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(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.
(03/05/03 12:00am)
Author: Pete Faroni Vermont, home to several prominent civil and political advocacy groups, is also the home of Ecologists Linked for Organizing Grassroots Initiatives and Action (ECOLOGIA), an international environmental organization based in Middlebury. The Middlebury Campus recently caught up with Carolyn Schmidt, co-founder and Board Secretary of ECOLOGIA.In the ECOLOGIA office, a poster hangs on the door that bears a saying of Eugene Debs: "While there is a lower class, I am in it." ECOLOGIA works to help this lower class and create a global civil society through its grassroots initiatives. "You can't just look at yourself as removed from the struggles of the world," Schmidt remarked.The Campus: How did ECOLOGIA get started?ECOLOGIA: ECOLOGIA was started in 1989, by my husband Randy Kritkausky and me, as a response to going to the Soviet Union. [It was] coming out of the Cold War times and seeing everything opening up, finding so many points of connection and feeling that there had been many barriers between people: fear, distrust and xenophobia. It's very exciting to think that you're in a position, despite historical chance, to bridge over some of those gaps. So we connected with people from the Soviet Union on a lot of different dimensions, especially on environmental concerns. We were involved with our own environmental issues in northeastern Pennsylvania-(where we lived at the time)-and the people of the Soviet Union had horrendous environmental problems. A lot of the problems were related to the fact that, being in a centralized system, local people had no say in what environmental degradation was done to their land. So one thing led to another, and we ended up forming a non-governmental organization (NGO), ECOLOGIA.The Campus: Is there any relationship between Middlebury College and ECOLOGIA?ECOLOGIA: The Middlebury connection comes in through our daughter, Laurel Kritkausky '99, who was 12 when we went to the Soviet Union for the first time. It was a life-changing experience for all three of us. She ended up going to Middlebury, and after she graduated, she worked for us for four years. She was the director of the Nuclear Communities in Transition Program. She just recently resigned, wanting to do something else after having put four years into this intensive work, mainly in Russia.The Campus: Is your daughter's attendance at the College the reason that your organization is now based out of Middlebury?ECOLOGIA: In the year 2000, we moved ourselves and ECOLOGIA's U.S. headquarters from northeastern Pennsylvania to Middlebury. This decision was certainly influenced by the fact that when we came up to visit our daughter, we began to appreciate more and more the human resources, the culture and the politics of Vermont and the Champlain Valley. The idea of living and working in a personally and professionally supportive climate was very appealing. The Campus: Is having the College in your backyard been an asset in your work?ECOLOGIA: There's a whole appreciation and incorporation of diversity in Vermont, and we feel that, for a lot of reasons, it's not just supportive for us, but it's also a wonderful area to bring international visitors. There's a whole supportive network of students, professors, staff -- the whole institutional orientation of Middlebury as a liberal arts college with an international focus is a terrific source of a lot of support. We have enjoyed getting to know and working with a lot of different people at Middlebury. In particular, Professors David Rosenberg and John Isham, and organizations such as the Rohatyn Center -- they've been very interested to work with us, interested in what we have and in what we're doing, [which is] real-world, grounded roots action. The Campus: How has ECOLOGIA gotten involved with environmental work in other countries?ECOLOGIA: A government is composed of people. We work on a variety of levels internationally, but we do as much as we can to link them. We work to locate individual projects done by community groups in the fields of environment and sustainable development. We have a real world connection with small-scale community groups; they want money so they can buy shovels so they can plant trees. In order to get the project done, people in local government and business leaders work together with them. This has a long-term effect of showing cooperation, but also showing the government that citizen groups can be involved, and that they have a lot to offer. This will open the government officials to more cooperation with citizens group in the future. It will also give the citizens more confidence to get involved.One of the first things we did was to buy a hand-held radiation detector. A lot of the stuff that we took into the Soviet Union on our trips at that time we took in illegally because it was illegal for people to have anything of their own. You couldn't even have your own pH kits. It was illegal to have anything that would let you know about your environment-that was only for the government. Therefore, getting to citizens equipment they could use to find out about their environment was a revolutionary thing. That is what we started doing. With the hand-held radiation detector, the person who got it was able to walk around the nuclear power plant in his country and document evidence, which was used to get other scientists and the workers in the factory to realize that they had a problem and had to look into it to see what they could do to fix it. ECOLOGIA, as an environmental organization, being committed to sustainable development and the future of the planet, strongly encourages everyone everywhere to look into sustainable development for power, both solar power and wind power, not just jump in to supporting nuclear power.The Campus: Has there been any involvement on behalf of ECOLOGIA in seeking international environmental standards?ECOLOGIA: At a top international policy level, we are working on the creation of global greenhouse gas standards for factories to be in compliance with the Kyoto Protocol. In many countries this is more of an issue than it is for American companies, in the short run at least. We have two staff members who travel literally all over the world to International Standards Organization (ISO) meetings. Decisions about these standards are made and there is a lot of political involvement. In the ISO, we actually co-chair one committee. You are there, you have a voice and you have a protected legal status.The one main thing that we are focusing on, whatever standards are chosen, is having information available to the public. Who is making sure that you are doing what you say you're doing? It becomes a very complicated process. The ISO's process is industry driven. My main concern is that it not be done behind closed doors.The Campus: With consideration of our country's unique position, has there been any benefit to working on international environmental issues from an American perspective?ECOLOGIA: There is a certain amount of power for people from other countries to come here and to see so much good, particularly the American approach of: "Here's a problem. Lets fix it." It's a really positive, high-morale approach to solving problems, rather than collapsing in despair and frustration. We have had very good experiences with exchange groups -- people can come to the United States and see how we interact with each other and see how citizens relate to government officials. It's the kind of thing that you can talk and talk about, but when someone comes to see it, it is eye-opening.The Campus: To what extent do politics and, in particular, political differences, influence ECOLOGIA's action in other countries?ECOLOGIA: We are primarily an environmental organization -- that was our first real point of connection and it's a wonderful point of connection, especially when working with people in authoritarian countries. We are not coming in and saying "We're promoting human rights. We're promoting dem
ocracy." Rather, we're working together on common problems. If the other things come in as a byproduct of the openness and the opportunities to travel and work with people in their own societies, that's terrific, but our focus is primarily environmental. Regardless of the idiocies of anybody's government you just have to say the key thing, the human thing, which is to connect with other people. However, because of those boundaries you have to make an extra effort. As a human, you see incredible oppression and people living in tremendous fear and with tremendous courage and you respond as a human. As Americans we have a lot more freedom of choice, a lot more optimism about the world we grew up in, and a lot more financial resources. The first thing you ask is, "What can we do as individuals?" So it comes from the citizens -- it's grassroots, as opposed to starting from the government -- and I still feel that it's a very powerful approach that the world needs a lot more of.
(03/05/03 12:00am)
Author: Christian Holt I want to get a haircut. For men, getting a haircut is like robbing a bank: get in, get out, as little blood as possible. For girls like my sister, it's a bi-weekly life-changing event. They ask each other, "Should I keep it up, or down? Should I get streaks? Should I get a 'Hillary Clinton'?" They then seek answers to these questions from mothers, girlfriends and, of course, Cosmo. They don't want a guy's opinion, because let's face it, we suck at this stuff. We don't look at the hair, so you could have a venomous koala up there and we would be none the wiser. So asking my sister whether or not I should get a haircut was a bad idea. She told me that women think that long hair is a sign of sensitivity and sexiness. I'm sorry, ladies, but I just have to stay true to myself. I am neither of those things. I'm a humorist, dang nab it, not Brad "I excrete my own form of kitchen grease" Pitt. So don't expect me to be sexually appealing or capable to pull off the "vacant" look. If you want a humor writer with long hair, go check out Dave Barry. He looks like a drunken Edward Scissorhands cut his mop.My sister also told me that upturned collared shirts are really "hip" now. I never understood how a part of the body could be acquainted with coolness. Let's see what would happen if we replaced the word "hip" with some other parts of the anatomy: "Hey Joe, you look real gallbladder in that shirt!" "Janet, that dress is positively armpit!" And, in my opinion, every guy with an upturned collar looks real sphincter.To some women, nothing says "I'm a wild man," like a polo shirt with its collar turned up. Apparently, we have nothing here at Middlebury but "wild men." But wait, maybe I'm being too hasty. Citizens of the Arctic (a tropical climate compared to Vermont) have hairy chests to serve as insulation against the cold, so maybe my sister has a point. Long hair could be practical during this glacial winter.But I own a jacket, so I asked her why I should bother with the long hair. I explained to her that long hair is just so much harder to maintain. I would actually have to make a concerted effort while showering in the morning. Right now, like most guys, I usually don't wake up focused enough to complete the complicated lather, rinse, repeat. I go in there, pour on the shampoo, body soap, toothpaste and aftershave. Every morning, I smell so tingly fresh that I sweat mouthwash. But with the long hair, the aftershave may get caught in the mess and I may lose a shampoo bottle up there or something. I don't want to even think about combing that rat's nest. My sister told me that I was disgusting, and that girls have enough focus to wash their hair everyday. This is true, but if they are anything like my sister it takes them several hours to complete the process. A girl's morning bathroom ritual could only be timed on a sundial. A guy's cleaning routine, on the other hand, takes approximately 2.4 to 3 minutes tops. Any longer, and the guy will get slapped with a wet towel, and farted on by other guys on the hall. It's a law.To finish: I'm getting a haircut. It's not going to be "hip" or "cool" or even "sexy." But with it short, I don't run the risk of it being mistaken for a mullet. That's a risk no man would want to run.
(02/26/03 12:00am)
Author: Jonathan White In Defense of DiversityThe College's defense of race as a factor in admissions, witnessed in the brief it filed over the current Supreme Court debate over admissions at the University of Michigan, reaffirms Middlebury's commitment to maintaining and encouraging diversity. Ethnic diversity has created the College community we inhabit today and must remain in place. Without considering race, the College's student body would be remarkably more homogenous, creating a limited learning environment for students of all races. In 1978 in the case of Bakke v. The University of California at Davis, the late Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell stated: "The goal of achieving a diverse student body is sufficiently compelling to justify consideration of race...under some circumstances." The court could proceed with a total denial of race as a factor in college admissions, a stance backed by the Bush administration and one that reverses its 1978 ruling. It could uphold the University of Michigan's policies or it could say that the university's criteria for judging candidates in regard to race must be modified. Though Middlebury is a private school, a sweeping decision against affirmative action could unravel the College's laudable efforts to bring diversity to this rural Vermont campus. As such, Old Chapel's foray into this national debate is a well-received effort to preserve a level of diversity on campus, which albeit not ideal, is nonetheless commendable. Selling the Clean Power Act For Students, VermontersIn his visit to Middlebury College last week, Sen. Jim Jeffords made indirect references to legislation he has introduced to protect air quality in Vermont. The senator introduced the Clean Power Act last spring as chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Jeffords' legislation provides leadership on two environmental fronts. It limits sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury emissions from power plants. Additionally, as an alternative to the Bush administration's Clear Skies Initiative, it regulates carbon dioxide emissions.We were disappointed that Jeffords did not present to the Middlebury community the details of his legislation. Students here exalt in the scenic vistas of the Green Mountain State, views too-often diluted on warm days by haze. Eliminating nitrogen and sulfur dioxide emissions, along with mercury is a step towards cleaner air and healthier lungs for students and Vermont residents. The Clean Power Act is relatively unknown to the public. Jeffords should use public appearances, such as that at Mead Chapel last Wednesday, to champion his legislation. We realize that Wednesday's session was an informal question and answer session, but often Jeffords was indirect. He never fully alluded to the specifics of his environmental agenda. Though Jeffords has lost his post on the Environment and Public Works Committee, the Clean Power Act stands a chance in Congress. Jeffords did mention that a handful of moderate Republicans could help propel this legislation. The preservation of the College's pristine surroundings begs action on the Clean Power Act. Not merely is our air in peril, but more dramatic ecological changes in Vermont may come should carbon dioxide go unregulated. Jeffords is leading, but leading requires a vociferous call the for the public to rally behind his ambitious proposal. Ultimately, while we encourage Jeffords' efforts to clean Vermont's air, we hope that Congress finally embraces the call to act on climate change.
(02/26/03 12:00am)
Author: Kelsey Rinehart Sen. James Jeffords (I-Vt.) addressed a large crowd in Mead Chapel last Wednesday in a panel discussion with Middlebury College Student Government Association President Ginny Hunt '03 and Professor of Political Science and Environmental Studies Chris Klyza. Jeffords strode in, grinning and waving enthusiastically to the students, faculty and area residents that had packed into Mead Chapel to see him. He received glowing introductions from John Morgenstern '03, who was instrumental in getting Jeffords to come to Middlebury, Faculty Head of Cook Commons and Professor of Italian Patti Zupan and President John McCardell.Jeffords' first words were, "Thank you, Mr. President. It's the first time I've said that in a long time." The crowd erupted in laughter and applause. In an informal conversation addressed to the Middlebury College community, Jeffords spoke about his new autobiography, "An Independent Man," covering topics ranging from global climate change to education to war with Iraq. He then responded to the audience in a question and answer session moderated by Professor of Political Science David Rosenberg.In response to Hunt's question regarding how the daily tests on his values have shaped his political career, Jeffords remarked, "I have always tried to make sure that I listen to people, that I understand what the needs are, and also go out and talk to the people." In response to another question, he mused about the political atmosphere in the South, noting, "The conservative nature of the population in the South leads it to different conclusions on funding of education, in particular."Education was a topic on which Jeffords expressed strong feelings. "I spent years doing what I could by traveling all over this nation, visiting the schools. The systems that we have are far from what we could have. That's the problem with this nation. The Republicans, unfortunately, have a strong feeling that the federal government should not be involved in local education, and they just feel that the states should be able to do that. What I found is that we had to really involve ourselves in improving education," he stressed. On the issue of the Individuals with Disabilities Act, Jeffords said, "I was the ranking member on a subcommittee that dealt with the problems with disabilities, and it was an opportunity for us to understand the horrors of the nation at that time with young people that had disabilities. It was terrible. We said the federal government should provide 40 percent of the funds for the local schools. It's somewhere around 14 percent now. This is horrible. This is the constitutional right of these children to have a free and appropriate education. We have to keep fighting."In his new book, Jeffords reflects on his journey to the nation's capital and his experiences there, relating the crucial lessons he has learned along the way. Born in Rutland in 1934, James Merrill Jeffords went to Rutland public schools, received his undergraduate degree from Yale University in 1956 and served three years of active duty with the U.S. Navy before receiving his degree from Harvard Law School in 1962. Among other achievements, Jeffords tested for his black belt in tae kwon do, hardly flinching while he broke the two-inch boards. He resides in Shrewsbury, Vt., with his wife Elizabeth, and has two children, Leonard and Laura. In response to a question posed by Klyza, Jeffords related the strain that his life in politics has placed on his personal life. "It's a very pressured situation. Liz and I made a commitment that no matter what happened, the children would be held as free from that type of pressure as they could be, and that worked pretty well. We had our problems, but we never really were separated. We always had the common enemy -- the kids," he said, causing peals of laughter to resonate in Mead Chapel.The son of Olin M. Jeffords, former Chief Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court, Jim Jeffords grew up amid a political atmosphere. "I came from a political family, but not in the traditional sense," Jeffords commented in an interview with The Middlebury Campus. Two noteworthy Vermonters attracted Jeffords to a career in public service. "Ernest Gibson and Leonard Wing -- they were an inspiration to me. I followed their leadership," he said. Gibson made history when he interrupted 80 years of dominating leadership by the Proctor family after being elected Governor of Vermont in 1946. Wing was the celebrated commander of the 43rd Infantry Division in World War II.Since 1966, when the 32-year-old Republican began his career in politics as a state senator from the Rutland district, Jeffords served Vermont as its sole Congressmen for seven terms, from 1975 to 1988, and is currently serving his third term as a senator. Jeffords introduced the federal bottle deposit law and was praised for his "Education for All Handicapped Children" bill during his first term. He went on to catch the public's attention when he moved out of his apartment and into his office, and when he was the only Republican in the House of Representatives to oppose President Reagan's three-year tax cut plan.As a senator, Jeffords immediately voiced his concern over the potentially decimating problem of climate change, calling on U.S. lawmakers to take up the cause of the global environmental movement. In his discussion at Middlebury College, Jeffords said, "We're going to be able to put carbon dioxide into the program, which will bring us into concordance with the Kyoto treaty. There are enough moderate Republicans that are concerned about the environment that we're going to be able to get some good legislation through this year." When asked whether he thought Bush would sign such a bill, Jeffords said, "I don't know. If the public pressure was there. If the public around the country says, 'Hey, we're tired of dying prematurely and how about giving us a chance?' and he would listen to them, then he might sign it." On the local level, Jeffords is known for introducing the bill that keeps Vermont vistas clear of highway billboards. He has become known as an outspoken critic of the environmental policy in all areas.After his first election to office as a Republican, Jeffords gradually moved away from the conservative standpoint, often voicing his opposition to his party's bills. In 1991, Jeffords announced that he would vote against Clarence Thomas' appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court of Justice and voted in favor of a five-day waiting period for the purchase of handguns. The next year, Jeffords chose to visit Yugoslavia on an information-gathering trip rather than attend the Republican National Convention. In 1999, the senator announced that he would vote against President Clinton's impeachment.The division between Jeffords and his party came to a head on May 25, 2001, when he abruptly announced that he was leaving the Republican party to be an Independent, to the delight of many and the dismay of others. The select few that witnessed the historic moment wildly chanted, "Thank you, Jim! Thank you, Jim!" and applauded throughout his speech, while others, such as Vermont Republican Chairman Patrick Garahan, expressed opposing sentiments. "He really hurt Bush more than anything. Maybe that's what Senator Jeffords intended to do," he said. At Middlebury, Jeffords commented, "When I made that switch, all over the world, people began to send me things. They're just scared of this nation, what we're going to do to the environment, and scared of what we're going to do now in war, and that's one of the reasons I feel that we have to have a change." Jeffords did not elaborate on this point, much to the dismay of the crowd.Among the disappointed was Mary Kerr, who said she knew Jeffords well after living in Vermont with her husband Joseph for the past 40 years. She came to Middlebury, joined by many others with similar desires, to find out how the senator felt about the situation in Iraq, and what the Congress was doing about it. "I was ready to hear a man who
would speak his mind, other than in reference to his book," Kerr said. She cited a question in which a student referred to Iraq and the role of a seemingly 'silent' congress, saying, "I felt that the senator didn't answer those questions directly. I was disappointed that he didn't really express where he stood in all this." At the book signing, others expressed similar sentiments of frustration. "What about the "silent" Congress?" exclaimed the parent of a prospective student.Despite these criticisms, Jeffords received an enthusiastic standing ovation and signed countless books after the talk. Jeffords commented, "I think one of the value-supporting systems is the college system. I remember, in my days at college, the classes I took and the inspiring people that helped me mold the thoughts I wanted to guide my life by." He stated, "Let me assure you, there are a lot of problems out there right now, so I look forward to doing the best I can to try to solve those problems."
(02/19/03 12:00am)
Author: Jonathan White Renewing a Delicate, But Necessary ConversationNews of sexual assault on campus demands a revival of last year's discussion concerning sexual assault policy. Are victims finding the appropriate support mechanisms and is there an infrastructure in place in which they are comfortable reporting an assault? If not, then the College should create a rape crisis center, open 24 hours a day, that can provide immediate medical assistance and confidential support. Yet addressing the needs of victims is just one step. If there is to be a dialogue, then the subject of rape and date rape, all-too-real concerns on college campuses, must no longer be treated as taboo. Forums and discussions must take place. What constitutes a rape in an environment where sex, alcohol and youth conspire in an often-casual manner to produce poor judgments? If a discussion is to be launched, then victims must feel confident in reporting their cases, seeking confidential counseling, but also, somehow, feel empowered to take steps to actively prevent a similar situation from befalling others. An audience beyond FAM should take up the problem of date rape, and the alcohol and drug consumption that sometimes complicates the issue. An impasse remains until proactive steps are taken by all members of the community to talk about this delicate issue. If this means tackling first the culture behind the problem, the lack of resources for victims, College policy or the blurry line between rape and poor judgment, then let the discussion begin so that these acts might one day stop. If we are concerned about these hideous acts, then we will no longer shroud them in a climate of silence where victims are scared to report their stories. The War Is Only Half the BattleLast weekend's worldwide protests demonstrated that goodwill towards America has undergone an alarming reversal. A mere 17 months ago, the world mourned with the United States over the horrific events of Sept. 11, 2001. Yet now America and President Bush have become public enemy number one in the eyes of millions.While confronting Iraq may be the next logical step in the war on terror, this war is already being lost if the estimation of the United States has fallen to all-time lows. Millions marched on Rome and Madrid. London recorded the largest protests ever. Middlebury College students studying in Europe are being informed that anti-Americanism is at an all-time high and are urged to exercise caution. President Bush cannot allow Saddam Hussein to emerge as a martyr in the eyes of a new generation of anti-American zealots in the Middle East. Nor should Bush lose the card of righteousness in defending the free world from international terrorism. That he has represents a clear failure of diplomacy, if not a disregard for the concerns of the international community. By failing to win a clear consensus in the nation and abroad on the merits of proceeding with the war on terror, Bush risks the cultivation of a deeper anti-Americanism not merely in the Middle East, but also in Europe and Asia. This will be detrimental in the long run to fighting the ideological roots of terrorism. That Bush is villainized in the streets by the millions should be cause for caution. Its time for the White House to re-examine its approach, yet on Tuesday the President said that protestors would not change his mind. Diplomacy should not be abandoned as a gesture that the United States understands that fighting terrorism requires worldwide cooperation. Moreover, a vigorous campaign to improve the perception of the United States in the Middle East, perhaps in Europe and Asia too, are steps in the war on terror that should not be overlooked in a rush towards military engagement in Iraq.
(02/19/03 12:00am)
Author: Laura Rockefeller On Friday, Feb. 14, Anne Bogart, one of the most influential directors in contemporary American theater, spoke to a packed audience in Wright Memorial Theater. She has become well-known through the work that she and Tadashi Suzuki have done with the SITI Company, which they founded in 1992, and for the work that she has done with the Viewpoints theory of acting.Bogart admitted at the start of her talk that her lecture's title, "Six Things I Know for Sure About Being a Director in the American Theatre," was slightly misleading because, "the assumption that you know what you're doing will kill what you're doing." In her discussion of the role of an artist in contemporary society, Bogart placed the most emphasis on the ability to listen and to be ready to react and adapt to change.In presenting the first of her six things -- "recognize, articulate, violate and transcend inherited assumptions" -- Bogart stressed this idea that an actor must always continue to question. She explained that there are three assumptions that she considers extremely detrimental to American Theater: the word "want," the misunderstanding of Stanislavski that American actors have inherited and the all-too-prevalent idea that when an actor finishes school, he or she has finished learning. She encouraged the actors in her audience not to take the easy way out by simply asking their director, "What do you want?" but rather to "get deeply involved in what you're doing." She commented that after listening to the Security Council Reports on Iraq on the radio that morning, she had become increasingly aware of the need for people to express themselves and to articulate their ideas and feelings. As she said, "The business of theater is the business of articulation."The example that Bogart gave to support her second point, "Consider context," seemed to resonate with her whole audience. She explained, "I am now looking at the world through the lens of potential war." Bogart claimed that the effect of a single production can be drastically altered by the context from which its audience comes. She commented that, when directing a production, she asks herself, "Who is there, and what is the audience bringing with them?" She explained, "I have to consider the world we are turning into" and how that will effect people's perceptions of her work.While being mindful of the audience, Bogart explained that directors and actors also have to "choose high stakes." She pointed out that in theater, "one must attempt something, or else the work you do has no energy." In purely statistical terms, she stated that, out of the 10 richest corporations in America, seven are media outlets. In this sense, live theater, as one of the few media that is not controlled by big business, has a heightened responsibility to take risks and "do extraordinary things." Theater is free to articulate and examine controversial ideas and to explore areas where television might fear to tread."Cultivate aesthetic arrest" was the fourth piece of advice that Bogart imparted to her eager listeners. She took her example for this point from James Joyce's novel, "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," in which he describes two types of art, static and kinetic. Joyce was an advocate of static art -- art that stops you. Bogart explained, "What this static art creates is something called aesthetic arrest." As an audience member, one is forced to bring out your experiences to meet the piece of art before him or her. She commented, "It's very easy to make everybody in the audience feel the same thing -- I call it fascism." What she sees as a director's challenge is to have her art meet each member of the audience and force that person to really encounter her work. "In this climate," she remarked, "I don't see how we can do anything but ... create art that is present."Bogart then confided in the audience that her new favorite word is "attitude." Her fifth point, "Attitude determines outcome," was an attempt to undermine the stigma that she believes Americans place on the word "attitude." She explained that she sees attitude not as a bad thing but as "an outwardly directed energy that changes depending on what it comes into contact with." A strong and positive attitude is something Bogart seeks in her actors. She said that actors censor themselves too much. Instead, they need to feel freer to share their energy with the audience.Lastly, Bogart advised her audience to "welcome resistance." Especially in such an uncertain and dangerous time, Bogart emphasized that we must all ask ourselves, "Where are we going and what can we do?" She said, however, that she had not as yet been able to find an attitude with which to deal with the burgeoning war with Iraq. "I literally have no words," she said, looking down and not at her audience for the first time in the talk.On the following afternoon Bogart put some of her points into practice in a workshop in the Center for the Arts Dance Theater. Twenty-two acting, directing and dance students and a handful of professors attended the workshop. All of the exercises she had the students try were physical and designed to help them listen better to the other people on stage with them, so that they would be more open to reacting to changes in their energies and attitudes. It was amazing how the exercises Bogart had them do could change people from moving around the stage without any direction - except to be aware of the other actors - into something that looked and felt like a choreographed dance.The comments from the students who participated in the workshop were overwhelmingly enthusiastic They said she had shown how powerful it could be when a company of actors opens itself to the reasons they are on stage and of the other actors with whom they were performing.
(02/19/03 12:00am)
Author: Ronald Liebowitz In his memorandum in Nov. 2002, President McCardell reported on the financial challenges facing the College as a result of the current national economic downturn and the related decrease in the value of our endowment. He also outlined the general approach that the College administration would take to deal with these challenges. The College's most immediate response to the increased financial pressures was to look to our fundraising programs -- and to our alumni/alumnae and friends -- as a source of additional revenue. Consequently, we have increased our fundraising goals, over the next two years, by approximately $30 million beyond our original plans. These new resources will be additions to our endowment, and will generate more funds to support our operating budget.However, because more vigorous fundraising alone cannot compensate for the full impact of the economic downturn, the effect of which would leave us with an estimated $11 million deficit in fiscal year 2005 if we did not tackle the challenge, it has also been necessary to make significant reductions in the budget. The executive council of the College (members of the council are listed at the end of this letter) has been working for the past several months to evaluate various options for reducing the budget -- options that have come from departments all over campus. We have been guided in our discussions and deliberations by our focus on students, by a commitment to retain need-blind admissions and meet the full need of students offered admission, by the desire to maintain the excellence of our core academic program, and by the importance of preserving a sense of community on campus. This last principle echoes President McCardell's position in his November letter to the community in which he stated we would not balance next year's budget by laying off staff members.While it is crucial that we all understand the seriousness of the College's financial condition, it is also important to know that the College is not in the midst of a financial crisis. The endowment, though reduced in value, is still substantial, and its strength has allowed the trustees to authorize a temporary increase in the amount we draw from it to support the operating budget. Our current work and financial planning is designed to ensure that our reliance on the endowment declines over the next five years, so that our spending rate -- the percentage of the average value of the endowment we use each year--returns to five percent by fiscal year 2009.We have not instituted across-the-board measures that would have imposed percentage cuts on all programs and departments. Instead, we have worked with individual departments and directors, identifying activities that could be reduced in scope to produce the savings needed to balance the budget. As a result of this process, we have developed financial projections for the next six fiscal years (from 2004 to 2009) that balance the budget without compromising the College's ability to provide an excellent educational experience for our students. It has been a difficult process to decide which budget-saving measures to recommend to the president, but I am fully confident that the actions we have taken will be both effective and responsible. The measures we recommended to be incorporated into next year's budget are listed below in summary form. Some of these measures increase College revenues, while others reduce the budget. In the next few weeks, department heads, supervisors and budget administrators will provide more detailed information about specific decisions, along with the impact they will have on College operations.Revenue enhancements: increase fundraising goals (for the endowment) by $30 million over the next two years; increase student enrollment to 2,350 one year earlier than planned; selective implementation of fees for non-College use of facilities.College-wide efficiencies: extend the life cycle of some College equipment; replace some print publications with online publications.Streamline events/programs: suspend, for the time being, off-campus winter term courses; reduce the number of all-campus large gatherings; limit Snow Bowl shuttle to a Friday-Sunday schedule; provide fewer amenities for Commencement and other campus-wide events.Departmental efficiencies: implement budget reductions in printing, travel, office supplies, and catering across College offices; reduce College overtime by 10 percent.Staffing: scrutinize, at both the Vice Presidential level and on the Staff Resources Committee, requests to fill vacant positions or to renew term positions; approve fewer requests for new staff; reduce projected salary and benefits pool from levels established before the economic downturn.Reserve for Maintenance and Modernization: reduce the amount of funds set aside for maintaining and modernizing the College's physical infrastructure from approximately $7 million to $6 million; this change will still leave Middlebury in the top tier of colleges in terms of the level of funding set aside for maintaining and modernizing infrastructure.These are examples of the kind of reductions we have recommended to the president. There is more to be done. The economic climate will remain uncertain for some time. It will be the responsibility of all of us who serve this institution to continue the efforts we have begun to streamline our operations, while preserving our core programs and activities. During the past few months, many of us have had to take a close look at what we do and how we do it. We achieved our goal of producing balanced budgets by focusing on things we considered to be non-essential to our core mission, and without laying off any staff members. We were compelled to begin evaluating the effectiveness of our programs and their centrality to our core mission, and of devising efficiencies that would permit us to accomplish our mission with fewer resources. This process, still ongoing, will also permit us to emerge from our financial challenges fiscally stronger and with our attention focused closely on the most important things we do.As we work together as a community, I am confident that, if we are mindful of the fiscal health of the College, and mindful of opportunities to conserve our resources, we can preserve the excellent educational opportunities that make Middlebury the distinguished college it is, and of which all of us are a part. Sincerely,Ronald D. Liebowitz ProvostMembers of the Executive CouncilKristen AndersonPhil BenoitRebecca BrodiganEric DavisBarbara Doyle-WilchBetsy EtchellsDavid GinevanAnn HansonSally HollandMary HurlieRobert HuthRonald LiebowitzDrew MacanRobert SchineMike SchoenfeldEditor's NoteThis letter was originally intended for publication in the Feb. 12. edition of The Middlebury Campus. The letter appears here in the same form as it did in a student-wide e-mail distributed Feb. 12.
(02/12/03 12:00am)
Author: Andrea Gissing Sounding Off Against SUVsA group of students from Stanford University is starting a campaign to raise awareness of the contributions made by sport utility vehicles (SUVs) to environmental and political problems. The campaign, named "SUV SOS," plans to educate faculty and students about automobile consumption and especially SUV oil consumption among the Stanford and broader national community by tying it to global climate change and dependence on foreign oil.Seniors Jonathan Neril and Josh Bushinsky, an international relations major and an earth systems major respectively, are leading the campaign.Neril thought that the issue of SUV use was especially pertinent to the university community because of the large number of SUVs owned and driven by Stanford students. "We want to make people aware that SUV consumption is a national security issue and a global environment issue, not just a personal choice," Neril said."The idea is that the technology to make these cars more efficient is out there and it's been sitting on the shelves for decades," said Bushinsky, continuing that since the automotive industry has focused on things like car size and horsepower instead of emissions, there has been a decline in average fuel efficiency since the late 80s. He has been amazed by the student response that the campaign has had since the group's first meeting on Jan. 29. So far, the group has concentrated on gathering student attention through e-mails. They are currently planning a protest on Feb. 14 at the Burlingame auto mall where students will try and raise media attention through speeches, chants and spoken-word protests.Source: U-Wire.comModern Technique Mixes Things UpStephen Webber, a professor of music production and engineering at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, has been trying to integrate a more modern musical style into the college's curriculum: turntablism. Webber has designed a course that would teach students the technical and musical basics of hip-hop turntable techniques, which involves manipulating a record against the needle to create percussive sounds and beats. The college turned down the idea of the Class in 2000 because the provost disapproved and again in 2001 when the executive vice president rejected it because of budget constraints. Despite the opposition to the course, Webber wrote and published "Turntable Technique: The Art of the DJ," the first musical method book for aspiring hip-hop DJs. He used interviews, photographs and traditional musical notation to create a series of lessons and exercises that anyone wishing to learn could practice. The book became one of Berklee Press' best-selling titles, which encouraged college's administrators to reconsider the course. If Berklee approves the course, it will be the first hip-hop performance class to be offered at a conservatory, applying Western notation and theory to an oral tradition. Courses on hip-hop music and culture have become increasingly common at colleges in the past 10 years. However, they are predominantly cultural or analytic in their approach, not instructional or practical.Source: The New York TimesHarvard To Return Donation From Jane FondaHarvard University has announced that because of the continued downturn in the stock market, along with new university rules regarding research centers, it would return most of a donation that Jane Fonda pledged to the Graduate School of Education. The $12.5 million donation, which was made two years ago, was going towards the establishment of a major research center on sex and education. The university is also giving up its plans for the center. The decision to discontinue the project and return the donation was a mutual decision between Harvard and Fonda.A spokeswoman for the School of Education said that Harvard would return a large portion of the $6.5 million that Fonda had already given to the university. The stock market slump has also prevented Fonda from completing the second half of the gift. The portion of the donation that will be kept by the university will be used to support a curriculum development project that will address teachers' understanding of sex, race and class, and the impact those have on the educational experience of students. Fonda's donation was the largest single donation in the Graduate School of Education's 83-year history.Source: The New York Times
(12/04/02 12:00am)
Author: Nicole Maddox The Middlebury College Student Government Association (SGA) and Community Council have gone almost unnoticed on campus this fall, but the governing bodies project many more undertakings for the coming term. Although outwardly the SGA has appeared rather passive in its contribution to campus leadership, it has been dedicatedly working behind the scenes on a number of minor adjustments and preparing for major changes in the winter and spring. This September, the Community Council began busily moving through its fall agenda. The year began with a restructuring of the Social House and Academic Interest House review process. The council eliminated many "non-achievable" regulations, and prioritized the evaluative criteria to focus on the issues faced by degree of importance. "The regulations that houses may not engage in life-threatening hazing events or drug or alcohol distributions are most important," the Community Council report stated. "Gender distribution is less important." Additionally, the council voted on and approved two new recommendations in regard to the College's academic dishonesty policy. Both policy changes refined the power of the Academic Judicial Board, allowing the board to withhold the degree for up to a year of a student found guilty of cheating for up to two years after the student's graduation. The Community Council also authorized a group of several students and faculty members to begin the Carbon Reduction Initiative. Working with the Environmental Council, the group sought "to find ways in which the College can reduce carbon emissions and fight climate change." The SGA in turn revised several Finance Committee guidelines, easing the expenditure of allotted funds for student organizations. They have also overseen adjustments in the dining schedule, established environmental goals for the year at the inaugural Environmental Summit and updated its Web site to increase student access to SGA issues and documents. Signs of the SGA's future work can already be observed, as across campus holes and wires are beginning to emerge from doorways, preparing for the new Enhanced Access System to be implemented in Winter Term. The system will be monitored by the SGA throughout its installment and activation. Also tested in Winter Term will be an expanded MiddRides route. The trial period will extend service to Frog Hollow Wednesday through Saturday. The SGA also plans enhanced Grille service and a campus-wide "Student Life Survey" -- both projected for Winter Term. Through winter and spring, the SGA will revise their constitution, although the date of completion has not yet been established.
(11/20/02 12:00am)
Author: Jonathan White As fall turns to winter, meteorologists and scientists will be watching Mother Nature's every move in Vermont. Was this weekend's snowfall a prelude to a cold and snowy winter? Will balmy temperatures prevail? However this winter turns out, it will offer scientists the chance to continue sorting out the swirling questions surrounding climate change. The New England Regional Assessment by the U.S. Global Climate Change Research Program, a committee established in 1990 by then-President George H. W. Bush, concluded that New England's climate is a degree warmer than it was a century ago. Vermont's average temperatures have jumped 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit in this time period. Some states in New England, notably Rhode Island, have seen average temperatures rise by as much as two degrees.The report also indicates that New England's climate will warm between six and 10 degrees this century. Visiting Scholar in Environmental Studies Bill McKibben warned last week that if such trends materialize, "Those postcard images of Vermont, you can toss out the window. That Vermont won't exist." Vermont's blazing autumns, snowy winters and pleasant summers will be but calling cards of a time gone by. Accordingly, the state's tourism and agricultural industries would be noticeably affected by these changes.An analysis released earlier this fall by the Associated Press showed that maple syrup production has declined in Vermont over the past century. Eighty years ago, Vermont produced nearly 1.6 million gallons of maple syrup. Production quantity now hovers under 800,000 gallons. While changes in lifestyle and economic patterns are partly responsible for this decrease, warmer winter temperatures are also to blame. Milder winters cause sugar maple trees to generate lower quantities of sap, yielding less syrup. Winter temperatures averaged three degrees warmer in the 1990s than they did in the 1890s.Chris Granstrom, who owns and operates a strawberry farm in New Haven, observed, "Different farmers will be affected in different ways." Granstrom reflected that maple syrup producers are absorbing the impact of a changed season, while other farmers are comparatively less affected.Granstrom said that a common perception is that cold is the biggest adversary for
(11/13/02 12:00am)
Author: [no author name found] Allison Barker '04Hometown: Ste-Agathe-des-Monts, Quebec and Baltimore, Md.Major: Environmental Studies-Geography major, Spanish minor.Activities: Co-president (with Naomi Andrews '03) of the Middlebury Progressives, and a student recycling center worker.My Beliefs: In a "globalizing" world I believe it is necessary to put social and environmental responsibility at the forefront of our thinking, rather than letting economics become the overwhelmingly dominant force. As a nation which acts as a global leader, I believe that it is our responsibility to ensure that our relations with other countries focus on equal positive opportunities for everyone; thus we should move away from our old imperialistic practices and begin to look at north-south relationships on more equal grounds. I am also a strong believer in grassroots action, and thus I would suggest that not only do changes need to be made in terms of our interactions on a global level, but I would also suggest that changes need to come from a local level. We need to revise our currently unsustainable consumption patterns. Our modern system of food production is environmentally unsound, and I would advocate local changes to move consumers towards bioregional food production, where food is locally grown and eaten. Furthermore I would say that consumption clearly extends past food; our clothing, for example, is for the most part manufactured by large corporations in sweatshops in the Third World where labor, human rights and environmental abuses run rampant. So what I strive for is not that we all run off and become hippies and live in the woods eating berries, but I am asking for an American cultural revolution.However, despite how we sometimes act, the United States is not the whole world. In order for environmental and social changes to occur in the global south they need to be initiated by movements of people on a local level. The only way for us as a developed nation to aid this process is by dropping Third World debt and giving the global south the technology to empower [its people] to act environmentally responsibly in their own development process. These are my goals, my dream, my mission, and I understand this to be fully idealistic; however I am not a woman bent around words. I am also a realist and that is why I am an activist not a writer.How I Got Involved: I got involved in activism after my freshman year of high school, when I spent a summer in rural Bolivia working in a museum. Bolivia has the highest poverty rate in South America, and after learning what real poverty is I began working for a group called Student Sharing for the Homeless in Baltimore. The summer before my senior year of high school some friends and I started an anti-sweatshop activist and education group. We went around to local high schools and colleges doing in classroom programs about labor rights abuses. That was my basic springboard into learning about the World Trade Organization (WTO), International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA). Is Middlebury adequately activist? There are only a handful of politically active people in the Middlebury community. However, there are many people who are politically oriented; these are people who are attuned to the issues, are capable of serious discussion and can occasionally be coaxed away from their busy lives to make a statement every now and then. I definitely do not think there are enough activists at Middlebury, I don't think that the College really teaches students the idea of civic responsibility, however, I think education and political orientation is a good first step. Gabe Epperson '03Hometown: Salt Lake City, Utah. Major: Environmental Studies-Human EcologyActivities: Executive Board of The New LeftMy Beliefs: 1. Sustainability: Americans consume a disproportionate amount of the world's resources and we're encouraging other countries to develop by adopting our lifestyle. The math's pretty simple. We're already putting too much strain on the world's resources; once you factor in population growth and global warming you have total ecological collapse — it's already happening. I'm not advocating lowering our living standards; instead, I advocate quality over quantity. Who needs to eat lots of junk food and have 10 pairs of jeans? We can consume new goods and materials, but they should be recycled. How much junk is already circulating, not being used or sitting in a landfill? We can produce everything we need without extracting any more raw materials. I advocate efficiency and long-term resource management for the good of the environment and the human species.2. Progressive planning: This is a simple concept: plan with foresight as opposed to hindsight. For every one dollar put into education, $100 are saved on law enforcement and welfare. We're just putting Band-Aids on our societal problems. I would say the same thing when it comes to terrorism. Terrorism is a symptom of gross international inequalities. If people have access to resources, jobs and politics (via democratic governments) they will not resort to terrorism. The war on terrorism is a sham — we're attacking the cancer of our world by hacking it off instead of trying to find a cure.How I Got Involved: I took Professor of Geography Tamar Mayer's "Geography of Development" and "Human Impact on the Global Environment." Also, I spent some time abroad; it gives you a different perspective on the United States and the world.Is Middlebury adequately activist? Politically active means that you're not living in a bubble. You're aware of your responsibilities and how your daily decision-making affects people in other parts of the world. If you're living in the Middlebury Bubble, you're not adequately active in determining your future. You may be preparing yourself for a successful career, but what happens when your life's work becomes obsolete? It will happen if people continue to be oblivious. Imagine Sept. 11 on a large scale — what good will the stock market be then? I don't think that everyone needs to be in a political organization or attend rallies, but we should all be educated about important political issues so we can make voting and purchasing decisions that are informed. Ben Brouwer '04Hometown: Lopez Island, Wash.Major: Environmental Studies-GeographyActivities: Co-president (with Rachel Cotton '03.5) of Environmental Quality (EQ), Yellow Bike program coordinatorMy Beliefs: My interests and concerns in the field of activism are admittedly broad. Generally I am concerned about the inequities and injustices in the world that contribute to or are a root cause of environmental degradation, violence, poverty, racism and discrimination of all forms. More specifically I am interested in discovering how we as individuals, as members of Middlebury College or as citizens of the United States perpetuate these broadly defined problems, and more importantly how we can limit our negative influence and work proactively for positive changes locally and abroad. The issues I have taken to heart include transportation reform as a way of reducing our contribution to global climate change and the range of problems associated with cars and SUVs, marching for peace as a means of voicing opposition to the looming war in Iraq and addressing the question of how investments of the Middlebury endowment can be changed to passively and proactively effect social and environmental change. How I Got Involved: I first became involved with activism at Middlebury in my freshman year as a reaction to the material excess, sense of entitlement and apathy I initially noticed on this campus. Ben Gore '04 and I, as roommates spring of our freshman year, worked on the Ban SUV campaign (which, incidentally, was a huge political failure but was incredibly educational for us and at least a little provocative for t
he rest of the campus). I wasn't seriously involved in activism during my high school years but my relatively progressive family and hometown set me up for my current beliefs and involvement.Is Middlebury adequately activist? I'm gradually becoming more excited about the activist nature of this campus and larger community. The fact that we had at least 1,000 people show up on a rainy Sunday night for a peace march is an impressive testament to the growing activist atmosphere of Middlebury. I think the opportunity exists for all of us to take our education, beliefs and inspiration provided by our faculty to a new level of personal involvement and direct action (driving less, buying less, making peace). Ultimately it's the coalition of active students, motivating faculty and staff and local community members that make the activist network broad and all-inclusive. Joya Scott '03.5Hometown: Northhampton, Mass.Major: Theater major; French minor.Activities: Co-president (with Elizabeth Brookbank '04) of Feminist Action at Middlebury (FAM), co-founder of the new Unitarian-Universalist Society and one of the directors of the 2003 "Vagina Monologues"/V-Day event. Also was a primary organizer of October's "24 Hours for Peace."My Beliefs: I think all the issues I get involved with share certain elements in common. Often, it comes down to human rights in one form or another. I'm interested in women's issues because I don't believe we've reached true equality. I'm interested in peace-building work because I think every person deserves to grow up in an environment free of violence. I'm also enraged by our government right now; I think the Bush administration's agenda is utterly counterproductive in terms of both domestic and foreign policy. Bush stole the 2000 election with the help of the Republican officials in Florida and their deliberate disenfranchisement of thousands of eligible voters. This administration is not leading us towards a more sustainable, peaceful future; instead, they're doing the exact opposite. I am disgusted by the fact that big corporations are in bed with the administration and have stolen the power away from the people, where it belongs. I'm sick of being lied to; we need leaders we can at least trust to tell us in whose interest they are acting. So these are the things that motivate me to action ... anything involving building democracy, human rights, and peace. And since my major, and my big interest, is theater, I am always looking for ways to combine politics and the arts — I think that's where the truly fascinating stuff is. Using art as a metaphor for real political situations, you can create some very powerful material that hopefully makes people question their preconceptions about society.How I Got Involved: I think you get to a point where, if you're paying attention to world events and getting your information from good sources (not necessarily the corporate media), then you are just compelled to act. There is injustice out there (or right here!), and you have to do something. Where your conscience and your natural inclination to be interested in an issue intersect, you can't sit still — you have to help. Even if you can only do a little, every tiny action has an important influence on our world that we may never fully understand. Also, I really do believe that the personal is political, cliché as it might be to say that. For instance, it's hard to talk about feminism without looking at personal relationships. Society is made up of individuals and individual relationships. It's all interwoven, and I think that we should examine these things to see how social systems impact us in our daily lives.Is Middlebury adequately activist? I don't think that our community is adequately activist, but it is increasingly so. I've seen a lot of stuff recently that never would have happened here in the past. A lot of new activist groups have formed, like the Middlebury Initiative for Sustainable Development (MISD) and the New Left. These organizations and the 1,500 people that came out to protest Ari Fleischer '82 and the potential war in Iraq are proof of the fact that people do care. Even people who have never been involved in politics are getting active, and I hope it continues. It is easy to understand why students here can be somewhat apathetic — we're all so busy with schoolwork and other commitments, and the issues are so complicated that they often seem inaccessible. But it is changing, slowly but surely.
(11/13/02 12:00am)
Author: Andrea Gissing Ball State U. Students Take Shelter as Tornado HitsStudents at Ball State University sought shelter in lower levels of residence halls and departmental buildings Sunday afternoon as violent winds rushed through east-central Indiana. The tornado touched down in Blackford County a little after 2 p.m. Sunday. Three people were trapped in a supermarket when the roof partially collapsed and a wall was blown out. Ball State geography professor David Arnold, supervisor of the university's storm-chasing team, said that the winds at the supermarket were probably 80 to 90 miles per hour. Arnold explained the violent storm was not necessarily a tornado, but was the result of a micro-burst, or straight-line wind, that can sometimes be stronger and can do more damage than tornadoes.Arnold noted that the likelihood of tornadoes to occur in November is almost as high as that of the usual tornado season, the period of time from April through June. "Fall is a transition season, and there is a tremendous difference in temperatures," he explained. Tornadic activity often occurs once every two years; already this season two violent storms have caused concern in the east central areas of the state. Pertaining to wind damage, Arnold said people should be most concerned about roof damage. If the roof of a building is not securely anchored to its foundation, it can easily be picked up by a strong wind; once the roof is off, the rest of the building normally collapses. A resident assistant at Tichenor Hall, a residence hall at Ball State said the past two tornado warnings were the first time he has participated in such safety precautions in his five years as Ball State a student.Source: U-WireUVM Officer Investigated for Racial ProfilingA police officer working at the University of Vermont (UVM) has been reassigned to office work following allegations of racial profiling. The officer reportedly handcuffed a female student at gunpoint last Wednesday during a search for a male armed robbery suspect. Both the suspect and the female student are black; that is the only physical similarity they share.Daniel Fogel, president of UVM, wrote a campus-wide e-mail saying: "While not prejudging the outcome of the investigation of police conduct, we all understand that the detention of an innocent student raises serious questions about the campus climate for persons of color." The suspect held up a 19-year-old walking in Tupper Hall, a residence hall on UVM's East Campus around 3 p.m. The suspect has not yet been caught. University officials are investigating the racial profiling claims leveled against the officer.Source: The Rutland HeraldStanford, Yale Change Early Admissions PolicyStanford University and Yale University announced Nov. 7 that they would no longer offer the binding early decision option to applicants. The change in policy for both institutions will not take affect until next year's admission cycle for the Class of 2008. Under both Yale and Stanford's policies, students will only be able to apply early to one school. The change would also give all applicants more flexibility and time to consider their options.Yale President Richard Levin announced on Wednesday that Yale would adopt a non-binding early action policy beginning next fall. This announcement came almost one year after he initiated a national debate on early admissions policies. Levin said the decision was the first step made towards encouraging the elimination of all early admissions programs. He expressed concern that high school students making a binding decision so early in the year, saying some students were strategizing instead of choosing their first choice schools, putting students applying for financial aid were disadvantaged.Hours after Levin made his statement, Stanford University President John Hennessy announced that Stanford would no longer offer its binding early decision to applicants. The new policy proposed is a "unique blend of traditional early action and early decision options offered by other colleges." According to Christina Wire, associate dean of undergraduate admissions at Stanford, the new policy "is certainly closer to early action than it is to early decision, however we have not thought of a specific name for it yet." It differs from regular early action policies in that the policy does not allow early applicants to file early applications at other institutions. "This new policy offers those who have set their hearts on attending Stanford the opportunity to apply early in their senior year without the additional pressure of having to commit before they are ready," Hennessy said. Source: The Stanford Daily and The Yale Daily News
(10/16/02 12:00am)
Author: [no author name found] Another "Right to Listen"Last Sunday's protests may have overshadowed another important event — the building and raising of a symbolic closet by members of Middlebury's Open and Queer Alliance, or moqa. The closet, a colorful and poignant amalgam of slogans and plyboard, will stand on the front lawn of the McCullough Student Center for the duration of Coming Out Week.The closet — and the series of lectures, panel discussions and informal conversations that will last until Saturday — is an important reminder of the pervasiveness of stereotypes about homosexual men and women in and outside Middlebury. Despite the good intentions of the College to promote a vision of inclusiveness and diversity on campus, these stereotypes continue at Middlebury, forming one division among many between the numerous racial, ethnic, socioeconomic and sexual orientation groups on campus.The events scheduled for this week, however, are one means of addressing one of these divides. One hopes that attendance at these events will be as jubilant and conducive to dialogue as Sunday's demonstrations in front of Mead Chapel.A Warm Autumn in VermontOctober seems hotter this year, a fact that belies a trend few understand and even fewer want to acknowledge: The warming of the earth's climate. Discussion on global climate change and efforts to mitigate it have lessened since the war on terror began, making the little hope for change that existed at the start of the Bush presidency appear all the more futile to grasp on to.But this should not be a cause for despondency; quite the opposite, in fact. The drive for greater energy efficiency, more reliance on alternative fuel sources and increasing awareness on topics related to global warming have never been more important. In Vermont — and especially at Middlebury — we have an obligation to continue this fight, and the warmer temperatures that marked this autumn are ample enough reason to do so.Imagine, for a moment, a Vermont where seasonality no longer exists. Warm rains, to borrow from Bill McKibben, replace the wet snows of January; the sharp light of a cold autumn day is blocked by a warm haze; the cooling breezes of July are transformed into the cloying humidity of a Virginia summer. This is the future we have in store for us, despite the rhetoric of some in the various echelons of state and federal government. Vermont has made positive steps in the effort to stave off the effects of climate change: Last spring, the city of Burlington pledged to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions; this summer, Governor Howard Dean, along with other New England governors, promised to increase the number of energy-efficient cars in the state's vehicle fleet. Middlebury, too, has done its share by building structures with local materials and monitors to control energy use.But more is necessary. The next governor of Vermont needs to act on Dean's pledge, and press for reform of state laws without comprising the quality of Vermont's natural environment. The College must extend its commitment to environmental building, and take added measures to reduce water and energy consumption and vehicle usage, which will certainly spike as Middlebury expands. Our region, and our world, stands on the cusp of devastating change, and the need to act could never be more urgent.
(10/16/02 12:00am)
Author: Julie Shumway Incumbent Republican Dean George and Democrat Steve Maier, candidates for Middlebury representative to the Legislature, talk with Local News editor Julie Shumway about the issues Vermonters are discussing in this election.George on his background:I'm a native Vermonter. I grew up in St. Johnsbury, went to the University of Vermont (UVM) and graduated from there in 1971 with a bachelor's in forestry. About seven years ago I first got involved in local government by getting elected to the [Middlebury] town selectboard, which I've been a member of since then. And two years ago I retired from my full-time job as a state police officer after 29 years, took about a week off and started running for the Legislature....On being an incumbent :It clearly benefits me a great deal. By having two years' experience, you now are quite familiar with the process, how to move things through the Legislature, how to get things done, that sort of thing. By the end of the first two-year period people have each legislator figured out in terms of their integrity, the kind of work they do and so forth. When you go back in the second time, you're going to be considered for leadership roles in different committees.... On jobs and the economy:I'm still on the selectboard of Middlebury; that really works nicely for me because I can relate local issues to state issues and try to mediate the two. Talking about business interests in Middlebury, Middlebury has Exchange Street, which is an excellent example of a good industrial development program that was started many years ago and has been very successful. From the state's perspective, it's all about making sure if somebody wants to establish a responsible business, that we not stand in the way. We don't want to do things to discourage businesses from expanding or providing quality jobs. We certainly want to protect the environment in Vermont, but at the same time it's important for people to want to come to Vermont to establish their businesses, with good-quality, high-paying jobs.... On single-payer healthcare:I'm not convinced that it's the way to go right now. I still think that in Vermont in particular there are a lot of things we've closed the door to, that could provide better competition for insurance companies — while still having a threshold that people who can't afford or don't have that option open to them have healthcare access. We have a highly beneficial Medicaid program in Vermont and it's expensive, and we have to pay for that, but it works.... On Act 60:I think there are parts of Act 60 which are outstanding. There are parts that deal with the equity between different school systems around the state and try to equalize some minimum standard in terms of money spent on kids. The funding is that part that's become controversial. The funding pool is the most controversial. We went through this last year: there's a compromise out there, but we didn't get to it.Two years ago we [Middlebury] were a receiving town exclusively, which means that we benefited by Act 60. Last year, we began sending money back into the pool.... On school choice:I recommended some changes to the floor that would make it palatable for a lot more of the school districts. One of those was to make sure that school choice didn't become a burden on other schools, so we put a cap on how many students could actually leave a school. I don't support school choice outside of the public school system. I think in Vermont it would be too much of an impact to keep the public school system viable. In Middlebury, because of the quality of the schools we've got, we would benefit from that, because those dollars would then come into our school system and reduce the overall cost.... On transportation:I'm looking to go back to the House Transportation Committee. The chair of that committee, who's been the chair for 16 years, is not running again and there are a couple of us who are interested. That's a focal point of mine.Maier on his background:I went to Williams College, which may not get me a lot of votes on the Middlebury campus! That was 25 years ago; I graduated in 1978 and I have a master's degree in environmental law from the Vermont Law School. We first moved to Vermont from 1984 to 1985 because my wife teaches at the College, in the math department. Most of my career has been involved in environmental work, mostly in the public sector. I sort of worked in increasingly more local forms of government, starting off working for the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] in Washington, D.C., right after school. After we moved to Vermont, I worked for the state environmental department in Montpelier and in Waterbury.... On jobs and the economy:I think a lot of times, politicians and other folks in Vermont have created what I consider largely a false dichotomy between environmentalism and jobs and the economy. I think Vermont is better off economically today for our environmental protection strategies and programs of the past. I think what we should be focusing on in terms of new jobs in Vermont is working in encouragement of smaller businesses. A lot of economic development activity in Vermont, historically, has been to try to lure some big company to come into the area. I just think the more likely road to success would be, rather than go out and find another big company that's going to employ 5,000 people, go out there and find 100 businesses in different sectors that would each employ 50 people. Not only is that more realistic to the scale and scope of Vermont, but it would present a more diversified economy when you're done, so we wouldn't be dependent on the decisions of one particular corporation and how they react to the increasingly global economic factors that affect businesses everywhere....On single-payer healthcare:I think it should be one option that we should be looking at carefully. I'm intrigued by it. I know there's concern on the one side about a government-controlled healthcare system and how that could be run efficiently; on the other hand in Vermont we have something close to that going on already. We have only a couple of insurance companies that are servicing Vermont. I tend more in the direction of trying to have a program that addresses the basic healthcare needs of all Vermonters. That's my bottom line, and whether it's through a single-payer system or additional requirements on the insurance industry is less important to me.... On Act 60:I think that most people believe in the basic goals of Act 60. And I'm open to a variety of ideas about how to make it better; there was one made at the end of the last session by current lieutenant gubernatorial candidate Peter Shumlin — he calls it "Act 60 in English." One of the big criticisms of Act 60 is that it's just too complicated, and so this would have helped with that and would have technically eliminated the sharing pool, and yet it still would have redistributed money from wealthier communities to other communities in a way that would have provided for the basic objectives of Act 60. What I think is the biggest issue, however, with education funding in Vermont, is that we in Vermont have one of the largest reliances on property tax to pay for our schools of any state in the country. The governor has recently decreased the amount of general fund money going into education, and I think we ought to increase it. The only thing that happens when you decrease it is you put the pressure on local school districts — which I understand is one of the things he's trying to do, he's trying to get them to get their budgets in line — but it's only going to result in almost every case in increasing the local property tax, which is what makes people so angry.... On school choice:I'm first and foremost a supporter of the public school system as one of the most important government functions that we have here in the United States, and while I think school choice in some u
rban areas might be more viable, in Vermont however we just don't have the ability to pull it off. If, in effect, you allowed free choice in Addison County, you'd quickly get a place where kids from Bridport or Shoreham or Cornwall or Weybridge might choose to come to Middlebury, and those schools are so small that even the movement of three or four kids would have significant impacts on their budgets, which then creates a downward spiral: Less money, cut budgets, less resources, less equipment, less technology, less teachers.... On the environment:One of the frustrations I've had, on a personal level, has been the lack of conversation that I've had with people about environmental issues. Much of my career has been in the environmental area, and my concern and my reason for want-ing to run is to make a difference as far as this place, this planet that we of my generation are leaving for your generation and for my kids' generation. And I think that all this noise that we're dealing with in our lives, related to healthcare and property taxes, is less important in the long-term than the decisions that we make as an economy, both nationally and globally, that are affecting the environment. And looking at climate change and the impacts that that's going to have sociologically, economically and ecologically all over the globe in the coming years, I think it's the biggest and most dramatic thing we're going to face as a society. So I would hope that I can at least inform people about that issue if I get elected, and move the debate a little bit on that issue. We had a bill that should have passed, could have passed last year, on renewably energy initiatives here in Vermont. That's one small step we could take to move that agenda in the right direction and to put in place tax credits and help out. We also have several small businesses here in Vermont that could really grow — wind energy especially, but also solar. We also have a good technology base, people who can mix and match those energy ideas with good technology and really put us in the forefront on those issues. To me, that would be a great place for our economy to move, as well.
