior Logan Mobley ’15 for a quality start as they fished for their first series win of the 2014 season. Mobley did not disappoint, tossing five innings of shutout ball while yielding only one hit, striking out three and walking four. The Panther bats also came alive in the series finale, with Kelly singling home Garrett Werner ’16 before reaching home on a wild pitch to give the Panthers a 2-0 lead after two. After adding a run in the third, Matt Leach ’15 hit a two-run single to cap a four-run fourth inning that stretched the Panther lead. Senior Dylan Kane ’14 came on to relieve Mobley in the bottom of the sixth, where he retired the side. MacDonald hit his second home run of the weekend in the top of the seventh to help the Panthers to a 10-0 lead. Kane yielded three runs over the game’s final three innings, but it was too little too late for the Continentals. Middlebury took the game 10-3 to win the series over Hamilton, while Kane earned the save by tossing the final four innings. Lock went 3-6 with a double on Sunday, while MacDonald contributed three RBIs and Leach contributed two to the win. The Panthers host their first home series of the year this weekend against division rival Amherst. The opener will be played on Friday afternoon, April 18 before the series wraps up with a doubleheader on Saturday.

Softball Sweeps Cardinals in Extra Innings Thrillers

While most Middlebury students were enjoying three days off last weekend, the softball team was busy playing five games over the course of three days. They swept a three-game series with NESCAC rival Wesleyan on April 11-12 and split two games with Keene State on Sunday, April 13. The Panthers won the first game of the series against Wesleyan 6-2 on Friday. Kimber Sable ’14, Jackie Stern ’16 and tri-captain Emily Kraytenberg ’14 scored when Hye-Jin Kim ’17 smashed a three-run double, putting the Panthers up 3-0 in the third. Wesleyan scored in the fourth and fifth, but Middlebury secured the win in the bottom of the fifth with runs from Kim, Carlyn Vachow ’16, and Kelsey Martel ’15. The Panthers won both games of the Saturday doubleheader 4-3. The Cardinals started the first game with a bang, scoring two early, and their pitcher, reigning NESCAC Pitcher of the Week Su Pardo, made it difficult for the Panthers to answer. Kim proved key in this game, sending Kraytenberg home in the fifth, and Stern home in the seventh. Stern’s run tied the game and sent it in to extra innings. The game proved to be a nail biter, and neither team managed to cross home plate during the eighth or ninth inning, forcing the teams to start the 10th with a runner on second, according to NESCAC tie-breaker rules. Wesleyan snuck in a run the 10th, but Middlebury fought back, taking advantage of a throwing error to tie the game, and then Martel hit a fly that sent Vachow in to score, winning the game. Middlebury rode the momentum into the final game of the series, scoring three in the first when Vachow cleared the bases with a double to left. The Cardinals worked their way back, responding with runs in the fourth and fifth before they tied the game in the seventh. It was then that Vachow stepped up once again to seal the Panthers’ victory, this time with a home run. Kim sang the praises of her teammate. “Carlyn was especially amazing…both behind the plate and at the plate,” Kim said. “She’s clutch.” The team was back on the field on Sunday with another double-header, this time against Keene State. The Owls got on the board first with a bases loaded walk in the first and then again with a run in the third, but the Panthers made a fierce comeback, with five hits and four runs. One three-run double on the weekend wasn’t enough for Kim, as she smacked yet another one in the third, then scored off a hit by Sarah Freyre ’17. Keene State tied the game in the fourth, but Middlebury went full steam ahead, and Sable, Christina Bicks ’15 and Kim all scored in the fifth. The Panthers faltered in the nightcap however, trailing by five until the third, but the resilient team bounced back when Sable hit an RBI triple and Vachow smashed a ball to the fence that sent three runners home. Siobhan O’Sullivan ’17 and Emily Smith ’14 added a run each when Kraytenberg smashed one in the fourth. The Panthers looked like they had the game, but the Owls managed to come back in the seventh. It was a tie game with two outs when the Owls managed to eke out one more run to win the game, breaking the Panthers six-game winning streak. Despite being “a little bummed” to split with Keene State, Kim was very happy with the team’s performance. “Our games this weekend were a complete team effort,” Kim said. “We never lost confidence in each other even when we were down a couple runs, which was really cool.” Coach Kelly Bevere also complimented her team on doing “an excellent job staying mentally tough in some really tight games.” The Panthers play Hamilton at home this weekend, and Kim feels supremely confident about the coming series. “Hide yo’ kids, hide yo’ wives, and hide yo’ brooms because we’re planning to sweep Hamilton,” Kim said.

Women’s Lacrosse Suffers Shocking Pair of Losses

After a string of key NESCAC wins last week, the Middlebury women’s lacrosse team fell to two top-ranked opponents this week: SUNY Cortland on Thursday, April 10 and Trinity on Saturday, April 12. On Thursday the Panthers – going into the game ranked fifth in the nation – hosted second-ranked Cortland on Kohn Field. The game was a back and forth battle from the opening whistle. Cortland fired first with Red Dragon Erica Geremia scoring an unassisted goal two minutes into the game. Middlebury quickly responded with an unassisted goal from sophomore standout Laurel Pascal ’16. After another unassisted Red Dragon goal following Pascal’s, Middlebury went on a three-goal scoring streak. Pascal and Liza Herzog ’14 both finished goals off of passes from Katie Ritter ’15, and Chrissy Ritter ’16 scored off of a free position shot. Cortland did not relent and answered with two goals to tie the game 4-4 with 13 minutes left in the half. After a scoreless 12 minutes Chrissy Ritter scored an unassisted goal to put the Panthers up 5-4 going into the half. The second half began a game of runs for both teams with Middlebury maintaining the lead until Cortland’s Kristen Ohberg scored off of a pass from Emma Geremia to tie the game at 9-9 with 8:30 left to play. Middlebury quickly answered Ohberg’s goal with Bridget Instrum ’16 scoring an unassisted goal a minute later. Her effort would not prove to be enough, however, as Cortland finished the game strong with a trio of goals to put the Red Dragons past the Panthers by a score of 12-10. Katie Ritter led the Panther’s effort with four points off of two goals and two assists. Panther goalkeeper Alyssa Palomba ’14 finished the game with four saves over the course of the game. The Panther defense suffered against Cortland because captain and stalwart defender Hannah Deoul ’14 was out with a concussion. Her role was filled by first-years Allie Hooley ’17 and Jessie Yorke ’17. Despite the tough loss, the Panthers were forced to quickly regain focus in order to prepare for Saturday’s game against perennial NESCAC powerhouse Trinity College. The Trinity game, like the Cortland game, was a 60-minute battle with both teams scoring back and forth until the final whistle. Middlebury was the first to fire with Instrum finishing a goal unassisted after a scoreless first four minutes of the game. This was followed by a three-goal streak by Trinity, only to be stopped by another unassisted goal from Instrum. Middlebury and Trinity would go goal for goal for the rest of the half. Megan Griffin ’16, Chrissy Ritter ’16 and Herzog each added a goal for Middlebury to make the score 5-6 in favor of Trinity going into the second half. Middlebury quickly tied the game three minutes into the second half with Alli Sciarretta ’16 finishing a pass from Griffin. The goal-swapping continued with Middlebury’s taking the lead at one point off of a goal from Herzog to put the score at 8-7. Trinity responded with two goals with 20 minutes left in the half to make the score 8-9 in its favor. Chrissy Ritter was able to finish a pass from sister Katie with 11:38 left in the game, but this was not enough to stop the Bantams. Trinity’s Molly Cox scored her third of the day to put Trinity up 10-9 with 10:33 left in the game. The Panther defense was again without Deoul against Trinity, but found leadership in Palomba who finished the game with 6 saves. “I think we need to focus our attention on playing a full 60 minutes of Middlebury lacrosse and being mentally tough in those close games,” Katie Ritter said. “We learned a lot from these two games and now it’s about applying what we’ve learned and moving forward from there.” On Tuesday, April 15, the Panthers played host to Union for a non-conference matchup, defeating the Dutchmen 15-8 on the strength of eight goals from Pascal. Middlebury jumped out to a large early lead against Union, taking an 11-4 advantage into halftime. That margin would prove too much for Union to overcome. Pascal’s scoring total, which came on just 10 shots, is the second largest single-game offensive output by any one player in program history, and the most since 1993. The Panthers next square off with Colby on Saturday, April 19 on Kohn field. If they can get past the Mules, Middlebury will have a final shot to improve their seed for the upcoming NESCAC tournament when they travel to Williams the following week for the final game of the regular season.

Golf Teams Open Spring to Mixed Results

The Middlebury golf teams teed up the spring season with a couple road trips south last weekend. The men’s team placed second at the NYU Invitational and the women placed fifth at the Vassar College Invitational. NYU hosted the men’s competition at Forest Hills Field Club in New Jersey, where Williams seized an eight-stroke day one lead over second-place Middlebury on Saturday, April 12. On a phenomenal Sunday, the Panther men shaved thirteen shots off their Saturday total and shot a combined 289, but they could not make up the deficit to a consistent Williams squad that won the tournament by a stroke. The two NESCAC powers dominated, as the third place University of Rochester finished 15 strokes behind Middlebury’s second place score. “We played very solid golf this weekend as a team,” John Louie ’15 said. “This was our first tournament of the spring season and our first competitive rounds of golf since last October. We all were confident in our preparation for the tournament and turned out a great second day. We just had to dust some of the cobwebs off.” Individually, Charlie Garcia ’15 paced the Panthers on Saturday with a three-over-par 74. The other four Middlebury competitors—Fitz Bowen ’17, Robbie Donahoe ’14, Eric Laorr ’15 and Louie — all carded scores in the 70s. “The course was great,” Louie said. “It required accurate and smart shotmaking. There were quite a few holes to score on and on the second day we really took advantage of that.” On day two, Louie shot a tournament-best two-under-par 69 to finish tied for third place with 145 on the weekend — one stroke out of the playoff. Garcia shot a 72 to move up to fifth place, and Bowen also finished in the top ten with a weekend score of 148, good for a tie for ninth. Donahoe shot a 75 on Sunday for weekend score of 153 and a share of 22nd place, while Laorr (77-79-156) tied for 31st. “We really focused on staying patient,” Garcia said. “The season is so short and the weather hasn’t been ideal…so it’s important to work on things in moderation. It’s more about peaking at the right time and I think we are very close do doing that.” The Panthers will look to build on their success in next weekend’s tournament at Williams, where they will have a final tune-up before the NESCAC championships.  Middlebury beat the Ephs at the NESCAC qualifier in the fall to earn the right to host the championships later this spring. “Williams played solid golf this weekend and we were not surprised by that,” Louie said.  “We anticipated a good weekend from them after a competitive fall season.” On the women’s side, the 25th-ranked Panthers played at the Vassar Invitational at Casperkill Golf Club in Poughkeepsie, N.Y on April 12 and 13. Middlebury placed fifth out of the 12-team field with a weekend score of 665. Fourth-ranked Williams won the tournament with a total score of 633, while eighth-ranked Ithaca (650), Cortland (658) and NYU (662) also went lower than the Panthers. “Williams and Ithaca played consistently well, as they usually do, but Cortland and NYU surprised us,” Monica Chow ’16 said. “We usually come in second or third, so coming in fifth is definitely a wake up call for all of us. We know we are a stronger team than we showed this past weekend, and I think we are all looking forward to redeeming ourselves this coming weekend.” Chow finished the event with a weekend 168, tied for 21st and 10 strokes behind team leader Jordan Glatt ’15. Glatt carded two consecutive rounds of 79 to finish the weekend tied for fourth, four strokes behind the leaders. “It was great to begin competing again, as we have not had a tournament since the fall,” Glatt said. “Even though this season is only three weeks long, we hope to make the best of it and continue to improve.” The Panthers were able to improve on Saturday’s showing, taking seven shots off their score as a team on Sunday. It would not be enough as Cortland and NYU jumped Middlebury down the stretch to finish third and fourth, respectively. Michelle Peng ’15 was hindered by an early quadruple bogey on Saturday, but finished strong, shooting 84 and 85 and placing 23rd in the tournament field. Theodora Yoch ’17 (84-86) finished tied for 24th, and Caroline Kenter ’14 (91-91) finished 44th. The women’s squad will compete next weekend at a tournament hosted by Amherst  College.

Living In the Adderall Generation: Part 2

  If you wanted to get an Adderall prescription written for you while at the College, you would need to go through a person like Dr. John Young, who works at the Counseling Service of Addison County. He is the consulting psychiatrist for the College and is on the front lines of the complex issue of prescribing psychostimulants. “It is one of the more complex assessments diagnostically,” he said. “The problem is that sometimes it is a diagnosis of desire — ‘I read a book, I tried someone’s Adderall and it worked for me, I think I have ADHD.’” The problem with diagnosing ADHD is that there are few black and white cases and no blood test to confirm lack of focus. As a result, Dr. Young tries to get to know the patients and looks for red flags. “You want a good reason, not just performance enhancement. When I meet with someone, I’m trying to get an idea of what they’re looking for, if they’re looking for treatment more broadly, and whether they’re willing to accept that there are a lot of different ways their problem might be addressed. The more they focus on this medicine, that’s a red flag for me.” Young said he sees on average 10 Middlebury students a year looking for psychostimulants. Less than half he believed actually needed the medication. “I once had a Middlebury student in my office stand up and slam the door because he didn’t get the medicine that he thought he needed,” Young said. “It’s a tricky thing because usually they’re suggesting it, and it’s very hard to talk people out of that because it is a simple answer, it’s something that works now.” But for every student he declines to prescribe, there may be a doctor back in their hometown more than willing to prescribe them enough Adderall for them and their friends. “There’s too much of it around, and people are being pressured by their friends to give it out. I guess it’s just part of things now, but I don’t have to like it,” Young said. But for Oliver ’13, who graduated last spring with an economics degree, easy access psychostimulants were a common convenience during his time at the College, similar to coffee. “I really use it for midterms and finals. There’s pretty much no work that can’t be helped by Adderall or any other stimulant.” Oliver readily admitted that he showed none of the symptoms of ADHD and saw Adderall as a vehicle to get him where he needed to go. “It’s just another tool that people use and will continue to use no matter how difficult you make it,” Oliver explained. “It’s the cost of doing business. You can’t breed this go-getter culture and not expect students to take advantage of their resources, whether it be coffee or Adderall. To me, they are both performance-enhancing supplements. Coffee is legal, but at the end of the day, it helps you get the paper done.” Conventionally, Adderall and other psychostimulants are meant to level the playing field for students who are not able to focus and need the medicine. But Oliver does not buy that argument. “I’m sure those people [with serious ADHD] exist, but I’m skeptical that the majority of people prescribed here actually qualify as people who would need the medication to level the playing field,” he said. “If we’re talking about my rationalization process, I’m thinking of me with it and me without it, and at the end of the day, I’m not going to feel bad because I know how many other kids do it. I don’t mind being on an unfair playing field and I’m not going to leave an advantage on the table.” Oliver’s views on Adderall usage were seen as “worrisome and sad” to Dean of the College Shirley Collado. To her, psychostimulant abuse is a symptom of a larger problem. “A major concern is the culture where students feel they need to take a drug like Adderall inappropriately,” Collado said. “It signals an inability as a person to press pause, slow down and make mistakes. I wonder what the long-term cost will be when I think about a Middlebury student if you fast-forward 25 years, what the impact of that thinking and rationalization is.” With a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Duke University and over 12 years working as a higher education administrator, Collado has a unique understanding about psychostimulant usage and the larger trends it suggests. “We are all contributing to creating a high-intensity situation here. But Middlebury is only one version of a high-impact environment, and my worry is that for students who are learning to cope by taking a drug, what the trend is going to be for the long term.” While most students the Campus talked to began their psychostimulant usage at the College, Collado pointed to a new wave of applicants who are being stimulated and pushed to their maximum from young ages. “There’s a lot of evidence of how readily these medications have become,” she said. “Parents who are fine with getting their kids on medication when they are in middle school, trying to make their kids as focused as possible so they can get into a place like Middlebury.” “Behind the story is the context of a new pharmaceutical reality that a lot of psychologists worry about. The drugs are legitimate ways of coping for students who really need it, but I’m worried about the culture that we are currently in where there is an abundance of these drugs,” she continued. Every expert the Campus talked to was asked to respond to Oliver’s assertion that Adderall use was the cost of doing business at a place like Middlebury. Reactions were overwhelmingly of concern and alarm, except for one. “I think that is very insightful,” said Assistant Professor of Sociology Rebecca Tiger. “Adderall helps you be better at what we are asking you to do. We ask you to do a ton of work, have a fit body, fit mind, do all sort of extra-curricular activities, engage in community service, and have a good social life. Adderall can help you with that, so what is so wrong with it?” Tiger, who has taught classes on the sociology of drugs and deviance and social control, refused to weigh in on whether drugs like Adderall are good or bad, but was quick to note what she sees as hypocrisy in what is considered “bad.” “What I find really interesting is that students would never compare Adderall to crystal meth,” Tiger explained. “For the students I’ve talked to, they always say: ‘well, it’s not crystal meth.’ But actually, yes it is. This isn’t about drugs, we’re talking about people. If I am a good, high functioning person, and I occasionally take Adderall, who cares? But if I am a poor, rural person who is out of work, then we really care if I am taking amphetamines and criminalize it. You guys are rarely criminalized for your drugs use.” ... For Tyler ’14, it was a slow, seamless transition from taking Adderall as a study drug once during his first-year to regularly taking it to study and party starting junior year. At first he just got a pill here and there from a friend, but as his use increased he transitioned to buying from a campus drug dealer. If he buys smaller quick-release Adderall, it is $1 for 2mg. Extended-release XR pills are discounted, but not by much. “Before, it was only when my friends had some, a crime of opportunity. Now, there’s a person I buy from. It’s expensive, but worth it to me.” The numbers of students at the College using psychostimulants recreationally is unknown, and the estimates vary greatly depending on the anecdotal source. Tyler estimated that 50 percent of students who take it orally eventually try it recreationally. “You can justify it as a study enhancer by arguing that it’s for work,” he said. “A lot of people get into the drug by justifying it that way, but the recreational use doesn’t have that safety net. Usually people don’t start snorting it until they have done it a couple times orally. It comes on slowly. You try it, you like it, then move on.” Tyler said snorting Adderall makes him more attentive in conversations, allowing him to live up to social expectations. But despite his best efforts to keep the pills he buys for studying, Tyler said he ends up snorting more than he intends every month. The dealer he buys from usually sells out, so he has to go at the beginning of the month. In the beginning of March, he bought $60 worth — 120mg — but only used 50mg to study with. “I’m like a goddamn child when I have it,” he said. “I can’t keep my hands off of it. Especially if it’s a night when we’re going out, I’ll just bust out the Adderall. I have to be strategic or I’ll pop them like candy.” One of the biggest frustrations is that Tyler rarely snorts it all himself. “It’s annoying to me when my friends just don’t want to go through the process of buying Adderall. I can’t fault them for it, because I am much better friends with the guys who sell it, so I’ll just go kick it with them and buy Adderall.” Tyler’s monthly sojourns to his drug dealer put him in the minority of illicit users. Over 73 percent of the respondents obtained Adderall and other psychostimulants from either “Close friend/Sibling” or “Friend,” according to the 2013 report on psychostimulants by Ben Tabah ’13. As his thesis has come to a head mid-way through the spring, Tyler continues to buy Adderall on the first and the fifteenth when needed. While he said he has come to terms with his own usage, he was unsure when asked whether he would let his kids be prescribed Adderall. “If I had a child who showed symptoms of ADHD and was in a position to be prescribed Adderall, I would think long and hard about it. Not to say that I would or would not, but I would do a lot of research because an Adderall prescription is something that fundamentally affects your day-to-day interactions.” ... When you follow a group of students over the course of a semester, there are always nascent trends that do not have data to support and cannot be definitively proved. But among long-term prescribed students, there is a subset that has had enough, and decided that the side affects just are not worth the rewards. Going into his senior year this fall, Ben ’14 was juggling a long-term relationship with prescription stimulants. His brother and sister were both prescribed growing up, and he began taking psychostimulants in ninth grade. He was given Focalin and Adderall and brought it with him to the College, taking it regularly. Insomnia and loss of appetite hit Ben particularly hard. He arrived at the College 5’10 and 150 lbs. and left at the end of his first year a skeletal 135 lbs. When he finally finished all his work, the battle to find a few hours of a sleep began. “Nyquil was the only thing that could knock me out. I would write a stream of consciousness during those sleepless nights, writing things like ‘wow this Adderall won’t go away.’ Pages and pages. You get to the point where you just ask yourself what the hell your doing,” he said. “People would always joke, ‘you like working, Adderall makes work fun.’ Try taking it for two days, then leaving the library wanting only to sleep and not being able to because your mind is racing and won’t stop.” Ben would take a pill, enter the library, and exit ten hours later feeling as if his head was in a cloud. “I felt at times like I was a guinea pig, and no one could really understand where I was coming from,” he recounted. “I started thinking when I turned in papers coming off my Adderall high, ‘who was doing that work? Me or the drugs? Am I really in control?’” The long days and longer nights brought him to a moment of crises. “I haven’t been able to get a handle on it,” he said late in the fall. “When my parents came up this past weekend, I told them not to ship me another bottle.” As he progressed through his senior year, Ben began to learn how to cope without the drug. It was harder to do work, but he said the benefits far outweighed the cost, from smoking less weed to a reinvigorated sex life. But it remains a constant battle. “My brain keeps telling me to call my mom, hop in the library, and just start knocking work out,” he said. “But I don’t want to do that right now. I’m at the point of deciding what I want to do with my life and what role Adderall is going to play in that life.” During spring break, Ben took it sparingly to try and push through his thesis. He said it helped immensely, but the side affects were especially severe because he had no tolerance. Returning after break, Ben continued to lay off psychostimulants. Ben is not alone in taking a hard look at long-term psychostimulant usage. “They’re not miracle drugs,” said John Young, the Middlebury-based psychiatrist. “A lot of people find that in the long run, after the initial excitement wears off, it might not be more helpful than a cup of coffee.” After graduating, Oliver went to work at an investment bank. While he used Adderall for his junior summer internship, he too has decided against taking psychostimulants. “You want to be seen highly at work, but you can only do so much in one day, while one test in a math or economics test could be worth 40 percent of my final grade,” he said. “There’s no six-hour period of time at work where it will be worth 40 percent of my evaluation.” But even if there are students re-evaluating the long-term worth psychostimulants, there will always be a project or midterm beckoning on the horizon, tempting students across campus. “I’m the Dean of the College coming in and saying, ‘take a chill pill’ (no pun intended),” Collado said. “This is the time to invest in yourself away from your parents and have it be messy some of the time. It’s normal for students to explore drugs and all kinds of things in college, but if that is the normative culture that a student is walking into, that is highly problematic. My biggest concern is that you are equipped with the right tools, confidence and reflection so that you are not creating behaviors here that will be detrimental to your future as a person.” The problem with living in the Adderall Generation is that you cannot just divorce yourself from these drugs altogether. As Ben learned, there is no such thing as cold turkey for students taking psychostimulants at the College. But you can learn to use the drugs responsibly and come to terms with their role here. For better or worse, from 30mg extended-release Adderall pills with breakfast to Saturday nights driven by neon blue and orange lines, we are living in the Adderall Generation. “If you walked up to any random person on campus and offered them Adderall, not many of them would say no,” said Ben. “But I’m trying to find a way to live my life in a way that nobody understands. Kids who take Adderall regularly never talk … [but] we need to start talking and reflecting.” Listen to Kyle Finck discuss this series on Vermont Public Radio. Additional Reporting by ALEX EDEL, Layout Assistance by HANNAH BRISTOL, Graphics by EVAN GALLAGHER, and Photos by ANTHEA VIRAGH

Creativity Shines at MiddChallenge

What do cheese, 3D visualization goggles, epi-pens, cowgirls and undocumented college students have in common? Not much more than the shared evidence of the creativity students will be pursuing this summer, with the help of grants awarded by MiddChallenge. On April 4 and 6, nine finalists presented their project ideas to a panel of judges, made up of many college alumni and Vermont professionals, in the categories of Business, Arts and Outreach. After two days of thoughtful presentations, five projects were selected to receive a $3,000 grant, the support of an advisor network and space at the Old Stone Mill. MiddChallenge is one of several programs under the umbrella of the Middlebury’s Project on Creativity and Innovation (PCI), which seeks to encourage students’ independent and inventive projects on campus. The presenters surprised all with their preparation, foresight and diversity of interests. Joanie Thompson ’14, a member of the student MiddChallenge Committee, appreciated the outcome of months of planning. “My favorite thing is always seeing how different the projects are,” Thompson said. “It’s the variety that I love, and it shows a wonderful side to people, when they present on something they are incredibly invested in.” In the business category, Nate Beatty ’13.5 received a grant for his start-up, Iris VR, Inc. The company will develop software, to be paired with emerging stereoscopic 3D head mounted displays – “like ski goggles, with two eyes and a screen on the inside,” to help architects virtually imagine the realities of their spaces, before construction. Beatty will use his grant to hire a student intern — still accepting applications — to assist in the development process this summer. “It’s all about virtual reality now,” he said. “It’s exciting, because I think if we started the project right now, we would be too late. We hit the timing, hopefully, just right. We’re riding the wave of this virtual reality buzz.” Other winners in the business category include Linda Waller ’15.5, designing a wearable Epi-Pen, and Linnea Burnham ’14.5, making cheese and sharing the value of sustainable farming at Robinson Hill Farm. In the arts category, “Cowgirls: A Documentary” won a grant to explore, through film, the identity of cowgirls in the cowboy-dominated culture of the American West.  Anna Carroll ’14.5 and Ben Kramer ’13.5 will direct the project, with collaboration by Sarah Briggs ’14.5, Katie McFarren ’14, Tommy Hyde ’14.5, Tito Heiderer ’14.5 and Maddy Lawler ’14. The cinematographers will follow cowgirls, Claudia Ogilvie and Patty Hayes, on a 100-mile horseback ride through South Dakota. Their documentary promises to be insightful portrayal of the friendship between two women, who have followed similar paths in breeding and training horses, and who will reunite on camera, after five years apart. Finally, in the outreach category, Daniel Ramirez ’17 received a grant for his project, Documented Dreams, to build a social network where undocumented high school students can receive mentoring and advice from undocumented college students.  Ramirez believes that undocumented college students are outliers, able to pursue their education only because of unusual relationships — like that which his brother gave to him and which he has given to his mentee, recently accepted to the College’s class of 2018. MiddChallenge provides students valuable practice in developing an idea, checking its viability and planning for its implementation. Charlie MacCormack, Executive in Residence and former CEO of Save the Children, applauded the participants for their apparent dedication. “I’ve come to have high expectations for the quality and importance and practicality of the ideas,” MacCormack said. “But this year did exceed my expectations, because all presentations were genuinely outstanding, and really could have been made by very experienced people, with professional degrees.” The presenters similarly appreciated value of the judges’ feedback, in shaping how they will progress with their projects. With summer just around the corner, MiddChallenge provided a springboard from which the grant recipients can jump into their projects with enthusiasm and financial and mental support. “I am extremely honored to be the recipient of a MiddChallenge grant and I want to thank the PCI, student organizers, and the funders for pulling together a great event,” Burnham said. “I look forward to this summer because, thanks to MiddChallenge, I will be able to turn my business plan into a reality.”

New Leadership to NOM Initiative

On a beautiful Thursday last week, I accompanied the student initiative NOM (Nutrition Outreach Mentoring) to the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Vergennes. Inside a gray building on a side street in downtown Vergennes, about 15 local teenagers chatted and played cards and video games. However, the six students who arrived from the College had a new idea for what these teens could be doing. As part of their goal of “creating community and connecting people through food and food education,” as mentioned in their mission statement, NOM volunteers at local schools and afterschool programs to teach healthy eating and cooking habits to children and young adults. “Children are a great focus for our group because there are a lot of fun ways to teach nutrition,” said NOM President Rachel Kinney ’16.5, who since her take over of the group last semester, has worked with Treasurer Cassidy Mueller ’16.5 and other students to revitalize the group and expand its volunteering reach. “It has a big impact when people learn about healthy eating from a young age — and an impact that can trickle up to the child’s family and larger community.” At the Boys and Girls Club, NOM’s learning kitchen programming proved itself to be tasty and informative: NOM volunteers partnered with Boys and Girls Club teens to make fruit and vegetable smoothies. NOM volunteers opened the activity with a discussion about the vitamins and nutrients in the fruits and vegetables on the gray table we circled. Then, volunteers and teens were set loose on the ingredients, free to sample the fruits and veggies and experiment with different smoothies combinations as they chose. My partner Ethan, 15, and I concocted three delicious smoothies. After mixing a yummy strawberry banana smoothie, Ethan was willing to try a smoothie with spinach in addition to fruit in it, although his initial reaction to the vegetable was a series of loud exclamations of “That tastes bad!” After a few gingerly sips, Ethan was willing to admit that the smoothie did a pretty good job of masking the taste of the vegetable, just as NOMs volunteers had suggested at the beginning of the activity. As the smoothie making continued, calls of “Can I try that?” echoed around the room. Teen enthusiasm for smoothie making varied from Natalie, 14, who was willing to sample a spinach only smoothie to Kairek, 13, who would make smoothies but never drink them. I knew NOM was making a difference when Ethan told me, “This is a lot of fun! This is the most fun I’ve had at the club in a long time.” NOM also boasts other volunteering initiatives than the Boys and Girls Club. The group runs Farm to Table programming for students at Mary Hogan Elementary School in Middlebury, VT in which students get to taste-test and learn about different recipes for local produce. “The curriculum we use teaches not just nutrition but how it applies to everyday life— something especially important in an area full of farms,” Kinney explained. “And these kids will then talk to their families about what they’ve learned, teach them how to make hummus from just a can of chickpeas, and the influence just grows from there.” Additionally, the group participates in one-time volunteering events such as food packing and soup making for the volunteer organization Helping Overcome Poverty’s Effects (HOPE). A large portion of NOM meetings are spent educating group members about food issues and hunger. During meetings, the group often reads and discusses articles or listens to TedX Talks to inform themselves. “That’s part of effort to educate ourselves to be better volunteers,” Mueller said. “Although we care about this issue, we aren’t nutritionists.” Education of NOM volunteers is especially important as NOM seeks to address the true needs of the community, not simply plant their own programming on organizations that have no need of it. “We have to be understanding of the people that we are working with and what it is they are looking for out of the program,” Chelsea Colby ’17.5, the NOM liaison to the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Vergennes, said. “But I think it was cool how excited some of those kids got about spinach in their smoothies. It’s just not something they’ve been exposed to.” Youth Programs and Outreach Assistant Daniel Murphy, who brings “institutional savvy” to student groups involving mentorship has high hopes for the role NOM can fill for the community. “They have a lot of students who both through academic and personal passion are really interested in getting out there and learning more,” Murphy said. “I would love to see them become an authority on campus for what’s already in place in the community, for what kids are getting and what the gaps are. I would love to see them become an authority about getting people who are interested in these things aware and plugged in.” The group has set its own goals for the future: NOM hopes to increase awareness about nutrition issues on campus through workshops and speakers, continuing its existing volunteer program but also expand to include mentoring at the Addison Central Teen Center located in Middlebury, VT. Mueller noted the benefits that participation in NOM can have for students: “I think something that is really helpful is learning how to connect with the Middlebury community which is sometimes something that is not really emphasized by the College. (…) Instead of giving money to people really far away, it is important to understand our local problems.” Students interested in joining NOM should attend meetings on Tuesdays at 6 p.m. in Laforce Seminar Room.

Ghosts of History Past

Geert Wilders, the leader and founder of the Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV), appeared proudly before his loyal following in The Hague on Wednesday night, still hoping that the local elections would solidify his political power. Against the backdrop of a Dutch flag spanning the entire backside of a medium-sized beer cellar in the political capital of the Netherlands, Mr. Wilders asked his boisterous audience three questions. “Do you want more or less European Union?” The audience, familiar by now with Mr. Wilders’ crusade against the ever-closer cooperation of European nation-states—he has suggested violent rebellion if the EU gains powers of taxation—responded with a somewhat scattered but loud “Less! Less! Less!” The crowd repeated the word 13 times. Wilders, building momentum, continued with the precise eagerness of a hunter who is about to corner his prey. “Do you want more or less Labour Party?” The Dutch Labour Party (PVDA), it had become apparent before Mr. Wilders entered the room, had lost political control over Amsterdam, the Dutch capital and most populous city with roughly 800,000 inhabitants, for the first time since coming to power in 1949. Even Wilders’ disciples, whose confused populism combines leftist and rightist conservatism, seemed to commiserate with the social-democrats. “Less! Less! Less!” they uttered just eleven times. Wilders, visibly in need of a brief recovery after the underwhelming response, looked down on his bright green tie, then turned his eyes to the floor, before prefacing his third question with an expression of acute awareness of what his next move would bring about. “And the third question is…and I’m not actually allowed to say this, because I will be reported to the police… But freedom of speech is an obvious good. We haven’t said anything illegal. Nothing that is not true. So, I ask you. Do you want, in this city and in the Netherlands, more or fewer Moroccans?” This time, the ensuing chant was reminiscent of the response Joseph Goebbels elicited in his Berlin Sportpalast speech of February 10, 1933, which offered the national-socialist ‘solution’ for Germany’s Post-WWI pains. Mr. Goebbels, who served as Hitler’s Minister for Propaganda between 1933 and 1945, racing in the rhythm of his rhetoric, assured his audience that “the Jewish insolence has lived longer in the past than it will live in the future.” The crowd laughed derisively, applauded, and clamored, with many rising to their feet to extend their right arm at a 45-degree angle. The congregation of Wilders-devotees in The Hague responded in unison to the question on the presence of Moroccans—a group that makes up about 2% of the total Dutch population—yelling “Fewer! Fewer! Fewer!” The chant lasted a total of 16 repetitions of the word (‘minder’ in Dutch). Basking in the success of his kill, Mr. Wilders observed his surroundings, wetted his upper lip twice with his thin tongue in a gesture that completed his unnerving resemblance to a colubrid, and assured the Dutch on national television that “we will take care of that, then.” The crowd laughed derisively, applauded, and clamored. As Mr. Wilders would find out soon after his address, the Dutch midterm elections forced the Party for Freedom, which thrives on the populist appeal of Mr. Wilders—he is the party’s only member—to surrender political dominance in all but one municipality. Having previously suffered significant defeat in the Dutch national elections of September 2012, Mr. Wilders differs much from Minister Goebbels in terms of executive power. That is not to say, however, that his populist rhetoric has failed to make an imprint on Dutch politics. Mr. Wilders’ hard-right campaign against European integration, Islam and ethnic groups brought him as far as holding a position of de facto governing power when the PVV served as the supporting party for the 2010 minority coalition of the Dutch Conservative Party (VVD) and Christian Democrats (CDA). Today, Mr. Wilders’ 15 seats in the Dutch lower chamber still see him represent 10% of the total population. Far more problematically, Mr. Wilders’ influence has pulled the Conservative Party (VVD) closer to demagoguery and xenophobia, and has successfully normalized anti-EU, anti-immigrant, and nationalist discourse in Dutch politics. But for all the negativity that has surrounded the Dutch midterm elections, their outcome also holds the promise of a reversal in the populist trend of the past 10 years. Mr. Wilders’ speech has provoked public outrage among the Dutch, leading one PVV parliamentarian to cut all ties with the party on Thursday afternoon. As of Thursday night, over a thousand Dutchmen have reported Mr. Wilders’ discriminatory remarks to the police. Perhaps even more promisingly, Prime Minister Rutte (VVD), finally collapsing under the weight of party elders and European peers, announced late Thursday night that he has ruled out the possibility of forming a coalition government with Mr. Wilders if he maintains his views. Finally, Democrats 66 (D66), the only Dutch party that has consistently refused to accept the Mr. Wilders’ brand of populism as tolerable political practice, emerged from the local elections as the undisputed victor, becoming the largest party in three of The Netherlands’ most populous cities: Amsterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht. The progressive centrists of D66-leader Alexander Pechtold will seek to translate this local power to a widening influence on a national and European scale. To a large extent, the Dutch reputation for religious tolerance depends on how successful Pechtold is in meeting his challenge. FELIX KLOS '14 is from Hilversum, The Netherlands

Women’s Lacrosse Rises Through the Ranks; Now 5th

After earning a number of key wins against very competitive teams both in the NESCAC and outside the conference, the Middlebury women’s lacrosse team has continued to show their talent and potential as the team moves towards the second half of the season, achieving a 9-1 record against a tough slate of opponents. The Panthers, now ranked fifth in the nation, strung together a series of commanding wins over spring break, defeating Bowdoin 14-6 at home, with Liza Herzog ’14 leading the Panthers with five points, followed by Katie Ritter ’15, Bridget Instrum ’16 and Mary O’Connell ’17 each contributing four points. Herzog was named NESCAC player of the week for her performance against Bowdoin. Following the Bowdoin game, the Panthers travelled down to West Palm Beach, Fl. where they defeated Rochester Institute of Technology 19-4 for Head Coach Missy Foote’s 400th win over the course of a 34-season career with the program. Following their trip to Florida, Middlebury headed north to play fourth-ranked Franklin & Marshall in Lancaster, Penn. Despite the close proximity of the two teams in rankings, the Panthers dominated the Diplomats, winning by a score of 14-5. Sophomore Laurel Pascal ’16 led the Panthers in their commanding win with five goals on eight shots, supported by a pair of goals and three assists from Ritter. Middlebury’s undefeated record, however, was ended the following game in a 11-10 loss to third-ranked Amherst. After coming out flat-footed and falling behind 0-5 to the Lord Jeffs within the first 13 minutes of the game, Middlebury slowly clawed their way back by scoring three goals in the last few minutes of the first half, and four unanswered goals in the second half. After taking a 9-8 lead off of a goal from Megan Griffin ’16 six minutes into the second half, Middlebury went goal for goal with Amherst, until Amherst’s Elizabeth Ludlow scored with 3:35 left in the game to give her team the conference win. Despite this loss, Middlebury was able to defeat Hamilton 11-8 with seven straight goals to come back from behind this past Wednesday, April 2. On Saturday, the Panthers took on the 14th-ranked Bates Bobcats, who had earlier in the season defeated perennial NESCAC powerhouse Trinity. The Bobcats struck first in the game with two goals from Wally Pierce. Middlebury answered, however, with goals from Alli Sciarretta ’16 and O’Connell. Bates then proceeded to go on a three-goal run to bring the score to 5-2 going into the second half. Middlebury was the first to fire in the second half, with a goal from Pascal with 23 minutes left in the game. Bates answered with a goal from Kalleigh Maguire to put the score at 6-3 in favor of Bates. Middlebury did not relent, and after a goal from Sciarretta with 15 minutes left in the game, proceeded to stage a late-game comeback with three consecutive goals: two from Instrum and one from Catherine Lincoln ’16. “I think the Bates game was a big test for our team,” said Lincoln. “We were able to pull together under intense pressure and make some amazing things happen.” Senior captain Alyssa Palomba ’14 made several key saves in goal, ending the day with a save percentage of .455 off of five saves. Middlebury was also able to hold off the Bobcats with stellar defense and key ground balls from senior defenders Hannah Deoul ’14 and Erin Benotti ’14. The Panthers now sit at 9-1 overall and 6-1 in the NESCAC. They will play Cortland State at home on Thursday, April 10, followed by a matchup with conference foe Trinity at home on Saturday, April 12. “Moving forward, I think we will benefit from using this same intensity and team work when we face Cortland and Trinity, who are both tough teams,” said Lincoln.

Lax-13-of-15

Living in the Adderall Generation: Part 1

  Emma ’14 first snorted Adderall halfway through sophomore year. A friend took the orange 20-milligram (mg) pill and crushed it into a light powder with the bottom of a mug, before guiding the mass into four equal lines with a credit card and instructing Emma to get a tampon. She removed the applicator and blew her first line, beginning a recreational use that continues to this day. “It was almost euphoric, it felt like I could do anything.” she said. “But the next morning, I had the worst hangover I’ve ever had in my life.” More than two years later, Adderall has become a constant companion to Emma’s academic and social life. “Recreationally, I wish I never tried it in the first place. Freshman year and the beginning of sophomore year before I tried it, I really liked just being drunk, and that was fine with me. Now in my friend group, that’s never enough. We can’t just all hang out and drink and go out. Someone always wants to do Adderall to take it to the next level.” Emma’s story is one of an increasing number that point to a new reality across colleges and universities nationwide, as a wave of high-performing and highly stimulated students strive for top grades and are willing to do whatever it takes to get there. Over the past 13 months, the Campus has followed numerous current and former students — all of whom requested anonymity and were given pseudonyms and, for some, different genders for legal and social reasons — as they grappled balancing their relationships with the powerful psychostimulant with academic, social and societal expectations. The Campus also interviewed experts on the frontlines, from psychologists prescribing the drug to neuroscientists studying their affects on the brain. Data on psychostimulant use at the College is hard to come by. In a student-led study last spring, 16 percent of Middlebury students who responded to the anonymous survey reported illegally using the drug, slightly above the 5 to 12 percent estimated nationally. Of that percentage, only 4 percent reported having prescriptions. While the data is scarce, the stories of use and abuse paint a complicated picture, in which the line between prescribed use and illicit self-medication is murky at best and farcical at worst. Whether Adderall is a life-changing medicine or an unfair performance enhancer depends on whom you talk to. What is clear is that we are now living in the Adderall Generation, a reality that is rarely talked about but apparent just below the surface. You may not have a prescription or snort the drugs on weekends, but psychostimulants are here to stay, and they have the potential to affect nearly every aspect of life at the College. ... When Emma was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in grade school, her parents refused to give consent for psychostimulant medication, instead resorting to behavioral therapy and tutoring. But when she got to the College, the workload became too much. After struggling to keep up as a first-year, she was prescribed Adderall as she went into her sophomore year. “I remember the first day that I took it,” she said. “I felt really uncomfortable in situations other than doing work and didn’t really know what to do with my hands or where to look with my eyes, but when I was doing work it felt like I was in that movie Bruce Almighty when he’s typing on the computer really fast.” She was first prescribed two 10mg fast acting Adderall a day. When she did not feel anything, the dosage was upped to 20mg three times a day. Her doctor told her to only take two pills a day, but prescribed her three to make sure she did not run out. Because Adderall is a schedule II controlled substance, Emma cannot fill her prescription across state lines in Vermont. While Adderall has only been around since the late 1990s, psychostimulants have been ingrained in American culture. First discovered in 1887, they had no pharmacological use until 1934 when they were sold as an inhaler for nasal decongestant. Once the addictive properties of the drug became known, psychostimulants became a schedule II controlled substance in the early 1970s. “If you look at the history of amphetamines, it was a miracle chemical, but they didn’t know what to do with it,” said Assistant Professor of Sociology Rebecca Tiger. “It couldn’t just be thrown on the open market, so they called it a drug, but then they needed to find a disease for it to treat. Amphetamines have been racing around looking for a disease because people want to use them.” Psychostimulants regulate impulsive behavior and improve attention span and focus by increasing levels of dopamine in the brain. Dopamine is the neurotransmitter involved in natural rewards such as food, water and sex. Depending on the dosage, psychostimulants can boost dopamine levels 2 - 10 times more than a natural reward. Put simply, dopamine is a key driver of happiness. The chemical is the key to many popular drugs — from opiates like heroin to amphetamines like MDMA. The release of dopamine in the brain after taking psychostimulants causes the euphoria users often feel. But when you constantly feed your brain dopamine, it can diminish your ability to make it independently. While her grades shot up during her sophomore year, Emma felt the full force of the side effects. Growing up, Emma was outgoing and vivacious, but the Adderall made her reserved and quiet. As a result, she was often forced into a zero-sum game between academics and basic social happiness. Adderall often took precedence. “I tried to avoid hanging out with people when I was on it, but that’s hard since it lasts a pretty long time, and then coming off it at night, it would make me really emotional and sad. It was really hard when I was coming down off of it to tell myself this is the Adderall and I shouldn’t actually be sad about whatever I was feeling.” The sadness Emma felt after coming down from her Adderall is called anhedonia, or the loss of pleasure from things we naturally find rewarding. As her relationship with the drug evolved, she learned basic parameters of what she could and could not do with Adderall. If she took it too late in the evening, she wouldn’t sleep. If she did not take any for a few days, she had to take it early in the day or risk insomnia. But when finals rolled around, all bets were off. “Especially during finals, it got kind of aggressive. I would take it at like 10 p.m., work all night, go to bed at 4 a.m., wake up at a normal time, take another one, and continue doing work.” ...  There are more than a dozen different medications currently on the market to treat ADHD. While there are slight differences between medications, Adderall and Ritalin have become the poster children for psychostimulants. Emma has tried both. If the College has an expert on the psychostimulants, it is Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience Clarissa Parker. Before arriving in 2013, Parker spent 10 years studying genetic risk factors associated with drug abuse and dependence, including sensitivity to the reinforcing effects of psychostimulants such as methamphetamine in mice. Parker said one of her main concerns is younger and younger ages at which psychostimulants are prescribed. “For me, the problem lies in the fact that so many people take it during a time when their pre-frontal cortex is still developing,” she said. “We know this part of the brain continues to develop into the mid-20s. When you combine that with the age group that is most likely to abuse drugs — high school and college — it’s dangerous.” For big pharmaceuticals, stimulated minors means major profits. In numerous articles, the New York Times has reported on how the industry has lobbied heavily to push for medication over behavioral therapy. “Studies have shown that there isn’t much long-term difference between Adderall usage and behavioral therapy for treating ADHD,” Parker said. “There are other ways to get the same effect, they just aren’t as immediate.” Parker was quick to draw a line between people who take the drug responsibly under medical supervision and those who take it without a prescription, those who crush and snort their medication or those who take more than prescribed, repeatedly clarifying that the negative side effects affect those who abuse it. But Tiger thinks that line has little to do with medicine. “The line you draw between people who need it and people who don’t is a cultural construct,” she said. “My interest is in who draws that line, and what their interest is in drawing it. People rarely use drugs the way they are supposed to, so in a way we are all abusing these drugs.” ... Besides attending the College and taking Adderall, Max ’15 and Emma have little in common. A third-year lacrosse player, Max never encountered psychostimulant use while in high school, but quickly found it at the College. “I remember when I was a first-year, and I was in this kid’s room, and he was crushing up pills. I didn’t know what they were doing until he just told me ‘doing homework.’ They called it skizzing.” With the stress of midterms building four months into his college career, Max took Adderall for the first time. “I wrote a five-page paper in an hour,” Max described. “That’s when I realized, ‘this is nuts.’ There are a lot of athletes on different teams that can’t do work without snorting Adderall. Anything that requires putting your mind to: Adderall. That’s what steered me away from taking it a lot. I couldn’t get like that.” Max does not have a prescription and estimated that he takes it five times a semester. Across athletics, he estimated that 60 percent use psychostimulants as a tool to get schoolwork done. When asked how easy it would be to obtain five pills, he took out his phone – “one text.” In the 2013 survey, conducted by Ben Tabah ’13, over 20 percent of males reported experimenting with psychostimulants compared to only 10 percent of females. When asked about the difference, Parker noted that in animal models she had worked with, there were no sex differences in psychostimulant usage. “You can teach a mouse to self-administer drugs, and there aren’t sex differences in the amount they administer stimulants like cocaine and dexamphetamine (an ingredient in Adderall) which suggests to me the issue is not about sex, but more about gender,” she said. Social constructions around Adderall are apparent beyond just gender usage. Cocaine is often viewed as a whole different class of drug socially than Adderall, despite their similar chemical makeups, effects, and legal classification. “Coke is scary to me,” Emma said. “It seems more intense to me because it is illegal and it could be cut with anything.” “Coke is different than Adderall,” Max said. “The fact that [Adderall] can be prescribed to you means it’s not as harmful. The only downside is that you don’t sleep. That’s the only fight you face when taking it. If the amount of people taking Adderall were doing Coke, it would be considered a huge problem.” Max is exactly the type of student Executive Director of Health and Counseling Services Gus Jordan is worried about. “There is the notion that it is a quick fix, and that it’s safe because it comes in prescription form, but you are really playing the edge if you take these drugs without proper supervision,” he said. “We know that if you crush an Adderall pill, and snort it, it hits your brain in ways akin to cocaine, and with similar risks for dependence. This is such a powerful and potentially dangerous medication, that once it gets into a community and used in uncontrolled ways, people get hurt; you’re participating in that by selling or giving it away, and you don’t know if you will really harm someone down the road.” In his 17 years at the College, Jordan has served in a number of student life roles and taught clinical courses in the psychology department. He said that psychostimulant use and abuse has only really come onto his radar in the past five years. “Right now, it’s the hype about how great Adderall is that everybody seems to be listening to. But we don’t really know what happens when this drugs is used recreationally or without a prescription. I suspect that there are a lot of darker stories that aren’t being told, especially about the addictive qualities of these drugs, tragic stories that are buried out there.” ... Asking Emma whether or not she would do it all over again is an impossible question for her to answer. Her views on Adderall are as complex as her usage. On one hand, she vehemently attests that without the drug, she would not be at the College. But she is acutely aware of the power the drug has, from sleepless nights to unwrapping tampon applicators time and time again. “I think my path was necessary, but I don’t know if it was the right one in hindsight. I wish I didn’t have to take so much, but from trying all the other doses, nothing else really worked.” Her parents know about her use because they pay for it, but have no idea about the recreational use — “they would be shocked and really mad.” When asked whether or not she would let her kids take Adderall, she quickly said no before retracing her steps. “Not until it got really bad, and not before the end of high school or even college. I think it’s going to get banned, or at least prescribed a lot weaker, just because it is addictive and being prescribed so ubiquitously,” she said. “It’s just going to end badly.” Listen to Kyle Finck discuss this series on Vermont Public Radio. Additional Reporting by ALEX EDEL, Layout Assistance by HANNAH BRISTOL, and Photos by ANTHEA VIRAGH  

Staff Undeterred by Late Winter Storm

A late winter blizzard on Thursday, March 13 blanketed the campus with over a foot of snow. Despite treacherous roads, high winds and inaccessible sidewalks, the College conducted daily operations as usual, albeit with a limited staff. Many of the College’s staff members were unable to come to work due to impassable roads or had to stay home with their children because schools were closed for the day. Before sunrise on Thursday, facilities services began clearing emergency access areas from buildings on campus. According to Assistant Director of Maintenance and Operations Luther Tenny, there are typically 14 equipment operators and 30 hand shovelers clearing snow across campus. Depending on the day, custodial teams in certain buildings may also offer assistance in removing snow. “Thursday was not a typical storm,” Tenny wrote in an email. “Many staff were unable to make it in because of the drifting snow but thankfully most of our plow operators were here. We also utilized two additional pieces of heavy equipment (a backhoe and a front-end loader) through a local contractor for help.” “For shovel crews we had about 25 working most of the day moving snow from the entries,” Tenny added. Non-essential tasks, such as plowing less-trafficked sidewalks, were left for either late Thursday afternoon or Friday. While Facilities Services staff was busy ensuring that the College’s roads were clear, surrounding routes were not so accessible. “One of my employees was heading out on Wednesday afternoon and almost went off the road at ‘The Ledges’ on Route 125 just a few miles west of here,” wrote Director of Dining Services Matthew Biette in an email. “Others reported not being able to see the road and when they did, they were in the wrong lane. Bottom line, it was white out conditions and very dangerous to drive or walk.” Biette began preparing for Thursday’s storm over two days before it hit, contacting suppliers and making purchases days in advance with the concern that the storm was going to hinder travel. “The bakery had already delivered breakfast and lunch products for Thursday on Wednesday, the Proctor salad preparation was stocked up and the refrigerators and stock rooms were full with a double order to be sure our students would be taken care of,” said Biette. “Our staffing on a regular day is enough to produce the various foods and extras offered each day — everyone’s day is full,” Biette wrote, alluding to the Panini presses in Proctor being shut off and the Proctor Fireplace Lounge remaining locked on Thursday to allow staff to focus on more important tasks at hand. When Biette left for work on Thursday morning, the sidewalks in town were inaccessible. By 6 a.m., Facilities Services had already begun digging pathways on campus. “Arriving at the dining rooms and kitchens, I was surprised and happy to see very few people out and/or late,” Biette wrote. “In some areas, schedules were changed so those who lived closer [to the College] were [given] opening [shifts], thus giving those who lived farther away more time to make it to work safely.” Custodial Services was not as fortunate as Dining Services — out of 80 custodial staff, 43 were unable to come to work because of the weather and another 10 had scheduled the day off in advance. When attendance is low, “staff are reassigned to buildings other than those they normally work in if another team is very short [on people],” Assistant Director of Custodial Services Sylvia Manning wrote in an email. Dining and residence halls were prioritized over most academic buildings on Thursday, and priority tasks included checking for hazards such as broken items, checking trash bins and restocking paper products in restrooms. Due to impassible road conditions, Parton Center for Health and Wellness was unable to open at its usual 8 a.m. hour for the first time ever. In past years, and only on very rare occasions, Parton has closed early or announced limited hours because of the weather. The first staff member arrived at 9:30 a.m., and more people arrived as they were able to, said Administrative Director of the Parton Center for Health and Wellness Terry Jenny. By 10:30 a.m., there was sufficient staff for Parton to open its doors. “Everyone does their best to get in on time and as soon as they can,” Jenny said, noting that safety is a priority and that staff members across campus put in maximum effort to ensure that operations run smoothly. While Parton was delayed in opening, its back-up network of health and counseling services was activated and advertised. “When the need is urgent and Parton Counseling is closed, students can get the help they need by reaching out to Public Safety … or to the Addison County emergency team or Porter Hospital,” Director of Counseling Services Ximena Mejia wrote in an email. “We always have a counselor on call … and during unexpected closures, we check our phone messages and emails several times each hour.” While the snow prevented some from arriving at work, many braved treacherous roads and white-out conditions to arrive at the College. “Bottom line is there is a tremendously dedicated staff who brave the elements to get here when it is necessary,” wrote Biette. “Thankfully, everyone arrived safely.”

IBM Lays Off More Vermont Workers

Roughly 140 employees at IBM's Essex Junction plant lost their jobs this month, the most recent bout of layoffs in the company's billion-dollar restructuring. The company currently employs over 430,000 people worldwide, but some analysts expect that number to shrink by roughly 13,000. Many of these employees work under IBM's Systems & Technology Group, which some analysts expect to shrink by 25 percent. IBM isn’t just reducing its workforce; selling its manufacturing assets, like the Essex plant, is an integral part of “Project Apollo.” The company sold its low-end server division to Lenovo earlier this year, and hopes to sell another chip plant in East Fishkill, NY. Chief Executive Officer Ginni Rometty says the company, which has endured seven consecutive quarters of declining revenue, needs to invest in 'priority areas' such as cloud computing, analytics and cognitive computing. "IBM continues to rebalance its workforce to meet the changing requirements of its clients," stated Rometty in a press release. The layoffs are roughly one-third the size of those last summer, when 419 workers were laid off. Vermont Labor Commissioner Annie Noonan said that the labor department hopes to institute a 'response team' to assist those who lost their jobs. After last year’s cuts, Noonan's department petitioned the US Department of Labor to include the ex-workers in the Trade Adjustment Assistance program. The request was initially approved for those at the Williston campus, but was extended this week to the workers at Essex Junction. The recovery program provides up to 130 weeks of job training and unemployment benefits, and focuses on reintegrating workers older than 50 back into the workforce. "With the steady increase in the economy," Noonan stated, "we are quite hopeful that we can assist the laid-off workers find jobs with other Vermont companies." Currently, Vermont employers must inform the state about substantial layoffs just 24 hours before they take effect. In order to mitigate financial fallout and petition for federal aid, The Shumlin administration hopes to pass a law extending this period to 90 days. David Sunderland, chairman of the Vermont Republican Party, criticized the administration for not addressing this issue sooner. Sunderland believes that statewide layoffs are indicative of a larger problem in Vermont. Just last week, automotive company Plasan Carbon Composites announced that it would close its Bennington facility. Even if both layoffs reflected evolving business models, Sunderland believes that Vermont must do more to incentivize higher paying industries to stay here.  "It is clear the economic troubles in Vermont are deepening,” Sunderland stated in an interview. Although he was relieved that the layoffs were smaller than last year, Lt. Governor Phil Scott was also wary of waiting "another second" to address the economy. "The fact of the matter is more than 100 Vermonters are losing their well-paying jobs," stated Scott in a press release. "The trend of job losses over the last two years is concerning."

The Entitled Precariat and the Code-geois

As I transition out of the Middlebury community, I will be joining a cohort of young people who face career uncertainty that I will refer to as “The Entitled Precariat.” Despite its allusion to Marxism, the Entitled Precariat has nothing to do with ideology. Rather, it is a group of young professionals in precarious work situations that arise from a Catch-22 that would make Joseph Heller chortle: in order to get a secure, fulfilling, well-paying job you need to be able to offer value in the form of professional skills, but to get those skills you have to be employed. The primary recourse is temporary work, low-skill entry-level positions, and perhaps most insidious of all, unpaid internships. That, or going back to school and accumulating crippling debt. Many simply cannot afford the opportunity costs of the unpaid internships or pursuing advanced degrees, institutionalizing class bias in the workforce.  Hard work is not enough. I will discuss three challenges that may well define the first few years of experience in the labor force. 1. Transitioning from an empowering intellectual atmosphere to subordinate roles Entitlement has become central to the narrative around “Gen-Y”ers in the workforce. Widely exploited as cheap labor who are unconditioned to demanding equitable treatment, what is referred to as “entitlement” can also be considered a survival mechanism. The widespread expectation that workers owe the employer “appreciation for the opportunity,” serves to bolster the unequal terms of labor: the employer is seen as doing a favor by employing workers, rather than agreeing to mutually beneficial agreement. To an educated student taught to question assumptions, deconstruct phenomena and challenge conventional discourse, roles that demand submissiveness and focus on monotonous tasks require a major adjustment. This transition, from the independent culture of higher education, to “respecting the hierarchy” requires an internal shift and can be very humbling. 2. The division between the “Entitled Precariat” and the “Code-geois” Entitlement can be considered a euphemism for somebody overvaluing their value to an organization, suggesting that only people without relevant, valuable specializations can be considered “entitled.” The Entitled Precariat is characterized by frequently changing jobs, geographic migration and major lifestyle complications that arise from their unpredictable work life. To break free of incessant unpaid internships, they need to not only be productive, but exceptional. Their work-experience is an extended audition, rather than a development process. In contrast, I coined the term “Code-geois” to refer to any worker who has widely sought-after skills, regardless of whether it’s being able to write C++ code, engineer new products or other transferable skills. These people are pursued by employers and will never have to consider unpaid internships. They do not have be thankful for the opportunity to work, nor are they accused of being “entitled,” because they have leverage to work at other firms. These are the people with stable incomes, employment security and, most importantly, options. Acquiring such skills, the career progression paradox, is the central challenge for liberal arts students entering the workforce. Rather than pursuing what we believe to be our passion or aiming to work in our ideal field, a more effective strategy is to develop a “unique value proposition” by identifying an aptitude and developing it until it becomes a specialization. A key takeaway from Cal Newport’s, So Good They Can’t Ignore You, is that when it comes to a successful career, passion should not guide our search, but develop from within a specialized, engaging job. Passion matters, but to succeed in the workforce, a practical strategy to find an employment niche may be the most effective means of finding stable, lucrative, meaningful employment.  3. Living in accordance with your values   There’s a tension between career realpolitik and morality: how can you live as a cog in a system of structural injustice and not only survive, but make change?  “When you don’t like capitalism, being an accountant doesn’t work in your favor,” Ashley Guzman ’13 offered sardonically in her presentation at the RAJ-organized Youth Labor and Unemployment Conference last week. She, along with other panelists at the event, sacrificed potential employment by pursuing only career options that aligned with their world views. While few workers are truly unrepentant, Frank Underwood-ian pragmatists, particularly selective moral compasses — a virtue to be commended — necessarily exclude options that others are happy to seize.   The best way to live in accordance with our values is to combine a nuanced view of ethics in the workforce with a commitment to diligently refine our specialization, so that it is valuable enough, ideology aside, to be an asset to any employer. For example, if Exxon gives you a job that offers to help you develop your GIS skills, perhaps you cannot change the organization from within, but you can accumulate some income while acquiring a valuable skill for the rest of your career. It’s easier to move from the for-profit world to a specialized role in a social enterprise or non-profit than vice-versa. While each of our moral codes is distinctive, developing skills and finding a niche is the best strategy to escape internship purgatory and thrust yourself into the ranks of the Code-geois, where you will have options that can allow you to live according to your values and find meaning in your work. To say there is only one way to achieve such goals would be reductive: the paths to our own versions of success are likely to be indirect, unpredictable and arduous. But we are more than capable of living up the challenge.

The Buck Stops Here

What does $60,000 mean to you? Perhaps a couple new cars, a good chunk of a house, an annual salary in tech or finance for a recent grad or the rounded comprehensive fee at Middlebury College. In 2009, colleges like Middlebury were cresting the $50,000 mark; now five years later, we are approaching $60,000, a change that has been met largely with silence and indifference. We look around the world and see riots and protests over tuition increases in places like England, France and Canada where people are still fighting for democratic access to higher education. Take a school like McGill, where in the summer of 2012, thousands of students took to the streets to protest a $1,625 tuition increase—almost exactly the same hike we saw at Middlebury this past year. The difference of course is that tuition at McGill was under $3,000 prior to increase, but at the end of the day, these increases represent the same amount of money out of our pockets, or our future pockets, as the loans pile up. When does the price go from ridiculous to unacceptable? To the College’s credit, we have mostly stuck to our “CPI plus 1” rule for the past five years, which means that we have limited our tuition increases to inflation plus 1 percent. In addition, awarding financial aid to 42 percent of the student body this past year shows an impressive commitment to college accessibility. These measures have slowed our annual tuition bumps, reduced financial burdens for a number of families, and brought us from being one of the most expensive schools among our competitors to being in the bottom quartile. But is that enough? Should we really be wedded to a model of infinite growth? Maybe it is unavoidable. Maybe a college of Middlebury’s caliber needs to continue to grow — to build a new school in Korea or offer new programs like MiddCore in the summer. But are we paying for that? Adjusting for inflation is one thing; tacking on the additional 1 percent each year seems to imply growth somewhere in Middlebury’s global offerings. But what if we as consumers are not satisfied? What if we even ventured to say that we already have too much? Between the Snow Bowl, the Golf Course, 51 Main, the Athletics Department, the Grille, the Museum of Art, or the Commons system, we have places and programs across all walks of life on campus that we sink money into. The hard question that we as students can and should entertain is, how much of our considerable programming is essential and how much could we do without? As an editorial board, we have in the past used this space to make concrete policy recommendations. But as we discussed how to cut costs and ultimately make Middlebury more accessible, we found it impossible because we did not have the information. All we have are broad assumptions and educated guesses. That needs to end. We want to know where our tuition goes. It is not good enough to say that it costs $80,000 a year to educate one Middlebury student, and so we should just be happy with what we pay. We want the College to open up its books so that the student body can follow the money and have a say in where that money goes and how it is spent. As the College looks to choose a successor for President Liebowitz this year, we need a candidate who is committed to cutting costs and making accessibility a bigger part of the College’s mission. As we look at the goals associated with the ongoing branding effort, notably becoming more global and diverse, we cannot continue to ratchet up costs and increasingly cater to families in the top 5 percent of the income bracket in this country who can afford to pay full freight here. Access will be a barrier to becoming a national household name. John McCardell Jr., one of the College’s most influential presidents, went to work at The University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn., which made national news in 2011 for “bucking the trend” and cutting tuition. This is the kind of leadership we need to see here at Middlebury, but in the foreseeable future, tuition cuts do not seem likely. As long as there are multiple high school applicants glad to shell out $60,000 for every one student that is admitted, what incentive is there to critically evaluate the tuition? Even the Board of Trustees, the people charged with a fiduciary responsibility for the wellbeing of the college, seem content with the annual hike. But there is a breaking point, and it will come. We should not sit idly by and watch Middlebury’s price tag grow exponentially. It is time for more transparency. While the comprehensive fee has served as an equalizer for incoming students, it is also a veil that obscures the College’s costs and prohibits dialogue. Here is a place to start. Included in this year’s tuition hike was a 4.5 percent increase to room and board — the first departure from our CPI plus 1 rule in five years — bringing the total up to $13,116. Where is this increase being spent? Are we covering the salary of the new head of dining? Are we upgrading a dorm? Will this help to bring much-sought-after local foods to the dining halls? And where could we tighten the belt to prevent further increases? These are the kind of questions we want to entertain, and yet we cannot with the current lack of transparency. Vice President for Finance and Treasurer Patrick Norton and President Liebowitz, please break down this amorphous comprehensive fee and give us the facts. We are the ones paying the price for these rises, yet we are left in the dark with no say in where that money goes. As consumers of the Middlebury experience, we are in the best position to see what’s being utilized and what is wasted. While we enjoy and value the services and opportunities that $60,000 allows us, it is time to take control of our wallets and be critical of what we are paying for.  Artwork by NOLAN ELLSWORTH

Women’s Lacrosse Wins Home Opener

The Middlebury women’s lacrosse team continued its early-season success on Saturday, March 15, winning its home opener over Wesleyan by a score of 10-4. After a scoreless first 12 minutes of the game, Liza Herzog ’14 broke the tie with a goal off of a free position shot. Wesleyan quickly struck back 12 seconds later off of an unassisted goal from Caitlin Daniels to tie the game up at 1-1. After another respite in scoring action, Middlebury’s Laurel Pascal ’16 was finally able to finish an opportunity off of a pass from Herzog. This spark was followed by Middlebury goals from Alli Sciarretta ’16 with a free position shot and Mary O’Connell ’17 off of a pass from Bridget Instrum ’16. Middlebury’s goals were quickly answered however off of a pair of goals from Wesleyan’s Meredith Smith to finish the half with a score of 4-3. With the momentum in its favor, Wesleyan came out firing and tied up the game at 4-4 off of another goal from Smith three minutes into the second half. Tough defense, however, and key saves between the pipes from co-Captain Alyssa Palomba ’14 allowed the Panthers to withstand the Wesleyan offensive and turn the tide of the game in their favor with another goal from Pascal with 17 minutes left in the game. Pascal was able to follow that score up with two more finishes for the Panthers – one unassisted and one assisted by Katie Ritter ’15 – to put the Panthers up 7-4. After Pascal’s goal, the Panthers kept the gas on the pedal and never looked back. Middlebury was able to keep the pressure on the Cardinals with two goals from Herzog and a goal from O’Connell, all of which were unassisted.  By the final whistle, the Panthers had extended the lead to the final tally of 10-4. “This week we really focused on our transitions and playing as a unit on attack, which we were able to translate to our game on Saturday,” Pascal said. “Everyone was making smart decisions all over the field and we were able to find the holes in their defense, which was awesome.” Middlebury was paced on the offensive end by Pascal, who finished with four goals. Herzog finished with three goals and an assist, and first-year standout O’Connell added a pair of goals. Palomba finished the day in net with a 42.8 save percentage, recording three saves during the game. Smith led the Cardinals with three goals. Wesleyan goalkeeper Nina Labovich helped keep the score relatively close by stopping 10 of the 20 shots on goal throughout the game. Middlebury’s dominant offensive performance was representative on the stats sheet, as the Panthers outshot the Cardinals 26-13. Middlebury also held a slight advantage in ground balls and controlled 11 of 16 draws for the afternoon. Middlebury returned to action on Tuesday, March 18, for a midweek matchup with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, defeating the host Engineers 11-8. After RPI got on the scoreboard first, Middlebury responded with a pair of goals from Chrissy Ritter ’16 to take the lead. The Engineers then went on a four-goal scoring run to take a 4-3 lead midway through the first half, before a trio of Panther goals, including two from Pascal, put Middlebury in front going into the half. In the second half, the Panthers used a flurry of scoring to extend their lead, ultimately going on to win. Pascal led the Panthers with three goals in the game, with Katie Ritter, Chrissy Ritter and Herzog each adding two for Middlebury. With the win over Rensselaer, Middlebury extends its record to 4-0 on the season, including a trio of conference wins. The Panthers return to the pitch on Saturday, March 22, for a conference matchup with Bowdoin. The Polar Bears are owners of a 3-2 record and should provide stiff competition for Middlebury. Following that, the Panthers will travel to West Palm Beach, Fla. over Spring Break for a game against Rochester Institute of Technology before returning to face the remainder of their NESCAC schedule.