Potash Hill Fall 2015

Some notes from the fall 2015 issue of the Marlboro College alumni magazine:

• Politics professor Meg Mott is teaching an intensive this semester which looks at addiction from the perspective of politics, economics, culture, race, and communication.  The course considers how addition is presented in public debate, and how else it could be looked at.  Meg Mott says, "The questions being posed in the current debate tend to ignore the larger structural reasons for drug use: in a town with no jobs, selling drugs is far more lucrative than panhandling.  In a nation with reduced social services, using drugs dulls the pain of losing custody of one's child, not getting a callback on a job interview, or having to wait through the winter for a Section 8 voucher."
• Alumnus Randy George and his wife own Red Hen Baking Company.  They were recognized by President Obama as one of 12 Champions of Change because they offer good pay and benefits to their workers.  Randy says, "There is actually a self-serving side to it too.  I want to sleep and take days off knowing that the people who are working for us at those times are experienced at what they do and truly care about doing the best job they can.  You're not going to find people like that if you just pay them the bare minimum."
• Alumnus Scott Williams was elected state attorney in Vermont's Washington County.  He says that "responding to crime as a public health issue is, in the long run, a more effective approach than the traditional law enforcement model."
• Alumnus David Skeele is working on "an iambic pentameter political thriller/rock musical."