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(03/23/16 10:52pm)
The Middlebury women’s hockey team ended their NCAA tournament run on Friday, March 18, after falling 5-3 to top-ranked Plattsburgh State in the semifinal round. They finished the season with a record of 21-6-3, the team’s most since the 2010–11 campaign and the first time the Panthers punched a ticket to the Final Four since their run to the 2012-13 NCAA final. The teams have now each won three NCAA tournament games against the other — the Panthers won in their most recent meeting in the 2013 national semifinal.
The Panthers recorded 10 straight wins leading up to the semifinal, nine of which were shutouts.
Middlebury had the first scoring opportunity of the game, going on a power play at the 3:08 mark but not capitalizing. Two minutes later Plattsburgh State took a power play of their own and turned it into a 1-0 lead just as it was about to expire. For the goal, Karen Hudson one-timed a pass in the slot.
The Panthers bounced back after stopping a second Cardinal power play at 9:48. Seconds later, Jessica Young ’18 received the puck from Janka Hlinka ’18 and wristed a shot around a defender into the far corner of the net.
Middlebury tried several times to take the lead before the end of the first, but failed. Maddie Winslow ’18 shot from point-blank range on a feed from Young, but Cardinal goalie Camille Leonard denied the puck. Plattsburgh State closed the first period with a 13-7 shot-on-goal advantage.
The Cardinals continued their momentum early in the second. A minute in, Kayla Meneghin placed her own rebound into the goal to bring the Cardinals a 2-1 lead. She nearly extended that again at 4:32 on a dramatic breakaway, but her shot went high above the crossbar.
At 5:36, the Cardinals made it a 3-1 game with a hard wrister from Muna Fadel in the slot. They had two chances to extend that lead within half a minute, but Panther netminder Julia Neuburger ’18 made both saves at 12:50 and 13:10. She then came in clutch with a glove save after Megan Delay of Plattsburgh State shook two defenders and blasted the puck from the left point.
The Cardinals extended their lead to 5-1 to close out the second period. They went went on the power play at 16:04 and scored within six seconds. A minute later, two Plattsburgh State forwards worked a pass-and-cut play all the way to the net. Plattsburgh State led Middlebury 16-5 in shots on goal for the second period.
Middlebury turned up the heat in the final period in a last-ditch effort. Their second goal of the game came more than halfway through the period, with Young netting her second goal of the game when Elizabeth Wulf ’18 batted down a puck mid-air for Young to place over the goal line. It was Young’s 13th goal of the season.
With two minutes remaining, Wulf scored a goal of her own as she one-timed a Winslow pass to the back of the net. At the 18:04 mark, Middlebury pulled Neuburger from the net in favor of an extra forward. The Panthers managed to keep constant pressure on the Cardinal net, even going on a power play with 50 seconds left, but could not score.
Plattsburgh State finished with a 41-23 advantage in shots on goal, having gone 1-for-6 on the power play compared to Middlebury’s 0-for-4. The Panthers last made the finals in 2013 when they fell in a gut-wrenching 1-0 defensive thriller against Elmira; their last NCAA title came in 2006.
“I was proud of the way the team responded in the third, scoring two goals and not giving up any,” Head Coach Bill Mandigo said. “It was a very good season. Winning the NESCAC championship in Kenyon and making it to the Final Four was something the team did not think was possible in December.”
Mandigo praised the players for their collective effort. “The team worked hard and got better every day. This was a very good group to coach and I will miss seeing them on a daily basis,” he said.
With their hopes for a national title dashed, the Panthers played in a consolation game on Saturday, March 19, against Elmira, falling 4-1 to take fourth place in the tournament.
Elmira took the lead 14 seconds into the game on a rebound. At 3:57, Middlebury answered on a power play, with Jenna Marotta ’19 one-timing a pass from Winslow. Elmira made it a 2-1 game at 14:38 in the first period. Middlebury nearly had an answer seconds later, but the Soaring Eagle goalie blocked the shot.
Elmira extended their lead to 3-1 in the second period with a backhander from the right faceoff circle. The Panthers had two opportunities in the period, a power play at 5:18 and a big flurry at 10:10, but could not convert either.
In the third period, Middlebury upped the pressure on the Elmira net, but still were unable to score the puck. With 1:48 remaining, Elmira added an empty-net goal, handing Middlebury a 4-1 loss.
The Panthers began the year with a tough schedule that included top-ranked opponents like Elmira and Norwich. They made an impressive run to the tournament, surpassing last year’s loss in the NCAA quarterfinal round and winning the NESCAC title. With an impressive young roster, headlined by NESCAC player player of the year Winslow, as well as a solid in-comming freshman class, the team has a good chance of continuing to dominate on the national stage next year.
(03/23/16 10:47pm)
After a dismal 4-24 season last year, the Middlebury baseball team started its season off on Saturday, March 19, with a 2-1 loss and a 4-3 win in a double-header against Bates in Northborough, Mass. The Bobcats took the win in the seven inning, low-scoring first game, but the Panthers grabbed the night cap with a walk-off home run by Sam Graf ’19.
“Both games were close and came down to the final out,” said Colby Morris ’19, Middlebury’s starting pitcher in the first game. “The fact that we were able to come back from a tough loss in the first game to walk-off in extra innings in the second game really showed a resilience that should help us down the stretch against NESCAC opponents.”
Game one tipped in favor of the Panthers early, as they took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning. Max Araya ’16 cracked a double to deep left field and scored when Jason Lock ’17 forced a Bates error.
Bates mustered an answer in the bottom of the second. Eric Vilanova ripped a homer for the Bobcats to centerfield, scoring Asher MacDonald from first and putting his team ahead 2-1.
In the third inning, Graf reached first on a hit by pitch. Jake Turtel ’18 singled just after, and on a wild pitch the runners each advanced a base. With Middlebury gunning to score, Bates starting pitcher Conor Colombo struck out back-to-back hitters to end the inning. The Panthers threatened again in the fourth. Joe MacDonald ’16 and Drew Coash ’18 both walked, but Colombo again managed to close the inning, this time with a double play.
By the top of the seventh, Bates still led 2-1. John Luke ’16 and Johnny Read ’17 managed to get on first and second, and Graf bunted them to second and third. With two outs remaining in the game, the Bobcats brought Rob DiFranco in to pitch. He managed to force the next two hitters to hit ground out back to him and secure the win for Bates.
“Our hitting was solid, but we missed lots of opportunities throughout the day with runners in scoring position and less than two outs, not executing the way we are going to need to,” Morris said.
The Panthers were the home team for the nightcap, and again took an early lead by scoring two runs in the second inning. The 2-0 lead came when MacDonald walked, Phil Bernstein ’19 singled, and Brendan Donohue ’18 ripped a double, sending MacDonald and Bernstein to home plate. In the third, Luke doubled in Araya to give the Panthers a three run lead.
Bates posted an impressive three-run effort in the fourth inning. Middlebury starter John Bunting ’19 allowed one double and a single. Bates’ Brendan Fox placed a two-run home run in deep right field to tie the game at 3-3.
The teams clashed in the eighth as they vied to go ahead. MacDonald was intentionally walked and Araya and Bernstein were hit by two of Bates reliever Chris Ward’s pitches. With bases loaded and one out, Ward dealt two strikeouts to keep the score tied. That set Graf up for his heroics the next inning. In the bottom of the ninth with one out, Graf knocked the baseball over the left field fence to bring home the win for the Panthers.
“Overall the team played tight defense and threw strikes, highlighted by a stellar performance from the bullpen in the second game when three different relievers (Jake Stalcup ’17, Dylan Takamori ’17, and Conor Himstead ’19) all had scoreless appearances to shut down Bates and give us opportunities to score the final run,” Morris said. “We are definitely stoked to get the first win out of the way.”
The Panthers will travel to Tucson, Arizona for their spring break trip, where they will play 10 games in eight days, including a three-game series with NESCAC opponent Williams.
(03/23/16 8:28pm)
The Office of the Provost hosted a lecture by philosopher Dr. Martha Nussbaum on Thursday, March 17, in Wilson Hall. The lecture, titled “Anger and Revolutionary Justice: Ideas for Liberal Learning,” was open to all students, faculty and staff. About 175 people were in attendance.
“Anger, with all its ugliness, is still a very popular emotion,” Dr. Nussbaum said. “Many people think it’s impossible to care for justice without anger at injustice. Many also believe that it is impossible for individuals to vindicate their own self-respect adequately without anger.”
But she said that anger is “fatally flawed,” along with notions of the need for payback and revenge as key components of a legal system.
She used ancient Athens as an example. She recounted how the goddess Athena introduced legal institutions to replace and terminate the seemingly endless cycle of blood vengeance, setting up a court of law that established procedures of reasoned argument, the weighing of evidence and a jury selected by lot from the entire citizen body of Athens. From that moment on, blood disputes were settled by law rather than by the Furies, the ancient goddesses of revenge.
Dr. Nussbaum noted that Athena then offered to accept the Furies into the citizenry, allowing them to become human — that is, to “adopt benevolence.” And they must listen to the voice of persuasion. She called the Furies’ transformation “a profound inner reorientation.” Symbolically, she said, the Furies transformed physically from beasts into women. Each citizen should give generously to each in a mindset of common love.
“Political justice does not simply put a cage around resentment,” Nussbaum said. “It must fundamentally transform it from something barely human — obsessive, bloodthirsty — to something fully human — accepting of reasons, calm, deliberate and measured, something that protects life rather than threatens it.”
She called it “no surprise” that all the prominent Greco-Roman philosophers from Plato to Seneca were strong opponents of retributive anger in criminal law.
She also acknowledged the common belief that successful challenges against great injustices need the spirit of anger to make progress — so that anger “is in the heart” of revolutionary transformation.
In almost all cases, though, the idea of retributive justice is nonsensical according to Nussbaum. “The idea of payback just doesn’t make sense,” she said. “Whatever the wrong was — say, a murder or a rape — inflicting pain on the wrongdoer doesn’t actually help restore the thing that was lost.”
One unique instance when anger makes sense, Nussbaum said, is when the victim sees the wrong entirely in terms of relative status: she does not focus on the murder or rape, but only on the way she is downgraded in status by the wrong. In that case, humiliating the perpetrator could be effective by lifting the victim’s own relative status. But the American justice system is about much more than relative status, though many people care about it, even obsessively.
A rational person — or a movement or government — will realize that anger is normatively problematic in these two ways, and will undergo a transition to constructive forward-thinking ideas of social welfare, Nussbaum said. The rational person will deal with the wrongful act in ways that make sense in terms of social welfare as a whole.
In terms of criminal justice, this means the “pile-on-the-pain strategy” does not work, she added. Instead of focusing on painful punishment, society should look for ways to deal with the social problem of crime itself. That may include punishing the wrongdoer, but it also may consider measures like improving education or social welfare — as philosophers from Plato to Jeremy Bentham, the founder of utilitarianism, have long insisted.
“That’s my normative picture in a nutshell,” she quipped. “But it’s radical, and it evokes strong opposition. For anger, with all its admitted ugliness, is a very popular emotion — especially these days, I guess.”
Then, Dr. Nussbaum focused on revolutionary justice, giving reasons to support the philosophies of non-anger advanced by famous activists Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela.
She presented Dr. King’s speech “I Have a Dream” as an example of the promise of transformed anger for revolutionary or transitional justice. At first, she said, King addresses the obvious anger that results from Blacks being denied their civil rights, and the failing of America’s promise.
“But he refuses to demonize white Americans or call for vengeance. Instead, he envisions a world where all people are free, together. He takes anger and shapes it into hope and a call for constructive social action.”
And King asked his followers to separate the deed from the doer, Nussbaum added. Deeds can be denounced, but people deserve sympathy and respect, she said.
“It’s more than a call for peace and love,” Nussbaum said. “It’s a way to get closer to justice.”
She claimed that a responsible leader “has to be a pragmatist,” and that anger is ‘incompatible’ with forward-looking pragmatism. “It just gets in the way,” she said.
Dr. Nussbaum also reflected on the importance of a liberal arts education for thinking critically about our society and our social and political interactions. “Listening to the voice of persuasion is the antidote for anger, which has something brutish and unreasonable about it. In a liberal education, there is much room for the capacity of critical argument, for peaceful interaction and philosophical debate in getting some distance from the destructive passions of anger and payback.”
She said that President Laurie Patton’s inaugural address, delivered on Oct. 11, 2015, on the campus quad, is “a wonderful speech that says much the same thing.”
“The capacity to argue and to be resilient in argument is something that we all need as a society if we are to meet problems in a productive way rather than just slinging abuse.”
She lauded the liberal arts education for its teaching of history, literature, languages and the arts.
“All of these are part of a citizenship that will enable one to move beyond the oppositional mindset the ‘us-versus-them’ mindset, and to see what it might be like to inhabit the world through a variety of different positions. I hope that in a country increasingly enchanted by anger that we view Middlebury and other liberal arts colleges as bastions of an alternative approach to citizenship and to life.”
“While I hesitate to conclude with a slogan that surely betrays my name,” she said before pausing, “it really does seem time to ‘give peace a chance.’”
The lecture concluded with a question-and-answer session between Nussbaum and several students.
The Eve Adler Department of Classics and the Department of Philosophy sponsored the event. A live stream of the lecture went on the College’s website and in a seminar room at the Middlebury Institute for International Studies.
The lecture was excerpted from a chapter in her upcoming book Anger and Forgiveness: Resentment, Generosity, Justice, which will be published by Oxford University Press.
Dr. Nussbaum is a graduate of Harvard University and serves as the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago. She also holds appointments in classics, divinity and political science, is a member of the Committee on Southern Asian Studies, and is a board member of the Human Rights Program.
(03/17/16 2:41am)
After winning the NESCAC title and advancing to the NCAA Tournament, the Middlebury women’s hockey team defeated the University of Massachusetts Boston 4-0 in the quarterfinal round. The win was the Panthers’ 10th straight — nine of which were shutouts— and 21st on the season, one more than last year and the most since the 2010-11 season when they won 25 times. The Panthers move on to face top-ranked Plattsburgh State (27-1-0) for the Final Four in Plattsburgh, N.Y., on Friday, March 14.
Middlebury dominated the first period, outshooting UMass Boston 12-2, but could not get the puck across the goal line. NESCAC player of the year Maddie Winslow ’18 had a good look at 1:15 that went wide, and a strong attempt by Anna Van Kula ’16 minutes later was broken up by Beacon goalie Rachel Myette. The Beacons had back-to-back attempts at the 6:40 mark, but Julia Neuburger ’18 saved both.
In the same period, Allie Aiello ’17 nearly netted her first of the season, but Myette blocked the puck on a backhander. UMass Boston tried for another two opportunities, but the clock expired before either team could get on the scoreboard.
It was not until well into the second that the Panthers could translate their energy into a goal. Winslow, who has scored the game-winner in each of Middlebury’s four post-season games, skated up the left wing and took a sharp pass from Jenna Marotta ’19 before wristing a shot into the top-right corner of the net. The Panthers went on the power play at 18:59 in the second, but could not score and took their 1-0 lead into the final period.
A minute into the third, Winslow nearly struck again, but her shot was denied by the crossbar. Janka Hlinka ’18 came in clutch at 1:54 from the left circle, giving the Panthers a 2-0 lead with her fourth goal on the season. At 3:42, Julia Wardwell ’16 nearly made that a 3-0 lead on a shot from the left that hit the post. Winslow skated in to tip the shot netward, finishing Wardwell’s attempt and scoring her team-leading 19th goal of the season.
The Panthers’ hopes at advancing became more definite as the third period continued. With a power play at the 10:45 mark, Wardwell passed the puck to Winslow, whose attempt the Beacon goalie blocked, but Elizabeth Wulf ’18 was there to put home the rebound. Wulf’s goal, her sixth of the year, brought Middlebury’s lead to 4-0 and sealed the deal on a ticket to the Final Four for the first time since 2013.
With Saturday’s win, the team surpassed last year’s finish, when they lost to Vermont rival Norwich in the quarterfinals. The Panthers’ next opponent is top-ranked Plattsburgh State, whom they will play on Friday at 3:30 p.m. in Plattsburgh, N.Y.
The Panthers last faced Plattsburgh State on Jan. 12, losing 3-0 in a game dominated by the Cardinals. They nearly doubled the Panthers in shots on goal, 31-16. The Cardinals blanked Amherst 5-0 in the NCAA quarterfinals on Sunday, the same team the Panthers barely defeated 4-3 to take the NESCAC trophy.
“I think one of the biggest takeaways from the NESCAC final was the fact that we scored three goals and then gave up four straight goals and Amherst took the lead,” Head Coach Bill Mandigo said. “The takeaway is that we scored two minutes after Amherst scored their fourth goal. It was a strength of character goal, a resilience goal. The team could have packed it in when Amherst took the lead, but they fought back.”
The team will prepare for the Final Four “like we were preparing for any other game,” Mandigo said.
The Panthers began the year with a tough schedule, facing top-ranked opponents like Elmira and Norwich. But as of late, their run to the tournament has been nonstop. A surprisingly versatile freshman squad stepped up to the plate — or, rather, to the puck — and Winslow’s impressive scoring skills and NESCAC accolades bolstered the Panthers to nine shutout victories.
For a team that lost the conference championship last year and still advanced one round in NCAAs, this season is one of redemption. Plattsburgh State will be a formidable opponent, but Winslow and her teammates may prove tougher.
(03/10/16 3:59am)
The Middlebury women’s hockey team won the NESCAC Championship on Sunday, March 6 for the eighth time in the program’s history with a 5-4 overtime victory against Amherst in Chip Kenyon ’85 Arena. Sunday’s game was the sixth time in the tournament’s history — the first NESCAC championship was in 2002 — that the title game has gone to overtime, and Middlebury has played in five of those six games.
It was a team win and we were all so happy after the game,” said Maddie Winslow ’18, the heroine of both games. “No one on our team had ever won a NESCAC championship before so it was a cool experience to have it be everyone’s collective first win.”
The Panthers advanced to the finals after defeating Trinity 3-1 in the semifinals on Saturday. The beginning of the first period was heated, with close scoring attempts coming from both teams. Trinity nearly secured an early lead two minutes into the game, but the puck sailed just over the crossbar. The Panthers went on the power play at 14:18 in the first, but none of their three shots on goal made it past Bantam goalie Sydney Belinskas. Minutes later, Trinity went on their own power play and managed to make something of it. With 12 seconds left in the period, Emma Tani gathered the puck, weaved her way through the Panther defense and placed a high shot past Julia Neuburger ’18 to give the Bantams a 1-0 lead.
Midway through the second period, the Panthers mustered an answer. Off a feed from Julia Wardwell ’16, Jenna Marotta ’19 drilled a shot at 8:57 from the right point into the back of the net. The goal came on the power play and was Marotta’s first in her collegiate career.
“Jenna scored her first goal of the season on an unreal shot to tie it up,” Winslow said. “You couldn’t pick a better time to get your first goal.”
Trinity made an attempt to break the 1-1 deadlock on a rush up the right side. Shannon Farrell skated along the boards before passing it to her teammate Kate Fraley, who one-timed it, but Neuburger swept it away to keep the score tied.
Middlebury went on the power play in the closing minutes of the second period, and Winslow scored her team-leading 16th goal of the season with another assist by Wardwell. In response, Trinity upped the pressure in the third period, with two attackers each taking close-range shots. Neuburger stopped both shots, but the Bantams nearly scored on the rebounds as well before the Panthers ended the danger.
Trinity called a timeout with 53 seconds remaining and pulled its goalie in favor of an extra attacker. At the faceoff, the Panthers diverted the puck out of reach of the Bantams until Jessica Young added an insurance goal on an empty net. The game, an even 22-22 matchup in shots on goal, ended with a score of 3-1 and sent Middlebury to the finals on Sunday.
The battle for the trophy between the Panthers and Amherst ended in overtime, when Winslow scored to secure a hard-fought 5-4 win. The Panthers came out with a 3-0 lead, but by the middle of the second period Amherst had upended that score with four goals in a row, making it 4-3.
“The NESCAC finals is the kind of championship game every hockey player dreams of playing in,” Winslow said.
The Panthers came out with an early lead 40 seconds into the game when Alternate Captain Katie Mandigo ’16 redirected a pass from Wardwell through the legs of Amherst goalie Sabrina Dobbins. They doubled their lead at 3:01 with a goal from the slot by Young, assisted by Winslow.
Amherst pushed back during a power play after Middlebury’s second goal, and with eight minutes left in the first the Purple & White had two quality chances that Neuburger stopped. Mandigo responded less than a minute later with a one-timed shot off a pass from Shanna Hickman ’19 in the slot that blasted past the Amherst goalie.
But the tempo of the game began to change with 3:02 left in the period, when Amherst’s Sara Culhane won a battle for the puck behind the net and scored a backhanded goal on the wrap around. Amherst then surged in the second period, scoring three straight goals to take a 4-3 lead. The first goal, a wrister that sailed through traffic and over Neuburger’s shoulder, came 6:36 into the period. The next came two minutes later when Katie Savage collected her own rebound and fed the puck out to the right circle, where Katelyn Pantera launched it netward to tie the game 3-3. Amherst took the lead at 12:59 as Culhane placed a shot that Neuburger made an attempt to block but deflected in.
Down but not out, Middlebury tied the game again with a goal by Janka Hlinka ’18, who corrected a shot by Audrey Quirk ’18 into the net. The Panthers came up empty on a power play at 14:18. Amherst came inches away from winning the game in the final 25 seconds of regulation, when a charging attacker rebounded the puck against the left post. The puck stopped short, forcing overtime.
Middlebury had another power play early on in the overtime period, but Amherst killed it off and responded with a 2-on-1 rush toward Neuburger, who blocked the shot.
Young started the deciding play in overtime for the hosts, collecting her own rebound off a blocked shot and sliding a centering pass to Winslow. Winslow, at the right circle, one-timed the puck into the goal for her team-leading 17th of the winter — this time a championship-winning goal.
“Scoring the overtime winner was definitely one of the best moments in my hockey career,” Winslow said. “My line mate Jess Young fed me a beautiful pass, and I was able to one time it top corner.”
Winslow scored the game winner in both of Middlebury’s final and semifinal games. She now leads the NESCAC in assists, with 23, and points, with 40. Winslow finished the tournament with four goals and five assists, setting a new championship record of nine points over all three rounds.
With the win, sixth-ranked Middlebury, ending the season with a 20-4-3 record, earned the conference’s automatic bid to the 2016 NCAA Division III tournament. Middlebury will host University of Massachusetts Boston (16-12-0), on Saturday, March 12. Amherst received an at-large bid to the tournament and will face Plattsburgh State, to whom Middlebury lost 3-0 in January. The winner of that matchup will go on to face either Middlebury or UMass Boston on March 18.
(03/03/16 2:51am)
Bob James, a representative of Monument Farms Dairy in Weybridge, Vt., gave a talk about the company’s history and practices on Tuesday, Feb. 23, in the Hillcrest Orchard. James, a native of Middlebury and the company’s director of sales and distribution, spoke to an audience of about 25 students and several faculty members who teach environmental studies and the newly created food studies program.
The College has partnered with Monument Farms in some capacity for 65 years. Currently, the farm supplies Dining Services with all of the milk in its dining halls. Bob is the third generation in management, along with his brother Peter James and his cousin John Rooney. James lived at the farm throughout his childhood, and began as a milk driver after graduating from a three-year high school.
The business started with his grandfather in 1930, who had just 28 cows — a modest number by milk standards. He delivered small milk routes to the local grocer and to private homes. As time progressed, James explained, his grandfather was able to buy routes out from nearby farms.
Monument Farms now operates from five locations. Milk production and packaging occurs only at their main location in Weybridge; the other four locations, totaling 2,500 acres, are used for land-based crop work to feed the company’s 500 milking cows. Their main location stays open until 5:30 p.m. on weekdays. “We stay open to get people on their way home from work,” James said.
Monument Farms is classified as a producer–handler, since the excess milk is eligible to be sold wholesale to larger vendors. The farm sells its overflow to Cabot Creamery plant in Middlebury, but James said that this pays little since Monument Farms is not a continuous supplier.
Monument Farms produces whole milk, two percent, skim, half-and-half, heavy cream, chocolate and low-fat chocolate. The farm also buys other dairy products — cheese, eggs, and ice cream — from other producers, including Hood and Maple Meadow.
“That way when we go to a small store in the country, we can offer that store any dairy product they need so they don’t have to go to another dairy company for a substitute.”
James spoke about some unique practices at the Weybridge farm. Unlike other farms, James and his crew begin milking around 11 p.m. and finish by 6 a.m., in addition to milking during the typical time in Addison County from noon to 5 p.m. Legally, a farm can hold milk in a bulk tank for 48 hours, and then picked up and goes down on a truck to New York or Boston, down for a day to get packaged, and then comes back. This midnight milking allows the farm to harvest milk in 12 hours, putting it on the road to New York or Boston for bottling by the early morning.
“We’re very proud that we can get the milk packaged in, a lot of times, 12 hours,” James said.
The company’s Hagar Farm location, James said, is a “freestyle type” of farm where cows can roam around at their will, “go eat and drink at any time, and lay down to sleep if they wish.” In a freestyle farm, cows come to be milked, rather than workers going to the cows. Most farms in Addison County now operate freestyle.
Monument Farms is not a certified organic brand, and has been questioned in the past as to why. James said that local folks could not handle the increased cost if the farm were to switch to organic products.
“If we can do the best possible job in the conventional way, and can have good quality milk using only the essential tools one needs to keep the cows healthy, that is ideal,” James said. “If we were to sell all our milk and switch our equipment over to organic, we would need a territory through Florida to be able to sell it all. The price would be so high that our local folks just wouldn’t be able to handle the increased cost.”
James stressed that Monument Farms is committed to producing local, humane, fair, and ecologically sound milk.
Monument Farms Dairy is located at 2107 James Road in Weybridge, VT. They are open Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
(03/02/16 8:38pm)
The Middlebury women’s hockey team clinched the host site for the NESCAC championship for the fth time in six years and the ninth time overall. The Panthers (18-4-3), seeded rst in the tournament, defeated eighth-seeded Colby 4-3 on Saturday, Feb. 27 in a quarter nal game in Chip Kenyon ’85 Arena for their seventh-straight victory. Forward Maddie Winslow ’18 garnered NESCAC Player of the Year honors, the sixth Middlebury player to earn that honor.
In the semifinals, Middlebury will host fifth-seeded Trinity at 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 5, while second-seeded Amherst will match-up against third-seeded Connecticut College at 4 p.m. The winner of each game will advance to the conference championship game at 2 p.m. on Sunday, March 6.
In the quarter final matchup against Colby, the Panthers scored the first goal eight minutes into the first period. Seizing the puck from the right boards, Jessica Young ’18 passed it to Elizabeth Wulf ’18, who centered the puck so that Winslow could one-time it into Colby’s net. Middlebury was aggressive for the rest of the period, finishing with a 13-2 advantage in shots on goal, but Colby goalie Angelica Crites kept it a one-goal game.
The Mules came bursting out of the starting gate for the second period, recording four of the first five shots, but scored no goals to show for it. Four minutes into the period, Middlebury extended its lead to 2-0 when Grace Jennings ’19, positioned at the left point, sent the puck floating high past several defenders into the net for her third goal of the season.
Colby responded with several scoring attempts in the waning minutes of the second. Middlebury netminder Julia Neuburger ’18 sustained an aggressive bout of attempts by the Colby offense. The Mules did not back down, and at 17:33 managed some crisp passes from the right before Bella Papapetros, open from the far left side, one-timed the puck into an open goal before Neuburger could turn her back. An answer came 44 seconds later when Rachael St. Clair ’19 sped past defenders on the left and slid the puck behind Colby’s goalie in a dramatic goal that gave Middlebury a two-point lead.
Seconds into the third period, Maddie Winslow, who has emerged as a fierce point-maker for the Panther offense, picked up a loose puck, skated halfway down the rink, and slotted the puck in the upper corner. The goal, her team-leading 15th of the season, brought the score to a comfortable 4-1.
At the 15:44 mark of the third period, Papapetros made a diving centering pass to Delaney Flynn who scored, toying with the nerves of Head Coach Bill Mandigo and the rest of the team, whose trophy hopes last year were nearly dashed by Hamilton in the same quarter final matchup in a three-overtime game.
Colby then pulled Crites with 1:45 left in regulation and were awarded a power play with 52 seconds on the clock for a six-on-four advantage. With a two-man advantage, Colby slipped the puck between Neuburger’s feet at the right post to make it a one-goal game. Middlebury waited the next forty seconds out to keep the score at 4-3 and secure home ice for the rest of the playoffs. In the game, the Panthers nearly doubled the Mules 38-20 in shots on goal.
Colby went 1-for-2 on the power play, while Middlebury went 0-for-1.
“The game on Saturday took a team e ort to win,” Shanna Hickman ’19 said. “Julie Neuburger played amazing and made some big saves, while everyone else focused on doing the little things from back checking to winning battles. We did a great job moving the puck and creating and nishing scoring opportunities.”
The victory brings the Panthers’ in-conference unbeaten streak to 30 games. The Panthers hope to avenge last year’s fumble in the nals at the hands of third-seeded Trinity. The team still managed a berth in the NCAA tournament last winter, but their run ended in the quarter nals with a loss to Norwich.
“It feels great to once again be part of the NESCAC championships,” Wulf said. “We are excited to have home ice throughout the playoffs, but we know that anything can happen.”
The Panthers are certainly the favorite entering NESCAC championship, but fate might undo near-certainties again.
(02/25/16 3:32am)
Harper Lee’s beloved classic To Kill a Mockingbird was published in 1960 and won her the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. The zeitgeist novel depicted in bare terms racism in America and reaffirmed the values of equality and unity. The book has sold more than 40 million copies globally and has become a staple of high school curriculums. But despite the book’s acclaim and instant success, Lee repeatedly vowed never to publish a novel again. For the next 56 years, she lived a private life in small-town Alabama and an anonymous one in New York City, her career a single gem.
Not long before she went dark to the public — just four years after the publication of Mockingbird and two years after the film version — Lee recast her literary objectives in a 1964 interview with Roy Newquist, the editor of a book titled Counterpoint. Perhaps because of the rarity of such encounters with Lee, the Newquist interview has become one of the few sources of material that illuminate her mystery. In it, Ms. Lee clearly stated her literary ambition: “to describe a disappearing way of small town, middle class Southern life. In other words, all I want is to be the Jane Austen of south Alabama.”
Less often quoted than this statement is her explanation of it. She wanted to “leave some record of the kind of life that existed in a very small world. She hoped to do this “in several novels, to chronicle something that seems to be very quickly going down the drain.”
Lee said she was always fascinated with the “very definite, rich social pattern” that makes up the tiny towns of the South. “I would simply like to put down all I know about this because I believe that there is something universal in this little world, something decent to be said for it, and something to lament in its passing.”
Beyond Harper Lee’s crowning achievement of Mockingbird and her lone interview with Newquist, the front-page obituary of Lee in Saturday’s New York Times recalled the literary world’s biggest story of 2015: the publishing of her second novel, Go Set a Watchman. The book, in all its controversy, is crucial to considering Lee’s legacy, which had been fixated for more than half a century on one work. Watchman was met with a considerable amount of backlash, with some accusing Ms. Lee’s publisher of taking advantage of her in her old age.
They raised eyebrows at the timing of the manuscript’s discovery and the announcement that it would be published, which was only weeks after the death of her sister, Alice Lee, who had long been Harper’s confidante and whom many considered to have been her protector. Skeptics use reports of Lee’s deteriorating state at the time the manuscript was discovered as evidence that she could have easily been coerced into agreeing to something she had not wanted for 56 years. “It would be very difficult to prove this one way or another,” Bertolini said.
In a New York Times column, Joe Nocera called the book a “fraud” and “one of the epic money grabs in the modern history of American publishing.” Jonathan Sturgeon wrote in Flavorwire that Watchman is not Mockingbird’s sequel or prequel, but rather its prototype. Lee herself described the book as her first book’s “parent.” Sturgeon points to wholesale passages in Watchman that were later reworked for Mockingbird.
Pieces of literature have been published against some authors’ wishes, noted John Bertolini, Ellis Professor of English and Liberal Arts. He noted Vergil and Franz Kafka as examples. “Of course the same thing happened with Kafka: he ordered that all his works be destroyed, but they weren’t. Fortunately for all of us, Vergil’s orders orders on his manuscript of the Aeneid weren’t followed either.”
With all the debate over the origins of Watchman, the biggest bombshell turned out to be an explosive plot twist that no one saw coming. Atticus Finch, the crusading lawyer of To Kill a Mockingbird, whose principled fight against racism and inequality inspired generations of readers, is depicted in Watchman as an aging racist who has attended a Ku Klux Klan meeting, holds negative views about African-Americans and denounces desegregation efforts. “Do you want Negroes by the carload in our schools and churches and theaters? Do you want them in our world?” Atticus asks his daughter, Jean Louise — the adult Scout.
Bertolini said he was astonished by the reaction to the book. “It involved one of the most colossal misreadings of a book that I’ve seen. It was said that it turns out Atticus is a racist after all, and that’s not, I believe, the point Harper Lee was making in that book. She was demonstrating that Atticus was continuing to educate Scout, and that he thought it was a flaw in her that she idealized him so much. He did that precisely to provoke her to think about his having a flaw, about his not being a perfect man.”
The very fact that the manuscript exists, he said, means a lot. “The book makes an important statement that should be read — about not blindly idealizing somebody, not expecting perfection from all human beings under all circumstances. Atticus may have done that deliberately to help to Scout grow up, to become a mature, understanding, forgiving human being. This is, after all, what he spent his whole life doing.”
Claire Borre ’18, an English major, said that Watchman complicates the emphatic depiction of Atticus as a hero and exposes his flaws to modern readers. “I read Go Set a Watchman as a completion of Scout’s coming-of-age that was started in To Kill a Mockingbird,” she said. “Having read Mockingbird as a young girl and then reading Watchman this past summer, I connected to both in very different ways. Scout’s first attempts at understanding the world, like my own, were heavily influenced by those around her, whereas Jean Louise, and myself as a college student, must learn to look inward for her own value.”
Borre continued: “The more adult perception world presented is not as strictly good or evil as in Mockingbird, and Lee reveals a more nuanced worldview that makes people reevaluate their perception of the hero Atticus. It is a shattering of the hero image of Atticus.”
Bertolini pointed to the strength of her first novel as a lasting part of her legacy. “To Kill a Mockingbird, both the book and the film, had an influence in the Civil Rights Movement that was analogous to the impact of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin in persuading people to be against slavery. I first encountered it when I was in high school, first the book and then the film, which had a big influence on me. I will never forget that.”
The general consensus among book critics is that Go Set a Watchman is not as well written as the masterpiece of Mockingbird is. “Isn’t that true of all the secondary books by great authors?” said Bertolini. “They’re usually much better than the best of the ones being published today, because true artistic talent and genius is a rare thing.”
For all the excitement, confusion, surprise, drama and controversy, the world nevertheless has another Harper Lee work.
(02/25/16 3:29am)
Months before Hillary Clinton declared her presidential candidacy online in April, leaders in the Democratic Party saw her as the destined choice to be the party’s standard bearer in the 2016 election.
But no political pundit foresaw the rise of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in recent months, mostly shrugging when he declared his candidacy in May on the shores of Lake Champlain. In the New Hampshire primaries, Mr. Sanders swept the first-in-the-nation vote by a 22-point margin. Ms. Clinton managed a comfortable five-point victory in the Nevada caucuses.
And as the race tightens up in South Carolina and Super Tuesday states, where nearly 900 of the 4,192 available delegates will be allocated, the question becomes whether Sen. Sanders’ message of political revolution can eventually — after a long slog to the Democratic National Convention which most pundits are predicting — secure him a first place finish. In this race, though, second place does not cut it.
For members of Middlebury Students for Hillary, the former first lady will always be number one. The group is not officially registered as a student organization, but they still hold events like phone banking and canvassing in Vermont and New Hampshire. They were present at the Democratic Debate watch party earlier in the fall and at the Iowa caucus watch party on Feb. 1.
Between these events, the Feb activities fair and tabling in Atwater with a Hillary Clinton cutout, Middlebury Students For Hillary has extended their membership and presence.
“We continue to see our supporter list grow every time we reach out to students on campus,” said Will Schwartz ’16, the group’s organizing lead.
President of the Middlebury College Democrats Hazel Millard ’18 noticed that student support for individual candidates has solidified over the course of the academic year.
“Based on our weekly College Democrats meetings, it seemed to me that many students entered the school year with a vague sense of who they would support in the primaries,” Millard said. “Over the course of the semester, opinions grew stronger and debate within the group got more heated. There are students on campus organizing for both candidates in the Democratic Primary.”
Middlebury Students for Hillary also works on other projects, including gathering enough signatures from Vermonters to get Secretary Clinton on the ballot for the primary.
“The main goal of our efforts is to interact with as many voters as possible to talk about the candidates, to find out what issues matter most to voters and to discuss where Secretary Clinton stands on those issues,” said Mitch Perry ’16, campaign liaison for Middlebury Students for Hillary.
He said getting enough signatures to get Secretary Clinton on the ballot in Vermont was “tougher than it sounds.” Students from the group walked along Church Street and the Farmer’s Market in Burlington on multiple weekends to ask people to sign the ballot access petition. Many people resisted stopping to talk in the cold weather, said Perry, but the people who did stop were “very interested in starting a dialogue and contributing to the political process.”
Over February break, a group of students, including Schwartz, Perry and Charlotte Boghossian ’16, traveled to New Hampshire for four days to volunteer with “get out the vote” efforts. They made phone calls to N.H. voters, went door knocking and engaged in other campaign activities.
They also had the opportunity to hear from political figures like Senator Al Franken (D-MN) about why he and so many others are supporting Secretary Clinton.
“Despite Bernie’s victory in the N.H. primary, it was a great opportunity to be in the center of the excitement and to learn more about grassroots organizing and campaigning,” Perry said.
“For me, Secretary Clinton is the most qualified and most experienced candidate,” he said. “I trust that she will use her experience as Secretary of State and as a U.S. Senator to take on the tough foreign and domestic policy issues that the country faces. I joined the Middlebury for Hillary group to do my part in ensuring the most qualified and experienced candidate is elected as the country’s next leader.”
Middlebury Students for Hillary will continue to hold weekly phone banks on Thursday nights as the election progresses.
Middlebury Students for Hillary will be at the Super Tuesday viewing party in Crossroads Café, an event sponsored by the College Democrats, on March 1. To get involved with the group, contact Will Schwartz at wschwartz@middlebury.edu.
(02/25/16 2:47am)
The women’s hockey team finished the regular season with two shutout wins against Williams last weekend, skating to a 2-0 away win on Friday, Feb. 19, and a 7-0 victory on Saturday, Feb. 20 in Chip Kenyon ’85 Arena. With the victories, the Panthers secured the top seed for the NESCAC women’s hockey tournament for the sixth-straight and 11th time overall.
On Friday, the Panthers beat Williams (12-10-1, 8-7-0) 2-0 in Williamstown, Mass. Middlebury took an early lead 6:29 into the game on the power play via the sophomore squad: Jessica Young ’18 scored her ninth goal of the season and was assisted by Elizabeth Wulf ’18 and Maddie Winslow ’18.
In the second period, the Panthers extended their lead to 2-0 at the 15:42 mark. Rachael St. Clair ’19 passed the puck to Katherine Jackson ’19, who skated in one-on-one against Eph goalie Julia Mini, faked to the right, then lifted a wrister to the short side above the shoulder of Mini for her fifth goal of the season.
The Ephs fought hard in the third period to make up lost ground. They held a 10-4 advantage in shots on goal that period, and pulled their goalie with a minute left in favor of an extra attacker. The Williams squad outpaced Middlebury in overall shots on goal (24-20) and had five power plays, but converted none of them into goals.
Middlebury goalie Julia Neuburger ’18 picked up her fourth shutout of the season with 24 saves between the pipes.
The two teams faced off again on Saturday, Feb. 20, in Kenyon Arena in a “Pink the Rink” game in support of finding a cure for breast cancer. The fans, decked out in pink, also celebrated the graduating seniors for Senior Night: Captain Julia Wardwell ’16, Alternate Captain Katie Mandigo ’16, Marisa Dreher ’16, Micaela Thibault ’16 and Anna Van Kula ’16.
The Panthers scored four goals in the first period, and the first three came within a span of less than two minutes. At the 7:48 mark, Julia Wardwell ’16 drove the puck into the back of the net from the left point for her first collegiate goal. Thirty seconds later, Rachael St. Clair ’19 doubled the lead with a wrap-around goal. Twenty-one seconds later, Haley LaFontaine ’18 sent the puck from inside the blue line through the legs of Williams goalie Mini. Eight minutes after, on the power play, LaFontaine passed the puck to Kelly Sherman ’17, who directed a shot on goal from along the goal line that Mini touched but could not block. The Panthers dominated the first period with a 4-0 lead and a 13-3 edge in shots on goal, including not allowing a single shot in the first 10 minutes of the period.
Middlebury made it a 5-0 game 3:56 into the middle period, scoring again on the power play when Wardwell cut into the slot and kept the puck low into the back of the net for her second goal of the season on assist by Winslow. Williams had two shots on a power play later in the period, but Middlebury goalie Neuberger made a pair of stick saves to keep the Ephs scoreless.
Winslow picked up her team-leading 13th goal of the season at the 13:50 mark to bring the score to 6-0. With 1:24 left in the third period, Shanna Hickman ’19 tipped in an insurance goal — not that it was needed for the victory. Middlebury held a 29-17 edge in shots on goal for the game. The Panthers went 3-5 on the power play, while Williams was scoreless in its man-advantage.
“I think we have played well in the past few weeks,” Head Coach Bill Mandigo said. “The players are working hard and many are making significant contributions. I am excited about this team and their prospects as we head into the playoffs.”
The Panthers will be looking for their eighth conference title when quarterfinal action starts on Saturday, Feb. 27. If the Panthers win on Saturday, they will host both semifinals and the final on March 5 and 6 as the highest seed remaining. This year’s NESCAC champion will earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Middlebury (17-4-3, 13-0-3 NESCAC) has won 12 of its last 13 games since Jan. 15. The team looks to win their first NESCAC title since 2012, which would be the eight in program history. Last year, Middlebury advanced to the championship game before falling to Trinity in overtime, 3-2.
The Panthers, ranked seventh nationally, will face No. 8 seed Colby (3-12-1) in the quarterfinal round. A Middlebury victory against Colby would bring the Panthers’ unbeaten streak to 30 games and give them home ice for the semifinals and finals. The Panthers hope to avenge last year’s fumble in the finals at the hands of third-seed Trinity.
(02/18/16 4:15am)
The Middlebury women’s hockey team, now 15-4-3, continued their perfect record in the NESCAC, winning two victories each against Colby, Hamilton and Wesleyan. However, they were unable to carry the momentum outside the conference, falling to Norwich in a tight 3-2 matchup.
On Friday, Jan. 29, the team traveled to Clinton, NY, to take its first victory against the Hamilton Continentals, going 1-0 on Friday. Katherine Jackson ’19 made the early game-winning goal at 15:30 of the first period, latching on to the rebound off two failed attempts by Shanna Hickman ’19. The goal was made entirely by first-years, with both Rachael St. Clair ’19 and Hickman being credited for the assist.
With just under a minute left in the game, Hamilton pulled goalie Sam Walther for an extra attacker, but could not sink a shot against Neuberger, fixing the final score at 1-0. Hamilton could not convert on their one power play, but neither could Middlebury on their two. The Panthers more than doubled the Continentals in shots on goal, 23-11.
Middlebury returned to Russell Sage Rink the next day on Jan. 30 to shut out Hamilton 2-0. Grace Jennings ’19 scored her first collegiate goal 16 minutes into the first period after ripping the puck from a Hamilton defender near the blueline. Nearing Hamilton goalie Walther, Jennings wristed a shot that Walther nearly stopped. The Continentals had no answer for the second period.
The Panthers furthered their lead to 2-0 at 12:26 of the third period on the power play, when Kelly Sherman ’17 made her fourth season goal from an assist from Anna Van Kula ’16. A pulled goalie and a Panther penalty in the final two minutes gave Hamilton a six-on-four advantage, but it proved fruitless, handing Middlebury a 2-0 victory.
A battle of top-10 women’s hockey foes went down in Northfield, Vt. on Tuesday, Feb. 2, when a late goal by the Norwich Cadets earned them a 3-2 win over Middlebury. The game was also a battle of sisters — Katarina Shuchuk ’19 for Middlebury and her twin Maki Shuchuk for Norwich — who squared off after playing on many of the same teams growing up. Both sisters were on the ice for the opening faceoff of the game.
The Cadets took a promising lead just 56 seconds into the game with dual-assist shot taken from a Middlebury skater and one-timed by Erin Joyce, who was waiting in the slot for the puck. Though dominating 5-2 in shots on goal in the first period, Middlebury could not provide an answer. In the second period, Norwich locked a 2-0 lead after the Panthers lost a face-off and Adelle Murphy notched a goal just four seconds into a power play.
Outshooting the Cadets 8-4 in the second, the Panthers finally posted an answer halfway through the period, with Janka Hlinka ’18 tipping a blueline shot by Julia Wardwell ’16 into the net. And at 13:48 of the third, Katherine Jackson ’19 hooked a loose puck on a wraparound move to tie the game, with assists from Elizabeth Wulf ’18 and Jennings. With three minutes remain- ing, though, Norwich’s Bryn Labbe shot a wrister from the middle of the slot straight past netminder Julia Neuburger ’18. The Panthers, who were outshot 2-4 by the Cadets in the third, could not force a tie, and Norwich won the game 3-2.
“The loss was a wake-up call,” Hlinka said. “If we are going to have a chance at be- ing the best, we are going to need to find a way to win against teams outside of the NE- SCAC.”
The Panthers returned to Kenyon Arena on Friday, Feb. 5, to take on Wesleyan in a two-game homestand. Wesleyan made the first statement seven minutes into the first off a wrist shot that was tipped in by Cici Frattasio. The Panthers nearly answered a minute later with a shot from the right by Jenna Marotta ’19, but the puck hit the crossbar. Jessica Young ’18 redeemed that attempt at 14:37 in the first by taking a loose puck from the neutral zone, racing up the left side, and launching it past Cardinal goalie Laura Corcoran.
The Panthers took the lead at 9:30 in the second when top-scorer Maddie Winslow ’18 placed the puck behind Wesleyan’s goalie and Hickman tipped it in. Winslow scored again in the third period to make it 3-1, bringing her season total to a team-leading nine goals. Wesleyan responded shortly on a power play after a scramble for the puck in front of the Panther net left a loose puck open for a Wesleyan attack. But with 35 seconds remaining, Young placed an insurance goal into Wesleyan’s open net to seal the game 4-2.
Middlebury took 33 shots on goal com- pared to Wesleyan’s 14, though Wesleyan went one-for-one on the power play and Middlebury oh-for-two.
The Middlebury women recorded a 5-0 shutout the next day against Wesleyan, their 50th victory against the program, bring- ing the overall series record between the teams to a staggering 50-0-3. Wulf scored on the first shift for the Panthers off a short pass behind the net from classmate Jessica Young ’18. With 3:35 left in the opening period, Grace Jennings ’19 placed a drop pass from Katherine Jackson ’19 over Cardinal goalie Corrine Rivard’s left shoulder.
The Panthers added two more goals in the second period to extend their lead to four. Hickman tallied the first of those, as she swatted in a centering pass from Winslow at 5:11 into the middle frame. Winslow made it 4-0 after Young created a turnover just inside the Wesleyan blue line, using a backhander to beat Rivard with 27 seconds left in the period.
Middlebury finished off the scoring in the third period, as Winslow collected a puck in the slot and fired a hard shot under the crossbar for her second goal of the game. The Panthers nearly doubled the Cardinals in shots on goal, 32-18, and Wesleyan could not capitalize on their one power play. Ver- plancke earned her first collegiate shutout with 17 saves. Wardwell played in her 100th career game for the Panthers and earned the primary assist on the team’s goal in the third period.
“Our games against Wesleyan were a great test of our grit and or progress. Our underclassmen really stepped up and got us some crucial points for the win,” Wardwell said. “Playing in my 100th game was sur- real.”
The team took to Waterville, Me., on Friday, Feb. 12 to face the Colby Mules, leaving with two victories, 2-1 and 1-0. The game on Friday went scoreless for the first pe- riod, with Neuburger making 16 saves. The Mules had the first goal at 11:58 in the second by Katie McLaughlin, to which the Pan- thers had no immediate answer despite 10 blocked shots in that period. But at 13:08 in the third, Winslow netted her team-leading 12th goal of the season, and three minutes later Hlinka brought the score to 2-1 for her second goal of the year. The Mules’ aggressiveness — with 30 shots on goal compared to Middlebury’s 23 — did not translate to the scoreboard.
On Saturday, the Middlebury women ran their NESCAC regular-season unbeaten streak to 27 — having only tied five times — with a 1-0 shut-out against Colby. The lone goal came on a power play at 17:58 in the middle period, when Young one-timed a pass by Wulf for her eighth of the
season. With the goal, Young extended her point streak to four games, recording three goals and seven assists (3-7-10) during that stretch. The Panthers held a 27-18 edge in shots on goal, after having been outshot 5-8 in the first period.
With their impressive conference record (11-0-3), matched only by Amherst’s 11-1-2, the Panthers have secured home ice for the NESCAC quarterfinal game, to take place on Saturday, Feb. 27 in Chip Kenyon ’85 Arena. Middlebury will secure the top seed if the ladies manage not to lose either of their final two games against Williams (8-6-0). Even with two ties against Williams, Kenyon Arena would become the site of the NESCAC semifinals and finals on March 5 and 6. The question is whether the lossless streak of 22 wins and 5 ties can last just two more games.
(01/28/16 1:35am)
BLACKSMITH: BACK TO BASICS
Warren Rinehart has been teaching Blacksmithing 101 workshops since Winter Term 2014. Students in his class last Saturday worked on small projects – metal spoons and hooks – that could be completed in the one-day course. Rinehart said that blacksmithing is simple, but not easy.
“You’re learning to move metal with hammer on anvil,” he said. “It’s a skill that you develop with time, to get good hand-eye coordination it takes some practice.”
Rinehart’s blacksmithing shop sits behind the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum near Vergennes, and is cluttered with various metalworker tools and furnaces gathered over years of experience.
“I’m an orthopedic surgeon by trade, and I retired four years ago,” he said. “I’ve been blacksmithing for about 40 years as a hobby, and it continues to be a hobby that’s kind of gotten out of hand.”
EDM PRODUCTION
Jack Tipper, super senior Feb and professional electronic dance music producer (read: jacktipper.com), is leading, for the second year in a row, an intensive workshop on how to make the next club banger. The workshop is taught exclusively in Ableton Live 9, a digital music sequencer available on the CFA’s instrument-equipped workstations. It is a program the likes of which Calvin Harris or Zedd might use. Students selected songs they admire, and over the course of the term are learning how to create original music in a style of their choice.
In class, Tipper focuses on electronic sound design, arrangement and emulation theory within software synthesizers. He also discusses sample warping, digital effects, mixing and mastering — the kind of tweaks that professional producers handle on a daily basis. The best part: participants will end J-term having crafted an impressive audio file for their final project. Who knows — maybe the local clubs will put one of the tracks on their rotation.
HENNA STUDENTS LEND A HELPING HAND
Hands On Henna participants have spent the J-Term learning how to doodle with plant-based dye. On Saturday, Jan. 23 workshop leader Mariam Khan ’16.5 led students to Project Independence on Exchange Street where they put their skills to work.
“For the people at Project Independent, it’s cool because a lot of people here don’t know about henna,” Khan said.
Most students in the class had never worked with henna before, but Khan said many had discovered they a natural talent. Participants began practicing basic patterns and shapes on paper towels to finally freehand on themselves, each other, their friends and community members like those on Saturday.
Sibylle Saunders, who received a henna design from one of the students, said the class challenged Elderly Services members to try new things. “We love when people come. I think it’s wonderful that the old folks are willing to expand their comfort zone.”
Gerry Maysonhad, another Project Independence elder, agreed. “This is a treat for us,” she said. “We don’t get this very often.”
Next Saturday, Jan. 30, students will again volunteer their skills in a fundraiser for MAlt Mexico, an alternative break trip to Mexico organized by Khan.
JAMAICAN DANCE & POP CULTURE
Jillian-Jo Duncan-Taylor ’18, who hails from the island of Jamaica, wants to bring her home’s culture to students here in a workshop that is simultaneously a cultural learning experience and a PE class. This workshop explores various dance types, featuring a blend of Jamaican dancehall and reggae moves. Participants will have the opportunity to learn both cultural dance and the aspects that bring the dance together, such as dress and speech. Motto for the month: Get ready to move like an islander!
MIDDKID GYMNASTS JUMP AROUND
Handstands, Backflips and Tumbling! introduces beginner gymnastics to the basics of acrobatics. The workshop description promises “a challenging and athletic experience…eight-pack guaranteed.”
Yvonne Chan ’16, Anja Kuipers ’18, Tess Weitzner ’18.5 and Joel Wilner ’18 comprise the four-member board of Midd Acro, an acrobatics organization for students of all skill levels. Chan said many students are curious about gymnastics, but intimidated because they have little to no experience.
“Gymnastics can be kind of daunting if you’ve never done it before. We’re trying to include as many people as possible, so this is a great way for beginners to join in,” she said. “Our workshop is mostly beginners, but our club Midd Acro tends to be not beginners because it’s hard to just jump in and learn this stuff.”
Chan added that the workshop, in its second year, quickly reached its capacity of 27 participants.
Sammy Abdulrahim ’19 decided to join the class to improve flexibility in his back. “It’s great,” he said. “The coaches are very accommodating.”
LEATHERWORKING: DEERSKIN MOCCASINS
Alden Laev ’18, native Wisconsinite and Mountain Club winter guide, is teaching his fellow students the way of the woods: leatherworking, specifically with deerskin. Moccasins are great shoes for the fall and serve as comfortable slippers in the winter. Historically, the moccasin is the footwear of many indigenous peoples of North America, and they are the shoe of choice for hunters, traders, and (back then) European settlers. In this workshop, participants will learn how to design and craft their own soft-sole moccasin shoes using natural leather and thread.
Mr. Laev promises experience the satisfaction of working with your hands to create a durable, wearable product. In addition, you will learn how to design a shoe to fit your foot, create a model and use simple and elegant leather sewing techniques. Leather working experience is not necessary. All materials and tools will be provided. Participants will leave this workshop with a pair of handmade moccasins to wear around their hunting lodge, tent or dorm.
(01/28/16 1:17am)
For 72 hours, starting this morning, the campus will be consumed by an unusual tradition: a massive scavenger hunt. The stakes: $1,000 in cash.
The Hunt is a three-day competition that might be better described as a team-based search-and-discover creative improvisational game. Two Hunt masters compile 100-plus clues, which range from building a Rube Goldberg machine to recording an interview with someone from the Class of 1975.
The Hunt is the brainchild of former president Ronald Liebowitz and his wife, Jessica, who started Middlebury’s Programs on Creativity and Innovation in the Liberal Arts (PCI). In 2007, the Liebowitzes called a working group of five faculty members to brainstorm extracurricular programming that would encourage creative problem solving among students.
At a meeting in summer 2007, the so-called “committee on innovative competition” resolved to create a competition “different than many that we have heard about at other schools.”
“Ours will be deliberately broad in scope as to reflect innovation in a liberal arts environment,” the committee continued. They decided upon the scavenger-hunt format and juggled a few names for the competition — the J-term Chase, the Middlebury Mystery and Mystbury — before settling on a final name: the Hunt.
“The Hunt connects people,” said Elizabeth Robinson ’84, who has overseen PCI since its inception. “Students become really close because they are together for those three days and they are so intense and competitive.”
The first Hunt was held in Jan. 2008. It returned the following two years, but failed to happen in 2010. In 2011, after the winter without a Hunt, two seniors, Ben Wessel ’11 and Taryn Tilton ’11, approached Robinson, telling her they wanted to resurrect the competition. She happily complied.
The duo introduced several new aspects to the game in order to revitalize the competitive spirit and encourage more student participation. They encouraged more photo and video documentation in order to enable off-campus students to participate. Wessel and Tilton’s resuscitating efforts were successful. That year, the Campus published an article titled “The Hunt Comes Back With a Bang.” And since 2011, the Hunt has gone on every year.
The clues are designed to encourage Middlebury students to solve problems they would never encounter in a classroom, to create connections with other people and places and to celebrate Middlebury’s institutional and student culture. Per tradition, the Hunt masters develop clues that encourage participants to engage with professors, administrators, staff members, town residents and each other. To win, some say a team need a nice balance of talents. Not everyone has to be artistic or musical or good at singing or shameless in public, but a winning team “just needs a good mix of all of those things,” according to Colin Boyle ’18.
Successful Hunt teams have highly organized systems of communication and coordination — think iMovie, Google Docs and GroupMe. They are known for checking out video cameras and chargers from Davis Family Library. Some teams prepare extensive analysis of the clues, drafting spreadsheets that show point values, levels of difficulty, and how many hands are needed to complete the maximum number of clues most efficiently.
In recent Hunts, social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram have become integral to the competition, even when the Hunt masters do not specifically include them in the clue list. Students are known to continually refresh their computers in anticipation of the Hunt clues being released.
The Hunt masters for this year are Winson Law ’16 and Janessa Gonzalez ’17, the winners of the 2015 competition under the team name “Trial By Combat.”
When asked what is new for this year, Law said he could barely decide.
“Janessa and I have been digging up old Hunt clues and doing our own take on them to show what the Hunt is about,” Law said. “We’ve eaten jabanero peppers and interviewed each other, Eskimo kissed all five CRAs, and just filmed a lip dub to Ke$ha’s ‘We R Who We R.’ These clues reminded us why the Hunt is so remarkable: it pushes us outside our comfort zone, gives us a creative outlet, and makes for some pretty great memories.”
The duo is also bringing back Commons Clue challenges, which were absent in past years but were part of the original competition. Each Commons has provided its own clue and a matching $100 prize, which is separate from the main Hunt list.
“We want every student to participate in the Hunt in some shape or form,” Law said. “So often, we’re stuck in the same academic, extracurricular, and social routines. But once a year we can break out of our routines and do something entirely different.”
Law was adamant about one thing: by the time people read this article on Thursday, it is still not too late to join the Hunt. Teams of two to ten should submit “anything and everything” for consideration.
The winning team will receive a $1,000 grand prize, and can choose to split the money as its members wish. The second-place team will receive a $100 consolation prize.
For information on the Hunt, and for tips on the game posted daily, visit middleburyhunt.com.
(01/27/16 11:59pm)
The Middlebury women’s hockey team won a two-game homestand against NESCAC foe Bowdoin this weekend, winning 2-0 on Friday, Jan. 22, before surging to a 4-2 victory Saturday, Jan. 23, in Chip Kenyon ’85 Arena.
Coming off a 5-0 home win against Endicott College on Jan. 16, the Panthers returned to the Kenyon ice on Friday to post their second shutout in a row. The first period was fast-paced as both teams created good scoring chances in the first few minutes of play.
The Panthers controlled the puck for most of the first and had 10 shots on goal to Bowdoin’s five. Middlebury had a golden opportunity in a power play with 34 seconds left in the first period. Sophomore star Maddie Winslow ’18 capitalized by sending a loose puck over Polar Bear netminder Sophia Lattanzio, giving Middlebury the 1-0 lead with 15 seconds left in the first.
The momentum from Winslow’s goal carried over into the second period. The Panthers came out of the locker room with fury: pressuring the Bowdoin defense just a minute into the second, Elizabeth Wulf ’18, assisted by Jessica Young ’18, fired a slapshot directly at Lattanzio. Her save left the puck behind the net, but Winslow — the girl on fire — hustled to the puck and hooked it gracefully past Lattanzi’s skate. With the goal, Winslow both doubled her team’s lead and brought her total goals scored to seven this season.
Bowdoin’s best opportunity to score in the period came at the 13:48 mark, as Miranda Bell made two moves to get through the Panther defense, but goalie Julia Neuberger ’18 deflected the shot wide.
In the final period, the Polar Bears narrowed their deficit in shots on goal to 5-7. Though they earned three power plays, Middlebury’s defense muted those opportunities. In the final minute, the Panthers, taking no lead for granted, kept the puck deep in Bowdoin’s zone, forcing Lattanzio to stay in her goal and forgoing Bowdoin the chance of an extra attacker.
The Panthers dominated the ice, clocking a 30-13 edge in shots on goal over the course of the game.
At Kenyon the next day, the women’s squad seized another victory, this time 4-2. Middlebury had three power plays and attempted five shots in the first 10 minutes, but Lattanzio was no sieve. The Polar Bears lost the puck to Anna Van Kula ’16, who seized it at the blueline and sent a pass down the ice to Shanna Hickman ’19. The first-year forward muscled her way to the front of the net and placed the puck right through the legs of Bowdoin goalie Lan Crofton. The assist, from senior to freshman, is one of many moments this season proving the viability of the freshman squad. “We have a really young team this year, with 15 underclassman. It’s been fun to see all of the freshman stepping up, making some huge plays and scoring some important goals for us,” Winslow said.
At 15:24, Bowdoin’s Bell tied the game at 1-1 when she gathered the puck in her defensive zone following a Panther turnover. In the final minute of the second, the Panthers, led on a drive by Janka Hlinka ’18, turned up the pressure. Hlinka sent the puck netward, and Winslow tipped it between Crofton’s legs. The goal was Winslow’s team-leading eighth of the season.
The final period saw Middlebury gain some breathing room at 7:48 when Jessica Young stuffed home a loose puck from the edge of the crease for the eventual game-winning score after Crofton saved an attempt by Winslow on the doorstep. Young furthered Middlebury’s lead to 4-1 with a wrister over Crofton’s shoulder at 16:06 in the third. With 21 seconds remaining, Bowdoin’s Jessica Bowen managed a goal to bring the score to 4-2, where it stayed as time expired.
The Panthers are on a four-game winning streak now, and seem to have taken their tough 0-3 loss to top-ranked Plattsburgh State on Jan. 12 to heart.
“We have only been getting better since we got back from winter break,” Winslow said. “I think everyone came back from break on the same page: that we are going to outwork every team we play from here on out. Our team motto right now is to do the ‘little things.’ It’s about winning the little battles — back checking hard, blocking shots. If everyone perfects these ‘little things,’ then we can keep this momentum we have through the rest of the season.”
Having made three goals during the homestand against Bowdoin, Winslow stands out as a powerful force for the team. But she credits her tallies to her teammates.
“I’m glad I have been able to help my team by putting the puck in the net, but all our points have been a collective team effort,” Winslow said. “Most of my goals have been off of beautiful plays and passes by my teammates so they deserve as much credit as me for them. I look at a goal as a collaborative success, so I am happy that as a team we have been able to put the puck in the net and win some big games!”
With the two wins, Middlebury’s record improved to 5-0-3 in conference and 9-3-3 overall. Next stop for the Panthers, who stand at the top of the NESCAC standing and seventh in the national polls, is Clinton, N.Y., where they will take play two tough league games against the Hamilton Continentals on Friday, Jan. 29, and Saturday, Jan. 30, in hopes of maintaining their undefeated NESCAC record.
(01/21/16 1:01am)
On Friday, Jan. 15, the Center for Careers & Internships (CCI) hosted its second annual sophomore conference. At the event, faculty, staff, alumni and students discussed the value of a Middlebury education, the many paths that College alumni take and the preparation and flexibility gained from pursuing a liberal arts degree. Almost 320 students signed up to attend the events.
The conference, titled “Preparation and Possibilities: On Leading a Liberal Arts Life,” was a coordinated effort between several College offices, including the CCI, the five Commons and the Office of Academic Affairs.
Organizers focused the conference on sophomores in order to complement their newly declared majors, study abroad, summer internships and career planning that accompany sophomore year.
“Research in higher education continues to show effects of the sophomore slump — a time when students have settled into their new lives in college and the emphasis placed on the first-year transition has largely disappeared,” said Peggy Burns, director of the CCI.
“Sophomore year is an exciting, but uniquely challenging year,” she continued. “Students declare a major, they consider their study abroad options and they dig into their extracurricular interests. They do all of this while also balancing their studies. We hope to provide some guidance and address some of these issues through panel discussions and one-on-one conversations.”
Students could attend one of nine panels organized by subject, including literature, the humanities, the social sciences and STEM. Each panel consisted of one faculty monitor and several returning alumni, who spoke about their careers thus far and what they feel their years at the College did for them. Students received a copy of the new “Preparation and Possibilities” series for their newly declared major, a document created for each of Middlebury’s 40 majors, including information about the skills acquired, and the internships and jobs held by students and alumni of that major.
More than 35 alumni from a wide array of industries, and in varying stages of their careers, returned to campus for the weekend. Alumni spoke of their own professional paths, which ranged from attending law school and defending undocumented immigrant children in federal court to running a start-up mead brewery in Winooski, Vt.
Nínive Calegari ’93 delivered the headlining keynote address in Charles A. Dana Auditorium on Friday evening. Calegari is the cofounder and former CEO of 826 National, a nonprofit organization focused on helping young students improve their expository and creative writing skills.
In her address, titled “Wondering How to Make the World a Better Place? Your Liberal Arts Education Will Come in Supremely Handy,” Calegari spoke of her time at Middlebury, recalling several fond — some humorous — memories in front of her audience, which filled the auditorium to capacity. She thanked her adviser, Allison Stanger, professor of international politics and economics, who introduced Calegari on stage, for inspiring her to attend Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education and to pursue her current line of work: improving the American education system.
Calegari spoke about her work studying teacher salaries, which she argued are dangerously low. She gave case studies of teachers whom she interviewed who work second and third jobs “just to make ends meet.” She revealed a startling statistic: the average starting teacher’s salary in New York is almost half of what an Uber driver makes in that state.
Calegari tied in her work with the Teacher Salary Project, a nonprofit which she founded and of which she is currently president, aimed at improving the working conditions and increasing the salaries of public school teachers. As part of the project, Calegari produced the 2011 film “American Teacher,” adapted from her novel “Teachers Have It Easy” and narrated by actor Matt Damon. Much like the novel and documentary, her address made a passionate argument for raising average salaries of teachers.
“Teachers are truly the heart and soul of our country, and they should be paid accordingly.” Calegari said. “It is a shame that teacher salaries have not increased proportionately with the spending that schools have devoted per pupil.”
The conference ended on Sunday morning with breakfast roundtable discussions in Atwater Dining Hall. Alumni, sorted by field and industries, talked to students about mission-driven leadership across the nonprofit sector and what it takes to build thriving and effective social enterprises.
According to Burns, Middlebury first-year students named career planning as one of the top five causes of their stress when surveyed after being on campus for only a month.
“Our strategy is to continue creating a career education planning experience that is interwoven throughout all four years,” she said. “We want to encourage independence, exploration and aspiration, and we’re working to engage students earlier. The sophomore conference is a great step in that direction.”
(01/21/16 12:29am)
The Middlebury women’s hockey team skated to three wins, two ties and two losses over winter break, bringing their overall record to 7-3-3 and placing them at third in the NESCAC, behind first-ranked Amherst and second-ranked Williams.
Middlebury’s tense first matchup against Castleton on Saturday, Dec. 12, driven into overtime by a late Castleton goal with three and a half seconds left in the third period, marked the second loss of the season. Kelly Sherman ’17 placed her third goal of the year to give Middlebury the early lead 3:50 into the first period, and the Panthers went unanswered for the rest of the period. In the second, Maddie Winslow ’18 made two quick attempts at goals but was denied by Spartan netminder Jess Cameron.
Middlebury took a 2-0 lead on the power play at 9:51 with a rebound shot by Anna Van Kula ’16. But with just 28 seconds left in the second, Castleton struck back to make it a one-goal game. The Spartans dominated the third period, with goalie Cameron blocking a formidable shot by Janka Hlinka ’18 on a three-on-none break. With Cameron pulled in favor of an extra attacker, the Spartans tied the game with seconds remaining, forcing overtime. Only 1:53 into the extra session, Castleton went on the power play, and with an innocent shot at 3:18 that slipped past Middlebury goalie Julia Neuburger ’18, took home the win.
After a break from NCAA play, the women’s squad returned on Tuesday, Jan. 5 to host a formidable Lake Forest team in Chip Kenyon ’85 Arena, where the Panthers handed Lake Forest their first loss of the season in a spectacular showing of grit. Lake Forest entered the game with the nation’s top power play — at 41 percent — and was only one of four teams without a loss.
Ten minutes into the first period, alternate captain Katie Mandigo ’16 placed a loose puck into the slot to give Middlebury an early lead. Netminder Neuberger blocked three attempts by the Foresters in the final five minutes of the period. But 2:34 into the second, the Foresters answered.
The deciding goal of the game came 7:57 into the third, when Van Kula placed her third shot of the season off the rebound. The Panthers tried to bolster their lead on three power plays in the final eight minutes — including a five-on-three — but Lake Forest netminder Allie Carter did not falter. The Foresters pulled Carter with 49 seconds left and sent two aggressive attempts to the slot, but a blocked shot by Winslow and a crucial save by Neuberger preserved a Panthers’ victory.
“Beating Lake Forest was a good start for us coming back after break,” Van Kula said. “We played well for a full 60 minutes and were able to hand them their first loss of the season.”
The Panthers returned to NESCAC play on Jan. 8 for a two-game matchup in Amherst, Mass., against Amherst. A scoreless first period came and went, but early in the second Winslow redirected an attempt from Shanna Hickman ’19 to score her team-leading fourth of the season. Winslow was named NESCAC player of the week earlier in the season.
The Lord Jeffs were quick to answer just a minute later, as Katelyn Pantera led a power play drive to the Panther slot. And later, Sara Culhane finished a valiant drive from Amherst after a Panther turnover turned into a three-on-one play, giving Amherst a 2-1 lead. Early in the third, though, Allie Aiello ’17 scored her first goal of the season to force overtime and ultimately to secure a tie after a scoreless extra session.
A day later, the two squads returned to the ice, hoping to secure a win in the series but tying again, this time with a 3-3 score. Late in the second period, Jessica Young ’18 placed the first point on the board after intercepting a pass from an Amherst defender in the offensive zone and firing a point-blank shot. Just a minute later, Jocelyn Hunyadi responded for the Lord Jeffs on the power play.
The third period was high-scoring as Amherst scored two goals in the first nine minutes, one of which came when Erin Martin won a faceoff in her defensive end, skated the full length of the ice, and sent the puck past Neuberger. Trailing 1-3, Middlebury staged a comeback with shots by Victoria Laven ’17 and Elizabeth Wulf ’18. The Panthers put six shots on the Amherst frame in the overtime period, including hitting the pipe in the final minute, but neither team scored leading to the 3-3 tie.
In Plattsburgh, N.Y., on Jan. 12, Middlebury suffered a 3-0 loss against top-ranked Plattsburgh State (13-0). Melissa Sheeran converted on a rebound of an initial Erin Brand slapshot from the point to give Plattsburgh State a 1-0 advantage 1:07 into the second period. Brand would be on the receiving end of another primary assist to give Plattsburgh a 2-0 edge at 11:27 of the same period. Brand took a slapshot from the point that bounced off Panther goaltender Neuburger over her shoulder and into the crease where Kayla Meneghin knocked it in. Capitalizing on an empty Panther net, Kayla Meneghin scored her second of the game coming via the empty netter with 10 seconds left in regulation to seal a tough, but expected, loss for Middlebury.
Coming off the loss, the Panthers hosted Utica on Jan. 15 in Kenyon Arena and posted a 2-1 win with a strong debut by the freshman squad. Rachael St. Clair ’19 and Katarina Shuchuk ’19 each scored their first career goals and Kiana Verplancke ’19 made 25 saves for her initial collegiate victory. The Panthers made two early scoring bids in the first period on two power plays, but Utica goalie Amanda Lupo blocked both shots.
The Utica Pioneers took their turn on the power play midway through the period, with Elizabeth Dohner placing a rebound into the top corner of the Panther net. But the Panthers pulled even late in the period, when St. Clair collected a rebound on a shot by Katherine Jackson ’19 and tied the game at 1-1.
Middlebury scored the game-winning goal at the 17:08 mark of second, when Jenna Marotta ’19 directed a shot on goal, which was tipped in by Shuchuk to give the Panthers an unanswered 2-1 lead. Utica twice pulled the goalie in the final 1:09 to get the equalizer, but the Panthers held strong to prevent the Pioneers from setting anything up.
“We have a very young team this year but have seen lots of improvement since we started in November,” Van Kula said.
Bolstered by the victory, the women’s squad returned to Kenyon Arena to crush Endicott College 5-0. The Panthers were aggressive in the first period, and Winslow made the first goal on the power play for her fifth of the season.
Middlebury broke through for three goals in the middle period, one each by Jackson, St. Clair and Haley LaFontaine ’18. The goal was LaFontaine’s first as a Panther.
A breakout pass created a two-on-one advantage for the Panthers as Winslow set up Jackson for her second of the game and a 4-0 lead (14:33). Young netted the final goal 5:00 into the third period, bringing the score to 5-0.
“The team is working hard to improve on a daily basis,” Head Coach Bill Mandigo said. “We have had three good weeks of practice and have played some very good teams. We played well against Lake Forest and Plattsburgh, but only came away with the victory against Lake Forest. Different players are having an impact and I have been very impressed with our freshmen.”
Van Kula is excited for NESCAC play, stating “we have had a good start to the new year and are looking to build on that in our upcoming NESCAC games.”
The Panthers (3-0-3 in conference) will host a two-game homestand this weekend against the Bowdoin Polar Bears (3-3), beginning Friday at 7 p.m. and ending Saturday at 3 p.m., and then will face the Hamilton Continentals (2-2-2) in Clinton, N.Y., on Jan. 29 and 30.
(12/10/15 4:07am)
One student at the stress forum last Wednesday said that the goal while pursuing a degree at Middlebury is to optimize the experience. That means finding the “perfect” balance between schoolwork, clubs, and social time. It means if I don’t maximize my daily activities, I might lose out on what I could’ve done.
It seems that students here are too concerned with doing to engage in the act of being. It has become all about making deadlines, attending talks, and optimizing our schedules. The search to maximize every aspect of each day becomes an obsessive hobby. We get a rush when we cross off the next item on our to-do list. It feels good to have things in control.
But soon the task becomes our master. When the measure of a good day in the library is how productive we are, we think of ourselves more as robots than as people. The time we spend on things becomes an equation to be solved. In our search for efficiency we become machine.
When we get caught up in the activities and tasks and things which we can say “I did,” we lose sight of what it means to be here. The residential liberal arts college is a space where shared learning occurs at all hours of the day and all corners of campus. What, then, if we took four years of residency here for what they are? What if we could decide our days’ events not around the tasks we have to do but around the people we wish to see, the meals we wish to have, and the stories we wish to hear? I think then we would be happy.
We students are the most populous part of the community. We are roommates, teammates, and classmates to each other; we are neighbors in the physical makeup of the campus. At its heart, the residential liberal arts college offers a mutual living–learning experience. In our inherent proximity, we have the opportunity to interact and flourish together. We should focus not on doing more but on living with meaning, which comes from community, collaboration, and coexistence.
When we begin to realize each of us is interconnected, when we take ownership of our collective experience and realize our individual gain in doing things is far less meaningful than our collective power in living together, then we have embraced a culture of being. There is no conflict because your living is part of mine. And with that realization, all our individual struggles become one.
(12/09/15 7:59pm)
The Middlebury women’s hockey team went 1-0-1 in their two-game homestand against Connecticut College this weekend at Chip Kenyon ’85 Arena, bringing their overall record to 4-1-1.
On Friday night, Middlebury broke a 2-2 tie in the third period to win 3-2 over the Camels.
Middlebury controlled the ice but not the scoreboard during the first period, putting seven of the first eight shots on goal but making none of them. Jenna Marotta ’19 took three shots during a Panther power play and Shanna Hickman ’19 sent back-to-back shots a minute later, but the Connecticut netminder let none through.
The Camels scored first, just before the end of the period. The Panthers responded early in the next period when Maddie Winslow ’18 corrected a shot by Janka Hlinka ’18. On the power play five minutes later, Elizabeth Wulf ’18 gave Middlebury the lead with a shot from the right.
Conn College answered late in the third period with a goal on the rebound to tie the game at 2-2. Just 49 seconds later, Carly Watson ’17 skated to a loose puck in the high slot and sent a rocket to the upper corner of the net, securing a win. Watson came off the ice with a goal and two assists for the Panthers.
“The game was a back and forth battle in regards to scoring, with both teams capitalizing on momentum shifts,” Watson said. “I thought we did a really good job of maintaining possession and controlling the game, which is very encouraging for being the beginning of the season with a very young team.”
The Camels could not capitalize on any of their three power plays. The Middlebury women played aggressively throughout the game, taking 33 shots on goal compared to Connecticut’s 19.
On Saturday, the Panthers and Camels went into overtime tied at 1-1, but neither team could score in the first overtime game for both teams.
Middlebury dominated the first period, leading Connecticut 14-7 in shots on goal, but could not convert any of those shots into a goal. The Panthers had two 2-on-1 opportunities in the offensive zone, first with a wrist shot by Kelly Sherman ’17 at 8:51 and then a shot from inside the circle by Allie Aiello ’17, but Connecticut’s goalie, Katherine Chester, stopped both.
Each of the teams scored its goal in the second period, two minutes apart from each other. The Camels were first on the scoreboard with a shot by Lily Connolly at 4:23. At 6:28, Katherine Jackson ’19 made an attempt that was blocked by Connecticut’s netminder, but Kelly Sherman ’17 placed the rebound right past the posts to bring the score even.
Six minutes later, Middlebury had two chances to take the lead, first with a slot shot by Jessica Young ’18 and a rebound hook by Aiello, but neither player could find the back of the net.
The rest of the third period was scoreless, although Middlebury was dangerous on the puck. The ladies had several textbook setups that they failed to complete. A Panther power play came at 13:52 on which Middlebury was unable to capitalize. Connecticut nearly took the win with less than a minute of play remaining, but Panther goaltender Kiana Verplancke ’19 blocked the scoring bid and the rebound went wide.
In overtime, Winslow had a chance to score the game-winning goal, but missed the puck. Julia Wardwell ’16 powered a shot from the left circle that Chester gloved. Midway through overtime, the Panthers looked poised to score, controlling the puck in the Conn College zone. Winslow passed to Wulf, but she could not track it down. Young had a powerful shot that missed near the post. Haley LaFontaine ’18 sent a wrist shot that careened just wide.
“The effort is there, we just need to find more ways to score,” Wardwell said. “I think it’s absolutely possible if we keep working hard and continue to shoot the puck.”
Connecticut had an excellent chance at scoring with 27 seconds left, but the puck went flying just over the net.
Both goaltenders put up a strong showing: Verplancke made 22 saves in her collegiate debut for the Panthers, while Katherine Chester made 31 for the Camels. Middlebury had 32 shots on goal, compared to 23 for Conn College.
“Chester defended her net well. We had a lot of good opportunities to bury the puck but unfortunately we could not capitalize,” Wardwell said. “We played with a lot of hustle, which was great, but we will keep pushing ourselves in practice to get better both individually and as a team.”
In the NESCAC rankings, Middlebury (3-0-1) dropped just behind Amherst (4-0), who muscled out a win against Trinity. The Panthers are still ranked third nationally, behind number two Elmira, who defeated them last week.
Middlebury returns to the ice next Saturday with a home game against Castleton at 3 p.m.
(12/09/15 3:44pm)
On Wednesday, Nov. 2, in Wilson Hall, three administrators — Katy Smith Abbott, Andi Lloyd and Miguel Fernández — unveiled a plan they developed over the summer to remedy student stress. This was the first time that the plan, which they termed “The Grid,” was available to the student body. About seventy students and faculty were in attendance at the forum.
At their May meeting the Board of Trustees charged the administration with addressing stress and inclusivity on campus. The resulting plan outlines short-term and long-term solutions that are broken down into three categories: building community and resilience, promoting mind–body well-being and fostering diversity and inclusivity. Each objective has its own chart and associated time agenda.
“It seems to me like the administration is very desperate for some kind of concrete action,” Prasanna Vankina ’18 said. “It is clear that the administration cares a lot, but a lot of the proposals they suggested seemed reactive.”
During the presentation, Smith Abbott described intensive brainstorming sessions over the summer between herself, Lloyd, and Fernández, in a room on the second floor of Old Chapel, with a white board, “a great deal of snacks,” and diagrams and buzz-words of stressors for today’s college students.
“I don’t know how much interaction there actually was with students,” Vankina said.
SGA President Ilana Gratch ’16 said that the SGA’s main goal in holding this stress forum was to create an opportunity for students to enter the conversation. Last week, the Campus editorial board called for administrators to base their solutions on student input rather than on their anecdotal or outdated perceptions of student stress.
“I am encouraged that three senior level administrators spent the entire summer addressing issues relating to stress in the student body,” Gratch said.
At the forum, Gratch gathered responses and suggestions from student attendees, which she will compile in a briefing and send to Smith Abbott, Lloyd and Fernández. She said the SGA will also conduct a survey during winter term asking about perspectives and experiences related to stress at Middlebury.
“I look forward to compiling the student input we received at the forum for administrators so the proposals can incorporate students’ ideas, too,” she continued.
Some commented on the low number of student attendees at the forum. One student suggested that students were too stressed about their academic work to show up. When the attendees broke into small groups to reflect on the presentation, many were dismayed that few solutions in the plan dealt with academics.
“Almost everyone in my small group was frustrated that ‘slow learning’ came up once in the presentation,” Vankina said. “The other prevalent issues of diversity and inclusivity and health are piled onto an already existing issue in the classroom, this rapid form of learning. No one is internalizing anything they learn.”
During a question-and-answer period, one student stood up and said that if he received one extension on a paper, “that would do more to solve his stress than any of these proposals combined.”
Marie Vasitas ’18 said that stress is largely self-imposed by students.
“We need to learn how to deal with the stresses of the real world, because the world is not going to adapt to us,” she said. “Once we leave Middlebury, there won’t be opportunities to have conversations about how we can make the world less stressful. I think that’s something that you have to do on your own, and that’s part of the learning experience.”
One student suggested that students and faculty “take breaks for what they are,” specifically fall and Thanksgiving breaks. “Not having work over break, not piling up work before and after break, and actually reevaluating what a break means would help so much.”
Another student lamented the lack of traditions on campus.
“There are traditions within certain groups on campus, but there’s no one unifying tradition,” she said. “Even a homecoming dance. How many people actually go to Winter Carnival?”
Kathryn Morse, chair of the history department, said the conversation that occurred at the stress forum was thoughtful and showcased multiple points of view.
“The overall bottom line seemed to be that there is too much to do with too little time,” she said. “Students have been saying there’s too much academic work here for years. In response, faculty often suggest that students might be overcommitting themselves beyond the classroom. The question might be, How does our culture pressure students to want to do so many things at once?”
Morse also said that there are too many talks offered each day.
“Perhaps limiting the number of talks across the institution to one per day would reduce stress. Students and faculty seem to have too many talks and obligations to go to — there’s just too much going on.”
Tiffany Chang ’17.5, co-chair of Community Council, expressed excitement for Gratch’s work with the forum and with the upcoming survey. “It will be beneficial to the conversation to hear the opinions of students en masse.” she said. “I would also like to see the solutions focus more on faculty and staff stress, which Community Council has been discussed this semester. All of us — students, faculty, and staff — live and work on campus together, and all our stresses affect one another.”
Matthew Gillis ’18 expressed concern about the way Middlebury markets itself.
“People feel deceived about having come here when they see institutional and social forms of racism and classism” he said. “It is disheartening to realize how many students are accepted from similarly privileged areas each year and how the way you present yourself in admissions can, in many cases, immediately divide, shape and burden your experience. When the college annually boasts how each class is more brilliant, more diverse, and ultimately more ‘perfect’ each year, you internalize the surrounding imperfections you see—and begin to doubt the ability to be perfect yourself.”
“I think being honest, sharing why you feel a certain way, why you hold a certain view or why you’re having a tough time is so important. Many times I stay silent instead of admitting ignorance or slap on a smile when I’m feeling down. We can’t be afraid of making mistakes, appearing vulnerable, revealing ignorance, or showing that we aren’t perfect people, because this is how will eventually help us learn and reform ourselves and our stress,” he concluded.
(12/03/15 1:12am)
The Middlebury Panthers got their season off to a strong start with a 3-1 record. The team beat NESCAC rival Trinity twice, 5-1 and 2-1, on opening weekend, then hosted the Panther/Cardinal Classic this past weekend, where they fell to second-ranked Elmira College 3-1 and defeated Wisconsin-Stevens Point 3-1. Maddie Winslow ’18 led the way for the Panthers, tallying two goals and four assists in the four games and garnering NESCAC Player of the Week for her play at the tournament.
On Friday, Middlebury scored three times on the power play on its way to a 5-1 win over Trinity in the NESCAC season opener. Middlebury was slow to find its groove in the first minutes of play, as Trinity took a 1-0 lead 3:43 into the game on a power play goal from the right point. The women soon found their momentum with a power play goal of their own. Carly Watson’s ’17 shot from the left point, though blocked, was put home for a rebound by Katie Mandigo ’16. The Panthers struck again with the extra attacker at 11:22, taking a 2-1 lead with a goal by Elizabeth Wulf ’18.
Leading 2-1 in the second period, the Panthers added to their lead when Mandigo finished after a shot from Watson had been saved, and Kelly Sherman ’17 added one on a breakaway.
Julia Wardwell ’16 found the goal 5:00 into the third period to score Middlebury’s third power play goal of the night and seal a 5-1 victory for the Panthers.
The next day, the Panthers again defeated the Trinity Bantams with a score of 2-1.
Just as in the previous night, Trinity took an early 1-0 lead in contest. Melissa Maffeo’s initial shot was blocked before Shelby Labe jumped on the rebound and scored to put her team ahead.
Winslow answered for Middlebury in the second period, shooting a wrister to the top left corner of the net.
The game appeared to be heading into overtime when Wulf broke free from a pack behind the net and gained some space. She quickly fed Anna Van Kula ’16 in front, who sent a shot into the back of the net for the game-winning tally with only 47 seconds remaining in regulation.
This past weekend, the Panthers hosted the Panther/Cardinal Classic in Kenyon Arena. On Friday night, they fell to second-ranked Elmira by the score of 3-1 after leading midway through the second period.
The Panthers took the 1-0 lead when Wulf one-timed a shot from the slot on the power play into the back of the net at the 16:38 mark in the first period.
Elmira tied the game with an extra attacker 12:48 into the second period.The Panthers went on the power play at the 7:36 mark, with their best chance coming when Mandigo’s shot hit the pipe.
Elmira took a 2-1 lead with less than nine minutes remaining in the third period with a snipe of a shot into the top-right corner of the net, and the Panthers were unable to answer the goal despite a power play opportunity less than a minute later.
The Soaring Eagles gained some breathing room as the power play expired when the puck bounced off the stick of a Middlebury defender, leaving a race down the ice. Watson knocked the puck away, but the aggressive Soaring Eagles slipped the puck into the goal.
Following an Elmira timeout with 3:22 left, the Panthers pulled Dreher, but were unable to close the gap as Elmira took home the win.
“While we had a disappointing loss on Friday night, we felt good about how we played,” Mandigo said. “We competed all over the ice, and although we had a few breakdowns, overall we played well.”
On Sunday, the Panthers redeemed themselves with a 3-1 victory over Wisconsin-Stevens Point (5-4-1) during the final game of the Panther/Cardinal Classic in Kenyon Arena.
Middlebury got on the board first at 4:13 when Jessica Young ’18 stuffed home a pass from Janka Hlinka ’18. Only 22 seconds later, the Pointers came right back and tied the game at 1.
Two minutes into the second period, Winslow dug the puck out of the corner, skated to the goal and sent a cross to Shanna Hickman ’19, who scored her first career goal.
The Panthers added an insurance goal on the power play in the third period when Winslow sent her wrist shot to the far side of the net, securing a 3-1 win for her team.
“We had a good weekend battling some of the top teams in the country,” Mandigo said. “We have a young team, but everything is coming together nicely. We have high expectations for ourselves, but most importantly we are willing to put the hard work in for the outcomes that we want.”
With its pair of wins against conference rival Trinity, Middlebury sits atop the NESCAC, tied with Amherst at 2-0. The Panthers return to the ice this weekend for a two-game homestand against Connecticut College (0-2) on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 4-5.