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(02/13/14 12:08am)
After just a few minutes aboard the white maintenance truck, Clinton Snyder, the landscape supervisor at the College, noticed that I had forgotten gloves. Buzz, as he is fondly known, kindly offered me his own, and explained that the success of campus snow removal depends on the entire crew.
“The campus is divided into North, Central and Athletics,” he informed me, “and all of the entrances around every building have to be clean.”
After snowstorms like Wednesday’s, a variety of departments work together to clean up campus.
“It’s not just the landscaping crew,” Snyder said. “It’s the custodials, the carpentry, electrical, Plumbing, HPAC – we all come in as a team.”
The various crews are each assigned to sections of the campus.
“Say you got crew eight,” he said, “They’ll take care of Bihall, the Mods, Ridgeline woods, the Bunker house, Adirondack view [...] they know what section to go through.”
Workers also carry radios to contact each other and Snyder, who may reassign them to “problem areas.” Like an officer driving a Jeep through the battlefield, Snyder continually lauded his “men” for their expertise and hard work.
“There are a few guys who have been here fifteen plus years,” he informed me reverently.
“[Roger Bagley] can run that backhoe like you can move your hand,” he said as we drove by the massive machine. “He could pick up a glass on the ground without breaking it.”
Although machines like Bagley’s account for some of the work, many areas can only be cleared by shoveling. If all ten crews are working, Snyder figured they can clear the campus in three or four hours.
Not all of the shoveling is straightforward, either. The top of Bihall is cleared without snowblowers because ventilators could draw fumes from the machines into the building. “It’s big and it’s windy,” he said of the roof. “So you’ll throw over a shovel, and you gotta duck because sometimes it comes right back at you.”
Since the campus has roughly 200 buildings, 13 miles of sidewalk, and spans across 300 acres, certain buildings take precedence. Public Safety, both dining halls, residences and areas of heavy student-traffic all are prioritized.
As Snyder drove by the Feb. orientation in Axxin, he gestured towards the building. “Right now the freshman are coming in with their parents for the luncheon,” he said, “so we want to make sure that whole area is clean.”
Many bleary-eyed students began their spring semesters with an early meal in Ross or Proctor. However, in order to keep the dining halls open after the storm, maintenance began their work long before 8 a.m.
“We’ll come in at three in the morning. [...] We do most of the plowing in the morning,” Snyder hollered above the din of the truck’s engine. “Right now we’re just trying to stay on top of it. I’ll have all of the shovelers come in at six.”
Although the job is taxing, Snyder laughed when asked if clearing the sidewalks so students can walk to spin class has made him bitter over the years.
“I’m not bitter,” he chuckled. “I’m just amazed at what we do. I want other people to realize that we work hard here.”
(02/12/14 9:38pm)
As the lights went dark in the Middlebury College Dance Theatre on Jan. 30, the audience waited with anticipation to see Flicker light up the space with new works by student dancers, choreographers, poets and artists. A culmination of a J-term project directed by Aoife Duna ’16.5 and Octavio Hingle-Webster ’17, Flicker showcased twelve student pieces ranging from film to spoken word to dance.
For Duna, Flicker began as a dance showcase.
“The production started out with the goal of creating a supportive place for new dancers to explore and create their work,” Duna said.
Though the event was initially intended to highlight only one art form, Flicker rapidly expanded to include various artistic disciplines. During J-term students got together each week to share their progress and critique each other.
“The weekly meetings allowed artists to dig deeper into [their] creative visions,” Duna said.
The evening began with “Artski,” a short cinematographic exploration created by Adeline Cleveland ’13.5 and Sarah Briggs ’14. Stop motion photography allowed the audience to see color swirling onto Cleveland’s and Brigg’s chests and faces as the two danced through landscapes. The film also forayed into the artistic possibilities of skiing as Cleveland and Briggs filmed themselves trailing red fabric and balloons behind them down a ski slope.
Following the short film, Lorena Neira ’17 performed her solo piece, “Hay un Niño en la Calle,” meaning “There is a child in the street.” In her tender portrayal of the vulnerability of a lonely child without a home, Neira clung to a symbol of comfort in the form of a shirt she picked up from the floor and bore on her shoulders. Throughout the performance, Neira probed the emotional possibilities of strength and child-like joy in the face of hardship.
In keeping with Flicker’s goal of providing an outlet for a wide range of artistic endeavors, Victoria Sheffield ’15’s spoken word performance followed Neira’s piece. With a confidently amused expression on her face, Sheffield walked onto the stage in silence, rolling up her shirt as she leaned forward and executed an undulating belly roll. Thus began her tale of confidence and pursuing one’s desires despite setbacks, which brought smiles to the audience.
“The Ways We Gaze,” choreographed and performed by Hingle-Webster and dancers Dave Yedid ’16 and Vladmir Kremenovic ’17, was set to a dance party beat that gave the piece the energy of a night out. The intensity of movement and the dark make-up flourishing the expressions of the dancers matched that energy, as the lyrics of “Sweat (On The Walls)” by John Tejada raised the questions, “What do you think about at night?” and “What is it that brings you here?” The most striking image halfway through the piece was a fierce gaze of the dancers into the audience, each reaching straight ahead with one hand and placing the fingers of the other hand artfully around one eye, as if demanding that the audience respond to the questions.
Celeste Allen’s “All These Bitches Crawl” was a dance and spoken word exploration of the artist’s sexuality and her struggle over time to navigate that part of her identity in a society that pressures and influences the choices one makes about sexual self-expression. The interaction with sexuality was brought into physical form with the use of a chair, which Allen sat on, stood on, overturned and eventually carried with her at the conclusion of the piece. The performance alternated between dance portions in which Allen embodied a sexual character to the sound of well-known songs with sexual themes, and spoken portions when Allen would interact with the chair as a representation of her sexual identity outside of herself. This contrast between a physical self with the music and an emotional self in silence raised the question of who we become when we allow the often degrading messages of popular music to cover our own voices.
“Sunday Roast,” a dance piece about a dysfunctional family dinner, was reminiscent of images of Thanksgiving gatherings gone terribly wrong. Choreographed by Molly Rose-Williams ’14 and performed by Cleveland, Duna, Emily Goins ’17, Neira and Molly Stuart ’15.5, the piece began with an uncomfortable scene around a dinner table with one chair missing, forcing each disgruntled member of the family to squat at different moments during the piece. The situation quickly deteriorated into an animalistic scene of chaos in a well-crafted blend of dance and theater in which the smallest member of the unfortunate family is placed on the table and mock-carved like the very meat the family had been eating before. This less-than-subtle allusion highlighted the ridiculous nature of the victimization of one’s own family members when dinner interactions go awry.
At the only moment in the evening when two pieces directly intermingled, the dinner scene’s dramatic climax was interrupted by the sound of a doorbell, which placed the family back in their seats as two guitarists entered the stage and were greeted by the family. The dancers of “Sunday Roast” soon cleared the stage and left Matt Spitzer ’17 and Auberin to their piece, “Parody of Two Guys Playing Guitar.” The pair performed two lighthearted songs, joking between the pieces that they didn’t know why the audience was laughing.
Breaking from the playful tone of Spitzer and Strickland’s performance, Kremenovic’s “Proshlost” presented a more dramatic tone enhanced by the shadowy blue stage lighting. Kremenovic performed a morning routine, going through the motions of a shower and venturing out into the day with arching leaps and dramatic falls before returning to the beginning of the routine and starting over several times, each more desperate than the last. Eventually Kremenovic broke from the routine and stripped to a a pair of nude briefs, giving the illusion of utterly bare motion. Nearly naked before the audience, Kremenovic’s movement felt free and honestly expressive without the routine motion the clothes symbolically tied him to.
“Night Terrors,” choreographed by Duna, kept the intense tone alive as dancers Goins, Neira, Anna Ready-Campbell ‘14, Veronica Rodriguez ’17.5, Sheffield, Megan Vargas ’17 and Rose-Williams performed a dance of dreams and nightmares. Through the intricate and beautifully executed choreography, the dancers’ depiction of fear triggered a kind of frozen observance from the audience that was unnervingly close to the experience of real nightmares.
Alan Sutton ’15 brought the audience back to reality with his spoken word performance of “Kinky Voices,” in which he brought out a desk and painted his nails while recounting a piece that simultaneously played behind him in video form.
Cameron McKinney ’14 began “This-Worldiness,” which he and visiting faculty member Tiffany Rhynard choreographed, with the shocking initial visual of walking onstage slowly dragging a skeleton attached to his ankle. McKinney’s motion throughout the piece was characteristically precise and intentional, but the most stunning moment in the piece was McKinney’s embodiment of primate-like movement.
The evening of varied artistic endeavors closed with “Opus One,” artistically influenced by Laura Strom ’15 and performed by Middlebury’s tap group On Tap. The joyful tap piece contrasted brightly with the modern dance styles of the other dance pieces and ended Flicker on a high note.
Duna and Hingle-Webster plan to put on future Flicker productions each month of the spring semester.
“We hope to continue creating this space for student-created art and community on campus,” Duna said.
All interested individuals can contact Aoife Duna (aduna@middlebury.edu) or Octavio Hingle-Webster (ohinglewebster@middlebury.edu) for information on those productions.
(02/12/14 9:31pm)
The Town Hall Theater presented its eighth J-term musical, the legendary Les Miserables, to four packed crowds Jan. 23-26. This collaboration between the Town Hall Theater and the College Department of Music showcases well-known vocal and theatrical talents as well as student actors and singers from a variety of other academic disciplines. The intensive nature of J-term allows students from any department the opportunity to focus their undivided attention on the production of a fully staged musical in just three weeks. The results have proved wildly popular, with tickets to all four performances of Les Mis selling out on the first day of sales.
Full disclosure: as a musical junkie, Les Mis is one of my top five favorites. After countless hours spent listening to various cast recordings, one attempt to read the English translation of Victor Hugo’s original 1,500 page novel (currently paused at page 372) and a viewing of the 1998 dramatic adaptation with Liam Neeson and Geoffrey Rush, the music and story of Les Mis are extremely familiar to me.
The musical is one of the longest running in history and has been seen live by an estimated 65 million people in 42 countries, not to mention the millions of new viewers first exposed by the highly-publicized 2012 Hollywood production featuring Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway. Following the life story of Jean Valjean, an ex-convict who finds redemption through faith, honesty and hard work, Les Mis discusses heavy themes plaguing revolutionary France, such as prostitution, rampant crime, political unrest and poverty. The over 20 major and minor characters and extended timeline surely present any creative team with a unique challenge when adapting Les Mis.
As I took my place in the audience, I was excited and a bit nervous to see how the College would contribute to the long list of productions.
There is a brief, electric moment in a theater when the lights dim as the murmur of the crowd makes way for the tuning of the orchestra. Violins and violas play their final practice notes before the conductor raises her arms, and the audience takes a collective breath, waiting for the first measure to prompt the opening scene. In Les Mis, this anticipation of the unknown made way for the male members of the ensemble singing the first notes of ‘Look Down’, each sporting a prison uniform as they worked together to pull an off-stage ship. This scene also introduced the tense relationship between the main character, Jean Valjean, and Javert, the strict and intimidating police inspector who spends his life searching for the escaped Valjean in order to exact the justice he thinks is deserved.
The nine principal characters were excellently cast, with Quinn Bernegger ’13.5 tackling his last role at the College with nuance and determination. As the lead, Bernegger was required to be on stage for almost every scene, and his clear, powerful tenor was extremely well-suited for the wide range and emotion of song necessary to play the ex-convict turned honest man. The intensely emotional ‘Bring Him Home’ and ‘Who Am I’ were understandably met by rousing applause. Bernegger conveyed the heartbreak and morality of Jean Valjean through his advanced ability to shape words and music into an expression of complex character.
An imposing Javert appeared in the form of Mike McCann ’15, his height and black inspector costume combining beautifully with his strong vocals to create a believable antagonist to Valjean’s reformation. Especially powerful was ‘Javert’s Soliloquy,’ when McCann conveyed the inner turmoil of a man who realizes that his unfailing reliance on the morals of the law is no match for the genuine compassion and honesty of Valjean.
A few key props cleverly positioned on the grid of metal pipes at the back of the stage addressed the issue of conveying the many scenes and locations of Les Mis, allowing for the illusion of even more action off stage. A stained glass cross and a clock were just a few of the many props placed on the grid to indicate a change of time or place, and old doors were positioned in the second act to build the battle barricade between the on-stage revolutionaries and the off-stage French soldiers. Risers remained in the same U-shaped position throughout, allowing more opportunities for depth and travel without additional scenery. At times, the stage seemed incredibly sparse, sometimes only sporting one or two objects, but the smart blocking and captivating, colorful costumes allowed for the minimalist set design.
Evann Normandin ’14.5 played Fantine, a factory worker shunned by society and forced into prostitution to raise funds for her daughter’s care. Eventually selling her luscious locks for money, Fantine’s tragic downfall is captured in the iconic ‘I Dreamed a Dream,’ a song that reflects on the hopes of youth erased by the harsh realities of single motherhood and working class life in 1860s France. Fantine’s death and request of Valjean to care for her young daughter, Cosette, dictate the direction of the plot for the rest of the musical. A fan of Les Mis since she was 11, Normandin said that playing Fantine was a dream come true.
“She is such a complex and tragic character, and I enjoyed the process of pushing myself and being pushed and directed by Doug to find ways to let go of myself more in each rehearsal,” she said. “It was emotionally draining to play a character who falls so deeply into despair, and to access those emotions every night in rehearsal and then eventually performance definitely took a toll. She’s a character who is very much a victim and reacts to the often abusive treatment she receives, but the challenge for me was finding moments of strength, especially in ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ which is much more interesting for me when it doesn’t stay on one emotional note.”
Indeed, Normandin brought the sorrow and despair of Fantine alive in her short time on stage before her character’s death, her skilled voice cracking appropriately with emotion as her character declined physically and emotionally.
Costume designers Danielle Nieves ’10 and Krista Duke ’15 crafted exquisitely detailed, visually stunning costumes that provided an excellent complement to the powerful music of Les Mis. From the silver buckles on Javert’s police uniform to the garish floral print on Thenardier’s pants to the intricate rouching and layering on the prostitutes’ dresses, details propelled the costumes from good to phenomenal.
Adam Milano ’15 used his experience as a member of the Otter Nonsense Players comedy group to inject laughter into the occasionally somber themes of the musical, prancing onto the stage as the crooked innkeeper in ‘Master of the House,’ and delivering the complicated, quick lyrics of the song with ease.
Dana Tripp ’14 proved the perfect pairing as the innkeeper’s wife, showcasing strong vocals and comedic timing as she proved her wit and intelligence while lamenting her position as the partner of a lousy criminal. Together, Tripp and Milano formed a well-loved pair, garnering a rousing cheer from the audience as they took their final bow.
The 24 members of the ensemble added immensely to the work of the principal characters, contributing to the gorgeous harmonies of ensemble songs such as ‘Lovely Ladies,’ the whimsically choreographed ‘At the End of the Day,’ and the central ‘One Day More.’ The high quality performances were telling of the exceptional talents of each cast member.
Adding even more to the polished product was the subtle presence of the orchestra, comprised of twelve student and community musicians and conducted by Hannah Rose Rommer ’08.5. The sweeping, enchanting melodies of Les Mis are the backbone of the piece, some themes repeating many times throughout the show to tie specific events or characters together. The orchestra was relatively small but powerful, adding a captivating layer of dimension.
As the second act progresses, Fantine’s daughter, Cosette, grows into a beautiful, refined young woman under the protection of Valjean, and her innocence and foray into first love were captured by Julianne Wieboldt ’14, whose high soprano voice easily met the challenges of the score. Cosette falls for a brave young revolutionary, Marius, played by Thomas Scott ’15. Scott’s understated, soothing voice matched well with his character, who must grapple with the death of his fellow revolutionaries after finding his ‘one true love.’
Watching the young lovers from the sideline is Eponine, daughter of the low-class Thenardiers who has known and loved Marius for some time. Alyssa Dillon ’15.5’s smooth, wide-ranging voice portrayed the heartbreak of unrequited love beautifully; love and regret combined in songs ‘On My Own’ and ‘A Little Fall of Rain,’ in which Eponine dies in the arms of her beloved, comforted in her last moments by Marius’ proclamation of platonic affection.
Not to be left out is Mohan Fitzgerald ’14, whose powerful vocals and expressions lent themselves nicely to Enjolras, Marius’ best friend and brave proponent of the revolution.
Eryn Diehl, Lillea Isham and Tyler Giorgio were excellent as young Cosette, young Eponine and Gavroche, the three children’s roles in the musical. All three displayed high levels of professionalism and talent as they sang of hopes for better days and showed maturity beyond their years.
Normandin, who is a double major in Theatre and English, notes that the J-term production experience is distinct from a typical semester-long schedule.
“I’ve been exposed to theatre that makes me think deeply and critically for an entire semester in faculty shows,” she said. “The J-term musical has been an entirely different experience in terms of the somewhat universal appeal of Les Mis and the expedited work schedule. We work so quickly that sometimes you’re still finding important moments in dress rehearsal, and that freshness can be exhilarating.”
Director Doug Anderson, Music Director Carol Christensen and the over 60 involved students presented a fresh, engaging adaptation that proved equally accessible to long-time fans and first-time viewers of the 25-year-old musical. Les Miserables is full of death and despair, but ultimately has grown in popularity because of its messages of hope and strength in the face of adversity. Middlebury’s adaptation was ambitious, powerful and ultimately, a huge success. In my mind, there is no question as to why the J-term musicals have proven so popular after watching Les Mis.
(02/12/14 7:19pm)
The Panthers split their four conference matchups sandwiching February break, dropping a home game against Williams and a road game at Hamilton, over the weekend of Feb. 1. However, the following weekend the Panthers rebounded with two victories at home against Colby and Bowdoin on Feb. 7 and 9. In between, Middlebury took to the road and bested Keene State on Tuesday, Feb. 4.
Middlebury played possibly its most impressive half of basketball all season against eleventh-ranked Williams, scoring 41 points and holding the Ephs to just 25 first-half points. Hunter Merryman ’15 opened the scoring for the Panthers, hitting his first three shots and tallying 11 points in the first 13 minutes of play.
The fast pace early favored the Panthers, who shot 50 percent from the field in the opening half, torching the Ephs’ mixture of 2-3, 1-3-1 and man-to-man defenses.
Dylan Sinnickson ’15 led Middlebury with 12 points on 4-5 shooting from behind the arc in the first half, many of those looks coming off of pick-and-roll sets with Joey Kizel ’14, a play that the rest of the NESCAC has yet to effectively defend.
“The Williams game was a tale of two halves,” Head Coach Jeff Brown said. “Offensively we attacked their 2-3 zone very effectively, but we weren’t as successful against their man-to-man defense in the second [half].”
After the break, Williams began to cut into the Middlebury lead on the strength of its three-point shooting. Senior forward Taylor Epley made a handful of threes from NBA range, a shot that NESCAC Freshman of the Year candidate Duncan Robinson replicated. Trailing by three with five seconds left, the Panthers ran an in-bounds play from the sideline to get Sinnickson a three-point look, but his shot was contested and bounced off the iron, giving Williams the victory.
In Coach Brown’s record-setting 434th game as head coach, Middlebury lost to Hamilton College on a last-second jumper on the road on Sunday, Feb. 2. Assistant Coach Russ Riley, who preceded Brown, led the Panthers from 1978-97 and previously held the record.
The Panthers were hamstrung by poor shooting in the first half, hitting only 10-33 shots from the field, while the Continentals poured it in at a nearly 42 percent clip, taking a five point lead into the half.
Hamilton opened the second half of play on a 12-3 run to go up by 14. The Continentals were carried in the second half by sophomore guard Matt Hart, who scored 21 of his game-high 30 points after the intermission. Toward the end of the contest, Hart hit three-pointers on three consecutive possessions to give Hamilton the lead.
“When a player gets hot like that the only way to stop him is to not even let him touch the ball,” James Jensen ’14 said, “I think it was pretty clear to everyone in the gym who Hamilton wanted to take the last shot of the game.”
Kizel tied the game with two free throws with 29 seconds remaining. On the following possession, Jensen denied Hart the ball, forcing Hamilton senior Greg Newton to take the final shot. Newton made the go-ahead bucket with six seconds left, giving the Continentals a 76-74 lead. Middlebury was unable to get a clean look at the basket on the other end, Newton’s shot thus sealing the contest in favor of Hamilton.
Kizel racked up 19 of his 22 points in the second half on 5-10 shooting (8-9 FT), including nine points in the final three and a half minutes. Merryman, Matt St. Amour ’17 and Jensen joined Kizel in scoring double figures for the Panthers.
The Panthers celebrated the class of 2014 on senior night at home against Colby with a convincing 85-64 victory on Friday, Feb. 7. Heading into the game, both teams had three wins in the conference, so the win brought Middlebury one step closer to hosting a first-round NESCAC tournament game.
After the ceremonies concluded, Kizel poured in 30 points, matching a career high. The senior guard was successful hitting threes in transition, and nearly earned a double-double, racking up nine assists to go along with five rebounds and two steals.
Jack Roberts ’14 led the Panthers with seven boards. Sinnickson aided the Panther attack with 20 points and six rebounds.
Middlebury took a 5-2 lead 2:17 into the first half and never looked back.
“The Colby game was the first time this year where we played two great halves and really put a team away,” Sinnickson said. “That’s the only way games are won.”
Middlebury played its last regular season home game against Bowdoin and squeaked out a 69-66 victory on Sunday, Feb. 9. Both teams impressed offensively in the first half, and the lead never stretched beyond five points either way in the first 20 minutes. The Panthers shot 48.1 percent in the first half, but were outshot by the Polar Bears, who shot 52.2 percent.
Roberts, who stands 6’8”, had a tall order on Sunday afternoon, drawing John Swords, Bowdoin’s seven-foot center. Swords is the most efficient scorer in the NESCAC, shooting at a 70.1 percent clip, and averaging 13.8 points per game to go along with 9.2 rebounds per game.
“Covering someone that size is always difficult,” Roberts said. “We had a plan to limit his touches and we executed it well.”
Swords surpassed his averages with 16 points and 13 rebounds on Sunday, but Roberts did a great job of fronting Swords and limiting his open looks at the hoop. Roberts was one of four Panthers in double figures (10), joining Jensen (10), Sinnickson (18) and Kizel (19).
With his seventh point of the afternoon, with 12:21 remaining in the first half, Kizel moved into fifth place on the Middlebury all-time scoring list, passing Ryan Sharry ’12. Kizel, with 1424 career points, is 75 points away from reaching third place on that list. John Humphrey ’88 is the all-time career scoring leader with 1844 points.
Middlebury’s largest lead came with 18:45 in the second half when a three-pointer from Sinnickson put the Panthers up by eight. The game remained close to the bitter end. Both teams traded free throws down the stretch, until Jensen went 1-2 with :08 left to give Middlebury a 66-63 lead. Bowdoin called a timeout, its last, with :05 left, giving the Polar Bears an inbounds place from the sideline. The ball came in to Matt Mathias who found his teammate Grant White in the left corner. White drained a three-pointer with :02 on the clock to tie the game.
The Bowdoin bench tried to call a timeout, but with its final timeout having been used seconds earlier, the Polar Bears were dealt an administrative technical foul.
“The whistle blew and I wasn’t sure what was going on,” Brown said.
Kizel made three free throws down the stretch, and Jensen blocked the last-second heave from Mathias, sealing the Panthers victory.
Between the two weekends of NESCAC play, the Panthers picked up 92-86 road win at Keene State on Tuesday, Feb. 4, in which Sinnickson recorded a double-double with 26 points and 12 rebounds. Kizel had 23 points of his own, Merryman had 14 points to go along with six boards, and Jensen tallied 10 points.
Unfortunately, the win came at a significant cost. St. Amour tore his right ACL in the first half, ending his season. St. Amour played in 20 games, starting nine, and averaging 9.2 points per game.
Middlebury will finish conference play this coming weekend with road games at Trinity and Amherst. The Panthers currently sit in third in the NESCAC, and a win in either game will secure a home game in the first round of the NESCAC tournament.
(02/12/14 7:13pm)
The Middlebury women’s hockey team kept its unbeaten streak alive through the end of February break; the women have yet to suffer a defeat through 14 games
The Panthers defeated Bowdoin on Friday, Jan. 24 before tying the Polar Bears on the following afternoon. Middlebury then took two on the road at Hamilton on Friday, Jan. 31 and Saturday, Feb. 1. Middlebury played a mid-week game at home against Utica and won in a nail-biter, 5-4. Last weekend, on Friday, Feb. 7 and Saturday, Feb. 8, Middlebury outscored Conn. College 6-2 in two wins.
Katie Sullivan ’15 opened the scoring for the Panthers 5:01 into the second period in their first meeting with Bowdoin, which Middlebury won 4-0. One minute and forty-two seconds later, the Panthers’ lead had stretched to 3-0. Sara Ugalde ’14 netted a power play goal with help from Emily Fluke ’15, followed by a second goal from Sullivan. With 13:14 remaining in the third, a shot from Julia Wardwell ’16 was tipped home by Katie Mandigo ’16 for the game’s final goal.
Middlebury’s offense was less explosive on Saturday, Jan. 25 when the Panthers and Polar Bears fought to a draw. Bowdoin took the 1-0 lead halfway through the game on a rebound off of Annabelle Jones ’15, who had 28 saves and has yet to suffer a defeat this season. Jennifer Krakower ’14 scored the equalizer less than a minute into the third period while on a power play.
On Friday, Jan. 31, Middlebury dominated Hamilton in their first meeting. The Panthers recorded their fifth shutout of the season and outshot the Continentals 34-11. Middlebury was the beneficiary of ten power plays, scoring all three goals while on the man advantage. Mandigo, Fluke and Sullivan each tallied a score.
The next day’s matchup between the two squads was more hotly contested, though Middlebury again prevailed, this time 3-2 in overtime. The Panthers took advantage of their power play opportunities, as they had the day before. With 14:20 left on the clock in the second period, Fluke gathered a carom off the boards and knocked it in for the 1-0 lead. Minutes later, a slap shot from Laura McConney ’15 found the back of the net. Hamilton scored on a breakaway late in the second period, and tied the game with just over five minutes left to play in regulation. Seventeen seconds into overtime, Fluke tossed a backhander on net that the Continentals’ goalie seemed to cover up, but the puck squirted through for the game-winner.
More Fluke heroics were on display on Tuesday, Feb. 4 in the Panthers’ defeat of a visiting Utica squad. Utica took an early two-goal lead, but Krakower cut that lead in half late in the first period. After a power play goal from Utica, Krakower again responded with her own score on the power play, off of assists from Carly Watson ’17 and Ugalde, making it a 3-2 game. Pam Schulman ’17 tied the game when she netted her own rebound in the last minute of the third period. Two goals from Fluke after the second intermission made it a 5-3 Middlebury advantage. Utica found the back of the net once more, but in the end the Panthers were victorious by a score of 5-4.
Middlebury’s first meeting with Conn. College on Friday, Feb. 7 saw multiple shots in the period’s final seconds. Conn. opened the scoring with 4.7 seconds left in the first period. Anna Van Kula ’16 tipped home a shot from Victoria Laven ’17 to tie the game in the second period. Fluke sent Middlebury into the second intermission with a 2-1 lead by finishing a rebound on a shot from Watson. After the Camels tied the game in the third, with time winding down, Ugalde scored the game-winner with :57 remaining in the contest.
Middlebury shut out the Camels the following day, 3-0. Mackenzie Martin ’15 scored the first Panther goal. Teammates Sullivan and Fluke added to the scoring, securing the fourth shutout of the season for Jones.
Back on the ice for a matchup with rival Plattsburgh on Tuesday, Feb. 11, the Panthers hit a roadblock that they could not overcome, falling 5-2 to the host Cardinals. While Middlebury jumped ahead early with a first-period goal from Jane Freda ’17, Plattsburgh came roaring back with a trio of second-period goals to seize the lead. Jennifer Krakower added a late power-play goal for the Panthers – who were outshot 28-7 in the second and third periods – in the losing effort.
(02/12/14 7:06pm)
As the majority of the student-body enjoyed some well-deserved time off last week during February break, the Middlebury squash teams were hard at work. Playing not only an extremely competitive schedule but also being arguably the College’s most well-traveled team, the squash teams spent their February breaks competing in both the NESCAC and Div. III Singles tournaments, with both the men and women turning in solid performances across the board.
In a prelude to their championship tournaments, the squash teams participated in a round robin at Yale before the NESCAC and individual tournaments. The women defeated their only Div. III opponent, Franklin & Marshall, while dropping matches to fifth-ranked Yale, 11th-ranked George Washington, and a close defeat to 10th-ranked Brown.
At the Yale meet, the men fared better, albeit against lesser ranked competition. Winning two of three matches, the men defeated number-20 Brown and George Washington, while losing a well contested match to 14th-ranked Navy.
Crucial to both teams’ rankings, the weekend of Jan. 31 saw the men and women take on their NESCAC competition for the team conference championships.
The men, seeded fifth in the conference, drew fourth-seeded Wesleyan in their opening game of the competition. Strong performances by Parker Hurst ’14 and Andrew Cadienhead ’17 buoyed the Panthers, allowing them to best Wesleyan by a score of 5-4.
The upset was not easily attained, as many of the matches went long. With multiple matches going to the fifth and decisive games, the Cardinals of Wesleyan did not make life easy for Middlebury.
The next game, against national powerhouse and top-seeded Trinity, would prove to be unfavorable to the Panthers, as the Bantams beat them soundly 9-0. Other than a strong performance from Andrew Jung ’16 the Panthers were outplayed down the line from an exceptionally strong Trinity team that would similarly shut out Williams in the final to take the NESCAC team championship.
In consolation play for third place, the Panthers took on Bates. The Bobcats had an answer for Middlebury’s usually formidable top half of the lineup, beating the Panthers’ first through fourth singles players. Despite sound wins from Wyatt French ’17, Reed Palmer ’15 and Will Hanley ’15, Middlebury would ultimately come up short and fall to Bates 6-3.
For the weekend, Middlebury finished fourth in the NESCAC, outperforming their seed, but still not the performance a talented roster such as Middlebury’s is capable of producing.
The women’s team, also seeded fifth in the tournament, opened against fourth-seeded Hamilton. The Panthers put on quite the display in their opening match, defeating the Continentals by a score of 7-2. The lineup has clearly benefited from the return of the Dewey cousins, Charlotte ’15 and Katie ’15.
The next round found them taking on Trinity, who were seeded first in the women’s bracket as well. The women fared no better than the men; Trinity, clearly the class of the NESCAC in squash, shut out Middlebury 9-0.
However, Middlebury would rebound strongly from this defeat and in the consolation game, beating Williams 5-4 to take third place in the NESCAC. With shutout victories from Charlotte Dewey and Zoe Carey ’16, as well as a well fought come from behind victory at first singles from Abby Jenkins ’14, the Panthers were able to take down the Ephs in a close matchup.
The strong play from the women continued in the inaugural Div. III Singles Invitational at Bowdoin College this past weekend. Sending Jenkins, Dewey, Carey and Saskia Pownall-Gray ’16 to the top-tiered “A” flight, the women’s delegation from Middlebury had a very strong showing.
Ranked 29th in the field of 32, Pownall-Gray scored the tournament’s biggest upset, defeating Williams’ number-one player in the second round of play, before falling in the next round. Carey and Charlotte Dewey also breezed past their competition before falling in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively. The biggest splash, however, was made by Jenkins, who dominated all she played, losing only one game in match play on her way to taking the singles championship.
The men did not see that level of success from their representatives at the tournament, but Jung and Harrison Croll ’16 turned in strong performances. In the “A” flight, Jung won his first match in three straight games, before falling in the round of 16. Croll, who entered the “B” flight, played sharply, winning his first two matches handily before falling to the eventual flight champion in the semifinals.
Both the men’s and women’s teams return to action for the Team Nationals tournament. The men travel to Harvard this weekend, Feb. 13-16, for the tournament. The following weekend, Feb. 20-23, the women will compete at Princeton.
For both squads, Team Nationals will provide one final opportunity to match up with top players from around the country with the intention of improving their national ranking.
(02/12/14 7:04pm)
It is gut check time for the Middlebury men’s hockey team (8-10-2) who will face four must-win games in the coming two weekends to salvage a season that never quite lifted off the ground. In the past three weekends, Middlebury lost to Bowdoin, then beat Colby and Tufts before losing three straight to Connecticut College, Trinity and Wesleyan. Despite the chilling results, the faithful can point to Middlebury’s continued success in the shots category and recent stellar play from important leaders John Barr ’14 and Ben Wiggins ’14. Wiggins earned NESCAC Player of the Week honors for his three goal, two assist weekend against Bowdoin and Colby.
The NCAA championship banners hanging proudly in the Kenyon arena rafters put significant pressure on every edition of the Middlebury hockey team. This year, after losing seven of the past ten games, the team adopts an unfamiliar underdog mentality that may just become the missing puzzle piece to the team’s inconsistent play.
Thomas Freyre ’14 called the last two weeks “embarassing” and candidly expressed the need for a “dramatic change across the board from seniors to freshmen” in order to compete in the postseason.
“We need to play like underdogs,” Freyre said. “No team we play now is going to respect us, so we need to earn it.”
The Panthers were seconds away from a signature win on the road against Bowdoin Jan. 25, but the Polar Bears prevailed in overtime. Goals from Wiggins, Ronald Fishman ’16 and George Ordway ’15 erased a Bowdoin lead. With two minutes left, Louis Belisle ’14 gave Middlebury its first lead with a top shelf wrister on a five-on-three power play. Two inexcusable penalties from the Panthers let Bowdoin pull the goalie and bully in a rebound goal on their six-on-three player advantage. The home team slid in an overtime goal to send Middlebury packing.
At several points this season, team defense has tightened and the power play has excelled to lift the Panthers easily above quality opponents. Yet uncertainty at the goaltender position and lapses in the unique system still stifle the squad like a wet blanket.
Middlebury took out its anger on Colby on Saturday, Jan. 25 and Tufts on Friday, Jan. 31. Freyre assisted a tip-in goal from Matt Silcoff ’16, then stationed in front for a tip-in goal of his own to move a critical distance in front of the Mules. Derek Pimentel ’15, who assisted the Freyre goal, scored one of his own, and two Wiggins goals completed the scoring.
The offense kept churning against Tufts. Skating on the open ice of a four-on-four situation in the second period, Barr rattled home a shot off the post and a minute later Belisle finished one of his own. Pimentel scored two goals in the third period, his ninth and tenth on the season.
In most respects, Middlebury deserved another victory against Conn. College The Panthers outshot the Camels 34 to 15. Mike Petchonka of Conn. College put on a show to limit Middlebury to just one goal, and Liam Moorfield-Yee ’16 surrendered two on 15 shots to concede the game.
Against Trinity and Wesleyan, Middlebury dropped into two-goal deficits in the first period that proved insurmountable.
“Bad starts have been killing us all season,” Freyre said, “We respond to the other team when we really should be dictating the game ourselves.”
Middlebury traveled to Hartford, CT to meet the eleventh-ranked Trinity Bantams on Feb. 8. The Panthers trailed 2-0 in the second period when Evan Neugold ’16 brought Middlebury within one. Twenty-seven seconds later, Trinity again stretched their lead to two goals, and by the end of the second period the Bantams led 4-1.
Barr netted one for Middlebury early in the fourth, and with 13:28 remaining in the game Fishman made it a one-goal contest. The Bantams then sealed the deal with a fifth goal a minute later en route to the 5-3 victory.
Middlebury surrendered two goals twenty-one seconds apart in the first period at Wesleyan on Feb. 9. Thirty shots from the Panthers yielded only one late goal from Jake Charles ’16 on an assist from Freyre.
Despite the recent skid, it is unfair to judge this team on wins and losses alone. If the team can use its adversity to motivate a positive run, Middlebury may just get hot at the right time and sneak another banner for the Kenyon rafter collection. Two back-to-back games against third-ranked Williams (9-3-2 NESCAC) make the road a difficult one for Middlebury, but Middlebury is confident it can defeat the Ephs and gain all the more momentum because of it.
(02/12/14 6:57pm)
The Middlebury women’s basketball team went 1-2 in a trio of games over February break, picking up a narrow road win over Keene State on Tuesday, Feb. 4, before dropping a pair of NESCAC home games to Colby and Bowdoin on Friday, Feb. 7 and Saturday, Feb. 9.
Taking a five-game losing streak on the road to Keene State for a midweek matchup, the Panthers were able to overcome a slow start to edge the Owls by a score of 59-55. While struggling from the floor in the first half, Middlebury capitalized on their 24 free-throw opportunities – of which they converted 17 – en route to the win.
Scarlett Kirk ’14 led the Panthers with 20 points and 18 rebounds for a double-double against Keene State. Middlebury needed all of the help that they could get from Kirk on a day which saw them outrebounded 53-36. Elizabeth Knox ’17 added 11 points in the game.
The Panthers then played host to Colby in a matchup of two squads angling for the eighth and final spot in the upcoming NESCAC tournament. From the opening tip, the Mules were set on establishing their three-point game against the Panthers, hitting six of 13 from long range in the first half to jump out to a 37-31 halftime lead. Though dominant in the paint, Middlebury missed all six of their three-point attempts in the half as they struggled to keep pace.
In the second half, the Mules continued to rain the three-ball, with over half of their attempts in the period coming from beyond the arc. While Kirk’s toughness on the block continued to give the Panthers an edge under the basket, the Mules’ efficiency from three was too much to overcome. Colby stretched their lead throughout the half and went on to win 79-61.
Kirk recorded another double-double in the game, pulling down 17 rebounds to go with 17 points. Guard Sarah Marcus ’14 and forward Rachel Crews ’15 had 13 and 11 points respectively for Middlebury.
In addition to an enormous three-point differential, the Panthers shot just 44 percent from the free-throw line in the game, including 11 misses in the second half alone that would have helped keep the game close.
Returning to action against 22nd-ranked Bowdoin, three-point defense was again a critical weakness for Middlebury. The Polar Bears were able to convert seven of 11 from beyond the arc in the first half alone. Defensive issues were compounded by poor shooting and rebounding from the Panthers, who fell behind early and went into the half trailing by 25.
“I think we did fairly well on the boards,” Knox said. “They were very tall, strong, and physical and we had to work hard to come up with our rebounds.”
The second half was more of the same for Middlebury. The Panthers shot just 30 percent from the floor in the half, while Bowdoin played 15 of the 16 women on the roster and were still able to stretch their lead. The Polar Bears would go on to win by a final tally of 92-55.
Kirk and Knox were the only Panthers to score in double figures against Bowdoin, contributing 10 points each. Middlebury managed just 31 rebounds as a team on the day to Bowdoin’s 41.
“We all knew Bowdoin would be a tough game and knowing we only had a few conference games left definitely added urgency,” Knox said. “We all really wanted the victory, especially for our seniors who have worked so hard and put so much time and energy into our team.”
With the loss to Bowdoin, Middlebury has been eliminated from contention for the NESCAC tournament. Sitting at 1-7 in conference play and in a tie with Colby for ninth place, the Panthers would lose head-to-head tiebreakers to both Wesleyan and Hamilton for the critical eighth spot even if they were to win their final pair of conference games.
Back in action on Tuesday night, Feb. 11, for a home matchup with Suffolk, the Middlebury women again struggled, falling 56-53 in the seniors’ final home game.
In first-half action, Middlebury struggled mightily from the floor, shooting just 18.9 percent in the period, including misses on all eight of their three-point attempts. Kirk’s tenacity on the boards again was a bright spot for the Panthers, helping them to keep the game close even when the shots weren’t falling. Middlebury went into the half trailing 22-16.
Coming out of the break, hot shooting from Marcus helped Middlebury crawl back into the game. Marcus hit a jumper with 2:06 remaining in the game to cut the lead to one at 50-49, but that would be as close as the Panthers would come. Timely free-throw shooting down the stretch helped Suffolk lock down the eventual victory.
Marcus led Middlebury with 18 points on 8-18 shooting, including going 7-11 from the floor in the second half.
Kirk finished with 12 points and 17 rebounds against Suffolk for another double-double, single-handedly helping Middlebury to keep the rebounding margin close. Forward Alexis Coolidge ’15 added eight points off the bench for Middlebury.
The Panthers wrap up their season with a tough pair of NESCAC road games, travelling to face Trinity and twelfth-ranked Amherst on Friday and Sunday, Feb. 14 and 16.
(02/12/14 4:52pm)
An article in the November 13, 2013 edition of the Campus, “Racial Casting Call Criticized” quoted Debanjan Roychoudhury ’16 as saying that “being a student of color at Middlebury is kind of like taking a fifth class.” I hope that after this piece comes out, someone quotes me saying that being a student of color at Middlebury means nothing more than that you are a student of color at Middlebury. Everything else you feel about that is your own doing. Everyone warns you about the culture shock. Nobody ever said that you have to let it affect you negatively.
Maybe this comes with my personal identity, but I don’t really relate to every issue with which students of color sometimes find issue. I have trained myself not to let trivial things separate me from that which what I truly believe. If I believe that I can make it in this world regardless of my social class, of my ethnic background, or of my gender then I should do my best to try. I do not make extra obstacles for myself and I feel like that separates me from a handful of the other students on this campus. I do not care if wealthy students throw wealth-themed parties for other wealthy students. I do not care if I get a cast calling for a theater role for which I fit the description. I do not care if a demographer tells me that people that share my race and class don’t often amount to anything. I do not care because I am here.
I am here because I want to succeed. To succeed you should learn from those who have succeeded before. So listen to them. Everyone is ignorant to some extent. Teach them about your world and, in exchange, have them teach you about theirs. I’m taking advantage of my resources. I’m networking. I’m learning about the world I never had access to, and I’m learning how to make it work for me. People might cringe to read this, but when Murray Dry spoke at the panel last year about affirmative action and said, “don’t worry about it, be happy that you’re here,” I couldn’t help but feel the same way.
Now, saying that I don’t care about what the demographer said or even simply agreeing with one of Murray Dry’s statements doesn’t mean I don’t care about what I’ve left behind or who I am. I don’t need either one to tell me what I already know. I live it every time I go home to gang violence, the drug wars that come with it and the impoverished community in which I have lived my entire life. When I get back to Middlebury, it is those memories that help me push through the next ten page paper, through the next French text analysis, through the next three all-nighters and meal-less days I power through in the library. I’m trying to be successful for everyone I’ve left behind — so I can give back and teach them the secrets to success we have been denied our whole lives.
I am not saying I have never had a bad experience at Middlebury. The rigor of everything constantly depresses me because it’s a reminder of the abysmal education I received my whole life. Spanglish is not an acceptable means of communication, I have to put up with Americanized Mexican food, and I can’t expect people to waltz instead of grind on the dance floor. I feel homesick every few weeks. I want to see more brown and black faces. It’s rough. I’m sure these setbacks are not unique to me. But these are all things that I can get over and cope with. I’m not willing to make more problems for myself. I don’t see the logic in it.
I want to be an educator. I want to be a mentor. I want to be that stepping stone that is too often overlooked because it hides beneath the water’s surface. I can’t do that if I constantly over-analyze and judge the white, upper-middle-class society I chose to immerse myself in for every mistake they may or may not have made in an attempt to cater to what they assume are our needs. I have my share of worries, but I never go out of my way to find myself more. I’m too focused on the task at hand.
JEANETTE CORTEZ '15 is from Los Angeles, CA
(01/26/14 9:42pm)
[audio mp3="http://middleburycampus.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/jan26campusvoiceTHESES.mp3"][/audio]
On Sunday, Jan. 26 hosts IAN STEWART and GRETA NEUBAUER spoke with two super-senior Febs about their last homework assignments ever. Hanna Mahon '13.5 talks about the class she's teaching (yes, teaching), and Peter Murray '13.5 discusses his thesis on Catholic relationships to same-sex marriage.
(01/23/14 6:16am)
In a matchup between the NESCAC’s top seeds, the Middlebury women’s hockey team traveled to Amherst, Mass. where the second-ranked Panthers gained a crucial advantage in conference play over the ninth-ranked Lord Jeffs, stealing a 2-1 win in the first game of the doubleheader before drawing 5-5 in the second leg.
In the series opener on Friday, Jan. 17, the Panthers got out to an early first-period lead as Jennifer Krakower ’14 beat Amherst goaltender Kerri Stuart for her second goal of the game on a one-timer off a feed from Carly Watson ’17 on the point. Sara Ugalde ’14 assisted on the play at the 18:37 mark as the Panthers scored their 17th power-play goal of the season — one of four advantage goals on the weekend for head coach Bill Mandigo’s team.
“Our power play overall has been working a lot better,” Krakower said. “We’re passing the puck much quicker and coach Mandigo had told us to work on moving the puck more and that helped.”
Amherst answered shortly after, as Tori Salmon beat goalie Annabelle Jones ’15 for her seventh goal of the season, drawing the Lord Jeffs level 19 seconds into the second period of play.
Middlebury took the lead for good 13 minutes later as the Panthers converted their second power-play opportunity in three tries after Amherst’s Eileen Harris was penalized for hooking. The Panthers wasted little time, scoring 14 seconds after the restart, as Madeline Joyce ’14 netted the second goal of her season, while Pam Schulman ’17 and Katie Mandigo ’16 registered assists.
The Panthers killed off three penalties over the game’s final 26:13 and endured 1:07 of empty net from the Lord Jeffs as Jones made a number of point-blank saves — and 33 overall — in Middlebury’s 2-1 victory.
With poll position in the conference, the Panthers returned the next day needing just a draw to maintain their edge over Amherst. Middlebury accomplished that in a wild, 10-goal game, in which the Panthers and Lord Jeffs combined for six third-period goals before a scoreless overtime period ended the game knotted at five apiece.
After registering Amherst’s lone goal in the loss the night before, Salmons, the NESCAC’s second-leading goal scorer, decimated the Panthers, compiling a hat trick and assisting on a fourth goal to power her team’s offense. On the other end, five different players scored goals for Middlebury — and five more registered points — as the Panthers and Lord Jeffs traded goals, with neither team leading by more than a goal at any point.
Ugalde started the scoring for Middlebury, breaking the ice just 46 seconds into the game off an assist from Katie Sullivan ’15, who leads the conference with 16 points through 12 games. The Panthers have received balanced scoring — five of the top 19 point scorers in the conference don the navy and white of Middlebury — all season long and Saturday was no exception.
“We’ve always been a team, not of all-stars, but of collective players who work really well together, which gives us an advantage over other teams,” said Emily Fluke ’15, one of Middlebury’s five goal scorers. “I think that contributes to why we have so many people who can step up at different moments because we’re not reliant on one person at any moment and that’s why we can have so many different people score goals.”
After Salmon scored and assisted a pair of goals to give Amherst a 2-1 lead midway through the second period, Krakower tied the game at two with her third goal of the game off an assist from Watson, a first-year defender who leads the NESCAC with 10 assists this season.
Tied at two after the first 40 minutes of play, Amherst and Middlebury poured in six goals over the next 20 minutes with Salmon starting the third-period barrage 17 seconds after the opening face-off. 3:26 later, Amherst’s leading scorer was whistled for tripping and the Panthers took advantage as Fluke scored 16 seconds into the power play.
Less than a minute after killing off a Middlebury power play, Amherst surrendered another goal, this time at the hands of Mackenzie Martin ’15, who was assisted by Anna Van Kula ’16 and Jane Freda ’17.
Amherst equalized just over two minutes later, but surrendered the lead even faster as Schulman re-took the lead for her team 22 seconds later off a feed from Julia Wardwell ’16 with 8:15 left to play.
Middlebury managed to maintain the advantage for nearly five minutes of play before Salmon struck again, besting Jones for the third time in the game to tie things at five apiece with 3:22 left.
Despite a couple of frenetic moments over the final 3:22 of regulation and overtime, neither team managed to find a game-winning goal and the Panthers came away with a 5-5 tie and a pair of strong results on the road.
“It’s nice to come away from the weekend with three points,” Joyce said. “We have a lot to work on from the weekend and it’s more of a learning process as a team for the next chapter of our season. We’re going to face them again, I’m sure so we have to come prepared.”
Middlebury, whose lone loss on the season came nearly two months ago to undefeated Plattsburgh, improved to 10-1-2 on the season and 6-0-2 in conference. The Panthers host Bowdoin (8-5-1, 3-2-1 in NESCAC) for a two-day doubleheader, Friday, Jan. 24 and Saturday, Jan. 25.
(01/23/14 6:06am)
When I arrived at Middlebury four years ago, I knew that I wanted to write for the newspaper. A lifelong sports fan — and former varsity athlete adjusting to life as a NARP (I briefly entertained notions of trying to walk on to the football team before enjoying a brief, but formative career playing ultimate frisbee) — I figured this was the perfect opportunity for me to write about topics and teams that interested me. But not Middlebury athletics — I wasn’t the least bit interested in Division III sports or their place at this school. In other words, I got to Middlebury with the intention of being The Campus’ Bill Simmons.
Today, almost four years later, I can think of nothing better to write about than the experiences that I have had and the athletes I have covered at Middlebury who have transformed the way that I write, think and talk about sports.
I got to the College in February 2010, my arrival at this school aligning almost perfectly with the rise of the men’s basketball program and the extended golden age of the women’s hockey team — an unlikely marriage between two programs that share more in common than might meet the eye.
As a former athlete most often relegated to the end of the bench, I have an affinity for teams that overachieve and athletes who compete like they’ve just spent a while sitting next to me. And no two teams that I’ve watched and covered in the pages of this newspaper embody that spirit like the Middlebury men’s basketball and women’s hockey teams.
So when I look back at my time at Middlebury I will return to the days I spent in Pepin and Kenyon, sometimes watching, but more often broadcasting their respective games, enthralled by the fierce, bordering on reckless competitiveness of a Joey Kizel ’14 or Emily Fluke ’15; the shot-blocking dominance of Lexi Bloom ’11 and Andrew Locke ’11; the tremendous two-way play of Madison Styrbicki ’13, rivaled only by the flawless defense and smooth shooting of Nolan Thompson ’13; and the offensive genius of Lauren Greer ’13 and Ryan Sharry ’12, two players who played the way every athlete strives to — by accomplishing the immensely difficult with apparent ease.
Nor did it hurt that both teams played games with moments that will forever be seared in my mind. For the men’s basketball team, those memories are multiple and typically end in cruel fashion, thereby becoming all the more indelible: Kizel’s hanging, floater with seconds remaining to tie Scranton in the Sweet 16, only to be outdone by Travis Farrell’s three at the buzzer to end Middlebury’s NCAA Tournament hopes in 2012; the intentional miss and put-back from Amherst’s Willy Workman in Middlebury’s triple-overtime loss to the hated Lord Jeffs; and Nolan Thompson’s final shot to beat St. Thomas in the Final Four in Salem, Va. that would have sent Middlebury to the national championship game in 2012, only to clank off the front rim.
For the women’s hockey team, it is a singular memory — and one void of tragic appeal. When my dad came to visit me in March, 2012, I took him to the team’s NESCAC title game. And though neither of us are hockey fans —he probably can’t distinguish icing from offsides — the level of competition and sense of unity that emanated from the ice made a Middlebury women’s hockey fan out of him and inscribed a newfound respect in me for those athletes, many of whom were playing in the biggest game of their lives in front of a sparse crowd. That Greer won the game in overtime with the game’s only goal, followed by as genuine a celebration as I have ever witnessed, completed the pensive-worthy memory.
Following graduation — a mere eight days away — I hope to eventually cover teams across the country and on the national stage. But years from now, I will look back on my four years at Middlebury and the time I worked at The Campus and recall the players and games that made the men’s basketball and women’s hockey teams resonant.
So before I go, I will pay homage at least once more to these two teams that have always made a former athlete, who spent more time on the bench than he would have liked, somehow feel connected to their performance.
DAMON HATHEWAY is a Sports Editor from London
(01/23/14 6:02am)
The women’s basketball team dropped a pair of road NESCAC games this weekend, Friday Jan. 17 and Saturday, Jan. 19, hanging close until halftime in both games but ultimately falling to Wesleyan and Connecticut College.
Playing against the Cardinals in Silloway gym on Friday night, the Panthers got out to a fast start offensively, shooting 50 percent from the floor in the first half. Middlebury rode their hot shooting to a four-point halftime lead.
The second half, however, was all Wesleyan. Middlebury struggled to keep pace offensively, stunted by a 23-14 turnover margin for the game. The Cardinals turned these turnovers into crucial points down the stretch in opening up a late lead and cruising to a 59-51 victory over the Panthers.
Sarah Marcus ’14 led Middlebury with 14 points, while Scarlett Kirk ’14 added 10 points and a game-high 10 assists. Elizabeth Knox ’17 was the Panthers’ other double-digit scorer in the game with 10 points of her own.
“We are at our best when we are sharing the ball, and getting our points from several different players,” Laura Lowry ’14 said.
Taking on Conn. College on Sunday, the Panthers played a strong first half defensively against another tough opponent. Middlebury was able to cut out many of the turnovers that plagued them against Wesleyan, but both teams struggled with shooting in the first half. Hitting just enough shots in the first half to keep the game close, the Panthers entered the half trailing by just one.
“What worked for us offensively was making a commitment to getting the ball in the paint, and sharing the ball,” said Lowry. “We have so many different players who can score in very different ways, which is our biggest strength.”
The teams returned from halftime with renewed energy on the offensive end. In a flurry of scoring, both teams shot over 50 percent from the floor in the half. The Panthers struggled to keep pace with the red-hot Camels, however, and ended the game with a 70-63 loss.
Lowry scored 16 points on 6-13 shooting to pace the Panthers. Forward Rachel Crews ’15 went for 14 and Kirk added 13 to go with her seven rebounds.
With the pair of losses, the Panthers fall to 6-9 on the season and 1-3 in NESCAC play, while both Wesleyan and Conn. College improve to 2-1 in the conference.
“Our zone defensive was effective in both games this weekend and we are going to spend more time working on that in order to eliminate the problems and gaps that this weekend exposed,” Lowry said. “We’re also going to work on our offensive execution. We had some costly turnovers at the end of the Conn. game and throughout the Wesleyan game.”
After a mid-week game at Norwich on Thursday, Jan. 23, the Panthers will have the weekend to sharpen their skills before returning to face Williams and Hamilton in a split home-away weekend on Friday Jan. 31 and Sunday, Feb. 2, in games that will help sort out the middle of the NESCAC standings going forward.
“I am extremely optimistic and excited heading into our next NESCAC games,” said Lowry. “My teammates were extremely tough and relentless on the road in NESCAC play, which makes me confident that after we make the necessary adjustments we will get those wins.”
(01/23/14 3:43am)
This weekend at the Hepburn Zoo, a group of five students will present “Gruesome Playground Injuries,” a two-character play written by Rajiv Joseph. The story follows the relationship of Kayleen and Doug, played by Alia Khalil ’14.5 and Ben Kramer ’13.5, from the ages of eight to thirty-eight as they experience various injuries throughout their lives.
The play is performed in a series of chronological vignettes, each presenting a new injury one of the characters has sustained and providing snapshots of the relationship.
“The physical injuries are metaphors for emotional injuries,” Khalil said. “I hope that the show will provoke thoughts on timing and why people come into our lives at a certain time.”
Growing up and the resulting maturation of relationships also permeates the work. The audience observes as the characters share brief encounters and bond over their painful injuries at irregular intervals of up to ten years without seeing each other. Their comparison of physical scars becomes an exploration of emotional self-portraits of their lives.
“Gruesome Playground Injuries,” penned by contemporary American playwright Rajiv Joseph in 2009, presents an unusual type of theater, composed of only two characters who remain on stage the entire duration of the 70 minute play. The staging allows the audience to witness the actors shifting their age, costume and props during scene transitions. Participants face a unique challenge to portray believable shifts in their characters with little transition time and without the opportunity to momentarily leave the stage to occupy a slightly different character. The actors must explore the idea of how people change over time as they live through new experiences, while also retaining a core sense of self—a concept not unfamiliar to Middlebury students.
“Gruesome Playground Injuries” is possible due to the dedication of the five involved students, including actors Kramer and Khalil, director and set designer Teddy Anderson ’13.5 and lighting designers Nick Hemerling ’14.5 and Mari Vial-Golden ’14. After Khalil chose the show this past October, the group began rehearsing throughout the fall before J-term, which allowed them to devote more time to preparing the show for production.
“I chose the show because of the intriguing roles of Kayleen and Doug, and the challenge of playing roles whose greatness stems from their difficulty for the actor,” Khalil said. “I constantly question the role and how to portray it successfully onstage.”
The students presenting “Gruesome Playground Injuries” have worked hard on their own time outside of their sizeable Middlebury workloads, and are proud to present their efforts to the college audience. Khalil is excited to connect with an audience of peers and share with her friends what the group has been working on.
“It’s not performing a play to an audience of strangers in the Hepburn Zoo,” Khalil said.
The students will present “Gruesome Playground Injuries” this Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8pm each night. Tickets are $4. Come support your fellow students and enjoy the result of their hard work and dedication!
(01/23/14 3:01am)
Regardless of their opposition, residents of Ferdinand, VT, may witness construction on a 20-turbine wind farm atop the local Seneca Mountain. In a non-binding vote on Jan. 13, 171 property owners voted against the project, owned by Seneca Mountain Wind, compared to 107 property owners in support.
Project manager John Soininen was disappointed in the outcome of the vote, but remained unphased.
“For now we recognize that there are local concerns,” he stated, “and in the end we hope that there is a viable project that can achieve local support and bring myriad benefits of wind energy to Ferdinand.”
According to the company website, the project will provide 60 MW of, “clean domestic energy to tens of thousands of homes.” Eoilian Renewable Energy, the parent energy company of Seneca Mountain Wind, is currently advancing four other projects in New Hampshire, Maine and Pennsylvania.
Residents opposing the project argue that it will ruin the sublime beauty of the landscape.
“If you’re trying to endear yourself with people, if the project is at all going to move forward, this is certainly not the way to do it,” said Pam Aborio, a local resident. Aborio is a member of “Save our Senecas”, a group that intends to “preserve in perpetuity the Seneca Mountains and surrounding area ecosystems in their wild and scenic state,” according to their website.
Seneca Mountain Wind has asserted that investment in renewable energy could enhance Vermont’s national reputation, thereby boosting tourism. In 2012, roughly three thousand residents of Massachussetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New York sent letters of support to Governor Schumlin in a response to his energy reforms. The letters were based on a template designed by the Vermont Sierra Club, and stated that “I am a supporter of clean energy, and a potential Vermont tourist. Vermont has an incredible opportunity to be a leader in renewable energy. It would be fitting for the Green Mountain State to also be known as the Green Energy State.”
Seneca Wind Project Manager John Soininen expressed further concerns that local opponents fail to comprehend the enormity of a statewide energy overhaul.
“There’s the mandate to get to 90 percent renewables by 2050,” he stated in an interview with the Burlington Free Press, “but there isn’t any serious planning to that end.”
Daniel Ouimette, the decade-long owner of the proposed site, remained optimistic that the wind project would continue.
“There are going to be some wind towers on this mountain one of these days,” he said. “I am not going to give this up.”
Ouimette’s cooperation with the company has spawned heated criticism from some local residents. Aborio stated that,
“Once he decided to make this a commercial venture, once this is a now an industrial project, he no longer is a good-old-boy neighbor.”
Despite the company’s desire for a “recreational resource for hunters and snowmobilers,” Ouimette recently closed 16 miles of snowmoblie trails and posted no-trespassing signs around his property.
“I say I don’t want anybody on my property that’s an opponent of mine riding across my property with their snow machine and finding fault with what I do,” Ouimette argued. He claims to have suffered harassment since the project was first proposed, and set up the signs in response to vandalism.
Ultimately, the Vermont Public Service Board will decide whether or not to approve the project.
(01/23/14 3:00am)
Vermont is known for its wacky weather, but lately it has been especially bizarre. First we felt the effects of the polar vortex with bitter cold temperatures, and now at the end of a thaw, much warmer temperatures have caused snow and ice. These weather extremes have taken an interesting toll on the Middlebury Snowbowl.
According to Peter Mackey, the Snowbowl manager, the mountain has lost around two feet of natural snow due to the wind, rain, and warmth of late. There has been plenty of snowfall, but the snow has not been maintained because of the weather.
Fortunately, the Snowbowl has the ability to make snow artificially. Currently, there are only five runs open — the only runs on which they are able to make snow.
“If we didn’t make snow, we wouldn’t be open,” Mackey said.
However, making snow isn’t always easy. The weather has gone from being too warm to make snow to too cold, and this shifting has been a huge challenge. Also, the mountain does not have a wide array of snowmaking — it accounts for only45 percent of the terrain in total.
“While there was a little bit of fresh powder, it was just covering up the ice,” Emily Beneroff ’16.5, who skies at the Bowl. “Conditions could have been better and less icy, but they also could have been worse.”
As such, students or other skiers checking which trails are open before heading to the Snowbowl might feel discouraged.Additionally, the bare ground at the College tricks students into thinking there is an equal dearth of snow at the Bowl. Mackey said that 175 pre-purchased season passes have not been redeemed yet, which is a relatively high number compared to normal snow years.
Despite all of these difficulties, Mackey says the conditions are still “pretty good.” Although there have been some granular and icy conditions, the Snowbowl’s ability to make snow has produced close-to-normal surfaces on their ski runs.
According to Susan Davis, head of the ski and snowboard school at the Snowbowl, the mountain has been open everyday since the beginning of the season, except Christmas Day. She says that “so far, we haven’t seen a huge impact” in terms of people not coming to their lessons, partly because most lessons are prearranged.
“[Vermonters] know we get odd weather, so they tend to gamble on it,” Davis said, regarding ski lessons and attendance. She believes the mountain has not seen a great decrease in revenue, because most of their business comes from various ski programs from schools and race teams.
Davis believes that there is a “disconnect between what’s going on [at the Bowl] and what’s perceived as going on [on campus].”
Davis said that Jan. 13, for example, there was “incredibly good spring skiing,” but students from outside Vermont simply believe the snow is not up to par because of the dry campus grounds. She believes that if students would only inquire as to how the conditions are, by either calling the Snowbowl or looking at the website, they would see that the snow is definitely skiable.
According to Davis, when there is snow on campus, students believe the skiing will be better. After the recent snowfall on Jan. 16, many more students headed up to the Bowl to ski.
The staff at the Snowbowl wants students to know that there is a difference between the amount of snow on campus and the amount of snow on the mountain. Davis urges students to simply do some investigating before they decide not to ski, because they may find that the conditions are better than they might believe. Although the weather has caused the mountain some difficulty, overall it has been able to sustain a quality level of skiing.
(01/23/14 1:09am)
In the wake of President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz’s announcement that he will resign in 2015, students at the College have been considering the qualities they hoped for in the next president of the College, and also about the role of the student body in the selection process of the new president.
According to an April 2004 article in the Campus, the search that resulted in Liebowitz’s selection as President began with interviews of “approximately 300 to 400 qualified candidates for the position” by a 16-member search committee that included faculty, staff, trustees, alumni and student representatives. The committee submitted a single recommendation to the Board of Trustees, which voted unanimously to accept the recommendation.
During the 2004 search, the only student representative on the search committee was Erin Sullivan ’04, who was student co-chair of Community Council at the time. The December 2013 press release announcing Liebowitz’s resignation stated that the Board of Trustees will “provide information about a presidential search following the February board meeting.”
Vice President for Communications Bill Burger declined to comment on the search process, but wrote in an email that the process will be an “inclusive one.”
Students interviewed by the Campus expressed high expectations for the new president and for student involvement in the search process. Tianfeng He ’16 said that he hoped the process would make candidates available for student interaction and evaluation, and suggested hosting candidates for lunch with students in the dining halls.
Ian Ackerman ’16 agreed, noting that the opportunity to meet candidates for the position would help to ensure that the president would be someone accessible to students, but he acknowledged that the selection process is quite complex and thus mass student-candidate interaction may be impractical.
Students interviewed by the Campus also expressed a strong interest in a president who takes an active role in the lives of students, with some citing the precedent set by Liebowitz as an ideal.
“[Liebowitz] was very personable and made an effort to be available — at a school like this, where people are driven to try to effect change, personal contact is valuable,” Clare Ulrich ’14.5 said.
Isabel Tyler ’13.5 echoed Ulrich’s statement and the importance of a personable president, stating that “the president’s role is to facilitate conversation on important issues on campus.”
Few students were able to articulate specific goals for the College’s next president to aspire to.
Tianfeng He, however, cited the Pass/Fail option as an example of one of Liebowitz’s successes, as its primary purpose is to aid the student body.
Ackerman also hopes for a president who will “decrease bureaucratic red tape,” highlighting the process to drop a class after the Add/Drop period has passed as a situation where “[he would] like to see someone who will tear down some of those [bureaucratic] walls.”
(01/23/14 12:56am)
Last week in my article “Empathizing with Mental Illness,” I made some serious errors that offended some readers. First, I want to apologize to those I offended and to the Middlebury Campus editorial staff. I accept responsibility for my submission.
Even more importantly, however, I want to thank the readers who reached out to me in response to the article. I have the utmost respect and appreciation for Ada Santiago ’13.5, who talked with me face-to-face for almost an hour, helping me recognize where and how I went wrong. How she engaged me in dialogue diplomatically, thoughtfully and openly epitomizes what I believe we are at Middlebury to do: to teach and learn from one another.
My article concerned topics beyond my expertise and, despite my best intentions, reflected the very stigma that I had hoped to denounce and call attention to. For example, by lumping a broad and diverse range of mental diseases and disorders into the non-specific category of “mental illness,” I repeatedly implied a negative normative judgment upon individuals with mental disorders. This example, along with other aspects of the piece, was deeply problematic and unacceptable. Rather than enumerate and apologize for each individual instance in which erred, I encourage those with more expertise than myself to deconstruct, debate and even denounce what I wrote.
I am learning from my mistake(s), both personally and as a writer. I once again apologize and appreciate the civil, thoughtful response of readers when resentful, anonymous postings would have been justified.
(01/23/14 12:34am)
On Jan. 13, seven students from the class of 2013.5 auditioned to be the student speaker at their graduation at the end of the month. While only one student, Danny Loehr, will be delivering his speech at the ceremony, the following three students submitted their speeches to the Campus.
It is not without a bit of irony that I write this. To be honest, I didn’t choose to be a Feb. I had barely heard the word until the admissions office called me during June of my senior year of high school, just a few weeks before my graduation. “We can let you in off of the waiting list,” I was told. “You’ll be a Feb”. “Great!” I said enthusiastically, and hung up the phone. Almost immediately, I realized that I had no idea what I had just done. “Wait…what’s a Feb?”
Over four years have passed since that day, and I still haven’t figured out the answer to that question—at least not in a way that I can present pithily to you now. I’m sure you all have your own ideas as to what the essential Febness is, but for every such conception there is an exception. At the 2010 Feb celebration, it was rather famously suggested that Febs are the people who show up late to the party and are then left at 3am, still dancing around the room to Michael Jackson, alone. I think the truth, for better or for worse, might be that not all of us quite fit that bill. Some of us got too drunk or too tired and went to bed. Some of us stayed in to do some studying or watch TV. Some of us turned off the Michael Jackson and put on Blink-182.
But, of course, to focus on that would be to miss the point. Setting aside all generalizations about what being a Feb is or isn’t all about, we will gather together in just over a week because we share a common experience. That simple act of taking an extra semester, regardless of how or when that semester was spent, means that by definition we haven’t quite followed that “plan” that is the standard operating procedure these days. It might seem insignificant on paper, but for us, there was a slight glitch in the plan. You had to explain it to your high school friends, to your aunt at Thanksgiving dinner, to the boss you bailed on after a few months of work. Perhaps understandably, no one really got it. Some probably felt sorry for you. One of my friend’s moms sent me a care package during finals week that fall just so I wouldn’t be left out. It was nice, but kind of weird.
Well, being a Feb is kind of weird. And I don’t necessarily mean weird in that cool, quirky—dare I say Febby—way that we love to talk about so much. I also mean it in a different way: uncomfortable, awkward, unsettling. As fashionable as it can be, showing up late to the party can also lead one to feel a bit out of sorts. I think almost my entire hall during that first semester knew me only as “The Feb”, though the closer friends at least called me “Mike the Feb”. I tried to embrace it, but was never sure of exactly what I was embracing.
But that’s all part of the Feb experience, isn’t it? We don’t discuss those particular aspects a lot, but there’s a reason that they come about. When you break from what’s expected, there are certain consequences. You might have to rely on yourself a little bit more than you were prepared to. You might have to go out of your way to make things happen, instead of waiting for them to come to you. I’m sure we’ve all felt that at some point or another during our college careers. Over the past month, reflecting on those experiences—everything from taking forever to make friends, to sitting alone in the dining hall, to constantly getting hosed on class registration—has made me realize how important they are in the context of today.
That is because February 1st, our college graduation, marks the end of that part of our lives whose structure was predefined. Everything up to this point has been more or less laid out for us. I do not mean to say that we haven’t worked to get where we are—merely, that most of us have been on a path through relatively charted waters. Most of us have always known that we would go to high school and college, and that we would probably do pretty well there. Few of us have had a concrete plan beyond that.
That last bit is equal parts exciting and terrifying, but what I want to point out is that our college lives were a bit more uncharted than most others. And therein lies the greatest thing about being a Feb, besides getting to ski down the Bowl with our caps and gowns on. That weirdness that I’ve talked about, as hard as it’s made things sometimes, it’s meant that Febs have developed a tendency to make their own way through Middlebury. That is invaluable preparation for whatever is coming next. Amidst all of those big, inspirational ideas about changing the world that we find in Ted Talks and Upworthy posts, our postgraduate lives will inevitably bring us a day-to-day existence marked at various times by uncertainty, ambiguity, banality, and loneliness. So let’s embrace it, just like we embraced our Febness for the last four years—without always knowing what we’re embracing or exactly why we’re embracing it. Let us welcome and even encourage discomfort. Life is about so much more than fitting in.
I don’t know an easy way to explain what a Feb is. I do know that the graduates that will sit in Mead Chapel on February 1 are some of the most intelligent, engaging, and challenging people I’ll ever know. I know that we came into this place at the same time and that we’re about to walk out, together, four weird years later. And I know that we’re ready. Wherever we go, let’s take a piece of this place with us. We are Febs, and we can do whatever we want. Let’s get out there and do it.
MIKE GADOMSKI is from Moorestown, N.J.
A little over a year ago, I was sitting in my car outside Munroe, hands shaking on the steering wheel. It wasn’t because of the temperature, although it was bitterly cold. I had just returned from a semester abroad in Australia and had last seen Middlebury amid the greenery and blooming trees of May, during the two weeks out of the year when the campus becomes alive before we disappear for the summer. It wasn’t that I hadn’t talked to my friends since then – in the world we’ve grown up in, the people we talk to on a daily basis are decided not by geography but rather by choice – but nonetheless, I was nervous, unsure of how it would feel to be back at this place, experiencing the lives of my friends and vice versa without the filter of carefully curated pictures uploaded onto the internet. At the time I was working at home, and I figured that I could catch up with what I had missed while still setting aside some time to do work. Needless to say, I was terribly wrong.
I was wrong both about the work and about being able to catch up on what I had missed. The amount that goes on here over J-term is really incredible for a place that we tend to often complain is isolated and sleepy. I went to talks about energy and to Two Brothers, panels about Divestment and parties at Palmer. I skied at the Snow Bowl and sang “Like a Prayer” at Karaoke night and enjoyed the best that the dining hall had to offer: taco day (Please, President Liebowitz, if you do nothing else in your remaining months at the helm, make the dining halls have more taco days. For the sake of the febs who will follow us). I had the best of the Middlebury experience in a week, and so of course I did nothing productive. I was too busy “seizing the day” and “only living once” and so on and so forth.
But that week could have been very different, as far too many are.
I know that I am not alone here in saying that I have lost entire weeks of my life to absent-minded scrolling through information that is not relevant to either my success or personal happiness. On good days you might click through the New York Times” and the Atlantic, but more often than not it ends up being “23 Goats Who Cannot Believe They’re Really Goats,” “17 Animals Who Just Found Out Columbus Was A Terrible Person,” and “36 Things That Are Going to Make You Feel Ancient.” Did you know, for instance, that “Mean Girls” came out more than a decade ago? And those are all just from a single site whose name I am sure you could guess.
The defining challenge of our age is the constant flow of interrupting information and the ease with which we can satisfy our every curiosity and need for entertainment. This is certainly less of an obstacle than attacks by saber tooth tigers, mass starvation, or global thermonuclear war. It is, at its core, a “first-world problem.” But the fact that new information is constantly beeping its way into your head at every moment of every day is still an important phenomenon. Where our parents once had to hunt for information on shelves and through pages, for us the trail never goes cold. The challenge is not that we have too few variables, but far too many. After all, it is easier to watch somebody hit a massive ski jump on television that it is to learn how to do it yourself; easier to read every blog post on the subject than to actually talk to the proverbial Proctor crush. The challenge is to know when to stop taking in new information and to jump.
Especially in the freezing days and the never-ending nights of winter, this presents a dangerous trap. One of the greatest things about Middlebury is that the quality and even the quantity of the real distractions exceed the virtual ones. But in other places where the alternatives might be harder to find and the people further away, the temptation to stay inside and scroll can become overwhelming. With the internet, you have on your computer or in your pocket every word ever written down by Thucydides or Hawking, Shakespeare or Fitzgerald. You have the words of every great leader, the movies of every great filmmaker, and the sounds of every great musician. But you also have Rebecca Black, Ylvis, and every season of Scandal. It is not as much that we struggle to manage our time as it is that distractions spring up to make us forget that it exists until it has already slipped away.
The reach of ideas has never been further and the rewards of success have never been greater. One of the most amazing realities of this time is that the spread of a song, a speech, or a slam poem that makes us feel something in our core is constrained only by the speed with which we are able to pass it on to those with whom we believe it will resonate. But, like the Harlem Shake or The Fox, this success often proves fleeting. And the punishment for an accident or an ill-considered action forever stick to your name, plastered across Google for all to see: the future employer or the potential girlfriend, the angry young men in their armchairs at home or the grandmother who just signed up for Facebook and likes every single thing that you post. We live in a world without a delete button, in a giant town square where humiliation has become more public than ever.
This is not to say that technology is evil or that pop culture isn’t worth your time. But it has become incredibly difficult to separate what is actually meaningful or useful from the cascade of interruptions and quick alternatives. It is hard to muster the presence of mind to read a whole book when your pocket keeps buzzing with snapchats, text messages, and emails from Bob Smith about intermural sports. In the competition between the information that improves our lives and that which merely satisfies our brain’s addiction to dopamine, the trivial content has a home field advantage.
So what is there to stop us from giving into the temptation to binge watch another season of House of Cards instead of making the changes we fantasize about? Mostly, I think, our overpowering fear of missing out, or, as it was labelled during orientation, “FOMO.” FOMO is a powerful force, and not necessarily a bad one. It is what gets us out of bed and to that party that friend is having. It is what drives us to the mountain despite the bitter cold of the polar vortex. It is what compels us to plaster the names of our crushes on the walls of Proctor, if just for a few days.
On the Campus newspaper, we like to joke about how we come up with the headlines for our editorials. If you are one of the dedicated few who glanced at more than a couple during your time here, you might have noticed that they all follow the same format: don’t do this thing, do that thing instead. So here’s my version of that template: don’t get over your fear of missing out. Do the things that you’ll remember later. Don’t give in to information paralysis; take in the facts that you need and then move on. Don’t give into clickbait and mindless scrolling. Take advantage of the fact that we live in an era where knowledge is free and unfettered.
For when you are at a party and it is two a.m. and “Like a Prayer” comes on, there is no time to sit back and think about whether you have worked out recently or how many layers you are wearing, or whether it is actually an appropriate occasion. If you spend too long thinking about it, the song will be over. But here is what is great about Febs: That song is ancient; it was big when our parents were in college; it is practically Bach. But every time it comes on, it’s as if it is the first. So you tear your eyes away from your phone and your fingers away from the keyboard. You join your friends in the excitement of that moment, with that same grin on your face that each and every one of us had on day two of orientation running around in the February sun at the snow bowl. You jump, and that is the moment that you never forget.
ZACH DRENNEN is from Canandaigua, N.Y.
I will always remember the day I got my acceptance letter to Middlebury in the mail. I was so excited it took me about a week to realize I had been accepted as a Feb. To this day, I believe I checked the September only box. When I realized I was accepted as a Feb I felt semi-rejected. You can imagine my surprise when I arrived for orientation only to learn that most people specifically check the February-only box. Little did I know that I would soon come to realize how accepting to be a Feb was the greatest decision I could have made in my academic life. Having just lost my mother the summer before my senior year of high school, my aunts were very concerned with my future going in the direction she would have wanted. They feared I would go away somewhere, fall in love and never come back. This may be because my mother often went places, fell in love and was only convinced to come back because a sister was getting married. I am definitely my mother’s daughter, but I knew that college was not something to give up, no matter how in love I thought I was during my Febmester.
At orientation I was overwhelmed, I found out I had pneumonia the night I arrived and I had a cast on my hand. Not the best setup for a winter orientation. I remember hearing stories of people traveling in Senegal, trekking the Himalayas, teaching photography classes in Rwanda, living in Paris, adventuring in Laos, or working at home—wherever that was. I was amazed by how different the past three to six months had been for all of us, but how together we managed to feel— how together we wanted to be. That night as we walked from Ross dining hall through the candles of our Feb leaders into Mead Chapel I ended up alongside a girl who would end up being my best friend for the next four years.
After just a few days of orientation we had begun to form the bonds we were told we were destined to create. Within two weeks of being on campus we were skinny-sledding down the mead chapel, taking our shirts off every “Like a Prayer” we heard, and I learned the words to “Wagon Wheel” real fast so I didn’t feel so left out when everyone decided to start singing it. They say that the great thing about coming in as a Feb is that you create an instant community that follows you throughout your college years. I think that while our Feb class has gained a few members and lost a few—while we have all explored different social groups on this campus and made new friends along the way—at the end of the day a Feb is a friend you can always count on. Just like family, there will always be the cousins with whom you get along best, or the siblings with whom you feel you can share the most, but regardless you have a fundamental love that will always be there for one another. I believe that even though many of us have drifted in our own directions, it is just a reflection of us truly trying to find ourselves here. I can still look around this room today and say genuinely that there is not one of you I wouldn’t want to be there for.
I came to Middlebury as this young girl from Tucson, Arizona. I’d had one snow day in my life and it lasted until 10am. I had never experienced daylight savings because we don’t do that in Arizona, it wouldn’t make a difference. I knew cold as 60-degree weather. And although I still don’t know what is going to happen when I attempt to ski down at the snow bowl today, in my four years here I have done more than my fair share of streaking in mid-winter, I have cross country skied from the Mill to the Bunker, I have gone swimming in a frozen over pond at the snow bowl, and gone sledding down Mead Chapel every year, and I have my fellow Febs to thank for all of that.
Another great thing about being a Feb is although we feel pretty old by the end, we experience the greatest amount of people leaving and coming in to this school. We know things that no one else here knows but us. We were here for the very first screening of the Midd Kid music video. We lived the days of Asian carp and avocados, language tables in Atwater, and take-out cups from proctor. We know about MiddTwit, and know the founders of Middbeat. We know what the real Purple Jesus tastes like and we know how good a DJ Officer Chris is. We brought Dominique Young Unique to campus before she became a big deal. We knew Frank Sweeney before The Real World. We started spontaneous percussion during midnight breakfast and choreographed an amazing flash mob for the Hunt. We have lived through the ADP apocalypse, which has been more traumatic for some of us than others. I personally really enjoyed dancing in those window-frames.
We, as Febs, are thrill seekers and passionate believers. We may have felt a semester behind at times, but we have lived so much more than everyone else that showed up on time. And for those of you who have joined us along the way, you too have made choices in your life to redefine the path of what we are taught college is supposed to look like.
Now we get to redefine what the path of post-college is supposed to look like. Graduating from an institution like Middlebury gives us all a great responsibility to do something meaningful and successful with our lives. However, that does not need to be as stressful as we are pushed to believe. Whether you end up at Medical school, consulting in DC, bartending in San Diego, starting a farm in Vermont, or opening up a cupcake shop, success is about so much more than your starting salary or lack thereof. If I have learned anything these 22 years, it is how painfully short life can be, and how beautifully intense love can feel. Once we understand these things, we understand that a fulfilling life comes from choosing how we built it rather than just reading a manual.
For me, success is always living the adventure. Success is giving yourself fully so your loved ones know how much they mean to you. Success is looking yourself in the mirror everyday and always smiling back. Mostly because “we woke up like this” but also because no matter what happened the night before or what awaits us tomorrow, we have been doing the most we can to do our lives justice. For me, we make a difference through the people we choose to love, sing, laugh, and dance with. We are successful when we know ourselves well enough to be so fully there for the world around us.
I think that Middlebury, along with giving us a degree from one of the top liberal arts schools in the country, has also given us the opportunity to figure out who we are and what we want most. We have been given access to professors, who are not just great because of how they do their job, but because of the people they are and the life of knowledge they carry. We are more than just the grades we earn, the internships we’ve had, the important people we’ve met or attempted to meet—we are kids in our twenties who began this adventure of college in our own way. We are friends, and lovers, and family, and what we have learned from each other is just as valuable as what we have learned in the classroom.
Today I want to leave you with part of a poem from spoken word artist Anis Mojgani. This poem reminds us that whether we initially “chose” to be Febs or not, whether we identify today as a Feb or not, no matter where we begin or end upon leaving this college, we must never forget that we are Febs. For above all, we have learned that feeling set apart from others is not at all a negative experience, but rather a thrilling gift that opens us to all the endless possibilities which lie ahead. We must remember that sometimes the uncertainties presented to us by life, are the beginnings of the best adventures we’ve had yet.
So in the words of Anis Mojgani:
“You have been given a direct order to rock the (fuck) out.
Rock out like you were just given the last rock and roll record on earth and the minutes are counting down to flames.
Rock out like the streets are empty except for you, your bicycle, and your headphones.
….
Rock out like you’ll never have to open a textbook again.
Rock out like you get paid to disturb the peace.
Rock out like music is all that you got.
Rock out like you’re standing on a rooftop and the city’s as loud and glowing as a river flowing below you.
Rock out like the plane is going down, and there are 120 people on board, and 121 parachutes.
Rock out like the streets and the books are all on fire and the flames can only be extinguished by doin’ the electric slide.
…
Rock out like your eyes are fading but you still got your ears. But you don’t know for how long so rock out like 5 o’clock time, meant pop-and-lock time.
Rock out like you got pants full of tokens and nothing to do but everything.
Rock out like you are the international ski-ball champion of the entire universe.
Rock out like you just escaped an evil orphanage to join a Russian circus.
Rock out like your hero is fallen and you are spinning your limbs until they burst into a burning fire of remembrance.
…
Rock out like your dead grandfather just came back to take a drive with you in your new car.
…
Rock out like the walls won’t fall but, (dammit), you’re going to die trying to make them.
…
Rock out like it’s raining outside and you’ve got a girl to run through it with.
Rock out like you’re playing football! Football in the mud and your washing machine is not broken.
Rock out like you threw your window open on your honeymoon because you want the whole world to know what love is.
…
Rock out like a shadow of a man passes behind you, drops you to your knees. You’re buckling in sweat, cold metal’s pushed to your forehead, the trigger’s pulled and the gun jams.
Rock out like you got an empty appointment book, and a full tank of gas.
…
Rock out like the mangos are in season. Rock out like the record player won’t skip.
Rock out like this was the last weekend, like these were the last words, like you don’t ever want to forget how.”
Thank you all for loving, singing, laughing, and dancing with me these past four years. I know that no matter what our respective futures hold, we will find success in the earth beneath our feet, the music in our eyes, the hope in those around us, and the stories we hold in the palms of our hands.
Middlebury Class of 2013.5
Let’s Rock Out.
BELLA TUDISCO-SADACCA is from Tucson, A.Z.
(01/16/14 4:02am)
The Middlebury women’s basketball team opened NESCAC play with a pair of games this past weekend, using a fast start to run past Bates on Friday, Jan. 10, before falling to a tough Jumbos team on Sunday, Jan. 12. The Panthers followed the NESCAC split with a home win over Colby-Sawyer to improve to 6-7 on the season.
On Friday, Middlebury held Bates to 20 percent from the field in the first half for just 15 points in building a 19-point halftime lead. The Panthers hit a trio of three-point shots in the half to help themselves to a large early lead.
“Our fast start was crucial to our success that game because we were able to set a time that was necessary to maintain the entire game in order to win,” said senior guard Scarlett Kirk ’14.
The halftime deficit would be too much for the Bobcats to overcome, as they outscored the Panthers in the second half only to fall by a final tally of 67-54.
Kirk – playing in just her fifth game of the season for the basketball team after wrapping up a soccer season in which she garnered First Team All-NESCAC honors en route to the team’s national semifinals appearance – led all Middlebury scorers with 17 points on 7-11 shooting, She also pulled down 10 rebounds to cement a double-double.
“Basketball uses some different muscles and there were a lot of plays I had to learn, but the transition was pretty easy,” she said. “It is fun to have another chance to compete after the successful soccer season.”
Forward Elizabeth Knox ’17 also got into the scoring fold, recording 14 points and 10 rebounds for a double-double of her own against Bates. Guard Sarah Marcus ’14 added 15 points, with Alexis Coolidge ’15 pouring in 14 off the bench to pace the Panthers on the day.
Matching up against seventh-ranked Tufts on Sunday afternoon, the Panthers struggled with turnovers in their eventual loss to the visiting Jumbos. While the Panthers kept pace on the boards and played strong defense throughout – holding Tufts to 30 percent shooting in the first half – poor second-half shooting and a 24-6 turnover margin spelled doom for the home team.
The Panthers were able to keep it relatively close until halftime, but fell far behind in the second period to lose by a final tally of 70-44.
“We were aware that Tufts was going to be a very difficult opponent,” Knox said. “We just went into the game with the mindset that we would have to bring a very high intensity and work extremely hard defensively to compete with their tall forwards. Offensively, we prepared to execute Middlebury basketball like always.”
Kirk’s play was again a bright spot for Middlebury, as she followed up Friday night’s performance with 12 points and 10 boards for another double-double. Knox led all scorers with 13 points, going 4-8 from the floor and hitting all four of her free-throws.
“A few things that worked for me in this weekend’s games were trying to get into good position down low and box out on the offensive and defensive boards,” Knox said.
Back in action on Tuesday, Jan. 14, the Panthers played host to Colby-Sawyer in a non-league game. The teams remained tightly locked through the first half, with the Chargers hitting three crucial three-pointers to keep the game competitive early. At the half, Colby-Sawyer clung to a slim one-point lead.
Coming out of the break, Middlebury was able to tighten up their defense while shooting nearly 50 percent from the floor. The Panthers took advantage of a significant rebounding advantage — including 13 boards from Kirk — to pull away in the second half and win 65-58.
Marcus and Rachel Crews '15 led the Panthers with 15 and 14 points, respectively. Coolidge — scoring 10 off the bench — was Middlebury’s other double-figure scorer in the game.
Middlebury moves to 6-7 on the season with the weekend’s split performance followed by the victory over Colby-Sawyer and starts NESCAC play at a 1-1 clip, while Bates and Tufts advance to 7-6 and 12-0 for the season, respectively.
The Panthers go on the road this weekend, Jan. 17 and 19, for conference matchups with Wesleyan and Connecticut College – who each recorded a win and a loss in the opening weekend of conference play. Wins against the Cardinals and Camels would put Middlebury in strong position heading into the heart of the NESCAC schedule later in January.
