Issue 6 - Volume 136 by Vermont Cynic

THEVERMONTCYNIC THE Issue 6 - Volume 136 | October 1, 2019 | vtcynic.com

Three years of protest: A look at NoNames for Justice and their future

Story on pages 6-7 STEPHAN TOLJAN/The Vermont Cynic

UVM will not divest, says leader of sustainability Emma Pinezich epinezic@uvm.edu

President Suresh Garimella’s pick to run sustainability issues at UVM said he won’t push for divestment from fossil fuels, despite calls from students. Garimella has tasked Richard Cate, vice president for ﬁnance and University treasurer, to oversee UVM’s sustainability and climate action issues, according to Sept. 13 email. Cate’s appointment came after SGA President Jillian Scannell, a senior, gave Garimella a report urging him to take more action on sustainability. Garimella did not want to create a commission, instead, Cate will pull together a team to get the job done, Garimella stated in the email. Although Cate expressed his desire to listen to student voices, he did not indicate his support for divestment because it wouldn’t have a major impact on helping the environment. Previously, the board of trustees has indicated they do not want to divest, he said. “It’s something that the board of trustees has said they do not wish to pursue so my question is what can we do otherwise,” Cate said. “Our investments are so small that [fossil fuel] companies wouldn’t be adversely affected because the investment would simply be bought out.”

STEPHAN TOLJAN/The Vermont Cynic

Richard Cate, University treasurer and vice president for ﬁnance, sits in his oﬃce, Sept. 26. Cate was tasked to handle all sustainability and climate action issues by President Suresh Garimella at the beginning of September. In 2013, roughly 10% of the money in UVM’s endowment was attributed to fossil fuel investments. This amounts to around $38.8 million, according to a September 2013 Burlington Free Press article. Scannell believes that divestment should be a top priority for UVM. “At the very least I think that the University should divest from coal,” Scannell said.

“There’s a movement on campus for that, so if that’s something students want then we should look into it.” As an alternative to divestment, Cate suggested that students should transition towards bikes and away from cars to reduce the carbon impact of UVM. “When a student says they’re not going to drive a car anymore and they’re going to ride

a bicycle, they’ve actually done something,” he said. “They’re reducing the amount of oil that is needed.” Garimella has assigned Cate to work with Scannell on two climate goals that she presented to Garimella in early September. The ﬁrst is to update UVM’s Climate Action Plan goals regarding transportation, travel and waste. The second is to as-

sess whether or not the Clean Energy Fund money is being used appropriately. Scannell’s request for more climate action comes as UVM faces pressures to live up to its sustainable image. Many students and student groups are pushing for more to be done. New environmental groups have formed on campus in recent years, including Climate Communication Advocacy and Literacy Laboratory, Vermont Public Interest Research Group and Organize, a club committed to divestment from fossil fuels. Senior Kieran Edraney, the president of Organize, said that the club is currently working on a divestment proposal to present to the board of trustees. “The board of trustees has a lot of power in this… they have the ﬁnal say,” Edraney said. “If they accept [our proposal] then we’ll divest from fossil fuels.” Students showed their support for climate action at the UVM Climate Strike Sept. 20. Around 600 students and faculty gathered on the Andrew Harris green to protest global warming and ask people in power to do more to combat climate change. Cate will meet with Scannell and members of SGA’s Committee on the Environment Oct. 9 to discuss the ﬁrst steps they want to take.

NEWS

Colleges struggle with peer advising Zoe Stern zstern@uvm.edu

With the Advising Center shutting down at the end of this year, UVM’s colleges are left with a large gap to fill. Students in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the Grossman School of Business, the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Education and Social Services will be left without any peer advising opportunities. Currently, only three colleges have peer-to-peer advising within their colleges: the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources and the College of Nursing and Health Sciences. SGA is shutting down the center after its four-year contract comes to an end. The center was created in 2016 to act as a model for UVM’s colleges to set up their own peer-to-peer advising, but across UVM that hasn’t happened. The Center was only meant to last four years and SGA has no plans to continue the project, said senior Meagan Cummins, chair of the SGA Academic Affairs Committee. The Grossman School of Business closed their peerto-peer advising at the end of spring 2019 due to lack of student utilization, said Jennifer Fath, assistant dean of the Center for Student Success for the Grossman school.

STEPHAN TOLJAN/The Vermont Cynic

Pictures and short biographies of peer advisers in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources hang on the wall in the Aiken Center, Sept. 29. The Rubenstein School is one of three colleges to have a peer advising program. In the end, the time and resources put into the program did not produce the outcome they wanted, Fath said. Professor Amy Tomas said too many programs may have been the reason the pilot didn’t work. “We were a pilot program,” Tomas said. “We definitely see the benefit of peer-to-peer relationships. It just may be that there are too many opportunities to do that within the Grossman school that the additional programs just didn’t see any

significant traffic.” The program at Grossman started in 2015 at the same time as the Advising Center. “The president of SGA at the time approached the Grossman School of Business and the dean about being one of the pilot schools to have a peer mentoring peer advising program in addition to the development of the Advising Center over in the Davis Center,” Fath said. Peer advising in CEMS will continue unbothered, Dean of CEMS Linda Schadler said.

“CEMS has a strong peer mentoring program and we will plan to continue ours,” Schadler stated in a Sept. 25 email. The College of Nursing and Health Sciences peer advising has been met with success. The program matches incoming students with their links. Links are volunteer student mentors, said Juan Floriencia, a student services specialist at CNHS. Each link is given eight to 12 mentees. “It’s just a great opportunity for incoming students to have

somebody here particularly in their major who can help talk to them about their experience,” Florencia said. The lack of peer-to-peer advising within college is disappointing, senior Izzy Rotondo said. “The CALS majors appear less important than others in the eyes of the administration,” Rotondo said. CAS Dean Bill Falls and CALS Interim Dean Jean Harvey did not respond to requests for comment.

UVM Campus Climate data now available to students Ella Reuhsen iruehsen@uvm.edu

In the wake of student demands for increased access to Campus Climate Survey data, UVM has released an online version of the data available to the UVM community. Wanda Heading-Grant, vice president of human resources and multicultural affairs, emailed the student body Sept. 23 outlining the release of an interactive dashboard detailing the survey results to be accessible via Catamount Data by Sept. 27. Catamount Data is UVM’s online platform for students to view official statistical data and analyses related to the University, curated by the University’s Office of Institutional Research. “UVM community members can access the data via their UVM NetID beginning Friday, September 27, 2019,” stated Heading-Grant in the email she sent on Sept. 23. The Campus Climate Survey was run in 2011 and again in early 2019. Its purpose was to examine how students, faculty and staff perceived the social environment of UVM’s campus. The survey especially sought to find out how supportive the

environment was to individuals in marginalized communities. Activist groups NoNames for Justice and Queer Student Action met with President Suresh Garimella and requested that more data on the survey be released, on Sept. 24. Heading-Grant’s was sent to students shortly after the meeting. SGA was initially planning to vote on a resolution requesting a data release of this nature at their meeting Sept. 24. The resolution was tabled when the email from Heading-Grant went out the day prior, announcing the data release that SGA was preparing to request. Senior Carolynn Van Arsdale, a senator and chair of SGA’s Committee on Diversity, Inclusion and Equity, was the one to write up and sponsor the resolution. Though her resolution was tabled, she does not want to take her resolution off the table entirely, Van Arsdale said. “I think students were left in the dark about how the administration was releasing the data,” she said. “I think the administration could have been more clear, but I was really pleased to see the email from Wanda-Heading Grant.”

Image courtesy of ALEXANDER YIN

A screenshot of the demo version of the Campus Climate Survey data interface shows the breakdown of responses by students’ identity, Sept. 26. The survey’s goal was to examine how students, faculty and staff perceived the social environment of UVM’s campus. Alexander Yin, director of Institutional Research at UVM, along with other individuals on his team, was responsible for holding and analyzing the data from the survey. The plan from the start was to make the comprehensive data accessible to students, while protecting individual student identities, Yin said. Students are able to view

and set filters on categories labeled “Demographic Breakdown of Respondents,” “Survey Responses” and “Compare responses by Identity Group.” The tables update dynamically once the user has set all of their filter preferences. When the student views “Survey Responses,” for example, they will be able to select the survey type, survey section

and survey question. The tool will then display the number of responses by identity or group, and break down percent of each response of satisfaction level by identity or group. The results currently are only viewable by UVM community members with their NetID.

OPINION

Activists: to profit or punish?

lis h

Issue 6 - Vol.

ed 188 3

VERM

Y NIC

EXECUTIVE

Staff Editorial

VM, where are you? Here you are, posting a “Photo of the Week” of senior Jillian Scannell, SGA president, on your Instagram. You write, “More than 500 community members gathered outside the Davis Center Sept. 20, speaking out and connecting with campus environmental organizations.”

Around 600 students attended the climate strike at 11 a.m. Sept. 20 on the Andrew Harris green. There, students and various environmental groups spoke out, raising awareness about climate change and against UVM’s investement in fossil fuels. In 2013, about 10% of UVM’s endowment, $38.8 million dollars, was invested in fossil fuels, according to a

Editor-in-Chief Bridget Higdon editorinchief@vtcynic.com Managing Editor Alek Fleury newsroom@vtcynic.com

OPERATIONS Operations Manager Tim Mealey operations@vtcynic.com Marketing Daniel Felde cynicmarketing@gmail.com Distribution Manager Dariel Echanis

EDITORIAL Copy Chief Liv Marshall copy@vtcynic.com

ALICIA RUSSOT

Features Greta Rohrer cynicfeatures@gmail.com News Sawyer Loftus news@vtcynic.com Opinion Mills Sparkman opinion@vtcynic.com

Illustrations Noah Zhou illustrations@vtcynic.com Layout Kyra Chevalier layout@vtcynic.com Photo Stephan Toljan photo@vtcynic.com Assistant Editors Henry Mitchell (Opinion), Kate Vanni and Meilena Sanchez (Layout), Dalton Doyle (Copy), Allie O’Connor (Culture) Copy Editors Zoe Sheppard, Caroline Jagger Page Designers Stephanie Hodel, Ed Taylor, George Weed

ADVISING Faculty Adviser Chris Evans crevans@uvm.edu

Staff editorials ofﬁcially reﬂect the views of the Vermont Cynic. Signed opinion pieces and columns do not necessarily do so. The Cynic accepts letters in response to anything you see printed as well as any issues of interest in the community. Please limit letters to 350 words. The Cynic reserves the right to edit letters for length and grammar. lease send letters to opinion@ vtcynic.com.

Cancel culture is unproductive and wrong

Podcasts David Cabrera vtcynicpodcasts@gmail.com Social Media Sam Litra socialcyniceditor@gmail.com

280-character tweet was tweeted. UVM, where were your photographers then? At a NoNames for Justice rally last year in February, you even went as far as trying to silence multiple activists by issuing student conduct violations for using “ampliﬁed sound,” according to a March 27 Cynic article. UVM, you are not allowed to pretend that activists are on your side when they are not. You are not allowed to blur their views to ﬁt your own. You do not get to pick and choose which activists you want to promote. If you want prospective students and parents to see our active and opinionated student body, you need to represent the activists that are critical of you as well. If you are going to support any activists you need to support all activists.

ot some hot takes? Us too. This week, the Opinion section staff writers shared some of their thoughts that are a little off the beaten track. Check them out below.

Sophie Oehler soehler@uvm.edu

ames Charles, Taylor Swift and Kanye West walk into a bar. According to Twitter, the punchline of this joke is they all get “canceled.” “Canceling” refers to a social media trend where fans and haters alike gang up on a celebrity who committed some unforgivable wrong. To“cancel” someone strips them of their career and platform. In theory, it’s a good way to get rid of toxic people. Yet cancel culture is unproductive and promotes anger for the sake of being angry. This culture of calling people out is born from the public’s need to be in complete control of what they consume, according to a June 2018 New York Times article. It’s a reasonable desire, but we could approach it

MEREDITH RATHBURN

Culture Sarah Robinson cynicculture@gmail.com

September 2013 Burlington Free Press article. Richard Cate, who was recently appointed by President Suresh Garimella to run sustainability issues at UVM, said, “Our investment is so small that [fossil fuel] companies wouldn’t be adversely affected.” Many activists who attended the rally feel that $38.8 million dollars is not a small amount, and they are uncomfortable with the fact that their money is being spent on investments that are environmentally destructive. Scannell, who organized the event, has even said that divestement should be a top priority. Yet, here you are UVM, parading all 600 of them around for Instagram clout. Another protest was held Sept. 25, led by student activist groups NoNames for Justice and Queer Student Action. They were there to address concerns over injustice and white supremacy on campus, senior organizer Harmony Edosomwan said. Not a single photo was posted on any UVM social media, not a single line of text was written on the UVM website, not a single

differently. We’re so focused on attaining order over justice and being politically correct that we lose sight of how to achieve that. We are a jury of fingerpointers, whistle blowers and witch hunters, bounty hunting the bad and the ugly. Our first response is anger; it unites people on a common subject and fires them up to create change. But anger doesn’t always lead to action and action doesn’t always lead

to justice. Take Twitter’s response to James Charles’ most recent scandal: his alleged nonconsensual involvement with straight men. “Just fall off the face of the Earth please. We’re sister sick of you. #CancelJamesCharles,” Twitter user @cynthiarenee218 tweeted Sept. 12. The way we cancel people focuses on only getting the bad out, hiding it from society so that we need not face it

anymore. This method doesn’t let people learn from their mistakes. Cancel culture rarely has an effect on its victims’ careers. James Charles still has 16 million subscribers on his YouTube channel. Taylor Swift’s sixth album landed the No.1 spot on Billboard’s Top 100 in its ﬁrst week, according to a Sept. 1 Billboard article. And Kanye West is still releasing music and performing regularly. It’s time to think about whether participating in cancel culture is worth it. Are we willing to take part in the same hateful behavior that got the offender in trouble? Or can we ﬁnd justice in a peaceful and diplomatic manner? Next time you see someone canceled on Twitter, don’t engage. It’s time to unsubscribe from anger and cancel cancel culture.

Sophie Oehler is a sophomore French and political science major. She has been writing for the Cynic since fall 2019.

OPINION

Impeaching Pres. Trump isn’t the way Un

Chris Harrell crharrell@uvm.edu

absolutely believe that President Donald Trump is guilty of abusing his office in order to punish his political rival. I want him out of office and stripped of the power that he is using to abuse his authoritarian tendencies. But impeachment isn’t going to get us there. And I’m worried that impeaching him could make it harder to get him out of office. Worry #1: The Senate still exists, is still required to convict the president and remove him from office and still has a Republican majority. Republican senators aren’t going to jeopardize their reelection hopes by punishing the most popular figure in their party. So, if Trump is impeached, congratulations. We’ve all earned the pat on the backs that we’ll give our fellow Democrats on a job well done building consensus within the House of Representatives for impeachment. Meanwhile, Trump will be busy being acquitted by the Senate and going on Twitter to brag about how he was exonerated in the trial, like he did in the aftermath of the Mueller report. Worry #2: Nothing could possibly activate Trump’s supporters like an

NOAH ZHOU

impeachment trial in the year before the general election next November. Obviously, lots of things activate Trump’s base of fascist support, i.e., any person of color existing above the Mexican border and gay folks holding hands in public. But Trump’s base has already been primed to accept the idea of impeachment, and the trial in the Senate, as a deep state coup. Trump supporters, particularly of the conspiracy theorist variety, already believe that there are elements of the government dedicated to stopping their president, and

would not take too kindly to him being impeached. It’s important to remember that we live in a time of dual media narratives. Conservative outlets, including mainstream ones like Fox News, have already been spinning the scandal as being about former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden’s possible corruption. Hunter Biden served on the board of a Ukrainian energy company, with ties to Russian oligarchs, receiving $50,000 a month for doing absolutely nothing, according to a Sept. 28 Washington Post article. With his father serving as

vice president, there definitely seems to be some fire in all that smoke. But Democratic leaders are, intentionally, not dealing with this aspect of the scandal at all. That leaves us with Trump, fresh off his exoneration in the Senate, with another “Hillary Clinton’s Emails” scandal to hammer his opponent in the general election. Which brings us to Worry #3: please, do not let this make Biden look good. I’m extremely worried that this will make Biden look like an attempted victim of a Trump hit job and boost him in the primary.

We will be left with the 2016 deja-vu of an establishment centrist Democrat with corruption scandals going against Trump. And we all know how that worked last time. The lesson that should be learned from the situation is that corruption is essential to our political process as a whole. Democrats and Republicans alike engage in corrupt practices, and pointing out when the other side does it doesn’t prevent it from happening in the first place. Getting corruption out of Congress and the White House is a huge rallying cry for an election season. With voters mobilized against Trump and others fed up with the shady dealings of the Democratic establishment, we can remove Trump and other corrupt politicians from office and implement stronger ethical requirements. We have an opportunity to channel this anger toward strengthening our democracy through the ballot box next November. We can’t afford to let any steam out of the anti-Trump train or give the Trump base extra fuel for their fire. Special Counsel Robert Mueller didn’t save us, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi won’t save us now. These are institutional problems that won’t be solved until we have better elected officials.

Chris Harrell is a senior political science major. He has been writing for the Cynic since spring 2019.

Second time’s the charm: making the case for sequels

Gabby Felitto gfelitto@uvm.edu

we need to give them a chance. Sometimes the sequel is way better. Just think of “The Dark Knight.” This sequel to “Batman Begins” is a “Hollywood apex,” according to a July 2018 Atlantic article. Many movie buffs were

ovies like “Exorcist II: The Heretic,” “The Hangover Part Three” and every other “Friday the 13th” have forever given sequels a bad reputation. Many sequels are all about the money because they bring big business, even though they’re usually disappointing. Movie studios usually assume that “bigger is better” in terms of effects and budget and fail to bring up old plot points. While sequels are usually disappointing, COURTNEY SMITH

outraged it didn’t win best picture at the Oscars that year. Society may see this movie as an exception to the bad sequel curse, but there are so many other great sequels. “Shrek 2” is a sequel that’s resonated with many Generation Z kids to this day. Hardcore fans still quote the iconic dinner scene with Fiona’s parents and gush over the “I Need a Hero” music sequence. I even had an English instructor assign this movie for us to watch for homework. Most of this generation’s favorite childhood movies also have great sequels. “Spy Kids” and “The Cheetah Girls” both have sequels that were even better than the first. “Spy Kids” had an insane third movie with an original video game concept. Many of society’s favorite movie trilogies have shown that the first isn’t always the best as well. “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” was

ranked the best of the series with its darker tones and imagery, according to an August 2018 Time article. About a month after the massively anticipated release of “It: Chapter 2,” audiences were left disappointed, feeling that the sequel didn’t have the magic that the first chapter had. Almost instantly after the credits began to roll, I heard a flood of criticisms like “the first was better” from my fellow film viewers. One critic described the movie as “a creaky roller coaster that inches a little too slowly toward every drop,” as they believed the movie never picked up any speed, according to a Sept. 3 Atlantic article. While the first movie was great, I thought the sequel was just as good. I may not be a film critic, but I felt that “It: Chapter 2” was an example of a great sequel. It was a roller coaster of funny scenes, great acting, a heartfelt ending, with a few

cheesy, but exciting, jump scares, just like with the first movie. I had a good time watching both movies. Some believe that the ending was very cliche with its emphasis on “believing” and “being brave,” according to a Sept. 7 Newsday article. I liked the sequel’s cliche ending. It emphasized friendship, happiness and being alive, tying up the plot of the losers’ club finally defeating “It.” Even though there have been some awful sequels, people need to stop being so critical about these movies from the start and give them a chance. A good sequel should enhance the story, not cater to the viewer’s feelings.

Gabby Felitto is a sophomore CSD major. She has been writing for the Cynic since fall 2018.

Want a job where you can.. ✓Learn professional business skills ✓Have a flexible schedule ✓Earn money ✓Participate in networking opportunities ✓And no experience is required

The Cynic is looking for Advertising Representatives to market the Cynic to local businesses, and encourage them to buy ads in both our print and online editions.

send an email to

operations@vtcynic.com

A FREE INVESTOR EDUCATION FORUM

NOW STREAMING ON CYNIC PODCASTS:

THE DIG WITH JEAN MACBRIDE

What Every Investor Needs to Know Smart Investing in Today’s Environment October 10, 2019 | 5:30 – 8:00 p.m. Delta Hotels by Marriott Burlington Featuring Special Guest

Vermont Financial Regulation Commissioner Mike Pieciak

Episode 2: Philip Baruth In Episode 2 of “The Dig,” Jean MacBride interviews English professor and State Senator Philip Baruth about teaching postmodernism and writing while serving in the Vermont State Senate. Feel free to email vtcynicdig@gmail.com with your questions, feedback and recommendations.

YOU’VE READ THE NEWS.

NOW IT’S TIME TO HEAR IT. Cynic Podcasts soundcloud.com/thevermontcynic

Register at: www.finra.org/investorforum/south-burlington or call (202) 728-8137 There is no charge for the program or dinner.

www.finra.org/about

NEW

Senior Harmony Edosomwan sits in the middle of Main Street during a 2018 protest that demanded then President Tom Sullivan address student demands. (OLIVER POMAZI/The Vermont Cynic)

Protesters stand with handmade signs in the foyer of the Waterman building during the 2018 Waterman takeover. (ALEK FLEURY/The Vermont Cynic)

THREE YEARS OF PROT Staff Report

news@vtcynic.com

Three years and two days after a white fraternity pledge stole a Black Lives Matter flag off a Davis Center flag pole, protests over racial injustice persist on UVM’s campus. The theft of the flag planted the seed for what would become the activist group NoNames for Justice. Since 2016, protests over racial inequity have rocked the University’s campus, largely led by students who would form the group the next year. NoNames formed and created a list of seven demands calling on UVM administrators to further work to meet the needs of marginalized groups on campus in the fall of 2017. Former student activist Angelica Crespo ‘18 was the first student from the group to create a list of demands for UVM to address. Current senior Harmony Edosomwan stepped in and expanded that list in November 2017. In February 2018, days of protests erupted on campus. NoNames protestors blocked traffic for three hours Feb. 22, on Main Street in Burlington and demanded to meet with then President Tom Sullivan.

Three days later, students took over the Waterman building for 10 hours. This was the third time students had taken over the UVM administrative building since 1989. Following the February 2018 rallies, NoNames has continued to have a presence on campus. A year after the Waterman takeover, NoNames held an anniversary rally in the Waterman building to commemorate all that had happened a year before. For three years, protests and demands for action against racism and white supremacy have continued. Now the group’s direction is in question as NoNames leaders graduate, creating an uncertain future for the group.

a home on UVM’s campus, Edosomwan said. “Five years, 10 years, 20 years from now, I don’t want a black, poor woman like myself to have the same unjust experiences on this campus,” she said. “I’m doing this for her.”

‘Change is still coming:' At the Sept. 25, 2019, rally Edosomwan acknowledged UVM has made some progress but not without a push from students. “UVM is heading in the right direction, but this only happens when the voices of student leaders and marginalized communities are actually being listened to,” she said. But NoNames continues to protest as injustice has continued to ﬁnd

“

five years, 10 years, 20 years from now, I don’t want a black, poor woman like myself to have the same unjust experiences on this campus. I’m doing this for her. - Senior Harmony Edosomwan NoNames Leader

The 2018 Demands and progress:

1. We Demand All Faculty, Staﬀ, And Administration Attend Annual Diversity And Inclusion Training Including, But Not Limited To The Following Topics: Ableism, Classism, Gender-Based Violence, Homophobia, Rape Culture, Racism and White Supremacy, Religious-Based Discrimination and Violence, Transphobia And Transmisogyny, Xenophobia and White Nationalism, And Any Other Matters Of Equity For Marginalized Peoples. Paul Yoon, senior advisor for diversity assessment and research, said UVM has made some progress, but mandated faculty trainings are controlled by the faculty. However, the president’s leadership team and other senior leaders do have training that encompasses these different identities at least two times a year, he said. 2. We Demand For Increased Recruitment, Hiring, And Retention Of Faculty Of Color And LGBTQIA+ Faculty On Tenure/Tenure Track. Faculty also control this, but many search committees have made it a priority since, Yoon said. Additionally, now all prospective faculty

candidates have to hiring process abo further UVM’s in goals, he said.

3. We Demand tion Of Diversity mand That Profe These Courses Re Speciﬁc Training A Work is active this topic, but wh Yoon said, he didn The Diversity C Committee May 3, ed they have added committee to help and presented to rectors of the Colle ences on proposed topics courses and nations in Februar Additionally, th members of the fac nior administrator this issue, accordin

4. We Deman sponses To Bias Marginalized Com Annie Stevens, Student Affairs, s been made but co speciﬁc changes.

LOOKING BACK: THE PAST THREE YEARS OF NONAMES FOR JUSTICE

2016

SEPTEMBER 2016

SEPT. 25. 2017

SEPT. 30, 2017

The Black Lives Matter flag is raised in front of the Davis Center Sept. 22. The following day, the flag is stolen. A new flag is raised Sept. 25.

Students march to Waterman and present a list of demands to President Tom Sullivan.

Student diversity group leaders organize the Student Forum on Racial Injustice.

FEB. 16, 2018 John Mejia, assistant director of off-campus services, begins a hunger strike in solidarity with NoNames for Justice and calls for a fourth, permanent BLM ﬂag.

FEB. 22, 2

Main Stree as studen Sullivan ad demands. continues

2018

2017 APRIL 18, 2017

SEPT. 27, 2017

OCT. 1, 2017

FEB. 1, 2018

FEB. 20, 2018

The Cynic reports that UVM identiﬁed the BLM ﬂag thief as sophomore FIJI pledge J.T. Reichhelm.

Sullivan meets with student leaders and emails a response to the list of demands.

Continuing education student Wes Richter is accused of making threats against students of color on campus in Howe Library. The case was later dismissed in January 2018.

NoNames for Justice puts up posters reading “#DontShootUVM” around campus.

A student protest led NoNames for Justice Waterman building ca the resignation of Sul Provost David Rosow and Annie Stevens, vi provost for Student A

e )

Four members of the group NoNames for Justice receive a warning from Annie Stevens, vice provost for Student Aﬀairs, about their conduct during a protest in the Waterman building, Feb. 26. (STEPHAN TOLJAN/The Vermont Cynic)

TEST

o speak during the out how they will nclusive excellence

d For The RenovaCourses. We Deessors That Teach eceive D1 and D2 And Resources. ely being done on hat speciﬁc work, n’t know. Curriculum Review , 2018 report statd a student to their p with this review the chairs and diege of Arts and Scid changes to special d D1 and D2 desigry 2018. hey have met with culty union and sers to further discuss ng to the report.

nd Adequate Res Incidents Upon mmunities. , vice provost for said changes have ould not recall the

2018

d by in the alls for llivan, wsky ice Affairs.

What does the future look like for NoNames? They have been active at UVM for years. Here’s what has and has not changed.

5. We Demand That Fraternities And Sororities Have A New Mandatory Racial Diversity/Inclusion/ Climate/ Equity Training Requirement For All Incoming And Standing Members. Yoon said he believes this training was instituted at the start of the 2018-2019 school year. 6. We Demand The Identity Centers and The Diversity, Religious, And Cultural Groups On Campus Be Placed On Higher Priority In The University’s Funding. In response to this request, SGA added an additional comprehensive fee of $5 for each student which is used speciﬁcally for identity centers, Yoon said. However, UVM has been hit with budget cuts, Yoon said. The identity centers were prioritized, but Yoon refused to comment on what the direct impact of the budget cuts have been on the centers. “That [support] may not amount to an increase in their budget,” Yoon said. “But it makes sure that they have the necessary resources coupled with additional resources from the comprehensive fee to do the best job that they can possibly do to.” 7. We Demand That Bailey/Howe

Library And George H. Perkins Building Be Renamed. From the start, former President Tom Sullivan made it clear that the Perkins building would not be renamed but pulled together a team to create a name change criteria for future use, said Tom Gustafson, vice president for University relations and administration. “We see other situations. Should [former Vice President] Joe Biden be blamed for what his son has done?” he said. The board of trustees unanimously voted to approve the renaming of Bailey/Howe Library during their biannual meeting Oct. 26, 2018, making the name change ofﬁcial. The library is now the David W. Howe Memorial Library.

The toll of activism: After the Sept. 25, 2019 rally, NoNames currently has no future rallies planned. The number of founding members is slowly dwindling, and Annie Stevens said she thinks it’s due to members graduating and the toll activism takes on students. “I think, you know, some of them struggle,” she said. “It’s a lot of time

FEB. 26, 2018

et is shut down nts demand ddress their . The protest s in Waterman.

Students and faculty march to the Waterman building during a protest calling for the release of the full Campus Climate Survey data, Sept. 25. (STEPHAN TOLJAN/The Vermont Cynic)

Protesters participate in a campus-wide walkout and takeover of the Waterman building.

and energy and effort they put in around activism, and it often doesn’t come without consequences to their own academics or health.”

“

it’s a lot of time and energy and effort they put in around activism, and it often doesn’t come without consequences to their own academics or health. - Annie Stevens Vice Provost for Student Affairs

Edosomwan, one of the original members of NoNames, said that being a student activist is hard because one side of the University is supportive and the other is not. “It’s like an unpaid internship at a shitty job,” she said. Edosomwan had to take a leave

FEB. 26, 2019

MARCH 26, 2019

On the one-year anniversary of the 2018 Waterman takeover, NoNames for Justice hosts a rally in the Waterman building.

Thirty-three faculty members sign a letter calling for the administration to drop the policy violations against the nine students.

of absence from UVM for a semester because of the mental toll the rallies had on her. She said a lot of activists feel this way; their grades start slipping and they lose interest in school. To combat this and keep the energy going, NoNames is starting a mentorship program for student activists at UVM. Edosomwan said that a lot of the student activists in NoNames are graduating, and they all want to help come up with a new line of activists. Students who are interested can go to NoNames’ Facebook page and should consider attending a meeting to broaden their horizons, she said. “Go to a meeting with people who don’t look like you,” Edosomwan said. Although the work is hard, being a student activist is rewarding, she said. “Change is still coming,” Edosomwan said. “Try to take care of yourself. Keep pushing.”

Written by: Julianne Lesch and Lilly Young, Cynic News Reporters Irene Choi, Staﬀ Writer Sawyer Loftus, News Editor

SEPT. 20, 2019

NoNames for Justice and Queer Student Action publish a call to action for the University to release all of the data from the 2019 Campus Climate Survey.

2019 FEB. 23, 2018

OCT. 26, 2018

MARCH 18, 2019

APRIL 5, 2019

Students protest in the Davis Center during Admitted Students Day before marching to Waterman. John Mejia ends their hunger strike, citing concerns from loved ones. Sullivan addresses student protesters.

The board of trustees votes unanimously to remove Guy Bailey’s name from Bailey/Howe Library. The removal of Bailey’s name was included in NoNames’ initial list of demands.

The Center for Student Conduct issues letters to nine students involved in the Feb. 26 rally, asking them to admit violation of the student conduct policy.

Following hearings, some of the students are found responsible for violating University policy. The students receive an ofﬁcial warning.

SEPT. 25, 2019 NoNames and Queer Student Action lead a protest march from the Davis Center to Waterman building.

CRIBS CRIBS C R I B S CRIBS

GEORGE WEED

CULTURE

(TOP LEFT) A teddy bear sits in the swing in ﬁrst-year Phoebe Kaparian’s dorm room, Sept. 24. (STEPHAN TOLJAN/The Vermont Cynic) (TOP RIGHT) Empty boxes hang on the wall of ﬁrst-year Reed Cotthaus’ dorm room, Sept. 24. (MADDY DEGELSMITH/The Vermont Cynic) (BOTTOM) Photos, a skiing poster and string lights decorate the wall of sophomore Chrissy Schultz’s dorm room, Sept. 23. (STEPHAN TOLJAN/The Vermont Cynic)

Hey UVM, welcome to my dorm Kellyn Doerr kdoerr@uvm.edu

The twin XL mattress, provided by Residential Life, is no longer just a place to watch Netflix with your Tinder date or have mental breakdowns. With too many Amazon Prime orders and quite a few Target runs on your mom’s credit card, many college students today turn their dorm into a dazzling display of their personality and interests. These students take their dorm decorating to a whole new level and show how they garnish their newfound home. Spoiler alert: the rooms bearing only a “Pulp Fiction” poster and Barstool flag, sadly, didn’t make the cut. First-year Phoebe Kasparian has only been at UVM for a few weeks but has already made her room her own. Kasparian’s room is filled with flowers, vines, sticks and even her own bohemian swing. “I like flowers and nature

and it makes me very peaceful so I wanted my room to have that type of theme,” Kasparian said. She said that her room provides a sanctuary that is completely her own. “Your room is who you are in some ways,” Kasparian said. “When I’m in my room I’m in my happy place.” With the hustle and bustle of college life, it’s important to have a safe space to come back to and unwind in. Sophomores Katie Attolino and Chrissy Schultz have been living in dorms for a year now and still understand the importance of this notion. “I have a lot of my home life represented here because I love to come into my safe space and look at my home, the place where I feel most safe,” Schultz said. A room which will house you for nine months can be a fun space to express yourself and show off your personality and interests, without losing your

sense of individuality and creativity, Schultz said. “Despite living in the same room, we didn’t feel the need to match,” Schultz said. “We wanted our sides to be a representation of our different personalities. I love skiing, vibrant colors, my friends and hot pink, so that is shown in my side of the room.” Attolino went for a more toned down indie-look that she said matched her free spirit. With a bohemian tapestry and moons and stars hanging from her ceiling, she pulls it all together with a “hippies use back door” sign. “I definitely have been described as a hippie or free spirit, so I think my side represents that really well,” Attolino said. Difficulties can arise when living with a new person in a new space. It can be even more difficult to make sure you feel comfortable and let your personality shine through. “We have our own separate nooks where we are ourselves,

then we have a common area that we feel represents us both,” Attolino said. The small square footage of UVM dorms should be no deterrence to decorating, Attolino said. “I know personally, even if I was given a ﬁve-by-ﬁve piece of wall to decorate, I’d still feel it was important to make it your own, which I would,” Schulz said. Some other students like to take a more comical approach to their room decor and the harsh reality of dorm life. First-year Reed Cotthaus has fruit snack boxes adorning his walls due to his and his roommates’ addiction. They’ve gone though 90 packs in two days. “I’d say our room’s style is modern junkyard,” Cotthaus said. “Just because of all of the empty boxes on the walls.” Cotthaus also said that due to the drab nature of empty dorm rooms, it’s necessary to decorate.

“If you don’t, you’re essentially living in a colorless shoebox and no one wants to live like that,” Cotthaus said. The music and skiing posters reﬂect Cotthaus’ personality. “I basically spend all of my income on music and skiing so it makes sense. It’s everything I care about,” Cotthaus said. Despite these select few rooms giving even the most pimped out mansion on MTV a run for their money, these are the professionals. Accessorizing a room doesn’t mean hiring a personal decorator, nor does it entail blowing up your bank account. As long as your room becomes a sanctuary for you and represents your personality, it deserves to be featured on every back-to-school catalogue. It’s time to run to Target, grab some twinkling lights and get to decorating your newfound crib.

CULTURE

Kroll’s nostalgic comedy deserves hype Sophia Venturo sventuro@uvm.edu

mbrellaed by a glittering marquee, chatty friends and focused ushers loitering in a high-traffic lobby were all ready to laugh at anyone’s expense. Comedian Nick Kroll’s Sept. 26 stop at Burlington’s Flynn Center for the Performing Arts on his “Middle Aged Boy Tour” centered around off-color adulting, precarious adolescent impulse and flippant family affairs. In his Burlington set, Kroll proved himself an honorable veteran of immaturity. From the moment Kroll’s throaty, bellowing voice surged into the crowd to introduce opener Emmy Blotnick, anticipation of his chaotic comedic essence seemed to rumble through the audience and bounce off Flynn’s walls. Blotnick, another New York based stand-up comedian

and screenwriter, performed an opening set that took the audience down rabbit holes of Amazon reviews and self-help material that aid us all on, as Blotnick put it, “our quests for an

endorphin.” Her allusions to her anxiety made the set feel like a live version of a scroll through a thread of depression memes on your Instagram Explore page and made

JULIA BLISS

Blotnick’s set sparkle. Blotnick’s dreadfully relatable testimony to millennial adulthood was a well-suited precursor to Kroll’s rogue Generation X energy. By the time he walked on stage and asked Burlington, “What the fuck is up?” the audience already got what they came for. Before Kroll slung any of the regular tour material at the audience, he predictably opened with a brief roast of Burlington, polling the audience for “Carhart motherfuckers” and “pullover sweater bitches.” After condemning Aunt Jemima and scoffing after the words Burlington Bagel Factory, Kroll moved the set forward into more universal content. Unlike his frequent comedy collaborator John Mulaney, Kroll’s set focused on pointing out all the insufferable qualities of childhood and their translation into adulthood. As the tour’s title suggests, Kroll offers this perspective from the unique position of being a self-proclaimed adult-child. For example, he said getting your birthday presents stolen at a postbreakup rager and finishing the night in the back of your friend’s car is simply derivative of wetting the

bed at a sleepover and needing your mom to pick you up at 1 a.m. The admissions of heartache littered throughout the set gave the show more heart than is sometimes expected from Kroll, who was unrestricted from collaborators or network censors. Kroll leaned away from perverse comedy and drew more from his own experience, like details about the embarrassment of vaping and getting ridiculed by a gas station attendant for not knowing how to drive a stick shift. Only when he weighed in on corporate food advertising did we get a sprinkle of the classic Kroll raunchy material: “Carl’s Jr. . . .remember when their whole campaign was just ‘you wanna fuck this cheeseburger?’” he said. The thematic content of the set required Kroll to portray a man-child, but the choice to acknowledge those behaviors, dress them up a little and expand their relatability shows an evolution in Kroll’s solo comedy. Kroll’s comedy paired nicely with material built for anyone with a few vices or vague juvenile memories. These specific details made the set a mid-week treat for Burlington and a clean sweep for Kroll. Sophia Venturo is a sophomore political science major. She has been writing for the Cynic since fall 2018.

New album by Alex G is the epitome of mediocracy Connor Adams cadams21@uvm.edu

“H

ouse of Sugar” has potential to be a solid album but track after track it fails to deliver. Alex G has been an indie superstar from his humble beginnings on Bandcamp. Even with his impressive fan base and incredible debut, more recently he has only released albums of borderline mediocrity. Alex’s most recent project, “House of Sugar,” deals with themes of depression and addiction. Songs like “Gretel” and “SugarHouse” exemplify the main concept of the album. For example, the final track “SugarHouse” rounds off the album with jazzy instrumentation resembling the seductive nature of addiction. But instead of making anything worthwhile to listen to, Alex only submerges his listeners into the same inability to escape from their problems. The problem being this album’s inability to progress. Almost every single song

feels like a repeat of the last. The repetition ingrained in the lyrics and instrumentation only make it worse. A prime example of this dilemma is in the track “Walk Away.” Being four minutes of a fairly short album, this track should have some sort of impact but it lacks any significance. Alex just drones on about walking away from something inescapable and it feels like a chore to listen to. Similar to many tracks on the album, they either go on for too long or not long enough. There are still some good ideas sprinkled throughout the album. Songs like “Hope” and “Crime” actually expand upon the motifs of addiction and depression. “Crime” is a track about the way in which Alex describes how he has used and manipulated in the past to get what he needs. This track is relieving in an otherwise meaningless pile of average songs. Other songs, like “Gretel,” have dense layering of instrumentation that enhance the album. This is when Alex really makes something special that should belong on a solid record.

ILL

On the other hand, for the majority of the album Alex fails to stick to his strengths and tries to make significance of dull instrumentation in songs like “Cow” or include meaning-

less electronic influence into songs like “Project 2.” On albums like “DSU” and “Rules,” his mix between country, folk and indie makes Alex the artist that he is, not

mind-numbing synths and drums. The majority of the lyrics within “House of Sugar” are completely lackluster. Most lines are repeated over and over and only make the average listener want to fall asleep to his lack of enthusiasm. Alex attempts to express his yearning for simpler times, but he barely expands upon the simplicity of evening sunsets. The image of the sky as referenced in the track “Southern Sky” is another example of Alex’s uninspired symbolism. If you’re a fan of Alex’s prior work especially on albums such as “Rocket,” this album should scratch your Alex G itch. But for anyone not already a fan of Alex G’s work it’s hard to recommend. If you’re getting into Alex G for the first time, start at the beginning of his discography and work to the top. Even with that said, “House of Sugar” is the epitome of mediocrity and fails to deliver on the potential of Alex G’s talent. Connor Adams is a firstyear English major. He has been writing for the Cynic since fall 2019.

CULTURE

STEPHAN TOLJAN/The Vermont Cynic

The words, “Be Strong and Do Not Betray Your Soul,” along with a photograph taken by African American artist John Edmonds is the first piece museum goers see as they enter the exhibit of the same name. The exhibit is on loan to the University until Dec. 13.

Fleming puts activism on display On-campus museum unveils two new exhibits

Emma Adams eadams5@uvm.edu

A black janitor mops the floor of a war memorial with American flags looming over his head in a print in the exhibit. Commentary on the essence of America‘s history flows from the artworks of Fleming Museum’s fall 2019 exhibits. At the opening reception Sept 27, the new exhibits titled, “RESIST! INSIST! PERSIST!” and “Be Strong and Do Not Betray Your Soul,” featuring student curated works and selections from the Light Work collection, were revealed. The Marble Courtroom echoed with light banter, but upon entering the exposition rooms, the expressions of observers of Fleming’s collection grew somber and thoughtful. Students in professor Kelley Helmstutler Di Dio’s museum studies class chose art from the Fleming’s basement collection to constitute the final product. The results provoked emotional responses in both faculty and students at the event. Maud Mayer ‘19 was one of the student curators for the exposition titled, “RESIST! INSIST! PERSIST!” “We found pivotal works by pivotal artists and very advanced examples of race, gender or class,” Mayer said. She said the themes of adversity, oppression and persistence came about naturally as students examined the Fleming’s large collection of artwork. “We were in the midst of all

this political change, and we realized it would be appropriate for us to discuss those topics in our classroom setting and then connect them to the art we were looking at,” Mayer said. The student curated exposition draws on themes of systemic racism, injustice and the power of expression. The exposition is further diversified with the inclusion of 47 artists with both newer and older works. Curator of Fleming Museum Andrea Rosen works with students on the production of the exhibits. “Sometimes we are looking to make a show that comes from our own collection, and we find a theme, draw some interesting works together and go from there,” Rosen said. Rosen said that one of her favorite works depicts the abdomen of a black man with the Nike logo etched into his chest. She said that discussing the meaning behind pieces such as this and collaborating with students is a rewarding aspect of her job. “Sometimes students take on [creating the exhibits], and sometimes we take on a traveling show, a show curated by someone else, which is the case with this show [“Be Strong and Do Not Betray Your Soul”],” Rosen said. A photograph titled “Un hijo de Yemayá” is a black-andwhite piece depicting a young black boy from Belize. He is submerged in water from his nose down, staring straight into the camera.

Rosen said the show focuses on the narratives of people deemed unimportant by the greater part of society. Another painting titled “Blue Plate Special” is of the severed head of a black man being served on a platter. Junior Sanjna Krishnan said UVM students are widely familiar with the school’s history of activism and that the exhibit prompted her to think about what activism means to her. “This whole collection is interesting to show at this school,” Krishnan said. “It’s a very distinctive choice and that speaks to the nature of what’s going on. You get under the surface of the culture at this school, the environment and what our school values.” Interim Provost Patricia Prelock was the host of the reception. She said she hopes the

STEPHAN TOLJAN/The Vermont Cynic

TOP: Student curators Meagan Cummins, a senior (Left), and Maud Mayer ‘19 (Right), admire a work on display in Fleming Museum, Sept. 27. BOTTOM: A piece by the Guerrilla Girls asking about equality at the Metropolitan Museum of Art hangs on the wall as part of the student curated exhibit, “RESIST! INSIST! PERSIST!” fall reception will give the Fleming more attention. “[Fleming Museum] has generated a lot of inquiry and dialogue across our campus,

and that’s what’s so powerful,” Prelock said. Both exhibits will be open to the public until Dec. 13.

SPORTS

Qudditch team fosters friendship Lilly Page lpage@uvm.edu

If you see students running around on the Redstone green with PVC pipes between their legs, it might be the UVM Quidditch team preparing for their next tournament. On a Tuesday in early fall, the team practiced on Redstone green, laughing and joking around, but got serious when it came to the physical game. Tossing around volleyballs, one player was hit in the face while another attempted to pass it, and many took digs into the dirt while trying to catch the flying balls. Now, more than just the New England community can see the UVM team in action. UVM’s Quidditch team is returning to the national playing field after a five-year break. In the coming months, the UVM Quidditch Club will rejoin the U.S. Quidditch League to help bring more opportunities to the club and to get involved in a bigger community of Quidditch players. This isn’t an easy transition, but senior Tom DeMouth, president of the club, said he has high hopes for the team, outlining their goal for the season. “I want to make it to nationals and show the Northeast region that we have what it takes,” he said. Considering the enthusiasm the players have for the sport and the efforts shown at practices, that shouldn’t be a hard goal to obtain, he said. “[Joining the league] rep-

LILLY PAGE/The Vermont Cynic

Sophomore Jacob Curtis participates in a Quidditch team practice, Sept. 24. After a five-year break from national competition, the team plans to rejoin the U.S. Quidditch League in the coming months. resents a challenge for us to overcome,” he said. “The competition on a regional and national scale appealed to us. I’m really excited.” Junior CJ Cater agrees, saying that he is excited to face tougher competition than they are used to seeing at unofficial tournaments. First-year Emily Robbins said that despite people’s initial thoughts, Quidditch is, in fact, a sport. “People think that we are a ton of nerds running around with sticks, which is partly true,

but it’s definitely a sport,” she said. “It’s a workout, during practice we do warm-ups just like any other team, we go through drills and scrimmages.” Some players are in it for the sport, not because of the Harry Potter books and movies. “Personally, I’ve never read the books,” Carter said. “And it took me until my first-year to watch all of the movies.” Carter, who has been playing the sport since he was 8 years old, described the sport as having “elements of basketball,

dodgeball and rugby.” The game is played similarly to how it’s played in the Harry Potter books, with the positions remaining the same. The “broomsticks” are white PVC pipes. “You have the chasers, who do a lot of the point scoring in the hoops, beaters, who can eliminate people from play, keepers, who are the goalies, and the seeker, who are working to catch the snitch, a little ball that is velcroed to a snitch runner’s butt,” Carter explained. But while the team is fo-

cused on the competition, there is also a friendly setting, evident by the strong bonds between the players. “We really stress that we are friends and family, and we are very tight knit,” Robbins said. “Our team is nicknamed ‘The Friendship Athletes,’ and [the team] has a very community-like feel.” Carter said that the team will take anyone and everyone who wants to play.

Table tennis team enters a new era with new players Matthew Bizier mbizier@uvm.edu

The Table tennis club returned to UVM this semester after an extended absence and only had one table to play on for their first few meetings. While the numbers were low, the atmosphere was competitive; everyone watched as two players faced off at a time. “I started young, my dad said I started at 4,” said junior Vishal Vijayakumar, the new club’s president. Starting up the club required making do with a lack of equipment and space to play. Vijayajumar said they also had to overcome the challenge of finding players for a sport that many play as a pastime. The club began by holding meetings in the Redstone Lofts simply becasue they needed a space with a table. Now they have moved into the only space they could find, Mann Hall. Vijayakumar first began planning the return of the club last spring, he said. “A friend of mine and I always talked about having a club

STEPHAN TOLJAN/The Vermont Cynic

First-year Levi Putman returns a volley during a warmup match, Sept. 19. The club now meets in Mann Hall instead of the Redstone Lofts and practices on three tables instead of one. here,” he said. “We knew there used to be a club, we just never knew where it went or what happened to it.” After some investigating, he realized the club no longer existed. He then met with the former club adviser and SGA about

starting the club back up. The next step was finding the players. After running a table at ActivitiesFest this fall, the club generated enough interest to get started, with over 200 students signing up.

Vijayakumar was pleasantly surprised by the interest, he said. Despite the many signatures adorning the club’s sign up sheet, at their sixth practice in the lofts only 11 members showed up to play, the lowest

number so far according to Vijayakumar “It’s always hard to find people who are willing to play,” Vijayakumar said. “Everyone knows someone who plays, it’s just that the people who play don’t know each other.” For Vijayakumar, its been a struggle. “You tell them it’s going to be a great year, you make them walk to where the practice isn’t supposed to be to a room that has one table tennis table,” Vijayakumar said. First-year Pooh Ortiz offered an optimistic approach. “It seems like it would be a negative thing, because you get less games, but actually I think it has been a positive, at least in the beginning,” Ortiz said. “What happens is, you get all these people waiting around to play with nothing to do but talk to each other and watch.” The club now has three tables for practice, with enough room for more. They now practice in the Mann Gym on Trinty campus.

ED TAYLOR

FEATURE

Dismas House

Community fostered in Burlington nonprofit Cyrus Oswald coswald@uvm.edu

rom the outside, 96 Buell St. doesn’t look very striking. One might not expect formerly incarcerated people to live in the middle of a street known for housing UVM students. However, in this tidy house, students, international volunteers and formerly incarcerated people live together. They all work to help reconcile former prisoners with the real world communities they are entering. The Dismas organization was founded in 1974 in Nashville, Tennessee, with the mission of reconciling formerly incarcerated people with their communities. In 1986, the Buell Street house opened to accomplish that same mission, according to the Dismas of Vermont website. Alec Ewald, an associate professor of political science, serves on the board of Dismas of Vermont. He said there are more connections between students and formerly incarcerated people than may be apparent. “Students and former prisoners will often have very different life experiences,” Ewald said. “Both could sort of benefit from sharing things with each other, that’s a defining element of what Dismas [is].” Every weeknight, volunteers from around the community prepare and eat dinner with the residents. Junior Madi Kelly started living at the Dismas House in August and thinks the dinners are an important part of accomplishing the Dismas House’s mission. “It all comes back to the evening dinners… having that set routine of something familiar to come back to everyday…it is life changing,” Kelly said. She also has previous experience living in a home with someone who had been in prison. “I am realizing that people who are so often ignored and brushed under the rug by everyone in society have incredible stories to share, which is obvious, but still we all need reminding,” she said. Often, prisoners feel separated not only from their community, but from themselves. Shawn Hanson, a current resident at the Buell Street house, has been in and out of prison all of his adult life. He has been living in the house since mid-September.

STEPHAN TOLJAN/The Vermont Cynic

(TOP) The dining room table of the Dismas House, Sept. 23. Every weeknight, volunteers prepare and eat dinner with the residents. (BOTTOM LEFT) Posters hang at the bottom of the stairs. The Dismas House reconnects formerly incarcerated people with their communities and identities. (BOTTOM RIGHT) The number 96 hangs on one of the front porch pillars of the Dismas House. “It does separate you from the community, and there’s a stigma, the value of a person gets decreased,” Hanson said. “It’s more of an internal separation, I feel more separated from myself, it’s not always other people that do that.” Sociology professor Eleanor Miller agreed that people in the Dismas house need help readjusting to the world outside of prison. She is a council member at the Buell Street Dismas House. “If people had family to go to, they would probably go there,” Miller said. “The people at Dismas are not well integrated into the community.” Hanson believes that the house helps him adjust to live in the community. He thinks that the house prepares him

on a small scale for a realistic community experience. “I feel a little bit out of place here, but it’s a good thing,” he said. “These are people that I’ll interact with in the community, and learning to do that on a small scale in a house is a lot better than just being forced to out there.” The students living there also feel that the Dismas House has had a positive impact on both them. Junior Mackenzie Imhoff lives in Dismas House, and she’s a sociology major with a concentration in crime and criminal justice. “It’s given more meaning to my crime classes,” Imhoff said. “I’ve learned a lot in regards to my academics, but it’s also affected my outside relationships.” Beyond the exchange with

students in the house, the location also provides people formerly incarcerated with a lot of interaction with the neighboring students. Hansen explained that living near students can be both distracting and beneficial. “The people [next door] were having a party last night, you know those things are going to happen,” Hansen said. “As a recovering alcoholic and addict, you’re going to be around that stuff, but I know I’m safe in here.” However aware the residents of 96 Buell St. are of the students around them,

their neighbors and the greater student population don’t seem aware of the Dismas House. “I know somebody who lives right next to me, and we were chatting the other day, and he had no idea what this house was and what Dismas House is,” Kelly said. Dismas House is open to students who want to become involved. To volunteer, email Kim Parsons at kim@ dismasofvt.org. Cyrus Oswald is an undeclared junior. He has been writing for the Cynic since fall 2018.