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(10/10/12 11:58pm)
For the past 15 years, the College’s Environmental Council (EC) has worked to further the College’s efforts on sustainability and to spread environmental awareness in the community. The EC recommends changes on the College’s sustainability policy and acts as an adviser to its President.
Avery McNiff ’12, the current sustainability communications and outreach coordinator, spoke to the high level of commitment behind the group.
“The call for applicants helped to recruit individuals who feel connected to our initiatives,” said McNiff. “[They] are excited about making significant progress and improvements this year.”
The EC acts to advise policy in four specific working groups: carbon neutrality, food and dining, grants, and “greening athletics.”
The phrase “greening athletics” is appropriately vague, as the EC has already tackled many small issues in the athletic department through sustainability initiatives such as replacing light fixtures in the athletic center and creating team environmental liaisons.
Now, the Council has plans to move on to more challenging topics.
Andrew Gardner, head coach of the Nordic ski team, has coordinated the athletic department’s sustainability program since 2005 and has been generally inspired by athletes’ environmental prerogative.
“The most impressive thing I’ve noticed in my time here is that most of the sustainability initiatives are self-driven from athletes,” said Gardner. “Not much has been mandated, meaning that every positive step we’ve taken has been done because people have been invested in it.”
These athlete-led initiatives cover a wide range of projects, including the lacrosse team “offsetting its season” by purchasing carbon allowances, to the ski team’s van running on vegetable oil for the past three years.
One of the central undertakings of the Council will involve changing the athletic culture’s ideology to reflect more of the institution’s overall sustainability mission.
In many ways, this concept is groundbreaking in the athletic community, an arena in which success is defined by reaching material wealth through stellar play. The world’s top athletes have new product lines and video games every season, which only encourage more consumption. This ideal is what Gardner seeks to upend.
“In competition, athletics is about efficiency and doing things cleanly,” said Gardner. “Athletes must extend this efficiency into their ways of life. For a skiing coach, climate change has a direct relationship with not achieving environmental sustainability, making sustainability something athletes should strive for.”
In other words, no snow means no skiing.
While most do not have their own product lines, athletes at Middlebury can play their part.Since 2005, Gardner has made a specific point of tracking how many cars enter and leave Kenyon parking lot each day for practice. What he found was that on an average day nearly 60 cars come and go between four and seven.
“In the time that I’ve been here, driving has increased substantially,” said Gardner. “It would be great to see fewer cars arriving every day, and some teams have certainly taken this on.”
Gardner spoke to the “missionary” aspect of the “greening,” in hopes that those who are dedicated to environmental issues already will spread the program’s message among athletes, coaches, fans and the community at large.
As the Environmental Council continues its work this year, look for more open parking spaces.
(10/10/12 10:28pm)
As a small liberal arts college, Middlebury proves that bigger is not necessarily better —at least when it comes to environmental responsibility. In recent years, the College has paved the way for some of the most advanced and environmentally friendly energy systems among colleges and universities in the country.
In 2004, the College set the goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2016. In 2009, the biomass plant, located beside McCullough Social Space, became operational in order to aid the efforts in achieving this goal. Although the plant cost the College $12 million, it has cut fuel oil use in half, reducing consumption from two million gallons per year to one million gallons. Additionally, the biomass plant has helped to reduce the College’s carbon footprint by 40 percent. The current footprint is measured at 18,000 metric tons of carbon.
The steam production process requires 20,000 tons of woodchips annually. These woodchips come from mill residue and bole tree chips, and all are sourced within a 75-mile radius of the College.
Since its early years as a research operation, the biomass project has grown to become even more efficient than the manufacturer first believed possible. Presently, other schools, including University of South Carolina and Eastern Illinois University, are looking to the the College’s system as a model for their campus energy systems. Director of Sustainability Integration Jack Byrne believes the success of biomass at the College can be attributed to the community’s dedication to the project over the years.
“[The College is] doing a good job of figuring out how to make it work really well,” said Byrne. “I think as a result, we have had a lot of people who are considering systems come to us to find out how we do it. We’re a valuable resource for advocating this system.”
The biomass plant creates energy for the entire college by converting woodchips into steam and energy. Twenty thousand tons of woodchips are used annually to heat dorms and create 20 percent of electricity on campus. The steam then condenses back into water and is transported back to the plant to be turned into steam again. An underground piping system facilitates the transport of steam throughout campus.
While other schools like Colgate University and Bennington College utilize heat energy from the wood burning process, the College’s system uses a gasification process where chips are converted into gas, leaving only mineral ash, which produces more efficient and cleaner energy.
The biomass plant started as an idea discussed by the Environmental Council in accordance with a 2004 winter term class focusing on carbon reduction. Ultimately, the Council and other supplementary groups set a goal to reduce the 1990-level emissions by 10 percent by 2012. After putting together a report including potential results, costs and savings, they recommended the biomass plant as a way to achieve this goal.
Before the construction of the biomass plant, the College used two million gallons of fuel oil (propane number six) per year to produce the required amount of energy. Known as a “dirty” fuel, number six comes from the bottom of the barrel, and produces and releaes more carbon dioxide emissions than most other fuel sources.
Despite these efforts, the amount of woodchips that the biomass plant requires is larger than one may think. Each student uses 39 pounds of woodchips and one gallon of number six fuel oil per day, much more than one might expect.
To reduce the number down to zero before the 2016 deadline, the College is looks to an unlikely source: manure.
Recently, the College signed a contract with a developer who is planning to build a manure digester on a dairy farm. Manure is considered to be carbon neutral because it originated from grass.
This developer would deliver biomethane for 10 years in order to supplement the gas provided by the biomass plant. If enacted, the use of biomethane would reduce carbon emissions by 13,000 metric tons, leaving just five tons remaining.
The College is also considering other options, including renewable diesel oil and better management of the large amounts of agriculture land.
College-related travel and waste still remain obstacles to achieving carbon neutrality. Administrators remain unsure of how to account for the use of college-owned vehicles and transportation to sponsored conferences, which are not currently factored into the overall carbon footprint. Additionally, while 65 percent of our waste is recycled, the rest goes to a landfill in the northeastern part of Vermont.
To reduce the amount of waste and energy produced, the Environmental Council is developing an energy literacy campaign to educate students on how much each activity affects our environment. Supplemental to the campaign is an energy pledge which will be unveiled at the end of October. Council members hope other planned events like campus sustainability day on Oct. 24 will encourage environmental awareness by providing all local foods in the dining hall, among other initiatives.
“Through our efforts we are teaching and reminding the student body how to effectibely reduce their carbon emissions,” said council member Piper Rosales Underbrink ’15.
Avery McNiff ’12 currently works alongside Director of Sustainability Integration Jack Byrne as the student sustainability, communications and outreach coordinator. Her job entails communicating Middlebury’s sustainability efforts to students. McNiff believes that educating the community to become involved is an integral part in making carbon neutrality a possibility by 2016.
“The best part of this job is working with students who really care about reaching our goal of carbon neutrality and who are passionate about working on issues regarding the environment on and off campus,” said McNiff. “Students have amazing ideas and visions and have been a huge force behind the carbon neutrality goal and sustainability efforts in general.”
Byrne also understands the importance of student involvement and hopes that by increasing student awareness, cutting the carbon footprint will become an easier task.
“We’re putting the emphasis this year on getting more student involvement around energy use,” said Byrne. “What we are hoping is that we will have a majority of students really understanding how to use energy in their dorm rooms, cars and using best practices.”
While carbon neutrality by 2016 is a lofty goal, Byrne believes the goal shows the College’s dedication to environmental responsibility and that our community can set an example to others.
“This all emanates from our concern [which emerged] years and years ago that climate change was a serious issue,” he said. “We have one of the most ambitious plans of any college or university in the country. Carbon neutrality by 2016 is pretty bold. The resolutions [the trustees] passed demonstrate that we want to do it in a real, substantive way on our own.”
Olivia Noble ’13, an environmental studies major with a focus on policy, said that the plant is a positive addition to the campus’ eco-frendly infrastructure, but that more still needs to be done in order to achieve carbon neutrality.
“Since the building of that plant, few major projects have made their way through the woodwork that would notably reduce the carbon footprint of this campus,” said Noble. “Partially this is because a lot of that support from the students faded away, partially because of the recession. Now that the deadline is creeping up on us, the College is piquing its interest again, so maybe we’ll see more action on this front, but I am pessimistic in thinking that we will make the deadline in a meaningful way.”
(10/10/12 10:17pm)
I was having lunch with friends from my environmental class the other day at Ross. We were all starving after the long lecture, and the long line in Ross made us even more hungry. One of them took half a plate of turkey and two slices of cheese pizza.
We had great conversation about the issue of food waste on campus, and everyone agreed that something needs to be done to reduce food waste.
After lunch when we were taking our plates to the dish rack, I snuck a glance of my friend’s plate. I doubted that he ate any of the turkey.
I asked him why he didn’t finish the food, and he said he was so hungry that he took more than his stomach could handle.
Things like wasting food while talking about food waste happen a lot among students.
How can we throw away paper that is only printed on one-side while criticizing the logging industry in Brazil? How can we leave refrigerators, laptops and other devices in our dorms plugged in 24 hours a day while encouraging others to save energy? How can we drive to the gym to work out while fretting about climate change? How can we act one way, while advocating something completely different?
My parents never complain about the logging industry or climate change with me, but they also never waste food. Sometimes when we’re very hungry, we cook too much as well. But we always save it for another meal. Or we just finish it and get really full.
Next time when we are hungry again, we can remind ourselves of the consequences of preparing too much food and learn to cook the right portions.
For my grandparents’ generation, they never wasted food because food was so valuable at that time in China.
For my parents’ generation, they don’t waste food because their parents taught them not to.
I remember my grandparents convincing me at age four to finish the last bit of my rice because “if you don’t do so, your boyfriend in the future will have as many pocks as the number of rice that got left in your bowl.”
Since I really didn’t want my boyfriend to look like that, I always finished all my rice.
When I grew older, my parents told me that we should be grateful for the food we eat because there is always someone else in this world starving and suffering. I accepted their reasons to not waste food not because those reasons are moving and touching, but because I know they treasure every single bit of food themselves.
On weekend mornings when my family enjoys breakfast together, we always have a competition to compare whose bowl is the cleanest. After eating our porridge, we always lick the bowl, careful to not let the last drop of porridge be wasted.
It is not convincing if I encourage my friend to finish the vegetables on her plate with my plate full of leftovers.
It is not convincing at all for us to talk about environmental awareness without meeting the standards ourselves.
(10/10/12 9:17pm)
In the environmental studies department, students and professors strive to research innovative solutions to environmental issues.
Projects and interests range from building sustainable housing to studying the composition of minerals.
The program is in its 46th year, and is still going strong.
Professor of Geology Peter Ryan works in mineralogy and geochemistry.
Ryan is on academic leave this year, and will travel to for Spain this January to further his research.
“My research is more or less split into two topics: the geochemical and mineralogical analysis of bedrock-derived arsenic and uranium in Vermont ground water, and the mineralogy and geochemistry of soils developed on terraces along the tectonically active Pacific coast of Costa Rica,” said Ryan.
His work with Vermont ground water (in collaboration with his students, as well as Jon Kim of the Vermont Geological Survey) contributed to passage of a new groundwater testing law in Vermont.
In addition, his work in Costa Rica could also have the same impact.
“[It] has implications for understanding the rates and pathways by which young, nutrient-rich soils evolve into the classic nutrient poor oxisols of the tropics,” he said.
Students are also hard at work with their own projects.
Assi Askala ’15 is organizing a conference, scheduled for mid-March, tentatively called “Youth in the New Economy.” She explained the objective of her creation.
“We have the local foods movement,” she said. “We have the Socially Responsible Investment Club. We have the Sunday Night Group, which is very climate oriented. But there’s not a lot of connection between these different groups, there isn’t awareness that they’re all tackling the same problem [and] trying to change the same system.
But they are all part of what our society and economy is going through right now.
So what I want to get out of [this conference] is a link between those groups. [I want to] raise awareness that there is an alternative working economic model out there.”
Both Ryan and Askala embody the all-encompassing environmental ethic that pervades this campus.
From their own unique angles, they are trying to tackle the intertwined economic and environmental challenges faced by this generation.
This isn’t a new phenomenon here at the College.
The environmental studies (ES) program web page boasts of the oldest undergraduate ES program in the country, “with over 900 graduates in 46 years.”
The program declares that “environmental solutions cannot come from one type of knowledge or way of thinking, not just from politics or chemistry or economics or history.
They will come instead from leaders, thinkers and innovators who can draw skills and knowledge from multiple fields of knowledge and work with teams of thinkers from every corner of the campus and the globe.”
Phoebe Howe ’15 is an architecture and environmental studies joint major currently taking core environmental studies courses in addition to the standard courses for her major.
“We aren’t spoon-fed how architecture and the environment overlap,” said Howe.
“It’s about taking classes from two different fields, and then you have to apply the two concepts on your own,” she added. “Even when I’m not focusing specifically on sustainable architecture in an architecture studio, I still end up applying concepts from my environmental studies class.”
Howe noted that this kind of education was essential for both a broad knowledge of both topics, as well as synthesis.
“It’s the epitome of liberal arts education,” she said. “You’re given two disparate topics, and you have to take the initiative to unify your overall education. And it works. It’s effective.”
But the environmental ethic extends beyond the classroom and beyond the environmental studies program.
The level to which the ethic has permeated the campus speaks to the College’s commitment to the environment on a broader scale.
Middlebury’s Solar Decathlon team embodies this commitment.
It’s a team that competes in a challenge set forth by the U.S. Department of Energy: “to design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive.”
Howe was also on the Solar Decathlon design team last spring, and she spoke about her personal experience.
“To accomplish something, it involves carving time out of your schedule and making time in your day and in your life to be more conscious and intentional about what you’re doing,” she said.
Middlebury College will be returning October of 2013 to the Orange County Great Park in Irving, California where the next Solar Decathalon will be held.
According to Middlebury’s page on the official Solar Decathalon website, the Middlebury team had this to say; “We see a house as just one piece of larger human and natural ecosystems.
We strive to design a house that embodies the principles of a centralized community that reduces demands on transportation while facilitating greater personal interactions.
By realizing the potential of underutilized spaces, we aim to integrate a house into an existing walkable community—to suggest a model of living that is applicable on any scale. With history and nature as our guides, we hope to design a home that reflects a community and a lifestyle for a sustainable society, economy, and environment. “
(10/10/12 9:14pm)
In the atrium of the Johnson Memorial Building, sculptures featuring welded steel rods, paper, fabric, wood and many other materials have taken their final place in a new exhibit.
This exhibit, “Line in Space: Just a Corner of Your Memory Palace,” features work from the studio art class Sculpture I, and it officially opened to the public on Wednesday.
While passersby will appreciate the uniqueness and visual appeal of the exhibit, they might not look at each piece in terms of its component parts.
Artists, however, do think in these terms, and an important question today, in light of climate change and pollution in general, is the impact that certain art materials might have on the environment.
Professor of Studio Art Jim Butler notes that art has largely phased out harmful chemicals over time.
“When I was a student, turpentine was used as a solvent,” he said.
“Today we use mineral spirits instead, which are much better for the environment.”
Butler also mentioned that in printmaking, “water-based ink has replaced oil-based ink” and that toluene, a solvent used to dissolve paints, “is not used in the field anymore.”
“ Also,” said Butler, “at the College we reuse work rags they are collected and washed by the school. You don’t use old ragged T-shirts and then throw them out like in the past.”
Echoing Butler’s sentiment, Visiting Assistant Professor of Studio Art Sanford Mirling, who is teaching Sculpture I this fall, added that the safer solvents are also disposed of in accordance with the College’s policy on handling hazardous materials.
“We make sure those materials are taken care of properly,” he said.
As is the case with many college art programs, a culture of reusing and recycling pervades the studio art program here.
“First of all,” said Associate Professor of Art Hedya Klein, “if it still has life to it, we store items for later art making. Recycling services picks up wood shavings, paint, paper and metal. We sort these out for them, and I know they have different piles for everything.”
Mirling makes a point to get the most use out of materials, citing the current “Line in Space” exhibit as an example.
“Evio’s piece incorporates a blue curtain, which we’ll use again,” Mirling said, pointing out the installation by Evio Isaac ’13, which consists of a large blue curtain hung by wire and resembles a leaning tepee from one angle.
“The Plexiglass in his piece has been reused three times,” he said.
In fact, one goal of Isaac’s instilation was to only purchase materials that could all be used more than once.
Katie Rominger ’14, also a student in Sculpture I, reused materials for her instillation, a towering curtain that incorporates steel, cloth and surgical masks, amongst other items.
“They [the art department] provide us with a lot of reused fabric,” she said. “I feel like there is a decent amount of reused material.”
Although he agrees that people in the studio art department reuse material, Misha Gershcel ’13 feels that some waste is inevitable.“Some things you just end up throwing out,” he said. “Although spray paint can’t be great for the environment, it’s convenient and sometimes I use it on projects.”
Gerschel also added that in comparison to the bigger picture, “the carbon footprint that art leaves is a drop in the bucket. Art also has intrinsic value; you can ‘upcyle’ by reusing old materials to make something new and better,” he added.
Professor of Studio Art Jim Butler emphasizes the department’s awareness of the issue and their efforts to minimize the impact of art waste on campus.
“Talking to my colleagues — it’s a big concern. You know, this country has so many materials you don’t have to buy new ones.”
(10/03/12 10:34pm)
So, anybody interested in talking about climate change? No? How about global warming? Wait, that isn’t politically correct anymore. How about rising sea levels, significantly more expensive living, increased health problems and the prospect that our children (assuming procreating is something some of us plan on doing someday) could inherit a world almost entirely different from the one we inherited from our parents? Oh, now I’ve got your attention? Wonderful.
It seems like every time someone brings up the giant invisible pink elephant in the tiny glass room, three kinds of people reveal themselves. The first are those who, upon catching wind of anything remotely related to climate science, will tell you that you need to stop driving anywhere starting at that exact moment in time, lest you feel somewhat content with bearing the burden of thousands of dead polar bears on your shoulders. The second are those who, in fact, are totally okay with that responsibility, and may even tell you those big fuzzy white things have had it too good for too long and that ice caps are overrated anyway. And then there’s probably the largest group of the three: those who don’t lean towards either extreme, may not feel all that strongly about the matter and can’t figure out for the life of them why the first two groups can’t seem to get along.
Just in case any of you new students had any doubts, Midd Kids do in fact come in all three flavors. I’ve come in contact with each, I swear. And that’s alright, because everybody in our “Mr. Rogers” generation has told us that we’re all special and entitled to our own opinions.
But then there are pesky things that hold on to their truth-value regardless of whether or not you believe them. Like the scientific research that shows that people living downstream or downwind from factories are more likely to contract nasty things like asthma and cancer. Or that carbon dioxide and certain other gases exhibit insulating properties, especially when they’re pumped into the atmosphere. And we can’t possibly forget the seemingly constant stream of abnormal weather patterns we’ve seen develop over the course of the last few decades.
All these things are here, for better or worse, no matter how hard we try to convince ourselves that they’re not. There’s just a very strong correlation between pumping exponentially larger amounts of carbon into the atmosphere and experiencing exponentially more awful things on this Earth. Now wait, hold on, I know what you’re thinking, “Didn’t this guy say he was a pragmatist in that last article?” I implore you, believe me when I say that even though I haven’t taken stats yet, I like to think I’ve got enough common sense to know that correlation and causation aren’t the same thing. But what if I said that correlation could, and maybe even should, be reason enough to make a change or two in our high-energy consumer lifestyles?
Let’s talk again about a couple more of those facts I brought up earlier. First, as much as some of the politicians in this country would like to think, the fossil fuel stores on this planet are not infinite. With that in mind, maintaining an economy that relies on cheap, combustible energy seems an awful lot like subscribing to a lifestyle of planned obsolescence without any inkling or care as to where we’re going to find the next one. For the short-term, building an America fueled by a cleaner kind of energy coursing through its veins may seem like a daunting task compared to coasting along complacently and continuing to support our dinosaur-derived-hydrocarbon addiction. And it is, but the cost of inaction will probably be even more terrifying.
Don’t take this as fear-mongering; look at it instead as a challenge to rethink whether or not we are willing to take the gamble that we don’t have as much power over the way this planet works as science has shown. Because passing up the opportunity to tackle the coming crisis head on and find a way to reinvent our existence is essentially betting against ourselves. Some of us may be able to afford that wager, but the overwhelming majority of the people on this world can’t.
That seems pragmatic enough to me.
(10/03/12 8:35pm)
For the planners of JusTalks, an initiative to foster dialogue on issues of identity, Middlebury is a school with one element missing.
“We don’t talk enough about identity,” said Hudson Nicholas ’14 who is helping organize JusTalks.
This student-driven social intiative will begin on Jan. 18, 2013 with a keynote address followed by a day of large group activities and small discussion sessions. JusTalks was born from the concerns of a group of students, many of whom are memebers of Middlebury’s Social Justice Coalition.
The creators of JusTalks initially petitioned the school to add a course requirement on issues of race and identity. When this petition failed to achieve change, they came up with the idea for JusTalks, which, according to Alice Oshima ’15, will be required for first years starting in the fall of 2013.
After the event’s conception, the group held endorsement meetings with various clubs on campus, gaining a large group of supporters.
JusTalks sees their upcoming programming during Winter Term as away to foster a more diverse community.
Another founding JustTalks member, Katie McCreary ’15, believes that the College will benefit more from encouraging a more understanding climate on campus, instead of actually recruiting a more heterogenous student body.
“I went to public school in Washington, D.C. ... It [had] people from all over the city, from the wealthiest to some of the poorest. I think a lot of students here don’t really get that opportunity because Middlebury itself is pretty homogenous. [Race and identity are] not necessarily discussed a lot,” said McCreary.
Oshima sees JusTalks as a starting point for the larger goal of establishing a more diverse social climate at the College.
“I think JusTalks is just a beginning step to a much larger change I would like to see happen,” said McCreary.
“I guess a broader goal would be to have a more diverse welcoming community, and the more we learn about each other and each other’s differences, the more that community will be created.”
Though the group is excited for an opportunity to spark dialogue, which they hope will help to create broader changes in the campus, they remain concerned about a few key issues.
Nicholas fears the event will come off as generic and pedantic but stresses that JusTalks is a unique opportunity to discuss important issues, not assert any one opinion.
“I think what we’re trying to do is put [students] in a situation that allow the things that they care about to come out, instead of [the students] having some preconceived notion of where the conversation is going to go,” he said.
Oshima worries people will not feel JusTalks is right for them if they do not identify with a minority group.
“We’ve wanted to make sure that someone who is a white male who is heterosexual, able, who doesn’t feel discriminated against ... that that person doesn’t feel like JusTalks is not for them,” said Oshima.
“Everyone is totally welcomed,” she added.
(10/03/12 4:32pm)
This weekend the Middlebury College Alumni Association (MCAA) hosted the 36th Alumni Leadership Conference at the Bread Loaf Inn, an event that provided alumni volunteers with an opportunity to reconnect with the college community and to learn about recent campus changes. In an interview with the Campus, MCAA board members urged students to reach out to alumni for job opportunities and career advice.
The conference included planning sessions with MCAA members, as well as presentations by Dean of the College Shirley Collado and President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz. While the MCAA hosted the weekend, attendees included members of the Annual Fund Executive Committee as well as many college alumni.
In an interview, MCAA President Suzanne Daley ’96.5, MCAA Vice President Robert Sideli ’77 P’08 P’13 and former MCAA President Zach Borque ’01 emphasized the importance of the relationship between the Alumni Association and the College.
“We want alumni to ask for lots of things, big or little, that we can help you with – moving to a city, getting a job – we’re there to help,” Daley said. “We want to improve the visibility of the MCAA so that alumni around the world understand that their relationship with the College doesn’t need to end upon graduation.”
Daley further explained that the College should seek to reach out to alumni with even greater interest now, given the challenging economic climate.
“With the recession, that’s where alums stepped up … the recession was an impetus for alumni to say ‘How can I help a fellow Midd alum?’” she said.
The MCAA is comprised of a board of directors who work directly with college administrators, and relies on a team of volunteers drawn from the expansive pool of undergraduate alumni, graduates and attendees of the Bread Loaf School of English, Language Schools and Bread Loaf Writers Conference.
This volunteer team provides significant support for the College. Last year alone, the MCAA volunteer alumni handled 5,000 admissions interviews — a significant component of the admissions process.
This group is also responsible for providing support for current students seeking internships and alumni looking for jobs. The MCAA further organizes and promotes events for alumni, such as lectures and networking functions through local chapters — all in the name of promoting connectedness between those who share the Middlebury network.
In a presentation to attendees, Liebowitz spoke of the relevance — and cost — of a Middlebury education today. The President stated that he believes that the global economy will be shaped by students who have been trained in the liberal arts, and who have had their study grounded in practical training.
To this end, Liebowitz acknowledged the importance of Education In Action programs in providing students with opportunities to supplement their theoretical education with practical experience.
When asked in an interview about the Alumni Association, Liebowitz explained, “(the) MCAA is trying to get its arms around the entire Middlebury community to increase the influence and scope of our network.”
Written by ADAM OURIEL and NATE SANS
(09/26/12 11:41pm)
Each election year, an overenthusiastic media tries to convince us that a single verbal slip-up can destroy a Presidential campaign. Gaffes are reported endlessly, featured in attack ads, defended and debated, only to retreat from the limelight and be forgotten come Election Day. This year has featured several such gaffes, and now, a leaked video showing Governor Romney speaking off-the-cuff to donors has entered the media frenzy. Romney’s comments in the video have been labeled as “devastating,” “a rolling calamity,” and “an utter disaster” by the New York Times, Huffington Post and MSNBC, respectively. Bloomberg News even asserted that the video “has killed Mitt Romney’s campaign for president.” But while the liberal media has blasted the tape, voter polling has remained steady at 47 percent for Obama, 46 percent for Romney.
In the video, Romney asserts that “47 percent of the people ... will vote for the president no matter what ... 47 percent who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it ... these are people who pay no income tax.” While this quote grossly simplifies a complex problem, it is true that for various reasons, over 46 percent of American households pay no federal income tax. Nevertheless, I would hope that Romney understands that this 46 percent contains war veterans, college students, retirees and unemployed workers — not just government freeloaders. Also, declaring that this 46 percent will support President Obama “no matter what” is a bizarre exaggeration, as many of these people want jobs and thus want to pay income tax and therefore want a new president who can make that happen.
“We should have enough jobs and enough take-home pay such that people have the privilege of higher incomes that allow them to be paying taxes,” Romney later clarified, although he added that he worries many of the 46 percent won’t want to contribute their “fair share.” This sentiment closely resembles the picture Democrats paint of wealthy Americans as squanderers of wealth — a manipulative argument that divides and defines people based on income and incorrectly implies that America’s fiscal problems can be erased if the rich are overtaxed. The class-based views of politics emphasized by both Romney and Obama miss the point that most Americans who don’t pay taxes would actually prefer to have a well-paying job that requires them to pay taxes. They also overlook the fact that most middle-class Americans do not begrudge the rich but aspire to become wealthy themselves.
Finally though, Romney’s so-called gaffe isn’t a gaffe at all. Rather, it’s an ineloquent way of pointing out that nearly half of American households don’t pay taxes — a fact that angers most Republicans. We want these people to have jobs, contribute to society and pay taxes; we believe that much of the people within this 46 percent can and should have the means to care for themselves rather than depend on governmental systems for support and security. In the summer, when Obama famously told business owners, “you didn’t build that — someone else made that happen,” he was ripped apart by Republicans for stating, without bells and whistles, a fundamental principle of the Democratic party: that government helps create the social and economic systems which shape our successes. These “gaffes” are based on truths perceived by one party and fundamentally disagreed with by the other, and I’m glad that these ideological questions are defining the presidential race this year. Did you create your success or did it result from the systems in place around you? Should we be proud that our social and economic security nets allow for 46 percent of Americans to not pay taxes, or should we shrink that percentage through job creation and economic growth?
But sometimes politicians make statements that are neither gaffes nor crudely stated party ideologies. In a speech last week, Obama declared, “the most important lesson I’ve learned is that you can’t change Washington from the inside. You can only change it from the outside ... that’s how the big accomplishments like health care got done.” This statement illuminates Obama’s inefficacy as a leader — he believes that he lacks the power to create change and he acknowledges that “the big accomplishments” of his first term succeeded not through his leadership, but from outside support. Do you want to keep Obama in Washington if he “can only change it from the outside?” This might not be what Obama intended to say, but the political climate in Washington has become so gridlocked that I imagine the president has given up on the American political system — just as many young Americans have. I do not blame Obama for this standoff, but it’s clear that Democrats and Republicans have failed to work together as they did during the Clinton-Gingrich era. If Obama believes that he “can’t change Washington from the inside,” then how can he combat this dysfunction?
(09/18/12 2:00am)
Like those Hollywood sequels that never live up to the originals, President Obama's re-election vision outlined at the Democratic National Convention appeared flat compared to the optimistic, inspiring and defined rallying cries of 2008. The goals of last week's speeches were, firstly, to unite Democrats in support of Obama's re-election, and, secondly, to persuade independent voters that four more years of Democratic leadership would provide more benefits than the Romney/Ryan future glimpsed in Tampa. But while the DNC's speakers certainly provided a laundry list of Obama's accomplishments and ample testimony to his character, they failed to address unmet promises, define new goals and outline an economic plan for a second Obama term.
Speaking about the economic revival in 2009, Obama told Matt Lauer, "If I don't have this done in three years, then [this is] going to be a one-term proposition." For this reason, President Clinton's statement that "nobody" could have righted the economy in four years feels more like damage control than inspiration to vote. In fact, rather than rousing audiences at the convention, Clinton and other speakers seemed to reel in the optimism of 2008, emphasizing how much work the Obama regime has left to complete and replacing the "yes we can!" slogan with this new "˜no one could have saved us' mentality. Is this supposed to encourage voters?
Obama's failed promises were neither ignored nor explained during last week's convention, and the goals outlined in Obama's final speech were all recycled and adapted from 2008 and provided voters with nothing but already broken promises. Obama's "˜new' goals include halving oil imports, working to develop one million green energy jobs, empowering our education system and cutting four trillion from the national budget deficit. Sound familiar? At the DNC in 2008, Obama pledged to end Middle East oil imports by 2018, create five million green energy jobs, revamp our education system and dramatically reduce the deficit. None of these promises have been kept. For instance, Al Gore has criticized Obama's lack of action on green energy, a field in which the Obama administration created a couple hundred thousand jobs of the five million promised – so why would Democrats believe him today? If Obama now wants us to understand that nobody could have met these goals in our economic and political climate, then why did he promise to achieve them? If he lacks the foresight to understand the difficulty of fulfilling his goals, then he lacks the foresight necessary to properly lead this nation.
The lack of new ideas in Obama's re-election campaign and his dependence on unfulfilled promises could be excused if he provided evidence that the next four years would be different – that he has a new plan on how to create jobs, lower the budget deficit and help the environment. But while last week's speeches contained everything from powerful liberal rhetoric to tearful accounts of Obama's wonderfulness, they lacked clear blueprints for the future. We heard no plan on how Obama will fulfill the promises he could not meet during this term. We heard no plan on how Obama will restore American economic strength. We heard no plan on how the next four years will be anything other than a continuation of the last four. Struggling Americans want to understand how Obama intends to help them, and last week provided them with no answers.
Bill Clinton's declaration that "we are better off today" than four years ago simply does not have numbers to back it. Unemployment levels have hovered above eight percent for 43 months, more and more Americans are quitting the job hunt and extremely slow private-sector job growth – slowing to less than 100,000 new jobs last month – has not helped to dramatically change America's employment woes. Obama's promises, both economic and social, have not all been met. His economic record has only shown that he can sustain high levels of unemployment. And the majority of Americans feel that their lives are "no better" than in 2008.
Obama wants struggling Americans to know that his administration is on the right track, that everyone is better off now than in 2008 and that his benefits will reach them eventually. "Eventually" might be a very long time if last month's 8.1 percent unemployment and 96,000 new jobs are to be viewed as successes. But hang in there, Obama tells us. Be patient.
Voters need something to be patient for, and Obama's failed promises, lack of new ideas and seemingly absent economic plan no longer inspire hope.
(05/05/11 4:01am)
Once upon a time there was a boy in the Bronx. He kept his hair trimmed low and his shirts crisp. His pants resembled nothing of the skinny jeans style he would come to marry a few years later. He had two liberal families headed by artist parents. He often broke out into dance, but he had yet to discover sunglasses that would make him feel like he was “staring through Gaga’s legs,” as he puts it.
Ladies and Gentlemen: Christian Morel ’11 was not always a hipster. Actually, Christian Morel emphatically declares that he is not a hipster except where the term’s historical connotation defines those who would go to underground clubs to listen to jazz music during the Harlem Renaissance when jazz was still taboo.
“I love me some jazz, so if that makes me a hipster then yes,” said Morel. “However, in the contemporary sense of a hipster which is someone who is mean and smokes cigarettes and blah blah blah, that’s just something that people saw and people told them that’s what a hipster is so now they call it a hipster, so they don’t know what they’re talking about.”
Morel says the Mill, to which he belongs, has lost their hipster-isms over the years because the population that comes to the College is changing and who the house attracts has changed accordingly.
“In the jazz sense they’re not hipsters whatsoever, [and in the contemporary sense,] nobody smokes anymore, I’m pretty much the only one who wears all black in the house, and everyone is real accepting,” he said. “When I first got here the Mill was very exclusive, but now we invite everybody in.”
Overall Morel is happy to have watched the campus climate move toward greater awareness of sexual orientation during his time here, but he worries about the vanishing of other diverse voices that he has noticed since the economic downturn, particularly international and minority voices.
Talking about the air of exclusivity that follows him from the old days of the Mill, Morel says, “Sometimes people are distracted by the Christian Morel that they think they know and people put up walls when I’m just trying to hang out with people. I can feel the tension in their bodies. I’m not going to bite. People find me to be very intimidating as a character. I don’t think people know what to think about me, to be honest. Therefore they just find me to be this mysterious character that they need to watch and not really talk to. When people meet me then they find out I’m really just the nicest person in the world.”
Whether it’s his air or his physique that distances people, Morel‘s style is definitely part of his image on campus.
“Since I came from a Catholic school I was so used to wearing the same thing and having a more restricted sense of style,” said Morel. “Once I got here I came to the realization that there were no more rules in the Catholic school sense, so I just went crazy. Sometimes I would change clothes twice a day.”
Readers, do not be fooled by Christian’s lies. He finally admitted through a fit of laughter that estimates of three to four costume changes per day more accurately describe his transition to fashionista. Furthermore, legend has it that when his dad first dropped him off at college it took two cars to get him here: one for his shoes and clothes and another for everything else.
“That’s one thing that’s changed over the years,” he said. “I don’t change as much during the day. I’m a one style-a-day dude nowadays. Unless there’s an event that night, then I have to change.”
Morel was always a dancer.
“Ever since I was really young I was always the kid in the family who would get up and dance” said Morel. “Not to say that I knew what we call technique. Either way I was always a mover. My mom had to sit on my hands and feet while doing homework because I just couldn’t sit still. People know I love to dance. It’s my thing.”
Already a member of the College’s dance department and Riddim, next on the agenda for Morel is a foray into the world of music videos, either as a dancer or choreographer. Eventually Morel hopes to open his own dance school and form a dance company where he envisions hip hop producers will compose original scores for his dance pieces. That is the plan for the next three years.
“Gaga did it in three. I can do it in three and a half,” said Morel.
Though he loves our current popstars, according to Morel, he would never be one of them.
“I would be something else,” he said.
He would be Christian Morel, and this phenomenon would be]Casanova Cosmos — the stage name and persona that he invented this winter.
“It’s kind of my alternate ego in the performance sense,” he said. “I was inspired by Nicki Minaj because she has so many alternate personas. Casanova Cosmos is from an alternate universe and she is a she; she’s a girl. She doesn’t take it from anyone and she’s really really attractive and she knows it. It’s me as a woman, kind of, with a really cool name.
“However, I will say though that when I am performing I do get into an alternate mindset. This is just a name. This is a way to package it. It’s a way to identify a separate being on stage. That’s not necessarily Christian on stage. Christian is the creator of all you see on stage, but me on stage is someone different. I’m an entertainer for you and everything that I do is for the sake of the artwork. It’s not really indicative of who I am as a person necessarily. I might be an asshole or look like and dance like someone promiscuous on stage, but that’s not who I really am. I do it for entertainment’s sake. I do it because I think that it’s funny. I think that people laugh at it and I think people enjoy it. I’ll do whatever I have to do to entertain people.”
The alter ego is part of Morel’s larger plan to nurture a pop artist persona that will help him to “turn [his] hobby into a career. This summer Morel will attend the American Dance Festival intensive at Duke University Dance and begin auditioning for professional gigs.
“If I don’t get anything there I’ll just move to California with my partner while he goes to school and make connections there.”
That’s right: take note crush list hopefuls, male and female alike — Christian Morel is taken. And it is more than serious.
While at Middlebury, Morel feeds his pop side through his role as lead hype man and dancer for Ignite the Sound, an independent production company started by Emmanuelle Saliba ’11.5, who has been an inspiration to Morel for four years. The production company was born of the radio show that Saliba DJ-ed during her freshman year and parties at Red Door on Shannon Street during the 2008-2009 academic year. It has since grown to be a huge force on campus with a nearly a dozen members on campus who DJ large weekend dance parties and pay to bring other artists to campus.
Through all of his adventures Morel has always stayed true to himself by making sure to keep it crazy and embracing the belief that one should.
“Just be. Just be a human being — like a human being a human,” he said.
He advises everyone to “stop apologizing” for being who they are and to talk to each other. Criticizing the underlying silence that prevails on this campus around issues such as social class, Morel said, “People are who they are because of the circumstances of their birth and their lives. Let’s talk about that because what’s going on here is that no one wants to talk to anybody because everyone feels so different and feels like they can’t relate, but we all should hang out. Don’t feel separate or different. Don’t feel separate from the different. Embrace the different.”
(04/28/11 2:36pm)
The original Portal was something of an anomaly in the gaming world. What started as an independent project by some students turned into a small game that came packaged in Valve’s “Orange Box,” a collection of the Half Life games, Portal and the multiplayer shooter Team Fortress 2. Portal became one of the biggest memes to hit the Internet. And how could it have not? The game featured amazingly fun gameplay (the likes of which players had never seen before), the lovable Companion Cube and the hilarious-yet-terrifying homicidal super-computer GLaDOS who even sang for you as the credits were rolling. A sequel was inevitable, and we should be thankful.
Portal 2 is everything a sequel should be: it maintains the core mechanics that made the original fantastic while improving on absolutely everything else. The player finds himself or herself in the role of Chell, the silent portal-gun-wielding protagonist, who is trying to find her way out of an abandoned Aperture Science testing facility before her old rival, GLaDOS, turns up the deadly neurotoxin to 11 and kills her.
The gameplay is largely intact from the original. Chell has a portal gun, and she shoots her blue and orange portals in different places to freely travel between them. The velocity mechanism stays the same as the player travels through portals, so using some clever physics-based gameplay, players will find themselves flying across test chambers to the finsh line.
Portal 2 throws a bunch of new mechanics into the mix, such as different colored goos that change the physical properties of the objects they touch, “hard light” that can be used as shields or bridges and gravity funnels that slowly drift you in a single direction. It all makes for very compelling and fun gameplay. However, I couldn’t help but notice that despite all these new ingredients added to the mix, the puzzles were generally easier than those in the original. I understand that Portal 2 is its own product and not a side project meant for a collection; in this manner, Valve wouldn’t want to isolate the casual gaming crowd who may grow frustrated and give up. I can see why they would want to do this, and the story is far too amazing to pass up.
Players will be exploring much more diverse environments in this installment. I really can’t explain much more without ruining a major plot point, but trust me: it’s quite the treat. What I can say is that even the environment feels alive this time around. Since GLaDOS controls the entire Aperture Science facility, she controls the test chambers you must survive. As Chell enters the room, the panels on the wall readjust or fix themselves (in a seemingly modest way). You can tell that you are inside what is basically a sentient being, which makes the crushing loneliness of the game even more powerful.
This game also introduces a few new characters to the mix, the most obvious (and hilarious) being Wheatley. Wheatley is a robotic orb with a single blue eye voiced by Stephen Merchant (Extras) and delivers a mind-blowing performance. Wheatley, despite being a disembodied orb and only having a few metal panels that he uses to convey emotion, expresses so much personality and is much more believable than any human character I’ve seen in recent games. There are moments in the game where players can stop what they are doing and just listen to Wheatley talk to himself. Lines of dialogue are never repeated or recycled, and the writing is absolute gold. Backing up Merchant is Ellen McLain, who returns to reprise her role as GLaDOS. McLain brings GLaDOS back to life (literally and figuratively) and through her flawless voice work, she is able to make you fear her in the beginning of the game, then feel sympathy and then even a sense of closeness in the end. As if McLain and Merchant don’t rob the show, J.K Simmons (Spiderman, Juno) literally comes out of nowhere and delivers some of the funniest dialogue in the entire game. And that is saying a lot, because in terms of humor, Portal 2 is the funniest game on the market right now. The writing, all the way to the very end of the game, is some of the very best the industry has to offer. The characters are well-developed, the environment grows, back-story is added, the dialogue is hilarious and, shockingly, the protagonist never utters a single word. The single player mode is something that must be experienced, even if it is a tad short; my final playthrough was about five and a half hours. The last half hour of the game is climatic and ties everything together, yet leaves just enough room for speculation for a third installment of the series. But just because the credits rolled doesn’t mean the game is over.
Portal 2 introduces a cooperative mode where two players (each with their own portal gun) must work together to get through an entirely different set of test chambers. Nothing is recycled from the single player mode; even GLaDOS’s dialogue is unique to co-op mode. Gameplay can take place either online or on the same console via splitscreen. I highly recommend you play it with someone you know, and in real life sitting next to each other. Not only is it easier to manage each other’s directions when together, but it’s such a fun and unique experience to share with a friend. The puzzles require legitimate teamwork and there’s nothing quite as satisfying as completing a puzzle on the first attempt. Co-op mode also features very useful in-game tools, such as markers that can point out special objects within the environment and even a timer so players can synchronize their actions. Like the game says, “Now you’re thinking with Portals.” The co-op adds not only an interesting piece to the story, but an additional 4-5 hours to the total gameplay.
Portal 2 is a game that oozes charm and technical finesse. It’s an amazing gameplay experience, and you will probably get a laugh or two from it. Occasionally people ask me, “You’re 20 years old and in college, why are you still playing video games?” Portal 2 is now an acceptable answer.
Portal 2 gets a 10/10. Go play it. Seriously.
(04/28/11 4:20am)
This year Middlebury students joined over a billion people in celebrating Earth Day, what, according to the Earth Day Network, is the “largest civic observance in the world.” In an effort to do more than celebrate the planet, the SGA Environmental Affairs Committee organized a week’s worth of events to promote support and awareness of environmental issues. This year’s theme was “There Is No Planet B.”
Katie Romanov ’12, this semester’s SGA Environmental Council director, said that the theme was designed to “remind people that this is our one chance to protect our planet by living sustainably and responsibly.”
While the week was organized by the SGA, various student organizations contributed to the schedule. From lectures on climate change to a giant cake wishing everyone a happy Earth Day, students found diverse ways to celebrate.
Olivia French ’14, co-founder of “Hike a Trail, Save a Forest,” planned a hike on April 17 up Snake Mountain to raise money for the Plant a Billion Trees organization.
“My brother and I founded [Hike a Trail, Save a Forest] together, because we just realized that so much of our western lifestyle is dependent on rainforests,” said French. “Forests are so important to reducing global warming, and the Plant a Billion Trees program is so great because for every dollar you give, they plant a tree.”
French hopes to hold a hike each year to raise money for the organization.
“Other colleges joined with us this year and hiked where they were, and I hope that it keeps expanding each year,” said French.
Another of this year’s events was the screening of a new film about carbon neutrality, “Carbon Nation.”
“It was uplifting to finally see an environmental documentary that showcases real solutions, as opposed to the doom and gloom scenario often portrayed in the media,” said Romanov. “I highly recommend it.”
On April 23, the Residential Sustainability Coordinators (RSCs) of Cook Commons hosted an RSC Festival. Many local businesses, farmers and student organizations participated.
Head of the Cook Commons RSCs Jak Knelman ’12 organized the event along with the help of Cook RSCs French, Leslie Reed ’14, Vincent Mariano ’14 and Suzanne Calhoun ’14.
“We wanted to bring the whole school together,” said Knelman. “With Cook commons RSCs heading [the RSC Festival] up, we knew we could bring the campus together. It’s usually held in town, but we wanted to bring it up here so it could be more accessible for students.”
After deciding to hold a festival on campus, each of the RSCs did their part to invite local businesses and student organizations to attend.
“[Knelman] emailed the Farmer’s Market at Middlebury Marbleworks,” said Calhoun. “And we got quite a few from there. Each RSC went around and contacted student organizations.”
“A big part of this is how you can access this stuff on campus and around this area,” said Knelman.
And, ultimately, that’s what Earth Week was about.
“Earth Week lets students know of all the resources — both on campus and in the local community — that they can tap into to participate in environmental initiatives during their time at the College,” said Romanov. “It is really important, for underclassmen especially, to know that there is lots going on, and there are many ways to get involved.”
(04/28/11 4:09am)
It’s no secret that Middlebury is a politically liberal institution. From the students to the faculty and even to the staff, an overwhelming majority of people here consider themselves progressive, liberal, leftist — or even a budding Socialist. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing — countless students involve themselves in social justice initiatives on campus, combining their studies and political beliefs to enact real change. But when this left-leaning outlook dominates the classroom, we blur the lines between an academic and a political institution.
When we come into class with our own personal biases towards an idea, we eliminate the possibility for true academic inquiry, one that fairly considers all possibilities first, then comes to a conclusion based on a rational discussion of the issues. For example, outside of the classroom, many of us — myself in included — may be opposed to free trade. But when we walk into the classroom, sporting our fair trade coffee and locally grown apple, indignant to evils of corporate America, we eliminate the possibility for an honest discussion of international commerce. People joke about how Middlebury is a bubble, but why not embrace it? For four years, we have the opportunity to set aside our politics and prejudices, shelter ourselves from the politically charged nature of public debate in the “real world” and discuss the facts as we see them.
The same goes for our professors. Some attempt to move the discussion in a particular direction by subtly favoring one side of an issue over another, often times by assigning reading that explores just one side of the debate. Even if his or her personal research directly contradicts that of another scholar, that professor has a duty to his or her students to provide a wide range of opinions. If the opposing viewpoint is so unsubstantiated, then why not give students the opportunity to critique it at face value? Returning to the free trade example, why not let the WTO defend itself, in its own words?
When we jump to what we think are the answers — and ultimately we may be right — we take out the most important step in education: analysis. After our finals in May, most of us will forget the content from our classes. What we won’t forget, though, is the process we took get to our conclusions, a process that is bypassed when readings, discussions and reflections do not include a variety of points of view.
Though we should try to keep ideology out of our classes, in the end we must recognize that being entirely apolitical is impossible. Instead, we can attempt the opposite; we can be “omnipartisan.” We can read WTO publications as we read critiques of free trade. We can follow Professor Dry’s example and read the Anti-Federalist Papers side by side with the Federalist Papers. And we can even consider the arguments of climate change critics as we build the — hopefully winning — Solar Decathlon house. But what we shouldn’t do is allow ourselves, or our professors, to limit our point of view, especially when the topic is as personal as gay marriage or as political as international development.
The possibilities extend to how we treat other students, as well. We can encourage people with points of view alien to our own (read: conservative) to speak up in class more often. We can treat them and their ideas with respect, instead of automatically assuming that they believe in big business because they hate poor people.
In my International Law class last week, a lone conservative soul spoke up in class, noting that maybe, just maybe, the Bush administration was right in redefining the legitimate use of force because international terrorism is a threat never before seen. While not everyone agreed, this comment greatly enlivened the discussion, leading us to question whether new circumstances required new rules.
So let’s not jump to the back of the book and peek at the answers, eliminating the critical thinking that is at the very essence of a liberal arts education. Let’s shed our prejudices and actually consider alternative points of view, not merely disregard them as inherently flawed and unworthy of a fair analysis. If the political right is so wrong, it won’t need us targeting it; it will fall on its own as we give it a fair trial — and a fair defense.
(04/28/11 4:04am)
Though he did not know it at the time, Richard Cole’s decision to join a scout group as a freshman at Middlebury Union High School (MUHS) would have meaningful implications long after his days as a student. His involvement in the organization, which worked with the town’s fire department, eventually led him to a career in firefighting. Chief of the Middlebury Fire Department for the past 14 years, Cole remains fully committed to the community.
“I never had any thoughts of being chief,” said Cole, who has 36 years of experience as a fire fighter.
When the fire departments of East Middlebury and Middlebury merged and the chief at that time retired, Cole was persuaded by others to take the job himself.
“I have not regretted it,” he said. “I have actually enjoyed it.”
After graduating from MUHS in 1963, Cole left the area to pursue his interest in photography. He attended Germain School of Photography in New York City for a year before working for a photographer in Rutland for an additional two years. He decided to return to his hometown to work at his family’s business, Cole’s Flowers and Frames, which his grandfather started in 1937. It was then that Cole became adviser of the same scout group to which he belonged in high school. From this position, his fate was essentially sealed: he became a member of the department, receiving his training at the Middlebury Fire Station.
“I think the fire service in general tends to be a family,” said Cole. “There are times when your life depends on the other guy, so you become pretty close.”
Cole knows and trusts each of his fellow members, some of whom have been working nearly as long as he has.
“If any member ever needs help there is always a member there that is willing to give them a hand,” he said.
As all who work at the fire department are volunteers who are paid on call, many hold other jobs. For years, Cole worked for his father at Cole’s Flowers and Frames, a business he eventually took over and ran himself. Though he closed it five years ago, it only took a month for his daughter to re-open the store, which is still in business today. Currently, Cole works for a mail-order pharmacy, though he is planning to retire in three weeks so he can spend more time with his family. He is looking forward to driving across the country to visit his son, a firefighter who works with a paramedic in the state of Washington.
“Usually we fly, but we have always said we would like to drive it,” said Cole, who is planning a five-week driving adventure so he has “enough time to see some sights.” He plans to drive out west along a southern route, and return to Vermont on a northern path.
Though excited for more free time, Cole remains dedicated to his work at the fire department, and he intends to devote more hours to the station and the administrative aspects of his job. His retirement from position of fire chief is “probably not too long down the road,” but for now Cole is more than content to continue his work in Middlebury — despite the harsh climate.
“Winters, as you get older, they get longer,” he said. “I think of other places, but I still do not see myself going anywhere else.”
As fire chief, Cole has been called to a vast array of scenes. Though volunteers may not fight fires often, they respond to calls related to faulty smoke detectors or carbon monoxide alarms. They also deal with “car accidents, fuel spills from automobiles or home heating systems.” Just last week, Cole’s team responded to a call about high winds that left live wires down on Rte. 116. On average, the department receives three calls per week.
“We get quite involved in the community,” said Cole, whose most memorable call resulted in a three-day, around-the-clock effort to clean up gasoline that spilled out of 11 cars on a train passing through Middlebury. His team also had to put out a small fire that started after the crash.
“Fortunately, [the train] was going slow and they rolled over slowly,” said Cole. “That was a big challenge and a very time-consuming event.”
His decades of experience in the field of firefighting prove a strong foundation for his leadership in the department. The chief is always up for any task, as his favorite part of his job is directing a scene.
“I find it a challenge to determine what needs to be done to get the job done,” he said. “Each one is different.”
In addition, Cole prides himself on maintaining a strong connection to the College. He enjoys seeing interaction between student volunteers and older members of the department, and is also confident that his team works well with authorities on campus.
“Our working relationship with the College is really good, and it has improved tremendously over the last 10 years,” said Cole. “If we have to go up there for some kind of a call, they are always extremely cooperative and willing to work with us to get the job done.”
Throughout his years living in Middlebury, Cole has seen the town change in numerous ways. Growing up, he could have bought anything he needed on Main St., as there were then two grocery stores. With the expansion of services farther from downtown Middlebury, such a convenience no longer exists, yet Cole has liked seeing the town develop in new ways.
“The town has changed a lot, but I guess I want to look at changes as good,” he said.
There is little doubt in Cole’s mind that Middlebury is the place for him.
“It has been a good sized town to fill this role and I have enjoyed it a lot,” he said.
(04/21/11 4:06am)
This past weekend at Powershift, the proverbial gauntlet for every American young person was thrown down. Hard.
On Saturday night, Tim De Christopher — a renowned climate activist in jail for defrauding a land auction for oil and gas development (he outbid all attendant energy companies despite not having the money so that they would not be able to expand their portfolios) — challenged young people to step up their commitment to the climate as they never have before.
In order to do this, Tim had to establish the extent to which we are losing this fight on big energy, consumerism, consumption and scientific intransigence. In the past two years, environmentalists have seen their hopes for energy reform and climate regulation dashed as Congress continues to sell out the global climate and the American economy to big oil, gas and coal corporations. In waiting for the United States, the world’s largest per capita emitter of greenhouse gases, to act, international negotiations on climate change have barely recovered from their collapse in Copenhagen, and the world continues to burn — 2010 was the hottest year on record, closing out the hottest decade on record.
With powerful rhetoric, Tim turned these harsh realities into an inspiring and resounding call to action. Invoking the waves of civilly disobedient anti-segregation activists who were arrested day after day in the early 1960s, he demanded a total, youth-led assault on mountain top removal mining. He demanded that day after day after day, hundreds step up to shut down mountaintop removal (MTR) sites across Appalachia until President Barack Obama was forced to either shut down the destructive process — in which mountaintops are literally blown off and dumped into rivers to gain easy access to coal — altogether or send in federal troops to enforce its continuance.
Tim’s fight is bigger than MTR mining, and ultimately, is precisely the direction in which a large of this movement needs to head. As young people, we desperately need to communicate the extent to which we are dissatisfied by a government so deep in the cavernous corporate pocket it can no longer hear the cries of progressives nationwide. We need to demand the speedy arrival of another world; a world in which the long term prosperity of all provides the very foundations of the political and social economy.
But Tim is wrong about a few things. His call for mass arrests and raised commitment came at the potential sacrifice of college degrees and entire careers. His cause is so urgent he no longer believes that it can “wait ’til graduation” or that future employment prospects can take precedent over getting arrested today.
Tim is forgetting that we are in a lifelong fight driven not only by political will, but by what is materially possible; what resources the Earth can offer us and in what ways. If we shut down MTR today, I would be hard pressed to say that we could replace that energy with alternative forms. Natural gas was recently labelled dirty — possibly dirtier than coal. Solar, wind and nuclear energies, meanwhile, are far too costly as they stand today.
We need people to sign up for this movement for life. We need people with college degrees and holistic minds who can help us to figure out how we will coordinate the largest social, economic and political overhaul of all time. Decarbonising society is paramount; arrests today will no doubt help increase political will, but unless we maintain the wherewithal to simultaneously develop concrete, achievable solutions, we will be doing nothing short of running “no” campaigns — “no” to coal, “no” to oil and “no” to carbon. To what will we say “yes?”
Do not get me wrong; we need people to start getting arrested today and not to stop until the cry for justice is so loud that money can no longer muffle it. Young people have too much to lose. While we are re-building this house from within, it looks like we might need the older, more established generations to throw rocks from without. Who wants to ring up their grandma first?
(04/21/11 4:06am)
A good day is a rare event. I’m not trying to be depressing saying this — it’s scientifically proven. If days were rated and put on a graph, laws of probability dictate that the graph would show a bell curve: a few days would deserve the labels of “dumpy” or “wicked awesome,” but most would fall between “meh” and “alright alright.” Of course, there can be temporary runs of good or bad days depending on the circumstances, but I argue that, over a lifetime, day rankings would produce the distribution described above (and I challenge anyone who has been ranking and recording their days since birth to prove me wrong). “Why, oh why, Ben,” you are probably asking, “did you just pour such profound knowledge all over my face?” Well, I just want everyone to know exactly what I mean when I make the following statement: In the life of Middkid Sid, yesterday was a good day.
Not a “Sid got a job!” or a “Sid just fixed climate change!” or a “Justin Bieber went back to elementary school!” good day. Yesterday was good in a more subtle way, in that it happened, kept happening, and then ended, without anything going noticeably wrong. But this alone does not constitute a truly good day. Yesterday was tremendous.
Yesterday was a day of adventure. In the morning, via BBC’s Life on DVD, Sid traveled the world. He saw the wonders of evolution in action, with monkeys flying through trees, lizards walking on water and komodo dragons watch their prey slowly die over a span of two weeks. Sid wanted to say “Wow,” and then he realized that nothing was stopping him, so he did. In the afternoon, he stepped outside with no destination and walked around. Everything was beautiful. Every tree swaying in the breeze, every raindrop on his face and every rotund squirrel descending into a receptacle of human waste was worth every second of his attention. Sid even thought he saw a couple monkeys swinging around the trees on Battell Beach. He was happy to have monkeys on his campus.
Yesterday was a day of freedom. There were worries of the future, like Sid’s financial status after graduation, as well as worries of the past, like all money he had spent on Grille food and New Amsterdam Gin in the past couple months. But these worries were not worries of the present, and therefore were not worries of yesterday.
More than anything, yesterday was real. Sid did his work and honored his commitments, but saved time to be a king of relaxation, fanned by servants waving those huge leaves while he destroyed Bowser in MarioKart. At the same time, he was not a zombie and not a menace to society. He didn’t rob banks, sell drugs to kids or vandalize the library. Yesterday was a day of responsibility, and still it was good.
Yesterday was, quite literally, mind-blowing. The take-out burger joint called Life cooked a juicy patty of happiness, wrapped it up, passed it to Sid, and he ate it. Of course, every day can’t be like yesterday. After all, if the good became the norm, the bell curve theory implies that it would cease to be good. Yesterday was a respite from bearing the full weight of life, and breaks such as these are essential to health and pleasure. I urge everyone to allow themselves days like yesterday, regardless of the state of their schedule — break times are just as important as work times. I hope everybody has had such a day in the not so distant past, and to those it may concern, happy yesterday.
(04/21/11 4:01am)
Day 1, Friday:
Throughout the day, Powershifters bid Middlebury, Vermont adieu and boarded buses to head down the coast. It was D.C. or bust — and 11 hours later, sitting in gridlock on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway and missing Al Gore’s keynote speech, it was almost bust. Luckily, we tumbled off the buses into the Walter E. Washington Convention Center just in time to register and hear Van Jones, famed environmental advocate, speak for a rousing welcome to the capital. The speakers went on, but I left for bed, deliriously tired after the long day on the road.
Day 2, Saturday:
The 10,000-or-so souls reconvened bright and early for the day with triple-shot Venti-sized Starbucks coffees in hand (the mark of becoming a city android for the weekend). The morning was devoted to movement training sessions that covered how to organize and structure an environmental movement in one’s community. At Middlebury, with an organic garden, biomass plant and ultra-vocal Sunday Night Group, it’s hard to remember that not all schools have the same amount of environmental enthusiasm. West Virginia University, for example, is still trying to set up meetings with their president to discuss a carbon neutrality plan. These schools undoubtedly benefited from the training sessions and were able to collect materials and models on how to set up activist groups. The Middlebury contingency, however, might have benefited from more advanced training.
The convention center was just a short walk away to Chinatown, which provided access to enough good ethnic food to satisfy our culture-starved palates for at least another month. After a lunch break, we had three blocks of time to fill with panel, training or workshop sessions of our choice — and we could choose from nearly a hundred options. The sessions discussed everything from fracking (a method of natural gas drilling) to how to succinctly counter-argue the claims of a climate-change-denier.
That night was another gathering at the main stage to listen to a lineup of speakers, both famous and pulled-from-the-crowd. Lisa Jackson, head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), promised to do all she could to advance progress of climate regulations. Tim de Christopher cautioned the masses to remember the hard truth — we have already gone too far, destroyed too much and our world will never be the same, but he encouraged us to continue the fight. Hands down, the best treat was to see our own Bill McKibben take the stage to eardrum-shattering cheers. We forget how privileged we are here to be able to chat face-to-face with this environmental activism rockstar. Speeches were followed by a concert of several sweet-voiced musicians and an always sweet, longed-for bedtime.
Day 3, Sunday:
More movement training sessions kick-started Sunday and were followed by some downtime. Scores of buzzing students unwound energy and soaked up some sun on the green lawn of the square in front of the convention center. Most of our group departed on Sunday afternoon, but the ones who were sticking it out until Monday attended a state breakout session with their home state or the always-welcoming Vermont to learn what environmental organizations and programs were happening in that state and how one could get involved. I stopped by the Vermont room before heading to the West Virginia room to get my name on both sign-up lists and was able to see some troubling differences in state activities. Vermont was as high-energy and well-organized as you would expect with packets for its kids, a comprehensively-built email list and SNG-leaders keeping everything running smoothly.
The West Virginia room, on the other hand, lacked a facilitator or any sort of leadership personages. The miniscule, aimlessly rambling students seemed unable to articulate any movements I would put any confidence into and failed spectacularly to communicate with each other. My heart sank after my home-state breakout and nearly stopped when I attended the consecutive Lobby Day training session in preparation for the lobbying that we would be participating in with our state representative on Monday. Only one other guy and I made up the lobby team for West Virginia, with other states like Iowa boasting at least a twenty-person team, others with much more. It was disheartening to see how some states really were not up to par in the movement and have even more complex relationships with big energetic and economic problems. West Virginia is so bound up with the coal industry that its two Democratic senators must disregard environmental regulation to support the existing source of economy in the state, and dare not consider alternative energies in the face of the huge coal corporations.
Day 4, Monday:
The last day of Powershift was certainly the best experience of the trip because it was the most deliberate use of our powers as citizens of a democratic government. The participators met in Lafayette Square in front of the White House to march and display support for investment in clean energy and ending coal and oil dependence through passing the Clean Air Act, one of the most effective pieces of legislation for the slowing of emissions and resulting climate change. Being a part of such a huge march on Washington was exciting and empowering. People chanted, “Oh! It’s hot in here, there’s too much carbon in the atmosphere!” and “This is what democracy looks like!” as they marched to the Capitol building to lobby. The other half of the crowd marched on the Chamber of Commerce to protest corporate handouts. Stopping traffic, making a scene — it was like getting attention as a two-year-old by having a tantrum, but it was also getting to directly use our first amendment rights. Then we lobbied. This involved meeting with staff members who worked for our representatives in the Senate and the House and, as constituents, asking them to support the Clean Air Act and our climate concerns. With my little West Virginia voice, I didn’t feel as though I had made a difference, but I did feel like an American, if that makes sense. I would recommend a lobbying experience to everyone, just to put your toe in the torrential waters/sluggish swamp of the process of Congress for a moment. After a whirlwind trip, we booked it to Union Station to catch our bus to return north, pulling into Adirondack Circle at 2 a.m., fully Powershifted, with stories to tell and new thoughts to share.
(04/21/11 3:59am)
On April 15-18, over 200 students traveled to Washington, D.C. to attend the climate conference Powershift 2011. The conference — which attracted over 10,000 students from across the country — presented a diverse line-up of events and culminated in a march on Capitol Hill calling for a permanent legislation to address climate change.
The conference opened on Friday, April 15 with keynote speeches by former Vice President Al Gore and former Special Advisor to the White House for Green Jobs Van Jones. Although some Middlebury students missed Gore’s speech due to traffic, students arrived in time to hear Jones and several other leaders in the field address the crowd in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.
Students arrived at the convention center Saturday morning to participate in movement-building training and planning sessions. These sessions were designed to address issues that universities face in mobilizing both students and administrators to take climate action.
Saturday evening, students attended another line-up of keynote speakers. 350.org Founder and Scholar-in-Residence Bill McKibben spoke at the convention center along with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson.
According to Ben Johnston ’11, McKibben’s speech was “definitely the climax of the keynote ceremony. Looking at him and talking to him beforehand, he doesn't seem like the kind of guy to move a crowd, but he really took the cake."
On Sunday, students continued their work on movement-building in the morning and then broke off into groups organized by state in the afternoon. The evening’s programming featured a film series and additional training sessions for activists.
Although some students left D.C. on Sunday afternoon, others remained in the capital through Monday to march to Capitol Hill. Over 5,000 students gathered at LaFayette Square in the morning and walked to the Capitol building. According to the Powershift website, students “demand[ed] that the President and Congress stand up to Big Polluters, protect the Clean Air Act and make corporate polluters like BP pay for their pollution.”
(03/24/11 3:50am)
From April 7-9, the College will host “Land and Justice: A Symposium on Race, Ethnicity and Environment.” The symposium is co-sponsored by the Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE), Environmental Affairs, Middlebury College Organic Garden, the American studies program and the environmental studies program. The symposium will include various talks and panels, including a screening of the film Fresh and concurring workshops.
The symposium was developed by members of the Student Advisory Board, the CCSRE Steering Committee and various other Middlebury organizations. Associate Professor of History Kathryn Morse, Dean of Environmental Affairs Nan Jenks-Jay, Assistant Director of the Franklin Environmental Center at Hillcrest Janet Wiseman and Associate Professor of American Studies and Director of the CCRSE Susan Burch have been key collaborators for the symposium.
Burch, director of the CCSRE, said that the goal of the symposium reflects part of a greater academic goal at the College.
“We hope that individuals and groups that may commonly identify with one part of this work, such as ‘environment’ or ‘racial justice’ will find common ground at this conference,” she said. “The program reveals tensions and possibilities for redefining why and how we learn about race, ethnicity, and environment. This seems to us a great reflection of Middlebury’s larger educational aspirations.”
The symposium’s program will address issues regarding race and environment. Its organizers hope to aid in the CCSRE’s goal of reaching out to and educating members of the College community.
Amity Doolittle, lecturer and associate research scientist at Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, will be giving a talk on indigenous peoples in Southeast Asia. She will focus on how indigenous people have an alternative way of looking at the central issues of climate change.
Yvonne Yen Liu from the Applied Research Center, an organization dedicated to racial justice through media, will be giving a lecture entitled “The Color of Food: Redefining Good Food.” She will discuss the findings of the Applied Research Center in their recent study of race, gender and class of workers along the supply chain of the U.S. food system.
Carl Zimring, assistant professor of social science and sustainability studies at the Roosevelt University in Chicago, will be the keynote speaker. His talk will focus on environmental racism in the context of public hygiene.
Morse praised the speakers and activists that will be contributing to the symposium.
“[Doolittle, Liu, Zimring] and many other of our participants question what constitutes ‘justice’ — environmental and social — and how systems of power and oppression shape physical places and human experiences,” said Morse. “They also are interested in seriously considering why explorations of race, ethnicity and the environment matter and what this can teach us about land and justice and our work at Middlebury and beyond.”
The end of the symposium will include concurrent workshops, which will give participants a hands-on opportunity to explore local, national and global approaches to the themes of the symposium.
One of these workshops will be led by ethnographers Greg Sharrow and Ned Castle. They will discuss their ethnographic research, as well as how a researcher can engage in a successful dialogue with their subject that will invite the subject to share their story.
Another workshop will discuss Latino migrant workers on Vermont farms, with particular focus on their use of language and communication in search of greater justice. The workshop will include role-playing to help participants understand the experiences of workers.
The final workshop will focus on the relationship between African Americans and land in the United States. Participants will be asked to reflect on what such a relationship would look like and envision themselves in a similar situation. The group will focus on the new demands presented to us through this racial lens.
Morse and Burch agreed that this symposium is highly relevant to the College, the community at large and the world.
“One [goal of the symposium] is to build on the previous work from this year that examined race, ethnicity and environment,” they said. “Deepening that conversation reflects our shared interest in sustainability. In short, we want this conversation to remain relevant, meaningful and present.”
