MiddNews
In addition to producing scholarly work, Middlebury College faculty members frequently respond to journalists seeking sources of expertise on current stories. Some recent examples follow.
Locally, Matt Dickinson, associate professor of political science, recently made a live appearance during a Burlington WCAX TV evening newscast to comment on Vermont's campaign finance law.
Visiting Scholar in Environmental Studies Bill McKibben was interviewed for a story on Nordic skiing by National Public Radio reporter Elizabeth Arnold, and later for a story about family size by NPR "Talk of the Nation" host Neal Conan. McKibben has also contributed essays recently to the Boston Globe and several other major newspapers.
David Colander, Christian A. Johnson Professor of Economics, was quoted by the Atlanta Journal and Constitution in a story about President Bush's State of the Union speech.
Jay Parini, D.E. Axinn Professor of Creative Writing, recently wrote essays that appeared in The New York Times and The Chronicle of Higher Education. A regular contributor to The Chronicle of Higher Education, Parini's most recent piece for it, "By Their Clothes Ye Shall Know Them," was reprinted in Australia's Sydney Morning Herald.
Professor of economics Paul Sommers' research on the Super Bowl theory of stock market behavior was cited in Robert O'Brien's Wall Street Journal column "Abreast of the Market," and in the Boston Globe.
David Bain, who teaches writing in Middlebury's English department, commented on charges of plagiarism leveled at author and historian Stephen B. Ambrose in The Washington Post.
Middlebury College ranks second on an annual list of all small colleges and universities producing Peace Corps volunteers, according to Peace Corps Chief of Staff Lloyd O. Pierson. The Peace Corps defines small colleges and universities as those schools with less than 5,000 undergraduates. In the Peace Corps' 41-year history, 382 Middlebury alumni have joined its worldwide effort. There are 22 Middlebury alumni currently serving in the Peace Corps.
Speaking at a February prayer breakfast in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Middlebury Visiting Minority Research Fellow Sholomo B. Levy noted that, in his memoirs, King stated that the person in his life who most influenced his public speaking ability was an alumnus of Middlebury College.
Gladstone Lewis Chandler was a 1926 African-American graduate of Middlebury, who received a master's from Harvard and taught for many years at Morehouse, King's alma mater. In the King biography "Let the Trumpet Sound: A Life of Martin Luther King," Stephen Oates also mentions Chandler's influence on King's speaking style.
Levy notes that King's powerful oratory has tended to overshadow the power of King's intellect in the eyes of some. Levy believes that King, though undeniably a dynamic orator, is distinguished most by his intellect, his remarkable thought processes, and his courage.
New information has come to light recently concerning Alexander Twilight, the first African-American to earn a degree at an American college or university, and a native Vermonter. Twilight graduated in 1823 from Middlebury College.
The Old Stone House Museum, Twilight's former home in Brownington, Vt., recently received a packet of his sermons that provided fresh insights about his life. In the absence of other documents written by Twilight, historians have previously depended on secondary sources for information about the Vermont teacher and preacher. The package included 16 sermons that were among the papers of James Strong, a Brownington native who became president of Carleton College in Northfield, Minn. They were sent to the museum by the Minnesota Historical Society in St. Paul.
Twilight was also the first African-American member of the Vermont General Assembly-and possibly of any state legislature in America. But his great accomplishment was that of educator. In 1834, he built, in two years, what must have seemed in its day a gargantuan granite school building that he named Athenian Hall. Athenian Hall was erected in the northernmost reach of the state without financial backing from the county and very little from within the village of Brownington.
The Orleans County Grammar School, also known as the Brownington Academy, remained in operation at Athenian Hall for 23 years. Strong, among whose papers the newly discovered sermons were found, was an alumnus of the Brownington Academy.
The Middlebury College admissions office has announced that it has dropped its requirement that families of returning students prepay a portion of the following year's fees. Known as a pre-enrollment deposit, the fee was collected in order to aid in planning student body size for the forthcoming academic year. According to Dean of Enrollment Planning Mike Schoenfeld, the fee no longer serves its purpose and has become an inconvenience for families.
In its Camp 2000 issue (March), Lacrosse Magazine ranks the Middlebury men's and women's lacrosse teams as its top preseason picks to be contenders for this year's NCAA post-season tournament championships. Coach Erin Quinn's men's squad is given an excellent chance to win its third straight national title. Missy Foote's women's team, which won championships in 1997, 1999, and 2001, is looking to follow up on last year's undefeated season and make a strong bid for a fourth championship in 2002.
When Middlebury student Zheng Lin was in Shanghai during Middlebury's January term, he picked up a copy of a current best seller in China, written by Lei Chen. He noticed that the book included photos and information about Middlebury College.
Lei Chen is a 2000 graduate of Middlebury who currently works as a financial analyst at Goldman Sachs in New York. In the book, she describes her experiences breaking into a career on Wall Street, and also includes accounts of her life as a student at Middlebury. Chen is reportedly working on a second book while she simultaneously pursues her career in the financial sector.
The reins of leadership at the College have been assumed temporarily by Ron Liebowitz, Middlebury's provost and current acting president. He is filling in for John McCardell for the next few months, while McCardell enjoys a brief respite.
While on leave from his duties as president, McCardell plans to complete an edited version of "Castle Dismal," a novella written in 1842 by William Gilmore Simms, and to catch up on reading from a list of books that he says have been languishing on his bedside table for far too long.
A Middlebury College icon is gone. On March 9, Erica Wonnacott, who was the College's dean of students for many years, died following a long battle with cancer. Remembered affectionately by generations of Middlebury alumni, Erica Wonnacott assumed the deanship during the period of student unrest of the early 1970s. She was known for her willingness to listen to students and to seek reasonable compromise when conflict appeared likely, yet she always worked to preserve the Middlebury traditions she cherished. She was remembered by family, friends, colleagues, and former students at a memorial service held on March 16 at the Congregational Church of Middlebury.