MiddNews
Middlebury President John McCardell was named Vermonter of the Year for 2000 by the Burlington Free Press newspaper. The annual selection remains a secret until it appears as a full-page essay on the editorial page in the Jan. 1 edition.
The editorial this year described Middlebury as a national leader in higher education and praised McCardell for "restoring the school's stability, for dramatically expanding its contribution to the well-being of Vermont, and for performing this leadership in a civil and exemplary manner." The Free Press also listed contributions made by the College to the Middlebury community and the State of Vermont.
Past Vermonters of the Year include Noble Peace Prize winner Jody Williams, Darby Bradley of the Vermont Land Trust, and Rita Markley, who heads a program providing shelter for the homeless.
Another distinction recently garnered by President McCardell is his election to the NCAA's Division III Presidents Council. The 15 presidents of the council, representing different regions of the country, implement policies and strategize for the division.
National press attention has focused recently on aspects of Middlebury's admissions program. On Jan. 7, the Sunday New York Times "Education Life" section included a story about special admissions consideration given by elite colleges to outstanding athletes. The story described practices at institutions such as Middlebury, Williams, and Amherst that provide outstanding student athletes with the same kinds of preferential admissions consideration given to students who are members of underrepresented groups, those with talents in the arts, and children of alumni.
The article ran just prior to the publication of "The Game of Life," by James L. Shulman and Willam G. Bowen, which has created controversy within the higher education community. The book documents the academic performance of college athletes, and notes the impact on admissions and other aspects of college life of policies that place a heavy emphasis on the recruitment of student athletes.
Also admissions related is a story in U.S. News & World Report magazine that ran on Jan. 22. The article notes an increase in the numbers of early decision applicants who receive rejection letters rather than deferrals. The magazine reports that Middlebury rejected 14 percent of those who applied under its early decision program this year, compared with five percent two years ago. Like other colleges mentioned in the article, Middlebury chooses not to string unqualified students along.
Applications for the 550 spots in next year's entering class at Middlebury are currently running at more than 5,300, a new high for applications received.
In addition to regular courses from the catalog, nearly 70 workshops are offered during the College's winter term. Students are invited to broaden their horizons and/or develop a new interest by selecting from such offerings as ballroom dancing, beginning basketry, bridge, and both "toss" and "contact" juggling. The internationally inclined can learn to speak Norwegian or Swedish, or master Chinese and Japanese cooking "in four easy lessons." The Dream Poet course, according to the course description, will "invigorate your dream life, and tap this boundless reservoir of creativity, self-knowledge, and outright premonition."
The non-credit workshops are taught by Middlebury students, staff members, and area residents who are artists, hobbyists, or master practitioners.
Atwater Commons is slated to be the second to be developed among the five commons approved by the College's board of trustees in 1998. With Ross Commons currently under construction on the western edge of campus, plans for Atwater call for the construction of two new dormitories, supplementing housing space now provided in Allen, Coffrin, and Le Château. A new dining facility is also on the drawing boards for Atwater. One option would locate the dining facility in a copse of trees, where students would dine at treetop level looking into the woods through a wall of windows. College trustees will consider plans for Atwater at their February meeting.
In a recent speech to Middlebury business owners, Scott Pardee, Alan R. Holmes Visiting Professor of Monetary Economics, noted that some Middlebury seniors with job offers from Wall Street firms have had those offers withdrawn. He cited this as a possible sign that things are slowing down in some securities businesses.
As with much of the rest of the nation, Vermont has an old fashioned winter this year. Temperatures stay below freezing, the snow cover is replenished with regularity, sublime skiing conditions prevail, and the campus outdoor skating surface sustains ice. Some are invigorated by such conditions, and this writer cannot help but offer a favorite literary take on winter as rendered by the ever-apt Bard of Avon. Thus, "Winter," by William Shakespeare:
When icicles hang by the wall,
And Dick the shepherd blows his nail,
And Tom bears logs into the hall,
And milk comes frozen home in pail,
When blood is nipped, and ways be foul,
Then nightly sings the staring owl-
Tu-whit, Tu-who, a merry note,
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.
When all aloud the wind doth blow,
And coughing drowns the parson's saw,
And birds sit brooding in the snow,
And Marian's nose looks red and raw,
When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl,
Then nightly sings the staring owl-
Tu-whit, Tu-who, a merry note,
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.