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(01/24/19 10:55am)
[gallery ids="42761,42762,42759"]
A mixture of frustration, optimism and anger characterized a student teach-in on the proposed changes to Middlebury's protest policy last Friday. Held in the Hillcrest Orchard, the teach-in allowed students to share concerns about the proposed policy’s lack of transparency and potential ramifications.
The newly drafted protest policy was published online in November as a potential replacement to the existing policy. The proposal sought to resolve areas of ambiguity in the college’s existing policy (read our coverage of the new policy here).
At the beginning of the teach-in, attendees picked up copies of the proposed policy changes, which can be found at go.middlebury.edu/newprotestpolicy. Sarah Koch ’18.5 asked students to read aloud the definitions of the terms “expressive activity,” “disruption,” and “civil disobedience” as listed at the end of the policy, and participants responded that they feared the vague definitions would give the college disciplinary leeway while limiting student autonomy.
[pullquote speaker="Emma Ronai-Durning '18.5" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]I feel like the administration hasn’t listened to any of the feedback it’s gotten in the past, so I feel skeptical about the policy reflecting what students are actually saying.[/pullquote]
Teach-in participants also cited frustration with the open meetings General Counsel Hannah Ross held last October and November. At the meetings Ross, the main administrator involved in drafting policy changes, explained the upcoming changes to the Middlebury Handbook and provided an overview of the work by Envisioning Middlebury, the Committee on Speech and Inclusion and college faculty.
Some attendees said they saw the fall meetings as the college’s ingenuine attempt to show interest in student input.
“I feel like the administration hasn’t listened to any of the feedback it’s gotten in the past, so I feel skeptical about the policy reflecting what students are actually saying,” said Emma Ronai-Durning ’18.5, one of the organizers of the teach-in.
Taite Shomo ’20.5, another organizer, asked participants whether they thought students’ and community members’ voices were being heard.
“We feel like we’re not being listened to,” said one student in response. The student went on to describe how the Student Government Association (SGA) bill that was intended to protect students engaging in protest was not incorporated into the new measures.
Another student said that the policy did not reflect the recommendations the Committee on Speech and Inclusion made in their report last January. In the recommendations, the committee emphasized the importance of changing campus culture over changing policy to address issues of free speech and protest.
All who spoke during the discussion agreed that the revisions were, at best, unclear and inflexible. Wengel Kifle ’20, who attended both the teach-in and Ross’s meeting in October, said she believed there was “really no room for change in the idea [Ross] was proposing.”
Students also expressed concerns that the policy changes would ultimately lead to the penalization of students and staff while leaving tenured professors exempt from blame. They also speculated that violations of the policy would prevent new professors from receiving tenure.
A key point of uncertainty during the discussion was whether the policy sufficiently outlined the process of selecting and vetting speakers, and the absence of accountability for that body.
Participants pointed out the lack of examples of acceptable and unacceptable behavior included in the new policy, compared to the existing version. The new policy does not provide the college’s expected response, either, leaving students protesters unsure about the consequences of their actions and making students on the Community Judicial Board responsible for determining their peers’ punishments.
One student said the proposed policy only addressed student behavior and not students’ motivation. Another pointed out that the policy made no mention of compounding disciplinary violations.
Several participants found fault in the new policy’s stance against “deliberate and significant disruption,” with disruption defined as “behavior that impairs or prevents expressive activity of others, or obstructs Middlebury’s activities or essential operations,” and prohibited disruption considered “all behavior that significantly disrupts Middlebury events, activities, programs and/or operations.”
“What if intentions aren’t disruptive?” one student said. Another argued that disruption is necessary for people to express opinions and suppressing it is counter to the point of a liberal arts institution.
[pullquote speaker="" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]Fighting for justice, standing up for justice and academic security should not be at odds with each other.[/pullquote]
“I think the ugliness of policy surrounding protest and compounding punishment has suppressed speech on this campus already,” Koch said.
Toward the end of the teach-in, organizers handed out slips of paper and asked participants to respond to the following prompt: “What do we want our protest policy to look like? What would we like to be possible at Middlebury?”
“Fighting for justice, standing up for justice and academic security should not be at odds with each other,” one student said in response. Others said that the policy should focus more on the content of protests, and that people should have a clear understanding of what’s allowed, what’s not, and what the consequences will be.
As one student put it, “Where’s the line? If I cross it, what happens to me?”
In conclusion, Ronai-Durning urged everyone present to find something they are passionate about and to try and change it.
“There’s lots one can do without being punished for it,” she said.
(01/17/19 11:00am)
MIDDLEBURY - Inside a beige trailer behind Porter Medical Center, the Open Door Clinic (ODC) in Middlebury, one of nine providers of healthcare for the uninsured and underinsured in Vermont, holds free clinics every Tuesday evening and one Friday morning per month. Photos of staff members and dozens of smiling volunteers are tacked to a bulletin board on one side of the entryway, across from rows of fliers and brochures lining the opposite wall, offering everything from bus schedules to counseling services.
When the ODC established its volunteer database in 2004, it had just 15 volunteers. In 2018, with the help of 148 volunteer interpreters, EMTs and administrative assistants, including 34 Middlebury College students, three college employees, four current professors and two retired professors, the ODC provided care to 889 patients. The Middlebury and Vergennes clinics are run almost entirely by volunteers.
“If you spend more than 10 percent of your annual gross income on your health insurance premium, then we consider you to be underinsured, and you may qualify to be seen by us,” said Heidi Sulis, executive director of the ODC.
A grant the ODC received in 2013 required that it open its doors to any community member, free of charge, and it continues to honor that commitment. The ODC prioritizes case management, ensuring patient access to specialists, and helps those who don’t qualify for its services find insurance coverage — Sulis described the ODC as a temporary stop on the path to a permanent medical care home.
The ODC has received three $20,000 “Vermont Economic Justice” grants from the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation, in 2015, 2016 and 2018. The money allowed staff to pursue projects beyond the normal scope of the clinics, from improving community outreach to biannual training for volunteers interested in interpreting for mental health appointments. A $15,000 grant from the Walter Cerf Community Fund will facilitate expansion of the dental program developed by the ODC over the last few years. It also funds a new staff position associated with the dental program, now held by Paola Meza, a senior at Middlebury College.
[pullquote speaker="Heidi Sullis " photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]... our volunteers understand the challenges of our current health-care system, and understand that health insurance is exceedingly expensive and is a real barrier to care for people.[/pullquote]
“I started during my first semester on campus,” Meza said. “I started interpreting, and I’ve been doing that ever since.” Initially, she volunteered for a few hours each month, but she is now a part-time member of the ODC staff and works there nearly every day. Meza, who worked 84 hours at the ODC in 2018, plans to stay on in a similar role after graduating.
Thirty-five percent of the ODC’s patients are migrant farmworkers without access to insurance. “Migrant workers who work in the dairy industry do not have a legal means by which to get into our country,” Sulis said. Migrant dairy workers often pay into social security and other government programs, but can’t receive benefits. With support from a federal HRSA grant, intended to improve healthcare access for vulnerable communities, the ODC gives migrant workers access to family doctors, physical therapists, dieticians, dentists and dental hygienists. Health-care providers visited 32 farms, vaccinating about 300 workers, in 2018.
“I can’t imagine what it’s like to navigate a state like Vermont without knowing the language at all, or being afraid of things like deportation,” Meza said.
Until 2014, the ODC provided rides to the clinic for migrant workers, but helped the migrant workers find alternative means of transportation when the practice became unmanageable.
“When we stopped doing it, we were able to look for other fields where we would like to invest,” said Christiane Kokubo, the ODC communication specialist. “It allowed us to think in other directions.”
At the time, many local residents didn’t know about the clinics, so the ODC staff focused on raising awareness and strengthening their brand. Migrant workers attend clinics most frequently, but the other 65 percent of the ODC’s patients live in Addison County and other parts of Vermont and New York. Regular volunteers come from as far as Burlington.
“I think our volunteers understand the challenges of our current health-care system, and understand that health insurance is exceedingly expensive and is a real barrier to care for people,” Sulis said. Volunteers “don’t have judgment about people not having insurance and having difficult lives, and are happy to help them.”
“As a native Spanish speaker and as someone who is also from Mexico, which is where most of the migrant patients are from,” Meza said, “I feel like I can connect to them, and I feel like I’m comfortable with the patient and the patient is comfortable with me. The fact that I can do this is a way for me to show support for this population.”
Asked what the most difficult aspect of working at the ODC was, Meza said, “It’s frustrating to see that it’s 2019 and there are still so many people who don’t have adequate health care.”
In the future, along with expanding the dental program, ODC staff hope to streamline their volunteer manual and trainings, taking the print materials used by volunteers and patients to another level. With the funds from the Ben & Jerry’s grant, they are also looking into a new video interpretation service.
“Not everyone here at the office speaks Spanish,” Kokubo said. “If someone calls and there’s not a Spanish speaker here, we have a system now that is not great, so we would try to get another company to do a conference call thing, interpreting through the phone.”
Middlebury College students, particularly Spanish speakers, who are interested in volunteering with the Open Door Clinic can reach Christiane Kokubo at odc@opendoormidd.org.
(01/17/19 11:00am)
New York Times op-ed columnist Frank Bruni spoke to a packed Wilson Hall about identity politics and the meaning of a liberal education last week. The community conversation was brought to campus by the Vermont Humanities Council and followed the question-based format designed by the college’s Engaged Listening Project.
Bruni was introduced by Sarah Stroup, associate professor of political science and faculty director of the Engaged Listening Project. The Engaged Listening project began this year with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. It aims to promote productive disagreements in academic settings and reformat talks in a way that facilitates audience involvement and deepens audience engagement.
“We hope to hear from many members of the community about the new format,” Stroup said in an interview after Bruni’s lecture. “Anecdotally, many people have told me they enjoyed the discussion with their neighbors. I have also heard about a lot of vigorous discussion of the merit of Bruni’s arguments, and that’s good — a valuable campus talk is one that prompts continued conversation.”
Middlebury students may recognize Bruni from his columns about free speech and safe spaces following the 2017 protests of Charles Murray. Bruni, a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Columbia University School of Journalism, has also covered topics ranging from food to politics since starting at the Times in 1995. He began publishing biweekly opinion columns on politics, social issues, education and culture in 2011 and is the author and co-author of several books.
Bruni began his lecture by addressing the students in attendance, describing college as a time of immense personal change.
“I hope you use these years to become a bigger person rather than a smaller one, and to become a broader person rather than a narrower one,” he said. He then urged everyone present, no matter their age, to push back, ideologically, against a world that is “constantly trying to narrow us.”
[pullquote speaker="Bruni" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]I hope you use these years to become a bigger person rather than a smaller one, and to become a broader person rather than a narrower one.[/pullquote]
Bruni continued by discussing the internet and social media, saying that these things meant to expand the world actually “trap us in sameness, giving us not diverse experiences, but versions of the same experience over and over again.” Most people only follow sources that echo their own perspectives, he said, which eliminates nuance and “lets us basically marinate in our own convictions.” On many social media platforms, for example, the more a user interacts with a particular topic or viewpoint, the more they see it recommended to them.
At Middlebury, students “encounter unfamiliar terrain and new perspectives,” Bruni said, “and the whole point of being here is to venture across that terrain and to explore it.” While colleges owe students physical safety and equal opportunity, it is a disservice, he said, to provide — or attempt to provide — students with an emotionally or ideologically safe environment. Rather, he argued, colleges should aim to promote intellectual strength over ideological security.
“Never,” Bruni said, “should students be given the idea that it’s okay to flee from, or wall out, arguments that are provocative, ideas that are uncomfortable, viewpoints that offend.”
Bruni spoke about his own experience as a gay college student in the 1980s, his determination to be open about his sexuality, his fear of coming out to his devout Christian roommate and his roommate’s unexpected acceptance of his identity. Both Bruni and his roommate grew intellectually from their situation, but Bruni questioned the likelihood of such a scenario occurring today, with colleges’ emphasis on safe spaces.
“There’s a difference,” he said, “between banding together and interpreting and talking about the world only through the lens of one’s race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity. There’s a difference between banding together and admonishing outsiders that they can never understand you.”
After an audience member asked him to elaborate on this idea, Bruni said that he believes it is possible, and important, for people outside of a group to relate to that group’s experience without taking the spotlight away.
[pullquote speaker="Bruni" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]There’s a difference between banding together and admonishing outsiders that they can never understand you.[/pullquote]
Bruni emphasized the benefits of associating with people who are different than he is and described working relationships he maintains with people who are his ideological opposites. Hearing different ideas, he said, is the most likely means of moving, as a group, in a positive direction.
In response to audience questions, Bruni clarified that he does not see free speech as absolute. He said there is no clear line dividing what is and is not acceptable.
On the evening of his talk, Bruni ate dinner in Ross Dining Hall with a group of faculty, students and staff. The following morning, he answered questions about his writing techniques during a breakfast with Professor of the Practice Susan Greenberg’s Opinion Writing class, then met with Professor Jennifer Ortegren’s Religion and Food class to speak about his experience with cookbook writing.
“We were fortunate enough to have a private breakfast with Mr. Bruni,” Greenberg said. “We had a candid discussion about the process of writing op-eds, where the ideas come from, how to articulate and organize them and what happens when things go wrong.”
During the breakfast, Bruni suggested that students at left-leaning schools like Middlebury consciously construct a balanced “media diet” for themselves, incorporating news from all points of view in order to experience ideological opposition and develop more nuanced, tenable perspectives.
(11/08/18 11:00am)
Hillel has focused on providing internal support for the college’s Jewish community in the aftermath of the shooting at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue on Saturday, Oct. 27. Students created and installed an art exhibit in the Davis Family Library and hosted a Solidarity Shabbat last Friday. The Shabbat was attended by approximately 60 students, staff and community members.
On Wednesday, Oct. 31, a group of about 20 students produced the exhibit that was installed in the library on Monday, including a painting of a tree of life with photos of the 11 victims, a poster with 11 candles on it and reflections written by several students. The display is interactive, with colored paper and markers available so that anyone passing by can contribute their thoughts.
The student art that is now in the library hung on the wall of the Jewish Center in the FIC on the evening of Friday, Nov. 2, when Jewish and non-Jewish students alike gathered for company, prayer and food during the Solidarity Shabbat. The room was filled with the sound of singing and the scent of tacos, beans, rice and cookies prepared by Lila Sternberg-Shere ’21.5. When the food ran out due to the high attendance, Hillel members made extra pasta.
The crowd overflowed the cushioned benches on one side of the Jewish Center, and latecomers had to squeeze through additional rows of chairs in order to find seats.
“For me, it’s nice in such a kind of scary and eye-opening time to feel like there’s a community,” Sternberg-Shere said.
During Shabbat, Rachel Horowitz-Benoit ’21, one of the evening’s leaders, explained that Shabbat is a time set apart from the rest of the week. “Shabbat isn’t quite a break in mourning, but it’s a time separated for joy,” she said.
Cece Alter ’19.5, co-president of Hillel, thanked the Jewish community as well as the non-Jewish attendees.
“Thank you to those who come every week, and will continue to show up despite those that want to intimidate us away from celebrating our faith,” Alter said during her introduction to the service. “Thank you to those who come sometimes, and wanted to be with this community tonight. Thank you to those who do not consider themselves part of the Jewish community, but have shown up for us today and in various other ways since the tragic shooting in Pittsburgh this past Shabbat.”
[pullquote speaker="Lila Sternberg-Shere ’21.5" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]For me, it’s nice in such a kind of scary and eye-opening time to feel like there’s a community.[/pullquote]
Alter described the personal impact that the shooting had on her, and concluded with a message echoed by many others throughout the evening.
“We must not let this silence us,” she said. “We will continue to pray, to celebrate our Jewish identity, to gather together. We will also continue to speak out for causes beyond those which affect us directly. We will welcome the stranger, we will work towards justice, we will repair the world. This is what Judaism has taught me, and I will not lose these messages in fear.”
Alter and Horowitz-Benoit both read each of the 11 victims’ names aloud during the service.
Sarah Asch ’19.5, who gave the d’var Torah, or Torah commentary, connected this week’s Torah portion to the shooting. She described her gratitude for the Muslim community’s kindness toward the Jewish community following the tragedy, as well as their raising over $200,000 for Tree of Life Synagogue. Asch also thanked the non-Jewish students who had reached out to show their support during that time.
Alter explained that she had initially struggled to think of ways for the community to come together.
“That’s been a tricky thing for me this week, because everyone’s in a different place, everyone has their own feelings, has different things going on,” she said. “So it’s hard to say, ‘this is what the community needs.’”
Alter and the rest of the Hillel board took inspiration from the Solidarity Shabbats happening across the country as a means of giving Jewish students the opportunity to come together while also welcoming non-Jewish students into the healing process.
[pullquote speaker="Cece Alter '19.5" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]We will welcome the stranger, we will work towards justice, we will repair the world. This is what Judaism has taught me, and I will not lose these messages in fear.[/pullquote]
Toward the end of the evening, after the Shabbat concluded and as dinner wound down, Sternberg-Shere gestured to the groups of lingering students still clustered around tables, talking and laughing.
“People here probably aren’t talking about the shooting, but they’re being here and being Jewish, and just appreciating Judaism, and I think that’s pretty special,” she said.
(10/25/18 9:58am)
A month after the latest death in a string of fatal accidents occurring on a stretch of Route 125 between the college and Cider Mill Road in Cornwall, Vermont towns are joining forces to advocate for increased safety measures. This call comes on the heels of the death of Deane Rubright, 44, of Shoreham, who was killed in a car accident on a section of the road near The Knoll last month.
On Sept. 13, Rubright pulled over to allow a fire truck to pass, but he and the driver of a second approaching fire truck were unable to see one another as Rubright pulled back onto the road. The Middlebury Selectboard unanimously approved increased safety measures on Oct. 9 regarding the part of Route 125 in question, joining Cornwall and Bridport in signing a letter to the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) encouraging the removal of a perilous roadside ledge near The Knoll.
Adam Lougee, director of the Addison County Regional Planning Commission (ACRPC), drafted the letter to VTrans on behalf of the ACRPC’s Transportation Advisory Committee and shared it with the three towns’ Selectboards. The letter identifies a knoll (distinct from the college’s organic farm, which is also known as The Knoll) that creates a blind spot hazardous to drivers, bikers and walkers. The letter asks that VTrans remove the blind spot before another accident takes place.
[pullquote speaker="HOLMES JACOBS " photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]Something needs to be done before someone else gets hurt or killed[/pullquote]
The ACRPC letter also describes past accidents, including anecdotal evidence of a college student hit by a car, and the 2002 deaths of two adults, a 21-month-old child and unborn twins in a head-on collision. Although there is limited evidence available from these and other crashes, older members of each affected community referenced specific fatalities on the same stretch of Route 125.
“It is very dangerous and the sun can be blinding to drivers,” said Sophie Esser Calvi, associate director for global food & farm programs at the college. She expressed her support for removal of the dangerous hill and said too many lives had already been lost.
“[The knoll] has a blind spot from both directions,” said Brian Kemp, Cornwall road commissioner and a member of the Cornwall Selectboard. He said the Cornwall Selectboard aims to have the knoll removed or lowered to a level that allows clear sight from both directions. Kemp said that in the case of similar past projects, VTrans has lowered hills and made similar changes in response to fatalities.
According to the ACRPC letter, Kemp also “noted he had lost a friend to this stretch of highway.”
Following the fatal crash in September, Holmes Jacobs, co-owner of Two Brothers Tavern to whom Rubright was a “dear friend,” approached the town of Middlebury, the college and VTrans about safety concerns. Jacobs presented to the Middlebury Selectboard in favor of signing the letter to VTrans and backing heightened safety measures. He asked for the removal of the knoll where the accidents occurred, as well as that of a second knoll further west. Jacobs also suggested that the shoulder be widened to protect runners and bikers.
“It’s very sad that we have taken so long to address this issue, but here we are. Something needs to be done before someone else gets hurt or killed,” Jacobs said. “It’s only a matter of time until it happens again.”
Calvi voiced concern about students running and biking without helmets on Route 125, and urged everyone to use the paths rather than the road when going out to the college’s Knoll. There is presently no safe place to walk along Route 125 that would make pedestrians visible to drivers. The safest way to get to the Knoll is to follow one of the paths behind the townhouses and cross the street at the edge of the student parking lot. Megan Brakeley ’06, food and garden educator for The Knoll, is working to increase student awareness of the dangers associated with the use of Route 125.
VTrans has yet to make a decision on the towns’ formal request for increased safety measures, but Selectboard members and others involved are optimistic. Still, the proposed changes are not expected to happen quickly. “If VTrans takes on this project, it could be a long process — as these things often are,” Jacobs said. In the interim, a number of temporary changes will likely be implemented in an effort to increase safety measures, including reducing the speed limit west of the college.
(10/04/18 9:57am)
An internal review of the college’s commons system revealed a significant disconnect between students and their commons, and highlighted key areas of concern within residential life, including a lack of student spaces and a strong feeling of disconnectedness among minority students, low income students and Febs.
Interim Vice President for Student Affairs Baishakhi Taylor presented the results of the “How Will We Live Together” study at a Community Council meeting last month. The study was conducted last spring by a team of students, faculty and staff, and was the first such review since the commons system started in 1998.
Psychology professor and faculty co-chair of the review Robert Moeller gathered data in focus groups, and developed and distributed a survey to 440 students in the classes of 2018-2021.5. Of the surveyed students, 27 percent identified as a racial or ethnic minority, 27.6 percent played at least one varsity sport, and 15.4 percent were Febs. Taylor said the student sample was highly representative of the larger campus.
Students participated voluntarily and remained anonymous. They demonstrated their level of agreement with given statements using a five-point scale, ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree.”
More than half of those surveyed students responded “agree” to the statement, “I am satisfied with the residential experience at Middlebury,” with another 10.5 percent strongly agreeing. However, responses relating specifically to the commons system were more neutral or negative.
About two-thirds of students surveyed either disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement: “My Commons is a strong part of my identity,” while 13.7 percent agreed or strongly agreed. For other questions, students were more ambivalent — a strong majority of respondents neither agreed nor disagreed with statements such as, “I like being a part of a Commons for all four years” (45.7 percent), and “I feel like I am a valued member of my Commons” (43.4 percent). Responses were spread more evenly across the five options in response to, “The Commons system is a valuable part of my experience,” and “My Commons FYC or RA is a valuable resource to me.”
Minority students and low income students reported a drastically lower sense of belonging compared to other students.
“The theme of not belonging at Middlebury was strongly expressed among racial/ethnic minority students and students who described their family socioeconomic statuses as low,” the summary reads.
The summary reports that most students socialize in the dining halls, but a division between minority and non-minority students reportedly exists there as well. 93.8 percent of respondents said they used the dining halls as a social space and 94.9 percent said it was important to them that all students have equal access to the dining halls. However, several students reported that “students of color tend to eat lunch in one dining hall, while other groups of students may eat in another.” Though the How Will We Live Together team could not confirm this alleged trend, they write that “the perception of segregated spaces in the dining halls was pervasive.”
Students reported frustration with the college’s requirement that they live in their commons during sophomore year. 25 percent agreed or strongly agreed that “picking a sophomore year roommate from my same Commons is a good idea,” with 37 percent disagreeing or strongly disagreeing. Many said the requirement prevented them from forming “meaningful communities of their own.”
Dislike for the two-year requirement was even stronger among feb participants. Feelings of isolation and disconnectedness “persist through their sophomore year, due largely to the 2-year-in-Commons residency requirement that forces them to remain housed in a Commons with which they feel little affinity.”
The summary directly implicates the commons system as a potential obstacle to an inclusive community.
“The decentralized nature of the Commons system may in some ways unintentionally limit movement towards full inclusion, as their largely autonomous natures make coordinated cross-commons programming difficult and further divides students,” the report reads.
The internal review details an insufficient number of social spaces on campus, and recognizes that this lack could contribute to general student unhappiness.
[pullquote speaker="" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]Spaces for socializing, both informal ones such as residence hall lounges, and reservable spaces for events of all sizes, are extremely limited and in some cases and buildings, nonexistent[/pullquote]
“Spaces for socializing, both informal ones such as residence hall lounges, and reservable spaces for events of all sizes, are extremely limited and in some cases and buildings, nonexistent,” the summary reads. “The loneliness and isolation many students report is consistent with the availability and organization of spaces we provide students.”
John Gosselin ’20, a member of the How Will We Live Together team, shared his thoughts on the results in an interview with The Campus.
“My preliminary takeaways are that the commons system is working to a certain extent, but could work better, that the current student center is wholly ineffective as a social space, and that the sophomore housing requirement may be detrimental to students’ general development, although I would like to reserve my final judgment until the external review is complete,” Gosselin said.
Moeller sees the study as an opportunity to change several aspects of student life for the better.
“We’re trying to improve the student living experience, make meaningful improvements to the student social experience, which has been declining, find opportunities to make this a community all students feel welcome in and better integrate the Febs, among other things,” he said.
Student activities dean Derek Doucet was the other faculty co-chair of the study.
[pullquote speaker="Derek Doucet, student activities dean" photo="" align="center" background="on" border="all" shadow="on"]They suggest, not surprisingly, that students’ perceptions of the present system are mediated by their various identities, and so it would be a mistake to imagine a single student experience of residential life and the Commons[/pullquote]
“The findings are fascinating,” Doucet said. “They suggest that there is much that our present system does well, and also that there are areas for considerable growth and improvement. They suggest, not surprisingly, that students’ perceptions of the present system are mediated by their various identities, and so it would be a mistake to imagine a single student experience of residential life and the Commons.
“Overall, I’m more excited than ever to see where the project takes us from here,” he said.
The study is only one half of the review process. During an external review that will begin in late October, residential life experts from similar colleges will come to campus and submit their own report. Moeller said that the How Will We Live Together committees will then look at both the internal and external reviews, draft recommendations and present them to the college community. As a final steps, the committee will consider feedback and submit the final recommendations to Taylor, who will then decide which recommendations are implemented.
The executive summary of the review’s results and the survey data can be found at go/commonsreview.
*Editor’s Note: News Editor Bochu Ding is a member of the How Will We Live Together steering committee. Ding played no role in the reporting. Any questions may be directed to campus@middlebury.edu.
(09/27/18 9:59am)
BRISTOL — Vendors, crafters, ponies and musicians braved a cold and drizzly morning in Bristol on Saturday, Sept. 22, gathering early on the Town Green to set up for the 20th annual Harvest Festival.
“I had this big picnic blanket wrapped around me,” said Sarah Bevere, age nine, who helped the Middlebury College softball team set up tents and tables for the festival.
By 10 a.m., it was warmer and no longer raining, as visitors, including plenty of dogs, began arriving at the green. The air soon filled with live music, the scent of kettle corn and fried food, announcements for the upcoming pie-eating contest and the delighted shrieks emanating from children in the bouncy house. Ponies strapped into a metal structure resembling a merry-go-round carried their young riders in slow circles. The cornhole boards were shaped like pigs. Arielle Landau ’21 described the maple kettle corn as “wonderful and Vermonty in the perfect way.” The crisp fall weather signaled the beginning of leaf peeping season across the state, as vendors and shoppers alike flooded to the Town Green to celebrate the season’s harvest.
The festival offered “a full day of live music on the bandstand, activities for kids, pony rides, live demonstrations, crafters, vendors and area non-profit organizations,” according to the Addison County Chamber of Commerce’s website. The event was organized by the Chamber of Commerce and the Bristol Recreation Department and sponsored by various local businesses. The loosely organized rows of tents at Saturday’s festival offered everything from jewelry, wooden spoons and handmade alpaca-wool blankets, to green energy solutions, nutritional supplements and insurance.
Alexandra Burns ’21 said most of the festival’s attractions were “best enjoyed if you were interested in spending your money,” adding, however, that it wasn’t necessary to spend money to have fun. Festival-goers could listen to music floating from the gazebo, munch on samples and take part in various arts and crafts as the day progressed.
Marie Miller, a Bristol resident wearing an “Independents for Senate” pin, talked about a Starksboro family, Jennifer and Patrick and their five children, who had brought maple creams and sugars along with three varieties of syrup — delicate, robust and strong — to the festival for the second year. She described how they involve every family member in some part of the maple process, whether it’s tapping the trees, hauling the sap or boiling and bottling the syrup.
“This is a farming community,” Miller said. “It may not be cows, it may not be milk, but it comes from our trees and it takes a lot of hard work to make it, and it’s instilling good values and a good work ethic into your children.”
Vendors ranged from Distinctive Vintage, selling home decor and fall-related decorations, to Will’s Lemonade and Soul Shine healing. One stand brought fresh produce to the Harvest Festival this year. Lester Farm, located on Route 7 about ten minutes from the college, had a tent crowded with a variety of squash and orange, white and multicolored pumpkins. Addie Thompson from Lester Farm said that last year, their first time at the festival, had been a moderate success, but customers expressed little interest in standard summer produce. “We brought our fall harvest this year and tailored toward the Harvest Festival,” Thompson said.
Though the event drew many college students and Addison County residents, not all vendors felt the day was a success. One craftsman, who did not wish to be named, said this was his first year, his sales had been dismal and he would not be returning. He also said most visitors came to see friends, rather than to shop.
Another Harvest Festival highlight was the pie-eating contest at 2 p.m. The seven participants lined up on both sides of a folding table, clasped their hands behind their backs, and dove face-first into blueberry pies. Two minutes later, purple pie covered their faces and the table, and the three-year reigning champion, Chase, conceded to this year’s victor, Tyler, with a fist bump.
“The pie-eating contest encapsulated the experience of small-town life,” said Jasmine Chau ’21, a Los Angeles native attending her first rural festival, adding that “it also was a decent pie.”
(09/20/18 9:57am)
MIDDLEBURY — Early Sunday morning, about 150 runners from Middlebury College, the town of Middlebury, and surrounding counties gathered in Wright Park for the 15th annual TAM Trek. The race was put on by the Middlebury Area Land Trust (MALT), a nonprofit dedicated to maintaining the Trail Around Middlebury (TAM), and offered three loops: a 19.2-mile run around the entire TAM, a 10K and a two-mile Family Fun Run. The staggered start times allowed participants in every event to finish together.
Both the 19 and 6-mile races were professionally timed. Theo Henderson ’20 crossed the finish line first, completing the full loop in a new course record of 2:07:24. Morgan Perlman ’19 finished closely behind in 2:08:22, also beating the previous course record. Middlebury resident Jessie Donavan, 42, was the first female finisher in 2:40:09, while Katie Beebe ’20 and Alexis Clay ’21 placed second and third, with times of 2:52:24 and 2:53:04, respectively.
All three events began in a clearing at the end of Sycamore Street Ext, where orange cones marked the starting line. An eclectic but energizing mix of 2010-era pop songs played over the speakers while MALT staff and volunteers manned the surrounding tents. Participants received their numbered bibs, entered their complementary raffle ticket toward a prize and fueled up on apple cider, chocolate milk, fresh apples, homemade baked goods, freeze-dried chicken and rice and maple syrup energy shots.
It was still cool and misty at 8 a.m. when Jamie Montague, the MALT executive director, stepped into the flag-lined finishing chute. She wore pink-and-turquoise running shoes and a red “MAKE EARTH COOL AGAIN” hat.
“Okay, TAM Trekkers,” Montague said into a microphone. “It’s time to line up.” The nearly 70 runners attempting the entire TAM laced up their running shoes, adjusted their CamelBak packs, jogged their last warm-ups and gathered at the starting line. After a quick review of course markings and logistics, Montague blew an air horn, and the first race began.
By 9 a.m., the cloud cover had parted and the day was getting warmer. Everyone else, including families with small children, middle- and high-school cross-country runners and the Middlebury College Men’s and Women’s Cross Country teams, stepped to the line for the 10K and Fun Run. Montague returned to the finishing chute, repeated her directions and blew the air horn for a second time. She also thanked the race’s sponsors, IPJ Real Estate, Brennan Punderson & Donahue PLLC, Co-Operative Insurance and WhistlePig. The sponsors are all local businesses, which matched new or increased business sponsors dollar for dollar, up to $2,000.
According to Mike Corbett, the MALT treasurer, while the Land Trust promotes the TAM Trek as a fundraiser, it generates more money through its general fundraising. The TAM Trek’s main purpose is increased exposure, both to sponsors and to the community.
“One of the things we try to get people to understand is that the MALT is also the TAM, and those two things are synonymous,” Corbett said. “I think the biggest thing is just that to understand the amount of work and time and money that goes into [MALT]. It’s a great resource that we provide, and we don’t charge for it, but it’s unique and special in that way, and it’s special to the community.”
He explained that the TAM is more expensive to maintain than many of its users may realize. For example, when the Vermont Rail System discovered a railroad crossing that did not meet its standards a few years ago, it cost MALT and the College together $30,000 to remodel it.
Corbett added that MALT is composed almost exclusively of volunteers. Its staff is passionate about preserving the TAM and its other properties as community resources, particularly in the weeks leading up to the TAM Trek each year.
As the TAM Trek went on, the day continued to heat up, with the temperature eventually surpassing 80 degrees. Benjy Renton ’21 called out the bib numbers of participants ranging in age from two to 83 as they crossed the finish line, so that their names could be announced over the speakers. Once most people had finished, MALT staff began giving out the raffle prizes and medals for the top finishers.
“It was a lot of fun,” said first place finisher Henderson, “and really, really hot.”
Other finishers echoed his comment, calling the race a “freakin’ blast,” and encouraging other students to participate.
“It was really fun, very challenging, but it went faster than I thought it would,” said Clay.
“I think it’s one of my favorite things about Middlebury,” said Alec Fleischer ’20.5, who finished the race for the second time this year.
Corbett said he would like to increase Middlebury student involvement with the TAM and TAM Trek. He invited anyone interested to contact MALT at info@maltvt.org.
(05/09/18 9:59pm)
The percentage of students of color on sports teams is lower than Middlebury’s already low percentage of students of color on campus. Middlebury is 63 percent white, and of the college’s 2561 students, only 25 percent identify as domestic US students of color, according to the fall 2017 student profile.
For student athletes of color, this reality can feel isolating.
Sebastian Sanchez, one of two athletes of color on the baseball team, reached out to Olivia Bravo ’20, Chellsa Ferdinand ’20, Jourdon Delerme ’20 and Diego Meritus ’19, members of the softball, volleyball, football and football teams, respectively, about starting a club for people of color (PoC) in sports. The resulting organization, Student Athletes of Color, is funded directly by the athletic department. It recently held its first official meet-and-greet and was received enthusiastically by the student body.
The club’s members hope Student Athletes of Color will create an informal space in which they can build a strong community.
“I am the only PoC on my team,” Bravo said. “Coming into the school I would have loved a PoC mentor to guide me through this adjustment and to share their experiences with race on campus.”
Student Athletes of Color’s three main goals focus on its leaders’ own experiences of being recruits and subsequent members of sports teams on campus. Their mission statement is to “provide opportunities for athletes of color to meet others outside of their respective teams.”
The club aims to help athletes at all levels develop support networks within the community. They want to offer all athletes of color a space that helps them “navigate the racial and ethnic experiences that exist in the Middlebury community.”
Bravo said the strong relationships between members of individual teams are not shared between members of different teams.
“As PoC we immediately see each other in the athletic facilities and maybe give each other a smile or a head nod, but there is no relationship beyond that. I think that is our biggest goal, to change that,” Bravo said.
Amherst College has a Student Athletes of Color group, and a friend of Meritus’ is working to form one at Williams College. The group believes Student Athletes of Color would also be of interest to other colleges in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (Nescac) and hopes to eventually form a Nescac-wide organization.
“I think this is a very realistic goal and is something I can see happening before I graduate in the next few years,” Bravo said.
(05/02/18 8:35pm)
The Middlebury Race to Zero team won the elementary schools contest in the U.S. Department of Energy’s annual Race to Zero Student Design competition held in Golden, Colorado from April 20-22. The college competed against 40 teams from 34 colleges and universities to design marketable, economically feasible and fully renewable buildings.
“In a monumental upset, our rag tag liberal arts team took first place in the Race to Zero Elementary Design competition,” wrote Alex Browne ’18 on the Middlebury Race to Zero team blog.
The contest was designed by the Department of Energy to engage students who are interested in architecture, engineering, construction and similar disciplines in thinking creatively about renewable and clean energy. Students were asked to update building designs and create plans for high-performance, energy-efficient buildings where renewable power could offset at least most of the energy consumption of the space.
Project manager Zach Berzolla ’18 learned of the competition through director of sustainability integration Jack Byrne. He worked with geology professor Will Amidon to develop a student-taught winter term class focused on Zero Energy building design. The course was designed to teach students about the Zero Energy design process by developing a design for a Zero Energy elementary school in Vermont.
Over winter term and the spring semester, the team designed a two-story, 21-classroom, 500-student facility, which they believed would best suit Middlebury’s residents and the Vermont climate.
Representatives from the college’s team presented their final redesign of local Mary Hogan Elementary School at the College’s Student Symposium on April 20 and again in front of a Department of Energy jury at the National Renewable Energy Lab on April 22. The college’s team won the contest while competing against schools with graduate architecture and engineering programs.
“Our team’s victory was a testament to the value of a liberal arts education,” said Browne, who was responsible for making sure Middlebury’s elementary school design was up to code. He noticed that some other teams’ plans were not.
Browne said his experience as a volunteer firefighter made him especially conscious of fire safety and building code compliance. He also said the team’s attention to detail meant all aspects of the final design were carefully thought out, which some other teams lacked.
Many members of the Middlebury team cited the importance of their holistic approach. The group began by studying existing Zero Energy schools before meeting with the principal of Mary Hogan Elementary, Tom Buzzel, to better understand the elementary school’s specific needs.
“Then as a class we decided on key pieces we wanted to include in our design and what the most important components were,” Berzolla said.
“In our early stages, our team spent what seemed to be an unreasonable number of hours arguing about every detail; from the number of faucets in a bathroom all the way up to recent changes in elementary school pedagogy,” Browne said.
Berzolla said the team spent two months refining the floor plans because every decision was intentionally chosen to create the best learning environment possible.
Later on, the team broke into smaller working groups that focused on specific categories including architecture, interior design and HVAC systems. Berzolla said that with every design choice, the group weighed cost, energy-efficiency and the design goals.
“We had to dive into a very detailed analysis of the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems for the building,” Berzolla said, although no team members had sufficient experience with these areas. Assistance from industry partners made the project feasible and gave the final design its depth.
Instead of modifying a standard design for the new elementary school, the college team discussed what the future of education should look like, and used those innovative concepts as the basis for their plan.
“We focused heavily on collaborative and experiential learning and our design tried to make this natural and easy,” said Gigi Miller ’18, a member of the interior design team. She said they aimed to create spaces that kids would be excited to come and learn in everyday.
Berzolla said this focus on the kids and creating the building as a teaching tool that students would be excited to learn in was what set them apart from other schools in the competition.
“We really tried to think about specific social factors such as different learning and teaching styles that may need to be catered to,” said Emma McDonagh ’19, who worked on the building’s architecture. Her group redesigned the current building’s convoluted layout to create more welcoming and flexible interior spaces.
The new school’s location was another important factor. The team selected a space beside the current middle school because of its flexibility and its connection with the outdoors. McDonagh said that such real-world implications made the project a great learning experience.
The team plans to present their plan to the Middlebury Selectboard in May.
(04/26/18 12:40am)
MIDDLEBURY — “We are in a perilous place for journalism right now,” said Jane Lindholm, host of Vermont Public Radio’s award-winning program Vermont Edition, in this year’s Robert van de Velde ’75 Memorial Lecture. She laid out the need for greater transparency, diversity of perspectives and less self-righteousness as the only ways to survive this Fake News Era.
Lindholm, a Vermont native who has also worked as a director and producer for NPR, gave the talk, entitled “Objectivity in the Fake News Era,” on April 16 in Dana Auditorium.
Prominent politicians on both sides of the ideological divide tell their supporters not to trust “fake news.” President Trump’s hostility toward CNN, The New York Times, and other news organizations he disagrees with “has become a joke,” Lindholm said, but Trump is not the only politician manipulating his supporters. Even Bernie Sanders has disparaged outlets he opposes, she said, including Vermont’s alternative weekly newspaper Seven Days, which Lindholm considers a legitimate source.
Such misinformation leaves many Americans unsure who to believe.
“This propensity to discredit an entire organization, or even the entire industry, has been building over the last few years, to what is now a fever pitch,” Lindholm said. “Stories are not ‘fake news’ just because you don’t like them. And, frankly, it’s not a politician’s job to decide what is and what isn’t worthy of coverage.”
She added that overuse of the phrase “fake news” has left it “essentially toothless.”
Lindholm shifted her focus to Lyrebird, a program that claims its users can “create a digital voice that sounds like you with only one minute of audio.” The program’s generated results still sound somewhat robotic, but Lindholm said that before long, this ability to put words into any mouth will become a potential threat to democracy. Politicians will be able to take back anything they want to unsay — such as Trump’s 2016 “Access Hollywood” tape.
Another of Lindholm’s concerns is the 11 percent of young Americans who trust The Daily Show and The Colbert Report more than any other television sources. While comedy hosts try to tell their listeners that they are not journalists, they also present skewed versions of current events as apparent facts. In response to a later question, Lindholm acknowledged that comedy can do a better job of reporting specific issues. She does not see any problem with people watching comedy shows, but rather with those shows serving as their sole news sources.
“Real news is fake, fake news is real, and non-news is legitimate,” as Lindholm put it.
She added that on Twitter, no information can be verified in any breaking news situation. A single erroneous Tweet can result in the rapid spread of incorrect information. Today, in a world where 44 percent of all Americans and 74 percent of Republicans think the media is making up stories about Trump, “it is more important than ever to have the facts,” she said.
“Diversity” is another word Lindholm said has lost its meaning. She said news organizations need more people with differing backgrounds and perspectives in positions of power. Half of Vermont’s households have guns, yet 89 percent of Vermonters, including 82 percent of gun owners, say they support gun restrictions. Lindholm said she doesn’t think those voices are heard often enough. She said audiences should feel like they are “not just being spoken about, they are being spoken to.”
Yet although organizations must make sure people feel welcome, Lindholm said that they should not necessarily stay neutral. While it is impossible for a journalist to take their own perspective out of reporting, abandoning the point-counterpoint strategy that most journalists employed in the past can lead to deeper, more meaningful conversations.
Lindholm recognized that the prevalence of “fake news” can leave readers struggling to identify legitimate news sources. She offered three criteria that help determine whether a source is reputable.
First, said Lindholm, “Check the source. Do you know it? Do you know its perspective? Do you know whether this is a reported story you’re reading, with a byline of somebody whose name you can verify?”
Second, “Do a quick headline keyword source. Are other people reporting this news? Does it seem legit?”
Third, “Is it breaking news, and are you on Twitter? If the answer to either of those things is yes, please add an enormous dose of skepticism to whatever you’re reading and do some extra research.”
“We need more transparency, we need more diversity of perspective and experience, and we need less of our own self-righteousness if we are going to survive this moment in journalism and in our culture,” Lindholm concluded.
(04/04/18 8:33pm)
As Richard Sander spoke at the Kirk Alumni Center on Tuesday, dissenting students held a counter-event in the McCullough Student Center. They sat in a circle in the middle of Crossroads Café, eating pizza and snacks, and using their shared displeasure with Sander’s presence on campus as a platform to discuss the future of alternative protests at Middlebury.
Sander is a law professor at UCLA known for his criticism of affirmative action programs, and specifically his stance that affirmative action leaves minority students unprepared for overly-competitive college environments.
“I’m tired of student groups inviting speakers who consistently dehumanize members of our community,” said organizer Eliza Renner ’18.
“We said we should do something,” added Madeline Bazemore ’19.
The students who coordinated the counter-event were inspired by recent campus discussion about the influence of white supremacy, including the Feb. 26 teach-in Wilson Hall. At the teach-in, Renner recalled, professor of American studies Rachael Joo discussed Stanford University students’ reactions to Charles Murray’s Feb. 22 visit to the school. Instead of protesting at the talk itself, students held an alternate event in support of communities of color.
Renner hoped to create a similar event by hosting “Teatime” in Crossroads during the Sander talk. She described the informal meeting as “a very neutral event in terms of making people feel community.”
Counter-event participants immediately began drawing comparisons between Sander’s talk and Charles Murray’s visit to Middlebury last March. Many believed it was a poor and incendiary choice for the College Republicans to invite Sander given his views on minorities’ presence on college campuses.
Most students who came to the event were frustrated not only by Sander’s presence, but by how little publicity his talk received. They had only learned about it two weeks earlier, right before spring break, which they said left them with almost no time to prepare.
Some believed speakers like Murray and Sanders were using academia as an excuse to promote racist ideas. They questioned whether Sander would see colleges’ recruitment processes and special consideration of legacies as equally harmful as affirmative action.
“Choices academics make are never neutral,” said Victoria Pipas ’18, adding that the right way to look at issues is to make sure “you still have your moral compass on.”
“People like to surround themselves with yes-men,” added Hanna Abdelaal ’21. “It’s a human thing to do, we all do it.”
“It can be challenging to be vulnerable enough to have a difficult conversation,” said Renner. She acknowledged that both being called out and calling others out are uncomfortable and terrifying in the moment, and that receiving feedback in a non-defensive way can be tough, but said all of those things are necessary if we want to grow as a community and create a better Middlebury.
(03/01/18 1:21am)
“There’s one thing I should make clear. There is absolutely no way, in the brief period of time I’m going to speak, that I’m going to convince you of anything in this very complex case.”
Science writer Mark Pendergrast used these words to begin his Tuesday, Feb. 20 lecture “The Malleability of Memory and the Conviction of Jerry Sandusky.” Pendergrast, who has authored 14 books on topics ranging from caffeinated beverages to Japanese renewable energy policies, spoke in the Axinn Center about his latest book, “The Most Hated Man in America: Jerry Sandusky and the Rush to Judgment.”
Pendergrast began his talk by summarizing the well-known case of Jerry Sandusky, the former Pennsylvania State University assistant football coach who is a convicted serial rapist and child molester. In 1977, Sandusky founded a charity called The Second Mile in State College, Pennsylvania, to provide help and support to atrisk youth. The program also gave Sandusky decades of unsupervised access to vulnerable boys. He was arrested on pedophilia-related charges in 2011 and found guilty in 2012. Yet despite the numerous witnesses who have recounted stories of his abuse, Sandusky insists that he was wrongly convicted.
“I don’t think he’s guilty,” said Pendergrast. “I think he’s entirely innocent.”
Pendergrast explained that much of the case against Sandusky depended on repressed memory therapy, a technique meant to retrieve traumatic experiences that children block from consciousness. Therapists helped Sandusky’s witnesses rebuild memories of abuse that they could not recall. “I’m assuming that everyone knows that repressed memories are pseudoscience,” said Pendergrast. “The idea that you would forget terrible things is not true.”
Pendergrast said that when he first learned about the case, “I was appalled by it, and like everyone, I thought Jerry Sandusky must have done this.” Interviews with Sandusky and his children changed Pendergrast’s mind. Of Sandusky’s six children, five defend their father, describing him as “touchy-feely” but in a paternal way. Adopted son Matt Sandusky started out backing his siblings, but he changed his story after attending repressed memory therapy. He eventually released a statement saying that his father had sexually abused him.
Pendergrast saw Sandusky’s lack of maltreatment toward his own children as an early indication that other witnesses’ stories might not add up. He said, “I would think that if [he were] a pedophile and [he] had four of these interviewed boys, that he would try to do something with them. They weren’t even related by blood. But he didn’t.”
Accusations against Sandusky collected over the years, but former Penn State quarterback Mike McQueary ignited the controversy when he overheard slapping sounds in the locker room shower. It was Sandusky with a boy. Pendergrast emphasized that while McQueary initially spoke only of hearing sounds he interpreted as sexual, his story shifted after he, too, attended repressed memory therapy. There, he remembered seeing Sandusky’s hips moving behind a child’s. The boy in the shower, Allan Myers, later testified that he and Sandusky had been snapping towels and that he could recall nothing sexual about the incident.
Pendergrast recognized that the circumstances of McQueary’s accusation were inherently suspicious. People would question a man in his mid-fifties showering, nude, with a child. Pendergrast responded by describing Sandusky as a “supportive goofball” who was oblivious to what others considered socially acceptable.
Most of the witnesses who ended up testifying against Sandusky said that they had pushed away memories of his abuse until therapy allowed them to recognize what really happened. Pendergrast believes that the therapists implanted the witnesses with false memories. He quoted “Victim 7,” Dustin Struble, as saying, “I had everything blocked out.” Struble also said, “I was good at pushing memories of abuse away. [My therapist] explained a lot to me since this happened.”
“I don’t believe he was abused,” said Pendergrast.
Sandusky’s attorney was, as Pendergrast put it, “completely clueless about repressed memory.” He had no idea how to fight a string of victims who defended Sandusky until they went to therapy and remembered the abuse he had put them through. According to Pendergrast, trial mismanagement and blind trust in repressed memory doomed Sandusky, but because Pennsylvania’s judges are elected rather than appointed, he has little hope of being granted a retrial.
Pendergrast did not expect his brief talk to change anyone’s mind. His stance on Sandusky is so unpopular that he could not find a publisher for his book, which can instead be purchased online in paperback and Kindle form. Pendergrast, who hopes that people will consider his perspective before forming their own conclusions, said, “I beg you to actually read the book.”
When asked whether he believed repressed memory played a role in the #MeToo Movement, Pendergrast said that while repressed memory likely influences some cases, he does not think it is a significant factor. While he sees the #MeToo Movement as “shedding light on the way women have been treated,” he is concerned by events such as the firing of Garrison Keillor. “Where are the details?” Pendergrast said. “The man’s life has been ruined.”
(03/01/18 12:44am)
Febs elected Bobbi Finkelstein ’21.5 and reelected Rae Aaron ’19.5 as this year’s Feb Student Government Association (SGA) senators on Feb. 23. Diego Garcia, SGA director of membership, reported that Aaron won with 44.57 percent of the vote, while Finkelstein received 31.32 percent. Aaron was reelected speaker of the senate during the SGA meeting on Sunday, Feb. 25.
Both Aaron and Finkelstein said they were excited to represent and serve as voices for their fellow students.
Finkelstein said she was looking forward to getting to know more Febs by working alongside Aaron and the rest of the SGA this coming semester. She also said she was excited to “find ways to maintain the tight-knit Feb community while encouraging Febs to fully integrate into the larger Middlebury community, especially first-years.”
According to Garcia, 142 of 418 possible Febs voted in this year’s election, resulting in a total voter turnout rate of 34 percent. Last year’s February election had a similar turnout rate of 36 percent. Feb elections tend to see a significantly smaller turnout than other elections, such as last semester’s election for first-year senator, which had a voter turnout of over 50 percent.
Garcia said the lower turnout rate was likely a result of Febs having more difficulty publicizing their campaigns. Because Febs, unlike other first years, are not all housed in designated buildings, it can be “tricky for a candidate to strategically place their posters in spots that are guaranteed to have many Febs roaming around,” he said.
In the future, Garcia hopes to see an increase in Feb turnout rates. “I believe that the Feb culture on campus is rather strong,” he said, “and that is something we want reflected in the way they participate in student government.”
(11/16/17 12:54am)
Middlebury’s endowment increased by $74 million in the 2017 fiscal year after an investment return of 13.8 percent, ending the year totaling $1.074 billion. This year’s figure represents an improvement over the previous year’s return rate of −4.5 percent.
Middlebury withdrew $68.5 million from its endowment last year, which funded the college, the Institute of International Studies at Monterey, Middlebury Language Schools, Schools Abroad, the School of the Environment, the Bread Loaf School of English and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.
In an April 2017 article entitled “Rises in Financial Aid Cause Deficits,” The Campus reported that recent budget deficits had compelled the college to cut spending and attempt to raise endowment funds. Escalating financial aid expenditures were largely responsible for the deficits.
While Middlebury aims to admit classes with approximately 42 percent of students on financial aid, this percentage has risen significantly in recent years as a result of the adoption of a need-blind admissions process. Roughly 48 percent of the classes of 2018 and 2019 receive financial aid.
Although the rise in expenses initially caused budgetary strain, Middlebury opted to remain need-blind and reduce spending in other areas.
College treasurer David Provost noted that this year’s endowment gains will not drastically increase financial aid money specifically, and that the college will continue to rely on gifts to fund financial aid.
“This [year’s gain] is compared to a net decrease in endowment of −$100 million in 2015 to 2016. So any one year investment return will not necessarily provide new sources of funds for financial aid,” he said in an email.
“Having said that, financial aid continues to grow at a higher rate (8.5%) than tuition and fees (5%), and we expect that to continue. The long-term strategy has to be that we grow the endowment specifically from gifts for financial aid, and President Patton is committed to leading us in that direction.”
(10/11/17 10:26pm)
The Department of Public Safety’s latest Security and Fire Safety Report reveals marked differences in on-campus criminal activity since 2014, including a drastic increase in student violations of liquor law and a smaller increase in burglaries.
The report is compiled using data from Public Safety, the Middlebury Police Department and other law enforcement agencies, in accordance with the 1990 Clery Act. The Act requires all colleges receiving federal funding to publicize annual security reports covering four categories over three years: arrests and referrals for disciplinary action, criminal offenses such as burglary and rape, domestic and dating violence and hate crimes.
This year’s report, released on Oct. 1, reveals a 500 percent increase in referrals given for liquor law violations since 2014. The report defines liquor law violations as “the violation of state or local laws or ordinances prohibiting: the manufacture, sale, purchase, transportation, possession, or use of alcoholic beverages; transporting, furnishing, possessing of intoxicating liquor (i.e. under the age of 21).” Students received 115 citations for alcohol in 2014, but this number rose to 672 citations in 2015 and 595 in 2016. In 2015 and 2016, Middlebury had no arrests for liquor violations, and had no arrests or referrals for drug violations.
More on-campus burglaries were also documented in the 2017 report, jumping from eleven reported burglaries in 2014 to eighteen reported in 2016. Burglary is defined as “the unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or a theft,” and is distinct from robbery in that burglary does not involve physical intimidation. No known robberies took place on campus property between 2014 and 2016.
2016 saw fewer fires than previous years. Four fires occurred in residential buildings in 2016, compared to nine in 2014 and ten in 2015. The significant drop can be attributed to normal fluctuation, however, since residential fire counts have ranged between two and twelve since 2012.
Eight rapes were reported in 2016, down from 21 reported in 2015. Reports of dating violence remained steady, with six incidents reported per year. For further analysis of the data related to sexual assault, refer here.
No hate crimes were reported between 2014 and 2016.