College Street

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Close Call

On the last Monday in January, the artist Chuck Close stared down about 25 people in a cavernous space in the Johnson building.

He sported glasses that Woody Allen would envy, and his stringy hair was a disheveled mess. A cigarette dangled from his mouth, and he looked just a little bit stoned; maybe it wasn't a cigarette he was smoking.

The 15 or so students and assembled faculty and staff couldn't keep their eyes off Close. When staring into his dull brown eyes became too intense, people would glance away, but then they came right back to that face, that iconic image. Close never blinked.

Chuck Close disappeared.

The giant screen onto which the self-portrait of the artist, circa 1968, had been projected went dark, momentarily.

Another giant head appeared. This time a Polaroid portrait of the painter Lucas Samaras filled the screen.

"This is classic work by Close," said Alexxa Gotthardt '08, who was standing behind a lectern positioned off to the side at the front of the room. At her fingertips was a laptop, which was running a PowerPoint presentation of the artwork. "This intimate analysis of the human face is Chuck Close."

The Close portrait of Samaras was one of six works of art the students were considering to acquire for the collection of the College Museum of Art. For the past six years, the museum's chief curator, Emmie Donadio, has overseen an acquisition program centered on contemporary photography, film, and video. The students in her winter term curatorial practicum spend the month of January researching specific works and visiting galleries (mainly in New York), where they view the art. A list of 40 artists and specified works is whittled down to about 16, before six are chosen for the final presentation.

In 1999, Marianne Boesky '89, an art dealer in New York City, reached an agreement with the College to donate a sum of money each year for five years to be used for art acquisition. (She also agreed to meet with the students annually and offer insight about the market.) In 2005, Boesky decided to continue her annual support of the program, and the College agreed to match her donation dollar for dollar, doubling the pool of money available to the students. So while Donadio's class examined photographs by Chuck Close, Robert Mapplethorpe, Shirin Neshat, Elger Esser, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and Rineke Dijkstra, they knew they had a shot at acquiring several significant pieces of art.

After works by all six artists had been presented, Donadio distributed ballots for an initial round of voting. There was some confusion on how the voting should occur—should people vote for a specific artist? Or a specific work of art? (In some cases, more than one work of art by the artist was available for purchase. There were two Mapplethorpes under consideration, for example.) After some discussion, the students decided to vote on individual pieces, assigning each work a 1, 2, or 3, with 3 carrying the highest value. The votes would be tallied, and those works with the highest scores would jump to the top of the list.

Money had not yet come up. Donadio explained later that she didn't want students' artistic judgments clouded by "what they could get at X price."

While the students pondered their choices, Boesky offered advice: "This diptych could be any photographer," she said, gesturing toward a Dijkstra photograph. "You wouldn't look at this and know this is a Dijkstra. It's not as powerful as some of her others . . . I like these Mapplethorpe images. You chose images that are controversial enough, without going so far that, well, without going too far.

"Keep in mind," she continued, "this is a discipline. If you want a certain artist, you'll want to acquire something that defines that artist's agenda."

With the voting completed, museum manager Doug Perkins collected the ballots and walked over to a giant blackboard at the front of the room, where art history professor Pieter Broucke and museum program coordinator Andrea Solomon were waiting to tally the results. For the next 20 minutes, as the votes went up on the board, the students' eyes were glued to Broucke and Solomon; occasionally, cheers and groans could be heard.

After the first ballot, one of Mapplethorpe's photographs had received the most votes, followed by works from Neshat, Sugimoto, Close, and Dijkstra. Then the prices were disclosed and the haggling began.

The top three choices—a Mapplethorpe photograph of a nude model; a still photograph of praying Muslims, which Neshat took on the set of one of her films; and a Sugimoto underwater diorama all fit within the budget.

With some money remaining, attention turned to Close's portrait of Lucas Samaras and the Dijkstra triptych of a young girl. Both pieces had their champions, but the budget allowed for only one. After much debate, Close won out.

"It was interesting to watch," Donadio later said, "because of the context in which [the students] had to make a decision. Not only were they looking at the pieces with an eye toward the market, but they also had to consider what was already in our collection.

"It's a terrific exercise—but with very real results."

— Matt Jennings

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A Taste of Vermont

The maple syrup that has been drizzled over pancakes and waffles in Procter since the 1980s now bears a Middlebury label.

Hillsboro Sugarworks, the maker of pure Vermont maple syrup, has partnered with the College to produce pint-sized containers of the sweet stuff; each jug bears a Middlebury College label, explaining the school's mission of supporting local agriculture and detailing the syrup's legacy in the College dining halls.

Individual containers are available for sale through the Middlebury College store (go.middlebury.edu/store), and bulk orders can be purchased through Hillsboro Sugarworks (www.hillsborosugarworks.com).

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Milfoil: Fear the Weevil

Last summer, on a clear, sunny day in Fairfield, Vermont, Middlebury biology professor Sallie Sheldon donned a wetsuit, slipped beneath the flat surface of Fairfield Pond, and prepared to unleash havoc on Eurasian milfoil, the thick, invasive weed that infested what had once been a pristine body of water.

Sheldon was armed with, well, more milfoil, which had been taken from the pond earlier in the summer. This milfoil, however, had spent some time in a large glass tank in the greenhouse of Warner Hall, where it had been laced with aquatic-weevil eggs.

Aquatic weevils are tiny beetles—about half the size of a grain of rice—that enjoy feasting on, you guessed it, milfoil. While the milfoil was being cultivated in the greenhouse, Sheldon and a pair of student researchers—Julie Erickson '08 and Lincoln resident and Colby College student Jess Lueders-Dumont—introduced dozens of adult weevils to the tank. "Weevils are egg-laying machines," Sheldon says, and weevils had laid eggs by the thousands, which then latched onto the weeds. By returning the egg-laden weeds to their natural habitat, Sheldon expected the soon-to-be-hatched weevils to start a life cycle that would eventually introduce enough insects to the pond to bring the milfoil infestation under control.

In addition to her work in Vermont, Sheldon has partnered with an Ohio-based environmental group, EnviroScience Inc., which is taking the weevil act on the road.

Nicknamed Middfoil, the weevil introduction project has been established in more than 60 lakes and ponds in 12 states nationwide, as well as one Canadian province.

Locally, Sheldon plans to return to Fairfield and to lakes in Fairlee and Craftsbury this spring. And once again she'll come armed with insects smaller than a grain of rice—ready to continue her battle with the weeds beneath the surface.

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Special Collections

On July 4, 1845, Henry David Thoreau left the comforts of home in Concord, Massachusetts, to conduct an experiment. For 26 months, he lived in a hand-built cabin on the edge of Walden Pond, subsisting on the barest of essentials while pondering the divinity he was sure existed within himself and his surroundings. The result of his ruminations was a masterwork of American literature—a treatise on the environment, simplicity, and human nature that still resonates today.

Walden was published in 1854, eight years after Thoreau left the woods to return to civilization. Decades later, Viola White, Middlebury's curator of the Abernethy Collection and a Thoreau devotee, would seize an opportunity to purchase a one-of-a-kind edition, one whose real and symbolic worth to the College would be the highest of any acquisition made before or since.

Thoreau's personal copy of Walden is surprisingly small, bound neatly in brown cloth and inscribed inside the front cover "Henry D. Thoreau." Marginalia, written in pencil and often illegible, dot its pages. The majority of annotations are corrections of typographical errors and factual information, which were incorporated into later editions; others are simply Thoreau's thoughts on the text.

White purchased the book in February 1940 from the estate of an American literature collector. Then, it cost $2,000; today, its value can only be speculated.

Thoreau's Walden is a part of the College's Abernethy Collection—named for Julian Abernethy, Class of 1876, who was an American literature scholar and bequeathed his 7,000-volume personal library to the College upon his death in 1923. Widely regarded as including one of the foremost assemblages of Thoreau materials in the nation, the Abernethy Collection includes letters and rare first editions, such as Thoreau's personal copy of A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, as well as the inkwell the author used in penning Walden.

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Go Figure

6,187: Number of students who applied for a place in the Class of 2010

18: Percentage increase over last year's applicant pool

23: Percentage increase in applicants from the South, compared to last year

20: Percentage increase in applicants from the Mid-Atlantic, compared to last year

0: Number of geographic regions where the percentage of applicants decreased

828: Number of applications from international students

790: Number of applications from international students last year

427: Number of applications from international students in 1995

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Test Your 19th-Century Nomenclature

In January, six students stepped back in time to identify, catalog, and ultimately exhibit a 200-year-old collection of scientific instruments. The time-warping experience was part of a winter term class called Early Scientific Instruments: Artifacts from Middlebury's First Century, which was co-taught by physics professor Frank Winkler and museum designer Ken Pohlman. Together they unlocked Middlebury's ancient trunks and cases.

Listed below are just a few of the items they found. See if you can match the ancient instrument with its common function. For answers, visit the exhibit Beauty, Ingenuity, and Function, which the students curated as the culmination of the course. It is currently featured in the Special Collections room of the library. Of course, if you can't make the trip to Middlebury, just e-mail us, and we'll give you the answers.

Instrument

1. Franklin Bells

2. Revolving Armature

3. Whirling Table

4. Gravity Balls

5. Palm Glass

6. LeclanchÈ Cell

7. Thermoscopy Vessels

8. Claude Lorrain Mirror

9. Camera Lucida

Function

a. A practical and portable prism device that allows artists to create quick and precise sketches

b. Uses air pressure to create a vacuum

c. Compares relative temperatures of materials

d. Delivers a shock of electromagnetism

e. Determines relative density of fluids

f. Helps artists to establish perspective in sketches

g. Demonstrates centrifugal force

h. A simple, lasting and inexpensive 1866 battery

i. Makes music of electrostatic energy 

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What's Spinnin' at WRMC?

An early spring survey of the WRMC radio charts reveals a steady diet of alternative music programming, which of course fits the bill for this College radio station.

For the week of March 6, the top 10 albums in heavy rotation were:

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Midd Skier Injured

"Her spunk and smile are reassuring."

These words, from those who have visited Kelly Brush '08, the Middlebury alpine skier who suffered severe spinal cord injuries during an event at the Williams Carnival in February, speak volumes about both her determined personality and her recent trauma.

Brush was competing in the women's giant slalom, when she missed a gate and slid off course, careening 100 yards before striking a chair lift tower. Her back bore the brunt of the impact.

After undergoing ten hours of surgery to realign her spinal column—the spinal cord was not severed—Brush regained use of her arms and reported feeling in her upper torso. This spring, Brush will be moving to Craig Hospital in Englewood, Colorado, where she will undergo further rehabilitation.

Kelly Brush's sister, Lindsay '07, is also a member of the Middlebury ski team, and her father, Charlie '69, both skied and coached at the College. 

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Hoop Dreams

Well, after bolting out of the gate like a horse with its tail on fire—the Panthers won its first seven games, the best start in school history—the rest of the season turned out to be an exercise in extreme frustration. In dropping its last six games, by a razor-thin margin of just 6 points per game, Middlebury finished the season 12–12, narrowly missing out on participating in the NESCAC tournament.

Yet Coach Jeff Brown has a lot to be excited about. Everyone on his young squad returns next year, including the NESCAC Rookie of the Year, Ben Rudin '09, who led the team in scoring (10.3 ppg), assists (4.7 apg), and steals (2.0 spg).

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Seven Signs of Spring

Spring comes slowly to the Champlain Valley, slowly enough to try the patience of even the most ardent winter enthusiast. But just when you're about to give up hope of ever feeling a breeze that caresses instead of one that stings, you notice a sign. Spring is coming. It might not be here yet, in all its glowing, skin-warming entirety, but it's on the way.

Editorial assistant Grace Kronenberg '06 canvassed the campus on a frigid March day to ask her peers when they know spring is beckoning.

When people start studying outside.
—Amy McCowan '08

When the skirts come out.
—Peter Wolkowski '07

And flip-flops.
—Jessica Hallett '06

When the sun is still up after dinner.
—Conor Stinson '07

When it's not really warm enough to do anything really fun outside, but it's no longer cold enough to do anything fun outside, either.
—David Coriell '06

When you walk outside, braced for the cold, and are pleasantly surprised by the temperature.
—Lelia Yerxa '06

Mud.
—Calvin Garner '06

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Panther Hockey, From A to Z

Okay, confession time. When it comes to covering the men's and women's hockey teams, we're running out of ideas. I guess that happens when the programs win a combined 13 national titles in 12 years, including three in a row—for each squad.

That said, we still have a few (hat) tricks up our sleeves. This year, we'd like to offer a glossary that should lend some insight on The Championship Season, Versions 8.0 (men) and 5.0 (women).

All-Americans

As in six Panthers, four on the women's side, two on the men's. If you're keeping score at home, the honorees are Emily Quizon '06, Kathryn Kogut '06, Shannon Tarrant '07, Annmarie Cellino '09, Jeff Smith '06, and Mickey Gilchrist '08

Bowdoin

Opponent of both the men's and women's teams in the NESCAC finals. (See Chip, The)

Chip, The

Home arena of the Panthers and site of both the men's and women's NESCAC finals, 3–1 and 8–2 (respectively) victories over Bowdoin. (See also Ice, Home)

D

Just D, shorthand for defense. The men's team boasted the nation's best defense this year, allowing just 1.54 goals per game.

Eight

As in 8–0, which is the men's record in national title games.

Four hours, 25 minutes, and 57 seconds

Amount of ice time that has elapsed since the men's team last allowed a goal in the title game.

Goals, Game-winning

As in five for Midd sophomore Mickey Gilchrist this season, good for second nationally.

Hunt, Darwin

The Midd junior was the organizer of Panther Pals, the 10 hockey players who mentored youngsters at the Ripton Elementary School. (See Maldonano, Sam)

Ice, Home

As in Chip Kenyon Arena, where the men's and women's teams dropped just two games (vs. 27 wins) all year. (See also Chip, The)

Jeffs, Lord

As in Amherst, the men's opponent in the final of the Middlebury Holiday Classic. The Panthers won the title match, 4–1, while goalie Doug Raeder '09 won MVP honors.

Kill, Penalty

At a .955 clip, the women's penalty kill mark was the nation's best.

LaFreniere, Eric

The junior's two power-play goals against UMass-Dartmouth in the NCAA quarterfinals powered the Panthers to a 3–1 victory.

Maldonado, Tom

The Middlebury sophomore was one of 10 Panthers who served as volunteer mentors at the Ripton Elementary School. (See also Hunt, Darwin)

Norbert, St.

The men's opponent in the national title game. Final score: 3–0.

Oh

As in 0–1, the men's record in overtime this year. (The Panthers fell to Norwich, 4–3, on February 3).

Plattsburgh

The women's foe in the national title game. Final: 3–1.

Quizon, Emily

This Midd senior tallied 21 goals and 19 assists and was named National Player of the Year by the American Hockey Association.

Record, School

With its 27–2 final record, the women tied the school's single-season mark, set by the 1999–2000 team.

Shootout, PrimeLink Great Northern

Potsdam, New York, tournament won by the men in November.

Two

As in number of seniors on the youth-laden men's squad.

Undefeated

As in the men's record in national title games; a perfect 8–0. (See also Eight)

Velez, Gloria

This Middlebury senior provided the margin of victory in the Panthers NCAA opening round win over Manhattanville, scoring Midd's fourth goal in what would be a 4–3 win.

Wins

And a lot of 'em—53, to be precise, between the men's and women's teams.

X-factor

Okay, we made this up. But we had to find some way to get in this odd fact: In the

title game, the Midd women scored three goals via a power play, a penalty shot, and while short handed.

Young

One adjective to describe the men's team, which featured 17 sophomores and first-years. (See also Two)

Zero

Goals allowed by net-minder Doug Raeder '09 in the national championship game.