The Miscellany News November 4, 2021
miscellanynews.org
Volume 156 | Issue 8
Tensions flare between security and students Annabelle Wang News Editor
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midst shifting party regulations in response to COVID-19, tensions have flared between students and security. As campus security officers shut down an outdoor party that had exceeded the allowed capacity on the night of Oct. 8, chants of “F YOU CAMPO” rang throughout the crowd. As COVID-19 cases have remained generally low on campus, the student vaccination rate has approached 100 percent and the number of active cases in Dutchess County has dwindled, the administration has gradually lifted its strict restrictions on gatherings (Vassar College COVID-19 Dashboard, 2021; Daily Freeman, 2021). Students have scrutinized the College’s frequently-shifting party regulations for a lack of transparency surrounding the guidelines, and more specifically, Safety and Security’s enforcement of these often vague protocols (The Miscellany News, 2021). The growing friction between students and Safety and Security officers escalated on the evening of Oct. 8, when a student threw a glass bottle at a Safety and Security officer and struck them in the chest. Associate Dean of the College for Residential Life and Wellness Luis Inoa informed the student body about this incident in an email on Oct. 9. On the night of Oct. 8, after Safety and Security received a noise complaint, the de-
partment dispatched officers to address the situation. Upon arrival, the officers found that the party in the Terrace Apartment (TA) outdoor space had grown significantly larger than party registration rules allowed for. After speaking with the party’s hosts, the officers waited as they dispersed their guests until suddenly someone from the crowd threw a bottle that struck one of them in the upper chest. A student who attended the party and requested to remain anonymous due to privacy concerns recalled the events of the
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night. According to the student, the party took place right after a concert hosted by Vassar College Entertainment (ViCE), and attendees swarmed the party after the concert. The student noted, “Initially, it was well controlled, I even received a ‘sticker bracelet’ to prove I was allowed to be at the party just in case security asked. Then, about 30 minutes later, the crowd just grew too large.” The student recollected how the situation unravelled after Safety and Security See Officer on page 3
Sandro Luis Lorenzo and Seowon Back/The Miscellany News.
Outing Club hosts adventures during break Solaar KirkDacker Guest Reporter
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s students dredged through the final weeks of stress leading up to midterms, October Break promised refuge from the stress of academic life. Many students took this break to recharge and enjoy a week where nothing was asked of them, returning to the familiarity of their homes or escaping to the happenings of nearby cities. Placated by the absence of school work, October Break is ostensibly a time to indulge in doing nothing. As I prepared for my first class the Monday after break, I quickly forgot that I had been granted any time away at all. My nights of sleeping for 13 hours and enjoying homecooked meals were swept away as I sipped my Deece coffee and filed into Rocky. As I struggled adjusting to waking up before noon, I was struck to hear two of my classmates cheerfully recounting the week prior. Ariel Schwartzman Miles ’25 and Sam Kelley-Derzon ’23 explained that they spent their past week backpacking through Virginia, albeit on different trips. See Outing on page 4
Halloweekend traditions, tent on Noyes Circle return to campus Jacques Abou-Rizk guest reporter
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his past weekend Vassar brought back one aspect of pre-pandemic life: the Halloweekened Noyes tent experience. A rave that attracts students of all classes donning their prepared costumes, the return of the Noyes tent marked the campus coming one step closer to pre-pandemic life. Campus was also host to a variety of other Halloween activities, such as the pumpkin patch, Halloween dance and trick-or-treating at President Bradley’s house. “It was super nice to return to the party
scene after a few years of quarantine,” said Isabel Yu ’25. “I especially had fun at the Coco and Clair Clair concert on Friday and the Noyes tent Saturday. I was happy the school was still able to safely put things together this weekend.” Vassar Student Association (VSA) and Big Night In (BNI) organized the annual celebratory weekend activities within the health restrictions. “It was such a relief to be closer to normalcy,” said Noura Lamb ’24, an attendee of several Halloweekend events. “To be able to be with friends without so much pressure and anxiety, it was an incredible improve-
ment to last year. In my mind, last year doesn’t even quite feel like Halloween,” she added. VSA Chair of Programming and Traditions Adriana DeLuca ’22 played the key role in laying out the weekend’s agenda. The VSA organized the Friday Halloween Dance with BNI and Social Dancing, the Pumpkin Patch with the Alumni Association at Vassar College (AAVC) and Saturday’s tent on Noyes Circle with Vassar College Sound Systems. “It's a little bit more difficult this year just because we don't have virtual events, they’re all in-person,” DeLuca said. “Get-
ting people to help out around their schedules is tough, but I think it's just a lot bigger than it was last year,” she explained. DeLuca also expressed concern that the sophomore class missed out on Halloween last year. “We have technically like two classes who had not yet experienced a full-blown Vassar Halloweekend,” she added. Lamb elaborated on DeLuca’s sentiments, expressing that sophomores are having so many first-year experiences now because the pandemic upended routine. “At this point I’m not actually sure what normalcy is, but to be able to be with friends See Halloween on page 4
Palmer Gallery exhibit explores the ‘Open World’ of Simon Tosky Meghan Hayfield Guest Columnist
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n “Open World” by Simon Tosky, the world is not only open but destabilized. Tosky renders inner life in bright colors, with sparse figures that are both vivid and ghostly in the new Palmer gallery show. It’s an open world, but also a subconscious realm where sight and sound elude our grasp. Tosky renders figures hidden behind masks or underneath bright colors. There are faces, but they are somehow inhuman,
fragmented. The figures are only partially apparent, with some semblance of reality through natural elements, but the composition pays the most attention to the faces. Yet, it’s not really faces we’re meant to look at, but the heart or the brain or wherever it is that makes us who we are. Tosky said his work comes from a place of self portraiture, though not the external visuals of a face or person. Instead, it’s a self-portrait of the interior. “I think of it as a self portrait of whatever I’m thinking about at that specific time when I made them,” he explained, in an in-person conversation.
These portraits contain full color and expressive energy. Starkly bold reds and blues take up huge swaths of the canvas. Tosky uses decisive brush strokes to make it easier to see how the paint moves around until it finds where it belongs. Tosky’s layering creates an anticipation that anything could shift at any moment. Any figure could fall from prominence, and any moment of stillness could succumb to a new mark or opposing color. “The message of [these paintings] is [that] the world is chaotic and [I’m] trying to distill it into something a little more peaceful,”
he said. This word, “peaceful,” is curious in comparison to the work, which brims with contradictions and complexities. It’s in the process of going outside of mundane everyday reality and entering into this impossibly colorful imaginary realm that Tosky’s work offers peace. “A lot of times things suck but I’m trying to have a good time,” Tosky said. This search for consolation or joy arises in his paintings, which exhale some underlying necessity to create. Tosky likened his process to a daydream: “A lot of the paintings See Gallery on page 6
Inside this issue
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ARTS
Are you an aspiring film critic? Check out William Doherty's review of the new adaptation of "Dune."
Take a peek at some boo-tiful Halloween costumes in our Halloweekend FEATURES costume spread!
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15 SPORTS
In this week's "Why we play" three field hockey seniors reflect on their experience as student athletes.