MIDDBRIEFS

Author: JAKE COHEN AND POLLY JOHNSON

Three new senators join SGA ranks after Feb. 28 elections

Three senators were voted into office for the Student Government Association (SGA) on Tuesday, Feb. 28. The elections only lasted 24 hours but an impressive voter turn out and a well-publicized campaign made one day plenty of time. Seven candidates yielded three active students to the current SGA roster of representatives.

Jessie Singleton '08.5, a founding member of the Roosevelt Institution and a political enthusiast, was elected as the Brainerd Commons Senator. The class of '09.5 has already made its presence known on campus by selecting Gita Elgite '09.5 as the replacement for former Feb Senator Ted King. The Middlebury student body has been reinvigorated with the recent arrival of juniors who spent the semester abroad. Leigh Polfer '07 has been chosen to represent the class of 2007 as the Half-Year Junior Senator.

SGA President Eli Berman seemed ecstatic about the set of senators and sees the potential for more progress and success in the future of the SGA. Berman has fronted a senate-based initiative called "The SafeRide Program" that would provide free off-campus transportation for students attending distant events. The addition of Polfer, who served on the Senate Transportation Committee, will fortify the senate's stance on off-campus transportation and may be the impetus necessary to gain administrative approval.



The smoking gun

This week's Community Council meeting saw the return of what has been an on-again, off-again contentious health issue for the College: cigarette smoking and its negative externalities from the perspective of non-smokers. Reference and Instruction Librarian Brenda Ellis, Health Center Director Mark Peluso and other concerned staff members suggested the possibility of instating a smoke-free zone around all College building entrances, a plan that has long been a pipe dream for smoke-free crusaders. Next week Community Council will transition into its annual social house review and will continue discussion of a possible localized smoking ban.



Famous climatologist to speak at Middlebury for Margolin lecture

Renowned climatologist Michael Mann will speak at Middlebury on Tuesday, March 7, at 4:30 p.m. in John M. McCardell, Jr. Bicentennial Hall, presenting a lecture entitled "Global Climate Change: Past and Future." The lecture is the College's 2006 Scott Margolin Lecture in Environmental Affairs. Mann holds a joint appointment at the Penn State University Departments of Meteorology and Geosciences and in the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute, in addition to being the director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center.

Acknowledged for his research and analysis of global warming, Mann is responsible for the "hockey stick" diagram, which he uses to describe global warming. He claims the earth is warming at an unnatural rate, with a sharp upturn in the beginning of the 20th century - the basis for the theory. Mann and his colleagues, who drew from different sources including tree rings to coral reefs to understand temperature before there were temperature records, crafted the hockey stick graph. He is firm in his belief that the Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate, and that the warming is a result of human activities.