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(10/07/10 4:04am)
Middlebury (3-3) got their record even and their season back on track with a 2-1 road victory over NESCAC rivals Colby (3-4) on Saturday. The game completed the Panthers’ brief two-game road stint and furthermore ended the team’s two-game losing streak, during which Middlebury was held scoreless by Bowdoin and Skidmore.
Things did not look good out of the gate for the offense-heavy Panthers. After failing to score a goal against Skidmore in a game strongly influenced by the rain-drenched playing field, the team found itself offensively stifled once again. Saturday, the Mules’ strong midfield play and continuous offensive attack kept the Panthers scoreless throughout the first half, pushing Middlebury’s scoreless streak to two and a half games. Colby dominated the first-half stat sheet as well, holding a 13-5 shots advantage and a 5-1 penalty shot margin in the first period.
“We weren’t quite playing ‘Middlebury’ field hockey in the first half,” said captain Sally Ryan ’11. “Our connections on the field were lacking and we knew we had to fix that or else the game wouldn’t go our way.”
However, strong defense by the Panthers kept the game from slipping out of their grasp. Due in large part to the play of goaltender Madeline Brooks ’13 –– seven of her nine saves coming in the first half –– Colby only managed to score one goal in their 13 shots and five penalty attempts. The goal came on an unassisted shot by Heather Quadir with 10:50 left in the opening half.
“At half time, we talked about what we needed to improve, we switched around some players in different positions and we started to play really well as a team,” said Ryan. “We were able to have a successful build up all the way up the field and had a lot of corner opportunities im the second half, which really changed the momentum of the game.”
Things would turn around quickly for the Panthers in the second half of the game. Middlebury’s strong defensive play continued from the first period, as the defense allowed no more Mules near the net –– Colby managed just four attempted shots for the rest of the game. More importantly, however, the stagnant Panther offense came alive for the first time in nearly three games, scoring two goals in the period despite a valiant effort by Colby goaltender Liz Fontaine, who had 11 saves in the game, eight of which came in the second half. The offensive turnaround showed on paper, with the Panthers holding a 14-4 shot advantage as well as a 7-2 penalty advantage in the second period, a complete flip from first half statistics.
Middlebury’s offense was sparked early on in the half by an unassisted game-tying goal from the captain herself that came right off the bat, just 1:10 into the period. Ryan was finally able to crack through the tenacious Colby midfield and fire a shot that found the back of the board.
“We hadn’t scored a goal in our last two games and we needed something to fuel us,” said Ryan. “There is no better sound than hearing the ball hit the back of the goal. It really boosted the morale of the team and pumped everyone up.”
Middlebury continued its offensive pressure with several good plays from standout forward Lauren Greer ’13, and took the lead with 11:11 left in play off of yet another unassisted goal. This time, midfielder Charlotte Gardiner ’13 scored the game-winning goal for the Panthers, and aggressive defense as well as great goaltending on both sides of the field kept another shot from finding the net in the contest.
Middlebury’s win could not come at a better time, as the Panthers return home to defend Kohn Field in an important match-up against fellow NESCAC competitor Amherst. With the Panther defense playing stronger than ever and the offense finally back on track, things look promising for the Middlebury team to reclaim its spot in the top echelons of the national rankings.
(10/07/10 4:04am)
When D.E. Axinn Professor of English and Creative Writing Jay Parini introduced writer Howard Frank Mosher to a crowd in Axinn’s Abernethy Room last Wednesday, he said that he had a title for Mosher ever since he started reading his books: the William Faulkner of the Northeast Kingdom. According to Professor Parini’s introduction, Mosher’s work is rooted in this postage stamp of land in Northeast Vermont and with his books he has universalized it for decades.
Mosher went on to explain how he came to call the Northeast Kingdom his home. In his early twenties, Mosher had a desire to look for “a blueprint” that would show him how to write fiction. He thought graduate school might be the answer, but with very little money he had to put it on hold. It was at that time that he and his wife decided to teach and found jobs teaching high school in the county of Orleans, Vt, one of the three that defines the Northeast kingdom. Mosher and his wife had their first contact with the people of the Northeast Kingdom when they asked two drunken men caught in a street fight for directions. The two men jumped in the car and showed them where they wanted to go, only to continue the fight when they were done.
To Mosher, the Kingdom held “a goldmine of stories. When I arrived, I wasn’t ready to write them. I wouldn’t be able to write them for 10 or 15 years. Some of the stories are sad. The kingdom is a very desolate place.”
Mosher had just completed a 100-city book tour for his most recent book, Walking to Gatlinburg, published in March. Currently, Mosher is working on a new book that has a connection to Middlebury. According to Mosher, it is inspired by the life and work of one of Middlebury’s most famous graduates, Alexander Twilight.
Much of Mosher’s visit was focused on Walking to Gatlinburg. “I’m interested in where writers come up with that glimmer of an idea,” he said. “Where did Jane Austen come up with that spark for Pride and Prejudice? In the case of Gatlinburg, it started as a true story.”
The original story belonged to a friend of Mosher’s in North Carolina, whose great-great-great grandfather was conscripted to the confederate army during the Civil War.
“His name was Jasper Memory. At the beginning of his campaign, he was almost immediately captured and taken to Elmira Prison, where nearly 3,000 confederate soldiers died from neglect.” The story was to be about how he survived and traveled back to his bride in North Carolina, trekking over the Great Smokey Mountains.
“But it seemed somebody else wrote this story.” Mosher said, referring to Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain. “I didn’t want to go at Charles Frazier. But the story wouldn’t let go.”
The current story came to Mosher about a year later, when he was walking at his home and observing the mountains.
“I thought, what if? What if he [the main character] was looking for his brother who was MIA?”
Seven years and 50 drafts later, Walking For Gatlinburg was finished.
Mosher read two sections from his book to the crowd. Both involved encounters between the main character, Morgan, and famous figures in the war, most notably President Lincoln. From listening to the reading, Mosher’s skill was apparent, though not in an overwhelming or bombastic way. The content was very specific and laced with history, while the language was active and heavy, but not wordy. Mosher’s skill with dialogue was strong, as it covered a huge spectrum of emotions. One minute it was quirky and pleasant, the next morally heavy. His prose seemed alive and incredibly natural. Though future drafts of the work might remove extra prepositions or words, two things that will remain in Mosher’s writing are curiosity and interest. He was genuinely in love with the story he was writing, which caused the audience to follow in turn.
This is in keeping with what he said was his muse. Mosher heard his best writing tip in a bar in Nashville listening to a young girl sing country. At the back of the bar was an old man “with iron grey hair” who was supposedly a major country star at one point. When Mosher saw him, the man was drinking himself to death. After the young singer finished, the old man beckoned her back and Mosher, “being the nosey writer from Vermont,” leaned in to listen to their conversation. Apparently, this country singer, a man past his prime, told Mosher via the younger singer: “When you’re up on stage singing nice songs, never hold nothing back.”
Mosher certainly took this to heart. While his words were spare at his reading, his curiosity with the world he creates could not be contained.
(10/07/10 4:04am)
A bark-off, an agility course, homemade treats, music and blue skies are just some of the reasons why Woofstock 2010, Addison County Humane Society’s annual fundraiser, was by-and-large a successful event. Approximately 75 dogs and their owners came to the Middlebury Recreational Park on Saturday, Oct. 2, to support the ACHS, a no-kill shelter in Middlebury, Vt. Many attendees and their pets participated in the approximately 2-mile walk around the back of the Davis Family Library before returning to the park to participate in a multitude of activities, including agility and freestyle competitions, frisbee demonstrations and costume and trick contests. The event is the ACHS’s biggest fundraiser of the year, with last year’s festivities reaping in around $14,000, according to Susan Nelson, an ACHS volunteer.
“These events are huge for us,” said Mike Picard, treasurer on the ACHS Board. “Every penny is from members and events like this. We get no state or government funding.”
Woofstock 2010 participants raised money for the ACHS in the weeks leading up to the event. Some, like Middlebury resident Debbie Bird, used Facebook to encourage friends to donate to the cause.
“They [ACHS] provide a service no one else can,” said Bird.
Others created webpages on http://firstgiving.com to raise funds. Brenda Ellis, the Reference Instruction Librarian, Cynthia (Pij) Slater, the Computing Specialist and Mack Roark, the Senior Technology Specialist, formed a team of Middlebury College employees from the Library Information Services (LIS) and raised over $1,300 for the ACHS.
Ellis was also a volunteer for the event, and spent the day with Walker, a two-year-old Walker Hound, for whom the ACHS is trying to find an owner. In addition to connecting strays with people looking to adopt pets, the ACHS also focuses on educating the public about the well-being of pets and helps to investigate animal cruelty issues.
Picard noted that the money generated from the event was particularly important this year. Due to the recent economic downturn, he said, people are bringing in more pets that they are not able to care for. Though it is far better to surrender your pet to the humane society than to abandon it, the ACHS is stretched thin and there is a usually a waiting list for animals, especially cats. This makes events such as Woofstock all the more significant, as the money raised is needed to feed and care for an increasing number of animals.
Local vendors also raised money for the cause. They each donated an item to the grand raffle and many donated a percentage of their profits earned that day to the ACHS, as well.
Kristin Bittrolff, co-owner of Green Go’s Burritos, sold fruit, homemade brownies, muffins and wraps at her stand at Woofstock. Though her 16-year-old Dalmatian, Waldo, was too old to participate in the event, Bittrolff still supported the cause. She said a portion of her proceeds would go to the ACHS.
Cindy Kilgore, owner of Sacred Spirit Dog, a company that makes scarves out of dog hair, always gives 30 percent of her profits to rescue groups. Kilgore began the unique idea of spinning dog hair into yarn five years ago.
“It’s way too simple in an unsimple world,” said Kilgore.
Since, customers have been sending her extra dog hair that they brush off their pets. At Woofstock, Kilgore was working on making yarn from dog hair sent to her from California. The scarves, which are 80 percent lighter and 67 percent warmer than wool, also give customers something comforting to help them remember their lost pets.
“It’s a way to have something when your friend’s not there,” said Kilgore.
Other companies selling and giving away items at the event included Petco and Wagatha’s Organic Dog Biscuits.
While some pet owners meandered through the tents of vendors, others competed with their dogs for a variety of prizes. Events, like the obedience competition, chose winners based on which dog sat down the fastest on command. Notable outfits in the costume contest included an angel, a turtle, an aristocrat and even a hot dog, complete with mustard on top. There was also a play area sponsored by Jackson’s on the River, where dogs of all sizes and ages socialized.
Still, some attendees used the event to highlight their dogs’ hard work.
Ann Kowalski’s one-year-old Golden Retriever, Murphy, had been working on his agility training and freestyle, commonly known as doggie dancing. Murphy showed off his routine, set to the tune of “I Love You” by The Persuasions. Though Kowalski wanted Murphy to follow the routine they had practiced, she was not too nervous.
“There’s no judging, no stress,” she said. “Sometimes their routine is better than ours.”
Even those like Peg Cobb, owner of Hand-in-Paw Training and Boarding Kennel, who has trained and bred dogs for nearly 25 years, said the routine she had planned with Murphy’s dad, Oliver, a five-year-old Golden Retriever, was just for fun in the spirit of Woofstock.
“Oliver has thrown in some moves of his own,” said Cobb.
No matter what the level of competition, all attendees came to Woofstock with a common goal: to support the ACHS.
Bruce Zeman, host of 92.1 WVTK’s morning show, “The Wake-Up Crew with Bruce Zeman and Hobbes,” couldn’t agree more. Zeman considers himself a passionate animal rights activist. His three-year-old Dachshund, Hobbes, is a victim of domestic violence. Once Zeman saw Hobbes at the humane society, he knew he had to take him. Hobbes is now a co-host on the morning show and, according to Zeman, is “arguably the most famous animal the state has ever had.”
For the past few weeks, Zeman promoted Woofstock on the radio. Picard said this had a big influence on the increased attendance and success of this year’s event. On Saturday, he was broadcasting live from the Middlebury Recreational Park and helped judge some of the dog contests.
“We speak for them because they can’t speak for themselves,” he said.
(10/07/10 4:03am)
On Oct. 2, people of all ages came out to enjoy a great fall tradition: Ciderfest 2010. Champlain Orchards, located in Shoreham, Vt., hosted the event. Tickets sold guaranteed attendees to unlimited food and cider, as well as a hay ride, admission to the orchard to pick your own apples and music provided by the local bluegrass band Run Mountain.
Numerous vendors also lined the edge of the main tent. Attendees chose from delicious baked goods including homemade apple pie and apple crisp. Local cheese producers, including Shelburne Farms, Vermont Butter and Cheese Company and Crowly Cheese, provided limitless samples of their finest cheeses.
Zoe Parker ’13 was not disappointed by the selection.
“At Champlain Orchards, I found God in the form of goat cheese,” she said.
Tickets also included a hamburger dinner provided by the Farmhouse Tap and Grill of Burlington. The burgers, topped with local Vermont cheese, were so good that some attendees temporarily gave up their vegetarianism for the occasion.
However, consistent with the name of the event, Ciderfest’s main attraction is the cider itself. Honeycrisp sweet (nonalcoholic) cider was available, as was hard cider, which seemed to please all who tried it. The many hard cider vendors, including Woodchuck Hard Cider, Farnum Hill and Flag Hill Farm, were quick to give out samples and information about the cider-making process.
“There was a great variety of ciders,” said Gregg Miller ’11. “I was amazed at the different flavors and characteristics of a beverage I formerly always associated with apple juice.”
In addition to sampling a wide variety of food and drink, many attendees enjoyed hayrides led by farm owner and orchardist Bill Suhr. Suhr made his passion for apples clear as he showed riders the orchard’s 25 different varieties of apples. Suhr also added some of his quirky perspectives to the ride, calling one variety, known as Sweet Tangos, “sexy,” while referring to others, such as Northern Spies, as more old-fashioned. In addition, Suhr also explained various farming techniques, and showed off the orchard’s own weather station.
Enticed be Suhr’s descriptions, many riders went on to pick their own apples, as all who bought tickets received their own bag to fill as they strolled through the rows of apple trees. There were so many varieties, in fact, that some became flustered.
“Apple picking never seemed so stressful,” said Addie Cunniff ’13.
The stress didn’t last long, however, as Saturday’s beautiful fall weather, combined with Champlain Orchard’s stellar location and views, provided a wonderful atmosphere for Ciderfest. The orchard has been family owned and operated for more than 100 years. In addition to offering apple picking, Champlain Orchards also makes its own cider and pies, which are available at the farm store. Visitors can arrange for private farm tours to learn more about the cider-making process as well. The farm can even custom-make cider with specific apples of the customer’s choice.
Champlain Orchards is hosting yet another event, their twelfth annual Harvest Festival, on Sunday, Oct. 10. The festival will feature more good food and tunes, including bluegrass music, homemade barbeque, pies, cider and much more.
(10/07/10 4:03am)
Women’s volleyball improved their season record to 11-3 after an impressive three-win week. After traveling to nearby Colby-Sawyer earlier last week, the team made the long trek to Lewiston, Me. on Friday to take on both Bates and Colby College. The Panthers rebounded from a disappointing previous weekend to defeat all three opponents on their own turf, losing only two sets over the course of the entire week. After trouncing two NESCAC rivals, Middlebury improved its conference record to an unblemished 3-0.
On the road against Colby-Sawyer, Middlebury fell behind 16-25 in the first set before bouncing back to win the next three sets. Elissa Goeke ’12 and Megan Jarchow ’14 led the offense, while Caitlin Barrett ’13 earned 17 digs during the game.
In Maine this past weekend, the Panthers took on Colby’s Mules Friday night before challenging the host school Saturday afternoon. The team first beat Colby 3-1, and the next day Middlebury polished off the week with a 3-0 victory against Bates. After the long bus ride Friday afternoon, the Panthers started off somewhat sluggish. Although they managed to win the first set, they dropped the second set before picking it up for the third and fourth sets. The fourth set was particularly decisive, with Middlebury owning its competitors across the net, winning by a dominating score of 25-12 to end the game. While many players had impressive stats, sophomore Julia Gibbs ’13 had an especially noteworthy performance with 11 kills, 16 digs and three aces.
“We played well in the end but we should’ve beaten them in three sets,” said co-captain Jane Handel ’12. “We let them get points they shouldn’t have.”
“We didn’t come out strong at first and should’ve taken more control,” concurred Goeke.
Saturday’s game against Bates was a different story, yet ended with the same victorious result. Unlike the slow start on Friday, the Panthers came out ready to play against Bates. They won in three straight sets and never allowed Bates to score more than 14 points in a single set. The team finished the weekend with two crucial NESCAC victories and returned home proud of their results.
“Lots of people got a chance to play and we played really well,” said Caroline Cordle ’12. “We really ran our offense well on Saturday,” added Handel.
Following this impressive week, the Panthers return to Pepin Gymnasium this weekend for another NESCAC showdown over Fall Family Weekend. Friday night features Middlebury vs. Bowdoin at 6 p.m., and Saturday at 1:30 p.m. the Panthers will take on the Tufts Jumbos –– two of the toughest teams they play this season. These three teams all come into this weekend undefeated in conference play, and the results will go a long way in determining the conference champion at the season’s end. The weekend figures to see the pretenders separated from the contenders in NESCAC volleyball.
(10/07/10 4:02am)
Founded by local author and environmental advocate, Bill McKibben, as well as several other Middlebury alumni, 350.org is an international organization whose mission is “to inspire the world to rise to the challenge of the climate crisis.” It focuses on reducing carbon emissions and reaching the number 350, as this marks the point between where our Earth needs to be and the direction in which it is currently headed. For the past several years, 350.org has organized rallies and demonstrations all over the world, many of which have occurred at the same time in different places. Last year, it organized a global Day of Action to spread awareness about carbon emissions and the town of Middlebury celebrated with a community potluck on the town green. This year, however, 350.org has decided that a potluck is simply not enough and it is throwing a full-blown party. The invitation has three pieces of information, the date — 10/10/10, the place — wherever you live and the theme — CHANGE. It is a Global Work Party.
This Sunday, people will gather together all over the world to fight global warming. In Auckland, New Zealand, people are having a bike fix-up day to help encourage citizens to bike ride. In Costa Rica, people will be planting thousands of trees, and in South Africa, people will learn how to cook organically. The goal of 10/10/10 is to send a message to the world’s political leaders. Now more than ever, our planet needs energy policies and legislation that can make a dent in this “350” goal. If the leaders see how invested the population is in climate change, the hope is that it will inspire them to take environmental action. Though each individual effort in this Global Work Party will count towards the final goal, what matters most is the collective unity with which we approach this task.
In Middlebury alone, there will be eight different Global Work Parties on Oct. 10. The day has been organized primarily by the Sunday Night Group, the College’s environmental activist organization, with two themes in mind: living more sustainably on campus and achieving sustainability in the community. In the morning, a variety of campus activities will take place. Festivities begin with a “hanging out” of clothes on Proctor Rd., followed by a harvest festival in the organic garden and tentatively a yoga session led by Andrea Olsen. The afternoon’s focus is on the community, and activities include gleaning, canvassing for green candidates and home weatherization/solar power lessons. The day will culminate in a Carbon Buster Fashion Show on the town green. The options are endless. Participate in as little or as much as you wish; the point is simply to do something. For more information about these or any other Global Work Party events around the world, visit 350.org’s website.
(10/07/10 4:02am)
Playing their toughest match so far this season, the Middlebury College Rugby Club won a hard-fought match against the U.S. Coast Guard Academy on Saturday with a final score of 39-12. As the competitors represented the final two teams with undefeated records in New England coming into this past weekend, the stakes were high, and both teams brought their best to the pitch.
The Panthers dominated in the scrums, keeping the Coast Guard Bears on their heels despite tough advances from their side, which was evidence of the strength and power of the MCRC. In a game with so much intensity it was no surprise that there were many penalties called on both sides over the course of the afternoon.
“The hard work paid off and we were able to make the tackles on defense and keep possession when we had the ball,” said co-captain Brian Sirkia ’12.5. “That translated into a quick, fast paced attack that put points on the board and staunch defending that kept them from getting over the try line.”
Despite Coast Guard’s fast blitzing defense, the MCRC prevailed. The Bears kept Middlebury from running the ball from their own half like they had become so accustomed to in the last few games, but with some astonishing play from players such as Mike Angelo Pappa ’11 the Panthers kept the upper hand on the score for the entirety of the match.
“Pappa came in and made a real impact by driving his way to score the first try of the game, said Drew Harasimowicz ’11. “It really got the momentum going for the team. He had a great game all around –– a real standout performance.”
Other tries were scored by a list of familiar names who have been pivotal parts of every victory the MCRC has attained: Kennedy “Let’s Go” Mugo ’12, Sam Harrison ’11, Ross Berriman ’12 and Geoff Kalan ’12.5. Sirkia also made a large contribution by hitting four of five conversions on the day, although he only hit two of many penalties.
“It was a big win against one of the top contenders in the Northeast, but we still have a long way to go to accomplishing our goals for the season,” said Sirkia. “The game against St. Michael’s this weekend is just as important, so we’re going to keep putting in the hard work to prepare for them and try to get another win.”
Every week continues to show the development of what is turning out to be an incredibly talented team poised for greatness this year. The MCRC will look to defend their undefeated record at home this Saturday at 1:30 p.m. against St. Michael’s College.
(10/07/10 4:01am)
Sporting a head of frizzy brown hair and wearing a pink dress, tights and boots, Abigail Washburn certainly fit the appearance of a bubbly bluegrass songstress during her Sept. 29 concert at the Mahaney Center for the Arts Concert Hall. Effervescent from the moment she walked onstage, Washburn shouted a loud “Hi!” to the audience before she gave a strum of her banjo and led her four-man band into the first number of the night, the title track of her upcoming album City of Refuge.
As an alumna of the Middlebury College Language School’s summer Chinese School in both 1998 and 2001, Washburn was quite familiar with the College. Notably, she admired the beauty of the Concert Hall. After performing her first song, she reminisced briefly on her dream of sharing her music onstage at Middlebury.
“I remember when I was a student in Language School. I came [into the Concert Hall] and went, ‘wow someday.’ Well, today is the day,” Washburn said.
The concert was a compilation of some of the most sophisticated and well-written bluegrass songs I had ever heard, ranging from whimsical ballads to soft, reflective lyrical poems to boppy instrumental pieces featuring violin and banjo solos. Washburn’s voice was gorgeous and crystal clear, and her four supporting musicians were equally as skilled. A musician herself, Washburn is a clawhammer banjo player, meaning that she strikes the strings of the instrument using the motion of her wrist rather than the more traditional flicking motion of the fingers. This technique lent itself to her unique sound. The concert consisted of songs from City of Refuge as well as some of her past compositions.
The highlight of the show, however, was a traditional Chinese song which Washburn learned during a trip to China in 1996. The pounding drums and blaring trumpet solos served as the perfect background to Washburn’s soaring voice as she demonstrated her near-fluent prowess. Interestingly, there was a certain passion in her voice during the Chinese song that wasn’t quite as noticeable during her English songs. Through her voice, the audience could feel her love and appreciation for Chinese language and culture.
In between songs, Washburn would introduce a member of her four-man band to the audience. It was certainly a unique crew. For instance, drummer Jamie Dick — also known as “Whistlin’ Dick” — performed a whistling ditty as his introduction and joked how great it sounded thanks to the acoustics of the Concert Hall, while violinist Rob Hecht sported a light pink scarf throughout the performance.
“I find it very attractive,” said Washburn of her bandmate’s attire.
In fact, the entire performance was filled not only with Washburn’s music, but with her quirky sense of humor as well. For example, after one of her songs called “Molly Put the Kettle On,” Washburn was quick to clarify why she chose that particular title.
“It’s not to be confused with ‘Polly Put the Kettle On.’ Polly has problems putting the kettle on. Molly enjoys it,” she said, prompting chuckles from the audience. Washburn also poked fun at the stereotype of the ‘overly dramatic’ singer-songwriter. Before performing the song “Last Train,” Washburn noted wryly that the song was “an exploration of the relentlessness of time or something.”
A few students came to listen to Washburn and her band, but the audience consisted mostly of older members of the Middlebury community. It’s a shame that there were not more students in attendance — there was certainly the possibility of Washburn’s lively bluegrass gaining a small fanbase on campus had more students been there to hear her original music and stunning voice.
Though she performed in a band for this concert, Washburn usually performs and records as soloist. Her third album, City of Refuge, will be released in early 2011.
(10/07/10 4:01am)
Some things just never seem to change about Middlebury Athletics, and the glowing success of the men’s tennis squad is certainly no exception. Last weekend’s less-than-exemplary performance at Williams’ ITA Tournament has quickly been forgotten as the Panthers returned this weekend in top form at the Dartmouth Shootout.
The Ivy League tournament features top competitors from Division III schools as well as Division I schools, but the stiff competition was no match for the poised Panthers as they powered their way to many victories. Most impressive among the Panthers’ numerous accomplishments this weekend were the combined efforts of singles players Andy Peters ’11 and Teddy Fitzgibbons ’14.
The experienced Peters and rookie Fitzgibbons battled their way through the A-flight, featuring the toughest players from around the area, only to meet each other in the finals. Peters cruised through to the finals without dropping a set and downed teammate Fitzgibbons 6-2, 6-3 in the final. Fitzgibbons also managed an impressive victory over Amherst’s Austin Chafetz on his way to meeting Peters in the all-Panthers affair.
Spencer Lunghino ’13 picked up the C-flight championship with a 6-4, 6-4 victory in the finals over Reindel of Amherst. Reindel advanced to the finals by ousting another Middlebury first-year, Zach Bruchmiller ’14, in a tight third set super-tiebreak by a score of 10-8.
Doubles play also saw Middlebury domination. Peters returned with first-year partner Brantner Jones ’14 to secure the A-flight championship in an intense 8-7 victory over Roby-Greif of Dartmouth. Peters and Brantner faced five match points and a 6-3 deficit before clinching the title 11-9 in a decisive tiebreak. Their victory was especially sweet because it came in part at the expense of one of the doubles’ teams from Brown University, where former Middlebury head coach Dave Schwarz is now employed.
Panthers also prevailed in the D and E-flight doubles tournaments. D-flight went to the duo of Spencer Lunghino ’13 and Will Oberrender ’13 8-6 in the finals, and first-years James Burke ’14 and Andrew Lebovitz ’14 cruised to victory with a smooth 8-3 win. Fitzgibbons and Bruchmiller saw some success at B-flight doubles but fell to Dartmouth’s DeBot and Ghorbani in a super-tiebreak in the final.
It was no surprise to see that Panthers dominate Dartmouth the way they did, but it sure was refreshing for the players after a few disappointing losses at the ITA tournament.
“The team was very happy with the way we played at Dartmouth this weekend, overall,” said Jeronimo Roethkoe ’11. “We definitely feel as though we’re improving with every week, and we remain confident that we have a chance to make another serious run at a title if we keep putting in the hard work week in and week out.”
While these tournaments do not count toward the Panthers contention for a repeat NESCAC championship, they still gauge the players’ standings and keep their games conditioned through the fall and winter until the real domination starts.
Men’s tennis boasts a lethal mix of youth and experience that will undoubtedly lead the squad to many more victories this fall season.
(10/07/10 4:00am)
The women’s soccer team is rising. With a dominating 2-0 shutout at Colby last Saturday, not only did the team redeem Middlebury’s honor in far-off Waterville, Maine., they took a big step forward in improving their standing in the NESCAC. Now the Panthers have the momentum of three straight wins taking them into this weekend’s home showdown with the Amherst Lord Jeffs, and if they can pull off a victory, Middlebury will see itself well poised to regain a top spot in the conference. With perennial rival Williams’ 1-0 loss to Amherst last weekend –– snapping a three-year undefeated streak that lasted 38 consecutive games –– the NESCAC remains a wide-open playing field, and Middlebury’s stand-out performances of late have kept them in contention for the title.
The Colby game represented a continuation of the increased work effort and determination of the Middlebury squad. The team seems to improve game by game, and Saturday’s match saw the players control possession for a considerable fraction of the 90 minutes. From the start, the Panthers’ attack consistently created scoring chances, and perhaps the only complaint that can be made was that they did translate more shots into goals.
“I think it’s fair to say we dominated for a good portion of the game,” said tri-captain Drew Smith ’11, “and we definitely had some great chances that we would have liked to put away.”
However, tri-captain Katie Ruymann ’11 noted that, “it was the strongest first half we’ve played this season. Our forwards were combining well up top and creating dangerous scoring opportunities.”
The development of the Middlebury attack meant that the Panthers did not have to wait long to make their mark on the scoreboard (unlike the Skidmore game), as Gabi Curbelo-Zeidman ’11 scored a little after the halfway mark of the opening 45 minutes and Annie Rowell ’11 followed up her assist with a goal of her own shortly before the close of the half. The Panthers’ first goal was initiated by the spark that Rachel Madding ’13 brought into the game, and is a testament to the team-oriented attack that Middlebury showcases when at its best.
“I’m pretty sure that the first goal was scored seconds after [Madding] came onto the field,” commented Caroline Downer ’11, “which just shows how much of an impact she really is. Gabi’s goal was beautiful and very classic Gabi. Her foot skills are incredible and she was able to make a couple of defenders look silly right before she scored.”
Despite not scoring again in the second half, Middlebury’s defense held strong and kept the few Colby shots from becoming significant threats. Spear-headed by Colby Gibbs ’13, an “impenetrable wall” in the words of Downer, and Lauryn Torch ’11, the Panther defense recorded its third shutout of the year, and is coalescing into a goal-denying force.
The team as a whole is coming together nicely in an almost seamless mixture of veteran leadership and young talent. With a strong senior class of eight impact players, as well as the energy provided by younger members of the team such as Amy Schleuter ’13, Maddy Boston ’13 and Julia Favorito ’14, the Panthers have a deep squad that allows for a consistently strong level of play.
“The Colby match was a good example of how hard work off the ball and composed play on the ball will pay off,” said coach Peter Kim. The work ethic of the team is indeed impressive, and carries through from games to the training pitch; this week the intensity of practices is sure to be high as the team prepares to take on the leader of the NESCAC.
(10/07/10 3:57am)
The College is currently in the process of reaccreditation, a process that all institutions of higher learning must undergo every 10 years. The New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) performs the reaccreditation; a team from that organization will visit campus in the fall of 2011 to complete their study.
“The question is not so much necessarily whether we will be accredited, but whether there will be particular areas of concern,” said Susan Campbell, Dean of Planning and Assessment and director of the College’s self-study.
“[NEASC] has a very specific outline for what we are required to submit,” said Campbell. “That includes measuring ourselves against 11 different standards. We have to write a self-study that addresses how well we think we are doing in all of those areas … where we think our strengths and weakness are.”
The self-study addresses the following standards: mission and purposes, planning and evaluation, organization and governance, the academic program, faculty, students, library and other information resources, physical and technological resources, financial resources, public disclosure, and integrity.
According to Campbell, NEASC has informed the College that serious attention will be paid not only to the undergraduate college, which has been the focus of all the previous reviews, but also to the College’s other degree-granting entities — the Language Schools, the C.V. Starr Schools Abroad, the Bread Loaf School of English and the Monterey Institute of International Studies, a graduate school of the College.
“One thing that we are trying to figure out how to do well now that wasn’t so relevant in the past is institutional integration,” said Campbell. “The undergraduate college is the primary focus of the institution, but we also have significant, important and high-quality programs in very different parts of the world with somewhat different missions.”
The self-study process began about a year ago, after having been postponed for two years in order to let the process of acquiring the Monterey Institute play out. In the fall of 2009, the steering committee and subcommittees were organized and began to meet to form plans and outlines for evaluating the College.
“We meet once a week and have been since last year and will be through this semester,” said Associate Professor of English and Director of the Center for Teaching, Learning and Research Kathy Skubikowski. Skubikowski is also a member of the committee on faculty and academic standards.
At this point, faculty members are deeply involved in the reaccreditation process.
“You would be hard-put to find a faculty member who doesn’t have some involvement in it or know about it,” said Skubikowski.
NEASC examines institutions in a structured way. The organization “requires that we not only identify our challenges and strengths but that we say what specifically we are going to do to maintain those strengths and address those challenges,” said Campbell.
“Sometimes [data collection] involves some very basic information about the institution, but it can also involve more focused attempts to gather data on things that we think matter and that we want to look at,” Campbell continued. “It is not one big data collection effort, it is the compilation of a whole lot of different data collection efforts.”
For example, a class on survey methodology taught by Professor of Sociology and Religion Burke Rochford aided in the reaccreditation process last year.
“As part of that class they do a pretty large scale survey of about 200 students every year on different topics depending on what the students in the class want to do,” said Campbell. “[Rochford] met with me before the class started and asked if there was any way that [the class] could be helpful to the reaccreditation process and I said ‘Yes, please!’”
The class included questions about the Commons and students’ experiences with and evaluations of the Commons, an initiative about which Campbell said the College has never really collected statistical evidence.
The class also collected survey data from students about diversity, stress and workload. They made presentations at the end of the semester, submitted a written report and gave Campbell their data file, allowing the reaccreditation committee to perform more data analyses.
“The students seemed really pleased to be gathering data that they knew would be useful beyond the class,” said Campbell.
The reaccreditation committee also has a large body of survey data that is routinely collected from students, including the annual senior survey and the Cooperative Institutional Research Program survey submitted to first-years during orientation.
Student involvement
The self-study of student life will most directly affect the student body.
“The bulk of our report will be focused on the kinds of student services we provide and what changes might need to be made in those areas,” said Gus Jordan, Dean of Students and chair of the subcommittee on standards of student life. “I suspect a focus on three areas: the Commons system, diversity and concerns about stress levels.”
The committee on student standards will be looking at many facets of student life. They will address the admissions process, the financial aid process and all of the services available to students, including athletics, health services and career services.
“The self-study is prompting some departments to do more formal thinking about ways they can measure their effectiveness,” said Jordan. “In the changing education scene that we exist in, we are recognizing that we need more objective measures of measuring how effective our services are.”
The self-study will include much information from ongoing studies on campus. For example, the English department, along with the English departments of several other schools that have been similarly funded by the Teagle Foundation, has been conducting research on progress in writing skills. Even before the process of reaccreditation began, they had been studying the progress of about 45 students by looking at writing samples and conducting interviews.
The committee on faculty and academic standards studied members of the Class of 2010’s development as writers during their four years on campus. A small group of English department faculty members read through their first-year papers with a rubric the committee had developed to evaluate desirable features of writing.
“There was significant growth overall,” said Skibikowski, “and most importantly, writing improved significantly from the first first-year seminar paper to the last. Progress plateaued in the second semester.”
“The thing that is most interesting is the feedback loop,” said Skubikowski. “We revised the rhetorical goals of a first-year seminar. One of the areas that didn’t grow significantly was the capacity to form an interesting thesis.”
As a response to this observation, the committee moved to much more heavily emphasize this writing skill in the rhetorical concerns of the first-year seminar.
Campbell emphasized the importance of disseminating the results of the self study to the entire College community.
This will occur “probably very early in the spring term,” she said. “At that point it will be considered technically a draft in the sense that we will still have the opportunity to make any changes, additions, or revisions that we think are appropriate based on feedback from the community.”
Students will be minimally involved in this process until the draft is released, at which point the community’s input — particularly student input — will be strongly desired.
“I’m anxious to get students involved in the process soon,” said Jordan. “We might discover that we have missed an area of concern. … I’m hopeful that by the time we hit the end of spring, students will broadly feel a sense of connection to the process and that they have had opportunities to contribute.”
Jordan plans to hold forums to involve the Student Government Association and the Community Council in the revision process.
The NEASC team’s visit
Once the community has reviewed the self-study, it will be sent to NEASC in the fall of 2011. At that point, a review team will visit campus. Skubikowski served on a review team last year, so she has some insight into the process.
“They will be a group of five or six people from schools like Middlebury and the president of another college will head that committee,” said Skubikowski. “They will arrive on campus armed with questions. They’ll go around and talk to not just the people who wrote the report, but they’ll also have all sorts of open meetings with students and faculty. They are looking to find information that … corroborates what they have read in the report, gives a wrinkle to it, complicates it or helps them understand it better.”
The Vermont campus is not the only location affiliated with the College that will receive visitors as part of the reaccreditation process. According to Campbell, NEASC will send “a small subset” of the review team abroad, perhaps two or three members of the team that will come to Vermont in the fall. These reviewers will visit the Bread Loaf School of English, the Language Schools, one of the Schools Abroad and the Monterey Institute.
“All of those people gather back here on campus,” said Campbell. “So they will be looking at the undergraduate college but also putting together everything they have learned from their visits elsewhere.”
Before they leave campus, the NEASC team will give an open presentation to the community with their preliminary findings.
“The best case scenario is that they find sufficient evidence … that we are doing everything we are supposed to be doing and doing it well, and that we have identified our own weaknesses and have plans to deal with them — and they say ‘We’ll see you in 10 years,’” said Campbell.
According to Skubikowski, there have been cases at other schools in which the review team decided to return sooner to make sure adequate progress was being made.
Larger implications of the reaccreditation process
The NEASC reaccreditation process, though lengthy and time-consuming, has broad institutional implications that will greatly benefit the College in the long run, say those involved in the process.
“You get involved and often forget to step back. NEASC is giving us the opportunity to step back — it’s forcing us to take a step back,” said Skubikowski.
“We are really changing our notion of what the process of reaccreditation means,” said Jordan. “Whereas it used to be that every 10 years you go through this whole thing then it all disappears, I think that now we will be in a continuous evaluation process. … We need to be more attentive year by year as to how we are doing. Many offices in student life already do that internally. We just need to systematize that.”
Campbell echoed Jordan’s views regarding the larger, thematic implications of the reaccreditation process.
“This is an opportunity for the entire community to take a look at the projections we make and comment on those, on the direction the institution is going and about how we feel about that as a community,” said Campbell. “This is part of a broader national movement pushing for assessment and accountability. We will provide evidence not only that we hire excellent faculty and we have very well qualified students, but that we also have some process in place for actually assessing the degree to which students in general achieve the goals we set for them.
“We are starting to ask more nuanced questions about what exactly students are learning and where they might not be developing their skills to the degree that we would want,” Campbell continued. This means thinking about “what we can do about that in terms of enhancing the curriculum, refining our teaching, or whatever it might be. That’s new in terms of NEASC’s expectations and new for us as an institution.”
Jordan highlighted the central role the student experience plays in this process.
“We want to directly support the students in their work life and social life and make sure they feel connected to that process,” he said.
Students, faculty and staff can expect to see the effects of this largely behind-the-scenes project in coming months.
(10/07/10 3:56am)
On Sept. 30, the College released its annual security report, including statistics of on-campus crime from the years 2007, 2008 and 2009.
According to Associate Dean of the College and Director of Public Safety Lisa Boudah, the report is designed to “make sure students are familiar with safety procedures” as well as to “publish [safety] information about the institution.”
Boudah added that the report provides information for prospective students seeking to evaluate the safety procedures in place on campus.
“Students looking at [the College] will ask, ‘What are they going to do if I’m in trouble?’” said Boudah.
Due to federal revisions of the Higher Education Act, Public Safety was required to publish new information or alter the procedures for five different sections of their safety policy.
First, the definition of hate crimes was expanded to include crimes of murder, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny/theft, simple assault and intimidation. Although there were no reported cases of hate crimes in 2007 and 2008, one case of simple assault occurred in 2009.
According to Boudah, “the person who committed the crime punched the other person.”
Public Safety urges those witnessing hate crimes to report them immediately, as delay in reporting can lead to escalation of the incident. Reports can be filed with the Department of Public Safety, Dean of the College, Human Resources, Dean of Faculty, the Human Relations Officer or the Community Relations Advisers.
Secondly, the emergency response system has expanded to include notification of emergencies other than crime. While Public Safety has a history of notifying students of other emergencies such as weather, Boudah explained that the definition has been broadened “to include anything involving an immediate threat to students, faculty or staff.”
Boudah cited the e-mail sent two weeks ago warning of a nearby storm system as an example of such a response. Notification can be in the form of an email or the use of the AlertFind system, which contacts students via a phone number they have listed on Banner Web.
The evacuation procedures have also been slightly altered.
“There was not a significant change, but we’re increasing our efforts to emphasize [the procedures],” explained Boudah. These efforts include signs posted in academic buildings on campus as well as the required presence of crowd managers at all events.
Boudah explained how even something as simple as an announcement at the beginning of a performance can provide “something to draw on in a moment of evacuation.”
A fourth revision of the safety policy now provides an opportunity via Banner Web wherein all students can designate a specific contact person that would be notified in the event that they are reported missing. This system, required by the Higher Education Act, is designed to provide Public Safety with a contact close to the missing person who might be able to give valuable information about the whereabouts of the missing person.
“Most of the time, Public Safety can figure out who a student’s friends are just by contacting the Residential Advisor (RA), Commons Residential Advisor (CRA) or even by walking down a student’s hallway, but [this system] could be especially helpful for students who are traveling abroad,” said Boudah.
The College has also reevaluated its policy of fire safety procedures and the reporting of fires.
In 2009, only two cases of fire were reported in residential buildings. One case took place in Ross Dining hall because of a propane leak and another in Battell due to fire from cooking. These two incidents caused a collective $1,182 in damages.
Boudah explained that the estimated cost of damages refers only to the property damage, and does not include the cost of repair. Most fires in residential areas occur due to cooking, and Boudah urged students to be attentive when preparing food in residential hall kitchens.
“It doesn’t take much to start a fire,” said Boudah.
A sixth federal mandate clarified the distinctions between crimes categorized as burglary and larceny, although this had no effect on the published information or College policy.
All schools that receive federal funding are required by federal law to release annual crime reports. Public Safety released information regarding crime statistics for the years 2007-2009. The College has released safety reports since 1990. The report is provided in PDF format and can be found on the Public Safety page of the College website.
(10/07/10 3:55am)
Despite the financial setbacks the College has faced during the economic downturn, the administration has continued to actively search for and hire new faculty members, including members who will occupy tenure-track positions.
According to Dean of the Faculty Jim Ralph, the College most actively recruits new faculty members between November and February; however, Middlebury has already hired 17 “very strong” faculty members this fall.
Eight of those new professors will be occupying tenure-track positions: Will Amidon in the Geography department; Ellie Bagley and Vasudha Paramasivan in the Religion department; Anne Goodsell, a Physics professor; Rivi Handler-Spitz, with the Chinese department; Louisa Stein, who is teaching Film and Media Culture; Linda White, with Japanese Studies; and Orlaith Creedon in the French department. The College will pursue an additional eight tenure-track searches and 12 term positions over the course of this academic year.
Unlike Middlebury, other peer institutions have chosen to cancel faculty searches and to place a freeze upon current member positions. According to President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz, this has “created one of the best markets for faculty talent in decades.”
In his address to the College on Sept. 22, Liebowitz said that one of the school’s primary goals in terms of classroom education is to maintain a student-faculty ratio of nine-to-one. These new faculty hires, he said, would help to protect that goal. Though he recognized that the continuation of faculty searches might “appear contradictory to the goal of exercising restraint,” Liebowitz justified the College’s decision.
“To have delayed or canceled the searches would have compromised our commitment to classes of a certain size for our students [and] reduced the level of engagement between students and faculty that is the foundation of a Middlebury education,” he said.
Will Amidon, the newest member of the Geography department, echoed Liebowitz’s words.
“I think Middlebury is doing the right thing by continuing to hire,” he said. “There are noticeably fewer jobs than before the economic downturn, and it is certainly a buyer’s market right now. There are a lot of very bright people floating around the job market.”
In order to combat any economic repercussions the school might feel from this decision, the College aims to increase revenues through fundraising and to limit replacement positions for those professors who took part in the early retirement and voluntary separation program.
“We chose the slow and deliberate path,” said Liebowitz. Continuing to seek new faculty members may cause financial setbacks in other areas, but it will allow Middlebury to hire a talented group of new professors who are delighted to be at the College.
“I could have stayed as a post-doc … on the West coast,” said Amidon. “I just wanted to be here more than any place else.”
(10/07/10 3:54am)
During its Oct. 3 meeting, the Student Government Association (SGA) discussed ways to decrease waiting time for students who need to print few pages, yet find themselves waiting for long periods of time to use the printer as other students release large printing jobs.
One of the proposed solutions was adding an extra printer to a couple of the printing stations. These printers would be either specially designated for jobs that are less than seven pages or specially designated for large print jobs. However, as the majority of print jobs are more than seven pages in length, the former option is more feasible.
Unfortunately, it is still uncertain how this small-printer job designation would be enforced. The current software at the printing stations is unable to discern the difference between the size of printing jobs and cap the number of pages at a certain limit. Most likely, students would have to be trusted to abide by an honor system.
Another solution to long waits could involve leasing more efficient printers. The College currently not does own most of the printers on campus. Instead, the majority of printers are leased from companies. Once the leases are up on the current printers, the college may choose to lease more efficient printing models, rather than leasing additional printers.
“Additional printers would have a negative effect on our carbon footprint,” said sophomore senator Tara Hughes ’13. “Having a printer that could print more pages per minute would be a solution not so that smaller print jobs would have to go to a different printer, but so that it doesn’t matter if you have a 50-page print job because it’d be done in two minutes rather than five minutes with some of the current printers we have now.”
Of course, the cost of maintenance for these new printers would have to be taken into account. Over time, use will take its toll, printers will get slower and paper jams will start to occur. Maintenance of more efficient models may come at a higher price. Still, the more efficient printers remain a probable solution to the problem.
“Hopefully, what will come from this is some type of change in how printing is done, or some type of plan for the future, so that once the leases are up on the printers we can reorganize the way it’s done on campus,” said Hughes.
Until then, Hughes encourages students to use already existing options to decrease printing station waiting lines. Last semester, for example, go/papercut was introduced, allowing students to submit printing jobs from their laptops.
“A lot of people didn’t know about it right when it came out, and a lot of the freshmen don’t know about that,” said Hughes. “One of the most important things in making sure that people know more efficient ways to use the printers we already have is to involve the [First Year Counselors] in educating the freshmen … about how to use it.”
The SGA would also like updated information on another issue concerning printing on campus — the effect of the recently instated printing fees. In the spring of 2010, printing quotas were established with the hope that it would reduce costs and awareness about the financial and environmental repercussions of needless printing. The decision was met with controversy by many students who argued printing costs should already be included in tuition. The SGA hopes Library and Information Services will further look into the success of this plan, and if there has been a decrease in needless printing, how significant that decrease has been.
The SGA also continued to discuss one of last year’s main issues: Outdoor Introductions for New Kids (OINK). In the past, not all students have been able to participate in this outdoor orientation due to limited program funds. This year, the SGA contributed $47,000 to OINK 2010 in an attempt to make it more inclusive. This is the first time part of the SGA budget has been used to support the program.
Making the event more inclusive for all students may not only involve monetary support, but also considering the event’s time. Currently, the outdoor orientation occurs during the first weekend after classes start. Since this is the first weekend all of the upperclassmen have returned to campus, and students are still adjusting to their new schedules, some first-years may be reluctant to participate in the program. As a result, the SGA is considering running the program during first-year orientation in an attempt to encourage more students to take advantage of the opportunity.
(10/07/10 3:53am)
As part of the College’s “Meet the Press” lecture series, acclaimed New Yorker reporter Jane Mayer will visit campus on Oct. 11 at 4:30 p.m. to give a talk on civil liberties and torture.
Though Mayer has an impressive resume, including a 12-year stint with The Wall Street Journal where she was a war correspondent and foreign correspondent and was nominated twice for the Pulitzer Prize, Mayer began her career in Vermont, working for two small local weeklies before joining the staff of The Rutland Herald.
As another part of the “Meet the Press” series, John Hockenberry, host of National Public Radio’s “The Takeaway” news show and former host of their “Talk of the Nation” program, visited the College on Oct. 5 at 4:30 p.m. in McCardell Bicentennial Hall 220. The talk he gave was entitled “Fasten Your Seatbelts: American Voter Anger Crash Lands in 2010.” His talk, as a Meet the Press event, was given in question-and-answer format, and therefore led to extensive discussion on a variety of topics.
Hockenberry, who also worked as a war correspondent for ABC News in Kosovo, Iraq and Somalia, has been a paraplegic since the age of 19. He is a four-time Emmy Award winner and three-time Peabody Award winner. The talk was co-sponsored by the Institute for Working Journalism, the Office of the Dean of the College, the Department of English and American Literatures and the Department of Political Science.
(10/07/10 3:50am)
Students wishing to relax and play online video games have been denied access to the college’s online network on three separate occasions during the first term, prompting outrage among the campus’s devoted online gamers.
While the first two periods lasted only three days each (Aug. 8-11 and Sep. 2-5), the third incident lasted two weeks (Sep. 7-21).
Louis Tiemann ’12 first discovered the problem while working as a consultant for the Helpdesk over the summer. On Aug. 8, Tiemann tried unsuccessfully to connect to Xbox Live using the College’s Internet.
“[Library and Information Services (LIS)] didn’t seem to have a consistent explanation as to why this keeps happening,” said Tiemann, “they kept blowing smoke at me.”
As students began arriving on campus, Tiemann and the other student consultants working at the Technology Helpdesk received a flurry of complaints from gamers across campus. The Helpdesk received 33 official complaints, but Tiemann believes many more students were affected.
“They are discriminating against a certain subset of the population, specifically video gamers,” he said.
According to Howie McCausland, the senior network architect for LIS, the connection problems stemmed from an unplanned restriction of online gaming applications by the College’s Internet traffic shaping software. McCausland relates software shaping to cars waiting to get through a tollbooth, with web and e-mail given precedence — like cars with EZ Pass — over online gaming.
“At any given time, only one packet of data is being transmitted … and these packets can be characterized in different ways,” he said. “The way these traffic prioritizers work is by fiddling with the order of who gets to go first.”
One student waiting in the tollbooth line was Steven Marino ’12, an avid Xbox Live player. Marino arrived on campus four days early, but was distraught when he was unable to connect his Xbox to the campus network.
“I didn’t really feel like I was being helped that much,” said Marino. “They [LIS] gave me an excuse, and then didn’t do much.”
Marino says that prioritizing general Internet use over gaming is not fair because many students aren’t using the general Internet for academic purposes.
“I could go to a game website and take priority over someone who is playing Xbox,”
he said. “Being limited and prioritized is frustrating.”
Dean of LIS Mike Roy points out that traffic shaping software is necessary and that most colleges and universities use them in some format.
“You can’t allow a free-for-all,” he said. “When we are trying to get all of the new students on the network … getting the Xboxes to work didn’t make it to the top of the list.”
Tiemann says gamers realize that Xbox Live and other online games should never be prioritized above academic Internet usage, but are frustrated with the lack of answers they have received from LIS.
“What angers me the most is the lack of transparency and accountability,” he said. “If there are actual reasons or infrastructural limitations that justify it [limiting gaming bandwidth], then I’m OK with it. I just want LIS to notify me.”
According to Tiemann, most online gamers with whom he has spoken gave up trying to play online during the two-week ban and now feel deserted by LIS.
McCausland received many of the complaints, but asks students to be patient.
“I hope people understand where our priorities have to be as far as keeping the College as a whole functioning,” he said. “[Gaming] is always going to take a lower priority than the College’s academic mission.”
Roy says the accusations directed at LIS are upsetting.
“I saw some e-mail that suggested it was some sort of nefarious plot, that we were trying to stomp out Xbox use,” Roy said. “I can assure you that this is not the case.”
LIS lifted the network restriction on Sept. 21, but gamers are skeptical that gaming access will last.
“It is working for now,” said Tiemann, “but the only future concern is — will they try it again, and if they do, can we expect a more prompt and transparent response?”
McCausland says that the College is working to improve traffic flow so that restrictions won’t happen again, but since the Internet is always evolving, access can never be guaranteed.
“We’re in the process of reviewing the whole traffic management policy,” he said, “[but] there’s stuff out there in the Internet that’s beyond out control.”
Roy says that LIS is not blind to the needs of students, and in the future LIS will work with students through the Helpdesk to ensure a balance between academics and recreation.
“You study here, but you also live here,” Roy said. “People here like to relax and play games, so we have to find a way to allow that.”
(09/30/10 4:10am)
How do we interpret “helping our fellow man?” Are we ethically responsible for helping to solve global health issues?
These are just some of the questions posed at Friday’s Clifford Symposium event, “Roundtable: Teaching at the Intersections.” At the 4 p.m. event held on Sept. 24, professors led a roundtable discussion on how global health issues cross over into classroom discussions. Professors from several different departments, including moderator Associate Professor of Religion James Calvin Davis, visitng Assistant Professor of Political Science Sarah Stroup, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Robert Cluss, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Anthropology Svea Closser and Assistant Professor of Philosophy Steve Viner, all participated.
The discussion began with Closser’s initial question, “How do we involve global health issues in our courses?” From first-year seminars to upper-level classes, the professors explained how global health played a role in classroom discussions. Stroup explained that in the field of political science, “who gets what” is an essential question, which easily translates to questions of global health. If certain people can more readily obtain better health care than someone else, “who gets what” is crucial to solving global health issues. Not only “who gets what,” but also maybe “why” is an important question. Why are certain people getting when others cannot?
On a broader level, Professor Viner looked at the abstract concepts of poverty and global health issues. With questions like, “What moral responsibilities, if any, do we have to the global poor?” Viner forced the audience to think and reflect on their priorities. He stunned the audience with statistics from UNICEF, like the fact that $25 buys life protection from common diseases like the whooping cough for a child. Each professor had a different viewpoint to offer from their respective fields on global health issues, and several audience members walked away truly educated.
“It was very informative. I learned that we all have responsibilities and the duty to keep in mind who there are people out there that are less privileged than we are,” said Biniyam Estifanos ’14. “I was happy to see that each person on the panel, in one way or another, was doing something to bring about change. Change might not happen tomorrow, or in five years, but if it happens 100 years from now, and the gap between the rich and the poor, and the developed and underdeveloped decreases, we have done our job.”
Global health plays a major role in our lives, from classroom discussions to real life experience, and the discussion challenged listeners to stop and ask themselves if we are doing enough to end these problems.
See what the speakers had to say on different issues of global health:
- Keynote speaker Dorothy Roberts: “The New Biopolitics of Race and Health”
- Opening lecture: “Othering: Connecting through Differences”
- “Do Unauthorized Immigrants Have a Right to Health? Ethnographic Reflections on Contemporary ‘Deservingness’ Debates”
- “Making Medicines Essential: The Evolving Role of Pharmaceuticals in Global Health”
- Roundtable: “‘Doing’ Global Health Work — Different Perspectives”
(09/30/10 4:08am)
Keynote speaker Dorothy Roberts knows how to grab an audience’s attention, and Friday night she did it by announcing that in 2002, there were 83,570 “excess” black deaths. If the mortality gap between blacks and whites was eliminated, she said, these 83,570 people would still be alive today. She held the audience’s attention for the next hour and 15 minutes.
Roberts’ speech, entitled “The New Biopolitics of Race and Health,” covered why the politics and social implications of race influence biology and turn health issues into stereotypes. Roberts introduced audience members to a side of biology that most probably did not know existed, and shocked them with disturbing statistics and facts about the society of which they are a part. For example, in Chicago, while white women have a higher incidence of breast cancer, more black women die from it. Shocking, right? Why is this? According to Roberts, it’s because white women have better access to better health care, and the highest breast cancer mortality rates are in poor, black areas. The solution is to give black women better access to better health care. Roberts made the claim that, “the advantaged on average live longer than the disadvantaged.” She was not making up these statements; she had the statistics to back them up.
“If child death rates in the poorest 80 percent of the world were reduced to rates in the richest 20 percent, then we could reduce childhood deaths to 40 percent,” she said.
Roberts says these problems have not been solved because of the, “new biopolitics of race.” In other words, people have been changing race from a social issue to a biological one. Instead of recognizing the impact of racism on our society, people use biology as a “means of reinforcing racial inequality in a neo-liberal, post-civil rights era.” Roberts explained how some people, including the head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), are trying to find a “race gene” and explain our racial differences through genetics. Roberts spent the rest of her time focusing on how “race-specific pharmaceuticals” and a “colorblind social policy” are contradictory, and how the disparity in races is “inequity,” not merely “difference.”
Her controversial speech is currently being published and is due out next year, ready to inform the rest of the world about this injustice. Roberts’ speech seems to have made an impact on students at Middlebury as well.
“Dorothy Roberts was an incredible speaker, and I learned so much from her speech,” said Anne Yoon ’14. “The inequality in our country is astounding, and trying to pass it off as genetics is quite frankly disgusting. I hope Middlebury brings more speakers as enlightening as her to the school.”
The Clifford Symposium’s keynote speaker was informative and interesting, and showed Middlebury students and faculty that inequality is still rampant. She proved that it is our job to stop it.
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Jeremy Greene is assistant professor in the department of the history of science at Harvard, instructor in the division of pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics at Harvard Medical School and an associate physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. With such a deep involvement in medicine in both education and practice, it is safe to say that any persistent question he has come across will be one worth studying.
In fact, at the core of Jeremy Greene’s presentation, there were three:
— How do we understand the role of drugs in global public health?
— What makes a medicine essential?
— How did access to medicines become crucial to global health?
Greene began by giving a brief history on the development of pharmaceuticals, beginning in 1798 with the first vaccine. Not surprisingly, the assumption that drugs can actually work was not always taken as fact.
Now, of course, the distribution and variable effectiveness of drugs are unavoidable topics in the medical field.
“Of the 14 grand challenges for global health,” Greene said, “nine were related to pharmaceuticals.”
This makes the concept of essential medicine all the more concerning. In 1977, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported: “Essential drugs…are of the utmost importance and hence basic, indispensable, and necessary for the health needs of the population … and should be available at all times, in the proper dosage forms, to all segments of society.” A selection of 186 drugs was chosen, one type for each ailment.
This controversial move on the part of the WHO, raised a plethora of questions surrounding deservingness and viability of distribution as the years went on. As Greene pointed out, in comparing the health kits distributed to American soldiers in various wars, one can see how people’s concepts of “essential” have continued to evolve along with medical advances.
As drugs become more and more of an integral part of health, their commodification, as Greene put it, becomes a more and more relevant topic.
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Saturday morning’s panel featured three women who have taken hands-on approaches to health care in their respective fields. Those in attendance learned about their respective endeavors through individual presentations and a Q & A. Though their approaches differ in nature, they share common senses of compassion, initiative and ability to recognize situations of dire need.
Chenoa Hamilton, a certified midwife herself, spoke about the role of midwifery in global health. Hamilton recently returned from Jacmel, Haiti, where she worked for Mother Health International. This small organization was formed just weeks after January’s devastating earthquake, functioning solely on volunteer work and donations. The staff includes midwives, OB/GYNs, nurses and visiting alternative health care practitioners such as acupuncturists and chiropractors, all of whom use as little technology as possible. The array of services provided is vast, ranging from the prenatal to the postpartum.
While word of mouth has helped the client base expand to about 800 women (about three new mothers each week), the clinic faces a great deal of challenges in maximizing its impact. For one thing, many women have trouble getting there.
“We’re lucky if we see them two to three times during their pregnancy,” Hamilton said. Cultural beliefs can also clash; for instance, many women believe breast milk to be poisonous for the first three days of the child’s life, and fears of sorcery discourage nighttime travel, even if labor is imminent. Additionally, scarce access to water and electricity prove problematic in maintaining cleanliness and preventing the spread of disease.
While care and treatment are primary concerns, education is also a key component of MHI’s initiative. Along with mandatory HIV testing for all mothers, volunteers provide patients with information on nutrition, hygiene and infant care. They also try to involve fathers as much as possible in order to encourage involvement throughout the child’s life.
Hamilton emphasized the value of comfort, support and trust in a trained and knowledgeable staff for expectant mothers. “When they feel love,” she said, “they usually give birth quite well.”
She hopes that her patients’ interest in midwifery will help to perpetuate the clinic’s success and further empower women in Haitian communities. A wider distribution of midwives throughout the country could have a massive impact on mothers’ quality of life and the infant mortality rate.
“The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 700,000 midwives are needed worldwide to ensure universal coverage. That puts us at a 50 percent shortfall,” Hamilton said. “It really comes down to education throughout the world.”
After such an emphasis on education, it seemed fitting that Lisa Adams, assistant professor of medicine at Dartmouth, would follow. Adams, who is also the coordinator of the department’s section of infectious disease and international health and director of the college’s global health center, is part of a 10-year research collaboration between Dartmouth and Muhimbili University in Tanzania. The goal: “the expeditious development of an improved vaccine to prevent HIV-associated tuberculosis.”
Adams illustrated the need for such research with the help of some truly frightening statistics.
“There are 33 million people living with HIV,” she began. “A number that may resonate more easily is that every day, more than 7,000 people are infected. If you were to line the world’s population up single file, every third person would be infected with the Tuberculosis bacteria.”
As part of the search for effective treatment, the Dartmouth-Muhimbili collaboration was initiated in 2000. It is known as the DarDar program — one “Dar” for Dartmouth and another for “Dar Es Salaam.” It also sounds very similar to dada, the Swahili word for “sister.”
One of the project’s major trials focused on HIV-related TB. Over the course of a year, researchers tested a new vaccine boost (or a placebo) five times on HIV-positive individuals who had been primed with the bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) TB vaccine. The study, conducted using a random sample and double blind format, was actually ended early due to strikingly positive results. The vaccine was shown to reduce disseminated TB by 47 percent and definite TB by 39 percent.
Because the team was doing research on latent forms of TB, they were able to help those who would have otherwise faced great health challenges, as resources for those with active diseases are already scarce. Therefore, in addition to making major strides in the research sector, they had discovered an opportunity to provide hands-on treatment.
“What you realize is that it’s hard to provide very narrowly defined care,” Adams said. “We sort of evolved without any intention into primary care providers.”
The overall mission of the resulting clinic consists of caring for patients, training, counseling and research. At any give time, there are seven faculty members, four undergraduate students, three medical students and five fellows and residents on site.
“It’s really provided the launching pad for our global health initiative — a springboard for a much greater involvement,” Adams said.
Caitlin Cohen was an undergraduate student volunteering at a maternity ward in Mali when she found the void she needed to fill.
“My job was to catch things,” she half-joked. “Babies, surgical equipment … I’d sterilize things–ish,” she added, referring to the difficulty in maintaining cleanliness with a dearth of available resources. After experiencing the current health care system firsthand and maintaining contact with one of her coworkers throughout the following school year, Cohen was convinced to return to Mali.
“There was a disconnect between the care that we could provide and the cure that we needed,” she said.
With the help of a $1,500 loan from her father, she founded the Mali Health Organizing Project with the intention of providing primary care for all possible ailments.
“When you run disease-specific campaigns, so much of the time in places that are incredibly poor, they are ineffective because people can be killed by so many different things,” she said. “You need a comprehensive, holistic approach.”
Today, the clinic serves about 5,000 people annually, and it is the closest source of primary care for approximately 250,000. In addition, the Project comprises a variety of additional programs, including a plastic recycling effort employing about 30 locals and a text messaging system to monitor the health of young children from afar.
Cohen believes that these children should be a top priority, the basis of the “free care for under fives” policy.
“One in five kids die before the age of five,” Cohen said. “That means nothing until you actually see it, and then it becomes devastating. It has an emotional burden that is really difficult to comprehend.”
After building this organization from the ground up, Cohen is all too familiar with the struggles of fundraising. “What everything boils down to is money and where it’s going to come from,” she said. Her advice is to ask for more than you need and don’t be afraid to admit mistakes.
“People are often unwilling to admit when they have failed,” Cohen said. “If we don’t publicize our failures, we will repeat the errors that people have made time and time again.”