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(02/21/19 11:00am)
Middlebury dining halls generally accommodate students’ desires to eat where they want. Whether that means taking plates of food outside when it is sunny, eating in Proctor Lounge or deciding to take food back to a dorm room, students have freedom to dine where they choose.
College staff say that oftentimes students abuse this privilege, creating a nightmare scenario for custodians in the process. Many students opt to abandon dirty plates and silverware in dorm bathrooms, hallways and kitchens. Some students even throw dirty dishes in the trash.
Missy Beckwith, the associate director of Facilities Services, said that this is a persistent problem that adds significant unpleasant work for staff who end up collecting dishes from residential spaces.
“These dishes tend to attract bugs and rodents and begin to smell,” she said. “So, while it is not expected that custodial teams return the dishes or even pick them up, they do.”
Cindy Webb, a custodian who works in Hadley Hall, said she leaves whatever dishes she may find for a few days to see if a student will pick them up before she does so herself. Webb also confirmed that she often finds dishes in the trash, even though she works in a dorm attached to Ross Dining Hall.
[pullquote speaker="Cindy Webb" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]Just in my trash bin over in the middle of second floor Hadley, I pulled out 14 cups, two plates and a bowl in two days.[/pullquote]
“Just in my trash bin over in the middle of second floor Hadley, I pulled out 14 cups, two plates and a bowl in two days,” she said. “The last few years I felt like it had tapered off and then for whatever reason this year it’s worse again.”
Webb estimated that about 80 percent of the dishes she comes across while making her rounds in the dorms are in the garbage.
Even when custodians see dishes in the trash, Beckwith said they are not supposed to remove them for health and safety reasons.
“The contents of the average trash or recycling bin can be hazardous — broken glass, improperly disposed needles, pathogens,” she said. “While the custodial staff wears gloves when removing trash, it is unreasonable to ask them to suit up in the personal protective equipment required to rummage through a bag of trash.”
While custodians like Webb who work in Ross are able to return recovered dishes directly to the dining hall, custodians in other dorms are not able to fit such trips into their already busy schedules. Instead, they typically place dorm dishes on the curb with the trash to be taken down to the Recycling Center.
There, waste management workers set the dishes aside in storage bins. They also open up trash bags and sort through the garbage, pulling out any plates, cups or silverware they see and storing them alongside the dishes picked up from other locations.
According to Waste Management Supervisor Kim Bickham, once the bins are full, they send the dishes back up the hill to the dining halls. Bickham said that on average half of the dishes they see are in the trash and half have been collected elsewhere.
“We bring them back to the dining halls once a month, or more often if we have to,” Bickham said. “We return on average 600 to 700 pounds of dishes a month.”
Executive Director of Food Service Operations Dan Detora said that at the end of Winter Term the dining hall received far more dishes than usual — a whopping 1,700 pounds. Detora said that big returns like that often happen before breaks.
[pullquote speaker="Kim Bickham" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]We return on average 600 to 700 pounds of dishes a month.[/pullquote]
When dishes arrive from the Recycling Center they are uniquely difficult to clean after having been stored with food on them for weeks.
“They have to soak at least two days, at least, because they are filthy,” he said. “Then we run them through the dishwasher once or twice, typically twice because they are just nasty.”
Randy Bushey works in the dishroom in Ross and helps when dishes arrive from the recycling center.
“A lot of them come back with mold and stuff. They are really really disgusting and I don’t think people understand or know that,” Bushey said. “There’s times where the aroma just fills the room and I have to leave to go get my breath.”
He said the hardest food to get off month-old plates is fried eggs.
Some of the dishes are so dirty and moldy that they are unsalvageable and have to be thrown away. This, along with normal wear and tear, causes Dining Services to spend up to $20,000 a year on replacement dishes.
Webb pointed out that this wastes both money and resources. “The dining hall has a budget. That’s what they have to work with,” she said. “Do you want to have quality food? Or do you want to just keep buying dishes? And to think about the impact on the environment too, how much ends up in the landfill, it’s kind of ridiculous.”
Dining Services and Facilities have struggled to solve the problem. A few years ago, Detora said they added the dish racks outside of Ross and Proctor to make it easier for students to return dishes after hours.
Detora also said they created the to-go box program in the hope that students would remove fewer plates from dining halls, but it has not made much of a difference.
Webb said that the college used to impose fines on hallways that left dishes out, but she raised concerns about the fairness of that practice.
[pullquote speaker="Cindy Webb" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]Do you want to have quality food? Or do you want to just keep buying dishes?[/pullquote]
“I seriously objected to that because I felt that students that could not afford to pay their portion of the fine would be the ones that would end up picking the dishes up,” she said.
Others, including Cook Commons Coordinator Francisca Drexel, think that students should be prevented from removing dishes from dining halls in the first place.
Or, as Detora pointed out, students could fix this problem by returning their dishes.
“I get it, students are busy. But I really wish they would just bring back their dishes,” he said. “It would be a tremendous help to a whole lot of people if they would just bring their dishes back on a regular basis. And if they want something to go, get a to-go container. That’s the whole idea of the program.”
(02/14/19 10:55am)
Middlebury received a record number of applications during the 2018-2019 admissions cycle, with 9,750 students vying for a spot in the Class of 2023. The applicant pool increased by 5.6 percent compared to last year’s 9,230. With an increase of 13.9 percent, the number of applicants who identify as students of color also reached a new high.
Over the past 10 years, Middlebury’s applicant rates have increased by about 34 percent, according to Dean of Admissions Greg Buckles. Within that same 10 years, the college has seen a 99 percent increase in students of color, and a 75 percent increase in international students.
“Using an incremental, thoughtful, and responsible approach, we want to grow the pool to reach any potential candidate for whom a Middlebury education might be a good fit,” Buckles said.
In a news release, Director of Admissions Nicole Curvin attributed this year’s growth in part to recruitment by Middlebury’s staff in the South and the West, where growth in applicants was particularly strong. Applicants rose by 16 percent in the South, and 10 percent in the West.
The applicants hail from across the country, with most admitted students coming from New York. Other pipeline states include California, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Illinois.
International applicants were up 10 percent this year. The six countries with the most applicants were led by China, with 628, followed by Pakistan, India, South Korea, Vietnam and Kenya.
Other NESCAC schools, such as Bowdoin, also saw an uptick in applications. Bowdoin received a total of 9,300 applications this year, an increase over its record of 9,081 for the Class of 2022.
[pullquote speaker="Greg Buckles" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]We are trying to pay more attention to students who may fall outside what some may consider traditional norms or mainstream types of Middlebury profiles.[/pullquote]
For the first binding early decision round, Middlebury said it admitted 297 of the 654 applicants this December. A quarter of early admits were students of color. The second round of early applicants and regular decision applicants will receive their decisions in mid-February and March 23, respectively.
The college is looking to continue the development of a diverse and balanced community in the Class of 2023.
“We are trying to pay more attention to students who may fall outside what some may consider traditional norms or mainstream types of Middlebury profiles,” Buckles said.
Looking to the future, Buckles believes the college will focus on reaching international applicants, as well as tackling affordability.
“Middlebury will want to continue to be accessible to anyone who is qualified and admitted regardless of ability to pay,” said Buckles, who is leaving the college at the end of the academic year to take a job at the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey.
The admissions team is busy reviewing applications for next year’s class, which they expect to total between 610 and 630 students in the fall and another 100 to 110 in February. The projected class size of about 700 is consistent with previous years. Last year’s overall acceptance rate was 18.4 percent, down from 19.7 percent the year before.
(02/14/19 10:55am)
Every year, as the fall gives way to winter and temperatures drop, Middlebury College kicks up the heat in the buildings on campus, especially in the residence halls. While Middlebury students are privileged to have these toasty buildings as a haven to escape the cold, they are often forced to seek further refuge — this time from the heat — once they are inside. The combination of the college overheating the dorms and students’ inability to have full control over their thermostat settings leads individuals to open their windows to regulate the heat, generating a ridiculous amount of wasted energy.
Creating a comfortable indoor environment is an issue across campus, even in the newer buildings such as Ridgeline and the townhouses. Middlebury boasts carbon neutrality and claims to be “committed to environmental mindfulness and stewardship in all its activities … giving a high priority to integrating environmental awareness and responsibility into the daily life of the institution.” A college with such environmental prowess should have no problem addressing something so simple as heating its residence halls efficiently, right? You would think so.
It seems that Middlebury sees this as a simple problem with an easy solution: post a color-coded guide online and around campus to show students how to beat the heat (and cold) of their dorm rooms.
But often, instead of following protocol, students seeking an immediate change in their rooms open the windows sometimes without adjusting their thermostats. Furthermore, students have reported that even with their thermostat on the lowest setting, they still experience overheating. So, is the problem that the “solution” (if you can even call it that) offered by the how-to guide is too simple, too dumbed down? Even if it is effective to a certain extent, is there more Middlebury can do to improve the efficiency of campus heating?
Middlebury could learn from the initiatives at Kenyon College, a small, private liberal arts college in Ohio, very similar in campus structure, student body and climate. Like Middlebury students, those at Kenyon had very limited control over the thermal settings in their rooms, causing uncomfortably warm inside temperatures. In an attempt to solve this issue, students used to leave their windows open throughout the winter. A 2012 energy audit performed in Kenyon’s residence halls confirmed that this resulted in higher costs and wasted energy for the college.
To improve student comfort and increase energy efficiency, Kenyon College retrofitted six residence halls with wireless energy management technology from Magnum Energy Solutions that included smart thermostats, occupancy sensors and window sensors that automate HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) in the dorms. When students open their windows, the technology sends a wireless signal to the smart thermostat, automatically turning off the HVAC system. Additionally, when students leave their rooms, the thermostat receives a signal from the occupancy sensor and automatically sets the HVAC to eco-savings mode. The software also allows the college’s facilities team to remotely configure and control the system, while providing data on the school’s energy consumption in real time. Most importantly, students have embraced the system as it saves energy and gives them more control over their own comfort.
So, Kenyon found an effective solution to this issue — great! But doesn’t it sound disruptive and costly? Not so, according to Ed Neal, sustainability director at Kenyon who said, “The operation of the system is simple and straightforward, and the installation didn’t impact regular operations at all.” And though it can be pricey to implement — Kenyon’s project cost a whopping $7 million — over the long term, the payback in energy savings will fully offset the costs.
There are also different avenues to finance the retrofit that Middlebury could consider. One option is through an Energy Services Agreement (ESA), a pay-for-performance solution that requires no up-front capital. This means that Middlebury would pay back the costs through energy savings realized on utility bills once the retrofit is complete. Metrus Energy, which happens to be the brainchild of a Middlebury alumnus, is one such company that could finance this type of project through a performance-based contract.
Middlebury’s Thermal Comfort Policy claims to “ensure the comfort of students, faculty and staff while minimizing the environmental impact of heating and cooling systems.” However, the college cannot rightly claim this while the issues of overheating the buildings and wasting energy through open windows continue. Middlebury maintains that sustainability, energy efficiency and environmental stability are integral parts of its current operations and its growth. But in order for these values to truly be pillars of the institution, Middlebury must learn to effectively control the climate within the dorms.
(02/14/19 10:54am)
After being known for 27 years as the CFA, the Kevin P. Mahaney ’84 Center for the Arts is undergoing a name change. College officials have decided to rename the building the Mahaney Arts Center, or the MAC — a change that has provoked confused reactions from students, some of whom insist on continuing to use the building’s old name.
The Center’s weekly ArtsMail message to the Middlebury community on Sunday, Feb. 3 highlighted the change and outlined the history of the building’s name. According to the email, the building opened as the Center for the Arts (CFA) in 1992, but was renamed the Kevin P. Mahaney ‘84 Center for the Arts (MCA), in 2007. While this acronym was officially used by the college, it was never widely used by students or other members of the college and Middlebury community, who continued to refer to the building as the CFA.
[pullquote speaker="Liza Sacheli" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]With this change, we hope to achieve some much-needed clarity about the building’s identity, and its programs, too.[/pullquote]
“With this change, we hope to achieve some much-needed clarity about the building’s identity, and its programs, too,” said Director Liza Sacheli in an interview with The Campus. “We hope that the shorter, catchier name is easier to remember and use.”
The decision was made by college administrators, Arts Center staff, the Office of Communications and Marketing and the Office of Advancement. The changes were also approved and supported by Mahaney.
Quickly following the Feb. 3 email, the Facebook group Middlebury Memes for Crunchy Teens erupted with comedic criticism of the acronym change. “CFA ‘til I die baby,” Christian Chiang ’20 titled his post. “BREAKING: New Big Mac Not Going to Stop Students from Being Petty About Meatless Mondays, More At 6,” wrote Susan Deutsch ‘19.5.
Students also reported their discontent with the name change to The Campus.
“The MAC just sounds like an order at McDonald’s,” said Kaitlynd Collins ’19, a Theater major, who felt strongly about the change and criticized both its purpose and its implications. “There is no clear reason to change the letters in a freaking acronym!” she said in a text message, arguing that the college is trying to change the way students talk.
“Literally, why?” Elizabeth Sawyer ’19 said. “How is this going to do good in any way? What are we gaining?”
Collins speculated that the name change could have been done to provide greater publicity to the building’s namesake, a major college donor, though she did not see how changing the acronym would further recognize Mahaney.
[pullquote speaker="Kaitlynd Collins '19" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]If someone says, ‘I’m headed to the MAC,’ it’s not like Kevin P Mahaney’s face will be projected in a golden light as the letters leave their mouth.[/pullquote]
“If someone says, ‘I’m headed to the MAC,’ it’s not like Kevin P Mahaney’s face will be projected in a golden light as the letters leave their mouth,” she said.
She also pointed out that prompting students to recognize Mahaney in this way could be uncomfortable for some individuals. Last January, Mahaney was accused of covering up the rape of a 20-year-old woman, In March, the charges were dropped. “He potentially covered up a sexual assault and I don’t want to acknowledge him in my day-to-day life,” Collins said.
Sacheli reported positive reactions from students, faculty and staff regarding the changes, adding that people expressed excitement over the simpler name.
(01/24/19 11:01am)
As the college continues its process of workforce planning and prepares to review its compensation policies, issues surrounding staff compensation garner renewed attention.
For years, members of the college community have called for changes to the staff pay structure, particularly around low-wage positions. They remain concerned over the ability of staff to afford the costs of living in and around Middlebury, and the inability of departments that rely on these positions to fill job openings.
Staff pay follows a multi-tiered scale organized under two wage structures. Structure A applies to most staff positions, while structure B applies to jobs with competitive market conditions and comes with higher hourly wages.
Both contain four career bands: administrator, management, specialist, and operations. These bands are then divided into levels based on the amount of responsibilities associated with the job. At each level, staff can be paid within a certain range, broken up into three with minimum and maximum values shown for every third.
Jobs are categorized into one of these levels and compensated accordingly. For example, a floor crew custodian is paid at an Operations Level 2 (OP2) rate, with a minimum of $11.00 per hour in the lower third and a maximum of $15.58 per hour in the upper third.
Approximately 15 percent of staff, including custodians and dining hall servers, are paid at the OP1 and OP2 levels, the lowest of the bands. As the costs of living increases, many of these employees are finding it increasingly difficult to work at the college.
“I do think that the pay is low. I really do,” said a member of the custodial team. “It’s not keeping up with the cost of living, so a lot of people here work two jobs. It’s tough. Really tough,” he said.
All employees quoted in this article wished to remain anonymous for fear of retribution.
In a report published last year, the National Low Income Housing Coalition showed that a resident of Addison County would have had to earn an average of at least $19.63 per hour or work close to two full-time jobs at minimum wage to afford rent and utilities. The county is now the fifth most expensive in the state of Vermont.
[pullquote speaker="" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]Nobody wants to come here, and when they do come here, they don’t stay.[/pullquote]
The experiences of staff members reflect the figure. “With rent and food, it’s hard to live here on the pay,” a second custodian said.
In response to these concerns, the administration has often cited generous benefits packages the college provides to full-time employees. With good insurance, retirement plans and even subsidized education for children, working at the college remains an attractive option compared to similar jobs in town. It’s a benefit that many members see as a critical part of their livelihoods.
“My friends in construction, they’re getting paid more. But they don’t have good insurance,” said a member of the facilities staff. “Several years ago, I had a medical issue, and that was a big deal.”
Others say that benefits are not enough. Staff earning close to minimum wage may be working from paycheck to paycheck — where money today means the difference between paying the phone bill or not.
“Your first year, you get five weeks time off. The health insurance is top-notch. But if you’re making 12 or 13 bucks an hour, what good does time off do?” asked a second member of the facilities department.
“[Time off] is useless because you can’t afford to go anywhere,” said the first custodian. “Might as well work.”
The level of pay is not only affecting the living conditions of staff, but also contributes to a shortage in certain departments on campus. Managers have struggled to fill open slots, with nine openings left unfilled in custodial positions.
It is a jarring change for college staff used to getting the help they need in order to fulfill the various demands of the expansive campus. A third employee in facilities recounted his first few years working at the college a decade ago, when custodial positions would be highly sought after.
“We would put out a help-wanted ad for floor crew and there will be 10, 12 job applicants,” he said. “You had to beg to get an interview here. And now you can’t drag ‘em in here,” the first custodial worker said.“Nobody wants to come here, and when they do come here, they don’t stay.”
Staff members speak of friends who have chosen to work in similar jobs in the state, foregoing better benefits for a slightly higher base pay. Listings for custodial positions in school districts around Burlington or Essex can start at $15 per hour with benefits, attracting people who in years past may have chosen to work at the college. Even jobs closer to home, including crew positions at Dunkin’ Donuts and cashier positions at the Natural Foods Co-op are paying wages close to what the college offers — around $12 per hour.
Broader trends outside of the college’s control have also exacerbated the issue. Low unemployment rates across the United States have led to a tight labor market where employers struggle to fill entry-level positions. At the end of last year, the unemployment rate in Addison County stood at 2.3 percent, one of the lowest since the Department of Labor began recording the data in Vermont.
Even when departments are able to hire, however, staff turnover remains an issue. Employees are discouraged by a perception that the administration fails to adequately reward good performance — a 2017 staff survey revealed that only 27 percent of faculty and staff were satisfied with the college’s recognition and awards programs.
Over the past five years, pay raises have hovered around two percent across the board, with few opportunities for merit-based rewards in lower-wage positions.
“I came in at the entry level, and now I’m at the top of the wage band. But it’s much harder for people to do that now,” said the first facilities employee, who has worked at the college for 25 years.
The first custodial worker shared the same sentiment. “If you screw off and I work hard, we get the same raise,” he said.
The administration, for its part, has responded to these concerns by launching a review of performance management processes, hoping to wrap up by the fall of 2020.
Still, many remain unconvinced that conditions will improve. “This used to be a great place to work. It still is, it still is," said the first custodial worker. "But it’s too bad."
For full staff issue coverage, click here.
(01/24/19 11:00am)
The monthslong effort by Middlebury to shrink staff costs and reevaluate the way the institution does work is entering its most critical stage, and staff members report varying levels of satisfaction with the process as they wait for buyout offers to arrive in February.
The workforce planning process, announced by President Laurie L. Patton in a June email to college employees, began with the goal of shrinking staff compensation costs by 10 percent — about $8 million — by the end of the academic year. Now, administrators have reviewed proposals to reshape departments across the institution, and buyout offers will be sent to staff in early February. Involuntary layoffs remain a last resort, if not enough employees take buyouts by the end of the academic year.
Faculty, meanwhile, are undergoing a separate process of buyouts and retirement plans, as part of the same effort to reduce the college’s deficit.
LEARNING FROM THE PAST
For several years, college officials have been open about the financial challenges that the institution is facing, with yearly operating expenses exceeding revenues since the 2013 fiscal year. Causes of the deficit include rising financial aid commitments, a flawed policy that capped annual tuition increases and an aborted venture into online language instruction.
The college has since lowered its deficit faster than initially projected, hoping to balance its budget by fiscal year 2021. But faculty and staff pay remains the institution’s biggest expense, often making up about two-thirds of its annual spending.
This is not the first time that budgetary issues have prompted the college to rein in staff costs, and administrators are taking lessons from past mistakes. In 1991, college officials, led by then-President Timothy Light, abruptly fired 17 staff members, causing an uproar that made national news and brought about Light’s resignation. And following the 2008-09 financial crisis, the college offered voluntary buyouts to any employee interested in taking one — an unstructured process that led to excessive loss of crucial staff positions, some of which needed to be restaffed shortly afterwards.
So when administrators realized a new wave of deficit reductions were needed, they took a more deliberate approach. “To do it in a really thoughtful way we needed to think about the work we do, and how we could staff ourselves for a sustainable future,” said Bill Burger, vice president of communications and chief marketing officer.
Beginning in the early fall, staff vice presidents across the institution were tasked with leading discussions within their departments about how their work could be redesigned, and done more efficiently. In December, each department submitted two different proposals to senior leadership, containing alternate plans that would cut compensation by 10 and 15 percent, respectively.
Now, staff across Middlebury can only wait. As of last week, Burger said, senior leadership was almost done reviewing the proposals and finalizing a list of positions to be cut. Before decisions are finalized, Human Resources is required by law to review the proposals to make sure they do not disproportionately affect certain demographics.
In early February, staff working in areas where the college plans to cut positions will get letters giving them the option to apply for buyouts. The college will send more applications than necessary, anticipating that many will decline to apply. By early March, the applications will be due and administrators will know whether enough staff have volunteered to take the buyouts, or whether they will need to resort to layoffs. On the other hand, if more staff than necessary apply, the most senior staff will be offered buyouts first.
The staff cuts in some areas will be partially offset by the creation of about 40 new staff positions in other areas — the result of new needs identified through the planning process. Applications for these positions will first be made available in early February to all staff members who are offered buyouts.
WAITING FOR WORD
Workforce planning will have uneven effects across Middlebury, leaving some staff departments largely intact while transforming others. Likewise, staff contacted by The Campus report uneven feelings about the process. Many said they have been pleased with the level of transparency thus far, while some complain that the drawn-out process has left them on edge for too long. Others say they simply haven’t paid much attention to it all.
“For our area, the communication’s been really great,” said David Kloepfer, the assistant director of Student Activities. “We haven’t heard exactly what the full plan is as of yet. We’re still waiting to hear the final outcome.”
Missey Thompson, box office coordinator at the Mahaney Center for the Arts and a representative of the staff council, said workforce planning has been a major point of conversation at the council’s meetings for some time. The staff council advocates for good working conditions for college employees and has held forums and posted information about workforce planning on its blog since the process was announced.
“We knew that something was coming a while ago — we didn’t know what it all entailed until they were ready to tell us,” she said, adding that some anxiety remains about the potential job cuts. “Whenever people have to leave, it can cause a lot of tension, but I think it depends on the day and how people feel so we’re just kind of going with the flow. That’s all we can do right now.”
[pullquote speaker="" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]You might lose the 40 percent of your job that you like.[/pullquote]
But some staff who feel most at risk of losing their jobs say that the long process has been a source of deep stress. Academic coordinators, who handle the logistics of academic departments and support faculty and student work, fear that some of their positions may be cut, while the coordinators who stay employed will need to deal with new responsibilities.
“Morale is terrible,” said Judy Olinick, coordinator for the Russian, German and Japanese Departments. “Everybody is worried about it, it’s just been going on so long.”
While Olinick, like other staff, participated in the initial planning conversations this fall, she reported feeling helpless as the final say was left to senior leadership.
“We had all these meetings where we discussed it at great lengths, breaking up into little groups — ‘What can you change, and how would you change it?’” she said. “But it doesn’t mean anything unless you have some idea of what is really going to be changed.”
Even staff who expect to keep their jobs face uncertainty about how much their job descriptions will be changed, according to Tim Parsons, landscape horticulturist and president of staff council. An employee who gets to keep 60 percent of their job tasks, for example, may still be disappointed by the results of workforce planning.
“You might lose the 40 percent of your job that you like,” Parsons said.
Still, some staff look forward to the impending changes to their departments.
“I’m looking forward to some changes, to stir things up,” said Christina Richmond, an Atwater Dining Hall I.D. checker and servery worker. “Change is always good. I’m not afraid of it.”
GROWING PAINS
Multiple staff members reported frustration about the way workforce planning has become intermingled with the goals of Envisioning Middlebury, the college’s long-term strategic framework. Patton herself connected the two processes in her June message, saying that they both entail “responsible stewardship of our resources.”
Dan Frostman, manager of the Davis Family Library circulation desk, said that the alignment of the two processes made decision-making difficult.
“We were trying to envision the next five to 10 years while also trying to figure out what it would look like if we got rid of 10 percent of the staff,” he said, noting that he reached out to his circulation staff to get input on both the changes they wanted to see and the cuts that had to be made. “So that was challenging and, personally, a little bit frustrating, to try to do those two sort of opposed things at the same time. There wasn’t a lot of reconciling that could be done between the two.”
Olinick said that she and her colleagues struggled to focus on the future, since workforce planning presented a more immediate issue.
“How can you make recommendations about that if you’re worried about keeping your job?” she said.
BEYOND WORKFORCE PLANNING
Workforce planning is not the only source of staff discontent at Middlebury. Low salaries in certain staff positions have prompted some employees to seek work elsewhere, and a 2017 staff survey showed low confidence in senior leadership and dissatisfaction with the way administrative decisions are communicated.
But Burger said that those concerns have informed this process, prompting administrators to focus on communication and consider changing the compensation structure once the planning is complete.
Though administrators expect to resolve the institution’s budget shortfalls within the next few years, the college remains heavily staffed, with a growing student body. With the newly-completed Envisioning Middlebury project serving as a likely precursor to a major fundraising campaign, this may not be the last time the college has to reconcile its long-term goals with its short-term needs.
For full staff issue coverage, click here.
Correction: An earlier version of this article said that the new positions created by the planning process will first be made available to staff members who took buyouts, when they will actually first be available to all staff members who were offered buyouts.
(01/24/19 11:00am)
After 44 years of teaching at Middlebury College, Tom Beyer will be retiring from his teaching responsibilities after the 2019-2020 academic year. As of this past Monday, Jan. 21, he is one of 23 faculty members who have signed agreements to participate in the Faculty Retirement Incentive Program (FRIP).
In an email to all employees last June, President Laurie L. Patton announced the introduction of a set of elective, incentive-based retirement and separation plans for faculty in Middlebury and Monterey as part of the college’s workforce planning effort for both faculty and staff. This later developed into FRIP.
The college will save money from FRIP despite the total number of faculty remaining largely the same over the next few years. Because new, tenure-track faculty can be paid lower salaries than long-tenured professors, this series of faculty replacements will result in significant savings. According to Dean of Faculty Andi Lloyd, if all of the retiring faculty members were replaced, projections suggest that savings from this program could fall between $2 million and $2.5 million over the next several years.
The 117 members of the college faculty eligible for the program all have contract end dates later than July 1, 2021, and have worked in a benefits-eligible position for at least 10 years after age 45, according to the Office of Finance and Administration. The FRIP package will include a year’s salary and the establishment of a Health Reimbursement Account, as well as funds for scholarship and research for up to three years after retirement.
In general, Beyer, the CV Starr Professor of Russian & East European Studies, is pleased with the program. In comparison to a similar incentivized retirement program offered in 2008, which offered “one date, one payout,” and carried with it potentially “adverse tax implications,” the current program is “very flexible and thoughtfully cast,” Beyer said.
Beyer opted for the latest of his three options for retirement dates under FRIP: June 2019, December 2019 and June 2020. He explained that the program’s relatively early announcement relative to its implementation gave faculty enough time to examine the program’s “implications for their teaching, the implications for their scholarship and also the financial implications of the program.”
Assuming most departments hire new faculty to replace retiring faculty, the FRIP process is not expected to decrease overall teaching force at the college. As faculty leave Middlebury at a staggered pace, college officials expect that within three years, the total number will remain about the same as it is today.
Having advance warning of a faculty member’s retirement six to eighteen months ahead allows a department to “re-examine its own missions, goals, and possibilities for the future,” Beyer said.
[pullquote speaker="Tom Beyer" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]“So much of our lives at Middlebury is defined by our relationship with and our connection with students. So of course, student interaction is something that I’ll miss.”[/pullquote]
In the Biology department this year, for example, students received emails requesting their participation in the department’s hiring process for a new faculty member to replace a retiring tenured professor in aquatic ecology. This process began a year in advance of the professor’s retirement and involved a series of research talks and teaching demonstrations by visiting candidates for the position throughout the fall semester.
“I think that [FRIP] gives an opportunity in particular to younger colleagues who aspire to tenure, to feel like there is a place for them,” Beyer said.
Newer faculty fresh out of graduate school “are aware of the latest and most up to date research in a whole variety of areas,” Beyer said. When Beyer first received his Ph.D. in Slavic Languages and Literatures, he was “much more of a generalist and was aware of the latest work in critical theory and writing.”
“After tenure, one becomes a bit more specific in the area in which they look at,” he said.
The ability to “teach the courses I really want to teach, one more time; to read the books I want to read, one more time,” was important to Beyer, who plans to teach a course on the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky and another on 20th century Russian writers in the coming fall term.
“So much of our lives at Middlebury is defined by our relationship with and our connection with students,” Beyer said. “So of course student interaction is something that I’ll miss.”
For Beyer, however, ceasing his teaching responsibilities in the classroom also provides an opportunity to focus on his own research agenda, which he calls his scholarly “bucket list.”
“We were aware that the decisions that faculty make about retiring reflect both financial considerations and, in many cases, an interest in continuing to be productive scholars and to remain connected to their scholarly communities, here and elsewhere,” Lloyd said. FRIP’s enrichment fund, she said, was designed to allow faculty to continue their scholarly endeavors after retirement.
Continuing research after retirement, for Beyer, also means that “my connection with the college, with my scholarship, and with the projects that I have doesn’t come to an abrupt end.” Continued office space for one year after retirement, Beyer said, was “particularly important for me and, I suspect, for my other colleagues who exercise this option, to put their scholarly life in order and in perspective.”
“All things come to an end at some time,” Beyer said. “Here the end comes, as it were, as a choice.”
For full staff issue coverage, click here.
(01/24/19 10:59am)
The Department of Economics is recruiting for three faculty positions, and its coordinator Amy Holbrook has barely been able to leave her office since the start of J-term due to the amount of work she has. Holbrook is helping to bring in nine candidates in three weeks and has to organize all their travel logistics and schedules on campus, a process that she described as “fast and furious.”
“I haven’t left my office for the past two weeks, even to get lunch,” Holbrook said. “My faculty have been bringing me food and drinks.”
Scrolling down her packed email inbox, Holbrook explained that recruiting new faculty marks the busiest time of her year and is probably one of the most important parts of her job. She has been working as academic coordinator for the department since 1997, and her job responsibilities range from working on course catalogues to helping students declare their majors.
While there are more than 100 senior Economics majors graduating every year, the academic departments and programs vary greatly in size — and so do the job responsibilities of each coordinator.
“I don’t think that you could just say, ‘This is your job description, now only do those things,’ because that’s not really what this job is,” said Michaela Davico, coordinator for the Dance department and History of Art and Architecture. “You always have to be a little bit flexible to do what comes your way.”
The flexibility is part of what drew Megan Curran, coordinator for the architectural studies and studio art programs, to the job in the first place in 2015. She said that the flexible hours have been beneficial for her family and work life.
“I have a very good relationship with my faculty, where I can have conversations with them about what they are allowed to ask of me and what they are not,” Curran said, adding that a lack of such communication for other coordinators, who have been at times asked to perform jobs outside their responsibilities, such as physical tasks, and that there are some coordinators who might not feel comfortable doing the same.
“I TEACH THEM HOW TO DO THEIR JOBS”
Holbrook said that her faculty members are extremely supportive. “I consider them family at this point,” she said. “But I don’t do their jobs for them, and I want that made very clear. I teach them how to do their jobs so I can do mine.”
This past fall has been especially intense for Curran. Besides the faculty recruitment and the normal academic workflow of the entire year that makes fall the busiest, she said that the ongoing workforce planning process became another source of stress.
Throughout the past semester, the group of more than 20 academic coordinators have been having multiple meetings with Dean of Curriculum Susan Gurland.
“[Gurland] has been providing us with information that she’s been given, and she’s been very open and honest with the conversations that we’ve been having regarding the workforce planning,” Curran said, explaining that the meetings initially “had this very intense environment” because a lot was unknown.
The academic coordinators were notified of the workforce planning situation last July, and expect steps will be taken in March or April. Judy Olinick, coordinator for the Japanese, German and Russian departments, said that it has been a difficult wait.
“It’s very hard to tell what’s going to happen,” Olinick said. “It’s really disturbing to people, to the staff, to have to go through this whole year and go through Christmas and New Year and not be sure they are going to have their jobs in July.”
According to Olinick, it is a consensus among coordinators that the structure of their jobs should essentially stay unchanged, with each department and program being identified with one specific coordinator.
“The departments are unique in how they function,” Holbrook said. “And you really need to have a coordinator for each individual department, because they know specific details that are important to the efficiency of running that department.”
“OH HONEY, I CAN’T”
Davico, who started working for Dance and History of Art and Architecture in 2014, said it has taken her almost all of the past four years to master the learning curve of the position, because there are responsibilities that only need to be carried out once or twice each year. She has also had student workers who help with social media and other tasks.
Interaction between academic coordinators and students varies, depending on factors like the size of the department or program. As the coordinator for the largest department on campus, Holbrook hires student office associates, who usually stay on the job throughout their college careers. Political Science major Grace Vedock ’20 has been working for Holbrook since her first year, helping with data entry, filing and event planning.
Vedock has developed a close relationship with Holbrook, much like many students in and out of the department have.
“It’s really common for students walking by Warner, and just come by Amy’s office and sit down. The candy jar really draws people in,” Vedock said. “It makes sense with Economics majors, but then there’s just a bunch of Amy-fans that just know her for some reason or another.”
Holbrook used to organize Thanksgiving dinners for major students who stay on campus during the break, which gradually increased in size and ended up needing college van rentals. Students would gather in her house to enjoy a big dinner, music and games.
“I think it’s because I’m pretty much an open book — I’m honest about myself and my own life, and I think students feel comfortable around that,” Holbrook said. “I sort of humanize things, so then they open up and they share things with me. I think in the day-to-day Middlebury experience, they’re not seeing a lot of that.”
Last semester, Holbrook took an introductory French course, where she also made many friends. One of the many first-years and sophomores in the class was planning to declare a major in Economics, and asked Holbrook if she could be his advisor.
“It was so sweet. I’m like, ‘Oh honey, I can’t, but let’s walk and I’ll tell you why,’” Holbrook recalled. “After talking with him, I recommended a faculty member who he would feel comfortable with as his advisor.”
The whiteboard calendar on one of Holbrook’s office walls is decorated with magnets, photos, postcards and artifacts brought back from all over the world by students and faculty, who continue to be Holbrook’s favorite part about her job.
“I don’t think that people at Middlebury, staff especially, get recognized for how integral they are in the running of Middlebury College,” she said. “Everyone is intertwined here. Everyone is connected.”
For full staff issue coverage, click here.
(01/24/19 10:59am)
Two days before the start of the 2004 women’s soccer training season, then-assistant coach Peter Kim learned of an abrupt coaching staff change that left the team without a head. After only a year on the Middlebury coaching staff, Kim became the prime candidate for the head position.
Just over a year before, Kim had been working at a youth nonprofit, continuing a track he had set for himself years earlier when he pursued and earned an M.A. in public administration. He wanted to provide consulting services to nonprofits, helping them to run more like highly effective businesses. But after 10 years in the nonprofit world, Kim wasn’t enthused. In addition to his day job at the nonprofit, Kim had founded and was running a youth club in central Vermont, Capital Soccer. “I felt like I was doing more for kids after work than in my day job,” he explained. He decided to leave the nonprofit and took time to regroup.
It was the summer of 2002 when Doug Holly, a friend of Kim’s and coach of the Vergennes High School soccer team, called Kim. Holly informed him that Diane Boettcher, then coach of Middlebury, was looking for an assistant coach. Kim had no desire to coach college at all, but Holly convinced him to go down to Middlebury to meet with Boettcher. Soon after arriving on campus, Kim realized he had the potential to make an impact on the team. He took the job.
Coach Kim’s eagerness to jump into leading practices paid off when Boettcher left unexpectedly in 2004. “The players didn’t even know [of the staff change] when they got here; they were expecting Boettcher,” he explained. Despite this rapid transition, Kim felt obligated to to maintain the level of success of the previous few years; Boettcher had led the Panthers to the dominant position in the NESCAC in 2000, then second and third places for 2001 and 2002, respectively.
Additionally, when Kim joined, there hadn’t been a long-standing coach in the position for most of the team’s history. Coaches were overextended because of the three-sport coach model where they would head a different team each season of the year, leaving very little room for program growth. This left them with no offseason to help train their athletes, let alone develop training and game strategies.
Kim was the first women’s soccer coach to shun this model, instead devoting a significant amount of time and energy in the offseason to better develop the team. This included making workout packets, conducting bi-weekly training sessions and developing the schedule for the next season. Given more time to settle into the job, Kim found himself loving the position and eager to channel his best coaching ability.
The most noticeable development in Division III athletics during Kim’s tenure, however, has been the explosive growth of recruitment effort made by both teams and prospective players. Approached by more than 800 athletes a year, Kim communicates with each player individually and devotes an extraordinary amount of time seeing her play, ideally multiple times, before “the moment of truth,” when she decides whether to apply to Middlebury early decision. Kim was quick to criticize this American recruiting system. “It leads kids to make their college choice for the wrong reason. They wait to get tapped on the shoulder by the coach on high who dubs them worthy of playing for them, when it should be all about the student choosing the school that’s right for her,” Kim said. Nowadays, it isn’t rare for him to receive emails from sixth- and seventh-graders proclaiming their allegiance to the Panthers. “It’s terribly unhealthy,” he frowned. “In what world would that make sense?”
Kim’s skepticism of this “elite” mentality extends into his coaching philosophy. While an undergrad at UVM, Kim sustained a devastating concussion that pulled him from the sport early in his career. From then on, he had to focus exclusively on a doubled academic course to graduate on time. This profoundly influenced his current emphasis on athletics as part of the greater picture of college life: “Injuries can happen, and if that happens and suddenly you stop loving the school, then you’re probably at the wrong place.” In this way, Kim’s philosophy is perfectly tailored to the Middlebury student. “When I was in college, academics were not prioritized. You got it done to the extent that it was important to you. Middlebury kids, to their credit, love school, and then they come down and play at a Division I level.” He cited how one of his goaltenders played a major role in a theater production last semester and smiled with pride. “That’s a testament to who you guys are as students here.”
Kim’s overarching coaching philosophy is paired with a core set of team values, all of which rolled off his tongue with sharp familiarity. First up was academics. Second, he said, “We play the game; we believe in the technical game and to keep it on the ground.” Next on the list was community service. “I am very proud that we are one of the leaders in community service on this campus. We’re spoiled rotten here, and we try to maintain a culture of gratitude because we are just so lucky.” Finally, with a twinkling smile, he mentioned the family culture of his team. “Class lines are blurred almost to the point of being erased, and students become family with players three years older and younger than them. It’s that chemistry, which is difficult to explain, that is the central aspect of the team. If we didn’t have that, we wouldn’t be successful.”
Upon being asked what success meant to him, Kim, unsurprisingly, presented a long list. “This year was a success because we made it all the way to the finals, and we won the state championship, and we played beautifully, and we won the NESCAC Championship, and we’re a family, and we’re killing it in the classroom, and we’re leading the campus in community service. I think that kind of sums up what Middlebury is about: the word and.”
For full staff issue coverage, click here.
(01/24/19 10:58am)
Marcia Provoncha has started her work day the same way for 14 years — checking her emails, especially those from students — to keep up with the demands of her role as Middlebury’s Costume Shop director.
Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Provoncha moved to Vermont with her parents when she was three and has lived most of her life here ever since. After learning how to sew in high school, Provoncha went to college for a couple of years, but decided to drop out because of financial reasons. Starting off at a local sewing studio for five years, Provoncha picked up finer sewing skills from the woman she was working for, and was later hired to manage another local weaving and sewing studio, where she stayed for another fifteen years before coming to Middlebury.
When there was a part-time job opening at the college, Provoncha did not feel confident that she would qualify. Despite her concerns about sewing costumes and about not having a higher educational background, Provoncha eventually gave it a try and applied for the job.
“They called me in for an interview and they wanted me to bring in things I had made, so I did, and they looked them all over and everything. Two days later, they called me and offered me the job,” Provoncha said.
Arriving at Middlebury with extensive experience in sewing garments for people, Provoncha discovered a totally different world in making costumes. Rather than a straightforward process of taking measurements, doing a mock-up, making slight adjustments, and then sewing the garment from beginning to end, making costumes is full of complex intricacies.
After completing all of these steps on a costume design, Provoncha has to wait for another round of fitting to make sure that every small piece of a costume is exactly where they should be, i.e. sleeves nicely sitting on the shoulders rather than dangling from a lower spot.
“You put the collar on after that. Closures, buttons, zippers, all that kind of stuff is last. And that’s not always the case when you are making one for someone who is not an actor,” Provoncha explained. “Another difference is that you leave a lot of seam allowances. Because you usually use those garments more than once on more than one actor, you want to make sure you have enough fabric in hand to let that garment out for a bigger person.”
Overseeing four major theater productions every year as well as managing costumes for the annual J-term musicals, providing help for student projects and various shows during summer language schools, supporting anyone from the school who needs costumes, Provoncha has become a walking costume carousel in the past fourteen years.
As someone randomly picks up a costume from thousands of the stock pieces hanging and turning downstairs on a carousel, Provoncha could easily tell you who wore it during what show, and even the size of it.
When asked about her secret, Provoncha said, “If you work on a garment so many times, you won’t forget.”
Every time there was a new theater production, it started a brand-new journey for Provoncha. The first show she worked on at Middlebury was “The Bewitched,” which takes place in the 1600s. The show only used period clothing, which involved corsets, bum rolls, great big dresses with huge hands for female characters and very fitted ornate costumes for males.
“That was probably one of my favorite shows. I love sewing period clothes. They are much more interesting than modern clothes,” Provoncha said. “Another one I loved working on for probably the opposite reason was called ‘St. Crispin’s Day.’”
With the story taking place in medieval times, the costumes had to look like medieval garments despite the fact that they were made new and fresh for the show.
“So, you are cutting them out, making them look brand new, and then you have to distress them to make them look like somebody has worn them for fifty years. So, you put holes on them on purpose, and you get them all dirty and ragged looking. [...] They all looked great, and they all looked crappy,” Provoncha said.
Occasionally, there were challenging costumes, and that was when the costume shop became a place of magic that turned the impossible into something that was real and beautiful.
Back in the spring of 2011, the costume designer for the production “Eurydice” had pictured for three of the female characters to be covered in all grey with dead babies or teddy bears.
“I ordered all of these baby dolls from a toy store. Then we sat in the costume shop, took them all apart, taking off the legs, arms, and heads, and we had to spray paint them all,” said Provoncha.
As thick as a baby doll could be, it was a great amount of work for Provoncha and the people working at the costume shop to sew each of the baby dolls onto a fat suit three times.
“They were amazing looking when they were done, but to keep sewing over and over again, trying to push a needle through a rubber baby doll into something else and making sure that it was secure was tough,” said Provoncha.
Stepping into her fourteenth and last year working at Middlebury, Provoncha said working with students was the highlight of her job. Not only the students who work and help out at the costume shop or the sewing studio, but also the ones who come in for fittings or who simply walk in for help in costumes.
Olivia Christie ’19, a theater major from Fairfield, Vermont who started interacting with Provoncha as a student actress during her first semester and then began working at the costume shop two years ago, described Provoncha as “a source of light and joy.”
“She taught me a lot of things to do with sewing, but a lot of her influence comes from just how kind she is,” Christie said. “She really cares about all of the students that come through, and that’s rare to have someone who is so ready and willing to be supportive, help you out, and do you a favor.”
Sophia (Ningxuan) Dong ’21, an IGS major from Ningbo, China, just started to work at the costume shop last fall. Besides feeling the serious and responsible side of Provoncha when working, Dong thought Provoncha more “like a grandmother,” who would listen to anything you say.
“She would give you candies. Sometimes, she treats you like a child. But that’s pretty cool because you just feel like you grow this type of bond with her and you would not be willing to disappoint her,” Dong said.
While looking forward to spending time gardening, visiting her children, and camping and travelling with her husband after retiring in May, Provoncha said the part she would miss the most was working with the students.
“The students keep me young. We listen to music all the time in the shop. That’s how I get to know who the latest bands are and everything. And to teach them something they don’t know how to do, and they are so proud that they have done that. That’s definitely the best part of the job,” Provoncha said.
“I just really enjoyed working with Marcia over the past four years, and I think a lot of people would say the same thing,” Christie said. “She just really cares about her students and about everybody’s well-being, which is really nice in a crazy competitive fast-paced place like Middlebury to have someone who is so there for you on the individual level.”
(01/24/19 10:57am)
If you have listened to Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History podcast, you may have heard the true story of a boy named Carlos. Carlos was a kid from a poor neighborhood in Los Angeles who found his way into opportunities usually available only to the upper class. The transition wasn’t easy. He faced social instability, violence, and a string of foster homes, but he managed to keep his grades up enough to make it into an elite school. Carlos became one of a small minority of students in an elite environment who were not born into that space. But Gladwell does not comment on the question of how Carlos fared in that environment. What happens to Carlos once he arrives in the elite school? How does he remain hinged to his background, as a first-generation college student, as a child of the working class?
Carlos arrives in the elite private school in a long convoy of Sedans and Vans. It’s Move-in Day. The lawn is swarmed with anxious parents and harassed first-years, one part eager, another part nervous to meet their roommates. Maybe that day he doesn’t notice. He doesn’t notice the differences between his classmates and himself until he’s sitting in a seminar room with about four dozen fewer students than any of his classrooms back home. And the professor’s asking them a question. Carlos’s friend — you know, the type of friend that you latch onto during orientation before realizing you have nothing in common, but are doomed to endlessly greet with a fake smile and pleasantries — is sitting across the room. He’s engaging the professor in light-hearted banter. Carlos didn’t even know you could do that. Carlos had a select few teachers that served as mentors back home but they never talked about favorite skiing slopes. What even was the difference between cross-country and “Alpine” skiing?
[pullquote speaker="" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]How do first-generation students remain hinged to their backgrounds?[/pullquote]
Carlos is already behind. Not in coursework, but in something more important : networks. He thought of college as the next step in an academic journey — letter grades, deadlines. He bought into the brochures the college sent along with his admissions letter. His friend was almost ready to convert a conversation about ski techniques for a letter of recommendation while Carlos sat on the sidelines with nothing but a few A-’s on essays the professor didn’t even return in time.
Carlos feels out of place. The people that live on his hall are no different than his friend in class: passionate, nice enough, but just not people that were easy to talk to. Holding a conversation in and of itself was an obstacle. Instead of competing in ski tournaments, or traveling in Nepal, Carlos took care of his little sister back home. He worked for a family restaurant late into the night. Not exactly an ice breaker. Most of his dorm-mates just say, “Oh, that must have been nice.” They can’t relate. That’s not their fault.
When we talk about hinges, we must understood that some students are hinged to their background more than others. The past informs our future, but for Carlos, his past and future are at odds. Carlos stands at a three-forked road. All three roads are pretty barren, deserted, only a few footprints here and there. Maybe Carlos calls down one of the trails and asks one of the few other Carlos’s on campus what to do. Maybe he gets advice. But ultimately, Carlos still finds himself alone at that fork. He has to decide himself.
[pullquote speaker="" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]There’s an infinity of possibilities within the same three-forked road.[/pullquote]
The first road leads to integration. Carlos adopts the mannerisms and speech patterns, maybe even the fashion tastes, of his classmates. He learns how to hold a conversation about skiing and growing his hair long in Nepal. He becomes the affable and well-adjusted student that downplays his background in order to engage his professor in a discussion about Sartre that will eventually land him a stellar recommendation to his dream job at a corporate law firm that affords him a condo in a gentrified area of town. Carlos becomes his classmates.
The second road leads to family responsibility. Carlos realizes that his duty to his family is most important. That’s why he’s getting good grades in the first place, right? His little sister needs him. Performing well in these elite spaces can lead to a job where he makes enough money to get his sister to college, too. Carlos studies his classmates’ social cues enough to land a job at a corporate firm. At the firm, he can earn enough money to lift his entire family out of the working class. Carlos becomes the family breadwinner.
The third road leads back the way he came. Carlos acquires a sense of alienation that propels him to consider the structural factors that make him so different and clueless in the elite private school. Convinced that following his own passion is selfish, Carlos makes the connections necessary to find a job that helps dismantle the system. His job at a nonprofit does not earn him enough money to radically change his family’s conditions, but he hopes to make a bigger difference in society. Carlos becomes the activist.
These roads are not mutually exclusive. In his journey, Carlos might take one path, only to end up on another. Maybe Carlos the classmate donates regularly to organizations that help students like him apply to better schools. Maybe Carlos the family breadwinner hates the system, like the activist, and chooses to go to law school to eventually work in family law, earning both money and opportunities to help others in his same situation. There’s an infinity of possibilities within the same three-forked road.
What remains static, however, is the fact that Carlos is hinged to his background in a way that his classmates are not. His past makes the future more difficult, starting with the three-forked road. And there is no guarantee that Carlos has the liberty to choose on the three-forked road at all. He will graduate college, tears streaming down his face, in the same gown as everyone else. He will hug his classmates. Then, he will start the job hunt. According to research by Hiring Learning Systems, 85 percent of jobs are never advertised. The vast majority of folks score jobs through tapping into their networks. These networks are not only the product of handshakes and Handshake, but also family connections. If the backdoor is the front-door, what about people like Carlos? What about folks whose network is a community of waiters and clerks back home? Does he even have the capacity to choose between the three roads when scoring any white-collar job at all is significantly more difficult for him than his classmates?
America was built on narratives of advancement and meritocracy. The college in and of itself is often sold as the vehicle of social mobility. We champion liberal arts slogans, but deep in our core, we are taught to believe that making it in college is making it in life. But for us working class kids, for those of us like Carlos, the callouses on our parents’ hands and the lines on their temples are built deep into our identities. There are hinges that keep us tied to our past, to our rank, to our social class.
[pullquote speaker="" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]We are those around you with an unabiding social class anxiety, an impostor syndrome infecting our nerves.[/pullquote]
But let’s assume Carlos has the choice. He is isolated and alone at the three-forked road. The three-forked road represents the obstacle that Carlos confronts by virtue of his background, one his classmates do not share. There’s rarely a separate road for family responsibility or activism for his classmates. The three forks are integrated seamlessly into a highway to success for many folks on campus. Prep school, college, entry-level job, promising career: these are all expected signs that the children of the elite pass as they drive down the highway. The off-ramps to family responsibility and activism are easy to navigate. While Carlos is cutting his way through a jungle that not a single family member of his has ever traversed before with every financial aid paper that he desperately tries to understand, his classmates can drive on a freeway to their dreams.
Carlos represents many of us who find ourselves here in Middlebury who were not raised with silver spoons in our mouths. We are those around you with an unabiding social class anxiety, an impostor syndrome infecting our nerves. We walk across campus simultaneously blending in and standing out, but we are here. We are those who have a chance to become unhinged from our past, if we so choose.
When I was eleven, two of classmates discovered dismembered body parts in the desert lot next to our school. Those classmates came to class the next day, to write on textbooks thirty years old, in our classroom of fifty students. I’m sure the dismembered hand and torso beneath the tumbleweed still wakes them up at night, if they survived this long. Some classmates dropped out long before high school graduation; some fled to bootcamp; some sank into drug addiction to numb the suicidal impulses that shot through spines every time their mothers screamed at them from sofas. People “get by.” This is by no means a summary of every first-generation experience; it is merely one story, one of many, a Carlos in the small minority on campus whose narratives are rarely heard.
[pullquote speaker="" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]Those of us who are Carlos have already overcome so much.[/pullquote]
For me, neither a high school diploma or a college degree were signs passed on the highway to success. Not me, someone who shares blood with generations of folks who never made it past eighth grade, people whose college experience may just include non-credit courses and night classes. Not me, whose friend back home still works two unstable jobs just to keep her family afloat. Not us named Carlos, whose parents torture themselves every year awaiting the fateful decision of Student Financial Services in calculating our financial aid. We earned our way onto this campus, but we emotionally prepare every semester to leave.
Those of us who are Carlos have already overcome so much. By the time we reach the three-forked road, we have already left many people on the road behind us. Friends of mine earned better grades than me, scored higher test scores than I did, and dreamed bigger and farther than me. But they had to stay behind to help their family’s business survive. Their selfless choice cost them their best shot at social mobility, at the American Dream itself.
We are few in number, here, at Middlebury. Sixty percent of the student body belongs to the top one percent of income in the United States. But we are here, next to you, among you. We are Carlos. We face an obstacle that most of our classmates do not. We don’t know whether we should become more like you or prioritize our family or turn back the way we came and change the system for the better. We don’t know how to negotiate these hinges that keep us from fully integrating with the main student body on campus. We desperately wish to have the liberty to make that choice at all, but we will soon discover the job market may not be so forthcoming. But we will find a way. Whatever road we take, we will have made it farther than those who came before us. We will overcome on this long road. We will find a way to be content, to find meaning, to be happy.
In this world, to be happy in and of itself is a revolutionary act.
(01/24/19 10:55am)
[gallery ids="42761,42762,42759"]
A mixture of frustration, optimism and anger characterized a student teach-in on the proposed changes to Middlebury's protest policy last Friday. Held in the Hillcrest Orchard, the teach-in allowed students to share concerns about the proposed policy’s lack of transparency and potential ramifications.
The newly drafted protest policy was published online in November as a potential replacement to the existing policy. The proposal sought to resolve areas of ambiguity in the college’s existing policy (read our coverage of the new policy here).
At the beginning of the teach-in, attendees picked up copies of the proposed policy changes, which can be found at go.middlebury.edu/newprotestpolicy. Sarah Koch ’18.5 asked students to read aloud the definitions of the terms “expressive activity,” “disruption,” and “civil disobedience” as listed at the end of the policy, and participants responded that they feared the vague definitions would give the college disciplinary leeway while limiting student autonomy.
[pullquote speaker="Emma Ronai-Durning '18.5" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]I feel like the administration hasn’t listened to any of the feedback it’s gotten in the past, so I feel skeptical about the policy reflecting what students are actually saying.[/pullquote]
Teach-in participants also cited frustration with the open meetings General Counsel Hannah Ross held last October and November. At the meetings Ross, the main administrator involved in drafting policy changes, explained the upcoming changes to the Middlebury Handbook and provided an overview of the work by Envisioning Middlebury, the Committee on Speech and Inclusion and college faculty.
Some attendees said they saw the fall meetings as the college’s ingenuine attempt to show interest in student input.
“I feel like the administration hasn’t listened to any of the feedback it’s gotten in the past, so I feel skeptical about the policy reflecting what students are actually saying,” said Emma Ronai-Durning ’18.5, one of the organizers of the teach-in.
Taite Shomo ’20.5, another organizer, asked participants whether they thought students’ and community members’ voices were being heard.
“We feel like we’re not being listened to,” said one student in response. The student went on to describe how the Student Government Association (SGA) bill that was intended to protect students engaging in protest was not incorporated into the new measures.
Another student said that the policy did not reflect the recommendations the Committee on Speech and Inclusion made in their report last January. In the recommendations, the committee emphasized the importance of changing campus culture over changing policy to address issues of free speech and protest.
All who spoke during the discussion agreed that the revisions were, at best, unclear and inflexible. Wengel Kifle ’20, who attended both the teach-in and Ross’s meeting in October, said she believed there was “really no room for change in the idea [Ross] was proposing.”
Students also expressed concerns that the policy changes would ultimately lead to the penalization of students and staff while leaving tenured professors exempt from blame. They also speculated that violations of the policy would prevent new professors from receiving tenure.
A key point of uncertainty during the discussion was whether the policy sufficiently outlined the process of selecting and vetting speakers, and the absence of accountability for that body.
Participants pointed out the lack of examples of acceptable and unacceptable behavior included in the new policy, compared to the existing version. The new policy does not provide the college’s expected response, either, leaving students protesters unsure about the consequences of their actions and making students on the Community Judicial Board responsible for determining their peers’ punishments.
One student said the proposed policy only addressed student behavior and not students’ motivation. Another pointed out that the policy made no mention of compounding disciplinary violations.
Several participants found fault in the new policy’s stance against “deliberate and significant disruption,” with disruption defined as “behavior that impairs or prevents expressive activity of others, or obstructs Middlebury’s activities or essential operations,” and prohibited disruption considered “all behavior that significantly disrupts Middlebury events, activities, programs and/or operations.”
“What if intentions aren’t disruptive?” one student said. Another argued that disruption is necessary for people to express opinions and suppressing it is counter to the point of a liberal arts institution.
[pullquote speaker="" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]Fighting for justice, standing up for justice and academic security should not be at odds with each other.[/pullquote]
“I think the ugliness of policy surrounding protest and compounding punishment has suppressed speech on this campus already,” Koch said.
Toward the end of the teach-in, organizers handed out slips of paper and asked participants to respond to the following prompt: “What do we want our protest policy to look like? What would we like to be possible at Middlebury?”
“Fighting for justice, standing up for justice and academic security should not be at odds with each other,” one student said in response. Others said that the policy should focus more on the content of protests, and that people should have a clear understanding of what’s allowed, what’s not, and what the consequences will be.
As one student put it, “Where’s the line? If I cross it, what happens to me?”
In conclusion, Ronai-Durning urged everyone present to find something they are passionate about and to try and change it.
“There’s lots one can do without being punished for it,” she said.
(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.”
