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(10/07/10 4:08am)
The Panthers ran their way to another win this weekend. On Saturday, the men’s and women’s cross-country teams dominated at the Vermont Cross Country State Meet, held at Middlebury. The Panthers swept the top finishes at this meet, with the men taking 16 of the top 18 places and women taking 13 of the top 15 places. They ran with a goal in mind, and they ran intelligently.
“I also believe that we achieved a pre-race goal of utilizing some pack running which can be devastating to runners from other teams being overtaken,” said Coach Terry Aldrich.
This approach to the race resulted in the Panthers finishing in rapid succession and sweeping the top spots, with almost no runners from competing schools finishing between the top 18 runners.
On the men’s side, Michael Schmidt ’12 once again won the race with a time of 27:04. Right on his heels were Greg Krathwohl ’14 and Jack Terrett ’11. Krathwohl finished with a 27:08.20, just two-tenths of a second ahead of teammate Terrett. Following this close race to round out the top six places were John Davies ’13, Nate Sans ’14 and Sam Miller ’12. Lyndon State was the only school able to squeak into the top 18 placing seventh and ninth.
On the women’s side, it was a good day to be a rookie. Colette Whitney ’14 took first for the Panthers with a time of 19:24. Katie Rominger ’14 was second with a time of 19:27. Addie Tousely ’13 finished third, less than a second ahead of teammate Madie Hubbell ’14. Hanna Meier ’11 and Chelsea Ward-Waller ’12 were fifth and sixth, respectively. The women boxed out all but one runner from St. Michael’s, who finished ninth, and one from Castleton State, who finished 11th.
The races by the men’s and women’s team were followed by an alumni 5k, an always-popular fall event.
This incredible win came as a pleasant surprise to Aldrich, who commented on how hard the Panthers have been training up to the competition.
“I was honestly surprised at how good most of our team felt during the race considering the training we did during the week,” said Aldrich. “This past week was scheduled to be one of the more difficult training weeks of the season yet the team responded really well to the competition.”
Coach Aldrich also expressed excitment for the upcoming weekend, where the Panthers will race not only D3 but also D1 and D2 schools from all over New England at the Open New England Championships. He is looking forward to seeing the team run fast and have fun at this meet. Schmidt will be looking to win his third consecutive race and further establish himself as the top distance runner in New England.
The team was thrilled with the weekend as it was a great last hurrah of a home meet for Aldrich, who will be retiring in December.
(10/07/10 4:07am)
As I arrived at Gamaliel Painter Bicentennial Professor of Physics Frank Winkler’s office, the nameplate on his door informed me that I was visiting the “Astrologer and Chief Wizard.”
“That goes back to a story run in The Campus from many, many years ago,” he said, laughing. “A student incorrectly cited me as being the informal head of Middlebury’s Astrology Department, and the nameplate is a joke from that.”
Sitting down in a chair next to Winkler, I asked how he ended up at Middlebury.
In 1969, his thesis advisor at Harvard, Norman Ramsey, had a daughter who was studying at Middlebury. Ramsey was on a sabbatical in Ripton, Vt. and he happened to discover that Middlebury was looking for a new physics professor. Ramsey called his secretary and instructed her to post a note in the lab informing students of the opening. Professor Winkler saw the ad and applied for the job.
Forty-one years later, he’s still here.
“Last year, we went through the process of hiring a new professor in the physics department. There were over 250 applicants,” he said. “I’m glad I got hired when I did, because I’m not so sure I’d still get the job now.”
When I asked how teaching at Middlebury today differs from teaching at Middlebury in the 1970s, Winkler began to smile.
“Middlebury students were excellent when I began here, and they’re excellent today,” he said. “Maybe over time the average student has gotten better, but there have always been excellent students.”
He cited other changes in the student populatoin as well.
“The student body has gotten much more international, and it’s the better for it. Also, students now come in with much more scientific background than before,” Winkler said. “I think that’s due to things like AP.”
Although most of the changes he has seen in the student body have been welcome, there have been some less-positive ones as well.
“On the downside, students have much shorter attention spans,” he said. “Facebook, Twitter, and e-mail are all vying for attention. It’s harder to concentrate on reading a text or working on analysis. It comes less naturally now.”
Winkler teaches two classes each fall, Physics 155 and Physics 165. Both of these courses are astronomy courses. As he’s currently on associate status, he doesn’t teach during spring terms.
Although the Physics Department at Middlebury does not stress astronomy, Winkler seems satisfied.
“Both Steve [Professor of Physics Steve Ratcliff] and I do research on astronomy,” he said. “We could productively have a larger department, but we all have the ability to teach a wide variety of courses. I think this is a good thing.”
In fact, when Winkler began at Middlebury, he didn’t teach astronomy courses. He taught physics until three or four years after he arrived.
As we spoke, my eyes wandered over to an arrangement of flowers sitting in a vase on his desk. Noticing that I was looking at it, he explained.
“It was for a demonstration today,” he began. “I don’t generally have flowers just sitting on my desk.”
The morning I spoke with Professor Winkler, he had done an in-class demonstration in which he pulled a tablecloth off of a fully-set table with a vase of flowers — lit candles and all. This is his favorite demonstration.
“I love the drama of it,” he said.
In addition to this demonstration, he also rides a rocket wagon across the Great Hall in one of his astronomy classes. While he says that these demonstrations are always done with an academic lesson in mind, he also admits that they are simply a lot of fun to do.
“I love to teach here,” he said. “I love my subject.”
Winkler went on to describe how the combination of teaching at Middlebury and having the ability to do international research have kept him happy here. He enjoys the relationships he’s been able to develop with professors in other departments.
“Cross-departmental interaction is not typical of big research universities,” he said.
Additionally, Winkler has enjoyed the flexibility to travel to U.S. national observatories, including ones in Kitpeak, just outside of Tucson, Ariz. and one in Chile. In the past 20 years, he estimates that he has visited one at least once a year.
During his sabbaticals from Middlebury, he has twice spent six-month periods in Chile at the observatory.
While he loves it here, Winkler admitted that he plans to retire in May of 2013.
“I will definitely miss grading the least,” he said.
In all seriousness, though, Winkler said that he will miss the stimulation of walking into a new class at the beginning of a term.
“You never know what to expect,” he said. “This is why my job is fun.”
When asked if he finds philosophy in astronomy, Winkler began:
“Absolutely. Day one of my class, I tell my students that one of the goals of the course is to put the students and myself in touch with our natural environment. It’s like standing on the Acropolis. You can feel that these are places that are special. [astronomy] is an experience that is special. Being in the dark and just paying attention. We can get lost in our modern environment.”
After a moment’s pause, he continued.
“The universe is so immense. It gives you perspective when you think of how infinitesimally small we are. It’s good perspective.”
(10/07/10 4:07am)
The Heliand Trio — an ensemble comprised of pianist Cynthia Huard, clarinetist Elisabeth LeBlanc and bassoonist Rachael Elliott — performed at the Center for the Arts last Friday.
The concert program explained their peculiar name: “Helianthus means sunflower, [and] we hope to bring light and joy to the lives of our listeners, through music.” With Friday’s stormy weather and the incessant drumming of the rain throughout the day, any simple tune would have brought “light and joy.” But instead of a simplistic concert, the trio performed their own unique program, “The French-Brazilian Connection,” which incorporates the two different cultures of Europe and Latin America.
The night began with the piano’s soft, expressive introduction into the first piece, “Danzon,” by a Cuban composer Paquito D’Rivera (despite Cuba being neither French nor Brazilian). As the trio’s first impression to the audience, it was inadequately executed. Typically performed with a cello in lieu of a bassoon, this piece is supposed to integrate the effect of intermingled expressive articulation of both the piano and the cello that is broken by the clear, sharp notes of the clarinet; however, as the trio’s two wind instruments uncontrollably dominated the piano, the group’s interpretation of the piece became expression-less and the performance failed to impress.
Interestingly, the concert — other than the pianist’s comical dropping of her music twice during a single piece — also included three solo pieces for the individual musicians. The clarinet solo, “Rhapsodie” by Debussy, unfortunately sounded like a constant stream of notes — executed with great technicality but without the important expressive elements of Debussy.
On the other hand, “Pièce en forme de Habanera” by another French composer, Maurice Ravel, truly brought out the warmth of the bassoon and the bassoonist’s ability to convey the emotional facets of the music.
Last to perform her solo piece, the pianist played her solo, “Choros No. 5, ‘Alma Brasileira,” skillfully. With many pianists, it is difficult to find the balance between being an accompanist and being a soloist; however, with the pianist of this “trio,” every piece sounded as if she was accompanying a duet of the clarinetist and the bassoonist. She seamed together different music passages of every piece nicely but when forced out of the background with the solo piece by Heitor Villa-Lobos, a Brazilian composer, she continued to sound rather passive — at least, too passive to define the meaning of Alma Brasileira, which means “Brazilian soul” in Portuguese.
The concert continued with pieces by Bill Douglas, a Canadian composer with Brazilian influences, and Francis Poulenc, a French composer. “Suite Cantando” by Douglas progressed between different movements that ranged in style from blues to classical. The piece was enjoyable due to the various arrangements of sounds while the “Sonata for Clarinet and Bassoon” by Poulenc clearly showed the harmony between LeBlanc and Elliott, who have been performing together for four years.
The bittersweet concert ended on a good note with “Fantaisie Concertante” by Villa-Lobos. Before starting the piece, the musicians warned that as a composition that combines different aspects of Brazilian culture, the piece could be overwhelming with its characteristic polyphony. However, the cycles between the confusing mixture of sounds and the intertwined harmony actually highlighted the group’s fortes as a musical ensemble: as individual artists, they were skilled although phrasings of certain passages were less fulfilling while as a group, they played wind pieces quite well. And so, the heightened parts of the winds and the gentle harmonious passages superbly completed the night and Brazil’s cultural expression.
Not having been widely advertised around campus for students, the concert’s seats were mostly dotted with the town’s residents, and although the performance wasn’t quite superb, students missed out on a free concert of eclectic performances that could define many of us — with our different cultures, sometimes clashing while at other times, harmonious and peaceful.
(10/07/10 4:07am)
Each fall, numerous Middlebury students search for work on campus. The College offers a variety of positions, each with advantages and disadvantages. Some have flexible hours but are especially taxing; others allow for interactions with interesting people but require waking up in the early morning or working on Saturday nights.
The recycling center allows students to visit and take things from their reused and clothing trailers.Domas Girtavicius ’11 has worked at the recycling center for several years.
At the recycling center, Girtavicius never knows what the hours after he clocks in will entail. After being trained, he can walk down the hill to the center whenever he has time and sift through the waste generated by the College. Sometimes he will be told to organize the reuse trailer, a veritable treasure trove of discarded holiday decorations, unwanted kitchenware and other misfit toys. Oftentimes however, a recycling center worker will sift through garbage bags and separate paper, plastics, glass and trash into designated receptacles. They then spend an hour or two throwing away half eaten apples and marveling at the number of solo cups used by college students.
In the past month Girtavicius has noticed an unprecedented number of students visiting the reuse trailer.
“This year more and more people are coming into the recycling center to look for stuff,” said. “Some people look for things to decorate their apartments with; some people go for academic stuff”.
Since they spend time so much time sorting through the college’s waste, recycling center workers often find interesting objects. The common room in Girtavicius’s suite now warehouses numerous items found during hours spent at the recycling center including artwork, movie reels and a hat covered in glitter. Other student workers have taken sweaters, lamps and disco balls back to their dorm rooms.
In addition to his job at the recycling center, Girtavicius is a server at the Chinese Language tables and works for the Center for Campus Activities and Leadership (CCAL) doing sounds and lights for various events. He likes each job for different reasons.
“I like working at the language tables for dealing with people” he said. “You get to chat with the students and see how their language is progressing.”
He also enjoys spending time with the other waiters. In part he said, “because they all went to different places and they all have great stories to tell.”
His job at the Grille allows Girtavicius to work with many of the smaller musical acts that have come to Middlebury.
“You get to see a lot of concerts and talk to musicians and see the kind of people they are,” said Girtavicius.
James Landenberger ’11 also works for CCAL as a sound technician and is a regular feature at the Grille’s Thursday pub nights. He sits by a soundboard at the foot of the stage and mixes the bands that perform. Landenberger had some experience with mixing bands in high school but has learned a lot from the hours he works at Middlebury. When Middlebury alumn Philip Hamilton ‘82 performed at the College, Landenberger discovered that assisting a cappella groups could be especially challenging.
“Every singer has a different role to play. There is the beat box guy and the tenors,” he said. “That was interesting because I had never paid attention to vocals that much.”
Since Middlebury hired him, Landenberger has spent numerous nights mixing bands. He has even worked at Middlebury during the summers and helped put on numerous Language School events.
“They have a lot of lectures and screenings, but the most fun events are the talent shows,” he said. “It’s interesting to be around a lot of people speaking Chinese and have no idea what they are saying.”
Two days a week Marilyn Mead ’11 wakes up especially early and works at the Proctor bakery from 6 to 10 a.m. Together with three college staff members, she measures out ingredients by the pound and bakes many of the cakes, breads and pastries found in Middlebury’s di ning halls. Mead is occasionally consulted on the menu.
“Last week my boss was deciding between making flan and crème brulee and he asked me which one we should bake”, she said. She chose crème brulee since she was excited to use a torch to melt the desert’s sugary surface.
Mead does not mind the early hours she spends at the Proctor bakery.
“I actually really like that it is in the morning”, she said. “It’s a four-hour shift but it doesn’t feel like it takes up that much of my day.”
She enjoys spending time with the Proctor bakery staff and feels that time spent with these adults has afforded her a good perspective on life at Middlebury.
“Being around college students can be stressful sometimes,” she said. “It’s nice to just go in there and find that my co-workers have completely different problems than I do.”
Many of the student workers enjoy the connections they make with members of the Middlebury staff.
“You meet a lot of people who eventually help you in some ways,” said Girtavicius. “It’s interesting to meet people who are not involved in academics — to see what they are doing and what their lives are like, to see what living in Middlebury actually means.”
(10/07/10 4:07am)
All good things must come to an end. The Middlebury men’s soccer team’s 673-minute shutout streak that dated back to overtime of the 2009 NESCAC final game was snapped last weekend, as Colby scored two minutes before the end of the first half of Saturday’s 2-1 double-overtime loss. The Panthers still have a lot to be happy about, however, as they remain in first place of the NESCAC overall standings with a 7-1 record, 3-1 in conference play.
The past week was up and down for the team, with a commanding 4-0 victory over Plymouth State on Wednesday and the aforementioned 2-1 loss to Colby on Saturday.
Wednesday’s match against Plymouth showcased the dominant Panthers’ side that had shown up in the first six contests of the year. Otis Pitney ’12 scored unassisted 18 minutes into the game, taking a shot from the top left side of the penalty area and smashing it in off the post. Carson Cornbrooks ’11 scored in the 34th minute assisted by Robbie Redmond ’12 to put the team up 2-0. Jake Edwards ’11 and Martin Drolet ’12, assisted by Tyler Smith ’14 and Brett Brazier ’13 respectively, sealed the victory by scoring eight minutes apart late in the second half, at the 68th and 76th minute marks. Tim Cahill ’12 recorded his fifth shutout of the season making only one save on the day. Coach Dave Saward was highly complimentary of his team’s performance.
“Pitney was magnificent against Plymouth, working hard on both sides of the ball,” said Saward. “Cornbrooks and Redmond were also all over the place while Tyler Macnee ’12 probably had his best match in a long time.” He added that his back four were “well organized” by Harrison [Watkins ’11]. All in all it was a very good road win against a very athletic and hard-working team.”
Saturday’s trip to Waterville, Maine. pitted the team against NESCAC rival Colby as it sought to keep its shutout streak and unblemished record alive. A Colby goal scored by Nick Aubin in the 43rd minute ended the first impressive streak, while Aubin’s second goal of the game in the 109th minute sealed the losing result for the Panthers. In the eyes of Saward, the Colby game left much to be improved upon.
“We failed to exert the necessary influence in the game,” said Saward. “Colby deserves credit for working hard, not dropping their heads, and scoring a goal just before the break. The biggest disappointment was our lack of threatening chances. We ran out of creativity at the most critical moments.” However, Saward was still impressed by one of his star players.
“Pitney was once again a standout player, and not simply because he got the goal. His work rate was extraordinary.” The most telling statistic of the game with regards to Middlebury’s defeat was that Colby keeper was only tested three times with shots on net.
“That is a statistic that has to improve,” said Saward. “We never tested the keeper, either with quality shots or testing crosses.”
The team will look to once again find its stride as it hosts a dangerous NESCAC rival in the Amherst Lord Jeffs this Saturday at 2:30 p.m. on the turf.
(10/07/10 4:07am)
On October 3, Victor Zhikai Gao spoke about China’s transformation under President Deng Xiaoping, for whom he served as translator. Gao is the first influential politician from mainland China to speak at Middlebury, and he held the undivided attention of a packed Dana Auditorium for almost two hours.
Gao discussed China’s efficient, single-party government — the ease with which they can simply decide on a long-term plan for China’s development. His comparisons between the Chinese and the American styles of government were particularly resonant because of the elections going on now. Gao mentioned a Republican friend of his who said, “We are pleased that the unemployment rate is as high as it is because it will give us a better chance in November.” Gao said that the comment surprised him because that such a statement would sound absurd in a one-party country like China.
Few can boast a resume comparable to Gao’s. During the 1980s, Gao worked at the Chinese Foreign Service as Deng Xiaoping’s English translator focusing on China-U.S. relations, making him a bridge between two of the Cold War’s largest powers during the war’s conclusion. Gao also has experience in law and private equity. He was Senior Vice President of the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, which is one of the three major national oil companies in China. Positions with the United Nations Secretariat, Morgan Stanley and the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission augment Gao’s strikingly multi-dimensional experience. Assistant Professor of Political Science Jessica Teets introduced Gao by listing these positions as just “the highlights” of his resume.
Gao described the developmental fervor of China, the single-minded, single-party drive towards sophistication.
“In China, parents gave children born in the 1950s names that translate to ‘Surpass Great Britain!’ and ‘Overtake the United States!’” he said.
These names were features of the nationalism inspired by Mao Zedong. Mao’s economic strategies were limited by the philosophy that everyone must prosper equally. But when President Deng rose to power, he declared that, as translated by Gao, “Development is the hard truth.” Gao pointed to Deng’s assertion that “some people can become rich ahead of others,” as a policy breakthrough. As related in Gao’s presentation, Deng’s vision was to reach “a little comfort,” by the early 21st century and “[to] become a middle-level developed country” by the middle 21st century.
China’s actual achievements go far beyond this vision. In 1978, China held $168 million in foreign reserve currency. Through the intensive development of manufacturing and China’s emergence as, in Gao’s words, “a Champion of free trade and market economy,” China now holds roughly $2.4 trillion in reserve.
Gao explained the explosive quality of China’s development in terms of work ethic.
“The Chinese want to work,” he said. “In China, we did not understand why the French went on strike demanding that the retirement age be lowered to 62. In China, retirement is like a death sentence. There is glory only in work.”
Gao also gave more specific reasons: China has 1.4 billion consumers working within one single and unified market, one legal system, one party, and one government. Education is highly emphasized, and the older generation is willing to sacrifice for the younger generation. China is making large investments in green technology because, to paraphrase Gao, there is not enough oil left in the earth for 1.4 billion Chinese to consume as Americans do now.
Gao mentioned the increasingly high stakes in Sino-American diplomacy and the certainty with which China’s economy will grow larger than the US’s. He concluded by saying, “In history, the world’s most powerful empire has never allowed its position to be taken by another, rising power without a war. It is our greatest task to defy history.”
(10/07/10 4:06am)
Manual sex is really the perineum of the sexual repertoire — usually appreciated as a road to get between interesting places, and not as an actual place to linger and take in the view. Most often serving as an appetizer to limber up for voyages in more tropical climes, as a main course it’s often disparaged as the refuge of middle-schoolers and the erectile dysfunct. And while certainly an excellent backup plan for when a gentleman does not stand at attention, I think there is also a place for it outside the general realm of plan B (or C).
Manual sex (sex where the primary source of stimulation is what you’re doing with your hands) has a number of arguments working against it, chief of which goes something like this — “Why would I do what my gent or lady can do all by their lonesome, with nothing more than a bit of spit and a racy rag?” After all, most of us have probably invested a considerable amount of time and effort perfecting the art of self-satisfaction. So why waste precious partner-time rediscovering America?
First, there are a number of delightful, unique sensations that distinguish manual sex and masturbation. Whispered dirty talk, soft kisses, hard bites, the sensation of your partner’s body sliding over yours, hair stroking, hair pulling, spontaneous caresses, unpredictable and hands-free stimulation … the list goes on, limited only by creativity and the number of hands available to participate. (For added sensitivity, a simple blindfold works wonders). Like oral sex, the appeal is primarily of being able to relax and enjoy the pleasure, and perhaps bookmark particularly hot moments for future private playback.
Second, there’s no better way to learn about your partner than learning about how they touch themselves. (Though a really excellent dinner date might come close.) To paraphrase Sun Tzu, “Know thyself, know thy [partner]. A thousand [passionate sexual encounters], a thousand victories.” And here, especially with a new partner, learning caps should be donned — because nothing is more individual or unique than how someone has discovered their own body. Here are some pointers based off of testimonies from friends and strangers, but please note, all you Commanders-in-Chiefs — they’re very much subject to veto.
Those pleasing ladies — remember, the clit is a delicate bud. Not for naught is it often associated with flowers — so handle accordingly. Would you strangle a bouquet of roses? No? Good. That said, like learning a foreign language, the best way to learn is to have the native speaker actually put your fingers where they’re supposed to go and move them for you until you get the gist (so, really, not like learning a foreign language at all). And unless you’re Wynton Marsalis or similarly experienced, do limit your improvisation— if the lady would like you to go harder or faster as the situation escalates, it’s on her to let you know.
Those pleasing gents — our genitalia tends less towards delicate-flower and more towards stripper-pole. Generally for the gents, things to keep in mind are grip (how does he hold the drumstick and how tight?) angle (what is the trajectory the hand moves along?) and speed (or velocity, really, for all you Physics majors out there). Unlike physics, however, there is considerable room for error.
Finally, though, one thing that manual sex tends to offer that is occasionally lost in your average intercourse is the opportunity for a non-orgasm-focused encounter. By that, I don’t mean Tantric sex — this isn’t a contest to see how long you can last, though that could be fun — but a chance to really get to know and appreciate the intricacies of whoever it is you’re getting to know biblically, without the pressure of having to “perform.” Think of it like a road-trip along the perineum — whether or not you arrive, it’s the journey that counts.
(10/07/10 4:06am)
The Panthers dropped to 1-1 on Saturday, losing to NESCAC rival Colby 38-27. It was a frustrating day for the Panthers, who, despite forcing four turnovers, also committed four turnovers themselves in what was a very sloppy game. The defense has continued to be something of a dichotomy for the Panthers. Though they continue to make impact plays, they also allowed five plays of twenty-five yards or more.
The Panthers were able to move the ball for a large part of the game, but constantly beat themselves with costly turnovers and crippling penalties. Both offenses were held scoreless in the first quarter, although the Panthers threatened to take the lead late in the opening period. Facing a third and six from the Colby 27-yard line, Panthers quarterback and co-captain Donnie McKillop ’11 threw an interception that was picked off by sophomore defensive back Derrick Beasley. It was the first of two interceptions in the game and McKillop’s third interception of the season, but head coach Bob Ritter remains extremely confident in his quarterback.
“He’s an excellent quarterback,” said Ritter. “Probably his greatest asset is his decision making. He’s playing very well.” The box score supports Ritter’s inclination. McKillop finished the game 32 of 52 for 312 yards and two touchdowns along with his two interceptions.
“When your quarterback throws the ball nearly 100 times in two games, a couple of balls are going to be thrown off-target,” said Ritter.
The solution? The Panthers will need to find a better mix of their passing and running games this weekend against Amherst.
“When we had a lead last week against Wesleyan, we ran the ball and ran it pretty effectively,” said Ritter. “When we got down this week and had to come back in a hurry we had to put the ball in the air more. It’s more dictated by the flow of the game.”
The Panthers looked to establish the run early in the game, but immediately had trouble doing so. On the second offensive possession of the game, running back Andrew Plumley ’11 gained eight yards on first down, but after gaining just a yard on second and two, he was stuffed for a one-yard loss on third down and the Panthers were forced to punt. That series foreshadowed the struggles of the Middlebury offense the rest of the game –– the Panthers were able to move the ball, but could not pick up key first downs in the first half when they needed them. On the next drive, McKillop was picked off and the Panthers were held scoreless in the first half for the first time since they lost 20-10 to Amherst almost a year ago.
Meanwhile, the Colby offense capitalized on a crucial pass interference call that negated defensive back Jared Onouye’s ’14 interception in the end zone by punching the ball in from four yards out on the next play to take a 7-0 lead. After the Panthers failed to convert on fourth and seven from the Wesleyan 36-yard line, the Mules then took the ball down the field on an eight play, 69-yard drive that finished with a seven-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Nick Kmetz to tight end Spencer Merwin, increasing their lead to 14-0. Merwin proved to be a nightmare for the Panthers defense, catching four passes for 84-yards and a touchdown.
The Panthers, however, would get the ball back twice more before the end of the half, but McKillop’s second interception ended one drive and then the Panthers failed to convert a fourth and 10 from the Colby 39-yard line with 11 seconds left in the half.
“In the first half, there were some mistakes we don’t usually make with some turnovers,” said Ritter. “Offensively we weren’t sharp in the first half. Defensively we played pretty well given the field position so we were fortunate only to be down 14-0.”
The second half was a different story entirely for the Panthers offense. After an interception by co-captain Conor Green ’11 gave the Panthers the ball in great field position, the offense took over and Plumley carried the ball for a 17-yard gain and then followed with 3-yard touchdown run. After a successful extra point by Anthony Kuchan ’11, Middlebury had halved the Colby lead to 14-7.
The defense put the Panthers’ offense back in position to tie the game shortly after, when they sacked Kmetz, forcing a fumble, and recovered the ball on the 50-yard line. Instead, the offense went three and out and were forced to punt.
After a fantastic punt from Kuchan, Colby started the ensuing drive from its own two-yard line. On the first play from scrimmage, Kmetz connected for a 30-yard pass to Merwin, bringing the ball out from the Mules goal-line. For the Panthers, the biggest blow in the game was about to come. On fourth and 10 from the Colby 47-yard line, instead of punting the ball away, the Mules punter Connor Sullivan pulled the ball down and just managed to run for a first down.
“They faked the punt and we had a chance to make a play and we couldn’t make a tackle,” said Ritter. “We had a chance to tackle him for a loss and have great field position. Instead they end up picking up the first down by inches and going on to score. That was the pivotal momentum changer.”
The Mules capped the 10-play, 98-yard drive with a 20-yard touchdown pass from Kmetz to wide receiver Patrick Burns, extending the Mules lead back to 14 points. After another Middlebury possession failed to yield points, Colby took the opening drive of the fourth quarter 85 yards on eight plays and Kmetz once again found Burns for a touchdown, this one for 35 yards, pushing the Colby lead to 28-7. Burns, Kmetz’s favorite target, had six receptions for 93 yards and two touchdowns. On the other side of the ball, the Panthers’ Zach Driscoll ’13 led all receivers with eight catches for 99 yards.
Trailing by 21 points, the Panthers offense finally came to life, scoring 20 points in the fourth quarter, but another turnover and ten more Colby points meant that the game was never closer than two scores.
After McKillop connected with his running back Gary Cooper for a 24-yard touchdown, which closed the score to 28-14 with 9:52 remaining in the game, the Middlebury defense forced a quick punt from the Mules offense. On the first play from scrimmage, however, Plumley fumbled and the Mules defense recovered the ball at Middlebury’s 22 yard-line. Four plays later the Mules extended their lead to 31-14 on a 36-yard field goal from placekicker David Bendit.
With just over five minutes left in the game, McKillop found the end zone, scrambling for a six-yard score. After the Panthers failed to recover an onside kick, however, Mules quarterback Nick Kmetz responded by rushing for a 22-yard score, putting the game out of reach at 38-21. With 3:19 left to play, the Panthers closed the score to 38-27 after a four-yard touchdown pass from McKillop to Matt Rayner ’12. The Panthers attempted another onside kick after the touchdown, which the Mules recovered before running out the clock .
Despite the number of points allowed, Ritter was encouraged by what he saw from his defense. “Our defense played a lot of plays,” said Ritter. “We have to do a better job of sustaining some drives [on offense], getting first downs, and keeping the defense off the field. I think the turnovers are a big deal. We have to convert those into points. Our defense got worn down because they spent so much time on the field.”
The Panthers host a formidable Amherst army this Saturday at 1:30 p.m. –– the Jeffs are 2-0 on the season and have outscored their opponents 82-7.
(10/07/10 4:05am)
While a number of the small houses that compose Middlebury’s campus have served various roles throughout the history of the College, the conversion of Munford House and Meeker House is, for many, reminiscent of the school’s wild “Fraternity Days.”
The return of the largest senior class in the history of the College brought a need for increased residential living space and the refurbishment of the two houses “on the hill” that served as the social centers of campus life for decades. Meeker was the Sigma Epsilon house and Munford was home to Chi Psi fraternity.
In the “hey day of the frats (1970s and 80s),” said Karl Lindholm, former Dean of Students and current Dean of Cook Commons, “[Meeker and Munford] were the strongest and most lively places.” Nearly 90 percent of all men at Middlebury were members of a fraternity.
“Those houses had an enormous presence at one time,” said Doug Adams, associate dean of students.
Eventually falling out of favor however, the fraternities closed their doors, and the College bought the houses during the hostile “Fraternity Wars” of the early 1990s.
“Munford and Meeker houses were in terrible shape,” said Lindholm.
As a result, the school performed a massive renovation of the two houses, ensuring that they were once again brought up to code.
Meeker House and Munford House, upon their conversion into the Advancement and Development offices in 1992, were no longer the hub of Middlebury’s party scene. Social houses constructed on the Ridgeline became both their descendants and replacements.
“It’s kind of ironic that the sites that once held huge and wild parties next served as office space,” said Lindholm, who recalled that during his years as a student, parties at Munford and Meeker houses were often shut down or cited for noise ordinances by the neighborhood.
The most recent conversion of the two buildings occurred when the administration realized that because Middlebury guarantees every student housing the College needed more residential living space.
The Facilities Services Department undertook the summer project. Both houses were already equipped with plumbing and lighting, but it was still seen by Adams as a “relatively major renovation.”
Almost exclusively singles, the new living spaces in Meeker and Munford “Potluck”- and “Music”-themed groups, respectively. Their return to social and entertainment spaces speaks to Lindholm’s observation that a lot of Middlebury’s outlying buildings have “fulfilled multiple purposes over time.”
Current Residents on Munford House
“The fact that the house was just renovated and is mostly singles is awesome. I feel like the atmosphere here is more social than in other housing options.” — Kate Strangfeld ’12
“It’s very neat to see remnants of the old parts of the building, like the painting and details in the basement.” — Yen Le ’12
“I lived in Coffrin and Allen, so living on this side of campus is fun and different. I like being closer to more academic buildings.” — Nicole Glaser ’12
“It’s so nice that we don’t have the intense social atmosphere of a fraternity, while at the same time we can get together and share and enjoy music with one another.” — Graeme Daubert ’12
Current Residents on Meeker House
“Though I don’t know much about its history, it’s appropriate that it’s a house again. I’m glad the house fit what the College needed.” — Sasha Rivera ’12
“The building and the people in it are so great. What the school did to refurbish it is awesome. “ — Daniel Chan ’11
“Living in the house is interesting; it’s not just a living space. We have a mission as a themed house and I’m glad we can fulfill that here.” — Matthew Wolf ’12
“The house itself is really lovely, and the rooms are a comfortable size. “ — Hannah Gorton ’11
(10/07/10 4:05am)
Dear Campus,
I want to compliment Melissa Hirsch on her 9/30/10 Op-Ed “Truth in Biases.” Her piece was an entertaining read and I think she makes important points. Specifically, I agree that biases are almost everywhere. There are biases in the recent decisions of the Texas Board of Education and there are often biases in the examples Hirsch provides: “liberal political viewpoints,” farm stories and environmental geography.
But I think Hirsch can go a step further in her conclusion. She writes towards the end of her piece, “We, too, are host organisms for a specified vector of belief systems and we target other non-believing host species as antagonistic, just as they do to us. We are no different from the students affected by the Texas Board of Education, or from the board of educators themselves.”
She then concludes: “I’ve now arrived at an impasse. What the hell do we do now? I don’t know what you should do, but, despite everything I’ve just said, I know what I’m going to.”
I don’t think we should be at an “impasse.” It is my belief that if we engage in a deliberative, rational and compassionate examination of the world around us, we can work towards developing a value system that we can take pride in.
And this value system should make every effort to be open-minded. As defined by dictionary.com, the word “bias” carries with it the connotation of “[preventing] unprejudiced consideration.” Part of being open-minded should be working to overcome biases.
It’s important to remain humble about our ability to arrive at any comprehensive system of values. We should never be absolutely sure of our beliefs, and we should be careful about the ways in which we try to spread our values.
But we can be pretty darn sure that the values of tolerance and compassion are better than the biases of the Texas Board of Education.
(10/07/10 4:05am)
Some days here at Middlebury just seem too perfect. The autumn air is crisp, but not too cool, professors cancel class and homework assignments and maybe you even sneak a glimpse of your Proctor crush giving you the once-over from across the salad bar. Yet every golden sunset at the end of every sublime day is slightly tempered by an underlying current of imperfection; a blemish on the collective face of Middlebury College, the knowledge of which is sometimes too much to bear. What could this malevolent force be, this invisible beast that haunts our very beings as residents of the greater Middlebury area? Of course I’m referring to that great blight we all deal with every day — the conspicuous lack of a combination Taco Bell/KFC in the otherwise wonderful town of Middlebury.
There. I said it. And now that it’s out there, we should probably do something about it. Let us examine our current dining options on say, a Sunday evening after 8 p.m. The dining halls are closed. Restaurants in town are closed. The Grille or MiddXpress, you might ask? Darker than the bags under a microbiology-biochemistry major’s eyes in finals week (a fact which the money-laden SGA still has inexplicably yet to address despite almost universal outcry). And don’t even get me started on the Almighty Town of Middlebury’s ridiculous zoning-related decree to our beloved McDonalds, ensuring that our Big Mac cravings will go insatiated until an undisclosed date in October.
Who among us hasn’t felt those sudden pangs of hunger after a late-night library session, wanting only a small morsel of perhaps a KFC double down sandwich, or a single item off the value menu from the always-delicious Taco Bell? Now consider the same question, but instead of 8 on a Sunday, imagine it’s 3 in the morning on a Saturday night. Are you seriously telling me you wouldn’t give an arm and a leg for just one chicken quesadilla, or a 12-piece bucket of extra crispy chicken for the low, low price of $5.99?
Let me be blunt — I love Taco Bell. It was my immediate post-school stop every day once I got my car in high school (much to the chagrin of both my girlfriend and cardiologist). I once racked up a $65 tab at a Taco Bell drive-thru in Sherwood, Arkansas at 4 in the morning. It is consistently the cheapest, most accessible and most delicious fast food on the face of the earth. You know what’s a close second? Freakin’ KFC.
It is a certainty beyond any reasonable doubt that when Tricon Global Resteraunts broke off as a subsidiary of PepsiCo. in 1997 the world of fast food changed forever, because it brought about the single most important dining innovation since the Earl of Sandwich slapped some meat between some bread back in the day: the combination Taco Bell/KFC. No longer were Americans forced to decide between original recipe with a golden buttermilk biscuit on the side and a beef grilled stuffed burrito with extra cheese. In my hometown of Little Rock, Ark. there are no fewer than five of these magnificent establishments. This leads us to my main point — if my humble hometown can have more Taco Bell/KFCs than Newt Gingrich has mistresses, why can we not have one in Middlebury? This is, after all, a college town. It makes perfect sense, and would be the greatest economic benefit for the town since someone stuck a waterwheel in Otter Creek. Is the Middlebury town council so attached to its pretentious ideas of “authenticity” that it can’t let us have just one damn piece of civilization in our otherwise remote bastion of faux liberal ideas of what is right and wrong with small-town America? Well in the famous words of Howard Beale from the classic movie Network, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore.”
So let’s stand up, Middlebury. Write letters to Yum Brands. Write letters to the town council. Write letters to Ron Liebowitz. Hell, write letters to SGA president Riley O’Rourke ’12. He’s gotta have some power, right? At any rate, let us now resolve to never again have an otherwise perfect Middlebury day be ruined by our crippling inability to eat a damn taco.
(10/07/10 4:05am)
One of the best things about this week was the opening of the movie The Social Network. I have not seen this movie, but I am assured of its brilliance because it was written by Aaron Sorkin, who wrote the many speeches of President Jed Bartlett, rated fifth best president by a survey of prominent political scientists and couch potatoes. It also stars perennial guilty pleasure and frequent SNL guest Justin Timberlake and that guy with a British accent who is going to be the new Spiderman. British accents always win. Almost as much as Aaron Sorkin’s dialogue. Anyway, in honor of The Social Network, the horror movie that shows the downfall of our generation to the Zuckerberg god, I bring you the return of Ron’s Liebowitz’s Facebook feed.
(10/07/10 4:05am)
On Sept. 29, the Women’s and Gender Studies Program and Chellis House, sponsored a talk with former journalist Marie Ridder titled “The Making of a Renaissance Woman.” Ridder came to Chellis House as part of the “Lunchtime Lecture” series.
“The Chellis House lunchtime lecture series provides an intimate framework where audience members can interact with speakers on a very direct level,” said Karin Hanta, director of Chellis House. “Marie Ridder’s talk was designed to stimulate intergenerational dialogue and provide a window into how a professional journalist and political activist achieved success during a time in which the glass ceiling was pressing down very hard on women.”
A renaissance woman is a woman who has acquired profound knowledge or proficiency in more than one field, and Marie Ridder certainly fits this description. Ridder was formerly a Washington correspondent for the Ridder and Knight Ridder newspapers as well as a Washington editor for Vogue, Mademoiselle and Glamour magazines. She was also deputy to the national director of Project Head Start and now serves on the Executive Committee of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Ridder is retired from her journalism career, but remains involved in politics as a current member of the Word Wildlife Fund Council, the American Farmland Trust Council, and the Brookings Institute Council.
In her talk, Marie Ridder shared how she always knew she wanted to be a journalist. In 1938, at the age of 12, Ridder became a copygirl for the English newspaper her grandfather owned in Japan, and from that point forward, Ridder was on the path to becoming an accomplished journalist.
“It never occurred to me to do anything else,” Ridder said.
Even as a senior in high school, Ridder was offered the position of reporter for her local newspaper. As a student at Bryn Mawr College, Ridder was the editor of the campus newspaper and also wrote a column for the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. Ridder attributed many of her accomplishments to luck and circumstance.
“These opportunities wouldn’t have occurred if there wasn’t a war going on, causing a shortage of men,” Ridder said. “You have to understand how devoid of bodies these people were.”
Students were struck by Ridder’s attention to her particular circumstances.
“[This point of the talk] made me think about how much each of our lives are subject to the particular circumstances we find ourselves in at any given moment, and how much effect external events can have even on the lives of individual people,” said Sarah Cohen ’12.
Ridder’s friend Wendy Morgan, an activist who has worked with Planned Parenthood, would not let Ridder be too modest about her achievements.
“With or without a war, [Ridder] is audacious, and she is always looking for an opportunity to get out there and do something great,” said Morgan.
Ridder described the dynamics of the news industry and how although newsrooms are a place where women have successfully advanced, women still face many challenges.
“So much of my luck came with wartime, but there still existed a glass ceiling,” said Ridder. Ridder spoke of women she knew who deserved to be lead editorss, but who were kept as staff writers while the positions were instead given to men.
Ridder also spoke about her involvement with environmental issues and her current projects, such a protecting a parcel of wilderness by the Potomac River, testifying against the reopening of old power plants in the Ohio Valley that will affect the health of the nearby national park and the Smoky Mountains and working to preserve the last pristine beach in the Chesapeake Bay Area, which is an important piece of land for migratory birds.
Students responded positively to the stories Ridder told.
“I thought Marie Ridder’s talk was really interesting — it was great to hear from a woman who covered such important stories and went on to have such an impact through her work with Head Start,” said Sarah Harris ’11. “She was certainly a trailblazer and really set a precedent for women wanting to do serious journalism.”
The diversity of Ridder’s pursuits also proved impressive.
“I was most impressed by what an accomplished and varied career Marie Ridder pursued throughout her life,” said Cohen ’12. “It seemed that she was interested in so many activities and found a way to enact meaningful change in a variety of different areas she was passionate about.”
When asked to give advice to aspiring journalists, Ridder emphasized real world experience over continued schooling.
“I personally believe ‘doing’ is more important than going to more school,” said Ridder. “And don’t be afraid to enter at the bottom. We all did.”
She was also honest in saying that the newspaper business is in bad shape and that serious journalism may be in trouble. However, Ridder did acknowledge that she sees a future in small papers, which seem to be in economic ascendance.
Despite this discouraging point about the future of print communications, students left motivated by Ridder’s talk.
“She is clearly a women who has lived a life full of adventure, and it was inspiring to meet someone who has accomplished so much in her life and still isn’t slowing down,” said Cohen ’12. “She’s someone who was never afraid of a challenge or having to work hard to get what she wanted, an admirable trait that I believe applies to us, as the younger generation just beginning to venture out into the real world to pursue our own passions and dreams.”
(10/07/10 4:05am)
The recent column entitled “CEOs, hip-hop dancers and biofuel farmers” presents a compelling argument for why the environmental movement needs to be more inclusive so that it can fulfill its vision of reshaping society in an effort to save the planet. Let’s see if we can make this dream a reality.
First, as the article suggested, we need to restructure agricultural production worldwide so that we are producing food in our front yards, community gardens and greenhouses. This will actually be relatively easy to accomplish, since much of the world already engages in these forms of agricultural production, with the exception of greenhouses. Considering the great strides the West has made in fostering “awareness,” it won’t be long before Monsanto becomes a dinosaur of a less civilized age.
Now we need to reach a more “sustainable” population level. After completing our shift from energy-intensive production to more organic methods, we can expect the world’s food supply to decrease and the price of food to increase. The poorer nations of the world will face starvation, but they’ll take comfort in knowing that the polar bears are safe. Population levels will decline and we will be able to enjoy the sustainable abundance provided by our pre-19th century agrarian lifestyle.
Need I say more?
Environmentalism may fundamentally be concerned with limits, but limits are defined by capabilities. Time and time again humans have faced “limits” (mountains, oceans, etc.), but our innovations have redefined the constraints of our environment. This is called progress, which is a word that should not be confused with “progressive.” The former refers to the improvement of the human experience, while the latter is the epitome of false advertising. Progress in regards to agricultural production is why doctors are able to devote their entire careers to the advancement of medicine instead of spending their summers pulling weeds, which brings us to the conception of society presented in the article.
We can pretend that we are a society built on independence and isolationism, but how many students at Middlebury have cleared land, collected seeds, tilled soil, planted seeds, tended to a field, harvested a crop and baked a loaf of bread? We are already interdependent. Just because I don’t know the farmer in California who provides the school’s oranges doesn’t make me any less dependent on him or her.
The inherent problem of the environmental movement is not in its lack of inclusiveness, but the fact that nobody wants to live in the world that it envisions. Until environmentalists agree to find real solutions to the challenges our world faces, they will continue to be ignored (except during the primaries). With an estimated global population of nine billion people by 2050, there will be less land and water available for agriculture. Through innovations in agricultural production, and the production of energy, we can feed that many people and more in an environmentally sustainable manner. Whether or not we will depends, in part, on environmentalists’ ability to operate a simple cost-benefit analysis and adapt to the demands of reality.
(10/07/10 4:05am)
Great leaders are all judged by history. Centuries of human history are often boiled down to a list of those who have defied expectation: Pericles, Augustus, Queen Elizabeth, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, to name just a few. But these are not just leaders history has judged to be great; they are also leaders who have improved the human condition.
Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president of the United States, did not make history, and history has noted him for little more than his propensity for silence. When he died, Dorothy Parker (a famous left-wing poet, screenwriter and satirist) is reported as having said, “How do they know?” Yet ‘Silent Cal’ was the president during one of the most vibrant eras of American history. The ‘roaring 20s’ was a time of massive economic expansion, increasing consumer confidence and expectation, colossal raises in the standard of living, new forms of art and music, technological development, emancipation of women and general happiness for the American people. This is not to paint the 20s as the long lost golden era when life was perfect and America had nothing to learn. Nor is it to say that it was a time when all American people were all happy. But it was a time of general hope and pleasure rather than one of earth shattering progress.
For decades, none of the prominent politicians or leaders in American government could bear the patience of silence. Loudness, obviousness and tabloid fame have become the central part of political life. It is less and less clear where Hollywood ends and Washington begins, and political life attracts characters that pretend to be real rather than real people that have character. Every politician wants to be a historical celebrity and to be mentioned in some survey to ‘change history’. Governing people has become far less of a political goal. Progress is celebrated by television ratings without reference to happiness.
Progress is not in itself a bad thing. While conservatives do not always celebrate change, we are not against change for the better but are, rather, in opposition to change for the worse. We stand up for what we believe to be worthwhile ideas from the past as well as those from the present and attempt to protect the wisdom of the ages from erosion. Many wonderful changes have taken place since the roaring 20s. I, like other American women, can look towards a future where no career is out of the question because of gender. There have been advances in civil rights, medicine, technology, liberty of thought and many other areas of life. However, political life has not only progressed, but also changed for the worse. Celebrity politicians have devalued governing, making the press briefing rather than the state of the union the signature of their office.
Celebrities are fakes. They are meant to be fakes. They draw us into a world that avoids what is real. Drama is the driving force upon which they exist. Therefore, when they are in love, their passion has no bounds. They live or die upon the words of their beloved. But true love is boring when presented in a tabloid because it makes miraculous the every day. Thus, celebrities are in love until they cheat. They raise children in the same way by creating false drama and intrigue around them — endowing them with strange names, adopting too many, and bringing sex into their lives from their first breath. Their religions have nothing to do with a higher power, a moral code or an understanding of human nature. They have everything to do with temptation, intimacy publicly displayed and the newest fad. Just as they attempt to remain forever young through crazed dieting and plastic surgery, they try to make their lives forever the last word in the dramatic.
Real political leaders must do hard work for the people whom they are elected to govern. They must be able to tell the real from the fake and the important from the unimportant. But today political news breaks in Rolling Stone magazine behind a picture of Lady Gaga’s butt. The first lady spends more time in Vogue than fighting childhood obesity, and the President appears on the front of Time dressed up as if he were from another era. The first couple flies off to other cities for date nights and their choice of dog is reported by major news media. Political life has become merely another avenue to the new American dream of fame and riches. Publicity has replaced the public good.
Democracy is the best government when it gives individuals real goods: a life where adults take care of themselves and their children, and the strong the weak. Real people work hard every day for the enduring goods and they deserve politicians who do the same rather than attempting to dance with the stars.
(10/07/10 4:05am)
In 1999, a Los Angeles court issued subpoenas to 17 U.S firms — including Wal-Mart, Tommy Hilfiger, The Gap, and Sears — seeking more than one billion dollars in damages over garments supposedly manufactured in sweatshops in the Mariana Islands. In 2005, the state of Illinois passed legislation that would allow them to divest from corporations indirectly bankrolling the Darfur genocide, a gesture that would later inspire 105 universities, 11 U.S. cities and 15 countries to initiate targeted divestment campaigns in the Sudanese government and move 9 major oil, natural gas and infrastructural companies to cease or significantly alter operations in the region. In 2006, Victoria’s Secret pledged a moratorium on printing their 350 million mailed catalogues a year on non-recycled paper from Canada’s semi-protected boreal forests, promising to incorporate up to 10 percent post-consumer waste within a year.
We live in a world where market failures and corporate irresponsibility are often treated as givens; where sustainability and profiting are assumed to lie at odds. We think of sweatshops as necessary and use of recycled materials as exceptional; when corporations are found linked to violence we barely bat a collective eyelid. Assumptions are sometimes a product of intimidation; the sheer size of corporations today bears greater resemblance to the nation state than it does to a small or medium sized business capable of treading softly.
But what we overlook in the process is that with a private sector at scale comes damage and destruction at scale, but also potential for change at scale. When Victoria Secret decides to shift to 10 percent post consumer recycled waste, millions of old growth trees can be considered newly protected. When the world’s largest garment producers institute a pay raise for, or add a bathroom break to the daily allowances of subjugated sweatshop workers, quality of life improves for hundreds of thousands. When oil and natural gas companies cannot, in good faith, continue work in Sudan, money that would otherwise be channeled into arms trading and violence is cut off at the source.
These changes only really occur when consumer opposition to corporate negligence is voiced, both in the form of activism and purchase shifting toward more sustainable options. Constituent calls to congressmen motivated lawsuits against sweatshops; letter writing moved Victoria’s Secret to greater environmental sustainability; t-shirt campaigns and petitions on college campuses bolstered the cause for Sudan divestment. Meanwhile, increasing popularity of products like petroleum-free Seventh Generation laundry detergent, organic Stoneyfield Yogurt and domestically produced clothing indirectly ramp up the pressures on other careless corporations.
Recognizing the immense power of consumer awareness is both exciting and daunting. Because if we have the power to demand that the companies that produce our energy, clothes, electronics, shoes, food and entertainment maintain a triple bottom line — an accounting system that considers human, economic and environmental sustainability — there is no end to our obligation to spur greater responsibility within the private sector. Everything we need is predicated upon some contribution from natural capital, be it oil for shipping, mineral resources for electronics, pulp for paper — we could spend all our days attempting to change the various ways in which the things we buy exploit the planet and its people.
Personally, I’m completely dizzied by the whole thing. I have spent a significant portion of my time on hold with Coca-Cola, waiting to complain about the overuse of precious of water resources in India. It took me days to find a phone company that could assert that their coltan mineral purchases were not funding civil conflict in the Congo. I have no idea how many of the vegetables I eat began their lives as Monsanto-patented seeds — a protection that has ruined many small farmers’ attempted avoidance of genetically modified crops. I’m not particularly certain that FedEx cares that I think they should invest in natural gas vehicles to cut greenhouse gas emissions nor do I think Nutella has noticed my disapproval of their use of deforestation-inducing palm oil.
What it comes down to is whether we settle or not; whether we actively acknowledge corporate irresponsibility and move on, or demand better. And if we choose to not ask the most of ourselves and consumers, and of others as producers, fine. But we must realize that in the process, we will be passing up a great opportunity at justice and fairness; consumer awareness may be one of the only attempts at sustainability that has been met with successes at scale. And just as our needs are endless, we must remember: so too are the possibilities.
(10/07/10 4:05am)
As you may have already heard, a Rutgers freshman, Tyler Clementi, leapt to his death off of the George Washington Bridge on September 22th. He was 18 years old and bullied for being gay. Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei are being charged with invasion of privacy after streaming video footage of Tyler having a sexual encounter with another man in his room. These three students just started college, the place to learn, grow, expand the mind, begin life’s journey. These three lives just ended, one irrevocably. Tyler’s story is one of four bullying-related teen suicides this past month. Ravi and Wei felt entitled to publicly display someone’s private life, and as a result of their actions, a teenage boy is dead. This tragedy, seemingly distant, is not so far removed from events here at Midd.
A couple of weeks ago I was walking past Proctor, late one Friday night with some friends. A group of four, younger-looking Middlebury males were belligerently hooting, kicking over and throwing the wooden chairs that had been set up for the symposium dinner earlier that day. I knew that these were, in fact, Middlebury students because they donned Middlebury athletic attire. One of them, maybe the smallest one, held a chair up to one of my friends in a threatening manner as though he were about to perform a professional wrestling move on her. His friends congratulated him for his brave display of unprovoked dominance with laughter and high fives. When my friends and I proceeded to tell them that they were being immature and that their actions were “not cool, guys,” they came back at us with a barrage of expletives, limited mostly to variations of the “f-bomb.” They then proceeded to the Grille, verbally terrorizing others along the way. These students felt entitled to destroy college property and threaten their peers.
More recently, I attended a “[not so] small, informal gathering” at which I placed my jacket down on a living room couch. While it was warmer in the early evening, I knew that it would be cold later, so I planned ahead. Someone else did not plan ahead, and when I went to grab my jacket and leave, it was not there. My car keys are in the pocket of that jacket and now I cannot access my car. Someone felt entitled to take my jacket without regard for the consequences of that action. At the end of last semester, I had the misfortune of overhearing a Middlebury College athlete use the phrase “sand-nigger” to describe a Middle-Eastern student. I have felt and seen numerous doors slammed in faces because people are too careless to look behind them. Last fall’s display of pushing and shoving at the Halloween party is yet another example of entitlement based violence. I am sure that you can think of examples from your own experience, in which you felt the impact of someone’s aggression and or thoughtlessness.
While property damage and theft are not as extreme as the exploitation of someone’s privacy, the actions all come from a person’s sense of entitlement and subsequent carelessness. I do not wish to investigate the source of this entitlement or aggression, for fear that in doing so I might make blanket assumptions about athletics or social groups. It is very easy to “bro-bash,” and yet this type of prejudicial attitude creates as much negativity as homophobic or racial slurs. Do athletics breed aggression? By nature of some sports, yes they do, but a student with the mental capacity to handle a top-tier liberal arts college can surely distinguish between the field and the campus, right? I like to hope so. There are both nice and not-so-nice people in the Mill and in ADP, and in every other social or student group. I would like to encourage all Middlebury students to focus on our commonalities instead of our rifts. The world is difficult outside of Middlebury — an understatement, I know — so why not make it easier for everyone here?
The opposite of entitlement is gratitude. At Middlebury, we are very privileged. Do not assume that being here entitles you to deserve what you have. Be grateful for all the opportunities that you receive and understand that there are millions of people who will never see them. Middlebury is an enclosed community over which we have a great deal of control. Our actions create a ripple effect that reverberates across the entire campus. Be aware that the consequences of your actions will directly affect other people. The solution is simple: be kind. Hate is contagious, but so is love. Spread positive energy. Hold the door for people. Be empathetic. Listen to what people have to say. Smile. It does not hurt, I promise.
(10/07/10 4:05am)
I asked a friend of mine a personal question this past week, and he responded very thoughtfully, ending his answer with, “And I mean that. Really. This week, I’ve decided that I’m not going to lie. To anyone. About anything.”
I took a page out of his manuscript, and tried it myself for a few days. I asked my friend how he had been faring, and he said that the process helped him realize how often he just side-steps honesty with a blanket answer. If someone asks, “Hey, I’m having a party tonight and I’d like to see you there. Can you make it?” the knee-jerk reaction might be, “Sure, sounds good.”
In your head, you are really thinking something else. Maybe you’re thinking, “No, I won’t come by. It’s nothing personal, I just have other plans.” Or, “Actually you are pretty annoying and I am definitely not going to show up.” Or what have you.
We lie almost reflexively: to make things more interesting, to raise our self esteem, to avoid a long-winded story, to one-up each other. We don’t even really consider the little “white lies” we tell as part of our daily discourse.
In The Day America Told the Truth, it was reported that 91 percent of individuals surveyed admitted that they lie routinely about matters they consider trivial, 36 percent reported lying about “important matters,” 86 percent lied regularly to parents, 75 percent to friends, 73 percent to siblings and 69 percent to spouses. Also, for the record, I did not read this book; I just used “Google Books.”
In an article in LiveScience (which I did read!), Robin Lloyd states, “people are so engaged in managing how others perceive them that they are often unable to separate truth from fiction in their own minds.” In one study, two people were placed in a room together for ten minutes to have a conversation, and while they talked 60 percent of people lied, telling about 2.92 inaccurate things; however, when polled, most reported that they had not said anything inaccurate. We do it without registering that we are doing it; we blur the line between fiction and fact every day — not just to others, but to ourselves.
A friend and I were having lunch and I asked her how she was, and she automatically said, “Good,” only to cut herself off, saying, “Actually, well there’s a lot going on.” Then, sitting in Proctor, we both told each other how we really were, avoiding such then-inaccuracies as “good” or “bad.” We were hopeful, confused, stressed, excited, bored, tired, caffeinated, as many dualities as you could think of. We could think of them too, once we actually considered it. Instead of writing off how we truly felt with a bland paraphrase, we opened up conversationally and introspectively.
Maybe it is impractical to always tell the truth. Maybe it is a burden. Maybe when you are passing someone on your way to class, it is easier and more socially normative to answer with “Good, you?” instead of “Actually kind of sh*tty, but things are looking up.”
But after that lunch, and in my friend’s experience after his little experiment, it sure feels great to tell the truth. No, not great. It feels awkward at first, and then brave, and then reassuring, and then exciting.
In the end, I’m not sure how much I lie, or why we lie, or if it is even possible to be completely honest. But I do know that it is refreshing, and that the next time we run into each other outside of the library, I’m going to try my best to answer with more than a generic “good.”
(10/07/10 4:05am)
After days of rain, the weather finally cleared last weekend and both the women’s and men’s golf teams competed in tournaments; with the sun shining on them, both teams enjoyed successful results at their respective events. The women played at home in the Middlebury Invitational, while the men traveled to Trinity College for the NESCAC Qualifier.
The women were able to achieve a second place finish, falling only to Williams. After coming out tied with Williams after one day of competition, the men’s team was able to come out victorious in the second day of competition.
On Saturday, both Williams and Middlebury had combined scores of 295. Rob Donahue ’14 led the competition after the first day with a score of 69, two below par. During the second day of play, the panthers edged ahead of the Ephs finishing with a combined two-day score of 585.
Brian Cady ’11 broke away on the second day with a score of 68, three strokes under par. Combined with his score of 74 from the previous day, Cady won the individual competition with a two day combined score of 142. After two days, Donahue tied for third place with Wesleyan player Peter Taylor. Jimmy Levins ’11 finished the weekend in ninth place, Andrew Emerson ’13 tied for 15th place and William Prince ’13 tied for 23rd place.
This win at the NESCAC qualifiers means that the team will get to host the Spring Championships on April 30 and May 1. Amherst, Trinity and Williams will compete against Middlebury in this spring tournament.
The women’s team finished only behind Williams at their own tournament with a two-day score of 692. Williams finished with a score of 652. Vassar rounded out the top three with a overall score of 706.
“Based on the conditions of the course on both Saturday and Sunday it would have been hard for us to reach our full potential. Saturday the course was drenched and Sunday it was so windy that the course played a lot longer,” Caroline Kenter ’14 said. “Overall it was a tough tournament but we played well enough to clench the second place title.”
Georgina Salant of Williams won the individual competition with a score of 155. Middlebury’s Flora Weeks ’12 led the panthers with an overall score of 163. Keely Levins ’13 placed 12th, Jessica Bluestein ’11 placed 13th and Caroline Kenter ’14 placed 15th with scores of 175, 176 and 178 respectively. Kait Surdoval ’12 rounded out the Middlebury players with a score of 250.
Both teams will compete again this weekend. The women will compete at Williams and the men at Hamilton.
(10/07/10 4:05am)
Slightly removed from the main section of Middlebury sits one of the fastest growing hard cider companies in America. Woodchuck Cider is a Middleburybased company that prides itself on producing the highest quality hard cider with the best and most interesting taste.
Founded by Greg Failing in 1990, the company originated in Proctorsville, Vt. Failing, currently Woodchuck’s senior cider maker, used his expertise and experience as a wine-maker when learning to make cider.
“All I did was go out in the backyard, grab some apples and make them taste good,” he said.
While Failing knows that hard cider is popular in Europe, in America most people think of sweet cider when they hear the word. The key, then, was to create a hard cider that tasted like a sweet cider. Because of Failing’s tenacity and desire to spread the joy of delicious hard cider, the company has grown rapidly since 1990. In fact, in 2007 Woodchuck Cider was the first American cider to sell over a million cases.
Over the past 20 years, Woodchuck Cider has developed a myriad of flavors. The original Amber flavor is still the company’s most popular, but other options include Granny Smith, Pear and a new limited edition, Pumpkin. Bret Williams, the current owner of the company, explained that this flavor was born because one of his employees donated pumpkins from his back yard, as he thought Pumpkin Cider would be a fun twist on the traditional sweet taste.
The process of making cider is almost identical to that of making wine. Woodchuck Cider gathers juice for its cider from six local apple farms, as well as from others outside the state. Williams said that although the company tries to stay local as possible, they have “outgrown the state”. The demand for cider is too large to only take apples from Vermont. Once the juice is delivered, it is temporarily stored in holding tanks. These tanks are sanitized stainless steel containers that can hold up to 12,000 gallons of apple juice. The juice is then run through a filtration system in order to remove any unwanted substances before the “secret ingredients” are added to give the cider its original flavor. The juice is next moved to fermenting tanks that are kept at around 35 degrees Fahrenheit, as this temperature ensures that the juice is fermented at the right rate. The entire process takes about two weeks, and once the juice is ready, it is moved to another holding tank where it waits to be bottled.
Though much of the cider making process is machine-based, Williams believes all of his employees are vital to the success of the company. The people who work at Woodchuck are actually the most important part of making the cider good. One of Williams’ employees invented a machine that fastens the caps to the bottles. A tube above a container that holds several hundred bottle caps sucks the caps up and places them on the bottles.
Failing said that in each bottle of cider, “there’s a little bit of us.” People in the cidery play a very important role, and Failing believes that they, and only they, make the cider more than just an average cider. Woodchuck boasts an easy-going atmosphere, despite the fact that the company is having trouble meeting the growing demand for its product.
Williams, who first began as the sales representative for the company in 1996, bought Woodchuck in 2003. Currently, the company is the largest winery in New England, and it has plans to keep growing. Although Woodchuck Cider is not the only hard cider company in the country, Williams does believes there is a key difference between Woodchuck and other ciders.
“We’ve been completely dedicated to cider, there’s nothing to distract us,” he said. “We’re a cider company and we’re proud of it.”
While most other companies also make wine and have restaurants on their land, Woodchuck only makes cider. Williams goes so far as to say the cider is more than a beverage.
“It is a union between technology, science and art,” he said.
Despite the company’s growth, employees and managers still look at Woodchuck in the same way. Although the factory is not yet set up for tours, all are welcome to visit the property. Employees are enthusiastic about the product and are excited to talk to visitors about the company.
Williams said the best part about his job is “opening the bottle and getting people to try it.” That philosophy appears to be the key to success, and it is the reason why Woodchuck’s fan base is growing faster than the company.
Woodchuck is also invested in helping the environment. Williams and Failing both believe it is their obligation to help nature, especially considering their entire product is built around apples. Recently, the company decided to plant a tree for every person that became a fan of its cider on Facebook within a two-week period. It also just planted around 10,000 trees to help curb deforestation in California, and plans on becoming a zero landfill company by 2011. This means that Woodchuck will throw nothing away, instead everything, even the paper they print their labels on, will be recycled.
The Woodchuck Cider Company is dedicated to making a drink that tastes good and the company combines talent, hard work, a desire to please customers and a drive to help the world.
“It’s all about the energy you put out,” said Failing, and Woodchuck Cider fully intends on keeping that energy positive.