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Soon, the town of Middlebury will have seen its last single-use plastic bag; that is, restaurants, grocery stores, and the like will no longer be offering them to customers and shoppers. A proposal to prohibit retail outlets within the town of Middlebury from using single-use plastic material was presented at the 2019 town meeting, with College junior Amelia Miller and resident Amy McAninch leading the effort. The following day, the initiative was passed overwhelmingly by Middlebury residents, 838–211.

In an article recently published by  Inside Higher Ed, Shawna Shapiro, an associate professor of writing and linguistics at Middlebury, offers a “Gen Z Guide to Inclusivity.”

Middlebury President Laurie Patton appeared on stage at the Council of Foreign Relations (CFR), engaging in conversation with the think tank’s president, Richard Haas. The event was organized by three Midd alums—Alexandra Peterson Cart ’08, Aleksandra Janke ’98, and Megan Shattuck ’96—who are all members of CFR.

The Spring Student Symposium, now in its 13th year, brought crowds of students, faculty, and staff to Bi Hall in celebration of the academic and creative achievement that took place on and off campus this year.

Meet Nicole Curvin, the next dean of admissions at Middlebury.

Winter term workshops are among the highlights of the monthlong term, and this year’s offerings didn’t disappoint. There were sessions for the adventurous (Fundamentals of Backcountry Skiing, Introduction to Ice Climbing), the artistic (The Art of Henna Tattooing), and the self-reflective (How to Talk about Yourself without Being the Worst, Acknowledging Bias: A Feminist Perspective on Science Rhetoric). Further, folks could learn how to play poker, log roll, swing dance, edit audio, and make sushi. And much more.

New York Times columnist Frank Bruni drew a healthy crowd to Wilson Hall, where he discussed identity politics and the importance of free speech on college campuses. Prior to his talk, Bruni joined a group of Middlebury students, faculty, and staff for dinner in Ross, during which the journalist engaged the group on specific issues of concern to the Middlebury community.

A Middlebury senior and a recent graduate have been named Schwarzman Scholars, landing two of 147 prized spots from a pool of more than 2,800 applicants. Elsa Alvarado ’18and Abdijabar Mohamed ’18.5will attend Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University in Beijing for a fully funded one-year master’s program in global affairs, starting in August 2019.

Sujata Moorti, the Charles A. Dana Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies, has been named vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty. Moorti, who was the subject of the magazine’s Q&A department in the summer issue, teaches courses on feminist cultural studies and diasporic media studies. She will replace Andi Lloyd, who announced last spring that she plans to step down at the end of the academic year.

Eight new members were inducted into Middlebury’s Athletics Hall of Fame. The inductees include longtime skiing and cross-country coach Terry Aldrich; four-sport (soccer, hockey, lacrosse, football) athlete John Atherton ’93; swimmer J.P. Gowdy ’99, holder of multiple school records; Victoria Hoyt ’89, the most decorated squash athlete in Middlebury history; Meg Bonney Martinson ’03, an All-American skier, national champion lacrosse player, and the all-time leading scorer in the history of soccer (men’s or women’s) at Midd; world-class biathlete John Morton ’68; Kate Irvin Pfeffer ’01, 10-time (!) All-American in track-and-field; and Olympic skier Sue Long Wemyss ’82.

Michael Katz, the C.V. Starr professor emeritus of Russian and east European studies, has produced a new translation of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. “The Bloggers Karamazov”—the official blog of the North American Dostoevsky society (!)—recently spoke with Katz about his work.

If you didn’t catch the recent TED Radio Hour episode on National Public Radio featuring rock-star alumna Dena Simmons ’05, then this is a must listen—as in, right now!—piece. We’re not kidding: Go listen to “How Does Imposter Syndrome Affect Students of Color.” We’ll be here when you get back.

The New England Review is celebrating its 40th anniversary, and now is as good a time as any to subscribe to this great literary magazine.

Matt Dickinson recently wrote an insightful piece for the Washington Post blog “Monkey Cage,” in which the political science prof offered five reasons why John Kelly “struggles so much as [President] Trump’s chief of staff.” 

 

Hey, guess what? Vermont is kinda pretty in the fall.

Middlebury’s Board of Trustees met a couple of weeks ago. The big news coming out of the fall meeting was the board’s ratification of  a new strategic framework for the institution. The framework consists of new institutional mission and statements, individual mission statements for each of Middlebury’s schools, and sets of distinctions, strategic directions, and principles that, together, will serve to shape Middlebury’s strategic decision making.

A strong equities market helped generate an investment return of 13.8 percent for Middlebury’s endowment in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2017. Thanks to the solid return and to gifts received during the year, the value of Middlebury’s endowment ended the year at $1.074 billion—up $74 million from 2016.

Fifty years ago, tens of thousands of people marched in Washington to protest the Vietnam War. One of the marchers was Sharon Smith ’68, and her voice was one of many that informed a fascinating oral history of the moment that was published by the New York Times.

It got spooky on campus at Halloween.

On a gorgeous Labor Day, more than 500 first-year students arrived on campus to being their college experience. A week of orientation concludes on Sunday evening with Convocation in Mead Chapel.

A few days before the Trump Administration announced that it would be rescinding federal support for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, Middlebury President Laurie L. Patton and Chief Diversity Office Miguel Fernández notified the community that Middlebury would “stand by our students, protect their rights, and continue to provide them an outstanding education. We are proud of the accomplishments of our DACA students and will continue to support them in every way we can.”

Middlebury alumna Heather Vuillet Lende ’81 has written several books chronicling life in small-town Haines, Alaska. Recently, news broke in Hollywood that  a pair of her memoirs will serve as source material for a possible television series.

Opening the season with a win is always nice, but landing a highlight on ESPN’s Sportscenter’s “Top Ten Plays of the Day?” Well done Shams Mohajerani ’20 and Middlebury Men’s Soccer.

We recognize that unless you have been living under a rock, you are aware of the solar eclipse that occurred this week. But we doubt that you’ve seen an image sequence as stunning as the one above, which was captured by Middlebury’s Jonathan Kemp at the Mittelman Observatory on the roof of Bicentennial Hall.

You know what’s also really cool? Our colleagues over in Special Collections have digitized more than 120 volumes of the student yearbook Kaleidoscope, a collection that goes all the way back to the issue from the 1873-1874 academic year. Be forewarned: before diving in, make sure you have ample time to browse. This is a very deep and extensive rabbit hole to descend.

The Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival opens today, Thursday, and will run through the weekend. Several Middlebury alums will be debuting their films. In addition, the festivities include a tribute to legendary direction Robert Altman; a conversation with journalist and screenwriter Dick Lehr; as well as what should be an unforgettable experience: the festivals first virtual-reality exhibition. If you’re in the area, tickets are still available.

The Vermont alt-weekly Seven Days recently published a terrific piece about artist Sabra Field ’57 and the Middlebury College Art Museum’s summer exhibit of some of her best work: “Sabra Field, Now and Then: A Retrospective.” The exhibit closed on August 13, but if you didn’t get a chance to check it out, you shouldn’t totally despair. The linked story does a very nice job of, well, painting the scene for you.

Film and media culture prof David Miranda-Hardy has a hit television series on his hands. The Latin American political thriller “Bala Loca”—now streaming on Netflix—was tabbed by the New York Times as a must-watch show earlier this month. Miranda-Hardy recently sat down with Hollywood trade magazine Variety for an interview about the hit series.

The Bread Loaf School of English recently held its 2017 Commencement exercises. Fifty-one students received their advanced degrees at a celebratory ceremony held up on the Mountain.

Following the horrific events that unfolded in Charlottesville, Virginia, last week, Middlebury President Laurie Patton issued a statement in which she condemned the racism, hatred, and violence on display near the University of Virginia campus.

You might have heard: a rare solar eclipse will occur next week. If you’re looking for information about the natural phenomena and are in need of tips on how to safely view the event, look no further than Middlebury’s telescope specialist Jonathan Kemp.

Former Middlebury basketball standout and current NBA executive Koby Altman ’04 has received a plum promotion—he is now the general manager for the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers. After graduating from Middlebury a little more than a decade ago, Altman has coached collegiately (Amherst, Southern Illinois, Columbia) and worked as a manager of pro player personnel and assistant GM for the Cavaliers before he was tapped by Cleveland owner Dan Gilbert to lead the front office of one of the league’s premier teams.

More than 100 Middlebury undergraduate researchers offered the community a snapshot of what they’ve been working on recently at the 2017 summer research symposium. The showcase represented more than 42,000 hours of work spanning 22 academic disciplines, as well as STEM and Digital Liberal Arts projects.

Speaking of a lot of work—the College’s facilities crews and a bevy of local contractors have been busy with annual summer maintenance on campus. Just reading about what they have accomplished is enough to make one exhausted.

North Korean nuclear weapons can hit the United States. That’s what Middlebury Institute scholar Jeffrey Lewis tells us in a recent New York Times op-ed. Spoiler alert: This essay is not a feel-good story.