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(07/01/05 12:00am)
Author: Editorial Board Save our Social LivesYou hear a lot about drinking at Middlebury College. In fact, amid all the talk about getting wasted, hammered and trashed you may not have notice that Middlebury students are now drinking on campus far more often than they have in the recent past. No, they aren't drinking more - they are just staying closer to College Street to do it. By allowing of-age students to consume alcohol in designated lounges, effectively permitting small unregistered gatherings in senior suites and keeping upperclassmen on campus in luxe housing, College administrators have recently demonstrated a keen understanding of what it takes to allow Middlebury students to drink as safely as possible. In the college environment, this "they'll do it anyway, so we might as well make it safer" philosophy is smart and is working remarkably well. Distressingly, State Liquor Investigator Michael G. Davidson's declared intention of forcing the College to modify current procedures for campus party hosting and party registration in accordance with a strict interpretation of Vermont's state alcohol laws guarantees nothing but setbacks for the currently improved alcohol climate on Middlebury's campus. With the number of seniors living off-campus set to rise next year, Davidson's tenure could not begin at a worst time for the College. When regulations crack down on on-campus social life, it won't be long before hundreds of students defect to off-campus parties in search of a freer social climate. Instances of drunk driving are virtually assured to increase. And while upperclassmen - mostly seniors - may find themselves living in spaces large enough to permit them to host illicit unregistered parties and maintain some social balance, it is first-years who are being set up to suffer the most. If registered parties at the social houses and lounges are scaled back, there will not be a whole lot for first-years to do around campus. Nothing like drinking cheap vodka in a cramped Allen Hall double to make for a disastrous, life-threatening situation.The current "social life" climate of the College is being put in serious jeopardy by Davidson's proposed restrictions. It is essential that the College's social outlets be protected. While there is no clear or easy solution, it may be time to recognize that state law isn't set in stone and do something to change it. Midd-kids will always work and play hard - we might as well play safely.
(05/05/05 12:00am)
Author: CAROLINE S. STAUFFER Monterey decision deadline extended On the evening of Wednesday, April 27, President Ronald D. Liebowitz announced his plan to slightly defer a final decision on the potential acquisition of the Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS) in an all-campus e-mail.After the February meeting of the Board of Trustees, Liebowitz said he would make a recommendation on MIIS in time for the Trustees to vote at the May Board meeting.In his e-mail, Liebowitz explained, "In the period since the February Board meeting and our on-campus meetings, the College's comprehensive due diligence process has generated an enormous amount of valuable information about the benefits and risks of acquiring MIIS." Furthermore, according to Liebowitz, much of that information has arrived in the past two weeks, with more critical information yet to come.Therefore, should Liebowitz forward a positive recommendation, the Board of Trustees will hold a special meeting no later than June 30 to make the final decision. "The additional time will allow us to integrate all the new information we have received, to consider the yet-to-be-received information we expect in the next few weeks, and to enable the Board to engage the issue fully," Liebowitz said in the e-mail.Conversations about the acquisition of the Monterey Institute began last fall and shortly thereafter the Monterey Steering Committee was formed to visit the site and further investigate the Institute.On March 15, the Program Coordination Group investigating MIIS gave a presentation and answered the questions of students, faculty and staff in Warner Hemicycle.At the April 1 faculty meeting, the faculty council voted 80-21 in opposition of the potential acquisition.On April 16, the Student Government Association passed a recommendation expressing concern over the potential acquisition. "The SGA recommends to President Liebowitz and the Trustees that they reject any proposal that requires Middlebury to spend money that otherwise would be spent on College resources," the bill read. Mead Chapel hosts Yom HaShoah service On Wednesday evening, "Remembering the Holocaust: A Yom HaShoah Commemoration" was held in Mead Chapel. The program included a talk by Thomas Weisshaus entitled, "Surviving the Holocaust in Budapest: The Importance of Family, Wallenberg and the Lone Ranger." Associate Chaplain Rabbi Ira Schiffer, Rachel Schiffer '06 and Nina Robinson '05 were involved in the event's organization. Yam HaShoah was established to remember the Holocaust and the six million Jews who perished. It marks the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in 1941. The Charles P. Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life, Middlebury College Hillel, The Addison County Jewish Congregation: Havurah and Middlebury Area Clergy co-sponsored the event. Faculty recognized for academic excellence Frederick C. Dirks Professor of Political Science Michael Kraus and Director of the Rohatyn Center for International Affairs and Professor of Political Science Allison Stanger have accepted an invitation to offer a course entitled "A Central European Odyssey: History, Culture and Politics in Prague," in the Prague Summer Program, July 2-29, 2005.The Prague Summer Program is co-sponsored by Western Michigan University and the Charles University of Prague. It offers a wide variety of courses and programs, but specializes in courses for aspiring writers.Associate Professor of Biology Andi Lloyd has received a grant from the National Science Foundation that will enable herself and one undergraduate student to research how climate change may affect the distribution of tree species in the boreal forest in the Brooks Range, Alaska each summer. She will continue collaborating with colleagues at the Bonanza Creek Long Term Ecological Research site on a project titled Alaska's Changing Boreal Forest: Resilience and Vulnerability. The Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation has awarded Professor of French Bethany Ladimer a fellowship to support her 2005-2006 leave. Ladimer will spend a semester at the University of Poitiers in France working on a textbook and course development project that is titled, Teaching American Students How to Reason and Write in French.
(03/17/05 12:00am)
Author: Caitlin Prentice On April 1, college students from across Vermont will converge on the state house lawn in Montpelier to support House Bill 49, a climate change action plan for the state. Here's the catch - in order to show their support for cleaner transportation options, students will ride bicycles the 38 miles between Burlington and the capitol. The event, dubbed "Fossil Fools Day," will include a letter writing campaign on the state house lawn, and is being organized primarily by a group of Middlebury students. The group, known as the Middlebury Climate Campaign, is not an official student organization but started when students teamed up in Assistant Professor of Economics Jon Isham's Winter Term class, "Building the New Climate Movement." Today, the campaign includes over 70 students on its list-share and prides itself in its large and active membership. Kelly Blynn '07 said that the group tries to focus on positive solutions to climate change and not to dwell on negative messages. "We want to empower people to find solutions," she said. Emily Wheeler '07 is one of the students involved in planning the Fossil Fools bike event. She is particularly excited about the fact that students from many colleges will be involved, including the University of Vermont (UVM) and Green Mountain College.Students will depart from their respective colleges early on Friday, April 1 and meet in Burlington that morning where they will hop on bikes and make the journey to Montpelier. Upon arrival, students can write letters to Congressmen, listen to legislators' speeches and learn about Bill H 49. The bike ride and the lawn event will raise awareness about the legislation as well as transportation and climate change issues in general. "It's very exciting to see Middlebury kids taking action on issues they believe in," said Wheeler. In addition to the Fossil Fools Day event, the Middlebury Climate Campaign has a busy month ahead, including non-violent civil disobedience training April 3, traveling to meet with the Climate Crisis Coalition in New York City on April 8, participating in Earth Day activities in town April 24 and hosting an Interfaith Climate Change Celebration April 28. Blynn said that the Coalition tries to provide a variety of opportunities for different people to get involved in the movement. "We try not to make the environment a special interest because it's something that affects everyone," she said.Will Bates '06 is organizing the Interfaith Climate Change Celebration, which grew out of a contact the group made at the Climate Change Conference at UVM last month. Fred Small, a Unitarian Universalist minister from Massachusetts, will speak at the event in Middlebury about his experiences working with other religious leaders to promote change in regards to the global climate. "If you look back at other large movements, like the Civil Rights Movement, religion and belief were what motivated a lot of people," said Bates. "Climate change is going to effect people all over the world and faith is a motivating factor." The event will also include student speakers from different religious traditions and their perspectives on climate change. One long-term project that many students in the group are involved in is "The Road to Detroit." Next August, citizens from across the country will converge in Detroit, the symbolic car capitol of the world, to tell automakers that American consumers want fuel-efficient, American-made cars. As with the Fossil Fools event, as many participants as possible will travel to Detroit by bike, hybrid car, or other clean transportation options.
(03/10/05 12:00am)
Author: Josh Axelrod There can be no question, this past weekend's staging of Tony Kushner's "Angels in America: Millennium Approaches" was an impressive and delightful effort on the part of first-time director Brian Siegele '07 and his young cast.Throughout its three hour running time, the play follows the disintegration of two couples' lives as they deal with the onset of AIDS, their religious beliefs, love, homosexuality and the social climate near the millennium's end. The first couple, Joe Pitt (MacLeod Andrews '07.5) and Harper Pitt (Stephanie Strohm '08), do not relate to each other except through their Mormon beliefs. Contrasted with them is the life of the homosexual relationship between Prior Walter (Bill Army '08) and Louis Ironson (Rishabh Kashyap '08), men separated by religion and their abilities to love, but somehow more coherent as a single unit than the Pitts.Harper suffers from depression and delusions, from guilt and from the oppression of knowing that her husband isn't attracted to her. Joe, an overworked clerk, wants to leave New York for a better job and hopes to take his unraveling wife with him. But there is no intimacy between the two - Harper's offer to try giving her husband a blowjob appals him - and we eventually find out that Joe is gay. This tense situation, full of the nuances and technicalities of adult relationships, was performed with a great deal of subtlety by Andrews and Strohm. While Strohm's character walked in and out of delusions, meeting the mysterious travel agent Mr. Lies (Vinson Cunningham '06) or coming into contact with the flamboyant Prior Walter, she remained, nevertheless, understated and believable. Even as Andrews walked out on her and we were left to expect an outburst of heightened anger, the play turned deftly to her numbing dream of fleeing to Antarctica.Likewise, Army's performance as Prior Walter was one to remember. Flamboyant, loving and intense, he waltzed through the scenes with a kind of ease that no other actor was quite capable of conveying. Even on his deathbed, confronted with the coming of the Angel (Laura Harris '07), Prior Walter's swings from intense mania to calm suffering never felt overdone or overacted.And because subtlety seemed the key for the night, we should certainly applaud Kashyap's efforts as Louis Ironson, the play's central character, whose part is so subtle and large and complicated that it is impossible to imagine a perfect performance. And yet, as Army's guilt-ridden lover, he was, in the very least, convincing. Dealing with his own problems when facing death, his conflicted feelings on love and the complexities faced by Andrews in his relationship with Strohm, Kashyap was called upon to bear witness to nearly all of the play's unravelings until, in the end, he finds his new beginning with Andrews.On the fringes of all of these relationships is what might be called the play's older foundation. Roy Cohn (Alec Strum '08), is a lawyer dying of AIDS who has been a mentor for Andrews and has finally come to his end, begging Andrews to take a job in Washington to save him from being disbarred. Like the other relationships in the play, the complexity of the situation cannot be lost. Strum has become the father Andrews never had, but he's Jewish, a closet homosexual and dishonest. The intense respect and love between the two men is tragic and poignant, and Strum's performance is another that should be noted for its heart-wrenching exploration of a man paying for a life full of bold and bad decisions.Taking on more roles than anyone else in the play, we cannot forget Meg Young '07 who was brilliant as the Rabbi, Hannah Pitt, Henry and Ethel Rosenburg. Not only was she responsible for playing two male parts, but she existed on two opposite sides of the religious spectrum with her portrayals of the good Mormon Hannah Pitt and the cynical Rabbi who opens the play with the depressing outlook that as the older generation dies, all the connections between America and the old world are being lost and forgotten.Though the ZOO space limited the play's grandiose aims at times - the 40 scene changes were sometimes mind-boggling and distracting - Siegle's ambitious production made for one of the better Zoo shows performed this year, combining elements of tragedy and comedy so flawlessly that it often evoked the true problems of our American lives.
(03/03/05 12:00am)
Author: Caroline Vial After the visit of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to France in February, which was followed by President George W. Bush's self-described working dinner with French President Jacques Chirac on Feb. 21 and the liberation of the last French prisoners detained in Guantanamo Bay, Paris and Washington appear to have reached a more positive climate in a relationship with a seemingly ceaseless "piquant." Yet, The Courrier International, a reputable European newspaper, claims that from the perspective of Poland - a European and Atlanticist country - the recently appeased diplomatic status between France and the United States remains but a show."Condi" - as the chief of French diplomacy Michel Barnier amicably refers to the U.S. Secretary of State - chose Paris to hold the conference on America's new world politics. In her exposition, Rice, unlike Bush, spoke of the European Union (E.U.) as an indispensable partner to the United States in its establishment of a new world order. She also spoke of her historic affiliation with France, yet "did not discuss any concrete points," revealed the Courrier International. On Feb. 21, Bush and Chirac discussed the shared priorities between the two nations - from securing Afghanistan and Haiti to responding to December's devastating tsunami in Asia and fighting terrorism. "Despite the public display of bonhomie, tensions remain," wrote British journalist Adam Entous. According to Entous, the two nations find many issues over which to disagree "from how to deal with Iran's nuclear programme to whether the E.U. should serve as a counter-balance to U.S. dominance." The diplomatic effort to ease the ongoing discordance between French and American views on the war in Iraq seemed apparent - in response to whether relations were now good enough for Bush to invite Chirac to his ranch in Crawford, Texas - an honor which Bush bestows on his closest allies- - Bush said, "I'm looking for a good cowboy." From the Polish perspective, Franco-American relations have improved in that France no longer criticizes the American and Polish presence in Iraq. France is not ready, however, to send their own soldiers. "France is still not in agreement with a uni-polar vision of the world," claimed Polish journalist Grzegorz Dobiecki."There are several signs of calming down," observed the International Herald Tribune, which stated that last year, certain members of the House of Representatives accepted an offer to join senators as part of a group dedicated to bettering the communication between Paris and Washington.One undeniable subject of agreement between France and America seems directly related to food. One enthusiastic Francophile revealed to the International Herald Tribune, "As soon as it has to do with food, Americans always adore France. We feasted on truffles, pâtés and champagne during the holidays. And the foie gras [a delicacy of fattened duck liver] defied the elevated state of the Euro and the obstacles to importation." Washington, D.C. opened the festival "Paris on the Potomac" in February, celebrating France's influence on the creation of the nation's capital. The festival included "gastronomy, art and music and a presentation of Pierre L'Enfant, the architect who designed D.C.'s city plans," reported The Independent. The British publication denounces the rapid change in sentiments as a surprising yet positive turn of events. "In the summer of 2003, the French embassy felt so attacked that the embassador Jean-David Levitte wrote a letter to complain about the campaign of misinformation which came from certain elements of the White House. Today, the embassy sponsors French jazz and cabaret shows all over the city and at the French Film Festival," The Independent noted.As the Orlando Sentinel affirmed, "French fries are back - at least as long as the 'diplomatic honeymoon' continues."
(02/10/05 12:00am)
Author: Katie Flagg Students, professors and leaders in the environmental movement gathered at Middlebury College at the end of January to discuss strategies for renewing public interest in the global warming crisis. With recent February temperatures hitting an unusual near-record high of 50 degrees, climate change seems an appropriate topic of conversation on campus. But during the Jan. 25-27 conference, at least, students bundled up in heavy coats to brave sub-zero temperatures as they hurried to lectures and presentations. The conference, titled "What Works? New Strategies for a Melting Planet," strove to identify methods for renewing public concern regarding climate change. The conference, which gained national attention, was designed and organized by Jonathan Isham, assistant professor of Economics at the College, along with help from the 25 students in Isham's Winter Term "Building the Climate Movement" class.The class and conference have been in the works for about a year, according to Isham, though the inspiration for the class came from a previous Winter Term course Isham conducted. Two years ago he worked with a group of students to look at the College campus's carbon footprint. This year, Isham decided to turn his focus away from the College community and instead work with larger social movements.Students in Isham's seminar spent the first few weeks of January reading books and articles on climate change and social movements. Students then engaged in six service-learning projects, projects that ranged from building statewide climate campaigns and drumming up political support for federal action to critiquing climate tactics and publicizing the urgency of the climate crisis. Students were also responsible for helping with various logistics of the conference."I just want to emphasis that this was an incredible collective achievement," said Isham. "The students worked amazingly hard. They were up night and day - they deserve a lot of kudos."The conference swung into gear on the evening of Jan. 25 when environmental economist Eban Goodstein of Lewis and Clark College presented a keynote speech on the disastrous effects of global warming.Several notable leaders in the environmental field were in attendance for the conference. Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger, authors of last fall's highly controversial paper "The Death of Environmentalism," spoke about rethinking the politics of climate."The highlight of the conference was Nordhaus and Shellenberger's talk," said John Hanley '05, one of Isham's students. "They showed statistics on the changing values of Americans over the last 12 years. Essentially their talk was about how the environmental movement is not working and it needs to change its tactics."Also in attendance was John Passacantando, the executive director of Greenpeace USA. "Public attention has moved away from the environment," said Passacantando to assembled students and activists. "It's time to develop new strategies and new skills. We need to reawaken our sense of wonder about the planet ... to become the warriors we need to become."While speeches and presentations constituted some part of the January conference, the strongest component of the event, according to student participants and others in attendance, were the small-group sessions designed for discussion and On Wednesday, students working on a service project to publicize the urgency of climate change announced a new award designed to expose prominent figures for denouncing global warming. The Flat Earth Award, designed by Hanley and sophomores Makely Lyon and Minna Brown, will be awarded in April on Earth Day following an online vote that will determine the winner. This year's nominees are novelist Michael Crichton, talk show host Rush Limbaugh and Fred Singer, president and founder of the Science and Environmental Policy Project.The conference ended on Jan. 27 with an address from Bill McKibben, scholar-in-residence in environmental studies, who acknowledged to participants "we may well lose this fight." McKibben went on to say, "It's not your fault if we don't solve this problem, and that realization can be very useful because it frees you to try anything and everything."As Isham was quick to point out, the conference occurred only through support from the College and the College community. "Everyone in this community helped to pull this thing off. I got to know everybody on this campus. I had so many people comment to me about the level of excellence at this place.""It was a bit of a risk for Middlebury to do this," he continued. "It was at some level a conference at activism, and a lot of people told me they wouldn't have been able to do this at their schools." The conference flourished because of the "confidence with which the entire institution approached it," according to Isham. For Isham, the highlight of the conference came after parting words had been issued. "Right as the conference ended I met with the students for a half hour," he said, "and we talked together about the process we'd all been through and that was extremely meaningful for me. I'll probably remember that the most."Another high point for Isham occurred during student presentations. "I had many many people tell me how impressed they were with our Middlebury students and the quality of their analysis," he said. "When they presented their work - that was certainly a highlight."The unique structure and purpose of the class further added to the positive experience that both Isham and his students came away with. "There was a sort of liberated feeling in this class since we had a common goal," Isham said. "We really wanted to contribute to a social movement." Isham was especially proud that his students came away from the class with a "vision of a positive future," despite the fact that discussions on climate change often spark gloomy moods.Participants largely agree that the conference was a success. "The event hoped to establish a network of people working on climate change and also hoped to think of new ways to advance the climate change movement so we can achieve the reduction in emissions necessary to prevent dramatic climate change," said Hanley. "I think the conference was successful in broadening people's ideas on how to advance the movement." "It was amazing to have environmental leaders like Bill McKibben and John Passacantando there at the conference, looking to work with us college students," said Lyon. "Their being there gave us tools, knowledge and resources to work with. Global warming is a huge problem and there is not one clear solution, thus the conference and the class could have been a real downer, but I think people came out of them with a sense of hope, a few strategies to test out and feeling excited and empowered to make a difference."The conference made national headlines and was featured in a front-page story in the Feb. 6 New York Times. The events were also covered in several online magazines and Web logs. Isham, along with students and conference participants, recorded reflections on the conference at the "Blogging the Climate Movement" Web log while McKibben sent dispatches from the conference to the Grist Magazine, an online publication focused on environmental news and commentary. "For me the most impressive thing was the way that Middlebury students took over the whole process - they brainstormed, moved things along, kept the whole process going forward," said McKibben. "I was impressed by the to my mind unique way that a class turned into a conference and students turned into colleagues. I've never seen anything like that."
(01/27/05 12:00am)
Author: Colin Kikuchi Thoughtful dialogue is necessary for students to become critical thinkers - only through defending our ideas can we determine our real views. The majority of Middlebury students identify themselves as Democrats, and this fact raises an important question - does political affiliation in the student body hinder dialogue on important national and foreign issues? A Dec. 4 article in the Economist criticized American universities for harboring faculty whose biases prevent meaningful discussion on many issues. "Students hear only one side of the story on everything from abortion (good) to the rise of the West (bad)." The author goes on to argue that despite all the emphasis that institutions such as Middlebury place on diversity in race and sexual orientation, we have neglected diversity of political opinion. In doing so, academia is dominated by one worldview which too often coincides with the party line of the Democrats.I recently talked with Roman Graf, the Dean for Institutional Diversity, about this problem. He raised several important points. First, professors evaluate students not on the findings of their work, but rather on how we argue our points. Second, the hiring trend of our academic departments is towards diversity because it is a waste of money to hire two professors with identical views. Lastly, he mentioned the results of the Senior Exit Survey from 2001 and 2002. When students were asked to rank ability to express their political views, find mentors and become involved in the college communities, there was no significant difference between the responses of liberal and conservative students.All of these points indicate that at Middlebury, we are doing something right. If academia in the United States is generally of one political view, Middlebury may be an exception to the rule. However, Roman and I both agreed that in the current political climate, conservatives may be more excluded at Middlebury than in the past. The problem is that the policies of the Bush administration are not really conservative. For example, federal spending has significantly risen since 2001 administration and the scope of government has increased. We would be mistaken to associate conservative thought with the Republican Party and liberal thought with the Democratic Party. Any factual information about issues like globalization and social security are obscured when these issues become politicized.The only way to really engage our minds is through dialogue. Because diversity of political views encourages dialogue, we need to encourage this diversity. Conservative thinker David Horowitz has proposed an "academic bill of rights" to guarantee that professors will present politically balanced views. Such a policy, however, would hinder discussion even further because college curriculums would be decided by political agendas. In Middlebury's academic environment, we have the opportunity to study with many different professors, and the so-called "balanced curriculum" would diminish the richness of opinion that we experience.Instead, I think that the best way to advance discussion at Middlebury is from the bottom up beginning with us, the students. We need to recognize and then question the limitations of our two-party system. As Roman told me, the viewpoints of any individual seldom fit within the Republican and Democrat configuration. Political opinion is unique from race, ethnicity or sexual identity because it can be changed. If we are more critical of political affiliation, we can improve dialogue on campus.
(01/27/05 12:00am)
Author: [no author name found] To the Editor:Hiding under the meaningless "not-for-profit" label, 12 home health agencies have carved the state into separate service territories and agree not to compete with one another. Together, they endlessly lobby the Vermont Legislature and state regulators to make sure persons with Medicare and Medicaid - taxpayer funded insurances - have no other home health agency to call upon when they are ill. State regulators ask no meaningful questions and the agencies actively campaign against legislators who promote consumer choice and competition - which all other states embrace as a means of ensuring quality and lowering charges.Here's the hard truth on Vermont's home health agencies' claim of having the "lowest cost" in the nation. It means the monopoly's INTERNAL costs of providing home care are the lowest in the nation. It has nothing to do with the agencies bill or the reimbursement they receive. In fact, Vermont's home health monopoly has the highest profit margin on Medicare today, and is also paid the highest Medicaid home care reimbursement in the nation. As for private insurance, because Vermont allows a monopoly to control this $100 million annual market, private insurance is forced to pay about 25 percent more than it does in states where there is home health competition.The bigger question is this: Who are the people in the Vermont state government who put a monopoly's interests above those of homebound seniors and taxpayers all these years? Perhaps the Department of Justice will get us some well-deserved answers and give us all a choice at last.Sincerely,Megan PriceShelburne, VTTo the Editor:Having taken Jon Isham's inspiring J-term class, Social Movements and Climate Change, I wanted to add to the article in the last issue of The Middlebury Campus about the "tropical weather" this winter. Perhaps you've heard or felt the buzz going around about Jon's class and the 25 new and energized activists it has created. Why are we so charged about this issue? Because while the government and media still question whether climate change is in fact occurring, the scientific community and a vast network of dedicated activists, socially responsible businesses students, and religious leaders are waving their arms frantically, hoping to attract the attention of the United States before it's too late. Despite the apparent controversy in politics and the media over climate change, the science isn't in question. And the most significant findings are telling us we don't have much time. According to the science, stabilizing our climate will require a 70 percent reduction of carbon dioxide emissions by the year 2020. In Vermont, climate change means shortened winters, a significant decrease in snowfall and the eventual disappearance of maple syrup production. Globally it means rising sea levels, disturbed and increasingly violent weather patterns and massive famines. Not just flip-flops in winter.In beginning to understand the urgency and scale of the climate crisis, students on campus have mobilized to bring several organizations together around this issue. As the group is not a formal organization, but a group of concerned students, it encourages any student, faculty, or administrator to attend. The group meets Sundays from 9 to 11 p.m. in Chateau Grand Salon. Kelly Blynn '07
(01/13/05 12:00am)
Author: Tristan Hayes January at Middlebury is an image of skis and hot chocolate combined with frantic students running from building to building in an attempt to avoid the cold. However, this January there is a significant difference that cannot only be seen but can also be felt. Let us paint you a picture - breakfast at Ross is still filled with students eager to hit the slopes, yet half the Snow Bowl remains closed. The ground outside is white minus the random patches of mud and grass angering some and pleasing others. Is it really time to pull out the flip-flops or should we keep those boots and down jackets handy? Take for example, January 10, 2004. The mean temperature was a more than chilly -10° F with highs at -2°F and lows at -18°F, this all without wind chill. Yet, January 10, 2005 paints quite a different picture. The mean temperature was a balmy 32° F with highs at 37°F and lows at 26°F. You would think the warm weather would make the usual weather complaints disappear. Students have found something new to complain about: the lack of snow. Sam Timberg '07 thinks that this January's warm weather is "a devastating and drastic change" from last year's negative temperatures. "The warm weather scares me a little bit," he says, "now I fall more on ice as opposed to snow." Not only does this "drastic" change in weather affect the normal Midd student walking to class, but for the Middlebury Ski Team, snow is a necessity which has been greatly missed so far this season. Nordic ski team member Matthew Perry Johnson '08 expressed concern about his ability to train for upcoming events. "It's really hard to train and I feel like it puts me at a disadvantage during competition." First-years and Febs, both groups experiencing J-term for the first time are shocked by the extraordinary conditions. Matthew Amoss '07.5 is shocked that the horror stories being told have not come true, "I thought it was going to be -40°F with wind-chill and I am exalted by this weather." Drew Walker '08, also experiencing his first J-term, expressed disappointment, "I was expecting to be able to jump out of my room into a 10 foot pile of snow." Sorry Drew, better luck next year. We suggest putting away those down jackets and pulling out those flip flops...just kidding we do realize that it is still below freezing and we do not want to be responsible for your frostbite and pneumonia. Aside from the lack of snow, students are concerned that their prepaid season passes may go to waste. While only five of the fourteen trails at the Middlebury Snow Bowl are open right now the price of a season pass remains the same as if all fourteen were open: $125. Yet, the snow bowl remains open and busy. Students continue to capitalize on what's available. Though the cries of unmet expectations can still be heard throughout campus, the skis are still out and the busses remain crowded. So, $125 gone to waste? We think not. Runs at the Snow Bowl are and will remain open; there is still snow on the ground. There is really nothing to lose except your hat. Embrace the warmth; because like all things, once it's gone you will miss it. So what's the big picture? Is global warming engulfing us, or is this just a single fluke occurrence in the weather pattern? Middlebury Professor John Isham has organized a conference on this exact topic. From January 25th-27th, leaders of environmental grassroots organizations as well as scientific experts will convene in Middlebury to discuss the current trends in global climate change. Isham has started the "What Works?" project in an attempt to help build a new movement based on the need to protect our current climate. The project refers to the need to inhibit the climate crisis, which can also be referred to as Global Warming, a phenomenon which links the increase in temperatures to an increase in greenhouse gases. Peter deMenocal, an associate professor of earth and environmental sciences at Columbia University, stated in his article about the climate crisis, "The Scientific community is now very confident that much of the warming over the past century is attributable to human activities. Global temperatures have changed for many natural reasons, of course, but when scientists try to account for the full record of global temperature changes over the past several hundred years, it is impossible to obtain a close match to the observed temperature curve without including the effects of very recent increases in greenhouse gas concentrations." For all you Goldilocks fans we would like to leave you with a quote from Chris Straub '07 "Last year was too cold, this year is too hot, I want something that is just right!"
(11/20/03 12:00am)
Author: Claire M. L. Bourne Middlebury College's Ally Group has existed for 11 years. But when Commons Residential Advisor (CRA) Freeman White '03 tells people he does leadership work for the organization, most respond with blank stares. Tonight, more than a decade after its informal inception, the Ally Group will take a notable step toward heightened visibility - and official student organization status - by ratifying a constitution."The time is right for the Ally Group to evolve," says Matt Longman '91, dean of Wonnacott Commons. The group was established in 1992 by a handful of faculty and staff members to provide support and advocacy for the College's gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, questioning (GLBTQ) community. Since then, it has expanded to include student allies.Longman was instrumental in getting the ally program off the ground and is now working to ensure its survival. "The ebb and flow [of interest in the group] is not satisfactory," he says. "The group should be alive and well year after year." With 45 first-years expressing interest in the allies at the activities fair in September and 40 people attending the group's first "official" meeting during Coming Out Week, momentum is building.The allies' mission, says Longman, is "to ensure that Middlebury is not a cold, silent climate" for members of the GLBTQ community. Despite recent strides toward greater visibility for gay and bisexual Middlebury students, the College on the Hill is still not immune to homophobia. "It is still a climate where it's typical when moqa hangs posters for the majority of them to be torn down," Longman says. "It's really not a good sign."The Ally Group is out to change that by broadening the base of students aware of GLBTQ issues. With student organization status will come a budget from the College's Finance Committee - something the group has done without until now - to sponsor lectures, parties, films and other events on campus. Such events, says White, "will get discussion rolling."The move to transform the Ally Group from a grassroots initiative into a formally recognized organization comes on the heels of several landmark achievements for the GLBTQ community at Middlebury this year. The Middlebury Open Queer Alliance (moqa) has seen a spike in attendance - a solid 20 people at each weekly meeting compared to less than 10 last year - and the symbolic closet constructed by moqa on McCullough Lawn in observance of Coming Out Week this October was not vandalized for the first time since 1997. In addition, the College currently boasts about a dozen "out" faculty members, a far cry from 1992, the year Middlebury hired its first openly gay applicant to a teaching position. During that same year, then-CRA Longman accompanied faculty and staff members to a conference at the University of Vermont that focused "on assessing your campus' climate towards the gay, lesbian and bisexual community," he explains. With no funding and "a nice spectrum" of interested faculty and staff, the Ally Group quietly debuted.Over the past decade, allies have provided "safe spaces" - traditionally demarcated by a pink triangle postcard - for community members to talk about sexuality. The group also contributed to the push for domestic partner benefits, advocated for a broader range of "voices" in the annual "Voices of the Class" presentation during first-year orientation and sponsored a number of well-attended panel discussions about homosexuality and sexuality in general.White says the group has already brainstormed innovative ways to raise awareness of GLBTQ issues on campus. Among the suggestions is an adopt-a-poster program to help prevent GLBTQ-focused fliers from being torn down. "We want to identify genuine, meaningful steps," says Longman, to promote the group's guiding principles of "Support, Education, Advocacy.""As soon as you add an active group of the majority to advocate for the minority, people listen, and the movement gains momentum," White explains. Straight allies, he says, help the cause by "widening the net of people who start thinking about the subject" to those who would not encounter GLBTQ issues on a regular basis. Nevertheless, White is adamant that the Ally Group does not want a "straight identity." Jillian Weiser '06, co-president of moqa, argues, "You don't have to be straight to be an ally." Being an ally, she continues, can serve as "a step towards coming out," at least in her experience. (She served as an ally in high school.) "You get involved, take a stand, meet people and become aware that there is space and support," she explains.There is even debate among current members of the Ally Group about whether allies should declare their sexuality at all. "I sometimes argue against disclosing," affirms Kevin Moss, professor of Russian. "Basically I always find it suspect when people have to come out as straight in the first sentence of a conversation. What, aside from homophobia, would make someone want to do that?"Xan Williams '03.5, who along with Trilby Reeve '05 is helping White and Longman coordinate the allies' drive toward student organization status, defines an ally as "anyone who supports GLBTQ rights." The Ally Group's objective, Williams says, is inclusion. "Our goal is to get as many people involved as possible, which means that everyone is welcome," she explains. "If a person needs to identify himself or herself as straight (or otherwise) to feel comfortable putting themselves out as an ally, then that is fine."The group will complement moqa, Reeve explains. "The groundwork has been laid by moqa, GLEAM [Gay and Lesbian Employees at Middlebury] and the allies," White says. "When we all work together, I know the environment will start changing."When the allies gather this evening to discuss and endorse their proposed constitution, they will also begin planning for "J-term and beyond," Longman says. In five years, White predicts the Ally Group will be "a name on campus.""People can say WRMC now, and everyone knows what they're talking about. I say I'm doing work for the Ally Group, and people ask, 'What's that?'" White says. "In five years, you'll say that, and people will know."The Ally Group will meet at 7:30 p.m. tonight in Ross 3 to discuss its constitution.
(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.
(11/06/03 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: Kelsey Rinehart We all want to change the world, but how many of us succeed? Last Friday, Co-founder and President of the Middlebury-based organization ECOlogists Linked for Organizing Grassroots Initiatives and Action (ECOLOGIA) Randy Kritausky showed that his organization is doing just that - making the world better and even cleaner. In his presentation, "Balancing The Scales Of Development: Combining Practical and Ethical," Kritausky discussed the organization's push for global climate control. He stressed that through international grassroots organization - town-by-town and person-by-person - ECOLOGIA hopes to raise awareness about the importance of global climate control. When grassroots environmental activists in Pennsylvania founded ECOLOGIA in 1989 (in the midst of the Cold War), their original intent was to establish a system of support for local environmental initiatives across the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Their goals since then have changed a little and so has their location. In 2000, ECOLOGIA moved to Middlebury. On its Web site, ECOLOGIA cites the Green Mountain State as the perfect home base for its organization, due to "Vermont's long tradition of community participation, environmental awareness and respect for individual differences."Kritausky explained that the title of his lecture refers to finding equilibrium between pragmatism and ethics. Throughout the discussion, he addressed this balance as a central concern of ECOLOGIA and its fellow Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). He emphasized the importance of remaining "true to the environmental movement" and its strong ethical spirit, while at the same time recognizing economic concerns and working with, not against, industry. Kritausky said that when he and his organization come to the table with policy-makers, heads of industry or economic groups, both sides may have to compromise, but "we have to know when we've hit the bottom line."Throughout his talk, Kritausky continually emphasized ECOLOGIA's goal of striking this balance. Noting the overspecialization of many NGOs, Kritausky described these as "too pure to enter into the real world." He mentioned, on the other hand, that some other organizations grow so large and become so willing to compromise that they start to resemble the industries they criticize. ECOLOGIA endeavors to avoid both extremes. The organization states that its program aims to "bring international perspectives and resources to local sustainable development projects, and bring locally based 'on the ground' experience back to the world of international decision making" to create a true local-global connection.In the spirit of its slogan, "Building Global Connections to create Civil Society and support Local Environmental Initiatives," ECOLOGIA established in 1996 the Virtual Foundation, which "screens and posts [local community improvement] projects on its Web site, enabling donors to choose directly among them." Today, the Foundation's Web site contains information on roughly 150 projects and has local partners in 25 countries.In particular, ECOLOGIA has spent years working in communities in China and bringing its experiences and findings to the Chinese government. Kritausky mentioned that China, which is on "an unprecedented development path," is vying for development space - natural resources - with the United States, "the largest resource consumer and producers of greenhouse gases (GHGs) on earth." When Kritausky attended a "Green Earth Volunteers" meeting in Beijing, an elderly woman in the front row asked him, "Are Americans going to change their patterns of consumption so that we in China can increase our standard of living and level of consumption?" This question is precisely what Kritausky and ECOLOGIA have attempted to address. Kritausky asserted that the United States has been "overly optimistic" in our development, believing "we can carry on our ways without endangering economic growth and the health of the planet's ecosystem."ECOLOGIA's recent work aims to find a "verifiable measuring mechanism" for GHG emissions. Kritausky mentioned the organization's desire to find an international standard for GHG emissions and the need for "a third-party verifier" - an "independent inspection regime that will go out into the field and find the truth."Randy's daughter, Laurel Kritausky, attended Middlebury College and majored in international studies. Now a project director for ECOLOGIA, she remarked that the organization is "working to empower people to make decisions about their future."The organization has recruited several other students over the years, and established its most recent connection with the College through a class taught by Assistant Professor of Economics Jon Isham. Students in Isham's class conducted investigative research, as Kritausky said, "about the people that ECOLOGIA has to sit down with to negotiate." The research informed ECOLOGIA of the industries' backgrounds and goals before negotiation and compromise began.ECOLOGIA's next vision is a Vermont-China community partnership, in which students would be paired up to monitor the collective carbon footprint of their towns. Returning to his original metaphor, Kritausky said that the American community and its sister community in China would seek to establish a balance, posing the question, "How can we grow together so that we don't crowd each other out?"Returning to the need for grassroots action, Kritausky concluded, "The only place that [change] really happens is from the bottom up - hundreds and thousands of little changes" that together make a difference. Wise words from someone who founded an organization that is working on making big changes the world over.
(10/10/03 12:00am)
Author: Ben Salkowe As stated on the Web site of the Middlebury Student Employment Office (SEO), "All students are eligible for all on-campus jobs, regardless of their financial status." But in recent years, some say it has become increasingly difficult to secure an on-campus job. The vision of sitting at a desk in a quiet room,and being paid to get your work done is not quite reality anymore. Are campus jobs disappearing in the face of a weak economy?Commenting on this year's competition for the prized jobs in Library Information Services (LIS), Associate Dean of LIS Dave Donahue said, "We have noticed increasing numbers of applicants for positions in each of the past few years." "I think every department on campus is trying to use its budget dollars as effectively as possible given the current economic conditions," he continued. He noted, however, that LIS was committed to "eliminating inefficiencies" before cutting back on student employees.The competition for fall jobs was set to begin when the SEO posted campus job opportunities on Sunday, Sept. 7, at 7 p.m. "We wait to post them until Sunday evening so that all students coming back to campus have an equal opportunity to apply for jobs," said Student Employment Coordinator Charlene Bergland. The list, however, was not available until later Monday because of technical difficulties.Although job seekers were disadvantaged at the start, Bergland is convinced that "there were the usual number of jobs available this fall." She added, "I think that the financial climate across the country has changed and more students are interested in working on campus - or being pressured by their parents to get a job."It is perhaps this pressure that drove Ben Rowe '06 to pursue a job lifeguarding at the Natatorium. "It was a little overwhelming last year figuring out how to get a job and such," he said.Aquatics Director and Head Swimming Coach Peter Solomon admitted that there are "more guards that want to work than what we are able to assign." The McCullough Mail Center, another student employer, has also seen increased competition for job opportunities. The College recently decided to cut out their afternoon delivery schedule, meaning all deliveries across campus must be made in the morning rather than split between the morning and afternoon. Since the mailroom has relatively few operational costs, Mail Center Supervisor David LaRose said, "The only thing to cut back on is labor." After reviewing the Mail Center's operations, the decision to cut out afternoon deliveries became the only option. "Yes, the kids are carrying heavier loads than before," he said, admitting that the same employees are now working more in fewer hours. "Sometimes our full-time staff has to finish deliveries in the afternoon," he added.So now that the competition has snatched up prime jobs, what is left for those who were just too slow? A quick look at the SEO Web site reveals leftovers are anything but dull. College departments are currently looking for everything from hairstylists to pot washers and "ball-retrievers" for the soccer team. Feeling really adventurous? There's always a future in nude modeling for art classes.
(05/07/03 12:00am)
Author: May Boeve What exactly is an "environmental policy"? If one were to base her definition on the current U.S. presidential administration, it would be "How Best to Increase Profits of U.S.-owned Multinational Corporations." The president succeeds with this as his objective, as his administration initiates rollback upon rollback of environmental protections in the interest of Corporate America. But he doesn't stop there. Along with reversing the positive policies made by previous, more ecologically conscious administrations, he adds his own shockingly reactionary policies. Examine, as an example of how the Bush administration has condoned environmental degradation, its policies regarding global warming. When the administration convened a panel from the National Academy of Sciences to review its proposed plan to address climate change, the panelists scoffed at the modicum of funds allocated for the project. However, the real whoopee cushion of an embarrassment entails the panelists' ridicule of a plan that involved conducting "research on questions about which there is already scientific consensus" (National Resources Defense Council, Feb. 25, 2003).Another impressively backward plan initiated by Bush is his new idea for controlling power-plant emissions. No alternative energy sources will be employed, nor will U.S. power plants discontinue fossil fuel use. Rather, the plan is to construct the world's first carbon-dioxide emissions-free power plant - run on coal! Nice idea, I guess, but whom are we kidding here? I can hardly fathom the irony of a coal-run power plant. Just how much money is the U.S. coal industry contributing to Bush's re-election campaign?Therein lies the trend of these disheartening policies. When one reads in the news about yet another bill that will wreak irreversible damage on the environment, it can usually be explained with a little reading between the lines concerning which industry might benefit from a particular ecosystem's loss. At such times, Bush's interests aren't even vested: they're sticking out of the front pocket of his suit coat.In response to the array of abuses raining down from Capitol Hill, various environmental groups have their hands full attempting to counteract some of them. Lobbyists representing environmental groups are using their allies in the House and Senate to try to offset pressures of a different nature from corporate lobbies (who carry more weight given the make-up of the current Congress). Much of the environmental organizations' efforts lie in publicizing what exactly the administration is up to: so many regulatory laws are being overturned that it is difficult to keep track of them. Friends of the Earth, the Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council are good examples of such organizations, and their Web sites maintain updated reports. Along with this, the Sierra Club's Web site includes an interactive activity called "The Big Book of Bush," full of edgy irony. For example, one activity involves the participant clicking on different states on a map of the United States as part of a Bush-Cheney field trip across National Forests to look for areas to drill for oil. But just beneath the surface exists the discouraging truth of what actually occurs as a result of this legislation.So don't be duped, my fellow students of a school that lists "recycling" in the Student Life link on its Web site. Even though Bush shows all the signs of an environmentally conscious individual, he maintains direct ties to the oil industry and he is no friend of the earth. Often what one problematic presidential administration puts into place by way of policies can be easily reversed by succeeding presidents (just look at the Clinton to Bush transition of powers). In the field of environmental protection, this is not the case because damage to the environment is largely irreparable. The corporations that receive the losses of air, water and wildlife will continue to grow and environmental stability will diminish.
(04/23/03 12:00am)
Author: Josh Carson Last October, Community Council charged the Carbon Reduction Initiative (CRI) working group with the task of establishing a plan to reduce the College's carbon dioxide emissions. The working group is now ready to present their findings to the Community and Environmental Councils this week. Led by Director of Environmental Affairs Nan Jenks-Jay and Vice President for Administration and Treasurer Bob Huth, the CRI working group is composed of student representatives from each commons, faculty advisors and staff and administrators involved in all aspects of running the College. The group will propose strategies for the College to lower carbon emissions to 10 percent below the 1990 levels by the year 2020. The creation of the CRI working group has been an evolutionary process that began three years ago in the Environmental Council (EC). Since then, students and faculty have traveled around the country to other institutions to determine whether a carbon reduction initiative would be feasible at Middlebury. Attending conferences and bringing in outside speakers has led to a better understanding and greater concern for the current global problem. The College formally responded to this challenge two years ago when the EC established a subcommittee to investigate the possibility of making Middlebury College carbon neutral. Doug Dagan '03 completed an emissions inventory of carbon dioxide emitted by the College over the last 10 years. This promoted further interest across campus and led the Community Council to commission the CRI working group. The CRI has two goals as stated by the EC: to evaluate data from the College's recent carbon emissions and to create a menu of carbon reduction options in order to create a specific carbon reduction plan for Middlebury College.The data comes from Dagan's emissions inventory and the extensive report written by the Carbon Neutral Winter Term class whose goal it was to "explore the available and emerging technologies and economic instruments that would allow the College to achieve a net emissions rate of carbon dioxide equal to zero," according to Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Lori DelNegro who taught the class with Assistant Professor of Economics Jonathan Isham. The class released a final report documenting its findings which were used extensively by the CRI working group. The CRI working group has now created a progress report, which it will present to the Community and Environmental Councils, recommending various strategies the College can adopt to reduce its emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses. The recommendations will range from education and outreach to infrastructure changes at Middlebury like purchasing a more efficient boiler and burning cleaner oil. In the proposal to the Community Council, the group also recommends that it be charged with "identifying a specific carbon reduction goal for the College and developing a specific carbon reduction plan that outlines the steps necessary to achieve said goal". Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have increased dramatically during the 20th century. Since climate change is closely related to increased carbon dioxide levels, many environmentalists are concerned.McKibben notes that "humans are threatening to take the temperature of the planet to a spot where it hasn't been for hundreds of millions of years, and only rapid carbon reduction can head it off."
(04/16/03 12:00am)
Author: Nicolas Emery Andrea Lloyd, assistant professor of biology, is the recipient of the 2003 Perkins Award for Excellence in Teaching. The prestigious award honors outstanding performance in teaching science and mathematics at Middlebury College. On Tuesday, April 22 at 4:30 p.m. Lloyd will receive the award in a ceremony in Room 219 of Bicentennial Hall. The award is given annually to a member of the College's natural sciences division, which includes mathematics, computer science, biology, chemistry, geology and physics. The award alternates between a faculty member in the Mathematics and Computer Science Departments and one of the other four in the division. According to Lloyd, her current research focuses on "the effects of climate change on Alaskan forest [as well as] some collaborative work to develop models of future ecological change in Alaska and to characterize the effects of vegetation changes on the Alaskan climate."Lloyd holds a bachelor's degree in geography from Dartmouth College and a master's degree in biology and wildlife from the University of Alaska. She earned her doctorate in ecology and evolutionary biology from the University of Arizona. Lloyd has been teaching at Middlebury College since 1996 - some of her courses include "Introductory Ecology" and "Plant Ecology." Lloyd said that "the challenge of convincing people that science is both a worthwhile and fun endeavor" is part of what draws her to teaching, in addition to the fact that "interacting with students both in and out of the classroom keeps me more on my toes intellectually than I might otherwise be."The Perkins Award for Excellence in Teaching is provided by the Professor Llewellyn R. Perkins and Dr. Ruth M.H. Perkins Memorial Faculty Research Fund. The Fund was made possible as a gift by Dr. Ruth M.H. Perkins in honor of her husband, Professor Perkins. Perkins taught at the College from 1914 until 1941, during which time he founded and chaired the mathematics department. Assistant Professor of Computer Science Daniel Scharstein was the 2002 recipient."[The Perkins Award] is an amazing honor," Lloyd said, "especially given that the nominations originate from the students."
(04/09/03 12:00am)
Author: Charlie Goulding The history of racial discrimination and prejudice in the United States dates back almost as far as the history of the nation itself. Despite the fact that slavery had been formally abolished in 1865, a tradition of racial discrimination and hatred continued to pervade much of the country well into the 1960s. To some, it had become abundantly clear by this time that the war against racial discrimination needed to be taken to the next level - a simple declaration of equality did little to combat the myriad manifestations of hate and prejudice that permeated the nation and divided its people. President Lyndon B. Johnson's commencement speech at Howard University encapsulated these sentiments when he stated, "You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying, 'Now, you are free to go where you want, do as you desire, and choose the leaders you please.' You do not take a man who for years has been hobbled by chains, liberate him, bring him to the starting line of a race, saying, 'You are free to compete with all the others,' and still justly believe you have been completely fair . . . This is the next and more profound stage of the battle for civil rights. We seek not just freedom but opportunity - not just legal equity but human ability - not just equality as a right and a theory, but equality as a fact and as a result."It is within this political and cultural milieu that President John F. Kennedy first used the term "affirmative action" in 1961. In Executive Order 10925, Kennedy announced the creation of the Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity and mandated that projects financed with federal funds "take affirmative action" to ensure that hiring and employment practices were free of racial bias.In 1964, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, one of the most influential ordinances in American history, prohibiting discrimination of any kind based on one's race, religion or ethnicity. In Executive Order 11246 of the following year, Johnson enforced affirmative action for the first time, stipulating that government contractors must "take affirmative action toward prospective minority employees in all aspects of hiring." In 1978, the Supreme Court ruling of Bakke v. University of California addressed education - the second focal point of affirmative action. This landmark case featured Alan Bakke, a white student who had been rejected twice from the University of California at Davis Medical School. The University, which only accepted 100 students each year, maintained a rigid minority quota of 16 students per class. Davis, whose test scores far surpassed many of those let in due to their minority status, argued that the University's admissions policies violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the inflexible quota maintained by the University was unconstitutional, though it affirmed the notion that race was a legitimate factor with respect to admissions. Later, in Fullilove v. Klutznick, the use of more elastic quotas was approved by the same court.As affirmative action solidified itself legislatively and judicially, Americans began to polarize on the issue. Conservatives argued that affirmative action gave unjust preference to minorities, providing them with a "free ride" in a social system that should reflect a meritocracy. Liberals, on the other hand, called attention to the undeniable strides in occupational and educational diversity facilitated by affirmative action. Recently, the political tide has turned with regard to affirmative action. Proposition 209 outlawed discrimination of any kind within California's public school system in 1997, and the state of Washington soon followed suit. Even more recently, President Bush weighed in on the pending Supreme Court case concerning the University of Michigan by filing a friend of the court briefing which opposed the use of race-based discriminatory quotas. The Middlebury AngleThis news has prompted a deluge of heated dialogue at the College and nationwide, compelling an inquiry into the history of affirmative action within the College, and the role diversity continues to play at Middlebury's admissions process.Within the past five years, two key developments have molded Middlebury's admissions policy with respect to diversity into its current form: the first is a report submitted by the Human Relations Subcommittee on Middlebury College Diversity, published in 1999. The second is a written statement made by the College's Board of Trustees subsequent to the report affirming Middlebury's commitment to diversity.The admissions section of the Human Relations report begins with the following quote: "There are the Middlebury students, and then there's me." The quote is intended to epitomize the prevailing sentiment felt by minority students at Middlebury at the time of the report. It goes on to say, "While it is true that the College can implement programs aimed at changing behavior and attitudes of students once they arrive on campus, much can also be done in admissions to recruit more students from diverse backgrounds and to admit more students who through the admissions process demonstrate openness and tolerance of human differences." Along with criticizing how the College had remained "mostly white," the report included three recommendations for improvement within the admissions department: 1) "continue to diversify recruitment across national, international and socio-economic classes;" 2) "develop recruitment materials with language and photographs that are welcoming of diversity;" and 3) "attract and retain professional staff of color [within the Admissions Office itself]." In direct response to the findings of the report, the Board of Trustees drafted a statement affirming the College's dedication to diversity. In paragraph three it reads, "The report of the Human Relations Committee offers specific ways in which we, as a campus community and an extended family, can broaden the limited reach of our own understanding... We mean to ensure, by word and by example as Trustees of this institution, that all those who seek association with Middlebury College will be expected to bring to that association a mind free from prejudice and a willingness to engage in diversity in all its forms." While the statement makes no mention of "affirmative action," its sentiment, and the climate of change from which it emerged, parallel President Johnson's commencement speech in the midst of the Civil Rights era.Telling StatisticsStatistics show that the College did indeed respond to the Committee's report by word and example. The incoming class at the time of the report - the Class of 2002 - boasted the highest level of diversity to date. The racial breakdown was as follows: African American: 15; Latino: 39; Asian American 32; Native American: 5; total domestic students of color: 91.These numbers reflected a concerted effort on the College's part to expand recruitment efforts as well as to develop recruitment materials that welcome diversity. "We have the entire country divided up into regions," noted John Hanson, director of admissions, "with each Middlebury representative assigned to a particular region." Hanson went on to say, "There are schools from which we know we'll receive a number of applications each year, and there are others from which a student may be applying for the first time in five years, maybe even ever. Over time, our representatives develop relationships - very genuine ones - with the schools in their regions. Part of their job is to constantly seek out the underprivileged schools and to develop meaningful relationships with them." In an article published in The Middlebury Campus written by Hanson entitled "Diversity at Middlebury: An Admissions Perspective" (Jan. 5, 2001) Hanson stated, "The Admissions Office mails information to several thousand secondary schools, visits more than one thousand schools annua
lly, and makes special outreach efforts for international, inner city and rural students." One such program takes students from DeWitt Clinton High School in New York City and also sends Middlebury students to DeWitt in order to participate in teaching internships there. "All admissions decisions are made on a 'need-blind' basis, and the Financial Aid Office carries out the College's commitment to meet 100 percent of demonstrated need, thus making Middlebury affordable for any admitted student who wishes to enroll." In response to speculation that affirmative action allows underqualified students to be admitted, Hanson responded, "Every student admitted to Middlebury has the ability to succeed and thrive at the College." In the spring of 2000, the College established the Office of the Associate Provost for Institutional Diversity and appointed then Dean of the Faculty Roman Graf as Associate Provost. Graf was a member of the Human Relations Committee which submitted the report. Among the many duties of the Office for Institutional Diversity is to collaborate with other offices in order to ensure a diverse student body. In Graf's inauguration speech, he reiterated a key function of the Associate Provost delineated in the report: "This person will oversee the College's efforts to obtain a more diverse faculty, assist chairs in their recruitment efforts, identify and develop new sources from which to draw applicants." Hanson said of Graf, "He's been an invaluable addition to the College. The work he does in terms of promoting diversity both within our faculty and our student body is incredibly important."Since the submission of the report, diversity at Middlebury, from a statistical perspective, has essentially plateaued. The racial breakdown of Middlebury's newest class - the class of 2006 - is as follows: African American: 19; Latino/Hispanic: 23; Native Americans: 12; Asian Americans: 46; total domestic students of color: 100 - a nine person increase from the Class of 2002. The Admissions Office at Middlebury does not maintain a strict quota with respect to domestic diversity the way it does international diversity. The College ensures that 10 percent of each class contains students of international origin. Despite this lack of a fixed domestic number, each of the four current classes at Middlebury contains between 19 and 21 percent students of color. This number, according to Hanson, exceeds that of the 17 percent average for colleges and universities nationwide.Moreover, Hanson noted that while no college can ever be diverse enough, "I think the College right now truly embodies a marketplace for ideas."With controversy swirling over the efficacy of affirmative action, and with the world in a constant state of turmoil, few deny the role diversity must play in keeping the College and the world educated and open-minded. "People like to say college isn't the 'real world.' I look around and I see students here from all over the globe, and from every race, interacting, working together, and I think how this place is more 'real' than anywhere else," said Steve Abbott, Co-faculty Head of Ross Commons. "It's got to be diversity," Hanson concluded.
(03/19/03 12:00am)
Author: Jonathan White Editorial: Respect, Learning and Reflection in This 'Moment of Truth'President Bush announced Monday evening that diplomacy has ended in the effort to build international consensus for military action against Iraq. Short of the highly unlikely prospect of President Saddam Hussein leaving Baghdad, yet another war in the Middle East will soon commence. A series of challenges arises for the College community as the bombs prepare to fall.Primarily, President Bush's abandonment of diplomacy and the lack of a clear U.N. mandate to disarm Iraq by force undermines the international community. The discussion of this war has created deep divisions among nations and fanned anti-American sentiment. Our generation will have to confront the persistence of this sentiment and the legacy of reckless foreign policy decisions. In addition, students abroad no doubt feel the intensity of foreign resentment of American policies. As an international university, we are particularly interested with our nation's perception abroad and we are in a unique position, perhaps, to confront insurgent anti-Americanism.Current and future international agreements will bear the mark of the mistrust and arrogance with which America is now perceived. The critical problems of our age, including terrorism, ecological crisis and hunger and disease, must be solved through the international community working towards a common goal. It will be our generation that must recover from the wounds inflicted and work to solve, in a favorable international framework, these salient issues. The halls and classrooms of our institution is where this redress can begin through education. Through study abroad we can change perceptions. The goodwill, too, with which we regard our neighbors should set the tone as we address the problems created by our international posturing. Moreover, although we are isolated in rural Vermont, we are not immune to the threat of terror reprisals provoked by U.S. action in Iraq. There is no more urgent time for President Bush, his advisors, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI to be excessively vigilant, yet the next terror strike could come tomorrow, or in the case of Sept. 11, come years, if not decades, after the war in Iraq is settled. The reality of asymmetrical warfare also begs that we, as students, understand the nature of conflict in the 21st century.Despite our deep skepticism and criticism of the course of events and troubling diplomacy that has brought us to this historic juncture, should hostilities breakout, we stand in support of our troops, our government and our commander-in-chief. We hope that they will see through this conflict with a minimum of bloodshed and with resolve to dislodge an evil man. We hope, too, that they aspire to build not merely a democratic Iraq, but also to revive the reputation of America as a nation committed to the international community and to the welfare of other peoples.We urge the Middlebury community to reflect on the current international climate through discussion on all levels and in all spaces. The Student Government Association has devised an appropriate forum at weekly Tuesday lunch meetings. Moreover, in the event of war, we encourage administrators to spearhead a larger event which allows students to pause. Finally, we should take this, as all challenges, as an opportunity to learn and not to resign ourselves to living in a bubble or succumb to feelings of powerlessness and indifference.
(03/12/03 12:00am)
Author: Erika Mercer Picture a barren winter landscape: a field masked in snow, several solitary brown, lifeless blades of grass poking through its top white layer. A gray sky and a row of leaning, drooping trees complete the stark, desolate scene -- a scene which threatens to be too stark and cold to endure, yet narrowly escapes the unbearable through its subtle glimpses of vitality. Late in the day, the snow sparkles silver, tosses glistening bits of light into the viewer's eyes. The wind is soft and gentle, meandering its way between the branches of the trees, coaxing them to rise in salute. Small footprints of brave animals traverse the field, zigzagging playfully across its length.Kristin Hersh's breathy voice evokes this scene with its haunting ambience and stark climate and is supplemented by her somber, unadorned guitar playing and minimalist piano and string accompaniment -- effects which have been brought to near perfection on her most recent album, "The Grotto." Hersh's career has spanned three decades -- born in Rhode Island in 1966, she fell in love with the guitar at age nine and formed her first band at age 14. Her passion for music led her to pioneer the rock band Throwing Muses in 1984 together with her half sister, Tanya Donelly (now of the Grammy-award-nominated band, Belly). Yet following financial difficulties, the band broke up in 1997 after the release of its album, "Limbo." This monetary struggle overlapped with Hersh's own struggle with mental illness -- factors which no doubt influenced the change in approach she took with her solo work. Much quieter, barer and moodier, her solo work is the polar opposite of the loud, alternative, punk-influenced sounds of the band. It is difficult to believe that her first solo release, "Hips and Makers," debuted in 1994, when she was still working closely with Throwing Muses,"though Hersh describes her stark solo sound as "a different side of the same coin." Quirky and introspective, Hersh's solo work -- what she wittily refers to as her "day job" -- took some getting used to, especially by those who had come to know her as the loud Throwing Muses vocalist. Following "Hips and Makers," Hersh released five albums in quick succession: "Murder, Misery and Then Goodnight" and "Strange Angels" in 1998, "Sky Motel" in 1999, "Sunny Border Blue" in 2001 and her most recent album, "The Grotto," just released March 4, 2003. Incidentally, the release of "The Grotto," will coincide with Throwing Muses' self-titled album featuring a guest performance by Donelly, which follows a seven-year hiatus. "The Grotto," named after the Providence, R.I., neighborhood where Hersh lived at the time when she wrote the album's songs, is a collection of shifting scenes that hovers somewhere between the realms of imagined and seen -- one critic aptly described the music as "phantasmagoric." Hersh's sound is deceivingly simple while embodying a hidden complexity of tender, frightening and unsettling emotions. Referring to "The Grotto," Hersh stated, "I think it's a very sweet record. Spooky, but sweet." This juxtaposition of spookiness and sweetness defines her music and allows it to be poignant in its confrontation of difficult human emotions and situations. Hersh's lyrics complement her raw music: she sings of marriage, of madness, of survival and salvation. Bare and often arranged as a stream-of-consciousness, her words flow together in a gentle yet disturbing way. In the song, "Ether," she sings, "I thought the city air would hear me whisper / when the blue expanse of morning comes / you sleep while I stalk the sun, like a baby." Softly plucked guitar notes and faint, background violin music -- played by guest musician Andrew Bird of the now defunct Squirrel Nut Zippers -- weave in and out of these expressive lyrics. At the same time, Hersh's taut vocals fluctuate between minor and major tones, dipping in and out of moods, becoming sinister and then suddenly sugary, frightened and then confident. Again referring to the haunting quality of her music, one critic wrote that Hersh's voice is that of "a child possessed by adult demons." Hersh's music never breaks out of its dark, brooding tone, yet it also never sinks too deeply into its own despair -- she provides the listener with glimpses of hope, whether that glimpse be in the form of delicate piano notes (performed on "The Grotto" by Howe Gelb of "Giant Sand"), gently rising violin music or lyrics which, despite their expression of doubt and defeat, also offer the possibility of redemption: in the song, "Vitamins V," Hersh sings, "This lukewarm catastrophe / is a recipe for rebirth / or so I overheard." The view is austere and barren, but not altogether hopeless -- Hersh promises that there is beauty to be found in even the seemingly bleakest of human situations.
