Council objects to Carnival alteration

Author: Chelsea Utterback

Student representatives attending the Community Council's weekly meeting on Oct. 8 were shocked to learn that the College's Board of Trustees had in May approved a new College calendar that eliminates the first day of Winter Carnival, traditionally a class-free Friday in February. The new calendar will take effect during the 2008-2009 academic year.

According to John Emerson, secretary of the College, the change came as a result of a recommendation in the Strategic Plan that called for holding the Middlebury Student Research Symposium on a day without classes. Last spring, the College convened its first annual Student Research Symposium, which showcased projects spanning a variety of academic fields to great fanfare and critical praise. While the decision to change the academic calendar had by then already been made, College officials were encouraged by the event's success and on Monday sought to inform students about the effort to increase attendance by altering the calendar.

"Although no formal decisions by the Community Council are needed," said Emerson, "I believe that your perspective on these issues will be useful."

Students on the Community Council at first responded with confusion to Emerson's announcement, then with discomfort with the plan.

"This is not a question," said Student Government Association (SGA) President Max Nardini '08, "of 'should we or shouldn't we?' but 'how should we cushion the opposition?'"

Student representatives Peyton Coles '08 and Canem Ozyildirim '10 both protested the changes, arguing that, despite Winter Carnival's lagging attendance rates in recent years, Community Council should make reinvigorating the celebration a priority. Eliminating the first day of the carnival and rescheduling the inter-college skiing competition that historically has been reserved for the class-free Friday, they said, would strike a deathblow to the carnival itself. In addition, with the Symposium falling on the day off, according to Coles, professors may be tempted to compel students to attend lectures or presentations that would defeat the purpose of the rest period.

Some Community Council members expressed concern that the decision to change the academic calendar failed to take student opinions sufficiently into account. The representatives questioned the logic of leaving such a choice to the Board of Trustees when the Winter Carnival has typically been a student-organized affair. Nardini claimed to have never seen the proposal, despite having read the Strategic Plan.

In response to the uproar, Emerson explained that the Symposium was as valuable a tradition as the Winter Carnival.

"[The] growth of student achievements in research, writing, service learning, artistic, and other creative projects has been remarkable," said Emerson.

According to Assistant Professor of Physics Noah Graham, the most significant challenge in adapting to the new calendar would be dispelling the Symposium's potential stigma - that students might perceive the event simply as a series of thesis presentations and lectures. Graham argued that if the College could build upon last year's successes by advertising a more festive theme for the Symposium, students would be more inclined to attend voluntarily. One idea under consideration is the addition of another Family Weekend in April similar to the one held annually in October - something that might encourage students to disassociate the Symposium from academics, according to Emerson.