Professor Olinick did not disappoint. His multimedia presentation included pictures of Turing as a child in a sailor suit, a song about Turing, and a scene from Breaking the Code, a play about Turing by Hugh Whitemore.

“At the age of 23” said Olinick,  “Turing made the modern world possible.” And yet, until recently, he could have been “easily described as the most important person you’ve never heard of.”

Turing was born in London in 1912. He attended Sherborne School, where he was at the bottom of his class according to Olinick, preferring to study math on his own. He attended King’s College at Cambridge University as an undergraduate and received his PhD from Princeton. And during this time, he was laying the groundwork for computer science and artificial intelligence.

“He published relatively few papers in his lifetime,” Olinick said,  “but almost all of them are considered landmarks in their field.” At a very young age, he conceived of his Turing Machine, which could do possibly any mathematical computation. It used an infinitely long tape divided into squares that would be left blank or encoded with a one or a zero as the machine worked on a problem. Turing demonstrated that “anything computable could be computed by such a machine.” He also developed the Turing Test, which measured machine intelligence, including the ability to learn.

Olinick’s presentation included two artifacts from the WWII era—Enigma machines. These machines, which look like typewriters with an extra keyboard, were used to encipher messages. Tom Perera, an expert on “everything enigma” brought them for audience members to try out at the conclusion of the talk.

The Enigma machines used a series of rotors that could be interchanged and rearranged and were connected to a “plug board.” They could be configured in so many combinations that, for all practical purposes, they were nearly limitless.  When a letter was typed, it cycled through the rotors and emerged as a different letter altogether. To give the audience a sense of how complex deciphering the code was, Olinick tried to explain in terms people could grasp.

“Suppose you had a high-speed computer that could process 100 million configurations per second,” he said. “Imagine that we had a computer this fast that started running the day the universe was created and was running continuously ever since, examining different configurations of this machine, trying to find all of them—and among all of them, finding the correct ones. This machine, which has been running since the dawn of creation, would be 1/800,000 of the way through.” Yet, Turing broke the code.

But for all of his success, “Turing’s life took on the dimensions of a Shakespearian tragedy,” Olinick said. He was an openly gay man during a paranoid, unaccepting time. When he was young, his closest, dearest friend, probably his lover, died tragically just as they were about to go to Cambridge together. In 1952, he reported a burglary, and during the investigation the police discovered that Turing had a homosexual relationship, which he admitted. He was arrested, lost his security clearance, convicted, and subjected to chemical castration (estrogen injections).

Olinick said that the estrogen had a terrible effect on Turing, feminizing him and destroying his sexuality. He died in 1954 of cyanide poisoning. According to Olinick, it’s widely believed to have been suicide, but Turing did not leave a note and had been making future plans; he’d even just purchased new socks. Some speculate that his death could have been a political assassination. And his mother believed it was an accident, because he worked with cyanide.

As appreciation for Turing’s contributions and tribulations has grown in recent years, a “plethora of novels and short stories, five dramatic plays, three operas, a musical now on the London stage, and a monopoly set” have been devoted to Turing. The play Lovesong of the Electric Bear by Snoo Wilson, directed by Cheryl Faraone, debuted at Middlebury College in 2010. It was later performed by the Potomac Theater Project.

In the wake of public demands for restitution for Alan Turing, Prime Minister Gordon Brown issued an apology in 2009. Printed on a handout at the lecture, it read in part, “Thousands of people have come together to demand justice for Alan Turing and recognition of the appalling way he was treated. While Turing was dealt with under the law of the time, and we can’t put the clock back, his treatment was of course utterly unfair, and I am pleased to have the chance to say how deeply sorry I and we all are for what happened to him. . . . This recognition of Alan’s status as one of Britain’s most famous victims of homophobia is another step towards equality, and long overdue.”

Our regular recap of goings on at the College and a look ahead to events on the horizon. As always, we hope to call your attention to items that captured ours and alert you to events that you won’t want to miss. If you have a news item that you think we’d be interested in, drop us a line at 

• The two-state option to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict may seem like an obvious answer to many people, but Dennis Ross, former special assistant to President Obama, delivered an address to the College on May 12, in which he explained why this idea is still languishing. He said that the primary problem lies in the beliefs (or “disbeliefs”) of the parties involved. The talk can be viewed here.
• Last Saturday,women’s hockey had to let go—of the dream of a fourth NCAA championship, when they lost to Elmira in the title game in Wisconsin. On a more optimistic note, men’s basketball won a Sweet 16 game over Ithaca and will play in the quarterfinals in Salem, Virginia, on March 22.
• The American Academy of Arts and Letters announced the 2013 Literature Award winners on March 16. Bill McKibben was one of eight recipients of the award in literature for exceptional accomplishments in any genre.
• Students who study abroad in China seem to be able to put their best foot forward more often than those studying in other countries, and they seem to more easily embrace and get benefit from their identity as foreigners. Professor Hang Do reports on her research into this aspect of study abroad in a talk Wednesday evening, March 20, at the Franklin Environmental Center.
• Thursday, March 21, is packed with to-do options. Among them:  At lunchtime, on March 21, Professor Chris McGrory Klyza talks about  environmental-policy debates and outcomes during Obama’s first term. His talk is called Change We Can Believe In? (We wish that question mark were an exclamation point.)  Over at BiHall, hot pizza served at 12:20 may attract even the technically clueless to  Sven Anderson’s (Computer Science Program, Bard College) talk about the problem of text simplification using computer-based artificial intelligence techniques. Anderson will report on his lab’s recent research.
• The early evening of March 21, presents a tantalizing discussion with three editors of n + 1, one of the most highly regarded literary magazines in the U.S. Among the things they will talk about: the trials and tribulations making a living as a writer. And  there will be a screening of Five Broken Cameras, an award-winning film about popular resistance to the Israeli Occupation in a Palestinian village,  in Dana Auditorium.  Afterwards, Palestinian Professor Ahmad Almallah will discuss this complex situation.
• The evening of March 21 includes an interesting program  at the Sheldon Museum. Professor Bill Hart will present a gallery talk about Henry Freeman, Class of 1849, who advocated that Negroes return to Liberia as “the only way by which the Negro of the U. S. can rise to the full status of manhood.” This talk is part of the museum’s ongoing series about African Americans in Vermont, marking the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.  And over in Mead Memorial Chapel, Nathan Laube will bring the building to life with an organ concert celebrating Johann Sebastian Bach’s birthday, March 21,1685. Laube, known for his brilliant playing, will also deliver a pre-concert lecture.
• On Friday night as students head out for spring break, head over to 51 Main for festive fare from the kitchen and fresh Latin-jazz-fusion music by Mogani, a local band with some of the finest area musicians.

]]> http://sites.middlebury.edu/middmag/2013/03/20/things-that-happened-things-to-do-week-of-march-18/feed/ 0 http://sites.middlebury.edu/middmag/2013/02/27/things-that-happened-things-to-do-week-of-february-25/ http://sites.middlebury.edu/middmag/2013/02/27/things-that-happened-things-to-do-week-of-february-25/#comments Wed, 27 Feb 2013 20:05:43 +0000 Regan Eberhart http://sites.middlebury.edu/middmag/?p=11405 Our regular recap of goings on at the College and a look ahead to events on the horizon. As always, we hope to call your attention to items that captured ours and alert you to events that you won’t want to miss. If you have a news item that you think we’d be interested in, drop us a line at middmag@middlebury.edu. 

• A provocative question posted on Middblog last week asked, “When’s the last time you took a risk?” In the post, blogger Cody Gohl ’13 decried the propensity of the Middlebury community to play it safe. He posited that we have created a culture that awards “risklessness.” An interesting discussion has ensued.

• Professor Jessica Holmes and her creative work with MiddCore, which teaches skills and perspectives that foster the development of leaders, were the subject of the Visionary Leader Radio Show, on February 25.  The show focuses on people shaping our future.

• Middlebury alumna Dena Simmons ’05 was among the many influential women featured in The Makers: Women Who Make America, screened at Dana Auditorium on February 26. The film documents the sweeping social revolution underway as women have gained in personal and political power over the last 50 years.

• The last day of the shortest month is jam packed with things to do. Among them, two lunchtime offerings:  Robert Orsi, historian and scholar of Catholic studies, discusses the practice of confession and how it has contributed to the ongoing crisis of sexual abuse of children by priests in his lecture, “Bless Me, Father, For I Have Sinned.”  And the Woodin ES Colloquium hosts cultural ecologist and philosopher David Abram, who will talk about the ecology of sensory experience, and how language influences our perception of the “more-than-human” natural world.

• The late afternoon of February 28 brings a panel discussion about how emerging technology can be used to further Middlebury’s mission to foster qualities essential for leadership in our rapidly changing global community. And, Professor of History Paul Monod discusses the mysterious identity of one of the figures in the museum’s early Renaissance panel painting The Bearded Monk in the Middlebury Triptych by the Master of the St. Ursula Legend.

• In the evening of February 28, the conclusion of Black History Month will be marked with a screening of Black Power Mixtape, highlighting the era of the Black Panther Party. For those who want to know what they are eating, VPIRG is sponsoring a labeling law forum to generate grassroots support for a campaign to require labeling of GMO foods.

• A lot more goes into a cup of coffee than just the beans. On Friday, March 1, Writer in Residence Julia Alvarez and Bill Eichner will talk about the lessons they have learned from establishing their sustainable coffee farm and literacy center in the Dominican Republic. The talk is part of the Center of Social Entrepreneurship Speaker Series.

• Dinaw Mengestu, MacArthur Fellow and award-winning author, will deliver the keynote address for the Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity Symposium, on March 1.  He will talk about race and migration and the vocabulary of migration, which reflects our prejudices, biases, and fears.

• A fabulous weekend of sports is ahead. Among the events: the women’s hockey team hosts the NESCAC championship; men’s basketball makes its sixth consecutive NCAA tournament appearance; and men’s hockey heads to the NESCAC semifinals/finals.
  

Twilight Artist in Residence François Clemmons teaches a January term class called the History of the American Negro Spiritual and Its Influence on Western Civilization. He has found that teaching this subject to young people with little connection to the lives of America’s slaves takes special understanding and some creative techniques. Clemmons describes the class and some of the resources he uses, below.

Watch Clemmons  perform “I’ve been in the storm so long.”

*******************************************************************

Writing about American Negro spirituals is my passion. I’ve been singing these glorious songs since my earliest conception in my mother’s womb. This legacy was passed down to me by my mother, my grandmother, Minnie Green, and my great-grandmother, Laura Mae Sanders. I sang these songs at home and in church when other children were singing “Mary Had Little Lamb” or “Row, Row, Row Your Boat,” and other typical nursery rhymes.

The index provides a systematic listing of Negro spirituals

In putting together the collection of The Index to African American Spirituals, Kathleen Abromeit and I wanted to make available to all young singers, professionals, and teachers information as to what was available and, in some cases, where one can still purchase these arrangements. We focused on solo arrangements, but just as much is becoming available for all levels of choral groups. Much of it unfortunately is out of print. But we do know libraries, private and public, where copies can be had with a little research. Schomberg Public Library in New York City, Oberlin College, Fisk University, Spellman University, Morehouse University, Jackson State University, Morgan State University, Harvard, Howard, and Yale Universities, just to name a few.

I use this publication and several others that I am familiar with in my January term class at Middlebury College on Slavery and the American Negro Spirituals. Some excellent resources are The Book of American Negro Spirituals arr. by the Johnson Brothers, The Music of Black Americans by Irene Southern, Songs for Today, Arr. Clemmons, Songs of Zion—United Methodist Church, and Wade in the Water by Arthur Jones. In addition, there are several notable publishers who are making an effort to republish collections made famous by tenor Roland Hayes; bass, Paul Robeson; and alto, Marian Anderson. Arrangers such as Hall Johnson, H. T. Burleigh, John W. Work, Nathaniel Dett, Eva Jessye, Roland Hayes, Jester Hairston, the Johnson Brothers, Florence Price, and Margaret Bonds are featured.

These publications are augmented in my class by recordings, DVDs and CDs by classical singers, pop artists, jazz musicians, vocalists, and instrumentalists, as well as live performances by me, along with members of the community and faculty. With the help of local artists, I have been able to form the core of a chorus to sing these songs and occasionally to perform a solo here and there. However, the hardest part of passing on the legacy of these songs has been developing a fuller understanding of the secrets to unlocking the unique impact of this repertoire. Spirituals appear quite simple and naïve in print. Most of the “authentic” arrangements I’ve seen can be sung by amateurs as well as young beginning singers. The simple texts and pervasive repetition are highly deceptive. Rare is the student who brings his life experiences to this work, which demands it.

So in order to really teach this work, I must discuss with the class and in small seminar groups the life of slaves and their unique struggle in their 17th- and 18th-century world. Some of the students come prepared for the intellectual stimulation and comparisons, but on the whole, most have almost no true perception into the humanity, or lack thereof, of this humiliating experience. In all fairness, much in our society produces this condition in students and encourages them to see only the ultimate outcome or the topical aspects of this repulsive situation: American Slavery.

The path toward teaching the inner life of these songs is lined with patience, encouragement, and understanding. Our society has wrapped many unpleasant experiences in pageantry and superficial holiday recognition. It often takes much determination and creativity to read the signs of the reality of peoples who have been slaves in this environment. Most of the students have no idea that many if not all of the songs have a double meaning: one applicable to the Bible and its spiritual strengths and another that plans for insurrection and flights to freedom.

The slaves were overtly taught, by the official churches and parsons and priests who visited the plantations, a submissive theology based loosely on several biblical texts referring to “slaves, obey your master” (Ephesians 6 chapter 5-9 verses; Colossians 3 chapter 22 verse; and 1Peter 2 chapter 18 verse) and “render under to Caesar those things which are Caesar’s and unto God those things which are God’s” (Mark 12 chapter 17 verse, and Matthew 22 chapter 20-22 verses).

Many of the students today do not know the inner voices, relationships, and intricate weavings of the theology of the Bible and don’t really relate to its profound world impact along with its acknowledged philosophy, poetry, and inspiration. I begin with Old Testament legends such as David, Saul, Solomon, Ruth, Daniel, Moses, Joshua, Elijah, Elisha, and Ezekiel. Then I add the life of the Christ, Paul, Mathew, Mark, Luke, Judas, John, and Mary and Joseph.

Because of the nearly unlimited variety of the biblical texts of the spirituals, we are only able to touch on the core stories and events that are important to the slaves. My next role is to wed together an understanding that for over 250 years this country was built on the free sweat of human beings with the students’ grasp of modern economic development (which may be in conflict with moral perspective) and  the principle of personal empowerment. We would not be the nation we are today if it were not for this forced, free labor; in most cases the students’ parents would not have the expected prosperity many of them take for granted, and our standing in the rest of the world would have a very different impact.

The next step requires that I build bridges to the hearts of the students. My experience has taught me that the easiest, quickest, and most permanent way to do this is to have the students share with me who they are—the special characteristics of their families, their chores and hobbies, whether or not they have pets, why they chose to come to this college, and why they chose to take this course. None of these answers in and of themselves are that terribly important. What is important is the powerful atmosphere it builds to establish community and a visible, tangible relationship with every member of the class. We begin to form a shared, academic family. One that feels and shares with each other and does not just know things intellectually.

Almost imperceptively and immediately the tone of the classroom lessons and the singing choices change. In nearly every aspect we become an organic, fully functioning ensemble with one united goal in mind, to dislodge the secrets and inner codes of the American Negro spiritual and its creators. At this point it is obvious to me that we have collectively absorbed and moved on beyond the beauty and surface appeal of this great music. The syncopated rhythms, the traditional hymn-like melodies, and the acknowledged variety of these simple biblical stories and melodies were the facts that initially drew many of the students to the repertoire, its practice, and history. Now they operate from “within” this experience on a completely different level.  This level includes all of the previously mentioned requisite aspects to understanding this experience but now also engages the much deeper sense of empathy and spirituality.

From this perspective the students and class in general begin to know themselves and the slaves as a connected people, and they value the practical experiences that they can now relate to. A joyful song is not just a joyful, ecstatic shout or a foot-stomping, clap-worthy, sometimes hypnotic self-indulgence. In like manner, a sad song is not just mournful and painful and longing for death. These songs begin to express the deeper soul longing to be free and to know the human dignity that is understood by all of humanity. The slaves who created this repertoire are no longer just over there or back there in history. Their lives and stories live today and are worthy of knowing and sharing.

“We have it within ourselves to build monuments to hope and possibility.”

When Majora Carter was growing up in the Bronx, a measure of success was when someone could afford to move away. At an early age, “I started to plan my escape,” she told an audience of 400 during her Martin Luther King Jr. keynote address at Mead Chapel. Today Carter, an eco-entrepreneur and founder of Sustainable South Bronx, not only lives close to her childhood home, she is also bringing the South Bronx back to health and demonstrating how economic and environmental development can transform communities.

Kenny Williams ’12, who helped start a community garden at a South Bronx school and now works with the largest collection of community gardens in the country, delivered the introduction to Carter’s address. He noted that in 2008, Carter formed the economic consulting and planning firm the Majora Carter Group to bring her groundbreaking approach to other communities. Her successes have garnered multiple awards, including a MacArthur Fellowship and Middlebury’s Vision Award, which Dean of the College Shirley Collado presented to her at the conclusion of her talk.

Carter believes that the intransigent ghetto was an “unintended consequence” of integration, as well-off black residents were able to move away, and poverty became entrenched in the neighborhoods they left behind. She showed pictures of her childhood community before and after it began to crumble. Today, people remember the evening news stories in the ’70s about the Bronx burning—when landlords torched their property for the insurance money, and people believed that “there was nothing of value there.”

Majora Carter speaking in Mead Chapel. Photo: Jessica Munyon

Carter described what happens to a poor community with no economic diversity: The financial institutions don’t locate there; instead, there are payday loan stores and pawn shops; instead of grocery stores, there are 7-11s, liquor stores, and 99-cent stores; and, she said,  “There are extraordinary amounts of super, highly subsidized housing—so you get concentrated poverty.”

A vicious cycle ensues: neighborhoods deteriorate, society moves its fossil-fuel plants and trash dumps there, and children grow up in unhealthy conditions, leading to obesity, diabetes, and asthma. “We know statistically in this country that poor kids who do poorly in school statistically go to jail,” she explained. “So we were creating this pipeline directly from poverty into prison.”

Dean of the College Shirley Collado presenting Vision Award to Majora Carter. Photo: EJ Bartlett

Part of her escape-from-the-Bronx plan was to go to college and not return, and Carter said no one would have blamed her if she had never come back. “But,” she said,  “I could not not look.” She wanted to fix things.

One day, her dog pulled her through trash-strewn brush to the banks of the Bronx River. She’d had no idea there was a river so close to her home. With a $10,000 grant, she began the process of reclaiming the riverside. Later, with additional funding, she spearheaded the creation of the Hunts Point Riverside Park, and later a greenway along the waterfront.

The Majora Carter model for community renewal takes a community asset (a building, a piece of land, a riverside) and uses it to seed economic diversity—to create opportunities for job training, meaningful employment, and economic development. People stay in these communities as their income rises because it contains a mixture of housing and the goods and services they need. She looks for projects that foster the economic development of the future, in the areas of manufacturing, food, and technology. She described projects where community members crafted furniture, conducted research, and created new products.

In the wetland restoration project, Carter hired local residents to do the work. They were trained in ecological restoration. They learned how to clean up contaminated land and to “see value in themselves.” “Showing them they could create their own economic prosperity in a legitimate way was a really powerful tool,” she said.

These individuals were “generationally impoverished,” she explained, “cycling in and out of the criminal justice system. They had significant barriers to employment.” This was their first opportunity to learn skills that many take for granted, such as knowing how to be a team player or to anticipate the boss’s expectations.

One of her recent projects involves a large commercial building that has been closed and shuttered. The building, just minutes from the subway, is on the gateway to the neighborhood. It is highly visible and depressing and “reminds people of the way the South Bronx used be, a place you don’t want to be anywhere near.”

So, Carter, now in negotiation for the long-term lease of this building, hired kids from the neighborhood to “design beautiful, public art to go on the length of it.” In many cases this was their first job, and the images of the kids, paint smattered and smiling, speaks volumes. “They got to design and implement the project—that the only reason it was there was to bring light and happiness to people who saw it,” she said.

Carter ended her talk with these words:

“For Dr. King to be at the end of his life, fighting for racial, environmental, and economic equality—if he could do that and pay the ultimate price for it, then the rest of it should be easy for us. I feel that we spend so much time collecting tributes and putting them out there and feeling bad about them—and all of these things about our collective failures, while we have it within ourselves to build monuments to hope and possibility. That is your job.”

And the audience rose to its feet and gave her a long, standing ovation.

Watch her talk here:

Our regular recap of goings on at the College and a look ahead to events on the horizon. As always, we hope to call your attention to items that captured ours and alert you to events that you won’t want to miss. If you have a news item that you think we’d be interested in, drop us a line at middmag@middlebury.edu.

• Sports Illustrated recently named Middlebury’s own Kelly Brush Davisson ’08 an “athlete who cares,” an honor the magazine extends to athletes who give their time and energy to make a positive difference in the world. Kelly is in good company: Pros such as Cleveland Browns wide receiver Braylon Edwards and L.A. Clippers basketball player Grant Hill have been named. Kelly, a competitive skier, founded the Kelly Brush Foundation in 2006 to improve the quality of life of athletes dealing with spinal cord injuries and to improve ski-racing safety. Kelly was paralyzed after a ski-racing crash in 2006.

• For those who long for a break from holiday madness (and for those who don’t), there’s a refreshing concert at the Mahaney Center of the Arts Wednesday night, December 12. The Middlebury Wind Ensemble, composed primarily of musicians from Addison County, will be performing a classical and concert band program. It’s free!

• The weather has been mild enough lately that the monthly wildlife walk by the Middlebury Area Land Trust to survey birds and other wildlife may seem like, well, a walk in the park. Community members are invited to help. It begins at 8:00 in the morning on Thursday, December 13.

• Musical attractions on tap at 51 Main this week include: David Bain on piano, December 12, singing from the American Roots Songbook. Friday, December 14, the band Barika delivers an entirely unusual repertoire that some call “deep groove.” And Saturday, December 15, songwriter Taylor Smith will be performing impassioned folk and blues tunes.

• Town Hall Theater offers up a musical “extravaganza” called Eat Up, performed by the theater’s “young company,” ages 5–18, and a host of other performers well known to Middlebury audiences, December 14 and 15.

Several organizations on campus convened the panel to open up dialogue about the Supreme Court case Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, which is currently being deliberated and could overturn affirmative action in admissions decisions. Middlebury joined more than 30 other liberal arts colleges in filing a brief in support of the University of Texas and affirmative action.

This was no esoteric, theoretical evening in which public policy points were debated. It was personal to many in attendance, and the questions posed to the panel were respectful, but pointed, probing, and sometimes heated.

The five-member panel, composed of Murray Dry, a constitutional scholar in the political science department; Greg Buckles, dean of Admissions; Shirley Collado, dean of the College; and students Kim Banford ’15 and Andrew Snow ’15, kicked off the discussion.

Banford and Snow offered a student perspective. Banford, from San Francisco, wanted to see more people involved in bringing students of color to campus and helping them feel comfortable here. Snow, from New York City, described how he would not have attended or even heard of Middlebury without affirmative action, and how his mother sent him to a private high school, telling him “you are not going to go to the system’s drop-off point for students who look and identify like you.”

Shirley Collado explained that she understood personally the value of opportunities made possible through programs such as affirmative action; she was the first in her family of Dominican immigrants to attend college, which opened many doors.  “Middlebury has a huge role to play,” she said, “when we think about the disparities in this country that create major barriers to the kind of individuals who could benefit from an education like the one that you all get here.”

Murray Dry took the legalistic view. He outlined the constitutional history of affirmative action. He spoke about the constitutional basis for “color-blind” and “strict scrutiny” standards that are used to evaluate when preference based on race would be permissible. Affirmative action has been viewed as a means of “redressing the effects of racial segregation,” he said. But the Supreme Court also has “constitutionalized racial diversity in education as a compelling interest,” and as a result, affirmative action programs extend to other minorities in addition to underrepresented groups.

Greg Buckles discussed how the admissions office “looks for the candidates that best further Middlebury’s educational mission,” which requires a diverse student body.   And, he said, the very best students are looking for diverse colleges. “Since 2003” he said, referring to the landmark Grutter v. Bollinger case, “it’s been affirmed that race, used as only one factor among many in a holistic evaluation of candidates, is interpreted as being permissible.” Speculating that if the court overturns affirmative action, he said, “The result will not be a colorblind meritocracy. Affirmative action may go, but college admissions decisions are always going to be controversial and potentially affected by race.”

The ensuing discussion rolled around the room like a fast moving weather front. Audience members were encouraged not to hesitate to raise questions for fear of offending anyone and to bear in mind that questions are not intended to offend.

The audience’s opinions and questions ranged widely. Here are some of the statements made and questions asked:

Why are admissions decisions made “behind closed doors”? The end result of admissions decisions is very public. What constitutes a critical mass of students of color? Is there a difference between general diversity and focusing on underrepresented groups? People should focus on being recognized for their mind instead of their ethnicity.  Are affirmative action students less qualified? Greg Buckles: “Every single student here is qualified, and every single student earned his or her place here.” More needs to be done to help students of color feel comfortable here and to thrive.

Anthony Perez ’14 proposed that one stumbling block prevents minorities from feeling comfortable here—their belief in the stereotypical Middkid. “Break down the idea that everyone here is rich and comes from the same place in Connecticut. It’s not true,” he said, “but we all think it is. So we won’t shift the atmosphere until we shift that stereotype.”

A remarkably short question sparked one of the most involved discussions of the evening: “Does diversity in the classroom standard apply to hiring faculty?”

Shirley Collado answered that there is an “intense need to have very intentional, thoughtful ways to diversity our faculty.” But individual departments, not a central office such as the admissions office, hire faculty members. Murray Dry explained that sometimes certain faculty positions are created on a temporary basis for recent minority PhDs, and sometimes the positions are converted to tenure-track positions, gaining Middlebury a minority faculty member. “I’m inclined to be very concerned about this,” he said, referring to the fact that the normal vetting process and reviewing of the individual’s scholarship may have been shortened or circumvented.

Christal Brown, assistant professor of dance, stood to speak. “I’m the only African American female on the faculty. It’s a wonderful responsibility.” She began teaching at Middlebury, she said, in a temporary position. “You guys are at a very pivotal point of your life where we are supposed to be making you global citizens, but if there’s no one here to give you a global perspective, then we’ve failed.”

This conversation ended at 8:45 p.m., but it has just begun.

Our regular recap of goings on at the College and a look ahead to events on the horizon. As always, we hope to call your attention to items that captured ours and alert you to events that you won’t want to miss. If you have a news item that you think we’d be interested in, drop us a line at 

• Anyone who missed seeing the His Holiness the Dalai Lama last week can get a front-row seat to both of his talks—online. The 14th Dalai Lama visited campus October 12-13, and thousands came to hear him speak about creating hope and compassion in the world, and about making this century the century of peace.

• Panther field hockey fans are pleased. After the top-ranked Salisbury Sea Gulls sustained a loss, the Midd field hockey team advanced to the top spot, becoming the number-1-ranked team in the nation, with a perfect 12-0 record.

• Beginning October 17, at 7:30 p.m., Vermont Public Television’s Emerging Science series kicks off its fifth season. The premiere show will profile some regional projects tracking the effects of climate change in the Northeast. Featured are Middlebury geology professors Tom Manley and Pat Manley and their research on Lake Champlain.

• As the saying goes, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. Yet, according to Elizabeth R. DeSombre, professor of environmental studies from Wellesley College, mankind has done way too much fishing (the fish agree), and fisheries are increasingly depleted. DeSombre will talk about the new efforts needed to help stabilize marine populations at a lunchtime Woodin Colloquium called Saving Global Fisheries, on October 18.

• The College has geared up for another friendly invasion of visitors, sure to happen this weekend during Homecoming. A plethora of Homecoming activities is planned, including the Peter Westra ’99 Memorial 5K Run, ski patrol sale, many open houses, rugby, water polo championships, concerts, Midd vs. Bates football, the stand-up comedy of Wyatt Cenac, a pancake breakfast at the Snow Bowl, and much more.

• Two panel discussions of note: The Rohatyn Center’s 10th anniversary will be marked by a special panel of Middlebury professors discussing U.S. global power, on October 18. Each will present the perspective of a different region of the world about the global role of the United States. And on Friday, October 19, “Gender and the Presidential Election 2012“ will be the discussion topic,  presented by the Program in Women and Gender Studies. Participants include former Vermont governor Madeleine Kunin; Ellen Andersen, associate professor of political science at the University of Vermont; and Bert Johnson, associate professor of political science at Middlebury.

This is A Curious Invasion-Middlebury, a featured event of the Clifford Symposium on Creativity and Collaboration, September 27–29. It is a true collaboration, sponsored by the Middlebury Council on the Arts and featuring the renowned choreography and performance of the PearsonWidrig Dance Theater, the Dance Company of Middlebury, the Alumni Solo Project, and other Middlebury artists. Versions of A Curious Invasion have been performed around the world, using the surroundings to inspire the dance. Today the arts center is the source of inspiration.

The audience, if that is what you are when the dancing is all around you, flows about the building with the performers, who subtly direct the viewers to different spots. After a while, the dancers migrate outside and the audience follows. Dancers take over the courtyard tables, the courtyard wall, the grass beyond. As you watch, you begin to see the site with new eyes: how metal-like the museum exterior seems, how transparent the Zig-Zag Labyrinth sculpture is, how lush the lawn looks, and how soccer balls on the far-away field seem to float.

Gradually the dancers disappear inside, through a door most people never notice, reappearing in windows that most people hurry past without a thought. And for the next several minutes, those windows get complete attention as the dancers execute an exceedingly slow-motion evacuation through them.

When the performance is over, no one is thinking about hot tea and a nap. Seeing this everyday facet of Middlebury through new eyes has woken everyone up.

Since joining Your Farmstand, I’ve been the lucky recipient of an abundance of high quality, local produce and meat without having to battle crowds at farmers markets or find parking at the store. The College helped organize this new venture for the Middlebury community in response to a faculty/staff survey indicating keen interest in local agriculture. Francisca Drexel,  farmstand manager,  and Greg Krathwohl ’14, coordinator, were key boots on the ground. Originally conceived and started by growers in Charlotte, Your Farmstand has the potential to elevate local agriculture, opening new markets with a fresh approach that combines the best parts of CSAs and farmers’ markets, grocery stores, and e-commerce.

When I log into my account at yourfarmstand.com I can see “what’s for sale.” The producers have listed what they have available this week, from their home computers. I can see descriptions of the products, the quantity available, and where they are from. Some describe how the item was harvested, or how it tastes, or was grown. I can click on the producer’s name and learn more about the farm or business.

“We visited local farms and recruited growers,” said Greg Krathwohl, explaining how the program works. He showed me on Google Maps the locations of the 23 producers currently supplying Your Farmstand at Middlebury. This is really local agriculture. The farthest away is Ferrisburgh, which is less than 20 miles. When selecting growers for the program, the organizers wanted to be able to offer a wide variety of items to customers. “If growers all sell the same produce, no one would benefit,” Krathwohl said.

Your Farmstand has been offering almost enough variety that I could do most of my grocery shopping there: organic milk, cheese, beef, pork, lamb, sausage, blueberries, summer apples, carrots, cucumbers, several lettuces, cabbage, broccoli, bread, croissants, baguettes, cinnamon rolls, eggs—chicken and duck, green beans, red and golden beets, rainbow chard, fennel, fresh garlic, kale—many types, kohlrabi, onions, scallions, new potatoes, summer squash, chicken—grillers and broilers, specialty granolas, beef jerky, jam, sunflower oil, pesto, fiddlehead dilly, vinegar, coffee, spices, herbs, tea—calendula and nettle, honey, beeswax, gourmet chocolate. Even firewood.

The way it works: I opened an account on the site and deposited money (by debit card, but I could have mailed a check) into my account, from which my orders, due by Monday, are subtracted. The website keeps track of my order, and I receive a receipt listing what I selected. The farmers deliver to Middlebury on Tuesday afternoon, and my order is waiting for me to pick up at the MCFA a couple of hours later.

The most unexpected surprise for me so far has been the amazing pork chops. I am old enough to remember what pork tasted like before it was raised in factory settings. And these pork chops, from Meeting Place Pastures, taste like those from my childhood. Is it possible for us to transform agriculture back to its more wholesome days?

When I walk into the MCFA and there are colorful, healthful baskets brimming with food raised by our neighbors and friends, I feel hopeful.

• Two Middlebury people were recognized for their environmental leadership this week: Activist and author Bill McKibben accepted the inaugural Sam Rose ’58 and Julie Walters Prize for Global Environmental Activism at Dickinson College’s commencement on May 20. The $100,000 prize was established to focus attention on the need to reduce human impact on the planet.

• Hilary Platt ’12  was named one of the nation’s top rising young leaders in the clean-energy sector by the national organization Focus the Nation. Twenty students from across the country were selected for their dedication, passion, and unique contribution to increasing clean energy in America. They will meet for one week on Mt. Hood in Oregon, at the ReCharge! Retreat.

• With the presidential race heating up, Middlebury’s Professor Pundits, Matt Dickinson and Bert Johnson, posted their latest analysis of recent campaign developments, including Romney’s improving relationship with his base and Obama’s same-sex marriage pronouncement.

• With this week marking the end of the academic year, Commencement festivities and observances are underway. For a full schedule of award ceremonies and celebrations, check the Events Calendar.

• Among the week’s activities is a chance to engage in discussion with the Middlebury’s honored guests, the very interesting people who will receive honorary degrees at Commencement: educator and philanthropist Sarah Bright Alturki, Harvard musicologist Christoph Wolff, Castleton State College president David Wolk ’75, and chair of the Board of Trustees Frederick Fritz ’68 and his wife Martha Siegfried Fritz. The discussions take place Saturday, May 26, at the Axinn Center  beginning at 2:00.

• And of course, come rain, sun, or something in between, Commencement begins at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday, May 27, on the College central lawn. The procession starts at 9:50, and all guests and graduates are cautioned to be prepared for any type of weather.

Also of note:

• Thursday, May 24,  Roman Graf, Gloria Estela Gonzalez Zenteno, Karin Hanta will lead a roundtable discussion about Gender, Sex, and Language Learning. They will look at ways to create more inclusive classroom climates, recognizing the discomfort many queer and trans and gender non-conforming students feel in the classroom when facing norms of pronoun usage and lifestyles in narratives and role-plays, and other issues.

• Rock and soul band Prana plays Saturday night at 51 Main. Seven Days declared  Prana the Best New Vermont Band of 2010.  The show begins at 9:00.

Clotfelter explained that his research has focused on Big Sports—basketball and football that have a commercial component (think ESPN or Nike endorsements). He did not look at Division III or at women’s sports. The results of his work are published in his recent book Big-Time Sports in American Universities.

He asked the audience to imagine themselves at a major U.S. university, giving a visitor a tour of the campus. You would most likely tell the visitor that the university’s purpose is to engage in research and teaching. You’d show him buildings where teaching takes place and the labs where research takes place. But, as you approach the football stadium, how do you explain that huge piece of expensive infrastructure and its educational purpose?  “We are the only country in the world that does this,” he said, referring to maintaining commercial sports teams. “We are unique in that way.”

Yet for all of the hoopla, athletics are not mentioned in most university mission statements, he discovered. This “absence of attention” seems to have been a source of befuddlement to Clotfelter. “It’s almost like a parallel universe,” he said. “Are we embarrassed that it’s there?” He pointed out that it’s easier to find scholarly studies about obscure academic topics than it is to find any research about intercollegiate athletics. His work is beginning to remedy that.

He went looking for measurable indicators of sports’ significance. “The New York Times is the paper of record,” he said, “and 87 percent of articles about these schools were about sports.” Or what about fan feedback? On one survey, 33 percent of the fans reported that they “lived and died” by their team, being “happy if they win and sad if they lose.” Another measure he looked at was compensation for faculty, presidents, and football coaches. In 2009-10, professors at 44 institutions received raises of 32 percent, presidents 90 percent, and coaches 650 percent.

Sports are so significant at some schools, he said, that they can bring things to a halt. “Try setting up a meeting that would conflict with a basketball game. You can do it, but nobody will come.” He found that Big Sports are the subject of lunchtime conversations and Google searches, the reason people call in sick on Monday mornings, and parking headaches during games.

The general public might feel that athletics teach sportsmanship, bring money to the institution (“most athletic departments lose money”), build community bonds, and bring attention and contributions to the institution. But, Clotfelter pointed out, there are deep-seated contradictions. Critics say that sports exploit players and come at the expense of academics. Many of the negatives have been well publicized: more binge drinking; less time in class; the loss of free expression, such as players being required to wear the “Nike swoosh” on their uniforms and being prohibited from displaying any personal expression. “Yet,” he says, “there are unheralded spillovers”: Sports are run generally by meritocracy—you earn your success. They provide good civic lessons because everyone has to follow the same rules—the game always starts at 0 and everyone works from there. And they encourage diversity because labels must be put aside in order to work as a team.

Clotfelter concluded by saying that “Big Sports in American higher education is a mixed bag.” One fascinating statistic leaves one to ponder this mixed bag. It’s the Shanghai Jiao Tong University International Ranking, which rates the top universities in the world. U.S. institutions make up 17 of the top 20, and many of them are Big Sports schools. Is there a correlation? More research to come.

Our regular recap of goings on at the College and a look ahead to events on the horizon. As always, we hope to call your attention to items that captured ours and alert you to events that you won’t want to miss. If you have a news item that you think we’d be interested in, drop us a line at middmag@middlebury.edu.

• Public Radio called late last week and Middlebury answered. Our own Professor Pundits provided insight and commentary about 2012 presidential campaign. Speaking on  Marketplace, Bert Johnson explained how a campaign can have a financial advantage when it receives many small donations. He noted that Mitt Romney, unlike his rivals, has not been connecting with the less-heeled contributors. Matt Dickinson was interviewed on VPR during President Obama’s swing through Vermont; he also commented on the president’s visit in his blog Presidential Power.

• The new film Koch Brothers Exposed is being screened April 4 in Dana Auditorium, and it is sure to leave the audience angry and frustrated. How do you channel that frustration? Stay for the discussion that follows, led by scholar in residence Bill McKibben and Professor Bert Johnson, about big money in politics.

• The antelope in Volta Region of Ghana are disappearing, and so too is the musical heritage of the region’s people, who make their drums from the antelope skins. A lunchtime Woodin ES Colloquium on April 5 will look at this problem. Professor Steve Trombulak will be joined by associates from Kopeyia, Ghana, and from St. Michael’s College, including members of the Akoma Ensemble, to present an initiative aimed at developing a captive breeding program for antelope in West Africa.

• On a similarily serious note, Michael T. Klare, professor of peace and world security studies, based in Hampshire College, will deliver an illustrated lecture on April 5, showing how the world’s relentless demand for oil and minerals and other raw materials is wreaking devastation in Africa. This talk is in conjunction with the exhibit Object and Environment—Recent African Art, on view through April 22 at the Middlebury College Museum of Art.

• A tip of the hat to assistant professor of mathematics Emily Proctor, who has been awarded the 2012 Perkins Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Division of Natural Sciences. The Perkins Award is given annually to a member of the Middlebury College Natural Sciences division and honors outstanding performance as a teacher. Please join us on  April 5 for a reception and ceremony to honor Professor Proctor and her accomplishments, beginning at 4:30.

• It’s time for some serious music. The second annual Vermont Battle of the Bands is officially underway April 5-7. Thursday is the first night of the first round, when the bands Prana, Nox Periculum, and Mogani go head to head. The contest begins with the first band at 51 Main and progresses to Two Brothers Tavern and American Flatbread, where the other two bands will perform. The winner of each night, determined through a combination of judging and audience voting, advances to the final round on April 14 at Town Hall Theater.

• Observances: Passover Seder is being held Friday, April 6, beginning at 6:00 in Atwater Dining Hall. Contact the Chaplain’s Office to reserve a place at the dinner.  And on Sunday morning, Chaplain Laurie Jordan will lead an  Easter sunrise service  at Kirk Alumni Center. All are welcome.

Our regular recap of goings on at the College and a look ahead to events on the horizon. As always, we hope to call your attention to items that captured ours and alert you to events that you won’t want to miss. If you have a news item that you think we’d be interested in, drop us a line at middmag@middlebury.edu.

• On February 13, Stephen Colbert put Bill McKibben through the comedic gauntlet during an interview on the Colbert Report. Undaunted, the scholar in residence and environmental activist was able to get in a few well-timed words—enough to explain the wide-scale alarm about the tar sands pipeline and to encourage people to sign 350.org’s petition to the Senate.

• Andrew Forsthoefel ’11 left his Pennsylvania home in October with a backpack and a compass, with plans to walk across the continent and to listen and learn along the way. The independent newsweekly 7 Days caught up with him in Mississippi to ask some questions about his trekking experiences.

• PBS released a video story about Jessica Beinecke, a Chinese School alum, who uses her fluent Mandarin and knowledge of social media to teach American slang to slews of devoted followers on the other side of the globe. Her online video program OMG! Meiyu has given her celebrity status among young people in China and is inspiring many language teachers.

• Balla Kouyaté, considered to be one of the greatest players of the balafon, a West African instrument and predecessor to the xylophone, will be performing on campus with his ensemble, World Vision, February 17, at 8 p.m. Balla is a griot of the Kouyaté clan, and the music he plays has been passed from generation to generation for centuries. He has been featured on at least 45 albums, including Yo-Yo Ma’s Grammy-winning Sounds of Joy and Peace.
  

• If you’d like the inside scoop, curators of Environment and Object, an exhibition currently underway at the Museum of Art, will give an illustrated lecture February 16, offering insight about  the installation’s artists and art. Environment and Object, voted one of the top five exhibits in 2011 by the Albany Times Union, looks at how natural, urban, and economic environments are shaping contemporary African art.

• The women’s swim team heads to the NESCAC finals this weekend at Wesleyan University. The three-day meet begins February 17 at the Wesleyan Natatorium. Live results from the morning preliminary races and evening finals will be available on the Internet. Wesleyan will also offer a video webcast of the evening finals.

• And at home, the men’s basketball team will go up against Williams in a NESCAC quarterfinal contest on Saturday, February 18, at 3:00 p.m. Tickets are currently on sale and are expected to go fast. For those without tickets, the game can be watched live on the Internet.

MLK Day keynote speaker Dr. Maisha T. Winn speaking at a brown-bag luncheon

How can the world Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed of—with justice, equality, and opportunity for all—be realized when so many American youth are sent to prison or remain uneducated? Dr. Maisha T. Winn, associate professor in language, literacy, and culture at Emory University, discussed these questions during her keynote address for Middlebury’s Martin Luther King celebration.  Speaking to a packed audience in Bicentennial Hall, her talk, “Literacy, Social Justice, and Dr. King’s Legacy,” served up some harsh facts.

In a kind, open, and warm way—which would disarm even the most entrenched skeptic—Winn discussed the realities of life in the U.S. for millions of African Americans and Latinos. Quoting civil rights advocate Michelle Alexander, she said that “the United States incarcerates a larger percentage of blacks than South Africa did during the height of apartheid.” Referring to Dr. King’s final manuscript Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? Winn described present-day problems that are very similar to problems Dr. King wrote about. “The text is a scathing indictment of the shortcomings of the United States and its citizens who, Dr. King argues, are uneasy with injustice but unwilling to pay a significant price to eradicate it.”

Maisha Winn’s talk at Middlebury:

According to Winn, our education system is the source of the injustice for many young people. “It emphasizes discipline and control and minimizes creative possibilities.” With zero-tolerance policies, many schools have resorted to having police in the buildings. She described the common practice of sending children “straight to jail” instead of to the principal’s office, and she noted that the civil rights community is “oddly silent” about it. Situations that used to involve a meeting, or a call home, or detention after school are now referred to the police, creating what is referred to as the “school to prison pipeline.” Juveniles with records will have to “work harder to prove themselves in a system that seldom grants second chances,”  she stated.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the heavy emphasis on “high-stakes standardized tests” has contributed to the detention of children, she explained, because sending some students away gets “kids off the roster who pull test scores down.”  Yet it is those very kids who need the educational system to work for them most of all. Without literacy, Winn said, these individuals face “civic death”—with diminished access to jobs, voting rights, and health care.

What kept Winn’s talk from being overwhelmingly depressing were the experiences she recounted as a public school teacher herself and when she worked with incarcerated girls in playwriting and performance workshops. She had numerous heartening and encouraging examples of success, and she turned well-worn stereotypes on their heads: for example, the mistaken notion that juvenile offenders have no interest in learning. In the right environment, the girls were able to develop “deep reserves of resources.” They learned to “think and act for themselves, ” she said. The environment, as Winn described it, was respectful, not punitive, not blaming. The adults treated the girls more as equals, and everyone was trying to figure out “where do we go from here.”

One activity used to foster the girls’ creative thinking involved brainstorming about a fictional problem. Groups were instructed to pretend they were trapped on a deserted island and the only tool they had was a coffee can. They had to think of all the possible uses for the coffee can. Among the ideas: use it for fishing, storing beets, drumming, sending letters out to sea, and catching butterflies. Winn found it heartening that a student could imagine the beauty of butterflies in such difficult circumstances. “This type of programming allows girls to re-enter their schools, the workplace, and their community with a sense of integrity and possibility,” she said.

When Winn took questions from the audience, the interest was high and the questions plentiful. A student asked how to foster parental involvement? Winn had lots of ideas, and described how she had called all the parents of 150 students during the first few days of school to say something nice about their children. She wanted the first call from the teacher to be about something good. An administrator asked how higher ed can help K-12 schools? Let the schools decide what sort of help they need.  Someone asked if Winn has any influence with the Department of Education? She has been involved in some activities that include people working with the administration.

At the heart of Dr. King’s dream is a community pulling together to create possibility for all of its members, and a Middlebury community engaged in discussing Winn’s ideas seemed like a good beginning.

Our regular recap of goings on at the College and a look ahead to events on the horizon.  As always, we hope to call your attention to items that captured ours and alert you to events that you won’t want to miss. If you have a news item that you think we’d be interested in, drop us a line at middmag@middlebury.edu.

• Middlebury presented the 40th anniversary service of Lessons and Carols for Advent and Christmas on December 11 in Mead Memorial Chapel. The annual program included Bible readings of Advent and Christmas and carols for choir, organ, and congregation, and was enjoyed by people from all over the county. The service is based on the Advent Service of Nine Lessons and Carols that has been celebrated every year at King’s College, Cambridge, England, since 1918.

• Abigail Borah ’13 tried to tell truth to power at the U.N. climate talks in Durban, South Africa, this week, which she was attending as a delegate of SustainUS. Her pleas for faster action resulted in being removed from the proceedings.

• Since Jim Douglas ’72 stepped down as Vermont governor, it has just been a matter of time before another Middlebury alum would pursue the gubernatorial track. Republican state senator Randy Brock ’65 announced his plans to run for governor this week.

• Telling Point, a Cleveland-based duo performing at 51 Main on December 16 at 10 p.m. describes their music as “Tribal Rock.” Nuff said. Drop by for a rousing experience.

• For skiiers: The Snow Bowl will open for the ’11-’12 season on Friday, December 16, at 9:00 a.m. The Sheehan Chair will operate on just the Lang trail, and the snack bar will serve a limited menu of breakfast and lunch staples to begin the season. On Saturday, December 17, the Carroll and Jane Rikert Nordic Center will open. While the trails are not yet open due to low snow conditions, the shop will provide a full range of services, including season pass sales, ski tuning and preparation, and gift certificates for the holidays and beyond.

• Have this season’s darkening days got you down? Theatre Group Ltd.’s festive and free-flowing winter solstice celebration, Night Fires, will lift your spirits. This year’s musical performance is inspired by an old tale from subarctic lands: The White Bear King Valemon. Shows will be at the Middlebury Town Hall Theater on December 15-17.

• Anyone yearning to break loose and sing, sing, sing can do so at the annual Messiah Community Sing at the Middlebury Congregational Church at 2:00 p.m. on December 18. The event is sponsored by the College Community Chorus and led by its conductor, Jeff Rehbach. Music scores for singers (and orchestra parts) will be provided.

• Another installment of Professor Pundits has launched, wherein Middlebury political scientists Matt Dickinson and Bert Johnson discuss the political events that many political junkies are wondering about. The question they debate this time is whether momentum actually makes a difference in the Republican primary process.

Professor Barbara Hofer talked about "iconnected parents" during Homecoming Weekend

Just a few years ago, psychology professor Barbara Hofer noticed something different among her first-year students. On any given day, as soon as class was over, they would flip open their cell phones and make a call. She noticed that even the seniors on campus were startled by how readily first-years used their phones.

Curious about this new behavior, she conducted some research and soon discovered that a “sweeping cultural change” was taking place. Not only were students heavily connected to each other by cell, they were also heavily connected to their parents. The amount of contact between young people and their parents had increased exponentially. “It happened over night,” she said, and it seemed to be pervasive. She was alarmed about some of the ramifications.

Hofer’s findings launched more research, in collaboration with undergraduates; a coauthored book on the subject; and many appearances around the country. During Homecoming Weekend, she described her work to an enthralled group of alumni, many who remembered how they used to call home—from dorm pay phones.

Hofer’s findings show that there is an “electronic tether” connecting young people with their parents in a profoundly new way. Whereas a generation ago, students thought of themselves as adult and independent and they called home perhaps once a week, today’s students and parents communicate approximately 13 times weekly, each initiating about half the calls.

“Parents report that they are a lot closer to their kids than they were to their parents,” Hofer said. She pointed out that the amount and the content of the communication is very important in helping students gain autonomy. “The challenge is to remain connected in a healthy way.”

What concerns Hofer is that the electronic tether tends to create a dependency that prevents students from learning to regulate their own behavior or to handle their own disappointments and challenges. Instead of figuring out how to deal with a problem, they can be in touch with a caring parent almost instantly. This level of contact also prevents some parents from developing the skills and responses that would bolster independence.

Hofer described cases in which parents regulate their children’s activities from afar, keeping their course syllabi and reminding them of papers and tests, for example, or editing their papers. She described one student’s answer to this question: “When will you know you are an adult?” The answer: “When my mom stops calling me three times a day.”

But Hofer was quick to point out that this does not mean that parents should simply “let go,” as is sometimes suggested. What parents need, she believes, is to find healthy ways to back off a bit while staying connected, a thoughtful balance that encourages students to use their own internal resources and the resources of the institution.

Or, perhaps, it will suffice to simply turn the phone off.

Claudia Fritsche, Ambassador of the Principality of Liechtenstein

The tiny Principality of Liechtenstein may seldom be on people’s minds, here in the U.S.—a fact driven as much by its size (62 square miles) as its location (tucked away in the Alps between Austria and Switzerland). Yet, when Liechtenstein’s ambassador, Claudia Fritsche, spoke at an International Studies Colloquium at the Rohatyn Center last week, she presented a vivid reminder that the best gifts sometimes come in small packages.

Addressing a well-attended gathering about Liechtenstein’s relationship to Europe and the U.S, Fritsche described a country filled with energy and drive. With a population of 36,000, Liechtenstein has the second lowest unemployment rate in the world. This small powerhouse generates so many jobs that half the workforce comes from neighboring countries.

“We’re a nation of entrepreneurs,” Fritsche said. Successfully transitioning from a poor agrarian society, the country now gets its largest share of GDP from manufacturing, with financial services following closely behind. Many Liechtenstein companies are internationally known for their high-quality products; yet, according to Fritsche, most people aren’t aware that Liechtenstein has a presence in their lives.

If you drive a Ford, the steering components were most likely made in the U.S. by a Liechtenstein company. Hilti, a global Liechtenstein manufacturer, makes the precision tools widely used in North America in construction and demolition. And anyone who goes to the dentist has probably had dental products used on their teeth that were made by a Liechtenstein corporation. The list goes on, even to include beautiful cut crystal used in jewelry.

But Liechtenstein’s strength doesn’t stop at its economy. Fritsche described how the Principality has been vigorously supporting international humanitarian cooperation to fight against torture and for the rights of women and children through its work in the UN and elsewhere. Women are an “untapped resource” she explained, with a lot to offer in peace making and conflict resolution. “The fact that the Nobel Peace Prize went to three women this year,” she said, “shows that people are beginning to understand that.”

But the Principality’s small size does come with disadvantages in the rough-and-tumble world of diplomacy, according to Fritsche. “You are looking at 30 percent of the embassy,” she joked. “I’m the only diplomat.”

Although she’d served in New York for years as the UN representative of Liechtenstein, the level of networking necessary in Washington surprised her. (It’s not done in her country.) “In my humble opinion, Washington, D.C., is the most competitive diplomatic environment you will ever find,” she said.  “We all want access. We’ve been sent there to represent our country’s interests; it’s the only reason we are there.”

She explained how she learned to cope—for example, by hiring an American on her staff who understands the D.C. culture. “When you are under the radar screen, you can’t get appointments,” she said. “You have to make sure you know people who have access. You have to be out and about all the time. . . . But first and foremost, you really, really have to love your country.”

Our regular recap of goings on at the College and a look ahead to events on the horizon.

 As always, we hope to call your attention to items that captured ours and alert you to events that you won’t want to miss. If you have a news item that you think we’d be interested in, drop us a line at middmag@middlebury.edu.

• As anyone who tried to drive through Middlebury last weekend will testify, scores of families were here enjoying Fall Family Weekend. Parents, grandparents, and siblings had an invigorating selection of events to choose from, and our roving reporters were on the scene. Check out what parents told them and what marathon took place at the library.

• Mead Chapel was packed Saturday night with students, visiting parents, and community members who came to hear U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins read his work. The evening reaffirmed why he is considered the most popular poet in America.

• Middlebury announced that it has joined with 32 other institutions to launch the Billion Dollar Green Challenge. The goal is for the member institutions to invest a cumulative total of $1 billion in self-managed, revolving funds that will finance energy-efficiency upgrades on their campuses.

• Self-Reliance, the College’s Solar Decathlon entry, is back home from its trip to Washington D.C. and is being readied for permanent occupancy on campus. PBS will feature the house on the Nightly Business Report on October 20.

• For those interested in storytelling: “Thinking about Difficult Stories ” is the name of a workshop that Gary Margolis, English professor and emeritus executive director of College Mental Health Services, will conduct at the Ilsely Library, October 25, at 7 p.m. Margolis will  focus on how to tell stories about personal and difficult issues.

• An exhibition of work by Cameron Visiting Architect Koichiro Aitani will be on display at the Johnson Memorial Building from October 20 to November 3.

• Two film majors and one faculty member have been accepted into the Vermont International Film Fest, showing in Burlington-area theaters October 21 to 30: Brad Becker-Parton ’12 How The Cold Creeps; Andrew Ackerman ’13 The Gun Show; Daniel Houghton (faculty) 3rd of Life.

• Who really owns our fish and wildlife? Patrick Berry ’91, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife, will discuss “Wildlife as a Public Trust Resource”  at the Woodin Environmental Studies Colloquium, 12:30, October 20, at Franklin Evnironmental Center.

• A local Bollywood dance troupe, the Hadippa Dancers, will open the show at Town Hall Theater, October 21, at 7 p.m., before the screening of Mohabbatein, one of the most successful Bollywood films of all time.

Visit the Middstart website at go/middstart.

It’s a well-known fact: Middlebury students come up with loads of inventive ideas. And if those ideas could gain traction, imagine how the world might change. But finding funding for student projects has been difficult.

“Students were coming in with ideas for projects, innovations, and companies they wanted to start, and we needed to find the resources to help them get their ideas off the ground,” says Liz Robinson, director of the Project on Creativity and Innovation in the Liberal Arts.

To that end, Middlebury has launched MiddSTART—a unique fund-raising tool that links students with the individuals who sign on as benefactors of their projects. “It’s the first of its kind in higher ed,” says Maggie Paine, director of advancement communications, who helped conceive the concept loosely inspired by fund-raising sites Kiva and Kickstarter.

Although it was launched just this spring, MiddSTART is proving to be very successful. Its driving force is its ability to link so many different people around a common goal.

Ansally Kuria ’12 was one of the first students to bring her project to fruition through MiddSTART. She had been trying for months to fund Let Children Be Children, aimed at mitigating the effects of sexual violence against women and children in Nairobi. Among other things, she wanted to paint, decorate, and buy play-therapy materials for children’s counseling rooms in the Gender Violence Recovery Center at Nairobi Women’s and Children’s Hospital. She had applied for a number of grants, with little success.

In May, Kuria’s project—with the fund-raising goal, deadline, and background information—was posted on the MiddSTART website. In just 12 days, it was fully funded.  By the time Kuria left campus for the summer, her project had 76 donors, giving 127 percent of the $2,000 requested. Many of them had posted messages on the site, and she had responded.

Kuria used MiddSTART as the “powerful networking tool it was designed to be,” says Molly Sullivan, assistant director of annual giving, who advises students on how to use media and social networking on MiddSTART. She linked her project to Facebook, e-mailed everyone she could think of, and networked actively. A number of those who contributed to her project turned out to be “friends of friends,” who had been forwarded her MiddSTART link.

Another early, successful MiddSTART venture is the Team Kohn Scholarship, established by Bobo Sideli ’77 along with lacrosse alumni, in honor of Pete Kohn. Its success was “all due to networking,” says Paine. Ten thousand dollars—the minimum amount needed for a MiddSTART scholarship—was raised and exceeded by almost 66 percent before the deadline, with 101 donors. “People just wanted to honor Pete Kohn, and they contacted one another,” says Paine.

Happily, a number of the donors to MiddSTART are also new donors to Middlebury. That’s because, according to Paine and Sullivan, this new form of fund-raising, known as microphilanthropy, connects people directly to their passions and allows small donors to see that their gift matters. They can follow the project’s progress online and see the names of the other donors on a list that displays the names in colorful blocks, like a digital patio of engraved bricks.

As experience with MiddSTART progresses, the power unleashed through collective action and combined resources will become ever more apparent. Now that she has ample funding, Kuria hopes she has enough money to paint the children’s wards, also. “With students from high schools doing the painting,” she says, “we might just be able to.”

It’s nearly 7:30 in the evening on the very last day of the semester. Although the sun is hidden behind curtains of clouds, the air is as warm and moist as rising dough. I am crossing campus.

Only a scattering of cars remains in the parking lots. Old Chapel Road and Storrs Avenue are vacant—except for one police cruiser parked by the library, officer inside, watching. Muffled traffic is the only sound I hear.

The tents set up for Commencement are still on the lawn behind McCullough; they look ghostly and hollow. Up the hill, a red squirrel scampers beneath a row of hunkering Adirondack chairs. And around the corner, a public safety officer removes lawn signs posted for Commencement.

The chains that normally block the lanes leading to Middlebury’s interior have been removed so that vehicles may enter to load up, but these lanes are almost deserted. A last car coming from the Chateau slowly edges toward the street.

As I walk past dorms, the Drop Off zones scattered about look like mushroom blooms. Students have piled bags of trash and various unwanted items at these spots. A quick scan reveals rolled-up carpets, a metal single-bed frame circa 1960s, a white and blue- checkered tablecloth, and an apple press.

In front of Franklin Environmental Center, a young man wearing a stark-white dress shirt hovers near a Drop Off sign. He flips his cell phone open and then stands motionless, looking toward the horizon.

A mist is moving in; the light is fading. Two tall, skinny youths scurry down the path from Atwater balancing a mini-fridge between them. They stop at the street, open the hatchback of their beetle-blue Subaru, toss the fridge inside, and head back toward Atwater.

At the recycling center, a perky, bounding German shepherd leads several people, who are laughing and talking excitedly, through the vacant parking lot and up to Ridgeline.

Just up the road, the streetlights flicker on as a female figure steps out of a campus house, onto the dim porch. She checks to be sure the door is locked, shoulders a backpack, and heads toward town. She recedes into the darkening night.

One letter, from “nervous n scared,” begins, “hey:) so i have a problem,” and then describes the problem in graphic detail, leaving nothing to the imagination. It ends with “like wat do u think it is..? n how can i fix it…plz i need ur advice.”

Weston dashes off an answer to the anxious teen, writing in the vernacular, right down to the punctuation and emoticons:
“you say you had ‘safe sex’—to me this means you used a condom, but you didn’t mention a condom. . . .

“pls don’t just assume that it’s safe unless you use a condom. . . .

“it’s possible that you have a bladder infection and i would recommend that you . . .”

Weston offers several tips and advises the teen to go to the doctor if she doesn’t feel better soon. She ends with a message she delivers regularly: “take care of YOURSELF.”

For more than 25 years, Carol Weston has dispensed advice to girls: in “Dear Carol,” her Girls’ Life magazine column, in books, at school visits, and even on YouTube. She sometimes receives letters from grown women thanking her for being there when they were young.

To talk to her, you’d never realize that Weston is considered the doyenne of girls’ advice. She seems endlessly young. Her voice is warm and effervescent. Her conversation bubbles with thoughts that move about rapidly, like water on a quick boil. But when her career comes up, the conversation slows down as she reflects. She seems genuinely surprised at how her life’s path laid itself down. “I wanted to write the great American novel,” she says.

Instead, she’s developed a body of work predicated on helping girls navigate their world. Her first book, Girltalk: All the Stuff Your Sister Never Told You, has been in print since 1985 and is in its fourth edition. Even her much-adored novels, the Melanie Martin series for young readers, provide valuable lessons as experienced by the title character.

Weston’s affair with the advice format began when she was 11. Her next-door neighbor and best friend shared with her a subscription to a teen magazine that featured a regular advice column, and Weston was hooked. “I’ve always been a sensible person,” she says. “I had common sense before I knew how uncommon that was.”

At 19, she snagged her first writing assignment with Seventeen magazine, which segued into writing quizzes and little essays like “Foreign Fling” and “Is There Life after Nineteen?” for various publications, including Cosmopolitan. Just a few years later, she landed her first contract to write a book for young women and girls, and later became the advice columnist for Girls’ Life.

Yet originally, Weston intended to focus on the more literary side of writing. She graduated from Yale with a degree in French/Spanish comparative literature. She immediately enrolled in Middlebury’s Spanish School and spent a year in Spain, where she met her husband, playwright Rob Ackerman ’80, on his junior year abroad, and their 30-year partnership—two writers, editing and supporting each other—began. “We were so young,” she marvels. Realizing that her daughters are about the same age now, she adds laughing, “Don’t try this at home, folks.”

When she received her first contract to write Girltalk, she was thrilled to have “a chance to tell younger girls everything I could think of.” Never having had a younger sister herself, she approached the project as if she were writing for her husband’s sister.

“She was 13 when I met her, and I imagined her heading off to boarding school. I had to be sure to tell her everything—from healthy eating to having fun but not being fast. I truly poured my heart into it.”

The book’s table of contents offers an entertaining peek at the straightforward yet humorous approach Weston uses to make serious subjects palatable. For example, in the first section called “Looking and Feeling Your Best,” chapters include “Is Your Period a Question Mark?” “Don’t Window Shop at the Bakery and Forty-nine Other Dos and Don’ts,” “Eating Disorders: Dying to Be Thin,” and “Ignore Your Teeth and They’ll Go Away.”

According to Weston, Girltalk was a first of its kind. The booksellers didn’t know where to shelve it. There weren’t self-help sections. Sometimes they put the book in the women’s section, sometimes on the counters. The fact that it has been translated into Chinese, Russian, Polish, Mandarin, Czech, Vietnamese, and other languages seems to validate what Weston believes, that “girls are girls the world over; the heart of a girl is the heart of a girl.”

A huge part of her career involves answering teen mail. She does not have assistants or receive remuneration. She simply believes it’s important. “The first letter I ever received was from a girl who had been raped by her father, and she had two little sisters, and she was pregnant. I swear this was the first letter I got. My eyes are teary as I talk about it now. I wanted to be a writer—I didn’t know I was veering into social work.”

Beyond helping scores of girls, Weston was able to use their mail to connect with her own daughters, Emme (a student at Middlebury, Class of 2013), and Lizzi, now a Yale graduate. Weston made a point of asking them to read and comment on her column and book drafts, which allowed them to acquire important information without being preached to.

“Friends would ask me if I went to ‘Dear Carol’ when I had a problem,” says Emme, “but I didn’t need to. I already knew what was up because I’d been doing Mom a ‘favor’ and reading her books and columns.”

Emme also remembers looking through her mother’s mail and offering her teen perspective, helping her get “her voice right . . . She’d have bags of mail, and we’d help. We’d make suggestions about language, like, ‘Mom nobody says hunk; that’s ’80s. Say hottie.’ Or, ‘Mom, don’t use the word soapbox; that sounds old.’”

The morning is winding down and Weston is about ready to head out for a walk with a friend, but there are two teen letters still to deal with. The first is from a girl who is distraught that her best friend has found a new best friend. Weston understands her anguish. “If you are having trouble with your best friend or your mom or your dad or your boyfriend, this is huge. Everything else gets dwarfed by these concerns.”

She pauses, thinking about her mail. “I’ve written back to a bazillion girls. If I counted I’d probably stop.”

The second letter provides the reason that she does not stop: “Hey Carol, your book gave me the power to change! thanks a lot, with lots of love, Debora from Indonesia.”

J-term in Middlebury brings a welcome chance to slow down and catch your breath. It is also an invigorating time that can send you on a mission to test yourself or to try something new. January is, in fact, a molten flow of hot and cold, of sleep and action.

On Wednesday afternoon last week, the Orchard room in Franklin Environmental Center was packed with an audience that wanted to be challenged: to have hands-on practice with techniques that break down racial and social barriers and that can advance the cause of environmental health for all. Dr. Antwi Akom, a leading expert in climate justice and educational equity, was on campus to deliver the Martin Luther King keynote address. This afternoon, he was sharing some of the tools he uses in his work.

He called it his toolkit.

Part of the toolkit involved pairing up. “Pick someone you do not know…and face each other,” he instructed. Person A was to answer a question. Person B was to listen, without comment. Then reverse roles, when signaled. This process was repeated again and again. The room heated up quickly as people warmed to the questions and to the person they were talking to.

A dark-skinned young man, from the Bronx, with wild, wooly hair, teamed up with a middle-aged woman from town. They looked at each other hesitantly. Similar pairings were underway throughout the room.

The questions ranged from the expected to the unexpectedly personal. The first asked participants to discuss an environmental issue affecting their community and how race impacts it. The room hummed as people sorted through the question aloud. And the room fell suddenly silent with the second question—describe a time you’ve been betrayed and how it felt. With only a heartbeat in which to gather their thoughts or consider their reservations, strangers told each other something intimate.

A question about negative stereotypes lead the woman to tell the young man that she feared being seen as “old” and therefore discounted. He confessed that his appearance seems to frighten many Vermonters. She nodded, aware that her preconceived notions about her partner were being swept away. Whatever gaps separated them were narrowing.

As the workshop ended and people ventured into the frozen afternoon, one person commented, “I’m so glad I came. I almost took a nap instead.”

Every day this week, the editorial staff of Middlebury Magazine will fan across campus to record the goings-on as August gives way to September and a briefly quiet campus welcomes the arrival of students.

It’s 7:30 a.m. on the Middlebury campus. The only thing moving so far this morning seems to be a lawnmower in the distance. Yet as I stroll about campus, there is a feeling of expectancy everywhere. Although the air is cool, the sun is already warming the sidewalks. Long, early shadows stretch across swaths of grass, across the vacant tennis courts, arcing over the patio in front of McCullough, which workers are cleaning with bristle brooms. Even as I watch, the shadows begin to recede and many sights come into view.

A mass of deflated balloons has been left on the curb near Franklin Environmental Center to be picked up, along with trash bags. A brown cotton jersey dangles from the sign in front of Carr Hall, where it waits for its owner.

Outside Old Chapel, a man carrying a manila folder walks back and forth in front of the doorway, again and again, as if he’s got something serious on his mind. Finally, with a determined gesture, he enters.

A car pulls into a shaded parking space, and two weary parents uncurl from the seats. They have the beleaguered look that comes from driving a long distance with a time constraint. Snagging a passerby, they ask if they can park on the sidewalk to unload. The passerby doesn’t know, but says it’ll probably be OK.

Over at Proctor Dining, bacon, eggs, and pancakes warm in trays, but there are no diners yet. And in the bookstore, rows upon rows of textbooks line shelves, labeled and organized by subject and class.

The library is open but deserted; only the air conditioning makes a sound. Upstairs, the blue comfy chairs sit in a perfect line, looking towards Proctor Hall, where workers are setting up ladders.

Outside in a meditative place, the water sculpture in the Garden of the Seasons trickles serene streams around azure morning glory. And in town, bright blue balloons beckon students into the bank. We are all waiting.

Middlebury has a high waste diversion rate — 60% of waste is either recycled, reused or composted. As MiddMag’s Regan Eberhart discovered, this is not work for the faint of heart.