University of Vermont

Classes, clubs, labs, dorms, study spots and dining halls. These are a few of the broad terms that shape our understanding of university life. But what does it really look like when 15,000 people -- faculty, students, staff -- work and live together, pursuing knowledge, making discoveries, and yes, having fun, too?

For one day, we're spreading out around campus, knocking on doors, stopping passers-by, climbing to the fourth floor of the library and hiking down the hill to capture snapshots and small glimpses into the people, programs and places that make up this university. Follow us here as the day progresses to see one day in the life of UVM.

5 a.m. UVM Barn

Early risers: Quite possibly the first students awake on campus, junior Rebecca Calder (left) and senior Louisa Hoyt (right), both animal science majors focusing on pre-veterinary studies, awoke at 3:30 a.m. and headed to the UVM Barn on Spear Street to milk the university's 34-cow dairy herd as part of their duties in the CREAM program. Students in the two-semester, eight credit course share chores throughout the year and also help deliver newborn calves, which they can then name. Beyonce, Butterfly, Cher, Toolbox, Jelly Bean and Jewell were among the cows being milked on this morning.

6:30 a.m. Outside Patrick Gym

Members of the UVM women's soccer team walk into the gym on their way to an early morning strength and conditioning workout.

6:36 a.m. Main Street

One way to wake up: an early morning jog by the Davis Center.

7:30 a.m. Fletcher Allen Radiology Lab

Patient identified as the "Fleming Mummy" from the Fleming collection. "I guess we won't put down her date of birth," says Jason Johnson, M.D. to Taunya Perron, the CT scanner. As five people from the Fleming, two radiologists, a photographer, a radiology physicist, and two scanners looked on, a pre-recorded voice spoke up: "Take a deep breath in and hold your breath." To much laughter.

The request to take the mummy's scans came from Johnson,who had read the work of Dr. Gupta from Mass General and his work on the mummy in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts collection. After meeting with him, Johnson wanted to pursue this idea with the Fleming's mummy. His interest in Egyptology goes back to his sixth grade schooling and the movie the Raiders of the Lost Ark, but he also believes he could provide a lot of new scientific information to the Fleming staff with this investigation. The mummy hasn't been x-rayed in several decades and the advances in scanning could prove to reveal a lot more than was originally known.

7:55 a.m. New World Tortilla, Davis Center

New World Tortilla started as a cart on the edge of campus. Now it's a student favorite stop for lunch in its indoor digs at the Davis Center. Prepping fresh salsa, employee Nate Persing chops onions.

7:57 a.m. Philosophy building parking lot

Ever wonder how the morning mail magically appears before you even arrive? Mail Services specialist Kathy Williams on her morning rounds. "I go to the post office after this to load up the big stuff," she says. "Every day's different."

8:03 a.m. Marketplace, Davis Center

Vicki Matthews, a food service worker at the Davis Center, greets some of the youngest students, er, the children of staffer Joshua Brown at the morning opening of 590 Main, a cafe in the Davis Center. Matthews was getting ready to apply food labels, the children to apply raspberry danish.

8:13 a.m. Old Mill walkway

First-year student Erin Donovan, a cup of Speeder & Earl's coffee from the library's Cyber Café in hand, walks across campus for her 8:30 Psych 1 class with Professor Larry Rudiger. Her day of classes starts early and will wrap up in the evening with a presentation about the city of Ottawa, Canada, a project for her Teacher-Advisor Program class with Professor Paul Martin.

8:37 a.m. Alice's Cafe, Living/Learning Center

Sodexo staffers Alice Sutton and Allie Young have a combined 83 years of work for UVM's dining services. It's a quiet moment before the morning rush picks up, Sutton says. "In about ten minutes it will be wall-to-wall people, straight through to eleven o'clock." About 1,200 customers a day come through Alice's to grab an egg sandwich, a coffee, or something quick on the way to class. And, yes, Alice's is named for Alice Sutton.

9:05 a.m. The Marche, Living/Learning Center

One egg sandwich, 102 flash cards -- sophomore Nathaniel Kay's breakfast. Kay and his friend Julian Calleja quizzed each other with terminology they've learned in Human Cultures, an anthropology course taught by Professor Cameron Wesson.

9:09 a.m. Jeffords Hall

"Today? Today, I'm reading a kazillion student papers," says plant biologist Jeffrey Hughes. He digs in his bag and holds up two thick sheaves of paper. "As a general rule, when students get out of the role of being 'good students' and take a risk, when their personality shines through: that's often a good paper." Hughes is heading off in 45 minutes to teach a graduate course, Fundamentals of Field Science. As one of the founders of UVM's acclaimed Field Naturalist graduate program, Hughes has taught the course for "at least 15 years," he says, "it's fun. I change it every year." Then he looks at his stack of papers again. "I need coffee," he says, heading down the hall with his mug, "its such a delicate balance between caffeine and sugar."

9:15 a.m. Campus Children's School

Burrito time! Teacher Dawn St. Amour wraps up some toddler burritos at the UVM daycare. Pretend fillings: beans, cheese, avocado, birthday cake.

9:15 a.m. Southwick Hall

Department of Music faculty member and composer David Feurzeig has a heavy teaching load Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays this semester, but on Tuesdays and Thursdays -- between meetings and student advising sessions – he has time for what administrators like to call "creative activity." Today he's putting the finishing touches on a composition called "Three Mnemonics," for women's chorus, specifically on "Mnemonic Number Two," which riffs on the memory tricks for recalling the lines and spaces of a musical staff: FACE and Every Good Boy Does Fine. His composition emphasizes those notes, but uses their sharp and flat versions, too, giving it a dreamily dissonant feel. The piece has a decidedly feminist slant: children's mnemonics use the word "boy" as if "girls didn't exist," says Feurzeig. He lets his chorus of women have fun with other words EGBDF could stand for and eventually express frustration via utterances not suitable for a family website. See Feurzeig in the act of composing:

Music professor David Feurzeig from uvmtoday on Vimeo.

9:30 a.m. Redstone Campus

Officer Bill Sioss helps on Redstone Campus. Sioss, who has been a patrol officer with Police Services for four years after a career as an aircraft mechanic, says he loves working to protect and assist students, faculty and staff during his day shift from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

9:39 a.m. 100 Lafayette Hall

A rap battle rages in Major Jackson's poetry class -- teams of students presenting songs (and analytical critique), others judging. The goal: pick the hip-hop poems that most deserve elevation to permanent works of art, taught to future generations. Voice, content and, above all, technique are the prime criteria. Biblical illusions; flow; power through brutality versus offensive ideas; idiom and vernacular; imagery and literary values all come into conversation as rhythm sways the room.

Rap Battle from uvmtoday on Vimeo.

9:50 a.m. Henderson's Cafe, Davis Center.

Henderson's staff Gordon Sadler and Tatiana Martinez serve up morning coffee

9:52 a.m. Pearl Street

Students cross Pearl Street to arrive on campus.

9:58 a.m. 207 Old Mill.

Rashad Shabazz, assistant professor of geography, discusses senior Selden Dickinson's midterm exam from his race and ethnicity class.

10:10 a.m. Bittersweet Building

Saleem Ali puts down his tea and calls up the website of the Conservation Study Institute run by the National Park Service and located at Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park in Woodstock, Vt. Ali, professor of environmental studies, is preparing to meet Mickey Fearn, the Deputy Director of the National Park Service, today at lunch. Fearn will be traveling from the Institute to speak with UVM students on campus. Ali has recently been appointed to lead a new institute on campus that will explore environmental diplomacy and security. "I want to see what kinds of partnerships we can develop with the Conservation Study Institute," he says. And this afternoon? A review of the new book, The Polluters, by Benjamin Ross, for Chemical and Engineering News. "I've written most of it," Ali says, "I just have to do the finishing touches." Then he looks up and smiles. "I love writing."

10:18 a.m. UVM Rescue

Colin Brahmstedt, a junior in electrical engineering and a member of the UVM Rescue squad, jokes that there seems to be an uncanny correlation between how much he needs to study and the relative busyness of his Rescue shift. Test the next day? There promise to be many calls that night. It's fairly quiet this morning, though, as Brahmstedt and Courtenay Allen, a junior majoring in biology, conduct routine checks on supply inventories in the ambulance.

10:30 a.m. Outside University Heights

Lowell Brown, political science major.

Lowell Brown, what are you doing today? from uvmtoday on Vimeo.

10:32 a.m. Fletcher Allen Health Care pediatric inpatient unit

Fourth-year University of Vermont nursing student Christi Burke takes six-year-old Makealia Perry's blood pressure.

10:35 a.m. Davis Center

Darrion Dee Willis '12 (right), Davis Center building manager, speaks with fellow SGA senator Ali Sadeghi while doing rounds on the student center's third floor.

10:38 a.m. Outside University Heights

Jesse Ackermann, senior.

Jesse Ackermann, what are you doing today? from uvmtoday on Vimeo.

10:43 a.m. Pottery Coop, Living/Learning Center

Tamara Cameron, instructor in pottery.

Tamara Cameron, what are you doing today? from uvmtoday on Vimeo.

10:47 a.m. Tony Curtis, Brad Bluto, Colin Barch, groundskeepers

Tony Curtis tips a large bucket of leaves onto the back edge of a panel truck. Inside, clumps of faded fall flowers are piled high. "We're planting spring bulbs now. Tulips," he says. "Put 'em in the ground before frost." He's been a groundskeeper for six years, but his supervisor Brad Bluto has that beat by 27 years. He's been working on the UVM grounds since Jimmy Carter was president. "We have a lot more tools to do the job than we did then," Bluto says "we used to gather leaves with a rake; now it's a blower. It's faster, with fewer injuries." Bluto, Curtis, and their workmate Colin Barch consider how times have changed. Curtis smiles. "Back in the 1800s, when you started," he says with a merry laugh, pointing his elbow toward Bluto, "they just threw cows and sheep out on the green."

10:50 a.m. President's Office, Waterman Building

Today, President Fogel will spend his unclaimed two hours -- a scheduling rarity his administrative assistant Michelle Atherton says virtually "never happens" -- writing letters and penning his introductory remarks for the author Sapphire, who'll speak at 5 today. Any leftover minutes will be taken up with answering the 100 or so emails he receives a day and taking unscheduled phone calls. Given his eagerness to dive back into the day, after a brief talk with a reporter, the president's packed schedule seems to suit him just fine.

11:04 a.m. UVM Greenhouse

"On a day like yesterday, this feels like paradise in here," says Colleen Armstrong, greenhouse facilities director. As a student sat on the floor sketching plants, Armstrong says many students stop through in the dark of winter "to get a little revitalized" and enjoy the conservatory rooms' eclectic collection—cacti, orchids, a large lipstick tree (Armstrong is pictured picking one of its seedpods), a coffee plant, and a banana tree, to name a few.

11:15 a.m. UVMtv, Davis Center

UVMtv Member Patrick Tracy '12, mikes UVM Bored member Natalie DiBlasio 12', for a UVMtv live broadcast.

11:18 a.m. Votey Hall.

Sheila Weaver, senior lecturer in statistics, helps a student with a returned test.

11:20 a.m. UVM Greenhouse

Zaya McSky, senior.

Zaya McSky, what are you doing today? from uvmtoday on Vimeo.

11:25 a.m. WRUV, Davis Center

WRUV, Dylan Freeman '13, does a broadcast under his DJ name, DFreePo.

11:40 a.m. Bailey/Howe steps

Ross Golde, junior.

Ross Golde, what are you doing today? from uvmtoday on Vimeo.

11:40 a.m. 233 Marsh Life Sciences

Sounds of sizzling green tomatoes, knives hitting cutting boards and, "how does it look?" as a team member peeks into the oven at cornbread rising. This is Professor Amy Trubek's food and culture lab where students take their coursework into the kitchen, today exploring ingredients that migrated between Africa and the American South via the slave trade -- corn and tomatoes from the New World, okra and greens from Africa. At lunch, half the students will serve their classmates on fine china, the "domestics" eating second, on plain white dishes.

11:58 a.m. Pam's Deli Food Truck, University Place

Luke Jonas, junior.

Luke Jonas, what are you doing today? from uvmtoday on Vimeo.

11:51 a.m. Bailey/Howe steps

Annie Doran, junior

Annie Doran, what are you doing today? from uvmtoday on Vimeo.

12:06 p.m. Pam's Deli Food Truck, University Place

Pam Bissonnette, owner/operator of Pam's Deli

Pam Bissonnette from uvmtoday on Vimeo.

12:15 p.m. ACCESS Office, Living/Learning Center

ACCESS director Laurel Cameron plans her day as best she can. But with 630 students served by the office "right now," and the number sure to go up as the year progresses, it's hard to stay exclusively pro-active. "You can't predict what will happen," she says. Today she's already met with two students new to the office, helping them determine what academic or residence hall accommodations they need (like extended time to take an exam or more lighting in a dorm room) and, in one case, agreeing to advocate on the student's behalf with a faculty member. She'll meet with a third student in the afternoon and -- if no emergencies arise, a big "if" -- prepare for a presentation she's giving in the coming weeks.

12:20 p.m. Billings Library

Once a library, always a library. Billings has grown quiet since the opening of the Davis Center brought an end to the historic building's days as the student center on campus. But this afternoon, quiet is exactly what the handful of students putting the study carrels in the Billings apse to good use are seeking. Miguel Sanchez, a junior from Evanston, Illinois, says, "When I really want to get something done, this is the spot." Today's something is studying for a test in his political science class with Professor Garrison Nelson later this afternoon.

12:50 p.m. Marsh Life Sciences Lecture Hall

Students filter in as a course in human development is about to start.

12:50 p.m. Fleming Museum

For a student with financial aid via work-study funding, a job that allows you a little time to hit the books isn't such a bad thing. Gallery guard Isaac Henry, a junior majoring in political science, mostly studies when things are quiet at the Fleming. Or he takes the opportunity to enjoy the art himself. Today his post is in the visiting Christo exhibit.

12:50 p.m. UVM's Rubenstein Ecosystem Laboratory

Seth Herbst studies lake whitefish. "They seem to be relatively stable and in good condition on Lake Champlain," says the master's student, working with biologist Ellen Marsden. And so does he. Herbst aims to graduate in December, and he has some heavy work yet to do on his thesis, but "it's coming along pretty well," he says. "Right now I'm working on the population dynamics chapter," he says, "I'll be down here all day." "Here" means UVM's Rubenstein Ecosystem Laboratory on the waterfront, joined to the ECHO science center and aquarium in downtown Burlington. And tonight? "I won't work too late," he says, "You don't want to work too long and wreck yourself for tomorrow."

12:54 p.m. Davis Center Atrium

Classes change, and traffic picks up.

1:10 p.m. Central Heating Plant

When the wind and rains of November are cranking up outside, it's good to know there are experienced hands and minds at work in the Central Heating Plant at the rear of the Royall Tyler Theatre building. Lou Zeno, Physical Plant operating engineer, is on the cell phone and checking computer screens that monitor the HVAC systems across the entire campus. Asked if things usually work smoothly, Zeno smiles wryly, and describes some of the issues that will come up over the winter months as the plant's output doubles.

1:21 p.m. Bailey/Howe Library steps

The national meet may not be until April, but the UVM Gymnastics Club is already working to get there. They have their athletic performances to worry about, of course, but as a club sport they also need to get their budget in shape to get as many as twenty athletes down to Richmond, Virginia. Cupcakes, cookies, brownies, banana bread may get them there. Sales have been strong for just their second bake sale of the year. The gymnasts say they keep the competition to the gym and don't compete to see whose baked treats are the bestsellers.

1:25 p.m. Student Government Association Office

SGA president and vice president Kofi Mensah and David Maciewicz have a meeting at their SGA headquarters office.

1:30 p.m. Melosira, Lake Champlain

"I've never seen this on the boat before," says Dick Furbush. And that's saying something. The captain of UVM's 45-foot research vessel, the Melosira, Furbush has been in the post since 1966, he thinks, "or maybe 1967." Down in the gloom of the hold, funnel in hand, he and his part-time deck hand, Bill Lowell, are getting the boat ready to be hauled up into winter drydock in Shelburne tomorrow. But the nontoxic antifreeze isn't flowing to a port side drain the way it's supposed to. Undoubtedly Furbush will figure it out by day's end: He skippered some 60 research trips this year in the "Melo," a boat he helped design in 1987. "The hull is off the drawing board, but we modified the rest of it: engine, electronics, sampling equipment, winches, A-frame." And now it's "uniquely capable," he says of fisheries trawling, geophysical surveys, water quality surveys, and archeological research. Furbush will retire in December, but you wouldn't know it from his 6:15 a.m. start today.

1:38 p.m. Bailey/Howe Library Media Services

While media specialist Lori Holiff says the library's collection of video is vast and deep and a teaching resource used by many faculty, sometimes students are just after a little entertainment when they trek downstairs to Bailey/Howe's lower level to check out a video. Popular picks of late include Iron Man II, King Corn, Food, Inc., Hocus Pocus (yeah, we don't get that one either), Mad Men, The Wire, Up, and The Big Lebowski. The Dude, indeed, abides.

1:40 p.m. University Heights North

The topic of her meeting with Brit Chase, Honor College fellowship advisor? "Just my future," laughs Wingyin Lo, a senior animal science major and Honors College student from Brooklyn who eventually wants to attend medical school. Chase and Lo have been discussing the student's fellowship and scholarship options in Chase's office in the Honors College building. Lo has applied for a Fulbright, but wants to consider other, less competitive possibilities, too, of which there are many quality ones, Chase says. Chase and her colleagues worked with more than 50 UVM students this fall who applied for Fulbright, Rhodes, and Marshall scholarships. Three more sets of applications for undergraduate and graduate scholarships and fellowship are due next week.

1:57 p.m. Visitors' Center

On this damp Tuesday in November fewer than a dozen prospective students and parents have signed up for an admissions information session and tour. But over the course of the year, the Admissions Visitors Center welcomes more than 21,000 students and family members.

2 p.m. Bailey/Howe Library

Scene from the reference desk:

Student A: "Who was the partner of the Lone Rider?"
Trina Magi, librarian: "You mean the Lone Ranger?"
Student A: "Right."
Magi: "Tonto."
Student B: "See? You can ask anything at the reference desk."
Magi: "Tell your friends. But I don't know anything about Star Trek."

2:15 p.m. Computer Depot, Waterman Building

First-year student Casey Baczewski, a pre-physical therapy major, splashed tea on her computer while she was writing a paper and is waiting to hear a prognosis at the Computer Depot's service center. The good news: she was able to save her paper on a flash drive. The bad news: well, no need to go into that.

2:17 p.m. 311 Lafayette

Following slow, incongruous piano music down a hall of classrooms, you find students engaging Russian history through silent cinema. Professor Denise Youngblood is showing the 1913 film, Merchant Bashkirov's Daughter, "an excellent example of the kind of dark melodrama that predominated in this period."

2:30 p.m. LGBTQA Center@UVM

Students work at the computer lab, or cybercenter, at the LGBTQA Center at 461 Main Street. UVM recently received a 5-star rating in the Campus Pride Climate Index putting it among the top 19 most gay-friendly universities in the nation.

2:45 p.m. CUPS Office, Billings Library

Carrie Williams, director of UVM's Community-University Partnerships and Service-Learning Office, is debriefing with CUPS staffers Kate Westdijk and Lydia Menendez after a successful faculty workshop titled "Small Scale Service Learning," held earlier in the afternoon. Implementing service learning in bite-size pieces -- even one project over a semester -- has lots of advantages over insisting a whole course be given over to the approach, Williams says. Faculty are more likely to adopt it, even in first year courses. Given service learning's track record for promoting academic engagement, that's good news for students -- and for administrators bent on further boosting UVM's retention and graduation rates.

2:46 p.m. Royall Tyler Theatre

The theater is dark today, but performances for Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House, directed by Gregory Ramos, will resume at 7:30 p.m. Thursday evening. Catch it nightly through Saturday. The play ends with a matinee on Sunday at 2 p.m.

2:50 p.m. Davis Center

UVM Senior Keegan Brown, a Mechanical Engineering Major, has his portrait taken by photographer Johnny Sheets.

2:50 p.m. Health Sciences Research Facility

Derrick McVicker, a fifth-year doctoral student in Cell and Molecular Biology, works at the bench in Professor Chris Berger's lab. McVicker is preparing proteins for an investigation of how particular proteins may be involved with regulating transport in the brain, research with potential application to Alzheimer's disease. McVicker estimates he puts in eight to ten hours a day in the lab, balancing his research with time at home with his wife and two-year-old daughter Aurora.

2:51 p.m. Votey Building

"I'm testing how well citric acid solubilizes phytate from iron minerals," says Ph.D. student Courtney Giles, while her adviser, engineering professor Jane Hill, well, offers advice. In other words, these scientists may be helping farmers of the future. Consider that all of agriculture depends on phosphorous. "But we have limited phosphorus resources," says Hill. "They're going to run out in 50 to 100 years." Unless new sources -- like previously unavailable phosphorous from minerals -- can be made available to plants. Giles's experiment today is one piece of this quest that Hill is leading -- among several lines of research -- from her lab in the Votey Building. "Our work is looking to enhance soil fertility," Giles says, "by inoculating plants with bacteria that solubilize organic phosphorous." But she doesn't expect to have this solved before her late-afternoon yoga class.

2:55 p.m. Craftsbury Room, Royall Tyler Theatre

It's the first day that students in theatre professor Sarah Carleton's stage movement class transform into character using three-quarter neoprene masks. "It's scary," Carleton says, "because all of a sudden you don't have your face any more. The mask provokes the actor's imagination through physical means."

3:19 p.m. Library Research Annex/Archives

Sylvia Bugbee, who has worked with the university's archives for more than a decade, doesn't take long to answer a question about her favorite item in the collection. A quick smile -- that would be the letter Ethan Allen wrote to the Albany Committee of Safety after he captured Fort Ticonderoga. Date: May 12, 1775. Beyond the obvious historical significance of the document, Bugbee admits that part of the appeal is that it makes her laugh. Allen's grandiloquent writing in the document is a self-portrait of a man who had, um, "a big personality," Bugbee says, choosing her words carefully with respect to a legend long dead. Less grandly, but just as vividly, Bugbee summarizes the content of the letter: "He's more or less telling them to get their buns down here because the British will be back."

3:20 p.m. John Dewey Lounge, Old Mill

Poet and author Sapphire answers questions from UVM Honors College students at John Dewey Lounge. She explains that her novel, Push, later made into the film Precious, took three years to write.

3:28 p.m. Firehouse Gallery

Visitors to the Firehouse Gallery on Church Street in downtown Burlington view UVM Professor Steve Buddington's paintings. The exhibit, titled "Homunculus," will be on display until Jan. 1.

3:45 p.m. Philosophy Building

Assistant philosophy professor Tyler Doggett is spending the afternoon creating a kind of greatest hits (or misses) list, a collection of the most common mistakes students made in a short essay exam he gave his Ethics of Eating class on Monday. He'll present the list -- conflating the ideas of local food and factory-made food, as if Vermont doesn't have food factories, was a popular misstep -- to students tomorrow, both to help them better grasp elements of the ethical debate and build their critical thinking skills. Doggett prepares for his lectures by going over his outline for last year's version of the talk, which includes notes on where students seemed confused by the complexity of his argument and thoughts on how to get these points across more clearly. Doggett goes back to his office directly after each lecture and makes note of these (few) murky moments. He won't take credit for his self-discipline, though, faulting himself for not typing his notes into his lectures until the day before class the next year. Ease up, Tyler. We should all have such shortfalls.

4 p.m. Marsh Life Sciences Lecture Hall

Professor Lyndon Carew from the podium in his "Fundamentals of Nutrition" class.

4:05 p.m. Southwick Hall

Elizabeth Carlson, first-year student.

Elizabeth Carlson, what are you doing today? from uvmtoday on Vimeo.

4:12 p.m. Christ Church Presbyterian Sanctuary, Redstone Campus

The University Concert Choir practices under the direction of Professor David Neiweem.

University Concert Choir from uvmtoday on Vimeo.

4:21 p.m. Varsity Strength & Conditioning Center, Patrick Gym

You don't become an NCAA champion in Nordic skiing by skiing alone. Franz Bernstein (2010 national champ in the 20K skate, and runner-up in the 10K classic race) hits the weights with his Catamount teammates. Head Nordic Coach Patrick Weaver, a two-time Olympian, and the team's strength and conditioning coach Justin Smith, oversee the workout which, in addition to free weights, includes plenty of core work via good fun like hoisting fifteen-pound medicine balls overhead and flinging them onto the floor. Weaver says that given the choice most -- OK, probably all -- of his athletes would rather be skiing. "This is like taking their medicine," he says, "but it's important and they get into it." And while taking one's medicine it never hurts to have AC/DC's "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" turned up nice and loud.

4:25 p.m. 342 South Prospect Street

Work study student Valencia Arnold gets some work done at the front desk of the ALANA Student Center.

4:29 p.m. Doubletree Hotel, South Burlington

Greg Ramey '12 (center) stands by as Hip Hop legend Damon Dash is interviewed by local press. Ramey did an internship with Dash over the summer and now continues to work for him part time. Dash, a New York native, is in town for a show.

4:30 p.m. Old Mill Tower

Steel-gray and a sliver of pink will have to do for sunset over UVM this socked-in evening.

4:43 p.m. Old Mill Tower

"I don't get up here very often, unless something is wrong," says staffer Carl Waite, looking at a computer screen from the finest perch in all of UVMdom: the top of the Old Mill tower. "Today, it was running a little slow," he says. "It," in this case, is the so-called "hazecam": a pair of computer-linked cameras mounted in these high windows. They send out an image of downtown Burlington and the Adirondacks every 15 minutes. A project of the Vermont Monitoring Cooperative, which Waite coordinates, the hazecam provides data on air pollution—and a nice view to anyone who cares to dial in www.hazecam.net. "It was put in to assist research projects," Waite says, "but the public has taken it to heart. I know about people who moved to Colorado and Florida who check the site -- just to see what home looks like."

4:43 p.m. Honors College Seminar Room, University Heights North

Bill Davison, professor emeritus of art, tells students in his Honors College seminar about his fondness for New York City and how deeply the attacks on the World Trade Center towers impacted him. As the tenth anniversary approaches next Sept. 11, Davison tells the class that he's considering hanging this print vertically, instead of its usual horizontal display. Would he consider doing two of them side by side, one of the students asks. Yes, Davison says. Davison's once-weekly class takes students directly into the creative process by introducing them to local artists and writers, often with visits to their homes or studios. Today, the professor opens up about his own art and the print-making process.

4:45 p.m. Patrick Gymnasium

Luke Apfeld, a 6-foot-8 redshirt freshman from Wolfeboro, N.H., catches his breath during a men's basketball practice.

5:02 p.m. Kalkin Hall

Business professor Allison Kingsley teaches a case involving Toys R Us and globalization.

5:20 p.m. Gucciardi Recreation and Fitness Center

Blowing off steam: Students hit the treadmills and elliptical machines after a long day of classes and activities.

5:30 p.m. Grand Maple Ballroom, Davis Center

Poet and novelist Sapphire speaks to a packed house at the Davis Center Grand Maple Ballroom. She quotes a favorite activist and writer, Mari Evans, who was involved in the Black Arts Movement in the 1960s and 70s: "I am a black woman/the music of my song...is written in a minor key."

5:30 p.m. Outside Gutterson Field House

Frozen shavings dumped from the hockey rink's Zamboni machine offer a taste of what's to come.

6 p.m. Memorial Lounge, Waterman Building

Economics professor Ross Thomson is presenting a provocative idea in Memorial Lounge, buttressed by a dizzying and utterly convincing array of persuasive detail: Ideas created by machinists in Vermont, largely those based in Springfield, once the machine tool capital of the world, diffused to other people and companies by a variety of means, played a central role in making the United States the most mechanized country in the word in the early 20th century, symbolized by Henry Ford's automobile production. A group of about 30 was on hand for Thomson's contribution to the College of Arts and Sciences Full Professor Lecture Series.

6:21 p.m. Bailey/Howe Library

Even on a brisk November evening the area in front of the library, known as Bailey Beach to generations of UVM students, is a popular hangout.

7:07 p.m. Davis Center

Alex Mallea, chair of the SGA Finance Committiee, is congratulated by fellow SGA members after passing a bill to provide funding to the women's hockey team.

7:32 p.m. Kalkin Hall

The developers of the proposed Chestnut Village condos circle a small table in the hallway and plot strategy for how to deal with neighbors who are unhappy about their project. Just across the hall in a classroom, those unhappy neighbors plot strategy for how to deal with these unwelcome developers. BSAD 395 is a course all about negotiations; students are being immersed in the artful process of it all through a role playing exercise this evening. The clock is ticking, and the developers and neighbors will sit down together to hash it all out in just twenty minutes. Says one student developer: "Let's first hear what they have to say. They're very hot-headed right now, and we don't want to go in there and be contentious in any way."

8:15 p.m. North Lounge, Billings

Student coed a capella group Zest rehearses.

Zest, a capella from uvmtoday on Vimeo.

8:17 p.m. Kalkin Hall

Business students Troy Dennerlein '12 (left) and Howard Heller '12 work on accounting homework in the Kalkin computer lab.

11:43 p.m. Bailey/Howe Library

Under fluorescent lights, sophomore Russell Gutterson puts wired technology and a new-fangled kind of Apple to work on his paper about traditional ecological knowledge.

11:51 p.m. Bailey/Howe Library

Heading toward midnight, engineering student Moustafa Mendscole works his mechanical pencil, graphing calculator, and grey matter. "I'm studying for a big test tomorrow," he says, "as usual." How late will he be up? At least 1:30 a.m., he guesses. "I'm surviving," he says, smiling.

11:55 p.m. Bailey/Howe Library

With medical school on the horizon, or, perhaps, just over the next set of hills, post-baccalaureate student Tyson McKechnie and senior Mackenzie Walker dig into physics problems prepping for a big exam. "Right now it doesn't look promising," says McKechnie, "but talk to me next Saturday morning."

11:56 p.m. Bailey/Howe Library

"I've got to hurry; I'm running late," says Michele Patenaude, bustling through the second floor stacks of the library. She sweeps round a corner, snapping off lights without pausing, checks the bathrooms -- "Hello? Library staff. Hello?" -- and firmly reminds a straggling patron: "The library is closing in five minutes." And, sure enough, five minutes later -- click -- she locks the front doors.

12:02 a.m. Bailey/Howe Library Circulation Desk

Sebastian Torres, a senior, finishes his four-hour shift at the Bailey-Howe library circulation desk. It's two minutes after midnight. "It's been pretty crazy tonight. Getting toward the end of the semester," he says, "someone just took out about twenty books on Far Eastern politics, which is cool."

12:10 a.m. Bailey/Howe Library Cybercafe

At the Cybercafe, students plug in, chug water, and hunker down for the late night conclusion to Chaucer papers and geology problem sets. The cafe is open all night. Courage! as the French say.

12:32 a.m. Patrick Gymnasium Lobby

Phuong Bui runs the vacuum back and forth, back and forth, in the lobby of Patrick Gym. He stops and smiles broadly. "It's good," he says slowly in a striking Vietnamese accent. "I like it. Insurance. Benefits." He holds up his ID card, dangling from his neck. Behind him, his co-worker, Phuong Ran, works a mop. She's been on the job for two hours. "I'll go home at 6:30," she says, and then laughs and says something to Bui in Vietnamese. "I'm training him," she says. "He does a good job."