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(09/26/12 11:29pm)
I am proud to say that I have discovered the best kept secret on campus. A new panini to be made at Proctor? No. An uncovered secret society? No. Give up? Some people in this situation would say “I would tell you, but I would have to kill you.” But, don’t worry, I will be generous. Drum roll please … JV sports.
JV sports are the middle child of Middlebury. The lost sock. The Midwest.
You may be scoffing at this notion, but take a minute to think about it. JV sports do not have a table at the activities fair. They do not send out harassing emails. They do not cover the dining halls in recruiting posters emblazoned with embarrassing photos captioned with quotes like “Don’t you want to be like us?” Nor do their members wander the dorms spontaneously serenading anyone with their door open.
Despite these perks, searching for mention of JV sports on the Middlebury website is like hunting for buried treasure. Based on some personal research, the most explicit reference to a JV sports team is a link on the women’s soccer page denoting a B Team. Hidden deep in the “About the Program” sections of women’s lacrosse and men’s soccer is also a mention of a B Team. No other sports’ websites acknowledge the presence of a JV program.
So how does one discover the secret cult of JV sports? It seems to all come down to word of mouth.
While this is a truth that may work out just fine for upperclassmen, word of mouth does not always trickle down to Battell. It can be rather problematic for ignorant first- years that are trying to get involved with activities on campus when they do not know what their options are. To further aggravate this issue of getting involved is the fact that not only does the existence of JV sports circulate via gossip, but so does information about how and when to try out. All in all, it is a practice that is preventing people from playing the sports that they love.
The word-of-mouth phenomenon of JV sports is also having a detrimental effect on the JV teams themselves. It is fairly safe to say that nearly every student on campus, male and female, knows that the JV Field Hockey team is desperate for players. In past years, the team fielded approximately 15 players and was able to play other club and JV teams from local schools competitively. This year, eight girls turned out for the first day of practice. Though the team has made strides thanks to a now rather infamous recruiting email, it will now merely be playing pickup games a few nights a week with no outside-of-Middlebury matches. It is frustrating to see the team suffer in this way and know that this problem could have been largely avoided.
The 21st century is by all accounts an age of communication. Across the globe, people are able to converse and share ideas thanks to the wonders of the World Wide Web. Never has it been easier to send a message to a group of people, even as large as the Middlebury student body. Therefore, is it too much to ask for a JV sports shout-out on the Athletics page or an email blast announcing their presence and how to participate at the beginning of the semester?
The responsibility should not fall on the athletic department but on members of the JV teams themselves. These teams need to take a leaf from the book Horton Hears a Who and make a declaration: “We are here! We are here!” If they don’t, Junior Varsity may be converted to Just Vanished.
Written by Emilie Munson '16, from Duxbury, Massachusetts
(09/26/12 11:25pm)
The day that Barack Obama became the nation’s first African American President is one that will forever live in our history books. Many Americans felt a sense of pride due to our ugly history filled with slavery, discrimination and hatred towards African Americans and many other minority groups.
Even before Obama was inaugurated, neo-conservative Rush Limbaugh stated “I hope he fails.”
Obama and many other Americans of minority backgrounds became the target of visceral lies charged with blatant racism and xenophobia.
The Tea Party has become obsessed with claiming Obama was born in Kenya and therefore not eligible to be President. Despite the mounting evidence against their ridiculous claims, Maricopa County [Ariz.] Sheriff Joe Arpaio wasted tax dollars to go down to Hawaii to try to find evidence to support his “birther” claims. Factcheck.org provided a strong analysis against the “birther” theory in August 2008.
FactCheck.org staffers have now seen, touched, examined and photographed the original birth certificate. It has been concluded that the certificate does indeed meet all of the requirements from the State Department for proving U.S. citizenship. Claims that the document lacks a raised seal or a signature are false. The conclusion: Obama was born in the United States, just as he has always said.
“No one’s ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this is the place where both of us were born and raised.”
Those were the words Mitt Romney spoke in his home state of Michigan, as he attempted to fire up the conservative base that has criticized his conservative credentials. Mitt Romney is one of many Republicans to make racist comments towards President Obama, and other members of minority groups.
Rick Santorum was quoted as saying, “I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money; I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money.”
Representative Sally Kern (R-Oklahoma City) stated, “We have a high percentage of blacks in prison, and that’s tragic, but are they in prison just because they are black or because they don’t want to study as hard in school? I’ve taught school, and I saw a lot of people of color who didn’t study hard because they said the government would take care of them.”
When confronted by MSNBC’s Chris Matthews on the issue of Republicans playing the race card, Republican National Committee Chariman Reince Priebus stated that Obama is “looking to Europe for guidance.”
Word of advice Reince: next time you want to make it seem like you party does not have tremendous antipathy towards minorities, don’t falsely compare Obama’s policies to those of Europe. While being labeled as “European” is one of the worst insults from a Republican, many European nations are frankly doing things a lot better than we are. Gay marriage is recognized by all European Union nations, and The World Health Organization rankings list 22 European nations ahead of America in their Health Care rankings.
Republicans should look to Europe for inspiration. Only two percent of delegates at the Republican National Convention were African American. Despite throwing a few token minorities on the stage, such as Susana Martinez, Mia Love, Artur Davis and Marco Rubio, nobody confuses the GOP as a big tent party. When the vast majority of your party members are white, it would be safe to assume most of them are of European descent.
The past four years have been a sad reminder that our nation still has a very long way to go in our battle against discrimination. Almost every piece of legislation proposed by Democrats during the last four years has been blocked by a racist Republican agenda aimed at making Obama’s presidency a failure.
If you don’t believe me, ask House Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. He said, “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”
If they really cared so much about the economy, The Tea Party would have rallied against Former President George W. Bush’s war in Iraq, which eventually crippled our economy. At the very least, they would approve a jobs bill aimed at putting veterans back to work.
The current Republican Party is one of racism and oppression. Let’s hope for the good of the nation that they can return to the Republican Party that ended slavery.
Let’s hope this November, Americans choose a president who symbolizes the progress we have made, not one who wants to bring us back to the dark years that have tarnished our history.
Written by WILL SCHWARTZ '16, from Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania
(09/19/12 11:40pm)
In a routine conversation with my grandmother last year, I mentioned that I was considering adding a women's and gender studies (WAGS) major to my already-declared history major. I thought – given my grandmother's thoroughly feminist background as an astronomy professor who sued her university for gender discrimination while simultaneously raising two children – that she would respond with total approval. Instead, she said something like, "Honey, don't you think history is enough? You don't want to discredit your resume – there are still plenty of working men out there who don't care for the gender studies types."
My initial reaction was to write it off as a generational difference. Maybe the Wall Street or corner office men of my grandmother's time thought that way, but my generation's men – especially the ones at Middlebury – certainly did not. I had always assumed the men of my generation to be totally open-minded when it comes to gender roles.
Upon later consideration of her comments, however, I realized my grandmother wasn't so far off at all, and the problem is not just confined to Wall Street. Here at Middlebury, there is a problematic stigma attached to women's and gender studies – that the classes are a "joke" and are exclusively for women. Or, as Joanna Rothkopf '12 articulated in a column last year on the subject of stereotypes about gender on campus: "Only dark-haired women are allowed to take WAGS classes, save one or two token gays."
Indeed, all of my WAGS classes in the past – and this semester as well – have had gaping gender disparities; at times, there has been a male-to-female ratio as high as ten to one. I find this highly problematic. For a school that so heavily promotes diversity in the classroom, this discrepancy is embarrassing and needs to change. In the long term, I think the college must make WAGS a distribution requirement, alongside science and art. In the meantime, however, while you're busy deciding on that last class to take to perfect your schedule, I ask – why not WAGS?
There are a number of excuses that I hear thrown around campus as to why someone won't take a WAGS class. Primarily, I've heard students reason that WAGS classes are specifically about women and are thus for women only. But such an argument is deeply flawed; this logic would require me to drop my history class on India because I'm not Indian. Moreover, WAGS classes are by no means exclusively about women; if you flip through the catalog, you'll see that the department offers courses on masculinity, heterosexuality, nationality and transgender history, among other things.
Another common objection to taking a WAGS class goes like this: "The goals of feminism in America were achieved in the 1970's; why must we rehash it all on a thoroughly gender-neutralized campus?" To anyone who subscribes to this line of thought, I especially urge you to take a WAGS class. You will learn that your statement is utterly false – that a woman still earns 77 cents to a man's dollar in the United States, that we have a congressman purporting that women's bodies will somehow reject pregnancy in cases of "legitimate" rape.
Indeed, Congressman Todd Akin's ignorance brings up an important reason Middlebury students would all benefit from taking a WAGS class: basic literacy. In an election season that's increasingly becoming a discussion about women and their bodies, we have a responsibility to become educated on these issues and their nuances. I'd be willing to bet that if Congressman Akin had taken a WAGS course in college, he would not be losing the Missouri senate race due to his incredibly unenlightened remark. Like any other civil rights issue, the only way to gender equality is gender education. It is thus disappointing that progressive Middlebury students are so reluctant to take WAGS courses, especially considering the pressing need for literacy, activism and support in areas of gender equality.
It is not my intention to hold up WAGS as the one infallible department of Middlebury College. To be sure, WAGS classes and students at Midd have their own shortcomings. Specifically, WAGS students and professors alike must not get away with throwing around generalized anti-male rhetoric in the classroom – rhetoric that has brought prominent females of the 21st century such as Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer to reject self-identifying as a "feminist." It is not okay, as I witnessed in a WAGS class last year, for a female student to accuse a male student of not having any perspective on a black woman's life because he is "a white male!" It is completely inappropriate for students to attack one another on a basis of their race and gender. For their part, students and professors of WAGS must create a fully inclusive classroom.
Most of all, I urge all Middlebury students to take a WAGS course not just for their own sake, but also for the sake of enhancing the classes themselves. It's a huge loss to have such a weak gender distribution in discussions on just that – gender.
All students have something to gain from taking a WAGS class. So how about we make a deal: I'll take an ECON class if you try out WAGS.
And then maybe I will get my grandmother's total approval.
Written by CAROLINE KAHLENBERG '14 from Bethesda, Maryland
(09/19/12 11:35pm)
In just 50 days, millions of Americans will head to the polls to choose the nation's next president. They will line up to exercise the right that is theirs by virtue of citizenship. In doing so, they will fulfill that fundamental civic duty so vital to the health of our democracy.
For many of us, this year marks the first time that we are able to cast our ballots. Although it is tempting to be cynical about everything politics-related these days, the easiest way to make a difference is by voting. When you walk into that voting station on Election Day, or more likely, fill out that absentee ballot in your dorm room, you are empowering yourself and telling the world that you want your voice to matter.
Still, you might believe that your vote won't make a difference in a nation of 300 million. But just imagine how many people out there are thinking the exact same thing. Think about what might happen if the couple million of you decided to give voting a chance. In a year like this one – when the result of the election is widely expected to be roughly a 50-50 split – those couple million votes will very much decide our next president.
Even so, you might say, "I'm from Massachusetts; it's going to go Democratic anyway." Or "I'm from Maine; we have so few people it doesn't really matter." Think again. Although it's true some states like Massachusetts are in the bag for the presidential race, there are plenty of other reasons to turn out and vote. For one, Massachusetts has a hotly contested Senate race that could decide the balance of power in that chamber of Congress. Maine – though small in size – has an important gay marriage proposition on the ballot this fall.
Regardless of what your beliefs are and what gets you riled up, just vote. If you don't, there is no reason for those in power to listen to you – and you lose your right to complain. A ballot is your most potent weapon in a democracy. Just think about it: you have the power to hire and fire the people who run your country. How could anyone refuse to exercise such a right?
For all those reasons above, you should drop by the Gifford Amphitheatre sometime today between 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. and register to vote. Already registered? Come apply for an absentee ballot. No matter which state you hail from – or even if you have never voted before – students from MiddVote will be there to help. The deadline for registration is just a couple weeks away in most states, so now is the time to get this done.
Voting is a gift that millions of people around the globe, from the rebel fighter in the bloodied streets of Syria to the brave lawyer behind bars in rural China, yearn and struggle and die for. Even in this country, voting was never a given. It's a gift that many generations of Americans have fought to save from the doorsteps of tyranny, when the first shots were fired in Lexington, on the hallowed grounds of Gettysburg, in the trenches and on the beaches of Europe. It is our generation's turn to ensure that the blood of all those who came before us was not shed in vain. It is our generation's turn to honor the struggles of those civil rights heroes that made it possible for many of us to step into the voting booth. It is our generation's turn to take responsibility for this great republic.
It begins with registering to vote.
Written by MiddVote
(09/19/12 11:33pm)
As I made my way down Route 7 last week, I couldn't help letting my eyes wander occasionally. At first, the seemingly endless fields of corn caught my attention. However, my gaze quickly advanced towards the thin line separating the crest of the Green Mountains from the sky. On my way to campus, each Middlebury landmark instantly called to mind a vivid memory. The bright red Hannaford sign put me right back in the supermarket's meat section, as my housemates and I purchased pounds upon pounds of beef to grill on the ADP porch during the spring of my junior year. As I continued past the Dollar Store, I was again wandering the aisles in an attempt to find the cheapest way to dress up as my favorite superhero during my sophomore year. With a slight grin on my face, I eventually made my way past Jackson's on the River and remembered taking a girl on a date for the first time in the fall of my freshman year, at what was then Tully and Marie's. When I reached Battell (my time-honored freshman dorm), I saw FYCs and parents collectively assisting the freshmen in unloading way more stuff than could ever possibly be needed at college.
Then it hit me, how unbelievably different these current perceptions were, compared to the first ones I had moving in to Midd, only three Vermont autumns ago. Apart from the expected excitement, occasional ambivalence and perpetual anticipation I felt as a freshman, above all else, I was eager. Eager to start classes. Eager to meet the baseball team. Eager to find a cute girl. Eager to meet my roommate. Eager to discover the campus. Eager to acclimate to life as a "Middlebury College student". While this eagerness certainly drove me to try a wide variety of new things and meet an even wider array of people, in hindsight, it may have been (subconsciously) overwhelming.
Armed with what was then a far cry from a well-established sense of identity, I immediately set out to do exactly what I felt a "cool" Midd kid would do. It was essentially like letting a different, idealistic persona guide my behavior.
Many months after I'd settled on a group of friends (who I now consider to be among my favorite people to spend time with), quit the baseball team and decided to prioritize my own interests, I became aware of something new. I realized that in an attempt to prove to Middlebury that I was a "cool" Midd kid, I had inadvertently created a person with whom I didn't actually agree. I didn't enjoy trying to find a party every night – I was free to socialize at the expense of being bedridden for the next 11 hours. I didn't enjoy donning Vineyard Vines belts and Croakies to look like the older guys on campus. Above all else, I didn't enjoy doing things in order to form a new identity.
It wasn't as if I woke up one morning and suddenly realized that I no longer agreed with the person I was trying to be. Rather, the transformation happened slowly, over three years.
As I've progressed through the previous three years at Midd (and abroad in Spain), I gradually decreased choosing what I felt I should be doing over what I actually wanted to do. I found myself doing fewer things that felt forced and unnatural and more of what I truly enjoyed.
One could argue that the difference between my first perception of move-in day compared to the one I had two weeks ago represents a sort of evolution. Throughout my three years at Middlebury, my sense of identity changed from being largely influenced by the perception other people had of me, to learning and enjoying what I really wanted to do. Just as the struggle for existence is a prerequisite in Darwin's theory of evolution, so too did my struggle to figure out who I really wanted to be shape and modify my behavior over time at Midd. I believe that discovering who you are and what you really like to do are among the most important aspects of a Middlebury education. It is one of the many learning experiences that take place outside the classroom. It was a long, hard and occasionally bumpy journey, but I enjoyed it immensely as it was well worth the wait. (That's what she said #winkyface.)
Written by GRANT NISHIOKA '13 from Wayland, Massachusetts
(09/19/12 11:27pm)
In last week's "The Elephant in the Room" column, Ben Kinney '15 offered a litany of what he perceived to be the failures of the Obama presidency. He claimed that the President's re-election campaign "no longer [inspires] hope" and that the man "lacks the foresight necessary to properly lead this nation."
We, the College Democrats, have a completely different view of this presidential election and of President Obama's administration, which we believe must be kept in office for four more years, given the stakes of this country's problems.
President Obama took office almost four years ago under extraordinary circumstances that few saw coming. During the year prior to President Obama's inauguration, the United States economy shed 3.6 million jobs. During the month that Obama took office, the economy lost another 818,000 jobs. Remember who was in power then? A Republican president with a trickle-down vision for the American economy shared by the current Republican presidential nominee.
In order to respond to the claim made in last week's column that we are not better off than we were four years ago, one only needs to look at what Bill Clinton, in his convention speech, called "arithmetic." Is a plus 96,000 jobs score last month better than a minus 818,000 in January 2008? Just use arithmetic. Is plus two percent GDP growth better than 8.9 percent GDP decline? Just use arithmetic. Are the 4.5 million private sector jobs created in the last 30 months better than the 4.4 million lost in the year leading up to Obama's inauguration? Just use arithmetic.
Of course, the economy is not growing at the pace it needs to be. Yet, much of that has been caused by external factors beyond President Obama's control. The European debt crisis comes to mind immediately. The congressional Republicansblocking the President's jobs bill last September. And, most disgustingly, Republicans playing with fire by holding the debt-ceiling hostage in the summer of 2011.
By all reasonable standards, the proposition that Obama somehow failed America because he inherited a Republican-made crisis and submitted job-creating legislation that was blocked by the same party is absolutely absurd.
In his column, Kinney also claimed that Obama has no vision for the American economy. Not true. Just to name a few major themes, President Obama's vision for the economy cuts taxes for businesses that create jobs in America, invests in college education so that the workforce endures in the globalized economy and ensures a balanced approach of raising revenue and decreasing spending as a way to cut the deficit.
Furthermore, Kinney hammered the President on his failed promises while ignoring his extraordinary list of achievements, including historic health care reform, a law making it possible for many of us to stay on our parents' health insurance today. The doubling of Pell Grants and reforming student loans for college kids, which also makes it possible for many of us to be here today. The end of the discriminatory "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy. The killing of Osama bin Laden. Saving a million jobs in the now-booming auto industry. The Ledbetter Fair Pay Act giving women equal pay for equal work. Wall Street Reform. Credit card reform. Extension of tax cuts and unemployment benefits. Giving a million "dreamers" a chance to come out of the immigration shadow.
Ultimately, this election is about the choice between two very, very different visions for America. It is not about picking a perfect president who will fulfill every promise, for there is no such thing. It is about whether we continue with the progress of the past four years and keep climbing out of this ditch, or whether we give the keys back to the guys that drove us into the ditch in the first place.
It's fair to say that Kinney, in his column, offered a glass half-empty vision of this election. It's a vision of blame and attack, and it offers no clear alternative. The country does not move forward when you're against something. Thus, we take the more optimistic, glass half-full view of supporting the President and standing for his vision. With Obama and the Democrats in power, this country is not just "hanging in there" – it is moving forward and we intend to keep it that way.
Written by the COLLEGE DEMOCRATS
(09/19/12 11:26pm)
My bags imprudently overstuffed and my back frequently overburdened, I spent a 13-hour travel experience wondering whether carrying-on my raincoat was truly necessary. I allude to the rather awkward task of confronting a reality that you've only ever conceived of as a casual collection of stereotypes: Ireland.
Let me do the legwork for you: Guinness, zealous binge drinking, rolling green hills, gingers and ... rain. Needless to say, I felt altogether touristy, and frankly embarrassed, cramming my brown raincoat into a bag already bursting with plane-ride comforts and entertain-ables (most of which went unused – turns out I hadn't seen The Hunger Games yet and couldn't tear my eyes away from what will likely be my only opportunity to see children nonchalantly killing each other in the name of good sport).
Anyway, it was raining buckets when I got to Dublin Airport. Score one for Mohan. It was still raining after a two-hour bus ride to Galway, the town from which I am humbly submitting the present column. Moreover, the entire ride was through a rolling and verdant landscape lined with charming stone fences and peppered with frolicking redheaded children (just kidding about the redheads – but you get the idea). And, to spite the kind folks at Public Safety, I should mention also that my twenty-year-old stomach has never encountered Guinness in such flowing abundance. From a conversation I had with some keen young gentlemen from Donnegal, an Irish town known for its distinctive accent, I've gathered that rumors of excessive drinking also appear to be valid – for first-years, at the very least. Indeed, the local police chief was actually given the podium during "Visiting Student Orientation" in order to caution the 600-person crowd that trying to keep up with the locals would only end in paralysis or incarceration. Duly noted, sir.
I don't mean to tell you that everything you've ever heard about Ireland is true, or even that you have a clear picture of what its like (or that I've degenerated into a bumbling drunk). Visit the country if you get the chance – the people are incredibly witty, the food is not as bad as alleged and the landscape is singularly beautiful. Nor am I trying to say that stereotypes are true; even if they are, they are reductive to the point of misrepresentation.
But it rains every single day. No exceptions. Oddly enough, the people here don't even bother with raincoats most of the time. There is essentially a fine, pervasive mist at all times, and it's not terribly inconvenient. Not being entirely convinced of this, it wasn't until about the third day that I took a proper walk around Galway. Since then, its been hard not to. My apartment is on a cobbled canal that runs through the center of town, and after it rains you can admire the ducks and swans through spider-webs illuminated by filtered raindrops – perfect circles that shine ubiquitously in the fences along the canal's edge. A giant cathedral towers stoically in the middle of town. Never mind getting lost on the narrow meandering streets, my biggest concern has been remembering to look right first when crossing them. Oh, and you know when you walk past a couple of people on the sidewalk and hear an amusingly brief segment of their conversation? I mostly just hear a jumble of "“er's and "“ar's and can't help laughing uncontrollably afterwards. I haven't made any friends yet.
Here's to not getting a Renault logo tragically and irreparably imprinted on my butt. Cheers.
Written by MOHAN FITZGERALD '14 from Galway, Ireland
(09/18/12 2:04am)
During the health and wellness presentation of my freshmen orientation three years ago, 500 other first-year students and I were given two memorable pieces of advice to get us through our first few weeks at Middlebury. First, we were encouraged to aim for a seven on a ten-point scale of appetite. That way, we wouldn't leave the dining hall uncomfortably full or peckish and cranky. Second, we were encouraged to play hard-to-get when looking for love. I left the presentation dismayed and confused about how my appetite and flirting had anything to do with my wellness.
Not surprisingly, the presentation's takeaway messages didn't stick either. When Thanksgiving dinner was served in Proctor, I ate my way to a happy 9.5. When the stars aligned to play hard-to-get, I chose the route of honest and open communication instead. The truth of the matter is that the presentation neither spoke to my particular concerns as a bright-eyed first-year nor caused me to reconsider the way that I approached my own health and well-being.
It's easy to forget that issues of health and wellness exist on this campus. On the whole, we're a good-looking bunch of students. We're intelligent and relatively hard working. We are taught to have a critical eye for the world's most pressing issues. From an outsider's perspective, it seems like we have it figured out. Unfortunately, a stroll around Middlebury's campus on an average weekend night may give a different perspective. Alcohol-related dorm damage peaked two years ago. Last year's "It Happens Here" event attested to the existence of sexual assault on campus. Most of us have traded a cup of coffee for a few hours of sleep, and the number of students that have been tested for sexually transmitted infections doesn't even scratch the surface of the number of students engaged in sex. Why are we so good at so many things and so bad at taking care of ourselves?
After three years of being frustrated with the student body's disregard for their own well-being, I decided that I wanted to do something else – something more concrete – to change the way we talk about health. Plenty of lunchtime conversations about the prohibitive cost of STI testing, late nights spent studying and the Sunday morning post-party debrief led me to become a Student Wellness Leader. Student Wellness Leaders, liaisons to the Office of Health and Wellness, hope to address a few of these concerns. While we're by no means the only group on campus interested in issues of health and wellness, our sole purpose is to organize campus-wide events, host speakers and form dialogue regarding the health of Middlebury students.
Last week, three other Student Wellness Leaders (SWLs) and I hosted a presentation on balanced living for First-Year Orientation. Instead of focusing our efforts on tips and tricks to staying healthy and sane during the transition to college life, we chose to share our own successes and failures in being healthy. We hoped to avoid the pitfalls of a high school health teacher preaching from the pulpit. We decidedly strayed away from discussing the USDA food pyramid and discussions of cardio versus weight training – though we couldn't resist passing out condoms. Hopefully, the presentation didn't go in one ear and out the other, as it had during my orientation, but rather encouraged new students to reflect on their own health and wellness.
This column is an effort to diversify the way we think about and talk about our well-being on campus. Throughout the coming year, SWLs will have the chance to write candidly about the issues they find interesting. Some of us want to talk about sexual health. Some of us want to talk about body image, alcohol, stress or sleep. All of us want to talk about what matters here at Middlebury. This is as much about your questions as it is our contributions – so get to know us because we want to get to know you.
(02/17/11 5:01am)
Over February break, a controversial lawsuit was brought against Taco Bell. California citizen Amanda Obney, along with a law firm in Alabama, claim that only 35 percent of Taco Bell’s ground beef is not actually beef, so Taco Bell should not call their beef filling “beef.” Other ingredients were typical additives and hard-to-pronounce-names such as autolyzed yeast extract, maltodextrin and the worst: anti-dusting agent. While some may debate the place of stabilizers and chemicals in our food, I confidently believe that nobody wants “anti-dusting agent” in what they’re eating. Now, if you type into Google: “Taco Bell meat,” or anything of the like, you’ll find thousands of news results about the lawsuit. One thing that I noticed is that the majority of these websites and sources are questionable. It’s very unsure as to how legitimate this claim is. But whether it’s true or not, it brings up many questions about fast food and the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) beef standards and has gotten a lot of attention.
In an attempt to quickly quiet this unwanted attention, Taco Bell has vigorously denied that these claims are true. They boldly stated, “the lawsuit is bogus and filled with completely inaccurate facts” and claimed that “our seasoned beef recipe contains 88 percent [...] beef and 12 percent seasonings, spices, water and other ingredients that provide taste, texture and moisture”.
Now, I’m not going to immediately determine their statement to be false (although I would be willing to bet that it’s probably fudged a bit). However, I do have a number of problems with this claim. First, why would you publically give a specific percentage (88 percent) that is WAY higher than the USDA standard (45 percent)? I find it hard to believe that Taco Bell’s meat filling is almost double what the legal standard is, as the more meat the filling contains, the more expensive it is to make. Second, I find it irksome that Taco Bell is claiming that the majority of ingredients are seasonings, spices, water and other ingredients that anyone could find in their home, and furthermore, that the purpose for these ingredients is only for “taste, texture and moisture.” Like any fast food restaurant, Taco Bell clearly puts in ingredients and stabilizers to make their food last longer, ship better and look fresh. I also highly doubt you can find silicon dioxide, caramel color, autolyzed yeast extract and maltodextrin in your kitchen cabinets at home.
So what will happen? Personally, I believe that Taco Bell is going to win the lawsuit, not necessarily because their beef filling is (or was) actually 88 percent beef, but because they have more money, resources and power than their attackers. They’ve already spent vast amounts of money on full-page print ads in big newspapers like the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. In addition, it appears that there may be a number of particular problems and details that may hurt the prosecution. Lastly, I’m certain that Taco Bell will quickly change and make sure their beef filling meets the standards if it didn’t before.
Honestly, it’s hard to know what’s true or not. While I am by no means rooting for Taco Bell, I think it’s important not to jump to any conclusions. Fast food restaurants are an increasingly easy target to blame for our food problems and the media quickly jumped on the case for its shocking qualities. Ultimately, I think the real surprise in this story is that the USDA standard for percentage of beef in beef filling is 40 percent. That’s definitely a fact. I understand that everyone puts in seasonings and other ingredients, but less than half of the filling is meat? Wow.
(11/20/08 12:00am)
With all due respect to my fellow faculty members, I'd like to think that Nick Muller and I, with joint appointments in Economics and Environmental Studies, have the best teaching jobs on campus. Our students not only study the great challenges of this century; if we're doing our job, they also acquire the critical tools to begin to take them on. So many of the students who are burning the midnight oil in Warner and Hillcrest these days (and yes, soon they'll be burning biomass!) are learning to think like economists and ecologists.
I admit, though, it's not really the choice of discipline that determines whether students are acquiring tools to lead a life of meaning. Biology, Political Science, Dance: randomly choose any major in the Middlebury College catalogue and you'll find a unique, valid means to understand the world's complexities. And there's one other thing you can be sure of at Middlebury: behind every major are outstanding scholars.
But in these changing times, how can we faculty members do even better? It can be difficult for modern educators to connect the everyday experiences of the student - what is immediately observable and within the grasp of even the most sophisticated student's worldview - with the systemic challenges that the global community now faces: stabilizing the climate, alleviating poverty, and expanding human rights. I've recently adopted an approach called "open-source learning" to increase the odds of success. This approach includes five basic elements: a non-hierarchical classroom; group-based learning within the classroom; network-based learning across classroom walls; real-time creation of knowledge; and knowledge creation for the common good.
In the spirit of John Dewey's vision of the civic purpose of democracy, the open-source classroom is dedicated to the proposition that the classroom has a public purpose. In a non-hierarchical classroom, students are taught that knowledge which they create is potentially as legitimate and important as knowledge from elsewhere. Through group-based learning within the classroom, students learn the importance of persuasion, reflection, and collaboration. Network-based learning across classroom walls - for example, analyzing data for a social-service agency - dramatically expands the scope of enquiry. Perhaps most importantly, the joint call for real-time creation of knowledge and knowledge creation for the common good lets students know that what they learn now can matter for others, now.
I have found that that open-source approach is consistent with three aspects of a successful 21st-century classroom: developing students' awareness of their own agency (what William James calls "the ability of a person to structure and make sense of her life experience"); assigning challenging content (for example, analyzing the interrelated determinants of poverty); and using the power of networks in this digital age (our students, masters of the world of Facebook and Kiva.org, need little nudging here!) Ultimately, to challenge students with the open-source approach is to ask students about their own role in effecting social change. And critically, doing so can lead to the self-discovery that is the very core of the educational experience. As Ron Nahser, a scholar of pragmatism puts it: "Through inquiry, you find what you do believe, your values and vision."
Given the traditions behind the liberal arts model, it is not difficult to take on this call for open-source, pragmatic inquiry. In his recent Save the World on Your Own Time, Stanley Fish writes that the professor's job is to: (1) introduce students to equip bodies of knowledge and traditions of inquiry that had not previously been part of their experiences; and (2) equip those same students with the analytical skills - of argument, statistical modeling, laboratory procedure - that will enable them to move confidently within these traditions and to engage independent research after a course is over.
I believe that the first part of Fish's formula is paramount. Indeed, users of the open-source approach can flounder (at times I have) without it. To eschew analysis, to jump right into "problem-solving" dilutes what students learn and sells them short. Above all, higher education needs rigor.
But (rigorous) open-source learning calls for a modification of Fish's final phrase: it should read "and to lead collaborative research while a course is underway." The end result of matching Fish's call for comprehensive rigor with pragmatic, meaningful inquiry? The opportunity to achieve, in this challenging new century, John Dewey's ideal: education as "the fundamental method of social progress and reform."
My confidence about this approach is not solely based on my own experiences in the classroom. It also comes from the outcomes of many comparable experiences on campuses nationwide. For example, scholars at MIT and Berkeley have successfully guided students in the design of clean-energy solutions. Here at Middlebury, open-source learning can help Middlebury students to prepare for a life of meaning in a challenging new century.
JON ISHAM is the Luce Professor of Environmental Economics
(11/17/05 12:00am)
In response to fossil fuel pollution, rising oil prices and complaints about building temperatures, we, a subset of the Sunday Night Group, have formed The 2 Degree Campaign as a student/staff-run effort to raise awareness on heating issues in the dorms and to lower the overall temperature of campus buildings. This sounds easy enough - all we have to do is turn down the heating dial, sit back and let the room cool off. But, it's more difficult than this because …wait, it's not difficult.
Turning down a heater is possibly the easiest way to contribute to lowering Middlebury's energy consumption. It's very simple to understand, the hotter our rooms are, the more oil we use to run the campus heating boilers which then launch more pollutants into the air. In addition, less heat saves dollars. Fifty thousand dollars!
Oil is expensive, which means that a two-degree heat reduction of all campus buildings can save the College a significant amount of money.
Think about $50,000; now, think about how many McCullough dance parties, kegs of "Natty Light", financial aid scholarships or Proctor panini grilles this amount of money could fund? A bunch. What does two degrees mean to you?
While you are musing over all of the environmental benefits and many other great things that a two degree reduction would entail, there are actions you can take to help this initiative:
First and foremost, turn down dorm room heaters!
The room might feel a little bit colder, so throw on your favorite birthday/holiday sweater, find a friend to cuddle with, or do 20 push ups for a study break.
Talk to your class Student Government Association representatives and other professors/students/staff about heating issues.
Report broken or malfunctioning heaters to your CRA or RA.
Tell your neighbors to do the same and start a sweater knitting/wearing club!
Take part in the Heating Awareness Week.
Our goal to have a minimal impact on our environment and lower the College heating budget can only be accomplished through extensive student, staff and faculty participation. Throughout this week there will be tables, posters, raffles, educational materials and eccentric 2 Degree Campaign volunteers helping Middlebury become more aware of the heating issues on campus and offering solutions to these problems. Be part of the reason Middlebury College is known as one of the most environmentally friendly campuses in the nation; turn down your heater and support the 2 Degree Campaign.
Written by EVAN WILLIAMS '08
(10/31/01 12:00am)
I would like to express my deepest apologies for my actions at the halftime intermission at the Middlebury football game Saturday. These actions not only hurt my integrity but that of the school as well, both of which I hold in the highest regard. I'm sure the entire College community, alumni, families and those rooting for Trinity wanted to make the Homecoming Weekend a memorable experience, and I apologize again for infringing upon the enjoyment that the special event annually offers to everybody.
Before this weekend's occurrences, I had always thought of honor as just a signature on a test or not lying. But now it means more to me. One's honor and character are influenced by every physical, mental and verbal action that they make. Honor is more difficult to obtain than lose.
I am also disappointed that my actions took away from the excitement of victory for many of my closest friends, who are members of the football team. I am sorry for the inconvenience that I have caused those parents who have to explain my actions to their children. In a performance by a student, everyone in attendance deserved better. If I could take back my actions, I would, but I can't now. All I can do is learn from this experience and express to you how seriously and truthfully sorry I am.
Written by DONALD RAY ANSELMI II '04
(10/31/01 12:00am)
In response to the embarrassing half time show over Homecoming Weekend, I would first like to apologize, on behalf of Alpha Delta Phi (ADP) and as the Inter-House Council (IHC) representative to the administration and the Middlebury community, for any offenses taken.
There have been many questions and fears by members of my constituency concerning the presence of social houses on campus and to what extent they will be threatened by the incident during Saturday's game. First off, I would like to respond to this question by reassuring the social house community that we are not at odds with the administration to the same extent that we have been in the past. We at ADP would like to applaud Karen Guttentag, assistant dean of student affairs, as being very reasonable and for providing a very friendly avenue for discussion and negotiation. In the past under other administrators, pledge violations resulted in definite suspension, whereas now there is more room for negotiation.
As of today, pledge has been suspended for all houses for two days until further decisions are made. I would also like to address this policy where all social houses are penalized as the result of one party's use of poor judgment. Because of a blunder by ADP, every social house has been forced to suspend their pledge, which can be seen as debilitating considering the short time over which pledge can take place. It is my opinion that punishment only be applied to those who deserve to be punished and not to the whole system.
Then who should the administration punish? Should it be ADP for allowing its pledges to display offensive behavior or should they punish the very member who committed "the crime?" But before evaluating necessarily who should be punished, why don't we first review the nature of the crime. So showing his backside was offensive, right? But was it premeditated and malicious? My answer to these questions is no. Donald Anselmi's display at the football game was a random act committed for the purpose of compensating for what he interpreted as being a "sucky halftime show." It was a last minute decision, and although he exercised poor judgment, it was not malicious or pre-meditated. Having said this, I can then move to evaluate the culpability of those involved. While I do think some form of disciplinary action should be taken whether by the administration or by ADP, it should not be severe. First off, why should ADP who was not cognizant of the half time show repertoire be punished for something it could not control? And why should Donald "burn" for something he saw as non-malicious? While everyone is open to different interpretation, I feel that Mr. Anselmi is truly sorry. If any action be taken, social houses, particularly ADP, should facilitate better communication between the membership and the pledges over what is acceptable in public and what is not.
I would also like to address other issues that may be threatening to social houses. First off, I would like to discuss Director of Center for Campus Activities and Leadership Doug Adams's suggestion that pledges not attend the parties of the social houses they are pledging and condemn this suggestion as counterproductive and threatening to the social house system in general. It has been explained to me indirectly that Mr. Adams's rationale for this suggestion is based on his fear that pledges, if at parties with members, will partake in drinking, thus breaking the dry pledge ordinance. While ADP, myself and many other members of the IHC community completely support dry pledge, we see this suggestion that pledges not attend parties as a major divide between the memberships and its prospective members. This policy works to undermine the solidarity that is home to all social houses at Middlebury and threatens the very base on which the social house system stands.
Personally, I stand behind pledge as an institution, and I see it as a very important bridge between students. As IHC Senator, I will do all that is in my power to preserve the good standing of social houses on this campus and to facilitate a friendly and open relationship between the administration and the social houses.
Written by IHC Representative and ADP Member ANNE ALFANO