When did J-Term End??

I’ve never actually seen any real statistics on how much the average Middlebury student drinks coffee, but I’m sure its astoundingly high. With mid-terms and finals along with every Sunday night, it appears that coffee at Middlebury is consumed with the same intensity that students participate in extracurriculars, study, and loathe winter. Speaking of winter, it often seems that around campus by the middle of February, many of us begin to fall into the depression style funk of Old Man Winter. Well according to this new study of another highly stressed population, nurses, coffee may actually reduce the risk of depression by up to twenty percent.

The study compared the risk of depression on female nurses who had drank between zero and three or more cups of coffee per day. Those who drank four cups a day had a reduced risk of depression of twenty percent. Meanwhile, those nurses who drank one cup a day had a reduced risk as well but not nearly as much compared to those essentially mainlining coffee.

Thanks to crowdsourcing.

The Juice Bar competition was the most prominent example of the administration looking to harness the power of a crowd of students to solve one of the tougher campus challenges brought about originally by financial lows and now by some sort of “new normal.” Why hire professional consultants and staff to dream up new business models when students can conceive, build, and market it back to students?

It’s also appealing as a teachable experience. After all, that’s the idea behind the Solar Decathlon team too — task students with designing, building, and managing a solar powered house and they will learn a ton. Middlebury is clearly encouraging students to find their inner entrepreneur or at least find practical experience and skills applicable in the post-grad world.

But as with most crowdsourcing efforts, someone always asks: why are you pushing all the work on someone else? Why does everything have to be a competition? Don’t students have something else to do? Like study? Well, maybe there are ways to even wrap an academic element (heaven forbid) into some of the crowdsourcing efforts across campus. As the Atwater Turf Battle rages marches on with valiant blogging by Tim Parsons, students are inevitably marrying their architecture and geography (plus econ, math, etc.) classes with real challenge and real consequence.

That’s also where the administration hasn’t quite bit the bullet of really sticking to a real-world rules. While the Solar Decathlon team grapples with setbacks determined by the U.S. Department of Energy, Middlebury’s administration is mostly flexible in awarding a student “contract” because it will rely on strong mentorship from staff. But would a venture capitalist really allow unlimited start-up funding and no target profitability date for the Juice Bar venture? Is it even realistic to at least partially compete against dining halls which operate 9 hours a day? Even if it is an experiment, the mentality going in should always be that the project matters deeply and has definable success (even if it is not financial). Any evidence to the contrary will definitely sink hopes of sustainability. In other words, there needs to be the real threat of failure (even if there’s a safety net) and a healthy sense of competition (your move, Gamut Room). On the flip side, if students keep any profits they make, it would do a lot to keep the venture going, no?

(via NY Mag)

Residential Adviser (RA) training continues this week and is beginning to reflect the philosophical changes the President outlined. One of the major talking points for RAs, FYCs, and CRAs is finding ways to make students accountable to one another instead of to an “authority” like Public Safety or the Health Center. And as a part of this accountability, the residential staff is trying out a system that relies on friend networks:

If a student needs medical attention, Public Safety will transport him or her to Porter Hospital. If a student is intoxicated and with friends, the responsibility will be on the friends to stay with that person. If a student is intoxicated and alone, Public Safety will transport that person to a “duty office” where residential staff will attempt to “find a sober friend” for that person or stay with the person until morning. If at any time a student’s condition worsens, Public Safety will take back intoxicated students from friends/residential staff for transport to the hospital.

This will help pick up slack for the closure of the Health Center at night and Public Safety who are most busy between the hours of 2-4AM. The “duty office” is essentially babysitting drunk people and residential staff will be paid for their service (currently $40/night but look for the market rate for this job to increase) from 2AM to 6:30AM on weekend nights. The location of the “duty office” is the basement of Ross, in the old gym space. Two years ago, residential staff tried a “hotline” system where residential staff would be called to take care of smaller incidents (like noise complaints) to release Public Safety for more serious matters.

The idea is to stigmatize going to the “duty office” (please rename it to something like “the fish bowl” or “the tank”) because it really means you have no friends to take care of you. And if your friends are taking care of you, they aren’t going to be pleased doing so and will have a word with you when you sober up, chief.

Will underage drinking citations go away? No — Vermont law, remember? But this new system will be different and will take some time to get used to. Expect the residential staff led by Senior Residence Director Lee Zerilla to tweak the system as the semester unfolds.

Students who are overly intoxicated on weekend nights will be brought directly to the Porter Hospital emergency room by Public Safety. Public Safety will also facilitate the transport of students to Porter Hospital on an as-needed basis.

A sampling of peer institutions show that many other schools also do not provide overnight care. Dartmouth provides a call-in after hours helpline. Bates appears to be the only peer to have 24-hour coverage now. The Parton Health Center mission statement still reads: “[we]…are committed to providing and promoting high quality, comprehensive acute health care in a clinic and overnight infirmary setting” (emphasis added). (Update: now removed from their website as well). Calls and emails to Assoc. Director of the Health Center Terry Jenny were not returned as the Health Center does not open until September 2nd, the week before classes begin. Students await a statement from the administration regarding the important changes.

I was on a campus tour yesterday and a prospective family asked about “the infirmary.” The tourguide honestly explained the change from a 24-hour model to daytime model. The parental chatter in the back of the tour group was decidedly negative. “If they’re cutting the infirmary, I wonder what else they’re cutting,” remarked one parent.

I am worried about this move by the College. I don’t know the financial savings of this, but I do know that safety is a huge student and parent issue. My take: without a major information campaign, this change will drive intoxicated students away from seeking medical help when they need it late at night after partying. I was told as a freshmen: “you won’t get in trouble if you go to the health center; we’d rather you be safe than punished.” Closing the health center at night throws that idea out the window by making a trip to the hospital seem punitive. Going to Porter Hospital, before this announcement, was stigmatized whereas going to the Health Center was not.

But in reality, if one is worried about getting “in trouble,” both Porter and Parton are more or less the same. If you are charged for any type of care regardless of what facility, the payer of the service will be informed by way of your insurance company. If you pay your own insurance, your parents will never find out. If your parents pay your insurance, they will get the bill with a description of the services provided. The issue, though, is that if you show up at the Health Center and they don’t treat you with anything that requires writing up insurance, no one will know. If you show up at the Hospital and do anything but wait in the waiting area, you will be required to pay and therefore go through the insurance process.

As for Public Safety and underage drinking citations, I would argue that Public Safety has shifted away from the model in which citations are the end-all, be-all. If you need to go to the hospital for drinking issues, that’s a much larger issue than a citation. And if you ask Public Safety to bring you or a friend to the hospital, they will be much more concerned for your safety than citing you.

Ultimately, it comes down to a culture of responsibility. Middlebury students will have to adapt to a culture in which going to Porter Hospital is the safest and most reasonable option at 2am on a Saturday night. The Health Center was a mental safety net more than it actually was used for its three beds. But administrators should not underestimate this mental safety net and the ingrained nature of our current system among returning students. Now more than ever, community counts. Having a hospital so close by is a blessing, but it might be tough to convince students to not stay put in dorms and wait instead of seeking medical treatment. The amount of heavy drinking will not go down, and the last thing we want is to drive the drinking culture further underground. The absence of a health center can’t turn into any type of excuse.

Update 8/20: Parton Health Center has taken down what’s on their website.

Update 8/21: Parton Health Center has put up their fall hours again. And now has a page advising on After Hours Care. Take a look at more of the detailed options.

Update 12:30PM: A all-student email from Dean of Students Gus Jordan went out discussing the changes outlined above in more detail as well as H1N1 preparedness. Some better-informed tidbits are in this letter which is to be mailed to parents soon:

• Only 4% of all health-related student involvement with the Health Center occurs at night.  Most of these calls and visits are for non-urgent matters that can wait until the next morning.
• Porter Hospital staff and the College “enjoy an active, collegial relationship.”
• The College is pushing for students to find out, know, and call their insurance nurse advice line or wait until the morning for care if it’s not an emergency.
• “We offer 24-hour on-call services by deans as well as by counseling and residential life staff should an issue emerge that requires consultation with and support for a student.”
• “Of particular concern to our staff is the management of alcohol intoxication, a problem across all college campuses. In response to this concern, we have developed an extensive plan to assist mildly intoxicated students using the support of friends and residential life staff. As occurs presently, moderately or severely intoxicated students will be referred to Porter Hospital for medical assessment immediately.  Ideally, no student should drink to excess.  Please be aware that in cases of destructive drinking we will respond quickly and decisively with medical referrals, parental consultations, and disciplinary action.  A pattern of destructive drinking will lead to student dismissal from the College.”

In an effor

This Week in The Campus:

• White Whale revamps Web site: White Whale Web Services, tasked with redesigning the Middlebury website, hit the dining halls to talk to students on Monday and Tuesday. Students overall were receptive to not only sharing their feeling as to what can make the institutional website better but also their general feeling about what makes Middlebury special. The visit from White Whale is part of a discovery process of what themes to highlight on the website.
• Four crew athletes treated for CA-MRSA bacterial infection: Confirms the rumors around campus, the article outlines both what CA-MRSA is and the story of the students involved.
• Panzer prevails in run-off election: Well, it looks like my endorsement of Vrutika Mody ’10 failed to make a difference. The Campus, however, called it. Curiously, the after-the-jump headline reads: “Deloach, Sohl supporters aid Panzer in SGA contest.” The article fails to talk about this interesting detail of pre-runoff candidates encouraging their supporters to switch over to support Panzer. Also, rumors are that Tik Root (who came in third in the primaries) will not seek re-election as a Senator next year. Instead, he may be pondering a switch to a cabinet position, if one is offered to him. It is unclear whether Mody will run for Senator again or move on to new projects.
• Op-ed: Mike Waters: Waters takes Director of Dining Services Matt Biette to task for the steamlining plan to create the same entree in both dining halls next year. He points some of the same challenges mentioned in this MiddBlog post last week while also offering a novel idea: let students wait in line for food.
• Op-ed: Adam Irish: The perils of Club Midd: His opening line: “I am happy the recession has come to Middlebury College.” I love it when a student legitimately and intelligently adds to the conversation on campus with a challenging point of view. I think a lot of administrators and many students will agree with Irish on this, perhaps without saying stuff like “Club Midd is a crusie ship.” Still, this Editorial of the week is a little bit of a cop-out citing this not as a Midd-exclusive problem and that they look forward to “seeing students’ innovative approaches to saving money.” Students saving money? Yea right. No more than a handful show up to the school’s open financial meetings and we still have no idea what happened to the SGA Crisis Contest…

Paul Farmer spoke at Middlebury College’s McCullough Social Space this afternoon. The talk was broadcast to two overflow seating areas.

What’s next? The Healing Humanity Symposium is happening soon!

Below is audio recording from Paul Farmer’s talk. Check it out. It’s long but worth it.

Although I was on a quest to see how Middlebury-area restaurants fare health-wise, I discovered Middlebury College’s dining halls and other food establishments have also been inspected by the VT DoH. Below is a summary of the reports:

51 Main Street: 95/100 points on 3/28/2008 – lost points on 4 non-critical items.

Freeman International Center: 90/100 points on 1/16/2008 – lost 5 points on 4 non-critical items; lost 5 points on 1 critical item: Necessary toxic items must be properly stored, separated, labeled, and used.

The Grille: 87/100 points on 1/16/2008 – lost 8 points on 6 non-critical items; lost 5 points on 1 critical item: Potentially hazardous food meets time and temperature requirements during storage, preparation, display, service and transportation.

Kirk Alumni Center Dining: 94/100 on 6/5/2008 – lost 2 points on 2 non-critical items; lost 4 points on 1 critical item: Adequate, convenient and properly maintained toilet facilities are available.

Atwater Dining Hall: 87/100 on 1/16/2008 – lost 3 points on 2 non-critical items; lost 10 points on 2 critical items: Potentially hazardous food meets time and temperature requirements during storage, preparation, display, service and transportation. Personnel must wash hands and use good hygienic practices, be free of jewelry and have nails trimmed.

Proctor Dining Hall: 87/100 on 1/16/2008 – lost 8 points on 5 non-critical items; lost 5 points on 1 critical item: Necessary toxic items must be properly stored, separated, labeled, and used.

Ross Dining Hall: 87/100 on 1/16/2008 – lost 8 points on 5 non-critical items; lost 5 points on 1 critical item: Necessary toxic items must be properly stored, separated, labeled, and used.

Although all of Middlebury’s dining halls and other food establishments have a few improvements to make, I think Middlebury students can rest assured that they–and especially their food–are in good hands. It is important to note that many of Middlebury’s food inspections occurred approximately one year ago; I am confident that Matthew Biette and our dining hall employees have worked hard to correct the problems. Moreover, Middlebury dining halls tend to fare better than other popular Midd Kid hotspots like the China House (76), Mr. Ups (75), Steve’s Park Diner (85), and Taste of India (84).

MiddBlog will keep an eye out for the upcoming DoH inspections and will report on all of Middlebury’s improvements.