Committee supports Carnival break

Author: Adam Dede

The Calendar Committee has made a change to its recommendation to give a break from classes for the Spring Student Symposium in response to student objections to the original plan. As a result, the Winter Carnival will likely enjoy its traditional Friday without classes in the 2009-2010 academic year. Before the change back is made official, however, President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz and his staff will have to accept the recommendation.

"I think that for all practical purposes they already have accepted the recommendation," said Secretary of the College John Emerson.

A recently released Student Government Association (SGA) proposal about the plan will further bolster the Calendar Committee's recommendation. The proposal, passed unanimously at the April 13 SGA Senate meeting, outlines the success of the 2008 Carnival, and argues that the Carnival is a major tradition of the College which sets Middlebury apart from other schools. The proposal also includes schedule suggestions to allow both the winter celebration and the symposium to receive breaks from class. Ending on a more sentimental note, however, the document returns to a quote from Kris Williams '11, who summed up the uniquely Middlebury feeling of Winter Carnival.

"This is one of those moments that just make me realize, Wow, I really made it! I'm here at Middlebury," said Williams at the Carnival's kick-off bonfire.

In an interview with The Campus, Emerson noted that the original recommendation to change the calendar had very little to do with Winter Carnival and was mainly aimed at increasing the role of the research symposium. He said that the Calendar Committee had seen the Friday morning of Carnival as a very inactive time with low attendance at the races. As such, it was thought that Friday classes would have little effect on the Carnival.

Emerson stressed that no one in the administration wanted to take away from the traditional activities of Carnival.

"Those recommendations had very little to do with Carnival weekend," said Emerson. "There was a feeling that very little was going on in the day time on Friday."

What Emerson and the Calendar Committee did not anticipate was the reaction the student body would have to the schedule change. According to Emerson, the series of articles, editorials and letters featured in The Middlebury Campus as well as the efforts of the SGA and other student groups on campus showed the Calendar Committee a clear signal that the students value the traditional three-day weekend for Carnival. He said that the work students put into raising awareness to revitalize the Carnival made it easy for the Calendar Committee to reverse its decision from last year.

"I think it was a recommendation the Calendar Committee felt very comfortable with," said Emerson.

With the Carnival all but reinstated the students who worked so hard for it are now able to look back on what they accomplished.

"After seeing such positive feedback from the collaboration of multiple clubs in organizing this year's Winter Carnival, we realize the potential for even more student organizations to become involved in Winter Carnival in order to increase it's scope across campus," said Catherine Collins '10.

Nick Sohl '10 agreed with Collins.

"This ordeal has breathed new life into the Carnival and we can expect the tradition of the carnival to become even better and more inclusive in the years to come," said Sohl.

In the end, Sohl, Collins, Emerson and all involved seemed to agree that although the original student reaction to the calendar change was very negative, in the end the Carnival has had new life breathed into it as a result of the student body's fight to save it.

"I'm delighted that there has been a lot of rethinking of the Carnival and I suspect it needed it and I think there's a lot of excitement around the Carnival," said Emerson.