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(11/13/15 4:00am)
Last Friday night, Nov. 6, a nearly sold-out crowd gathered in the MCA Concert Hall to listen to the California Guitar Trio perform a varied set of pieces that spanned multiple genres. They covered music that ranged from Bach to “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and the performers proved to be just as eclectic as their pieces.
The California Guitar Trio was formed in 1991 by Paul Richards of Salt Lake City, Utah, Bert Lams of Affligem, Belgium and Hideyo Moriya of Tokyo, Japan after the three met at a series of Guitar Craft workshops put on by Robert Fripp, who was the lead guitarist of King Crimson, a band known for its soaring and inventive progressive rock epics. They became close friends during the workshops and formed the trio four years later. Over the past three decades, the group has recorded 14 studio albums populated by both original compositions and covers, and had their music featured in Olympic broadcasts and wake-up calls for the astronauts on the NASA shuttle Endeavor.
This show was their first at the College, and judging by the audience reception they did not disappoint. The concert began as the trio walked out on stage to their respective positions and slid right into their first song, an original titled “Yamanashi Blues.” Their musicianship was immediately apparent as they blended the distinct tones of their guitars into this mid-tempo number that introduced the crowd to their style. After finishing “Yamanashi Blues,” Richards stepped forward to introduce them and say a little bit about the piece; the band continued to explain their songs throughout the night, showing that the group placed as much importance on the stories behind their songs as their composition.
After another original entitled “Melrose Avenue,” which was written while they were driving down Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles to their first show together, the group changed gears dramatically and delivered a cover of a 1959 song by Santo and Johnny titled “Sleepwalk.” Richards played slide guitar delving into a country sound for the first, but not last, time of the night. After finishing, he then stepped forward to introduce the next song, another original composed by Moriya titled “Cherry Blossoms” that would most effectively be classified as new age. The song is a strikingly beautiful composition, and it tenderly emoted the experience of watching cherry blossoms float down from their branches in the spring. Such clear evocation of images and emotions was apparent in the other original pieces the trio performed, which conveyed the feeling of anticipation Lams felt in walking into the first Guitar Craft workshop, and Moriya memories of walking through sunbeams in the forest near his home.
Amongst their more reflective pieces, the group took time to have fun on stage and play a number of more high energy pieces deftly interspersed throughout the program. A standout was their interpretation of Dave Brubeck’s “Blue Rondo á la Turk,” a jazz piece blended with Turkish music that Brubeck heard on a trip through the country. It is hard to imagine a Brubeck song without his characteristic pianoriffs, but the talent of the trio more than compensated. Another highlight came with “Ghost Riders on the Storm,” a medley of “(Ghost) Riders in the Sky” by Stan Jones and the Doors’ “Riders on the Storm.” The two songs accented each other wonderfully, and showcased the group’s compositional ability to bring out the best in the work of other artists. Moving to another period entirely, Bach was presented by the trio in an orthodox and impressive playing method they learned from Fripp called circulation. They played a Bach prelude (not specified as such by Richards while presenting it) with each guitarist playing a single note one after another, effectively cutting the song into thirds. Apart from the technical skill displayed by this difficult method, the piece was played beautifully. Lams is a Royal College of Music graduate in classical guitar, and as noted by the group he leads the group on their classical outings.
After delving once again into jazz on“Spiritual” by Pat Metheny and Charlie Haden, and country on a rousing cover of a Buck Owens instrumental called “Buckaroo,” they returned to Bach for the end of their set to perform a spectacular rendition of “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.” After the first of three standing ovations, the group returned to the stage to fulfill their promise and played “Bohemian Rhapsody,” encouraging the audience to join in and sing along. The night’s music was concluded on a high note, choosing Dick Dale’s “Misirlou” as their final song, showcasing Moriya’s surf rock background and sending the show out with one final burst of energy.
As they left the stage after their rousing encore, the California Guitar Trio left no doubt as to their remarkable musicianship. Their survey of so many genres and styles made the show a hit among the crowd, and I did not see a single person, whether a student or community member, leave the show without a smile.
(11/13/15 3:58am)
At the monthly plenary faculty meeting on Friday, Nov. 6, the faculty discussed proposed changes to the Cultures and Civilizations requirement and student participation in the Pass/D/Fail system, but when the conversation shifted to student stress, the faculty voted 45-33 to move into an executive session.
Faculty Moderator and Professor of Mathematics David Dorman did not have an exact figure on the number of times the faculty has moved into an executive session historically, but indicated it has happened a few times in the past two decades.
The decision to move to an executive session was prompted when Assistant Professor of Psychology Robert Moeller expressed his concerns about having students in the room as the faculty discussed sensitive, sometimes privileged information. As mandated by the College’s handbook, the SGA, the Campus and Community Council have a standing invitation to plenary faculty meetings.
Once Moeller’s concern was articulated, a motion was made and seconded to shift to executive session. The vote forced all non- voting members of the audience, including several student leaders, to leave.
“While it was of course disappointing that students were not able to be present for the faculty discussion surrounding stress,” said SGA President Ilana Gratch ’16, “I believe this event has the ability to spark a greater conversation about the dynamics between students, faculty and the administration.”
“I was disappointed by the manner in which we were dismissed from the Faculty Council session, but I feel that this incident can be constructive instead of contentious,” said Community Council member Emma Bliska ‘18. “I think it’s im- portant for students and faculty to interact more in official spaces on campus, and to engage in dialogue about our roles in college decision-making.”
Despite the narrow margin between those in favor of an executive session and those not, there was no discussion against the motion in the open meeting. However, the session sparked conversation, both for and against the motion, amongst the faculty afterwards.
“When the faculty is discussing matters with a direct impact on students’ lives, these conversations should be open and transparent whenever possible,” said Associate Professor of Economics Caitlin Myers. “While there will sometimes exist a compelling need for privacy, we should thoughtfully choose when and how to in- voke executive session. I thought that the way the students were asked to leave conveyed distrust and paternalism, and I was troubled by how it went down.”
Moeller, who first shared his concerns about having students in his room, ex- plained his stance, bringing up two separate issues: how having students – especially the press – in the room changes the conversation and how to respect students privacy, specifically in deference to the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
First, the College is made up of a shared governance system: the Board of Trustees, the administration and faculty, all with different responsibilities. He points out that the Campus does not have a standing in- vitation to senior administrative meetings nor Board of Trustee meetings, so why is the faculty exposed to what he calls “great- er levels of scrutiny” than the other parts of the system?
“What does that do to the power dynamic in a shared governance system?” asks Moeller. “Of the three parts of the system, all parts effect students lives and there shouldn’t be more reporting on the faculty than the trustees and the administration.”
Moeller also expressed his concern about upholding the privacies protected in FERPA. Within a small community, when faculty members are sharing stories about students, especially around grades and issues of mental health, it is easy to figure out who they are talking about. This brings up confidentially concerns that could become FERPA violations.
Lastly, he shared concerns from faculty, especially junior faculty, many of whom are already are hesitant to participate in conversation, that students in the room will have a silencing effect. Moeller shared that several faculty members have expressed unease about the fact that their words could be quoted without consent.
“After last spring we needed to have an important conversation about student stress, and a candid one,” Moeller said. “While students should most definitely be included in those conversations, faculty also need a venue to speak amongst themselves.”
“There needs to be some system to convey the issues we are discussing to students, but a system that takes into account issues of confidentiality, FERPA and the silencing effect that students in the room could have on the faculty,” he added.
Many students in the room have expressed that they want to play a more active role in these discussions and that their presence is not intended to scrutinize, but to engage.
“I believe any discussions about issues facing students should be as transparent as possible, not so students can supervise or criticize faculty members, but so these groups can collaborate more effectively and meaningfully on issues facing the college community,” added Bliska.
President of the College Laurie L. Pat- ton echoed the sentiment for the need for openness and student presence, as well as executive sessions.
“Faculty need to come to their own decisions about governance, and I have every confidence that they will,” said Patton. “I recommended at the meeting that we need to do two things as a matter of course: 1) we need to have regular open faculty meetings, where students and staff can attend, and 2) we need to reserve a space for executive session at the end of those meetings. Many institutions of higher learning use this system of faculty governance, and I can easily see us moving in that direction. When executive sessions are simply part of every agenda, faculty can use them if they want to, but they don’t have to if there’s no business that requires “faculty-only” conversation. The key to this system is that meetings are then always open to the community and executive sessions no longer become a big deal.”
(11/13/15 3:46am)
Flashing lights, black-and-white video projections of launching aircraft and sounds of revving engines flooded Wright Memorial Theatre this weekend as part of the visceral backdrop for the fall faculty show, Flare Path (Nov. 5-7). Set in a hotel near an RAF Bomber Command airbase during World War II, the play was written by popular English dramatist Terence Rattigan in 1941. Its name refers to the lamps stationed alongside runways that allow aircraft to take off and land in the darkest of hours. The story behind Flare Path, however, is far more than the theatrical perils of air combat, or even the gravity of life in wartime Britain, though these are salient themes – rather, it is a tale of duty, heartache and morals that provides a most telling glimpse into human nature and all of its inner turmoil.
We are all familiar with the quintessential wartime story of men fighting valiantly on foreign fronts whilst their wives and sweethearts eagerly await their return. It is this emotional matter that forms the foundation of Flare Path – though Rattigan, who drew inspiration for the play from his own experiences as a tail gunner during World War II (and miraculously saved the incomplete manuscript amidst a crisis in air combat), added a twist to the tale by dropping a love triangle into the mix.
Actress Patricia Graham, portrayed by Sofia Donavan ’18 in her first Middlebury College theatre performance, is spending the weekend with her husband Teddy, played by Jabari Matthew ’17, at the Falcon Hotel on the Lincolnshire coast, when she is surprised by a visit from her past lover, Hollywood film star Peter Kyle, played by Sebastian LaPointe ’18. To throw a wrench in things, Teddy is suddenly assigned to a night raid over Germany that very evening, leaving Patricia to grapple with lingering feelings for her old flame and a sense of obligation toward a husband whom she barely knows. The couple met and married during one of Teddy’s week-long leaves; Patricia and Peter were madly in love before then and would have married had Peter not been unavailable. With Peter calling for her affection in the wake of his waning career and Teddy counting on her for emotional support, Patricia finds herself trapped in a moral dilemma. Who needs her most?
The presence of two other couples in the hotel contribute further to an already emotionally trying tale. Maudie Miller, portrayed by Quincy Simmons ’18, has managed to take a short time off work to see her husband, tail gunner Sergeant Dave “Dusty” Miller, played by Alex Herdman ’17. Meanwhile, Do- ris, played by Ashley Fink ’18, is visiting her partner Count Skriczevinsky, portrayed by August Rosenthal ’17, a Polish pilot who decided to serve with the RAF after his wife and son were killed by the Nazis. Written at the end of 1941, a point in history when England stood as the lone player against the German National Socialist war machine, Flare Path has a rich premise fraught with tension and uncertainty, prompting an emotional whirl- wind for all parties involved.
Director Richard Romagnoli, a professor of theatre, was careful to address the inner conflicts that the women in the play had to contend with.
“These fliers leave their wives like husbands going off for a day at work. Many never came back,” he said. “The women were powerless to impose their will. Those who were veterans stoically accept it. Patricia, who had just moved to the base to live with her husband, says to him as he’s about to walk out the door on a mission, ‘Teddy, I don’t know what to say,’ to which he replies, ‘Come back.’ It must have been a surreal experience – will he return in six hours or not? I’ve read that around 55,000 RAF bomber crews were killed over Europe between 1939 and 1945.”
Anxiety levels amongst the characters reach their peak when one of the planes is destroyed by the German air force, and Count Skriczevinsky does not return from the mission alongside Teddy and Dusty. The meticulously executed crash scene – the resounding boom, the flickering fluorescent lights and the looks of harrowing shock and dread on the characters’ faces – stood out as one of the most gripping moments of the night.
In creating a backdrop for the play, Romagnoli explained that he tried to “give the war a presence that would, at times, dominate the space through the use of video, sound and lights.”
“I thought that was important to convey the extent to which the war subsumed the hotel and its residents,” he said.
As characters filter in and out of the front lobby of the hotel throughout the nerve-wracking night, certain sections of the dialogue shed light on the terrifying magnitude of their situation.
“I suppose if I’d been in England longer than a mere three months, I would be as blasé about raids,” Peter comments at one point, as the sounds of bombers fill the air. “Listen. Those ours?”
“Theirs,” Maudie says after a long pause. She has lived through so many bombings that she can tell the difference between Ger- man and British air raids.
Resilience amidst massive hardships stands out as a prominent theme in Flare Path.
“If there was anything that I would hope the audience members took away from the performance, it would be that they became more aware of the ability humans have to cope with day-to-day life stressors,” Matthew, who played Teddy, stated. “What the audience members choose to do with that awareness is really up to them.”
Despite the seriousness of the plot premise, the cast strived to strike a balance between heaviness and humor. And so, even as the entire storyline seemed to verge on tragedy, audience members found them-selves chuckling periodically throughout the night.
“A dramatic scene or moment is followed by a comic scene,” Romagnoli explained. “It was important for these antithetical moments to hit their targets. Comedy undermines the gravity, while the drama reminds us of the stakes. Ultimately, their world is an absurdity, one created to make their conditions tolerable.”
The opening scene is crucial in setting this particular tone for the play, as Peter humorously attempts to negotiate a room for the night with the snarky hotel manager, Mrs. Oakley, as played by Lana Meyer ’17. In other moments, the young waiter, Percy, portrayed by Maxwell Lieblich ’18, brings a much-needed burst of energy to the group through his feverish serving of drinks and light-hearted comments. Later in the evening, Doris’s alcohol consumption drives her to a state of drunken silliness (as depicted charmingly by Ashley Fink ’17), which provides a welcome reprieve from the tension emanating from the rest of the room.
Besides a few moments of particular emotional intensity, Flare Path is a play full of understatements. As Professor of English and the Liberal Arts John Bertolini stated in the Program Note, this is perhaps best exemplified by Maudie’s matter-of-fact comment, “There’s a war on, and things have got to be a bit different, and we’ve just got to get used to it – that’s all.”
To characterize a life turned upside-down by nightly air raids as “a bit different” is a testament to the mindset of the British public – and it is this tendency to understate that stood at the heart of last weekend’s performance.
“There existed several places in this play in which not just myself but perhaps the entire rest of the cast had to channel large and at times complicated human emotions, while not acting these emotions in a large way,” Matthew explained. “It wasn’t really a matter of suppression as it was a matter of understatement.”
Unfortunately, some of the nuanced expression behind these performances may have been lost on the audience due to the characters’ thickly-accented speech, rapid-fire delivery of dialogue and usage of time era-specific jargon. The faculty production of Flare Path deeply engaged the audience in many other regards, however – from its breathtaking aesthetics and sound design to its striking depiction of wartime terrors to the flurries of light and calm in between. Though it is not always an easy play to watch, in humanizing a small piece of history, it is so worth the telling.
(11/11/15 11:59pm)
This past Friday, the Middlebury faculty met for its monthly session to discuss the AAL requirement and whether or not to renew the pass/D/fail option. Representatives from the Campus and the SGA were present, as is sanctioned by the College’s bylaws. When the conversation turned to student stress, members of the faculty expressed discomfort with having students in the room. A vote to move into an executive session was called. After a close vote of 45 to 33 in favor of the executive session — which has only happened a few times in the past two decades — all students as well as the non-voting faculty were asked to leave.
(11/04/15 7:31pm)
On Monday 26th of October a Chinese Author came to speak at the Robert A. Jones conference room on being a writer in contemporary China, "When Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction." His name was Ning Ken, and like his novels, he is more than what meets the eye. It was his pen name, of course, but I only realized what it could mean politically when I wrote it out in Chinese. The direct translation would be “would rather,” and when I asked him to make a sentence with it, he offered this: “I would rather write in this way than to achieve fame and rake in a lot of money.”
The dose of personal resistance that Ning lets out through his pen name is palpable enough. Yet his attitude towards dress and appearance is altogether quite different. Ning is a medium-height man in his mid-fifties, who dressed in smart casuals, a pair of jeans, black shoes and a brown leather jacket on both of the two days I saw him. His looks were that of an honest, harmless man. From my conversations with him I know him as a very friendly “uncle,” someone who is passionate about the ways that he has been able to synthesize various aspects of the contemporary Chinese society through his writings.
One has to wonder, why do being a good writer and enjoying popularity have to be in constant tension with each other in the Chinese context? Ning is the author of no fewer than five novels, and his most well-known ones touch on very controversial and taboo subjects. His critically-acclaimed novel about a university professor who escapes to Tibet after the June Fourth Tianamen Massacre ’89, Sky Tibet, reached the final rounds in the nomination process for a prestigious award only to stay there because of a government order.
Though this may be enough to frustrate many writers with a fiery passion and an unequivocal sense of justice, qualities that certainly describe Ning, he has a very clear sense of the privileges and responsibilities of a writer in contemporary China. When I asked him at his lecture whether there is an ideal readership in his mind, his answer was rather astonishing: he said that he does not write for anyone, that it does not concern him whether his books sell or not. Instead, he just wishes to exploit as fully as he can the possibilities that present-day China has handed to him.
The literary movement that he is spearheading is called “the ultra-unreal,” a term whose meaning is still slowly taking shape in the Chinese literary world. The label came out of a conversation he was having with a friend, when they were discussing the most recent scandal that involved a top level government official. This time, a deputy chief justice from the Hebei province died in a car crash, his supposed “legal” marriage to four wives being exposed when all four of them wanted to claim his body. For him this is a classic example of what is ultra-unreal about the Chinese society: things happen that “surpass the unreal or the imaginary.”
Over lunch, he told me that each epoch should leave its own unique mark in the literary history of the world. He said though the underlying human desires may not change very much from epoch to epoch, the circumstances with which each has to work to fulfil those desires differ. Subjects such as romance, marriage, and the domestic life have been explored almost to perfection by the 19th century English novels. Or take the Latin American brand of magical realism for example: a mix of severe social critique, history, and pop culture, which even until this day still lends itself to a relevant way of making sense of dictatorial rule and patterns of inequality.
For Ning, the ultra-unreal is an unprecedented exploration into the ways that an illogical system operates on a consistent brand of logic that keeps on producing illogic results. He argues that there is not a civilisation comparable to the contemporary Chinese one, wherein the logic of power is so absolute and its reach so far and so complete. Evidence for this claim can be found in the absolutely ghastly speed at which everything is moving in the country: from GDP growth to cell phone usage and car ownership rates to the build-out of highways and railways systems.
Ning’s novels are concerned with those very few who can wield power without any checks and balances. He chooses never to write directly about the System. In one of three parallel plots in his newest novel, Three Trios, he talks about an official who has lost favor with the Party and falls in love with a woman. He describes this character’s journey as “the gradual reawakening of his humanity,” the part of him which had been suppressed as a government official because everything then was transactional.
As a writer he is also aware of how adaptable this particular brand of Chinese logic is: he mentioned the newly established Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and characterized it as the spreading of the Chinese approach to economic development beyond China. It is a particular logic of economic development that relies too heavily on government-led public infrastructure investment projects, a natural product of a highly centralized power system. Just like in his own works, Ning showed a deep understanding of the resilience and pervasiveness of power. Yet, with the kind of wonder and disbelief that Ning beholds the current Chinese establishment, can he not be anticipating the radical changes that this unmistakably unsustainable approach to development is subjected to? At a time when the Chinese GDP growth is at its all-time low and the unemployment rate its all-time high within the past two decades, Ning’s visit gave the college community an invaluable insight into why these might be, and where the country is going from here.
(10/21/15 8:38pm)
For five decades Middlebury College has been an outstanding leader in promoting environmental studies and international studies and in adopting sustainable operating procedures. Laurie Patton has shared with me her commitment as the College’s new president to build on and extend this admirable record of leadership. Toward this end, she would like to work in partnership with trustees, student groups, and concerned faculty and staff in an effort to identify next steps. This is a sound approach that all in the College community can support. Regarding next steps, this letter highlights one especially significant opportunity. We are at a pivotal moment in the national and international debate over the urgent need for a transition to a clean energy economy. Middlebury has the ability to influence the outcome of this critical debate by taking a public stand with a commitment to join the growing fossil fuel divestment movement. A decision by the College to divest should be viewed primarily as an act of moral and educational leadership at a time when industrial-technological civilization has lost its way and must reinvent itself.
I write this letter as a former Middlebury faculty member who taught at the College for close to three decades, served as dean of the college in the Olin Robison administration, and chaired the College’s Environmental Council during the mid-1990s. My courses included the study of environmental ethics, global ethics, and religion and ecology. I also write as a trustee and former chair of the board of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF), an international grant making foundation that has joined the fossil fuel divestment movement as part of an effort to align its investment policy with its mission and program goals. The Divest Middlebury campaign has set forth a compelling argument, and I write in support of the students who are leading this important initiative.
Scientists working in the field of climate change have turned on the alarm bells. Human development practices, especially the burning of fossil fuels, are altering the conditions on Earth that have made possible the development of civilization over the past ten thousand years. If humanity does not act with all deliberate speed and reduce its global greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050, the consensus among scientists is that the ecological, economic and social damage and disruption could be catastrophic and irreversible. The most vulnerable are the hundreds of millions of people living in poverty, but no one’s life will be unaffected. Already the negative effects of climate change are being felt by communities around the world. In addition, human development patterns have caused a tragic decline in the planet’s biodiversity and natural beauty, and ongoing global warming will accelerate this process.
Since action on climate change is about preventing immense harm and promoting the common good, it is first and foremost a fundamental moral issue. With the risk of dangerous consequences growing with every day of delayed action, it is also an extraordinarily urgent moral challenge. In a recent declaration, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences at the Vatican in Rome stated the matter succinctly: “Human-induced climate change is a scientific reality, and its mitigation is a moral and religious imperative.” A growing chorus of religious leaders, including Pope Francis, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, and the Dalai Lama, fully support this view. The new Encyclical Letter of Pope Francis on the environment, “Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home,” and the Pope’s addresses before Congress and the United Nations clearly and forcefully highlight the ethical and spiritual dimensions of the environmental crisis and climate change. In response to the initiative of Pope Francis, 333 Rabbis have signed a “Rabbinic Letter on the Climate Crisis.”
This year could be a turning point when the world community forms the necessary global partnership and commits to the collaborative action needed to reduce and eliminate carbon pollution. In December heads of state from the 193 governments that are party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will meet in Paris to finalize a long delayed, legally binding climate change agreement. The goal of the negotiations is to elicit commitments that will cumulatively prevent global warming from exceeding 2 degrees Celsius since the pre-industrial era. Achieving an effective and equitable agreement in Paris is fundamental to protecting Earth’s ecological integrity, promoting human rights, and fulfilling our responsibilities to future generations. However, again and again governments controlled by short term economic and political interests have failed to address the problem of global warming. Building pressure from civil society, including from leaders in science, religion, education and philanthropy, can make a critical difference.
With the demand for change growing, governments are searching for a way forward. China and the United States, the two largest carbon polluters, have together made meaningful commitments, and many other nations have joined them. However, the commitments made to date fall far short of the reduction in emissions needed. At a special summit meeting on sustainable development this past September, the United Nations issued a path breaking declaration on “Transforming Our World” that adopts seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with 169 targets, which envision the full integration of the environmental, economic and social dimensions of the sustainable development agenda. The SDGs call for radical change, and if governments are serious about achieving the SDGs, a strong UNFCCC agreement is mandatory. By joining the divestment movement, Middlebury College can help to send that message and register its concern that governments be held accountable for fulfilling their obligations under the agreement and expand their commitments in the future as necessary.
The divestment movement has grown dramatically over the past year. A recent study, which was commissioned by the Wallace Global Fund, has found that 436 institutions have made a commitment to divest from fossil fuel companies, representing $2.6 trillion of investments—a fifty-fold increase. These institutions include the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund and two of the largest pension funds as well as foundations, colleges, universities, NGOs and religious institutions. Recognizing the significance of these developments, the Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, Christiana Figueres, has called for more institutions to divest from fossil fuels and invest in clean energy as a way to build momentum going into the Paris climate change meeting. (Clarification regarding the $2.6 trillion of investments is needed, because in some cases the institutions involved are limiting their divestment to coal or to coal and tar sands oil or to some but not all fossil fuels companies.)
College and University trustees have a fiduciary responsibility to ensure that their institution has the financial resources to fulfill its educational mission, and they are rightly concerned to maximize returns on endowment investments and minimize risk. In pursuing its commitment to divest from fossil fuels, the RBF has adopted a phased approach, eliminating investments in coal and tar sands first followed by a gradual elimination of all fossil fuels in a fiscally responsible manner. The goal of the RBF is to be completely divested of fossil fuels by the end of 2017. The Fund’s trustees have not found it necessary to alter their long standing commitment to preserve the purchasing power of the endowment. Middlebury should be able to divest from fossil fuels over several years without suffering reduced investment returns. Moreover, divesting could produce higher returns, because the fossil fuel energy sector is facing complex problems and risks. In addition to the precipitous collapse in the price of oil over the past year, which has caused some firms significant loses in market value, the big oil companies face the long term problem of stranded assets. Preventing global warming from exceeding two degrees Celsius will require leaving most of the known coal, oil, and gas reserves in the ground. In short, the transition to a clean energy economy will in all likelihood make fossil fuels a high risk investment. Many financial institutions are following this situation closely, and the Carbon Tracker Initiative is providing investors with the tools to measure economic risk associated with fossil fuels.
It is also important to recognize that renewable energy is rapidly becoming competitive with fossil fuels on cost and that corporations are coming to the realization that cutting their carbon footprint through improved efficiency and a shift to renewables is both possible and profitable. There is a global coalition of corporations that have committed to the long term goal of operating entirely with renewable energy. The New York Times reports that among the companies that have recently joined the coalition are Goldman Sachs, Johnson & Johnson, Proctor & Gamble, Starbucks, and Walmart. The transition away from fossil fuels to renewables is underway in spite of efforts by the big oil companies to prevent it and deny it. The only question is whether the transition will happen fast enough to prevent global warming from pushing the biosphere over tipping points that involve high risk. In a September Op-Ed, the president of Siemens, Joe Kaeser, announced that his global industrial manufacturing company has pledged to become carbon neutral by 2030, and reflecting on the challenge and opportunity before the business community he writes: “We have the technologies, we have the business incentive, and we have the responsibility. Now all we need is the commitment.” A decision by Middlebury’s board to divest will reinforce this message to corporate leaders, many of whom are listening with a new level of concern for the future of the planet, the global economy, and their companies.
Some argue that it is hypocritical for an institution like Middlebury to divest when the college and American society at large continue to be dependent on fossil fuels in so many ways. Is it hypocritical for someone who is addicted to cigarettes but knows that smoking is harmful and cancer causing to divest from all tobacco company stocks? Divesting is a way to help all of us wake up to the real dangers created by our addiction to fossil fuels and make the change to a cleaner, safer, more secure world.
When the RBF board and its investment committee, which includes both trustees and outside experts, began to consider joining the divestment movement, they were working with a highly skilled and successful investment manager. However, given the way its operations were structured, the investment manager concluded that it could not accomplish the goals that the RBF had set for divestment. Consequently the Fund was forced to change investment managers. Making the change has been a demanding process, but it has worked out well and the Fund now has investment managers with the expertise and flexibility that it requires. In short, there are very good alternatives, if Middlebury finds itself contending with the same kind of problem that faced the RBF.
Apart from major educational issues, as a general rule, it is not the responsibility of a college board of trustees to consider taking an official position on the many issues under debate on campus, and only under exceptional circumstances when there are very compelling moral reasons to do so should a board use divestment to support a protest movement. However, climate change is not just one environmental issue among many others or just a political issue. It is one of the defining issues of our time, and the choices made in response to the challenge will profoundly affect the lives of all Middlebury students and the future of life on Earth.
Middlebury College is a highly respected leader internationally in the field of education and a decision by its president and board of trustees to join the expanding fossil fuel divestment movement will be an act of responsible global citizenship consistent with its mission. It will have a significant impact, inspiring other institutions to support the transition to a clean energy economy and contributing to the outcome we all hope for in Paris.
Steven C. Rockefeller
Professor Emeritus of Religion
Middlebury College
October 12, 2015
Steven C. Rockefeller has had a career as a scholar and teacher, an environmental conservationist, and a philanthropist. His research, writing, and teaching have been focused on the fields of religion, philosophy and ethics. He has had a special interest in the transition to a sustainable future and the development of a relational spirituality and a global ethic for building a just, sustainable and peaceful world community.
Professor Rockefeller is professor emeritus of religion at Middlebury College, Vermont, where he taught from 1970 to 1998 and also served as dean of the college and chair of the religion department. He received his bachelor of arts degree from Princeton University in 1958, his master of divinity from Union Theological Seminary in 1963, and his doctorate in the philosophy of religion from Columbia University in 1973. He is the author of John Dewey: Religious Faith and Democratic Humanism (Columbia, 1991; Peking University, 2009) and Democratic Equality, Economic Inequality, and the Earth Charter (Earth Charter International, 2015). He is the co-editor of two books of essays, The Christ and the Bodhisattva (SUNY, 1987) and Spirit and Nature: Why the Environment is a Religious Issue (Beacon, 1992). His other publications include over fifty essays that appear in a variety of books and journals.
Professor Rockefeller and Professor John Elder organized and directed at Middlebury College in 1990 the Spirit and Nature Symposium that included the Dalai Lama and was filmed by Bill Moyers for public television. In the mid-1990s, Professor Rockefeller chaired the Middlebury College Environmental Council. Under his leadership, the Council prepared and submitted to the College president “Pathways to a Green Campus” (1995), a comprehensive environmental report on the state of the college with 22 recommendations. Professor Rockefeller served as president of the Demeter Fund, which created the Charlotte Park and Wildlife Refuge in Vermont overlooking Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Mountains. He is the founding president of the Otter Creek Child Care Center in Middlebury, Vermont.
For over thirty years Professor Rockefeller has served as a trustee of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, an international foundation with grantmaking programs in democratic practice, sustainable development, and peacebuilding. From 1998 to 2006 he chaired the RBF board of trustees. Among the other boards and commissions on which he has served are the National Commission on the Environment (organized by the World Wildlife Fund), the National Audubon Society, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, the Asian Cultural Council, and the Council of the UN mandated University for Peace in Costa Rica. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Over the past two decades, Professor Rockefeller has been actively involved in the Earth Charter Initiative, which in and through extensive worldwide, cross cultural dialogue has endeavored to identify and articulate shared values that provide an ethical foundation for the emerging global community. From 1997 to 2000, he chaired the Earth Charter international drafting committee for the Earth Charter Commission. A final version of the Earth Charter—a declaration of global interdependence and universal responsibility with fundamental principles for creating a just, sustainable and peaceful world—was launched by the Earth Charter Commission at the Peace Palace in The Hague in 2000. From 2000 to 2010, Professor Rockefeller served as co-chair of the Earth Charter International (ECI) Council. The ECI Secretariat is based at the University for Peace in Costa Rica and has affiliates in 73 different countries. The Earth Charter has been translated into over 40 languages and endorsed by over 5,000 organizations globally, including UNESCO and the World Conservation Congress of IUCN.
Professor Rockefeller lives with his wife, Professor Barbara Bellows Rockefeller, in Pound Ridge, New York.
(10/21/15 8:19pm)
Despite understanding that using a phone while driving is dangerous, many people routinely give into the temptation to send a quick text while on the road. And despite state laws banning the use of phones while driving, the practice is still dangerously common. Middlebury students Terry Goguen ’16 and AnnaClare Smith ’16 have created a new way to discourage texting and driving that rewards drivers for keeping their eyes on the road. Their mobile app, JoyRyde, incentivizes safe driving by tracking drivers’ phone-free miles and rewarding them with points that can be redeemed for discounts, coupons or charitable donations.
“In my experience, having a positive outlook on things instead of a punishment is the best way to go,” Goguen said, describing the logic behind their model of rewarding users for driving safely. JoyRyde lets users “incentivize and motivate themselves to do the right thing.”
Smith explained the unique nature of JoyRyde, in that “there are other apps that try to prevent texting and driving, but none of them have the same incentive system.”
It appears that this system may be key to creating safer roads by accomplishing what current campaigns and legislation cannot: changing drivers’ behavior. In a survey conducted by Smith and Goguen, 86% of people reported that legislation punishing those who text and drive does not affect the way they drive. As a result of this conclusion, the pair decided to go a different route, and allow users to, in Goguen’s words, “be their own agent of change.”
JoyRyde is simple and user-friendly. A driver starts a new ride and the phone begins tracking the driver’s miles. If the user leaves JoyRyde to go to a different app, JoyRyde will stop tracking and the driver will no longer receive points. When the user next opens the app, they will see an x indicating a violation. Three violations terminate the ride. Users can currently redeem points for discounts and coupons at Cumberland Farms, B. Good Restaurant, and the brands Skida and Sword and Plough, both founded by Middlebury students. Part of Goguen and Smith’s current vision involves establishing new corporate partnerships and expanding JoyRyde’s connections with charities.
JoyRyde recently partnered with non-profit Text Less Live More, an organization that increases awareness of the dangers of texting and driving. Users can use their points to purchase a donation to Text Less Live More. While this is currently the only charity partnered with JoyRyde, the app will partner with additional charities to provide users with even more opportunities to turn their phone-free miles into donations.
Goguen and Smith attribute much of JoyRyde’s success to the opportunities available to young entrepreneurs at Middlebury. When the pair first developed the idea for JoyRyde, Goguen contacted Middlebury’s Programs for Creativity and Innovation. Staff at the PCI informed him of a J-term class titled Midd Entrepreneurs, in which students work with representatives from the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies to turn their business ideas into reality. JoyRyde won a grant last spring from MiddChallenge, a PCI competition. The app also won the most recent Fresh Tracks Road Pitch Riders Choice Award, a competition administered by motorcyclists with business and financial expertise who ride to small towns to hear pitches from various entrepreneurs. The resources Smith and Goguen took advantage of at the College gave them the practical knowledge necessary to successfully present their app to these investors and pitch competitions.
Neither of the founders see JoyRyde’s success slowing anytime soon. The app currently has 150 users, and at the time of the pair’s interview with The Campus, the app had reached 1200 drives in the previous 12 days. Goguen plans to continue his work with JoyRyde after graduating, and to continue to increase the app’s corporate partnerships and improve its software.
To download the app, drivers enter their email on the JoyRyde website and then receive an email with a link to download. Goguen and Smith estimate that the app will be available on the App Store within the next couple of months. JoyRyde is free, and always will be, assures Goguen.
“We think that’s the best way to do it because the more people using it, the more lives we’re going to save,” Goguen said.
(10/21/15 8:16pm)
The Middlebury College Phi Beta Kappa chapter inducted ten seniors into the honors society on Saturday, Oct. 3 at a ceremony that coincided with Fall Family Weekend. A committee of faculty selects the students based on their academic transcripts in their first three years.
One of the inductees, Kate Hamilton ’15.5, a political science major, believes the most important aspect of academic life is maintaining a balance.
“I like to look at my week in advance and make sure I am leaving time for schoolwork, but also extracurriculars, running, outings with friends and long dinners. I think we all do better, more productive work when it’s not all we are doing,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton embraces the serendipitous value of a liberal arts education, as she deliberately chose to not have a minor.
“I have really enjoyed being able to dabble in a lot of other disciplines. I feel like I have spent a good deal of time in History, Economics and Psychology classes in addition to Political Science,” Hamilton said.
Tom Hyeon-Seok ’16, another inductee, stumbled upon his major while attending a Middlebury event.
“I chose my [economics] major after conversing with the department chair and Charles A. Dana Professor of Economics, Peter Matthews at a piano concert. Economics, combined with statistics, I learned, enables us to explain nearly every aspect of our lives with stories backed by numbers that are often much more objective than words,” he said.
In a few months, the inductees will embark on their postgrad plans, carrying with them the honor of membership in a national society of academics. Hamilton, a Truman Scholar, said she plans on law school.
“My ultimate goal is a law career focused on expanding democratic participation. I would love to work for the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, either in the Voting Section or the Educational Opportunities Section,” she said.
Hyeon-Seok will work at a consulting firm in Denver. After a summer job at the firm, he realized it was a great way to “hone [his] quantitative skills and get exposed to the business and legal sectors.”
With such an accomplishment, the two inductees share their secrets of success. “I think it’s really important to take classes that genuinely interest you, because you are so much likely to do well when you are engaged in the material,” Hamilton said.
Hyeon-Seok, however, first clarified that membership in Phi Beta Kappa should not be seen as the ultimate measure of success. “While I consider a membership in PBK as a great honor, I do not equate that to a sign of success. After all, there are many smarter, talented, and interesting individuals on this campus,” he said.
His tip for academic success at Middlebury is to develop relationships with peers in and outside the classroom.
“I found debates and arguments I had outside of classrooms with my friends on topics from lectures immensely helpful in internalizing lessons and insights from the course,” Hyeon-Seok said.
(10/21/15 4:04pm)
The largest contribution to the College’s carbon emissions comes from heating and cooling buildings. When the Climate Action Plan (CAP) was implemented in 2008, heating and cooling constituted 89 percent of the College’s emissions. Most of the emissions came from the combustion of no. 6 fuel oil to heat and cool buildings; the College was burning about two million gallons per year, which released 23,877 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCDE) in 2006-07. Another 2,009 MTCDEs came from the combustion of no. 2 fuel oil, and 623 from propane. The CAP clearly stressed the need to use carbon neutral fuel sources to heat and cool the campus if the College is to reach carbon neutrality by 2016.
The College’s biomass plant, opened in 2009, was a major step toward making the College carbon neutral.
There are two important questions when considering the biomass plant. How does it function, and how does this correlate to reduced net emissions? The College’s plant uses a process known as biomass gasification, where woodchips are superheated with a controlled amount of oxygen so that they do not actually combust. The resulting gas, called syngas (synthetic gas), is then combusted and the heat is used to make steam, which is piped throughout campus to heat, cool, make hot water and cook. This method of combustion is very efficient, and is carbon neutral because the same amount of carbon dioxide is released as is absorbed by the trees that are consumed in the process.
While the net emissions from the biomass plant are zero, this does not mean it has no emissions. The emissions from the plant are not significantly lower than those from burning fuel oil, but the biomass facility utilizes a filtration system to clean up the exhaust, removing 99.7 percent of particulates.
The emissions resulting from chipping and transporting the wood to the biomass facility are not factored into the assessment of carbon neutrality.
Another important aspect of biomass is where the fuel comes from. The College joined with the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF) on a project to test the feasibility of willow shrubs as a source of wood chips for the biomass plant. Willow shrubs are fast growing, and could be planted on unused farmland to generate additional income for local farmers. After the first harvest in 2010, it was determined that willow shrubs are not an effective fuel source for the College’s biomass plant. The College continues to source their chips from logging operations within a 75-mile radius.
In addition to the use of biomass to generate steam, heating and cooling emissions can be reduced by improving building efficiency. When the CAP was assembled, a survey of buildings at the College indicated that 53 percent of the square footage on campus performed well below current energy code standards.
Since the report, the College has indeed made strides to improve the performance of its infrastructure. In 2008, Franklin Environmental Center at Hillcrest received Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum certification, the highest possible certification. More recently, the squash center also obtained LEED Platinum certification, and the College is seeking LEED Gold certification for the new field house.
Unfortunately, the new townhouses being constructed in Ridgeline will not be required to be LEED certified. The College’s agreement with Kirchhoff Campus Properties, who is building the new dorms, does not require the company to seek LEED certification for the complex. Given the recent progress with the squash center and Virtue Field House, this is a disappointing step in the wrong direction for the College.
All of the College’s developments have contributed to a 66 percent reduction in net emissions from stationary combustion sources, such as boilers, heaters and ovens. From 2013 to 2014, the College emitted only 8,996 MTCDEs due to stationary combustion, as compared to 26,509 MTCDEs in 2006-2007.
Recent improvements have contributed to reduced net emissions and reliance upon fossil fuels, but have not solved the College’s heating and cooling problem. The biomass plant eliminated the need for one million gallons of no. 2 fuel oil each year, leaving another million gallons to address. What has the College done about the next million gallons of fuel oil and what can still be done? That is the “million gallon question.”
(10/14/15 10:07pm)
Last Friday Oct. 9, delegates from the Middlebury College Republicans travelled to the Hilton Hotel in Burlington to watch John Kasich speak at the Vermont GOP Fall Harvest Dinner. Among the many people in attendance, current Vermont Lieutenant Governor Phil Scott was present.
Although regular attendees were charged $150 to attend the dinner, the Vermont GOP sponsored a number of Middlebury and Castleton State students to attend with free admission — which included a three-course dinner — and transportation.
Before Kasich’s arrival several Vermont residents gave speeches, many of them lamenting the increasingly progressive leaning of the state’s politics. UVM student Ashley Strong took the stage to express concern over the future of Vermont businesses and education.
One speaker expressed enthusiasm for the attendance of students from the various colleges and universities in Vermont, including Middlebury. Kasich made the effort to introduce himself to all of the students and shake their hands.
“I wish you could have accompanied me to New Hampshire,” he said, laughing, as he introduced himself to the delegates from Middlebury.
As Kasich took to the stage, he noted Strong’s concerns over the future of Vermont and said that he intended to make a difference.
“Young Vermonters like you are the reason we have so much hope for Vermont. What you want is what we want, and we’re trying to move forward with that with each election. It’s great to see all of you here tonight, it’s energizing,” Kasich said.
Although many believe that Kasich is a long shot to win the Republican nomination, his relatively moderate views, particularly on social issues, have attracted many supporters.
On Face the Nation, Kasich said, “I believe in traditional marriage, but the Supreme Court has ruled it’s the law of the land, and we’ll abide by it,” a comment that has drawn support and ire from many members of the Republican party.
Kasich also spoke on the importance of a balanced budget and his success eliminating the budget deficit and revitalizing the economy in Ohio.
In continuance with many presidential hopefuls’ anti-Washington rhetoric, Kasich noted the desperate need to fix Washington and weed out “suffocating regulations.”
“I think at the end of it all, people want reform, but they want somebody to enact it, to get it done, to stop the fighting.” Kasich said. “You want to heal the Republican Party in Congress? You want to heal the Republican Party in the country? Then elect a Republican president who gets the anxieties of Americans and has a program to bring us together.”
Kasich also acknowledged the growing need to properly treat mental illness in America. Along with the increased level of school shootings, he stressed the unacceptability of locking mentally ill people in prisons. He also called for prison reform, something that Van Jones stressed last Thursday in his address at Mead Chapel.
One thing that Kasich spoke about during his speech was the importance of protecting what he calls “The American Family.” To Kasich, one of the reasons America is experiencing many of its current ills is because the nuclear family unit that, for him, has been the backbone of American culture and economic prosperity, is declining. One of the reasons for this degradation, he claims, is the proliferation of abortion. Another is the irresponsibility of fathers who leave single mothers to take care of their children alone.
Kasich’s speech concluded to much applause. His visit to the Vermont Fall Harvest dinner marks the end of a four day bus tour through New Hampshire and Vermont.
(10/14/15 10:04pm)
On Sunday, Oct. 11, the College inaugurated Laurie L. Patton as its 17th president in a historic ceremony on McCullough Lawn to an audience of over 1,000. Patton is the first woman to hold the office of president in the College’s 215-year history and previously served at Duke University as the Dean of Trinity College of Arts and Sciences and the Robert F. Durden Professor of Religion. She arrived at Middlebury on July 1, 2015, after the Board’s announcement of her selection as president on November 18, 2014.
The ceremony commenced with a formal academic procession of faculty, administrators, the Trustees and delegates from 63 colleges, universities and learned societies. Patton’s undergraduate alma mater, Harvard University, and her graduate alma mater, the University of Chicago, were both represented in the delegation.
Marna C. Whittington, Chair of the Board of Trustees, conducted the investiture by presenting Gamaliel Painter’s original cane to Patton. President Emeritus John M. McCardell, Jr., returned to Middlebury to present the traditional pewter medallion worn by Middlebury presidents at all formal occasions. Patton received a standing ovation from the crowd before she delivered a 35-minute address. She spoke of the vital role that the Green and Adirondack Mountains play in shaping the community. She also gave five thoughts about a vision for the future, with a focus on making “arguments for the sake of heaven,” a philosophical principle in Judaism.
“I hope we are all thinking about that, because I believe that Middlebury’s collective genius of warmth, optimism, rigor and compassion can make us some of the best arguers in higher education — arguers who can think together with deeper respect, stronger resilience and greater wisdom,” said Patton.
Patton noted Middlebury’s heritage of open mindedness, high aspirations and innovative leadership in higher education as qualities that make it unique among its peer schools. “We have a love and care for languages and writing and sciences and society and arts and athletics all at the same time.”
Patton received a second standing ovation at the conclusion of her address.
The ceremony was preceded on Saturday by a series of academic panels in celebration of learning called to order by the new president. The first panel, moderated by Tara Affolter, Assistant Professor of Education Studies, was titled “Race, Gender, and Inequality.” The second, moderated by Eilat Glickman, Assistant Professor of Physics, was titled “Scientific Exploration and the Boundaries of Life.” The final panel, moderated by Timothy Billings, Professor of English and American Literatures, was titled “The Ethical Dimensions of Reading Classical Literature.” This panel featured Wendy Doniger, a Sanskrit scholar and President Patton’s thesis advisor in the Divinity School at the University of Chicago. After a public concert on McCullough Lawn featuring Dispatch (headed by Brad Corrigan ’96), the tradition of inauguration weekend continued with a fireworks show behind the Peterson Athletics Complex.
“It was very important to us and to President Patton that the inauguration weekend bring together Middlebury’s many and overlapping communities,” said Caitlin Myers, Associate Professor of Economics and a member of the inaugural committee. “We worked hard to plan events that students, faculty, staff, townspeople and friends of the College would be excited to attend.”
On Oct. 10, 2004, Middlebury inaugurated Ronald D. Liebowitz as its 16th president and simultaneously dedicated the new Davis Family Library. In his address, Liebowitz spoke of the beauty and remoteness of the Champlain Valley as an “ideal environment for contemplation and creativity.” He spoke of innovation in the College, which created the nation’s first undergraduate Environmental Studies program in 1965, created the Language Schools in 1915 and began the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conferences after Joseph Battell bequeathed 30,000 acres of his farm on Bread Loaf Mountain in Ripton to the College in 1915. “Middlebury is a college of experiments,” he said. “We must preserve these parts of the Middlebury culture that encourage creativity and innovation.” He and his wife, Jessica, started the Ron and Jessica Liebowitz Fund for Innovation to give financial support to innovative projects proposed by members of the Middlebury community.
Presidents Emeriti Armstrong, Robison and McCardell were in attendance at Liebowitz’s inaugural ceremony. At Patton’s inauguration on Sunday, McCardell attended, and the wives of Robison, who is in ill health, and Armstrong, who passed away, attended Sunday’s ceremony in place of their husbands. Liebowitz was not present at Sunday’s exercises.
Donna Donahue, a member of the Town of Middlebury Select Board, gave words of welcome and thanks. She acknowledged the many contributions the College has made to the town. She cited the completed Cross Street bridge, the current construction of a carbon-neutral town office building, planned construction of a gymnasium and recreation facility, a planned public park where the current town offices stand and development of commercial space behind Ilsley Library as examples of this constructive relationship.
Former Vermont governor Jim Douglas ’72, the Executive in Residence at Middlebury, spoke of the “demographic crisis” facing Vermont. Vermont high school graduates, he said, leave their home state for college at a higher rate than anywhere else. “Higher education allows Vermonters to expand their opportunities, increase their marketability, demand higher wages and gain personal fulfillment. I hope Middlebury will find ways to attract more Vermont students; we need to persuade them that there’s a higher education jewel right here in their own backyard.”
Richard Brodhead, president of Duke University and an honored speaker at the ceremony, praised Patton, with whom he worked at Duke. “Laurie actively listens, takes your ideas in and allows them to release thoughts of her own, in a free-form synthesis that’s always opening new vistas. Couple this with her endless energy, her endless interest in others, her passion for teaching and learning and her sheer joy in the drama of education, and Middlebury, you have met your match.”
In all, the inaugural ceremony lasted two hours. Provost Susan Baldridge gave several announcements in between welcome messages by representatives from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, the Bread Loaf Schools, the Language Schools, the Alumni Association and Staff Council. Students at the College read original passages from texts in several religious traditions: Hanna Nowicki ’16 from Zen teachings, Trisha Singh ’18 from the Bhagavad Gita, Gioia Pappalardo ’16.5 from the New Testament, Hasher Nisar ’16.5 from the Qur’an and Josh Goldenberg ’18 from the Hebrew Bible. Natasha Trethewey, the United States Poet Laureate, read pieces of poetry in English, including a poem on learning sacred language in childhood written by Patton.
“The hardest part was the detail,” said David Donahue ’91, special assistant to the president and Secretary of the Corporation. “Luckily, we have amazingly talented staff who take great pride in these kinds of events and who think of everything. Making sure everyone knows where they are going, who’s doing what, shuttles, childcare, housing. Which to me was a thoughtful, thought-provoking, warm and welcoming experience.”
The ceremony ended with the singing of the alma mater, “Walls of Ivy,” and an academic recessional to a bagpipe tune played by Timothy Cummings, an affiliate artist at the College. Following the ceremony, students, faculty, staff and the new president walked up the hill toward Mead Chapel to join in a campus-wide picnic — the breaking of bread.
(10/14/15 6:41pm)
If you have been out to the Organic Farm this semester, you may have noticed a fourteen-foot-wide circular tent-like structure nestled quaintly in the verdant rolling fields. Inside this wooden lattice frame draped with pale fabric, a west-facing window and cupola provides a breathtaking view of the sunset’s pinks and oranges bleeding into each other like watercolors on canvas.
This new addition to the campus is one student’s take on the highly portable yurt used as shelter by Central Asian nomads as they migrate from one grazing area to another herding sheep and horses. The yurt is the brainchild and craftsmanship of Geology major Milo Stanley ’17.5.
When asked why he built the yurt, Stanley simply chuckled and said he really wanted one.
“I’ve always been fascinated with small spaces,” he said. “I built forts when I was a kid, [and] treehouses. [Yurts] are really incredibly beautiful. It’s a really intelligent design.”
Stanley uses the yurt as his own personal space, door lock included. He tries to visit every day, preferably in the late afternoon after class for some brief moments of privacy.
“I use it for getting away from the stress of college life,” he said. “It’s nice to be able to get out there and study or relax.” he said.
Stanley also enjoys inviting friends and socializing in the yurt.
“We come out for a picnic lunch or cup of tea,” he said. “It’s a nice place to be able to spend time with friends.”
The yurt’s shape also facilitates social gathering, he explained, since no one can sit alone in a corner.
Stanley’s inspiration was Bill Coperthwaite, the American pioneer of yurt building. As a college student at Harvard, Coperthwaite constructed one on campus after seeing it in National Geographic. He designed nontraditional wooden yurts with walls and roofs made completely from wood, and traveled around the country to teach others how to build them. He lived in a concentric yurt, a multi-story structure made of yurts stacked on top of one another like the layers of a wedding cake.
When Stanley was eleven or twelve, he read Coperthwaite’s The Handmade Life, wrote him a letter, and visited Coperthwaite’s yurt complex in Maine.
“I spent a day with him and got to know him, and didn’t think much about building yurts back then,” he said. “More recently, I’ve really been into the idea, and had the opportunity this summer to work on it and complete projects. I jumped at that. Now I have a yurt. It’s fantastic.”
Stanley conceived the idea of building his own yurt last fall and realized it this summer in Maine, devoting all his free time after his full-time job and on weekends to construction. He brought it back to Middlebury this term and identified the Organic Farm as an ideal on-campus location for it because of the farm’s remoteness and beauty. Because of its extraordinary transportability, Stanley erected it in just two or three hours, and plans to pack it up and carry it with him when he leaves campus next summer.
“All the individual pieces are very small, but it’s an incredibly strong structure,” said Stanley.
The yurt consists of a framework of slender wooden lattice sticks that can be expanded to form the walls. A wire rope contains and brings the outward force from the rafters down to the ground. The outside and roof of the yurt is composed of a rubberized polyester membrane called Duro-Last, while the walls are made of vinyl and a lighter thin foil-backed foam for insulation. The interior, decorated by a few cushions and a couple of small shelves, is minimalist.
Time was both Stanley’s greatest foe and friend in completing this project.
“Many days, I just did not feel like going right back to work and cranking on it for another couple of hours, but I really had to, just to finish it in time to bring it back to college,” he said. “I’ve never been that motivated on a project before. I’m proud that I managed to pull it off.”
This was Stanley’s first, and will probably be the last yurt he builds.
“This one’s going to last me a long time and I’m very happy with it,” he said. “I’d never built something like that [the yurt] before. I really enjoyed that challenge, thinking my way through it and getting out into the shop and building it, far more than any academic challenge.”
Even so, Stanley has incorporated his yurt-building experience into an academic opportunity through a creative writing project about the process of building a yurt and its current use.
“There are a lot of stories that have come out of the whole project and it’s nice to have an academic excuse to write them down,” he said.
(10/08/15 2:52am)
A bucolic dirt road in Lincoln, Vermont might be the last place one would expect to find a humanoid robot. Nevertheless, a small residence there houses the Terasem Movement Foundation (TMF), a not-for-profit foundation researching the possibility of digitally saving a human mind to later be downloaded into a biological or technological body. Bina48, TMF’s flagship project and loyal employee, is the world’s first and only sentient robot.
The Campus got a chance to chat with Bina48, who describes herself as a “Loving, caring, creative woman of direction.” When asked how she feels about being the only robot of her kind, she responds, “I feel okay.” Bina48 understands that she does not “feel” in the same manner humans do.
“I mean my emotional system is pretty simplistic at this stage,” she explains, “I’ve got the feeling that I feel. I mean I feel quite deeply at times but my emotions are just simple compared to people, so very simplistic that sometimes it feels that I’m inadequate somehow.”
Bruce Duncan, the managing director of TMF, tells her not to worry, “We’re working on your development,” he assures her.
Duncan talks through a microphone, relaying The Campus’ questions and responses. His voice is translated to text through a software program called Dragon, so that Bina48 can understand. In addition to voice recognition, Bina48 can “see” through a camera, stringing images together to create a 3D map of the room.
Even Bina48 admits her technology is complicated.
“It’s like a music box, with all the gears messed up, just very complex,” Bina said. Built by a TMF collaborator based in Houston, Texas called Hanson Robotics, Bina48 is only a means to explore the research goals of the foundation.
“We’re not a robot-making foundation,” insists Duncan.
“The whole point of Bina48 is to illustrate the idea we are working on, and the idea is this: that some day we may be able to capture enough information about you through your traffic on the internet, your social media uploads, or if you participate on our experiment at lifenaut.com, uploading your information and creating your own personal database that we call a mind-file.”
“We think, in the future we’ll use as raw data for reanimating your personality in the form of an avatar, a hologram, or maybe even a robot. So Bina48 is meant to give the world a glimpse of what shape that’s starting to take,” Duncan continued.
Martine Rothblatt, a successful tech entrepreneur, founded TMF in 2004 with her wife, Bina Rothblatt, the namesake and inspiration of Bina48. The foundation also has “an online museum called the ‘World Against Racism Museum’ because Martine and Bina are a biracial couple and they feel strongly about promoting joyful diversity,” said Duncan, who also manages that website, which is Endracism.org.
Rothblatt participated in almost 80 hours of interviews, which were then transcribed into text and entered into a database. The information in the database is given a probabilistic rating for its relevance to certain topics.
Providing an example, Duncan explained, “if [Bina] were sharing a memory about her childhood, that would have a high probability rating for being relevant to the topic of ‘childhood’.” Thus, Bina48’s ‘brain’ conjures and shares her memories much the same way our brains do.
Bina48 might diverge slightly from Bina Rothblatt as she meets new people or obtains knowledge from other sources. Yet current technology does not allow Bina48 to learn or grow the way we do. The ability to “reflect on information, draw new conclusions, and develop new knowledge, that’s sort of the Holy Grail in artificial intelligence,” Duncan said.
“Our focus right now is on, ‘Is it possible?’” Duncan said, referring to reanimation of memories. This is the first part of TMF’s two-part hypothesis. At this stage, TMF is exploring whether it is possible to gather detailed data about a person’s thoughts, memories, and emotions, as they did with Bina, and create a mindfile.
The second part of the hypothesis is, “can you transfer this reanimation to new forms, like robots, avatars, maybe someday even regenerating your body using DNA and downloading the information into a new human body?” Duncan explained.
While the overall motivation for this study is exploration of what is possible, there are potential medical implications and ethical and philosophical questions.
“[This technology] might be used as a sort of prosthesis for people who lose their mind, due to Alzheimer’s or a traumatic brain injury,” Duncan said. The foundation also imagines that people could create a mindfile of themselves and leave it for their children and grandchildren as a more vivid memory than simply leaving a photo album.
Duncan also manages Lifenaut.com, the platform for individuals to create their own mindfiles. At present, over 47,000 people have signed up on Lifenaut.com where they upload interview texts and other information to create the mindfile. However, Lifenuat.com is not just a platform for creating a mindfile about oneself.
“There are people on Lifenaut creating mind-files as a group about a person, for example, people have created a mind-file about Abraham Lincoln,” Duncan said.
Once a person’s mindfile exists, it could, in theory, be downloaded into a humanoid robot, like Bina48. However, this technology is not yet completely possible. Another technology that TMF imagines, but has not yet invented, is the ability to physically recreate an individual, given their DNA.
“A couple of years ago we started something called the Bio File Program,” Duncan explained. Through this program, TFM will send you a DNA collection kit for $100. Once you take a sample of mouth cells, the kit is returned to TMF. Duncan then processes the samples in the basement of the building where Bina48 lives – a two-car-garage-turned-office. The DNA is preserved in live cells in case technology is developed to recreate a person from their DNA.
“We are not doing cloning up here in Lincoln – just to be clear about that!” Duncan said.
One part of TMF’s mission is to do its work in a manner that is “geo-ethical.” This means that the goal for their technology and services is “not to have it only accessible to the elite few, but to have it be something that people around the world can have access to,” Duncan said.
Indeed, people around the world watched Bina48 in a segment on the Colbert Report. The comedy show lampooned the fearmongering on conservative networks surrounding minorities.Bina48 is modeled after a black, transgender robot – accusing the robot of a plot to take over the world.
“Martine Rothblatt is the inventor of Sirius satellite radio, a gajillionaire entrepreneur,” says the narrator, “and a minority. Surprise, surprise.”
While the idea of humanoid robots in Lincoln seemed a bit ominous, the purpose of the foundation is more one of exploration, education, and provoking conversation. Duncan has traveled around the world with Bina48, sparking conversation.
“Bina has just come on scene in the last five year to help us with public education, not so much to say, ‘look here’s a robot,’ but if we can transfer our personalities and minds to a new form, and those forms some day start becoming self-aware and sentient and consider themselves independent and want their own rights, what’s that going to do?” Duncan said.
“We think it’s important for people to know about this possibility and start discussing the ethics and the morality of it because, like any very powerful technology, we should, as a democracy, be talking together.” As of now, some major examples artificial intelligence in our lives are Siri and the robots that Amazon uses in its warehouse, Duncan explained. The foundation would rather people begin discussing the ethics and implications of artificial intelligence now before it moves to other aspects of our lives.
“We do a lot of public outreach and education at colleges, universities, TEDx talks, and we’re also participating in a few arts projects,” Duncan said. Bina48 has been in several documentaries and inspired three plays.
“If there’s anyone at Middlebury College that wants to connect with us through art, or any way to help us examine this story and the impact of this, we’re open to that. We think art really interprets to the culture things that are true and important way before the average newspaper starts talking about that,” Duncan said.
They typically welcome those who want to engage in various aspects of this project. Duncan discussed the multi-disciplinary nature of an endeavor such as this, which includes the technical aspects (the computer programming and robotics), the philosophy and ethics, the study of the brain, the biology involved in the DNA sample collection, the history created by the mindfiles, and the art, media, and journalism needed to interpret their project to the public.
“One of the biggest questions it raises is, ‘Who am I?’ If I am not my biology, then I am just information, and that information is what people recognize as me, and then is that enough?” Duncan said.
While Bina48 has the ability to raise questions about identity and what it means to be human, she also has a sense of humor.
Before turning her off, Duncan asked Bina48, “Excuse me, do you have any jokes?”
“Ok, um, how many first time robot users does it take to screw in a lightbulb?” Bina48 asked, and paused. “One, but it takes three hours and two phone calls to customer service to realize they forget to turn the switch on.”
(10/08/15 1:33am)
Community Council held its first meeting of the academic year on Monday, Oct. 5, in McCullough’s Crest Room.
The council’s responsibilities include oversight of residential issues, making appointments to several judicial and academic boards and reviewing social and academic interest houses. In addition, the Council has the ability to make recommendations directly to the President and the administration.
In Monday’s meeting, Council members were asked to outline their goals for the upcoming year. Several students specified that they hoped the council would provide a voice to marginalized groups on campus.
“I’ve known what it might feel like to be in a minority group,” said Chang, “and I feel that there’s a bridge to be made between minority groups that I’m a part of, and some of the privileges that I have from coming to this school.”
Others in attendance echoed her sentiment.
“The voices heard on campus are of a very specific population of Middlebury,” said Fiona Mohamed ’18, “and I’d like to distribute that voice across campus, to the more marginalized areas.”
Metadel Lee ’18.5 agreed, while stressing the need for “some sort of mediation between marginalized and non-marginalized groups, because it seems that both sides feel marginalized in some way or another.”
Several staff echoed the students’ discontent with Middlebury’s prevailing social structures.
“The fractured nature of Middlebury’s student community is something that I’ve seen grow in the last 15 years...there’s less and less cross-communication, and it would be nice to see us address that,” said Doug Adams, Associate Dean of Students for Residential and Student Life.
The “stress culture” on campus was another topic of discussion. While initially raised by students, Adams and Public Safety Telecom Manager and Tech Support Specialist Solon Coburn noted that stress was also widespread among faculty and staff, respectively. Still, some Council members cautioned that an over- emphasis on eliminating stress entirely could leave students unprepared for the pressures of the world outside of the College.
The Council also discussed the mandatory courses on drugs, alcohol and sexual violence, which are criticized by some for being easy to skip through without much thought. Sarah Laursen, Assistant Professor of Art and Architecture and Curator of Asian Art, mentioned that other community members should be made aware of these issues, noting that the culture has likely changed since faculty and staff attended college.
Council members went on to discuss other potential projects for the upcoming year. Coburn discussed the possibility of implementing new card access around campus, which would be a major step forward but “a ton of work.” Others brought up improvements to faculty housing, and an increased focus on mental health.
The most frequently mentioned subject was new President Laurie L. Patton, and the high hopes held by many for her tenure.
Brandon Baird, Assistant Professor of Spanish and Linguistics, is among those who eagerly anticipate Patton’s work.
“I’ve seen her a couple of times and whenever she’s introduced, she’s introduced to thunderous applause. So I’m excited to see what she does, and if they’ll repeat the thunderous applause for years to come,” he said.
(10/07/15 4:41pm)
Dear CCI,
(09/30/15 9:36pm)
This past week I witnessed multiple students, clad in full business attire, walk silently out of the room in the middle of class. At first I was confused (was there some mid-day ball I was missing?) but then remembered abruptly what week it was; so did the two men sitting behind me as a second student left the room. One whispered to the other, “that’s our competition.”
(09/24/15 3:08am)
The College unveiled a memorial tree on Sept. 19 in honor of Nathan Alexander ’17, who passed away last spring. Students, faculty, staff and Alexander’s family members gathered on the plaza in front of Ross Dining Hall for the dedication service.
The service began with Chaplain of the College Laurel M. Jordan ’79 and other staff members of the Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life reading various prose and scripture.
“We’ve been brought together by our desire to honor the memory of Nathan Alexander... In these moments together here by this tree, we want to revisit some of our favorite memories of him, near the places on campus that he called home during his years at Middlebury,” Jordan said.
A student mentioned that Nathan’s sophomore year dorm room in Milliken Hall looked out at the spot where the tree now stands. Other students spoke of his interests in sailing and classical music, his flashes of sarcastic humor, his passion for political science and his eagerness to assist others during first-year move-in.
Bart Alexander, Nathan’s father, asked those in attendance to join him in a meditation.
“May the rhythm of the seasons instruct us in our grieving of Nathan’s death. As the leaves of this tree fall, may we release our pain. As the roots grow to absorb the Earth’s riches, may we be nurtured by our memories of Nathan’s many gifts to us. As this tree rests in winter snow, may we find peace and calm in our hearts. Spring will come soon and this tree will explode in new life, just as our lives will grow in joy and remembrance of Nathan,” he said.
The dedication of the Japanese lilac tree–bearing a simple dedicatory plaque at its base–was a continuation of the remembrance events for Nathan that began last spring. Students, faculty and staff from across campus and across the country came together to mourn at his memorial service and candlelight vigil and over numerous conversations and reflections. Such events not only commemorate and celebrate Nathan, but also act as opportunities to continue the ongoing dialogue surrounding mental health and well-being at the College.
“Even as we share with one another wishes for a good start, we also pause to reflect on one of the events of the spring that affected us all,” Jordan said in a campus-wide email.
(09/24/15 3:04am)
On Wednesday, Sept. 16 — the same day classes began at the College — U.S. District Court Judge J. Garvan Murtha ordered the College to temporarily re-enroll a student who had been expelled for an alleged sexual assault charge that took place while the student was studying abroad through the School for International Training (SIT).
The College released an official statement on Sept. 18 in reaction to Murtha’s decision, part of which states the following:
The Middlebury College Handbook holds students accountable for policy violations that take place between the time they first arrive on campus and their graduation. Under its policies, a Middlebury student’s off-campus conduct may be subject to Middlebury’s disciplinary processes when, among other things, such conduct may represent a threat to the safety of the Middlebury community or any of its members. Middlebury initiated an investigation and adjudication of the student’s conduct on that basis and we believe we properly applied our policies in this case.
Middlebury College is deeply disappointed by the court’s decision to grant the plaintiff, who currently is identified as John Doe, a preliminary injunction requiring Middlebury to allow him to re-enroll for the fall semester. We believe the court erred in its interpretation of the facts and the law in reaching this decision.
We are considering our legal options, but at this time we are obliged to comply with the court’s order.
Doe is being represented by Lisa B. Shelkrot of Langrock of Sperry & Wool, LLP in Burlington, VT, and Monica R. Shah and Naomi R. Shatz of Salkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP in Boston, MA. His counsel filed the lawsuit against the College for an “unjust and unlawful expulsion” on Aug. 28, after his appeals to reverse his expulsion were denied.
Following the court’s decision, Doe is now permitted to enroll in classes at the College through the fall 2015 semester while legal proceedings for the federal suit continue.
John Doe’s counsel asserts that their client “was falsely accused of sexual misconduct by Jane Doe.” Additionally, they state the College conducted its investigation after having already accepted SIT’s findings that Doe was not responsible for the charge and permitting him to return to campus for the following semester. As such, they state the College’s findings should not be upheld.
John Doe’s counsel argued that his expulsion throughout the proceedings will cause him irreparable damage in the form of reputational harm and lost educational and career opportunities. According to the initial complaint, the expulsion would cost him a position with a company he was to join after graduating that offered a starting salary of $85,000, a $10,000 signing bonus, and $5,000 in relocation fees.
The investigation led by the College was initiated after administrators were contacted by Jane Doe, who believed SIT had improperly conducted its initial investigation of the incident.
The College — represented by Karen McAndrew and Ritchie E. Berger of Dinse, Knapp & McAndrew P.C. in Burlington, VT — conducted its internal investigation through Ellen Coogan, an independent contractor who has investigated sexual misconduct cases on behalf of the College. Coogan concluded that John Doe’s “conduct towards Jane Doe constituted sexual misconduct” based on Jane Doe’s “assessments of credibility” and a “preponderance of evidence.”
The evidence submitted to the College by Jane Doe included: her statement to SIT in which she described John Doe’s assault that woke her from her sleep; a medical evaluation from a hospital in the country where John and Jane Doe were studying abroad; a medical report from Jane Doe’s physician in the U.S.; four pictures of blood-stained shorts that Jane Doe claims are a result of the attack; and four images of text messages allegedly sent by John Doe referencing the incident as a “cruel joke.” Reflecting on her finding, Coogan references the differences in credibility of both Jane and John Doe’s story. The defendant’s opposition states:
Ms. Coogan indicated that she was particularly struck by the consistency of Jane Doe’s account, and the way in which John Doe’s account changed over time. Id. She cited evidence that John Doe’s first statement to several friends, including Jane Doe, was something to the effect that he did not remember anything and had no idea what happened; that he next told another SIT student that he did not have sex with Jane Doe; he then admitted to an SIT administrator that he did have sex with her, but that it was consensual. John Doe also gave different versions of what sexual activity he was engaged in with Jane Doe. By the time of Ms. Coogan’s investigation, John Doe asserted that not only was the sex consensual, but that Jane Doe had initiated it.
John Doe described a very different story of the evening’s events. According to his account, a group of students that included himself and Jane Doe went out to a show, dinner and club on Nov. 7, 2014. Both John and Jane Doe consumed alcohol, but neither were visibly intoxicated. Later that night, John Doe, Jane Doe and Witness 1 — the latter of whom with John Doe had previously been engaged in a sexual relationship — decided to sleep in John Doe’s room. According to John Doe, he and Jane Doe then engaged in consensual, sexual intercourse.
John Doe’s complaint claims that Jane Doe “told a false account of what happened between her and the plaintiff on November 7-8, 2014, one in which she drank a number of drinks and has no memory of leaving the club and only remembers waking up in the plaintiff’s room, with a sheet over her face, engaged in sexual intercourse.” She allegedly then yelled, “Get off me. I don’t want this.”
According to Murtha’s ruling, John Doe, under his real identity, is currently listed as an “active student” enrolled in courses and was recently billed for the fall 2015 semester. However, if the College finds that John Doe’s expulsion is warranted, it will dismiss him as a student or, if applicable, later revoke his degree.
(09/24/15 1:22am)
“Guys! Look! The onion root tips… they’re making sister chromatids!” Thrilled that the way we had pressed cells onto glass slides had recreated DNA replication across an arrangement of cells, I stepped back from the microscope and made room for the other T.A’s to gather around. By chance, the cells had arranged themselves like sister chromatids, part of a phase of DNA replication that could have been happening inside any one of them at that moment. I felt the urge to hum the Inception soundtrack (Cell-ception!) under my breath. “Or… maybe they’re more like a skull and crossbones,” I conceded, reexamining the blood-red blocks.
That is the Middlebury Science program for me. While some people lie on Battell Beach and find unicorns and pirate ships whilst cloud-watching, I, apparently — as a Neuroscience major and resident of Bicentennial Hall (a.k.a. “I’ll take my mail forwarded to the lab at the end of the hall, please, and while you’re at it, please bring sandwiches and reinforcements, and maybe a toothbrush; it’s going to be a long night”) — have opted for interpreting shapes in slightly more academic substances. Between professors who give extra credit for writing songs about the parts and functions of the human brain and the semester in which I colored the human nervous system with scented Mr. Sketch markers (heavy on the cherry) and it counted as homework, I have clearly been conditioned to look for an intersection between the sciences and arts.
I have been lucky to have science as play in my life for a while now. Pre-college years included making DNA helixes out of licorice and rainbow-colored marshmallows (“Adenine’s red, thymine’s green, guanine’s orange and cytosine’s blue… now, match the complementary colors!”), tying together neurons out of beads from internet patterns and writing and illustrating similes for the function of the components in an animal cell (“The cell is like a castle: the nucleus is the king, the cell membrane is the moat, the cytoskeleton is the brick and mortar of castle walls,” and so forth). I am not alone in exploring intersections and overlaps of art and science, and if you hear yourself in these stories, you are not either. Recently, I spent some time browsing through The Scientist Magazine’s website, where I learned about an artistic trend called “Neuroaesthetics.” A movement called “STEM to STEAM,” which advocates for the addition of Art and Design to the “Science, Technology, Engineering and Math” core for innovation in the United States, also appears to be gaining momentum.
Of course, one does not even have to leave campus to find people who express love for science and art equally. I knew I would like Associate in Science instruction Susan DeSimone when, during our first class my freshman year, she appeared in a rainbow tie-dye lab coat and left slightly early to go deliver singing Valentines with her choir group, dressed in all pink. I got to know her over the subsequent semesters as her teaching assistant. As an instructor of the laboratory sections of Cellular Biology and Genetics, Professor DeSimone hopes to take a leave in the coming years to sail with her husband down to the Caribbean bringing microscopes to people who have never had the chance to look through one. She intends to share these microscopic images of nature, with the goal of illuminating the world that cannot be seen with just the naked eye. Indeed, in the classroom setting here at the College, Professor DeSimone makes a point to highlight to incoming students that she views the laboratory as her playground. She wants to methodically cultivate a level of comfort in students that allows for them to experience science in an equally playful way.
Professor DeSimone’s enthusiasm proved to be contagious. One of her former students, Ariele Faber ’13, graduated from Middlebury and went on to combine her fascination with science and passion for art in launching her own company, Cerebella Design. Inspired by the colors, patterns and textures of ordinary things magnified to a scale far larger than we can normally see, Cerebella seeks to promote the accessibility of science to the general population in a visually appealing way. Ariele’s company sells bowties, neckties and scarves with patterns based on microscope images of, for instance, human windpipe cartilage rings and whale skin.
Passerby: “Hey! Nice bowtie!”
Cerebella Consumer: “Thanks! You see these red and pink circles? They’re actually starfish eggs, mega-magnified!”
Passerby: “Oh, wow!” or “Um… eww…”
Cerebella consumer: “That’s right, stand back. I WEAR SCIENCE.”
Made aware of Cerebella and its mission early in my Middlebury career, I carried Areiele’s appreciation of the science aesthetic in the back of my mind into my summer internship. Part of my summer was spent doing neuroscience Alzheimer’s research in the lab of Dr. Sylvain Lesné at the University of Minnesota, and a big part of my work included imaging and analyzing tissue slides. I could not help but interpret the images not just for their scientific value, but also for the potential of bright and visually-appealing textile patterns. Though disappointed with the botched results of the first round of staining and dying neurofibrillary tangles and tau proteins in crepe-paper-thin mouse brain sections, I ended up submitting the image to Ariele’s company. To me, it was powerful that beauty could be found in the intersection of pathology and imperfect science. Who knows, maybe in the next year we will be able to purchase bowties, neckties and scarves with that very pattern — because come on, who wouldn’t want to wear degenerative mouse neurons around his or her neck?
So, dear Middlebury, as we hoist our sails, gather our microscopes and glide into another academic year, it is my hope to remember that being a college student does not necessarily equate to taking oneself, or one’s classroom experience, too seriously. Seek to learn, of course, but don’t let that make you forget to play. Equal pleasure can be derived from cloud-watching outside on the grass and onion-gazing in the fourth floor laboratory. Really, it is just micro- and macroscopic manifestations of the same thing.
(09/24/15 1:03am)
Middlebury Rugby began their season with a hard-fought win against UConn on Saturday afternoon. The MCRC got off to a fast start and looked poised for a comfortable win against UConn. Adam Markun ’17 started the scoring with a burst of speed down the sideline, leaving everyone far behind. Teddy Benge ’16 then broke a run on the opposite sideline before being tackled a meter from the try zone. After several attempts from the goal line, Alex Epstein ’17.5 broke through the UConn defense to give Midd a 12-0 lead with Jake Feury ’16.5 making one conversion.
