Question: How many universities does the conference, in which the Middlebury Panthers are included, consist of?
Context: The East Pole–West Pole divide in the fields of cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience is an intellectual schism between researchers subscribing to the nativist and empiricist schools of thought.  The term arose from the fact that much of the theory and research supporting nativism, modularity of mind, and computational theory of mind originated at several universities located on the East Coast, including Harvard University, the University of Michigan, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Tufts University.  Conversely, much of the research and theory supporting empiricism, emergentism, and embodied cognition originated at several universities located on the West Coast, including the University of California, Berkeley, the Salk Institute, and, most notably, the University of California, San Diego.  In reality, the divide is not so clear, with many universities and scholars on both coasts (as well as the Midwest and around the world) supporting each position, as well as more moderate positions in between the two extremes.  The phrase was coined by Jerry Fodor at an MIT conference on cognition, at which he referred to another researcher as a "West Coast theorist," apparently unaware that the researcher worked at Yale University. The New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) is a collegiate athletic conference comprising sports teams from eleven schools, which are ten small liberal arts colleges and one medium-sized research university.  The schools are all private, located in the Northeastern United States, and are often associated with the Little Ivies.  The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eleven schools as a group.  The eleven institutions are Amherst College, Bates College, Bowdoin College, Colby College, Connecticut College, Hamilton College, Middlebury College, Tufts University, Trinity College, Wesleyan University, and Williams College. Michael G. "Mickey" Heinecken (born January 25, 1939) was is a former American football coach.  He served as the head football coach at Middlebury College from 1973 to 2000, compiling a record of 126–96–2.  He has the most wins and longest tenure of any head coach in the history of the Middlebury Panthers football program.  In his final season, Heinecken guided the Panthers to a New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) co-championship.  Heinecken played college football at the University of Delaware from 1958 to 1960. Bachelor of Civil Law (abbreviated "BCL" or "B.C.L."; Latin: "Baccalaureus Civilis Legis" ) is the name of various degrees in law conferred by English-language universities.  Historically, it originated as a postgraduate degree in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, but many universities now offer the BCL as an undergraduate degree.  Reference to civil law was not originally in contradistinction to common law, but to canon law, although it is true that common law was not taught in the civil law faculties in either university until at least the second half of the 18th century.  However, some universities in English-speaking countries use the degree in the former sense. University rowing in the United Kingdom began when it was introduced to Oxford in the late 18th century.  The first known race at a university took place at Oxford in 1815 between Brasenose and Jesus and the first inter-university boat race, between Oxford and Cambridge, was rowed on 10 June 1829.  Today, many universities have a boat club and at some collegiate universities—Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, and London—each college has its own club as well as a main university club.  In contrast to the Oxford/Cambridge/Durham colleges, London colleges are members of British Universities and Colleges Sport in their own right, and thus compete in inter-university competitions.  In Scotland, the rowing clubs of Glasgow University and Edinburgh University initiated an annual race in 1877, making this competition the second oldest in the United Kingdom.  Competitive university rowing in Northern Ireland began in the 1930s with the formation of Queen's University Belfast Boat Club in 1931, whose first inter-varsity races were a triangular tournament against Glasgow and UCD in 1934-35 and who entered the Wylie Cup (which had been running between Irish universities since 1922) from 1937–38; the Welsh Boat Race began in 2006. In Thailand, many universities operate demonstration schools, also known as laboratory schools (Thai: โรงเรียนสาธิต , "sathit" or "satit" schools) as part of their teacher-training programmes.  These schools provide student teachers with practice-teaching opportunities, and are also used by the universities for education research and development.  The oldest dedicated teacher-training schools in Thailand are the Prasarnmit and Patumwan Demonstration Schools of Srinakharinwirot University, which opened in 1953 and 1954, respectively.  Many more schools have since been created or re-dedicated, and there are now sixty-four demonstration schools in the country. The Middlebury Panthers are the 31 varsity teams of Middlebury College that compete in the New England Small College Athletic Conference.  The Panthers lead the NESCAC in total number of national championships, having won 33 individual titles since the conference lifted its ban on NCAA play in 1994.  Middlebury enjoys national success in soccer, tennis, cross country running, lacrosse, swimming and diving, ice hockey, field hockey, and skiing, and fields 31 varsity NCAA teams and several competitive club teams including a sailing team (MCSC), a crew team, a water polo team, and a rugby team.  Since 2000, Middlebury's varsity squads have won 54 NESCAC titles.  Currently, 28% of students participate in varsity sports. The NCAA Division III Men's Ice Hockey Championship is an annual tournament to determine the top men's ice hockey team in NCAA Division III.  The Division III championship has been contested since 1984.  The most successful team has been the Middlebury Panthers with eight titles. A doctorate (from Latin "docere", "to teach") or doctor's degree (from Latin "doctor", "teacher") or doctoral degree (from the ancient formalism "licentia docendi") is an academic degree awarded by universities that is, in most countries, a research degree that qualifies the holder to teach at the university level in the degree's field, or to work in a specific profession.  There are a variety of doctoral degrees, with the most common being the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), which is awarded in many different fields, ranging from the humanities to the scientific disciplines.  There are also some doctorates in the US, such as the Juris Doctor (JD), Doctor of Medicine (MD), Doctor of Dental Medicine (DMD), Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS), Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO), Doctor of Chiropractic (DC), and Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.)  which are generally regarded internationally as professional degrees rather than doctorates, as they are not research degrees and no defense of any dissertation or thesis is performed.  Many universities also award "honorary doctorates" to individuals who have been deemed worthy of special recognition, either for scholarly work or for other contributions to the university or to society. Suzhou Dushu Lake Higher Education Town () is a university town located in the Southern part of Suzhou Industrial Park, Suzhou, Jiangsu, to the East of Dushu Lake, and to the South of Wusong River.  It has a total area of 25 km, and expects to have around 400,000 people by 2016, 100,000 of whom will be students.  Its goal is to offer good education, advanced technology, and a pleasant living environment.  The area is home to many universities (undergraduate as well as graduate schools) including local Chinese universities and universities from other countries.  This community focuses on producing educated and creative people.  The area offers facilities including libraries, entertainment venues, parks, a sports centre and accommodation.  Wenxing Plaza and Hanlin Plaza are popular locations of many small restaurants and shops.  Dushu Lake Library is an experimental library of the National Digital Library.
Answer: eleven