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(01/17/19 10:59am)
“In an environment of intense political polarization, how can the country work together to solve its problems?”
This question was raised Tuesday, Jan. 15 as the subject of a public question and answer session with former governor of Tennessee, Democrat Phil Bredesen, and former governor of Vermont, Republican Jim Douglas. With the federal government shut down over the question of a multibillion-dollar, anti-immigrant border wall, the question comes at a critical time in the history of the United States — a time that makes the question a difficult one to answer.
Both former governors are self-described centrists. Both have had political success in states that traditionally do not support their political party. And both remain proud of their work as governor, compromising with opposition-party legislatures on behalf of the public interest. It is from this perspective that the two men, now good friends, proposed to speak about the current state of polarized U.S. politics.
Prompted by an audience of both students and town residents at the Robert A. Jones House conference room, the governors offered a variety of reasons why they believe the U.S. is so polarized politically, along with some potential solutions. Responding to the opening question by the coordinator of the session, Professor of Political Science Matt Dickinson, Bredesen commented that the mental frameworks people use to analyze political issues make a big difference in the way they end up approaching those issues. He described his efforts as governor to not let his legislative priorities become framed as party-based choices.
“You know there’s an old adage, I’m sure you’ve heard of it –– if the only tool you have is a hammer, you make every problem into a nail,” Bredesen said. “I think there’s an analogy with the political world that if the only tool you have to think about issues is Democrat versus Republican, you are going to make every issue into that kind of issue.”
A large part of the discussion was dedicated to how news, whether from traditional sources or through social media, might be affecting the current political situation. Douglas, who is now an executive-in-residence at the college, suggested that there is a natural tendency for media outlets to err on the outlandish side of news interpretations, as “the story about the cat that didn’t get stuck in the tree” would not do so well ratings wise. He cited Professor Dickinson in advising the audience to always look at multiple sources in their news consumption.
On this subject, Bredesen, fresh off a nationally prominent Senate campaign, specifically pointed out that nationally, news companies are being forced to cut their staff due to budget concerns. He believes that this makes the problem of one-sided news coverage much worse, as there are less resources available for in-depth, open-minded reporting, leaving the news to be filled with quicker, more reactionary impressions.
Douglas reacted positively when the idea of term limits for congresspeople was floated by a student, saying that, “Pushing the refresh button every now and then in our national cackle might not be a bad idea.” Bredesen, however, reacted strongly against this proposal, citing his experience working with a term-limited Nashville City Council. As an alternative, he suggested putting an end to widespread gerrymandering — the practice in which state legislatures redraw legislative districts with the intent of suppressing the power of votes for the opposition party. This practice leads to districts that are easy wins for one party or another, which in turn causes the election of more polarized legislators who do not need to account for a broad coalition of voters.
“To me the answer is to make districts more competitive. The House was designed to be a place that flows from election to election with the will of the people. Except we’ve gotten so good at designing districts now — that doesn’t happen anymore.”
Ultimately, Bredesen felt strongly that the solution will not lie in one party’s ideas winning out over the other. Instead of making political issues into a fight between different groups, he championed the ability to listen to a variety of perspectives in order to find solutions that work for a broad range of people.
“The idea that one ideology has all the answers is absurd on the face of it,” Bredesen said. “I think listening respectfully to different people’s views on how you might solve these problems and trying to understand them is critical.”
Douglas wrapped up his comments on a different note, warning the audience to be wary of being swayed by the strong views that are expressed by activists.
“I used to look out the window of my office and see these people demonstrating for or against something, and I wondered — Don’t they have a job?” Douglas said. “I think, to be honest, there are paid demonstrators who will take whatever position they’re asked to.”
This stance — that many activist are paid — was famously used by Donald Trump in October to dismiss the Kavanaugh protests.
The question and answer session ended with both former governors looking ahead to the next presidential election. Both hold the hope that there may be a candidate who will be able to bring the divided country together — although neither knows specifically who that might be. The former governors are in agreement that it may take a strong presidential commitment to unifying the polarized parties to ultimately improve the current situation. Bredesen, invoking the history of the country, left the audience with a few thoughts on the gravity of the situation.
“I think our country, every so often, goes through an existential challenge to its basic stuff. How we respond to that challenge always sets the path of where we are going as a country. There was the civil war and slavery. There was industrialism and all of that,” Bredesen said. “Certainly the Depression, the civil rights movement — and I think we are going through it right now. Technology and globalization are upsetting all sorts of assumptions about what’s important, and we have to respond.”
While the former governors offered some ideas as to what that response should look like, what it will actually end up being remains to be seen.
(01/17/19 10:56am)
Dean of Admissions Greg Buckles will leave his position at the end of the academic year. After seven years in his current role, he will become dean of enrollment management at the Lawrenceville School, a private boarding and day school for students grades 9-12 in central New Jersey.
“Greg is a valued colleague who has brought great clarity, integrity, and energy to his work,” President Laurie L. Patton wrote in a campus-wide email. “During his time here, he has been a champion of diversifying the College’s student body, maintaining our need-blind admissions policy, and expanding our relationship with the Posse Foundation.”
Before coming to Middlebury in 2008, Buckles served as director of admissions at Kenyon College. He graduated from Denison University and holds a Master of Arts in literature from Trinity College in Connecticut. Prior to his work in higher education, Buckles held administrative positions for several years at private boarding schools.
During his time in Vermont, Buckles worked to bring a subjective outlook to the admissions process that looked beyond test scores and grade point averages.
“An overarching goal of admissions at Middlebury is to not be able to answer the question, ‘What is a typical Middlebury student like?’ ” Buckles said in a video about college admissions made by the Communications Office in 2011. “While our averages our quite high and we are selective, and we ask for and expect a very rigorous background, we are also interested in more subjective and tangible qualities. A sense of self awareness, we think, is important, mainly to take advantage of what Middlebury has to offer.”
Buckles also emphasized Middlebury’s commitment to admitting a diverse student body.
“We want the student body at Middlebury to be a reflection of the global stage,” Buckles said. “We are defining diversity in lots of different ways. Certainly we are interested and very committed to racial diversity, we are interested in socioeconomic diversity … first generation students, students who come from a variety of different backgrounds.”
Buckles is also an outdoor enthusiast, and enjoys cycling and skiing in Vermont.
“Greg’s enduring contribution to Middlebury will be the thousands of exceptional students he and his team have admitted over the years,” Patton said in her email.
Buckles was not available for comment.
(12/06/18 10:56am)
Old Stone Mill, the college’s hub for student entrepreneurs, innovators and student makers, was sold for $500,000 to Community Barn Ventures, a local consulting firm for growing businesses.
The closing date on the sale of the historic building in downtown Middlebury is Jan. 7, which leaves students a month to move out of the space. At that time, the Old Stone Mill programs will relocate to 82 Weybridge Street.
According to college treasurer David Provost, the sale does not represent a change in the college’s commitment to the students involved in Old Stone Mill projects, but rather a financial necessity. The building needed between $2 and $2.5 million worth of changes to bring it up to the college’s safety and accessibility standards.
Meanwhile, the college has $100 million worth of projects that it has already prioritized, including the renovation of Warner, Johnson and Munroe, building a new academic building, a new residence hall to replace Battell and a new museum.
Provost said that the college is committed to finding both an interim space for the spring of 2019 and a space that will accommodate all of the Old Stone Mill’s projects in the long term.
On Dec. 1, the Innovation Hub announced that the Old Stone Mill programs will be moving to 82 Weybridge Street in the short term.
82 Weybridge Street is up the hill from the current space, 3 Mill Street. It has three apartments, which will continue to accommodate the needs of the Old Stone Mill tenants in conjunction with the Annex space on campus. The Annex space is above the ceramics house on Adirondack Street and already serves as an extra space for Old Stone Mill tenants.
The college purchased the Old Stone Mill in January 2008. In the last 10 years, it has served as a creativity incubator for students seeking a space away from their dorm rooms to build and innovate. Each year, the Old Stone Mill has functioned as that much-needed space for hundreds of student tenants.
“Old Stone Mill is unique in that it is not exclusively a business incubator and it is not a space dedicated for specific academic work,” said Heather Neuwirth, associate director of the center for social entrepreneurship.
“We blend a focus on innovation in the liberal arts with an emphasis on opening up space for creativity,” she said.
The projects of student tenants vary greatly from using the space to write poetry to cooking dinner for the Dinner with Strangers program, to managing well-established businesses. Some of these student-run businesses include Share to Wear, Overeasy, BeachIt, SheFly and PatchyTs.
Share To Wear, a dress rental exchange system for femme-identifying students, was founded in 2016, and leader Greta Hulleberg ’19 attributes much of their positive development to the Old Stone Mill space. Currently, the company stores over 700 dresses in the space, making it laborious to move while keeping them clean and organized.
Hulleberg hopes that the new space will still offer opportunities for collaboration. The founders of Share To Wear regularly collaborated and bounced their ideas off of the leaders of Overeasy and other tenants when working together in the shared work space.
Similarly, the founders of PatchyTs, a t-shirt company that irons custom patches designed by collaborative artists onto their shirts, hope that this sharing will continue in the new space.
Ryan Feldman ’21 said they were disappointed to hear of the Old Stone Mill’s closing because they had fully moved their operation into the work space and had enjoyed making friends with and learning from the leaders of Overeasy and Share to Wear. They are looking forward to moving into the new building.
The space is also home to M Gallery, a gallery designed to give students who create art an alternative space to show their work that is distinct from studio art classes.
According to M Gallery Board Member Leila Markosian ’21, their biggest concern was finding another common area that would fit their needs. They are unsure that they will receive the same reparations since they operate slightly more independently from the rest of the Old Stone Mill tenants. They are excited by the news of the move to 82 Weybridge Street and considerations of Meeker basement because of its accessibility.
In spite of the wide diversity of projects, student tenants and board members of the Old Stone Mill have continually remarked on this rich spirit of collaboration within the space. They all expressed their hope that this atmosphere of sharing and the excitement for innovation that currently exists in the building will be replicated at 82 Weybridge Street.
“It’s the end of the building, not the program,” said Old Stone Mill board member Sarah Haedrich ’19.5, who has assured tenants of the continued success of the program.
“We are trying to look at it as an opportunity to make the space better,” Haedrich said.
Hulleberg similarly expressed her gratitude for the college’s support of creativity and innovation and how lucky she feels that they have and will continue to have a space for their dresses, which they once had to store in a suite.
Opportunities still exist for students to engage with the Old Stone Mill space under its new owners.
“We believe we have found a buyer in Community Barn Ventures who will utilize the building to create a hub for innovation and creativity that will align well with Middlebury’s mission,” Provost said.
“It will create a community space that the students, faculty and staff of the college will benefit from greatly once complete,” he said.
The future owners hope to create a community space that will engage as many members of the community as possible on a daily basis. They plan to build a restaurant on the first floor to replace Storm Café, which closed on Nov. 11, a “public market” on the second floor with various vendors selling different products, a co-working space and private working spaces and lodging spaces on the top floors.
The last tenant showcase in the Old Stone Mill space will take place today from 6-8 p.m.
(11/29/18 11:00am)
Within the past year, several Middlebury businesses have shut down, leaving “For Sale” and “For Lease” signs in once-crowded window displays. The facades of the empty buildings have cast a somber shadow over the town, and many are wondering what the lasting implications of the closures will be.
A vibrant town is just as important to the Middlebury community as a vibrant college. With these losses, we have also lost unique opportunities to engage with the people of Middlebury by supporting businesses that are important to the larger Middlebury community. The relationship between the student community and the town community has often been fraught with tension, perhaps rightfully so, as the student body often does very little to engage with the surrounding town. One sad example was the cancellation of the Vermont Chili Festival; students loved the event, but hardly ever did more to make it happen than drunkenly consume chili. It should be the student body’s long-term goal to improve the existing relationship between students and the town’s long-term residents. This will take time, and perhaps a few generations of students, but we believe every student has the opportunity and the obligation to contribute to a thriving greater Middlebury community.
Carol’s Hungry Mind Café, The Lobby, Ben Franklin, Clay’s Clothing, Rough Cut and Storm Café, each on or near Main St., have all closed just in the last few months. Store owners say high rent prices, the joint railroad and bridge construction and increased competition from online retailers have all contributed to the closings.
We know the college has worked in the past to help small business owners in the town. (A sizeable fraction of the town’s annual budget is made up of college funding.) We also recognize that some Middlebury students, or students participating in Middlebury programs, attend the college year-round and contribute to the local economy year-round.
In September, several members of our staff had a conversation with Angelo Lynn, the editor and publisher of the Addison Independent. He asked us to think about the types of businesses that would bring Middlebury students into town more often and get them invested in the community. In light of his question, we have been thinking about what could fill the town’s unfortunate new vacancies.
[pullquote speaker="" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]The success of a college depends on the success of the town surrounding it.[/pullquote]
Taste of India and Sabai Sabai, restaurants that serve international cuisines that can be hard to find in rural Vermont, are enduringly popular with students, who often come from urban areas with a wide variety of foods. We think it would be great to fill in gaps left by closed restaurants with more types of cuisine. The Lobby has been replaced by the newly-opened Italian restaurant The Arcadian, but we hope that this will be only the beginning.
Other ideas include more social spaces, where students can spend more than an hour in town. On a campus that sometimes feels overcrowded, spaces for group hangouts are more needed than ever. A bowling alley or arcade could also bring in revenue. Some of the successful businesses in town, like the Tinker and Smithy Game Store, offer social experiences in addition to merchandise or food.
However, this conversation cannot occur in a vacuum. While these options seem appealing to us as students, we must consider the town’s need to fill the vacant storefronts with businesses that will benefit the entire community. This past summer, the Town of Middlebury email list (you can sign up to be on the list and receive town updates at go/middmailinglist) asked residents what alternatives they would like to see replace Clay’s and Ben Franklin. Of the 230 respondents, over 80 stated that they would want a clothing store of some kind. Over 60 said they would prefer a small-format Target.
Some argue that the responsibility to revamp local infrastructure should be placed on the town. The Editorial Board believes that the onus should be equally placed on students. We think the success of a college depends on the success of the town surrounding it. Therefore, supporting the local economy is essential to ensuring the longevity of the college. The Black Student Union (BSU), for example, rents out the Middlebury Marquis to screen films for their members. BSU has actively engaged with the town community, making that space part of college activity and helping to bridge the gap between Middlebury students and town residents.
Our ways of participating do not have to be solely economic, however. The Middlebury Campus has a longstanding relationship with the Addison Independent; Campus editors often intern with the newspaper over the summer.
Recently, The Campus covered the local midterm elections in Addison County. After our election issue came out, our staff compiled a live report on Election Day of the results of local and state elections. The issue and live report received positive feedback from students, faculty and most importantly, town residents. Other organizations have taken similar steps to integrate the college with the larger community through their work.
This Saturday, the Better Middlebury Partnership will host Very Merry Middlebury, a public celebration to kick off the holiday season, with events in town from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. There will be horse-drawn wagon rides, hot chocolate, gingerbread house-making and a gingerbread house exhibit, caroling and free gift-wrapping for all presents bought in town, not to mention that Santa Claus is expected to make an appearance. It should be a perfect opportunity for students to have fun engaging with the community and support local businesses.
It is also the responsibility of the SGA External Affairs Committee to serve as a liaison between Middlebury, Addison County, the state of Vermont and other governmental and non-governmental bodies external to the college. Many students, particularly first-years, simply don’t know what the town of Middlebury has to offer. The SGA should but together a list or map of local business, interesting local places to visit, and ways to get involved with the community. The External Affairs Committee could host an event similar to Chili Fest — something that encourages collaboration between students and locals. But the change doesn’t have to come from our institution; it can start with interactions between us students and the members of our community who make Middlebury, Vermont feel like another home.
(11/29/18 10:58am)
Speakers discussed the painful and sometimes tragic experiences of immigrants seeking new lives in the United States during a Nov. 15 panel in Dana Auditorium, titled “Trauma and the U.S. Immigration System.”
The panel featured University of Vermont College of Medicine Professor Dr. Andrea Green, Albany Law School Professor Sarah Rogerson, Migrant Justice activist Marita Caneda and Hannah Krutiansky ’19, who worked as a summer intern with the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES).
Meron Benti ’19, who was born in Ethiopia and moved to Italy before making her way to the United States, served as the moderator. She opened by talking about her own experience as an immigrant and her 18 month wait for asylum.
Krutiansky shared her experiences working with RAICES, a non-profit based in San Antonio, Texas, where she spent time in detention facilities and worked directly with detainees to provide legal support. She focused on injustice faced by indigenous migrants that she observed during the job.
[pullquote speaker="Hannah Krutiansky ’19" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]What they really need is counseling, but what they’re going to get is interrogation about the most intimate, traumatic, events of their life.[/pullquote]
“I was in a courtroom where the mother and the interpreter clearly were not understanding each other and the judge just said, ‘Please give your best interpretation,’” she said.
Krutiansky’s work with RAICES gave her a first hand perspective of the trauma that immigrants endure.
“They’ll be told that they need to sign a paper that might be in English and if they ask what they’re signing a very typical response could be, ‘Do you think I have time to explain this to you?’” she said. “What they really need is counseling, but what they’re going to get is interrogation about the most intimate, traumatic, events of their life.”
In one incident, she and other RAICES staff were forced to leave the holding facility without explanation.
“We exited visitation and we were met by a literal army of ICE officers, it was probably anywhere from 30 to 50 officers in bulletproof vests, guns, shields, handcuffs,” Krutiansky said. “This was just to terrorize this population.”
After this incident, 16 fathers were randomly selected and put in solitary confinement for a day with no explanation. One of the fathers tried to commit suicide.
Krutiansky witnessed the effect that this attack had on the children whose fathers were taken away with no explanation.
“One seven-year-old boy whose eyes were completely glazed over after the incident, bloodshot, you could have put your hand in front of him and he wouldn’t have flinched,” Krutiansky said.
Rogerson elaborated on immigration from a legal perspective and described a variety of legal terms. She also described traumatic experiences helping 300 refugees who had been flown to a county jail in Albany to be detained.
“No one ever told them where they were, so the first thing that the lawyers did when they went in was draw a map of the United States and show them where they were, and where their family members were in some cases,” she said, describing many of the refugees as “incredibly disoriented.”
[pullquote speaker="Albany Law School Professor Sarah Rogerson" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]The Trump administration made the decision to limit asylum claims for people who were fleeing gang violence and people fleeing domestic violence.[/pullquote]
Rogerson criticized many recent changes to immigration policy.
“The Trump administration made the decision to limit asylum claims for people who were fleeing gang violence and people fleeing domestic violence,” she said.
She also emphasized collaboration with law enforcement.
“We’re creating our own system of humane immigration system enforcement and we’re using law enforcement allies to do it,” Rogerson said.
Dr. Green, a pediatrician with experience serving refugees, focused on the physical effects of trauma and immigration, especially on children.
“Young people, they will trade sex for their basic needs,” she said, calling it “survival sex” which leads to sexually transmitted infections, in addition to other diseases and injuries acquired through the arduous process of coming to the United States as an asylee or refugee.
“The bigger issue, in addition to all those health issues, is the effects of trauma,” she said. “Stress, trauma causes inflammation in the body, and that inflammation in the body affects health in the long term, and actually changes your genetic makeup.”
The effect at a broader level is a higher suicide rate among immigrants. Green spoke about her own experience serving Bhutanese refugees in Vermont, which has twice the suicide risk of the general population.
“That trauma affects that parents ability to parent that child,” she said during discussion of parents coming to the U.S. to get a better life for their children. “That trauma is now a multi-generational trauma.”
Caneda, a Migrant Justice activist, gave a brief overview of the organization’s current work. She spoke about its mission to protect Vermont dairy workers with the goal of improving lives of migrants and advancing human rights, and highlighted that immigrants do not have the same human rights as others.
“Since 2014, a lot of members of migrant justice have been arrested” she said. “Nine of those detentions have clear evidence of retaliation for coming in and speaking out about human rights.” Caneda added that many detentions and arrests by ICE also involved illegal cooperation with the DMV.
Caneda emphasized that not all immigrants are necessarily fleeing violence, but also lack of opportunity and unsafe working conditions.
“When the only options to work are for a fracking company or for an oil company or joining the army, a lot of people don’t have those values and they come and migrate here and end up working on the dairy farms” she said.
“When you work at a dairy farm you live on the farm, you become a 24/7 worker” Caneda said, pointing out food safety concerns. “When you live on a farm, especially up north, you depend on others to bring you food, sometimes it’s every 15 days, so if day 13 you run out of food, you don’t have an option and you spend two days without.”
[pullquote speaker="Migrant Justice activist Marita Caneda" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]Right now in Vermont anyone can get a driver’s license regardless of your immigration status, which was a big change because now people could start driving cars, going to stores, not depending on others for food.[/pullquote]
In a positive moment, Caneda explained that this condition has improved.
“Right now in Vermont anyone can get a driver’s license regardless of your immigration status, which was a big change because now people could start driving cars, going to stores, not depending on others for food,” she said.
This panel fit within a larger national conversation around immigration. The narratives of the speakers stood in striking contrast with the president’s recent military response to the alleged “migrant caravan” of immigrants approaching the border from Central America.
(11/29/18 10:58am)
For students for whom strolling across grassy beaches sipping hot apple cider in the crisp autumn breeze is their ideal college experience, attending a NESCAC school might fulfill their fantasy. Thus, the carrot of the admissions advantage offered by early-decision admissions programs may be too tantalizing to resist. Yet, it is well documented that only select groups of students, athletes and legacies with mediocre academic records, truly stand to benefit from Early Decision (ED) programs. ED programs were really designed for the convenience of institutions, rather than students.
[pullquote speaker="" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]ED admissions artificially deflate the acceptance rates at NESCAC schools.[/pullquote]
Historically, ED programs were designed by small liberal arts colleges in the 1950s to trap the best students in a binding agreement before those students could apply to Ivy League schools. Considering that the projected Regular Decision (RD) admissions yield is about 25% at most NESCAC schools, in the absence of ED admissions, NESCAC schools would likely need to double and in some cases quadruple their acceptance rates in order to successfully fill their incoming classes. Thus, ED admissions artificially deflate the acceptance rates at NESCAC schools, boosting their selectivity index and positions in the journalistic rankings of American colleges.
Considering this history, it is not surprising that as of April 2018, the ED programs at Amherst, Bates, Colby, Hamilton, Middlebury, Wesleyan, Williams and Tufts are all under Department of Justice investigation. Whether ED programs are an entirely ethical practice in United States higher education is debatable. ED programs are remarkably absent from admissions programs outside North America. With the deadline for ED II admissions as well as RD admissions at NESCAC schools fast approaching, here are a few points of consideration to muse over while deciding whether to apply to NESCAC colleges ED or RD, if at all.
Before applying ED in the NESCAC, students should consider these and other social, emotional and financial costs. Although most colleges profess a commitment to student mental health, many colleges will only counsel students with short-term needs that can be resolved in a brief time frame, with some schools limiting students to as little as three free counseling sessions. All colleges are required to withdraw Title IV federal funds from students not meeting Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) requirements, but some NESCAC schools discretionarily withdraw institutional aid from students with low GPAs.
All colleges are required to comply with and accommodate students under the Americans with Disabilities Act, yet students needing to take a semester off or a ninth semester for reasons related to mental or physical health may face challenges both bureaucratic and financial. Although written policies on taking a semester off vary, a residential life director or commons dean may hold the power to deny a student’s request to leave mid-semester or take a semester off. In addition, taking a semester off or ninth semester may prove especially challenging for students with financial need since NESCAC schools overwhelmingly restrict financial aid to eight semesters, only providing ninth semesters of aid under extenuating circumstances.
All NESCAC schools except Connecticut College, Trinity, Tufts and Wesleyan are need-blind. Regardless, there is no common definition of what need-blind means in practice. Even need-blind schools can use unorthodox means, such as considering parent occupation and high school prestige, to become unofficially aware of a student’s financial means. So, at the very least it may behoove students from middle- and low-income families to leave the box on the Common App indicating an intention to apply for financial aid unchecked.
[pullquote speaker="" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]The answers to questions about these hidden costs of college are not readily available through journalistic rankings, institutional promotional literature or campus tours.[/pullquote]
Most NESCAC schools claim to meet a student’s full financial need, yet individual colleges determine whether students can use outside scholarship to cover additional costs such as annual health insurance or the one-time purchase of a personal computer. In special cases, individual colleges may even match outside scholarship earned through service in AmeriCorps dollar-per-dollar.
Any student awarded work-study based on their FAFSA would be able to apply for on-campus jobs early at most colleges. Yet, the amount of hours a student might need to work in a given week may vary drastically depending on a specific college’s student pay rate ranging from $10 to $15 per hour. Notably, although compensation for resident assistant positions ranges from $2500 to $6500 per academic year, not all NESCAC schools provide RAs with free housing. For low-resource students, the presence and accessibility of textbook libraries, winter coat closets and medical emergency funds may significantly decrease financial stress.
The answers to questions about these hidden costs of college are not readily available through journalistic rankings, institutional promotional literature or campus tours. To get the answer to these questions, you may have to pick up the phone or even sit down face-to-face with staff and students outside the admissions office. Although these costs may be trivial to students from families in the top one percent (as much as a fifth of NESCAC students), to students from families in the bottom 60 percent (as little as a 10th of NESCAC students) these unanticipated costs may prove to be taxing on their overall college experience. Transferring in the sophomore fall is an option for ED students who find their school is a poor fit, but poor mental health and financial difficulty may make reapplying to college difficult. Thus, before applying ED to a NESCAC school, carefully count the costs.
(11/29/18 10:57am)
Seven women have filed a class action lawsuit alleging that Dartmouth College allowed sexual misconduct by three former professors to continue for over a decade. The $70 million lawsuit, filed in the state on New Hampshire on Nov. 15, involved actions by professors Todd Heatherton, William Kelley and Paul Whalen in Dartmouth’s Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. The plaintiffs argue that professors perpetrated a culture that resembled a “21st Century Animal House.”
Professors are accused of inviting students to late-night hot tub parties at private residences, holding lab meetings at bars and encouraging an atmosphere of heavy drinking. These actions were accompanied by numerous allegations of sexual advances by the three professors towards graduate students who depended upon the professors’ academic support.
[pullquote speaker="ROGER DAI '20" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]I don’t know if the administration buried the accusations, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they did. And that’s deeply troubling.[/pullquote]
According to The Washington Post, Kristina Rapuano, one of the plaintiffs, claims that Whalen sent her a text message one night telling her to come back to his office. Once she arrived, he allegedly turned off the lights and began touching her.
Plaintiffs argue that this was an open secret in the college, in the town of Hanover, and at conferences, and that these three professors had an established reputation as predators. Dartmouth officials released a statement saying they “applaud the courage” displayed by the women who came forward, but asserting that the college disagrees “with the characterizations of Dartmouth’s actions in the complaint”
Middlebury’s current sexual assault policy claims that the college “will take reasonable, prompt and appropriate action” in the event of sexual misconduct. This sexual misconduct is defined as “sexual assault, domestic and dating violence and misconduct, stalking and related retaliation.” Discipline for employees, based on the severity of the actions, includes “discipline for employees such as written reprimands, salary freezes (faculty) or termination of employment.” A criminal investigation may be opened at the complainant’s discretion.
Dartmouth claims adherence to a similar policy, and writes that they are “committed to the safety and wellbeing of every member of our community.” However, the alleged disregard of sexual assault claims on Dartmouth’s campus would speak otherwise.
“I don’t know if the administration buried the accusations, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they did. And that’s deeply troubling,” said Roger Dai ’20, a Middlebury student currently spending a year at Dartmouth.
At the annual Cognitive Neuroscience Society conference in March 2015, Rapuano claims that Kelley raped her after a night of drinking, the New York Times reported. The morning after, Kelley told Rapuano that they had had sex two times, after which Rapuano began panicking. Rapuano has no recollection of leaving the bar.
Rapuano, among others, attempted to gain distance from Kelley by engaging in a fellowship overseas. She says that Kelley started punishing her academically for refusing his advances. Annemarie Brown also claims that Kelley reacted in the same way regarding her advising. Andrea Courtney similarly recounts that Whalen abandoned advising her after she tried to distance herself from him.
The first complaint against one of the three professors, Heatherton, was filed in 2002. The lawsuit alleges that the college has continued to ignore complaints for almost sixteen years.
A months-long Title IX investigation began in 2017 after several complaints were lodged against the professors. Dartmouth allegedly told women who launched complaints to continue to work for the professors for the next four months, warning the women that academic retaliation may result from refusing the professors. In that time, graduate student Vassiki Chaahan, a plaintiff, was sexually assaulted.
In October 2018, a criminal investigation was opened by the New Hampshire Attorney General and is still ongoing.
As the Title IX investigation progressed, Dartmouth instigated the rarely-used process required to fire tenured professors. Before this was put into effect, however, Whalen and Kelley resigned, and Heatherton retired. The three professors are now banned from Dartmouth’s campus and any Dartmouth-sponsored events, and cannot be rehired by the university.
Heatherton’s attorney has denied involvement in the scandal, claiming that the plaintiffs were not his students and were only involved with the other two professors. Heatherton did not participate in any of the parties and did not drink with underage students, he claims, and Heatherton’s lab meetings did not involve alcohol.
The New York Times reported that Sasha Brietzke, one of the plaintiffs, claims that Heatherton pulled her onto his lap at a conference in March 2017 during a karaoke night and asked her about her plans for the night. Brietzke immediately left the establishment in shock.
Heatherton publicly apologized for touching a graduate student while intoxicated in 2017, claiming that the act was not sexual. He also maintains that any hiring for labs was done by a female assistant, focusing on skills and experience instead of appearance.
(11/15/18 10:59am)
Since leaving China to attend college in the United States, I’ve come to associate foreign news coverage on my home country, perhaps unfairly, with something that resembles a skeleton. I’m referring to those plastic skeletons most high school biology teachers keep in the back of their classroom (the ones that, you might recall, were given names like Neil or Albert and wheeled out for the occasional educational digression on someone’s dog’s fractured femur) — the kind that is structurally correct in the information it conveys, but lacking in the flesh and blood of the stories it tells.
Occasionally, however, something comes along and turns this analogy on its head. As most of my understanding of China had been based on the narrative of state-sponsored media, stories told about China from outside of the country sometimes draw back the curtain to aspects of Chinese society that I was previously blind to.
Such was my experience last Thursday evening, when I sat down in Axinn 232 for the screening of director Hao Wu’s boldly-titled documentary “People’s Republic of Desire.” Its Chinese title translates roughly to “Your Virtual Life,” a title that seems a touch more generic than its English counterpart.
Reviews of the film have compared it to a real-life “Black Mirror” story.
“It is sort of dark,” Wu said jokingly of his third documentary feature, “but that wasn’t how I had intended it to be.”
A Chinese filmmaker and a fellow at the Washington-based think tank New America, Hao Wu hopes to “explain China to people outside of China.”
In a Q&A session after the screening, Wu discussed his motivation for the film.
“I wanted to capture the changes in China,” he said. To Wu, the online phenomenon of live-streaming is a reflection of the real, offline human desires that run rampant in the rapidly modernizing country.
As the film opens, we are introduced to what seems like an office space for live-streamers, who sit in undecorated cubicles, singing and speaking to strangers in online chatrooms. Such is what Shen Man and Big Li do for a living.
The film is driven by its two protagonists — 21-year-old Shen Man and 24-year-old Big Li, two of the Chinese live-streaming platform YY’s highest ranking stars.
For her monthly income from YY of $40,000, Shen live-streams her videos from the comfort of her own desk at home, where she performs karaoke and responds to comments in her chat room, which regularly hosts over 10,000 viewers.
Shen explains what she calls the “Love Triangle of YY,” which connects live-streaming hosts to two very different types of fans. The diaosi viewers, usually young men of mediocre appearance, financial means and social standing, idolize the hosts. The tuhao, or nouveau riche, patrons shower the hosts with virtual gifts of roses, diamonds, cars and planes that materialize into real financial boons.
A graphic of an awards podium at the upper left corner of her chat room lists her most generous viewers.
“Fans follow you if you spend a lot,” one of Shen’s high-profile tuhao viewers says. “People chat with you.” He admits that he used to have a spending problem, but has since dialed back his spending to the more “rational” sum of $35,000 a month. Where does this absurd pool of funds come from, you ask? “I’m a profiteer,” he divulges nonchalantly.
In Shen Man’s chat room, another user by the handle of “YY Fish” gifts Shen a considerable amount of money, signified by a virtual car that whizzes across the interface, stirring up an excited flurry of viewers’ comments. “Who is this [patron]?” They ask. “He must be rich,” the comments speculate.
“F-ck, all that money…” Shen Man’s father muses as he watches one of his daughter’s live streams. “If only any of it were mine.”
YY capitalizes on these desires, too. Later on in the film, we learn that the platform takes a whopping 60 percent share of the virtual gifts’ monetary value.
While the tuhao patrons certainly have the upper hand in visibility, the diaosi viewers dominate the online live-streaming platform in numbers. The film explains that just as the tuhao get a kick out of the virtual social recognition brought by their extravagant virtual gifts, the diaosi followers become addicted to watching the large gifts occur online as a glimpse into the lifestyle they no longer dream of having.
The slang term diaosi grew in popularity as a self-deprecatory term for millennials to jokingly refer to themselves. In Chengdu, where the documentary was filmed, as in many Chinese cities, this demographic likely encompassed most of the migrant workforce who left their hometowns in search for a better future. Separated from old friends and family, many migrant laborers lead isolated existences.
Yong, one of Big Li’s many fans, is an 18-year-old migrant worker who makes around $400 per month packing motorcycle parts in a factory. “Sometimes I really want to find someone to have a heart-to-heart, but it’s very difficult,” he admits. “But I’m not lonely. I can watch Big Li on my computer.”
For those like Yong, live-stream hosts like Big Li are not merely sources of entertainment. Yong sees Big Li as a role model, as perhaps proof that even those from humble beginnings like himself can eventually come into fortune and fame — a prospect that seems increasingly unlikely under China’s steeply declining social mobility.
Off screen, Shen Man holds no illusions about what she calls the “hidden rules of this world.”
“You think [the big-spending patrons] are idiots, spending all that money for nothing? They will ask to meet in person, or something else,” Shen says matter-of-factly. “In front of money, family, love, friendship — they are all bullsh-t.”
Formerly a “poor nurse,” Shen Man is now her family’s sole breadwinner. “The whole family depends on me,” she tells the filmmaker with a mixture of pride and resentment. Shen is buying an apartment for her father and her stepmother, who both live with her, has purchased a house in her hometown for her grandfather and also plans to pay for her younger sister’s college tuition.
Like many of her viewers, Shen Man lives in social isolation. “When I think about it,” Shen says, “I’m disconnected from society. I don’t go out. I don’t even see the sun.”
In an interview with a local television station exploring the social phenomenon of internet streaming stars like Shen, a television producer asks Shen a question that throws her off guard.
“Are you happy?” he asks.
“In what sense?” Shen redirects the question.
“In every sense,” the producer replies.
“Yes, I am,” Shen answers almost automatically. After a pause, she seems to reconsider her answer.
“Compared to many others,” she says, “I think I should be happy.”
(11/15/18 10:58am)
MIDDLEBURY – Nearly one year to the day after The Rough Cut arrived at 51 Main St. in downtown Middlebury, the BBQ joint announced its closure. The Rough Cut bid Main Street farewell with a goodbye party last Friday, Nov. 2 to celebrate its last plate of St. Louis Pork Ribs and its final heaping of fried pickles, serving drinks at sharply discounted prices throughout the evening. The self-described “neighborhood bar,” which prides itself on a large beer selection, live music and food with soul, revealed the send off on its Facebook page last week.
“We have some hard news. We’ve made the difficult decision to close,” the post read, continuing to express gratitude to patrons, employees, and the Middlebury community for their support.
Ben Wells, owner of the Marquis Theatre and now former owner of The Rough Cut told the Campus last year that he hoped to create a “positive, warm, energetic environment” for people to enjoy. An outpouring of support and words of regret at the restaurant’s closing via social media stand testament to The Rough Cut’s popularity amongst staff members and the community.
“I’ve never been more heartbroken to leave a place. Thank you Rough Cut for one of the best years of my restaurant life,” said Rebecca Hanleigh, one former employee, commenting on the Facebook farewell.
The team at the BBQ restaurant joins a growing list of small businesses and entrepreneurs in downtown Middlebury that have been forced to shutter their doors within the past year in the face of economic hardship.
The restaurant’s closing date coincides with the lease renewal date for the college-owned property at 51 Main. According to former employee Wynne Ebner ’19, the college let the space at a half-lease. Wells made the tough decision to close after realizing that he would not be able to afford the full lease and also “take care of everybody,” including employees and colleagues.
[pullquote speaker="BEN WELLS" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]The Rough Cut was a lot of fun. It was a lot of hard work ... We did the best we could.[/pullquote]
“I don’t really know what’s happening in Middlebury right now,” Ebner said. “There’ve been definitely days or weeks where it’s been busier — like parents weekend for example. But for the most part … it’s just slow,” she said, describing her experience at The Rough Cut the past couple of months.
“If I knew the answer to why [The Rough Cut] didn’t work out then I’d like to think I would’ve changed it,” Wells said. However, of his working relationship with the college, Wells had only good things to say: “The administration has been incredibly supportive and really went above and beyond in terms of putting us in the best possible position to succeed.”
The college and the town, Wells believes, are inextricably linked, each supporting the other. For that reason he is concerned, like many others, about the “vitality and vibrancy of Main Street.” This is why, he explained, he invested in bringing new and fresh energy to town with the mechanical bull, music stage and other efforts at The Rough Cut.
While succeeding may appear increasingly challenging in light of the turnover of shops and restaurants, Wells believes that not all of the economic hardship can be attributed to contemporary issues, explaining that Middlebury has been “dealing with an awkward downtown layout since time immemorial.”
Despite the challenges residents, students, the administration and business owners will face during Middlebury’s current period of economic hardship, Wells remains optimistic and heartened by the community’s strength.
“Middlebury is still going to be here. We’re all going to be here next year and in five years,” he said, adding that the detrimental effect of the rail bridge construction project is temporary. “And that’s one area that is such a positive relationship with the college and the town: neither of us are going anywhere.”
College students and residents in search of the Southern comfort food, live performances from local musicians and a casual place to watch the game that The Rough Cut offered will now have to turn elsewhere. However, these closures do not mean that Downtown has to become obsolete. Wells believes we all can and should make an effort to revive it.
“The Rough Cut was a lot of fun. It was a lot of hard work. The restaurant industry in general is pretty tough, pretty challenging [and] pretty relentless,” Wells reflected. “Our experience was all of that. We did the best we could.”
If Wells and his team at The Rough Cut did the best they could, he encourages students to do the best that they can do as well.
“I think everybody who lives here — and students are one segment of the community — needs to support local business and support the downtown,” he said. “It makes a real difference in how we all can create the world we want to live in.”
(11/15/18 10:57am)
After 23 years in higher education, Andi Lloyd is leaving Middlebury to pursue a higher calling.
Lloyd, the dean of the faculty and a Biology professor, will leave the college at the end of this academic year to attend divinity school. She is currently applying to schools and plans to become an ordained minister.
“If you had told me that two years ago, I would have been surprised to hear it,” Lloyd said. After all, she only began regularly attending church a little over a year ago.
Lloyd first came to Middlebury as a biology professor in the fall of 1996, straight out of graduate school at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. She had attended Dartmouth College as an undergraduate.
“I was really interested in teaching at a liberal arts college, and I loved Vermont. This was my dream job which I didn’t think I’d get, but I applied anyway,” she said.
[pullquote speaker="Andi Lloyd" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]My desire to have a life that included faith is longstanding — it dates back to childhood.[/pullquote]
She accepted her current administrative role in the 2012-13 academic year. “I really liked thinking at the institutional level. I liked thinking about the whole college enterprise,” Lloyd said. It also allowed her to advance the work that brought her to Middlebury.
“Administrative work is exciting because it furthers that thing that I deeply love, which is classroom teaching,” she said. Lloyd has continued to teach biology and ecology classes as well as continued her research on the effects of climate change on northern forests. Now, Lloyd said, “I’m leaving all of that behind.”
She made the decision to leave academia and apply to divinity school within the last year.
“It was one of those life-cracked-open moments of a pathway presenting itself that I had never imagined was there, so it’s a recent turn,” Lloyd said. Although her parents grew up going to church, she only went as a young child and on Christmas.
“My desire to have a life that included faith is longstanding — it dates back to childhood,” she said. “I’ve just been really good at ignoring it for large stretches of my life.”
A little over a year ago, Lloyd finally acknowledged this desire and began regularly attending the congregational church in town.
“It was over the period of three or four months that followed from that— just this deepening sense that I had found the place I was supposed to be,” she said. “I fairly quickly began to think about how much I wanted to be in that world all the time.”
[pullquote speaker="Andi Lloyd" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]There’s a way in which that same interest in thinking about issues of environmental justice and how we are in the world can be approached from the perspective of ministry.[/pullquote]
Divinity schools prepare students for entry into the clergy, and the student’s religious faith is an integral part of their experience — unlike seminaries, however, divinity schools are attached to universities. After earning her Masters of Divinity, Lloyd can be ordained.
Although she will soon stop teaching and end her research, Lloyd sees a link between ecology and divinity. “It doesn’t feel to me like I am entirely leaving that world of biology and ecology behind, I think there are big pieces of it that carry forward,” Lloyd said. “There’s a way in which that same interest in thinking about issues of environmental justice and how we are in the world can be approached from the perspective of ministry.”
She also sees a connection between ethics and one’s obligation to the planet and other species, as well as a similar appreciation for the Earth.
“There’s a lot around reverence for the natural world,” Lloyd said. “Whether I frame that as the person with a PhD in evolutionary biology or whether I frame that as a Christian, there’s surprising overlap there, in terms of just opening oneself up to the amazement of this planet we live on.”
Other scholars have examined the relationship between the natural world and Christian faith. The Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale Divinity School, for example, is dedicated to exploring this connection.
After graduating from divinity school, Lloyd plans to become a pastor at a congregational church.
“The emphasis of the denomination as a whole on social justice and environmental justice, things that are near and dear to my heart, is really, really important,” Lloyd said. “I would love to be back in Vermont, but that’s not mine to decide.”
Lloyd has the uniform support of the congregation in Middlebury and of her family and friends. “I feel so lucky to have the people in my life that I do,” she said. “A surprising number of them have expressed a lack of surprise, and I don’t fully understand where that comes from.”
After more than 20 years working in academia, Lloyd is making an undeniably enormous transition. “There are still big pieces of this that I don’t fully understand,” she said. “I have a sense of amazement looking back at the last year of my life, and that amazement is full of some mysteries, some things that I generally don’t understand.”
(11/08/18 11:00am)
Last Thursday, Middlebury’s two-year-old satirical student publication The Local Noodle launched a successful first print issue. It positively flew off that heater right inside the entrance to Proc, a much-needed face shield for students looking to avoid eye contact with others but unwilling to risk being seen reading The Campus. As the editors of Middlebury’s “biggest waste of time and resources,” we would like to extend our warmest congratulations to “Middlebury’s only news source.” We need more student publications on campus, and the Noodle’s first print edition shows that it is possible for a small group of students to get together and produce an impactful publication.
In their inaugural editorial, the Noodle’s staff outlined their paper’s mission. “Though much of our coverage is comical,” they said, “the main purpose of our journalism is, and has always been, to identify and tackle the real problems here on Middlebury’s campus.”
Though The Local Noodle is not fact-based, it succeeded in using comedy and fiction to address important issues, like sexual assault culture within sports teams and disillusionment with the administration’s carbon neutrality promise, in a way that captures genuine sentiments shared by students. When The Campus tries to cover sensitive topics like sexual assault or the relationship between athlete recruitment and academic rigor, we run into reticent interviewees, data shortages and administrative roadblocks. On the other hand, when The Local Noodle makes up a fictional quotation or statistic, they may not be reporting real news, but their satire can bypass those difficulties and address dark aspects of our campus culture that often go unspoken or unproven but are accepted as realities by many students.
News, opinion, art and comedy must exist together to create an accurate record of student experiences at Middlebury. The Campus has been a part of this record for more than one hundred years. Our community’s contribution to Middlebury’s recorded history — and to the history of college life in the United States — will be incomplete if we do not leave a record of our true, uncensored and occasionally inappropriate thoughts (see: “Size does matter” article on theNoodle’s front page).
The main obstacle to creating an accurate and complete record of student experience is a lack of involvement in publications. The Campus sometimes struggles to find writers, and other publications do not receive enough submissions or have enough dedicated contributors to survive for long. Part of the responsibility rests with us, the editors of The Campus, and the editors of other publications, to be more proactive and inclusive. The Campus, The Local Noodle, Middlebury Geographic, Translingual Magazine and other publications are always looking for submissions, but we could do a better job of reaching out to younger students who we know to be thoughtful writers and invested community members.
Another problem limiting participation is that no publication besides The Campus has a designated workspace at Middlebury. Our Campus office in Hepburn certainly contributes to our permanence as an organization, and we want other publications to have the same access we do. The college could create a “publications hub” in McCullough to facilitate the growth and durability of student publications. It could have a large table for meetings and computers with design software for laying out pages and creating websites. Since no such space currently exists, The Campus has offered (and will continue to offer) help and advice to new student publications on how to navigate the print process.
Middlebury needs more healthy competition between its student publications. Students should have options in what they read, and a variety of publications helps ensure quality.
As Middlebury’s oldest publication, The Campus is often seen as part of the college’s “establishment,” which we acknowledge makes some students hesitant to share their stories with us. Ideally, all students would be able to find their voices reflected in a student publication. Other notable publications, including Beyond the Green, MiddBlog, MiddBeat, The Crampus, The Idle Times and others have risen to fill niches that some students have felt The Campus cannot, but most have fizzled out as the students behind them have graduated.
It’s important to have humor represented in a publication, and this “you-know-what rag” can tell you that this is sometimes at one’s own expense. Especially in this political climate, reading humor pieces can be a welcome reprieve from the seemingly constant barrage of political turmoil.
We are excited to praise The Local Noodle for their first issue. As a publication that has been printing dozens of issues each year for decades, we understand the difficulty of putting out a publication, and we want to make it easier for other publications to endure for future generations of students. Putting a lot of work into an issue, whether factual or funny, is worthwhile and rewarding. Doing so takes a lot of time and energy from dedicated people, and we hope that more students can experience that satisfaction.
(11/08/18 10:59am)
The leaves are falling, the sunsets are earlier and the first signs of winter are approaching. For many, this can mean only one thing: hunting season is in full swing in Vermont. Both on and off campus, plenty of Middlebury residents are gearing up for the annual activity.
In Vermont, there are approximately 68,000 hunters, all of whom are required to take a Hunter’s Education class before becoming licensed. Demographically, hunters run the gamut from children participating in a family tradition to health conscious twenty-somethings looking to incorporate local food into their diets.
“Hunting is sometimes viewed as the sport of the old, white man. And that’s not true at all,” said Nicole Meier, theInformation and Education Specialist at the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department. “Just because it’s a stereotype doesn’t mean that we need to make the other hunters out there invisible. Hunters like me, who are young females,” she said.
Although to many students it may seem as if a passion for hunting cannot be found on the Middlebury campus, that couldn’t be further from the truth.
“There are students that are hunting every season in the area. Maybe not a large number, but they’re there,” said Ira Schiffer, former chaplain at the college and teacher of the Hunter Education J-term workshop. These students are joined by a number of faculty and staff members who also enjoy hunting and act as mentors to students looking to learn. There was no lack of interest in the J-term workshop— it attracted over 35 students last year. However, while there are avid hunters on campus, many are reluctant to disclose openly their hobby for fear of criticism.
“[There are] faculty members who are long time hunters who are very quiet about it because they’re afraid of pushback from colleagues,” said Schiffer. This backlash extends to students, as well, many of whom are reluctant to share their interest with friends.
“I did not feel comfortable talking about hunting on campus, and it was a part of me that I tried to hide for most of my time at Midd,” said Hannah Phelps ’18. “I felt like I would get ridiculed or labeled with misconceptions/stereotypes if anyone found out, even though I strongly believe in the practice of hunting and in getting new people involved.”
Their involvement is often made difficult by misperceptions about hunters’ ethics and their relationship to the animals and their environment. In fact, those who hunt consider it a respectful, educational practice, one which is necessary for the conservation of the environment. They see their hobby as part of maintaining healthy habitats. Especially in Vermont, a state with a large deer population and few natural predators, hunting is integral in keeping the population in check.
“People don't always realize the good hunting can do for wildlife,” explained Phelps. “Without hunters, the deer population has the potential to eat themselves out of house and home, leading to huge spikes and plummets in their population and a decrease in plant diversity,” she added.
For many who are unfamiliar with hunting, the act of shooting an animal may seem cruel and unethical. But many hunters in Vermont resist the stereotype. “I think the reality that people who don’t hunt or aren’t part of that community don’t understand is that the hunter really has a warm, empathetic relationship with the animals that he’s hunting,” said Schiffer.
Part of this relationship is understanding the value of animal life; for example, many hunters consider it irresponsible to simply throw away one’s catch instead of eating it. Not only is shooting an animal a deliberate choice, hunters must also know when not to shoot.
“So many times I’ve had a choice to make. I would rather not shoot an animal and go home with no meat for the table than to damage it and have it go off and suffer,” said Wendy Butler, the current teacher of the Hunter Education workshop.
The J-term workshop offered by Butler gives students a chance to learn about hunting and attain a Hunter Education Certification. The workshop stresses safety, ethics and conservation-mindedness. For some students, it is a chance to explore a hobby that family members are passionate about; for others, such as international students, it is an opportunity to learn about an activity that isn’t available at home.
[pullquote speaker="HANNAH PHELPS '18" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]I did not feel comfortable talking about hunting on campus.[/pullquote]
The class allows students to see the positive aspects of hunting. Not only does it provide a local, sustainable meat source, but it also allows people to intimately connect with nature, without the trappings of modern-day technology.
“There is nothing better than walking into the woods before sunrise and watching it come to life around you,” said Phelps.
For both hunters and non-hunters, there are certain things to do to stay safe during hunting season. For one thing, if you’re considering going running around the local trails, do your best to wear bright colored clothing. Meier recommends that people wear some kind of blaze orange apparel. The color has been shown to be seven times more visible, especially during low light conditions, than any other color. If you’re walking your dog, remember to always keep it on a leash. Lastly, avoid being out in low light conditions like dusk and dawn
(11/08/18 10:57am)
Many female college students have experienced harassment on town roads during their time in Middlebury.
Although there are systems in place to deal with these incidents once reported, silence often surrounds this issue. Students tend not to report these incidents.
In June, Public Safety reported to the college community that a teenage girl who was not a college student running near Porter Hospital was harassed when a car with two 20-something men pulled up alongside her and asked for directions. The passenger grabbed her arm before she was able to get away.
[pullquote speaker="" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]Being catcalled at Middlebury feels different than being catcalled in a city because the population is so much smaller — if I’m alone, there aren’t as many people to potentially witness something and step in.[/pullquote]
A Middlebury student, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Campus a similar story. While running near South Street, a pickup truck with male passengers approached her, and a man in the back seat rolled down the window and flashed her.
“They didn’t stop, but I was very rattled from the entire experience, and was afraid they would come back. I was fully aware that I was far enough out that there would be no one to help me if I found myself in a dangerous situation,” she said.
The student also told The Campus that she has been followed on multiple occasions while running in Middlebury, once by a man on a bike.
“I do not run there anymore because I am afraid for my safety, which is a huge bummer because it is a beautiful route,” she said.
Four female students shared similar stories with The Campus.
They shared experiences of walking down College Street, relaying moments they were catcalled and harassed. Although this is commonplace in many cities and towns, it is perhaps unexpected in idyllic Middlebury, Vermont.
“Being catcalled at Middlebury feels different than being catcalled in a city because the population is so much smaller — if I’m alone, there aren’t as many people to potentially witness something and step in,” said another student, who wished to remain anonymous.
“Living closer to town this year, I feel like I’ve been catcalled on my street and then they see me go into my house, which is scary and unsettling,” she said.
It is because of Middlebury’s small size, though, that the college and town can take steps to eliminate these incidents. But students must first feel comfortable reporting these incidents.
None of the students interviewed by The Campus have ever filed a report.
How to Report
Even when incidents like this occur off campus and involve perpetrators who are unaffiliated with the college, students can still report them to Public Safety or the Title IX Office. Public Safety does not have the ability to pursue or stop vehicles, and anything that occurs either off campus or with a vehicle leaving campus will be reported to the Middlebury Police Department.
Students can also go directly to the police department. The police will ask the victim for a description of the vehicle, the vehicle’s location and its direction of travel.
[pullquote speaker="Title IX Coordinator Sue Ritter ’83" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]“If our students are being impacted by people in town or people who are driving through our campus community we would absolutely want to know because we want to address the behavior and make it stop.[/pullquote]
If the perpetrator is a member of the college community, the victim has the same options for reporting: they can talk to the police, Public Safety or the Title IX Office. Additionally, the student can choose to proceed with disciplinary action through the Title IX Office, regardless of whether the incident occured on campus. The Title IX Office deals primarily with instances of sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence and stalking, but is still a resource for victims of harassment.
“If our students are being impacted by people in town or people who are driving through our campus community, whether it’s yelling things at them or making harmful statements or things like that, we would absolutely want to know because we want to address the behavior and make it stop,” said Title IX Coordinator Sue Ritter ’83. If the perpetrator was unaffiliated with the college, the office would work with police on the issue.
“We don’t have the same investigative power,” Ritter said. “Coordination with the police is really, really important because the evidence-gathering is critical, and to do it right is critical, and we want to make sure we aren’t stepping on each other’s toes.”
On Monday, President Laurie L. Patton announced that Ritter will leave her position on Thursday, Nov. 15. She will replace Dave Donahue ’91 as special assistant to the president, associate secretary to the board and director of community relations (See “Sue Ritter Transitions to New Role”).
The Title IX Office can also work with WomenSafe, Porter Hospital, the State’s Attorney’s Office and other state-wide organizations. The college itself can also report these incidents to the community. It can issue a “timely warning,” part of a federal law that requires colleges and universities to notify their communities of crime threats that are ongoing or may be repeated. The college has issued two timely warnings in the last three years.
Unlike peer institutions, including Trinity, Skidmore and Bates, Middlebury does not have an online reporting system for any type of crime, nor does it have a way to report crimes anonymously to the college.
The college can also disseminate information through the Community Bias Response Team, which alerts the college community to instances of bias, but this ambiguous term excludes instances of assault or harassment.
Ritter acknowledged that more should be done.
“I think probably more needs to be done in terms of town-community discussions around incidents like this when they happen,” Ritter said. “Maybe working more with the Addison Independent and other forums in the town of Middlebury to raise awareness of these types of influences would be a helpful step, too.”
(11/08/18 10:55am)
Naomi and I have been living in Italy for two months now, and one month ago we started studying at the university of Ferrara. Sharing this experience, we have talked a lot about preconceived notions about what living in Italy would be like, first impressions, and our current understanding of living here.
When Naomi told people about her intention to study abroad in Italy, she got a similar reaction every time. People gushed over the idea of pasta for every meal and the Italian countryside. She kind of shrugged and went along with it, but never felt quite comfortable with the romanticization of a country that has nuanced identities. She never felt like she could contradict them, knowing that it could very well be more complicated than that. Based on what we know about study abroad programs in Italy, some students really might have this experience. They might only speak English and live in a tourist center and miss the real particularities of this country. In our situation, however, we are faced with the prospect of confronting these cultural “shocks,” and sometimes they create truly unpleasant challenges. For the last two months, I have been grappling with fitting into a society with which I might not always agree and trying to live up to the pre-imposed expectations of myself and my community that Italy is perfect.
In a lot of ways, these “culture shocks” that we have experienced came unexpectedly. When asked by friends and family if I was nervous to go to Italy before departing, I typically responded, “No.” I thought culture shock was a phenomenon that people only experience when they enter cultures that are much different from their own. I believed that life in a developed European country couldn’t really be that different from the U.S. However, we have found that even subtle differences from how to greet people on the street (or not) to using formal discourse with strangers and professors may cause discomfort.
One of the most challenging parts for us has been adjusting to the Italian university system. We were told before we came that it would be different, but we didn’t know what that really meant. We have been confined by scheduling time conflicts and prerequisites so we both ended up in classes that don’t academically push us. There are no assessments throughout the semester — no papers, projects, or midterms. A student’s entire grade in the class is computed from one final exam. Both Naomi and I will be required to write a junior thesis for history when we return, and we both intend to also write senior theses. However, we don’t feel that this university system is helping us develop the writing skills necessary to compose theses when we return to Middlebury. The main thing that Naomi feels she has learned from her class is how to listen to a nonstop lecture in Italian for two hours. This is meaningful and useful in some ways, but it means that we are missing out on one of our precious eight semesters at Middlebury. As it turns out, we both started study abroad with the intention to stay for the whole year. And yet, neither of us will be attending the University of Ferrara in the spring. We have also found from friends currently studying abroad and who have studied abroad in the past that to leave early for academic reasons is common.
In addition to challenges with the academics, I have also found that the lack of a proper campus, university events, and university-sponsored student groups has made it difficult to both integrate into the university culture and understand what concerns young people in this country. Instead I find that my interactions with the university are limited to the time I spend in class, a feeling that is very different from the life I live at Middlebury.
Naomi and I wanted to write this article mainly to express the frustrations that come along with this experience abroad. It felt like we were required or predisposed to have the best year of our lives, but it has been more complex than that. Given the frustrations that we have faced, I also feel that this experience has had a positive impact on me personally. Being abroad has challenged me to really think about what I am looking for out of my college experience, and how I need to manage the rest of my time in Italy and at Middlebury. This experience has challenged me to think about how I learn and how I take care of myself. I have learned that it takes resilience to live in any foreign country, and even though Naomi and I have decided that the university experience is not what we currently need, I still feel that living in Italy has been valuable because of what I have learned about myself.
(11/08/18 10:54am)
David Provost, the executive vice president for finance and administration, discussed the college’s long-term debt and the ways in which the office is working to stop the continued trend of increased student tuition in a talk on Friday, Nov. 2 as part of SGA’s “How Midd Works” initiative. He outlined the road to financial sustainability in light of the college’s current financial challenges.
Provost said Middlebury has over $278 million in long term debt and has been running noticeable operating deficits in recent years. The challenge, Provost explained, is how to balance Middlebury’s unique situation, including aging buildings and extra costs through the language schools and schools abroad, with the school’s desire to both keep tuition costs relatively low and grow the endowment.
“We can’t keep putting this on students and their families with a five-percent tuition increase,” Provost said, citing the school’s goal to lower the annual increase to near three percent in the next few years.
Since arriving at the college in 2017, Provost has tried to assess areas of possible waste — he noted that academic spaces have a 37-percent utilization rate, and that the college spends between $7 and $8 million yearly on travel expenses. The plan for the financial future, he explained, includes identifying areas of waste while also planning Middlebury more efficiently.
One main tenet of the administration’s plan is workforce planning, a system that will seek to ensure Middlebury is not overstaffed, using retirement incentives and more stringent hiring practices to make the college more financially secure.
Provost emphasized that this system was not about layoffs, but about making sure future faculty are in keeping with the college’s needs. One student from the audience said that some faculty members, however, were worried about who would ultimately be asked to leave.
Another student, Kate Claman ’19, president of MGallery in the Old Stone Mill, expressed frustration at the lack of communication about whether the Old Stone Mill might be sold, a rumor that has persisted.
“Nobody had discussed with us that there was a possibility the space would be sold this year,” she said, noting that MGallery had shows planned through January.
Provost emphasized that all of the college’s financial decisions will be made with the goal of preserving the spirit of the institution and ensuring that both faculty and student organizations are handled compassionately.
In the context of providing insight into a little-known or understood aspect of Middlebury, this forum emphasized how important it is for the college’s students to understand the systems that affect us and take action in ensuring transparent communication.
(11/08/18 2:53am)
Nearly one year to the day after The Rough Cut arrived to 51 Main St. in downtown Middlebury, the BBQ restaurant has announced it will be closing its doors for good after one last hurrah this Friday, Nov. 9. The self-described “neighborhood bar,” which prides itself on a large beer selection, live music and food with soul, revealed the coming closure on its Facebook page on Tuesday afternoon.
“We have some hard news. We’ve made the difficult decision to close,” the post read, continuing to express gratitude to patrons, employees, and the Middlebury community for their support.
Ben Wells, the owner of The Rough Cut, told The Campus last year that he hoped to create a “positive, warm, energetic environment” for people to enjoy. An outpouring of support and words of regret at the restaurant’s closing via social media stand testament to The Rough Cut’s popularity amongst staff members and the community.
“I’ve never been more heartbroken to leave a place. Thank you Rough Cut for one of the best years of my restaurant life,” said Rebecca Hanleigh, a former employee, commenting on the Facebook farewell.
The team at the BBQ joint has yet to publicly announce the reasons for the abrupt end of service. However, they join a seemingly ever-growing list of small businesses and entrepreneurs in downtown Middlebury that have been forced to shutter their doors within the past year.
College students and residents in search of Southern comfort food, live performances from local musicians and a casual place to watch a sports game will have to turn elsewhere. Starting at 3 p.m. on Friday and lasting “until the beer is gone,” The Rough Cut will host a goodbye party to celebrate its last plate of St. Louis Pork Ribs and its final heaping of fried pickles, serving drinks at sharply discounted prices throughout the evening.
“We’re not crying, you’re crying,” the Rough Cut team lamented in their Facebook goodbye.
Look for an updated version of this story in next week’s print issue, on stands Thursday, Nov. 15.
(11/07/18 5:18am)
[video credit="AMELIA POLLARD" align="right"][/video]
Democratic candidate Ruth Hardy was elected to represent Addison County in the state senate, and fellow Democrat Chris Bray was re-elected to a third term. At a victory party for the local Democrats at the Middlebury Inn, Hardy said she feels honored that Addison County residents trusted her to represent them.
“I’m really excited to get to work on their behalf and to learn a lot,” she said. “I’m proud of all the people who worked with me to make this victory happen.”
Bray said that despite having served in the state senate since 2012 and in the house from 2006 to 2010, he had never faced such a competitive field before. “It makes you wonder what people think about the work we’re doing,” he said. “To have such a strong vote affirms that I am on the right track and the county is on the right track.”
Bray said he is excited to work with Hardy in Montpelier. “We’ve been great partners throughout the election,” he said. “We’re two independent-minded people with our own skill sets our own backgrounds. My partner in the senate has been Claire Ayer and I was really hopeful that we would maintain a gender balance in this county.”[pullquote speaker="Chris Bray" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]We’ve been great partners throughout the election.[/pullquote]
Hardy said that among the first projects she wants to tackle at the statehouse is affordable childcare and paid family leave. “That’s something that hasn’t been worked on enough in the legislature,” she said. “It’s really important to me as a mom that we take care of families with young children.” She also mentioned the need to move the ball forward on universal primary care as a crucial early step, alongside keeping Vermont education strong and providing programs for seniors.
Bray echoed many of Hardy’s priorities. “If we want people to be able to enter the workforce securely, there has to be affordable abundant child care available,” he said, adding that he believes universal primary care is the most cost-effective option. He also mentioned his intention to continue past work on his Farm to Plate initiative. Other pillars of his political repertoire include clean energy and water bills.AMELIA POLLARD
In their remarks to the crowd, both candidates doled out a long list of thank yous, including to the Addison County Democratic Party and the college students who were involved in the campaign process. At the end of her speech, Hardy highlighted the four key elements of her platform: healthcare, access to child care for families with young children, strong local schools and services for seniors.
“We’re going to do it all,” she said.
Editor's Note: Ruth Hardy is the spouse of Prof. Jason Mittell, The Campus' academic advisor. Mittell plays no role in any editorial decisions made by the paper. Any questions may be directed to campus@middlebury.edu.
(11/01/18 10:00am)
Until Nov. 9, 2016, running for governor had never been in the playbook. A lifelong environmental activist and decade-long CEO, Christine Hallquist made a sharp professional detour after the election of President Donald Trump.
Hallquist is the first openly transgender person nominated for governor by a major party, and she is taking on Vermont’s incumbent Phil Scott, a Republican, who is finishing his first term. On Election Day, she will appear on the Democratic line.
“I’m not a politico,” she said as she sat down for an interview with The Campus at a picnic table outside Mead Chapel. “I had never marched before, was more a science, engineer-type person. But science isn’t going to solve this. You have to be political.”
After President Trump’s victory, she began participating in a series of marches as a means of dealing with her state of “political depression.” Then she made the leap into politics herself, announcing her candidacy for statewide office in March.
Hallquist arrived in Vermont in 1976 from upstate New York. She quickly settled into her new home while involving herself in an array of local issues, including challenging a mining pit. “I wouldn’t call myself an activist, but I was always doing something,” she said. “That’s what you do in Vermont if you’re responsive — you get involved. But I decided to run for governor without having a clue.”
After spending more than a decade as the chief executive of the Vermont Electric Co-op (VEC), she found that her experience in the utility sector dovetailed neatly with her gubernatorial platform. Hallquist’s political agenda is centered on the junction of economic development and environmental sustainability. The thing that ties the two together, she says, is fiber optic cable, a material made from tiny glass filaments that can transmit data at tremendously high speeds. Currently, only 17 percent of Vermonters have access to fiber optic. Her ultimate goal: providing high-speed internet to all of Vermont.
[pullquote speaker="Christine Hallquist" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]I wouldn’t call myself an activist, but I was always doing something.[/pullquote]
Hallquist is convinced that expanding fiber optic cable across the state would have far-reaching benefits, from drawing young people to the state to reinventing the nature of the dairy industry. For dairy, she envisions a push towards artisanal products that can be sold across the globe via online retailers (she cites the popularity of Vermont maple syrup in Japan as a pioneering industry model). It could even lead to a rebirth of Vermont’s rural communities, she said, many of which remain marginalized due to a lack of internet access.
The emphasis Hallquist places on fiber optic weaves through nearly everything she talks about. In her eyes, fiber optic applies to the range of challenges confronting Vermont: an aging population, a deficit of young people and economic stagnation. Regarding the dairy industry, Hallquist anticipates a looming transformation in the market. “Dairy is a world that’s already shifted,” she said. “We’re producing 30 percent more milk than we did in the 1960s, yet people are consuming fewer dairy products.”
MICHAEL BORENSTEIN
Instead of wholesale milk, she envisions a move towards small-batch, boutique products like organic cheeses, labeled “GMO-Free” and “Made in Vermont” and sold across the world. “That’s where the market is: the artisanal products,” she said.
However, older dairy farmers, who make up the majority of the industry’s demographic, have not had the most enthusiastic response. “Some are migrating, but it’s like any other business; some people made buggy parts while cars were being sold,” she said. “People have a hard time letting go.”
Yet the state’s infrastructure, including fiber optic networks, needs to be there, she said. And the government has the power to spearhead that. She’s emphasized the need for new welfare programs, like Medicare for All — a sharp contrast to Scott’s recent dodging of those sorts of initiatives. Scott’s avoidance has manifested in a slew of vetoes in recent months, which have emerged as a frustration and talking point for Hallquist.
[pullquote speaker="Christine Hallquist" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]Some are migrating, but it’s like any other business; some people made buggy parts while cars were being sold.[/pullquote]
Still, she acknowledged that she supported his initial candidacy more than a year before she decided to run against him. “I voted for Phil Scott, but I think I truly represent the electorate of Vermont,” she said. Despite Scott’s shift to the center on some issues, like gun control and marijuana legalization, Hallquist now believes he has more in common with the national Republican Party than with most Vermonters. After all, Hillary Clinton beat Trump easily in Vermont, winning 56.7 percent of the vote to Trump’s 29.3 percent. “He’s just a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” she said of Scott.
Voters in Vermont are known for splitting their tickets on Election Day, pulling the lever for, say, a Democratic state senator but a Republican governor. “That’s been the trend in the state for some time now,” said Eric Davis, professor emeritus of Political Science at the college. “Half the people who didn’t vote for Trump for president voted for Phil Scott.”
In her first days in office, Hallquist says her number one priority would be to pass a raft of bills that Scott has vetoed in the last few months. Those bills would have enacted a minimum wage increase, paid family leave, the monitoring of toxic substances in toys and toxic pollution producer liability. Hallquist hopes to resurrect them all.
“When it comes to a living wage and Medicare for All, that’s not a political issue — that’s called being a civilized society,” she said. “If your leader’s not heading in that direction, you need to fire them and get someone who is.”
[pullquote speaker="Christine Hallquist" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]When it comes to a living wage and Medicare for All, that’s not a political issue — that’s called being a civilized society.[/pullquote]
Hallquist has followed Sen. Bernie Sanders’ national trail in doggedly supporting a government-financed, single-payer system, where all Vermonters could receive healthcare coverage. Although Scott ultimately looks favorably upon Medicare for All, he is not sure the state’s economy can withstand a single-payer system on its own.
Incarceration is another issue she feels passionately about. Hallquist contests that moving people out of prison is not only more humane but will also save money. Her goal is to cut the state’s prison population in half. Last month, Vermont moved over 200 out-of-state inmates to a correctional facility in Mississippi in an effort to save money and deal with overcrowding. Each year, the state spends $73,000 per prisoner and there are currently 500 people behind bars.
The issue of mass incarceration, she said, is entangled in a bevy of other problems currently facing Vermont. Some prisoners battle alcohol and substance abuse, while others struggle with mental illness. Still, others are forced to delay their release for the simple fact that they cannot find an affordable place to live.
MICHAEL BORENSTEIN
Aside from Scott’s policies, Hallquist is also vehemently critical of his leadership. She has often described his management style as one of “command-and-control,” manifesting in “divisional leadership.” Although she has no previous experience in politics, she says her supervision of the VEC allowed her to practice a collaborative form of leadership that she insists is more effective.
She said the way in which Scott “barks orders from Montpelier” needs to be changed. When asked how she planned to bring the leadership approach she established at VEC to the state capitol, she mused that she might remove the lock from her office door and turn the space into a conference room, something she did at the utility company.
Her campaign coffers — totaling $415,000 — are equally rooted in a cooperative effort. As reported to the Vermont Secretary of State’s Office in mid-October, the bulk of her fundraising has come from small donations. Indeed, more than 3,000 contributions were in the amount of $100 or less. Though Scott’s total contributions exceeded $500,000, only 1,100 came from donations of $100 or less, according to the same report.
“We’ve put all of our money into a ground game,” Hallquist said. “We have over 300 volunteers in the field, 30 people on staff. And we probably make 10,000 to 12,000 phone calls a night.”
Her old-fashioned campaign tactics — phone banking, door-knocking and postcard-writing — are similar to ones that Sanders spearheaded across the country during his 2016 presidential bid. And they have been used by a wave of other progressive candidates running for office this election season, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the democratic socialist who pulled off a stunning primary upset against longtime Democratic congressman Joseph Crowley of New York City.
Though Hallquist’s base of support is centered in Vermont, donations have poured in from across the country. Because of her status as the first transgender person to win a major party nomination, national media coverage spiked in the days following her primary win, with profiles in The New York Times and Washington Post. Sanders’s media team in Washington estimated that more than 3,000 news stories were written on Hallquist globally after the primary, in which she won 48 percent of the vote.
[pullquote speaker="Christine Hallquist" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]If there’s anything we’ve learned in Vermont and nationally, it’s that we have an underbelly of racism that’s finally exposed itself to white people.[/pullquote]
Despite the historic nature of her candidacy and her status as a national role model for transgender youth, Hallquist believes that it is another difficult issue that college students should be paying more attention to: racism. “If there’s anything we’ve learned in Vermont and nationally, it’s that we have an underbelly of racism that’s finally exposed itself to white people,” she said. “People of color have known for a long time that this is a problem that hasn’t been solved.”
Hallquist’s progressive platform and activism have also piqued the interest of Middlebury students. The student organization Sunday Night Environmental Group has held phonebanks for her campaign, and last month, the College Democrats hosted an event that featured a documentary made by Hallquist’s son about her transition, accompanied by a Q&A discussion, though this was advertised as an explicitly apolitical event.
Regardless of the outcome on Nov. 6, Hallquist’s candidacy will have had a profound impact on not only the LGBTQ community, but the state’s Democratic Party. The legacy of her campaign in Vermont has transcended her status as the first transgender person nominated for governor. With her progressive agenda, she’s pushed for the state’s legislative reality to match the Green Mountain state’s crunchy reputation.
(11/01/18 9:57am)
For 21 years, Dave Donahue has worked to bridge the town-gown divide. As chief of staff for President Patton and the director of community relations, he has been the college’s voice in the local community, discussing construction projects at selectboard meetings, fielding questions from residents in town and leading community organizations.
On Nov. 2, he will step down from his role in the administration to take a position as senior vice president and chief of staff at the Ultimate Medical Academy in Tampa Bay, Florida. There, he will be working with a school largely based online and with a student population of 15,000, many of whom come from backgrounds vastly different from those of Middlebury students.
Donahue admitted that his decision to leave took other adminstrators by surprise, given his long tenure at the college. He began his life at Middlebury in 1987, playing football and lacrosse as a recruited athlete. An East Coast native, he fell in love with the idea of attending an academically rigorous school surrounded by Vermont’s natural beauty.
After graduation, Donahue worked in consulting for five years at Accenture’s government and educational division, flying from city to city on a weekly basis. But when his role moved him further away from education, he looked for a way back.
“I wanted to work with education systems. But I was pretty removed by that time,” Donahue explained.
That’s when he reached out to his alma mater. After speaking with Ann Hanson, the current dean of Ross Commons and the dean of student affairs at the time, he was convinced that he wanted to be at a school again. In the summer of 1997, he accepted a position as the assistant dean of students.
What began as a junior role in the student affairs office turned into a decade-long association with the college, moving across various administrative roles until settling into his current job ten years ago as the chief of staff for the president and director of community relations.
[pullquote speaker="Nick Artim" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]He’s always been a top notch professional. We’re gonna hate to see him leave, because he’s been such a good person to work with.[/pullquote]
It was a tenure marked by community, both within the college and beyond. One of his earliest memories was of advising the inter-house council, a committee holding social houses responsible for infractions — a role that challenged the new administrator.
“I felt like I was drinking from the firehose back then,” he said, laughing. “But I was fortunate to have Ann Hanson and Matt Longman who were really good mentors to me.”
Later as director of community relations, he facilitated the college’s contributions to some of Middlebury’s most ambitious and contentious projects, from the Cross Street Bridge construction to the relocation of the town offices. Along the way, his professional and personal circles broadened to encompass members of the local community. He became a trusted liaison, playing a vital role in strengthening the relationship between the town and the college.
“He’s just one of these people with high integrity. We knew we could trust him, often as the main contact to the college,” said Nick Artim, a member of the town selectboard who has worked with Donahue for the past nine years.
Still, his role has not come without challenges. Between 2013 and 2015, Donahue helped move forward a project to relocate the decrepit town offices from their site across Twilight Hall to their current location next to Ilsley public library. The college spent more than five million dollars on the plan, acquiring ownership of the land that once held the offices and building a public park on the property.
In town meetings and forums leading up to the construction, residents engaged in heated debates, as some protested the college’s increasing reach into town and others griped at what they saw as an unnecessary expenditure. Even in the thick of these tensions, Donahue remained a professional arbitrator, always ready with a knowledgeable perspective and willing to have a conversation in his easy-going way.
"He’s always been a top notch professional. We’re gonna hate to see him leave, because he’s been such a good person to work with,” Artim said.
As for Donahue, whose Middlebury career centered around connecting the town and the college, he’s proud to leave the community with a physical space to do just that.
“It’s great to see to see the park get used in the summer for movies and music, and to see people just hang out, to see kids playing in it. It’s a community asset,” he said.
Even outside of his official capacity, Donahue has been proactively involved in the community, helping to launch the Maple Run in 2009 and, until recently, chairing the Addison County Chamber of Commerce. He has also served on the board of the Better Middlebury Partnership, volunteered on the Cornwall school board, and coached the high school lacrosse team.
“I show up, and not show up representing the college’s agenda necessarily, but show up and say, ‘Hey, how do we make this place a better place to live, work, and play?’” he explained. “In the end, that’s going to be good for the college.”
Intentional or not, Donahue’s presence around town has made him an effective and authentic spokesperson for the college. He has gone to great lengths to engage with residents, even those who see the college as a tax-evading, inconsiderate neighbor. He spoke of one particular encounter with a town resident.
“We sat down for coffee. I ended up coaching his daughter in a sport, we ended up spending time on the sidelines,” he said. “And in the end, while he wishes the college would do more, I think he has come to a different understanding of what we do.”
These conversations made him one of the most visible members of the Middlebury community. With his active involvement came the fear that his departure might leave a gap in the relationship between the college and the town. But Donahue is confident that the relationship he helped to build will only continue to strengthen.
“We’re in a time now where there’s a lot of people not named Dave Donahue who have an interest in town,” he said. “Number one is Laurie Patton, who loves small town engagement, loves the dynamic of a small town, loves community organizations from the town hall theater to the Sheldon museum, to the Middlebury community center.”
Town residents and leaders share the optimism, recognizing the role he played in bringing the two communities closer together and leaving them with a better relationship going forward.
“He had brought others in, even before he decided to leave,” explained Rob Carter, president of the Addison County Chamber of Commerce. “It won’t be Dave, and his particular personality, the knowledge he has from his experience at the college, but I think there’s going to be a good handoff of responsibility.”
As Donahue leaves the college, he wants students to share the love for community that he held. The college’s responsibility to work for a better town extends beyond the administration — students, he said, must also learn about the lives people lead past the secluded hills of campus.
“I would challenge students, whether it’s volunteering with an organization, or just maybe exploring with a friend five miles further down that road you’ve never been before,” Donahue said.
This same appreciation for community that has helped him succeed at Middlebury is what has made his decision to leave that much harder. “The relationships I’ve built with the people here at the school but also in town,” he said. “that’s the part that I’m gonna miss.”
(11/01/18 9:54am)
In an increasingly nationalized political environment, it’s easy to think that Vermont politics doesn’t matter — Clinton carried the state by 25 points in 2016 and our U.S. Senator is a democratic socialist. That’s why many students are surprised to learn that the governor, Phil Scott, is a Republican and a favorite to win re-election next week.
This year alone he has vetoed bills that would have mandated paid family leave, increased the minimum wage, implemented stronger regulations on toxic chemicals and supported public schools. Right now, liberals in Vermont are fighting to protect their seats in the state legislature and win a veto-proof majority.
Personally, I’m helping out Chris Bray and Ruth Hardy for Addison County’s Senate seats and other Democratic county candidates. Through his work in Montpelier, Bray has proven himself a fighter for the environment and food access. Hardy is a first-time candidate — she used to work at the college and now leads Emerge Vermont, an organization that trains women to run successful campaigns for elected positions. You should not support or volunteer for them blindly on party affiliation — make an informed choice.
It is important to be involved in local politics. Despite artificial barriers that too many students construct between themselves and the larger Vermont and Addison County communities, we are members of those communities. We can vote here, we can volunteer here and we can make a difference here.
The national implications of this election — which party will control the U.S. House and Senate — are certainly of tremendous importance. Majorities could decide the future of immigration policy, court nominees, healthcare access, social safety nets, women’s and LGBTQA+ rights, gun safety and ongoing investigations of the executive branch. This could be the most consequential midterm election of our lifetimes. Over the summer, I was working as a press assistant for Jason Crow, the Democratic nominee for a competitive U.S. House seat outside of Denver, Colorado, fighting for progressive ideals.
Examining the ballot from top to bottom is vitally important. This past decade, Democrats have lost nearly 1,000 seats at the state level across the country. The idea of a “Blue Wave” gives many liberals hope of winning back these seats during a depressing time. Yet waves don’t just happen on their own. Election fundamentals are an important factor, but waves only materialize when we vote and volunteer.
Check online at go/Dems2018 to see volunteer opportunities between now and Election Day in Middlebury for Democratic candidates. Feel free to reach out at aplotch@middlebury.edu.
Editor’s Note: Plotch is not currently employed by any campaign or political organization, all views expressed here are his own.
