Middlebury swimmer Schuyler Beeman: The water is fine – Guilford Courier: “Here is Schuyler Beeman’s secret: He’s relaxed, energized, and talented. Schuyler, a 2006 Guilford High School graduate, was a three-year All-American and a four-year All-State swimmer in high school and he’s gone on to even greater things at Middlebury College in Vermont, where he qualified for seven events in the 2007 NCAA Div III Nationals as a freshman and placed in the top 20 in each of them. He also qualified for multiple events for 2008 NCAA Div III Nationals but (to the relief of his opponents) didn’t compete because of his academic commitments as a theater major at Middlebury.”
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College Sustainability Report Card 2009: Middlebury receives highest grade: Inside Higher Ed: “Colleges have made significant strides in campus-based sustainability initiatives, with a growing number purchasing local food, adopting green building policies, and committing to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Comparatively, however, colleges have lagged in using their shareholder status to push pro-environment corporate policies and in being transparent about their endowment holdings — although there are notable gains in those areas as well, according to the latest College Sustainability Report Card, released today.
“Middlebury received an A-, the highest grade given for 2009. Last year, Middlebury was one of six A- schools. This year, there were 15 who got the top grade, in addition to Midd: Brown, Columbia, Harvard, and Stanford universities; Carleton, Dartmouth, Dickinson and Oberlin colleges; and the Universities of British Columbia, Colorado, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Washington.
“Also being unveiled today is a new Web site for the report card, including a number of functions allowing students to compare green practices across institutions.”
College looks to cut costs in face of slowing economy Addison County Independent: “MIDDLEBURY — Faced with the most serious global economic slowdown in recent years, Middlebury College is tightening its belt and searching out ways to cut operating costs.
“In a memo e-mailed to faculty and staff earlier this month, Middlebury College President Ronald D. Liebowitz expressed the need to prepare for ‘what appears will be a prolonged period of low or no growth’ with plans that will ‘extend beyond the current fiscal year.’ “
Matson manages his time – The Boston Globe: “A doctor and a football player may not seem to be a match, but Middlebury senior wide receiver Andrew Matson spends his mornings in biochemistry classes and his afternoons at football practices.
“Despite the busy schedule, Matson is determined to graduate pre-med and even more determined to live up to the responsibility of being the captain of the defending New England Small College Athletic Conference champions.”
A New Bank to Save Our Infrastructure – The New York Review of Books: “An article by Felix Rohatyn ‘49 and Everett Ehrlich in the current edition of The New York Review of Books, ‘presents an impassioned plea for the creation of a National Infrastructure Bank, or N.I.B. Its aim, at a time when the Chinese are investing $200 billion in railways and building 97 new airports, would be to use public and private capital to give coherence to a vast program of public works,’ writes New York Times columnist Roger Cohen.
The essay begins: “These are rare times of ferment in one of the most neglected fields of public policy—the nation’s infrastructure, or what used to be known as public works, including roads, mass transit, bridges, ports and airports, flood control systems, and much else. We have been confronted with spectacular and tragic evidence of the inadequacy of these facilities in the failure of the levees in New Orleans and in the collapse of the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis. More generally, a recent report by the American Society of Civil Engineers concludes that America’s infrastructure overall is close to “failing” and deserves a grade of “D.” It estimates that an investment of $1.6 trillion will be needed to bring it up to working order.”
Middlebury College Language Schools to open new West Coast site: “Middlebury College President Ronald D. Liebowitz announced today that the college’s 94-year-old summer Language Schools will open a second site on the campus of Mills College in Oakland, Calif., beginning in 2009.
“At the Mills College location, the Middlebury College Language Schools will offer undergraduate level courses in French, Italian and Spanish — languages that will be taught at both sites. The new site will also become the exclusive home to Middlebury’s Arabic program. Projected enrollment for the Mills site is 310 students, which will increase the overall enrollment of the Language Schools to approximately 1,500.”
Vermont Reads: Robert Frost – An Unconventional Teacher: “Robert Frost brought everyday language into his poetry — an innovation for his time. As part of our series this week, we examine Frost’s inventive techniques and his influence as an educator. VPR is collaborating with the Vermont Humanities Council’s Vermont Reads program to focus on a single book. This year that book is ‘A Restless Spirit’, The Story of Robert Frost by author Natalie Bober.”
The series on VPR includes contributions by Middlebury faculty, including John Elder and Jay Parini.
Middlebury grad Hauschka hanging with NFL Ravens: Rutland Herald Online: “It was a Labor Day weekend Middlebury College graduate Steve Hauschka won’t ever forget. Hauschka thought he was a placekicker in the Minnesota Vikings’ future on Saturday morning and by Saturday night he was in Baltimore as a member of the Ravens.
“Rutland’s Steve Wolf, Hauschka’s personal kicking coach, said Hauschka phoned him Saturday after meeting with Vikings’ management about being relegated to the practice squad.
“They told him that they were impressed with him and that they felt he had a good chance of being part of their future.”But when they put you on the practice squad, you have to clear waivers and the Ravens claimed him.”
It wasn’t surprising that the team seizing that opportunity was the Ravens. Before the NFL draft in April, the two teams most interested in Hauschka were the Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs.
“I think they are looking for him to do kickoffs and possibly long field goals,” Wolf said.
Liberal arts colleges add classes to prepare students for jobs : College : Ventura County Star: “Longtime Middlebury College economics professor Michael Claudon should have been ecstatic. More and more students at the quintessential Vermont liberal arts school — nearly 1 in 6 — had picked his department as a major.
“But Claudon could tell many students weren’t taking his classes because they loved economics. They just thought it would help them get jobs.
“When he asked students once what they would do if there were some other way to get the kinds of experiences they thought employers wanted, one piped up: ‘I sure as hell wouldn’t be here.’
“That comment was the genesis of a new class Claudon developed with alumni in business, designed to give students intense experiences that mimic real-world problem-solving.”