News & Events
NPR, Chronicle of Higher Ed Feature
Unorthodox Final Exam at GMC
Sixteen Green Mountain College students had an oral final exam on Monday, December 15, but their vocabulary was limited to the words “gee,” “haw,” “whoa,” and “back.”
The students were taking Dr. Kenneth Mulder’s History and Application of Oxen in Agriculture course, which included learning how to drive draft animals. At GMC, that means issuing commands to "Lou" and "Bill," the College’s oxen team. The scene was captured in sound by Vermont Public Radio reporter Nina Keck, who produced a story that aired December 23 on VPR and December 29 on NPR's daily news show "Day to Day.” Reporter Don Troop also wrote about the scene in a story in the January 9 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Kenneth’s course combined classroom lecture and on-farm experience to teach students how to train, care for, and drive oxen. Bill and Lou perform many of the plowing, mowing, and haying activities commonly performed with mechanized farm equipment. The class also explored the economics of draft animals and identified under what conditions draft animals are economically efficient. Kenneth tells students that modern agriculture is extremely inefficient due to heavy reliance on oil and other fossil energy sources.
“With over twenty calories required to produce and deliver one food calorie to a consumer’s plate, capacity to maintain current food production levels while reducing fossil inputs simply doesn’t exist,” he said.
Green Mountain College has launched an experiment aimed at running a farm on a scale at which a family farmer could make a livable wage, without sacrificing sustainability. An associated goal is to run Green Mountain College’s Cerridwen Farm with as few fossil-derived resources as possible--with the ultimate target of using no fossil fuels at all.
This project received a boost this summer through a $110,000 grant from The Jensen/Hinman Family Fund, an advised fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. This funding, which will be matched dollar-for-dollar by GMC, supports expansion of the College’s draft animal program, including introduction of draft animal technologies and the training of a second oxen team.
Research will be incorporated into GMC’s new summer intensive program in sustainable agriculture beginning in 2009. In addition to four student farm managers who will work on the farm each summer, GMC will offer a 12-credit program for 16 students. Class projects will play a significant role in transferring classroom knowledge into real world experimentation on the farm. Three undergraduate research assistants will be hired to help in data collection, conduct research, and host scholars in residence. Given the interdisciplinary nature of this research, GMC faculty members with expertise ranging from earth science to ecology will contribute their expertise at various stages of the project.
Alum Presents Art Exhibit in Nation's Capitol
As a white person growing up in Connecticut, Pamela Chatterton-Purdy ’61 was far removed from the battlegrounds of the growing American civil rights movement. That changed in 1963 when she was hired as an art director at Ebony magazine in Chicago. She was one of only two whites working in a company with 150 employees. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders were frequent visitors to the office, and she gained a deeper understanding of what it meant to be black in America. She also shared the anguish of friends and colleagues in the wake of the September, 1963, church bombing in Birmingham, Ala., which resulted in the death of four little girls.
During the ‘60s and ‘70s, Pamela and her husband David, a Methodist minister, walked in civil rights marches and traveled to Washington, D.C., to protest the Vietnam War. An artist, writer, and teacher with an M.F.A. from The University of Massachusetts, Pamela is returning to the nation’s capitol this month to present her show “Icons of the Civil Rights Movement” at The United Methodist Center in Washington D.C.
Pamela created “Icons” to mark the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. King. When she began developing the exhibit, she had no way of knowing the Washington opening would coincide with another historic moment—the inauguration of America’s first black president. “Icons of The Civil Rights Movement” includes 18 painted portraits of civil rights leaders or important events during the struggle for racial equality in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Each piece is presented in an ornamental wood frame painted with gold leaf. Collectively, the paintings impart a sense of reverence for the contributions of civil rights pioneers.
“They were ordinary people who did extraordinary things,” Pamela said. “They didn’t sacrifice just for freedom for blacks, but to free the white man and woman from their own prejudices.”
For GMC community members unable to get away to Washington, her exhibit will also be on display in Poultney at the College’s Feick Fine Arts Center May 25-June 12. She will also be on campus to take part in a panel discussion during the College’s one-day Women in Leadership seminar January 29.
Voice of America Radio Features Prof. Weis
Thanksgiving break means most college campuses empty for several days - in some cases an entire week. Where does this leave international students? Many Green Mountain College students who live too far away to join their own families shared the traditional American holiday at the homes of GMC students, faculty or staff.
Prof. Dick Weis (fine art) hosted several students at his home, and his perspectives on the holiday were included in a Voice of America special report that aired Wednesday, November 26.
Listen to the interview.
Player of the Week, Tourney MVP to Johnson
Green Mountain forward Gerard Johnson racked up the accolades while helping the Eagles go 3-0 on the week ending December 6. Johnson earned the NAC Men’s Player of the Week Award after averaging 13.3 points, 9 rebounds and 4.3 assists, including two double-doubles. He also took home a tourney MVP for the Crusader Classic. The Eagles knocked off Framingham State 64-60 and Mitchell College 82-73 to win the tourney crown. The team followed that victory with a December 3 win over Paul Smith’s College, and improved their record to 5-1 with a 64-59 home win over local rival College of St. Joseph’s. The Eagles continued their winning streak Saturday when Vermont Tech fell 79-64.
Author & Activist Featured on Vermont Public Radio
Diane Wilson, author of An Unreasonable Woman spoke to students September 15 as the third speaker in this fall's "Voices for Sustainability" Lecture Series. Wilson, a fourth-generation commercial fisherwoman and mother of five, talked about her successful battle against multi-billion dollar corporations that were covering up spills, silencing workers, flouting regulations and dumping toxic waste into the bays near her Texas Gulf Coast hometown. Her visit was co-sponsored by Chelsea Green Publishing.
Listen to an interview with Diane Wilson that aired on Vermont Public Radio's Vermont Edition September 15.
