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(10/28/21 9:59am)
Here’s some advice my grandmother gave me when I was young: always watch a horror movie on a first date. I mean, what could be more romantic than shielding your eyes as your partner wraps their arms around you? What a great excuse to do the ol’ “yawn and stretch,” the ultimate protection from the characters that could very well jump off the screen and into your house. I still firmly believe in watching horror movies on the first date, but now I hold this belief for different reasons.Whether or not you agree, it does seem like the monsters that creep across our screens sometimes appear in real life. Horror movie tropes represent different types of partners you might find in your life, and certainly here at Middlebury.
(10/28/21 10:00am)
The datedness of James Bond is a puzzle “No Time to Die” tries to address. As Dame Judi Dench’s M once put it, Bond really is a “sexist, misogynist dinosaur, a relic of the Cold War.”
(10/14/21 10:00am)
If you’re walking around the concrete of the new Triangle Park in downtown Middlebury, look down at the ground. You’ll be able to see two parallel diagonal lines on the sidewalk that reflect the shape of the new rail tunnel directly below.Last Wednesday, Bridge and Rail Project Community Liaison Jim Gish took the two of us on a tour of the recently finished Bridge & Rail project. As community liaison, Gish relays updates on the project to Middlebury residents by publishing weekly blog posts, among other methods. Along the way, we were able to learn not only about the technicalities and logistics of taking on such a huge construction project but also about Gish’s life and what led him to this crucial work.
(10/14/21 9:59am)
Despite plans to relaunch MiddCourses last spring, the website currently remains on hiatus while a student software development group on campus, MiddDev, works on reprogramming it from scratch. First created in 2014, MiddCourses, Middlebury’s anonymous, student-run course review site, was shut down in spring of 2021 after the software the website was programmed on became out of date. Since last spring, students at Middlebury have no longer had access to the information on MiddCourses, which ranged from grading expectations and assignment types to personal anecdotes about professors and courses.
Middcourses was created on an old coding software, Python 2.0, which became incompatible with Heroku, the hosting platform for MiddCourses, according to Nicholas Sliter ’23, the project lead of the MiddCourses project for MiddDev. This incompatibility rendered the MiddCourses site completely inaccessible.
The Student Government Association’s Innovation and Technology Committee told The Campus in spring 2021 that the webpage would be reinstated in March. Rather than recreate the entire site, the Innovation and Technology Committee was working on converting it from Python 2.0 to Python 3.0. However, the project experienced difficulties and thus saw little progress.
“It’s my understanding that there was difficulty getting the program to run on local development machines,” Sliter said.
As of now, MiddCourses is currently down and the domain is listed for sale. SGA and MiddDev are now collaborating among a team of 10 students to create a new MiddCourses site using modern web development software, React and NeXT. The website will still be hosted on Heroku.
Sliter hopes to get at least a partially workable form of MiddCourses out to the public before spring course registration; however, he thinks a more feasible reopening for the website will be in about a year. The new site will have the same features as the old MiddCourses, but will feature a more up-to-date interface. It is unclear, according to Sliter, if the old information about courses and professors from the previous MiddCourses will be able to carry over to the new site.
Since the site has been down, many students on campus have been affected by its absence. Emma Crockford ’22.5 told The Campus that, before it went offline, MiddCourses was an important resource to determine the workload she was undertaking every semester.
“As an English major,” Crockford said, “MiddCourses was incredibly useful in helping me balance the reading and writing workload of my classes.”
Professor Mark Spritzer of the Biology Department said that this benefit applies to students in STEM majors as well. Spritzer said MiddCourses could be especially beneficial in helping students balance lab courses with lecture courses. Spritzer is wary, however, of potential bias in student-sourced course review sites.
“It’s selecting for only those students who have strong opinions for courses, and those will generally be more negative,” Spritzer said. “Those more neutral students are less likely to take time to write anything about the course.”
Spritzer fears the bias caused by the strong opinions of only a few individuals could steer students away from courses that would be valuable and important to their education.
Some students on campus feel completely unaffected by the MiddCourses’ absence. Trey Atkins ’22.5 told The Campus that he has not noticed that MiddCourses is down because he never used MiddCourses — even when the site was active.
Atkins is majoring in chemistry and minoring in computer science.
“My major has pretty strict requirements,” Atkins said.“Any opinion on MiddCourses isn’t going to change if I take Quantum Chemistry this semester.”
(10/14/21 9:58am)
As I sit down to write this, I ask myself, “why bother?” It is common and far too accurate to joke about the absence of young people in concert halls. Such jokes were made to me at least twice in reference to last weekend’s concert by the Doric String Quartet and Jonathan Biss. Of course, the stereotype is not entirely true — there are a few young people who still enjoy hearing, as composer Felix Mendelsohn put it, “songs without words.” Yet the question remains — why do some of us enjoy what so many others on this campus do not?
I’d like to bring up a theory which I believe is refuted by last weekend’s concert: so-called “classical” music lacks the vivacity to engage younger audiences. Regardless of the fact that the pieces played on Sunday — quartets by Beethoven and Béla Bartók, and a quintet by Edward Elgar — would be more accurately classified in the Romantic and Modernist periods, I can certainly understand why one would believe this proposed theory. The audience at last Saturday’s concert was, at times, verging on catatonic. The only head-bopping to be found in the audience may have been my own. After the concert, I walked past a number of thumping, sweaty dorm parties. The juxtaposition between these two ways of listening to music was not lost on me. Popular music, by any definition, is made for dancing.
It’s a shame that the bourgeois history of “classical” music in the last two hundred years has led to such stoic practices. The music performed last Saturday was every bit as physical as the music played through dorm speakers. Biss and the Doric String Quartet are well aware of this fact. Leaning together, swinging apart and swaying side-to-side, the quartet embodied the music’s swells and drops. The right foot of violinist Alex Reddington never seemed to stop tapping. At moments, I half-expected the group to leap out of their seats and perform a jig.
These musicians were, in a very literal sense, a sight to be seen. Many of them forwent the traditional black suit for those of striking blue. Reddington even sported a pair of brightly colored, striped socks, which nicely highlighted his active feet. The musicians’ outfits brought a touch of levity, as if to say, “We’re here to have fun.”
Dismissing the pretentiousness that has built up around “classical” music, the performers seemed more like children at play than bastions of European high culture. They seemed to play for the love of the activity itself. As a piece hurtled to its finale, bows were flourished like raised rapiers above the performers’ heads. One could imagine them in some melodrama on an Italian piazza, perhaps costumed as Mercutio or Tybalt.
Theatricality is no trivial element when it comes to music. Good music deserves to be fully embodied. It is no coincidence that, in English, music is played just the same as a theatrical play. All of these activities share the adoration of life found in child’s play. That adoration is communal. We feel the highs, the lows and the middling stretches together. Music has an inherent togetherness.
Even if the quartet hadn’t introduced pianist Biss as “our really dear friend,” the comradery between all five musicians would have been obvious. They passed themes and motifs one to the other with as much playfulness as technical skill. The folk-dance-inspired second part of Bartók’s Third String Quartet was announced with a sudden plop which violist Hélène Clément sent deftly to violinist Ying Xue. Xue held the note’s tension through a gorgeous passage of pizzicato, or plucked, folk themes. This is music that rewards close cooperation. The Doric String Quartet and Jonathan Biss played excellently together.
To the skeptical listeners who are still reading: “classical” music is no less lively, emotional or personal than anything else on Spotify. Sure, it can be esoteric and sometimes just bizarre, but there are outliers in any genre. If you’re still unconvinced, I encourage you to give the next Performing Arts Series concert a try. My meagre 700 words can’t convey the joy and aura of a concert, but I can assure you, there is a particular joy reserved for the musical. That joy is, at its essence, the same you’ll find in a packed Friday-night dorm party or a Wednesday-night open mic.
(10/07/21 10:00am)
A unique part of the Middlebury experience is the opportunity to live in an academic or special interest house where students pursue a common interest and share it with the campus community. These include 10 language houses, the Queer Studies House, Self-Reliance and InSite, as well as special interest houses where residents try out food recipes, experience spiritual traditions or pursue mindful and healthy living.
“We watched a lot of Soviet cartoons, and we did a lot of cooking,” Julian Gonzales-Poirier ’23, a resident of the Russian House, said.
Having lived at the Russian House for his entire sophomore year, Gonzales-Poirier considers his experience as a mini-study abroad, during which he boosted his language skills and familiarized himself with Russian culture. Quinn Rifkin ’22, who has just begun his semester at the Italian House, hopes to immerse himself in the Italian language by chatting with his peers and the teaching assistant.
However, due to over-enrollment this fall, these special communities are starting to change. As the housing problem intensified, the school decided to re-appropriate some interest housing spaces for students without the shared interest.
“Our top priority has been to provide an in-person educational experience to all active students who wish to be at Middlebury this fall,” A.J. Place, associate dean of students, said. “We needed to be creative in using all available space possible, including any open space in interest houses.”
Currently, there are 301 students living in interest houses. Fifteen spaces in special housing were cycled into the August room draw, including eight from the Community Engagement House at 48 South Street. The Arabic House, where ideally five students sign the language pledge to speak only Arabic, now accommodates two Arabic speakers and three non-speakers.
Hazel Traw ’24, one of the two Arabic speakers in the house, has been studying Arabic for four years. She considers the language house an opportunity to practice using the language in casual settings. For Traw, the arrival of non-Arabic speakers came as a surprise. The Residential Life staff did not communicate in advance with her and the other Arabic speaker about the non-speakers, so they only realized what was going on at the first house meeting after moving in.
“I suppose it makes [our experience] a bit different, but I don’t think it makes the sense of community any worse,” Traw said. When she bumps into others in the morning or late at night, she is happy to chat with the non-speakers in English.
Sam Roubin ’23.5, a non-Arabic speaker, chose one of the few remaining doubles on campus with his friend in the August housing draw. As the portal displayed the house name as “Sperry,” he only realized he was in the Arabic House when he searched for it afterwards.
Currently, the Arabic House holds at least one event per week, such as cooking traditional Arabic dishes and watching Arabic movies. Students from different courses come over, and the non-speaker residents are always welcome to join. Roubin likes the homey feeling of the house compared to regular dorms, and the Arabic teaching assistant has been teaching him simple Arabic words.
Although not involved in the room draw, the Wellness House located on Weybridge Street also felt the pressure from the housing crisis. Supported by the office of Health and Wellness Education, the house is designed to encourage individual and collective well-being and substance-free or low-substance use behavior. To apply, students must submit an application and attend an interview.
Ansen Gong ’23, who was remote during spring 2021, admitted that he applied for the Wellness House to avoid off-campus housing at Bread Loaf — the only regular housing option left when he logged onto the portal at 4:00 a.m. in China for his lottery draw. He guesses that about half the residents came to Wellness for similar reasons, but he does enjoy living with everyone else in this small community with their own kitchen and laundry.
“If you want a quiet place to live, [Wellness] is pretty nice,” Gong said.
On the other hand, Sophia Wittig ’24 applied for Wellness because she could not get a space in Bread Loaf, which is only open to juniors and seniors. “I specifically asked to go to Bread Loaf for the financial discount, but [the school] wanted us to have the on-campus experience that we missed last year,” Wittig said. She knows that many sophomores have the same financial concern and would gladly live at Bread Loaf if it were allowed.
Regardless of why students chose Wellness, concerning substance use, Wittig said that she had not "seen or smelled or heard anything". During orientation, the residents made an agreement on quiet hours for weekdays and weekends. "[The house is] very quiet when I go back [at night], which is kind of nice." said Ansen.
However, apart from that, a common pursuit of wellness does not seem visible. “We have community expectations pasted on the wall,” Wittig said. “We’re supposed to have house dinners once a month, but that hasn’t happened.”
“We understand that it is not ideal to have a student(s) living in an interest house without that specific interest,” Place said. “If students are having concerns we’d encourage them to connect with their Community Assistant, the house contacts or our office directly so we can offer support.”
(09/16/21 9:57am)
When Roni Lezama ’22 first stepped onto campus, he “looked around, wanting to hear Spanish in a place where most have spent their whole lives breathing and living English.” Though he was unsure whether Middlebury was the kind of place where he — an only child of Mexican immigrants and one of many students from New York City — would have the opportunity to make a difference, that changed quickly.
Lezama did not come to Middlebury planning to run for president of the Student Government Association (SGA), but he has wanted to create change at Middlebury since his first year, animated by the drive to make white-oriented places more inviting and supportive for those traditionally excluded.
He went on to win the Spencer Prize in his first year, using his speech to describe the fear of not being accepted at Middlebury because of his heritage and bilingualism. Later, the work of SGA presidents like Nia Robinson ’19 and Varsha Vijayakumar ’20 and seeing women of color in the role early on in his time here set the tone for his image of SGA leadership.
“It gave me an initial impression of what SGA can do,” Lezama said. “It made me think, ‘there is a place here where I can make change.’”
He first became involved with SGA through the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) committee during Robinson’s presidency, and was mentored by the committee’s chair Kahari Blue ’19. It was his close friend John Schurer ’21, who would later become SGA president himself, who nudged Lezama to take on another leadership role.
“I still remember that day,” Lezama said. “John got all serious and clapped his hand on my shoulder and said, ‘I think you should run for Community Council Co-Chair.’” Lezama did run, won, and led the group of students, faculty, staff and administrators his sophomore year. Schurer then took on Lezama as one of his vice presidents after he was elected SGA president in spring 2020.
While inspired by the work of previous presidents and conscious of the continued challenges posed by Covid-19, Lezama is focused on the future.
“[Past presidents] showed me that it was more than OK to challenge and push the administration,” Lezama said. “They are our gateway, but in the end it is our job to advocate for students.”
Lezama said this balance is emblematic of his leadership style: being effective in his term will be about combining disruption and cooperation, needing the administration to listen and knowing when to make them. He admits to having sworn at the administration — on the record — in SGA meetings before. At the same time, a key goal on his senior bucket list is to have a coffee with each member of the Senior Leadership Group individually.
As president, he hopes to take the lessons learned from the pandemic and use them to set up systems of support for years to come. Though the pandemic revealed that the need for such support was far deeper and broader than was previously realized, to Lezama, these are not pandemic-specific issues.
“So much of what I have done with SGA in the past has been reactive,” Lezama said. “It had to be. But I want to be proactive.”
His first priority is to create a permanent substitute for the Student Emergency Fund established in 2020 to help with unexpected financial burdens of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It was unbelievable to see how immense, and palpable, the need was for emergency funds once they were available,” Lezama said.
He also wants to improve the accessibility and availability of on-campus mental health resources, and bolster the services tailored towards BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ students.
Lezama is ready for his administration to be a disruptive one, working to reshape Middlebury in deep but tangible ways to support the students who often do not get a seat at the table. DEI will be at the “front lines” of his administration, the lens through which every SGA department does its work, he said.
Sophia Lundberg ’21.5, this semester’s Community Council co-chair and a vice-president last year, describes Lezama as someone with both immense drive and humility, who values vulnerability in leadership and has a tireless work ethic.
“His determination to pursue justice and equity is informed by his own life circumstances,” Lundberg said. He works constantly “in the hopes that it allows those who have been traditionally barred from comfortably enjoying their time here to access institutional resources and support with more ease.”
President Laurie Patton expressed similar admiration.
“Roni Lezama is the real deal,” Patton said in an email to The Campus. “He is relentless, as we all should be, about making Middlebury better. Because he also possesses an accurate sense of what it takes to build an institution, he begins by being open, and invites you to be on his team to get it done. This combination of traits is the source of his effectiveness as a leader.”
Though Lezama jokes that he will have to apologize to his professors because “SGA is [his] life now,” he has other hopes for his senior year. He wants to go out for coffee in town more (his order is an americano, black), and finally go to the Woodchuck Cidery. He also wants to take someone on the perfect date off campus that he has been planning for years.
(09/16/21 9:56am)
Have your Spotify playlists become stale? Is your weekly mix just not cutting it? Maybe it’s time to branch out and listen to something new. The Executive Board of WRMC, Middlebury College’s radio station, has selected a wonderfully wide range of albums, spanning time and genre, for your listening pleasure. Check out these recommendations and let the sounds of summer carry you through the semester.
*RIYL (recommended if you like)
General Manager’s Pick — Maddie Van Beek ’22.5
Album: “MOTOR FUNCTION” - binki
Genre: Indie Pop, Hip-Hop
RIYL: PawPaw Rod, JAWNY, austenyo, MICHELLE
Blurb: This four-track EP is the perfect soundtrack for the dog days of summer. It’s a short listen at only 10 minutes, and it’s filled to the brim with addictive choruses, magnetic basslines and the occasional break in tempo for a gloomy rap verse. If you were a fan of binki’s smash hit singles “Heybby!” and “Sea Sick,” you’ll love this EP.
Tech Director’s Pick — Dan Frazo ’23
Album: “Are You Ok?” - Wasuremono
Genre: Atmospheric Pop, Psychedelic,
RIYL: Goth Babe, pizzagirl, Arlie, STRFKR
Blurb: “Are You Ok?” is the perfect album to listen to as you fall asleep in the sun. Put a drink in your hand, throw on some sunglasses, and let Wasuremono take you on a ride through the best parts of summer. Driven by steady, kindly mixed melodies, the English four-piece produces nothing if not easy listening.
Concerts Manager’s Pick — Luke Robins ’23
Album: “a liquid breakfast” - AUDREY NUNA
Genre: Hip-Hop, Hyperpop
RIYL: 100 Gecs, Rico Nasty, Remi Wolf, Tkay Maidza
Blurb: Over-saturated beats, self-confidence to the extreme and funny lyrics. She can sing, she can rap and she can write lyrics like “Jibbitz out the Crocs ’cause get it? I’m mature now.” AUDREY NUNA’s first album is so fun — give it a listen.
Spring Programming Director’s Pick — Gennie Herron ’23
Album: “Solar Power” - Lorde
Genre: Alt-Pop, Acoustic
RIYL: Lorde, HAIM
Blurb: At first I was skeptical of this new album. I liked the first two singles she released, but when I first listened to the album, I wasn’t totally vibing with it. However, after sitting down to really listen to it, I started to get in the groove. Plus, some of the songs like “The Path,” “Solar Power” and “Dominoes” just feel summery. You can feel the sun on your skin and wish you were breathing in salty sea air. If you feel down during the cold Vermont months, I would recommend turning back to “Solar Power.”
Music Director’s Pick — Chad Kim ’23.5
Album: “Yol” - Altin Gün
Genre: Turkish, Psych-Folk, Funk
RIYL: Kikagaku Moyo, Los Bitchos, Allah-Las, KGLW
Blurb: Going off to a distant land of eternal sunshine boogie? Well, “Yol” by Altin Gün will hypnotize you with its savory melodies and barrels of funk as you meander through the kingdom of the sun. This album demonstrates a collection of continuously evolving tracks that stay fresh in the heat and make watching and smiling at the sun all the more beguiling.
Music Director’s Pick — Natalie Penna ’24
Album: “Suburbia I’ve Given You All and Now I’m Nothing” - The Wonder Years
Genre: Pop-Punk, Emo
RIYL: The Story So Far, Neck Deep, Knuckle Puck
Blurb: Though its 10th anniversary passed earlier this summer, “Suburbia I’ve Given You All and Now I’m Nothing” is a timeless album. It is packed with loud and catchy pop-punk anthems, constant callbacks to Allen Ginsberg’s America and lyrics so specific and personal that you can’t help but relate to them. Besides being fun to listen to, Suburbia is an exercise in nostalgia. If you want to drive around to songs about being young and stupid, or you have a complicated relationship with your hometown, this one’s for you.
Concerts Manager’s Pick — Yardena Carmi ’23
Album: “Little Things/Sparrow ” - Big Thief
Genre: Indie Rock, Folk Rock
RIYL: Sharon Van Etten, Alex G, Campdogzz
Blurb: Big Thief has recently begun putting out new songs for the first time since their hit 2019 album “Two Hands.” The EP’s opener “Little Things,” signals a new direction for the folk group. Over its light, synthy beat, lead singer Adrianne Lenker croons softly about obsessive infatuation. ” Second track “Sparrow,” on the other hand, is classic Big Thief — earthy and acoustic, with the band’s trademark cryptic lyrics and rootsy jamming. An exciting release from a group that’s already been making great stuff for years, the contemplative quality and emotional range of these two songs are perfect for late summer nights.
Fall Programming Director’s Pick — Jose Morales ’22
Album: “Cinema” - The Marias
Genre: Indie Pop
RIYL: No Vacation, Gus Dapperton, Boy Pablo, Her’s
Blurb: “CINEMA” is an album I returned to throughout the summer because it is smooth, relaxing and sweet. The album explores the fallout of a relationship, with tracks reflecting its various stages and emotions. The production and instrumentals are soft but carry depth, and Maria’s vocal performances create a warm and calming experience. “Un Million,” “Little by Little” and “Calling U Back” are some of my favorite tracks. I recommend this album if you're looking for an evening jam.
(05/20/21 3:05pm)
Amidst the buzzing energy of Nocturne, a calm, warm glow emanated from the Gifford Hall Gamphitheatre. Vibrant verses of poetry captivated nearby ears and drew a sizable crowd to first ever recitation from the newly formed Peach Pit Writing Collective.
Yardena Carmi ’23 and Emma Auer ’23 created Peach Pit this winter. Their interest in poetry grew during a creative writing course they both took during their first year at Middlebury, and from there, they began to explore writing together outside of a classroom environment.
“It was a pretty organic process,” Auer said about the club’s foundingbirth. “I personally really like to write from prompts, and I hadn’t found a club on campus that [did] that.”
What began as just a few friends meeting to write poetry once a week in Crossroads Cafe became an official club with an email list of 30 members that drew a sizable crowd at their Nocturne reading.
“It is so crazy to see something that started as an idea take hold and create a physical product and event that strangers came to,” Carmi said, referring to the club’s first zine and to the performance at Nocturne.
Originally known as the Peach Gem Collective, the club underwent a name change during its approval process.
“Peach Pit sounded a bit tougher,” Yardena said. “Something I always think about, especially with creative work, is whether I’m being taken seriously … and I think of the pit at the center of a peach as something you have to deal with, something you have to be aware of and take seriously.”
“The other idea is that writing is about getting to the center,” Auer added. Reaching the “pit” of a writing project takes practice, and Peach Pit’s meetings provide space for it. The Peach Pit workshop sessions loosely follow the “Liz Lerman Method,” or the critical response process, which is designed to center the author in discussions about their work.
The first few weeks of meetings focused on writing, particularly using time prompts, that included an opportunity to share. In subsequent meetings, writers could submit their work beforehand and have it workshopped by other members during the meeting.
Peach Pit’s penultimate meeting was a zine assembly where members collaged, drew, painted and contributed in other artistic ways to its pages. The zine, made of simple printer paper stapled together, was then scanned into dozens of print copies that were distributed at the Nocturne reading.
Seven poets were featured in Peach Pit’s first zine, and nine recited their work during the club’s gathering during Nocturne at the Gifford Hall Gamphitheatre. The club requested that people bring their own lamps to plug in on stage, and the result was a beautiful coalescence of warm lighting that brought the Gamphitheatre steps to life, and, in conjunction with vibrant poetic verses, attracted non-members like moths to a flame.
Peach Pit’s goals for next year include releasing a bi-monthly publication, bringing in speakers and hosting a weekend retreat at Middlebury’s Bread Loaf School of English. They are excited to keep building the space they have created.
“It feels like our baby,” Carmi said. “I hope it sticks around. It would be so cool to create a lasting creative space on campus.”
Peach Pit Writing Collective is a supportive space where creativity is celebrated and encouraged. The collective can be found on Instagram @peachpitmiddlebury.
(05/13/21 10:00am)
In the 1920s
On a sunny Saturday morning in the spring of 1921, you wake up in your room in Battell Cottage. This women’s dorm is located on the Battell Campus, rather than across the road on the men’s “old campus.” Classes meet six days a week, so after a quick breakfast at Battell Dining Hall, you drag yourself to 8 a.m. Latin, which fulfills your classical requirement.
At 9:00 a.m., you are off to a course in home economics. Before registration, you considered classes devoted to specific subjects like food preparation or hat-making, but settled on the more general “Household Administration.” The class focuses on a “woman’s place in the home and the community; buying, arrangement, and storing of general household supplies; care of the house; domestic service; labor saving devices; division of income and accounting.”
From 10–10:30 a.m., students have a break built into their schedule so they can attend chapel service. While Middlebury is nonsectarian, it emphasizes religious devotion of some kind. “A chapel service is held each week-day at 10 a.m. and a vesper service on Sunday at 5 p.m. All students are required to attend unless excused for urgent cause,” the college writes in its catalogue. One of your friends doesn’t much appreciate this mandatory attendance, although she protests in her scrapbook that “I do go to church sometimes.”
After chapel, you have your last class of the day: physical education. Men and women have separate offerings for P.E. Men can choose from Gymnastics or Athletic Coaching, while women select from a Playground Course or Methods of Teaching Physical Education. You’ve opted for the former, and you and your classmates spend the period learning folk dances from your instructor, Miss Young.
Once classes have finished for the day, you are eager to meet up with friends. In the afternoon, you decide to attend a baseball game against St. Michael’s College. While you watch, your friend reports that she called home. Her parents were relieved to hear that tuition would only come to $150, plus $300 for room and board. The Panthers’ victory leaves you both in high spirits.
A busy evening lies ahead. Tonight is the annual banquet for the Theta Chi Epsilon sorority at Betsy Buttles Tea House. Greek life plays a large role on campus, although strict rules from the college limit its activities, and social gatherings occur almost exclusively on Fridays and Saturdays. The rulebook states, “any group of students in the men’s college desiring to have a party of any sort to which women are invited...is required to secure permission from the Chairman of the Student Life Committee.” These co-ed events are, of course, chaperoned. Consumption of alcohol is grounds for expulsion from the college given that the country is in the midst of Prohibition. As one of your classmates puts it, “Rules are the bane of our young lives.”
Following the banquet, you are torn between all the different options that weekends provide. Some of your friends opt to go into town (in reality, “a village of about 2000”) to see a movie. There is also a New York Philharmonic Concert at Mead Chapel, and Richard Burton is giving a lecture. In the end, you decide to attend the college dance. The sponsoring group took such time to craft delicate paper invitations, and you are eager to fill in the spots on your dance card. The event concludes at 11:30pm, and you return to Battell Cottage with a smile on your face, happy to have spent another day at Middlebury College.
Over the next three years, you hope to meet Robert Frost at the Bread Loaf School of English and to attend the Middlebury Summer Language School to sharpen your French. While you are certain to complain about the cold, you will also be delighted to try your hand at skiing. By the time commencement rolls around in 1924, your scrapbook is full and you are ready for anything the Roaring Twenties have left to throw at you.
Editor’s Note: This article is based off of beautiful scrapbooks created by female Middlebury students in the early 1920s. These women preserved their college experiences on pages filled with detailed notes about their day-to-day schedules, ticket stubs from events they attended and elaborate party invitations and dance cards. This resource was supplemented with research in the college’s archives, and with information from the 1920 Middlebury College Catalogue.
In the 2020s
Beep. Beep. At 8:30 a.m., your phone alarm wakes you from a deep sleep. Reluctantly, you pull open the blinds to reveal a cloudy Friday morning in the spring of 2021. Outside the window of Hepburn Hall, you see students carrying backpacks already making their way across campus.
After a quick breakfast in your room, at 9:10 you log onto your first class of the day: Intro to Computing. These days, most of your classes take place on Zoom. After two semesters of virtual courses, you’ve gotten used to interacting remotely with classmates and professors. Ensuring that your microphone is muted, you force yourself to stay engaged by taking notes. After class, you drop in to your Arabic professor’s Zoom office hours to ask a question about your upcoming presentation.
At 12:40, you have your only in-person class of the day: Feminist Foundations. Every time the class meets, you are amazed to learn more about how far the women’s rights movement has progressed in the last century. Although everyone is wearing a mask and desks are spaced six feet apart, it is still refreshing to spend time in a shared classroom environment after a long morning looking at a screen.
That afternoon, you decide to exercise with MiddRuns. In addition to meeting students with a common interest, the club fulfills one of your P.E. credits. You decide to grab dinner afterward, and you are unsurprised to see that Proctor is serving its frequent Thanksgiving meal, complete with turkey and mashed potatoes smothered in gravy.
After dinner, you hesitate choosing an evening event. The Middlebury College Activity Board is sponsoring a number of online events, including a concert by Hippo Campus. Plus, a few of your friends are gathering in Axinn to watch a movie. Room capacity restrictions limit the number of people who can be in a shared space, making weekend socializing more difficult than in previous years, but parties still occur. You settle for streaming the concert with a couple of friends in one of their dingles.
Over the next three years, you look forward to campus reopening and the opportunities post-pandemic life will provide, from attending classes in person to watching live events. You plan on studying abroad your junior year and want to complete a summer internship related to your major. Due to your canceled high school graduation, you are already eager to hear your name announced and walk across the stage to receive your Middlebury diploma in 2024.
(04/15/21 9:59am)
Netflix and Amazon may reign over original streaming programming, but there is a new kid on the block: Apple TV+. The new platform offers a variety of original programming, from feel-good comedies to psychological thrillers. Here’s a rundown of their four most popular and exciting projects.
“Servant”
From the dark mind of M. Night Shyamalan (of “The Sixth Sense” fame) comes “Servant,” a psychological thriller and one of my favorite new shows. Recipe-developer Sean (Toby Kebbell) and news reporter Dorothy (Lauren Ambrose) seem like a picture-perfect couple, happily married and living in a beautiful Philadelphia home with their newborn son, Jericho. However, the arrival of a mysterious new nanny, Leanne (Nell Tiger Free), brings frightening events and shocking revelations about the couple’s past to light.
Its plot unfolds slowly in a series of mysterious twists. One of the most unique aspects of “Servant” is its cinematography; the camera often drifts through rooms, peering into windows, zooming in on characters’ faces and letting viewers see dark corners. From Dorothy’s jewel-toned wardrobe to the disturbing wallpaper patterning Leanne’s room, production details are far from neglected. Beyond providing gripping entertainment, “Servant” raises interesting questions about religion, family and motherhood. The show’s plot also ponders its representations of madness and secrecy, as characters often go to extreme lengths to conceal their secrets from each other. With two seasons out now, and more in the works, there is much more to explore in this universe. “Servant” is a thrilling television show that finds its way under your skin in chilling ways, lingering with you long after the credits roll.
“Ted Lasso”
Jason Sudeikis plays Ted Lasso, a successful Division II American football coach from Kansas who is hired to coach AFC Richmond, a English Premier League football team, despite having no experience with the sport. An ocean away from home and utterly clueless about soccer, Ted seems set up to fail. The show follows Lasso in his attempts to lead his team to victory and win over new friends along the way.
Brimming with heart and optimism, “Ted Lasso” is a joy to watch. The plot is not the most inventive, but its characters are beautifully nuanced. It’s fun to see Ted’s earnest Midwestern attitude clash with English traditions, especially in relation to his boss Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham), a seemingly cold and reserved woman. The show hits an easy stride of workplace antics with a dash of soapy romance, all set against the highs and lows of competitive soccer. “Ted Lasso,” already renewed for a second and third season, may not be the funniest show on television, but it is full of campy, heart-warming fun.
“The Morning Show”
What happens behind the scenes at a news studio after the cameras cut and the lights fade? “The Morning Show” is a snappy drama following a news studio and its staff in the wake of a sexual assault scandal (á la Matt Lauer and “The Today Show”). After 15 years on the air, Mitch Kessler (Steve Carell) loses his job at “The Morning Show,” a highly successful news program he had hosted with Alex Levy (Jennifer Aniston). Tenacious young journalist Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon) steps onto the scene as Mitch’s replacement, but her fiery personality and prying attitudes continue to uncover controversy.
In the wake of the #MeToo movement’s initial virality, this story remains relevant, and it is interesting to see the drama unfold through so many different perspectives. It is exhilarating and frustrating to watch Witherspoon’s fresh-faced character encounter obstacles and secrecy deeply embedded in the news network. The star-studded cast does not disappoint, and the supporting actors are equally as impressive. Although it can occasionally be exhausting to watch these characters constantly gossip and march around Manhattan on a warpath, there’s always juicy payoff in the end. “The Morning Show” is slick and stylish, and the shocking season finale sets itself up well for an upcoming season two. Ultimately, it’s always a treat to watch veteran talents like Aniston and Witherspoon really bring their all to a project.
“Home Before Dark”
“Home Before Dark” has all the elements of a classic mystery story: a bubbly new girl, a longstanding cold case and plenty of tight-lipped residents in a tight-knit small town.
“Home Before Dark” features a young protagonist, Hilde Lisko (Brooklynn Prince), who moves from Brooklyn to her dad’s hometown in Washington state. Despite only being nine years old, she is already following in her dad’s footsteps as a budding journalist. She confronts her biggest case yet:the strange disappearance of her dad’s best friend decades ago.
“Home Before Dark,” reminiscent of other Pacific Northwest murder mysteries like “Twin Peaks,” is an entertaining story elevated by its charming lead. The Washington town has a beautiful and haunting atmosphere that is perfect for the show. Prince, who rose to fame in the acclaimed film “The Florida Project,” is dazzling in this role and gives a very impressive and emotional performance. While the show can be confusing at times, “Home Before Dark” maintains solid performances and a twisty plot, making it a worthwhile watch.
(04/08/21 10:00am)
State health officials have ramped up efforts to prioritize the vaccination of Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) communities, which are disproportionately affected by Covid-19. In addition to higher rates of infection and hospitalization from Covid-19, BIPOC vaccine rates are lagging behind Gov. Scott’s intended rates, leading officials to pursue new strategies.
Prioritizing BIPOC Vermonters
All BIPOC Vermonters over the age of 16 became eligible to register for vaccination on April 1, regardless of pre-existing eligibility. Previously, only BIPOC individuals eligible by age, occupation or health condition could schedule appointments for themselves and members of their household.
BIPOC individuals were prioritized because of disproportionate hospitalization rates and underperforming vaccination rates, according to State Health Commissioner Mark Levine.
BIPOC Vermonters account for 8% of all Covid-19 cases in the state, despite composing only 6.8% of the state population, according to the VT Dept. of Health.
In addition, the health department’s vaccine dashboard (as of April 6) shows that people of color are not being vaccinated at a proportional rate to white Vermonters — 26.3% of BIPOC Vermonters have received at least one dose of the vaccine, as compared to 49.1% of white Vermonters.
Still — as more Vermonters become eligible — these rates are still an improvement from March 20, when 12.7% of the Black population statewide have received one dose compared to 29.9% of White residents. [
Gov. Phil Scott also stated on March 30 that college students are not eligible to make appointments unless they intend to remain in Vermont for the summer. The news came as a surprise to BIPOC students, since many had already made appointments or received a first dose. And many white students who had BIPOC housemates also made appointments in the weeks leading up to the announcement.
The college released an update on April 1 advising all students with existing appointments or a first dose to keep their appointments. They also noted that Vermont students identifying as BIPOC — and their housemates — were eligible for the vaccine, and could obtain a special code from Miguel Fernández or Naomi Neff to schedule an appointment.
In addition to placing BIPOC Vermonters ahead in the eligibility sequence, Vermont health officials are also hoping to improve the accessibility of the Covid-19 vaccines through translation services, community outreach and targeted clinics for BIPOC communities across the state.
Currently, BIPOC Vermonters can make an appointment at a community vaccination site, a pharmacy or a BIPOC-community focused clinic.
Discontent in the Community
Despite Vermont’s efforts, many community leaders have criticized its initial vaccination strategy, which identified priority groups by age instead of occupation.
Vermont’s decision to not put essential workers in an early category excluded many Vermonters of color who are at risk of getting the virus, Anne Sosin said in a VTDigger article. Sosin is the program director for the Center for Global Health Equity at Dartmouth College.
However, the state defended its decision to vaccinate by age, citing that the majority of Covid-19 related deaths have affected patients over 65, informing an age-based system.
The Brattleboro area BIPOC Health Justice Committee also wrote to the vaccine advisory panel to raise concerns about the racial disparity in vaccine rates. The committee suggested prioritizing particularly vulnerable groups with a disproportionate number of people of color, such as migrant workers, food-insecure Vermonters and essential workers, as well as teachers given the high infection rate of coronavirus among children of color.
The committee’s letter sparked debate about how Vermont should recognize equity issues, according to state Sen. Kesha Ram; however, the panel advised the state to administer the vaccine equally to people of color within each age group rather than putting a demographic in a higher category altogether.
Steffen Gillom, president of the Windham County NAACP, told VTDigger that there needs to be a greater effort by the Vermont Department of Health to ensure equity in access to information for limited English proficiency residents on their website and in public communications.
“The state should consider if it’s presenting public health information through the lens of Whiteness,” he said. “For anyone participating, ask yourself, ‘Am I framing it through the view of white people? Am I talking to Black and Brown Vermonters?’”
Health care officials reported that members of communities of color, particularly Black communities, are reluctant to get the vaccine given the centuries-long history of discrimination and mistreatment against them within the medical community.
President of the Rutland area NAACP Mia Schultz told VTDigger that “longstanding ‘issues of trust’” have contributed to vaccine hesitancy among people of color. Schultz’s 93-year-old grandmother has said she’s not sure about getting the vaccine. “That comes from a real place,” Schultz said. “This has to be approached with cultural humility.”
(03/28/21 10:10pm)
The Campus is excited to launch a new translation initiative with the aim of making its articles and content accessible to a broader community of readers whose preferred language is not English. Tapping into Middlebury’s robust language programs, the initiative involves translating important articles and op-eds into other languages on a weekly basis.
The Campus is looking to hire a Senior Translation Editor who will work closely with the leadership team to develop a translation framework, weekly workflows and translation team.
Initially, the Senior Translation Editor will be responsible for the following tasks:
Recruiting a team of translators in a variety of different languages, who will be responsible for translating at least one Middlebury Campus article per week
Liaising with Middlebury language departments, study abroad coordinators and first-year students to market the position and gauge interest
Researching what processes and frameworks to implement to ensure that articles are translated in an accurate, grammatically correct and ethical way
Coordinating with the Middlebury Campus leadership to create a plan for the translations team in future semesters
The newly hired Translation Editor(s) should have fluency in at least one foreign language. Experience overseeing teams or projects is preferred but not required. Interested candidates should submit a brief statement (200-300 words) to Editor in Chief Bochu Ding (bding@middlebury.edu) detailing the candidate’s interest in this position, relevant experience and how they would approach this project.
(03/25/21 10:00am)
With costs reduced and the logistics of travel and other barriers removed by the ubiquity of pandemic-era video conferencing, Middlebury professors have been able to provide more opportunities for students — expanding collaboration across and within Middlebury institutions.
Collaborations between Middlebury’s schools
With the C.V. Starr Schools Abroad unable to offer in-person instruction or host students this year, several faculty members from the schools are teaching online courses through the college and Middlebury Institute in Monterey (MIIS) — including some in English.
The online format helps enrich and diversify the educational opportunities available to all Middlebury students, not just the ones who study abroad, according to Claudio Gonzalez-Chiaromonte, director of the schools abroad in Argentina and Uruguay. He taught a course in Spanish about the history of U.S.-Latin American relations.
Gonzales-Chiaromonte notes that internationally specific topics may not always be best taught by domestic professors. “Perhaps the best professor in Russian environmental politics is not in the U.S. [but] somewhere in Russia,” Gonzalez-Chiaromonte said.
The prevalence of remote teaching this year has given faculty abroad greater access to the network of schools. Middlebury students were also able to take remote classes at MIIS during the spring semester, indicating a new level of interconnectedness among global Middlebury resource pools.
“It will take a while until all of us can really understand the doors this opens,” Gonzalez-Chiaramonte said.
Fewer fees bring higher-profile speakers
Because all visiting speakers appeared before students remotely this year, funds formerly allocated to travel and lodging could be redirected to inviting higher-profile, higher-cost speakers, such as Angela Davis and Trevor Noah.
Professors were also able to offer students a chance to learn from speakers who would not have been able to come to campus during a normal semester.
Gary Winslett, professor of Political Science and faculty fellow at the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs, arranged for the center to virtually host several European scholars. For example, Matteo Faini, who works for the Italian Presidency of the Council of Ministers, spoke to students about the politics of spying and its place in international relations in September. In April, Paul van Hooft, a senior strategic analyst at the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies, will give a lecture on U.S.-Europe relations post-Trump.
“Normally, it would be too expensive and time-consuming for visiting scholars to come from Europe,” Winslett said.
The sphere of academia expands online
Virtual opportunities also allowed professors to maintain channels of communication with the world of academia.
Middlebury participates in the Creating Connections Consortium (C3), a program designed to offer historically underrepresented groups in academia an opportunity to present their research.
With a small grant from C3, the Political Science Department was able to bring two speakers during the fall to virtually present and receive feedback about their research. In years past, C3 fellows came to the college to teach and complete dissertations. This year, both Covid-19-related logistical challenges and budget shortfalls prevented that. Instead, C3 participants connected with Middlebury faculty virtually.
“This was actually a win-win situation,” Professor of Political Science Matthew Dickinson said. “It's an opportunity for them to get feedback from political scientists, get paid and demonstrate their job skills. But it's also a chance for us as a college community to hear from individuals doing research who we might not otherwise be able to bring on campus because of the cost of lodging and airplanes and all that.”
Dickinson also runs a weekly politics luncheon that discusses current events and occasionally features presentations from students and other professors. Previously, townspeople often attended the meetings alongside students and other faculty. Since going remote, Dickinson said alumni participation has become quite popular.
“We get to expose people to more diverse viewpoints,” Dickinson said. “But I don’t get to bring in bagels anymore.”
Looking ahead, virtual tools may not disappear
Still, all three professors said virtual talks cannot replace in-person engagement.
“I think the ease of doing things virtually can be a drawback,” Dickinson said. “You forget that your audience of students are sitting in their rooms hour after hour after hour. That's not why you come to a college — to sit in your dorm room.”
He also added that another pitfall of virtual talkswas its impact on student’s ability to participate. Particularly, it made student protest of certain speakers difficult.
At a debate last fall hosted by the Alexander Hamilton Forum called “1619 or 1776: Was America Founded on Slavery?” student protesters changed their Zoom backgrounds to posters objecting to the event’s titular question. Several students attempted to turn their video on to hold protest signs and were removed from the video conference. Events sponsored by the forum have since been hosted as webinars where participant cameras are not enabled.
“I believe that nothing replaces the direct classroom experience, in particular for the little chats you have with students before and after the class,” Gonzalez-Chiaramonte said. In South America, he added, it is very common to have coffee or wine with a group of students after class.
The role of virtual platforms in a post-lockdown Middlebury remains murky.
“I could see maybe snapping halfway back to how it was,” Winslett said. “People paying for travel budgets might start saying, ‘Do you need to go to that conference? Do we really need to reimburse your hotel and flight when you could do it virtually?’”
Gonzalez-Chiaramonte sees that upcoming transition as an opportunity. “We are really going through a threshold here,” he said. “It's an infinite horizon.”
He believes that, with time, the community will hybridize in-person and virtual academic worlds, capturing the benefits of both.
“The college needs to find some ideal combination of these resources,” he said. “They have been here, sitting in the world, waiting for somebody to exploit them.”
(03/25/21 10:00am)
Porter Hospital launched several diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in February in an effort to ensure more equitable healthcare for Vermonters.
One initiative involved the formation of the hospital’s first Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Council. “Porter did not have a formal mechanism for addressing DEI issues prior to the formation of the DEI Council,” said Dr. Francisco Corbalan, a member of the newly formed council.
In order to gauge the specific concerns of Porter employees, the DEI Council conducted an employee survey with questions such as “How comfortable do you feel at work?”, “How much do you think your voice is being heard?” and “Do you feel like you are welcomed and valued?” About 47% of the Porter workforce responded to the survey.
Based on the survey’s results, one focus of the DEI Council has become making the hospital more accessible and inclusive for Spanish speakers.
“Inclusivity often feels elusive when someone who doesn’t speak English walks into our hospital and can’t find the department they are trying to find,” said registered nurse Becci Gordon, who is also part of the council.
For this reason, the council is working on adding more onsite translation signs, creating phone options for Spanish speakers and displaying messages stating that discrimination will not be tolerated.
Last February, Porter also began displaying a Black Lives Matter flag at the facility’s entrance in celebration of Black History Month . The hospital is continuing to fly the flag beyond Black History Month “as an acknowledgement that [anti-racism] work must continue,” according to a press release.
“Our local focus on DEI was truly driven by the national response to the George Floyd death and other similar incidents,” said Ron Hallman, spokesperson for Porter.
Dr. John Brumsted, CEO and president of UVM Health Network — the larger network that Porter is part of — has made DEI programming a major priority for the entire network over the past year.
Dr. Brumsted said in a statement that UVM Health Network’s goal for its DEI initiatives is “to create a culture that is diverse, equitable and inclusive for our employees, patients and communities we serve.”
“Our very broad goal is to make Porter a more inclusive and welcoming place to both work and receive health care,” Dr. Corbalan said, echoing Dr. Brumsted’s statement.
Porter has also taken advantage of college-specific resources such as the Middlebury College Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (OIDEI), which includes the Anderson Freeman Center, Disability Resource Center, and the Civil Rights and Title IX Committee, among others.
Renee Wells, Middlebury’s director of education for equity and inclusion, spoke about her involvement in the hospital’s efforts.
“The Porter DEI Committee reached out to me last fall, and I met with them to talk about possible goals and action items they might focus on as they were launching their committee,” Wells said. She has been in contact with members of the council periodically since the fall, and she has been able to offer advice about DEI initiatives.
Hallman feels that the initiative is coming at a good time, considering the inequities Covid-19 has illuminated nationwide.
“The impact of Covid-19 on our greater population throughout the United States has once again illustrated the inequity and the uneven impact of the pandemic on different people based on their race and social/demographic profile,” he said.
Chief Medical Officer and DEI councilmember Anna Benvenuto feels positively about the change the DEI Council is enacting.
“I’m really proud of the work the council is doing. It’s foundational to our community, and it’s acknowledging the ways in which inequities and systemic issues — whether it’s racism or anti-LGBTQ sentiments — have created disparities in health care outcomes,” Benvenuto said to the Addison Independent.
Dr. Corbalan feels similarly energized by the work of the council so far. “The work has been humbling, challenging and inspiring,” he said. “Diversity, equity and inclusion are big words; translating those words into tangible, substantive actions is an incredibly delicate and complex process.”
(03/18/21 9:56am)
Last night, 1,511 students opened their emails to find the name of their “optimal” match. They stared at their screens. They laughed, seeing their friends, or grimaced, recognizing an annoying classmate. They dismissed it or agonized over it, drafting and redrafting the same message over and over again. After all, how do you write an email introducing yourself to your future spouse?
The Marriage Pact launched at Middlebury seeking to find each student’s most compatible partner on campus. Entries closed on Monday with nearly 60% of the student population responding, and participating students waited in eager anticipation until they received their matches yesterday.
The pact
The Marriage Pact — a project originally launched out of a Stanford economics class in 2017 — consists of an algorithm that uses participants’ answers to a 50-question survey designed to find their optimal romantic — or platonic — match.
The Pact’s mission is to find participants’ most compatible long-term partner and marital “backup plan” in case they end up single later in life.
“Among all the people at a school like Middlebury what are the odds that the one person you happen to be friends with because you met them freshman year, or you happen to be in the same a cappella group is actually the best person [who you could make a marriage pact with]?” said Liam McGregor, one of the Marriage Pact creators. "But surely, there's someone at Middlebury who's probably good enough, right? They might not be your soulmate. But, out of all the people, that's probably someone who is good enough for you to marry.”
Since its founding, nearly 96,000 people have participated in the pact, forming 43,582 matches and one confirmed marriage. This year, the Stanford team began working with students at 33 colleges to launch the Marriage Pact on their campus, according to Mei-Lan Steimle, Stanford ’21, one of the Middlebury launch team project managers.
Kennedy Coleman ’21, one of the two students at Middlebury who helped bring Marriage Pact to the college, said the ultimate goal of the Marriage Pact at Middlebury is to “bring the community together at a time when we have to be ‘one Panther apart.’”
“I'm just excited to be doing something collectively again,” she said. “Having a big chunk of the campus be in on something just feels really good and needed right now.”
The matches
Participating students received an email with their match, their email, a list of shared values and how compatible they are compared to other pairs on campus. The top ten matches also received their ranking. From then, it was up to them to decide whether to reach out and chase after love.
However, 260 straight women were left without that option. Consistently across schools, the Marriage Pact is much more popular with straight women than straight, bisexual or pansexual men, leaving a “gap” of extra women with whom there is no one to match.
Middlebury Marriage Pact (MMP) launched an Instagram and email campaign calling for men who are attracted to women to “be a hero” and “fill the gap,” but was ultimately forced to cut off romantic pairing for straight women for anyone who filled out the survey after 11:26 p.m. on March 10.
https://twitter.com/taiteishomo/status/1370891374128734208
Any straight female participants after that date were paired off with each other in the most compatible platonic matches. Out of the 755 pairings, 625 were romantic and 130 platonic.
With an odd number of responses, one lonely student was left matchless.
The survey
The survey began with demographic questions like class year, gender identity, sexual orientation, political stance, race and religion before branching into questions designed to get at participants’ core values and life outlook. Questions ranged from asking participants if they “prefer politically incorrect humor” to whether they would run a red light if no one else was on the road.
Your values uniquely represent you,” said McGregor. “[The algorithm] will look at your values and how all of those interact, and [from there] it will look for your ideal partner.”
The Marriage Pact works with school partners to tailor the process to each school. While the majority of the questions remain the same across colleges, local students like Coleman help select a few key questions based on the culture of their campus. The Middlebury Marriage Pact, for example, asked students if they agreed or disagreed with the statement “I keep some ‘friends’ here at Midd because they might be useful to me in the future.”
The Marriage Pact normally contains a question that allows participants to indicate their racial preferences for their matches, which is designed to protect BIPOC participants from racist matches. However, the Middlebury Marriage Pact decided to remove this question for fear that it might inadvertently invalidate or make students of color feel unwelcome on Middlebury’s predominantly white campus, feedback that Steimle has heard from other schools.
“The Marriage Pact looks to find the best match possible for each person here on campus,” their online explainer reads. “How devastating would it be if a BIPOC student were matched with someone who was outright racist toward them? The most important thing the Marriage Pact questionnaire can do is discover discrimination like this privately, so that students won’t be exposed to it when they get their match.”
Liza Obel-Omia ’21 is excited to receive her match, but worries that, without this option, her match may be expecting a white partner and be disappointed to find out she’s Black or may fetishize her for her skin color, traits she says are easier to ferret out and avoid when meeting people in person.
The MMP does allow participants to exclude potential matches based on religion and political affiliation and asks heterosexual participants if they would feel comfortable having gay children. Similar to the original race question, the idea is to protect LGBTQ+ participants from matching with someone homophobic, according to Steimle.
The participants
Much of the school partners’ job is to create excitement surrounding the Marriage Pact and a fun user experience. In the week leading up to matches, Midd Twitter buzzed with Marriage Pact memes and jokes. On March 13, participants received emails with their “hot takes,” the answers they gave that were the most different from the rest of the school population. Tuesday evening, as participants anxiously waited for their matches to be revealed the next day, they received an email with their matches initials and a taunting message to “stay tuned for matches tomorrow night.”
https://twitter.com/miishapokladd/status/1370826401998372870?s=21
A self-described hopeless romantic, Obel-Omia is still hopeful that the Marriage Pact can help her find “the one.”
“I think it’d be a really cute story: to say, ‘Yeah, we both randomly did this thing, and we are meant to be together according to science,’” she said. “I think that's pretty romantic.”
Obel-Omia came to Middlebury expecting to meet her spouse here. Her father, a Middlebury alumnus, met her mother at a summer program at Bread Loaf School of English, and many of his old college buddies met their spouses at Middlebury as well.
Olin Robison, the Middlebury college president from 1975 to 1990, used to greet new classes at commencement by telling everyone: "Look to your left, look to your right: Two out of three of you will marry a Middlebury graduate." According to an article in The New York Times, he took credit for popularizing the myth that two-thirds of Middlebury graduates marry each other.
In reality, between 1915 and 1991, 17% of alumni married other Middlebury graduates, although love was in the air in 1929 when that figure jumped to 29%.
Calin Laine ’23 and Keith Chatinover ’22.5 have both resisted the romantic pull of the Middlebury marriage myth and were both more skeptical about the survey’s chance of success.
Laine doubts he’ll find his future spouse, but he is looking forward to the opportunity to make a new friend.
“Best case scenario, maybe I meet somebody new who's interesting and cool,” he said. “Given what's going on with Covid and stuff, it's cool to have the opportunity to get to know somebody who I potentially have never even heard of.”
After initially dismissing the Marriage Pact out of hand, Chatinover was drawn in by the Twitter buzz. He filled out the survey Thursday night with several of his close contacts as they laughed over the questions, drank beer and celebrated the upcoming weekend. For him, falling in love or even having a crush is about intimate personal connection, so he doubts he’ll find his soulmate from an algorithm.
But even the staunch cynics are not completely without hope.
“If I somehow meet the person I end up being with from this, I'm gonna have a lot of crow to eat,” he said.
Correction: An earlier version of this article mistakenly used the phrase "sexual preference" to refer to sexual orientation. An earlier version also misspelled the name of Olin Robison, the Middlebury College president from 1975 to 1990. These errors have been corrected.
(03/11/21 11:00am)
The American Dream is often a beacon for immigrants. Yet, time and again, it becomes clear that this dream is only an ideal: what lies beneath the veneer is a story of strife and sacrifice. When director Lee Isaac Chung tells the story of “Minari,” he highlights a long-awaited different side of the American Dream.
Set in the 1980s, “Minari” focuses on a Korean-American family that recently moved to rural Arkansas. It quickly becomes apparent that the Yi family feels displaced: The film opens with derelict scenes of their mobile home and close-ups of their dismayed faces. The landscape is plain and humble, and Monica Yi (Han Ye-ri), the young wife of Jacob Yi (Steven Yeun), is already preoccupied with worry for their son David’s (Alan Kim) health.
To the chagrin of Monica, Jacob — an aspiring farmer who wishes to grow and sell Korean produce — pushes on with his agricultural aspirations even as money gets short, losing sight of his family as the desperation for success inundates his thoughts.
In a conversation with Variety, “Parasite” director Bong Joon Ho describes Han Ye-ri’s performance as “delicate and memorable.” Through issues on the farm, within the house and with her ailing mother, Soonja (Youn Yuh-jung), Monica quietly tries her best to keep the family together. It’s difficult to imagine another approach to this character; her thoughtful silence speaks volumes.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention child actors Alan Kim and Noel Cho, who played David and Anne Yi, respectively. Though adorable, the on-screen sibling duo captures childhood in as morose a way as I’ve ever seen. Cho mirrors Han in her careful performance of Anne, assuming the role of a quiet older sister weighed down by pressure to grow up too fast. Like any other newcomer in a strange city, she wants to fit in with the other kids, a problem she shares with her brother.
On this note, Kim plays a sullen, conflicted sibling — and a precocious one, at that. Even at such a young age, David is conscious of his cultural differences. He’s beyond obsessed with what a “real” American grandmother looks like, grappling with accepting Soonja as his.
Though it’s heartbreaking to see him refuse to speak to her in Korean, criticize her broken English and glare at her in disdain, Kim’s performance nails the deep-seated desire for cultural assimilation. After all, the American Dream impacts children just as much as the rest of a family. Youn Yuh-jung’s performance is similarly wonderful, acting in opposition to her grandson’s notions of assimilation in her role of grandmother, wherein Soonja keeps faith in David and only wants the best for everybody. When things for the Yi family continue to spiral downward, the importance of family — in any capacity — is highlighted.
When I look back on “Minari,” I feel a sense of bittersweet empathy. Immigration, and assimilation into American life, is far from a monolithic success story, and recognizing diverse experiences and slow progress is important. “Minari” isn’t a feel-good film. For every moment of comic relief or peace, there is a moment of stress or heartbreak. Its balance and growth offer a cautiously optimistic — though no less honest — portrayal of the American Dream in the 1980s.
(03/04/21 10:57am)
As Covid-19 ground international travel to a halt and the college gradually rolled out fall and spring closures for all 16 Middlebury schools abroad, juniors watched their study abroad plans crumble. A year later — even as vaccine distribution begins worldwide — many current sophomores are reevaluating their plans while anxiously awaiting news about the status of international programs for the 2021–22 academic year.
Hesitation about study abroad is reflected in the size of this year’s batch of applications. The International Programs office received 424 applications for the 2021–22 academic year, a nearly 13% decrease from this time last year, when the college received 486 applications, according to Associate Dean of International Programs Liz Ross. Though the application period for studying abroad in the 2021–22 academic year closed on Feb. 15, Ross expects that numbers will continue to shift.
Some sophomores decided not to apply to study abroad next year given the significant amount of time they have already spent away from campus.
Ben Knudsen ’23, an English and Education Studies double major, did not submit a study abroad application. Knudsen said he wants to spend his remaining time at Middlebury on campus, spending time with friends and participating in club soccer.
“This is my first spring on campus, and I want to get as much time here as possible,” Knudsen said. “I don’t have an infinite amount of time on Middlebury’s campus. I’ll enjoy my time here; after I graduate, hopefully there’s going to be more opportunities for me to go out and experience the world.”
Other sophomores revised their original abroad plans in light of possible limitations brought on by the pandemic.
Husam AlZubaidy ’23, an International Politics and Economics (IPE) major studying Arabic, originally planned to go to Amman, Jordan during his junior year. Instead, he applied to spend next year at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies via the study away program.
“I think [the pandemic] has helped me moderate my expectations,” AlZubaidy said. “I think that it’s unreasonable that I could expect the same experience I could have gotten before the pandemic, where I could get my linguistic immersion with people who live locally in Jordan.”
Although it is situated in the U.S., the program in California will still offer a change of scenery and the opportunity to meet new people, which AlZubaidy is looking forward to.
“I thought that maybe it would be good to refine some of my language in terms of my profession, focusing on policy development and working on my vocabulary and language at more of an official level,” AlZubaidy said.
Though some have misgivings, many students still applied for study abroad, hoping international programs will be operational by spring 2022.
Sofia West ’23 is studying International and Global Studies (IGS) on the Global Security Studies track. She plans to study abroad in Paris, where she will take the language pledge to speak exclusively in French.
“I’m going to be fully culturally and linguistically immersed for four and a half months,” West said. “I’m looking forward to getting to know the city of Paris and meeting new people.”
Isabela Bahadorzadeh ’23 is also an IGS major and is on the Global Gender and Sexualities track and studying Spanish. Bahadorzadeh applied to a school in Chile but recognizes how Covid-19 has changed her perspective on study abroad.
“I think with college in general, not just with study abroad, a lot more things feel more important right now, like my family and my community,” Bahadorzadeh said.
Current juniors who were supposed to be abroad this spring or this past fall are scrambling to change their plans. Sophie Bardetti ’22, an IGS major in Global Security Studies taking Arabic, had initially planned to spend her entire junior year abroad. She is considering applying to study abroad in Morocco this fall.
Even though her plans have been disrupted, she keeps an optimistic attitude and hopes to travel safely in the future. She picked her major with the intent to live abroad after graduation.
“I am trying not to be too upset because I know that there are opportunities in the future,” Bardetti said. “I’ll get abroad, but it was supposed to be part of my immersive Arabic learning experience at Middlebury.”
(02/04/21 10:57am)
Burlington High School is set to re-open on March 4 in a renovated building that was once a Macy’s department store in downtown Burlington. The refurbishment, a $10-million project expected to be completed by Feb. 22, was initiated as a solution to the discovery of toxic chemicals in the old high school complex and its consequent closure in the fall.
Burlington School District superintendent Tom Flanagan is optimistic about the project. “We are excited about learning opportunities downtown and partnerships with theaters and businesses, as well as new, rich programs that will provide deep learning,” he said.
The former Macy’s store, located on Cherry Street, has 150,000 square feet of space, providing enough room for all of the academic classrooms in addition to music spaces, a cafeteria and areas for physical education class and afterschool sports.
“The walls are up; faculty and staff are prepping for what next semester’s going to look like. Everyone’s really excited just by the opportunity to get back into a home,” said Lauren McBride, the high school’s acting principal, in an interview with VTDigger.
The renovated building is a temporary home for Burlington High School while officials evaluate the old complex and the feasibility of removing PCBs. The district has signed a three-and-a-half year lease on the former Macy’s building, costing $1.2 million per year, and looks to complete initial chemical testing at the old complex by July. In light of high costs and extreme circumstances, the state is expected to bear the cost of the temporary school’s construction.
Though the district plans to begin spring instruction with only two days of in-person learning each week, Flanagan is hopeful that a shift to a fully in-person model will be possible in the near future.
“As vaccinations increase, the secretary of education thinks we will be back closer to fully in-person by April,” Flanagan said.
The move to Macy’s was precipitated by an unexpected turn of events in September. During preparation for an upcoming $70 million renovation project, air and soil tests revealed dangerously high levels of toxic polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, in the old Burlington High School building. Vermont Department of Health guidelines required the school to halt in-person learning while administrators and the school board considered how best to move forward.
According to Flanagan, there were some benefits to the sudden move online. The district had originally planned a hybrid learning model in which students only interacted with their teachers twice a week. However, once the school went fully remote, it implemented a new model that gave the students four to five days of real-time contact with their teachers on Zoom, which is more interaction than was occurring at [most] other high schools in the area.
Another silver lining Flanagan identified in transitioning online was the increase in availability of support for and information about productive remote teaching strategies now that virtual learning has become the norm in many school districts.
However, Flanagan also acknowledged the strain online learning has placed on some students. “We are most concerned about our students who need us most,” Flanagan said. “Students with special education needs, students learning English and our most vulnerable students. We want them to be back in person to help support their needs.”
(01/28/21 11:00am)
Nonproliferation, economic diplomacy and localization management are terms seldomly heard on the college’s Vermont campus.But 2,500 miles away on the coast of California, more than 600 graduate students and hundreds of faculty and staff research these very topics at the Middlebury Institute for International Studies (MIIS), an establishment as deeply institutionally intertwined with the college as its Schools Abroad or Bread Loaf School of English.In 2005, Middlebury College’s then-President Ronald Liebowitz floated the idea of affiliating the college with the Monterey Institute, as it was known at the time. The institute was a graduate school founded in 1955 with a focus on foreign languages that evolved to include programs in areas like international policy, translation studies and terrorism studies. In 2003, it was placed on probation by its accreditation institute because of a pattern of operating deficits.A 2005 Faculty Council vote about the possible acquisition of the institute overwhelmingly opposed the idea, with nearly 80% voting against acquisition. Liebowitz and the Board of Trustees pursued an affiliation anyway, at which point the college absorbed the institute’s debts and assets. Five years later — in 2010 — the college officially acquired MIIS, and by 2015, the school was renamed The Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.Over the last 15 years, administrators have made extensive efforts to bring the two institutions closer together. They’ve created funds to encourage inter-campus interaction, promoted collaboration between faculty and created opportunities for undergraduates to study away at MIIS. However, relations between MIIS and the college remain disjointed, partially as a result of their separate histories but manifesting more recently in financial concerns.In April 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic intensified, Middlebury’s faculty gathered to vote on the Sense of the Faculty Motion submitted by college Professor of Mathematics Frank Swenton recommending detaching MIIS from the college. The motion was spurred by fears of impending financial challenges resulting from the pandemic. Swenton believed disconnecting the schools was the most effective immediate step in avoiding risk of cuts to salaries and services at the Vermont campus.The motion sparked renewed debate in both Vermont and California about the place of MIIS in the college’s mission. In this series, we explore the forces, people, events and decisions that led to the relationship between the schools, the sentiments that persist at both institutions and visions for the future of the relationship.Click through the parts below to read more.
