March 2008

Seven-game sweep: Middlebury quidditch squad takes its act on the road The Boston Globe: “Players wearing purple and navy blue capes hopped on brooms and rushed out of tents to a cheering crowd of students and family members, even little kids dressed in wizards hats, who held up signs reading ‘Chasers, Beaters, and Seekers’ and ‘Remember Cedric Diggory.’ They were all here yesterday, on the freshman quad at Amherst College, to watch the campus’s first game of Quidditch, a sport made famous at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.”

ALSO: The Early Show, from CBS News, caught up with the Middlebury squad during two of its stops, at Amherst and Princeton, and aired reports on the trip on Friday, March 28.
Watch the videos here:

Quidditch for Muggles, featuring sports anchor Greg Gumbel
How to Play Quidditch, featuring reporter Dave Price

350.org: new initiative to stop global warming Burlington Free Press: “Bill McKibben and recent graduates of Middlebury College have started a grassroots initiative aimed at stopping global warming, 350.org (www.350.org). The group, international in scope, intends to make 350 a commonplace number whose significance is known to people around the world. The initiative will serve as an online center and clearinghouse of ideas concerned with reducing the current level of atmospheric carbon dioxide (about 385 ppm) to an acceptable one: 350 or below.”

Colleges are adopting greener policies and carbon neutral goals. Three of the greenest colleges campuses. USA WEEKEND Magazine: “Younger generations hold the future of the Earth in their hands, so it’s no wonder that many colleges are adopting greener policies. In fact, 492 university presidents and chancellors signed on to the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment, in which they pledge to ‘exercise leadership in their communities … by providing the knowledge and the educated graduates to achieve climate neutrality.’

“According to a recent list, here are some of the greenest:

“Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vt. The school plans to be carbon neutral by 2016. How will it achieve this? With a proposed biomass plant (to be powered by wood chips) and energy-efficient lighting. Students were the driving force behind the commitment.”

Quidditch sweeps into Princeton – The Daily Princetonian: “After reading J.K. Rowling’s acclaimed “Harry Potter” series, countless children dreamed of playing every wizard’s favorite game, Quidditch. Unfortunately, these dreams were summarily crushed by a number of factors, most importantly the law of gravity. Perhaps motivated by a desire to do the impossible, or just experiencing a momentary bout of nostalgia, a group of Middlebury College students found a way to bring Quidditch to the Muggle world in fall 2005.”

Commentary Series (VPR): Fifth Anniversary: “ANNOUNCER: On this Fifth Anniversary of the War in Iraq, commentator, poet and teacher Jay Parini reflects on this particular war – and war in general.

“JAY PARINI: Decades ago, as a student during the height of the conflict in Vietnam, I was reading Homer’s great epic of war, The Iliad. The death of Hector in defense of Troy struck me as one of the most moving things I had ever read. To this day, I remember weeping over the pages of Homer, and wondering that humanity could be so cruel and stupid. Was there really any point to war? Did anybody ever really ‘win’ a war, in that the cycle of violence seems only to pass on to the next generation, and there is never relief from the bloodshed and misery.”

Lawsuit Takes Aim at Wheaton College’s Billing Practices for Study Abroad – New York Times: “NORTON, Mass. — A month after graduating from Wheaton College, Jennifer Bombasaro-Brady was back on campus urging the student government to ask the state attorney general to investigate the college’s billing practices for students studying abroad. . . .

“A college’s fixed costs do not go down when students leave for a semester, and some institutions have many empty beds during the spring semester, the most popular study-abroad time. A few colleges, including Middlebury, admit first-year students midyear to help fill those beds. But Middlebury does not charge full tuition for those who leave campus.

” “We have parents pay the study-abroad programs directly, so they pay the cost of the program they choose,’ said Jeffrey Cason, Middlebury’s dean of international programs.”

Math Suggests College Frenzy Will Soon Ease – New York Times: “High school seniors nationwide are anxiously awaiting the verdicts from the colleges of their choice later this month. But though it may not be of much solace to them, in just a few years the admissions frenzy is likely to ease. It’s simply a matter of demographics. . . .

“It’s kind of a demographic perfect storm in some ways,” said Robert S. Clagett, dean of admissions at Middlebury College. “Because where the increases are going to come are in states where the college-going rate is lower and where those who do go to college primarily stay in the state.”

FOXNews.com – Investigators in Vermont Conduct Air Search for Missing Middlebury College Student: “Police were conducting an air search by helicopter Tuesday for evidence in the disappearance of a Middlebury College freshman who has been missing for more than a month.”

7online.com: A ‘posse’ to help kids succeed 3/14/08: “Some students are gaining valuable lessons before they head to college this fall. They’re learning how to adjust and are given a ‘posse’ of friends to lean on. And it seems to work. The program’s members have a high graduation rate.

“The Posse Foundation was created in 1989, and the name has lot to do with what students experience, since groups of them go to college as a team.

“One ‘Posse’ is bound for Middlebury College in Vermont, which is one of more than two dozen colleges or universities offering scholarships to Posse scholars.”

VIDEO LINK AVAILABLE

Art and the College Administrator: Inside Higher Ed: “Even a few days later, Branda Miller’s voice rises with anger as she recalls what happened in her course Wednesday at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. An artist-in-residence — whose presence had been approved through all official channels — was in the middle of a discussion with her students when three administrators arrived, told her they needed to take the artist with them at once, escorted him to another classroom, and refused to let Miller enter or to offer any explanation to her or her students. Shortly after the disruption of her class, RPI ordered the exhibit set up by the artist — a video game based in part on an Al Qaeda video game involving attempts to kill President Bush — shut down pending a review.

“The furor at RPI is one of several recent incidents involving controversial art in the higher education setting. In all of the cases, issues of safety or security or politics are raised by those questioning or limiting art — while others are in turn raising concerns about academic and artistic freedom.

“At Middlebury College last week, some students are angry over the removal of a a student’s staged art photograph showing another student with a toy gun in his mouth. “

Middlebury endorses $16 million bridge bond by 2-1 margin Addison County Independent: “After more than a half-century of debate, traffic studies, engineering designs and numerous referenda, Middlebury is now firmly on the road to building a new in-town bridge.

“Local voters saw to that on Tuesday as they overwhelmingly endorsed two Town Meeting Day initiatives that municipal officials believe could result in the new span being completed at Cross Street as soon as the fall of 2010.

“In a stellar turnout boosted by Tuesday’s presidential primaries, residents voted 1,535 to 673 to authorize a 30-year, $16 million bond issue to fund the project, the centerpiece of which will be a span that will link Main Street to Court Street over the Otter Creek via Cross Street.

“Residents also voted 1,358 to 829 in favor of asking the Vermont Legislature to amend Middlebury’s town charter so that the community will have the opportunity, in the future, of implementing local option taxes to help cover $7 million of the project’s cost. Middlebury College has pledged to bankroll the remaining $9 million.”

One month later, leads remain scarce in Garza case: Burlington Free Press.com Top Stories: “MIDDLEBURY — No later than 6:42 a.m. Feb. 6 — a month ago today — Nick Garza’s cell phone stopped working. No incoming calls. No outgoing calls. Undeliverable voice mails and text messages.”

Men’s Basketball Headed To Rochester For NCAA Tournament: “The Middlebury men’s basketball team will makes its first-ever NCAA tournament appearance on Friday, March 7, at the University of Rochester. The Panthers will take on the host school, while Farmingdale State meets Penn St.-Behrend in the other contest.”

Kelly Brush: Skiing with a purpose Burlington Free Press: “It would be understandable if Kelly Brush filled her days with what-ifs.

“What if the fencing along the giant slalom course at Jiminy Peak had been better? What if the padding on the chair lift tower had been thicker? What if she hadn’t caught that edge? But those questions don’t yield any substantive answers. They are part of a past that Brush, a senior at Middlebury College who was paralyzed in a ski racing accident two years ago, doesn’t see the need to dwell in.

“Instead, Brush is focused on the future — her own and that of the sport she loves. Through the Kelly Brush Foundation, the 21-year-old is seeking to improve safety conditions and safety awareness in ski racing.”