volume 29 Number 14 April 15, 2011

Stately Kitchel House, built in 1867, A Note to Our Readers is back in College hands This will be the final issue of MiddPoints in its current format. ravelers approaching the College from Middlebury village are greeted From now on, content that had today by two grand structures that were built in 1867 and sit across from been appearing in the monthly each other on College Street (Route 125). To the south is Twilight Hall, issue of MiddPoints will be posted Tthe brick three-story build- at Middlebury’s new “News & ing that served the town as Announcements” blog, which will the College Street School also take on the MiddPoints name. until the College purchased it in 1984. And to the Instead of submitting items to north, on the corner with Human Resources for MiddPoints, Weybridge Street, is Kitchel we ask that you now use the blog House – the new home to for any announcements you have for the Communications Office. faculty and staff. You can find the blog at go/announcements The building was named (if you’re not hooked up to the by the board of trustees to College network, it’s http:// honor its original owner go.middlebury.edu/announcements). and first inhabitant, Harvey And you can post your news items at Denison Kitchel, Class of go/announce (http://go.middlebury. 1835. Kitchel was the fifth edu/announce), after logging in with president of Middlebury your Middlebury user name and College (1866-1873) and password. Items will be approved the first alumnus to serve in daily and made public on the blog. that office. Originally from Once a week, on Monday mornings, Whitehall, N.Y., he was a we will e-mail faculty and staff a Congregational minister “digest” version of the content that for nearly 30 years before has been added in the past week. returning to Middlebury Please note that this new iteration of to assume the presidency in MiddPoints will not include 1866. Then and Now - Top photo shows Kitchel House in 1885; classified ads. bottom shows the house now after restoration. Seven years later Kitchel We hope this shift will make resigned informing the trustees that his “health and strength” were “unequal to information available in a more the cares and particular solicitudes of the presidency.” He later served six years on timely fashion, while also help- the Middlebury board of trustees and ing to cut down on all-faculty, all- lived until 1895 when, at the age of 83, he staff e-mail messages. If you have In this Issue died in the western hamlet of questions, please send them to Dansville. [email protected]. Thank you. ● Earth Day plant giveaway Friday, April 22 In 1873 Joseph Battell, Class of 1860, gave the College the funds to purchase ● Human Resources contacts the house from Kitchel. Middlebury was without a chief executive for two years ● Enhanced college website (1873-1875) until the board of trustees with CBA Blue elected Calvin Butler Hulbert as the College’s sixth president. Both Hulbert ● New Employees (1875-1880) and the seventh president, (Article continues on pg. 3) “Take Me to Your Office” Plant Italian School Giveaway April 22 to offer Italian All faculty and staff are invited to stop by the McCardell Bicentennial Hall lessons for Greenhouse (6th floor) on Earth Day, Friday, April 22, any time between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. to pick out a free plant. children This summer, the Italian School There will be spider plants, strawberry begonias, ivy, purple hearts, cape primrose will offer Italian lessons for chil- and more — all raised in the Greenhouse for this Earth Day event. dren ages 6 – 12. The lessons are open to children of faculty, staff, And if you know any students who would like a plant, tell them to be patient: and the community. The program there will be a “Take Me to Your (Dorm) Room” plant giveaway for students in will be directed by Nicole Librandi September. and Caterina Pierattini assisted by students of the Italian School. The project is made possible through a grant from the Environmental Council. If you have any questions, contact Robert Keren in the Communications Office. The program runs July 11–August 11, Monday through Thursday, 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. and will be limited to 10 students. The cost is $50.

For more information or to reg- ister, contact Kara Gennarelli, Faculty Grants Italian School Coordinator, [email protected] or Frank Winkler (Physics) has received funding from the National Aeronautics 443.5727. and Space Administration’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory General Observer Program for a project that involves collaborators from the Space Telescope Science Institute, Johns Hopkins University, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and the University of New South Wales, Australia. A long Chandra observation will be done to detect and measure properties of X-ray sources in the spiral galaxy M83, located 16 million light years away--a galaxy in which the rates of star formation, and destruction via supernovae, is unusually high. The goal is to study the life cycle of stars, and how they interact with the interstellar Automatic openers on medium to produce X-ray emission. handicap accessible doors Three Middlebury faculty members have been awarded fellowships by the Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation, which this year awarded only 21 fel- The *ADA-compliant automatic door lowships. These fellowships support faculty travel to expand their horizons and openers on campus are intended to assist improve their teaching. those with physical limitations. Doors are timed to remain open long enough Patricia Manley (Geology) will travel through the northwest , where to allow wheelchairs to pass through she will experience and photograph active volcanoes in the region’s national safely; therefore the doors remain open parks and the Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. These visits will inform longer than when opened manually. and enhance her teaching in three introductory-level Geology courses. Overuse can shorten the service life of Roberto Pareja (Spanish) will visit archives in Bolivia and Peru, where he will very specialized and costly mechani- collect print and photographic materials for a new interdisciplinary seminar titled cal components. If you have no physi- National Culture and Space: Art, Narrative, and Travel in 19th-Century Bolivia cal limitations, please open the doors and Peru. manually to reduce heat loss and power consumption. Thank you for your Michael Sheridan (Sociology/Anthropology) will travel to three Caribbean cooperation. islands and visit botanical gardens, sugar plantations, and farming communi- ties there to develop a unit on African diasporic landscapes for his class Africa: *Americans with Disabilities Act Continuity and Change.

(Faculty Grants are continued on page 4)

2 Kitchel House, continued from page 1

Cyrus Hamlin (1880-1885), lived in the home. It was during Hamlin’s tenure, in 1883, that the College admitted its first women, a decision that turned out to be momentous for the house.

Ezra Brainerd, Class of 1864, was Middlebury’s next president. A professor of rhet- oric, English literature, mathematics, and physics, Brainerd served 23 years in the presidency (1885-1908) and 16 more as a trustee (1908-1924). Enhanced Middlebury Brainerd in 1891 recommended that the College “should own a suitable building in College website with which the young ladies who came from out of town could room and board under CBA Blue the charge of a competent matron.” Accordingly, the trustees voted to convert Kitchel’s house on College Street (then known as Green Street) into the College’s first dormitory for women. The cost of the alterations that summer, including the Human Resources is pleased to installation of a steam furnace in the basement, was $1,187. announce that effective April 15, 2011 we will launch an enhanced The College enrolled 16 women on the first day of the 1891 fall term, and those website with from out of town moved into the former president’s house that the trustees had CBA Blue. Here Middlebury renamed Battell Hall, in honor of its benefactor. (To Middlebury, Joseph Battell College members will find was the Gamaliel Painter of his era; he was proprietor of the Bread Loaf Inn, a resources that allow them to College trustee for 34 years, a state legislator for eight terms, a breeder of Morgan manage their Health, Dental, and horses, and the donor of some 25,000 acres of land to the College.) Flexible Spending Plans. This enhanced website is designed to be One of the early inhabitants of Battell Hall, Laura Ellah Jarvis, Class of 1901, more user-friendly and to have scratched her name, class year, and sorority (Alpha Chi) in the glass window of a central sites that link to other sites room on the second floor of the building. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate, Jarvis mar- to manage your care. ried, gave birth to a child, and died in 1904, but her imprint lives on for all to see in the Kitchel House studio of the Communications design team. • View medical and dental claims • Review flexible spending claims By 1908 the College was accepting more women (43) than men (32), and in 1909 and account balances for the first time in College history women outnumbered men. Since Battell Hall • Locate network providers and was not large enough to accommodate the College’s female student population, pharmacies ground was broken for Pearsons Hall on land acquired for the College by Joseph • Take advantage of our mail order Battell. The new dorm for women opened in 1911. pharmacy • Forms library with medical, The College’s ninth president, , Class of 1890, lived in Battell dental, flexible spending claim Hall during his term (1908-1921), and the house that Kitchel built reportedly forms slipped out the College’s hands in 1936. Subsequently a number of private citizens • Contact information for including Dr. B.F. Andrews owned the house, and in the 1980s three local nurses CBA Blue bought the property and operated the senior care facility called Addison House on the site. Link to the new website from HR’s Medical and Dental page: In April 2010, after the nursing home closed, Ron Liebowitz, Middlebury’s 16th www.middlebury.edu/offices/business/ president, announced that the College had reacquired the building because of its hr/staffandfaculty/benefits/healthand- historic significance and strategic location. The College took six months to restore dental the building to its 19th century splendor, and in December 2010 the 14-member Communications Office – writers, editors, designers, public-affairs specialists, and or Directly at https://select.cbabluevt. multimedia producers – moved into the building. com/middlebury/ The next time you walk by, take a moment to study its architecture. “Constructed in the Italianate style,” according to Professor Glenn M. Andres in “A Walking Tour of Middlebury,” the building’s “striking exterior features a pedimented entry pavilion, bracket-borne eyebrows and cornice, and a capping belvedere with round-arched windows.” See how many of these architectural features are echoed in Twilight Hall, the building directly across the street. Then walk through that “pedimented entry pavilion” under the same transom glass the Harvey Kitchel hand-picked almost 150 years ago, and say hello to members of the Communications Office. ~ Robert Keren

3 New Employees Faculty Grants, ctd. from pg. 2

LaDena Bertrand, Custodian, Facilities Services Linus Owens (Sociology/Anthropology) LaDena is happy to return to Middlebury College after has been awarded a grant to partici- two and one-half years in Missouri. LaDena is a gradu- pate in a National Endowment for the ate of Everest College where she studied to be a medical Humanities Summer Institute titled administrative assistant. She lives in Middlebury and enjoys American Material Culture: 19th- spending time with her children and grandchildren. Century New York, which will be held at the Bard Graduate Center in . He is currently working on a project researching mobilities in social movements, hoping to extend his focus to include not only moving bodies, Patrick Bushey, Night Watch, Facilities Services but also objects. Further, he intends A native and long-time resident of Middlebury, Patrick to incorporate the information from now lives on Lake Champlain in Bridport. He loves to fish the course into his teaching, including in his free time. more attention on material culture in his classes on cities and on the envi- ronment.

Leger Grindon (Film & Media Culture) was awarded a “Robert De Niro David Cannistra, General Manager Retail Fellowship” from the Harry Ransom Operations, Dining Services Center at the University of Texas at Originally from Utica, New York, David has spent the past Austin to support his research in five years in Lake Placid as Food and Beverage Director for the Robert De Niro Papers at the the Olympic Regional Development Authority. Ransom Center. The grant will fund his research trip to the Ransom Center this summer and further work on a project titled, “Subjectivity and Peter Lackey, Contract Services Coordinator, Facilities Sensation: Filming the Fights in Raging Services Bull.” Peter brings over 25 years of experience in the building trades to Middlebury College. His certifications include RRP (EPA Lead Safe Work Law), State Lead Law, and BPI (Building Performance Institute). He is also certified as a Building Analyst, Envelope Professional, Heating Professional, and Home Performance with Energy Star Contractor.

Jason Mullin, Assistant Director of Donor Relations, College Advancement Jason comes to Middlebury College from Country Home Products in Vergennes. Jason resides in Vergennes with his wife, Tania (also an employee of the College), and their two children. Sarah Larocque Controller’s Office

Micheal Paquette, Custodian, Facilities Services Michael enjoys wood working, particularly using hands on and electrical tools. He also has an interest in boating.

4 Human Resources Office The Middlebury College Human Resources front office located on the 2nd floor of the Service Building is now open for walk-in business from 10:00–3:00, Monday through Friday. During H●R● those hours, if you walk in, a human resources representative will be available to assist you. news Our services remain available from 8:15–5:00, Monday through Friday. Need to pick up a form or drop something off? You can do that at any time! If you need to speak with a particular staff member, we encourage and request that you make an appointment ahead of time to ensure your needs are met in a timely manner. If that appointment is scheduled outside of the walk-in hours, just go directly to his/her office. And, as always, critical needs such as worker’s compensation claims or employee emergencies will be addressed immediately - see any staff member!

The HR Office offers a wide variety of services for staff and faculty members. Our service model has shifted from assigned generalists to trained and experienced specialists focusing on particular areas of service. The following guide may be a help- ful resource in identifying the appropriate contact for your individual questions and needs. This guide can also be found on the main page of our website www.middlebury.edu/offices/business/hr. If you do not find the service that you seek below, please call our main line at 443.5465 or send us an e-mail at [email protected]. Please know that this voicemail and e-mail are checked regularly throughout the day, so any messages we receive will be promptly addressed.

Service Contact Phone E-mail Service Building Address

Health, dental, vision, life, Lisa Hoff x3372 [email protected] 202B flexible spending accounts

Retirement, dependent tuition Loretta Lee x5468 [email protected] 203

Leaves of absence, disability, Patty Saunders x5338 [email protected] 201 worker’s compensation claims

Paychecks, tax questions, W2s Matt Laux x 5461 [email protected] 224 (Payroll Office)

Time entry, time sheets, Erin Kilpeck x5156 [email protected] 209A time approval

Hiring, employment, Melissa Nicklaw x2551 [email protected] 202A job postings, requisitions

Compensation, job descriptions Perry Richards x5882 [email protected] 205

Employee relations, workplace Laura Carotenuto x2012 [email protected] 238 concerns, performance Sheila Andrus x5190 [email protected] 207 management and evaluations, Drew Macan x5261 [email protected] 219 departmental reorganizations

Continuing Education Fund, Sheila Andrus x5190 [email protected] 207 Staff Development Fund

Human Resources • Service Building, 2nd floor • 802.443.5465 • [email protected] MiddPoints is published every three weeks by Human Resources for the faculty and staff of Middlebury College. The issue schedule and deadlines are listed on the Human Resources Web site. MiddPoints is sent electronically to all employees and mailed to retirees upon request. MiddPoints is Human Resources’ primary communication vehicle on policy changes, upcoming events, news, and other items of interest to employees. Entities outside the campus may not advertise in MiddPoints.

5 Classifieds Classified ads are free for members of the staff, faculty, student body and alumni of Middlebury College. Ads must be submitted seven days prior to the publication date. Guidelines for ads can be found on the MiddPoints section of the HR Website. Please send ads to Classifieds, MiddPoints, HR, Service Building, or e-mail to [email protected] (electronic submissions preferred).

Misc. Room for Rent: Quiet, non-smoking aca- Wanted: Part-time assistant wanted with For Sale: Vermont-made Yellowbird 3 demic couple looking for professional to versatile skills, including computer literacy, hp rototiller with cultivator attachment rent a large, private bedroom with full organization and management of files, & spare belt, great for small to medium bath in historic spacious home (former B correspondence, basic bookkeeping for gardens: $250. Four -drawer wooden desk & B). Gorgeous views of Lake Champlain personal business, assist in making travel with office chair: $25. Thule/Volvo roof rack and Adirondacks. 20 minutes to cam- and speaking arrangements. Self-starter for Volvo 850: $25. Yakima open-basket roof pus or Vergennes. Room furnished or with very flexible hours. Please submit carrier: $15. Contact wolfson@middlebury. unfurnished; covered parking available. resume and cover letter as attachment to edu. Lease flexible and negotiable. Contact [email protected]. Susan Burch for more info and pictures: For Sale: Hot Tub. 4-1/2 years old. Seats 6- [email protected]. Wanted to House-sit or Rent: Middlebury 8. Vanguard: 400 gal., excellent condition. faculty member is looking for 2-bedroom 2 up and down massaging jets and many For Sale: House in Middlebury- charming apartment or small house to housesit or other jets for each seat. Includes $100 worth 3-bedroom ranch. Easy walking distance rent for academic year, Aug. 2011 to June of chemicals and all electrical breakers. to schools and shops. Hardwood floors and 2012, in Middlebury or surrounding area. Paid $7,800. Asking $3,500. 802.453.4525 or propane fireplace. New siding, windows, Please contact William Waldron x2040, [email protected]. roof and doors. Energy efficient. Please [email protected]. contact [email protected] for more For Sale: Bicycle rack. Yakima King information. $185,000. Wanted: Looking for a used 26” bike Joe 2. Used only 2 times. Like new. Re- for my son. Please contact me at tail $135. Yours for $50. Does not fit my For Sale: Historic home for sale in the [email protected]. new car. Call Jim at x5453 or e-mail village of Shoreham. 3 BR, 1.5 BA Cape [email protected]. Cod with exposed post and beam con- Wanted: Our son is looking for a free- struction, 2,100 sqft., fireplace, woodstove standing basketball hoop for the driveway. For Sale: 4-year old High Def, 22” Insignia and many new upgrades: $285,000. E-mail [email protected]. TV. Works great! Purchased for $400, for Owners will also consider renting begin- sale $50 obo. [email protected] or ning August 1. Please contact Nick at Wanted: Seeking a gently used Garden 802.377.7639. [email protected] or 802.443.5918. Way cart. Please call 802.236.5845.

For Sale: Two-three BR, one BA ranch Real Estate on half acre. Recent living room addition For Rent: 4 BR, 1-3/4 BA unfurnished gives this more room than typical ranch house in great Weybridge neighborhood, house. Open floor plan, upgraded kitchen 1 mile from campus. Recently renovated and bath, attached one-car garage. kitchen/DR/LR/mudroom/WD. 1/2 acre lot $174,900. Contact Kristy at 989.3458 or with vegetable garden & fruit trees, deck, 2 [email protected]. car garage. Available August 1. $1,350/mo. plus utilities. x3316. The College Bookstore Wanted For Summer Rental: Spacious 1 BR Wanted to Rent: Summer student look- apartment in downtown Middlebury. ing to rent a 2 - 3 BR apartment or house The iPad 2 Beautiful view of Otter Creek, fully from June 26 to August 13 in the town of furnished, kitchen fully equipped. Parking Middlebury. Please contact Veronica at In stock now and use of a bike included. Washer [email protected]. and dryer in the building. Extremely at quiet neighbors. 4 min. walk to campus. Available Jun 1- Aug 31. Rent $760/mo. the College Bookstore! (wireless internet included). No pets. More info: 802.349.3542.

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