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.