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(11/18/18 9:40pm)
The women's soccer team won a spot in the NCAA Tournament's Final Four with a 1-0 victory against Misericordia University in the sectional final on November 18.
Ellie Greenberg '20 scored the only goal of the match in the second half, assisted by Sabrina Glaser '20. This is Greenberg's sixth goal of the season. Eliza Robinson '21, Amanda Dafonte '19, Olivia Miller '20, Rose Evans '22, Gretchen McGrath '21, Eliza Van Voorhis '21, and Simone Ameer '21 all achieved shots during the game. During her 90 minutes in goal, Ursula Alwang '20 walked away with two saves.
Sunday's victory brings the third-ranked Panthers to a record of 18-1-3. The team will travel to Greensboro, North Carolina to compete against number one-ranked Washington University in Saint Louis on November 30. The winner of the semifinal match will play the winner of the Williams and Christopher Newport game in the Division III Championship on December 1.
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(11/18/18 8:01pm)
The second-ranked Middlebury field hockey team swept fourth-ranked and NESCAC runner-up Tufts in a 2-0 win under the Spooky Nook Dome in Mannheim, Pennsylvania. This was the Panthers' fourth NCAA Division III championship win, having previously captured the title in 1998, 2015 and 2017. After defeating Rowan University 4-2 the previous day in the semifinal round, the team cruised to the fourth all-NESCAC final in Division III history, with Middlebury previously defeating Bowdoin 1-0 in 2015.
Over 400 spectators filled the dome for the first indoor championship in Division III field hockey history, with the outdoor playing fields unplayable due to the recent snowstorm. This is the 8th appearance the Panthers have made in the national championship; the team has the fourth-highest winning percentage in tournament history. Last year, the Middlebury defeated top-ranked Messiah 4-0 at the championship round in Louisville, KY. With Messiah knocked out by Johns Hopkins 3-2 in the quarterfinals on November 11, the Panthers sailed past Keene State (8-0), TCNJ (5-1) and Rowan (4-2) leading up to the final game. This is the first back-to back championship victory for an individual team since Bowdoin's victories in 2007 and 2008.
Over 12 minutes into the game, NESCAC Player of the Year Erin Nicholas '21 scored a goal off a blocked shot against Tufts goalie Andie Stallman. The play leading up to the goal was off a penalty corner by Isabel Chandler '21. Nicholas is the second player in NESCAC history to be named Rookie of the Year as a first-year and Player of the Year as a sophomore.
“Every game feels like it can go either way," head coach Katharine DeLorenzo said to the press earlier in the weekend. “We showed last year against Messiah that it’s a huge benefit for them,” she said, striving for a high-pressure game.
With 11 minutes remaining in the second half, Nicholas masterfully shot a reverse sweep shot to the right corner of the cage for her 17th goal of the season. With the Panthers up 2-0, the team maintained control towards the championship title.
In a press conference following the game, DeLorenzo attributed the team's success to the team's talent and sharp focus. "We have a team of warriors who understand each phase of the game well enough to really apply themselves and when you put that heart and soul and that tactical understanding together, they stay the course in preparation and in the game," she said.
Collins commented on how much the team has grown since preseason in August.
"In August, we were 24 girls, some knew each other and some didn’t, and from then until now it’s just a different group honestly. It’s really even hard to compare," she said.
Nicholas, the game's only scorer, maintained a calm and relaxed mindset while relying on her teammates.
"I don’t come in thinking my goal is going to lead to a point. The goals were a team effort and I couldn’t have done it without everyone," she commented.
Other members of the team with shots included Marissa Baker '20, Molly Freeman '19, Kelly Coyle '20, Grace Jennings '19, Danielle Brown '21, and Emma Johns '20. Goalie Meg Collins '18.5 finished the game with 5 saves against the Jumbos. Nicholas, Collins, Emma Johns and Baker were named to the All-Tournament team, while Jennings earned Most Outstanding Player honors.
This was Jennings' third NCAA Division III championship during her four-year collegiate field hockey career.
"One of the things I love about being a forward is that you need the entire team behind you in order to do your job. You can’t get the ball unless you have an amazing team behind you," she said.
The Panthers finished their season with a 21-1 overall record and a total of 95 goals.
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(11/17/18 9:05pm)
After a NESCAC championship victory on November 4 and a 14-hour bus ride to Manheim, Pennsylvania, the field hockey team secured a spot in the NCAA Division III Championship after a 4-2 victory against Rowan University.
Grace Jennings '19 led the Panthers with goals at 7 and 27 minutes into the first half, while Danielle Brown '21 continued to carry the team with two goals in the second half. Marissa Baker '20 was also responsible for two assists and Jennings assisted Brown for Brown's 12th goal of the season. Goalie Meg Collins '19.5 achieved six saves during her time in goal.
"I thought it was a terrific display of athleticism on both sides. Rowan was the most physical, the quickest, the most powerful opponent we have faced this year," head coach Katharine DeLorenzo said in a press conference following the game.
The Panthers will now face NESCAC foe Tufts tomorrow at 1 p.m. in the NCAA Division III championship. This will be the third time the Panthers have played the Jumbos this season; the Panthers won 2-1 in an overtime match in the regular season and 1-0 in the NESCAC Championship. The Panthers aim to capture their fourth NCAA title, having previously won in 1998, 2015 and 2017 and advancing to the finals in 2003, 2004, 2007 and 2011.
The game will be streamed on NCAA.com here, starting at 1 p.m.
(11/06/18 7:07pm)
8:30 p.m.: Senator Patrick Leahy and Congressman Peter Welch address the crowd at the Vermont Democrats Election Night Party in Burlington.
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8:20 p.m. Congresswoman Barbara Comstock '82 (R-Virginia) has lost her bid for reelection to the U.S. House of Representative.
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7:57 p.m. Our reporters are stationed in three places: Crossroads Café, the Middlebury Inn, and the Hilton Burlington. We'll be bringing you live updates.
5:07 p.m.: It's getting dark! Voters continue to turn up at the polls.
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4:42 p.m.: Students continue to flock to the polls.
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4:00 p.m.: MiddVote hosts a "Party at the Polls," featuring cookies, pizza and face painting. Students, faculty, staff and community member stop by on the way back from voting.
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3:01 p.m.: Another MiddVote shuttle leaves for the polls.
2:15 p.m.: Voting continues through the rain.
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1:00 p.m.: Full of students, the sixth MiddVote shuttle of the day leaves Adirondack Circle for the polls.
12:30 p.m.: Professor of Political Science Matt Dickinson reported "record turnout" at his weekly politics luncheon, where Dickinson analyzed the electoral landscape heading into today's elections and made his own midterm predictions: a Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives, and an unchanged Republican majority in the Senate. Several boxes of pizza, courtesy of Model UN, may have contributed to the surge in attendance.
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9:35 a.m.: Former Governor of Vermont Jim Douglas '72 and Celeste Levy '22 cast their votes. Outside the town offices, members of various local races campaign for their candidates.
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8:05 a.m.: MiddVote begins operating hourly shuttles to the polls.
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6:47 a.m.: Voters begin lining up at the polls, which open at 7 a.m. Associate Professor of the History of Art and Architecture Katy Smith Abbott is among the first to vote.
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(11/06/18 7:04pm)
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ADDISON UPDATE: 11:06 pm
Democrats Ruth Hardy and Chris Bray were both declared winners of the local state senate race at 9 pm this evening. The announcement was followed by a joint speech, in which the two cited Universal Primary Healthcare, paid family leave and a comprehensive lake cleanup plan as the top priorities to tackle in Montpelier.
Hardy, a first-time elect, thanked her staff and husband, Jason Mittell, professor and chair of the Film & Media Culture department, for their support on the campaign trail. She spent the day visiting 10 of the 25 towns with campaign treasurer Dave Silberman. She drove from Huntington to Middlebury "blasting 80s tunes and dancing," she said at the Middlebury Inn this evening.[infogram id="addison-senate-district-25-towns-total-1ho16vvomr0v6nq" prefix="PeT"]
Paul Forlenza, who's on the Addison County Democratic Committee in Lincoln, Vt., was stationed at the corner of the Middlebury Inn, intermittently connecting his computer to the large TV in the room to broadcast up-to-date local election results.
"Town clerks report into candidates or somebody who's close to a candidate in town," Forlenza said.
Vermont House seats for Addison-3 were won by Democrats Diane Lanpher and Matt Birong by a narrow margin. Democrats Mari Cordes and Caleb Elder were also elected to Addison-4 with 26.5 percent and 29.1 percent of the vote, respectively.
"Yes! We have two Ds. Caleb and Mari have just won," declared Dave Sharpe, the retiring legislative from Lincoln, Vt. to a packed crowd at the Middlebury Inn Tuesday night just before 9 pm.
STATE UPDATE: 10:46 pm
At the VT Dems event in Burlington this evening, Senator Bernie Sanders and Congressman Peter Welch were among the politicians to give speeches.
"Being the United States Senator from Vermont has been the honor of my life," Sen. Sanders said during his speech this evening.
Attorney General T.J. Donovan was re-elected for his second term. Jim Condos, the secretary of state, addressed the crowd just after the announcement of Donovan's win, harping on the emphasis of voting in this midterm election.
"This election was about one four-letter word: vote," Condos said during his speech. He believes the state's voter turnout was 55 percent today -- the highest of any midterm election. 69,000 early votes were cast, as opposed to 33,000 in 2014.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Christine Hallquist addressed the crowd, thanking supporters and volunteers for the arduous hours put in during the last six months. She admitted defeat with 82 percent of votes reporting in the state.
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"I'm very proud of the campaign we've run," Hallquist said in her concession speech at the Burlington Hilton. "Phil is going to be very committed to the future of Vermont. We sparred well and I think Vermont is a beacon of hope of what democracy looks like."
Hallquist began her campaign on March 2 and has been lauded by Democrats for supporting single-payer healthcare, the $15 minimum wage and paid family leave -- all proposals Gov. Scott's vetoed in the last few months[pullquote speaker="Christine Hallquist" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]We sparred well and I think Vermont is a beacon of hope of what democracy looks like.[/pullquote]
Gov. Scott's favorability dropped dramatically after passing stricter gun laws this past summer. However, he's continued to be one of the most favored Republican governors nationwide. Vermont is one of the only states that often has split ballots. Many voters are willing to vote for a Republican governor, but Democratic senators and congressman.
Editor's Note: Ruth Hardy is the spouse of Prof. Jason Mittell, The Campus' academic advisor. Mittell plays no role in any editorial decisions made by the paper. Any questions may be directed to campus@middlebury.edu.
(11/06/18 6:20pm)
Today's the day. Polls are open in Vermont until 7 p.m. tonight. Throughout the day, The Campus staff will be reporting from different spots around Addison County and Vermont on voting news, election events and results as the evening progresses. Check out last week's Election Issue for our coverage on the races to watch.
(11/05/18 3:23am)
After a three hour rain delay against Trinity during the NESCAC semifinals on November 3, the field hockey team won its second consecutive NESCAC championship and seventh in program history, defeating Tufts 1-0 at home. The top seed in the NESCAC tournament, the Panthers will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament starting this weekend.
Emma Johns '20 was the sole scorer throughout the game, scoring off a penalty corner late into the first half. Goalie Meg Collins ’19.5 finished with one save, with Middlebury and Tufts both having 9 shots each.
Having won the national championship last year, the Panthers will look for a repeat as they progress through the NCAA regional rounds this weekend. Having received a bye for the first round of the tournament, the Panthers will play the winner of the Keene State vs. SUNY New Paltz game (scheduled to take place on November 7) this Saturday, November 10.
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(10/04/18 9:56am)
The Middlebury track and field team walked over two miles with community members at the annual CROP Hunger Walk on Sunday, Sept. 30. The team has raised over $1,000 was raised to donate to local organizations ranging from the Charter House Coalition to H.O.P.E. (Helping Overcome Poverty’s Effects). President Laurie Patton was the honorary chair and speaker at the event.
BENJY RENTON
BENJY RENTON
(09/27/18 10:00am)
(09/27/18 10:00am)
At the team’s game against Babson on Sunday, Sept. 23, the field hockey team wore orange ribbons in support of the fight against leukemia, Multiple Sclerosis, PTSD, sexual violence, diabetes, brain cancer, Lyme disease, Alzheimer’s, ADD, ADHD and breast cancer. With two of the team’s youngest supporters battling leukemia in attendance, the Unite in the Flight Awareness Game paralleled the team’s motto this year: “Take Flight.”
BENJY RENTON
BENJY RENTON
(09/20/18 10:00am)
At the annual TAM Trek on Sunday, Sept. 16, the Middlebury cross country teams raised over $1,100 for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. The team participated in the event and supported Miles for Maeve, a fund dedicated in honor of Middlebury resi-dent Maeve Hammel, 16, who was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at age two. Hammel benefits from a medication that was developed as a result of the funds raised by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
BENJY RENTON
BENJY RENTON
(09/20/18 9:59am)
The women’s volleyball team cheers after bouncing back to defeat Trinity in the final three sets, leading to a 3–1 victory.
BENJY RENTON
(09/13/18 10:02am)
Cleveland Cavaliers general manager Koby Altman ’04 will be returning to campus this weekend as part of the Sociology and Anthropology Field Guide, sponsored by the Center for Careers and Internships (CCI). The CCI’s Field Guides bring alumni from various professional fields to discuss their post-graduation paths and how their major has contributed to their careers. A former athlete on the men’s basketball team at Middlebury, Altman was named the 11th general manager in Cleveland Cavaliers history on July 24, 2017. As GM, he manages and oversees all aspects of scouting, personnel, player acquisitions and transactions and all team operations.COURTESY OF MIDDLEBURY MAGAZINE
While at Middlebury this weekend, Altman will be interviewed on Facebook Live by James Finn ’20.5, an Opinion Editor for The Campus and forward on the men’s basketball team. Altman will also be one of five panelists at a dinner Friday night at 5:30 p.m. in Atwater Dining Hall. On Saturday morning at 8:30 in Kenyon Lounge, he will also discuss his background and career path through the NBA and what students interested in sports management careers can expect. Students interested in these events can RSVP at go/soanfieldguide.
(09/06/18 1:09am)
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Crowds gathered on the Town Green in Middlebury on Monday, September 3 for the annual Labor Day Rally. Similar to previous instances of the event, Senator Bernie Sanders attended and was the culminating speaker in a three-hour lineup, which included Representative Peter Welch, Vermont Senator Chris Bray and candidate Ruth Hardy, Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman and Democratic nominee for Governor Christine Hallquist. Following his speech, Sanders greeted the crowd as he exited the Green with fellow speakers.
(04/11/18 11:39pm)
Transitioning to college is not easy for anyone, and so one first-year has made it his mission to foster a strong community among the first-year class through sharing stories and photography. On any given day, John Schurer ’21 will attend classes, participate in various student organization meetings and collect the stories of his classmates for posting on his new initiative, MeetMidd. Taking the form of a website, Facebook and Instagram accounts, MeetMidd is a space for members of the Class of 2021 and 2021.5 to share anecdotes about themselves to a wider audience. Over the past few months, it has turned into an entity uniting the community and building relationships among others in the first-year class.
Schurer’s interest in photography started in middle school.
“For the longest time I’ve loved photography and I used to take photos of very typical subjects — things like sunsets, my friends, dogs,” he said. “It wasn’t until I started MeetMidd that I did profile photography, but once I started I almost couldn’t stop.”
He believes that profile photography enables him to combine his interests in photography and getting to know people.
“A photographer doesn’t take a photograph, a photographer makes a photograph,” Schurer said, saying that he aims to capture feelings through composing his subjects.
While he is new to profile photography, Schurer is no stranger to the world of communications, social media and publicity. He currently serves on a host of committees and participates in various extracurricular activities, including MCAB’s Traditions Committee, Wonnacott Commons Council and the SGA’s Publicity Committee, to name a few. Schurer is also one of two First-Year Senators for the Class of 2021, a producer for the Middlebury Moth-Up and the publicity coordinator for the Center for Community Engagement’s Page One Literacy Project.
“The more things I have going on, the more I feel grounded in a place,” he said.
Schurer started MeetMidd with the goal of giving students a chance to share their stories.
“I was inspired by a quote by Maya Angelou, and she once said that ‘there is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you,’” he said.
He believes storytelling can be used as empowerment for ourselves and compassion for others. In addition, Schurer aims to capitalize on the intimacy of a small college campus where compassion for others is present.
“When you have a mutual foundation of compassion, respect and understanding, you’re more likely to create a natural dialogue about the issues that are facing the campus,” he said.
The MeetMidd process involves soliciting stories and photos from members of the first-year class. Schurer reaches out to his classmates with an online document asking them to share any anecdote about themselves, in addition to their hometown, commons, academic interests and other personal interests.
On the surface, it seems that MeetMidd has similarities to photographer Brandon Stanton’s “Humans of New York” project, which he started in 2010. However, Schurer clarifies some of the differences. New York City is a large city, and Middlebury’s small community enables its constituents to read a story on MeetMidd and potentially see the subject the next day.
“People are not only reading the posts, but they’re internalizing what they read and doing something about it,” Schurer said. In addition, Humans of New York is often comprised of extemporaneous stories, whereas MeetMidd features stories where the subjects have time to prepare.
Schurer believes that so far, his project has made first-years’ transition to college easier by making it easier to reach out to others and relate to them.
“I think it’s helped people realize that we’re not so different from one another, and it has led to new friendships,” he said. “When you read something about someone on MeetMidd, it undermines some of the preconceived notions that you’ve developed about a person. It helps you learn about them from their own voice.”
In the future, Schurer hopes to represent the entire Class of 2021 and 2021.5 by featuring all of its around 750 members on MeetMidd. He also hopes to expand a similar storytelling model to other aspects of the Middlebury campus, including the administration, faculty and staff.
“In that sense, I’m very excited for the future,” Schurer said, as he hopes to make it more than a first-year project. He also envisions working with different student groups to use similar methods to showcase various people in the community.
With many responsibilities on campus, one may wonder how Schurer balances his commitments.
“I only participate in what I love” he said. “I would never do something if it felt like a tremendous burden to me. If you love what you’re doing you always find a way to make it possible.”
Those wishing to keep up with the project can find @meetmidd on Facebook on Instagram and visit the website at meetmidd.weebly.com. Schurer would like to thank all the students who have participated so far and would also like to express gratitude to his supporters.
“It goes a long way,” he said.
Schurer believes that MeetMidd helps build a strong community at Middlebury through compassion, respect, understanding and kindness. He also thinks that his community building movement will help people realize that they are all imperfect and that is absolutely acceptable. Justifying that what Middlebury needs more than anything is a strong community, Schurer said “[his] intention is to begin with MeetMidd and show everyone why our community is worth fighting for.”
(03/01/18 1:24am)
Over February Break, six Middlebury Alternative Break (MAlt) trips departed for destinations from Atlanta to Haiti and other places in between. MAlt aims to provide affordable, service-oriented alternatives to traditional February break activities. Student leaders and participants convened in Atwater Dining Hall on Wednesday, February 21 for a reflection dinner, during which each group presented about its trips and had the opportunity to answer questions asked by attendees and Center for Community Engagement (CCE) staff members. Co-presidents of MAlt Ana Sanchez Chico ’18 and Prasanna Vankina ’18 introduced the evening’s program. “We hope you understand the impact of your trips by bringing these connections back to campus,” Vankina said.
MAlt Appalachia explored the mechanisms of rural poverty through engaging with communities in West Virginia. Participants assisted low-income families through home repair and maintenance, tearing down one home that had been in place since 1970. “Obviously, we as a group of college students had very limited construction experience,” said Yuchen Zhu ’18, one of the trip’s leaders. Helping at a food bank, attending a church service and learning about West Virginia’s coal industry were also major parts of the trip. “It was a truly transforming trip, and I’m very lucky to have been with the people I was with,” said Gloria Breck ’18.
Learning about biodiversity and environmental conservation, MAlt Costa Rica partnered with Osa Conservation, a sustainable farm and nonprofit on the Osa Peninsula. The region holds 2.5 percent of the world’s diversity, which provided the participants with many opportunities to observe and engage with organisms such as birds, sea turtles, orchids and corn. The trip’s main activities fell into three greater projects: reforestation, sustainable agriculture and conservation. “One thing we learned [about] at Osa was the intersections with the environment,” said trip co-leader Ravi Patel ’19.
MAlt La Push lived and worked with members of the Quileute nation, a tribe based in northwest Washington State. This trip partnered with Xperitas, an organization invested in cultural immersion and building a global community. This was not a typical service trip, as intercultural learning was a key part of the experience. “Our trip was not meant to teach anyone. It was instead us learning how we live in the community,” said co-leader Valeriia Vakhitova ’20. The group participated in drumming circles, joi1ned a women’s domestic violence support group for lunch, helped the community’s elders and cleaned out transitional homes. “We were really honored to participate in those traditions,” commented trip participant Rebecca Strull ’20.5.
Focusing on food justice in urban environments and sustainable urban agriculture, students on MAlt Atlanta worked with Metro Atlanta Urban Farm in College Park, Georgia. Over the course of four days on the farm, they planted new seeds, cleaned out old sheds and met the other farm volunteers. Other activities included raking leaves at the community garden and visiting the Center for Civil and Human Rights and the King Center in downtown Atlanta. Participants also noticed a contrast between rural and urban areas and segregation in the American South. “Atlanta is actually the second-most-segregated city in the U.S., and by taking the MARTA [Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority] it was really evident. … We were lucky to not just [experience] the agriculture piece but [to] also interact with the city,” said trip co-leader Claudia Huerta ’18.
MAlt Haiti was based in Anseà-Pitres, and participants flew into Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and crossed the border by bus. “Considering today’s political climate, that was ... really special,” commented Georgia Grace Edwards ’18. The trip spent most of the time at École Anandamarga, a community day school and orphanage dedicated to raising women and children out of poverty through self-sustaining methods such as education and microfinance. Painting a mural and assisting at the school, trip members explored development and the role of international aid in a Haitian context. In addition, much of the trip took place without cell-phone service, which was a welcome part of the experience. “None of us really had our phones. We didn’t want to keep them out around the kids,” said trip co-leader Katherine Kulp ’20.
Partnering with the Life of Freedom Center, MAlt Miami engaged in conversations about sexual exploitation and human trafficking in the Miami area. Students participated in workshops and talked to a survivor of sex trafficking who managed to escape. One of the most striking aspects of the trip was a van tour during which a local contact pointed out sex-trafficking “hotspots” in restaurants and hotels. “It showed us how pervasive sex trafficking is,” Varsha Vijayakumar ’20 said. The average age of entry into the commercial sex industry is 12 years old, and participants brought pictures of missing girls to their work on the streets. MAlt’s reflection dinner was the culmination of over three months of careful planning, as participants for trips are selected in October. “People think of [MAlt] as a week, and it actually goes much longer than that,” said CCE program director Ashley Laux. In addition, unlike many peer institutions’ travel programs, MAlt is almost entirely student-organized. “MAlt is really unique in that students design trips, find community partners, fundraise and go on trips,” Laux added.
(02/15/18 1:59am)
The women’s basketball team played its final pair of regular season games on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 9 and 10. Middlebury defeated Hamilton (14–10) in Pepin Gym on Friday 53–44, ensuring they would host a quarterfinal game in the Nescac playoffs. The Panthers lost their final home game of the regular season at home to the defending Nescac and NCAA Division III champions Amherst, 68–41.
Hamilton looked aggressive from the opening minutes on Friday. After a brief moment of being tied at four, the Continentals were effortlessly finding the bottom of the net to go on an 11–0 run. On the defensive end, Hamilton managed to cut off much of Middlebury’s movement inside the paint. Hamilton’s lockdown defense forced the Panthers to take difficult shots, only allowing seven points to Hamilton’s 17 at the end of the first quarter.
The Panthers stepped up on the defensive end in the second quarter. They hustled tenaciously on both ends of the floor, and scored the opening six points of the quarter to cut the lead down to four. Sabrina Weeks ’18 came up with a huge steal and finished the layup to keep the Panthers close at 19–15 with three and a half minutes to play. The final few minutes saw Hamilton score five of the next eight points to give themselves a half-dozen point lead heading into halftime.
The visitors opened the third quarter with a 3-pointer to extend their lead to nine. But the Panthers continued their strong defensive efforts and fluid ball movement to go on a 14–2 run, limiting the Continentals to just one basket and forcing nine turnovers. The Panthers finally managed to take the lead off a 3-pointer from Sarah Kaufman ’18 late in the quarter.
Catherine Harrison ’19 opened the final quarter with a jumper to give the Panthers a 39–33 lead. An exchange of runs ensued for the remainder of the game, and the Panthers led 48–40 after a pair of Maya Davis ’20 free throws. The Panthers overcame a six-point halftime deficit to win by nine, 53–44. Harrison led the Panthers in scoring with a season-best 13 points on 6 of 9 shooting.
The following afternoon, defending champion Amherst immediately looked dominant in the opening quarter as they led 10–0 after seven minutes of play. The Panthers found their first basket of the game on a Lily Kuntz ’20 3-pointer with 2:45 left in the first ten minutes.
Behind 16–5 at the beginning of the second quarter, Middlebury began to slowly chip away at the large deficit, eventually cutting the lead down to six on another three from Kuntz. The Mammoths immediately retaliated and cemented a 25–15 lead going into halftime.
The Mammoths looked unstoppable coming out of the locker room for the third quarter, putting together a 13–5 run over the first half of the quarter. Middlebury could not slow the Mammoths this time, and the lead ballooned as many as 26 in the third quarter.
Though the fourth quarter was tight in scoring, 16–15, the Mammoths were able to end their regular season with a 27-point win away from home.
Kuntz was the Panthers’ top scorer with 11.
Though the Panthers would not have liked to end their final game of the season at home with such a tough loss, the errors and shortcomings should be internalized quickly to prepare themselves for the playoffs. Amherst has not lost a game since the start of the 2016-2017 season, making them undefeated in their past 57 games. If the Panthers are looking to make a run for the Nescac title, they can almost assuredly expect to face Amherst again.
Fourth-seeded Middlebury, who boasts a 17–7 overall record and 6–4 record in the conference, will host fifth-seeded Wesleyan (5–5, in the Nescac) on Saturday, Feb. 17, at 3 p.m. The Panthers defeated the Cardinals 77–60 at Pepin Gym earlier this season.
This is the second straight season Middlebury will host a quarterfinal game, but only the third time since 2002, the first and only time the Panthers advanced to the Nescac championship game. If the Panthers win on Saturday, they will advance to the semifinals held the following weekend at the highest-remaining seed’s gym.
(01/17/18 10:51pm)
The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) Club launched their annual Winter Term lecture series with a lecture from Paul Zajac titled “Is There a Future for the European Union?,” the first of three lectures in the series. This is the third time the club has organized the lecture series, bringing in speakers to speak on topics relating to politics and economics.
Zajac is a French career diplomat and visiting fellow at the AEI in Washington, D.C., where he focuses on Europe,the European Union (EU) and transatlantic security issues. Having a background in European security affairs, Zajac has previously held multiple teaching and diplomatic posts in Paris. He holds master’s degrees in public affairs, international politics and modern history from Sciences-Po, the Université Panthéon-Assas (Paris 2) and the Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1) respectively.
President of the AEI Club Phil Hoxie ’17.5 introduced the lecture as the first in the club’s series of annual lectures over January, with the other two taking place in the following weeks. This is the third time the club has organized the lecture series, bringing in speakers to speak on topics relating to politics and economics.
Zajac started his lecture by challenging a common American misconception that the European Union will disappear after the Brexit vote and with the rise of Euroskepticism. There were tensions within member states and Russia was in the process of undermining EU unity. With crises in Syria and Libya and elections in three European states, the EU has undergone major changes in 2017.
Zajac spoke to the impact of President Trump’s election on Europe as well.
“Europeans were faced for the first time in history with the possibility of having a US president hostile to the EU project,” he said. However, he also observed that in the year since the election, “the EU seems to be able to weather these crises for the time being.”
A new rise of populist, anti-EU forces in elections represents a change in political landscapes across the continent. In the United Kingdom, Zajac believes that the situation is still quite unstable in the aftermath of the Brexit vote.
“The shockwaves of Brexit are still affecting London politics,” he said. The French election was a race between two centrist candidates for the EU and two extremist candidates against the EU. Winner and centrist Emmanuel Macron was the first candidate in decades to run on a pro-EU platform, embracing the changes occurring within political landscapes.
“What he said was that the left-right divide was artificial,” Zajac said. Zajac also updated the audience with reviews of recent elections in Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Slovenia.
Having summarized these challenges, Zajac continued his lecture by discussing three main topics for a path forward for the EU. First, he believes that the EU must complete the integration of the Eurozone, the monetary union consisting of 19 of the 28 EU member states that have adopted the euro as their common currency. This can be achieved through a common budget spearheaded by Macron. Next, the EU must tackle immigration issues in light of recent immigration crises. This includes setting up an external border out of the Schengen Area and devising similar policies across the EU’s member states for asylum seekers. Zajac remains optimistic about these policy implementations.
“The EU has made quite a lot of progress if you consider the difficulty of these issues concerning national borders,” he said. Defense is the third area in Zajac’s plan. Members of the EU must take several steps to improve defense among themselves to promote what Macron calls “l’Europe qui protège.”
Having proposed this plan, Zajac believes it must appear at the forefront of French and German governments.
“Reconciling France and Germany is a starting point…there is no single issue on which the French and Germans agree,” Zajac said to a chuckling audience.
Even with these steps, there are challenges that must be overcome for the continuation of a strong EU. The need for deeper structural reforms in the Eurozone, the desire for a stronger immigration link and the growing east-west divide originating in Russia are three issues the EU must overcome in the next few years.
Concluding his lecture, Zajac noted that the there is an ongoing debate as to what values the EU should stand for. While every European state agrees that they must complete the Schengen Zone, “when it comes to values and nature of democracies, it will be much harder and much more tense,” Zajac said. “Historically, the European Union has been conceived by our founding fathers as a technocratic construct that needed to be shielded from national politics and create sovereignty.” However, now that the member states are interconnected, the EU has become more transparent and its members must adapt to the democratization of EU politics.
The next lecture in the AEI Club’s series will be by Assistant Professor of Economics Obie Porteous and will discuss technology in Africa.
(12/07/17 12:08am)
Students, faculty, and community members gathered on Nov. 29 to hear Assistant Professor of Spanish Professor Brandon Baird present on his work as part of the Carol Rifelj Faculty Lecture Series. In a talk titled “Unequivocally Authentic: Mayan Language and Identity in Modern Guatemala,” Baird presented on his recent linguistic research in Guatemala and the contemporary implications of his results.
Baird’s was the last faculty lecture of the fall semester, and many of his students were in attendance. A Middlebury faculty member since the fall of 2014, he is currently teaching classes in the Spanish and Linguistics departments. His research interests include Hispanic linguistics, Mayan linguistics, phonetics, phonology, bilingualism, and sociolinguistics. Next semester, Baird will be teaching two courses titled “Bilingualism in the Spanish-Speaking World” and “The Sounds of Language: Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology.”
Baird posed the question of how languages are lost among native populations and used bilingualism, or the action of picking up another language, as a bridge toward language loss. For many Spanish-speaking immigrants to the U.S., for example, the first generation of the family is monolingual in the native language, the second generation is bilingual in the native language and English and the third generation is monolingual in English. “Grandparents and grandchildren may not speak the same language,” Baird said. Discussing language dominance, he used the term diglossia, which he defined as when two languages are used under different conditions within a community. Individuals tend to be more dominant in one language than the other, and may use one language at home and the other at work, for example.
According to Baird, he is often asked if anyone still speaks the Mayan language. Contrary to common misconception, he explained, there are 32 distinct Mayan languages, 30 of which are still spoken today. Baird’s research focuses on K’iche’ language, which one million people in Guatemala speak. Baird summarized the recent language policies of the country. In 2003, the Law on National Languages declared Spanish as the official language of Guatemala but recognized the importance of indigenous languages to national identity. However, according to Baird, the law has not been effective in promoting and preserving indigenous languages.
“These people aren’t able to use their language in certain necessary aspects of their lives,” he said, referring to the lack of interpreters in the national court system, among other critical social services.
Baird’s research was conducted in two Guatemalan communities, the rural area of Nahualá and the urban area of Cantel. Using quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews as methods of data collection, Baird sought to discover linguistic correlations with language dominance. The quantitative results showed that the population of the more urban area of Cantel tends to be more Spanish dominant, while Nahualá tends to be more K’iche’ dominant.
“The younger [the people] are, the greater tendency there is for them to be Spanish dominant,” Baird said. While many residents speak K’iche’ at home with family, they tend to use Spanish at school and work, drawing attention to a diglossia between Spanish and K’iche’.
The qualitative results illustrated the value of bilingualism and a motivation among the residents to continue speaking K’iche’.
“Someone who speaks two languages is worth two people,” a Cantel resident commented in the survey. There is an important value assigned to learning Spanish for job opportunities and to communicate with people such as doctors and judges. Finally, the results demonstrated a fear of the loss of K’iche’ language and culture, especially as other cultural traditions shift to adapt to the modern era. For example, Baird said that men in Guatemala tend not to wear traditional clothing anymore.
Baird concluded his lecture with a hopeful outlook. While there is a diglossia between Spanish and K’iche’, members of the population have been promoting their native culture and pushing the native language in sports and music. Baird brought his findings to an American context by drawing a parallel between the situation in Guatemala and the current attitudes towards English as the national language of the U.S in today’s political climate. While immigrants in the U.S. find English to be very vital to their new lives, he said, they also express the necessity to preserve their native languages.
“You can’t shut off their language and expect [people] to do better,” he said.
(11/30/17 12:05am)
At the culminating event of the Middlebury chapter of Project Pengyou’s “Pengyou Week,” the organization invited Professor Andrew Mertha, a specialist in Chinese and Cambodian politics at Cornell University, to talk about China’s historical support of the Cambodian Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. The Southeast Asian country of Cambodia is often left out of discussions related to U.S.-China relations, and Project Pengyou aims to change that dynamic on campus.
Project Pengyou is a relatively new organization to Middlebury’s campus, founded by Ngor Luong ’19 last year. Its mission is to create a cohort of U.S.-China bridge builders and provide a platform for international Chinese students, Chinese Americans and any students interested in discussing U.S.-China relations. The organization hosts various events, panels and discussions throughout the year; however, its biggest event was an internationally recognized Pengyou Day, which took place on November 16. “Pengyou” means “friend” in Chinese, and the organization hosted events throughout the whole week promoting friendship and cooperation between the two countries. These events included a panel sponsored by the Center for Careers and Internships on job and internship opportunities, a screening of the movie “First They Killed My Father,” a discussion on identity and differences, an opportunity to meet members of the organization over lunch and Mertha’s talk over dinner.
Mertha’s talk was titled “Fueling the Genocidal Regime: China’s Historical Support of the Cambodian Khmer Rouge and Contemporary Implications for China’s Regional and Global Power,” and served as a continuation of the issues raised in “First They Killed My Father.” The talk was sponsored by the MCAB Speakers Committee, Brainerd and Wonnacott Commons and the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs. Luong introduced Mertha by discussing a brief history of the Middlebury chapter of Project Pengyou along with a brief biography of Mertha and a summary of his accomplishments. Mertha is a professor of government,specializing in Chinese and Cambodian politics, political institutions, the policy process and the exercise of power. He is a core faculty member in the Cornell East Asia Program and the Cornell Southeast Asia Program, and also serves as president of the Center for Khmer Studies (CKS). Mertha is currently working on an institutional mapping of the organizational structure and policy making process in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge from 1970 to 2003 and a comparison of political rectification, purges, and political indoctrination in China and Cambodia.
In his lecture, Mertha primarily focused on the period between April 17, 1975 (when the Khmer Rouge entered the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh) to January 9, 1979 (when the Vietnamese army entered the city).
“What people may not realize is that Cambodia was the site of one of the greatest civilizations of the world and of history,” Mertha said, referring to the Angkor (or Khmer) Empire. The power and glory of this empire is still visible today in the form of Angkor Wat, the largest religious building in the world. He briefly summarized the history of Cambodia in the latter half of the 20th century, from its status as an independent protectorate of France through the takeover of the Khmer Rouge and life in the country after this regime.
Mertha compared the key features of China and Cambodia in the 1970s. Small in land area, Cambodia was not an Asian geopolitical powerhouse and its economy was devastated during civil war. Politically, “the Khmer Rouge were not the smartest leaders of a revolutionary movement that the world has ever seen,” Mertha said, referring to the lack of governance in Cambodia. In contrast, China was “exponentially stronger than Cambodia” and was on the road to becoming a global powerhouse. Mertha argued that China, despite its power over Cambodia, benefited very little from the relations between the two countries. He used the failure to reconstruct a petroleum plant destroyed during the civil war,the construction of a military base in the center of the country and the growth of trade in the region to show that China actually had little to no influence over Cambodian infrastructure and development, military aid and trade. Drawing into contemporary ideas, Mertha noted that China could be weaker than experts previously thought.
“China is anything but a unitary actor. There [are] an impossible number of moving parts and they don’t necessarily move the way they should,” he said.
Luong was very impressed with Mertha’s talk and the engagement of the audience.
“We wanted to expose Middlebury students to topics that are generally left out or considered insignificant in the traditional classroom setting,” said Luong. “Professor Mertha commented that we didn’t really care about Cambodia until it was too late. This is happening now in our generation with the Syrian refugee crisis and even the recent horrific attack in Egypt.”
Project Pengyou plans to bring Sidney Rittenberg, Mao Zedong’s interpreter and Chinese Communist Party insider, to campus in the near future.
“Ultimately, we really hope to bring in different perspectives to our Middlebury community,” Luong said.