Middlebury Works Hard, Plays Hard

Author: Charlie Goulding

"One of the first things I noticed when I got here was how in shape people are," remarked Hillary Waite '05. "Very few people are overweight." The external physique of a Middlebury student is indeed well-toned. But do the teardrop triceps and washboard abs of a typical Midd-kid hide a less healthy interior, or are Middlebury students as internally robust as their fit bodies tend to suggest?

"This is a very weight conscious, body conscious campus," said Kathleen Ready, administrative director of Parton Health Center. "That has good and bad sides to it." A simple trip to the jam-packed exercise facility affirms this belief.

"The weight room is always crowded," noted Kris Sukanich '05 . a weight room regular. Sweaty, smelly air permeates the room as people often have to wait in line for use of the erg machines or exercise bikes. One could pass the time watching ESPN on one of the giant televisions behind the treadmills, but the sound is often droned out by the monotonous churning of all the top-of-the-line equipment in use.

Sukanich went on to say, "you start to see the same people there every day — it's like a club." Indeed, physical exertion is so inveterate in the lives of Midd-kids that it becomes part of their daily schedules. For many, a trip to the gym is as routine as 8 a.m. Spanish class — minus the homework.

Various factors contribute to this sort of lifestyle. For one, Middlebury College prides itself on athletics. The College's prowess in numerous different sports is central to the identity and vitality of the school. Students here make a personal commitment to staying in shape for their teams.

Not all weight room aficionados are varsity athletes, however. Many simply like to stay active. "I think the school looks for outgoing people — people who have a lot of energy and like to do things," added Waite. Middlebury students take a pro-active approach to life: fresh snow in February means a trip to the Snow Bowl whereas warm weather in March indicates an early start to the hiking season. For a Midd-kid, inertia is the cardinal sin.

However, the Middlebury student stereotype as one who "works hard, plays hard," does have its negative aspects. Middlebury students generally consider themselves very attractive. This perception generates a mold many students make sacrifices for in order to fit. Guys spend inordinate amounts of time pumping weights whereas many girls seem to develop symbiotic relationships with the stair masters. The Fitness Center staff does attempt, however, to regulate overuse, limiting the amount of time one can spend on a given machine to 30 minutes at a time.

The real problems with a "work hard, play hard" lifestyle are that many Middlebury students are living very intense lives — packing their days full of intellectual, physical and emotional exertion. "I think that most of the health problems that students have are related to their lifestyle," Ready said. "Students don't get enough sleep, and they push themselves in a lot of ways." She suggested that the best way to combat the viruses and colds that seem to sweep through the campus and never quite leave is for students to "do everything your mother always told you to!" Sleeping the recommended 9 hours is maybe the most ignored health tip at Middlebury.

Eating habits are another way in which the compelling forces for a "healthy" life manifest themselves. The health conscious Middlebury community seems to intensely scrutinize the three dining halls. Most concur dining hall food facilitates a healthy lifestyle — Proctor and Freeman dining halls give students ample opportunities to eat a well-balanced meal.

Some students feel the dining services overemphasize certain types of foods. Emily Lam '05 noted, "there's always a lot of carbs — pasta, bread, stuff like that." Indeed, the dining hall menu develops a rhythm that many students complain about because of the repetition. Still, the dining halls have a reason for serving a lot of certain types of foods. Carbohydrates, for instance, suit the needs of physically active students nicely. In this sense, Dining Services works to fit the needs of the majority of the College community.

"Most of the complaints I've heard have been from the vegetarians," commented Laura Eckleman '05. For Middlebury's herbivores, the selection is sometimes disappointing. Many feel forced into consuming tofu and pasta, along with the salad bar options, all too frequently.

Director of Dining Services Peter Napolitano is quick to point out the effort made to accommodate vegetarians. Each meal comes with a vegetarian option. For dinner the week of March 10 to 16, options include tofu tetrazini, grilled thai snapper, vegan lasagna, seared salmon and tofu stir-fry.

Communication between students and Dining Services is strong. Napolitano noted that he "loves the students," and "thinks they're great." Students offer suggestions to Dining Services through comment cards located within each dining hall. Naopolitano collects hundreds of such cards each year, one of which read: "Everything tastes good except the peanut butter. The peanut butter tastes like cardboard," to which the chef replied, "keep an eye out for a new brand of peanut butter shortly."

Implicit in this correspondence is a playfulness that reflects the closeness of the Middlebury community. Napolitano also noted that the dining halls keep an eye out for students whose eating habits seem to be poor and have intervened on numerous occasions when students have needed dietary help.

In general, however, Middlebury students eat quite well, particularly the women, Napolitano remarked. Careful not to over-generalize, he stated, "the females tend to gravitate toward healthier diets — less carbs — they utilize the salad bar more and eat more fruit. The men go for pizza, mozzarella sticks, cheeseburgers, etc." When asked why he thought this was true, he added "the females are more choosey about what they eat — they're very creative and sometimes make dishes I'd like to know how to make. For the guys the pizza and the mozzarella sticks are comfort foods."

There is also, however, a social element to why women at Middlebury, in general, watch what they eat. The perceptions of how a Middlebury woman should look are more rigid than for a male. Thus, many women feel pressured to meet a certain standard. In Napolitano's opinion, however, eating disorders are not a huge problem on campus, largely because of the "comprehensive fee" eating plan, which provides 21 meals a week for all students. In other schools, he noted, students can buy a "declining balance" plan where some simply can't afford to eat all the time and use it as an opportunity to not eat at all.

Ready disagreed, however, and said that "Weight is a big issue here." A study of eating patterns and eating disorders on Middlebury's campus is going to be conducted next year.

The "freshman 15," (15 pounds that many college first-years supposedly gain) which many joke about, is a reference to alcohol as much as it is to food. While many students contend that they've gained weight at school, for most, an active lifestyle does a good job to counter the weight gaining effects of increased alcohol use.

Here again, the role alcohol plays on campus can be traced back to the "work hard, play hard" stereotype which many claim defines a Middlebury student. While some athletic teams are attributed with the most voracious consumption of alcohol, most students seem to think that those who drink consume a considerable but moderate amount on the weekends. Over-consumption does not seem an epidemic at Middlebury, largely because doing so would tip the "work hard, play hard" balance in a way most dedicated students would not accept.

Still, alcohol has a large influence on campus life — one that is not appreciated by all students. Kate Davis '04 said that
"Middlebury students are athletic and generally eat well, but they tend to consistently drink too much."

Another student, who wished to remain anonymous, said that she had to move out of her room because partying disrupted her lifestyle. "During finals, people were playing beer pong and making a lot of noise right next to me. I found the residential life coordinator to be very accommodating, but my commons administrator was a bit more biased in favor of letting certain things go."

According to the 2001 Drug Study on campus, 72 percent of Middlebury students are not frequent binge drinkers. (A frequent male binge drinker is defined as having 5 or more drinks in a row in one sitting on at least 3 occasions in the last 2 weeks. The definition for women is the same but the number of drinks is 4.)

Ninety-five percent of Middlebury students disapprove of drinking and driving and 88 percent have not driven drunk in the last year. Nine percent of students damage school property or other students property when drinking, and 94 percent of Middlebury students disapprove of this drunken behavior. Middlebury students in general don't condone unhealthy or disrespectful alcohol related acts, but the 'play hard' credo becomes dangerous when 12 percent of Middlebury students drove while intoxicated in 2001.

Indeed, the College faces a tough decision in terms of its alcohol policy. Underage college students have historically consumed alcohol no matter what the official regulations. Furthermore, many students argue that alcohol serves a therapeutic purpose as a release from a week of intense academic pressure and that making mistakes with alcohol in college is a learning experience within a relatively safe, primarily pedestrian, environment.

Still, the College must exert some authority. Ready said that "alcohol is definitely the most common drug that we see," and on Sunday mornings, first-year dorms, particularly the bathrooms, look absolutely disgusting and are often quite unsanitary. Moreover, students who do not enjoy the alcohol-fueled party scene have valid claims which sometimes get overlooked. Most students support the relatively hands-off approach the college takes, defined by Harry Kahn '05 as a "system based on freedom of choice. You have to do something stupid to get caught."

Kahn went on to note that in his opinion, marijuana was the only prevalent drug on campus, and that the same rules applied for the narcotic as they do for alcohol. While Lam commented that parts of her dorm smell like marijuana all too frequently, most students don't see the drug as deleterious to their health.

Ready said that the Health Center doesn't usually see students with acute, drug related symptoms besides alcohol and the occasional bad experience with marijuana. She was careful to add, however, that "just because we don't see people suffering from an overdose doesn't mean that there isn't a drug problem."

All in all the stage of health of Middlebury students seems strong, with one being able to trace many of the negative and positive aspects of a Midd-kid's lifestyle to the hackneyed description: "work hard, play hard." While Middlebury students do lead a life of calculated extremes, the self-regulating principle of this term usually keeps them from going overboard. There are, of course, exceptions. One may reasonably conclude, however, that underneath the teardrop triceps and washboard abs is often a vital, healthy spirit.