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(11/21/13 1:57am)
To the Editors of the Middlebury Campus,
We would like to offer some comments and clarification on the article entitled “Reading and Ranking: Shaping the Class of 2018” in the November 14, 2013 issue of the Middlebury Campus.
First, thank you for spending time with the Admissions Office to shed some light on a process that is often perceived at best as “opaque,” and at worst downright frustrating. All of us, undergrads and graduates alike, have gone through the college admissions process, and all of us at one point have wondered what goes on behind the scenes to select the next new class of Middlebury students.
With that said, we wanted to support and make some clarifying comments on your article about the Admissions process and how applicants are considered. While the article quotes Manuel Carballo, Director of Admissions, as saying, “we aren’t interviewing students or having conversations with them”, the reality is that many applicants are still being interviewed. Last year, Middlebury’s Alumni Admissions Program (AAP) interviewed over 6,000 of the more than 9,000 undergraduate applications received by the College.
The AAP is the College’s largest alumni volunteer program with almost 2,500 active participants and over 3,800 members. The program has members across the world, in nearly every country and every state. In fact, the Admissions Office estimates that at least 50 percent of the current matriculated students of the College received an interview from an alumni or alumnae.
As alumni interviewers, we realize that our conversations only represent one aspect of an applicant’s overall profile, which also include high school transcripts, test scores, recommendations and other application materials, both objective and subjective. Our efforts, however, do make a difference as our conversations with applicants provide direct insight into the most subjective and very important “personal category” of an application, as referenced by Dean of Admissions, Greg Buckles, in your article.
As leaders of AAP, we are all proud of our work. Looking at alumni admissions programs at peer institutions, Middlebury’s AAP is often recognized as a model of the college admissions process in terms of the number of interviews completed and the quality of the reports.
As we all know, the landscape of higher education is changing rapidly and in ways that many of us do not fully comprehend. The college applicant of today is smarter, global, socially-networked and more technologically advanced than we ever thought possible. In order to make sure that Middlebury continues its tradition of attracting the best and the brightest, programs like AAP are critical to the overall process, and we are proud to know that all of the work done by the alumni/ae volunteers of the College is valuable and appreciated by the Admissions Office.
Best regards,
Ed Soh – ’94, AAP National Chair and MCAA Board Member
Wendy Russell Tracy – ’95, AAP National Chair and MCAA Board Member
Skip D’Aliso – ’78, AAP National Chair and MCAA Board Member
(11/21/13 1:52am)
8,446 miles. That is how far it is from Middlebury to Tacloban City, Philippines.
When the Earth suffers, we suffer with it, but not everyone suffers equally. Today, the Philippines is bearing much of the burden. Since our community often tends to feel apathetic towards the people and communities that are distant from us, we are fasting today not only to stand in solidarity with the Filipino people, but also because we believe that shared suffering is a path to empathy. Although fasting will not have an actual impact on the lives of the people who are suffering, it brings our attention closer to their suffering. It gives us a feeling which we cannot simply forget about: every time we feel a pang of hunger we are reminded of people living with this condition but are without much hope of relief. Fasting is a way to at least incorporate a very small part of their struggle into our lives, helping to bridge the geographic gap between us.
Our idea of fasting for climate justice came from the Filipino delegate to the UN climate talk, Mr. Yeb Saño. He is fasting for the whole length of the current conference “until meaningful outcome is in sight”. This is the second time in a row where he has addressed the international community at the annual climate talk after a disastrous storm had struck his country. At present, youth groups attending the conference in Warsaw, as well as many people around the world and other Middlebury students, are also fasting.
If this storm had happened in a wealthier area, the damages done to human lives may not have been so great. An IPCC report from 2011 shows that 95 percent of the deaths resulting from “extreme climate disasters” are in developing countries. The reason why this figure is so skewed towards people in developing countries is because they are less adequately prepared for coping with climate disasters than developed countries. Rapid population growth and urbanization produce clusters of poorly constructed houses in cities in developing countries that are extremely vulnerable to even smaller-scale climate events, let alone “extreme climate disasters.”
At the end of the day, we still know that we will have food available for us to eat. But as climate change becomes an increasingly significant problem, and stronger and more frequent storms become the new climate norm, more and more people will not have that food security. What should we do in order to be able to relate to them on a deeper, more personal level? Fasting is a good first step, because it draws our attention to what they are going through and keeps them in our thoughts. It helps to bring us closer to the reality of the words and images that we hear and see on news reports. But it will not relieve the suffering in the Philippines. Fighting for environmental and social justice cannot be tackled in one day, we must incorporate these ideals into our everyday thoughts and actions.
ASH BABCOCK '17 is from Deerfield, Ill., ADRIAN LEONG '16 is from Hong Kong and VIRGINIA WILTSHIRE-GORDON '16 is from Wilmette, Ill.
(11/13/13 7:05pm)
Four Fridays ago, for the first time since I’ve been a student here at Middlebury, I felt truly invisible. I don’t mean that my presence caused some trickery of the eye triggering an inability to see, but rather that something about me caused people not to acknowledge my presence. I wasn’t a student to be spoken to, an active member of a living and breathing community but something else. Something other.
Dozens of people looked past, or rather, looked through me. Whether it was my station, my skin tone or my mannerisms that caused such a reaction I can’t say I know for sure. My guess would be that it was some combination of the three.
My job was simple: I was to hand out programs for a reception, smile politely and say “welcome”, “enjoy”, “congratulations” and to those who said thank you, “you’re welcome.” I was to be friendly, receptive and respectful. My assumption was that the attendees’ responsibility was the same.
As I smiled and reached out a hand to all those who entered, I quickly realized a trend. Those who knew me responded with a smile, eye contact and occasionally even some small talk. Many of those who didn’t know me grabbed a program swiftly, avoided any eye contact or conversation and kept moving. Being that this was Fall Family Weekend, several of the attendees were not students, but family members. Their recurring reluctance to make eye contact or smile made me wonder if they knew I was working as a student-employee or simply the latter. It was an awkward scenario, one in which I wasn’t sure whether to take their reaction personally or merely to brush it off as people’s shyness when talking to strangers. It was altogether an unnerving experience.
The internal confusion and conflict over feeling disrespected while also assuming best intentions is one that takes place in the conscience of many students on our campus in multiple day-to-day situations. It is most certainly not something that is just unique to our school environment, but it sure as hell hurts just the same.
I say that this was my first time feeling truly invisible because most of the time, I feel quite the opposite. I am always aware of my physical presence: 6’3” with a cap, glasses, a hoodie or sweater, headphones in my ears and jeans often sagged just a tad. I’m a New Yorker. I’m used to being profiled. I’ve been told more often by police officers to open my bag and my arms than I’ve been told “good morning.” I somehow was naïve enough to believe that this kind of treatment was particular to areas in which crime was a concern.
It’s hard to write this. Professor Bill Hart put it best. While on the Middentity panel on intersectionality of identity last Friday, he tried his best to explain a recent incident in which a pharmacist gave him trouble over a simple prescription. His very educated guess was that he was assumed to have ulterior motives for the prescription he was getting filled. He poignantly stated that he couldn’t prove factually that this was the intent of the pharmacist but that he was pretty sure this was a very clear case of racism.
That statement rings true. There is rarely an incident that is cut and dry. When a stranger asks me on a drunken Halloween night if I am a basketball player though my “costume” would consist of a New York Yankees cap, a blue sweater, jeans and Adidas shell-tops, I brush it off as their attempt to make conversation. Then when he asks my girlfriend if she is a basketball wife, assuming automatically that she couldn’t possibly be dressed as an athlete, the internal mixture of emotions starts to bubble. It’s sadness, anger, confusion and hardest of all, self-doubt, all creating a horrible concoction. It’s the feeling that follows students every day, adding to the time it takes to do assignments, to get to class, to fall asleep at night.
Our response to the hyper visibility is to try our hardest to blend in. So many of my close friends have told me repeatedly to take off the hat at formal settings, to pull up my pants that extra bit so I don’t give us a bad name. I brush them off, sometimes I comply, but all the while I keep in mind that these are the same people who are against slut-shaming or any sort of action condemning individuals simply for how they dress. Wearing outfits more typical of New England institutions of higher learning to fit this culture of compliance is no different. We play with politics of respectability, hoping — praying in some cases — that if we change the way we dress, if we speak with less urban vernacular, if we just do what is expected of us now that we’re here, maybe, just maybe they’ll think better of us. Maybe we’ll stop being told that we need a semester or two to “catch up” because we went to a New York City public high school. Maybe we’ll stop being asked if we’re a basketball player for Halloween, or any other day of the year for that matter. Maybe they’ll make eye contact and smile when we hand out a program. Maybe, if we do as we ought to, we’ll be viewed as intellectual, artistic and beautiful.
Escaping the hyper visibility is scary. Politics of respectability get you nowhere because you can’t take off your skin. You can’t take off the fear in someone’s eyes when you’re the only two students walking towards each other late at night on campus. You try so hard to justify. You make more excuses for the small disappointing judgments and behaviors than you make study sheets for class. You have to. It doesn’t happen here. It only happens out there where Jonathon Ferrell is killed because he is perceived to be breaking in when in actuality he is knocking on doors for help because he’s just been in a car accident. It only happens out there where the same exact thing happens again a month or so later to Renisha McBride. Should they have changed their outfits, their mannerisms? God forbid they were wearing hoodies.
I know I’m supposed to offer solutions. I’m supposed to end on a positive note of constructive thought and notes for discussion. I’m not so sure I know how to do that right now. I’ve been to countless meetings, forums and panels. I’m not sure the preaching to the choir that occurs during these get-togethers is reaching the entire campus at large. I certainly have not seen President Liebowitz at the CCSRE or at cultural org. discussions during my almost three semesters on campus now. His attendance as well as the attendance of several faculty members who haven’t already attended a meeting and the ensuing exchange of insight might be a start.
I was in a button-down, khakis and black dress shoes four Fridays ago. No hat, no sag, New Yawk accent turned down. I was in Alexander Twilight Hall, so named for the first Black graduate from Middlebury College. We talk about him a lot. We take a lot of pride in the brother. Ironic considering it wasn’t known that he was Black until after he graduated. He was invisible his entire time here. Martin Henry Freeman on the other hand was the first known Black graduate of Middlebury College, was Salutatorian here and also went on to be the first Black president of a college. His narrative has been made all but invisible in our campus’ history. I can only hope that mine doesn’t.
DEBANJAN ROYCHOUDHURY ’16 is from New York, N.Y.
(11/13/13 7:02pm)
As we approach a month since the troubling and startling suicide of 16-year-old Olivia Scott of Bristol, Vt., the newspapers, media and other news outlets are noticeably absent of any content related to teen suicide, bullying or harassment. This is a common pattern after tragic events such as this occur. While I am in no way critiquing the news system — I understand the news reports on current events and controversies and does not provide much opportunity for reflection on past situations — I still believe that certain subjects should not simply make headlines and then be cast aside. When one considers the prevalence of stories about teen bullying and suicide — according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, teen suicide leads to nearly 4,500 deaths per year, about half attributed to bullying — it is evident that this is an issue that can no longer remain muted. It is not enough for us to feel for the families and friends of victims of bullying.
Last spring after a screening of the documentary “Bully,” I found myself profoundly moved by the issue of bullying in elementary, middle and high schools. As someone who has worked extensively with adolescents in mentoring programs and in academic settings, I have witnessed the complexities of adolescence and have found it necessary to try to understand the reasons behind, and consequences of, teen bullying. Through research and exposure I have discovered various national movements that have formed and by which people are spreading awareness about this tragic problem. Yet despite these campaigns, most of which have been started by mourning parents, teenagers are still taking their lives to stop the endless taunting and hurt. This has forced me to wonder where we are going wrong. Why are children, adolescents and young adults still being bullied to the extent that they feel their only relief comes from death?
I believe that the finger cannot be pointed at any one cause and should not be directed solely at the perpetrators — or at least the commonly understood perpetrator. For the perpetrator is not just the person or persons conducting the bullying, it is unstructured media use, absent parents or adult figures, uninterested or unobservant teachers, peer pressure, and hormones. Most significantly, it is a lack of understanding how one’s words and actions can have a strong impact on another.
Internet websites such as ask.fm, on which Olivia Scott had been bullied and taunted, or Facebook provide forums in which adolescents can interact with one another without any boundaries or worries of adult supervision. Adolescence is a time that we all experience; as (older) young adults we remember the uncertainty of friendships, romantic relationships, sexuality, self-identity, gender expectations and physical capabilities. The Internet has allowed youth to ponder these issues and questions in an anonymous manner, or in a manner that lets them present themselves how they wish to be viewed by others. It allows them to experiment with identity expression in a different way than they may in person. This can be very beneficial for many adolescents who are struggling through or simply trying to navigate these challenging, yet exciting, years. But it can have negative repercussions when Internet use is done in a way that harms others. Such a powerful tool can provide safety and support as well as act in profoundly negative ways.
So what can be done? College-aged students are the generation most recently removed from this difficult time. We were just there. We get it. We know how it feels to have friends call you fat, to not have someone to sit with at lunch, to be ridiculed for certain clothing choices. We have felt the pain of knowing each time we speak others may laugh at our speech impediments. We have experienced these things, and they have hurt. But we have made it through, and though many of us may continue to struggle with the effects of such bullying, we have found ways to cope and have found other outlets — solutions that do not result in death.
It is our responsibility as this older generation to not overlook teen bullying. More than any other generation, we can relate to the pain of it. Furthermore, we have extensive knowledge of social media and the Internet and have (hopefully) mastered appropriate usage. Now is the time for us to model that. Now is the time for us to intervene, to offer advice, to be a listening ear, a good friend.
My heart goes out to the victims of bullying and their friends and families. It also extends to those who participate in the bullying. Many times those who bully do so out of the same confusion and discomfort as those who are bullied. With an increased reliance upon, and usage of, the Internet, social media and other communication devices, today’s adolescents are at greater risk of sustained bullying that is outside the classroom walls, and no one — the bullied or the bully — escapes the added scrutiny and opportunities for bullying that the Internet provides.
We must act as a reassurance that no matter how hard it may be in the moment, it can get better — it will get better. Adolescent involvement in indiscriminate bullying — cyber or otherwise — can lead to tragedies like the death of Olivia Scott. Deaths of this nature can be avoided, and we must act together to make this happen.
ANNA STEVENS ’13.5 is from Shoreham, Vt.
(11/13/13 6:54pm)
“I love Middlebury College because it is in Vermont: everything seems to work here, I feel like I’m far away from those sad things that we see in the news!” That was one of the first things I heard from a Middlebury student, back when I was applying to the College. Indeed, on a campus that abounds with rich food and intense academic opportunities, it is easy to generalize our reality and think our surroundings are the same way.
But I want to tell another story, one that could be compatible with “the sad things we see in the news” the student referred to — except it is happening only a few miles away from our end-of-history campus. This is the story of the Mexican migrant workers in Vermont.
Back in 1994, Mexico, Canada and the U.S. implemented a trade liberalization agreement named the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Mexico approved this treaty under the promises of expanded and globalized trade that would bring more foreign direct investment, and a greater number of high paying jobs, which would increase the standard of living in the country as a whole. After almost 20 years, we see that the reality is the opposite: while the standard of living grew within historical Mexican oligarchies, the country in total suffered from severe levels of unemployment and underemployment while millions of jobs were lost and many farmers went bankrupt as heavily subsidized American products flooded Mexican markets.
A 2008 report by Agence Global stated that every hour Mexico imported $1.5 million worth of food; in that same hour, 30 farmers migrated to the U.S. This phenomenon brought many of those farmers to the United States, some to places like Vermont.
Those who managed to get here, after a risky and dangerous border crossing, integrate into Vermont’s dairy farms’ workforce. Most of these workers are undocumented and typically work 60-80 hours per week enduring extreme isolation in Vermont’s rural areas. This situation leaves the migrant community in a vulnerable position in one of the whitest and most rural states in the U.S. Workers have reported being subject to racial profiling, highly precarious living and labor environments, and are overly dependent on employers to meet their basic needs.
Some of the Migrant Workers also report facing poor living and working conditions. They mention living in improvised, insect-infested shelters that once were barns. Others mention living in trailers overcrowded with other workers. And while most of them have developed solid working relationships with their employers, some workers report having gone months without getting paid for their labor.
Could the farmers not simply give better conditions to the workers? Ironically, some of the nasty effects of globalization have also hit Vermont’s dairy farmers.
“Globalized competition has led to unstable and oddly low prices. We have seen times when the price paid to a farmer for a gallon of the milk produced was $2 lower than the actual price of production,” said Clark Hinsdale III, President of the Vermont Farm Bureau.
Indeed, with fierce, and often times unfair, competition from businesses as far away as New Zealand, many local dairy farmers have been struggling to provide for their own families. Thus, it often becomes complicated to also provide good living conditions for their employees.
And here is where I believe the student with whom I spoke before coming to Middlebury was awfully wrong. In this globalized world, there is no way poverty, poor living conditions and other issues can be limited to the places “we see in the news.” These issues happen here, now, and they deserve our attention.
I believe this issue deserves Middlebury College students’ attention. How many times do we seek places abroad to work on high-impact community projects, while there are big issues just around the corner?
Fortunately, several people in Vermont (including Middlebury students) are starting to take notice of the 1,500 Migrant Farm Workers in the state and are getting involved in their communities. Through grassroots advocacy and the effort of many workers and volunteers, the state government just approved a law that allows the migrant population to get drivers licenses without providing full documentation that could be implemented as soon as next year. This is a big victory — one that may help remedy some of the problems these people face in accessing other regions.
However, there is a lot more that we can do. The Middlebury student-run organization JUNTOS approaches this issue on many different levels: under policy and advocacy, it seeks to influence Vermont policymaking towards harmonizing and stimulating fair relationships between the Migrant Workers community, employers and the state community as a whole.
JUNTOS also has the compañeros program, in which the students reach out to local migrant workers and start friendships with them, learning from them and helping whenever possible. This way the members involved learn how to better help the community. “Who better understands what they need than they themselves?” questions Guadalupe Daniela.
Want to get involved? Get in touch!
email: juntos@middlebury.edu
phone: (832) 889-5798
MARCOS BARROZO FILHO ’17 is from Uberlandia, Brazil
(11/13/13 6:35pm)
We’ve become largely desensitized to words like ‘10,000 likely dead.’ It’s not our family, our friends. But can we stop for a minute and recognize that people have died and will continue to die, as Typhoon Haiyan razes Southeast Asia because of a storm greatly exacerbated by climate change. Though Haiyan has received significant mainstream media coverage, it’s framed to evoke pity, sadness, a sense of helplessness.
But this framing distracts from the true tragedy: our complicity. We are responsible, as people living in a country that pours the most greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and works the hardest to prevent substantive international action on climate change. Our actions are intensifying storms while those who have done the least to bring about climate change experience the deaths of their family members and the destruction of their homes.
Yeb Sano, Filipino delegate to the U.N. Climate Summit that kicked off this week said Monday morning that “disasters are never natural. They are the intersection of factors other than physical. They are the accumulation of the constant breach of economic, social, and environmental thresholds. Most of the time disasters are a result of inequity and the poorest people of the world are at greatest risk because of their vulnerability and decades of maldevelopment, which I must assert is connected to the kind of pursuit of economic growth that dominates the world; the same kind of pursuit of so-called economic growth and unsustainable consumption that has altered the climate system.”
When discussing climate change on our campus, we focus on a distant future, thinking about how we will smoothly, rationally transition off of fossil fuels. We “integrate sustainability” into our practices only when it requires no sacrifices of our quality of life. What the situation in the Philippines remind us is that while we wait for serious action to be comfortable, there are sacrifices. People are sacrificed.
People refer to divestment and the environmental movement as “radical,” but radical is watching 10,000 people die as a result of the largest storm in our history and refusing to take action. Radical is accepting such a storm as the new normal.
Moreover, it is inhumane. As residents of an exceedingly wealthy and powerful nation and as people with access to a political system that moves if we demand it, we have a responsibility to organize, to bring about a future that values a human life in the Philippines as much as a life at Middlebury College.
Climate change is truly, fundamentally terrifying. It is almost impossible to think about the reality we face and to refrain from despair, to continue getting out of bed in the morning. But we must, we must engage, because if we don’t we are going to spend our lives watching the world’s most marginalized suffer as a consequence. This we cannot do.
As Yeb Sano says, “it’s time to stop this madness.” Enough is enough.
Please join members of Divest Middlebury and Sunday Night Group Thursday, Nov. 14 at 5 p.m. outside of Mead Chapel for a candlelight vigil to remember those lost and suffering from Typhoon Haiyan.
GRETA NEUBAUER '14.5 is from Racine, W.I. and HANNAH BRISTOL '14.5 is from Falls Church, V.A.
(11/13/13 6:28pm)
For any of my readers, the next time you see me, I expect consistency in the way you approach me and others on this campus. If you are going to make an effort to greet someone once, why not make the effort to greet the person in the same manner for the other times you shall surely come across them on this very intimate campus? If not, then I presume you need to hear what I am about to say.
In the spring of my freshmen year I started playing this game. The objective of my game is to count how many grins, feigned smiles, and genuine gestures my fellow students give me by the time I get wherever I am heading. I am often more disappointed than surprised when I play this game, making me realize how much this has affected my experience here. It is quite sad that I have to play this game because it speaks to how much I question the level of genuine interactions we have with each other on this campus. I feel that sometimes, in order for me to make it through some days on this campus, I have to be a participant in the game, whether by feigning a smile or not speaking at all to avoid interaction. The question then becomes, “why?” The answer I have come up with is that most of the student body is made up of very afraid people.
Middlebury students, why do we place ourselves in our own bubbles when we are already within a larger one? The problem I see is that we are too preoccupied with what is going on in our lives to ever notice others. Or worse, we realize there is a lack of authenticity, but we make a conscious decision to live with that because we don’t want to get involved. We are so caught up in trying to make ourselves feel comfortable and accepted on campus that we end up excluding our authentic selves to flourish in this place with the people in it. When I observe the interactions of students as they walk across campus, I notice we even hide ourselves from each other in public. We time and calculate what to say by the time someone approaches us, or what direction is the best to take to have the least amount of contact. It’s a pity, but can this be changed?
As much as I am saddened by the lack of authenticity we display towards each other, I have learned that by me taking an initiative to interact with people, authentically, I have grown much more than I expected to. I know there are students on this campus who do want to make connections, but apparently students do not act on this impulse. Suddenly it becomes good enough to know you want to do better than to actually do anything that demonstrates progressive action to our thinking. We all bring such unique experiences to this campus regardless of what we may think of our own experiences. While you are here on this campus, you have a responsibility to be an active citizen in order to enrich the campus with your authentic self. By doing so, who knows, we just might learn something about how to grow with people here and once we leave here. How do we solve this? It’s easy Middlebury, just talk.
Get out of your bubbles and embrace the larger one. I am tired of seeing most of you hiding a part your identity that others would love to know and also doing yourself a disservice by not allowing yourself to be yourself. This is my challenge to you, Middlebury. Take the initiative to be authentic and surprise yourself.
CHESWAYO MPHANZA '16 is from Chicago, Ill.
(11/06/13 9:32pm)
Like many other students on this campus, I went to the Chance the Rapper over the weekend. I danced and yelled and had a great time. I even listened to him perform the controversial lyric in his performance of “Favorite Song.” And so, now that Chance has come and gone, let us assess: what has changed? Are we now a distinctly more homophobic and misogynistic community because we listened to his performance? Is the world doomed to act in accordance with whatever hip-hop artists write in their songs?
While it is very true that we would not allow a professor that advocates violence against women to teach on our campus, why is it also true that there is a need to censor an artist that comes to our campus to perform? Unlike the classroom, a concert setting does not necessarily reflect the views of the Middlebury community, and in my opinion, the more conflicting the artist is with our community ideals, the more we can potentially learn from the experience. Being able to not only understand but also to make a judgment about other people’s opinions is a crucial skill that we do not see enough of in this world.
The opinion that rappers should be held more accountable for their lyrics is, conceptually, very fine and dandy. But, realistically, the blame for hip-hop’s socially irresponsible lyrics may not only rest on the shoulders of the artists. Hip-hop music is not the sole influence of our culture, and our culture is not the only thing that drives rap lyrics. It is a complicated stream of influences. When a song uses a homophobic or racial slur, we cannot always simply chalk it up to “oh, this rapper is ignorant.” The issue of rights for same-sex partnerships, however, is one that is quite prevalent in our society, so it makes sense that we are hypersensitive to any reference to it.
But why, for example, do we make such a fuss over a single word in one of Chance’s songs when in another one of his songs he raps “Killin in the hood like Trayvon?” To the average listener it may seem like Chance is trivializing the random murder of an innocent teenage boy. How come this lyric was not the angle of attack in the anti-Chance assault? This selective activism against social injustice does not comply with the good-hearted motives of Middlebury’s accepting community. Usually, music does not matter, until it does, and when it does, it somehow becomes the most important thing in the world. We should pay attention to what our music is saying because it may be what everyone else is thinking. The next time we have the privilege of having any artist come to our campus, we should hold our tongues and understand what he or she is saying before we condemn him or her. Learning to understand the cultural differences between our bubble in Addison County and any place outside this bubble is crucial in adjusting to “the real world” once we all leave here.
LUCAS AVIDAN ’15 is from Harrison, N.Y.
(11/06/13 9:25pm)
Part of our fascination with innovative people is the almost palpable buzz of potential that surrounds them. Every insight that slips out is valuable in and of itself, but each nugget of wisdom’s true value is as a clue to the thought process that shaped it.
These bright people have diverse identities, experiences, and intentions, but are unified by their ability to perceive where and how society is malleable. Many are relentless in pursuit of their goal. Many are also outsiders in one way or another.
One’s vision of a better world should not be misinterpreted as a rejection of the society around them, but instead a rejection of passive indifference. Visionaries disrupt the silent acquiescence of the majority, whether it be through a disruptive innovation, an incremental remedy for structural global injustice, or a new way of perceiving some element of the world.
Imagining a better world leaves one, by definition, constantly dissatisfied, but that is an insufficient justification not to do so. Unwillingness to accept the status quo as static may be irritating to those striving for blissful ignorance, but is a vital driver behind the development of society and its gradual arc towards justice.
Truly great entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs, policy makers and doctors, teachers and writers all rise above both expectations and conventional knowledge to reimagine a small piece of the world around them.
Research, when thoughtfully conducted and applied, can drive fissures in conventional notions wide enough for innovation to flourish.
Rethinking our own assumptions, biases and preconceived notions can make us more aware of the non-obvious, but widespread, societal deficiencies that offer opportunities for positive change.
Rebuilding society requires embracing risk, diligent commitment to execution, the convergence of imagination and a nuanced understanding of constraints and tradeoffs.
Our collective future is uncertain but malleable. If we are to achieve a world that is connected, cohesive and fair, the responsibility to fix that which is broken or tweak that which is flawed falls on each of us. Whether through social enterprise, a for-profit business model, activism or something else entirely, creative solutions of all kinds drive societal progress.
That’s what TEDxMiddlebury is about: it’s a forum for the exchange of ideas worth sharing. Our board has curated an event that touches on all aspects of the creative process, from investigating the topic, formulating an idea, to executing that idea. From urban farming to vertical farming, rural non-profits to seeking a better understanding of how empathy works, it’s our ability to Research, Rethink, and Rebuild small aspects of our world that will define our generation.
For future attendees, this Saturday, Nov. 9, eleven insightful speakers will challenge our assumptions, offer perspectives of how our world works, and offer visions of change in condensed 18-minute talks. Tickets are still on sale. The TEDxMiddlebury board looks forward to sharing it with you.
Warmly,
The TEDxMiddlebury Board
(11/06/13 8:31pm)
During one of my first weeks in college, I did what every self-respecting Middlebury freshman did: I signed up for every and any club I thought I might find even remotely interesting. Although I naturally cut most of the clubs off my list, one standout was Socially Responsible Investing Club.
The club looks to invest Middlebury’s endowment in more sustainable companies — not just for idealistic reasons but because the SRI argues it is more financially stable as well as socially responsible. One subgroup of the club concerns itself with ESG criteria, that is, the Environmental, Social, and Governance criteria that would classify a company as sustainable. Since Middlebury College has recently pledged to substantially increase the part of its endowment that is invested sustainably, the dominant question at SRI meetings has become: what does it mean for a company to be sustainable and whom can we invest in? ESG criteria seek to define this question more concretely.
At Middlebury, it seems everyone wants to see our investments line up with our values. But, judging on how difficult fossil fuel divestment appears to be for the administration, it is unlikely that Middlebury, a business itself which needs to turn a profit, can pull out industry by industry according to what we deem in-line with our values. ESG criteria can be a practical tool for our investors to use as they assess future investments not only their sustainability, but also their profitability. The SRI will be conducting a survey this week to ask students which of the ESG criteria they value most highly in Middlebury’s investments so that future investments can be more in-line with community values.
The first criterion is environmental. Many people think that while being environmentally conscious is a positive, it does not actually affect a business directly. Often, however, environmentally conscious companies employ business strategies that will be more effective in a long-term perspective.
In order to understand how environmental factors affect businesses, I have used two principles we have been studying in my Intro to Macroeconomics class. The first is that to most companies pollution is an externality, and, although pollution is an inefficiency (in that it damages the environment thus spoiling resources), it may not affect the company directly so the company has no reason to factor it in to their operations. Governments, however, can internalize pollution by implementing carbon taxes, environmental regulations, and fines for excessive pollution. As governments begin to employ these tactics, environmental sustainability starts to have a direct impact on profits.
The second principle is that markets are directly affected by expectations and opinions. With more public awareness of global warming in social media, and journalists calling out companies left and right for negative environmental impacts, businesses’ environmental performance is already directly affecting their profits. In an article written by Dinah Koehler in the Deloitte Review, she asserts that negative environmental news concerning any given company has resulted in an average of a 1.12 percent decline in stock returns over the past decade, whereas positive environmental news has resulted in an average 0.84 percent increase.
Because they are easier to quantify, environmental factors are often the main focus of ESG. However, Social and Governance issues also have profound impacts. The social element consists of equal rights employment and human rights issues. In her article, Koehler also claims that human rights issues in the form of boycotts, protests, or simply a bad public reputation “have triggered an average $892 million drop in market value.” While non-publicized social practices cannot be directly linked to profit, for Middlebury’s purposes it is still important. Middlebury markets itself as a forward-thinking, environmentally aware, international school; for it to invest without consideration of the effect its money is having on the world would be hypocritical.
Governance has also proven to be correlated with good financial results. Treating workers well with preventative safety measures and quality management can lead to better crisis control and publicity, both of which leading to more reliable profits. A more stable company is less likely to go under after a crisis, making it a safer investment.
Middlebury cannot just leave its money sitting around. It is a business, and, like any business, it must invest its endowment so that it can earn money and continue to operate. That is why ESG is such an ideal tool for Middlebury investors to use. It provides the opportunity to assess sustainable and profitable investments that are also in-line with our community values. The survey will play the critical role of letting the administration know where students stand. It can be found at the go/ESGsurvey.
EDWARD O’BRIEN ’17 is from Lincoln, M.A.
(10/30/13 5:58pm)
A friend on the MCAB Concert Committee wrote to me after middbeat had posted my email, “I love to mess around as much as you do, but saying ‘let’s get these fascists’ doesn’t really allow for an honest discourse that could make the entire process better, rather than immediately trying to make people defensive.”
First of all, no, my friend from MCAB, you do not love to mess around as much as I do. Secondly, making people defensive is in fact the only way this “New Deal” (the term future historians will use to refer to the movement of Chance to Nelson) got made. The Concert Committee — I won’t generalize by calling them MCAB; I got no beef with the rest of that organization — only cared about this situation after the brave folks at middbeat put them on the defensive.
And they were right to be defensive — only advertising the ticket sale date on Facebook was irresponsible and selfish. 53 of my friends on Facebook “like” MCAB. About half of those friends have graduated from this institution. I would really hope those recent alums have better things to do with their time than tell me about seeing the one post the Committee made about the sale date of the Chance tickets. Other friends who “like” MCAB on Facebook include my ex-girlfriend and Public Safety Officer Christopher Thompson. I’m afraid I don’t talk to either of them as much as I should.
I was never going to find out about the Chance tickets from Facebook. I am not alone in that realization. The MCAB Concert Committee’s idea of “honest discourse” was a curt, dismissive, condescending email to a single student who criticized them. They were defensive from jump street. The Committee got Lawrence Taylor-level defensive when middbeat proved that their inaction pissed off more than a single super senior Feb who happens to be taking the Creative Process and has a lot of time on his hands.
The Committee had a problem: due to the show’s placement in McCullough, there were not a ton of tickets. Their solution was to sweep it under the rug by only advertising on Facebook. That wasn’t the action of people who cared about students seeing this show.
The Committee suggested I use “proactivity” next time around. That was right after admitting that they chose to only advertise on Facebook. I hope the anonymous meanie-face who wrote the email — I learned recently it was not written or even approved by the entire Committee — is not an English major, because that is some ass-chapping irony.
Proactivity would have been to advertise the hell out of the sale date (posters, emails, announcements on WRMC), and then to help kids get tickets. To avoid the box-office website overloading, encourage students to line up outside McCullough the morning the tickets went on sale. Hand out hot cocoa. Make a whole thing out of it. The Concert Committee scored huge in getting Chance to come to Middlebury. Then they copped out. They didn’t wait through the 30 seconds of silence in “Pusha Man” to get to “Paranoia;” they just skipped to the next track.
Why did they do this? I’ve noticed a tendency in my peers towards passive aggression. It’s understandable — we all have to live together, so we avoid conflict at all costs. The Concert Committee exemplified this behavior at every turn. We can’t have that in our leaders. Stepping on toes is an unintended consequence of progress. You should be able to get over the pain of a stubbed toe quickly. When that happens, you can get to work resolving the conflict. I’m not sure if the Concert Committee shrugged off their boo-boo to help overcome the ticket situation. In my eyes, we got the concert moved to Nelson because of an incredible effort by JJ Boggs.
For those not familiar with Ms. Boggs, she is the Dean of Students for Student Activities & Orientation. To begin with, you’ve got to be a saint to work orientation every year. What’s more stressful than trying to convince hundreds of terrified/horny 18-year olds that they will feel at home for the next four years of their lives? JJ is able to make us comfortable during orientation because she knows she will never stop working to make this place our home. That home happens to have semiannual rap concerts.
Hopefully this ordeal will open up a greater degree of transparency and communication between MCAB and the students it represents. Were that to happen, we could get to the bigger issue, which is, of course, people cheating at Grille Trivia Night. That needs to stop. You’re seriously ruining it for everyone.
ADAM BENAY '13.5 is from Fairfax, V.T.
(10/30/13 5:53pm)
Dear Editor,
I write in response to Zach Drennen’s recent ill-informed and unfortunate column, “End the Feb Program,” with the following points.
1) Mr. Drennen’s assertion that the College “only reports the diversity statistics of fall admits” is simply untrue. All the information on class statistics we provide on our website, in our publications, and to prospective families during information sessions, fairs, and school visits includes the entire first year class for both September and February. The only exception is the federal report for IPEDS, the U.S. Department of Education’s annual data collection program. That program mandates that we report statistics each fall for enrollment as of a specific October date. Our data on the entire student body always includes the previous year’s February matriculates, but it may not include the upcoming Febs, according to those federal regulations.
2) Mr. Drennen is correct that the enrollment origins of the Feb program no longer make much sense, which is why that is no longer the reason we have it. Today’s generation of college-bound students are much more interested in seeking non-linear routes through their education, hence the increasing interest in gap years, the Feb program, internships, and other experiential forms of learning. Middlebury has been a leader in encouraging those paths, and the Feb program is a reflection of that school of thought.
3) Any sense of inferiority one might have as a Feb would seem to be strictly self-induced. The average academic ratings, test scores, and selectivity for Feb’s is virtually identical to Septembers, and, in some categories, has actually been higher than that of fall first-years. Our current Strategic Plan calls for Feb admission to be voluntary, and now typically 95 percent of the annual class is so. We do not admit any candidates for Early Decision unless they indicate they are willing to be considered for a Feb start, and the same holds true for the vast majority of regular decision applicants, who would ordinarily have multiple options, in order to ensure no student would enroll as a Feb against his or her wishes.
4) I regret that Mr. Drennen would resort to using a three and a half year-old quote from my predecessor in a previous Campus article to bolster any claims he is making. I respect the work of Campus journalists and have a strong track record of transparency and cooperation with them. My direct contact information is readily available to any Middlebury student. We have, and will continue, to work very hard to shape the annual Feb class in a more diverse manner; no student would be directed away from Feb consideration based on race, culture or socioeconomic background.
Like any top college or university, Middlebury is an appropriately self-critical institution; we have plenty of room for improvement and there are crucial areas in need of continued pointed assessment. Tilting at February windmills is not one of them.
Respectfully,
Greg Buckles
Dean of Admissions
(10/17/13 4:03am)
Dear President Liebowitz, the College administration, and the Board of Trustees,
Thank you for your transparency in your statement regarding divestment and the Board’s internal processes and preliminary proposals. We appreciate the time you have dedicated and your willingness to collaborate with us as we work to divest our endowment of fossil fuels. While an increased commitment to socially responsible investment principles is a step in the right direction, it is not the end of this debate.
Liebowitz claimed that a number of critical questions regarding the College’s decision on divestment remain unanswered and asked whether divestment would have a practical impact. Past divestment campaigns targeting the apartheid regime in South Africa and the tobacco industry helped to stigmatize powerful forces wielding undue influence against the public good. In the 21st century, divestment provides an opportunity to remove the social and political license that allows the fossil energy industry to profit by passing on the costs of its pollution to future generations.
Liebowitz also asks if divestment is the most effective way to address reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This should not impact our decision. The fight against global climate change will require massive shifts in the economy, personal habits and public policy. Divestment is one tactic among many that will hasten this shift.
What impact would divestment have on our returns? Growing evidence suggests that the impact, if any, will be positive. Impax Asset management determined that a portfolio that excluded fossil energy stocks would have outperformed the MSCI world index by an annual rate of 50 basis points over the last five to seven years. Even compared with an “active” investment strategy, a portfolio that excluded fossil fuel stocks in favor of renewable energy and energy efficiency equity would perform 41 basis points greater each year. The five largest oil companies delivered returns of 1.8 percent over the past year compared with the S&P 500’s 16 percent. Although Investure outperformed this index, it seems improbable that a significant part of that performance comes from the small portion of the endowment invested in the 200 largest fossil energy companies. The Financial Times reported last month that for the industry, “costs were up and returns were down – even with oil prices at more than $100 a barrel.” Goldman Sachs released a statement warning that the “window for profitable investment in coal mining is closing” while according to Deutsche Bank, “for big oil companies, the writing is on the wall. Shrink and liquidate over the coming five years, before it is too late.” If fossil energy stocks underperform the market at the peak of their profitability, how can we expect them to perform as the world transitions to renewable energy sources?
We recognize the complications posed by the co-mingling of our funds through Investure. But divestment is possible without severing this relationship. Active divestment campaigns exist at four of the six educational institutions managed by Investure, and five of its other clients have missions that contain explicit environmental or social justice commitments. If Investure is unwilling to serve its clients by allowing them to divest, we must ask ourselves whether we can consider an endowment over which we have so little say to be responsibly managed.
In response to Liebowitz’s final question regarding the potential for future calls for divestment from other industries, we challenge the administration to find an industry that operates in such direct contradiction to the mission and work of the College. Environmental stewardship is one of the college’s most explicitly stated and practiced tenants. The College’s mission statement includes a clear commitment to integrate “environmental stewardship into both our curriculum and our practices on campus.” The management of our endowment is integral to everything we do on campus, and its impact reaches far beyond the Green Mountains.
Middlebury has long been at the forefront of institutional sustainability, even before programs like recycling and composting were fashionable. The College has made bold commitments like carbon neutrality because it knows these kinds of steps are the only way to truly mitigate the worst effects of climate change. This innovation has attracted many students to Middlebury. We are proud to be members of a community that has been a leader in environmentalism, from the first environmental studies program in 1965 to the founding of 350.org in 2007. We cannot turn our backs on this legacy.
We ask the President, administration and Board of Trustees to continue exploring pathways to divest. We hope to keep working with the administration towards a community whose finances no longer contradict our mission of “integrating environmental stewardship into our curriculum and our practices on campus.” Martin Luther King Jr. wrote that “in this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late.” As people continue to suffer from environmental injustice and the climate crisis grows more dire, we cannot afford to ignore reality. We cannot afford to be late. We must be early. We must push ourselves and our peers to take further action, even when the path presented is not the most convenient.
In short, we must lead. Middlebury has embraced this challenge in the past, and we must continue to work for a sustainable planet.
Submitted by DIVEST MIDDLEBURY
(10/17/13 3:55am)
Trigger Warning: References to sexual assault.
It’s the green issue – hip hip hooray!
For so long have we waited for this very day!
A day to discuss the power of Green!
‘Cause Green runs our school, you know what we mean?
It takes Green money to keep this place sterile and clean –
We should be grateful for all our school’s Green!
Green gives us comfort and safety and joy –
Lets us run through Green fields and play with Green toys!
But what happens when something’s not right,
When a once-smiley student cries her way home at night?
(What’s a Midd kid to do, when he hears the word ‘no’
When he knows the strength of the Green hills is His also?)
She talks to her friends, to the appropriate deans,
She’s told to stop drinking, to not make a scene.
Some offer support and try to fight for her case,
But their efforts prove futile with this system in place.
No one would take action, how could this be?
She thought Green was comfort, was home, was safety!
Where is she now? We don’t pretend to know -—
Living back home, in your class in Munroe?
Or perhaps she is writing this poem today
To tell her Green school in the cleverest way:
We know that Green is the reason assault is hush-hush,
Can’t tell the public – donations are a must!
But education means s--- if students aren’t safe,
It’s for students not donors that we run this place.
We may be carbon neutral by 2016
But nothing will change ‘till we stand up to Green.
Oh and one last point that we cannot escape:
It is easy being Green. It’s not easy being raped.
(10/17/13 3:53am)
To the Middlebury Community,
On Friday midday, we, the undersigned, will gather outside of Old Chapel to greet the Middlebury College Board of Trustees as it prepares to make decisions about Middlebury’s future. We will be holding “Student Office Hours” as members of the Divest Middlebury campaign. As a community, we have a moral obligation to continue the conversation about removing fossil fuel holdings from our endowment. Our primary goal is to address the remaining concerns of Board members and communicate to them the urgency of our cause.
As students at Middlebury College, we have a stake in the decisions the Board will make on Friday. The bottom line is that divestment discussions are about more than the $970 million of our endowment; they are about the future of life on this earth. We are not willing to sacrifice the most vulnerable populations and future generations for short-term convenience.
We would like to invite members of the Middlebury community hoping to voice concerns about any issue to join us from 11-12:30 P.M. on Friday. We look forward to engaging the Board of Trustees in meaningful conversation.
Submitted by SARA BACHMAN '13.5, JEANNIE BARTLETT '15, KYLER BLODGETT '17, MAEVE GRADY '16.5, ADRIAN LEONG '16, HANNA MAHON '13.5, GRETA NEUBAUER '14.5, ELLIE NG '14, TEDDY SMYTH '15, VIRGINIA WILTSHIRE-GORDON '16
(10/09/13 4:19pm)
Editors’ Note: The following text contains vulgarity.
As both members of and allies to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer community at Middlebury, we are appalled by the homophobic letter that was written and taped on a student’s door two weeks ago. The letter included the phrases: “carpet-munching dyke,” “burn in hell,” “you say you’re gay but we know you’ve never fucked a guy... so we’re gonna fuck you till you’re straight,” concluding with the statement, “I know you want it.”
The student notified Public Safety and an investigation is under way. She also received support from their Commons Dean, Professors, and other members of the Middlebury community. However, the student expressed that other than informing Public Safety, none of the people notified knew what further actions to take. No one knew how to answer the question she had: how should students be notified of this incident, if and when she chose to share her story?
When such a violent and hateful statement is written, other members of the community deserve to know. The student divulged this incident to us out of concern for other LGBTQ students so that we may protect one another, so that perhaps others who have experienced similar threats can know that they are not alone, and so that we can engage in dialogue about the incidents of homophobia at Middlebury instead of pretending it never happens here.
As members of the LGBTQ and Middlebury communities, we firmly maintain that these words will never and should never be tolerated. However, we should not have to spread this message alone. The administration and rest of the college community must meet us halfway. For anyone who stands up against hate speech, this is an incident we all must care about and confront together.
In light of the 9/11 incident, we question which actions on this campus are condemned publicly by the administration as “conduct unbecoming of a Middlebury student,” and which are not. When hate speech is used, particularly in conjunction with threats of violence and rape, it threatens everyone. It threatens our ability to feel safe as visible members of the LGBTQ community. It threatens allies who fight against homophobia. It threatens anyone who stands against rape culture and sexual violence. No student on this campus should feel scared to walk to their room alone at night, unsafe being who they are, or that they lack support in standing up to hate speech and sexual violence.
On Monday, Dean Collado sent an all-campus email, relating that a “Middlebury student reported receiving a disturbing and threatening printed note left at the door to her residence hall room.” The email went on to remind the campus of Middlebury’s Anti-Harassment/Discrimination Policy. While Collado admonished harassment and discrimination, she did not increase awareness about the homophobic nature of the letter and sexually violent threats that were made. The email did not show that the letter was targeted toward a member Middlebury’s LGBTQ community. It also occurred a significant time lapse after the actual event, and only after the Queers and Allies Board had reached out to the administration asking why there had been no greater action taken after this incident. We write this op-ed in a hope that our administration’s commitment to condemning hate speech is greater than what has been conveyed thus far.
This incident and the gaps in communication and support that followed show the need for an LGBTQ coordinator position at Middlebury. An LGBTQ coordinator is a staff/faculty person responsible for ensuring the personal, academic, and social success of LGBTQ-identifying students, and allies. Peer institutions including Amherst, Williams, Dartmouth, Oberlin, and Wesleyan have LGBTQ coordinators.
At Middlebury, LGBTQ students may turn to the counseling center for support, but who on the administration serves to advocate for our needs? Ideally, all members of the administration would fill this role. This incident highlights the fact that this hope is not the reality. There is still no mandated Cultural Competency, Ally or Safe-Space trainings for Faculty or Res-Life Staff, and incidents of academic and social bias continue for LGBTQ-identifying students.
We must not gasp at this event as if it exists in isolation. It should not surprise us. There are, sadly, homophobic threats and graffiti that go seemingly unnoticed on campus every year: from the removal of Gaypril posters to more aggressive hate speech directed at LGBTQ members of the community. This event is part of a depressingly regular pattern. While many Middlebury students can call it a “safe space,” events like these show us that homophobia is present here. We must begin to look critically at the ugly parts of the bubble we live in and learn how to address and solve them together as students, faculty, staff, and administration. Part of being an ally to the LGBTQ community is active affirmation and inclusion, not passivity or tolerance. As a group, Q&A works towards these goals, but our resources are limited in how much campus-wide action we can take.
Where do we go from here? We are publicizing this action in the hopes that it will raise active dissent from Middlebury students, faculty and administration. We are calling on students to channel that dissent into dialogue and collaboration. On Tuesday Oct. 15 at 7 p.m. in the Carr Hall lounge, Q&A will be hosting a special debrief for students, faculty, staff, and the administration to discuss this incident, and what efforts we can take to confront homophobia and sexual violence on our campus. Furthermore, we are calling on the college community at large to take a stand and stop being silent when we hear “that’s so gay,” “pussy,” “faggot,” or a joke endorsing homophobia or rape culture. We need to discuss this incident with our peers, whether or not they themselves identify as allies or LGBTQ. We need to work not only to change the fabric of Middlebury to prevent these hateful incidents from happening, but also to acknowledge that homophobia, hate speech, and rape culture do happen here, and will not be eliminated without action from the entire community.
Submitted by KATIE LINDER ’15, RAFAEL MANYARI ’15, BEKAH MOON ’15, RACHEL PERCELAY ’14, REEM ROSENHAJ ’16.5, JEREMY STRATTON-SMITH ’17, and DAVE YEDID ’15.
(10/09/13 4:15pm)
I write to us all from Elsipogtog First Nation in New Brunswick, Canada. For the past three years, a coalition of First Nations people, French Acadians and Anglophones have been working together to keep Southwestern Energy Company (SWN), a hydraulic fracturing company, from polluting the water and land here in the search for gas and profits.
I write to connect the struggle in New Brunswick with our work in Addison County against the fracked gas pipeline, as well as Middlebury College’s investments in industries of violence and destruction. This week, I have been supporting the communities here in their goals of stopping the fracking industry in its tracks.
Over the past three days, we have blockaded a storage facility for fracking equipment, stopping SWN’s operations in the area. The space in front of the company gate has been transformed into a community area with three meals a day for the protectors of the water. People sit around the fires sharing stories, telling jokes, and singing songs. Banners fly in the fall winds, and spirits remain high as people resist for a higher purpose, protecting their sacred water.
On Oct. 1, Treaty Day in New Brunswick, the Elsipogtog First Nation Band Council issued an historic declaration at the encampment. For the first time ever for a band council, they voted to reclaim all crown lands held by the Canadian government in their unceded territory and served SWN with an eviction notice. This reasserts the Mi’kmaq People’s right to this land since time immemorial, as well as their role in protecting the land and water.
Transnational corporations have been sacrificing the health and well-being of the local communities and Mother Earth for too long. Seeing the impacts of fracking, the people here, settler and native alike, are saying “enough!”
One hundred kilometres away in Penobsquis, the fracking industry has operated unabated for almost ten years. The air stinks and people report daily headaches, dizziness, and increasing rates of cancer. When I visited the well sites, I immediately had a headache and felt sick from the chemicals in the air.
The industry and government claimed that each well would create dozens of jobs, just as in Addison County we hear the same argument surrounding the pipeline. In Penobsquis, they have found the opposite to be true. Farmers’ land has been ruined from gas wells and underground piping. Throughout the area, 66 families lost their well water, and some houses are now worthless due to proximity to the gas wells and shifting ground which caused structural problems. This is what is happening in extraction communities.
Our struggle in Addison County is connected to those in Penobsquis. All of the gas from New Brunswick is sold to the United States. In Addison County, we are about to decide on a project that would increase demand for Canadian fracked gas. Middlebury College is also making money from oil and gas companies like, or even including, SWN. These companies silence the voices of local people and brush aside their experiences.
People on the front lines are fighting hard, and our struggles to stop the expansion of fracked gas infrastructure in Addison County lends strength to their work. For those of us who have yet to be convinced to stop this pipeline, I share with you the stories of people much like ourselves who now have the daily and generational legacies of pollution destroying their livelihoods. When I asked what message they had to send to Vermont, Beth Nixon and Heather McCabe of Penobsquis said, “Stop them [the natural gas companies] at all costs. We wish they had never come here.”
Let us heed this call by stopping the gas companies at all costs, resisting side-by-side with the Elsipogtog First Nation, the people of Penobsquis, and our neighbors in Addison County to protect the lands and the waters of these places we all call home.
SAM KOPLINKA-LOEHR '13 is from Ithaca, N.Y.
(10/09/13 4:11pm)
Middlebury College prides itself as a well-established language institution that offers students with a wide array of high quality language courses. We have languages such as Arabic, Russian, and Hebrew. But can we really call ourselves a high quality language institution when we don’t offer classes for the fourth most studied foreign language in the U.S.? What is stopping us from having American Sign Language (ASL) classes?
The University of Vermont has an ASL department and offers several levels of ASL, including both grammar and culture classes. Brown, Wesleyan, Tufts, Community College of Vermont (CCV) — they all have ASL classes and we don’t. Middlebury also prides itself with having a great rapport with our local communities. What about the deaf communities in Middlebury, Burlington, and the rest of Vermont? It seems like an obvious choice to have classes here.
The ASL Course Committee, comprised of Middlebury students and faculty who are eager to get ASL to our campus, have begun a petition in order to show student interest in having an ASL course track at Middlebury. You might come across a student, perhaps in your class or in your student organization, asking for signatures. Feel free to sign the petition or to ask any questions to the people passing them around.
As someone who took the ASL J-term class, it was probably the best class I have taken at Middlebury thus far. I will be honest, the first couple of classes were a little awkward because it was a silent class; however, our professor, Alex Lynch, an ASL professor at University of Vermont who is deaf, wanted us to have our own type of “language immersion.” We quickly learned enough ASL to have great silent classes.
Learning ASL is just like the acquisition of any other language; knowing ASL is equally as valuable a skill as knowing any other language, both personally and professionally. ASL classes will also provide job openings for new professors. We already have a Language Table in Proctor, so why not classes?
Submitted by RICARDO MARTINEZ '16 and the ASL Course Committee.
(10/09/13 4:07pm)
Middlebury’s latest effort to become more bike friendly and safe includes the addition of “sharrows” stenciled on downtown streets to remind motorists that they “share the road” with cyclists when there are no or inadequate shoulders or bike lanes.
Motorists should remember that cyclists need to claim the center of the road to enter rotaries and to navigate left turns. Cyclists should utilize shoulders and bike lanes whenever possible. When not possible, cyclists have the right to use the traffic lane. Cyclists must observe the same rules of the road that cars must observe when using roads. This includes riding in the same direction with cars (not opposite them), signaling turns, and yielding to pedestrians and joggers.
The absence of shoulders along narrow Main Street means that cyclists need to decide to “share the road” with cars if they are confident riders or become pedestrians if they wish to feel safer by hopping off and walking (not riding) their bikes along sidewalks and crosswalks. The “Walk Your Bike” stencils along downtown streets are there to protect the higher volume of walkers using these sidewalks to shop and visit. Cyclists, especially young ones, may ride their bikes along sidewalks beyond downtown in Buttolph Acres and along Route 7 towards the school, but must yield to walkers and anticipate motorists at driveways.
College students must use care as they cycle downtown and bear right onto Academy Road at Twilight Hall following the direction of traffic and then left at the light onto Main Street. Cyclists should not continue riding against traffic on College Street beyond the “Do Not Enter” signs where it becomes a one way street just before the Town of Middlebury Offices and Samas.
Cyclists should ensure their visibility with bright, reflective clothing and use required headlights at night. Fines of up to $50 can be assigned for riding without lights at night or against the flow of traffic. Of course, cyclists should protect their own safety by wearing helmets, anticipating the opening of car doors, and making eye contact with motorists.
Submitted by LAURA ASERMILY, a member of the Middlebury Energy Committee.
(10/03/13 12:37am)
I have been in Brazil for a month now, but it feels like I’ve been here for almost a year. It’s uncanny how easily I adjusted to life in another country. I touched down in Rio de Janeiro, on Aug. 29, and even at the airport, I was already worried about so many things: fitting in, classes, culture shock, safety, homesickness. You name it, I probably was worried about it. But all of those emotions were normal for a foreigner going abroad somewhere with no family or place to call home.
After my first month here, I’ve realized that all of my emotions, particularly those that bordered on paranoia, were normal, but entirely unnecessary. My host family was more welcoming than I expected, and they understand my needs and interests here in Brazil and have provided me with a home away from home. I live pretty close to my university’s campus and have developed a habit of going on long walks and just taking in my surroundings.
That’s the other amazing thing about Brazil — the environment. Although not all parts of Brazil are thriving, the area near my school and host family has many beaches (one which is a five minute walk from my house, Praia da Boa Viagem) where you can sit on a bench and listen to the waves as they come crashing in or watch birds as they dive for food. As a woman with a Caribbean background, I absolutely love tropical whether (except the bugs), and being able to sit on a beach and talk about nothing of importance with friends while enjoying the sunshine is one of life’s small pleasures that has made me appreciate being in Brazil even more.
However, there have been moments when I honestly wanted to just yell at anyone and everyone due to frustration. Most of that came from dealing with the bureaucratic system here. As a foreigner, there are countless forms to be filled out and requirements to be met before the end of your first thirty days in the country. Even my international student orientation at the Federal Fluminense University (UFF) here in Niterói was unable to offer me guidance in figuring out all of the things I needed do and where I needed to go. During that process, however, I learned the top two rules about being abroad: patience is a virtue, and never be afraid to ask questions, because the worst thing that can happen is someone not being able to help you.
Adjusting to life in Brazil takes time, and assimilating while trying to combat culture shock has proven to be a challenge. Things are definitely more laid back here, “mais devagar.” Students at UFF don’t worry too much about homework and on one of my adventures to the library on campus, I realized that students really don’t actually use the library. Accepting that Thursday nights in Niterói are the equivalent of Fridays at Middlebury, or that most of the Brazilian students head straight to the movie theater on weekdays after class, took a while, but I have quickly gotten used to this laid-back ease. I haven’t, however, forgotten how different and difficult life at Middlebury can be, and my senior year will be the wake-up call equivalent to a very, very cold cup of water on the face.
So here’s to studying abroad for a year in Brazil, “que vale a pena!”
Written by SPENCER SALIBUR ’15 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.