THE VERMONT CYNIC
NEWS
Residents protest oil pipeline by michelle phillips mphill15@uvm.edu
Despite protests, a Vermont gas company and Gov. Peter Shumlin’s administration are pushing forward on building a 41-mile natural gas pipeline through Addison County from Colchester to Middlebury. The Addison Natural Gas Project was approved in 2013 by the Vermont legislature in order to expand access to natural gas from Franklin and Chittenden Counties to Addison County, Vermont. Since its proposal, the pipeline’s construction has been met with protests in the form of marches, occupying street corners and homeowners refusing to allow government purchase of their property, said professor Brian Tokar, a 350 Vermont board member. 350 Vermont is a nonprofit organization protesting the new pipeline, according to their website. “I’m thinking about my parents living in Montpelier, and if something like that were being built in their backyard, I think they would be really upset about it,” first-year Jen Lorden said. The most recent protest was a “tree sit” in Monkton, Vermont by Rising Tide Vermont, an activist organization protesting the pipeline, according to their website. The pipeline will be trans-
Record number of senators join SGA by Kelsey neubauer kaneubau@uvm.edu
Illustration by COLE WANGSNESS
porting fracked gas. Fracking is illegal in the state of Vermont. “There are better ways to get energy that aren’t going to harm the environment,” first-year Corey Pettengill said. For three days, members of the organization sat in trees along the pipeline route, said Rising Tide volunteer coordinator Will Bennington. “Our elected official and state regulators have failed us,
so we’re going to continue with the rich history in this country of using direct action and civil disobedience,” Bennington said. Vermont Gas hopes to provide residents of Addison County with the same opportunity for a more affordable energy source than oil, Beth Parent, communications manager for Vermont Gas said in an April 5 email. Tokar said he speculates the Shumlin administration ap-
proved the pipeline with lower energy costs with residents in mind. However, the project’s cost has increased 78 percent from its originally approved proposal in 2013, according to a Burlington Free Press article. The Shumlin administration declined to comment.
Experts meet at 11th invention conference by craig pelsor cpelsor@uvm.edu
Entrepreneurs, inventors and business experts from across New England flocked to the University April 7 for an annual conference. The 11th annual Invention 2 Venture Conference was held in the Davis Center’s Silver Maple Ballroom, inviting students to network with various business experts and industry leaders, according to the event’s University Communications website. This conference is held every year by the University’s Office of Technology Commercialization, alongside the Vermont Technology Council and the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies, according to the website. “The goal is to bring people together who in some way relate to what we do,” said Jason Powell of the Office of Technology Commercialization. Powell emphasized the networking opportunities that the conference presents. “It’s a good opportunity for people to meet people from all areas of the business world,” he said. The event began with opening remarks from Provost David Rosowsky on the University’s “entrepreneurship ecosystem,” followed by awards for various patents and licenses received by members of the University and attendees.
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The Invention 2 Venture conference is pictured April 7. The conference focused on turning ideas and inventions into marketable products. SABRINA HOOD/The Vermont Cynic The event’s keynote address titled “Power to the Internet of Things” was delivered by UVM alumnus Robert Andosca.
Ph.D in Materials Science Engineering from UVM in 2012, according to MicroGen’s website. Microgen has become one
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The goal is to bring people together who in some way relate to what we do
JASON POWELL OFFICE OF TECHNOLOGY COMMERCIALIZATION The address was followed by roundtable discussions on a number of different topics relating to business strategy and entrepreneurship. Andosca founded MicroGen Systems in 2007, receiving his
of the largest designers and manufacturers of nanotechnology and MEMS used in wireless sensors and mobile electronics, according to the corporation’s website. MEMS stands for micro-
electromechanical systems which are small devices such as nanochips, according to Microgen’s website. His speech covered the process of founding his corporation and the devices they created called Bolt and Vibe. The devices are small chips that can collect data and produce enough electricity to sustain themselves for use in tires, cars and shoes, with a growing market for the future, Andosca said. These devices are smaller than a quarter and can last for more than 20 years, according to MicroGen’s website.
A record number of candidates were elected in the most recent SGA election. Thirty-seven senators were elected for fall 2016; 36 were on the ballot and one was a writein. In addition to supporting over 160 student clubs across campus, senators comprise the undergraduate student legislative body, according to their website. Senators act in the UVM and Burlington community to provide a representative voice for students, adding to the college experience, it states. SGA is broken into 10 committees, which senators are assigned to, according to the website. This is the largest number of candidates in a spring election since elections have been held online, SGA President Jason Maulucci said. “We are hoping that the reason so many candidates ran this year was because they are excited [and] encouraged by the work that has been done and they want to be a part of it,” Maulucci said. Many of the senators who were eligible to run again did so, SGA Vice President Tyler Davis said. “From an overall retention standpoint we certainly kept the vast majority of those eligible to return,” Davis said. Of the new members, there was a rise in those involved in Fraternity and Sorority Life and a decline of international student senators, due to their involvement in other areas of campus, he said. There were five write-in candidates, Davis said. One write-in candidate received more votes than more than half the candidates on the ballot, he said. Junior Chris Connell, a finance major, was the only write-in candidate to win election to the senate. Connell said he is very excited to represent the differing views of the undergraduate student population at UVM. He said he hopes to get involved in the finance committee of the senate once he is sworn in. “[Finance] is something I am very passionate about and I look forward to hopefully working with student organizations to get them the resources necessary to succeed,” Connell said. “I also really look forward to continuing to develop programs such as the Peer Mentor Program and Safe Ride Home.” Elections took place from April 5 to 6. The newly elected senators will be sworn into SGA at 7 p.m. April 19 in the Livak Ballroom, according to SGA’s website.