October 2008

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. , October 26, 2008

A new sport is “sweeping” college campuses.

“Brooms up!” the referee shouted, calling the game of Quidditch to action on the field of Middlebury College.

Quidditch was made by wizards in the pages of Harry Potter’s fictional world. But non-magical Muggles have made it their own. They came in capes and costumes for the first-ever Quidditch World Cup. “Obviously people can’t fly on brooms,” said Alex Benepe, a Middlebury senior. “Not yet at least. So you’ve got to hold it between your legs and run around. That gives the game a whole air of ridiculousness.”

[ Read more and/or watch the video ... ]

It’s a stat we hear time and again: Consumer spending accounts for more than two-thirds of the U.S. economy. It was the reason President Bush famously (or infamously) urged Americans shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to keep shopping and “get down to Disney World in Florida.”

Take that, Osama!

“Our whole economy is designed to convince people that they want more,” said David Colander, an economics professor at Middlebury College in Vermont. “Nobody is asking the big question: How much of a consumer society do we really want to be?”

[ Read more ... ]

. . .

Bane has accepted a number of tournament awards and has been cited many a time for overcoming adversity. He has been a profile in courage to all those acquainted with him and his esteemed golfing family for bouncing back from 11 cancer procedures on his left leg from ages 4 to 17.

However, no individual recognition in his young life could surpass the Guy Tedesco Award he received as New England Intercollegiate Player of the Year Sunday night at the Irish Village Restaurant in South Yarmouth.

[ Read more ... ]

[ Read an additional story and see a video on Middlebury's Harry Bane. ]

As commercial newspapers founder, many of their college counterparts are doing pretty well — or at least holding their own, which might be one new measure of success in an imperiled industry.

Declining readership of newsprint editions, which afflicts metro dailies around the country, does not seem to be a problem at local campuses. College students — the heart of the young demographic that regular newspapers worry about losing — seem to be avid readers of their campus papers. Never mind online editions, which are popular among parents and alumni. The students themselves are still reading the good old hard copies.

. . .

“The assumption in our office is that most students read the paper on Thursdays when it comes out,” said Scott Garel Greene, an editor-in-chief of The Campus at Middlebury College, “often at breakfast or lunch in the dining hall.”

[ Read more ... ]

Vermont college professors say the tough economic lessons of the past six weeks are fodder for scintillating discussions in the classroom.

Middlebury College professor of monetary economics Scott Pardee and his colleagues don’t normally attract much attention, but these days they’re getting rock star treatment. Their expertise is in high demand and they have hosted several well-attended presentations on the financial crisis.

[ Read more ... ]

At home in Vermont, Pamela C. Fogg hangs her laundry to dry, carpools to work, and composts, even bringing the office compost bucket home in the carpool each week. In the office at Middlebury College, where she works as an art director, she encourages her colleagues at the alumni magazine to print things only when necessary, and when they do, to print double-sided.

Several years ago, Ms. Fogg noticed a disconnect between what she was doing at home and at work. The magazine she was helping produce, like most college magazines at the time, was printing thousands of issues on paper made entirely from new wood, which didn’t jibe with the eco-conscious choices she was making at home. “You can’t just go to work and shut that off,” she said. “I just can’t put that aside when I come into the office.”

Though it was more expensive, Ms. Fogg and Matt Jennings, editor of Middlebury Magazine, switched to printing issues on paper made with 10-percent recycled materials. Now the two are part of a small but growing movement of environmentally conscious editors and designers who are pushing alumni magazines to go green.

[ Read more ... ]

Bill McKibben: Send the prez-elect to Poland! The environmental news blog Grist: “There have been moments in the last few weeks when it seemed like the world was ending. ‘Financial Meltdown!’ the headlines screamed. Bad as it has been, however, it’s nothing compared to the real meltdown now underway across the planet — our home planet, the one we share whether we’re rich or poor, American or African, or, for that matter, human or plant or animal.

“Which is why we’re launching a big campaign this fall to remind the presidential candidates that this election is about Ohio, and Florida, and Pennsylvania — and Bangladesh. That the battlegrounds include New Hampshire and Nevada — and Nairobi. That bailing out Wall Street is about pumping money into the credit markets — and figuring out a way to wean our economy off the gas pump.”

[This is a guest post from Bill McKibben, a scholar in residence at Middlebury College and author of a dozen books, most recently The Bill McKibben Reader. McKibben serves on Grist's board of directors and is cofounder of 350.org.]

Planet Earth 101 – The Boston Globe: “When historians look back on this decade and at what had college campuses most fired up, it won’t be the war, or the economy, Obama-mania, or even Britney’s babies. It will be a color. … They’re all about green, focused on saving energy, serving organic and local food, and reducing carbon emissions.

[ . . . ]

“More than 550 U.S. schools have signed the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment, requiring them to calculate their greenhouse-gas emissions and draft plans for going carbon-neutral. Many were prodded into action by organizations like the Sunday Night Group at Middlebury College in Vermont, which meets weekly on campus sustainability projects.”

Money misery made plain: Rutland Herald Online: “MIDDLEBURY — David Colander said his students have been coming to him, asking him to explain what’s happening to the economy.

” ‘Since no one person understands what’s going on, we thought we’d have four of us explain it,’ the Middlebury College economics professor said Wednesday from the stage at Dana Auditorium.

“People packed the auditorium, with students sitting in the aisles, to listen and put questions to Colander and fellow economics professors Scott Pardee, Peter Matthews and Robert Prasch.”

College fund frozen: The Burlington Free Press: “The national turmoil in credit and banking industries has trickled down to Vermont’s institutions of higher education.

“A short-term investment fund that the University of Vermont, Middlebury College and St. Michael’s College have used to pay operating expenses was partially frozen Monday, forcing these institutions to draw on other cash sources for payroll and other needs. This fund is one of several managed by Commonfund, a firm that manages investments for colleges, universities and other nonprofits across the country.

[. . .]

“Middlebury College had $9 million in the short-term fund, said Patrick Norton, chief financial officer, who also called the restrictions ‘an inconvenience,’ and said the college has other cash sources and would be able to weather the situation. ‘The impact on us is minimal,’ said college spokeswoman Sarah Ray.”