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(02/10/05 12:00am)
Author: Caroline Stauffer Captain David Doucette of the United States Marine Corps was on hand Tuesday evening to explain the US' policy of "don't ask don't tell" concerning homosexuality in the armed forces in a standing-room-only McCardell Bicentennial Hall lecture room. After completing the presentation, the military was granted the right to recruit on the Middlebury College campus. The College's Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer Statement/College Recruitment Policies include a provision stating that when a potential employer refuses to or cannot sign the College's recruiting form, it can still recruit on campus after holding an open meeting with the college community to explain why it cannot conform to the nondiscrimination policy.This is the first instance in which a potential recruiter has opted to hold such a meeting, according to Dean of Student Affairs Ann Hanson, who moderated the discussion.It is also the first time the military has attempted to recruit on Middlebury's campus since the implementation of the nondiscrimination policy.After Hanson urged the audience to engage in an appropriate and respectful conversation, Doucette offered a 15-minute explanation of U.S. Code Title 10, which explains why homosexuals are not allowed to enter the armed forces. In this document, the term homosexual is defined as "any person, regardless of sex, who engages in, attempts to engage in, has a propensity to engage in, or intends to engage in homosexual acts, and includes the terms 'gay' and 'lesbian.'" The policy was changed in 1993 and continued to exclude homosexuals, but also prohibited the military from ever asking the sexual orientation of recruits and members. "I'm here to find future leaders for the Marine Corps," Doucette said, emphasizing that future pilots were especially sought after. Doucette pursued the opportunity to recruit at Middlebury at the request of a student who wanted classmates to know about educational programs to help students pursue commissions with the U.S. Marine Corps. Doucette stressed that he was not on site to debate the issue of homosexuals in the military, but to serve as a messenger to explain the policy. He noted that while there were members of the Middlebury College community serving in the military, the number was lower than that of comparable schools. He cited Colgate specifically as having a higher number of enlistees. Following Doucette's presentation, a 45-minute questioning period ensued. Inquiries from students and staff pertained to the deployment status of homosexuals, the effects of "don't ask don't tell" on women and the possibility of a person's sexual orientation being discovered through coercion. Copies of Title 10 were distributed to the audience.Doucette set up an information table on Wednesday, Feb. 9 and has permission to conduct individual interviews with interested students on campus Thursday evening. A group of students began planning a protest response upon hearing news of the planned recruitment events. Members of Middlebury Open Queer Alliance (MOQA), the Middlebury allies and other interested parties convened Sunday evening in Chellis House to discuss a plan of action. They distributed handouts at the meeting Tuesday that included suggested questions to ask and facts about gays and lesbians in the military.One of the organizers, JS Woodward '06, said the goal of the protest action was, "to change the policy so that any employer who would like to recruit at Middlebury must be able to sign our recruitment policy. If they cannot, they should not be allowed to recruit at Midd or use our sources," he said.The College's policy "prohibits the discrimination in employment, or in admission or access to its educational or extracurricular programs, activities, or facilities, on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, age, marital status, place of birth, service in the armed forces or against qualified individuals with disabilities on the basis of disability."As of press time, a silent protest on Proctor Terrace was planned for Wednesday, Feb. 9, coinciding with the time frame in which the military was to recruit. They were to stand in mock military formation and use scarves, handkerchiefs and bandanas to blind, deafen and gag the protestors posing as soldiers. The silence was to represent "the inability of homosexual, bisexual and transgender American soldiers to speak out for their rights or talk about their lives with their friends and fellow soldiers," according to an e-mail sent out by protest organizers. Handouts were to be distributed and a letter was to be made available for members of the College community to sign and deliver to College President Ronald D. Liebowitz and the College Trustees.Middlebury is by no means the first institution to confront the issue of military recruiting on campus. Just last week, a federal judge ruled in favor of those who supported an attempted ban on military recruitment at Yale Law School.
(02/10/05 12:00am)
Author: [no author name found] To the Editor:On behalf of the students enrolled in the J-term course, Building the Climate Movement, I'd like to thank many members of our campus community who contributed to the success of the recent conference "What Works? "Building Strategies for the New Climate Movement." So many colleagues in catering, facilities management, scheduling, Information and Technology Services and many other campus offices, took the lead to assure that this complicated event came off so successfully. I can personally attest that the visiting conference participants - many from similar institutions -- were extremely impressed by the level of excellence displayed by so many people on the campus.We also thank the leaders on this campus and from elsewhere who so generously funded the conference, from the BPB Foundation, The Christian A. Johnson Foundation, The Mellon Foundation, The Schumann Foundation, Seventh Generation, the Vermont Campus Compact and the following contributors from Middlebury College: The Ada Howe Kent Fund; The Alliance for Civic Engagement; The Charles P. Scott Spiritual and Religious Life Center; The Office of Environmental Affairs; The Program in Environmental Studies; The Pooled Enrichment Fund; and The Rohatyn Center for International Affairs. And American Flatbread and Clif Bar generously supplied delicious food!Sincerely,Jon IshamAssistant Professor ofEconomicsTo the Editor:This week a representative from the United States Marine Corps came to Middlebury College for recruitment purposes. The Marines, as with all branches of the United States Military, directly discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation via their "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. This standard is in violation of Middlebury's employer recruitment non-discrimination policy, which prohibits employers visiting Middlebury to select against applicants "on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, age, marital status, place of birth, service in the armed forces of the United States or against qualified individuals with disabilities on the basis of disability." The Marines were able to bypass this restriction due to a loophole that allows for a recruiter who is unable to meet Middlebury's requirement to hold a widely publicized meeting at which they justify and defend their reasons for discrimination.We strongly object to this aspect of the policy as it weakens Middlebury's commitment to non-discrimination. As it stands, it would be hypothetically possible for any employer with a policy of discrimination to recruit on campus after the minor deterrence of holding a meeting. The current standard that is failing to protect GLBTQ students would potentially be just as ineffective at protecting African-American, Jewish or international students.Middlebury certainly is on the right track with its current policy regarding recruitment. It is now time for the College to strengthen this policy by eliminating the opt-out clause for employers with discriminatory policies, and in doing so maintain Middlebury's voice as a leader in progressive social policy.Sincerely,Katie Harrold '06Craig Johnson '05Members of moqa
(02/10/05 12:00am)
Author: J. S. Woodward On Feb. 4, I received an e-mail through one of the many distribution lists to which I belong. The message said that the military was coming to campus to recruit students. At first, I merely thought to myself, "That's dumb. I'm sure there are plenty of I-bankers-to-be that want to join the marines before taking on Wall Street." But then the e-mails started to fly, each popped with the word "discrimination." Curious to know what discrimination means at Middlebury, I went for my highly annotated, ludicrously highlighted and well-worn copy of the College Handbook. In it, I found what I had expected: Middlebury College does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, age, marital status, place of birth, service in the armed forces of the United States, or against qualified individuals with disabilities on the basis of disability. With a piqued curiosity and perverted love for primary sources, I started to poke around the internet. After a good 20 minutes of searching, I found it - U.S. Code Title 10,654: Policy Concerning Homosexuality in the Armed Forces, more commonly known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Three and half pages of watertight legal mumbo-jumbo later, I had come to a decision. I was not going to sit by and let this blow over. When I arrived at Middlebury in the fall of 2002, I told myself that if I was going to preserve any semblance of sanity, I would have to pick and choose my battles. "Today," I thought, as hyperbolic visions of defiantly standing in the way of an M1 Abrams tank floated through my head, "is my day to fight."Lucky for me, in the innumerable hours I spent bonding with Google and the Handbook, someone else had already planned a meeting. Sunday, 6:30 p.m., Chellis House. I arrived, my characteristic 10minutes early, to find Katie Harrold '06.5, one of the co-presidents of MOQA, searching for a light switch. As I helped her look, we discussed how the recruiter was being allowed to come to campus.Middlebury requires all employers who want to recruit on campus and use our facilities to sign an agreement that states that their non-discrimination policies are parallel to our own. If they are unable to do so, they may hold an open meeting to the College community to explain what their recruitment policy is and how exactly it is discriminatory. After the meeting, whether they say that they refuse to hire Jews, women or even Alaskans, they are permitted to hold recruiting events.Resolute in our decision to fight, Katie and I began to craft a plan of action. Our greatest weapon was exactly what we came to Middlebury to acquire - knowledge. We would arm the College community with the history of the policy, the monetary and human costs incurred since its inception and, most importantly, with questions. Hard ones.Why can homosexual soldiers in Australia, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden - coalition partners in Operation: Enduring Freedom - successfully work with heterosexual soldiers, but American soldiers cannot? Why too can American soldiers work with homosexuals from other nations, but not with American homosexuals?Why were at least seven Arabic translators discharged under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" in 2002 while the U.S. Departments of Defense and State actively searched out individuals with even meager linguistic abilities to fill hundreds, if not thousands of vacant specialist positions?Why is the Department of Defense spending $20-40 million a year to discharge soldiers while claiming that we need Americans to step up and join the armed forces?And most relevantly: What does it mean if Middlebury allows employers who are known discriminators to recruit on its campus?This last question is the one more important to me. What does it mean? To me, it means that our policy of non-discrimination is nothing but farce. It means that we, as an institution, believe that discrimination is permissible so long as it is not secret. It means that we have become so caught up in our politically correct acceptance of foreign ideas that we have forgotten what we ourselves believe.I refuse to stand in an Ivory Tower. And I refuse to be silenced like the thousands of American homosexuals serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. Middlebury College should not allow organizations who cannot abide by its policy of non-discrimination onto its campus to recruit its students. Period.J. S. WoodwardAn Environmental Studies and Biology MajorAnchorage Alaska
(01/13/05 12:00am)
Author: CLAIRE NIELSON AND LISIE MEHLMAN After a months-long hiatus, Middlebury's own beyond the bubble extraordinaires reemerged in the worn and slightly smelly Roo driving along Route 7. We had held, at one time, great hopes of snowshoeing and tellemarking and finding an outdoor adventure as stimulating and rewarding as "the tennis debacle" (see April 23, 2004 edition). Claire had only agreed to this on the condition that there would be no animal noises involved. However, we weren't feeling all too physical, and although tempted to revisit our little red-checked table at the restaurant formerly known as Baba's, instead, we just decided to hit up the Verizon store. Claire felt that a lack of cell phone was "salting her game," however, let's be honest, Claire has no game, and her phone doesn't really ring that often.Anyhow, to Verizon we went. Upon entering the somewhat barren and remarkably large Verizon Wireless (said in the deep and raspy voice of James Earl Jones which Lisie constantly attempts to imitate unsuccessfully), we were greeted by an over-eager salesperson who, although we were, in fact, the only ones in the store, insisted we put our names on a list for help. While getting rung up, Claire and Lisie brainstormed ideas for their wedding speeches. The guy behind the counter got a little too excited and felt the need to contribute. Apparently he makes quite a wedding cake. Claire felt judged when she shared with Jim her life long plan of having cheesecake. Apparently cheesecake doesn't stack well. The dejection was made worse when, after Claire dropped the pen, he asked if she was "violent much?" It's not an understatement to say we ran for the door. No, seriously, we ran.The only cure for Claire's wounded ego was a grande nonfat pumpkin spice latte, no foam, extra whip. Starbucks it was. Although getting out of the Roo proved somewhat difficult for Lisie. Apparently walking on ice isn't Lisie's forte. Her spill on the cold, cold cement not only cheered Claire's spirits but also reminded us of an adventure we can't believe we forgot to chronicle for our beloved audience (We think that the less than stellar articles at the beginning of the year may have led to a permanent decrease in readership. Thanks for your loyalty, though, Markandbar.) Of what are we speaking you might ask? Just a little incident that will go down in history as the day Lisie almost died.Lisie is what we like to call, politely, a novice skier. However, she decided to try her hand at the "big kids" chair lift and then a run down Proctor. With a name like that, she couldn't imagine it being anything but safe, warm, and non-judgemental. She was even hoping for some curtains. However, Proctor was closed, and somehow she ended up on Ross. It was cold, it was sterile, she almost died. In summary, Claire, who, thanks to Chris and Pris' direction and guidance on the slopes of Idaho, is an expert skier, aided Lisie in surviving her 45 minute trip down the mountain. The highlights of which included Lisie learning to falling leaf. Lisie claiming that she was going to take her skis off and walk. Claire telling Lisie to shut the hell up and turn. An impolite boy yelling "yardsale" when Lisie took one of the finer of her 14 spills. Claire responding with words that did not necessarily demonstrate her Charlotte from Sex and the City wannabe persona. NOONE would have judged Lisie with such vehemence on Proctor. Please. Lisie was overcome with relief upon making it down the mountain, and hearing that she had actually survived a black diamond trail did make her laugh, although not enough to convince her that staying off the slopes for a while was a good idea. She is hoping for an OC episode featuring a ski trip so that she can live vicariously through the gang, and also because we really want to see if Marissa can manage to make it down the hills drunk.
(11/20/03 12:00am)
Author: [no author name found] To the Editor:There have been many new objections to the war effort in Iraq recently. It is important to keep in mind that we have essentially reached a point of no return in our involvement in the Middle East. To withdraw troops now would be to surrender. We helped put Saddam in power. We now need to officially remove him. We have not found Saddam or discovered the extent of Iraq's holdings of weapons of mass destruction. Even if we withdrew in hopes of negotiating peace, Saddam speaks a language of violence. In order to make our point that his regime is unacceptable, we must speak the language of Iraqis and continue to dominate through force. As long as Saddam is alive, the regime will be alive. We need to show the people of Iraq that their leader has been removed from power and that they are free from any ties to the old regime they may still believe in. It is in our best interest and that of Iraq to persist and move beyond Saddam's practical ownership of Iraq and establish a strong Muslim state.Colleen Sullivan '07UndeclaredConcord, Mass.To the Editor:If I understand the new rules correctly, beginning this J-term, students will no longer be able to sign up for a gym class on the first day. Instead, gym classes may only be registered through Banner Web. Why? "Because gym classes are a requirement." To this, I say: All other classes, which are requirements, have an add-drop period. Students are able to join, space permitting, any normal class on the first day.It is hard to anticipate what gym classes one will be able to take when one's schedule is still in flux (and many students' schedules are until the beginning of the semester). The new system will encourage students to register for several gym classes, but attend only the ones that fit into their next semester's schedule, barring others from registering for classes. Students will not be allowed to join the class the first day, even if there is plenty of space.Finally, a student who is uncertain about his or her level, being beginning, intermediate or advanced, will not be able to switch into a class that is more geared toward his or her level later. If gym classes are a requirement, they should be made more accessible to students, not the other way around. A BannerWeb-only policy for gym classes is unnecessary and inconvenient. We should continue to be able to sign up for gym classes on the first day.Nate Marcus '05Political Science majorDover, Mass.To the Editor:Apparently I stand ideologically behind casual sex. This is news to me. However, it was reported in last week's issue ("The Rise of the New Right," Nov. 13) that conservatism was on the rise as "college freshmen nationwide have voiced a distinct drop in support for casual sex, legal abortion, wealthy people paying a large share of taxes and provision for gun laws." As a registered Democrat and an active member of the College Democrats, I'm outraged at the implication that support of casual sex is a part of liberal policy like the protection of abortion rights, gun control and progressive taxation. I have been following the Democratic Party for as long as I can remember and have yet to find a candidate with a platform of casual sex. In an issue of the paper supporting open-minded attitudes, I am surprised such a stereotype would slip into an article. It is no more valid to say someone is politically conservative because of moral disapproval for casual sex than claiming that students are politically liberal because of a "distinct drop in support" for homophobia or racism. Both are outrageous cultural stereotypes. I would hope a Middlebury publication would have the foresight to separate dismissive stereotypes from political facts.Willa Brown '07UndeclaredMartinez, Calif.
(11/20/03 12:00am)
Author: Lanford Beard Pop culture is a battleground, my friends, and I refuse to pledge allegiance to either side.Last week, I brought you the newest successes of Justin Timberlake. A couple of weeks before that, a testimony to my own personal journey with Britney Spears. And last November, I reviewed Justin's album, which - incidentally - I still listen to almost daily. I say almost because Britney's newest pop masterpiece, "In the Zone" (released this past Tuesday) has snatched my very soul, and I just want to take a moment to say God Bless MTV for giving me the leak to Brit's record of her ever-evolving self.The album's biggest drawback as far as the critics will be concerned is that it lacks the unity and artistic coherence that make albums great. But then again, there was the "White Album." Wow, did I just compare Britney Spears to the Beatles?Anyhow, for those of you who are concerned about Ms. Spears, you can find comfort in the fact that, even though the album does feel like it was made by someone with split personalities, all of Britney's personalities seem to agree upon the fact that she's still a skank.Now that she's a woman (thanks, Justin!), Britney can fully exploit her own sexuality to make a quick buck, and she does. Oh yes, she does.While Justin's album marketed him as this R&B superstar in the mold of Michael Jackson, Britney need not market herself as a superstar in the works because she has proven her superstardom from the get-go.The album has some similarities to "Justified." For example, the identity confusion centers on two themes - feeling depressed about true love gone wrong or reveling in the fact that now the artist in question can fully realize the sexual liberation that comes with being really, really hot and really, really rich (by far this is the more prevalent theme of both albums)."In the Zone" begins with "Me Against the Music," which delivers the computer-synthesized angelic chorus of two boy toys at their best - overproduced and in a video that oozes sex and works the lesbian angle and emphasizes the girls' yoga-toned flexibility.The next song is the "Sing about being hot and naked with [insert name of-the-moment rap artist here]" classic. Even more classic is the title, "(I Got That) Boom Boom." Britney takes a cue from Justin by calling on the Ying Yang Twins to scream "She fine! She fine!" at her in their astonishingly grating voices.And ah-ha! The long-awaited Justin revenge song finds its place as track number three: "Showdown." Using the template JT set forth with his "Cry Me a River" video, Britney mixes kinky sex with direct challenges, purring, I dare you to stand in my wayJust give in when you are ready to play.Here comes the showdown,What goes around comes around. And the crowds are waiting.'Cause if we break up Then we can make up Shake my booty all night.The inverse of this song (what "Never Again" was to "Cry Me a River") is the final original song on the album, "Everytime." Brit is most proud of this song because she wrote it herself on the piano.The song focuses on the pain the 'character' in the song feels when a relationship fails. I suspect Britney would plead the artistic fifth, claiming, "It's just a song!" But, with lyrics like "I may have made it rain [hello, "Cry Me a River"!]. Please forgive me. My weakness caused you pain, and this song is my sorry," it appears that the allegations Justin made are perhaps not so inflammatory after all.It makes sense, however, that Britney would reserve this song until the end and put "Showdown" in the first three tracks. First, she doesn't force the fans who like 'Britney the entertainer' to deal with the faux-diva aspirations and maudlin musings of slow songs in the vein of "Dear Diary" and "Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman." She may lyrically express a desire to be out of control, but Britney is nothing less than calculated.Second, by putting "Showdown" first, she maintains the power in the relationship. The placement of the sadistic, sexy Britney of "Showdown" overwhelms the vulnerable, cathartic girl in "Everytime."The only other slow song on the album is "Shadow," which is much more enjoyable, a Celine Dion song if Celine couldn't sing, really.Eastern influences permeate the album. In lieu of Britney's standard cover song, she double-books the Madonna song by giving it a jungle-drum, sitar-infused remix. She also joins forces with R. Kelly on "Outrageous," which is not so much outrageous as insipid. It is the closest track on the album to the old Britney Spears sound, centered on Britney telling everyone how hot and bothered she is in her "sexy jeans" and "about to bring the heat" but succumbing at last to her standard lyrical interlude about being free, finding love and whatnot. Perhaps in the end, Britney will follow her standard practice and release this song as a remix, which would also make sense given every R. Kelly single for the past two years has been a remix - apparently, he's just not good enough the first time around. And anyone who doesn't immediate perceive the irony of a two-time collaboration between Britney (jailbait) and R. Kelly (jailbird) really has no business reading this review. You are dismissed.The most successful is "Toxic." Dominated by a shrill violin riff. In this song, not only a slut, she's an addict - addicted to men! The song has a rousing mix of beats, a few nice changes of tempo and even takes the Britney voice to a distinctly Taylor Dayne-esque place. Oh, the wonders of producers' flourishes.Britney even gets in a little reggae in "The Hook Up," but I suspect it is only because she has to. What would any hit album be without a little patois?Sandwiched firmly between these two tracks is Britney's ode to self-love, "Touch of My Hand." The song is lost enough in the middle of the album's 13-song tribute to heterosexual, hedonist promiscuity to not make much of a dent, but for those of us who simultaneously love and hate Britney's reflexive cleavage-emphasizing, beck-and-call-girl image, this brief departure into no-man's land is a welcome break.The song is absorbingly sexy, much in the same way that Sting's "Fields of Gold" was when it came out. Wait, did I just compare Britney Spears to Sting? I have to stop doing that!If Britney flying solo isn't to your liking (like say, if you're a man who doesn't have any imagination or, at the very least, a functioning hand), then the pre-orgasmic club tune "Breathe on Me" will rev your engine just fine. The beat is throbbing, just like Britney. This song, which stands proud as the album's fourth track, boasts the oft-quoted line, "It's so hot, and I need some air. Don't stop 'cause I'm halfway there." Like many of the songs on the album, Britney's new, unfettered sexuality (which was undeniably present on the last few albums but covered by strategic orchestration) is a bit discomfiting, but the straightforward rhythm eventually overwhelms the panting and sighing.But, as Britney has learned time and again, all this party-hearty-ing comes with a price, and that price is a collaboration with Moby - "Early Mornin'". In what Brit said was her favorite song in a recent Rolling Stone (though she couldn't be bothered to actually know the title of the song), Brit describes the hangover that results from her many wild nights out on the town. One of the many songs that Britney co-wrote, this joint to include such feats of lyrical genius as "Got on the dance floor. Hooked up with a guy named Joe. When the music was fast and slow, what happened next? Guess... but you don't wanna know."And what will happen next for Britney now that her album and her new persona has been laid down for public worship or repudiation?The one thing working agai
nst her is the undecided style or voice that characterizes the album. Unlike her role model-slash-lesbian lover du jour, Madonna, Britney is clearly a product ready for consumption. Other than her occasion co-writing trysts, she doesn't give the impression that she has much creative input as to her musical direction. This also gives Justin the one-up because his smooth R&B style is cohesive throughout "Justified."However, I know that she's a "Brave New Girl" (track 11), and I would wager that she ultimately can declare this album a work-in-progress to finding her 'true self'. She can use the five or six singles from this album to gauge where the public is going and, thus, where she should go to reap maximum profit from minimum personal investment.That feisty Louisiana lassie has already managed to swindle pseudo-intellectuals like me to want to throw down $20 for this album even though I realize she's a despicable person in reality, so I'd say the path to world domination is pretty clear.
(11/13/03 12:00am)
Author: Abbie Beane Sure mom always told you not to play with your food, but most of you are in college now and that means it's time to move beyond all of those pre-packaged ideas - so to speak. The beef this week? Ground chuck meats art, and yes, that spelling error was intentional. Just when you thought it was bad enough that all of those "evil carnivores" were killing animals for their edible potential (an unnatural and newly developing phenomenon), now they're killing for "art" - or what they call art anyway. Surrealist sculptures, created with the help of thinly sliced beef, could be labeled as nothing less than "meat sculpture" and comprise what some artists declare a "proteinaceous genre" - an art form that lends a hand to talking about issues of sexuality and carnality in the unconscious mind. Often in vernacular or colloquial, "uncouth" language, people talk about others as "pieces of meat" to express a sexual concept, despite the negative connotations of this metaphor. Yet the analogy linking meat to carnality, meat artists claim, is undeniably significant. It was Georges Bataille who elucidated the underlying connection between eroticism and mortality or, in layman's terms, between sex and death, in "The Tears of Eros," published in 1989. Images of meat art take the connection between carnage and carnality to poetic heights, suggesting the link between flesh for gastronomic consumption and flesh intended for sexual consumption, awakening domains of reality normally pent up in the cages of political correctness. The sculptures stand as a "poetic rebellion" against an age of sexual repression - a chance for the unconscious mind to work in tandem with the conscious mind.And artists who mold beefy sculptures for meat art galleries are not the only ones thinking about the aesthetic value of animal flesh. John Wolfer, an assistant professor of art at the University of Cincinnati-Raymond Walters College, hosted a show at the Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center in Covington from Feb. 28 to April 4 of this year titled, "Lean and Tasty." This was the first time that meat art earned a top billing at Carnegie. The artist made a name for himself by painting explicit portraits of thick steaks, pink ham and heaping pans of tender, ground beef. "Tons of people came in really curious," said Bill Seitz, Carnegie gallery director told The Cincinnati Enquirer. "And many who came weren't typical gallery patrons. They'd walk in and ask: Where are the meat paintings?" There were, however, minor confrontations with animal rights activists at the gallery. The question is, how did Wolfer cook this idea up? Well, he was first exposed to raw meat while working with his father, Don, at his Delhi butcher shop where he discovered his talent for painting his father at work, as well as chops, steak and sausages, which he also photographed quite frequently. His first still-life was a well-marbled porterhouse steak.His greatest influences include Rembrandt, Chaim, Soutine and Wayne Thiebaud who gained recognition for painting pies, cakes and other food in the 1960s. His next paintings will be based on Peter Bruegel, who did "quirky" paintings of peasants wandering around landscapes carrying birds as they returned from the hunt. Wolfer wants to depict the same situation, except he'll be carrying meat. "In my paintings, I'll be the one wandering around the landscapes," Wolfer told The Cincinnati Enquirer, "and I'll be carrying big cuts of meat, like a side of beef." Don't decide now - just chew on the idea for awhile, and if you find it too much to swallow, don't pick a bone with me. Its not my "art," which doesn't mean I wouldn't eat it, of course.
(11/13/03 12:00am)
Author: Claire M. L. Bourne "I have never felt more open than when I'm here," says Paul Doyle '07 of Middlebury College as he hugs one knee in a booth at The Grille. Doyle, one of a handful of openly gay first-years, speaks about his sexuality with gentle confidence, not worrying to lower his voice when people pass by or install themselves at the table behind him.When _____ ______ '07 sits down with his tray in the middle of Ross Dining Hall, I ask if he would feel more comfortable conducting our interview in the seminar room down the hall. "Oh no, I'm open," he responds before diving into his plate of spaghetti.It hasn't always been this way for members of the College's gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, questioning (GLBTQ) student community. After a decade characterized by a complex series of triumphs and setbacks, the College on the Hill appears to be experiencing a queer renaissance of sorts.The Middlebury Open Queer Alliance (moqa) currently boasts more than 20 active members, up from about eight last year. Last month, Coming Out Week events attracted impressive crowds. The College's Ally Group - a network of students, faculty and staff committed to supporting GLBTQ members of the community - is in the process of drafting a constitution to gain official student organization status. And last, but perhaps most notably, a symbolic closet constructed by moqa in October on McCullough Lawn was left standing, without suffering vandalism, for the duration of Coming Out Week - something that hasn't happened in more than six years. These developments add up to significant progress for a community still tending to wounds sustained when a closet similar to the one built this year was destroyed last fall. Until that incident, Middlebury had been making noteworthy strides in fostering a social climate hospitable to diversity.Rewind to 1998, when Middlebury was in the midst of one of its most acute internal social crises in its 200-year history.The Breaking PointIn the fall of that year, a conservative guide to the nation's top 100 colleges praised Middlebury as "a rarity in higher education today in that multiculturalist talk seems to be waning rather than gathering strength." Either the editors of "Choosing the Right College" were unaware of events that rocked the campus community five months earlier, or they chose to ignore them. By the time the Intercollegiate Studies Institute's 672-page volume hit bookstores, Middlebury had weathered a firestorm of internal criticism over its perceived failure to address the concerns of non-majority groups and, as a result, had launched a full-scale audit of campus diversity.Two separate incidents provoked student outcry - the destruction of a closet built in October 1997 by moqa members and the publication of a racist and, some say, homophobic ad in the April Fools edition of The Campus the following spring. The ad depicted three black men with a caption that said the College was admitting "drug users, gang members, rapists, arsonists" to "increase the excitement in this sleepy Vermont town" and to counter the image of the typical Middlebury student, labeled as a "pansy." Many students, moqa members in particular, argued the administration's response to the spoof advertisement was inadequate. While President John McCardell said The Campus had made a mistake in judgment, the then-newly formed Student Coalition for a Safer Community demanded a statement recognizing that racism, sexism and homophobia were problems on campus. Local newspapers reported that McCardell only conceded after "much prodding" by the 150 students gathered on McCullough Lawn.In addition to wanting formal acknowledgement that Middlebury was not, in fact, immune to racism, sexism and homophobia, moqa and other student groups called for an office of minority affairs, more faculty from underrepresented groups, "a gender studies/queer house" and an assessment of the College's race studies and gender studies programs. Around the time of the protest, then-Professor of Economics Richard Cornwall, an openly gay member of faculty who had taught at Middlebury for 21 years, tendered his letter of resignation, area newspapers reported. The climate surrounding gay issues at Middlebury was hostile, he said."It was a breaking point, a crisis," says Kevin Moss, professor of Russian. McCardell soon commissioned the College's Human Relations Committee to "assess, systematically and comprehensively, the current campus climate on diversity."The Committee submitted its findings to Old Chapel in March 1999. McCardell endorsed the report, and just over a year later, Associate Professor of German Roman Graf became Middlebury's first associate provost for institutional diversity. The new administrative department was given a broad mandate to oversee the College's diversity affairs - from the classroom to the admissions office to the social arena and beyond. From Point A to Point B?To say that the events of 1998 paved the way for continuous progress towards accepting and understanding the GLBTQ community at Middlebury would be untrue. The last six years have been peppered with obstacles and small victories alike. In September 1999, the moqa bulletin board in McCullough was vandalized. At the time, Moss called the incident "a minor act of terrorism." Moss, himself, is no stranger to such discrimination, having had a number of posters defaced or torn from his office door during his 20 years at the College. He returned to his office one day about four years ago to find the phrase "All fags should die" written on a flyer he had posted on his door in memory of Matthew Shepard. The closet once again became a symbolic battleground last fall when it was vandalized and demolished after surviving a week in the College's main quad. "At least, this time around, the closet was allowed to stand for most of the week," then-moqa Co-convenor Chris Atwood '03 told The Middlebury Campus. "Maybe Middlebury has experienced tepid progress."After establishing the Office of Institutional Diversity in 2000, the College followed up by hiring its first full-time women's and gender studies (WAGS) professor the next year. And in another step toward greater recognition of the GLBTQ community, Middlebury added gender identity and expression to its non-discrimination clause this July - 13 years after it became one of the first colleges in the nation to officially prohibit discrimination based on "sexual orientation."Demands for a "queer" house on campus have gone unanswered, although Chellis House, first established in 1993 as a "safe space" for women, currently serves a similar purpose for moqa.This year's increasingly visible GLBTQ community harkens back to the early 90s when the College's tendency towards increased dialogue about sexuality was palpable, if not always inclusive. The Opinions pages of The Campus were bursting with debate over homosexuality. A submission published in April 1991 that called homosexuality "unnatural" and "evil" was one of several to condemn members of the GLBTQ community. Moss, in his own article to the college paper, wrote, "I am both concerned and encouraged by recent discussions in The Campus." Such a response is not uncommon - as long as the issues are on the table, progress is a possibility, many say.The SilenceThere is no denying the existence of homophobic discourse at Middlebury. A number of openly gay students interviewed for this series - who never knew the Middlebury of 1998 - testified that they or someone they knew had been called a "faggot" or had received threatening voicemail and whiteboard messages from other students. ______, who chose Middlebury for its sprawling bucolic campus - "This is heaven," he remembers thinking - and its reputation for lan
guages, says, "There is only so much you can expect. Middlebury is not a horribly repressive place," he says. "It may not be as liberal as Greenwich Village, but it is certainly better than most places."More than vandalism, threatening comments or engrained homophobia, the silence surrounding sex and sexuality on campus is considered by many to be the GLBTQ community's greatest challenge. When Karl Whittington '04 came out to some friends at Middlebury three years ago, few people were talking about sexuality. Now, although there is "still way to much silence," the increasingly visible GLBTQ community is fast becoming a social and a support network for both those who are "out" and those still questioning their sexuality, he says. The climate at Middlebury is "accepting," says Elise Harris '06, who self-identifies as a lesbian. "Even though Middlebury describes itself as a liberal, open-minded place, people here are accepting when they first hear [about my sexuality] and then they never talk about it again.""To accept difference, you have to discuss difference," says Colin Penley '05.5, one of moqa's four co-presidents and also a junior counselor in Stewart Hall. Penley, who does not know "many people on campus who are as out" as he is, has noticed a changing climate on campus - Middlebury is more open, he says. "This year, there are a lot more people who are out in general."While many openly gay and bisexual students will take a stand when a friend or acquaintance uses homophobic language, some are still uncomfortable about "outing" themselves in a classroom setting.Which is not to say that Middlebury has failed to diversify its curriculum to include classes - not just limited to the WAGS department - that address queer theory and other topics relevant to the GLBTQ community. All four of Whittington's classes this semester - two in art history, one in religion and one in French - have touched on sexuality and queer identity. "These issues are on people's radar screens," he says.Moqa has done its part this semester to bring GLBTQ issues to the table, and it will continue to organize events throughout the year to promote visibility, education and acceptance. "It is my job to break the silence. But it's not just my job. And it's not just because I'm gay," says Jason Siegel '06, an active moqa member.Is this year a turning point in Middlebury's relationship with its GLBTQ community? By most accounts, it promises to be. With the College's Ally Group mobilizing to become an official student organization with a budget to hold lectures, symposia and social events, the increase in "out" students on campus and notable attendance at moqa- and Ally-sponsored events, the 2003-04 academic year could mark a permanent changing of the tides. "We're on the right track," Moss says.
(11/13/03 12:00am)
Author: Daniel Phillips Tabby Connor '04, chair of the Middlebury College Republicans, was one of the only outspoken conservatives at her Vermont High School, which caused a great uproar in her pronounced liberal surroundings, and even among her close friends. This same prejudice of political earmarking seeps its way all too often into classroom discussions at Middlebury College, squelching an otherwise quiet contingent of undergraduates who are gravitating more towards the right on many issues. According to the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Higher Education Research Institute, student conservatism has been on the rise for the past four years. Incoming college freshmen nationwide have voiced a distinct drop in support for casual sex, legal abortion, wealthy people paying a larger share of taxes and provision for gun laws. This resurgence of college conservatism under the current Bush administration recalls the years during Clinton's presidency when undergraduates instead tended toward more left-wing labels. And while conservative interest groups around the country have seized this opportunity to fuel and finance the recent wave, a youthful resurgence has rippled all the way to Middlebury's campus, as evidenced by the ranks of the College Republicans. With a committed core of close to 12 conservatives, about half of the College Republicans are first-years, all freshly recruited from this year's activities fair that added 20 new names to the right-wing bandwagon. Connor noted that the first-years at the meetings have been very enthusiastic about taking on future responsibilities for the organization and she hopes the club will prove more proactive with the increased involvement.Connor claimed, "We do not have a set of beliefs we go by because we have such a range of political views, mostly moderate. What connects us is a belief in a limited role of government. The extent of that role varies from person to person." Connor explained that the club's debate of formulating a consensus on current political issues gradually becomes more of a factual discussion. Facets of Activism"A lot of students see it as an outlet to state or local politics," said Connor, herself a delegate from Middlebury town voters to the Addison County Republicans. Drew Pugsley '04.5 is also heavily involved in local politics as a member of the national board of directors for the Republican Party, also holding a seat on the executive committees for Addison County and for the state of Vermont. Hailing from Ohio, Pugsley described the political environment in Vermont as very accepting of his party affiliation and noted that being chosen as state representative back home would have been much more difficult. He also would never have had the privilege of an invitation to the home of the Vermont Speaker of the House of Representatives for fresh maple syrup.At the club, said Pugsley, "We are more geared towards conservatism than the Republican party. If you say you are a Republican, you are going to get pigeon-holed." He has noticed that there are more conservatives on campus than in previous years, perhaps due to the increased interest in the club, which has also recently updated its constitution to herald the rising attendance. Pugsley also suspects that many of Middlebury students do not realize their conservative labels, but they probably have them. Connor agrees that, in general, the nation is seeing a rise in Independent voters - there is a shift of people becoming more moderate as presidential candidates are gravitating towards the center of the political fence. Connor thinks that the large number of Republican spokespeople in the current Bush administration contributes to this newfound undergraduate adoption of conservative tendencies because "people are hearing more of both sides." She also speculated that the offspring of the baby boomers, a generation known for its radical counterculture, will consequently want to be Republican, following the trend of children rebelling against their parents. On the AgendaLast year, all of the club members went to different state events, and many have volunteered for various levels of involvement in state and local politics, including the campaign of Vermont Governor Jim Douglas '72, a past member of the College Republicans. The club is working to set up a presidential debate with the College Democrats next spring, and is preparing for a breakfast with the Addison County legislators when local representatives have their meeting on Middlebury's campus. At the meeting, College students and local residents are invited to participate in discussions about what the legislative committees are working on. Next fall, they will attempt to hold a gubernatorial debate on campus, according to Pugsley. Conservatives in ClassSarah Jones '07 is one such voice of Middlebury conservatism. Brought up in Indiana, she has always been a "gung-ho" Republican. Jones explained how her parents had expressed concern for the political backdrop at Middlebury as early as their first campus tour together last year after seeing the plethora of anti-war propaganda posted campuswide. Still trying to adjust to her classes, she has found her new political environment at Middlebury as "kind of a test" that either made her question her previous beliefs or reaffirm them. "Sometimes it feels crushing because I feel like I am the minority here, but I never let that stop me," explained Jones. Although she has already encountered many students who are not politically active, "People on the whole are much more open. At Middlebury, people really strive for tolerance and appreciate other ideas," she said. Connor agreed. "There is a feeling that it is harder to be a Republican in college, but we are very fortunate at Middlebury with the level of tolerance. When I explain why I think the way I do," she continued, the reaction to her stance is often, 'Oh, I never looked at it that way before.' Annie Davies '06 expressed a similar opinion. "The College Republicans do not take a unified position - there has not been a need for that. We are trying to develop a sense of listening to other people's opinions. That is what Middlebury is all about," she said. Associate Professor of Political Science Matthew Dickinson, known for not wearing his political ideology on his sleeve, has noticed a Republican reticence. Dickinson explained how he devotes the beginning of each class period to a discussion of current events, and that he is very careful not present a "right or wrong policy." He even echoed the UCLA polls results by stating, "The vast majority of students have conservative leanings, but are not politically active. Generally speaking," he continued, "the more vocal students are liberally minded," thus making students who espouse more conservative ideals feel outnumbered. If the attendance of weekly College Democrats is any indication for comparison, anywhere from 17 to 27 students show up to discuss their left-wing beliefs, according to Jon Brand '05.5, chair of the club.Ruminating on ApathyActivism surrounding Ari Fleisher's visit to campus last fall threw into sharp relief the reigning political apathy of the late 1990s. As students, "We have a hard time deciding whether we are apathetic or just busy," Pugsley commented.Both Pugsley and Davies have never hesitated to voice their political opinions in class, and have felt comfortable that Middlebury professors have consistently mediated an unbiased forum for political discussion. Middlebury's curriculum is known as a "classical" liberal arts education, ensuring that college students receive a pol
itically impartial education rather than a professor's indoctrination. Politicized teaching, however, has been the topic of recent debate within a group of House Republicans. Last month, the group called on national colleges and universities to adopt an academic bill of rights to instill such intellectual independence in the classroom. The bill was introduced at the same time when the Independent Women's Forum released a study saying that classical freshmen courses at some of the best liberal-arts colleges - such as Bowdoin, Swarthmore, Williams and Amherst - have been supplanted by alternatives that disregard the achievements of Western Civilization.
(11/06/03 12:00am)
Author: Laura Rockefeller Sex, drugs and rock'n'roll were all part of the show in this weekend's production of Sam Shepard's wild play "Cowboy Mouth." The production, directed by Sarah Peters '04 in the Hepburn Zoo Theatre, was a passionate and intense roller-coaster ride of emotions, propelled by live music courtesy of Will Cleveland '04, Ryan Bogart '04, Perry Blackshear '05 and Matt Coons '04.The play, set in the early 1970s, delved into the relationship between a man and woman who were both driven by their worship of music and poetry, the longing to create and the need for the stimulation and support of each other. In her director's notes, Peters quoted Patti Smith, who collaborated with Shepard on the writing of this play, as saying, "We were ... trying to talk about two people that were destined - two big dreamers who came together but were destined to come to a sad end." And in watching the piece it became apparent that such an intense passion between two such dynamic artists was inevitably going to ignite, explode and finally consume itself in the blaze.Sheila Seles '05 as Cavale and Andres Arazoza '05 as Slim created a very convincing and deep relationship between their two characters - a relationship that changed rapidly from moments of desperately needing each other to frantically driving each other away. Seles gave a particularly striking performance, facing the fact that her character was chronically popping pills during the show and taking the freedom and abandon that resulted from the drugs to the extreme.The emotions and hysteria became so intense as Cavale took more pills and Slim drank more tequila, entering into a drug induced alter-reality of their own creation, that it was hard to really enjoy the play. But there was something fascinating and almost intoxicating in the mixture of the words and the music that kept the audience engaged. There was one particular monologue in which Slim, in an attempt to soothe Cavale, told the story of how he had once attempted to dam up a river. As he spoke, the flowing notes of the piano underscoring his speech echoed the sounds of the river and created a beautiful and poetic moment - a refreshing break from the screaming, swearing and loud drum beats.Perhaps the most memorable character in the production, and the most extraordinary, was "the Lobsterman." When Arazoza first picked up the phone and called "the Lobsterman" to bring them a lobster and a bottle of tequila, I assumed that he was just drunk. It never crossed my mind that a few moments later a loud banging on the drum would announce the entrance of a real Lobsterman - an actor in a full lobster suit, complete with enormous claws, tale, feelers and a very large, very yellow raincoat and hat. However, in marched Nick Cloutier '06 in his lobster suit, looking composedly around at unsuspecting audience members, who laughed uncontrollably, never imagining that this unnatural creature would in fact be the Savior for whom Caval had been searching for so long, and who would finally pull Slim and Caval apart.Although the play was difficult to watch with its incessant fever pitch of emotion, both in the acting and in the music, the characters and the world that they created through their imagination, the music and the remarkable set were gripping. Live music is a rarity in the Zoo, and it, along with the presence of the musicians' shadows behind the screen, added a deeper texture to the whole performance. It was a fascinating evening of theater that certainly made the spectators stop and think about what they had just seen.
(11/06/03 12:00am)
Author: Daniel Phillips Statistics can be misleading. Such is the case with recent sex offense statistics released by the Middlebury College Department of Public Safety on Oct. 20. Crime as a whole - robbery, burglary, aggravated assault and arson - has gone down on campus, but before the College breathes a collective sigh of relief, it should be aware that reported forcible sex offenses have more than tripled, rising from two reports in 2001 to seven in 2002, with one case already reported in the first half of 2003. A rise in reported sex offense statistics can be considered a good thing on any college campus, however paradoxical that may seem. It is widely understood that sex offenses, both forcible and non-forcible, occur regardless of whether or not they are in fact reported. According Middlebury Police Department Chief Tom Hanley, sexual assault, which includes, but is not limited to, rape, is the most underreported crime due to the stigma that is involved. Public Safety announced the first of the College's biannual publications of this year's reported security data, assembled by the Dean of Student Affairs Office and the Middlebury Police Department. The security report was released in compliance with the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act.The Police Department provides Public Safety with statistical information regarding crimes on public and private property adjacent or contiguous to campus, as defined by federal law. Hanley noted that hospitals are required by law to store the data of all tests taken from victims in an index within the Police Department's inventory. Victims of sexual assault are often particularly sensitive to the hospital investigation and court proceedings that could ensue after reporting such a crime, so most choose to remain unheard and unnoticed. "A big part of the reason sexual assaults have been underreported on this campus, and college campuses across the country," said Elizabeth Brookbank '04, president of Feminist Action at Middlebury (FAM), "is because there is a lack of awareness which makes survivors feel isolated." Brookbank continued, "People have the idea that this type of assault does not happen here. When it does, it is more likely that the survivor of the assault will blame themselves and less likely that they will report the incident."Brookbank explained how a woman's abililty to report a sexual assault comes from the knowledge that she is not alone, and that there is an aware, supportive community around her that will take the incident seriously. "The feeling and knowledge that Middlebury is a supportive community for survivors has been growing over the last couple years due to efforts by groups and individuals to increase awareness," said Brookbank in reference to a resurgence of community discussion about sexual assault that started two years ago. At the end of spring term 2002, a "study group" pioneered by Dean of Student Affairs Ann Hanson met to review the College's standing sexual assault policy. The group brought together representatives from the student body, the Department of Public Safety, the Office of Health and Wellness Education, Parton Health Center and the commons offices to address numerous concerns posted and published community-wide. One poster even accused the College of "silencing" survivors' voices. Assistant Director of Counseling and Human Relations Virginia Logan recalled that the Sexual Assault Policy Working Group (SAPWG) emerged because a comfortable climate for reporting offenses had not existed despite increasing community discussions about related issues. SAPWG met regularly last fall to address different aspects of the problem at hand. One group changed Handbook language, one dealt with the judicial situation and another addressed anonymous reporting. This fall, Hanson brought the discussion to the table at Community Council, which passed several recommendations last week. The issue of anonymous reporting still remains unresolved."I believe that the continued discussions in the community about the underreporting and the work of the Sexual Assault Policy Work Group helped to encourage people to make reports," commented Lisa Boudah, director of Public Safety and associate dean of Student Affairs. For as long as Brookbank has been a member of FAM, sexual assault has constantly been on the group's agenda, whether it was through posters, speakers, Take Back the Night events or other initiatives. "Raising awareness about sexual assault has always been a top priority for FAM, and it will remain one," Brookbank stated. According to Dr. Mark Peluso, medical director and team physician at Parton Health Center, two nurse practitioners and one nurse are currently participating in Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) training which will enable the Health Center to assess and treat sexual assault victims. In the past, students had to be referred to the Porter Hospital Emergency Room for assessment. "With this training and some equipment, we will be able to offer qualified assessments in both locations, giving victims more choice," said Peluso. "Our job at the Health Center is to provide compassionate care while respecting our patients' confidentiality. While we offer assistance and support with reporting, in the end it is the patient's choice that matters," said Peluso.The numbers do not lie. Members of the Middlebury community are reporting sex offenses. It is still unclear whether there has been an actual rise in sexual assaults on campus. Hanley claimed it would impossible to know for sure unless a scientific confidential survey was administered. "We have a refrigerator full of Jane Doe cases," he commented, citing anonymous victims who fail to follow through with investigations despite a recent push for education on assault. Logan had similar sentiments, conjecturing that the whole process, stimulated by an increased concern and a change in policy, has made many more people aware of these issues by working together for proactive change. "If people report more, there may be more the College can change to make a difference," she said.
(10/30/03 12:00am)
Author: Lanford Beard For the last three years I've been a snowflake snatched from the wintry sky. This year I want to be a Lesbian Avenger, donning a rainbow cape with pride and fabulousness. Halloween costumes speak volumes about a person.The moral majority, crazed though they be, have deemed Halloween a pagan holiday. In response, the PC parade tries to deflect from the Halloween's duplicitous deliciousness, its gluttonous goodness. Personally, I think these supposed drawbacks are the very foundations upon which we must base our entire outlook on life. We're college students! If we can't focus all of our energies on debauchery, we might as well find one night to howl at the moon - in crazy costumes!So, I'm going to lay down the law right here and now, friends. Oct. 31 shall no longer be called Halloween, rather Hallow-innuendo.Conception of costumes, likewise, must incorporate this zest for double entendre (get it, conception?).Researching the Hallow-innuendo offerings, I've guessed that there is a lot of pleasure to be had in making sumpin outta nuttin.Take a cue from basic nutrition, or its vicely counterpart empty calories, and dress up as an edible. Once you settled on a mouth-watering costume, the accompanying catchphrase will present itself. For example, Skittles - "Taste the rainbow" (for anyone who doesn't want to contend with my Lesbian Avenger garb but still wants to go on with their GLBTQ self).M&M - melts in your mouth, not in your hand (great for guys).Almond Joy & Mounds - For a couple: "Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't." Though, admittedly, the fact that Almond Joy has nuts and Mounds (come on, mounds?) don't is a bit confusing.Oh, the food possibilities are endless! But what about, say, film innuendos. As an aspiring film critic and a trash-film connoisseur, I would fail you, my faithful readers, to neglect Hollywood's over-sexed, under-clothed potential. Here are some to get you started."Pirates of the Caribbean" - "Shiver me timbers!" or "You can be in the movie of my life. It's rated arrrrrrr!""Fight Club" - "Hit me, baby, one more time." (And you'll get bonus eclectic points for combining Brad Pitt and Britney Spears... well, maybe you'll only get bonus points with me, but I'll definitely be hot, bothered and available.)"Stuart Little" - Actually, scratch that one, fellas. It will never work in your favor.For the ladies, I recommend "Gigli" - if you can't make something hot out of a film that involves J.Lo, J.Lo as a lesbian and a title that most people pronounce as "jiggly," then I really can't help you.So you see, friends, Hallow-innuendo, or the holiday formerly known as Halloween, is fun if you only approach it like the true hedonist you are. Embrace the tongue-in-cheek humor (get it, tongue-in-cheek?), and wear your costume with desperation as the good pagans intended.
(10/30/03 12:00am)
Author: Taylor Johnston After three weeks of deliberation, two recommendations for changes in the sexual assault judicial process emerged from the Monday, Oct. 27 Community Council meeting. The Council recommended giving sexual assault victims the option of participating in hearings through closed circuit television conferences and providing special training and debriefings for Community Judicial Board members who review sexual assault cases. The Council approved these sexual assault policy revisions, suggested by the Sexual Assault Policy Group, with some of its own caveats, in response to concerns raised about the evenhandedness of the proposed procedure. The Policy Group's plan for an anonymous reporting form and the creation of a smaller subgroup of the Judicial Board to review assault cases did not gain the Council's approval.President John McCardell will now consider the Council's recommendations. In an effort to educate the College about the possible new policies, the Council has also called for a community forum on the subject, which will take place before McCardell makes the final decision. Though both the Council and the Policy Group hope the provision for a hearing over closed circuit television will make the judicial process more comfortable for assault victims and encourage them to come forward, several members voiced concerns about the impact this might have on the rights of the accused, echoing the opinion of the College attorney who attended the last Council meeting to address this issue.Council members Hieu Nguyen, associate director of annual giving, and Felipe Colon '04 brought forward similar questions about the fairness of allowing the accuser to participate through television."If you have the accuser in another room you are already kind of victimizing [the accused] . . . [It makes you think] 'Look at this guy, this animal. She can't even be in the same room as him.' It creates this atmosphere," Colon explained. He later added, "Obviously, we can't forget the reasons why we're doing this, but we have to be prepared to have accountability."In addition to Colon and Nguyen's concerns about implied guilt, the Council addressed the importance of the right of the accused to face the accuser, an issue brought to light by the college attorney during the previous meeting. Assistant Professor of History and Council Member Louisa Burnham addressed this concern. "Facing your accuser doesn't necessarily imply breathing the same air [as your accuser]," she claimed.The Council ultimately decided to approve the recommendation on the condition that the possible disadvantages a teleconference hearing could pose to both the accused and the accuser be clearly enumerated to the Community Judicial Board before such a hearing took place. They also specified that an advisor must stay with the accuser for the duration of the hearing. The motion passed with ten approvals, one disapproval and five abstentions.The Policy Group's recommendation that assault hearings be tried by a smaller subgroup of the Judicial Board failed to resonate with the members of Community Council, who believed the diversity of opinions of the larger Judicial Board more valuable than the more intimate environment a smaller group might provide in order to limit access to sensitive details and encourage victims to come forward. The council unanimously adopted a motion to keep the current eight-person Judicial Board for assault cases, but did pass the recommendation to provide further education to the Judicial Board about sexual assault cases and allow members of the Board to discuss their feelings after the outcome of a case or appeal during a confidential debriefing. In an informal straw poll, the Council also voted to send the anonymous report form back to the Policy Group for reconsideration, feeling the form, as it stood, allowed too much room for false accusations, pranks, and inaccurate statistics."We want to [make sure we] know what the goal of [the anonymous report form is]," said Dean of Student Affairs and Council Co-Chair Ann Hanson. "If the goal is to make it easier for victims to report, that takes us one way, but if the goal is to get better information [about assaults on campus], that takes us another way. I'm not sure this report form is the best bridge between the two goals."Some Council members felt a survey by a professional polling company might better achieve the dual goals of awareness and improved information and education about sexual assault with more accurate statistics, but Policy Group member Elizabeth Brookbank '04 defended the importance of the form, sighting the success Colgate, Mount Holyoke and Skidmore Colleges have had with similar reporting methods."The actual numbers are secondary in importance to the awareness that [assault happens on campus] - the awareness that the numbers from the anonymous reports would give to other victims that they were not alone and that there were things they could do about it," Brookbank argued. "Obviously, this isn't a perfect solution, but I feel like it is better than what we have now. Isn't it better than not knowing [about the possible assaults] at all?"At the conclusion of the meeting, the council decided to send the report form issue back to the Policy Group rather than call for polling at this time. They offered that the form be reconfigured as an online option with set drop-down fields to eliminate the possibility that someone may put the name of a specific person, which might leave students and the reputation of the college vulnerable to pranks and false accusations.
(10/23/03 12:00am)
Author: Daniel Phillips The results are in: reported forcible sex offenses at Middlebury College have risen over the past two years, while crime as a whole - robbery, burglary, arson and liquor law violations - has decreased, according to the Department of Public Safety's annual security report. The definitions of on-campus crimes reported range from criminal homicide to larceny- the unlawful taking, carrying, leading or riding away of property from the possession of another- and have recently been compiled for the period of January 1 through June 30, 2003. The new numbers are published alongside the data from the complete years 2000-2002, and are recorded by geographic location on campus. The most disconcerting data are from sex offenses, which nearly jump off the page with eight forcible sex offenses reported on campus and in residential facilities from the start of 2002 until June 30 of this year, as compared to the total of three from 2000-2002. There have been no records of robbery, motor vehicle theft or aggravated assault since 2001, and liquor law violation arrests on campus and on public property have fallen steadily over the past two years. Offenses pertaining to judicial referral also reflect the decline in liquor law violations, while drug violations continue to rise sharply and consistently, climbing from 15 in 2001 to 64 in 2002, with 27 drug violations already recorded for the 2003 period until June 30.The crime statistics are assembled by the Dean of Student Affairs Office and the Middlebury Police Department and released annually in compliance with the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act. The Clery Act mandates the definitions of crimes listed, which are reported using the definitions described by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting program. The Middlebury Police Department provides Public Safety with "statistical information regarding crimes occurring on all public and privately held properties adjacent or contiguous to the campus as defined by federal law," notes the Safety and Security Handbook 2003, which can be obtained from Campus Security or online from an e-mail sent out to the College community on Monday. The Department of Public Safety actively seeks out reports from College officials, athletic coaches or advisors with "significant responsibility for students and campus activities," who are required by federal law to notify Public Safety of crimes defined under the Clery Act.And in accordance with years past, the College community will be glad to know that no crimes have yet been reported on the Bread Loaf campus.
(10/23/03 12:00am)
Author: Jillian Weiser On the anniversary of Matthew Shepherd's death, on the heels of Coming Out Week and in the midst of lobbying for a Constitutional amendment that would limit marriage to heterosexual couples, President Bush has created a week that condemns the possibility of same-sex marriage. Citizens across the country have expressed their outrage at Bush's Marriage Protection Week, and with good reason.National Marriage Protection Week occurred October 12 to 18, and was designed by Bush and the Alliance for Marriage as "as a week dedicated to preserving the sacred institution of marriage," which they see as "under attack." The official Web site, marriageprotectionweek.com, blatantly urges Americans to show their support and not to "bow down to the desires of the...homosexuals."In his proclamation, President Bush describes marriage as "a sacred institution... a union between a man and a woman."He goes on to applaud traditional, heterosexual two-parent families at the expense of any possibility for diversity, using the justification of "the well-being of children."I support Bush's effort to strengthen families and improve the environments in which children are raised. However, he is speaking from homophobia and bigotry rather than good sense.While Bush's argument that "children raised in households headed by married parents fare better than children who grow up in other family structures" can be backed up by statistics, it fails to take into account a number of other factors.First of all, the correlation between two-parent households and children "faring better" in life does exist, but it does NOT imply causation. Other factors in the family's environment also play a part, such as income, education, etc. There is even evidence that children of homosexual couples fare just as well as children of heterosexual couples, and indeed the sex/gender of the parents has little to do with a family's strength, health and supportiveness.Bush's intentions are sadly misguided by hatred, discrimination and fear. How can he believe that such condemnation of homosexuality, even calling homosexual relationships "harmful," can "work to create a compassionate, welcoming society, where all people are treated with dignity and respect"?Clearly, Bush's efforts to "promote the well-being of children" and "strength[en] our society" are effects of underlying homophobia and bigotry.
(10/23/03 12:00am)
Author: Abbie Beane Just because it's easy and it looks like a mistake doesn't mean it's not art. Or does it? As soon as you thought you'd heard it all, something even more minimalist arrived on the scene: "Paper Clip Art." With an entire online gallery devoted to the delicate twistings of a pair of small, deft hands, (which act according to the musings of an eccentric mind, or maybe even a bored one) each paper clip "sculpture" defends itself by providing the story of its inception - icing itself with just a bit more meaning. One of the earliest pieces, entitled, "Preying Mantus," was inspired when the artist, who goes by the name Andy Anonymous, tuned into the Discovery Channel. He claims that it took a significant amount of time to make. This is "an obvious commentary on the symbiotic yet turbulent relationship between man, nature and religion," he is quoted as saying. "One of my earlier works which took 3 weeks to complete."Another example, which Andy created five years later called, "Whipper-Snapper," originally entitled "An American's Vacation in Singapore," speaks "of something completely different than it did before it was finished - social injustices against the elderly." Yet one of the most questionable works is "Time and Being," a completely unaltered paper clip, which claims to have been inspired by the philosophies of Plato, Marx and Heidegger. In the artist's words, although the work is "deceivingly simple," "this profound piece brings us back to the womb where we are asked to re-examine the meaning of our own existence and vulnerability in the brutal gemeinschaft of today's modern world."You remember all of those paintings featuring a naked woman, a bowl of fruit or both? Paper clip art has got that all tied up as well. One of Andy's pieces is a model of just that - a woman lying on a blanket with a bowl of fruit, represented by two smooth steel curves and a small loop at the end reassembling a fist, or maybe that's the bowl of fruit?And if you never imagined that paper clips could get racy, "Firm and Round" exists to prove you wrong. The artist describes this piece, a loop tied at its two ends with an overarching section of clip rising over the middle and hooked into the original joint, as a project where "Physical desires abound -The unorthodox use of two clips represents the intertwining of the carnal and the cerebral. The thinking man's sex machine."So maybe Andy just had a little bit too much downtime at the office, maybe he needed a little more top down management, but then again, maybe he has a point in seeing the aesthetic potential behind such trivial, under appreciated objects. Still think this "art" ain't goin' nowhere? Well, just wait until Andy incorporates colored paper clips into the project. On the other hand, if you take a look at artist Justin Schlecter's paper clip gallery, you'll find some much more intense and intriguing sculptures. Unlike Andy, Justin uses more than one paper clip per piece and often upwards of 200. Though his pieces do not attach themselves to complex, spiritual meanings, they are an impressive display of his mathematical genius, respresenting intricate geometric shapes, with names such as the "Complex Icosahedron and the "Fancy Dodecahedron." And considering how business loves science, this guy might actually be going straight to the top of the paper clip ladder.
(10/23/03 12:00am)
Author: Erika Mercer Please, just indulge me for a moment while I stick my tongue out at all those critics who've dared claim that Belle & Sebastian has sold out with their newest album, "Dear Catastrophe Waitress." Sorry to say, you've missed the point.When the band's first album, "Tigermilk," hit record stores in 1996, hipster culture as we know it was just defining itself. Belle & Sebastian, with its shy, quirky persona and dark, clever sense of humor, gave many in this emerging culture an identity to latch on to - and stories to match their own lives. But now that Belle & Sebastian has grown out of their teenage angst stage (at least at little) and released an album that champions the brighter - and may we say poppier - side of life, hipsters everywhere are down their throats for selling out. Come on, folks. The world isn't really as gloomy as it seems. Belle & Sebastian is already out to prove its new worldview in the very first note of the album. Instead of opening with lead singer Stuart Murdoch's high, lonesome tenor, the band launches the album with a bang - or, if not a bang, then at least a bop. Drums, horns and strings signal the start of the new era, joined eventually by Murdoch's voice - "She called me up today / Meet me down at the old cafÈ / I jumped into the shower / I was getting my marching orders" - which gets its own marching orders from the song's quick beat. In addition to the bouncy tune, humorous innuendos also permeate the first song, "Step Into My Office Baby." Unlike the sexually frustrated lyrics of the band's previous albums, this song's lyrics take a playful stance toward sex: "She gave me some dictation / But my strength is in administration / I took down all she said / I even took down her little red dress." In other words, Belle & Sebastian is ready to have fun.This doesn't mean that the old Belle & Sebastian has been forgotten - first of all, the band has included a number of songs on the album which flaunt their trademark sound - try the fourth song, "Piazza, New York Catcher," or the eighth song, "Wrapped Up in Books." Longtime fans won't be disappointed. Yet, even in its more experimental songs, the band is just as clever as ever, toying with unexpected tempo shifts and biting deep with sarcastic lyrics. Just because they're happier now doesn't mean they're taking themselves any more seriously. In fact, this ability to laugh at themselves is their saving grace - and what keep several of the truly pop-happy songs on "Dear Catastrophe Waitress" - for instance, "If You Find Yourself Caught In Love," the tenth song - afloat. Besides, not all of "Dear Catastrophe Waitress" is as upbeat as it sounds on first listen. Sure, you'll find yourself bobbing your head and tapping your toes, but stop for a minute and listen to some of the lyrics: "I'm sorry if he hit you with a full can of Coke / It's no joke / Your face is bleeding / You'll soon be leaving this town to the clowns who worship / No one but themselves." Upbeat? Really? Growing out of their teenage angst doesn't mean that the world suddenly appears rose-colored to Belle & Sebastian. It just means that they've found a balance between gloom and cheer. "Dear Catastrophe Waitress" might sound childish and slap-happy to some, but listen closer - it's a sophisticated, experienced album, which endorses life's ironies, pleasures, and pains without succumbing to any of them. In the refrain of "If She Wants Me," the third song on the album, Murdoch sings, "If I could do just one near perfect thing I'd be happy / They'd write it on my grave, or when they scattered my ashes / On second thoughts I'd rather hang about with and be there with my best friend / If she wants me." This sentiment - one of mortality and joy in life's smallest pleasures - runs throughout the album and signals a new level of maturity in their songwriting, transcending the persistently downbeat and critical stance of the indie culture they helped create.
(10/10/03 12:00am)
Author: Lanford Beard I rue the day IM was invented.Okay, back up the bus. I don't rue the day, but I am slightly saddened by it.IM has snatched credibility away from courting rituals as we know them.Honesty? Forget about it. Joking flirtation? Meaningless. IM transforms even the most friendly of friendly banter into a breeding ground for misunderstanding, angst and eventual hostility.Don't get me wrong, I love being able to talk to friends in Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia (yes, folks, I'm from the dutty South), but when I'm communicating with someone who is not even one mile away, our relations are strained by the all-encompassing personality void that is IM.Case in point: I, along with countless others, have been guilty of talking on IM with a roommate (who is actually in the room) or a hallmate (who is only steps away).I have also frantically posted an away message to avoid a "buddy" who has just come online (and don't even get me started on the etiquette and pitfalls of the whole blocking tactic).So I ask: When did IM move into the arena of flirtation? If negotiating a conversation with your dearest friends whom you have known for years and even lived with can be treacherous turf, then how are we supposed to form intimate bonds using a medium that is specifically and purposefully the very antithesis of intimacy?What ever happened to oldfashioned, one-on-one encounters? Why do we have to pick up the slack for the computer age? I hate to pull the "Sex & the City" card, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Even Carrie Bradshaw herself was hesitant to join that newfangled e-mail trend to negotiate the tricky terrain of her romantic life (though she was, unsurprisingly, fabulously creative in choosing the moniker ShoeGal). What's more, when she did succumb to the evil empire of AOL-Time Warner, the plotline was ultimately a blip on the narrative radar-which is much more than I can say for America. Well, friends, Cupid is sending us a message. He's screaming at the top of his winged-and-naked lungs, "Get out of your rooms, you lazy asses! Get it like it was supposed to be gotten! Shake ya ass, watch yaself, shake ya ass, show me whatcha got!" Oh, sorry, disregard that last message. It was from Mystikal, not Cupid - how easily those two are confused!Well, rap-versus-romance confusion aside, all I have to say is this: In the over-involved, over-intellectualized, overwrought world of Middlebury, for better or worse)we certainly have not stepped into the over-sexed category. We have enough ambition to provide a stumbling block for our romantic endeavors, we don't need the internet to double the love lethargy.Put an end to all of this madness! Get your freak on where the folks of yore got it - McCullough.
(10/02/03 12:00am)
Author: Lanford Beard Justin may have walked away with a few Moonmen that night, but the minute Britney snatched a kiss from the infamous Boy Toy-cum-Caballah Mama at MTV's 10th anniversary Video Music Awards, we knew that this pre-Madonna was no longer "Like a Virgin."More than ever she was and is a slave for us, out to get-it, get-it... like that.Flipping through this week's "Rolling Stone," I rekindled my flame for Britney (Ms. Spears if you're nasty). I won't lie. It has been tough between Brit and me in the past. She's tried too hard, I've doubted her fidelity, and I was always annoyed by that fickle "Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman" nonsense, but I persevered because I understood that Britney was overprotected.Now that her new album drops soon and we will all be lost in a deluge of pictures of her half-naked, media-whore body, we must judge for ourselves whether this is the dawning of a new day for Britney or just one more stop on the path to nightclub hell in Vegas.However, like the Material Girl, Britney's attitude has morphed from "Love me, love me! I'm cute, young and single!" to "F- you, America. I smoke, drink, have sex and am polymorphously perverse." She dated Colin Farrell and Fred Durst and recently made an unscheduled club appearance in L.A. wearing jeans that had the phrase "No BS" stitched across her derrier, just in case you didn't get it.Another scoop, she's tapping into her naughty girl roots by exploring the scandalous world of throbbing bass-lines and suggestive lyrics - oh wait, she already did that. She's just being upfront about it this time.If you follow the examples of stars like Britney, Christina and Beyonce and compare them to the likes of Michelle Branch and Vanessa Carlton, it seems that the only two options for females in the music industry today is to be a dirty, exoticized/eroticized skank or a sugar-coated, angelic-voiced singer-songwriter. (However, record sales will undoubtedly suffer from taking the latter path. With the exception of the ill-fated Whitney, the angels don't get single-name recognition like the great Ms. Ciccone.)So back to Brit's back. With rumors still flying around about a Nascar movie and a job replicating the stunning dramatic chops of Daisy Duke in "The Dukes of Hazzard: The Movie," surely the old Brit isn't too far from home. Only time will tell on all of these conflicting personae and projects, but if Britney's new penchant for the four-letter words and her new found honesty with members of the elite press are any indication, we might as well resign ourselves while the down-home virgin-cum-audio porn star of the American mainstream reclaims her thrown as the reigning princess of pop.All this being said, I do love some Britney now and again, and I anxiously await the chance for her to hit me one more time or let out a little red-pleather-clad "Oops!" for old times' sake. She drives me crazy.
(10/02/03 12:00am)
Author: Abbie Beane We've got sex, we've got beer, and we've got all species of hard liquor, but don't worry Mom and Dad, we also appreciate French impressionism and contour maps. So I guess that means there's still hope for us. This weekend I visited 86 dorm rooms inhabited by students of both sexes and various majors, ages and ethnic backgrounds. Roaming around Ross, parading through Pearsons, bopping through Battell, combing the rooms of Coffrin, slinking through Stewart - actually it would suffice to say that I hit them all.And in my quest to uncover the starkest differences between how humanities majors go about interior design (as far as you can really practice "interior design" in a shoebox) as compared to science majors and what males find most "aesthetically pleasing" as compared to females, I also uncovered a few strange fetishes, a lot of even stranger odors and one three-foot tall bone called a "giraffe femur." It's hardly necessary to mention that everyone decorates with a bit of sticky laundry and a lot of dirty dining hall dishes. What you might not guess is that there isn't a vast difference between rooms of select age groups or between majors. Seniors' rooms aren't really any more distinguished or classy than those of first-years. I still have all the same tacky crap that I had freshman year, too. In fact, the only "upgrading" I've done is obtaining more cheap, useless curios and a Wyoming flag.The distinction only begins to surface when you've visited enough male and female suites to say, "Okay, why am I not surprised?"Women It seems not a lot has changed since my mom was a teenager. Approxiamately 36 percent of the female rooms I inspected had wedged old Led Zeppelin right in between Monet and Robert Doisneau. I won't attempt to over-analyze the "whys" of this phenomenon, but it seems as if it might give us chicks an edge. We're saying, "Hey, when it comes to our core, we're pure intellectualism and artistic beauty, but we'd go out for a wild night on the town with Led, too - oh, and have you seen my fishnets?" Which is not to discount that smaller percentage of females with landscape shots and topographic maps, Cubs' posters and hockey paraphernalia - or the ones who look like they live with Led by day and possibly, once in a great while, stop to appreciate art on the way to the beer pong exhibit (like me). The other piece that approxiamately 24 percent of girls boast is the poster of Rockefeller Center, "Eating above Manhattan." This may only be because it's a regular at the poster fair, though I'd rather think that it's because even overly choosy college girls wouldn't banish a good, hardy construction man from their circle of dating possibilities. On the contrary, seems like they'd never even dream of discounting the French. If you took every poster with a French connection that I saw this weekend, within the female sector, and divided them up evenly amongst the 43 girls that I visited, each would walk away with a total of approxiamately two and a half French posters. The two most popular were Matisse and Van Gogh. In fact, nearly 67 percent of girls claim at least one Van Gogh - I bet those guys wish they were college boys again. MenThis is the part where I talk about how surprisingly exciting I found the male dorm rooms to be, despite the fact that they were so unsurprising. As you all probably figured, this is the point where I talk about sex and alcohol. In fact, out of 43 rooms, I only saw two female rooms with anything mildly sexually suggestive or alcoholically oriented. As for male dorm rooms and male suites in particular, the numbers speak for themselves: Each male suite inspected, out of 15, had an average of nine liquor and beer decorations spread among the hall, the sitting room and the bathroom and an average of six sexually suggestive posters - and we're not talking "mildly" suggestive either, folks. Five had more than 23 decorations that fell into this racy category, meshing the two types, sex and alcohol, together. This does not even include marijuana art - the numbers would be much higher. I suppose the most amusing part about all of this was the enthusiasm these men expressed in helping to point out all of their pornography and booze related "art." Every time I thought I had an accurate count of the number of "skin posters" and neon beer signs, I turned a corner, looked behind a door or tipped my head up toward the ceiling and found just one more. They were crawling about everywhere, just waiting and ready to spring. Mixing these numbers with the dangerous levels of zeal I encountered, I would say that the male message is very clear: "We're here, we like beer and if you're female please come in - oh, and did we forget to mention our intoxicating levels of masculinity?" Surprisingly, however, there was no significant difference in the number of sports related decorations between males and females. The most popular sport seems to be skiing, of course, of which just over 58 percent of these posters belong to the men and the other 42 percent to the women. The way men express that they think about more than just sex and booze is through maps, which if added up and divided amongst all of the males visited, would come out to approximately three maps per male student.As a WholeThere are things, however, that we all share, such as tapestries, mood lighting and pride in where we go to school. The Middlebury poster with the munching cows was the most popular, seen in 28 out of the 86 rooms, and each student has an average of approximately 1.8 tapestries. I'd guess this tapestry fetish stems from the fact that they're large and will cover the walls without much effort - and then of course they also make us look funky, even if we're boring and uncreative.Finally, band and movie posters are fairly gender neutral, as well. About 77 percent of you have either one or the other and the most common for both groups is a Beatles decoration, in some form or another. In fact, nearly 21 percent of rooms visited had an Abbey Road or a Yellow Submarine poster. The other two on the top three list? The Grateful Dead and Phish. Movies were a little less consistent in winning student hearts.
