Posted by: Ryan | May 12, 2009

Budget Cut Analysis

Early this morning (2:10AM to be exact), President of the College Ron Liebowitz released the lastest in the budget cuts, accepting almost all of the recommendations of the Budget Oversight Committee (BOC). Below is a quick first-brush analysis of selected recommendations:

  1. Athletics: The big one for Athletics is letting the Crew team drop back down to a level 2 Club sport. Crew made level one several years ago meaning that many costs were paid for by the Athletics department. Now, that burden has been shifted back to the SGA Finance Committee and your own Student Activity Fee (SAF) dollars. Non-essential travel has also been eliminated for all teams, meaning it might be tougher to get to that spring break training trip or that extra scrimmage.
  2. Arts: The deepest cuts and consolidations this round were made to collective arts. The college museum will take a 10% budget cut, straight out. Well, at least the school didn’t sell off all its art. The biggest direct effect on students is the increase in price for music lessons from the applied music faculty. We’ll see if the Music Dept will continue subsidizing majors and other students who perform in the College Choir or Orchestra. But don’t expect students (who don’t otherwise charge it to their parents) to pick up the slack. Consolidating the box office and tech staff makes sense too.
  3. New England Review (NER): Not many students know what the NER actually is, but it will be going away entirely unless it can eliminate its current operating deficit by 2011. It’s a point of prestige for Middlebury to have its own journal but it’s for professors, not students.
  4. SGA: Assuming something came out of the SGA Crisis Contest, the three SGA recommendations ar: 1) reduce lawn care costs by cutting less, planting more natural grass, 2) develop a kitchenware loan program for residences with kitchens around campus, and 3) develop and then implement a flexible dining system. I am wary that the administration will take a SGA “recommendation” to have “flexible” dining as a blank check to implement a non-open dining system. I’ll be more clear: do not get rid of open dining. Even a “eat-as-much-as-you-want” meal plan misses the point. No checks at the door builds the system of trust at this school. And any tiered dining system requires money, time, staff etc. to check for cheaters of the system. Financially, checks may be less than the costs of freeloaders (”riding the panther”) but you must account for the social and community benefits of open dining. The kitchenware loan program is a genuinely good idea but again, requires a check to prevent students from taking dishware out of the dining hall at will, as it happens now.
  5. President’s House: If you’ve ever been invited to a reception or meal at the President’s house, you know it’s a nice place. But the BOC recommends a 50% cut in couse costs from catering to maintenance. Expect Ron to be doing more of his student gatherings in the new “flexible-mealplan” dining halls.

MiddBlog wants to know: What will affect you? Are these appropriate cuts?

Posted by: Ryan | May 12, 2009

Acappella Roundup

I am always thankful when people submit stuff to MiddBlog (tips at midd-blog dot com). So first, the premier of Middlebury’s newest acappella group, Technopella. I think they are the half pirate, half social house acappella group. This version of Daft Punk’s “One More Time” is coordinated and surprisingly cogent.

And if that doesn’t suit your tastes, we have Stuck in the Middle debuting their latest, “Sweetest Girl” by Wyclef:

The Dissipated Eight go with “Africa”:

The Middlebury Mischords try out “Kung Fu Fighting”:

You can’t really go wrong with the Mamajamas singing “Demons”:

(videos courtesy Lany)

Posted by: Ryan | May 11, 2009

Share Your Midd Story

Last week, I heard about how students were trying to figure out what White Whale was from the dining hall table tents. Best guess: a children’s theater company. But really, these web-designing outsiders had one specific thing to say after spending three days on campus observing classes, dropping in on dining halls, and meeting students:

Middlebury does a ton of cool stuff, but no one knows about it.

It’s not like we’re trying to be modest. We just don’t have the time or energy to self-promote ourselves. And why would we? We take a few all-star kids and put them on the frontpage of the website and they “represent” Middkids throughout the land. Newsflash: No offense to the all-stars, but that sure as heck does not represent Middlebury.

And so, it’s time to rethink the Middlebury “story” as an incredibly diverse range of people, backgrounds, projects, research, and activities. I mean really authentic student stories about how your suitemate runs Roosevelt Institution New England, how your friend is going to Chile this summer and another who spent last summer in Senegal, an entrepreneurial student Japanese food business, an acappella jam, or an awesome Midd DJ. Imagine discovering these stories on the Middlebury homepage instead of something crafted by some administrative office on campus.

Get the idea? Share your, your friend’s, your classmates’s Middlebury story : http://blogs.middlebury.edu/webredo/stories or go/webstories (on campus).

It will take only a few minutes to share what you already know, and it will help make our site much more reflective of who we are and what we do. White Whale has challenged us to gather 400 compelling Middlebury stories by the beginning of June – we can easily top that threshhold if only 20% of Middkids shared a single story.

Posted by: Emily | May 10, 2009

Sunday Reading: Blackout Edition

You know that Middlebury has become too stressful when Mother Nature intervenes and forces all of us to take a mandatory study break. No lights, no computers, no music, no internet, no homework. For 6 hours. Enjoy. Sure, I was sad that I wasn’t going to finally put on a dress and heels and go to Spring Formal. But then two seconds later I got over it, found some candles flashlights and some friends and had probably one of the most enjoyable Saturday nigths on campus. As did just about everyone else. In the spirit of last night, here are a few enjoyable links to get you through this low-key, Sunday night.

Website of the Week: The Sartorialist. Most of my friends and my mother have probably been waiting for me to put this website on website of the week because I check it more frequently than I check the stock market or dining hall menus. Basically, the Sartorialist is a chronicle of street fashion at its most stylish. All photos are taken by former GQ photographer Scott Schuman and make yesterday’s facebook uploads look like child’s play.

Website of the Summer: MiddBlog. Yours truly and the rest of the fabulous editors of Middblog and @middblog will be around all summer. Just FYI.

PS: Call your Mom.

Posted by: Ryan | May 9, 2009

Is your power out?

Huge storm hits the campus. Leave your comments here:

Posted by: Ryan | May 7, 2009

The Campus 5/7

campus2In an effort to deepen MiddBlog’s coverage of campus issues, this is a recurring column that comments on selected Campus newspaper articles, published most Thursdays of the school year. This allows a place for the Middlebury community to comment, expand, and discuss important issues in a dynamic way.

This Week in (the last issue of) The Campus:

  • College puts pandemic plan on hold: As much as I love the description of the “Meeker Conference Room” emergency operations center (I imagine it’s like CTU on an episode of 24), this as a above-the-fold front page story is a little overblown. The new redish “wash your hands, cover your cough” signs around campus (one in every dorm bathroom) tell the whole story here.
  • Cuts to save College $20 million: In short, language school tuition goes up. Breadloaf fees up. The school will balance the 2010 budget but need to make even more cuts to get to 2011. You have to wait for the real hard hitting recommendations coming out within the week from the Budget Oversight Committee (BOC). It’ll be interesting to gauge reaction from students as they hit finals and leave campus for the summer.
  • Twitter takes College, classes by surprise: I am surprised that MiddBlog’s list of Middlebury twitterers (or tweeps) didn’t make the article (list yourself). But I digress. Overall, this article is a good introduction of Twitter at Midd.
  • Editorial: Man, we love College: I agree silence on the social life issue means that it has improved, but I would hesitate to attribute that to the superblock system. Students, responding to incentives, are applying to live in superblocks not based on any special interest but rather based on scoring good housing and a few extra dollars to throw parties that have nothing to do with the interest of the house. Adding another superblock worsens this problem. Yes, it’s true that Brooker, of the two superblocks this year, has done some good programming but overall, this system is furthering seperating out the types of Middkids: environmental, hipster, etc. Social houses have improved this year but I think it’s really the diversification of options with the final rollout of The Bunker and 51 Main that have made the difference. We now have the venues. Where does social life go from here?
Posted by: Ryan | May 7, 2009

Wesleyan Shooting

To be honest, it’s hard to imagine a real emergency at Middlebury on the level of what Wesleyan went through today. On the day of Spring Fling, a gunman shot and killed a student (Johanna Justin-Jinich ‘10) on the Wesleyan campus. And, they still have not found the shooter.

Our hearts go out to our NESCAC sister school in a time of loss.

It was recently announced that Oakland University in Michigan would eliminate the traditional commencement handshake over growing concerns of swine flu. The state of Michigan has had 8 confirmed cases of the disease.

What of colleges and universities in Vermont where there have been 0 cases of swine flu?

According to an article in the Burlington Free Press, administrators in the 802 are keeping an eye on the spread of swine flu and will maintain or change their commencement plans accordingly. The Class of 2009 at Middlebury–which the BFP calls the “most handshake-happy institution around”–can rest assured they will shake hands with President Ron Liebowitz . . . and their department chair . . . and the Middlebury College Alumni Association President.

But if the swine flu makes an appearance in Vermont in time for commencement celebrations, what will President Liebowitz . . . and the department chairs . . . and the Middlebury College Alumni Association President do? I propose the time-honored tradition of the fist bump, made popular and trendy by President Barack Obama and his wife First Lady Michelle Obama. A prime alternative to the handshake, the fist bump promotes minimal hand-to-hand contact and ensures participants will not touch those areas of the hand which typically harbor germs. The fist bump is the modern individual’s way of saying, “Job well done!”

MiddBlog wants to know: Do you have a new way to shake?

Posted by: Ryan | May 6, 2009

Welcome New Readers!

Welcome new readers of MiddBlog!

An all-student email re: breakfast option in Atwater next year has persuaded many new student visitors to come to this blog.

What is MiddBlog? It’s alternative news for Middkids, run and written by students. We post the latest and sometimes greatest on what’s going down on the Middlebury campus. For instance, take a look at our latest articles on: summer storage options, the future of dining services, and Ron Liebowitz kissing a cow.

We also have a several year archive of content: numerous Middkid-produced YouTube videos, historical facts about Middlebury, and Quidditch galore. Take a look at 2008 in review. Many of you also used our Housing Guide 2009 for roomdraw this year and a lot of people also enjoy our weekly Sunday Reading.

So, we encourage you to come back and stay up-to-date with the community on MiddBlog (yes, we even post during the summer!). We do Facebook and Twitter and Posts by RSS feed or Posts by Email.

Better yet: leave a comment, speak up, join the discussion. We take email at: tips [at] midd-blog [dot] com.

Posted by: George | May 5, 2009

A Little Wisdom For Finals Week

I’m studying abroad in Paris this semester, so I have the comfort of being outside of the crunch that is the last two weeks of a semester at Middlebury. When I have been in Vermont during this time of year, I have found that for me at least, the intensity of the end of a semester has been surprisingly emotional and thought provoking. Spending so much time concentrating intensely on work, having to say goodbye to friends and not sleeping enough really gets the juices flowing. It’s a bit of a liberal arts crescendo, if you will.

Anyway, a friend of mine pointed me to this article by a recently retired Yale Professor, William Deresiewicz. The article criticizes elite education most notably at Yale, but I find his analysis corresponds in large measure to Middlebury. Deresiezicz’s point that resonates with me the most is the idea that the current system of elite higher education ironically hinders the development of true intellectualism. Money quote: “Only a small minority [of students] have seen their education as part of a larger intellectual journey, have approached the work of the mind with a pilgrim soul.”

To relate this back to Middlebury, I find that these last two weeks of a semester can be a little revelatory, and just in the way Deresiewicz would want them to be. With the buildup of emotions and work, I have found myself thinking about why I am at Middlebury.

If you have a few moments to spare over the next few weeks, I recommend reading Deresiewicz’s article. It may offer a perspective on what’s really important: growing during your formative years and learning to think like an intellectual. At the very least, it is comforting to hear a Professor agree with the sentiment of the late-night conversations that make the College experience what it is—the times when you examine why you are in College and how learning to think is what really matters.

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »

Categories