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Men’s Lacrosse Suffers Third Consecutive NESCAC Defeat

The Middlebury men’s lacrosse team lost to 10th-ranked Wesleyan by a score of 11-5 on Saturday, March 15. Middlebury has yet to reach double digit goals in any of its four games. The Panthers got off to a quick start against the Cardinals. Only 2:31 into the game, Taylor Pirie ’15 found Mike Ford ’15 to get Middlebury on the scoreboard first; however, Wesleyan responded in a powerful way, scoring the next 10 goals to take a 10-1 lead with 11:38 left in the game. In the final 10:49, Jack Rautiola ’16 managed to score twice, Ford took his tally to two, and Jon Broome ’16 scored his lone goal for the game. One player heavily influenced the Cardinals’ goal total. On the Wesleyan side, Matt Prezioso had an impressive showing on his home turf, scoring five of the 11 total goals. There were some highlights from the loss for the Panthers though. Jack DeFrino ’17 won nine of 12 face offs, earning him game-high honors in ground balls alongside George Curtis ’14 and Broome. In addition, goalie Nate Gaudio ’14 finished the contest with a total of 19 saves. Ford admitted that the team has a long way to go to get where it wants to be. “Everyone played hard against Wesleyan,” Ford said, “but I think we all realized that we need to improve and work even harder. I don’t think we have played a complete game yet and that is something that we continue to strive for. As a team we learned that we need to elevate out level of playing from top to bottom and do everything better. After watching film and learning from our coaches, everyone knows they need to step up and contribute more going forward.” Returning to the field on Tuesday, March 18, for a matchup against 20th-ranked St. Lawrence, the Panthers again were unable to stop their opponent on the defensive end and lost by a score of 14-7. Middlebury was able to keep the score close early, tying the score at one with a goal from Jack Cleary ’16 three minutes in. A tally from Rautiola in the opening minutes of the second quarter brought the St. Lawrence lead back down to one at 4-3, but that was as close as the Panthers would get. A string of four unanswered goals spanning the second and third quarters would be too much for Middlebury, who went on to lose its third straight game. Middlebury was again outshot handily by their opponent. St. Lawrence racked up 45 shots over the course of the game to Middlebury’s 24. The Saints also dominated in the faceoff circle and in the ground-ball game, winning 17 of 23 faceoffs and picking up 13 more ground balls than the Panthers. In the upcoming games, Ford that thinks their “main focus will be to come out with high intensity but also be composed. If everyone does what they need to do and our team plays at the level we know we are capable of playing, good things will happen.” Sitting at 1-4 and 0-3 in conference play, Middlebury will have to work quickly to pull its game together if they are going to have a chance to resurrect their floundering season. The Panthers will have a chance to do just that when they take on NESCAC foe Bowdoin on Saturday, March 22. Following that game, Middlebury will face a tough slate of competition over Spring Break, matching up with Endicott and Amherst over the course of the week.

Tuition Rises Again, Nears 60K

The Middlebury College Board of Trustees met over Winter Carnival weekend to discuss a range of issues including a 2.94 percent increase in tuition, a new Korean language school and various construction projects underway between the main College campus and Monterey Institute campus. According to Vice President of Communications Bill Burger, the February Board of Trustees meeting is traditionally the time when the Board determines the next year’s tuition. For the 2014-15 school year, the Board approved a combined tuition and room and board total of $58,753 – up 2.94 percent from this current academic year. In an effort to control rising costs, this is the fifth consecutive year that Middlebury has utilized its “CPI plus 1” rule. This rule, announced by President Liebowitz in in 2010, caps the tuition increase from year to year at one percentage point above inflation – as determined by the Consumer Price Index. This is the first year this rule was not applied to room and board increases, which rose 4.5 percent from last year to $13,116. Vice President Burger put this effort into context. “Since 2010, when we started the CPI plus 1, we have measured where we stand among 21 peer schools. When we started, we were one of the most expensive of the 21. We are now 18th.” When asked about efforts to reduce cost, Burger responded that, “The board is always sensitive, as is the administration, to the cost of what we do.” However he noted that, “It’s not as though you could reduce the cost of tuition by $10,000.” Other major decisions handed down by the board include the approval of an eleventh Language School – the School of Korean. Vice President of Language Schools Michael Geisler said that the Language School hopes to find a director and build a program in time to launch in the summer of 2015. “Although, until a few years ago, relatively few non-heritage speakers studied Korean, the number of new learners has grown rapidly in the past decade,” Geisler said. Korean is spoken by more than 67 million speakers around the world making it the sixteenth most spoken language. To be prepared for the shifting landscapes of global business, security and diplomatic requirements, Geisler cited the need for a strategic language reserve – that is a group of people able to speak the world’s most important languages. “Middlebury Language Schools can play a significant part in delivery of our strategic language reserve,” he said. On the construction front, the Board discussed plans to create a pedestrian mall at the Monterey Institute campus in Monterey, CA. The Monterey project is still awaiting approval by the City of Monterey, but if approved would create more of a campus-feel to what is now an urban setting. Construction is set to begin this fall on renovations and winterization of Middlebury’s Bread Loaf School campus in Ripton, VT. The renovations are primarily focused on compliance with safety and accessibility codes while the winterization makes the space available for use during the colder months. There is a soft deadline for this project of May 2015 in order to be prepared for the 31st Young Writer’s Conference at Bread Loaf. All told, this project will cost $7.5 million. Beyond the issues discussed, Burger talked about the layout of the meetings and how the agenda is set. He characterizes them as very well planned and well structured. Typically board members break into committees and then, during full Board meetings, address key topics discussed in their respective committees. Some issues, like the Korean language school, required a vote by the full Board. Other topics, such as the state of the online learning landscape, were simply reported on. Much of the work is done before the Trustees arrive. “The Board always receives information in advance of its meetings so that Trustees have the information they need to make decisions,” Burger said. “And on key issues there is always some discussion as well.” At this most recent meeting, Burger says there were no contentious issues, which is not unusual for these meetings “I have never been to a board meeting where there’s been a true surprise,” he said. The next Board of Trustee meeting will take place in May. While the agenda is not set, this meeting will be momentous in that it will be the last under the current governing structure.

Flinchbaugh Wins Fraker Prize

On the afternoon of Thursday, March 6, members of the Middlebury community gathered in Le Chateau Grand Salon to celebrate the Alison G. Fraker Essay Prize and its nominees. Director of the Program in Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies Professor Sujata Moorti and Director of Chellis House Karin Hanta led the event, at which the winner of the prize was revealed. Established in 1990 by Drue Cortell Gensler, a member of the class of ‘57 and a Middlebury College trustee, the prize honors the memory of Alison Gwen Fraker ’89. Fraker was a vocal feminist at Middlebury. She played an instrumental role in the creation of both the Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies department, and a center for women on campus. A few weeks before her graduation in 1989, Fraker was killed in a car accident. Today, both the essay prize and a reading room dedicated to Fraker in Chellis House honor her memory. In keeping with Fraker’s efforts, the award goes to a student whose essay on a topic specifically concerning women and gender studies is judged best. Professors nominate the works of their students, excluding senior theses, and a committee of rotating professors reads and judges the essays. Past essays awarded the Alison Fraker Prize have been on topics such as masculinity and Mexican immigration, domesticity in missionary China, and marriage promotion in the urban ghetto. This year there were 13 nominees for the prize. At the end, there were two honorable mentions, Rebecca Crochiere ’14 and Sarah Champ ’17, and one winner, Anna Flinchbaugh ’14. Flinchbaugh won the prize with a zine rather than an essay. A zine is comparable to a miniature magazine—a self-published work, usually on a specific subject. In Flinchbaugh’s case, it was gender presentation. Her piece, titled, “Pandrogyny,” was for her Foundations in Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies class. Moorti nominated Flinchbaugh. Flinchbaugh chose to write a zine rather than the traditional essay because it gave her an opportunity to convey her message in a broader way. “I just really loved the possibility that [zines] allowed for incorporating other media, and for incorporating different kinds of voices...With a zine, you can include things that wouldn’t fit within a linear path,” she said. She added that this allowed her to look at gender studies from different sides, something that she hopes her zine will continue by “open[ing] up a space for that discourse.” Crochiere earned honorable mention for her essay, “A Woman in a Man’s Arena--A Feminized Performance of Sports.” She wrote the piece for her Intro to Sociology of Gender class and was nominated by her professor, Laurie Essig, for the award. Speaking about her essay, Crochiere said that she tried to “view how she engaged in sports through a feminist lens,” in the end realizing that she had portrayed a certain kind of femininity throughout her life-long athletic career. Champ also earned honorable mention for her essay, “Zumba Fitness: Fun or a Perpetuator of Enlightened Sexism and Latina Iconicity?” She wrote her paper for Foundations in Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies, one of the first classes Champ had taken on the subject. Moorti also nominated Champ for the prize. Champ said that she “analyzed something in the media through a feminist lens” for the essay, focusing specifically on “the appropriation of Latina identity and Latina iconicity...with the perspective of enlightened feminism.” In keeping with Flinchbaugh’s idea to spark conversation, the reception for the Alison G. Fraker Essay Prize was an opportunity for the guests to discuss the essay topics and more. Each presenter said a few words about the nominees, the nominees described their work, and if the professors who nominated the students were there, they spoke up as well. All who were in attendance left having heard more about gender, sexuality and feminist studies and having paid tribute to Fraker, her memory, and the message she worked hard to send to the Middlebury campus in her time here.

CCTA and Union Narrowly Avoid Strike

Chittenden County Transportation Authority (CCTA), and the Teamsters Local No. 597 reached a settlement last Sunday, narrowly avoiding a strike that would have shut down Vermont’s largest bus service. The nineteen-hour-long negotiation session occurred in the CCTA headquarters and was mediated by the Federal Mediation & Conciliation Service. The union cited wages, part time drivers and burdensome ‘split-shifts’ as critical issues that CCTA needs to resolve. Teamsters Local No. 597 agreed not to strike until it has reviewed CCTA’s most recent offer. CCTA buses buses serve approximately 9,500 residents across the state, including local schools and many LINK bus routes. Over 2,000 students of Burlington Public Schools, or roughly 60 percent of those enrolled, rely on CCTA buses. On March 5, voters rejected 35 school budgets, the largest defeat for education in Vermont in over a decade. The agreement came on the heels of this defeat, relieving many districts already facing budgetary dilemmas. The agreement allowed Burlington Public Schools, whose budget was defeated just two days before the negotiations, to avert a weekly expense of roughly $10,000. The district had considered shuttling students to school on Green Mountain buses. “I’ll have to find maybe a carpool, or maybe bike, I guess,” reflected student Natalie Kenney of Burlington High School before agreement was reached. “But I usually have a lot of stuff with me so that’s kind of a difficult route to take.” With the buses back in service, Natalie and her classmates won’t have to find that new route. In March of 2013, the Union voted 53 to 4 to reject CCTA’s contract offer, and negotiations throughout the summer produced no results. Talks finally collapsed when contract negotiations broke down in September of last year. New CCTA drivers earn approximately $42,000, and veteran drivers can earn upwards of $70,000, including overtime and benefits. Although this is the second-highest rate of compensation in northern New England, both parties expect wages to increase in an acceptable settlement. According to Union members, ‘split-shifts,’ or morning and evening shifts divided by a break, result in driver fatigue and unsafe riding conditions. More drivers are necessary to accommodate the increased number of commuters during these times, but hiring part-time drivers could reduce full-time positions. Bill Watterson, CEO of CCTA, says the drivers are compensated appropriately for these shifts. “To increase the number of full-time Union jobs, CCTA has agreed to a Union proposal to change the maximum span of a split shift to 13.5 hours,” states the CCTA website. Onboard cameras are another contentious issue, which drivers cite as proof of the CCTA’s mistrust. “We drive these buses every day, with cameras pointed in our faces,” said driver Mike Walker at a rally last Thursday. “All responsibility rests with the drivers and all authority rests within the management. You delegate authority, never responsibility.” Before the meeting, CCTA General Manager Bill Watterson stated, “Our focus is on sitting down together with the driver’s union and reaching an agreement, and having another 3 year contract.” CCTA officials remains optimistic that the union will soon accept their offer.

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We Too Are Angry

It seems each week there is a new article in the Campus that has dangerous implications. These articles are the mouthpiece of hegemonic ideology — dominant discourse — that challenge the legitimacy of marginalized groups’ liberation movements. It is impossible to respond to each prejudice, though someone always responds to the articles — whether it be “Chris” calling out the racism of typical campus speakers and events or the Midd Included group defending their effort to adjust the eurocentricity of Middlebury’s curriculum. However, I don’t think we always have to be on the defensive. I write this article to encourage us to be the first to publish our opinions and to start to wage a comprehensive battle to frame our pressing issues in terms of their racism, cissexism, classism, imperialism and misogyny in order to start to promote our epistemology and our politics. I refuse to be constantly put on the defensive – pointing out the flaws in the arguments that others make. There are plenty of people at this school who feel similarly to me, albeit for different reasons. We are angry, and to the extent that the Campus can accommodate our dissidence and our dissent, I say we start to use it to publish our accounts of pressing issues before Nathan Weil beats us to the punch. I do not wish to respond to “Jared Leto and the Thought Police” in full. However, it is necessary to call attention to the misunderstandings of racism and anti-racism in the piece: racism is not having a lack of empathy for people of color. In fact, racism is a complex mechanism of systematic subordination. It operates through institutions such as elite colleges and SAT tests, the prison-industrial complex and housing policy, through an unequal distribution of wealth along racial lines and other statistical inequalities, through controlling images that secure stereotypes in our national imagination, as well as through interpersonal bias and internalized notions of inferiority. To reduce racism to lack of empathy — and to believe that anti-racism amounts to developing empathy (though this may play a part) — is to laugh in the face of centuries of oppression and continuing violence. Similarly, to imply that straight people accomplish trans and gay activism when they agree to play a queer character in a movie is to trivialize real issues such as LGBT homelessness and the violence faced by trans women in which we are all complicit. The conversations around race, gender, class and sexuality at Middlebury tend to get locked into defending progressive beliefs against dominant beliefs, but I do not want to be having these conversations that Nathan Weil starts. There is a lot happening on campus, and I think we should use this activism as a way to set the terms of the conversations, rather than accept the terms that are set for us. For instance, the Gender, Sexuality and Feminist studies department has been actively hosting events; JusTalks has run successfully for the second-year; the Posse Plus retreat has again honored issues relating to identity-based oppression; Sadé Williams’ produced a performance of For Colored Girls; the African American Alliance and other cultural advocacy organizations single-handedly organized Black History Month programming; a new student-led coalition for Racial and Economic Justice is starting; Midd Included has brought new life to a decade-old effort to change Middlebury’s Eurocentric curriculum; MiddSafe has launched a sexual assault hotline; other unnamed, daily efforts prevail. This campus activism shows that there are progressive-minded individuals who are working to change the culture, climate and policies of Middlebury College. Using these activisms as a starting point, I call for us to start writing, framing issues that are important to us as we see them, using mediums such as the Campus to influence campus life and thought, and doing so before opinions antithetical to our lives are published. LILY ANDREWS '14 is from Minneapolis, Minn. The undersigned students add their names in support: Alex Jackman ’14, Alex Strott ’15, Alice Oshima ’15, Ally Yanson ’14, Daniela Barajas ’16, Feliz Baca ’14, Ian Stewart ’14, India Huff ’15, Jackie Park ’15, Kate McCreary ’15, Katie Willis ’13, Lily Andrews ’14, Marcella Maki ’14, and Molly Stuart ’15.5. Artwork by SAMANTHA WOOD.

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String Quartet Performs Beethoven

The College’s Performing Arts Series will continue its tradition of bringing world-class artists to the community tonight, March 13, when the Elias String Quartet presents a free formal concert of Beethoven and Kurtag pieces. The inspiration for the group’s name is taken from Mendelssohn’s oratorio, ‘Elijah,’ which is the German form of Elias. The quartet, which met in 1998 as first-year students at the Royal Northern College of England in Manchester, has quickly risen to the top of the classical music scene. Officially formed in 2004, the group gave their North American debut at the Concert Hall in March 2012 and soon after performed a sold-out, highly acclaimed concert at Carnegie Hall, cementing their place as an international force of vibrant musicality. Chamber music aficionado and Professor Emeritus of Political Science Paul Nelson is in charge of chamber music programming at the College. After hearing about the Elias String Quartet from the agent of accomplished international pianist and frequent performer at the College Paul Lewis, Nelson decided to seriously consider adding the quartet to the Performing Arts Series program. “He [Nelson] has an impeccable ear for rising talent,” Associate Director for the Performing Arts Series Allison Coyne Carroll said. “Professor Nelson reviewed the impressive list of premier chamber music venues they had played and awards they had won, gave the Elias a thoughtful listen, and then booked them to perform here in March 2012.  Based on their stellar performance that evening, and audience response, Professor Nelson booked them to return this season.” Violinists Sara Bitlloch and Donald Grant, violist Martin Saving and cellist Marie Bitlloch have garnered numerous accolades throughout their career together, including a residency as a part of BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artists’ scheme in 2010 and the 2010 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award. It is through the financial support of the latter award, which aims to help outstanding young musicians develop and sustain international careers, that the quartet has been able to embark on their newest, most ambitious tour: The Beethoven Project. Beginning in Feb. 2011, the group endeavors to play all seventeen Beethoven string quartets as a cycle over four years, and will play Beethoven’s Quartet No. 4 in C Minor and his second “Razumovsky” quartet at their concert at the College. Born in Germany in 1770, Ludvig van Beethoven is remembered as one of the most famous and influential composers of all time, crucially figuring into the transition between Classical and Romantic musical eras. “Beethoven’s music holds a revered place in music history, and his works are often genius and complex,” Carroll said. “And despite their complexity, which is quite astonishing when you consider Beethoven’s failing hearing, there is also something very approachable about his music.  There are very humanistic, reflective moments that can draw you right in.” Though he is perhaps best known for his symphonies, concertos and sonatas for piano, Beethoven’s string quartets remain a beloved part of the Western music canon. Beethoven’s Opus 18 was published in 1801, consisting of six string quartets. Widely considered to demonstrate his total mastery of the classical string quartet as developed by Haydn and Mozart, each of the six pieces contains four movements. It was not until 1806 that the three “Razumovsky” quartets, also referred to as Opus 59, achieved publication. Of this trio of works, the Elias String Quartet will be playing the four movements of Quartet No. 8 in E minor. The remaining eight quartets were published from 1809-1826, and the later works are thought to comprise Beethoven’s last major, completed compostitions. In addition to the Beethoven selections, the quartet will present “Officium breve in memoriam Andreae Szervánszky”  a work written in 1989 by Gyorgy Kurtag, a contemporary Hungarian composer born in 1926 with over 50 major compositions to his credit. “Generally, when the majority of a program is by one composer (in this case, Beethoven), ensembles will choose other repertoire that either complements or contrasts,” Carroll said. “The Elias chose the latter when programming Kurtag. The Elias is also an ensemble committed to performing works by living composers. During this season, when much of their programming was written between 1795-1826, I’m sure the quartet also enjoys the opportunity to vary their rehearsal and performance works.” A free lecture and demonstration by the Elias String Quartet planned for the afternoon of Wednesday, Mar. 12 about the Beethoven Project was cancelled due to Winter Storm Vulcan. Between now and early May, the quartet will play sixteen concerts in locations ranging from Maine to Texas to England to Austria, transitioning from university performance venues to concert halls of international prestige throughout the tour. A complete documentation of “The Beethoven Project,” expected to be completed in 2015, can be found at www.thebeethovenproject.com. The concert is presented as a part of a decade-long collaboration between the Performing Arts Series and the Institute for Clinical Science and Art, through which the Institute provides complete funding to present one or two high-profile string quartet concerts free of charge each year. This gift is made in memory of F. William Sunderman Jr. and Carolyn Reynolds Sunderman. The free concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Concert Hall of the Kevin P. Mahaney ’84 Center for the Arts tonight, March 13. Artwork by NOLAN ELLSWORTH

Men's Lax Falls to Conn. College

The men’s lacrosse team lost its second consecutive NESCAC game to open the 2014 season by a score of 6-3 to visiting Connecticut College on Saturday, March 8 on Youngman Field at Alumni Stadium. The Panthers jumped to an early lead but could not stymie a string of third-quarter Camel goals as Conn. College handed Middlebury its second loss of the season. Middlebury started the game quickly, as Jon Broome ’16 was a part of two early goals that put the hosts up 2-0 at the end of the first quarter. Broome kicked off the scoring with his fourth goal of the season five minutes into the game. Later in the period, he assisted Stephen Seymour ’14 as Middlebury converted its lone extra man opportunity of the afternoon. Broome was quick to credit Middlebury’s strong defense for generating the early offensive chances. “Our defense looked great yesterday, and we were able to generate good transition opportunities,” Broome said. “There is a lot that can be taken away from this game, but it is clear that we need to work on our stick skills and finishing.” Middlebury was able to maintain its lead, but Conn. College attacker Derek Bertolini worked an unassisted goal past Middlebury goalie Nate Gaudio ’14 early in the second quarter. The Panther defensive unit held their ground in the first half, seeing off three Middlebury penalties and maintaining the one-goal lead into halftime. “We did a great job of coming together as a unit on the defensive end; there was a lot of communication and people knew their roles,” Defender Geoff Vrla ’14 said. “The challenge is now to play like this against a fast-paced offense like that of Tufts.” After halftime, the Camels were able to net five straight goals that would give them the lead for good. Middlebury was unable to find the back of the net in the third quarter. Seymour noted the team’s frustration with the Camels’ defensive play. “What makes Conn. such a difficult team to play each year is their zone defense,” Seymour said. “It really slows down the game and makes it difficult to score quickly. Conn., in the past, has liked to take the air out of the ball on offense once they have a lead. That’s exactly what they did yesterday.” Middlebury was able to generate its fair share of chances in the second half, firing off 16 shots. None got past Conn. goalie Bobby Bleistein until Chris Peterson ’14 scored with four minutes left off of a pass from Broome. While the second straight NESCAC defeat is not optimal for the team, they are determined to focus on the upside. “Kids were communicating well and playing good on-ball defense,” Gaudio said. “We also took care of the ball in the middle of the field, and it was our best clearing performance yet.” The Panthers outshot the Camels 31-29 and won the ground ball contest 25-23 on the game. Each team committed 15 turnovers on the afternoon, with turnovers turning into transition points on both ends of the field. The Panther defense finished the game having seen off all six Conn. extra-man opportunities. Gaudio added strong goalie play – stopping 13 shots in the loss – in a much improved defensive performance from last week’s 24-goal performance against Middlebury by the Tufts attack. With the loss, the Panthers fall to 1-2 on the season and 0-2 in conference play. Middlebury goes on the road this Saturday, March 15, for a matchup with ninth-ranked Wesleyan. The Panthers hope that the improvements that they made against Conn. College over last week’s lopsided loss against Tufts will carry over into a conference victory over the Cardinals. Last year, it was Wesleyan who ousted the Panthers in the NESCAC semifinals in a game that went down to the final seconds. In addition to giving Middlebury a measure of revenge, a win would push the Panthers – defending regular season champions and preseason conference contenders – right back into the race for the NESCAC title. “Although it was a tough loss, the defensive effort yesterday is something we can be proud of as a team and will be a building block for the rest of the season,” Seymour said.

Feminist Action Day Seeks to Empower

On Sunday, March 9 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., the Chellis House will be holding the Red Tent event, an activity designed to help members of the Middlebury community that identify as female relax and pamper themselves for a day, in the McCullough Social Space. The Red Tent Foundation is helping to sponsor the event with a grant. The Red Tent Foundation is an organization that supports female empowerment and community. “The Red Tent event affords us with an opportunity to relax and think about what is really important in life,” wrote Karin Hanta, Director of Chellis House, in an email. On why the event is so important, Hanta noted that she “thought that with our busy schedules, we often don’t find the time to sit down and have meaningful conversation.” Hanta and several student monitors have been working over the course of several months to put the event together. The concept was first brought to Hanta by Anna Stevens ’13.5, who attended such an event in Providence, Rhode Island and was impressed by the sense of community and caring that permeated the conference. “I was struck by how inclusive this event felt — there were around 100 to 150 women there and it seemed as if each person, stranger or not, had someone to talk with and something to participate in,” Stevens wrote in an email. This is the first time that event has been held at the College. There will be workshops on many topics, giving attendees the opportunity to explore everything from sexual health and sex toys and financial security to yoga, henna and organic makeup, amongst other things. There is a variety of activities to entertain different types of attendees. “It’s a perfect time to put aside the schoolwork and spend a few hours indulging yourself in a healthy and fun way,” wrote Rebecca Coates-Finke ’16.5, one of the organizers of the event, in an email. Holistic health practitioners Nicole Burke and Alyson Young will lead three workshops on the stage of the McCullough Social Space to spearhead conversation at the event. “The Story of Woman: Remembrance of Sacred Traditions” (11 a.m.-12 p.m.) will explore the history of the Red Tent and its place in today’s world, while “13 Clan Mothers” (12:30-1:30 p.m.) will focus on the bonds of sisterhood and giving life to the creative force within ourselves to heal ourselves and the world. “Women’s Moonlodge,” (2-3 p.m.) participants will deepen their connection with their own knowing and plant seeds of intention. There will be three other workshops on the main floor of McCullough: “Menstrual Health and Arvigo Massage” with naturopath Dr. Sarah E. Wylie from 12:15 to 1 pm, “Sex Toys and Sexual Health” with “Naughty Girlfriend” Jenn Buker, and “Financial Security for Women” with Heather Jerome from the National Bank of Middlebury from 2:15-3 p.m. “The goal is to provide a safe and comfortable space for Middlebury’s women to take some time to take care of themselves,” Coates-Finke wrote, also noting that organizers expect a large turnout from women of all ages. Another important goal of the event is to include women from both the College and the town of Middlebury. According to Hanta, there was a significant amount of advertising for the event done in town. “The event is intended for women from both Middlebury College and the surrounding community and is intergenerational; we are hoping women of all ages will attend,” wrote Stevens.

Women’s Hockey Tourney Ends in Upset

Connecticut College came to Kenyon Arena on Saturday, March 1 and upset top seed Middlebury in a 2-1 overtime win that saw the Panthers eliminated in the quarterfinals for the first time in NESCAC tournament history. The eighth-seeded Camels scored ten minutes into the sudden-death overtime period to advance to next week’s championship at Williams. In an even opening few minutes, the Camels went ahead when Ashley Anctil managed to slip a rebound shot past Annabelle Jones ’15 six minutes into the contest.  Minutes later, Amanda Bogue was whistled for the first of nine Camels penalties on the night. Middlebury had several chances to equalize, as they kept up pressure in the first period.  Madeline Joyce ’14 and Julia Wardwell ’16 both had close calls but the Panthers went into the first intermission trailing 1-0. The second period was all Middlebury. The Panthers immediately controlled the puck as Jennifer Krakower ’14 passed the puck to Pam Schulman ’17 in the zone.  Schulman crossed the puck into the crease to Joyce, who knotted the game with a one-time goal. Middlebury continued to dominate, often orchestrating long possessions in the offensive zone. The Panthers were the beneficiaries of four more penalties, including over 30 seconds of 5-on-3 play in the period. They peppered the net with 13 shots to the Camels’ 2, but were unable to take the lead. “I think we created good chances and controlled the puck well,” Captain Sara Ugalde ’14 said, “We just weren’t able to finish the chances we got.” In the third period, Middlebury fired off another 11 shots, and had a full two minutes of 5-on-3 hockey, but couldn’t find the back of the net. The Kenyon Arena crowd bemoaned each Middlebury near miss, as the Panthers saw several close shots ricochet off of the framework or grabbed by Camels goalie Kelsie Fralick, who had 39 stops on the night. The Middlebury defensive line held strong in the closing minutes, killing off the lone Conn. College power play to send the game into overtime. In extra time, both teams had opportunities, none closer than Joyce’s break where she was pulled down by Camels defender Julie Beattie. Beattie was penalized for the tripping seven minutes into extra time.  Middlebury’s final power play was similar to their first seven. “We moved the puck really well on the power play this weekend and definitely had our chances,” Laura McConney ’15 said, “we just couldn’t find the rebounds.” The Panthers allowed Conn. College to come back to full strength, where the Camels tipped a shot past Jones for the win ten minutes into overtime.  Conn. College finished with only 20 shots to Middlebury’s 40. The NESCAC tournament soldiers on to its final weekend in Williamstown, where third-seeded Williams will host the remaining teams. Middlebury, meanwhile, awaits the NCAA playoff pairings, to be announced on Sunday, March 9. As the fourth-ranked team in the nation, they could receive an at-large bid. “The mindset for this week is to bounce back from the loss,” Ugalde said, “As always, we will work hard to get better every day.”

Spring Sports Preview

Track & Field (Fiona Maloney-McCrystle) The track and field team enters the 2014 outdoor season fresh off the winter indoor season, making an almost immediate transition into another long series of meets. On the women’s side, top returners this year look to be Laura Strom ’14.5 in the high jump, Alex Morris ’16 in the 400 and Alison Maxwell ’15 for the distance squad, all of whom begin the season with impressive winters under their belts. Lauren Pincus ’14, who qualified for the NCAA Championships two years ago, also looks to have a good year in the javelin. They will be joined by first-year stand-outs Erzsie Nagy ’17 for the distance squad and Hannah Blackburn ’17 in the long and triple jump. On the men’s side, the top returners are Bryan Holtzman ’14 in the sprints and Wilder Schaaf ’14.5 for the distance squad, as well as Kevin Chu ‘14, a two-time NESCAC champion in the hurdles, who will begin competition again after indoor season ends. They will be joined by talented first-year Alex Nichols ’17 in the 400. “Our goals as a team are always to win the NESCAC championship as well as the D3 New Englands,” Head Coach Martin Beatty said. “This year we are a little behind in our training from not having an indoor track to train on. The focus will be to train hard and see if we can make up some ground that we missed during the indoor season, while trying to be conscious of not pushing people too hard to the point of injury.” The first event of the spring season will take place at Point Loma Nazarene in California during spring break. Men's Lacrosse (Fritz Parker) Coming off a promising 2013 season that saw them reach the NESCAC semifinals, the men’s lacrosse team, ranked 18th in the preseason, looks for continued improvement as they take the field in 2014. Before falling to Wesleyan in the NESCAC semifinal, the Panthers had put together an 8-2 conference record and appeared to be on the road to an NCAA berth. If they are going to get to NCAAs, Middlebury will have to replace a pair of stalwart defenders in Zach Driscoll ’13 and All-American Billy Chapman ’13. Darric White ’14, Cal Williams ’15 and Geoff Vrla ’14 anchor a fresh defensive unit that will be forced to step up and fill that gap. Nate Gaudio ’14 will provide much-needed experience on the defensive end. “I think that this year’s defensive unit shows great potential,” Defender Christian Bonaventura ’15 said. “Although there is a lack of experience, the combination of talent, lax IQ and the reassurance of Nate Gaudio in the cage should lead to a strong defensive showing from here on out.” The Panthers will count on 2013 NESCAC second-leading scorer Jon Broome ’16 for a spark on the other end. Broome–along with fellow sophomores Tim Giarrusso ’16 and Harrison Goodkind ’16–looks set to provide one of the more explosive scoring attacks in the conference. After opening conference play with a home loss to preseason favorite and fifth-ranked Tufts, Middlebury will have a tough slate of conference games before the NESCAC tournament kicks off in late April. If all goes according to plan, the Panthers will be back on the field in May for their first NCAA appearance since 2011. Women's Tennis (Joe MacDonald) After falling in a nail-biter to top-seeded Amherst in last year’s NESCAC semifinal, the Panthers look to return to the conference championship match as they take the court for their 2014 spring campaign. The Panthers will be hard-pressed to replace last year’s NCAA singles champion Lok Sze Leung ’15, who transferred to Division-I Northwestern University to continue her career. In order to fill that gap, Middlebury will rely on NCAA quarterfinalist Ria Gerger ’16 at the number-one singles spot. In addition to Gerger, sisters Dorrie Paradies ’14 and Katie Paradies ’15 look to contribute in both singles and doubles play, while first-years Lily Bondy ’17, Alexandra Fields ’17, Jennifer Sundstrom ’17 and Kaysee Orozco ’17 also look to make an impact. “We have a very young team but are extremely excited for the season,” Dorrie Paradies said. The Panthers will travel to California for a string of matches over spring break, before returning for NESCAC play. With one of the stiffest groups of teams in the country, the NESCAC season should prepare Middlebury for a long postseason run. Highlights on the schedule include matchups with first-ranked Williams, third-ranked Amherst and sixth-ranked Bowdoin. With such a tough lineup of conference opponents, attaining the NESCAC crown will be a tough, but not impossible, goal. The fifth-ranked Middlebury women’s tennis team will open up its spring campaign this Saturday, March 8 against Colby and Brandeis. Women's Lacrosse (Gabe Weissmann) After finishing last year’s season with a strong record of 18-3 and graduating seven key contributors from the team in 2013, the third-ranked Middlebury women’s lacrosse team looks to repeat and improve upon the success of last year with the help of a small but powerful senior leadership as well as several skilled first-year, sophomore and junior players. After graduating three of their top scorers from last year, the Panthers will look to senior Liza Herzog ’14 for leadership in point production. Herzog finished the 2013 season with a total of 44 points, which consisted of 31 goals and 13 assists. The Panthers have a strong senior defensive outfit with co-Captain Alyssa Palomba ’14 between the pipes and co-Captain Hannah Deoul ’14 on defense. Palomba finished last year’s game with 92 saves in 21 games played, with a save percentage of .416. Deoul finished the season with the season with 36 ground balls, a key statistic in helping women’s lacrosse teams win games. Palomba acknowledges that the face of women’s lacrosse will be much different, but this is never a bad thing. Our biggest hurdle this season is the loss of our 7 seniors last year, all of which played huge roles on and off the field,” Palomba said. “This also plays to our biggest strength, which are the players who are stepping up to fill those crucial spots and bringing new things to the team.  We are not the same team that we were last year.  We have changed up a lot of things including many of our plays and the defense, so I think this is going to all work to our advantage.” As they take the field in 2014, the Panthers hope to avenge last season’s overtime loss to Trinity in the NESCAC championship game. Middlebury will again look to May’s NCAA tournament – in which they reached the semifinals a year ago – as the final measure of their success. Baseball (Fritz Parker) The baseball team will begin its season on March 22 in Tucson, Ariz. as part of its annual spring-break trip. The trip provides a chance to start the season while wintry conditions continue to pester the northeast while also giving Middlebury the opportunity to play solid out-of-region competition. In Arizona, the Panthers will play 10 games in eight days, culminating in a three-game series against Williams. Having graduated seven seniors in the class of 2013, this year’s team is about as youthful as can be. Steven Bodine ’16 thinks that a talented first-year class could offset those departures. “Lot of speed, lot of power, I’m excited to see what they got,” Bodine said. Co-Captains Dylan Kane ’14 and Alex Kelly ’14 make up the entirety of the senior class and are aided in their leadership duties by Eric Truss ’15. Truss returns as the team’s most accomplished pitcher from a season ago, when he led the team in wins, games started, innings pitched and ERA. Kelly is a three-year starter who brings solid defense to left field and is known as one of the league’s toughest outs at the plate. Dylan Sinnickson ’15, the team’s top hitter from a season ago, returns to roam centerfield, while classmate Hunter Merryman ’15 could provide another potent bat should he decide to rejoin the team after the Arizona trip, which he will not be attending. Max Araya ’16 started almost every game at second base last year, and will almost definitely be in the starting lineup again from day one. Once they move towards establishing their lineup in Arizona, the Panthers will return to snowy Vermont to face a tough regular-season schedule as they attempt to reach the NESCAC playoffs. Softball (Sydney Reid) Last year the Middlebury softball team advanced to the semifinals in the NESCAC tournament, where it ultimately fell just short of the championship game. In the double-elimination tournament they lost to Tufts and Bowdoin, while Tufts went on to win the championship. The Panthers finished with an overall record of 26-11, and 10-2 in the NESCAC. Alex Scibetta ’14, Emily Smith ’14 and Emily Kraytenberg ’14 will be leading the team as captains. Scibetta is excited for the prospects of the season. “I think we have a lot of talent and a great team dynamic this year and I can’t wait to see what we do with it,” Scibetta said. Siobhan O’Sullivan ’17 is one of five promising freshmen joining the team, and is impressed by her teammates work ethic. “Whether it be staying after practice and fielding ground balls or spending some extra time in the batting cage, everyone is putting in full effort to make themselves and the team better,” O’Sullivan said. “I know the dedication and drive to get better will continue throughout our season and translate to the field in a positive way.” The team will travel once again to Clermont, Florida for spring break where they will play 12 games and face opponents such as Wellesley, Potsdam, St. Catherine, and the University of Chicago. Their record for the spring training trip in Florida last year was 5-5, and it provided them a strong start to the season. The Panthers hope this trip to Clermont will launch them into a similarly successful season. The team’s first home game will be March 30 against Castleton State. Golf (Colin McIntyre) The men’s golf team enters the spring season coming off of a strong fall led by NESCAC Player of the Year John Louie ’15. Middlebury’s dominant performance at the fall qualifier earned it the honor of hosting the NESCAC championship at Ralph Myhre golf course on April 26-27.  The Panthers will play host to Trinity, Amherst and Williams as they try to improve on last year’s 3rd place finish. “We are all very excited for the start of the spring season,” Captain Max Alley ’14 said.  “We have a strong freshman class and now have two juniors joining us after being abroad in the fall.” Depth is certainly not a problem for the Panthers, who fired off five of the top ten weekend scores at the qualifier last September. The men ended their fall season with an ECAC Championship by 13 strokes over runner-up Westfield State. On the women’s side, the Panthers field a team looking to return to the NCAA tournament after finishing 14th last year, and enter the spring season ranked 24th in the nation. “We ended our fall season nipping at the heels of the Williams team,” Captain Caroline Kenter ’14 said. “The realization that we have the potential to beat the Ephs gives us a lot of motivation going into our spring season.” In four of the women’s five tournaments during the fall, Williams, ranked number three in the NCAA preseason rankings, not only competed, but also emerged victorious. Three of those four times, Midlebury finished runner-up to the Ephs. Both teams have had to adapt to the field house construction, and have not been able to hit indoors on campus as in previous years.  They have been hitting on simulators in Burlington, but look forward to getting back on the course during spring break trips to the Carolinas before the start of the season. Men's Tennis (Emma McDonald) After an off-season of hard work and conditioning, the Middlebury men’s tennis team starts off the spring season this Saturday, March 8 on its home court with a double-header against Colby in the morning and Brandeis in the afternoon. Middlebury will go on to play fifth-ranked Kenyon and third-ranked Emory over spring break in what could prove to be two key match-ups this season. Later in April, the Panthers will embark on what Head Coach Bob Hansen calls a “critical NESCAC road trip,” playing a series of matches against conference foes Williams, Wesleyan and Trinity. This year’s squad boasts many returning players, including All-Americans Alex Johnston ’14 Brantner Jones ’14 and Palmer Campbell ’16, as well as an experienced trio of Teddy Fitzgibbons ’14, Zach Bruchmiller ’14 and Andrew Lebovitz ’14. In addition to Johnston, Jones, Fitzgibbons, Bruchmiller and Lebovitz, senior James Burke ’14 will serve as the team’s sixth captain for the season. The team will take the court this season with no first-years on the roster. After falling to Amherst in last season’s NESCAC semifinal match, Middlebury looks to make a run at the conference title in 2014. Following that, the Panthers have set their sights on hosting the first round of the NCAA tournament, May 9 through 11, and hope to continue on to the NCAA finals in Claremont, California. “The team has very high expectations to improve on last year’s final eight NCAA National appearance,” Hansen said.

Men’s Basketball Heartbroken at Final Buzzer in NESCAC

The men’s basketball season ended in disappointment with a 78-75 loss in the NESCAC semifinals against Williams on Saturday, March 1. Knowing they needed a win to extend their season, the Panthers had arguably their best offensive first half of the season, scoring 50 points against the number-nine Ephs. Middlebury could not keep up its hot shooting from the first half after the break, however, and Williams outscored the Panthers by 14 in the second half to win the game. This season will be the first since 2006-2007 that Middlebury will not compete in the NCAA tournament. After starting the season 6-5, the Panthers partially righted the ship and finished 17-9. Of those final four losses, three came by a total of eight points, and two of those came at the hands of Williams. All season long, the Panthers seemed to be plagued by an inability to close out halftime leads, a blemish to which Head Coach Jeff Brown admitted. “The biggest thing for us was really not having tremendous balance as an offensive team,” Jeff Brown said. “At times, when things cranked up and we got into more of a half court team, we really lacked the close to the basket attack that would get us to the free throw line and get some easy baskets.” In the Williams game, the two teams battled neck-and-neck for much of the first half. With 6:43 remaining in the game a Hayden Rooke-Ley three-pointer gave Williams a four-point advantage. Rooke-Ley was inactive the last time these two teams met, but the senior guard had a major impact in this contest, scoring 14 points off the bench. “He’s a very tough competitor,” Jeff Brown said, “He’s able to drive the ball to the basket. More importantly, defensively, he’s really a hard-nosed, competitive player, and I think his presence on the floor certainly made a difference for them over the stretch run.” Michael Mayer, Williams’ all-conference center, established his dominance early in the contest, sinking three of the Ephs’ first four shots. Mayer finished the night with a game-high 27 points to go along with seven rebounds. “Williams’ philosophy offensively is to run their offense through their five-man,” Jeff Brown said, “and he’s an ideal player for that style because he can pass…and post-up with an array of offensive moves.” After the triple from Rooke-Ley, things started to roll for the Panthers, who finished the first half on a 20-5 run, with the only Williams’ points coming from Mayer. Captain Joey Kizel ’14 had an astounding 19 first-half points. Dylan Sinnickson ’15 also had a big first half, scoring nine, while Jake Brown ’17 chipped in seven off the bench. All told, Middlebury shot 64.5 percent from the floor and 71.4 percent from deep, where Kizel went 5-6, in the first half, far outpacing Williams’ still-impressive 42.4 percent shooting from the floor and 44.4 percent from beyond the arc. Last time these two teams met, Middlebury held a 16-point lead at halftime, but a significant decline in outside shooting from the Panthers and Williams’ ability to make a lot of free throws down the stretch combined to allow the Ephs to pull away for a three-point win. The story was much the same on Saturday. Middlebury shot just 28.6 percent from the floor and 18.2 percent from deep in the second half, while Williams got to the charity stripe 22 times in the second half and hit 18 free throws. “They increased their defensive pressure [in the second half] and really kind of controlled us,” Jeff Brown said. “I think the biggest factor was the differential from the free throw line.” “We didn’t make any defensive adjustments at the half and Williams clearly did because we only scored 25 second half points,” Matt Daley ’16 said. “They didn’t allow us to get open looks from three point land because we hit 10 in the first half.” Sinnickson made a lay-up to open the second half and extended the Panthers’ lead to 13, but Williams consistently chipped away over the next 13 minutes, finally tying the contest at 64-64 on a pair of Mayer free throws with 7:27 remaining. Down two with just over a minute remaining, Middlebury ran a poor offensive possession, but James Jensen ’14 kept the Panthers’ hopes alive by knocking down an uncharacteristic jumper, tying the game at 73-73. A foul on the ensuing possession led to a pair of free throws from Rooke-Ley. Kizel then missed a three-pointer and – after Jensen committed the necessary foul – Williams first-year Duncan Robinson made it a three-point game by hitting 1-2 free throws. On the other end, Kizel forced a foul from Rooke-Ley, who appeared to commit the foul unintentionally, but the move worked out for Williams because it took away the opportunity for Kizel to attempt a game-tying three-pointer. Kizel hit both of his free throws to draw within one before a pair of free throws extended the Williams lead back to three. On the final possession, Kizel had just six seconds to bring the ball up the floor, and could only muster a deep, contested three-pointer that did not find the net. “Saturday’s game looked very similar to most of the games we played this year,” Daley said. “Unfortunately that is what happens when you rely almost entirely on the three point shot...This was a trend that will not continue next year.” Kizel leaves the basketball program with 1493 career points, good for fourth all-time on the Middlebury scoring list, just five behind Kevin Kelleher ’80. Additionally, Kizel exits as the all-time leader in three-point percentage and free throw percentage. The responsibility of filling the void left by Kizel next year will fall to Jake Brown, who saw extensive minutes as the team’s point guard this season. “He certainly showed during the stretch run that he’s capable of running the team,” Jeff Brown said, “We’re really high on his potential next year to energize our offense and also to be able to score some points himself.” As a class, the team’s six seniors – Kizel, Jensen, Jack Roberts ’14, Nate Bulluck ’14, Albert Nascimento ’14 and Luis Alvarez ’14 – finish with a 96-19 record overall, 31-8 in the NESCAC, four NESCAC tournament appearances, three NCAA tournament appearances and one NESCAC championship. Jeff Brown looked back fondly on what the class of ’14 has accomplished. “A tremendous amount of effort and unselfishness with the group,” Jeff Brown said, “Jack and James, probably two of our best defensive players on this year’s team, really did a lot of the quiet stuff in the background for the program. They are just a real, real special group.”

Men’s Basketball Avoids Second Half Upset with Continental Victory

Middlebury (17-8, 6-4) kept its season alive with an 81-75 defeat of the Hamilton College Continentals (14-11, 5-5) in Pepin Gymnasium on Saturday, Feb. 22. The game marked the eighth straight season in which Middlebury had hosted a NESCAC playoff game by earning one of the top four seeds by virtue of its regular season performance. Hamilton, meanwhile, competed in the NESCAC tournament for just the second time. Middlebury will play number eight Williams College in the semifinals to be hosted by Amherst College, the top seed. Middlebury played Williams at home on Friday, Jan. 31 in what was possibly the most gut-wrenching defeat of the season. Leading the Ephs, who were ranked 11th in the nation at the time, by 16 at halftime, Middlebury struggled defensively in the second half en route to a 64-61 loss. In a similar fashion, the Panthers had a large first half lead on Saturday against Hamilton. The contest was neck-and-neck for the first five minutes, when Hamilton forward Bradley Gifford put the Continentals up one with 15:01 remaining in the first half. After Hunter Merryman ’15 knocked down a three-pointer, one of his three treys in a team-leading 17-point effort, Middlebury took the lead and never relinquished its advantage. The Panthers outscored Hamilton 32-20 in the remainder of the first half to take a 13-point advantage into halftime up 46-33. Middlebury did especially well on the boards, leading the Continentals 20-12 in that department. With the memory of many early second half letdowns looming, Middlebury opened the latter 20 minutes with a 15-6 run, capped off by an awe-inspiring alley-oop from Joey Kizel ’14 to Dylan Sinnickson ’15 who threw the ball through the iron with two hands to the excitement of the Pepin crowd. The wind seemed to escape the Panthers’ sails after the Sinnickson flourish, however. The Continentals retaliated with 12 straight points to make it 61-51 in favor of Middlebury. The margin hovered around 10 until the last two minutes. In the final 2:05 of the game, Middlebury went 6-11 from the free throw line, almost handing the game over to Hamilton. With the Panthers clinging to a four-point lead, Merryman hauled down the rebound on a missed three-pointer from sophomore Continental guard Matt Hart, who scored 30 points in these teams’ last meeting, with ten seconds on the clock. Merryman passed the ball to Kizel, who was fouled and clinched the victory by making both free throws. As a team, the Panthers were very efficient from the floor, shooting 53.8 percent from the field and 56.2 percent from beyond the arc, but only 69.6 percent from the line. Merryman added four rebounds to his outstanding offensive performance. Kizel tallied 14 points, six rebounds, six assists and two steals to go along with the aforementioned game-clinching free throws. Sinnickson went 5-11 from the field for 12 points and added five rebounds. The rest of the starting lineup, James Jensen ’14 and Jack Roberts ’14, combined for 18 points, nine rebounds, four assists, two block and a steal. Jake Nidenberg ’16 and Dean Brierley ’15 each played tremendously off the bench, adding six and five points respectively. Jake Brown ’17 had a major impact despite not lighting up the stat sheet, tallying just five points. However, the first-year guard logged 29 minutes and did the majority of the work locking down Hart, who went 4-11 for 11 points, the NESCAC’s leading scorer during the regular season. “Going into this game Coach told me I’d be seeing a lot of minutes on [Hart],” Brown said. “He is a tremendous player that can do almost everything. Guarding him was tough, and I think he ranks among the top guards in the league.” The Panthers need to beat Williams and follow that up with a win in the NESCAC tournament championship over the winner of the game between Amherst, ranked seventh in the nation, and fifth-seeded Trinity, who upset Bowdoin 71-67 in the first three overtime game in NESCAC tournament history on Saturday, Feb. 22, in order to make their seventh straight NCAA tournament. “This Saturday’s game against Williams is going to be awesome,” Brown said. “A lot of emotion and energy will be in the gym and we need to play 40 minutes of basketball.”

Bring AAL into a Globalized World

On February 12th, Max Kagan ’14 wrote an op-ed in The Campus entitled “Just Call AAL Other” in response to a recent student-led campaign that seeks to modify the current Cultures and Civilizations requirement. The current system requires students to take one class with a large focus on each of the following geographic areas: NOR (Northern America – US or Canada), EUR (Europe), AAL (Africa, Asia, and Latin America), and CMP (Comparative). Many on campus have pointed out that grouping Africa, Asia and Latin America together does not make much sense. In response, this new campaign proposes that students be required to take one NOR course, due to the location of our institution, one CMP course, and two courses that focus on one of any of the following regions AFR (Africa), ASI (Asia), EUR (Europe), LAC (Latin American and Caribbean), MDE (Middle East). As some of the students behind this proposal, we want to address Kagan’s argument and expand on the reasons why we believe a change in our current system is absolutely necessary and appropriate. Kagan acknowledges that Middlebury’s current system is fundamentally Eurocentric, but asserts that such a biased system is “wholly appropriate” because this institution was founded in a European tradition and on European values. According to him, “Middlebury’s structure as an institute of higher learning dates back to the European Middle Ages; its values harken from the European Enlightenment;” therefore, it would be wrong for any Middlebury student to be allowed to graduate without studying Europe. Here, Kagan incorrectly assumes that making the EUR credit an option rather than a requirement will result in a lack of study of Europe. He ignores that, even when studying other regions of the world, we are learning about Europe. For example, in a class about African Politics, we learn about European colonization. Even in classes that are not region focused, such as literature, science, theater and economics, students are constantly exposed to Western thought and European tradition. Thus, making the EUR credit an option rather than a requirement does not mean that students will never be exposed to European thought. It does mean that students who wish to study other regions of the world will have greater educational opportunities, while students who wish to pursue the study of Europe can still do so. There is no doubt that the founding of the college, a school whose original mission was “to train young men from Vermont and neighboring states for the ministry and other learned professions,” was based on European values. But should that mission from 1800 dictate our institutional values today? We think not. While Kagan’s argument might seem appealing to some, it is limited in that it disregards the new global context we live in. Today’s era of globalization calls for a very different kind of education than the one the College offered 200 years ago. The world has changed, and so has Middlebury and its mission. Today, part of our institution’s mission is to “strive to engage students’ capacity for rigorous analysis and independent thought within a wide range of disciplines and endeavors, and to cultivate the intellectual, creative, physical, ethical, and social qualities essential for leadership in a rapidly changing global community.” Even though Kagan is correct to point out that we were founded in European tradition, Middlebury’s current mission statement does not include “Europe’s intellectual tradition.” Fortunately, Middlebury College has realized that the world we live in today calls for a new education for students who come from all over the world and who will go off to be leaders in both Western and non-Western regions, not just an education for the “young men from Vermont” who will serve in the ministry. As we mentioned earlier, however, our curriculum still remains Eurocentric. We still have a lot of work to do to truly achieve that new mission, but changing the Cultures and Civilizations requirement is a key first step in the right direction towards a curriculum better suited for educating this new generation of global citizens. Throughout its history, Middlebury has been at the forefront of innovation and progress in higher education. After thoroughly researching the distribution and cultures requirements among other institutions of higher education, last year’s SGA found that most institutions lack systems that allow students to be exposed to a variety of cultures and civilizations. By changing the cultures and civilizations requirements, Middlebury can once again blaze a trail in higher education. We know change can be difficult, but it is necessary for progress. Middlebury itself acknowledges that it is “a liberal arts college of the first rank” as a direct result “of a process of growth and change that began in 1800.”  We must not stop that process of continuous self-reflection and improvement for fear of the work that this change will require; we must not stall our progress by clinging on to outdated and exclusive requirements. To improve our educational opportunities and really be a 21st century first class liberal arts college that educates global citizens, we must revisit our cultures and civilizations requirement. While we understand that our proposal does not present a perfect alternative, we strongly believe that it proposes a system that is far better than the one we currently have. Moreover, our proposal is a work in progress. We have started this conversation among students, faculty and administrators, in the hope that as a community we can create and implement the best alternative possible. We are not the first generation of Middlebury students to be raising this issue, but we hope that we will be the last. We must not wait any longer. Submitted by MIDD INCLUDED and Signed by Adriana Ortiz-Burnham ’17, Daniela Barajas ’14.5, David Ollin Pesqueira ’17, Douglass Gledhill ’14, Jihad Hajjouji ’14, Hanna Hemenger ’13.5, Kate McCreary ’15, Greta Neubauer ’14.5, Jiya Pandya ’17, and Molly Stuart ’15.

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'Twese for Peace' Wins $10,000 Davis Projects for Peace Grant

Every year the Middlebury College Center for Social Entrepreneurship grants $10,000 to one student to develop a grassroots project for peace. The initiative, Davis Projects for Peace, was started in 2007 by Kathryn Davis, a renowned philanthropist who chose to celebrate her 100th birthday by donating $1 million “to help young people launch some immediate initiatives that will bring new thinking to the prospects of peace in the world,” according the Project’s website. The Davis Projects for Peace are available to the 91 schools that have partnered with the Davis UWC Scholars program and Middlebury is the Projects’ headquarters. The College has had a variety of projects submitted and undertaken since 2007; this year, 13 students applied for the grant for the summer of 2014. Proposals were submitted by late January, and were discussed by a seven person committee consisting of executives from the Centre for Social Entrepreneurship (CSE), the Community Engagement (CE) office, noted alumni of the College and professionals that have a history of working with the Davis family. Elizabeth Robinson ’84, director of the Projects on Creativity and Innovation in the liberal arts (PCI), was one member of this panel. “Davis Projects for Peace gives students the opportunity to try their hand at social entrepreneurship and to practice what you’re learning in the classroom,” she said. The proposals, Robinson explained, are judged on a set of four criteria: creativity, impact, sustainability and humility. Each project is given a score from one to five on each criterion by each of the members of the committee, and then total scores are compared. The highest rated proposal  is selected as College’s entry into the Davis Projects for Peace for that given year. But having your proposal selected is not the end of the road. “The reason we identify and select to projects early is because we want to work with the projects and develop them over spring,” Robinson said. Once selected, the proposed project and the student in charge of it are put through a process of mentorship and discussion, in order to make the project better. This year’s recipient is Armel Nibasumba ’16, with his project ‘Twese For Peace National Camp’, set in his home country, Burundi. The project aims to convene students of conflicting ethnicities from across Burundi between the ages of 17 and 23 for two weeks, and help them nurture their peace-building, conflict resolution and entrepreneurial skills. As he explained his project over a cup of hot Burundian tea, Nibasumba’s passion for his country, its history and his need to make a positive change was more than evident. “There is much more than war in Burundi, and if we want to define where the country is going to be in 15 years, we need to act now. This is my way of playing a role in the future of my country, of creating a better Burundi for my children than the one I grew up in, “ he said. In the grander global scheme, Nibasumba added, Burundi is either forgotten or labelled as conflict-ridden and torn. “I wanted to show that we are not a pity-case, we have young people that have ideas and we can change things.” Nibasumba applied last year for the Davis Project for Peace grant, and did not receive it, but chose to begin his project anyway, albeit to a smaller extent in his city, Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi. He applied again for the grant this year and was selected. “I saw that my project had a big impact last year,” Nibasumba said. “And I saw that the bigger picture was worth pursuing.” He hopes to expand his project and build on what he learned from last year, now that he has more funding due to the Davis grant. “The students I had last year motivated me; now I know I’m not the only one, and I want to keep striving to make a change.” Nibasumba’s advice to students that did not receive the grant is simple. “Don’t give up. This grant isn’t the only way to make things happen. Keep networking, contact organizations. There are so many opportunities on this campus that will help you make things happen,” he said, citing MiddStart, an online College crowd-funding campaign, as an example. Robinson also vigorously emphasized that the Davis grant is only one of the many opportunities available through this campus. She stated that organizations like PCI and CSE have grants to “support student ideation” and encouraged students to “jump in and try.” “A lot of the recipients of the Davis peace grant had applied once and not been accepted before they received it,” Robinson said. “It just takes a little time. You have to fail a little in order to learn, and these are projects that can be honed over time.” Robinson cited multiple examples of passionate, inspiring students that have initiated Davis Projects for Peace, fondly calling them “superstars.” Shabana Basij-Rasikh ’11 did a Davis Project during her time at the College and went on to form her organization SOLA, School of Leadership, Afghanistan. Robinson also spoke about Rachel Sider ’14, who conducted her project in Jordan in 2013 called Empowering Voices Through Artistic Expression, and Jihad Hajjouji ’14 who did a project entitled The National Entrepreneurial Camp in Morocco in 2012. Robinson further stressed that working with the CSE and CE on campus or applying for grants such as the Davis Projects for Peace is not restricted to students who are considering social entrepreneurship in the future. “Not everybody wants to be a social entrepreneur, and that’s fine. We see these opportunities as a means for students to just be better at who they are and who they want to be,” she concluded.

Examining 'The Masks' Through Dance

This weekend at the Middlebury College Dance Theatre, masks were worn, washed off and fashioned as the Dance Company of Middlebury, under the direction of Assistant Professor of Dance Christal Brown, performed “The Meaning of the Masks.” The performance began unravelling cultural “masks” of convention before viewers even settled into the theatre. House lights remained lit and ushers pointed people to seats as the audience gradually became aware of the nearly immobile forms of the dancers who had appeared onstage. With eyes closed and faces painted various shades of white, grey or green, the seven members of the Dance Company of Middlebury — Hai Do ’14, Amy Donahue ’13.5, Cameron McKinney ’14, Jill Moshman ’14, Rachel Nuñez ’14, Isabella Tudisco-Sadacca ’13.5 and Chelsea Chuyou Wang ’16 — glided around the stage, each step slowly dragged forward. The audience, conflicted between the cultural expectation that they should be silently attentive of performers onstage and the confusion that the show was not supposed to start for another few minutes, settled into an uncomfortable silence as the last few audience members shuffled into the remaining seats of the dance theatre. This initial upset of what is understood culturally as the beginning of a performance raised the question for the evening: What is cultural convention, and how do we mask ourselves to conform to or break from such convention? Under this frame of mind the first piece, “Fly Catching,” choreographed by visiting artist Shizu Homma, could be interpreted as an escape from the confines of conventional working life. The dancers, sporting painted faces, closed eyes and office attire, moved as puppets directed lethargically forward until the strings began to be cut. Dancer by dancer, body part by body part, the imagined lines went slack, and the dancers slumped a shoulder, a hip or a torso. Occasionally, the lines tightened again and the dancers righted themselves, until finally the strings were severed and dancers fell to the ground. The remaining few strings unsuccessfully attempted to revive them, but eventually all dancers collapsed. Once all the strings were cut, all seven dancers rose and began to laugh hysterically as they skipped around the stage — in this writer’s interpretation, freed from their puppet existences. This puppet segment created a lasting image of all the dancers standing in a line facing the audience after righting themselves from various slack movements. McKinney stood as an exception, raising his head last. As the only movement onstage, the audience was invited to focus on that incrementally slow motion, somehow making the movement incredibly personal. Once free of their puppet strings, the dancers presented a fascinating contrast between primate rituals of grooming and their human parallels. Moving as primates, the dancers pounded the ground and picked imagined insects off of each other’s backs; in the human parallel dancers offered each other fruit and fixed each other’s make-up and clothing. “Are rituals, games and structured society really culture, or more complicated systems of animal instincts and hierarchies?” Homma asked in her choreographer’s note. The second piece, “Paperdoll,” choreographed by Ayo Janeen Jackson, smoothly transitioned from the first, but began distinctly with a bathing ritual. Wang got into a metal tub and cleansed herself of her paint mask as McKinney and Do brought out water and poured it over her. She chose a red sheet of butcher paper out of several red dresses that the female dancers presented to her. Performed by Moshman and Nuñez for the Saturday matinee and evening performances, respectively, on Friday evening Donahue lay down on the paper to perform the solo, clad only in nude underwear. The piece clearly became one of bursting through a self-created mask as Donahue traced her body onto the paper and fashioned herself a dress out of it with scissors and duct tape — notably, with a tail. Her fiercely determined movements were lent a defiant and powerful feeling by Madonna’s “Give it 2 Me” pounding through the theatre, with empowering lyrics such as ‘Nobody’s gonna stop me now’ emphasizing Donahue’s actions. As the song shifted to “Hurricane” by Grace Jones, Donahue embodied the force of a hurricane with stunningly executed spins in the air reminiscent of a figure skater’s jumps. The leaps and repeated falls seemed to become more painful as Donahue kept on, until at the close of the song she wrapped her paper tail around her neck — and it snapped. She ran from the stage as McKinney entered wearing ragged, dark strips of cloth and exploring a movement that felt richly primitive in its honesty. The rest of the dancers soon joined McKinney onstage for the beginning of “Collecting Carnival,” choreographed by Brown as “a movement menagerie of the African Diaspora,” according to the program. As the seven members of the Dance Company of Middlebury moved together onstage, the connection between this group of artist-creator-performer-dancers felt vibrant and richly satisfying to witness. The dancers gradually pieced together their personal masks as the work progressed, each donning intricate individual costumes of feathers, black paint and colors and a particular movement quality that they chose in order to expose a part of themselves. In what Donahue called in the program “experiential performance practice,” the dancers explored how their chosen masks allowed them to delve into experiencing a part of themselves not otherwise obvious or exposed — and raised the question for the audience to wonder about their own masks as well. Near the conclusion of the Carnival piece, all the dancers moved in sync in a stationary running motion with their arms pumping but their feet firmly planted on the ground. “It is the human race and an individual race,” Brown said, referencing our own masks of cultural conformity. As students, we have much to gain from reflection on the topics explored through dance in “The Meaning of the Masks.” We all wear many masks to conform and blend in with the flow of our culture as students and as members of our various individual cultures, and those masks are not necessarily a negative part of our interactions. However, to understand what lies beneath those masks and what influences their formation, perhaps we should take the time to explore ourselves behind the masks.

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CCI Hosts Media Alumni Panel

On February 14, the Center for Careers & Internships (CCI) will unveil the inaugural UpNext speakers series, a faculty-moderated career panel that brings Middlebury alumni from different industries to campus to share their work experience with students. This week’s event focuses on media and entertainment. Jeff Sawyer, CCI Director of Employer Outreach and Development, says the series is unlike any other in that it  “brings three constituencies together, as students, faculty and employers converse about topics and common interests within a single industry.” The panel on Friday will be moderated by Professor of English and American Literatures Timothy Billings and will feature a diverse lineup of alumni panelists, including Katherine Davis ’87, a Political Science and French major and current 60 Minutes producer; Rick Holzman ’87, a Political Science major and Executive Vice President of Programming and Strategy at Animal Planet; Richard Coolidge ’87, a Political Science/French double major, and ABC News producer; Beth Levison ’91, a Geography/Italian major and documentary filmmaker; and recent alumna, Christine Schozer ’13, an Economics major and production assistant at Peacock Productions, an NBCUniversal production company. Although the first UpNext event centers on careers in media and entertainment, Sawyer wants Middlebury students to look beyond the common perceptions of the industry. “The series – and Friday’s panel – is intended to build awareness in students so they have a nuanced understanding of the various components of the career paths they might pursue,” Sawyer said. “I want students to envision the breadth of jobs in the media industry: there are careers beyond the two obvious jobs of production and journalism.” Similarly, Schozer ’13 – a production assistant for Peacock Productions in New York – notes the importance of keeping an open mind when searching for internships and eventually jobs. “I started off as an Economics major with an interest in finance, but chose not to travel that path,” Schozer said. “I began to consider marketing and production, given that many of the jobs intertwine my organization and planning strengths. After reaching out to alumni through MiddNet, I found an internship at NBC during my junior year, which really sparked my interest in production. To me, the “UpNext” series is a great opportunity for students to realize the opportunities that exist and create interest networks within media and entertainment companies.” Recently, Schozer has worked on variety of projects including NBC’s “The Making of the Sound of Music Live!,” and “Skywire Live!,” a Discovery Channel live event covering Nik Wallenda’s walk across the Grand Canyon on a tightrope. Gretchen Eisele ’90 was executive producer of “Skywire Live!,” which had 21 million viewers and won a 2013 Emmy for Best Live Performance. “During The Sound of Music documentary, I got the opportunity to interact and listen to people who truly excel in their industry, such as with Neil Meron, the executive producer, David Chase, a top musical director on Broadway, Beth McCarthy Miller, a Saturday Night Live television director, and Rob Ashford, a renowned broadway director,” Schozer said. When asked what advice she would give students interested in pursuing internships and career paths, Schozer encourages students to identify their strengths and interests. “If you don’t know what you want to do, try something that fits your skill set. If you don’t try, you don’t know.” Susan Walker, Associate Director of Career Services at the CCI, urges students to use the UpNext series as a comfortable setting “to put themselves forward to alumni as a means of motivating the career discovery process.” Similarly, Sawyer encourages students to question what exactly employers are looking for in order to effectively apply for and take advantage of opportunities. Friday’s signature UpNext event will be held at 5 p.m. in Axinn 229. Students are also welcome to attend additional information sessions about working at NBC Peacock Productions and Discovery and an informal lunch – by RSVP on MOJO – with the alumni panelists on Saturday in Ross’ Fireside Lounge. “[Future UpNext sessions will likely be] a robust cross-section of industries that touches all corners of the student body,” Sawyer said. “With a focus on industries such as social and human services, the scientific aspect of healthcare services, government, and education.”