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(05/05/11 3:59am)
Most people are not strangers to the terrible limbo of indecision. The choices that face us in our daily lives affect how we move forward. Sometimes making a decision frightens us into hesitation or complete paralysis, unable to confront either option. Through music, dance and light, 10 students in the Performance Improvisation dance concert demonstrated their mastery of on-the-spot decision-making. What resulted was ephemeral but complete artistic freedom in the creation of beautiful work.
James Moore ’12, Jeremy Cline ’11.5 and Christian Morel ’11 create a spontaneous piece in the Performance Improvisation dance concert. Jiayi Zhu.
This spring semester, students and guest artists have been training in the art of improvisation with Lecturer in Dance Penny Campbell. The dancers, performers and musicians all have a great deal of prior experience in their areas, but for some, Campbell’s approach to improvisation exposed them to new ways of creating. Improvisation is an artist’s response to an ever-shifting environment of light and music, movements of fellow dancers and individual whims. Musicians play and dancers dance whatever and whenever they wish; what keeps the spontaneity from dissolving into shambles of discordant notes and bodies is each participant’s awareness of what is happening around him or her.
The performance was split into pieces of varying lengths with different participants. The musicians played piano, electric violin, electric guitar, saxophone and every kind of curious percussion instrument. Each dancer’s particular style shone through, but some of the most enjoyable moments were when they were in contact with each other and conversing with their movements. They stirred the audience into laughter, reservation and contemplation. The composition’s unplanned spirit was an exhibition of talent; the show was so convincing that the audience could very well have believed it was a rehearsed performance.
The participants all commented on the learning experience they gained by taking this course and putting on the final performances. Hannah Pierce ’13 said, “I love [improvisation] because we are given a blank page, but also the tools necessary to transform it into something interesting and beautiful. The attention … to every detail has really changed my dancing and the way I interpret and understand a performing art.”
In this performance, the lighting played a crucial role and was beautifully executed. Jennifer Ponder, the lighting designer and technical director for the College’s dance program, seemed to know just when to bring the lights down to end a piece. The lighting design seemed to flow along with the music and the dancing, uniting the pieces brilliantly.
Improvisation is an achievement of the human brain, a flash of fearless choice, from which art arises and gives the audience an extraordinary treasure. Each of these pieces will never be repeated, and as a member of the audience, that remarkable aspect makes it seem like it was made just for us, uniquely and beautifully ours.
(05/05/11 3:59am)
Around 200 students packed into the McCullough Social Space on Tuesday night, May 3 for the open student forum “Alcohol: Use, Abuse, and Disrespect for Community.”
The all-student email announcement for the forum provoked strong student reactions and helped boost turnout with the tagline “Is a Dry Campus the Only Answer?”
President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz opened the forum by assuaging student fears.
“The email was not sent to scare people and there is no intention of a dry campus here, at least not on my watch,” said Liebowitz. “The issue was how to get students to come to the forum and actually share their opinions.”
Thirty-six students took the microphone to voice their opinions during the nearly two-hour open discussion, which Liebowitz and Dean of the College and Chief Diversity Officer Shirley Collado moderated.
Before opening the floor to discussion, Executive Director of Health and Counseling Services Gus Jordan and Assistant Director of Custodial Services Linda Ross gave PowerPoint presentations outlining alcohol use trends and dorm damage at the College. Jordan’s presentation used data from the College Alcohol Study distributed in November 2010, the AlcoholEdu survey taken by incoming Middlebury students every year since 2007 and national responses to the AlcoholEdu survey.
Jordan emphasized the increase in alcohol consumption by first-years visible in the data during his presentation. Thirty-two percent of students in the class of 2014 were considered high-risk drinkers — having five or more drinks in one sitting — when they arrived at the College. But six to eight weeks later, 55 percent of students in the class of 2014 were high-risk drinkers. In comparison, the national average of high-risk drinkers entering college this fall was 24 percent, and 31 percent were high-risk drinkers six to eight weeks later.
Between September 2010 and January 2011, of the 25 visits to the emergency room for alcohol, 16 were first-years, data that the administration thought lent credence to their concerns about underage drinking — especially heavy drinking among first-years.
Some students suggested that alcohol abuse is related to the stress of academics at the College. Although Collado agreed that the heavy workload creates stress that may lead to drinking, stress cannot be used as the sole explanation.
“There shouldn’t be an excess [of work], but there also can’t be a disconnect between work and behavior,” she said. “If you want to be treated like an adult, you need to be able to balance your work and be accountable for your drinking."
Lucas Alvarez ’11 agreed with Collado. He attributes alcohol abuse and dorm damage to a certain level of immaturity among some students.
“The workload problem is a problem in and of itself, but I don’t think it’s a reason for our decisions in drinking, for the alcohol problem on campus or for destroying something,” Alvarez said. “Saying that’s the problem is a cop-out because we are responsible for our own actions, and we are responsible for how much we drink or if we take a chair and break it.”
Hudson Cavanagh ’14 believes that increasing alcohol education for incoming students during orientation will lower alcohol abuse rates.
“Sacrificing academic work time for a long-term education regarding drinking is not only a good investment of time and money, but it sends a great message from the administration’s perspective,” Cavanagh said.
The cost of dorm damage has also steadily increased in recent years. Through April of this academic year, the College has incurred $104,500 of dorm damage, a record amount. The damage has been highest in sophomore and senior housing and relatively low in social houses, which Matthew Hedgpeth ’12, president of Omega Alpha (Tavern), relates to a lack of concern for temporary housing. The social houses might avoid the excessive damage that occurs in places like the Atwater suites because students build a home and a history with their social house.
In the dorms, students are “only living there for a semester or for a year and then they’re gone,” Hedgpeth said.
Ashley Litzenberger ’12, a member of Omega Alpha, agreed.
“Respect [for] the space you live in is something unique to social houses because you’re there from the day you pledge,” said Litzenberger. “You know you’re going to come back there, so it’s really a place you become invested in.”
Hedgpeth and Litzenberger both suggested fostering the kind of community and accountability present in the social houses as one potential approach to the issue of dorm damage. Scott Klenet ’12, treasurer of Omega Alpha, also emphasized the role social houses play in providing social spaces for students, especially safe, regulated places for students to drink. The suggestion that students should undergo the same crowd control and alcohol safety training that social house members do in order to host suite or house parties came up more than once.
Liebowitz said that of all the reforms proposed by students, generally improving the protocols for registering official parties with the school would be the most likely to be implemented at this point.
“The bureaucratic red tape is problematic and prevents or inhibits students from having official events,” Liebowitz said.
As with all aspects of the College’s alcohol policy, however, Liebowitz stressed that Middlebury must comply with Vermont State alcohol laws, which are some of the strictest in the country. Peter Weinberg ’11 challenged the administration to institute a “progressive” alcohol policy in defiance of “ineffective” state laws, similar to other colleges and universities around the country, but Liebowitz quickly dispatched the argument.
“Students have to understand that they may come from Connecticut, New Hampshire, Massachusetts or California, but this is Vermont and the world we live in,” Liebowitz said after the forum.
Students repeatedly criticized Public Safety during the forum for excessively issuing citations for minor offenses such as having an unopened beer in their room, but Associate Dean of the College and Director of Public Safety Lisa Boudah also pointed out that her hands are tied.
“If I see a beer next to you and you’re under 21, [I can’t] just go walk away,” Boudah said. “The College can be held civilly liable for not intervening to stop drinking.”
Collado emphasized that student involvement will be important going forward, and she circulated a sign-up sheet throughout the crowd during the forum. Twenty-eight students had signed up at press time.
Liebowitz also asked students to stay involved by getting in touch with him.
“We [the administration] don’t want to act until we talk to students,” he said. “I’m willing to hear students out and consider changes to everything we do as long as it’s inside the confines of the law.”
Despite the disagreements among students and administrators alike, Jordan hailed the forum as a great success. According to Jordan, a similar alcohol forum two years ago without any accompanying survey data drew only 20 students.
“It’s great to get a dynamic conversation like this going when students are talking to students and the administration is talking to students, and we’re all listening to each other,” he said. “That’s where we have to be.”
Some students complained that the administration was ‘babying’ them and accused Old Chapel of trying to step into the ‘parent’ role by regulating the College’s social life.
But Liebowitz said he and the administration are looking out for the welfare of students.
“You can ask my wife — every single night I worry about my students,” he said. “If that means being accused of parenting, then so be it."
(05/05/11 3:59am)
Entering Hepburn Zoo, the audience finds the scene set up in a manner that looks like something ripped right out of an episode of Mad Men, liquor shelves and all, as the eternally familiar voice of Frank Sinatra fills the room. The lights dim, and the audience prepares themselves, because once Speed-The-Plow begins, the brakes are off on Willy McKay’s ’11 senior 700 work.
Speed-The-Plow, originally written by David Mamet, tells the story of Bobby Gould, played by McKay, who is living the dream. Gould finds himself as the head of production of a large film studio and openly enjoys the various perks that come with such a lifestyle. His long time friend, Charlie Fox (Dustin Schwartz ’11, who collaborated on this play for his 700 work), brings in a film opportunity that is going to make them rich(er). Gould, remembering Fox’s years of loyalty, thanks him by promising him the title of co-producer of the project.
The main conflict arises when Karen (Shannon Fiedler ’14), Gould’s temporary secretary, uses her womanly charm to seduce and convince Gould to produce the film she wants. However, Gould can only make one film pitch, and of course, drama ensues.
According to Schwartz, he and McKay chose this play because, “We think it’s a very hard-nosed, really tough play. Really down-to-earth but at the same time, its not just natural. There is a lot of deep depravity but humor in it as well. It’s dark, funny and something that people can enjoy.”
McKay felt a connection to Mamet’s play after reading it for a class. He is also currently writing his thesis about it.
“There are some interesting literary elements to the play,” McKay said, “that probably don’t come across in performance but are still interesting to me.”
The play is performed almost exactly according to the original script, except for one change, in which Karen goes to Gould’s home as opposed to his office to pitch the book for the film she desires. This was a decision based on the fact that Schwartz and McKay only wanted to use one set — Gould’s office.
“I think this is kind of good because my character is the kind of guy that would sleep with a girl on the couch in his office, as opposed to taking her home,” McKay commented.
McKay and Schwartz have an amazing chemistry together onstage, as they mock each other and discuss their own depravity, which they have accepted and even embraced. The way they treat each other reveals how many layers there are to their relationship. They started together, then slowly moved up the food chain together, creating a brotherly bond, as well as a rivalry that usually accompanies such a relationship.
Fiedler also controls the scene when she discusses why Gould should choose the film of her liking, an adaptation of a novel about the end of the world (as well as the end of the human spirit). She seduces the audience right along with Gould, giving a very convincing and entertaining performance.
One thing that stood out to me was how well the Hollywood lifestyle came out of the characters. In one particular scene, Gould, distressed by the fact that he is going to tell Fox he will not be picking his film, takes out a plastic baggie of cocaine and proceeds to set up a line on his desk using one of his credit cards. Fox continues to speak to him, completely unfazed by Gould’s behavior. By making actions such as these seem like afterthoughts as opposed to the center of the action and the audience’s attention, it makes the entire situation much more believable. The fact that the show had no intermission also played well with the speed of the dialogue and how quickly characters had to make important judgment calls about one another.
Overall the show was a powerful display of emotion and friendship as well as the depravity that lies within the American Dream. As McKay says in the “notes” section of the playbill: “Rome is burning. I invite you to sit back and enjoy our fiddling.”
(05/05/11 3:58am)
Amidst talk of plummeting profits and financial instability, 51 Main played host to an event last Thursday, April 28, that transcended any monetary value. The gathering of students, faculty and community members was warm and lively, and the space was brimming with faces, all brought together to hear Catarina Campbell ’11 perform poetry and play host. The evening was not widely advertised, and as a result, fostered an intimate atmosphere: the students were largely from the class of soon-to-be graduating seniors, and the faculty in attendance were personally involved with poetry. This gave a bittersweet air to proceedings, as the sense of the senior’s upcoming departure was palpable in the bustling space.
Far from the typical image of a soft-spoken, paper-shuffling poet, Campbell performed a series of animated spoken word poems for a little under an hour, with interjections, performances, anecdotes and readings from her friends and colleagues along the way.
“It was my dream senior project,” Campbell said, reminiscing on the event, “and I envisioned it originally as an excuse to have a lot of members of my Middlebury family and community come together at one time. I have used spoken word as a way to write myself through things and to write my way into new identities. I wanted to have a chance to read things I’ve written from freshman to senior year; when I perform a poem, for those moments spent reading, I am back in the emotional space I was in when I wrote it. It was a really liberating and validating feeling to be able to embody so much of what I experienced in four years by performing so many of my poems in one night.”
Campbell also stated at the beginning of the evening that her mission was to explore “spoken word as a medium” as “a way to build community.” With tightly packed bodies crouched on the floor and squeezed into every space available, this goal was achieved before a single poem had been spoken. Campbell had asked her acquaintances to share poems, quotes and stories between her own readings, making the overall performance collaborative and communal.
The poems themselves touched upon issues that the College community also grapples with — identity, hook-up culture and gender were among the topics. Between the politics and personal memories, Campbell’s use of language shone; pithy, declarative, observant and most of all memorable, she declared at one point to be starting a “four-foot-ten, brown and boobless revolution” on stage. Her supporting acts from friends were likewise memorable and charming: a retelling of Dr. Seuss’ Oh The Places We’ll Go, poetry from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, study abroad anecdotes and personal stories about their relationship with Campbell.
Although the audience came down to 51 Main to hear poetry, it was clear that many people were also there as a marker of friendship, as a way of remembering the times they shared with Campbell. The performances given by Campbell and her compatriots were also a reminder that, as we all approach the manic end of the semester, college is about more than the GPA and the BA you get at the end of it; it’s about the friendships and close bonds you build along the way.
(05/05/11 3:58am)
Riley O’Rourke ’12 will return to serve his second term as President of the SGA for the 2011-12 academic year while Janet Rodrigues ’12 will assume the position of student co-chair of Community Council (SCOCC).
O’Rourke secured his position by 15 votes after a contentious race that ended in a run-off between himself and opponent Dane Verret ’12. O’Rourke believes that the increase in student participation this year — with almost a 40 percent turnout for the runoff — reflects the effectiveness of the College’s voting system.
Verret, however, believes that the SGA remains disconnected from the student body.
“I won’t say it was a poor turnout, but it’s why a lot of students were apathetic,” said Verret.
Verret referenced the revisions in bylaws that took place on May 1 in response to an email that Matt George ’12, O’Rourke’s transportation director, sent during the campaigns using his access to the all-student email list. The email described improvements in transportation under the O’Rourke presidency.
According Sophomore Senator Tony Huynh ’13, the SGA determined that George’s email did not breach regulation because it "was only a reflection of his personal opinion and was not meant to represent the voice of the student government,” Huynh wrote in an email. “Additionally, O'Rourke stated that George sent the e-mail without his consent and/or knowledge.
“Due to the combination of a lack of precedent on this issue and ambiguous election campaign rules, the SGA members unanimously decided that O'Rourke was at no fault for the email sent by George," added Huynh.
In response to the email, Verret says, “It was definitely unfair since I don’t have access to those resources. But there was no rule in place so it came off as fair. It couldn’t be fixed.”
Verret called for a new law to prohibit incumbent candidates from accessing SGA resources, particularly the all school email list, during the campaign process.
In addition to George’s email, several threads cropped up on Middlebury Confessional during the election, slandering Verret’s character. Although the posts have now been removed from the website, it caused Verret to lose faith in the SGA.
“If you are disorganized and you let your candidates get attacked through different media forms, if you let your current administration affect or negatively affect the campaigning process, it makes you look really bad, and these are our elected officials — the people that need to change it the most,” said Verret.
O’Rourke acknowledged that the contacts he has made during his year in office helped his campaign, but added that students at the College recognize an effective leader.
“I set goals and accomplished them this year,” said O’Rourke. “I now know the people to talk to and understand the system, so the SGA can bring about change more efficiently.”
Though O’Rourke believes the process would benefit from a candidate debate, he still believes in the current system.
“There are regulations in place which I think work and the close result reflects this,” said O’Rourke.
After achieving his major campaign goal from last year — dramatically reducing airport transportation costs — O’Rourke said he will turn his attention to “establishing a small ‘micro-gym’ in Ross [and] implementing a pass/ fail option for certain, non major classes.”
O’Rourke explained that previous governments have failed to achieve the establishment of pass/fail classes because some professors worried it might “reduce the value of education.” He aims to tailor the policy to avoid this effect by requiring students to declare their intention to take a class pass/fail before beginning the course.
Reflecting on his experiences from the current academic year, O’Rourke intends to make himself more present on campus. He will hold more office hours in an effort to incorporate a wider range of student interests into his policy decisions.
“An advantage of serving a small student body,” said O’Rourke, “is the ability to respond to the desires of specific students, even if their ideas do not benefit the entire campus.”
Despite losing the election, Verret will continue with his aim of encouraging diversity on campus.
“I’m going to try and achieve my goals with my more limited resources,” said Verret.
Rodrigues, matching O’Rourke in enthusiasm, hopes to use her role to empower her team rather than to advance her own agenda.
“What I’m most excited for is just seeing a group of people come to a decision as a group and not necessarily feeling like I need to play a major role anymore,” said Rodrigues. “I think that’s the nicest part — just having faith in the people I have brought to the table.”
Although Rodriguez is excited to work with others, she maintains allegiance to her campaign agenda. Aside from addressing her major campaign concerns of dish loss, dorm damage and campus vandalism, Rodriguez wishes to confront socio-economic issues at the College.
“I definitely want to streamline how we address book lists and I want to think about study abroad programs,” said Rodrigues.
Although Rodrigues says that she owes her success to her involvement with and knowledge of campus concerns, she admits that she has some qualms with campaigning.
“I know some people value that this position is elected, but perhaps in the future we should pick someone that we as members of the council have seen perform well,” she said. “Also, Community Council is not and will never be about the co-chair, so it seems incompatible with elections.”
(05/05/11 3:57am)
On April 29, the College held its annual Relay for Life in Kenyon Arena. The event was created by the American Cancer Society to raise funds and awareness for cancer research. Attended by hundreds of students, faculty and staff, the event succeeded in raising nearly $125,000, an increase over last year’s $111,000.
The opening ceremonies began at 5 p.m. with addresses from President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz and “Miss Vermont” Caroline Bright. Following the opening addresses, two cancer survivors spoke to the participants and then walked a lap around the arena. Entertainment was provided by Riddim, Zumba, SIM, On Tap and other Middlebury student groups.
Katie Ruymann ’11, co-chair of the Relay for Life committee, described the ceremony that followed the entertainment.
“We put up pictures of survivors and quotes of why we relay,” Ruymann said. “Then we turned off all the lights and did silent lap in which the track was lit from glowsticks inside in memorium bags.” The lap is dedicated to those who have been lost.
In line with the night’s theme “Made in Vermont,” Miss Vermont opened the ceremonies with a speech about a previous Miss Vermont’s experience with cancer. She explained the need to join together and connect with others who have had similar experiences with cancer.
The event lasted through the night until the closing ceremonies at 8 a.m. the next morning. Relay participants took shifts walking laps around the track and sleeping in the tents inside Kenyon Arena. They also enjoyed entertainment varying from music to board games to movies.
The Relay had two parts: one of remembrance and one geared toward the future. The fighting back segment of the relay featured speakers Associate Professor of Biology Jeremy Ward and Sammi Re ’14.5, whose mother passed away from cancer just before she matriculated at Middlebury.
Ward emphasized “the dangers of tobacco smoking,” Ruymann said. The other presentations also focused on future prevention and education regarding cancer.
“We don’t want our next generation to have to suffer from cancer and are hoping that we can do everything we can to achieve a better future,” Relay for Life co-chair Brittany Gendron ’12 said.
Ruymann noted the connections created by Relay for Life beyond normal everyday interactions.
“You could go through your whole career at Middlebury and never know how cancer touched one of your friends, someone on your hall or someone in your class,” Ruymann said. “It really helps us see beyond our everyday Middlebury extracurricular activities and really be touched by someone else’s personal story.”
Gendron agreed and emphasized the fact that the event wasn’t just about the College community, but the town as well.
“It really brings not only the College but the Middlebury community at large together over similar issues,” said Gendron. She recalled that, “At one point we had a huge group hug because we came upon the realization about how precious life is and how lucky we were to have one another.”
While the weather did change the original planning of the event, the co-chairs believed holding it inside was just as successful — if not more so — than in previous the years.
“Inside it was cozy because when it’s outside people camp out on the outside of the track and can often split people up,” Gendron said. In the arena, tents were placed close together, offering the participants close interaction.
The Relay for Life committee spent the entire year preparing for the event, raising money, organizing entertainment and coordinating keynote speakers and other logistics months before the actual event takes place. The committee has over 50 volunteers from both the town and the College.
“We want to thank everyone who participated and helped out with the relay,” said Ruymann. “It was an event that really showed how individuals on a personal level can come together toward change.”
(05/05/11 3:57am)
There are no such things as “good” or “bad” years for music, only relatively good or bad years for music. 2011 is shaping up to be a relatively awesome year. In only four months we’ve seen new and exciting albums by Panda Bear, Radiohead, James Blake and Cut Copy, and the next eight months aren’t looking too shabby either. So to give you a preview of what’s on the horizon, I thought I’d share some of my most anticipated albums of 2011.
Wilco – Get Well Soon Everybody
There’s a common school of thought that, despite his hobo-like appearance, Jeff Tweedy is a demi-god. Wilco fans often cite the breezy pastoral sensibilities of Summerteeth and the breathtaking experimentation of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot as evidence of his divinity. Part alternative country, part experimental rock, the band’s sound is difficult to define, so it’s impossible to know what to expect from their new album due out in September. I guess the best you can do is expect it to blow your mind.
Lil Wayne – Tha Carter IV
Any normal artist as prolific as Lil Wayne would release a studio album every six months. But factor in the drug problems and jail stints, and you might have to wait a few years. After three years, Weezy is scheduled to drop the follow-up to 2008’s outstanding Tha Carter III later this year. Now we can only hope he keeps his promise to “be the same Martian [he] was when [he] left, just better.”
The Shins – TBA
Natalie Portman once famously claimed that The Shins will “change your life.” Whether or not that’s true, their brand of clean and thoughtful guitar pop has helped to define the indie rock sound of the 2000s. With three of the most critically acclaimed albums of the decade under their belt, this next album’s got some big shoes to fill, but frontman James Mercer is up to the task. In a recent interview, he described the new album as “sort of aggressive in a new wave way.” I don’t really know what that means, but I think I like it.
The Avalanches – TBA
It’s been over 10 years since the release of this Australian electro outfit’s groundbreaking, sample-heavy debut album, Since I Left You, and talk of a follow-up has been limited to hearsay ever since. But now it’s official: the new album is slated for release later this year, and although the album is still shrouded in mystery, the band has stated, “It’s so f****n’ party you will die.” Well, I’m excited.
My Morning Jacket – Circuital
Over the past twelve years, My Morning Jacket’s home-brewed, psychedelic roots rock sound has always managed to stay fresh and current. Every album feels strangely unique and familiar, experimental and comfortable. Circuital, recorded in the band’s hometown of Louisville, Ken., already boasts its first single of the same name. A slowly evolving dance between ethereal hums, chugging drums and some mean guitar solos, “Circuital” bodes well for the full-length MMJ release later this month.
Outkast – TBA
Surprise! Outkast has appeared on every “Most Anticipated Albums of the Year” list since 2006, and yet the new album never seems to materialize. 2011 might finally be the year. Pending the success of their solo projects (Big Boi’s was very successful, and Andre 3000’s is on the way), the Atlanta duo promised to begin work on a new album. Judging by Big Boi’s recent display of honed craftsmanship, this will be one of the best hip-hop albums of the year.
(05/05/11 3:56am)
This is my last Reel Critic column for the Campus. It is difficult for me to believe that there is anything more enjoyable than writing about film, as fun as it would be to be embedded in Afghanistan with the Navy Seals (a onetime dream of mine). As I look back on what I’ve written, I recall the pleasure that I derive from the movies. “Prepare to exit disappointed and deeply pessimistic about love,” I wrote about Blue Valentine, and about Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, I raved, “Her character might have been more likeable had Mia Wasikowska, who plays her, not looked as if she was consumptive throughout the film.”
I kid, but an informal survey of the films I’ve watched over the past few years does betray a depressing truth. More often than not, the movies that we grant the most attention to, willingly or unwillingly, are not just bad, but laughable, to the point where you wonder if the producers were conducting a social experiment on humankind to see what people would pay around $12 to see — for example, Fast Five (the fifth installment in the Fast and the Furious franchise), Hop, an animated film about talking Easter bunnies, Gnomeo and Juliet — I don’t even know — and Never Say Never, the Justin Bieber documentary. Incidentally, this is a list compiled from the past two months’ box office No. Ones. I did pick the most egregious examples, but what I left off wasn’t particularly impressive. I’m looking at you, ensemble romantic comedies.
Reviewers and serious, well-intentioned and sometimes overbearing cinephiles (I include myself among the latter) have been complaining about the decaying state of cinema for decades, from the days of Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut — who took it upon themselves to create good cinema, practicing what they preached — to the forlorn A.O. Scott and friends today. And yet, short of upending capitalism, which I have to say would probably be a net loss for the film industry, what else is there to do but what we do best: criticize. As Scott once tweeted (making this the second time I have quoted Twitter in an article — see you in the afterlife, print media), “Onward. There are movies out there that need reviewing! Bad ideas that need refuting. Criticism is not a job. It’s a way of life.” While I am far too cynical to believe that a combination of sharp analysis, clever quips and some good old-fashioned shaming would be enough to reform the tastes of the movie-going public, I do think it has the power to function as its own form of entertainment and, occasionally, edification.
Despite my curmudgeonly attitude, there are things to look forward to in cinema, and not just as objects of ridicule. Great directors and writers such as the Coen brothers, Aaron Sorkin, Charlie Kaufman and others continue to produce consistently fresh and interesting work. I expect exciting things from new filmmakers — Tom Ford, Derek Cianfrance — and old, such as Scorcese, Almodovar and Polanski. Terrence Malick’s latest film in six years, The Tree of Life, comes out this year; Tarantino has a Western going into production, and I will admit every year I hold out hope that the new Woody Allen film will contain some of the discreet offensiveness of the bourgeoisie that made him great. Finally, there is always the promise of new and undiscovered talent, as well as those two Osama bin Laden films that have already been greenlit.
Even if my current state of unemployment becomes permanent, I intend to comment on films as if it were my job, a quality I’m sure my parents will continue to find adorable. I will gladly deal with the occasional disappointment or fury — the latter is in specific reference to Sofia Coppola — by channeling it into a discussion, on paper or in person, with others who invest questionable amounts of time into arguing about that sort of thing (often on the internet). Speaking of which, my co-writer and friend Brad Becker-Parton will carry on the tradition of fine commentary, peppered with snarky asides, in these pages for another semester. Brad, after all, is the thinking man’s Jesse Eisenberg.
And, if cinema completely fails us, there is still a modicum of hope — television is pretty good these days.
(05/05/11 3:56am)
Thanks to the work and vision of many students and faculty, the College community will likely see a dramatically new Atwater Commons area this fall. After months of planning and review, the College has begun to finalize plans for the area’s re-landscaping.
The undertaking, more commonly known as “Turf Battle,” began in Fall 2010 with a request for students to submit their own ideas for redesigning the area. In March, three plans were selected as finalists and each group gave a presentation to members of the College community. Instead of choosing just one of the three, all have been combined into a single plan with the help of the Burlington-based landscaping firm, H. Keith Wagner Partnership (HKW-P).
Students, faculty and staff agree that the space between the Atwater buildings has not lived up to its potential, as it is often plagued by mud and offers little opportunity for functional use.
“Just think about the tire tracks through the quad, or the lack of any green grass,” wrote Tim Parsons, College landscape horticulturist and project leader, in an email. “A big part of landscaping is making the outdoors visually appealing and attractive, and the Atwater area [currently] fails on both counts … It seems like it isn't an area to spend time in, just a place to pass through.”
The project, pending permits and implementation, is slated to break ground this summer and be completed before classes begin in September at a cost of $150- $175,000.
Funding for the project was originally planned to come from a $105,000 allocation set aside in the Facilities Services operational budget for 2011, wrote Vice President for Administration and Professor of American Studies Tim Spears in an email. The remaining balance will be funded first by $55,000 in the 2012 budget, and if necessary, by the Renewal and Replacement Reserve, “a large fund that we use on an annual basis to support facilities projects,” Spears added.
Concerns remain, however, about the disruption the construction will have on summer Language School participants on campus, many of whom who will be staying in the Atwater suites. The construction at Atwater will also occur simultaneously with work being done at Forest Hall and the Kevin P. Mahaney ’84 Center for the Arts.
“We might need to slow down the project given the potential impact of the noise on the Language Schools,” Spears said.
Language school alumnus Nina Wright ’12, who studied Chinese during the 2010 session, added that while construction could be disruptive to those who live in the Atwater suites, the damage to the learning environment would likely be minimal because the construction will be far from where most classroom learning occurs.
Spears explained that the design plan currently envisions the creation of “outdoor rooms,” allowing the area to feel more protected rather than the “naked, barren” space it is now. The goal is that the new environment will be small and cozy, separating it from the openness of areas like Battell Beach and the other areas around campus that feature sweeping vistas.
The most popular spaces on campus, Parsons added, “tend to be smaller in scale then you realize, and many have distinct boundaries, such as Proctor Terrace, or outside Ross dining.”
Peter Hirsch ’12, an architecture and environmental studies joint major is optimistic about the designs.
“The planned landscaping for Atwater will give the commons a cohesive visual identity, something that it lacks currently,” Hirsch wrote in an email. “The hardscapes and lawns in the proposal will be much more functional than the current conditions.”
While College officials and HKW-P attempted to carry over many features from the student plans, including the idea for a rain garden, no-mow zones and a patio with informal seating, some ideas had to be eliminated because of subterranean features, such as ledge and utility lines.
The new area will be separated from the Atwater parking lot — visually and, to a certain extent, physically — by plantings around a “rain garden,” or a storm water retention pond with plantings in and around it.
The plantings are designed to block both views of the parking lot and ameliorate the wind tunnel created by the corridor in between the two residence halls. Above the pond will be a no-mow zone where grass would be allowed to grow uninhibited, and above that small section a lawn that could be used for recreation.
The area above the first transverse path will also serve as another lawn for recreation, re-graded from what it is now to allow for play on a flat surface. Separating the newly created levels will be a wall, perpendicular to the Atwater buildings. Throughout the area, four elm trees will be planted to further break up the hard lines of the Atwater buildings.
The plantings — grass, shrubbery and trees — in this area will have the double effect of providing aesthetic appeal and addressing the central concern of hard and often muddy ground.
On the Atwater side of Chateau will be a new 90-person seating area for Atwater dining hall. The informal seating will be within a grove of birch trees to provide much-needed shade in the summer months.
Birch trees will also be planted on the south ends of the Atwater halls and next to Allen to increase the aesthetic appeal of the buildings.
While inviting on the outside, some worry that the trees threaten to cut much-needed light to the rooms in Allen and Chateau.
“I hope that the planned birches next to Allen and Chateau do not create more shade for rooms and the Grand Salon which already have minimal access to sunlight,” Hirsch wrote in an email.
Parsons notes that the birch trees will likely be thin and low, and would not block much sunlight because the rooms are north-facing: they would not ordinarily receive direct light.
Behind Allen, near the “E” parking lot, will be another rain garden similar to the one near the Atwater parking lot that will feature evergreen trees and shrubbery. The planting will eliminate the current dirt trail leading from the parking lot to Atwater dining hall; access will be limited to the stairs under the building and the paths between Allen and the Wright Memorial Theater.
The College hopes to break ground on the project in the coming months, and is waiting on permits to be secured. Students can follow the process and review the plans at http://blogs.middlebury.edu/turfbattle/.
(05/05/11 3:55am)
Students from across the northeast descended upon the College April 29-30 for the Campus Cultivation Conference. Hosted by the Middlebury College Organic Farm (MCOF), the conference convened to discuss the challenges of creating a garden or farm on a college campus.
Approximately 20 students from Williams, Wesleyan, Wellesley, Hamilton and Amherst participated in the conference, in addition to members of the MCOF. Susie Walsh, director of the UVM Farmer Apprentice Program, delivered the keynote address on Saturday morning.
“We wanted to bring together students from colleges similar to Middlebury and that have farms or gardens similar to our own,” wrote organizer Max Odland ’12 in an email. “We thought that having relatively young farms at small liberal arts colleges, we are all facing similar challenges, and it makes a lot of sense for us to get together and share the ideas and solutions we've come up with at our respective farms.”
According to organizer Amanda Warren ’12, the conference was specifically targeted towards students. Organizers did not charge a registration fee in order to encourage student participation.
The conference was broken down into a series of film screenings, workshops, lectures and time to discuss ideas in a relaxed forum.
Warren described how each workshop featured students from every school attending in order to ensure the spread of ideas.
“Most of the specific challenges we discussed were centered around the idea of solidifying a school's garden or farm into the college culture,” wrote Warren in an email. “We specifically talked about creative ways to recruit new volunteers and get a range of students to participate.”
“We also discussed the logistics of where the food from each school's garden is sold,” she added. “We discussed the pros and cons of selling at organic prices, at selling directly to dining and giving food free of charge to students.”
“We may not have found solutions to all of the challenges we're facing, but nobody was really expecting that,” explained Odland. “What we found is that we had a lot to teach the other schools who attended, and a lot to learn from them as well.”
In one workshop, students broke into groups and planned hypothetical garden events. Another workshop focused on strategies for incorporating agricultural activities into the academic curriculum.
Odland hopes that the conference will leave a lasting legacy.
“Everyone who came is excited about making this conference a recurring event. Hopefully this time next year we'll be gathering at one of their farms with even more young farmers!”
(04/29/11 7:50pm)
Since December of last year the Middle East has been the scene of mass revolt and rebellion. Liberty has become the byword of hundreds and thousands of people rising up against the oppressive and brutal regimes which have controlled their political destinies for far too long. The heartstrings of the United States, a nation which has tied itself to the principles of liberty and equality since it was first created, have been pulled by the pleas of the citizens of these countries. Their political destiny seems linked to our own through the principles we avow. Their cries seem to be a more vibrant, more demanding and more desperate version of those chanted in the last election by the majority of American people: hope…change….
The regimes of Egypt, Yemen, Tunisia, the Bahrain and Libya have in common a definite lack of liberty, of equality, of reason to hope and of expectation for change. With only a slight risk of being decidedly over broad it can be said that these countries have not had governments so much as legitimized repression, brutality, and exploitation. The political situation in which the citizens of these countries live far and away fulfills the conditions under which a people can appropriately claim the rights, described by Locke and written into the American Declaration of Independence, to rebel and revolt. No social contract made by human beings legitimately allows for the kind of repression many of the rebels have endured. For these people to demand liberty, to demand freedom and to demand an end to repression is natural, understandable and praiseworthy.
Nonetheless, liberty is not an absolute right and it is sometimes not an unequivocal good. Pure liberty is in the interest of no one and can be the basis of no political society. Thoughtful human beings do not want freedom simply; they want rights such as the freedom of speech and association and the free exercise of religion; they desire to live without fear of violence, to pursue their dreams, and even to create a new and better political system. Liberal governments of the kind found in the United States, England, France, and Germany do not protect the absolute freedom of their citizens but their liberties: they protect a particular and limited set of rights. In securing these rights governments necessarily limit the rights of other s to act as they please, creating a balance between liberty and equality, freedom and order. Therefore when people call for liberty they should be understood to demand an end to oppression and the freedom to act in specific ways. This the citizens of the repressed countries in Africa and the Middle East have not explicitly said. Just as the American people did in the 2010 election, they limit their cries to a demand for hope and change without defining for what they hope and what change they would support. This is a mistake.
Liberty, freedom and hope are wonderful slogans. When spoken they sound like heartfelt pleas. But they invoke great emotion and spread an irrational expectation of a better future. If a better future is to be achieved it cannot merely be hoped for and imagined; rather, its character and the means to achieve it must be rationally, thoughtfully considered. Careful planning and not fleeting emotions must prepare a people to reform their political institutions. The citizens of the Middle East rationally look for an end to repression but irrationally they direct their gaze into the future to provide it. They call for their leaders to step down but do not seem to have detailed considerations regarding what or who should take their places. From the other side of the world and a completely different perspective the United States looks on. It is not our place to challenge the rebels to clarify their plans, but we can ask appropriate questions. Instead we seem to be allowing our heart stings to determine our actions.
Recently President Obama gave a speech on the United State’s decision to actively aid in creating a no fly zone across Libya. The United States, he argued, had ‘a responsibility to act’ in the face of the violence, and brutality that Colonel Qaddafi rained down upon his own people. The United States, one of the most powerful countries in the world, committed to humanitarianism, to justice and to liberty, could not stand by. In many ways I agree with the President’s assessment of the situation. What do principles like justice and freedom mean if they are not defended when directly attacked? How can any country which values human life watch as citizens are murdered by their own leaders? Yet however much I share this view I must acknowledge that this perspective by itself is an irrational and insufficiently considered justification for action.. No single country can defend these principles whenever they are put into jeopardy. Not even the very powerful can prevent every instance of violence and brutality. Even if one nation could act throughout the world to prevent brutality, prevention alone is not enough. These regimes must be replaced with something better, and liberty must be protected along with the limitations which make it worthwhile. The decision to aid in the plight of the Libyan people may be correct. However we must be aware that hope and change are not enough. They must lead to a realizable goal and a reachable future.
(04/28/11 2:46pm)
Seopmana, an annual music festival organized by WRMC, brought four acts to the stage Friday night at McCullough Social Space.
Das Racist, Free Energy, Oberhofe, and the Ivorys played for over four hours to a crowd that grew steadily towards capacity. The acts were sequenced well, giving the night a dramatic progression of revelry in four acts. Power-trio The Ivorys took the stage around 8:30 and played a raucous set to a small but receptive and growing crowd. Oberhofer played an artier and fussier, but no less enthusiastic, set as the place filled. With the endearing and sincerely fun Free Energy onstage, the night reached a climax. Hip-hop threesome Das Racist took the stage and brought the evening to a chaotic, rebellious close.
The Ivorys are a loud, chugging, revivalist rock band from Chicago featuring Sam White ’11 on bass. He splits vocal duties with Neil Candelora, the group’s versatile guitarist, and the group is anchored by drummer Brendan Lazar. Their songs bow before tested rock values like volume, simplicity and youth.
Four piece band Oberhofer brought a bit more theatricality to the stage. Dressed in polka dots, frontman Brad Oberhofer danced around stage as if he was “trying to make himself fall down while trying to stay on his feet at the same time,” observed Brittany Thomas ’14, wearing shoes that looked incredibly slippery, with a drip of curly black hair in his eyes, playing guitar, singing and yelping all the while. They play a brand of rock that proposes many grooves but refuses to relax into one. The band has received positive notices from internet critics, as well as a great deal of play on WRMC, and many in attendance sang and danced along. Brad Oberhofer is taking the year off from studying piano at NYU to tour with his eponymous band.
Philadelphia band Free Energy played an unabashed brand of rock and roll that had its heyday in the 1970s, in groups like Bad Company, Thin Lizzy and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Their hook-laden, exuberant set found a sweet spot somewhere between glam and power-pop and remained there for the show’s duration, eliciting fist-pumps and high-fives from the increasingly sweaty crowd. Lead singer Paul Sprangers gyrated lankily, flanked by the two guitarists whose dexterous interaction buoyed the arrangements and kept the band from sounding derivative. Theirs is a sound that baits comparison and influence-guessing, awash as it is in rock-genre signifiers like finger-tapped guitar solos and power chords. But they brought new life to the well-worn classic rock canon. They sounded like Queen, at times, or Journey — or maybe they have a sound all their own.
They are talented and confident musicians, if not wildly inventive, and the success of their set had as much to do with their attitudes as it did with their music.
“Sweet. This rules,” said Sprangers as he took the stage, and all five band members seemed to genuinely have a great time on stage together in front of the crowd. One journalist — scribbling a note about the eccentricities of Oberhofer’s footwear into a mini notepad — was struck lightly in the head by the neck of lead guitarist Geoff Bucknum’s guitar while Bucknum was mid-shred. Bucknum returned when the song was over to apologize good-naturedly. A minute later he leaned into the crowd while soloing (he soloed melodiously, often, and well) and pressed the body of his guitar into the face of an audience member, who stood still and held his hand to his cheek and stared wide-eyed, as if cured, for the elapsed time of one sugary chorus, sweaty and emblazoned with all six guitar strings.
The stage was then stripped and drum kits, guitars, microphone stands and the mass of cables that comprised the gear of the three preceding rock groups was replaced by a folding table on which sat three cordless mics and a laptop computer. This tableau nicely sums up Das Racist’s aesthetic: subversive, minimal and funny. It also betrayed the shortcomings of their performance. Their funny, incisive and intelligent lyrics were often obscured, and at times they so subverted the concert-goers expectations as to barely perform at all.
A certain tension informed their show. The trio — MCs Heems and Kool A.D. and hypeman Dap — arrived onstage as if unsure of how they got there. Their show was shambolic, invigorating and unsettling. Heems wandered around the stage in socks like a teenager stumbling into the kitchen in the afternoon to breakfast on Pop Tarts. Kool A.D. made faces and distributed the group’s bottled water to the audience. At times, they faced the audience with a mix of indifference and antagonism, which, when in front of a ticket-holding audience amount to the exact same thing.
But at times they were explosively cool.
At their best, they tunnel beneath the predictable veneer of contemporary hip-hop and plant their dynamite. Sometimes, as on their first single “Combination Pizza Hut/Taco Bell,” they just have dumb fun. Their appeal as rappers has to do with how they poke fun at hip-hop without sacrificing the things that make it great. They rhyme brilliantly and flow smoothly. They are perhaps the only MCs capable of dropping classicist hip-hop refernces, vapid internet lingo, nonsense and aspects of the liberal arts curriculum in the same 10 seconds, as they do on “Nutmeg”: “Queens Boulevard / Kierkegaard / Hustle hard / hustle hustle / oh em gee / ah ma gard / oh my God”. They rap over beats from a range of great producers some of which are catchy and accessible enough to flirt with commercial success. But commercial success is not what this group is after.
Is cool necessarily ironic? It was difficult to tell, watching them perform, how sincere they are, and how engaged, and if they are serious or joking or just stoned. These are questions they cultivate in their music, often explicitly, as in the song “hahahaha jk?,” the chorus of which goes: “we’re not joking, just joking, we are joking, just joking, we’re not joking.” Is it nonsense, or an indictment of ironical posturing and our generation’s generally insipid discourse? And are they laughing at us, or with us? This tension is what makes their music so vital and interesting. If their performance Friday night did not successfully answer any of these questions, in posing them they proved why they are a valuable, necessary, and vibrant part of our culture.
They have an obvious love of hip-hop and pop-culture, but rather than emulate the genre’s heroes they seemed to treat their own music with ambivalence. Heems was sleepy, and Kool A.D. was goofy; perhaps this explains the presence of hype man Dap, whose enthusiasm never once flagged.
Their particular brand of humor is ironic and subversive, more interested in breaking things down than building a new … what? That question remains unanswered. On Friday night they began by breaking down stereotypes, cultural norms and, eventually, rock and roll equipment. Throughout the show Kool A.D. strolled to the back of the auditorium to terrorize the gear the three preceding bands had stashed there. At one point he brought the drummer’s swivel chair to the fore of the stage and, lying prone on his belly, swiveled 360 degrees while rhyming. Later in the show he set up Oberhofer’s glockenspiel and raked his mic across the keys. While samples of distorted guitar played from tracks cued on the laptop, he played air guitar as if he had a very rough idea of how a guitar is played, or what that might look like. Or he was mocking the instrument, or celebrating it, with his own strange brand of exuberance.
(04/28/11 2:43pm)
Professor of Literary Studies and editor of the critically acclaimed New England Review (NER) Stephen Donadio welcomed the room of literary enthusiasts at 51 Main on Tuesday, April 19 to the first night of the NER Vermont Reading Series. He spoke of the project as an endeavor of the NER, in partnership with the Vermont Book Shop, to bring writers out of their normally silent and solitary occupations of contemplation and into the spotlight in front of the public. Some of the readers have been published in the NER and some were unpublished. The readings gave authors and amateurs a chance to enervate their words with their own voices, and offered local residents a night of high quality literary encounters as an audience.
The night started with Kellam Ayres, circulation services coordinator at the College and alumna of the Bread Loaf School of English, who read some of her delicate poems that delved into intimate moments and choices involved with human experience in a very specific place. Castle Freeman Jr., a novelist from Newfane, Vt., read an excerpt depicting “a minor movie star’s lecherous weekend at the shore.” Hailing from southern Vermont, Ted Gilley read some narrative poems about places he’s lived or been affected by, a poignant poem in memoriam to a friend and a droll piece about Pinocchio with lines tinged with satire like, “If I complain at all it’s because I’m nearly human.” Visiting Assistant Professor of English & American Literatures Kathryn Kramer closed the show, reading from her memoirs. The chapter she chose was a sharply observant and touching account of her childhood memories of growing up at St. John’s College, where her father taught. Her writing was as well-paced and rich as that of Alice Munro or Annie Dillard. She was able to articulate the fleeting profundities we encounter and cannot fully grasp in our youth, but must puzzle out as we accumulate experience. The depth of her attention and beauty of her honest recollections were crafted into a piece that ended the night of readings perfectly. Each reading was of the utmost quality and provided very different displays for the delighted listeners that leaned in from all sides of 51 Main.
The pleasure of attending a literary reading comes from the way a story is nuanced when read aloud by its own writer. The sense and tone is revealed as the author thinks it; the layers of the writers’ brain are given color and we have another lens through which to view the work — a direct-from-the-source experience. The page is rich, but the voice and public presence of the author is an exceptional chance for exposure to their work in a completely new light.
Ayres, the first reader, inserted a small side note halfway through her set: “Sometimes when I read this next poem, called ‘Graceland,’ people feel inspired to tell me their own Graceland story…” It was this comment and a lovely anecdotal poem about a Tennessee trip that followed that made for one of the best revelations of the night. The appeal of a public reading is the sense that afterwards, you can approach the author and add your two cents. If a poem or piece of prose sparked a reminiscence, the ability to walk up to the human face who created that resonating art can make a remarkable connection, taking the words off the page and using them to bring people together in some small slice of human solidarity. As the Vermont Reading Series continues, these serendipitous bonds will very likely grow.
“Reading and writing are lonely activities,” said Donadio at the opening of the event, but it seems that this reading series will be a source of connection and community for the wordsmiths of Vermont in the coming months.
(04/28/11 2:42pm)
The poster set the bar pretty high: three stylish musicians standing against a rugged backdrop, wielding instruments and sporting aviators. And then there was the program, claiming “we we we so excited to be performing.” Yes, last Sunday’s recital featuring the musical styling of Sarah Harney ‘12, Sean Dennison ’11 and Zheng Zheng ’11 was an event Rebecca Black would have been proud of, and a musical treat for all involved. The group performed a varied and invigorating selection of pieces to a healthy sized audience in the CFA concert hall, showcasing some of the College’s finest musical ability that will surely be missed when two thirds of the trio graduate this May.
An unusual and inventive feature of the concert was the variety of instrumentalists — the afternoon opened with a performance of the classic solo cello “Prelude No. 1 in G major” and progressed through two solo violin pieces, a cello and piano duet and finally a cello, violin and piano trio. To open with a Bach cello suite was a bold move; the piece is probably the best known amongst professional repertoire. It was nevertheless a wonderful listening experience, taken at a steady legato with incredibly delicate higher register.
The performance set the standard for the rest of the afternoon, as Dennison took to the stage to perform Strauss’s “Sonata in F major” with Harney. The three-movement work allowed for a full exposition of the pair’s lyrical sense; most memorable was the textural variety in the first movement, shifting between solo instrumental sections, moments of dialogue between the two and well-balanced melody and accompaniment. The second movement also allowed the supple phrasing of the piano to shine through, as well as the impressive sound and unity of all their dynamic movements. Ringing higher notes cut through the wallowing cello melody in a soft polyphony.
The second half of the concert again began with solo performances; Zheng’s rendition of the prelude to Bach’s “Partita No. 3 in E major” was technically astounding. Dennison, who played piano in the first half of the concert, surprised many as he strolled onstage with a violin in hand.
Concert-goer Sarah Barnhart ’12 said.“I was really confused. I thought he was the pianist. What was he doing with a violin?” Despite this initial confusion, Dennison’s unreal musicianship shone through in his performance of Ysaye’s “Sonata in A minor.”The piece, a mixture of classical melodies and sudden interruptions, must have been challenging to pull off, and the haunting modality Dennison was able to achieve was a testament to true musical flair. As Barnhart later said, “He stunned me, but there were no tazers involved.”
The trio reunited onstage for a final jazzy number, where their musical styles fused to create an energetic finale. The group, which has been performing together since 2009, agreed that it was a great way to end their performance.
“It’s been amazing and rehearsals are always fun”, said Harney. Although Dennison and Zheng will be leaving the College in May, you can watch for Harney’s rich sound in Middlebury College Orchestra performances next year.
(04/28/11 2:38pm)
You’d be hard-pressed to find two film genres more different than romantic comedies and boxing movies. Professor of Film and Media Culture Leger Grindon strives to examine and analyze these genres in two new books, Hollywood Romantic Comedy: Conventions, History, Controversies and Knockout: The Boxer and Boxing in American Cinema.
Though rarely explored in analytical detail, the romantic comedy genre remains a strong force in Hollywood entertainment. Hollywood Romantic Comedy builds a canon of key films from the classical era to present day, and offers full analyses of romantic comedy conventions such as dramatic conflict, characters, settings, plots and function of humor. Grindon analyzes films such as “When Harry Met Sally” and “Meet the Parents.”
Knockout explores the lesser-known genre of boxing films. The character of the boxer has always shaped America’s idea of manhood, but rarely have these films been analyzed in great detail. Knockout is the first book-length study of this genre, focusing on dramatic conflicts and social concerns. Grindon relates the Hollywood boxing film to the literature of Jack London and Ernest Hemingway, and also discusses controversies surrounding masculinity, race and sports. In Knockout, Grindon analyzes both classic boxing films such as “Rocky” and “Raging Bull,” as well as contemporary films such as “Million Dollar Baby” and “The Fighter.”
Grindon, who has taught film courses at the College since 1987, is no stranger to writing and publishing — his essays and reviews have been published in numerous journals such as Film Quarterly and Cinema Journal. He also served on the editorial board of Cinema Journal from 1999-2002.
Middlebury Campus: Tell me about your books.
Leger Grindon: There are two books coming out. One is already out and it is called Hollywood Romantic Comedy: Conventions, History, Controversies. The second one is called Knockout: The Boxer and Boxing in American Cinema. In some ways, I feel the titles are very descriptive. [Hollywood Romantic Comedy] discusses the conventions and history of romantic comedy, the controversies surrounding them and commentaries on 10 films beginning in 1932 [through each decade]. In many ways, the book on boxing films is very similar. Though [boxing films] are not as prominent as romantic comedies, the book talks about the conventions of boxing films, like how they relate to particular stellar fighters in the sport and other social issues. It talks about a series of boxing films, where I argue about the fundamental dramatic conflict that drives the films forward. As you might imagine, boxing films are pertinent to physicality. Most boxing films move until a point where the boxer becomes champion and then begins to decline. A large part of the end of the film, depending on the film, deals with the boxer’s waning physical power and how he deals with that. Some boxing films [like “Million Dollar Baby”] deal with the notion that at one point the boxer’s physical prowess is the basis of their self esteem. Once that begins to fade, the boxer has to search out other aspects of themselves. The conflict lies in finding other spiritual sources of value apart from one’s physical abilities.
MC: What made you want to write about boxing films?
LG: I wanted to write a book about Hollywood genre. Westerns, romantic comedies, horror films. What I wanted to do was to find a body of Hollywood films organized around particular conventions and storytelling formula. I had this idea that I wanted to explore further that genre films function like cultural myth. They’re related to fairytales — they dramatize particular problems widespread within culture. Problems that are complicated, without an easy solution, serve as the basis for a series of films, and no single film can solve this problem. It can only give the audience a particular perspective on a problem. With that in mind, I was thinking about different Hollywood genres that hadn’t been explored in much detail, not because I was particularly interested in boxing, but films like “Rocky” and “Raging Bull”, or most recently, “The Fighter,” hadn’t been written about in terms of film scholarship. It was a new and fresh territory. I watched a lot of boxing films and came up with a thesis. I watched the films’ historical evolution.
MC: What inspired you to write your second book about romantic comedy?
LG: Ironically, I finished writing the boxing book in 2005 and I was approached by a publisher about writing a book on sports films in general. He suggested sports since he was familiar with my earlier work. But boxing films were a bit on the grim side, so I decided to write about romantic comedy instead. There had already been books written on horror and western films, and so [the publisher] asked me to write a book on a genre they hadn’t covered yet.
MC: Is this your first time publishing?
LG: These are my second and third books. The first book was called Shadows on the Past and was published in 1993.
MC: When will these two books be published?
LG: Knockout will be published this June. Hollywood Romantic Comedy was published a few weeks ago.
MC: How did you approach writing about boxing films?
LG: I was writing all the time. It took me a long time to write the boxing book. I wasn’t quite sure about how I was going to approach the problem, and there were a lot of boxing films to watch. It took me a while to get a clear sense of what to do and where I wanted it to go. By contrast with the romantic comedy book, I agreed on a topic and it all went fairly smoothly. But it is patterned on the same approach as the boxing book, just on a different topic. I taught romantic comedy courses so that project went very smoothly, but it still took four years from the time the publisher approached me in 2007 to its completion.
MC: Do you have any future publications planned?
LG: I’m working on a short article on the sequences in “Raging Bull,” and some other smaller projects. The next big project, I’m not quite sure. It will probably arise from my teachings and courses. I’ll be teaching courses like Hollywood Film Noir, Methods in Film Criticism [and] Hollywood Cinema from 1966-1976.
(04/28/11 2:37pm)
Chaz Bundick makes music with the sensibility of a DJ more than that of any conventional songwriter. He is a skilled manipulator of mood, texture and ambiance, and both of his albums as Toro Y Moi have been very well sequenced, each track flowing naturally into the next, just like a good DJ set. This sense of flow carried him through his debut, Causers of This, but his sophomore LP Underneath the Pine has loftier ambitions, and Bundick will need a few more tools in his musical arsenal before he can pull off an album of this scope.
Causers of This was a pleasant little trip through a well-rendered sonic landscape; simple and pretty if a bit underwhelming. Underneath the Pine is arguably the stronger record, due to the highs of the moments where it succeeds, but its attempt at a bigger vision ensures that these highs are matched with glaring flaws. Veering away from electronic textures towards a wide array of woozy, warm analog sounds from some unplaceable but distinctly retro era, Pine has some interesting, genre-bending moments. Unfortunately, Bundick often gets bogged down in a stew of sonic imitation that leaves the record with a lack of personality.
What’s strange, then, is that some of the record’s best tracks are the ones that seem the most straightforwardly imitative. “New Beat” and “Still Sound” are prime specimens of a sort of foggy, buttoned-up funk that first appeared on Causers. Along with “Go With You” and the surprisingly replayable “Intro Chi Chib” they borrow liberally from French pop like Air and Daft Punk. Here, Bundick nails the atmosphere and genre nostalgia, but unlike much of the album, memorable melodies and tight arrangements are there to support it.
This brings us to the more immediate problem with much of the album: Bundick’s flat, bland vocals and his lack of interest in consistently writing memorable hooks and choruses on songs that desperately need them. The cheesy flourishes fueled by genre-worship (harpsichord, out-of-time bongos, straight-outta-Funkytown synths) can work when there’s a strong, compelling presence at the center. (Destroyer’s newest album could not be a more perfect example of this phenomenon.) But when one of Bundick’s almost-monotone melodies and nonemotive vocal performances finds itself in the spotlight, the borrowing feels more like parody than homage, and aimless grooves like “Got Blinded” and “How I Know” become just plain irritating. Despite those aforementioned highlights, this facelessness plagues more than half the album, and such inconsistency leaves me feeling cold when Pine runs its course.
Still, the album ends on a positive note, and so will I. Closer “Elise” may be the most impressive song on Underneath the Pine, unifying the record’s borrowed sonics and its uniquely fuzzy, psychedelic atmospherics and backing it all up with some honest pop moments — namely the emphatic chorus. It’s a song that shows he’s capable of achieving the unique blend of styles that he shoots for on Underneath the Pine, and if he continues to hone his skills as a songwriter while remaining a skilled technician, there may yet be a truly enduring Toro Y Moi album on its way.
(04/28/11 2:36pm)
The original Portal was something of an anomaly in the gaming world. What started as an independent project by some students turned into a small game that came packaged in Valve’s “Orange Box,” a collection of the Half Life games, Portal and the multiplayer shooter Team Fortress 2. Portal became one of the biggest memes to hit the Internet. And how could it have not? The game featured amazingly fun gameplay (the likes of which players had never seen before), the lovable Companion Cube and the hilarious-yet-terrifying homicidal super-computer GLaDOS who even sang for you as the credits were rolling. A sequel was inevitable, and we should be thankful.
Portal 2 is everything a sequel should be: it maintains the core mechanics that made the original fantastic while improving on absolutely everything else. The player finds himself or herself in the role of Chell, the silent portal-gun-wielding protagonist, who is trying to find her way out of an abandoned Aperture Science testing facility before her old rival, GLaDOS, turns up the deadly neurotoxin to 11 and kills her.
The gameplay is largely intact from the original. Chell has a portal gun, and she shoots her blue and orange portals in different places to freely travel between them. The velocity mechanism stays the same as the player travels through portals, so using some clever physics-based gameplay, players will find themselves flying across test chambers to the finsh line.
Portal 2 throws a bunch of new mechanics into the mix, such as different colored goos that change the physical properties of the objects they touch, “hard light” that can be used as shields or bridges and gravity funnels that slowly drift you in a single direction. It all makes for very compelling and fun gameplay. However, I couldn’t help but notice that despite all these new ingredients added to the mix, the puzzles were generally easier than those in the original. I understand that Portal 2 is its own product and not a side project meant for a collection; in this manner, Valve wouldn’t want to isolate the casual gaming crowd who may grow frustrated and give up. I can see why they would want to do this, and the story is far too amazing to pass up.
Players will be exploring much more diverse environments in this installment. I really can’t explain much more without ruining a major plot point, but trust me: it’s quite the treat. What I can say is that even the environment feels alive this time around. Since GLaDOS controls the entire Aperture Science facility, she controls the test chambers you must survive. As Chell enters the room, the panels on the wall readjust or fix themselves (in a seemingly modest way). You can tell that you are inside what is basically a sentient being, which makes the crushing loneliness of the game even more powerful.
This game also introduces a few new characters to the mix, the most obvious (and hilarious) being Wheatley. Wheatley is a robotic orb with a single blue eye voiced by Stephen Merchant (Extras) and delivers a mind-blowing performance. Wheatley, despite being a disembodied orb and only having a few metal panels that he uses to convey emotion, expresses so much personality and is much more believable than any human character I’ve seen in recent games. There are moments in the game where players can stop what they are doing and just listen to Wheatley talk to himself. Lines of dialogue are never repeated or recycled, and the writing is absolute gold. Backing up Merchant is Ellen McLain, who returns to reprise her role as GLaDOS. McLain brings GLaDOS back to life (literally and figuratively) and through her flawless voice work, she is able to make you fear her in the beginning of the game, then feel sympathy and then even a sense of closeness in the end. As if McLain and Merchant don’t rob the show, J.K Simmons (Spiderman, Juno) literally comes out of nowhere and delivers some of the funniest dialogue in the entire game. And that is saying a lot, because in terms of humor, Portal 2 is the funniest game on the market right now. The writing, all the way to the very end of the game, is some of the very best the industry has to offer. The characters are well-developed, the environment grows, back-story is added, the dialogue is hilarious and, shockingly, the protagonist never utters a single word. The single player mode is something that must be experienced, even if it is a tad short; my final playthrough was about five and a half hours. The last half hour of the game is climatic and ties everything together, yet leaves just enough room for speculation for a third installment of the series. But just because the credits rolled doesn’t mean the game is over.
Portal 2 introduces a cooperative mode where two players (each with their own portal gun) must work together to get through an entirely different set of test chambers. Nothing is recycled from the single player mode; even GLaDOS’s dialogue is unique to co-op mode. Gameplay can take place either online or on the same console via splitscreen. I highly recommend you play it with someone you know, and in real life sitting next to each other. Not only is it easier to manage each other’s directions when together, but it’s such a fun and unique experience to share with a friend. The puzzles require legitimate teamwork and there’s nothing quite as satisfying as completing a puzzle on the first attempt. Co-op mode also features very useful in-game tools, such as markers that can point out special objects within the environment and even a timer so players can synchronize their actions. Like the game says, “Now you’re thinking with Portals.” The co-op adds not only an interesting piece to the story, but an additional 4-5 hours to the total gameplay.
Portal 2 is a game that oozes charm and technical finesse. It’s an amazing gameplay experience, and you will probably get a laugh or two from it. Occasionally people ask me, “You’re 20 years old and in college, why are you still playing video games?” Portal 2 is now an acceptable answer.
Portal 2 gets a 10/10. Go play it. Seriously.
(04/28/11 4:34am)
If Midd Kids are buzzing about something, it is probably up on MiddBlog. Or it will be in an hour or so.
According to the blog’s “About” page, “Our only hard and fast rule about submissions is that it must be relevant to the Middlebury College community.” Last week’s topics included an interview with David Sanger of the New York Times, who spoke in Mead Chapel on Wednesday; an informative yet straightforward review of the student-created show If; and an introduction to AddSeven, the latest online fad to hit the small New England college circuit.
Founder Ryan Kellett ’09.5 initially intended to use MiddBlog to keep students informed about campus events.
“The Middlebury website and even dining hall table tents were sorely lacking and often were inaccurate,” Kellett wrote in an email. “I wanted a way to highlight events around campus that students cared about.”
During his sophomore year, he approached the founders of Wesleying — a blog run by Wesleyan students — for guidance.
“And they gave me good advice: “keep blogging, it will take time to build an audience,” he wrote.
As it turned out, event updates alone did not quite provide the necessary spark. In fact, Kellett traces the first buzz about MiddBlog to his post on Chief Justice John Roberts’ lecture in Mead Chapel. The post attracted online comments from President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz and Vice President for Administration Tim Spears, among others.
“It provoked some legitimate criticism and also some accolades for finally airing student views,” Kellett wrote. “The opinion I wrote was certainly not my best but it was enough to get people to start seeing the blog as a digital reflection of discussion on campus.”
The blog’s tagline reads: “alternative news and more at middlebury college.” So what is “alternative news,” exactly?
“It means types of coverage that are not part of what people already see,” said J.P. Allen ’11, one of this year’s lead editors. “We’re basically focusing on the strengths of a blog, as opposed to traditional print media, to do the things that [a blog] does best.”
One such advantage: the option to include links to other relevant pages. For instance, take the April 20 post on the SGA and Community Council elections, which includes links to the candidates’ Facebook groups and YouTube videos, where applicable.
In addition, without the restrictions imposed by word limits, bloggers are free to post longer pieces than might fit into a newspaper column. The posts are also instantaneous and give readers the options of commenting, emailing, Facebook posting, Stumbling, and Tweeting. (The blog also has its own Twitter account, @middblog.)
“Instead of being a news source where we’re just telling people about something that happened, we try to be a place for discussion as well,” said Audrey Tolbert ’13, another lead editor. She especially hopes that the blog inspires offline conversation. “It’s a way to keep talking about … this school that we go to and we care about so much.”
Kellett agreed: “I would hope the blog stays true to being the hub of conversation and is not afraid to … take the discussion offline to have the greatest impact of turning discussion into action.”
The team behind MiddBlog currently consists of 13 writers, including Allen and Tolbert. Writers frequently post ideas (along with relevant links and commentary) on the group’s private Facebook page, where others can then “call” and cover them. According to Allen, they try to produce around two posts per day, with each writer contributing about one per week. The team currently works out of the Old Stone Mill.
In addition to writing their own posts — “the biggest responsibility,” according to Tolbert — the lead editors act as facilitators, ensuring that major topics of interest on campus are covered and continually encouraging the writers’ online discussion.
“We don’t have that many meetings where we’re all together in person,” Tolbert said, “so I think that making sure we have continued contact, at least virtually, is important to maintain our sense of group and community.”
Though the process of article selection and assignment is, as Allen put it, “kind of haphazard,” it suits MiddBlog well.
“I think that since we’re so small, it works best — right now, anyways — to have people just post when they find out about something,” Tolbert said. “It keeps us moving and keeps the news flow good.”
Because the blog is not officially affiliated with the College, writers have a great deal of freedom to choose not only what to say, but how to say it.
“We can say kind of frivolous or weird things sometimes because we’re only responsible for ourselves,” Allen said. “And with the sort of freewheeling way we organize it, each writer is more individually responsible because there’s less editorial control.”
Kellett, who still contributes to the writers’ Facebook group and occasionally writes posts, is pleased with how MiddBlog has developed since its inception, citing the lasting impressions of past writers.
“Many students have left their mark on the blog,” he wrote. The “Sunday Reading” column, for example — created by Emily Gullickson ’10 and continued by Olivia Noble ’13 — alerts readers weekly to a handful of current events in an effort to draw students’ attention out of “the bubble.”
Tolbert and Allen both feel that collaborating on MiddBlog has added greatly to their Middlebury experiences.
“Before I started writing for MiddBlog, it was like looking at the community versus feeling really like a part of it,” Tolbert said. She and fellow writer Cody Gohl ’13 had collaborated on a blog titled “English Spoken Here” during their summer in Middlebury, which helped to inspire their involvement in MiddBlog. As a result, she said, “I felt like I had a bigger place here than just studying here. … [I] just [felt] like, this is my school and I can do things to change it.”
Allen, who started out with a personal goal to review every arts performance on campus, appreciates the way that MiddBlog has shaped his awareness of the world.
“Instead of just letting an event fly by me, I think for a second, ‘Is this something that would be interesting for MiddBlog?’” he said.
Tolbert, Allen and writer Casey Mahoney ’11 recently presented the blog as part of the poster session at the student symposium. Visitors to the station could see the blog, a Twitter feed featuring the hashtag #middsym, and a brief poll asking users for suggestions. They also held a raffle whose winner will be “followed around, blogged and Tweeted about for a day” by writer Mackenzie Beer ’12.
“We … served two purposes, I feel,” Tolbert said. “We were both promoting ourselves and showing people what we do, but then also trying to cover the symposium in general.”
Allen was pleasantly surprised by the feedback, particularly from parents and prospective students.
“You’re just kind of throwing things out there into the ether of the internet,” he said. “You can see how many clicks you get per day, but you don’t really know whether what you’re saying is actually meaningful to anybody or not. It was really great to hear from a couple of people that that was the case.”
In the near future, readers can expect both a redesign of the blog and new ways to get involved.
“We’re working on a more fluid way of getting both suggestions for stories and offers from people who want to write or take pictures or do web stuff,” Allen said.
For now, though, the editors encourage interested students to email tips@midd-blog.com with their thoughts.
“We really want people to be more involved,” Allen said.
Though Kellett was sure to emphasize that the future of MiddBlog is now in the hands of the current team, he expressed certain hopes: that the readership (both on and off campus) continues to expand, and that “it grows into the social web.” To clarify, he wrote, “I mean that the Middlebury community is having conversations online but there are very few Middlebury entities engaging people where they are. For example, MiddBlog engages people on Twitter where Middlebury as an institution does not.
“Ultimately,” Kellet wrote, “MiddBlog is about getting people (from students to staff) to care about their own community which I would argue is a bigger problem than most people think.”
(04/28/11 4:31am)
Election season is over at Middlebury, and for the students who do not vote, which is the majority of those at Middlebury, this might not mean that much. Do we even know what the Community Council Co-Chair and Student Government Association (SGA) President do, or what they are in charge of? Those who most of us do not help elect make far-reaching decisions that affect most aspects of our Middlebury experience. The Campus investigated the structure, goals and projects that are part of three of the biggest student-run groups on campus: the Middlebury College Activities Board (MCAB), Community Council and SGA.
Defining the Groups
The SGA is intended to represent the interests of students on campus and administer the student activities fee to implement programs that accomplish this goal. They support all student groups — everyone from club sports teams to the WRMC. The factor that clearly distinguishes the SGA from other organizations is its access to funds; while MCAB requests funds from the SGA for events and the Community Council proposes programs but does not use money itself, the SGA collects the funds through the annual student activities fee to directly implement programs. Although SGA President Riley O’Rourke ’12 says that the SGA “is not here to be a stopgap for the College,” it does pay for projects consistent with the goals of the College that Old Chapel does have the financial resources to provide.
With the 150 active student organizations representing a 50 percent increase in the last 10 years, the SGA has its hands full, especially since “the vast majority of originations take some sort of money,” said Associate Dean of Students and Director of the Center for Campus Activities and Leadership (CCAL) Doug Adams.
SGA approaches tackling campus issues through a variety of avenues. First, it generally continues support for preapproved programs — like printing the Campus, maintaining library hours and keeping midnight breakfast; programs SGA implements itself — like the break buses; and capital expense programs, which require sinking large amounts of the built-up reserve money into one-time projects. The two new elliptical machines that the SGA purchased last year are examples of this type of project, as is the project to restore Worth Mountain Lodge at the Snow Bowl.
MCAB also represents the students by providing events they would like to see on campus. Although the Commons Councils are charged with the task of organizing events at the Commons level, MCAB organizes events for the student body as a whole, as well as helping with especially large Commons events.
Unlike both MCAB and the SGA, the Community Council is not charged with implementing policy or programs; rather, the Council focuses on making recommendations regarding non-academic student-life issues. Some of the most visible issues this year have been dining hall overcrowding, the push for gender neutral housing, problems with increased vandalism, housing issues and policies regarding social houses and academic interest houses.
The combination of faculty and staff on Community Council is intended to help both students and faculty feel more comfortable with the ability of the Council to come to moderate solutions.
“If there’s something that targets faculty but we want student input, they can come to us,” said Community Council Co-Chair Raymond Queliz ’11. “They can come to Community Council to come up with a solution that will benefit everyone. Sometimes there’s trouble with communication [between faculty/staff and students], but usually it works out. We try to compromise.”
The faculty and staff are often able to give insight into what types of changes might need to be implemented before a proposal is passable. Dean of College and Chief Diversity Officer Shirley Collado, for instance, often talks with President of the College Ronald Liebowitz before proposals are submitted. Because of this communication, the proposals that land on Liebowitz’s desk are usually ones he is willing to accept.
“We word it in a way that we know for a fact that it’s going to pass,” Queliz said. This procedure also has a logistical implication: “We don’t want to send [Liebowitz] anything that we know won’t pass because then we just spent an entire meeting on absolutely nothing.”
Although the groups have fairly well-defined boundaries, sometimes there are some ambiguities — what happens, for instance, if the Community Council starts a project that they realize will affect mostly just students, or that requires money that the SGA would need to allocate? When such issues arise, the fact that the SGA President and Community Council Co-chair are members of each other’s organizations helps a lot.
In the case of a proposal for “condo packs” of dishware for houses and suites this year (intended to reduce the amount of dishes taken out of the dining hall), the Community Council transferred the project to the SGA after realizing that it was both a student-centered and monetary issue. But sometimes, as in the case of the new plan for a Hebrew house, the Community Council does approve projects that require funding, but it does not deal with the logistics after the proposal is passed.
Ultimately, the boundaries between the two organizations may sometimes be a little murky.
“It’s worked out because Riley and I ended up being on the same page,” said Queliz. “But there needs to be more clarification on how [Community Council and the SGA] work together.”
This Year's Projects
Even with some setbacks and logistical confusion, all three groups have been able to make big strides this year.
The SGA has initiated the cheap airport rides program, pushed for an extra day as part of the reading period, opened the Redfield Proctor up for students, received approval for a gym in Ross Commons, re-opened the Grille and Grille delivery. Additionally, the first-year orientation trips will continue to run through the Mountain Club with SGA funding.
The Community Council worked to pass the gender-neutral housing initiative and has studied the dining hall crowding issues. They have also initiated a project to create a Hebrew House on campus.
Aside from continued event programming, MCAB’s major goals this year revolved around hearing new perspectives. MCAB accomplished this through encouraging applications from members of Commons Councils, and this led to new committee leadership that had already had experience on the Commons level.
“It’s nice because they have a different perspective on such a range of events — from apple picking to fondue Friday to these massive events,” MCAB President Maria Perille ’11 said. “They’re skilled in communication with Commons deans and also with MCAB and have the programming experience.”
Recent Changes
MCAB hopes to continue to encourage inter-group communication by pushing to reinstate a treasurer as part of MCAB. Since the treasurer would also be part of the SGA, this would create another layer of cohesion between the two groups which sometimes do not interact much outside the SGA’s finance committee (the committee which would appoint this liaison).
“[Having a treasurer] allows for more communication between SGA and MCAB,” Perille said. “And it’s nice that they know where the money they’ve allocated is going.”
The evolution of MCAB’s integration with other student groups has been on the upswing for years, after the Inter-Commons Council — which included the Commons Chairs of each commons — merged with MCAB five years ago. Although
Adams says the merger was intended to “ensure that they didn’t have scheduling problems” between MCAB events and larger commons events like Cook Foam or Brainerd Bacchanalia, for example, it also helped allow MCAB to work with leaders within the commons system to help plan and implement effective programming.
This evolution has been part of a larger trend within MCAB as the group has moved to steadily incorporate more members and interests. Ten years ago, for instance, there were only nine MCAB members. Now, the group of about 65 handles much larger events and is “much more representative of the student body,” according to Adams.
“The key element they’ve gained is that they’re incredibly representative of student interests, and that process will continue,” said Adams. “What they do will continue to change because it’s what students want to see.”
The Community Council has also expanded membership in recent years; whereas the council is supposed to have only eight student voting members, they made the change this year to expand voting privileges to the two alternates, who had to come to all the meetings anyway. The rationale was that those who participate and hear all the same information should have the same rights to vote on issues.
And new voting members have not been the only additions to meetings. The Community Council’s docket of important cases this year — especially the debate over gender neutral housing — ensured that about half of the group’s meetings (which are always open) were attended by outsiders.
Changes within the SGA have existed mainly in the realm of finance. The allocation process, which divides the $380 each student pays in activities fees every year to groups all over campus through the SGA’s Finance Committee, has evolved over time.
Most importantly, the SGA has begun making an effort to spend down its massive reserves by encouraging clubs and groups to reduce the amount of leftover funds at the end of the year through a variety of strategies. In the past, the Finance Committee was careful with spending, possibly in an effort to avoid the budget shortfall that occurred five years ago. At that point, the negative reserves caused budget cuts to clubs and groups, and the activities fee, which had previously just increased by $20 each year and was not keeping up with the pace of new club and group formation, doubled. The period of fiscal austerity that followed led to years of scant spending.
“The Finance Committee has been responsible with the funds,” said Adams. “Over time they have changed their policies to be responsive to the needs and requests of student groups.”
Through this process the group relaxed many of its policies on spending, but this took time.
“It’s a bit like steering the Titanic … and it’s not something that they could shift quickly because they didn’t want to negatively affect any of the groups that were being funded.”
Looking to the Future
With reserves at a much higher level than they were previously and an effort to lower the level to a manageable $150,000, the SGA plans to start doing some big things. The SGA was budget neutral this year — meaning that the activities fee amounted to the exact amount of money clubs and groups needed — but next year, it plans to start spending the reserves down. The goal will be to cut the reserves in half in two or three years.
The SGA has been careful to make sure that when it starts spending the reserves, it is spending them in the right place.
“[The Finance Committee] needed to take the time to find out what the students wanted, since they certainly don’t want to spend student money irresponsibly,” said Adams. “It’s about finding the balance between acting decisively but acting with student interest in mind.”
Projects that will help out in this effort are the Ross gym, the re-vamping of the Worth Mountain Lodge at the Snow Bowl and the proposed bus stand at Adirondack Circle. Additional projects planned are the creation of an “arts and crafts room” in the Crest Room of McCullough — it will come equipped with materials like lamination machines and poster boards for student groups to use — and pushing for a pass/fail option.
This spending of reserves will be one of the biggest SGA initiatives in the coming years, but the group has undergone major changes in the past 10 years as well. Like MCAB, the SGA has moved to incorporate the Commons system into its structure.
Before Commons/SGA integration, there was a representative for each dorm on campus and a highly decentralized student government, but since there has been a consolidation of representatives into the SGA and Commons Councils.
This new organization “makes [the SGA] very dynamic and nimble; it can change for what students need at that time,” Adams said.
As far as the structure of the organization, SGA has no plans to change.
“I think they understand themselves very well,” said Adams. And as far as improvements, “ I think [O’Rourke] might tell you that they need to market themselves better; they’re a little too humble when it comes to the things they do.”
Although the fact that the Community Council responds to current issues and student initiatives makes the agenda for any coming year fairly unpredictable, Queliz can name some goals for the future: awareness of the group is one thing he would like to see change.
“I want more and more people to apply to be on it and more people to know what it actually is,” he said. “Because it deals with more everyday aspects of the campus and specifically student life, it’s something that directly affects students and creates an inclusive environment for students, faculty, staff, and administration; it’s a lot more important, but people don’t really know about it.”
Ultimately, although all the organizations have different structures, memberships, visions and procedures, they have some common goals.
“One thing that is similar in all three is the fact that they’re serving students’ interests,” Adams said. “They’re all volunteers trying to make sure Middlebury is a better place for student interests. So although they’re very different groups, in that way they’re the same.”
(04/28/11 4:25am)
“Little competes with the last six months — the political world has changed,” David Sanger, the chief Washington correspondent for the New York Times, explained to a large Middlebury audience in his powerful lecture titled “Wikileaks and the Toppling of Middle East Dictators: Covering the Winter of Global Surprises.” The talk, sponsored by MCAB, took place in Mead Chapel last Wednesday.
Sanger explained the process the Times went through when planning the controversial release of the secret governmental documents discovered by the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks. He also discussed his view of the both the recent protests in the Middle East known as the “Arab Spring” and the Obama presidency.
As the chief Washington correspondent since 1994 and a Times writer for 26 years, Sanger is presumably one of the most educated individuals on these issues. He also has a connection to Middlebury as he was on the Harvard Crimson, with Schumann Distinguished Scholar Bill McKibben.
“I thought Sanger did a great job of [bringing] the issues surrounding controversial topics like Wikileaks and the Stuxnet worm down to a level that an average student could understand and intelligently discuss,” said Lucy Jackson ’12.
Sanger explained that the Wikileaks documents first came to the Times from the Guardian, a British newspaper. The Guardian had received the documents from Julian Assange, the Australian founder of Wikileaks. Based on this fact, Sanger expressed that the documents would have come out even if the Times did not publish them.
But before releasing them to the public, Sanger explained, the Times reviewed each of the 250,000 documents. During this process the ineffective nature of the United States’ system of classification became evident. Everything is stamped with “secret,” but Sanger explained that many of those documents were not secret at all.
After reviewing and creating a database of the documents, the Times gave the U.S. Government two days to review the 250 documents that the Times deemed important and worth releasing. This happened, Sanger recalled, during the week of Thanksgiving 2010. The process assured the removal of individuals’ names in order to protect their safety.
However, Sanger made it clear that the Times and the U.S. government did not see completely eye-to-eye.
The two parties, Sanger said, agreed that the U.S. government’s ongoing efforts should be protected. However, Times intended to print candid comments by American government officials, an action to which the government was opposed.
Ultimately, the Times decided not to hold back simply to avoid the embarrassment of U.S. diplomats.
“It was enlightening to hear about the Wikileaks revelations from the man who coordinated their release,” said Colin Gibson ’11, who is a co-chair of the MCAB Speakers Committee, which brought Sanger to Middlebury. “I personally heard a few new things about the rationale for releasing the documents in the Times, and how they were selected.”
By releasing the documents, some argue that there was “harm done for no reason.” Sanger countered this criticism by explaining that in releasing the documents, the Times did try to keep individuals mentioned safe. Furthermore, since the Wikileaks documents were released, the Arab press has begun writing more and more about the Iran nuclear program.
The documents also showed President Zine E. Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia to be a corrupt leader, according to U.S. intelligence. This could have, in some part, served as a catalyst for the Tunisian uprisings that then spread to many other Middle Eastern countries.
“The science of predicting is poor — no one saw this coming,” Sanger explained as he pointed out that before the Middle East catapulted into such intense revolutions, Iran was the biggest struggle for the U.S. It was even a country that the U.S. attempted to use cyber warfare against, with the use of Stuxnet, in order to track the country’s nuclear plans.
In the future, Sanger believes that Iran will re-emerge as the single most important country in the Middle East in relation to the U.S.
Regarding these events, and on a larger scale, Sanger believes the Obama presidency to be quite pragmatic. His campaign may have been based on idealism but his response to the revolutions in the Middle East have been very realistic in trying to maintain U.S. allies. And now, at least, “no one is shouting ‘We hate America,’” Sanger commented.
Alison Stanger, professor of International Politics and Economics and chair of the political science department, thought that the lecture was “a wise and enlightening tour of the central challenges facing contemporary American foreign policy.”