Cook Commons Welcomes the Class of 2012!
From Pat Zupan, Commons Head:
Welcome to Cook Commons and the 2008-2009 academic year! We look forward to another year fostering the social, service, and academic initiatives of Cook students, faculty and staff affiliates, and the Middlebury campus and town at large. Committed to both "pleasure and intelligence," we plan to reprise our Cook signature events, such as our all-campus outdoor festivals, our opera trip to the New York City Opera, our Prom, and the Iron Chef competition. But our Commons Council and Res Life staff invites you yourselves to participate in building our community in ways interesting and alive to all of you.
As Commons head, I share with Coordinator Linda Schiffer and Dean Matt Carluzzo a great enthusiasm for student initiative in creating community, both among yourselves and across generational lines. We and our Commons Council support a wide range of activities, local and more ambitious.
Just to give you an idea of this range, in Cook we have sponsored or co-sponsored with other student organizations many local, "neighborhood" events: study breaks and coffee houses with live entertainment; bands and dances in Lower Forest and Pearsons (our two lounges); yoga, massage and meditation sessions; pictures and sharing with students returning from abroad; class scheduling sessions between first-years and upperclass students. Students have organized Human Rights Symposia and Film Series, as well as political discussions co-sponsored with the College Democrats and Republicans.
Students or students and faculty together have also taken initiative to support very high-profile speakers and performers, such as Senator James Jeffords of Vermont, presenting his new autobiography; Stephen Pinker, the linguistics expert from MIT; Wolfgang Ketterle, the Nobel Prize laureate in Physics in 2004; Malika Mokkadem, the noted feminist Algerian novelist and writer; and the internationally-noted Italian madrigal group La Venexiana.
As Commons Head, I have a College home that hosts student and intergenerational events, from hall brunches and dinners organized by FYC's or RA's and full-course, authentic meals prepared by the chefs of the Italian House and Club, to catered dinners for our speakers and other distinguished visitors. Our events largely focus on bringing students together with faculty, staff, and our distinguished visitors in a welcoming and comfortable setting.
In further developing our House and general Commons calendars, we look to you to bring forward to proposals for activities of all types that can create the community you want to live in. Your FYC's can explain how proposals for funding can be brought to either the Cook Commons Council and Tri-Chairs. We especially welcome the enthusiam of first-year students, who always bring new energy and ideas to our community. Come in to see us in the Commons Suite (150-151 Battell North) to chat, meet new people, talk about your day, and raid the candy bowl.