David Wandera, the M.Litt. recipient, delivered opening remarks.

RIPTON, Vt.—The Bread Loaf School of English completed its 94th summer with commencement ceremonies at Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf campus on August 10, during which 40 students received master’s degrees.

The degree candidates processed from the Bread Loaf Inn to Little Theater.

The academic procession was led by Elisabeth Robert, a Middlebury trustee and a 1978 graduate of the college. The two senior class presidents, M.A. candidate Lindsay Coffta and M.Litt. candidate David Wandera, offered opening remarks on behalf of their classmates and presented the senior class gift to the school.

The commencement speaker selected by the graduating class was Bread Loaf faculty member Jonathan Freedman, professor of English and American studies at the University of Michigan. He joined the School of English faculty in 1987 and has been teaching at Bread Loaf for over 20 summers, offering courses on topics as diverse as Proust, Oscar Wilde, fictions of finance, and Hollywood film.

Professor Jonathan Freedman delivered the commencement address.

Freedman is the author of three books: “Klezmer America: Jewishness, Ethnicity, Modernity” (Columbia University Press, 2008), “The Temple of Culture: Assimilation and Anti-Semitism in Literary Anglo-America” (Oxford University Press, 2000), and “Professions of Taste: Henry James, British Aestheticism, and Commodity Culture” (Stanford University Press, 1990).

The traditional Bread Loaf “hooders,” who present the master’s hood to each graduate during the ceremony and are also chosen by the senior class, were Alan MacVey and Carol Elliot MacVey. Alan MacVey has been a member of the Bread Loaf faculty since 1976, and director of Bread Loaf’s program in theater and of most of its major productions since 1978. This summer he directed the last of his School of English plays, Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town.” Carol Elliot MacVey, who received her M.A in English at Bread Loaf in 1976, has been a member of the Bread Loaf faculty for over 30 years and has taught a number of workshops on reading and teaching drama through acting.

President Liebowitz presented a diploma and a replica of Gamaliel Painter's cane to each graduate.

During the ceremony, Middlebury College President Ronald D. Liebowitz conferred 39 Master of Arts degrees and one Master of Letters degree. In addition, the president conferred one Bachelor of Arts degree to a Middlebury undergraduate who completed degree requirements at Bread Loaf.

On July 24, at the Bread Loaf campus in Santa Fe, New Mexico, 23 graduates received their M.A.s; on July 27, seven students at the campus in Asheville, North Carolina, received their M.A.s; and on Aug. 3, 16 students at the Bread Loaf campus in Oxford received M.A.s. A total of 85 M.A.s, one M.Litt., and one B.A. have been awarded this summer at the four Bread Loaf School of English campuses.

The Bread Loaf School of English

Established in 1920, the Bread Loaf School of English is one of Middlebury’s summer residential graduate programs, offering courses in literature and the related fields of literacy and pedagogy, creative writing, and theater arts. Students, most of whom are K-12 English or language arts teachers, come from across the United States and beyond for one or more summers of intensive continuing education. Students may also elect to pursue an M.A. or M.Litt. degree in English. Faculty come from eminent universities in the U.S. and U.K. to teach and learn with the student body, this year at campus sites in New Mexico, North Carolina, England, and Vermont.

For more information about the Bread Loaf School of English, contact the administrative offices at 802-443-5418 or blse@breadnet.middlebury.edu.

With reporting by Sandy LeGault and photography by May Mantell

Middlebury students used reclaimed barn wood for the exterior of Insite, their entry in the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon.

MIDDLEBURY and NORTHFIELD, Vt. – Middlebury College and Norwich University will co-host a send-off event at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Tuesday, Sept. 10, from 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. for the student teams competing in the international U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon in Irvine, Calif., Oct. 3-13, 2013.

Middlebury and Norwich are two of only 20 teams in the world to be accepted into the 2013 Solar Decathlon, a biennial solar house design competition and expo. Each team’s house will soon be en route to the competition on the West Coast. The public expo on solar house design is expected to attract upwards of 100,000 people to the Orange County Great Park in Irvine. The winner of the competition is the team that best blends affordability, consumer appeal, and design excellence with optimal energy production and maximum efficiency.

The Statehouse program will begin at 11:30 a.m. with remarks by State of Vermont officials, Norwich President Richard Schneider, and Middlebury President Ronald Liebowitz, followed by a student press conference.

The public is invited to engage with the teams on the unique aspects of their designs and celebrate with complimentary refreshments and live music on the Statehouse lawn.

Middlebury’s house, InSite, is a home for local living. The team designed the home with a focus on reconnecting people with their communities and emphasizing environmental, economic and social sustainability.

Norwich’s home, DeltaT-90, is a modular home designed and built for the unique climate challenges presented by living in the New England region. The team responded to the challenge of creating high performance, affordable housing that is accessible and promotes conservation based living.

In case of rain, the event will be held in Statehouse Room 11.

                                                               ******
Middlebury College, one of the country's leading liberal arts colleges, offers a rigorous liberal arts curriculum that is particularly strong in languages, international studies, environmental studies, sciences and literature. About 2,450 students attend Middlebury, which was founded in 1800. Middlebury has established itself as a leader in campus environmental initiatives, with an accompanying educational focus on environmental issues around the globe. The college's strong international dimension has extended its borders beyond Addison County, and includes Middlebury's Language Schools, Schools Abroad, Bread Loaf School of English, Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, and the Monterey Institute for International Studies. www.middlebury.edu

Norwich University is a diversified academic institution that educates traditional-age students and adults in a Corps of Cadets and as civilians. Norwich offers a broad selection of traditional and distance-learning programs culminating in Baccalaureate and Graduate Degrees. Norwich University was founded in 1819 by Captain Alden Partridge of the U.S. Army and is the oldest private military college in the United States of America. Norwich is one of our nation's six senior military colleges and the birthplace of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). www.norwich.edu

Journalist Clarissa Ward accepts her honorary doctorate from President Liebowitz (left) and Vice President Geisler.

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — The Middlebury Language Schools conferred 118 Master of Arts degrees and seven Doctor of Modern Languages degrees at the Language Schools’ 99th commencement on Aug. 16 in Mead Memorial Chapel.

The president of Middlebury College, Ronald D. Liebowitz, and the directors of the Language Schools presented master’s degrees for study in Chinese, French, German, Italian, Mediterranean Studies, Russian and Spanish, and doctoral degrees to candidates who completed advanced study in two foreign languages.

Watch a video of the Language Schools' Commencement

Clarissa Ward, the CBS News foreign correspondent who was the first American journalist to broadcast live from inside rebel-held territory in Syria, delivered the commencement address to the gathering of graduates, family members, faculty and guests.  

Ward, who won an Emmy Award for her reporting on the global food crisis in 2008 and has been nominated for three Emmys this year, gave an impassioned 10-minute address recounting how her foreign language skills helped her comfort an orphaned child in Syria, escape from an violent mob in China and converse with Russian soldiers along the front lines in Georgia.

Speaking different languages has afforded me freedom, independence, confidence and a measure of protection,” Ward said, and yet her proficiency in languages has, more importantly, opened her eyes to the lives of other people.

Clarissa Ward with President Liebowitz and trustee Linda Whitton

“Because above all, language is about receiving — receiving the key that unlocks the doors to different cultures. Whether it’s through literature or poetry or song or conversation, languages teach us to listen. And I mean really listen. Languages tell us so much more than the literal meanings of words. They tell us about the history of places, about the dreams and frustrations of their peoples. They teach us how societies work, what people aspire to, [and] how they understand beauty, truth, God.”

The commencement speaker denounced America’s lackluster performance in learning foreign languages. Quoting the U.S. secretary of education, Ward said only 18 percent of Americans speak a language other than English, compared with 53 percent of Europeans who speak a second language.

“In many dangerous parts of the world, there is a perception that as Americans we don’t think we need to bother to learn languages, that we assume anybody who is important speaks English. And that feeds into a reputation that America has for arrogance. We need to challenge those assumptions and show the world we are listening.” She concluded by urging the newly minted degree holders to use the “precious passports” they have just attained and go out and be diplomats for their country.

Following the address, the college conferred academic degrees upon its newest graduates and an Honorary Doctor of Letters to Clarissa Ward.

President Liebowitzopened the ceremony by congratulating the degree candidates for their “persistence and endurance,” and said the ability to speak other languages “will enable you to engage other cultures, express yourself artistically and creatively in ways different from your native language and persona, and perhaps help solve and explain to others some of the most intractable conflicts around the world, many of them due to an inability on the part of those involved to communicate or understand the cultural context of the disagreement.”

The degree candidates process into Mead Chapel.

Middlebury’s 16th president reflected on the history of the college and acknowledged the contributions of five people in particular: Gamaliel Painter, one of the founding fathers of both the town and the college; Lilian Stroebe, who started the first language school at Middlebury, the German School, in 1915; Professor Stephen A. Freeman, who served the college and the Language Schools from 1925 to 1963; Betty Ashbury Jones, graduate of the French School, supporter of the Language Schools and trustee emerita of the college; and Kathryn Wasserman Davis, the renowned philanthropist and champion of international peace who passed away in 2013.

He said, “The sustained pursuit of foreign language study and culture, and an awareness of the fact that through such study we break down multiple barriers and increase intercultural understanding, has become a great distinguishing characteristic of this institution. The Language Schools have been a large part of this special claim which we treasure and honor.”

Michael E. Geisler, vice president for Language Schools, Schools Abroad and Graduate Programs, welcomed all to the ceremony. "This year 1,530 students attended the Middlebury Language Schools here in Vermont and at our second site in California," he said, "with almost 1,000 of them coming not to earn a degree, but just to study language. To learn to talk like people from another culture, joke like people from another culture, and even argue as people argue in another culture.

"In doing so each and every one of them, just as our graduates have done tonight, risks not just failure and embarrassment but far more. [Language Schools students] risk their identity; they risk their sense of self…In no other academic discipline that I can think of do you put the very core of your being on the line, for yourself and for the world as you know it. For having the courage to do that, we salute you."

Christine Jonté Bouchard accepts congratulations for earning a master's in French from President Emeritus John McCardell (center) and George Poe (left).

President emeritus of Middlebury College, John M. McCardell Jr., made a special appearance at the Language Schools' commencement to help present a master's degree in French to Christine Jonté Bouchard, a student from Sewanee: The University of the South, where McCardell is now the vice-chancellor.

McCardell was joined on the platform by George Poe, Bouchard's adviser and French teacher at Sewanee. Poe earned his master's in French from Middlebury in 1975.

After two musical interludes by students and the presentation of awards for distinguished study in Hebrew, Japanese and Portuguese, the ceremony concluded with the singing of "Gamaliel Painter's Cane," led by Grace Weber, Class of 1977 and a student in the Italian School.

The graduates and guests then rose and marched into the Vermont night led by marshals Cynthia-Yaoute Eid and Antonio Vitti, directors of the French School at Middlebury’s site at Mills College in California and of the Italian School, respectively, as Emory Fanning, professor emeritus of music, played the recessional on the organ.

With reporting by Robert Keren and photography by May Mantell

Middlebury students used reclaimed barn wood for the exterior of Insite, their entry in the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon.

—Updated Aug. 26, 2013

NORTHFIELD and MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – Middlebury College and Norwich University will co-host a send-off event at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Tuesday, Sept. 10, from 10 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. for the student teams competing in the international U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon in Irvine, Calif., in October.

Governor Peter Shumlin will be the keynote speaker at 10 a.m. in a program that also includes Middlebury College President Ronald Liebowitz and Norwich University President Richard Schneider, followed by a student press conference.

Afterward, the public is invited to engage with teams on the unique aspects of their designs and celebrate with complimentary refreshments and live music on the Statehouse lawn.

Middlebury and Norwich are two of only 20 teams in the world to be accepted into the 2013 Solar Decathlon, a biennial solar house design competition and expo to be held at the Orange County Great Park in Irvine, Oct. 3-13. Each team’s house is soon to be en route to the competition on the West Coast. The public expo on solar house design is expected to attract upwards of 100,000 people. The winner of the competition is the team that best blends affordability, consumer appeal, and design excellence with optimal energy production and maximum efficiency.

Middlebury’s house, InSite, is a home for local living. The team designed the home with a focus on reconnecting people with their communities and emphasizing environmental, economic and social sustainability.

Norwich’s home, DeltaT-90, is a modular home designed and built for the unique climate challenges presented by living in the New England region. The team responded to the challenge of creating high performance, affordable housing that is accessible and promotes conservation based living.

In case of rain, the event will be held in Statehouse Room 11.

                                                               ******

Middlebury College, one of the country's leading liberal arts colleges, offers a rigorous liberal arts curriculum that is particularly strong in languages, international studies, environmental studies, sciences and literature. About 2,450 students attend Middlebury, which was founded in 1800. Middlebury has established itself as a leader in campus environmental initiatives, with an accompanying educational focus on environmental issues around the globe. The college's strong international dimension has extended its borders beyond Addison County, and includes Middlebury's Language Schools, Schools Abroad, Bread Loaf School of English, Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, and the Monterey Institute for International Studies. www.middlebury.edu

Norwich University is a diversified academic institution that educates traditional-age students and adults in a Corps of Cadets and as civilians. Norwich offers a broad selection of traditional and distance-learning programs culminating in Baccalaureate and Graduate Degrees. Norwich University was founded in 1819 by Captain Alden Partridge of the U.S. Army and is the oldest private military college in the United States of America. Norwich is one of our nation's six senior military colleges and the birthplace of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). www.norwich.edu

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – Translation and its integral role in our lives will be the focus of Middlebury’s annual Clifford Symposium Sept. 26-28. “Translation in a Global Community” will bring together experts from Middlebury College, the Monterey Institute of International Studies, and the larger national and international communities to shed light on the contributions of translators and translation in an increasingly complex world.

“We all do it every day — usually unconsciously — from written to oral, from images to text,” said Stephen Snyder, Kawashima Professor of Japanese Studies at Middlebury and one of the event’s organizers. “This collaboration with Monterey lets us share deep expertise from both of our faculties with students and the community.”

David Bellos

Emily Apter

David Edgar

The symposium features a wide array of events, including theatre, lectures, poetry, workshops and a look at new technologies in translation and interpretation.

David Bellos, director of the Program in Translation and Intercultural Communication at Princeton University, will give a keynote address on Thursday, Sept. 26, titled “Making Maigret New.” Bellos, who is also professor of French, Italian and comparative literature at Princeton, is the author of “Is That a Fish in Your Ear? Translation and the Meaning of Everything.”

On Friday, Sept. 27, Emily Apter, professor of French and comparative literature at New York University, will give a keynote address titled, “Lexilalia: On Translating a Dictionary of Untranslatable Terms.” Apter is the author of several books, including “Against World Literature: On the Politics of Untranslatability.”

British playwright David Edgar, who wrote the theatre department’s fall production, “Pentecost,” will speak on Wednesday about the use of language in his play. Twelve languages are spoken in the play, which opens at Wright Memorial Theatre in November.

A schedule of symposium events is available on the college’s website. All events are free and open to the public. Most events will take place at the Mahaney Center for the Arts, located off South Main St./Rt. 30. Please see the schedule for specific times and locations. For more information, contact Paige Keren at pkeren@middlebury.edu or 802.443.5937.

The Clifford Symposium
The annual Clifford Symposium is named after College Professor of History Emeritus Nicholas R. Clifford, who taught history at the college from 1966 to 1993 and who in his many years as a member of the faculty and administration cultivated critical inquiry.

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — Grammy Award-winning artist and social advocate Angelique Kidjo will join Middlebury faculty member Damascus Kafumbe in conversation on Wednesday, Oct. 2, at 4:30 p.m. in the McCullough Social Space at Middlebury College. The discussion will serve as the 2013-2014 John Hamilton Fulton Lecture in the Liberal Arts. The lecture is free and open to the public, with seating priority granted to Middlebury ID holders.
 
The following evening, Thursday, Oct. 3, Kidjo will appear in concert in Nelson Recreation Center at 8 p.m. Ticket prices are $5 for students with a valid ID from any college or university, $10 for Middlebury faculty and staff, and $20 for the general public. Tickets can be purchased through the Middlebury box office and at the door.
 
A Grammy winner (Best Contemporary World Music Album) for her 2007 release "Djin Djin," Kidjo has been called “Africa’s premier diva” by Time magazine and “the undisputed queen of African music” by the Daily Telegraph of London. Her music is recognized for its diverse influences and infusion of energy, drawing upon Afropop, Congolese rumba, jazz, rhythm and blues, gospel and Latin style to create a repertoire uniquely her own. Kidjo has collaborated with a number of music’s leading recording artists, including Peter Gabriel, Bono, Alicia Keys and Branford Marsalis, and has played sold-out venues around the globe.
 
As an advocate for social justice, Kidjo has served as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador since 2002; has created a foundation that supports education and leadership opportunities for girls in Africa; and has campaigned for clean water, access to medicine, and an African continent free from conflict and war. In a 2007 profile in Vanity Fair, actor and performer Harry Belafonte wrote that “most artists talk about doing good; few go out and do it. Angelique Kidjo is one of them.”
 
“Angelique Kidjo’s creative endeavors and social advocacy should resonate with our vibrant and diverse community,” said Middlebury President Ronald D. Liebowitz. “In addition to injecting the campus with an exciting and energetic dose of great African music on Thursday evening, Ms. Kidjo will be part of a public conversation with Professor Damascus Kafumbe. During the conversation I hope the campus will hear how Ms. Kidjo’s music ties into her life’s work — to her philanthropy and collaboration with international organizations to make a difference throughout the developing world.”
 
The John Hamilton Fulton Lecture in the Liberal Arts was established at Middlebury College in 1966. The late Alexander Hamilton Fulton, an emeritus member of the Middlebury College board of trustees, donated the gift that established the lectureship, which is named in honor of his father. Previous Fulton lecturers have included Lani Guinier, Michael Ignatieff, Chief Justice John Roberts, Beverly Sills, James A. Baker III, William H. Rehnquist, Wynton Marsalis and Elie Wiesel. Harvard University Professor of Government Eric Nelson delivered last year’s lecture.

New students sing the alma mater at Convocation.

MIDDLEBURY, Vt.—Middlebury College will welcome the Class of 2017 to campus on Monday, Sept. 2, for four days of orientation followed by organized weekend trips, College Convocation on Sunday and the first day of classes for all students on Sept. 9.

The 629 first-year students, selected this year from a record field of more than 9,100 applicants, are organized at Middlebury into five “Commons” or living-learning communities that combine the academic, social and residential components of college life.

In addition to three elective courses, each new student has chosen a first-year seminar—a writing-intensive, discussion-oriented class of 16 or fewer students that is taught by a faculty member who also serves as the students’ adviser until midway through their sophomore year. Among the 44 first-year seminars offered in 2013 are: Speechmaker’s Studio, Chemical and Biological Warfare, Literature on Trial, Culinary History of Italy and Mountains of the Northeast.

The first-year class includes a diverse range of students including a flutist who has performed with the Syrian National Symphony Orchestra, the queen of the 2013 Tournament of Roses, a member of the U.S. National Equestrian Team, the two-time winner of a young playwrights' festival and an illustrator for a daily newspaper in China.

There are also 34 members of the Class of 2017 who were accepted to the class that enrolled last fall but elected to take a gap year before attending college.

Returning students will bring the on-campus population up to 2,495 individuals representing 51 territories, states and the District of Columbia, and 72 foreign countries. The states sending the most students to Middlebury are New York with 377, Massachusetts with 333, California with 246, Connecticut with 168 and Vermont with 157. The countries that are most frequently represented in the Middlebury student body are China with 60 students (including 14 from Hong Kong), Canada with 31, United Kingdom with 12, India with nine, and Republic of Korea with nine.

New this year at Middlebury is a conservation psychology focus in the Environmental Studies Program, and a museum studies track within the Department of History of Art and Architecture. Also, two programs have been renamed to better reflect the depth and breadth of their curricula: women’s and gender studies is now the Program in Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies, and international studies is now the Program in International and Global Studies.

Sixty-seven new courses will be offered during the 2013-14 academic year. Among them are: Palestine and Its Diaspora, Introduction to Neuroscience, Mathematics for Teachers and Children of the Russian Revolution. Also new at Middlebury are the courses Tokyo Between History and Utopia, Holocaust in Literature, Language in Africana Studies and Otherness in Hispanic Literature.

In February 2014, the college expects approximately 90 “Feb” first-years to enroll at Middlebury and join the first-year class. Twenty-six percent of the Class of 2017 are U.S. students of color; 13 percent are the first generation in their families to attend college; and 11 percent are from foreign countries. Members of the incoming class will represent 43 states, the District of Columbia and 43 foreign countries.

The Middlebury calendar also contains a full slate of co-curricular events. Beginning on Sept. 12 and continuing through Dec. 8 the Museum of Art will present two simultaneous exhibitions in contemporary art: “Vito Acconci: Thinking Space” and “Screened and Selected II: Contemporary Photographs and Video Acquisitions 2006-2011.”

This fall the Mahaney Center for the Arts will welcome guest artist Imogen Cooper performing Schubert’s three final piano sonatas on Oct. 10, and the 2012 Gramophone young-artist-of-the-year Benjamin Grosvenor, also on piano, on Oct. 29. And in the spring the English pianist Paul Lewis will return to Middlebury to perform works by Beethoven, Bach and Mussorgsky on April 4, 2014.

Also on the fall arts calendar are: Marc Bamuthi Joseph and the Living Word Project on Sept. 20-21; Catherine Cabeen and her contemporary dance company on Oct. 11-12; and Lasyam: An Evening of Indian Classical Dance on Oct. 14.  

The curtain will go up this autumn on two plays presented by the Middlebury theatre program: “Vinegar Tom” on Oct. 31-Nov. 2 and “Pentecost” on Nov. 21-23.

The annual Nicholas R. Clifford Symposium Sept. 26-28 will focus on “Translation in a Global Community: Theory and Practice” with keynote addresses by David Bellos of Princeton University and Emily Apter from NYU in addition to a translingual poetry slam, a workshop and other events.

The Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs will host the 2nd annual International Politics and Economics Symposium on the topic “Global Inequalities in Gender, Public Health and the Environment: What Can We Do?” It will be held on Sept. 20. The center will also present lectures on “Central Asia and Its Powerful Neighbors: A Struggle for Influence” on Sept. 30, and “Crafting a Christian Identity in the Middle East: The Case of the Maronites in Lebanon” on Oct. 3.

The Environmental Studies Colloquium Series opens on Sept. 12 with a lecture entitled "Greening Vermont: The Next 50 Years," and continues on Thursday afternoon throughout the semester. Future topics in the series named in honor of Howard E. Woodin are: "Global Inequalities and the Environment,""Enhancing Habitat for Endangered Bats," and "Bringing Local Foods to the Table." 

All students will discover something new in the McCullough Student Center this year. The college has retained a South Carolina firm to operate a sushi bar in the space known as Crossroads. Sushi with Gusto will be open for lunch five days a week and open for dinner every day.

For more information about events listed in this story, please consult these links:

Orientation http://www.middlebury.edu/studentlife/events/orientation

Museum of Art http://museum.middlebury.edu/

Performing arts http://www.middlebury.edu/arts/performing/13-14

Clifford Symposium http://www.middlebury.edu/clifford

Rohatyn Center http://www.middlebury.edu/international/rcga/events

Environmental Studies Colloquium http://www.middlebury.edu/academics/es/news/woodincolloquiumseries/current

Sushi http://www.middlebury.edu/newsroom/node/454627

Photo: USA Hockey

The public is invited to watch the U.S. Women's National Hockey Team take on Finland in an exhibition game at Middlebury's Kenyon Arena on Friday, November 1, at noon.

The game against Finland is part of Team USA's 18-game "Bring on the World" tour, which also includes games against highly ranked Canada and Sweden.

Currently ranked first place in the world, the U.S. Women's team won the 2013 International Ice Hockey Federation Women's World Championship in Ottawa last April. Their current tour is in preparation for 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, this coming February.

Team USA's roster includes 25 players ranging in age from 16-31. The final 18-member U.S. Olympic Women's team will be announced on January 5, 2014.

Admission is free, with a suggested donation of $5 to benefit the United Way of Addison County.

On the afternoon of Sept. 11 a small group of individuals pulled from the ground and placed into garbage bags nearly 3,000 American flags that had been placed on the lawn in front of Mead Chapel by Middlebury College students to commemorate the anniversary of the Sept. 11 2001 terrorist attack on the United States, and the deaths of 2,977 people. The tradition of placing these flags in a prominent position on campus began several years ago.

According to interviews with witnesses, five individuals participated in the act. One was identified as a Middlebury student who later acknowledged her participation. Another was a Canadian national and political activist who had been invited to the campus by the Middlebury student. The identities of the other three are unknown. We have no evidence that any of them are Middlebury students.

During the incident, several Middlebury students confronted the individuals and following a brief confrontation were able to retrieve some of the flags. Those flags were returned to their positions. Other students purchased additional flags and added those to the commemorative memorial.

On Sept. 24, the College convened the Middlebury Community Judicial Board to consider disciplinary charges brought against the student. The board found the student responsible for violating the following College policies: General Conduct Standards, Respect for Persons, and Respect for Property. It imposed a sanction of a one-year suspension, which was upheld on appeal on Oct. 9.

Aneleisa Gladding-Hinton ’16, winner of the Paul W. Ward ’25 Prize in Writing.

The Middlebury Center for Teaching, Learning, and Research honored up and coming first-year writers with the presentation of the Paul W. Ward ’25 Prize in Writing at a ceremony in Twilight Hall Friday, Oct. 11. The $500 cash prize recognizes outstanding essay writing by first-year students. This year’s winners and honorees, all members of the class of 2016, were nominated from many academic disciplines and were judged by a faculty committee for writing completed during the 2012-13 academic year.

Video: Aneleisa Gladding-Hinton reads from her poetry collection "Pledged Departures."

“We are impressed this year that among the nominees are students for whom English is just one of many languages they speak,” said Mary Ellen Bertolini, director of the college's writing center told the crowd at Twilight Auditorium.  “And, we are impressed at the range of interests and styles that all your writing represents:  the judges read, personal narratives, short stories, poetry, drama, critical arguments, and many fine research papers.”

From left:  Clare Donohue-Meyer, Aneleisa Gladding-Hinton, August Hutchinson, Alec Drobac, Pornwalai Siripornpitak and Esme Valette

The winning submission out of 47 nominations was from Aneleisa Gladding-Hinton (see video excerpt above) for her collection of poems titled “Pledged Departures.” Gladding-Hinton was introduced by her advisor Maria Hatjigeorgiou, lecturer in religion, who noted that, like newly-minted Nobel Laureate Alice Munro, Gladding-Hinton is a writer who attempts to “explore life through poetic narrative and music and visual art, weaving her personal experience along with her family into a magical tapestry of art in a way that is distinctly personal and reflects the journey of your own selfhood.” Gladding-Hinton then read several excerpts from her collection.

Five other students read from their works, including runners-up August C. Hutchinson and Bo Pornwalai Siripornpitak, who received $250 each, and honorable mention students Clare Donohue-Meyer, Alec Drobac and Esme Valette. 

“We hope you talented writers of the class of 2016 will share your gifts with incoming classes by working with them in their first-year seminars and college writing classes,” Bertolini told the students, who are invited by the Writing Program to train as peer writing tutors and writing and academic mentors.

The prize is offered in memory of Paul W. Ward ’25, whose life-long career as a journalist and diplomatic reporter brought him both the Pulitzer Prize and the French Legion of Honor. During his long career he emphasized the use of basic English as a writer’s most necessary tool. Precise and exact usage of words, exact meanings, phrases expressed lucidly and gracefully, seemed to him the most direct and understandable means of communicating with his readers.

Photos: Matt Lennon ’13; Video: Stephen Diehl

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — Middlebury has received a three-year grant of $272,528 from the Department of Justice (DOJ) to enhance the college’s efforts to prevent and respond to sexual violence on campus. The funding will support education and training programs, and strengthen the college’s collaboration with local organizations that support Middlebury students. The DOJ’s Office on Violence Against Women, which administers the grant, received 127 applications for funding in 2013. Middlebury was one of only 28 institutions whose grant proposal was accepted.

“This financial support will enhance our capability to fundamentally change campus culture regarding sexual violence,” said Karen Guttentag, associate dean for judicial affairs and student life at Middlebury and the grant’s project director. Guttentag said that the grant money will help the college to develop its Sexual Assault Advocacy Program, and revitalize and promote its bystander intervention program. Students will have the opportunity to attend new workshops on healthy relationships, masculinity, femininity and consent.

According to Guttentag, the grant also enables the college to strengthen existing mandatory programs for first-year undergraduate students and attendees of Middlebury summer programs, and create new education and prevention programs for targeted audiences, including students preparing to study abroad, male students, and faculty and staff. “One of the exciting aspects of the grant is how comprehensive it allows us to be, both in the type of programs we offer and the audiences we reach,” said Guttentag.

The new funding will extend beyond the campus’s borders and enable Middlebury to collaborate more closely with its community partners — WomenSafe, Burlington-based RU12?/SafeSpace, Addison County Council Against Domestic & Sexual Violence, the Middlebury Police Department, and Porter Hospital. “Harnessing all of the resources of our community to prevent and respond to sexual violence is a critical component of this grant,” said Guttentag.

As part of the tighter collaboration with local organizations, officers from the Middlebury Police Department and the Middlebury College Department of Public Safety will have the opportunity to collaborate on sexual violence training programs, sharing protocols and best practices. Both groups will also receive additional training from national experts in this area.

The grant will also help the college and the community address a local shortage of sexual assault nurse examiners (SANEs) by offering financial support to recruit and train new SANEs at Porter Hospital and at the college.

Guttentag notes that the new funds will provide for ongoing training for Middlebury’s human relations officer, members of its Sexual Misconduct Review Panel, and others involved in the college’s judicial process when there is an incident of sexual violence. “We want to make sure that any student in any Middlebury school or program who is either a survivor of sexual violence, or accused of sexual violence, can expect a fair investigation and adjudication process that meets the highest national standards,” she said.

“We look forward to working with our community partners, the student body, the Sexual Assault Oversight Committee, and many others on campus to take advantage of all the opportunities this grant has provided,” she added.

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — At its first meeting of the academic year, Middlebury’s Board of Trustees last week discussed a list of recommendations of a governance working group the president and board chair established in 2012 to review how the board should be structured to best meet the needs and demands of a much larger and complex institution than the one that existed even a generation ago.

The working group presented recommendations that would amend the committee structure to provide trustees with more information about the operations of the undergraduate college, the Language Schools, the Schools Abroad, the Bread Loaf School of English, the Monterey Institute of International Studies and associated programs. The working group also suggested the merging of committee roles associated with fiduciary oversight and issues related to institutional resources, strategy, risk and governance.

As planned, following the discussion of the working group’s proposals last week, the board will vote formally on the recommendations and the new board structure at its December meeting in New York City.

At its meeting on Saturday, the board of trustees heard a presentation from Middlebury’s endowment manager Alice Handy, the CEO of Investure. Handy reviewed the long-term investment goals and strategy set by the board and the 1-, 3-, 5- and 10-year performance of the endowment. In the fiscal year ended June 30, the endowment earned 14.8 percent on its investments. As of Sept. 30, the value of the endowment stood at $991 million.

Handy also discussed steps the board and Investure are taking to more clearly define a set of ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) investment principles and to increase the amount of the endowment invested in sustainability opportunities, including renewable energy. The board identified both of these initiatives as long-term goals at its meeting last May and approved of the progress made toward those goals.

Trustees approved a proposal to establish a Master of Arts degree in teaching Hebrew as a second language. The program, which will be administered through the School of Hebrew and the Institute for the Advancement of Hebrew, will admit its first students in the summer of 2014.

On Saturday, Sunder Ramaswamy, president of Middlebury’s Monterey Institute of International Studies, briefed the board on a long-term proposal to work with the city of Monterey to improve the institute’s urban campus. Hoped-for improvements include the creation of a more open and pedestrian-friendly central campus, new housing options for students and improved classroom and office space.

Before dinner on Friday, trustees toured the new Squash Center, which will open officially on Oct. 26, during Homecoming Weekend.

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — Four members of the staff at Middlebury College were honored as the 2013 recipients of the Staff Recognition Award at a noontime reception and ceremony on Oct. 30 in McCullough Student Center.

Nominated by their peers and selected by a committee of previous recipients of the award were Margaret Burns, director of internships, Center for Careers and Internships; Nancy Parsons, catering and convenience foods coordinator, Retail Food Operations; Tom Sheluga, laboratory stores manager, Sciences Technical Support Services; and Mary Carr Stanley, space manager, Facilities Services.

The annual award recognizes excellence on the part of staff members in four areas: leadership, stewardship, attitude and community service. It was established through the generosity of Rudolf K. Haerle, Jr., professor emeritus of sociology, to honor outstanding members of the Middlebury College staff.

Approximately 100 people, including Prof. Haerle, gathered in the Crossroads Café as President Ronald D. Liebowitz introduced each recipient, read a citation and presented each with a plaque.

Left to right: Prof. Emeritus Rudolf K. Haerle., Jr., Peggy Burns, Tom Sheluga, Mary Stanley and President Ronald D. Liebowitz. Missing from photo: Nancy Parsons.

Margaret “Peggy” Burns was saluted for the “deep respect she shows to students, for her abiding care for the college community and her unmatched collegiality in her interactions with others.” President Liebowitz said, “Peggy touches the lives of students in a deep and meaningful way, and exhibits spirit, determination, focus and grace under pressure.”

Nancy Parsons was recognized for her “leadership, can-do attitude and dedication to her job for customers at The Grille, at Wilson Café and in Midd Express,” the college’s convenience store. Nancy “truly believes that our customers, especially the students, benefit the most when all of us strive to do our best work every day,” the president stated.

Tom Sheluga was nominated for his award by faculty and staff in McCardell Bicentennial Hall who said, "Tom brings an upbeat vibe to work every day with his positive attitude, witty good humor, unflappability and technical problem-solving ability.” Tom is conscientious in his mentoring of student workers and plays a huge role in the daily operations of his building, Liebowitz noted.

Mary Carr Stanley was lauded as “well organized, responsive, thoughtful and creative,” and was nominated for her “uncanny ability to find innovative solutions to the problems and requests” that arise when faculty and staff are asked to move to another office space. Mary is “an unsung hero at the college” as she coordinates the details involved in outfitting new and renovated spaces at Middlebury, Liebowitz said.

Dr. Amy Smithson, senior fellow at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. -- Chemical and biological weapons expert Dr. Amy Smithson, a senior fellow at the Monterey Institute’s James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, will speak at Middlebury on Wednesday, Nov. 6, at 4:30 p.m.

Her talk, “Chemical Weapons in Syria: A Bumpy Road to Elimination,” is presented by Middlebury's Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs, and will take place at the Robert A. Jones ’59 House conference room.

Smithson, who chairs the World Economic Forum’s Global Affairs Council on Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Weapons, is a highly-regarded expert who has appeared frequently before Congress and the national media. She has been in particularly high demand for news interviews since September when the international community struck a deal with Syria to avert U.S. missile attacks in exchange for destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons.

Following the lecture, Smithson will participate in a career conversation and dinner with students at the Brainerd Commons house.

For more information, contact Charlotte Tate at the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs.

The Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs and Middlebury's International Student and Scholar Services office have announced an impressive line-up of internationally focused events to celebrate International Education Week. Launched in 2000, International Education Week is a joint project of the U.S. Department of State and the Department of Education aimed at highlighting the benefits of international education and exchange worldwide. 

Middlebury's events kicked off yesterday with the annual Study Abroad Photo Contest in the lobby of the Davis Family Library (on display through Friday, Nov. 15). The schedule includes lectures, films, and art exhibitions, culminating with the popular International Students Organization Cultural Show on Saturday, Nov. 23.

A full schedule of events follows (Click on a link for more details):

Tuesday, November 12

Mahaney Center for the Arts, Museum of Art. Various exhibits, including Asian and European art. Open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Wednesday, November 13

The Franco-Algerian War and the Dispute between Camus and Sartre, a lecture by Alek Toumi, Robert A. Jones ’59 Conference Room, 4:30 p.m.

Thursday, November 14

Diwan Baladna: Two Jordanians’ Perspectives on the Middle East, Robert A. Jones ’59 Conference Room, 4:30 p.m.

Brave Genius: A Scientist’s Journey from the French Resistance to the Nobel Prize, a lecture by Sean Carroll, Dana Auditorium, 7:30 p.m.

Friday, November 15

The Ethics of Self-Sacrifice: Russians Remember the War, an International and Global Studies Colloquium, presentation by Nina Wieda, Lunch available to those who RSVP by 11/11 to rcga@middlebury.edu, Robert A. Jones ’59 Conference Room, 12:15 p.m.

Korean Art Comes to Middlebury, presented by Sarah Laursen, Mahaney Center for the Arts, 12:15 p.m.

Saturday, November 16

The Hirschfield International Film Series presents Searching for Sugar Man, Dana Auditorium, 3:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.

Sunday, November 17

Middlebury College Choir “In Nature” with the Middlebury College Orchestra: featuring music of Nature, Bohemia and Bohemian nature. Mahaney Center for the Arts Concert Hall, 3:00 p.m.

Monday, November 18

Timely and Untimely Politics: Art, Protest and Everyday Life in Early 1960s Japan, a lecture by William Marotti, Robert A. Jones ’59 Conference Room, 4:30 p.m.

Tuesday, November 19

Women’s Activism in Muslim and Jewish Religious-Political Movements, a lecture by Lihi Ben-Shitrit, Sunderland Language Center Room 110, 4:30 p.m.

MAlt Dominican Republic Atwater Dinner, a themed dinner in support of the Middlebury Alternative Break Trip to the Dominican Republic, Suggested $5 donation for students – RSVP to maltmariposa@gmail.com by November 11, Atwater Dining Hall, 6 p.m.

African Music and Dance Ensemble, Mahaney Center for the Arts Concert Hall, 8 p.m.

Wednesday, November 20

Carol Rifelj Faculty Lecture Series: Transnational Justice and Politics of National Reconciliation in Post-communist Europe, a lecture by Michael Kraus. Franklin Environmental Center, The Orchard-Hillcrest 103, 4:30 p.m.

Thursday, November 21

Pentecost, a play by David Edgar performed in twelve languages. Wright Memorial Theatre, 7:30 P.M. on November 21-23. $6 tickets for Middlebury students.

Friday, November 22

A Faithful Scribe: A Story of Islam, Pakistan, Family and War, an International Global  Studies Colloquium presented by journalist and author Shahan Mufti ’03.  A career conversation with the author will be held for students at the Center for Careers and Internships from 10:00-11:00 a.m. Lunch available to those who RSVP by 11/18 to rcga@middlebury.edu Robert A. Jones ’59 Conference Room, 12:15 p.m.

Saturday, November 23

International Students Organization Cultural Show 2013: where dances and songs meet to showcase spectacular performances!  McCullough Social Space, 5:30 p.m. ($6 sampler show) and 8:00 p.m. ($7 full performance) Purchase tickets now at the Box Office.

Amidst shattered fruit and gummy bears, Cece Burkey '15 works with young audience members to cause a blue chemical reaction.

The five Middlebury chemistry students could have been magicians for the wonder they stirred (and mixed and detonated) before a crowd of Addison County kids on Wednesday night at McCardell Bicentennial Hall. In an evening titled "Alchemistry pHun! An Exciting Demonstration of Chemical Experiments," the students delivered a steady stream of colors, sounds, smells and laughs to the eager audience.

David Stillman '14 and Peter Hetzler '14 create a green fireball by igniting a hydrogen balloon.

Shannon Reinert '15 offers a close-up of a quick crystal she created with a chemical reaction.

Alex Scibetta '14 creates an orange ooze to the delight of her young assistants.

"We do this to try to get kids involved in chemistry at a young age and try to make it fun for them," said Alex Scibetta ’14. "I know the word 'chemistry' kind of has some negative connotation around it, but it's really fun to get the kids involved and to try to explain concepts in a simple manner."

As the show began, the Middlebury students wheeled out a lab table with five different plates of dry chemicals. David Stillman ’14 gave the young audience a quick description of white light before igniting the plates into five colorful flames. Stillman said that the beautiful white light had been split into five colors and that the rest of the evening would be a quest to retrieve the colors and reunite them into white light.

Each of the ensuing experiments — some messy, some loud, some beautiful — helped to recapture one of the missing colors.

The most popular hands-on stunt of the evening was a set of demonstrations with liquid nitrogen, showing the results of instant freezing on such objects as bouncy balls, gummy bears, balloons and a banana. Kids from the audience were invited up to shatter frozen apples and oranges with a baseball bat.

At the end of the evening, in a tasty encore, the liquid nitrogen made a second appearance as a key ingredient for instant ice cream, which was enjoyed by all.

With reporting by Stephen Diehl and photos by Matt Lennon ’13.

Middlebury economics professors Caitlin Myers and Jessica Holmes

Does “nature” actually play a role in how much we earn? This fall two Middlebury economics professors, Jessica Holmes and Caitlin Myers, published a thought-provoking study looking at the gender wage gap between male and female twins, and what that suggests for women's earnings potential. We asked them to explain some of the main ideas behind their study:

What sparked the idea for a study linking testosterone to wages?

Jessica: Believe it or not, the seeds were sown during a sideline conversation at a Middlebury College women’s soccer game. I made an anecdotal observation to biology professor Jeremy Ward that females with twin brothers seemed to be more aggressive athletes than those without. (One of the more forceful players on the team had a twin brother.) Jeremy then shared the little-known fact (to us economists anyway!) that in both litter-bearing animals and humans, female fetuses are exposed to testosterone shocks from their male littermates, and these testosterone boosts are linked to greater risk-taking and assertiveness later in life. This was a “Eureka!” moment for Caitlin and me because we immediately saw the potential to contribute to an ongoing nature vs. nurture debate about why women tend to earn less than men. 

Can you explain more about the gender wage gap and how it relates to your research? 

Caitlin: The current gender wage gap is about 77 cents on the male dollar. Economists can explain about half of the gap by observable factors like part-time status, occupational choice and labor market experience. The remaining half is considered “unexplained,” but the usual suspect is labor market discrimination. Recently, social scientists have started to consider a third potential explanation: that perhaps it has something to do with differences between men and women in preferences and personality.  We’re interested in whether any such differences might be biological.  Is it possible that women are not wired to “Lean In,” and that this helps to explain the wage gap? 

Can you explain your basic premise and methodology? 

Jessica: Essentially, we use differences in prenatal exposure to testosterone between opposite sex twins, single sex twins and singletons to examine “nature’s" contribution to the gender wage gap. Twins provide us with a unique natural experiment (one that allows us to avoid randomly injecting a sample of pregnant women with testosterone to see how things turn out for their children!) The empirical test is simple. We know that females with a twin brother experience a greater testosterone “shock” in utero than those with a twin sister. We also know that prenatal testosterone wires the brain for more typically masculine preferences and behaviors including risk-taking and aggression. So we use econometric techniques to test whether twins who receive a prenatal testosterone "boost" earn higher wages later in life. 

Has anyone else ever taken this approach?

Caitlin: We are building on a large literature from biology, neuroscience and psychology. To our knowledge, we are the first to use this approach to look at economic outcomes and also the first to use closely-spaced singletons to control for potential socialization effects. Another group of economic researchers recently used a similar strategy to look at investment portfolio selection and financial risk-taking. 

It seems like an impossible task to find a large enough data sample that tracks twins from infancy through professional life. How did you go about that?

Caitlin: As is so often the case in research, it was serendipity! After Jessica’s chance conversation with Jeremy at the soccer game, we had continued to kick this research idea around for a couple of years, but we were unable to find an appropriate data set. Then, while I was spending some time at a German think tank during sabbatical, a second chance conversation occurred, this one by the espresso machine in the break room. (This must be the European counterpart to a “water-cooler conversation!”) A Dutch economist, Anne Gielen was telling me about her work with administrative data from the Netherlands, and a light bulb went off— these data were just what we needed. Using them, we could identify nearly all of the twins born in the Netherlands and follow them throughout life via tax and employment records. And not only would we identify nearly 80,000 twins, but we could also pull a large group of closely spaced singleton siblings from the data to use as a control group. Anne quickly signed on to the project, and we got to work. 

Were you surprised by any of your findings?

Jessica: We have the typical impartial mien of empiricists; it’s hard to surprise us! What we find particularly interesting about the results, though, is that they suggest that testosterone exposure benefits men in the labor market, but does not help — and may even hurt — women. Our results are consistent with mounting research that suggests that men and women are evaluated differently in the workplace. Men who are assertive and competitive are regarded as strong leaders and as such are more highly compensated and more likely to be promoted. Women who behave similarly, that is women who are ambitious, assertive and competitive, are perceived as competent but less socially skilled… and they are less likely to be promoted than less aggressive women. So a testosterone boost in utero boosts wages for men but has no effect (and may actually reduce) wages for women.

What's next? Did this study suggest other avenues that you plan to pursue?

Jessica: We are investigating the possibility of using a large database of Swedish twins to test whether prenatal exposure to testosterone affects other outcomes such as cognitive test scores and occupational choice.

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. ‒ Middlebury, Vt., and Washington, D.C., may appear far apart on a map, but they’re much closer in reality with the opening of Middlebury in DC, the institution’s new office in the nation’s capital.

Located at 1400 K St., the office will give students, faculty and staff from Middlebury College and the Monterey Institute of International Studies, a Middlebury graduate school, increased access to the many academic, government, international, research and philanthropic organizations in the Washington, D.C., area. The space also houses the Washington, D.C., office of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS), which is part of the Monterey Institute.

Fariha Haque is the director of Middlebury in DC.

Middlebury recently appointed Fariha Haque as the first director of Middlebury in DC. Haque was most recently an analyst in the District of Columbia Public Schools’ office of early childhood education. She earned a bachelor’s in international relations from Wellesley College and a master’s in education policy from the University of Pennsylvania.

“Middlebury and Monterey are global institutions with ties to countries around the world through our programs and alumni networks,” said Haque. “It makes sense to have a stronger presence in Washington, and I look forward to helping to establish that.”

Middlebury President Ronald D. Liebowitz said the opening of the office will create a range of opportunities. “What makes this new office so exciting is how many different aspects of the institution can take advantage of it and consequently all that Washington has to offer,” said Liebowitz. “It will allow our institution to bring together students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends from all of our degree programs to enrich a particular course, a continuing education program, and much more.”

The lobby of Middlebury in DC

The large conference room in the new office

The new 6,500-square foot office has meeting and office space as well as a large videoconferencing facility. Haque said the office creates new opportunities to connect students at any of Middlebury’s schools and programs with leading experts and policy makers who might otherwise not be available to travel to Vermont, California or one of Middlebury’s dozens of Schools Abroad campuses. Haque also expects the career and internship offices in Middlebury and Monterey to make use of the office and its video capabilities.

A hub for alumni, Middlebury in DC has already hosted several events. The Monterey Institute held an alumni reception there Oct. 1 and the Middlebury Washington, D.C., alumni chapter organized a talk by Middlebury Associate Professor of American Studies and author Susan Burch, who discussed her book “Unspeakable: The Story of Junius Wilson” on Nov. 20.

“These events only represent the beginning of what’s possible here,” said Haque.

For more information about Middlebury in DC visit http://www.middlebury.edu/offices/dc.

Prof. Matthew Dickinson

Listen to Matt Dickinson on Vermont Edition.

The new Steinway concert grand will reside in the concert hall of the Mahaney Center for the Arts.

MIDDLEBURY,Vt. -- The Mahaney Center for the Arts was buzzing with excitement on Tuesday, Nov. 26, as the college welcomed the arrival of a new Steinway model D concert grand piano. The piano, a gift of the Ray, Meredith and Nathaniel ’12.5 Rothrock family in honor of President Ron Liebowitz and his wife Jessica, will reside in the concert hall for use by students, faculty and the world-renowned pianists who appear as part of the college’s Performing Arts Series.

A small gathering of students, faculty and staff watched as a crew from Green Mountain Piano Moving brought the glossy black 9-foot, 990-lb. piano into the concert hall, installed its legs, and carefully turned it upright.

New piano arrives:

Jessica and Ron Liebowitz admire the new piano with Director of the Arts Pieter Broucke.

Lowell Trecartin of Green Mountain Piano Movers installs the legs.

Affiliate Artist and Piano Instructor Diana Fanning ’71 was one of the first to play the new Steinway.

“It’s thrilling to see this instrument rolled out on our stage for the first time,” said Allison Coyne Carroll, associate director of the Performing Arts Series. “This piano is a wonderful addition to our concert hall, and its quality will be a joy for performers and audiences alike.”

The new piano was handcrafted at the Steinway factory in Queens, N.Y. A selection committee that included Steinway artists and concert soloists Richard Goode and Paul Lewis; Middlebury faculty member Diana Fanning ’71; and alumna Gwendolyn Toth ’77, traveled to the factory in late October, where they tested five pianos chosen to suit the acoustics of the Mahaney Center concert hall.

“The selection process was quite extraordinary,” said Director of the Arts Pieter Broucke. “The world-class performers on our selection committee put each piano through its paces and tried not to influence the opinions of the others. We were nervous about what would happen if they couldn’t agree, but amazingly they reached consensus on the piano that arrived here today.”

Affiliate artist and piano instructor Diana Fanning was among the first to try the new instrument, playing a Brahms Intermezzo before a small, but rapt, audience. "It feels and sounds wonderful," Fanning said. "It's just as good as I remember from the Steinway factory."

The current concert hall piano, also a Steinway, will be moved to Mead Chapel, where it will continue to be an important performance instrument, though with a much less demanding schedule than the main concert hall piano. That piano, a gift of former trustee Patricia Palmer ’57 and family, arrived in 1992 for the opening of the Mahaney Center for the Arts.

“The Palmer piano has served us beautifully for many years,” said Coyne Carroll. “A concert piano with a rigorous performance schedule is typically replaced every 10 years or so, but the college’s careful maintenance extended this piano’s performance life.”

Steinway pianos are renowned as the piano of choice in concert halls around the world. Each piano contains more than 12,000 parts, and the painstaking manufacturing process takes nearly a year to complete.

A dedication event for the Liebowitz piano is being planned for spring 2014.