At an all-campus meeting in Mead Chapel on Nov. 18, John McCardell told an audience of Middlebury students, faculty, staff, members of the town community, and others that he will step down as College president at the end of June 2004. Churchill Franklin, chair of the board of trustees, praised McCardell's leadership, noting many of the tangible indications of his accomplishments over the years.
The announcement received coverage in local media as well as in The New York Times, on Boston.com, and on the Associated Press wire. Locally, the Burlington Free Press and the Addison Independent ran editorials praising McCardell for his exemplary leadership of the institution over the past dozen years, and for his role in making the College an influential and beneficial presence in the local and state community.
Franklin announced the formation of a search committee to choose McCardell's successor, stating that he hoped to complete the search before the end of the spring semester. For more information, see /about/pubaff_port/psearch.
Millions of television viewers were treated to an emotional moment when they watched a 10-minute feature called "Picking Up Butch" about Middlebury College friend and local resident Butch Varno on ESPN's "SportsCenter" on Sunday, Dec. 7, and at various other times in the following days. The segment was a moving portrayal of the longtime tradition among Middlebury College athletes of making sure the Middlebury native gets from his apartment to home football and basketball contests. Varno has cerebral palsy that confines him to a wheelchair, and over the past 40 years Middlebury students have maintained a tradition of picking up Butch. ESPN came to the Middlebury campus twice this fall to gather footage and interviews for the piece. For additional information, see http://cat.middlebury.edu/sports/.
The finale of the "Jeopardy" College Championship on Nov. 21 was another big television moment for Middlebury College, as Keith Williams '07 claimed ultimate victory after defeating all comers in the two-week tournament. Williams, who hails from Manchester Center, Vt., walked away from the show in possession of $50,000, a new Volvo, and a $50,000 scholarship for Middlebury.
As college champion, Williams is eligible to return to the show during the annual tournament of champions.
Middlebury is among a group of colleges receiving accolades in the Dec. 15 issue of Business Week magazine for launching one of the "Best Products of 2003." The product, Independent 529 Plan, is a tax-advantaged plan for families to save for tuition at over 200 participating private colleges. For more information, see http://www.independent529plan.org.
"Spin," a film based on a novel written by Don Axinn '51, was shown on the Middlebury College campus in November. The film marks the directorial debut of James Redford, son of actor and director Robert Redford. James Redford, who attended the Middlebury showing, also wrote the screenplay for the movie, a coming-of-age story set in the West in the 1950s. Axinn co-produced the film with Elaine Rogers, a Boston-based entertainment lawyer. "Spin's" premier was in Mill Valley, Calif., in October and the film is being shown at film festivals.
Commenting on what attracted him to Axinn's book, Redford said, "[The story] affirms our ideas of America in the 1950s while simultaneously challenging them."
Axinn was a real estate developer before becoming the author of two novels and seven collections of poems. He has a small role as a service station owner in the film, but what really excited him is the amount of flying he was able to do during filming in his own Navy Stearman biplane.
Last summer, Ed Francis '05, Sudbury, Mass., Mike Lin '05, Shelton, Conn., and Jeff Stauch '05, Avon, Conn., put together a fledgling enterprise to sell college textbooks online. They marketed their service to Middlebury students, hoping to help them save money on the books they needed for fall.
Living in different communities and each working a full time job, Ed, Mike, and Jeff met frequently online over the summer, and got together on weekends. They offered their clients a 15 percent discount from retail, and then shopped online for the best price they could find, counting the difference as profit or loss. They marketed the service by e-mailing friends and asking them to e-mail other friends, offering a two-dollar finder's fee for referrals.
Books were shipped to Middlebury through fellow student Conner Stinson '06, who lives in nearby Cornwall. They were packaged and delivered to clients' dorm rooms well in time for fall courses.
With all of the work and time involved and the inconvenience in establishing and running the operation, the remuneration was modest, to say the least. But personal profit was not a motive. The intention was to benefit deserving nonprofit organizations in Middlebury, focusing on those with literary programs.
In early December, the proceeds from the enterprise—about $500 total—were split between the Middlebury Head Start program, to purchase books for its facility, and the Page 1 Literacy Project, a program aimed at encouraging children to read. The group established a Web site at http://www.middbooks.com that provides more information.
Three recent tidbits from the media involving Middlebury:
A Nov. 26 Associated Press story states that Middlebury College receives a portion of the royalties—21 percent—every time the song "I'll Be Home For Christmas" is played on the radio, in movies, or on television. This gift is thanks to a generous alumnus who attended the college for one year and then went on to graduate from St. Lawrence, which also benefits from his generosity. The article states, "The song's lyricist, J. Kimball 'Kim' Gannon, stipulated in his will that 30 percent of the royalties from his songs go to St. Lawrence upon the death of his wife. His wife died in 2000."
The College also got a mention in the Nov. 10 issue of Newsweek magazine in an article titled "Howard Dean's Southern Swing." The story describes the early Dean campaign: "Launched on the Web, run from an office park in woodsy Burlington, the Dean campaign at first had the feel of an Internet start-up in a Middlebury College dorm."
On Saturday, Nov. 8, the lead article in the Living/Arts section of the Boston Globe, "Let's twist again," mentions the resurgence in popularity of the Rubik's Cube and Dan Knights '01, a speed-cubing world champion who first picked up a cube in 1999 as a student at Middlebury.
The seasonal accoutrements at Middlebury include the lighted holiday tree that beacons decoratively from the center of campus, the tradition of Lessons and Carols held on Dec. 7 in Mead Chapel, and students barely glimpsing the holiday scene as they prepare for and take their final exams. Snow graces the campus, and the mood is one of optimism for the new year.