I Can’t Sleep - Marlboro College | Calm Bedtime Reading for Sleep

Episode Date: January 7, 2025

Drift off with this calm bedtime reading about Marlboro College, created to ease insomnia and bring peaceful rest. In this soothing episode, Benjamin explores the history of the small liberal arts college in Vermont, its founding, academic philosophy, and the unique community it fostered before merging with Emerson College. His steady, reassuring narration turns rich educational history into peaceful storytelling, helping you release stress and quiet your thoughts. There is no whispering or hypnosis, only calm, fact-filled narration designed to guide you toward sleep. Press play and let the story of Marlboro College carry you into slumber. Want More? Request a Topic: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/request-a-topic Ad-Free Episodes: https://icantsleep.supportingcast.fm/ Shop Sleep-Friendly Products: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/sponsors Join the Discussion on Discord: https://discord.gg/myhGhVUhn7 This content is derived from the Wikipedia article on Marlboro College, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license. Read the full article: Wikipedia – Marlboro College. Happy sleeping! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to a Glassbox media podcast. What if I told you that most of the modern day self-help advice you've been hearing could actually make you worse? The key to a better life isn't about feel-good gimmicks that sound catchy. The Mentally Stronger Podcast gives you access to a licensed therapist who shares science-backed tools that will actually change your life. Hi, I'm Amy Morin, psychotherapist, mental strength trainer, and international best-selling author. In each episode, we cover research-back strategies, like how to stop relying on willpower and start creating habits for lasting change. And the five mental strength-building exercises you can do from your couch.

I also speak to world-class experts like Dr. Nicole Kane, who shares how to permanently heal anxiety by addressing the root cause. With over 200 episodes in our catalog, this podcast is for you if you're ready to crush self-doubt, conquer challenges, and become stronger than ever with therapist-approved strategies that can change your life. Listen to Mentally Stronger with Therapist Amy Morin, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the I Can't Sleep Podcast, where I read random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice. I'm your host, Benjamin Boster. And today's episode is from a collection of three articles. The first is about Marlborough

College. The second is the Marlborough Music School and Festival, and the third is Marlboro, Vermont. Thanks to Sandy Oswald, who sponsored this episode. If you would like to sponsor an episode of the podcast, head over to my website to find out more details. Marlboro College was a private college in Marlboro, Vermont. Founded in 1946, it remained intentionally small, operating as a self-governing community with students following self-designed degree plans, culminating in a thesis. In 1998, the college added a graduate school. The college closed at the end of the 2019-2020 academic year and gave its endowment to Emerson College in Boston to create the Marlboro Institute of Liberal Arts and interdisciplinary studies at Emerson College.

Marlborough College was founded in 1946 by Walter F. Hendricks, who had been inspired by his time as director of English at Beiritz American University. Hendricks led the college for five years until 1951, but would leave after a dispute with the trustees. He founded Wyndham College that same year. Many of the first students were returning World War II veterans. The campus incorporated the buildings of three farms that were on the site at Potash Hill. The first students were primarily freshmen, but included some sophomores and juniors, and one senior, Hugh Mulligan, who in 1948 became the first Marlboro graduate. The students made How Are Things at Casserole College the first school song in response to the dining hall menu. In 2012, Marlboro instituted the Beautiful Minds Challenge,

an essay contest for high school students, with full or partial scholarships and other awards as prizes. Essays could take the form of text, images, audio, or video, and were judged by Marlboro faculty, staff, and students. Finalists were flown to the Marlboro campus for a symposium where they presented their work. The program was discontinued after the 2018 competition. The Renaissance Scholars Program instituted in 2015,

with the objective of attracting new students from every state and increasing diversity, caused a rise in enrollment to approximately 200 in fall of 2016. The college remained intentionally small. In 2017, it was one of only three liberal arts colleges, listed by U.S. News and World Report, where all classes had fewer than 20 students. In 2018, Marlboro's small size and dwindling enrollment led the Board of Trustees to begin exploring merging with another college or university. In 2019, a merger with the University of Bridgeport was announced and then called off.

Later that year, the college announced that it would merge with Emerson College, at the end of the 2019-2020 academic year. Under the agreement, finalized on July 23, 2020, Marlborough gave its endowment to Emerson, which created the Marlboro Institute of Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies. Marlboro students were guaranteed admission and tenure-track faculty were guaranteed teaching positions at Emerson.

At the time of its closure, Marlborough had approximately 100,000. students. Freshmen were required to meet the clear writing requirement by submitting an acceptable portfolio of at least 20 pages, 4,000 words of non-fiction writing to the English committee. With the guidance of professors, juniors and seniors developed and followed an individual plan of concentration, often interdisciplinary, of which at least 20% was required to consist of an independent project, prepared without direct faculty input. Most students' plans culminated in a thesis. Students defended their work in an oral examination before one or more Marlboro faculty

members and an outside evaluator unconnected to the college, but with expertise in the student's field of study. Marlborough's strengths included Asian studies, religion and theology, and life sciences. In March 2014, Marlboro and five nearby colleges, Community College of Vermont, Landmark College, the School for International Training, Union Institute, and Vermont Technical College formed the Wyndham Higher Education Cooperative, allowing students to take one course a semester at another participating institution. Marlboro College graduate and professional studies began in 1998. Primarily aimed at working professionals and focused on technology. In 2010, it shifted to programs focused on socially responsible management and master's studies in teaching,

teaching with technology, teaching for social justice, and T-E-S-O-L. Later, added an accelerated master's track open to undergraduates in some programs. The graduate school was initially located near Brattleboro. It moved to the main college campus in Marlborough in April 2017, and after that offered courses increasingly online and instituted a teach-out. Enrollment was suspended for 2019-20, and graduate programs were not transferred to Emerson under the merger agreement. In the Princeton Review's 2014 annual college guide,

Marlboro College received the highest possible academic rating of 99 and was ranked number one nationally for the quality of its faculty. In 2017, U.S. News and World Report ranked at number 117 among liberal arts colleges in the United States. In 2006, Lauren Pope wrote in colleges that change lives that the Marlboro adventure was far more intense and intellectually demanding than Harvard, and any other Ivy or Ivy clone. Marlborough was founded on an ethos of independence combined with community participation. Students, faculty, and staff made decisions together in weekly town meetings, and there was an elected community court. Students, faculty, and staff served on elected committees that played a role in hiring decisions

and steering the curriculum. All campus buildings were open 24,000. and the library used a self-checkout honor system. During spring and fall, students were encouraged to work regularly on the school farm. Campus-wide work days took place each semester, with students, faculty, and staff working together on projects as needed in the spirit of the first class who built their own dormitories. The administration published a magazine called Potash Hill.

The student newspaper, The Citizen, and the Marlborough College Literary Magazine were edited by students selected at town meetings. Open Mike Knight said the campus center happened several times a semester in addition to events including the dragball, Mayfest, and Apple Days, and other events. The night before writing portfolios were due, a midnight breakfast was held. The college had few organized sports teams, but the outdoor program promoted rock climbing, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, whitewater kayaking, caving, canoeing, and hiking, and college was only 15 miles from the Mount Snow ski resort. A broomball tournament was held every February beginning in 1990. The Marlborough College campus is located on South Road in the town of Marlborough, Vermont,

in the Green Mountains. In the early years of the college, students and faculty worked together to adapt the buildings of three farms on the site, which became the main classroom building, the dining hall, and the admissions and administration buildings. Through grants from federal, state, and private entities, the college improved the energy efficiency of the dining hall, Dalrymple classroom building, Mather administration building, and admissions building since 2008, as well as the student residences. In summer 2011, the Half-Circle driveway at the campus entrance was converted to green space and walking paths.

The Circon Performing Arts Center has a 125-seat auditorium, an electronic music lab, practice rooms with baby grand pianos, and a 5,000 square foot dance studio. Whitmore Theatre, used primarily by the Theatre Department, was attached to Drury Gallery, which displayed student works. The Snyder Center for the Visual Arts, Housing Studios, Classrooms, and Gallery Spaces, and 14,000 square feet, opened in May 2016. In the summer, the campus is the location of the Marlboro Music Festival founded in 1951. A new 99-year lease was signed in fact.

February 2019, and a residence hall in the Jerome and Celia Reich building containing a music library and chamber music rehearsal spaces are scheduled for completion in 2021. The former Marlborough campus was sold in May 2020 to Democracy Builders, founded by Seth Andrew, which intended to use it for a low-residency, low-cost college program for low-income students. The degrees of freedom program would last four years from 11th grade to the second year of college and would result in an associate degree. The program was slated to be largely online, with students only being on campus two weeks out of each trimester. In February 2021, Andrew announced that Democracy Builders had sold a campus to Type 1 Civilization Academy via a quick claim deed. On March 9, 2021,

during an invitation-only community meeting on Zoom, Andrew announced that the type-one deal had been canceled. He called the agreement and engagement rather than a marriage. Andrew filed another quick claim deed which transferred the property back to democracy builders. The principle of type 1, Adrian Stein, said that type 1 was legitimately in control of a campus and that the issue will likely end up in court unless they can find some other kind of equitable settlement. Opening of the Democracy Builders program was deferred in April 2021 after Andrew was charged with financial crimes. In July 2021, the campus was purchased by the Marlboro Music

Festival. The Marlboro Music Festival formed the subsidiary and non-profit organization, Potash Hill, Inc., to manage the property. Notable People, Presidents Walter F. Hendricks, 1946 to 1951. Dave Lovejoy, 1951 to 1953. Paul Zenz, 1953 to 1957. Roland Bowden, 1957 and 1958, acting. Tom Regal, 1958 to 1981. Rod Gander, 1981 to 1997.

Paul LeBlanc, 1996 to 2003. Ellen McCulloch, Lovell, 2003-2014. Kevin F. Quigley, 2015 to 2020. Faculty, Win Cooper, Jay Craven. Paul J. LeBlanc later became president of Southern New Hampshire University. Peter Lefcourt, Literature and Writing. 1968 to 70. Leslie Lamport, 1960s.

David Mamet, one semester. Joseph Mazur, Mathematics. Blanche Honagher Moyes, music. Lewis Moyes, music. Alumni. David Asman, the Wall Street Journal editor, television journalist. Shura Baryshnakov, dancer.

Denny Ellis Bayshard, novelist. Sophie Caput Black, poet. Regina Lee Blaschick, academic. Sarah Coffey, member of the Vermont House of Representatives. Sean Cole, journalist. Alicia Dana, Paralympian. Marcus DeSino, lens-based artist. Debra Eisenberg.

author, left after two years. Ed Fallon, member of the Iowa House of Representatives. Gretchen Gerzina, author and academic. Harold Grinspoon, real estate developer and philanthropist. Daniel Harple, entrepreneur and investor. Parnell Hall, novelist. Joshua Harmon, poet, novelist and essayist. Jeffrey Hold

Philanthropist Emily Kornheiser member of the Vermont House of Representatives Ted Levine actor Robert H. MacArthur Ecologist Arthur Maggita

author and journalist Kate Marvin poet Jonathan Maslow journalist and author Selina Mooney, co-owner and founder of Suicide Girls, left after one year. William D. Mundell, poet. Chris Knoth, actor.

David Rhodes, novelist. Hans Rickite, cartoonist, left after one year. Tristan Roberts, member of the Vermont House of Representatives. Enoriko Suruma, poet and novelist. Jock Sturgis, portrait photographer. Tristan Tolino, member of the Romant House of Representatives. Charlotte Watts, mathematician, epidemiologist, and academic. Staff.

Robert Frost, poet, was a college's first trustee and former teacher of the college's founder, Walter Hendricks. Ethan Gilsdorf, author, worked in the marketing department in the late 1990s. The Marlboro Music School and Festival is a retreat for advanced classical training and musicianship held for seven weeks each summer in Marlborough, Vermont in the United States. Public performances are held each weekend while the school is in session, with the programs chosen only a week or so in advance from the 60 to 80 works being currently rehearsed. Marlboro Music was conceived as a retreat where young musicians could collaborate and learn alongside master artists in an environment removed from the pressures of

performance deadlines or recording. It combines several functions. Alex Ross describes it as functioning variously as a chamber music festival, a sort of finishing school for gifted young performers, and to summit for the musical intelligentsia. Adolf Bush and his son-in-law, Rudolf Serkin, moved to Vermont in the 1940s as refugees from the Third Reich. Adolf Bush, who was not Jewish, left Germany as he was in opposition to national socialist rule. They became close friends of Walter Hendricks, who founded Marlborough College on the side of a former dairy farm.

He asked their advice on the formation of a music department. On their advice, he recruited Marcel Moyes, Lewis Moise, and Blanche Moise, also refugees, and ill-situated to Marlborough. Bush, Circon, and the Moise trio are recognized founders of Marlborough music through their association with the college. But it was Bush, writes biographer Tully Potter, who provided the first impetus, as he had long wanted to create an environment

in which professional players and rank amateurs could make music together, studying the chamber literature and depth, and giving concerts only when and if they wish to do so. An attempt to realize this wish came in 1950, with a summer school lasting from July 1st to the 13th, with few students, that is not regarded part of the official Marlborough canon.

The following year, Bush and Circon turned down an invitation to the Edinburgh Festival to create on their own project, says Potter. They attracted 54 participating artists, students, in what is now recognized as the first Marlborough summer festival. After Bush's untimely death on June 9, 1952, Sirkin devoted great attention to continuing his beloved father-in-law's work. He became its guiding light for the rest of his life. He valued Marlborough's small size and rural environment, inviting colleagues to come to, says Ross,

lose their worldliness to fall into a slower rhythm. Marlborough's purpose moved away from Bush's idea of amateur participation, Instead, leading professionals from both solo and orchestral positions work with young musicians of the highest promise and achievement, who must pass through a rigorous audition process to be accepted. Prominent musicians associated with Moroboro have included Pierre Laurent Eymard, Emmanuel Axe, Joshua Bell, Jonathan Biss, Anner Bilsma, Pablo Casals, Nikki Chouy, Jeremy Denk. Leon Fleischer. Gary Graffman.

Hillary Hahn. Miechiazsche Swah Forschowski. Gilbert Kallush. Hantan QWERty. Long Leng. James Levine. Yo-Yo Ma. Miska Maiski.

Victoria Malova. Siegfried Palm. Marie Pariah. Laura St. John. Richard St. Stoltzman. and Sandorveg. Marlborough has had enormous influence on American chamber music. The Guarnary Quartet was formed at Marlborough in 1964.

Yo-Yo Ma and Emmanuel Axe, a long-standing duo, concertized together as a duo for the first time at Marlborough on August 3, 1973. Ma, incidentally, met his wife Jill there, one of many musical couples to meet at Marlborough. Other groups associated with Marlborough and various ways have included the Emerson Quartet, Juilliard Quartet, Orion St. Lawrence Quartet, and Bo Arts Trio. Since 2018, the Marlboro Music School and Festival has been led by artistic co-directors Mitsuko Uchita and Jonathan Biss. During non-summer months, the festival runs a festival runs a

musicians from Marlboro National Touring Program, with performances in many U.S. cities each year. A tradition Circon began of ending the summer with a performance of the Beethoven Chorale Fantasy, in which most participants, even non-singers, joined in the chorus, was discontinued with his death in 1991, but was reinstated a few years later, as then co-director Richard Goode told Alex Ross, many people felt that Circon playing the choral fantasy was a unique experience that could never be duplicated. After he died, the work was retired, and I thought that was the right decision.

To my surprise, a few years later, people said, You know, I think we have to have a choral fantasy. We needed a catharsis. Also, the festival still commemorates Bush's birthday August 8th with a special concert. Marlborough is a town in Wyndham County, Vermont, United States. The population was 1,722 at the 2020 census. The town is home to both the Southern Vermont Natural History Museum and Potash Hill,

the campus that was formerly Marlboro College. Potash Hill hosts the Marlboro Music School and Festival each summer, as well as other arts and education programs throughout the year. year. Named New Marlborough for the Duke of Marlborough until 1800, the town was a New Hampshire Grand, chartered on April 29, 1751, to Timothy Dwight and 64 others from Northampton, Massachusetts and vicinity. The French and Indian War prevented settlement, so the first charter was forfeited, and the new one issued by Governor Benning Wentworth on September 21, 1761. Then again, again, on April 17, 1764, as new Marlborough.

The town was surveyed in 1762, and 64 equal rights or divisions were created, with four lots in the center of town accepted. First settled in 1763, the town grew rapidly between 1764 and 1770, with emigrants from Massachusetts and Connecticut. By 1799, there were 313 children registered in the town's schools. A town's population peaked in 1820 with 1,300 people. The subsequent decline caused by immigration to the west and a downturn in the area's economy. Although the terrain is mountainous, the soil is rich and deep,

which allowed farmers to grow good crops. When the population was 896 and 1859, the community was almost exclusively agricultural. Located on the town common are the townhouse, 1822, used for town meetings, the town offices and post office building, 1969, the Marlboro Meeting House Congressional Church, 1931, and the Wetstone Inn, Circos 1775. The town's first church was organized in 1776 and put up at the top of Town Hill in 1778. In 1820 it was replaced by a newer structure nearby, and timbers and board from the old church were used in 1822 to build the townhouse, which was also located in the vicinity. Between 1836 and 1844, both of these buildings, the church and the townhouse, were moved down the hill to about their current locations on the town common. The church that burned down in 1931 was replaced by the current one, which is roughly a reproduction of its predecessor, except slightly smaller.

After the move from down the hill, townhouse was on the east side of the south road, but when it was hit, by a new, oversized snowplow in 1966, who was moved across the road to its current location. The Wedstone Inn was built around 1775 by Deacon Jonas Whitney, who arrived in Marlborough in 1773. Over its history, it has been variously used as a courthouse, church, tavern, dance hall, and post office. In 1946, Marlborough College was founded on the site of three farms by, Walter Hendricks for returning World War II veterans was poet Robert Frost as its first trustee. The Marlborough Music School and Festival founded in 1951, as held each summer on the Potash Hill campus. In 2006, Marlborough was one of the first American towns to have its citizens pass a resolution,

endorsing the impeachment of President George W. Bush. And in 2011, it was one of 13 Vermont towns isolated by flooding caused by Hurricane Irene. Historical Population by Census Year Census 1790 Population 629 1800, population 1887, 18207

Population 1,245 1820, population 1,296 1830, population 1,218, 1840, population 1,027, 1850, population 896, 1860, 1860, population 741, 1870, population 665, 1880, population 553, 1890, population 495, 1900, population 448, 1910,

Population 442 1920, population 300 1930, population 255 1940, population 225 1950, population 311, 1960, population 347, 1970, 1, 1970, population 592,

1980, population 695, 1990, population 924, 2000, population 978 2010, population 178, Population 178 2020 Population 1,722 According to the United States Census Bureau,

the town has a total area of 40.7 square miles, of which 40.3 square miles is land and 0.3 square miles is water. Marlboro is drained by the western branch of the West River, wet stone brook. Stonebrook and the Green River. The town is crossed by Vermont Route 9, also known as the Molley-Stark Trail. As the census of 2000, there were 978 people, 330 households, and 215 families residing in the town. The population density was 24.3 people per square mile. There were

497 housing units at an average density of 12.3 per square mile. The racial makeup of the town was 96.32% wide, 0.20% African American, 0.20% Native American, 1.0.02% Asian, 0.41% Pacific Islander, 0.72% from other races, and 1.12% from two or more races. Hispanic and Latino of any race were 0.82% of the population. There were 330 households out of which 30.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them. 55.8% were married couples living together. 6.1% had a female householder with no husband present,

and 34.8% were non-families. 25.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.39, and the average family size was 2.9. In the town, the population was spread out, was 19% under the age of 18, 23.3% from 18 to 24, 20.1% from 25 to 44,

27.5% from 45 to 64, and 10% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females, there were 96 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.4 males. The median income for a household in the town was $41,429, and the median income for a family was $44,861. Males had a median income of $30,313 versus $25,673 for females. The per capita income for the town was $19,503. About 0.9% of families and 3.9% of the population were below the poverty line,

including 1.9% of those under age 18, and 7.6% of those age 65 or older. Students from kindergarten to 8th grade attend Marlborough School, which replaced a number of one-room schoolhouses in 1954. Marlborough is home to the WR.S. W. F.M. 101.5 radio station. Sites of interest. Marlborough Historical Society and Museum. Southern Vermont Natural History Museum. Notable people. Pete Bernard, member of the band The Devil Makes Three. Newell Knight, religious leader. Richard Lewinton, biologist and treasurer of the Marlborough Historical Society.

Margaret MacArthur, folk historian and musician Joseph Mazur, Professor of Mathematics Lewis Moyes, flute player and composer Blanche Honiger Moyes Conductor Edson B. Olds, U.S. Congressman, Tasha Tudor, author and illustrator of children's books. Newell K. Whitney, prominent in the church

of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Businessmen.