February 13, 2014 | Vol. 112 no. 14 | middleburycampus.com Swipe System to be Implemented By Emily Singer ducing a one-card swipe system In an effort to cut costs and re- does not necessarily Mean that the duce waste, the College will be reor- College is moving to a meal plan sys- ganizing top-level management po- teM, and there will be no liMit to a sitions and introducing a one-card student’s number of daily swipes. swipe system within Dining Ser- “What the swipe card does is vices. The restructuring coMes after that it eliMinates folks who aren’t - students from going into our din- dexo in the fall. ing halls and eating,” Norton said. According to Vice President for “That’s an issue. It’s hard to deter- Finance and Treasurer Patrick Nor- Mine how pervasive the issue is, but ton, Sodexo was brought in because it’s an issue. We’ve heard anecdot- ally that there are folks froM outside were issues around systems and gen- who go into our dining halls and eat, eral ManageMent that needed to be and when you have an open system, corrected.” Sodexo is a Major player that’s what happens.” - Initially, the swipe systeM will allow Dining Services to ensure that is present among many local institu- those eating in the dining halls are tions, including University of Ver- members of the College commu- nity and that guests pay the rarely- Joani taylor Mont, Chaplain College and Saint Students celebrated the launch of MiddSafe with advocates and faculty advisors in Crossroads. Michael’s College. Though at the conclusion of So- dollar lunch and nine dollar dinner dexo’s stay, the College decided not fees. While dining hall swipes are like- Sexual Assault Hotline Goes Live - ly to be unliMited when the one-card By Emily Singer the sexual assault hotline ever since. still proved to be valuable. systeM is introduced, students can On Jan. 24, students and faculty+ The hotline takes the forM of a “When I arrived this summer, “[The Sodexo report] validated have the option of putting points on gathered in Crossroads to celebrate cell phone passed between advocates students had already been select- our thoughts,” Norton said. “You their card and using it for purchases the launch of MiddSafe, the College’s - ed [as advocates], they had gone tions where the caller poses a risk to through an interview process with have a hypothesis and you test it. at the bookstore or at on-campus re- him or herself or others. members of the SAOC, and I re- And the hypothesis was that we tail operations such as the Grille or MiddSafe has been in the works for several years and Marks a critical Last spring, the SAOC issued a ally had this suMMer to get to know had issues around soMe systeMs Crossroads. Such a systeM is widely development in the College’s pro- call for student advocates to staff the theM, get to know the history of the and soMe general ManageMent and employed at schools across the na- tion and was once used at the Col- graMMing to prevent sexual assault hotline. Applications were reviewed prograM, plan the training and then that’s what came back to us.” by Director of Chellis House Karin get everybody trained when folks re- lege too. on campus. The long-awaited activa- Hanta and Associate Dean for Judi- turned in the fall,” McCall said. A decade ago, the College em- tion of the hotline was Made possible cial Affairs and Student Life Karen “We spent a lot of the fall se- Implementing A Swipe System ployed a hoMe-grown credit systeM, by both the help of a grant froM the Department of Justice and the hir- Guttentag, who then selected 15 stu- Mester working out the kinks and As one of the only colleges in the Much like a credit card, that was ing of a Health and Wellness Educa- dents to undergo advocate training. details and the kinds of things that, nation without a swipe-based Meal used in the dining halls and food re- plan, the College does not have a tion Director, Barbara McCall, at the The advocates underwent 20 hours when you’re writing a prograM plan, tail operations. Students were able of training that included webinars you Might not actually think of until concrete Method of deterMining the start of the academic year. to purchase iteMs at The Grille and froM the DepartMent of Justice, you’re in the thick of actually trying nuMber of students who eat in the The Task Force on the Status of the cost was added to the end-of-se- conversations with staff MeMbers to get things to happen.” dining halls. Norton said that down Women Report from 2008 recom- Mester bill. Additionally, the College Mended the introduction of a sexual at Parton Health Center, Counseling McCall noted that planning for the road, the College will likely im- issued faculty and staff MeMbers assault advocacy prograM. In the the hotline involved looking at peer plement a one-card system. credit cards, the charges of which wake of the report, the Sexual As- McCall’s presence on caMpus institutions conducting siMilar Discussions regarding the one- were deducted from their paychecks. sault Oversight CoMMittee (SAOC) acted as a catalyst for the develop- work, noting Harvard, AMherst and card systeM are still in preliMinary was founded and has been planning ment of the hotline, as the role of Di- - SEE DINING, PAGE 3 rector and Health and Wellness had SEE MIDDSAFE, PAGE 2 2013.5 SKIS OFF INTO THE SUNSET STEM-Focused Posse Announced By Ellie Reinhardt urban students of different back- In September 2015, the College grounds with four years worth of will welcome 10 new Posse stu- full scholarships. The funding will dents from Los Angeles who have shown an interest in pursuing sci- variety of institutions. ence, technology, engineering and “I’m really honored as a Posse math (STEM) disciplines. The alum and as Dean of the College Posse Foundation announced its that we were picked by the Posse decision in Jan. 2014 to double the Foundation,” said Dean of the number of Posse partner schools College Shirley Collado. “They have over forty colleges that they new Posse students will be added could have picked and they looked to a class of 20 Posse students to Middlebury as a place where from the College’s existing part- Posse scholars are thriving and nerships with the New York and as a place that was demonstrating Chicago Posse programs. deep commitment to wanting to This addition stems from improve what we’re doing in the President Obama and First Lady sciences and for STEM students.” Michelle Obama’s initiative to The Posse foundation recruits improve the training and educa- students who exhibit excellent tion of STEM students across the leadership and academic promise country. The College was one of from nine urban locations across - to the country and matches them ties selected to join an existing with top tier institutions, to pro- vide an otherwise unattainable courtesy photo academic experience for students. Daniel Loehr ’13.5 gave the student address to 126 fellow graduates and their guests in Mead Chapel these ten schools will provide 500 “[The Posse students] have on Feb. 1. The graduates then trekked to the College Snow Bowl for a ski in their caps and gowns. SEE NEW, PAGE 4 SKIING MIDDLEBURY’S REVIEW OF LES TRAGEDIES SHAKE DIVERSIFIED MISERABLES AT COMMUNITY OCCUPATIONS THE TOWN HALL PAGE 6 PROGRAM THEATRE PAGE 14 PAGE 17 inside 2NEWS | February 13, 2014 MiddSafe to Summer Enviro. Curriculum Revealed By David Yang Students in the program will take three studies and about to jump off into the world Provide Peer The Middlebury School of the Environ- interdisciplinary courses. All students will to try and make it a better place,” wrote ment will open its doors to students for enroll in a Sustainability Practicum and a Isaac Baker ’15, an environmental studies course titled Interdisciplinary Understand- Guidance six-week program promises to give stu- ing of Place: Lake Champlain. In addition program, in an email. “I [hope to] explore dents not only a rigorous interdisciplinary to the two required courses, each student the MiddCORE-like personal development CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 training in environmental studies but also is free to choose a Global Perspectives elec- that the program is said to offer — I don’t Castleton State as local or peer schools with invaluable leadership and entrepreneurial tive with topics such as international en- fully know what that will look like but I am particularly robust hotline programs. skills necessary to promote social change. vironmental negotiation and conservation While the program will be inaugurat- planning. The curriculum also represents a com- makes sense for our community, what makes “The goal of the program is to offer stu- bination of science and the humanities, sense for Middlebury,” McCall said. “Some- times that was really close to what someone members have been working to develop it dents a high quality education that focuses which the environmental studies pro- else was doing, and then there were other times for several years. In 1994, President John on cutting-edge curricula related to under- gram at the College emphasizes during standing the rela- the school year. All environmental studies there’s been a bit of borrowing from past ideas study of the environment “... a high quality tionship between majors must take a core course titled Na- and past knowledge, and also using what we - education that focuses the humans and ture’s Meanings: American Experiences, know about Middlebury.” cellence of the college and the environment,” which includes readings of authors like The student advocates applied for the pro- a 1995 taskforce suggested on cutting-edge Trombulak said.