MiddNews October 2005
A monthly update of news and events
from Middlebury College
Hurricane Relief
In a swift show of support for the many students who have found themselves without a campus this fall due to Hurricane Katrina, Middlebury College has welcomed nine visiting students to campus.
The College has provided fall-term spaces to eight students currently enrolled at Tulane University and one who attends Dillard University. Middlebury will not charge the students tuition. Instead, the College is asking that the students pay their home institution the fees that they would normally be charged to help Tulane and Dillard in the recovery process. If students have not yet paid their schools, Middlebury will work with them to help them make the fees available to their home institutions.
For more on this story, see: http://go.middlebury.edu/katrinarelief
In other Katrina-related news, Vermont Public Radio relates how a Middlebury junior helped to relocate an elderly New Orleans resident to Vermont.
And Middlebury alumna and CNN correspondent Jeanne Meserve '74 delivered what many are calling the report "that we all will remember" from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
For more on this story, see the CNN site, and a story at MediaBistro.
Milfoil: Fear the Weevil
For the past 15 years, Middlebury biology professor Sallie Sheldon has been studying how a tiny aquatic beetle can combat an invasive aquatic weed that has been choking ponds and lakes throughout the northeastern United States.
This summer, Sheldon took the battle to three Vermont ponds. For more, see: http://go.middlebury.edu/milfoil
There's a New Class in Town
So, what's the skinny on the Class of 2009? Last spring, 5,254 students applied for admission; just over 1,200 were admitted for fall enrollment, which means that only 24 percent of those who applied were admitted this fall. Of those 1,241 students, 555 accepted Middlebury's offer and arrived on campus this fall.
The incoming class represents 47 states and 42 countries; 75 percent of the Class of 2009 comes from outside New England. Among the first-years are 33 publications editors, 31 school or class presidents, and yes, one oboe player.
For more on the Class of 2009, see: http://go.middlebury.edu/profile?class2009
Survey Says!
They've become as much a barometer of the arrival of fall as changing leaves, pumpkins on porches and flowing mums: the annual publication of college rankings. U.S. News and World Report started the trend nearly three decades ago, and now the field is crowded with a bevy of periodicals that have joined the fray. So, what are people saying about Middlebury this year?
Newsweek considers the College to be the hottest college for International Studies.
U.S. News ranks Middlebury 8th among all liberal arts colleges; Washington Monthly places Middlebury 17th.
Middlebury rated an honorable mention among "America's Fittest Colleges" in Men's Fitness—and was ranked first among "The Fittest Small Colleges."
Golf Digest says Middlebury is one of the best colleges for golf—in the "academics first" category. The Panthers landed at number 11 for women and number 22 for men.
ES Turns 40
Middlebury's Environmental Studies program turns forty this year. A number of initiatives are under way to celebrate this anniversary, including the annual Clifford Symposium, which this year was titled "Renewal: Perspectives and Possibilities in an Age of Climate Crisis."
For more on the event, which took place in September, see: http://go.middlebury.edu/cliffford
Planning Proceeds
The College's planning process took a giant step forward with the formation of a Planning Task Force on Resources and Prioritization. Between commencement in May and Labor Day, the task force—comprised of the planning steering committee, President Liebowitz and the president's senior staff—met 19 times for nearly 50 hours. After studying reports submitted by 15 planning groups and reviewing data and responses from more than 4,000 surveys, the task force identified five broad themes that will serve as guides for the drafting of the final planning report.
For more, see the Planning web site.
A Matter of Degrees
Though summer has receded in the rearview mirror, we'd be remiss not to recognize all that occurred in the College's summer graduate programs this year.
The Bread Loaf School of English completed its 86th year by awarding 74 master's degrees on its four campuses this summer. For more on the School of English, see: http://go.middlebury.edu/blse?graduation2005
The Middlebury Language Schools awarded 150 degrees to Master of Arts candidates in French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish. Three candidates received doctorates in modern languages. Awards for distinguished study were presented to students in the schools of Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, and Portuguese. Egyptian actor Nour El-Sherif received an honorary degree and delivered the commencement address. For more on El-Sherif and on the commencement for the 91st summer session of Middlebury's language schools, see: http://go.middlebury.edu/ls?graduation2005
The prestigious Bread Loaf Writers' Conference concluded its 80th session in August. The fall issue of Middlebury Magazine, due out in late October, will feature a an inside look at the oldest writers' conference in the country, so keep an eye on your mailboxes.
Ticket to Cooperstown
The adage is familiar: It's harder to get into [fill in the blank] today than it used to be. Professional baseball players all say it's much harder now than it used to be to earn a ticket to Cooperstown and a spot in the Baseball Hall of Fame. But are they right? A pair of Middlebury grads, Richard Barfuss '03 and Robert Howard '03, and economics professor Paul Sommers attempted to discover whether or not this was true. Their findings appear in the current Journal of Recreational Mathematics and were reported in the weekly Science News online here. The answer may surprise you: http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20050730/mathtrek.asp
Let the Games Begin
The fall sports teams are off to a strong start this fall season. Here's a quick run down:
Men's soccer has jumped out a perfect 7-0 record, an unbeaten streak that includes sixth consecutive shutouts.
Women's soccer earned a tie and a win last weekend over Colby and Bowdoin, to improve its record to 3-2-2.
After dropping a 20-7 decision to Colby on Saturday, the football team has gotten off to a disappointing 0-2 start. The Panthers dropped a heartbreaking game in its opener, falling to Bowdoin, 21-20.
The field hockey team is off to a 5-2 start with wins over Connecticut College, Springfield, Tufts, Wesleyan, and Colby. The Panthers dropped a heartbreaking double-overtime match against Bowdoin, 2-1, on Sunday.
Women's cross country got off to a fast start with a first-place finish in the Middlebury Invitational, a third place finish at the Williams Invitational, and another first place finish at a Vermont Invitational. In the Vermont Invitational, which was held at Middlebury last weekend, the Panthers placed the top 16 runners in the race.
The men captured the top spot in the Vermont Invitational, as well, placing three runners in the top four.
Women's golf won the Middlebury Invitational last weekend, finishing ahead of Mt. Holyoke, St. Lawrence, Wellesley, Williams, and Bowdoin. The men's team has gotten off to a strong start, as well, finishing fifth (out of 24 teams) at both the Dartmouth invitational and Williams Invitational.
The tennis teams have started their fall season, as well. The women's squad is 3-0 with wins over Bates, Skidmore, and Tufts, while the men's team opened impressively at thee Middlebury invitational, placing five players in the eight singles finals matches.
Fresh off a 3-0 blanking of Union, the volleyball team takes a 7-4 record into its midweek match-up with Skidmore.
Up-to-date sports scores and news can be found at: http://go.middlebury.edu/athletics/
Let the Games Begin, Part II
A major exhibition featuring works spanning 2,000 years has opened at the Middlebury College Museum of Art. Asian Games: The Art of the Contest examines the art and legacy of games in Asia. Using actual games as well as paintings, prints, and decorative arts, the exhibition is the first to explore Asia as a source of games such as chess, Parcheesi, playing cards, and polo. The exhibition features more than 100 works of art from distinguished collectors—including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Royal Asiatic Society—and will be on view until December 11, 2005.
For more on Asian Games, The Art of the Contest, see: http://www.middlebury.edu/arts/museum/exhibitions/
Life on the Hill
Two Midd alums and current United States congressmen—Bill Delahunt '63 and Frank Pallone '73—will reflect on their careers in public service in an evening of conversation at Capitol Hill's Sonoma Wine Bar and Grill on October 26. The event is sponsored by the Washington, D.C., Chapter of the Middlebury College Alumni Association. For more information, please contact Sue Levine at slevine@middlebury.edu or visit: http://www.middlebury.edu/alumni/
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