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Middlebury College magazine. Vol. 79, No. 3 : 2005 PDF

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S U M M E R 2 O O s M A G A Z I N E Lv-li'*; '.'À Wha\ | ; r ; , the World ^ """ # Sounds Like With a broad range of singing styles, Philip Hamilton '82 lends voice to life's rhythms. LOOK TO THE CO OKI E ■ THE L URE OF LOS T O R OS ■ S U M M E R F I C T I O N ■ U) h U P H I L L / D O W N H I L L Z 1 8 U COLLEGE STREET The College seeks to broaden its s base for international education, H the class of 2005 gets a big send-off, and a cohort of grads explain what they’ve learned in < four years at Midd. A U 24 Q GAME TIME Contrary to what you may have heard, Colleen Sullivan ’07 isn’t a deaf softball player. She’s a softball player who happens to be deaf 26 ACADEMIC MATTERS In the name of professional research, Roger Sandwich is making chocolate chip cookies, maple syrup, and French fries 28 OLD CHAPEL In his baccalaureate address to the class of 2005, President Ronald D. Liebowitz expounds on the role students and teachers play in the learning process. C L A S S A C T I O N 46 PURSUITS Cam Brensinger ’98 just wants to protect you from the elements— whether you are in the woods or on Mars. 48 BOOK MARKS We have aU the bases covered when it comes to summer reading. Com & cotitails photoiiraphs hy Boh Himdclimm » W m PHILIP HAMILTON HAS THE BLUES Not one to be pigeonholed, vocalist and lyricist Philip Hamilton ’82 has added another genre to his repertoire. 36 THE GIRL IN THE HAT A coniing-of-age tale is the winning entry in the third annual Fiction Contest, 40 SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST? Biology instructor Matt Landis is attempting to solve one of the enduring mysteries of the Northern woods. THE LURE OF LOS TOROS What compels people to risk life and limb in the Spanish city of Pamplona each July? Last summer, Jaed Coffin ’02 found out. 2 VIEWFINDER 3 LETTERS lb CONTRIBUTORS CLASS NOTES 86 CLASSIFIEDS 88 ROAD TAKEN i V I E W F I N D E R The B ig P icture Middlebury M A G A Z I N E A new documentary captures the essence of Peter Kohn Summer . 2005 Volume 79, Number 3 The Senator Theatre in Baltimore , Maryland, is one of those historic Editor movie houses that has survived the onslaught of cineplex homogenization. Matt Jennings As multiplexes with 25 screens sprout on urban street corners and in sub­ Alumni Editor urban strip malls across the nation, freestanding theaters from the 1930s Dotty Mc Carty and ’40s—though few and far between—maintain a cult following in their communities, and the Senator is no exception. Favored sons of the Charm City, such Designer as Barry Levinson and Edward Norton, have chosen to premiere their films at the Pamela Fogg Senator, and in late April another of Baltimore’s own saw his name up on the mar­ Copy Editor quee, spelled out in giant red letters: Keeper of the Kohn, starring Myron “Peter” Kohn. R egan Eberhart Inside the Senator, a near-capacity crowd was just getting settled when the lights dimmed. Kohn—clad in a yellow cable-knit sweater, khakis, and docksiders and sport­ Editoriol Assistant ing a blue U.S. Lacrosse hat—had chosen a seat along the aisle, near the back of the Grace Kronen berg ’06 theater. He was munching popcorn by the handful, but paused at the film’s beginning when the words “Peter Kohn is a legendary figure in the sport of lacrosse” flashed on the screen. Turning to his right, he asked the person sitting next to him: “Am I?” Those two sentiments—the film’s bold statement and Kohn’s humble reaction— Editorial Office perfectly illustrate who Peter Kohn is and why we should care. Meeker House Believed to be autistic, Kohn has served as a field manager for lacrosse teams for Middlebury College more than half a century, the last 25 years of which have been spent on the sidehnes Middlebury,VT 05753 at Middlebury. He is an extended family member for generations of Midd athletes, Phone: 802-443-5670 and for decades he has influenced their lives in ways they never could have imagined. E-mail: middmag(@nuddlebury.edu Tracing Kohn’s last year as the Panthers’ official manager in 2003, the film by Online: David Gaynes beautifully captures the essence of Peter Kohn, a selfless person with WYAAV.middlebuiymagazine.org a sharp mind and an uncanny tendency for offering profound sentiments at just the right moment. Originally, the documentary was intended to climax with the men’s Advertising Sales Office lacrosse team’s attempt to win its fourth-consecutive national title (because it’s a Smart Communication, Inc. documentary, life intercedes, and several other story lines tug at the heart strings and P.O.Box 283,Vergennes,VT 05491 serve as the film’s true climax). As any Panther fan can tell you, Middlebury fell to Phone: 802-877-2262 Salisbury in overtime that year. Yet it was this heartbreaking loss that set up—in my E-mail: [email protected] mind, at least—the story’s defining moment. Other College Offices The scene has shifted from a post-game locker room full of sullen players with (all area code 802) tear-stained faces to the interior of a chartered bus that has started to make the long College Information: 443-5000 trek back to campus from Baltimore. Kohn stands in the back, surrounded by players Alumni Office: 443-5183 who, just hours before, had left their championship dreams—and, one would think, E-mail: [email protected] their hearts—on the turf of Ravens Stadium. But then a funny thing happens. Admissions: 443-3000 Someone asks Kohn if he would lead the team in a singing of “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” The views presented are not necessarily those of —a favored tradition among the players and their the editors or the official pohcies of the College. field manager. It’s when these supposedly devastated Middlebuiy College of MiddleburstVT 05733, 18—22-year-olds are belting out the song’s chorus at publishes .t/iMffcnr)' .\Iagasiiic (ISSN 0745-2454) the tops of their lungs, clapping with glee, that you four times a year: winter, spring, summer, and fall. © 2005 Middleburç- College Publications. realize all that Kohn has meant to Middlebury. Miitrtkbury Magazine is printed at The Lane Press Thank you Jim Grube for bringing Peter to in South Burhngton.VT. Nonprofit standard mail campus nearly 25 years ago. And thank you David postage paid at Middlehurs'.VT, and at additional mailing offices (USPS 9(14-820). Gaynes for bringing Peter’s story to the world. —MJ POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Miâdlcbur)’ Magazine, Middleburs' College. For more information on the film, please see Middleburs'. VT 05753. Printed in U.S.A. ii'ii'w. kecpcrofthckohn. com. Photograph of .Man Jennings by Handelman M iddlebury M.iigazine L E T T E R S A Grave Error I graduated from Middlebury College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in American literature in 1982.1 have always been proud that Middlebury distinguished this discipline from others, such as English and American studies, and have valued that particular perspective in my life and in my career. 1 am deeply saddened that I will no longer be able to point to this distinction and that American literature will cease to exist as a separate major. I have written several letters to the administration on this subject and under­ stand that trying to fight this decision is now a moot point. However, I have a seven-year-old son, and I think quite a lot about the future and what it might Pleased by Merger to Merge,” spring 2005).Your opening liold for him. It would be my wish that I compliment you on your magazine. It is sentence poses an interesting question, but he could know professors such as John excellent—readable, beautifully edited, unfortunately, not the right question. You McWilliams and Stephen Donadio, who excellently illustrated. a.sk, “Should Conrad and Cather, Milton affected my intellectual development and The present proposal to combine the and Melville live under a collective roof ultimately my life in such profound ways. English and American literature depart­ at Middlebury?” The answer is, of course, It would be my wish that he could be ments (“To Merge or Not to Merge,” they should be understood and appreciated taught how to think, analyze, and love spring 2005) interests me very deeply. by literature students at the College. the literattire whose roots are inseparable I taught writing courses at Middlebury, But the right question is, cait we expect from the very beginnings of this country as part of the English department, for 23 students to understand and appreciate and which continue to run through the years. 1 have a doctorate from Yale in such a vast array of different authors, worst and best moments of our collective American studies, with a literature con­ books, genres, themes, and political and history. centration. My dissertation was on James historical contexts in any meaningful way? Our world is fraught with war and Fenimore Cooper, an early major and The answer. I’m afi-aid, is probably not. strife, fear of difference, and intolerance of seminal American novelist, some of whose As one of many Am Lit majors who other points of view. In my opinion, there characters live today. I was trained to chose Middlebury based on its distinction has never been a more important time for teach American literature in light of art of offering Am Lit in its own department, Americans, particularly students who will and history contemporaneous to the 1 was so grateful to be able to narrow the one day be leaders in public service and work being studied.Yet in my 23 years on vast world of literature into a subcatego­ business, to examine themselves through the Middlebury faculty, I was not allowed ry—American—that 1 truly loved and the voices of their writers, poets, and to teach even one American literature wanted to study above all others. Strange activists. course. The department was so terrified as it sounds, students need some sort of Change is never easy and not neces­ that it might be swallowed up by the focus, and a “wider context” will only sarily a bad thing at times. In this case, English department that no application make it tougher for students to find the I think Middlebury has made a grave by me, or even Old Chapel, could allow important themes and concepts in error. It disappoints me to think of those me to teach an Am Lit course. Therefore, American literature. As I’m sure Professor future students who will never have the I am wholly in ftvor of the combination McWilliams has emphasized, it is a body same experiences that I did. I don’t think of the two departments. of work that can and should be appreciat­ that 1 will ever be able to consider the John H. Ciaprett ed on its own terms and merits. This in place in quite the same way again. Middlehnry, Vermont itself is a massive undertaking. But to then SuMii ,\'. I-lcisIwum ’82 add it to the even vaster realm of English Lais Aiif>cles, Calijornia The writer is a professor emeritus literature will result in a diltition of foctis of lin jish at Middlebury for the student, who already faces a read­ Ilic urilcr is a senior vice presirient ing list several hundred titles long—in for corponilc conmumii'iUions and public aflairs Now, Nothing's Special either department. at [ vii’crsal Studios Thank you for making us aware of the However, the saddest thing is not that current controversy surrounding the huge reading list—the lists have always merging of the American literattire and been too long, that’s nothing new—but English departments (“To Merge or Not that Middlebury is giving up yet another I II U S I R A I I O N II Y J O S i. I. M A S S I S U M .M !- ■ R 2005 Middlebury College Board of Trustees “A sitiall gem President Ronald D. Liebowitz worth uncovering.” Fellows Pamela Tanner Boll ’78 from producer Donald Everett Axinn Paula Carr Cummings ’82 James S. Davis ’66 ;51, '89 (D.L., Hon.) William Delahunt ’63, P’97 Donald M. Elliman.Jr. ’67 Ryan Merriman Frederick M. Fritz ’68, P’95, P’97, P’oo Tti6 Ring Two, 'Taken", Halloween: Richard S. Fuld.Jr. P’03, P’07 Resurrection,'The Preteorier" Nancy CofFrin Furlong ’75, P’02, P’04 Stanley Tucci Robert C. Graham, Jr. ’63 Shall We Dance, The Terminal, Maitl in Betty Ashbury Jones, M.A. ’86 Manhattan. Road to Perdition James R. Keyes ’71 Dana Delany William H. KiefFer HI ’64 Exit to Eden.Tomhstnoe, Roxanne McCormick Leighton '67 Housesitter, "China Beach" Patrick L. McConathy P’04. P’05, P’o6 Paula Garces Michael C. Obel-Omia ’88 Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle. Kimberly Collins Parizeau ’79 Clockstoppers Steven B. Peterson ’88 Ruben Blades Elisabeth B. Robert ’78 Once Upon a Time in Mexico. Felix G. Rohatyn ’49 All the Pretty Horses, The Cradle Will Rock David A. Salem ’78 Jed A. Smith ’88 John Spencer P’88, P’94 Karen A. Stolley ’77 Deborah G. Thomas ’75 John R.Tormondsen ’82 James Edward Virtue ’82 Marna C. Whittington P’99 Linda Foster Whitcon ’80, P’05 Kendrick R.Wilson III P’oi. P'03 Emeriti James I. Armstrong Mary Williams Brackett ’36 Dort A. Cameron III ’67, P’92, P'95, P’oo, P'05 Allan R. Dragone. Sr. ’50, P’78, P’80, P’83, P’86 Churchill G. Franklin '71, P’02, P’05, P’07 Claire Waterhouse Gargalli ’64 Willard T. Jackson ’51 John M. McCardell. Jr. C. Irving Meeker ’50, P’78 Jonathan O’Herron P’8i, P’88 Patricia Judah Palmer '57, P’89, P’92 Milton V. Peterson ’58, P’S4, P'86, P’88 W. Kyle Prescott ’49. P'73, P’76, P’77 Special Celebrations Are Always In Season Raymond J. Saulnier ’29 David E.Thompson ’49, P’72, P'75. P‘77 Hilton A. Wick P’82 Robert P.Youngman ’64, P’87. P’90 ^nn Officers of the Corporation Frederick M. Fritz ’68, P’95. P'97. P'00, Chair Ronald D. Liebowitz, President at Brandon. Vermont James S. Davis '66, Vice Chair Bett\' Ashbury Jones, M.A. '86, Vice Chair Fine Cuisine Accommodations ^ Weddings Betsy Mitchell Etchells ’75, Secretary 800.221.0720 53 Park Street, Brandon, VT 05733 F. Robert Huth, Jr..Treasurer www.lilacinn.com ^ [email protected] M iddle BURY M agazine L E T T E R S feature that makes it unique. My major was a huge part of why I loved the College. But speaking objectively, there is A Timeless Experience a compelling intellectual justification for having Am Lit be separated from English, and in my opinion it’s a healthy separa­ Stunning scenervc ciiarnung accommodations, exceptional tion worth preserving. Middlebury dining, claamptonship goll course, extensive activities should be strong enough to stand against and extraordinary value. challenges “in the national field.” Like many alumni, I cringe when changes like this are made. Middlebury’s just becoming more and more like evei'yone else. Jeui}ifer Nornmndiii Locke 'gj Boston, Massachusetts The Destructive Truth The title of the article on the proposed elimination of the American literature department, “To Merge or Not to Merge,” provides a facile variant on Hamlet’s soliloquy while cloaking the destructive truth. A beneficial merger occurs only when two units each give up something in order to create a larger unit better than either of its components. In this instance, however, the English department will give up nothing. American literature, by contrast, will give up its long-standing curriculum—the comprehensive sequence of American texts—required for the major, that has C L A R N E R been made available every year for some So years to the entire student body. WOODWORKS If these ill-considered changes are imple­ FINE, HAN DM ADE mented, English department offerings F U R N ITU R E will be expanded numerically, but the comprehensive, historical study of American literature will most certainly DOUG GARNER be gutted. Middlebury’s future students, 1994 MIDDLEBURY GRADUATE whatever their major, will be the losers. 170 Maple Lane East Burke, VT 05832 Even a major in the new department will 802.626.8935 :: www.clarnerwoodworks.com IS be clieated; no one specified American 'Well, it's not exactly on the beaten path", petty mnch describes most places if you live œd work in Vermont. But if you've chosen to live hera. that’s really the pdnt, isn’t it? One of the beauties of the >durfeffice “electronic age* is the ability to set up shop just about anywhere, especially in a place where the environment and lifestyle can contribute to what you do. Works for us -for our clients too. thinking, doing. smallPLANETinc. 92 center Street, rutland, Vermont 05701 802.747.7561 smallplanetadvertising.com a d v e r t i s i n g d e s i g n S U .M .M 1 R 2 O 0 S L E T T E R S author, and no specified American text will be required for a student to graduate with a major in “English and American Our excitement is not " literatures.” only in creating beautiful, At a time when America’s role in the wooded home-sites, but in world has become ever more pivotal, why should Mlddlebury wish to de-emphasize Jorever conserving the the study of American literature in order family farm and its 150 to reduce it to one component of acres of open fields. m m m “Anglophone” literature? According to " the proposed catalogue copy for the new — Peter Foote ’80 department, American literature will become but one sub-specialty among equals, including “post-colonial literatures from Africa, the Caribbean, Canada, and • Secluded residential building sites Australia.” As the study of Australian, tucked in the woods Caribbean, and African literatures in • Roads, utilities and septic system English are expanded, so the study of in place American values and ideals, whether con­ • Off Route 125 — minutes from sidered separately or internationally, will Mlddlebury College be greatly reduced. Because resources at Mlddlebury College are not infinite, choices wiU have to be made. It is clear ? Foote F arm that, if the proposal becomes a reality, those choices will be made at the Building Sitesf or Classic Vermont Homes expense of American literature. § www.footefarm.net • 866-849-3872 At least one factual correction and one revealing oversight must be identi­ fied. On the facing page of the spring FREE Color Catalog article, Professor John Elder is quoted as 1.800.456.0321 “describing the 9—2 vote in the Department of American Literature and Civilization.” In fact, the vote was 7—2—1, Ask for Dept. 14005 with the votes of part-time, untenured Hundreds of styles, fabrics and colors to faculty and faculty who teach American choose from . . . something for every style ^he ^Middlebury ‘dnn of home. Plus matching bedding, studies but not American literature being and accessories. Marvelous decorating weighted equally with tenured faculty FOOD • DSRinIcNe K1 82• 7LODGING . . s. oflruotmio nJas n. e. a. nwdo Jnadcekr f(u’4ll8y) aFffitozrpdaatbrilcek ! who have taught American literature for Mlddlebury, Vermont 05753 decades. Why Professor Elder, who is not 800 842-4666 C o iin t^ C u rta ii3S, a member of the American literature www:m-iddleburyinn.com Dept. 14005 Sttxkbridge, MA 01262 department, has been cited as the author­ www.sendcatalog.com (Dept. 14005) ity on the meaning of this vote can only be explained as a stratagem of academic, it not editorial, politics. Furthermore it is surely significant that the four dissenters Travel In Style In Our Luxurious Custom Conversion Vans in Professor Elder’s own department have T!DTrD'\CTTO AT^TCrr * Airport & .tintrak Station Transport «I Zyo(U )D lÆ BU BjL^lRANSIT .Small Group charter «1 been granted no voice in the magazine’s Personalized Regional Transportation • Students account. The false impression created by the article is that there is only one voice in opposition to the “merger.” John McU'illlains Middlchury, I'cmuvn The miter is a College professor at Middlelniry M I 1) 1) L E U U R Y M O .Y Z I N E Dismayed in Connecticut define itself for the future. Middlebuiy’s 1 read with dismay the piece entitled “To reputation has soared in the past several Tlie Inn at Merge or Not to Merge” (spring 2005), years (which is positive), but 1 see the which purports to explain the circum­ potential loss of the American literature stances surrounding the proposed merger department as a sign that Middlebury is of the American literature and English losing its sense of self In explaining the Mary's Restaurant departments. A 1982 alumna and Am Lit reasons for eliminating the major, major. I’ve been closely following the American Literature Chair Urett Millier Lodging Farm-Fresh Dining events surrounding this story for the past refers to the “national field, which is rap­ • year, and 1 am troubled at the bias your idly moving towards cultural studies.” Is Weddings article displays. Middlebury interested in following Bristol (888)424-2432 Where are the other dissenting voices trends, or does it have a strong enough www.innatbaldwincreek.com in this debate? Why do you not make sense of the value of its offerings to stand clear that the dissenters in both depart­ behind them? ments are mostly senior faculty members If this so-called “merger”—and the who are also former chairs of their events leading up to it—are any indica­ of respective departments? So much is at tion of the way the College plans to run stake here, but the article speaks lightly itself in the future, I will feel a powerful and confidently of this proposed “merg­ disconnect from an institution that used er” as if it IS in fact a true merger rather to feel like home. than the evisceration of one major and Betsy Currier Bcacom ’82 enhancement of another. North Haven, Connecticut .. 1 found the glib tone of the article to be insulting; it puts a happy, un­ Saddened by the Loss Stay With Us complicated face on a serious curricular As an Am Lit major, I am very sad to hear www.vermontinns.com debacle. Middlebury’s American literature of the plans that are being considered to department is unique, and many of its merge the American literature depart­ Serving the greater Middleburj’ area alumni can attest to the lasting impact it ment with its English counterpart. My has had on our lives. 1, for one, went on decision to apply to Middlebury was to study American and English literature because of the independence of this at the graduate level and teach at the sec­ department, its comprehensive and rich ondary and college levels. After more than curriculum, and unique standing. ! seri­ rr::ii 20 years, the systematic study of the ously doubt we can afford the risk of American literary tradition continues to depriving ourselves of any of these quali­ 'VERMONT VACATIONS inform my reading, my thinking, and my ties, no matter the academic area. Classic Farmhouse Rentals approach to life. The venerable tradition Patricia Paige-Pfetw{^ ’86, M.A. English ’go Centrally located for the best Vennont has to offer! of teaching and learning American litera­ Wiesbaden, Germany Now .Available to Rent ture at Middlebury is the reason many of 2, 3, 4 Bedroom Homes Weekend • Wee/e • Month us chose this college in the first place. The Big Sleaze ! In Rochester’s Beautiful North Hollow It seems to me that the College is American literature holds much of our 802.767.4252 • [email protected] now at a turning point, as it seeks to collective memory as a people; we are not • Reunions ‘Weekend Getaway ‘Weddings “Good design is rmt accidental. Itis the deliberate application of skill and e^Derience—communicating l?t5üFbffice your nrasage to the people who need to see, hear or interact with it. " fi ' thinking, doing. smallPLANETinc. fabiorosi creative director 92 center street, rutland, Vermont 05701 802.747.7561 smallplanetadvertising.com a d v e r t i s i n g d e s ig n S u .M ,M I . R 2005 7 In V e r m o n t , it 's h a r d to tell w h ic h w ill c r o w f a s t e r BUSINESS YOUR OR YOUR KIDS. As a Middlebury alum, you know Vermont for its unique beauty, four-season recreation, low crime rates, clean environ­ ment and commitment to strong vital communities. It's not a surprise to you that National Geographic listed Vermont as one of the world's "50 Places of a Lifetime" — the only state to receive such recognition. What you also need to know is that Vermont is open for business. We offer customized training programs and whatever assistance you need to help you with your decision - and we'll throw in watching your kids play hockey, basketball, soccer or snowboard as part of the package. find out more about expanding your business where your career took its first steps. The next step is yours at www.thinkvermont.com grow.

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