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(05/09/19 9:58am)
After growing up in a family of educators, incoming Dean of Admissions Nicole Curvin initially avoided pursuing a career in education. But she soon changed her mind, intrigued by the vitality and constantly changing nature of higher education.
“What I realized, ultimately, is that one of the best places to have a job is on a college campus,” said Curvin, who currently serves as director of admissions. “You have an influx of energetic and excited students each year. You have faculty who are amazing at their discipline and can inform you of pretty much any topic that you’re thinking about in your life.”
Curvin will begin her new role as dean of admissions on July 1, succeeding Greg Buckles, who will leave for the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey on June 30. In the context of a national conversation regarding the ethics of higher education admissions practices, Curvin hopes to continue fair admissions processes at Middlebury, maintaining a holistic review of candidates and focusing on creating a suitable fit between the student and the campus community.
“We remain fully committed to the integrity of the admissions process and of all the pieces that go into that, whether it’s athletic recruiting or working with our legacy community,” Curvin said. “Our hope and our aim is to attract amazing students and to encourage them to consider Middlebury as an option. I will continue to be transparent in the admissions process for Middlebury, understanding that we have to say no to a large percentage of the students.”
Curvin, who began working at Middlebury in 2014, has spent much of her time at admissions focusing on access and inclusivity to the college. Curvin is involved in the selection of Posse Scholars, a program that provides full-tuition scholarships to students with academic and leadership potential who may otherwise be overlooked in the admissions process. Each year, Middlebury typically recruits about 30 students from three different cities.
Curvin emphasized that recruitment efforts extend well beyond the Posse program. Appointed coordinator of multicultural recruitment in 2017, Curvin helped develop outreach strategies, working with community groups and organizations to ensure that first-generation students, undocumented students and students of color are well-represented on campus. According to Curvin, these efforts have attracted over 2,000 applications from students of color.
As Curvin transitions into her new position, she has several objectives that she hopes to pursue along with the rest of the admissions team. Curvin hopes to establish more “touchpoints” on campus between admissions and faculty, staff and students to think about the bigger picture of college admissions at Middlebury. Another goal is to improve collaboration between Middlebury and other colleges in order to reach communities that may not have heard of Middlebury or other liberal arts institutions. Such partnerships could allow schools to exchange ideas about recruitment and financial aid practices, and help facilitate visits for prospective students to multiple schools in the same region.
“[We are] continuing to think about who the next generation of students is and what they might look like, and thinking about how the mission of the college will drive that conversation as we’re recruiting,” Curvin said.
During Curvin’s twenty years in admissions, academic advising and career counseling, she has become frustrated by the narrative that a student must make the “right” decision regarding which school to attend.
“Some students are losing sight of this idea of fit,” Curvin said. “The disappointment comes in peeling away the important parts of the conversation regarding a college choice. And in drilling this idea that there are only a few places that students can be successful or have this outcome. And to watch students think that there’s this ‘dream’ place that they need to be.”
While the admissions team has worked to put Middlebury on the map both nationally and internationally, Curvin recognizes that one barrier to a diverse student body is getting students to come to Middlebury to experience the campus culture for themselves. Most students who currently visit campus have the financial and social means of getting to Middlebury. Curvin supports expanding programs that facilitate prospective student visits to Middlebury, and that have counselors advocate for those students to learn about Middlebury’s curricular and extracurricular offerings.
“One of the ways that we can impress about students that this could be a place for them is for them to see it and experience it,” Curvin said.
This past week, Curvin has been to nearly a dozen college fairs around New York City. These recruitment trips allow Curvin to talk with students and inform them of Middlebury’s offerings, answer general questions about the college process, and encourage them to visit Middlebury’s campus in person.
“That’s another really eye-opening part of the recruitment work that we do, is that we go to so many different types of high schools,” Curvin said. “We can be in a private school with a lot of resources, or we can be in a big public school that has limited resources, but it has amazing students, and great programs. And it gives you some perspective when you come back to campus and you’re reading those applications. There are no two students who are alike, and there are no two high schools that are alike. There are hundreds of different varieties, and just trying to figure out that match is important.”
(05/02/19 10:00am)
Campus lore suggests that varsity athletes at Middlebury are socially liberal, fiscally conservative economics majors. Some stereotypes surrounding varsity athletes are rooted in truth. Zeitgeist reveals, however, that the stereotypical image of a Middlebury athlete is not indicative of athletes as a whole.
Political Views
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When comparing social and fiscal views, most students in general, varsity athletes included, reported being socially and fiscally liberal. For both student athletes and the general student body, individuals’ social and fiscal values went hand in hand
In line with conventional belief, athletes demonstrated a slightly stronger likelihood of holding socially liberal and fiscally conservative values, as evidenced by the bigger size of the dots in the upper left quadrant of the varsity athlete political spectrum graph. However, the range of political values remained mostly consistent between varsity athletes and the overall population sample.
Academics
While 16% of Zeitgeist survey participants were varsity athletes, they are represented disportionately in certain majors. Athletes made up 30% of surveyed economics majors. Additionally, 21% of all neuroscience majors and 23% of all psychology majors were varsity athletes.
Sexual Activity
Another stereotype about athletes is that they may have more sexual partners than non-athletes. Both groups of students most commonly engaged in consensual sexual activity in the last 12 months with one to three partners, with 53% of athletes and 55% of non-athletes falling into this category. However, 23% of athletes had 4-6 partners compared to 13% of non-athletes.
Financial Aid
11% of varsity athletes reported being on financial aid, while 21% of non-athletes were on financial aid. This disparity in financial-aid recipients could reflect the expenses involved in nurturing athletic talent over an athlete’s career. Varsity athletes who are playing at the Division III level likely practiced their sport via private lessons or through a traveling club, both of which can be costly ventures.
Loneliness
One in five non-athletes feel lonely once a day, while one in 10 athletes feel lonely once a day. Research has shown that there is an loneliness epidemic on college campus in today’s age of social media, especially during a student’s first year. Many athletes seem to forge strong bonds with their teammates, which could be why athletes are slightly less likely to feel lonely.
Dining Halls
General student population preferences were fairly evenly split between Proctor, Atwater and Ross Dining Halls, with 39% of the student body preferring Proctor. Varsity athletes were slightly more likely to opt to go to Atwater, which captured 39% of varsity athletes’ top choice.
(05/02/19 10:00am)
Approximately one in six women has been a victim of sexual assault on Middlebury’s campus or during a Middlebury program, according to Zeitgeist survey results. In total, 12% of respondents have been sexually assaulted. The survey reveals that female students are nearly five times more likely to be the victim of sexual assault than male students.
Furthermore, some students may be more likely to be victims of sexual assault or violence based on their sexual orientation. According to Zeitgeist, 22% of students who identified as homosexual, bisexual, or questioning reported being victims of sexual assault, more than twice as likely as the 9% of heterosexual students.
In recent years, sexual assault on college campuses has gained widespread attention across the nation. Student activists at Middlebury have used a variety of strategies to raise awareness surrounding sexual assault at Middlebury. Earlier this year, the student-run organization It Happens Here released The Map Project, a map of Middlebury’s campus that marks the location of an incidence of sexual assault or harassment with a red dot. The 2019 map, which used data collected anonymously from Middlebury students during fall of 2018, had a total of 108 red dots covering buildings of campus, with Battell and Atwater Halls being among the most reported sites.
IHH and Zeitgeist show the prevalence of sexual assault at Middlebury, but rates of official reporting remain low. Only 18 of the 144 total victims of sexual assault reported the incident.Of those who did report the incident, only 3 people reported that they were satisfied with how the college handled their case.
In order to combat campus sexual violence, the college implemented the Green Dot Violence Prevention Strategy in 2015. Green Dot is a program that trains students, faculty, and staff in bystander intervention to help prevent instances of power-based personal violence. The training, which has been included in orientation for first-years since the class of 2018.5, encourages students to be proactive in preventing sexual violence as bystanders.
Zeitgeist asked survey respondents to indicate if they had been a bystander of a “Red Dot event,” referring to suspicious instances of potential or actual sexual assault. The proportion of Red Dot bystanders increased by roughly 5% with each grade level, with 21% of seniors and senior febs having served as a bystander in a Red Dot event compared to 6% of the first-year class. The overall Red Dot bystander rate was 13.91%.
(05/02/19 9:55am)
Just minutes after Professor of Political Science Matthew Dickinson announced his decision to take a hiatus from his weekly politics luncheons, a group of students who regularly attend the lunches created a group message with the aim to continue them in his stead.
The luncheons, which occur every Tuesday in the Robert A. Jones ’59 House, serve as public forums for discussing recent political events in the United States that may also connect to the Middlebury community. Middlebury students and “older students,” as Dickinson has dubbed community members who attend the luncheon, have a diverse range of viewpoints about the topics, which range from controversies in Congress, to race relations, to the Trump presidency.
“The college is having a discussion on academic freedom in the classroom,” Dickinson told The Campus, regarding his decision to allow students to take over the luncheon during his hiatus.
This week, seasoned luncheon attendees Maggie Joseph ’20 and Abbott LaPrade ’21 gave a presentation entitled “Uncle Joe and the Impending Resignation of SGA.”
“I think it’s a really great place to engage in current news topics,” LaPrade said. “Overall, Dickinson has done a really good of job of making sure all views are welcome and challenged.
Joseph began by summarizing the SGA’s “Thirteen Proposals for Community Healing,” a list sent to administrators and the entire student body outlining various structural demands to college policy. Two students came with prepared statements articulating opposing arguments.
Molly Gallagher ’22 said that SGA’s proposals are representative of student concerns and that some of the proposals are culminations of long-term student considerations. Nate Blumenthal ’21.5 voiced concerns about the third demand, which requires organizations or departments that invite speakers to complete a “due diligence form” to determine if the “speaker’s beliefs align with Middlebury’s community standards.”
LaPrade then examined former Vice President Joe Biden’s recent entrance into the 2020 presidential race, his third time running for the presidency. LaPrade analyzed the age divide among support for Biden, with far more support coming from older voters than younger voters. When one student in the room questioned the ambiguity of Biden’s platform, former Governor of Vermont Jim Douglas, who was in attendance at the luncheon, responded that Biden’s campaign is based in electability.
The luncheons provide an opportunity to bridge the generational gap between college students and the older students.
“We’re there to provide an important space for discussion and the broader community who attends these luncheons,” said Joseph. “If there’s anything that these past two weeks have shown, it’s that students want to engage in tough conversations and do want a space to air their opinions. It’s a great place for mutual understanding.”
The student-led luncheon left more room for discussion, whereas Dickinson — an expert on the presidency, Congress, and presidential decision making — often lectures for a bit longer. He prepares for the luncheons the same way he does a class, researching the topics and putting together a slideshow.
“Having it conducted by peers made it feel a bit more like a conversation than Dickinson’s typical lecture-style situation,” said Abigail Judge ’21, an attendee who frequents the politics luncheons, in an email to The Campus. “I also think that there was a fun dynamic between the more elderly lunch-goers and the students today, which was cool to observe — the questions and conversations after the more formal lecture of information and charts felt really engaged among [and] between the different demographics, which I really appreciated.”
Dickinson is unsure if he will continue the politics luncheons next year, but believes they create a valuable space to engage with a wide array of opinions.
“The luncheons are an opportunity to educate students of all ages about politics,” he said. “The idea is not to tell them what to think but instead to give them the tools and a forum for making up their own minds. The luncheons provide a safe space where students with different views can engage civilly, knowing they won’t be criticized for holding a particular viewpoint, even if it is unpopular with some — perhaps even most — people.”
(04/11/19 9:52am)
Thanks to a $20,000 fund, the Ski and Snowboard Scholarship pilot program that brought 103 new skiers up to the Snow Bowl this Winter Term will continue into future seasons. The fund, compiled by Student Affairs and the Dean of Students, helps students dodge the steep costs of winter sports by providing each participant with five ski, snowboard or telemark lessons and equipment rentals at the Bowl.
This past Tuesday, Vice President of Student Affairs Baishakhi Taylor met with students, college administrators and Daphne Diego, administrative director of the Middlebury Snow School, to discuss the future of the scholarships. Based on positive feedback from the pilot program, they secured funding so that the subsidized lessons can be offered in years to come.
Chief Diversity Officer Miguel Fernández will allocate an additional $1,600 to help cover extra ACTR buses to the Bowl on busy days.
This year, the scholarships helped boost involvement in the ski and snowboard lessons. In total, a record-breaking 201 students participated in ski or snowboard lessons over Winter Term this year, nearly half of whom were part of the scholarship program.
“Skiing is expensive, and we are welcoming students from all over the world, all over the country, where skiing is not something you will have natural access to, in terms of geography,” Taylor said. “So how do we make that something that is available to everyone if they want to try it? And I think that was the philosophy, was that if a student is interested, we have this amazing opportunity and facility. We want students participating in the full Middlebury experience.”
Sabian Edouard ‘21 and Rodney Adams ‘21 both took part in the scholarship program over Winter Term. Edouard chose to take snowboarding lessons and Adams opted for ski lessons. Both students felt that the scholarships made skiing and snowboarding more accessible.
Edouard’s snowboarding skills drastically improved and he was asked to become a snowboarding instructor next season.
“Where we come from, we don’t have these sort of experiences,” said Edouard, a Chicago native. “But also, when you get to Middlebury, especially as a first-generation student, a lot of the kids have this familial tie (with skiing and snowboarding) and leisurely activities that might not be as prominent in another environment. So being a part of that experience made me feel closer to being a Middlebury student.
“There’s been a stigmatization surrounding the POC and snowboarding at this campus, and I think that the scholarship is a great way to bridge that gap,” he added.
Adams, who is the first person in his family to learn how to ski, said that learning the sport made him feel more comfortable going to the ski races during Winter Carnival and talking with his fellow students about skiing.
“[The Snow Bowl] is a whole different social environment,” Adams said. “It’s another part of campus that we socialize at. Skiing is another way we can be active, especially during the winter when you can’t do anything else, so you might as well ski or snowboard.”
In a sport that has historically been dominated by affluent white people, the scholarship is an important step the college has taken to ensure that skiing and snowboarding is available to all Middlebury students. Skiing is ingrained in campus culture through traditions like Winter Carnival and Feb graduation, during which February graduates ski or ride down the Bowl in celebration.
In addition, skiing and snowboarding have their own languages and vocabularies that may not be familiar to non-skiers. A skier may “carve” (make turns with your edges) down “fresh corduroy” (a run that is freshly groomed) before heading into the ski lodge for “apres-ski” (the socializing that occurs after a long day on the mountain).
Jacob Freedman ’21 and Alex Gemme ’21, who were in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting, played instrumental roles in creating the scholarship program. They initially acquired around $5,500 dollars this past Fall, pulling funds from the Student Government Association, the Seizing Opportunities fund, the Mountain Club, Wonnacott, Brainerd, Ross, and Cook commons and the Intercommons Council. When the demand for scholarships quickly surpassed the available funds, the administration agreed to cover all remaining need, contributing an additional $15,000. This allowed every student on financial aid who applied for a snow scholarship to receive one.
Students enrolled in the scholarship program filled out surveys after completing their lessons asking them to rate and comment on various aspects of the program. The survey revealed overwhelmingly positive feedback, with 100% of 24 respondents rating 5 out of 5 point scale to the question, “Was this scholarship beneficial to your Middlebury and Winter-term experience?”
100% of respondents marked yes to the question, “Do you want this scholarship to be offered again?” and 97.8% of 46 respondents said yes to the question, “Were your fears and concerns (of skiing or snowboarding) addressed by Winter-term lessons?”
Survey respondents, all of whom remained anonymous, left comments giving feedback on the program.
“Being a kid from Chicago, I never thought I would get the opportunity to come to a place like Middlebury and be able to enjoy a sport like skiing,” one survey respondent wrote. “The Snow Scholarship was a significant part of my J-Term experience…..Without the funds provided by the scholarship, I would have never been able to ski since it is such a costly sport.”
Participants were also asked about their favorite part of Winter-Term lessons. Many respondents commented on how fast they improved and “learning how to ski in a comfortable environment.”
Other participants enjoyed meeting new people and learning from the snow school instructors. Most instructors are Middlebury students, but some are adults with decades of teaching experience at the Bowl. One survey respondent indicated a positive experience with the teaching method used by ski instructors.
“It started slow and progressed once I was ready for the next step,” wrote the respondent. “I also really enjoyed having peers at almost all the lessons, but really appreciated the help of the ‘older’ folks. I think it was great to learn from someone my age, and also from someone that has been skiing for 30+ years. (It) made me feel much more comfortable in a situation where I was nervous and afraid.”
The participants were also asked for suggestions to improve the lessons and the scholarship program in the future. Some common recommendations were to have more instructors and lesson times, to better place skiers within a group of their ability level, to inform students of injury risk and to be more organized. Other students suggested making the program more widely publicized.
In response to student feedback, Gemme and Freedman are planning to streamline the sign-up process for the scholarships applications. They are also working on establishing a check-out system for borrowing snow pants and gloves.
One respondent felt that, while their ski skills improved during the 5 lessons, they will not be able to continue skiing in the future due to the high cost of the sport.
“I was glad that the scholarship was offered. As someone that is low-income, I would never have been able to afford any kind of ski lessons or rentals” she said. “I now know how to ski, but because of the high cost associated with rentals and lift tickets it is very unlikely that I will be skiing again this ski season. I cannot express how thankful I am for the opportunity to have been able to learn to ski.”
(03/21/19 9:54am)
At most colleges and universities, professional admissions officers deliver information sessions to prospective students and their families. Not so at Middlebury, where each year, eight seniors are tasked with serving as the face of the college to the more than 10,000 visitors that come to campus.
The senior fellows program, founded by Dean of Admissions Greg Buckles, was originally created to fill a staffing shortage created by traveling admissions officers.
“In a nutshell, the senior fellows are the group of seniors who basically are the main public relations agents at the college for the admissions office,” said Sam Prouty, associate director of admissions and the supervisor of the fellowship program. “The public can hear directly from someone who is about to get out of here who is an example of what Middlebury education might look like. It almost feels like they are living the life of a Middkid for a day.”
In addition to leading hour-long information sessions, senior fellows are responsible for working at open house events, performing administrative duties and assisting admissions with various programs and projects. They are given flexibility in the information they choose to share and represent a diverse cross-section of the student body — an intentional effort on the part of the Admissions Office.
“We want a group of people who, added up, represent as much of the college as possible,” Prouty said. “We don’t want them all to be neuroscience majors and we don’t want them all to be cross country runners.”
[pullquote speaker="Senior Fellow Kahari Blue ’19" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]I’m really honest about Midd in my sessions. I don’t sugarcoat things that don’t need to be sugar coated, and I don’t lie about some of the college’s more negative characteristics.[/pullquote]
“I’m really honest about Midd in my sessions,” said Senior Fellow Kahari Blue ’19. “I don’t sugarcoat things that don’t need to be sugar coated, and I don’t lie about some of the college’s more negative characteristics. But my audiences seem to love that.”
Separately, Blue worked with the Institutional Diversity Committee of the SGA to create a Student Ambassador program. The program allows students from underrepresented communities to give short information sessions at local high schools when they are home over breaks.
“I have met many wide-eyed, ambitious high school students who are so enthusiastic about joining this community, which makes me optimistic the student body will be in good hands when I leave in a couple of months,” Blue said.
Both Blue and Hollie Haigh ’19, also a fellow, said that participating in the fellowship improved their public speaking skills. They also enjoy helping to plan programs like Preview Days and Discover Middlebury, which allows high school seniors from traditionally under-represented groups to visit Middlebury.
“To have your say in how certain programs or events are going to work is cool because we are the current students and we are influencing what the next generation of students are going to be involved in or be interested in,” Haigh said. “It feels very genuine from our part.”
[pullquote speaker="Senior Fellow Hollie Haigh ’19" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]To have your say in how certain programs or events are going to work is cool because we are the current students and we are influencing what the next generation of students are going to be involved in or be interested in.[/pullquote]
Last Friday, Haigh gave an information session to a school group of about 30 students and their teacher who drove 1,500 miles from Arkansas to tour various East Coast schools. Haigh said she enjoyed connecting with prospective students and sharing anecdotes from her time at Middlebury, including her misadventures from study abroad in Uruguay when she fell off a bus and hurt her ankle.
Teddy Gold ’16 said that the skills he learned as a Senior Fellow have been relevant in his career.
“The program ... stands out as some of the best program management I have experienced in the few jobs I’ve had out of college,” Gold wrote in an email to former supervisor Prouty, which was shared with The Campus. “For me, (it) was a year-long crash course in public speaking, narrative storytelling, and persuasive communication,”
The feedback from visitors has been positive.
“We have heard overwhelmingly that people enjoy connecting with students,” Prouty said. “I think it feels more topical and up to date to hear from somebody who is literally in the midst of a job search about where they are and what the CCI (Center for Careers and Internships) is doing to help them conduct that search.”
Members of the class of 2020 and 2020.5 who are interested in being a Senior Fellow can apply online at the Student Employment Office Website. The application is due this Sunday, March 24. Students can email Prouty with questions about the paid fellowship at sprouty@middlebury.edu.
(02/28/19 10:55am)
Yamiche Alcindor found her purpose as a high school student when she heard a Kanye West song that referenced Emmett Till, a young black boy who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955.
“I had this burning desire to cover more of the Emmett Tills that are out there,” Alcindor, the White House correspondent for PBS NewsHour, said in her Feb. 22 lecture in Mead Chapel. “I wanted to tell stories about people who needed to have their voices heard.”
Alcindor’s aspiration to be on the frontlines of stories like Till’s and contribute to the nation’s collective consciousness catalyzed her early career as a journalist. At her lecture, entitled “My Journey through Journalism,” Alcindor spoke about her career path as well as the purposes and principles that have guided her throughout her “journey.”
The talk was part of the Robert W. van de Velde ‘75 lecture series. According to Professor of History and Interim Dean for Faculty Development and Research Amy Morsman, who introduced Alcindor, the lecture series was established in 1981 to honor van de Velde, a Middlebury student who was active in WRMC radio during college and worked in broadcast radio after graduating.
“The van de Velde lecture is all about bringing people to campus who can address questions of public policy and the press,” Morsman told The Campus. “I wanted to bring somebody who was young, and dynamic, and I knew it would be fascinating to get somebody who could talk about their work in the White House every day.”
Alcindor often reports stories about civil rights injustices and police violence. As a student at Georgetown University, Alcindor studied English, government and African American studies. She frequently assured her parents, who are Haitian-American immigrants, that she would be going to law school so that they “wouldn’t ask too many questions.” Meanwhile, Alcindor prepared herself for a career in journalism.
When she started out as an intern, she knew she had to pay her dues, covering stories about puppies, snow and dead whales.
“If you really want to do something, go after it with a fervor and a passion that makes people step back and say, ‘This person really wants it this much, I can maybe respect their ideas,’ ” she said. “If you have an opportunity, you should grab onto those opportunities.”
She was soon hired by USA Today to cover national breaking news, writing stories about the protests in Ferguson, Missouri and the Sandy Hook school shooting. Later, she was approached by The New York Times to cover the presidential campaigns of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.
Now, Alcindor covers Trump’s presidency for PBS NewsHour and is a contributor to NBC News and MSNBC.
As a journalist, Alcindor has a history of asking tough questions. Early in her career as a local reporter for Newsday, a publication based in New York, she wrote an article about a city council ordinance that allowed a councilman to get permanent life insurance, costing taxpayers millions of dollars. When covering Bernie Sanders, she questioned the lack of diversity on his campaign.
In November, while reporting for PBS, Alcindor asked the president at a press conference if he felt his rhetoric emboldened white nationalists. He responded by accusing her of asking a racist question.
As Alcindor grappled with this now-infamous interaction with the president, she found stability in the people who stood behind her, and in those she was asking the questions for.
“I focused on my purpose,” she said describing how she grappled with the interaction. “I was steadied by the people who brought me to the United States so I could even ask that question,” Alcindor said.
“That’s going to be a moment that’s replicated for everyone else in this room” she said. “You want to be ready for it, and you want to be strong. Because it will change you, and it will define you. I’m now known as ‘the girl who Trump called racist.’”
Alcindor carries the stories of the people she has met with her. She told the crowd that politicians should be made to answer tough questions and held accountable for their beliefs. People who have platforms should understand what they believe in, and stick to that platform and purpose, Alcindor said.
“What I’ve learned is that you should really stand for something. Journalism must be the medium within which we dig and ask questions, and ask those questions in a more complex way. And we shouldn’t be afraid to push candidates. So in 2020, get ready to see me on stage asking all sorts of questions that make people uncomfortable.”
After the lecture, Middlebury student Ruhamah Weil ’21 reflected on the importance of Alcindor’s talk.
“Right now at Middlebury and in the country at large, we are dealing with questions like how do you stand behind what you believe in, and what do you believe in, and how do you talk to somebody else who believes in something different than you,” Weil said. “Sometimes I think I want journalists to convince people that have other opinions than me that my opinion is right. But I think (Alcindor) reminded me that that’s not always the point of journalism.”
(02/21/19 10:58am)
“That’s going to be you in a couple years,” an asylum-seeking immigrant mother said to her daughter, pointing to Middlebury student Alondra Carmona ’21.
Carmona was providing legal service to the mother and her daughter on a Middlebury Alternative Break trip (MAlt trip). The mother and daughter were at a bus station heading to Carmona’s hometown of Chicago after being held in a family detention center near San Antonio. For Carmona, an immigrant who came with her parents to the U.S. at age three from Mexico, the parallels were uncanny.
Carmona and Hannah Krutiansky ’19 led a group of 10 other Middlebury students on a MAlt trip over February break focused on immigration advocacy in San Antonio. The group worked with a nonprofit agency, Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES), that provides free and low-cost legal services to underserved immigrant children, families and refugees.
“This is the frontlines of the immigration fight,” Krutiansky said. “This is the trenches. These are people recently arriving at the border, seeking asylum, suffering through our messed-up, convoluted immigration system. And we are jumping in and working with them directly and trying to make sense of this.”
Krutiansky and Carmona directed their efforts towards separate phases of the asylum-seeking process. Krutiansky, who has worked for RAICES for the past two summers, helped asylum seekers prepare for their “Credible Fear Interview” at Karnes Detention Center near San Antonio. For these asylum seekers, this interview is the difference between deportation and a chance at a new life. Asylum seekers must demonstrate that if they are deported, they will face discrimination or persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion or a membership in a particular social group.
[pullquote speaker="Hannah Krutiansky '19" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]These are people recently arriving at the border, seeking asylum, suffering through our messed-up, convoluted immigration system. And we are jumping in and working with them directly and trying to make sense of this.[/pullquote]
Spanish proficiency was a requirement for the trip participants, who helped make each person’s story as compelling as possible to the asylum officer who would be deciding their case.
“It’s really challenging because a lot of them might be illiterate or [only speak an] indigenous [language], or they might be really traumatized,” Krutiansky said. “We help to get their story down linearly and hit important points like why the police couldn’t protect them, why they couldn’t relocate in their country. We orient them because most of them might have claims but most of them don’t know how to phrase their story that will fit into the box.”
Meanwhile, Carmona and three other trip participants gave legal orientations at the bus station that will transport asylum-seekers and immigrants to their sponsor or final destination.
[pullquote speaker="Alondra Carmona '21" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]The detention center is basically a jail for them.[/pullquote]
“It was basically post-release services: (explaining) your rights, helping interpret and translate their papers,” Carmona said. “It’s a new setting. The detention center is basically a jail for them. So when they’re released, one of the things that they told us is it’s the first time they are meeting a friendly face. You’re the first person that’s telling them, ‘Welcome to the United States.’”
Immigrants and asylum have to parse through “packages” — thick stacks of papers filled with legalistic jargon that contains important information and dates. The MAlt participants translated this information and explained that the two sets of dates that asylum seekers needed to keep track of: court dates that were necessary to obtain asylum and check-ins with Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE). Missing either one of these appointments could result in a deportation notice.
The asylum-seeking process is complex and differs slightly depending on an immigrant’s status as an unaccompanied minor, an adult, or a family. Immigrants are either apprehended at the border or express fear of returning to their home country at a port of entry. They are held in pre-detention processing facilities, likened to an ice box (“la hielera”) by detainees due to its freezing temperatures and a dog pound (“la perrera”) for its chain link fences.
Immigrant families are then sent to family detention centers, where they must pass the Credible Fear Interview. There are three family detention centers in the United States. Karnes, where the MAlt participants worked, and Dilley are located in Texas, while Berks family detention center is in Pennsylvania. The centers are operated by for-profit private prison companies like CoreCivic and GEO group.
Those who pass are transferred to the bus station. After this process, the immigrants still have no legal status and are required to continue to the asylum process outside of detention.
Krutiansky and Carmona were vividly aware of the high stakes of their work. Most asylum seekers are fleeing some form of gang violence, Krutiansky said, particularly from the region known as the “Northern triangle” of Central America: El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. Many immigrants faced the threat of extortion and murder if they returned to their home countries. Other immigrants were political activists or victims of domestic abuse. Some immigrants were indigenous people escaping crippling poverty resulting from discrimination. However, economic migrants are not qualified for refugee status under asylum law.
“The policies are so absurd,” Carmona said. “The fact that (a participant) had to interview someone and she knew that he was in danger of basically dying if he went back to his home country. And yet that was exactly what was going to happen.”
The news cycle has been dominated by issues of immigration in the past year, in large part due to President Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy, enacted in April 2018, to prosecute every illegal entry case into the United States. Soon after, media outlets reported over 2,300 cases of family separation when parents were criminally prosecuted while children were treated as “unaccompanied alien children” and handled by the Office of Refugee Resettlement. Trump then issued an executive order on June 20 stating that “it is also the policy of this Administration to maintain family unity” thereby ending the practice of family separation.
[pullquote speaker="Alondra Carmona '21" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]The people and their stories make it impossible to ignore the struggles they go through.[/pullquote]
With all the media noise, the MAlt experience pushed participants to confront the realities of the immigration debate.
“We’ve all heard about the horrible situation that immigrants go through,” Carmona said. “We have the luxury of ignoring these stories. When you talk to these people, you’re making connections and they could be your parents and your aunts and uncles. The people and their stories make it impossible to ignore the struggles they go through.”
With grueling days that started at 9 a.m. and lasted until as late as 8 p.m., Krutiansky said that many participants are still processing what they saw. Many expressed outrage at the current immigration system, and hope to return as volunteers to RAICES.
“It really fuels you,” Krutiansky said. “Middlebury students are smart and they are going to be in important positions one day. For them to have seen this experience and take it with them, the choices they’re going to make and the influence they’re going to have — I think that’s the biggest takeaway.”
(01/17/19 10:56am)
Dean of Admissions Greg Buckles will leave his position at the end of the academic year. After seven years in his current role, he will become dean of enrollment management at the Lawrenceville School, a private boarding and day school for students grades 9-12 in central New Jersey.
“Greg is a valued colleague who has brought great clarity, integrity, and energy to his work,” President Laurie L. Patton wrote in a campus-wide email. “During his time here, he has been a champion of diversifying the College’s student body, maintaining our need-blind admissions policy, and expanding our relationship with the Posse Foundation.”
Before coming to Middlebury in 2008, Buckles served as director of admissions at Kenyon College. He graduated from Denison University and holds a Master of Arts in literature from Trinity College in Connecticut. Prior to his work in higher education, Buckles held administrative positions for several years at private boarding schools.
During his time in Vermont, Buckles worked to bring a subjective outlook to the admissions process that looked beyond test scores and grade point averages.
“An overarching goal of admissions at Middlebury is to not be able to answer the question, ‘What is a typical Middlebury student like?’ ” Buckles said in a video about college admissions made by the Communications Office in 2011. “While our averages our quite high and we are selective, and we ask for and expect a very rigorous background, we are also interested in more subjective and tangible qualities. A sense of self awareness, we think, is important, mainly to take advantage of what Middlebury has to offer.”
Buckles also emphasized Middlebury’s commitment to admitting a diverse student body.
“We want the student body at Middlebury to be a reflection of the global stage,” Buckles said. “We are defining diversity in lots of different ways. Certainly we are interested and very committed to racial diversity, we are interested in socioeconomic diversity … first generation students, students who come from a variety of different backgrounds.”
Buckles is also an outdoor enthusiast, and enjoys cycling and skiing in Vermont.
“Greg’s enduring contribution to Middlebury will be the thousands of exceptional students he and his team have admitted over the years,” Patton said in her email.
Buckles was not available for comment.
(11/15/18 10:58am)
The college has long winters, a January term and its own ski mountain: the perfect winter recipe. However, the accessibility of the sport is limited by its steep financial costs. Ski passes and equipment can easily soar into the hundreds and even thousands of dollars, preventing many students from being able to enjoy the slopes.
On Sunday night, the Student Government Association (SGA) passed a Snow Bowl Scholarship Bill allocating $2,500 towards the scholarship fund. The bill was conceptualized by Jacob Freedman ’21 and Alex Gemme ’21, who put together the scholarship fund for students on financial aid to be used towards skiing, telemark skiing and snowboarding lessons at the Middlebury Snow Bowl. Freedman and Gemme both work as instructors at the Snow Bowl. Students will receive up to $200 that can be used for the lessons and equipment rentals for the season, costing $100 each.
[pullquote speaker="Jacob Freedman '21" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]Skiing is a really inaccessible sport for a lot of people. We see the people who come and take lessons and more often than not it’s people who can afford it.[/pullquote]
In addition to the SGA allocation, Freedman and Gemme have already acquired $1,600 and are looking to get $900 more. In total, the $5,000 fund will give 25 to 50 students subsidized lessons and rentals.
“Skiing is a really inaccessible sport for a lot of people. We see the people who come and take lessons and more often than not it’s people who can afford it,” Freedman said. “Skiing is a great sport and a huge part of the culture, so it makes sense to be able to have all sorts of students be able to participate in this thing that’s really cool and unique to the school.”
According to Powder Magazine, 72 percent of the skiers in the United States are white and more than half earn a salary of $100,000 or greater. The scholarship fund will hopefully increase diversity in a sport that has historically been perceived as a homogenous demographic.
The process to set up the scholarship fund has been riddled with obstacles. Gemme and Freedman initially went to the Advancement Office to seek funds, but were told to come back with data about the need for such scholarships. The two students sought money from various campus sources, but were often referred to other places due to the scholarship’s unique distinction of being neither an extracurricular nor an event or speaker.
The students quickly found overwhelming anecdotal evidence that students were interested in taking ski and snowboarding lessons, but were daunted by the costs.
Freedman and Gemme’s first success came from the Seizing Opportunities fund, an allocation designed to ensure that students, regardless of financial status, have access to activities that span all aspects of college life. Chief Diversity Officer Miguel Fernández allocated $1,600 dollars from the Seizing Opportunities fund towards the Snow Bowl scholarship fund in early October.
Freedman and Gemme then worked with SGA Senators William Kelly ’21, John Schurer ’21, and Christian Kummer ’22 to pass a bill that would allocate an additional $2,500 to the Snow Bowl fund. The bill passed nearly unanimously, with only one opposing vote. The $2,500 will come from SGA’s current $175,000 reserves. Senator Rehan Zafar ’21, who voted against the proposal, expressed concern regarding passing an initiative that they may not be able to finance in the future.
The two students are also seeking $900 from the ICC in order to round out their goal of a $5,000 fund. The fund will be overseen by a staff member of the college, who can access students’ financial aid records to determine which students need the scholarship the most.
[pullquote speaker="Alex Gemme ’21" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]Ski culture is something that the college embraces really fully, but it’s not something that everybody at the college has access to.[/pullquote]
In addition, the pair is now attempting to secure a supply of helmets that can be rented out. This process has proven complicated because liability concerns prevent the Snow Bowl from renting out helmets and thus must be purchased individually. The price of a helmet, however, may deter riders from purchasing the protective gear.
“Helmets are optional; it’s not a rule at the Bowl,” Gemme said. “But they’re great. Beginners probably want to wear helmets. We think that some helmet, even if it’s used and shared and a little scratched up, is better than no helmet.”
Students can apply for Snow Bowl scholarships via Handshake. Lessons are taught by Middlebury students every week day at the Snow Bowl during January term and are from 2-3 p.m., and in the morning by request. Last year, 90 students participated in the Snow School lessons.
The ACTR bus offers nearly hourly rides to the Snow Bowl. Students can schedule up to five lessons and can earn Physical Education credit if they attend at least 4 lessons. Freedman compared the Snow Bowl cost, $100 for five lessons, to a day’s worth of ski lessons at Killington, which costs $140.
“Vermont celebrates the winter time as a great time of the year,” Gemme said. “Part of the Feb experience at graduation and at orientation both take place at the Snow Bowl, so ski culture is something that the college embraces really fully, but it’s not something that everybody at the college has access to.”
(11/01/18 9:52am)
ESME FAHNESTOCK
Historically, college students vote at lower rates than other demographics, and midterm elections tend to have particularly low voter turnout compared to presidential election years. Middlebury students’ voting record proves no exception.
58.1 percent of eligible Middlebury students voted in the 2016 presidential election, according to the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE), a report conducted by Tufts University. This was an increase from the college’s 2012 presidential election turnout, when 49.8 percent of eligible students voted. Turnout in the 2014 midterm elections was far lower, with 14.3 percent of students voting.
College students may face structural limits when trying to exercise their right to vote. Ashley Laux ’06, program director for the Center for Community Engagement (CCE), said that there can be a lot of misunderstanding about the voting process.
“There is lot of general not-knowing,” Laux said. “How do I register to vote if I’m not there? When is the absentee ballot request deadline? Or sometimes they pull up the forms and feel like it might be kind of confusing.”
Laux also said that voting engagement for college students may have declined due to a decreased emphasis on civics education programs in high schools.
“Students aren’t learning about basics around government systems or how state and federal governments work, and if some of that foundational knowledge is missing, then students’ desire or tendency to vote may have gone down,” she said.
Other barriers are more logistical. According to Laux, not knowing where to buy a stamp has prevented voters from mailing in absentee ballots, and lacking transportation to the polls can inhibit voting. To combat these obstacles, the CCE is offering free stamps, which students can also find at Commons offices, the Center for Careers and Internships, the Mail Center and other locations around campus in the weeks leading up to the election. They will also be providing hourly rides from Adirondack Circle to the polls on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 6.
Ideological beliefs may also affect student voter engagement. Hazel Millard ’18, a former leader of the nonpartisan student initiative funded by the CCE called MiddVote, noted that the college’s turnout in 2016 was higher than the average voting rate of all the institutions that participate in NSLVE’s survey.
“Middlebury students were engaged in the 2016 election,” Millard wrote in an email to The Campus. “I think that was in part due to the primary competition between [Bernie] Sanders and [Hillary] Clinton, since Democrats on campus seemed fairly split between the two candidates. This meant that many were paying attention early on in the cycle.”
Ann Webster, the Middlebury Town Clerk, has noticed that college students’ political engagement depends on which issues dominate the news cycle.
“Over time, it seems like the news we get through the media is much more geared towards entertainment, rather than somebody just telling you the news and letting you form an opinion about it,” Webster said. “When I was younger, I think younger people did get engaged more than they did now because we had things like the Vietnam War, which was being shown to us every single day on the news and our friends were being drafted. It was something very political that had an impact on everybody’s daily life.”
Laux’s goal for the 2018 midterm elections is for 25 percent of eligible students to vote. Laux is also planning in the longer term, seeking to continue the upward voting engagement trajectory from the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections.
In their efforts to eliminate barriers to voting, Laux and the CCE have focused on a Tufts University report titled “Election Imperatives,” which was created as the result of research on ways to improve voter engagement on campuses.
The report offers recommendations for increasing student voter participation and improving “campus conditions for political learning, discourse and agency during the election season and beyond.” Two of the recommendations emphasize informing voters and creating a permanent coalition that focuses on more than voting during election season.
“One of the things I’m thinking about is, after this election, how can students, faculty and staff keep voter education going?” Laux said. “How can we view it as more of ongoing process of educating yourself about community issues? Because in the long term, that’s what will increase our voting rates the most: if people feel plugged into their community. Voting is just one slice of being connected as a citizen to your community.”
MiddVote’s student organizers are addressing the factors that lead to low turnout through person-to-person education and efforts to increase access to the polls.
Graphic by Esme Fahnestock.
(10/04/18 9:55am)
As students experience the seasonal and academic transformations this time of year brings, this Friday’s storytelling event, Cocoon, will offer even more opportunity for metamorphosis.
The sixth-annual live performance event will feature six storytellers speaking to the theme of “Origins” on Friday, Oct. 5 at 8:00 p.m. in Robison Hall at the Mahaney Center for the Arts (MCA). The community-wide event is organized in conjunction with the MCA and the Middlebury Moth-Up, a student storytelling organization. Guitarist and MCA Technical Director Mark Christensen will provide musical interludes, and a reception will follow the event.
Cocoon will present a diverse cast of storytellers. Two students, Megan Job ’21 and Kyle Wright ’19.5, were selected to speak, along with alumna and admissions staffer Maria Del Sol Nava ’18 and community member Jon Turner of Wild Roots Farm. Recent Middlebury retirees Linda and Ira Schiffer will also present a joint story. Also telling his story will be François Clemmons, a lauded actor, singer and writer best known for playing Officer Clemmons on the TV series, “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”
“We’re trying to engage the community in as broad a way as possible,” said Liza Sacheli, a staff organizer and the director of the MCA. “This event succeeds because we have a really interesting group of storytellers every year. We try to balance some students, some alumni, some faculty/staff, some community members, so there is really a diversity of voices, and hopefully that relates to a diversity of audience members as well.”
In the past, Moth-Up and Cocoon events have had a variety of themes ranging from “Blood” to “Arrival.” Although the storytellers might interpret the theme very differently, the theme serves as a common thread, linking the collection of stories together to some degree.
“The theme ‘origins’ asks our storytellers, and to an extent our audience, to think about deep and personal questions,” said Sarah Asch ’19.5, president of the Middlebury Moth-Up and co-organizer.
“Where do I come from? What do I represent? Who I am? How do I tell that to the world? From what I have seen so far these musings are going to turn into some truly awesome stories,” she said. “It is a theme that asks a lot of the storytellers, the producers and the audience, but I think that the show will prove very rewarding.”
Job’s story will reflect on her transition from her hometown in Brooklyn, N.Y. to Middlebury. It will be her first performance.
“I think that the spoken word and storytelling is very powerful,” Job said. “I think that they are very moving for the speaker and the person who is watching it.”
This will be former Cook Commons Coordinator Linda Schiffer’s second time performing at a Moth-Up affiliated event. Her husband, Ira, is a rookie performer to the organization, but he has public speaking experience having delivered sermons as the former Associate Chaplain/Rabbi of Middlebury College. The duo will recall a significant moment that shaped the lives of their family.
“This story, for us, was compelling, and we are hoping that others find kernels of truth of themselves in it,” Ira said. “I’m hoping it’s a story that will get people thinking, reconsider world views, reconsider biases, reconsider life trajectories.”
“And I’m going to pick up on the life trajectories,” Linda said, “and hope that people will be less locked into given situations, and know that there’s more out there, and that when given the opportunity to take a different path, they’ll have the spirit, the courage, to say, ‘yes, I’ve wanted to try that; I’m going to take the chance and do that.’ And recognize that whatever happens down that path — it’s not a failure. It’s a learning experience.”
Cocoon is inspired by the national sensation The Moth, a group dedicated to the craft of live storytelling that has become a popular live event, radio show and podcast. The Middlebury Moth-Up evolved from the national organization in 2010 and is a monthly event that features a handful of storytellers, generally students. Both Cocoon and the Moth-Up have two rules: all stories must be true and no notes are allowed.
Sacheli refers to Cocoon as “The Moth on steroids.”
“What we’ve done is take the successful model that the students did for their monthly Moth [Up] gatherings,” Sacheli said, “and we said, ‘What would happen if we put this on a more formal stage, and we put a few production values behind it? If we had live musicians, we had lights, we sold tickets and had a reception after it? What would happen if we added some pizazz to the already-perfect recipe that the Moth [Up] was serving up?’”
The formula has worked, and according to Sacheli, there will have been a total of over 30 storytellers and 1500 audience members after this year’s event. The Moth phenomenon seems to have struck a chord in its audience members, as evidenced by its widespread popularity nationally and at overflowing Middlebury Moth-Up events.
“Everyone likes different stories, or rather, everyone notices different things about the same story,” said Asch. “We all bring our own experiences to the table as audience members and that impacts how we react to stories on stage. For me, what I really value in storytellers is vulnerability. I admire storytellers who are able to transport the audience emotionally, to really give us a slice of what they are feeling ... The stories that I always remember, even years later, are the stories where the emotion came through loud and clear.”
Tickets can be bought at Middlebury’s online arts page or at go/boxoffice.