College Street

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See the Evil

Consider the following:

The Oklahoma City bombing—a 2.3-ton explosion—tore apart a nine-story government office complex in seconds.

The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 generated a blast powerful enough to melt skin off the human body and dissolve an entire cityscape into nothingness; it was the equivalent of 13,000 tons of explosives.

It takes just one modern nuclear warhead to generate force equal to 100,000 to 300,000 tons of explosives.

With these facts in mind: Should we be concerned that two-thirds of the top 73 undergraduate colleges and universities in the U.S. do not offer courses addressing the issues of weapons of mass destruction or the concepts of nonproliferation? Should we be concerned that the brightest young minds in America do not know how many nuclear warheads the U.S. military has in active service or the fact that a modern nuke generates a blast that is a thousand times more violent than the attacks that toppled the World Trade Center?

At a recent academic conference on nonproliferation studies, one lecturer opened his presentation with the revelation that when he asked his class how many nuclear weapons the United States had in its arsenal, one student replied: probably about ten. The answer? Oh, 30,000 or so.

The conference, “Enhancing Global Security through Education,” took place on the Middlebury campus in late June and was organized by both Middlebury and its affiliate, the Monterey Institute of International Studies. For four days, secondary school teachers and college and university professors decamped to McCardell Bicentennial Hall to guage the level of academic discourse on nonproliferation issues across the country (virtually nil), to debate the merits of devoting time and resources to such efforts (emphatically high), and to discuss the most effective means of rectifying the deficiency (cautiously encouraging).

Lectures ranged from the grim (Frank Settle, a chemistry professor from Washington and Lee University, related that the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system would have been infinitely more deadly if there had been a more modern ventilation system to carry the poisonous fumes) to the incredible (Stephen Schwartz, the editor of The Nonproliferation Review at Monterey’s Center for Nonproliferation Studies, talked of how he and several colleagues walked into an unguarded nuclear weapons facility in Russia and saw the seemingly infinite warehouses filled with nuclear waste). It was this sobering story that brought the discussion full circle: Last year, a practice decontamination exercise involving just 20 victims at the Oakland Coliseum in California, took three times as long as was anticipated to complete; at full capacity, the ballpark holds 60,000 people.

“Generally speaking, it is important for college students to seek out courses that consider several of these topics to gain a better appreciation for how today’s world functions,” stated Bob Cluss, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Middlebury. “Courses on nonproliferation meet this curricular need, while also introducing a topic of grave concern to us all. The proliferation of WMD, especially the possible development or acquisition of nuclear weapons by non-nuclear states or terrorist groups, and the use of other tactics such as chemical and biological weapons are a serious threat to global stability and security.”Cluss, one of the primary organizers of the conference, often teaches a first-year seminar on chemical weapons. Elsewhere on the Middlebury campus, Michael Geisler, dean of the Language Schools and professor of German, leads a course on terrorism, and political science professor David Rosenberg teaches Jihad vs. McWorld, a course examining the political science of Western culture’s ubiquitous presence in the Middle East.

As Cluss explains, “In a topic as multidimensional as this one, you not only require a group of people with far-ranging fields of expertise but also people who are deeply rooted in those fields.” Yet Middlebury’s curriculum seems to be the stark exception to the rule—across the higher ed and secondary school landscape, few schools are paying much attention to an issue that is one of the world’s primary concerns.

“Conferences like the one held in Middlebury this past June are important in providing interested college and university faculty with the opportunity to increase their knowledge, gather information and resources, and make new contacts,” Cluss added. “All this is critical in helping to build new courses and enrich existing courses that involve nonproliferation as a theme.”

There’s reason for cautious optimism. As the conference adjourned on a sunny June afternoon, participants strolled to their cars, in large groups and small, and chatted excitedly about the courses they would seek to add to the curriculum back at their respective schools. —Alex Crumb ’07

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Observed

• Around 1,300 Language Schools students were on campus from mid-June to mid-August. Of course, the Language Pledge was in effect, which meant that just about anywhere you went in town you’d hear snippets of conversation in French, Russian, Chinese, Portuguese, Arabic, German, Japanese, and Italian.
• A College-sponsored symposium on terrorism and the mass media held on campus on the last day of July couldn’t have been more timely. Convened by the Language Schools, the day-long event featured lectures and an in-depth panel discussion with journalists and political strategists.
• This summer marked the 92nd summer session of the Language Schools, which concluded August 18 with graduation ceremonies in Mead Chapel. Around 170 master’s degrees were awarded to students of French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish; three people received doctorates in modern languages. Jane Edwards, Yale’s associate dean of international affairs, received an honorary degree and delivered the commencement address. Russian scholar and philanthropist Kathryn Wasserman Davis also received an honorary degree and was part of the biggest announcement of the day—that the Russian School would henceforth be called the Kathryn Wasserman Davis School of Russian.
• Up on the mountain, 238 students spent the summer months studying at the Bread Loaf School of English’s Ripton campus. This year, 84 students (world-wide) were awarded an M.A. in English…Work is well under way in the top-to-bottom renovation of Hillcrest Hall. This $4 million project will result in the nearly 10,000-square-foot Hillcrest Environmental Center, which will serve as the central location for the College’s Program in Environmental Studies and the Office of Environmental Affairs. Work on Hillcrest is scheduled to be completed by next June.
• The other major construction project on campus, the Donald Everett Axinn ’51 Center for Literary and Cultural Studies at Starr Library, continues on schedule. Work on the $31 million center will continue through September 2008.
• Middlebury has been recognized as one of the 100 best campuses for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students. The College will be included in The Advocate College Guide for LGBT Students, the first comprehensive guide to offer such a list in the U.S.
• Middlebury’s Chinese department turns 30 this year. Around the time of this issue’s publication, the Chinese department held a conference at Bread Loaf celebrating the anniversary with panel discussions, meet-and-greets with current faculty members, and a gala banquet.
• The Deanery has a new name and function. The brick house on College Street is now the Max Kade Center for German Studies. During the academic year, the center will be both a residence and activity site for the German department and international studies program; during the summer, the space will accommodate German School activities.
• The Class of 2010 arrived on campus just after Labor Day. Of the 560 first years enrolling in the fall, just over half are public school graduates and more than three-quarters come from outside New England.
• Kelly Brush ’08, the Middlebury skier who sustained a severe spinal cord injury last winter, has returned to campus, after spending the past three months rehabilitating in Colorado. Brush has regained the use of her arms, as well as feeling above her chest.
• Tis the season for college rankings. In the 2006 U.S. News & World Report rankings, Middlebury moved up to 5th from 8th among liberal arts colleges; in the Princeton Review, the College claimed the top spot in the category “Professors Get High Marks,” and also nabbed ratings in several other categories.
• The Dog Team Tavern, a popular eating spot for generations of Middlebury students and parents, was destroyed in a fire in the early morning hours of September 1. More than 70 firefighters battled the blaze that gutted the building and took the life of the owner, Christopher Hesslink.
• The annual Clifford Symposium occurred during the last weekend of September. The topic was “Urban Landscapes: The Politics of Expression.” Among the highlights: urban historian Timothy Gilfoyle discussing the politics of architecture and civic space in his hometown of Chicago and an energetic performance in McCullough by the Welfare Poets, a New York-based collective of activist musicians.

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Go Figure

560: Number of first-years who arrived on campus this fall

46: Number of states represented in the Class of 2010

39: Number of countries represented in the Class of 2010

75: Number of international students in the Class of 2010

1: Number of oboe players in the Class of 2010

53: Percentage of first-years who attended public high school

76: Percentage of first-years who are not from New England

82: Percentage of first-years who were in the top 10 percent of their high school class

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Nature, Unveiled

Come January, visitors to the College’s Museum of Art can retrace the path of Lewis and Clark’s renowned expedition and wonder at 200 years of relentless destruction of our nation’s natural beauty.

Robert Adams’s “Turning Back: A Photographic Journal of Re-exploration” is a dramatic and emotionally engaging exhibit of resounding impact. The collection of 164 photos, newly acquired by the museum through the support of distinguished art collectors and Middlebury parents Kathy and Richard S. Fuld Jr., is one of only three that Adams printed. (Yale University and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art house the others.) The Fuld gift includes funds to support additional programming related to the exhibition.

Inspired by the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark 1804 expedition, Adams examined the same Oregon landscape that the explorers once described as a vast forest of ancient evergreens. While their journals may recount thickly wooded mountain ranges and 200-foot trees rounding 10 feet in diameter, Adams captures a vastly divergent scene. The collection provides a haunting commentary on the ambiguous and disturbing relationship America has with its forests. While many of the images are an indictment of landscape abuse, others hint at nature’s resilience and foster hope for the future.

From panoramic scenes of ravaged scrapes of land to detailed images of decayed trunks left for dead, yet heroically sprouting sprigs of weedy life, Adams traces a history of reckless logging and deforestation. Ancient ponderosa trunks are uprooted and abandoned, eerily evocative of giant monster claws. An aerial view of logs carelessly stacked by the hundreds looks more like a half-finished game of pick-up-sticks. Machinery that, according to Adams, could “cut, delimb and stack trees in mere minutes” is often partially drawn into the scene, suggesting some, but not all, responsibility.

Yet Adams also celebrates hope within his own expedition. A grand old tree or re-emerging river looms large in images that are often repeated with a mere angle change or slight crop, as if to underline their resiliency against the odds. A wheelbarrow overflowing with freshly harvested apples recalls fundamental sustenance. And regal Lombardy poplars—trees known for their inherent fragility—stand tall through Adams’s eyes.

Turning Back will be exhibited in January 2007 in the Middlebury College Museum of Art’s Christian A. Johnson Gallery. The museum is free and open to the public, Tuesday through Friday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, from noon to

5 p.m. It is closed Mondays. Parking is available in the Center for the Arts parking lot.

— Blair Kloman, M.A. English ’94

For further information, please call 802-443-5007 or visit www.middlebury.edu/museum

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College Taps Posse Administrator to Lead Diversity Initiatives

Shirley Ramirez is no stranger to challenges.

The daughter of Dominican immigrants, she was the first in her family to attend college when she enrolled at Vanderbilt in the fall of 1989. That autumn, she was a member of the first “Posse” class—students recruited from urban public high schools by the Posse Foundation to form a multicultural team and to attend top universities and colleges nationwide.

Ramirez was also the first Posse scholar to receive a doctorate, and she would eventually return to the foundation as its executive vice president.

In January, Ramirez will take on a new challenge—as Middlebury’s dean for institutional diversity. In addition to leading the effort to recruit and retain a faculty, staff, and student body of varied backgrounds and interests, Ramirez will be charged with ensuring that diversity issues are an integral component of all College initiatives and strategic planning.

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An Honor, by Large Degree

For the first time in its 92-year history, one of the Language Schools has received a commemorative name.

At this summer’s Language Schools Commencement exercises, President Ronald D. Liebowitz announced that the Russian School would be named the Kathryn Wasserman Davis School of Russian, in honor of the longtime philanthropist and Russian scholar.

“Mrs. Davis has dedicated her life to furthering international education and appreciation for Russian affairs,” Liebowitz said during the ceremony. “The Kathryn Wasserman Davis School of Russian will continue its stellar tradition of providing students with the finest intensive language experience possible.”

Davis first traveled to Russia in 1928. Riding on horseback through the Caucasus Mountains, subsisting on spit-roasted mountain goats and wild berries, Davis joined an anthropologist in search of an obscure Muslim tribe. She would later earn a doctorate in international relations from the University of Geneva and publish a dissertation on the Soviet Union’s relationship with the League of Nations.

Davis, who was on hand to receive an honorary degree, later announced that she would contribute $2 million to fund a pair of major international studies initiatives. Half of the money will fund what Davis calls “100 Projects for Peace,” in which she invites students at the 70-plus colleges and universities participating in the Davis United World College Scholars Program to design grassroots projects for peace that they will implement around the globe during the summer of 2007. The second initiative, “100 Scholarships for Peace,” will provide $10,000 grants to 100 students at Middlebury and the Monterey Institute for International Studies for the study of languages and related global issues during the summer of 2007.

In September, Liebowitz formally invited Middlebury students to participate in the project. “I encourage those of you who never thought about the prospects for world peace to pursue this initiative,” he wrote in an all-campus announcement. “The creativity that Middlebury seeks to identify and support in implementing this program should be reflected in the way you link your individual strengths to the challenges of world peace.”

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Faster Than a Locomotive

Middlebury College physics professor Frank Winkler recently teamed up with Robert Petre of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center to clock a neutron star traveling at an eye-popping 1,500 kilometers per second. Neutron stars—city-sized spheres that are remnants of stars destroyed in supernova explosions—are typically recorded traveling at speeds of hundreds of kilometers per second. Until Winkler’s and Petre’s discovery, the fastest neutron star was shown to be moving at 1,100 km/s.

To put things in perspective, check out how the fastest neutron star matches up with other, more familiar, objects:

Turtle: 0.17 mph

Human: 18 mph

Cheetah: 70 mph

Car: 252 mph

Jet Aircraft (Lockheed SR-71): 2,190 mph

Neutron Star: 3.35 million mph*

* Calculated conversion of a neutron star traveling 1,500 km/s

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Labor Day Parade

It has been called the single largest demonstration in the United States on climate change.

John Elder, professor of English and environmental studies at Middlebury, also owns and operates a sugarbush.

“In almost 20 years of working on global warming, I’ve never had a day when I felt as hopeful,” said Middlebury scholar-in-residence and noted environmentalist Bill McKibben. Joined by a number of Middlebury faculty—including English professor John Elder, who read Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” at both the kick off and close of the rally—McKibben struck upon the idea of a march earlier in the summer. “An amazing array of people” had been working on climate change for nearly 20 years, he said, but the climate-change movement had not propelled people into the streets. “That’s about to change.”

Will Bates ’06, an environmental studies graduate, was one of the first to embrace McKibben’s idea, and he served as one of the event’s main organizers. “This is not a partisan event, nor is concern about global warming confined to ‘environmentalists,’ ” Bates told the Addison Independent in late August. “We are parents and grandparents and young people facing lifetimes on a warming planet. We are people of faith and secular people devoted to the common good.”

By the time the marchers had arrived in Burlington, after staging rallies on town greens along the way and holding spirited discussions in churches and on local farms, they had garnered quite a bit of attention. On hand in Battery Park were all the Vermont candidates for the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives, Republicans, Democrats, and Independents, alike, as well as the Democratic candidate for governor. One by one, they ascended a stage, grabbed a giant Sharpie marker, and added their signature to a pledge to support legislation authored by retiring U.S Senator James Jeffords that would cut carbon emissions by 85 percent by 2050.

Reason for hope, indeed.