The Miscellany News
miscellanynews.org
Vassar College’s student newspaper of record since 1866
November 5, 2026
Volume 166 | Issue 8
International students face anxiety over visa policy changes Eli Lerdau Columnist
[All international students are referred to anonymously to protect their visa status.]
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his summer, one student returning to Vassar College deleted all social media applications from her phone. Another sat for weeks waiting for a simple visa interview. A graduating senior spent a late night not just worrying about job prospects but sweating over the prospect of deportation. This is the reality for students across Vassar, and across America, attending college outside their country of origin. Vassar’s international students, who make up just under 10 percent of the student body, are navigating travel anxiety, visa uncertainty and a tightening job market as sweeping changes are made to visa policy. Vassar has responded to this by expanding programs and offers in their already popular Office of International Studies (OIS). Since President Donald Trump’s return to office, visa policy has faced dramatic changes. Vassar’s Class of 2030 is composed of just 5.8 percent international students, down from 7.7 percent the year before, according to Vassar Vice President of Communications Victoria Grantham. Multiple student tour guides also reported noticing fewer international students this past summer. In interviews with The Miscellany News, Vassar students from across the globe described anxiety from government monitoring of
their social media posts, clearing phones before customs, keeping burner phones, uncertainties about post-graduation life and a fear of police interactions. Several students described a landscape of policy changes that were so rapid and legally complex that they found themselves unsure if information they had received in recent months still applied. “There’s a lot of confusion in terms of what I can and can’t do,” a student from South Asia said. “Life feels restricted, and it’s pissing me off. This never existed before when I started college.” Among myriad changes to visas, one cause of stress many students cited was changes to curricular practical training (CPT), the work authorization that allows students to do paid internships during their studies. CPT came under threat this past year with a proposed rule from the
Trump administration which would require internships for said students to be formally tied to their graduation requirements. Similarly, optional practical training (OPT), the post-graduation work period given to those on standard student visas which gives them anywhere from one to three years to work in the United States before requiring employer sponsorship, has been threatened with a $100,000 fee. Many say this could amount to a de-facto ban. T h e changes to CPT visas have posed a major challenge for students, restricting their summer opportunities. “It’s been one month [since changes have been implemented], and [Vassar’s OIS] just say, ‘We’re not too sure what’s going on,’ but at the moment, what can they provide and what other
options have we thought about?” a student from Central Africa asked. “I’m still lost, and time is moving.” A group of senior international students described the cumulative pressure of visa compliance as something akin to a second academic life, running parallel to their actual coursework. “Forty percent of my thoughts are that,” one student said of their anxieties about their future as a non-citizen in the United States. “It’s like the way seniors feel about graduating, but with us, it’s doubled. There’s more pressure to secure something, because if you don’t, you’re booted out.” The challenges for international students do not end at graduation, as a new rule giving them just 30 days to either secure employment or leave the country after graduation went into effect in July, 2026. This is joined by a proposed “fixed admission rule,” which would tie visa status to a fixed amount of time in the country rather than to the duration of the program in question. This rule is currently on hold due to a court injunction from a Massachusetts federal district court. “If we even get a job, we still have to go through a whole legal process of getting a new visa,” a student from Latin America said. For students from countries that face longer visa processing times or more restrictive bilateral relations with the United States, such as Egypt or Haiti, the baseline difficulty of acquiring a visa creates its own issue. “For
Graphic by Emma Brown '27. Visas continues on page 3
Amazon ban raises concerns Nathan Fielder too close this Bodie Morein Guest Reporter
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n April 19, the Vassar Student Association (VSA) passed a resolution banning student organizations from using VSA-allocated funds to purchase products from Amazon or its subsidiaries. The VSA established a sustainability fund over the summer that student organizations may apply for to cover additional costs incurred by buying from non-Amazon vendors. They also provided a list of possible alternatives to Amazon. The ban was an amendment to the already-existing Student Organization Purchasing Bill, which dictates other rules for organizations such as forbidding the purchase of plastic bags with VSA money. The amendment now bans students from making any purchases from Amazon or its subsidiaries including Whole Foods, Zappos and AbeBooks without written permission from the VSA’s Director of Finance Aneesh Koppolu ’27. The VSA Senate passed the resolution because of concerns over Amazon’s allegedly unsustainable and unethical business practices, and to encourage organizations to support local businesses. Though some students view the ban as a positive step toward sustainability, they also expressed concerns that the VSA has not provided adequate sustainable alternatives to
Inside this issue
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NEWS
Hadley Amato covers the relocation of MSA's prayer room ahead of OLB renovations.
Amazon, that the parameters of the ban have not been made clear and that the ban places a greater burden on certain students, like those with cars and organizations like House Teams. VSA President Nico Reyes Cardozo ’27 addressed the consequences for student orgs that violate the ban. “Depending on what the violation is, we have three tiers based on how serious the violation is. For example, a one-time violation is not gonna make you lose your budget, but it is gonna affect your functioning. Maybe you have to meet with the Director of Finance,” he explained. “It all depends on what specific case it is.” After the VSA Senate passed the “Sustainable and Ethical Consumer Fund Bill” in May, they created a sustainability fund that students can apply for to have the additional cost of a non-Amazon purchase covered. VSA Sustainability Executive Genevieve Reoch ’27 commented, “We have a running form that, as far as I'm aware, is pretty easy to use. And you just sort of put in the item you're looking to purchase, and you find it on Amazon. Our Director of Finance takes a look at it and sees, okay, this is $5 more for, you know, who knows, a decoration for something, and we essentially purchase it for the org and make up that difference between them.” On Sept. 13, the VSA published a four-page Amazon continues on page 3
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FEATURES
Julian Balsley Senior Editor
[Disclaimer: This review contains spoilers.]
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lizabeth Holmes committed fraud. She was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison for defrauding investors in her healthcare company, Theranos, of hundreds of millions of dollars. Investigative journalists and government prosecutors have meticulously documented how Holmes knew Theranos’ blood-testing technology—a small, single device which the company asserted could run virtually any blood test with a minuscule sample—produced inaccurate results and lied to investors. But watching “You Can See Everything,” Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s nearly-three-hour-long documentary on Holmes, you could be forgiven for thinking she got the short end of the stick. She appears unhinged and unreliable, yes, but less a scheming mastermind than a confused woman who sincerely believed in her product and was manipulated by power-hungry men. Fielder and his camera crew were given
Ender Nix writes about SAVP's screening of "Loud Enough."
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virtually unlimited access to Holmes, her partner Billy Evans and their two young children during the final month before Holmes reported to prison. Fielder and his crew lived in the guest house of their rented seaside San Diego bungalow and shot up to 16 hours a day. The documentary is a series of uncannily intimate scenes in which Fielder, Holmes and Evans speak in low, intense tones, surrounded by the bungalow’s dark wood walls and lit by soft, enveloping light. In each shot, framed so closely to the subject’s face that you can almost feel their breath, Fielder crafts a portrait of two people so divorced from reality they seem almost inhuman. Throughout the film, Holmes maintains that she is utterly innocent with nothing to hide. She texts Fielder, “FYI you can totally see everything.” Fielder has built a career on getting uncomfortably close to his subjects, and he does it again in “You Can See Everything” with his most success yet. “Surreal” is too weak a word for the movie’s radical intimacy between two people so many standard deviations from normal experience. But this time, Fielder got too close. By creating such an otherworldly character study, Fielder continues on page 6
Grace Tremblay advocates for Vassar's continuation OPINIONS of its composting program.
November 5, 2026
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THE MISCELLANY NEWS Emma Brown Darja Coutts Julian Balsley Grace Finke Hadley Amato NEWS EDITOR Samuel Eisenberg ASSISTANT NEWS EDITORS Iggy Gutierrez Madeline Nusbaum Aurelia Harrison ARTS EDITORS Brendan Kennedy Sophia Marchioli ASSISTANT ARTS EDITOR Sydney Jones FEATURES EDITOR Tina Mao ASSISTANT FEATURES EDITORS Jared Palumbo Ian Watanabe OPINIONS EDITOR Zoe Rodriguez ASSISTANT OPINIONS EDITOR Josie Wenner HUMOR EDITOR Noah Daube-Valois ASSISTANT HUMOR EDITOR Holland Kaplan SPORTS EDITOR David Bray ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITORS Armaan Desai Lucas Seguinot DESIGN EDITOR Sylvia Sargent ASSISTANT DESIGN EDITORS Ellen Tan Elliot Evans COPY EDITORS Gabrielle Lyman Julia Weber ASSISTANT COPY EDITOR Aria Kuklinski GRAPHICS EDITORS Charlotte Willenbring Makenna Brown PHOTO EDITOR Aviva Barry ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR Olivia Blank GAMES EDITORS Felix Mundy-Mancino Mia Liloia SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER Fallon Dern LIVE EVENTS CHAIR Vera Giraudo WEBMASTER Anna Berggren REPORTERS/COLUMNISTS Finn Buckley Eduardo Culmer Noah Duncan Melody Hamilton River Hamm Isabel Holmes Lora Janczewski Benjamin Kaplan Eli Lerdau Ender Nix Leah Nowak Evan Seker Erin Thatcher Amritha Dewan PHOTOGRAPHER Andrew Chu CARTOONIST Emma Fuchs COPY STAFF Naomi Kaplan Ida Polys Eliza Spyropoulos Leah Weinraub Catriona Chapman FACT CHECKER Tanner Johnson DISTRIBUTORS Cailey Metter
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF MANAGING EDITOR SENIOR EDITORS
Charlotte Willenbring/The Miscellany News. MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
NEWS
November 5, 2026
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Visa changes cause concern for international students Continued from Visas on page 1 Africa, it’s hard to get a visa because you have long wait times and you have to prove a lot,” the African student said. The student from Latin America described barely being able to get a visa interview due to the slow wait times at embassies and consulates. These challenges have only heightened students’ awareness of the risks involved in coming to America for school. “My home country has no opportunities,” said one student. “If I go back there I’m gonna end up working as a clerk, which I don’t want to do.” Vassar’s Reaction In the midst of the anxiety around life in the United States, the international student community has turned to Vassar for stability and guidance. “In response to the recent policy and regulatory changes, [Vassar has] increased communication with students, provided more frequent updates when guidance changes, and expanded opportunities for students to meet with us to discuss how a particular change may affect their situation,” Grantham stated. “Our primary goal is to make sure students understand their responsibilities, know what options are available to them and that they always have a place to come with questions or concerns.” Vassar has not taken an official position on many policy changes. It is, however, a member of the American Council on Education (ACE), which has formally opposed proposed OPT fee increases, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) rules that target “duration of status visas” and the H-1B visa fee increases. “When the government imposed a $100,000 fee on H1-B visas last year, it created a chilling effect for colleges trying to hire international faculty who did not yet have a H1-B visa from another institution,” Grantham wrote. Vassar’s OIS has not yet received any requests from federal authorities for student information beyond what is already stored in the government’s Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), the database used for tracking international students, Grantham explained. Social Media Concerns As a part of the sprawling visa changes, students are now required to publicly disclose their social media accounts as part of the visa application process, and border agents now have the authority to demand access to travelers’ phones. Every student interviewed said they had
Students
altered their social media behavior in some way in response to the federal government’s screening of visa applicants’ social media accounts. Several said they no longer like, comment or share anything political, even if they previously would have done so. “I feel like it has made me hyper-conscious of what I like on TikTok, Instagram and other stuff,” said the student from Africa. “When I’m at the border, I delete TikTok and things like that. I’m scared. People get deported for a meme of JD Vance,” another student said, referring to the case of Mads Mikkelson, a Norwegian tourist who was allegedly denied entry over a meme of the Vice President. The student from South Asia described deleting messages from their family group chats on WhatsApp before coming to the United States. “It’s just in case a visa officer says, ‘Show me your phone,” she said. She added that her family had wanted her not to attend protests. “Even if you feel strongly about it, don’t go, because you have to protect your visa status,” she recalls being told. “It’s a big trade-off. It raises what’s more important to you.” A Western European senior said she unfollowed Vassar Students for Justice in Palestine on Instagram when social media scrutiny became official policy. Nearly every student interviewed said they carry their passport when in New York City, as it is the most official form of documentation. “I don’t like it, because carrying your passport around is a liability on its own,” said the student from South Asia, “but it’s sort of something you have to do.” At the Border The risks associated with crossing the border extend beyond social media for many students. The student from Africa went home over the summer, despite being warned extensively about the risks. “People are telling me, ‘if you go, you won’t come back,’ and some people say, ‘You can just go,’” they said. “I have to think extra about every step I’m taking.” While the student made it back to Poughkeepsie without incident, they described the trip as nerve-wracking, recalling how they triple-checked every document before boarding. Three students reported arriving late this fall due to visa delays; fewer than ten admitted students faced major appointment delays, according to Grantham. “The changes are more abrupt,” they said. “Today you’re fine, tomorrow your country is bad; or today it’s fine but tomorrow if you
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Continued from Amazon on page 1 document titled “Amazon Alternative Sustainable Purchasing Options.” The document lays out the aforementioned reasons for the ban and provides alternatives to Amazon, including eBay, Dollar One Yard, Adams Fairacre Farms and Party City. Some student organizations’ treasurers told the Miscellany they had never seen the document. Treasurers were given training by the VSA in August of this year, before the list was drawn up. Vassar Mock Trial Treasurer Olivia Heisey-Terrell ’29 said, “Maybe it was in an email, or like in a footnote of an email. I don’t think I ever have seen it, though.” Strong House Vice President, Iced Brew Treasurer and VSA Orgs Associate Kayla Murati ’29 had some issues with the sustainability fund. “Communication from the VSA has been fine,” she said, “but it takes a while to send the application and get it reviewed, so you have to send it in way in advance for your
concern
event.” According to the sustainable order request form, students should plan for their orders to take up to four business days to be placed. At a Sept. 27 VSA Senate, meeting multiple senators expressed concerns that the implementation of the bill did not give students enough notice. In interviews for this article, students also expressed confusion over how the ban functioned. “VSA did not provide clear information on how the Amazon bill actually worked,” shared Co-President of Project Period Scarlett Cosgrove ’28. “We thought we could buy [products] off Amazon if other options did not match the price point and quantity, and that the sustainability form provided by VSA was to be used if we wanted a price match on another website,” Cosgrove said. Multiple students feel that the ban has still not answered the larger question of what sustainability should look like for student organizations. “When we want to find materials
go you might not enter America.” The experience at the border is chaotic at best, multiple students said. One student described watching an American friend she was traveling with be waved through customs while they faced an endless line of questions—ranging from their major at Vassar to their home address—with seemingly no end in sight. “It was so unfair,” they said. Several students described adjusting their appearance to appeal to border agents. “I make sure to turn off my phone, not wear my headphones and just look up politely,” said one senior. Another student said they hid social media apps on their device while traveling, while a third student recalled keeping an entirely separate phone to hand over if asked, something her mother had arranged. Strict enforcement at the border is now affecting how often families visit students. A student from South Asia said her young brother wanted to visit her at Vassar, but their mother would not let him travel alone: “She’s worried that, like, what if he gets detained, and he’s a minor and he’s alone?” Inside Vassar Three international students mentioned being more cautious at off-campus parties out of concern about police encounters, not because they anticipated doing anything wrong but because a single infraction could have significant immigration consequences. “They can deport you for anything. Your life is just over, all because you had a beer at a party,” the South Asian student said. Despite these new stressors, nearly every student interviewed mentioned the OIS as a main source of comfort. Students described OIS Director Yousra Khan and former Director Andrew Meade as personal friends, remembering how they hosted Thanksgiving dinner for students who could not go home and walking students through how to do their taxes every April. Several said that OIS emails on policy changes were honest and specific, rather than overly reassuring and vague. Others praised the office’s intensive one-on-one advising, proactive updates and referrals to immigration attorneys. “It feels very personal,” said one senior from East Asia about the OIS. “It’s not like she’s [Khan] emailing us saying, ‘We’re thinking of you.’ It feels very real.” The rapid changes to visas has caused concern amongst colleges across the nation. “We anticipate geopolitical matters could play into international student’s applications
over
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in bulk and we can’t use Amazon, we end up going to places like Target or Michael’s, and it sort of defeats the whole purpose of this sustainability agenda. Ban Amazon and turn to other unsustainable retailers? It sometimes feels like it’s only complicating things unnecessarily,” said Murati. Cosgrove concurred: “The ban only applies to Amazon, while other equally unethical and unsustainable companies, like Temu and Shein, are still available options.” Murati and Heisey-Terrell expressed uncertainty about whether the Amazon ban applied to House Teams. “My understanding is that for things that could be easily found elsewhere, Amazon shouldn’t be used, but that’s an arbitrary standard and I’ve found it easier to just try and avoid it altogether than to decipher what can be ordered on Amazon and what can’t be,” said Murati. Heisey-Terrell added, “If you need 100 blue balloons, it’s hard to go to a store and find that.”
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
to colleges and universities in the United States,” Grantham wrote. “We are a diverse campus with representation from 50 countries, so a decline in international students would negatively impact the robust and dynamic life that is fed by people from different backgrounds and lived experiences coming together.” In response to a question about financial risk to the College from decreasing international enrollment, Grantham explained, “As a small tuition-dependent college, reductions in enrollment can have a financial impact.” Some students were critical of the Vassar administration’s reaction to the changes. “[Support is] not coming from any of the deans. It’s not coming from any other administration other than specifically the International Students Office,” a senior said. Multiple students reported that despite Vassar’s politically vibrant culture, they felt there was a gap between how much the campus talked about immigration enforcement and how much of said conversation included those most affected. “There was one protest about ICE, and then it just filtered out,” the Latin American student said. “There weren’t ever discussions of how to help international students,” another added. Looking Ahead When asked whether they would recommend Vassar, or the United States, to a younger student from their home country, students’ answers varied. “If you’re going abroad to study and you want that education to help you easily translate into a job, don’t,” the South Asian student said. “If you’re doing it just to educate yourself, I would say that’s up to your discretion.” The Latin American student was more direct: “I would tell them to go to Europe, Africa, Asia, anywhere but here.” Another senior said they would not stop someone from coming but could not promise it was safe. “I want people to understand, this is a really big issue for us. It could upturn our whole lives to get booted.” Some students still felt hopeful about the future. “My hope just comes from the fact that I’ve gone through yesterday and today and last month, so I’m able to go through the next day,” the student from Africa said. “Things can change really fast,” the South Asian student said. “If you can’t get an internship today, that might not be the case three months from now. You just keep being hopeful; it just might work out.”
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Other students were concerned about the ban’s impact on their clubs’ particular purchases—Club Soccer, for example. “We get [some students] cleats, and none of these sustainable resources had options for that, and I was kind of struggling to figure out how to navigate where I should find things, what counts as a sustainable organization,” said Club Soccer Treasurer Aria Kuklinski ’28 [Disclaimer: Kuklinski is a Graphics Editor for The Miscellany News]. She added, “I’ve been purchasing from Dick’s Sporting Goods, but I don’t know if that’s even a better organization.” The VSA hopes that the ban will make Vassar more sustainable, and also open up further conversations about sustainability. “So this is also like setting an example. Most of the times when we advocate for change in Vassar’s administration, we try to make sure that we are doing the things that we’re advocating for,” said Reyes Cardozo.
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Nicholas
Occhiuto
Iggy Gutierrez
Assistant News Editor
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n Wednesday, Oct. 28, sociologist Nicholas Occhiuto visited Vassar College to discuss his current book project “From Bureaucrats to Billionaires.” Occhiuto’s proposed book focuses on his research into why Black congressional staffers leave Capitol Hill to become lobbyists. Occhiuto also discussed his work in grassroots politics, including his involvement in recent Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) campaigns. Occhiuto is an assistant professor of sociology at Hunter College and the CUNY Graduate Center. He currently works as the political director for Darializa Avila Chevalier, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Congress in New York’s 13th District. He also served as a member of the New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s inauguration committee. To begin the talk, Occhiuto provided the political context for “From Bureaucrats to Billionaires.” He argued that the book takes place in a contemporary moment where American politics and politicians are being influenced by the elite. Occhiuto shared two data points to show that this disproportionate influence comes at the expense of America’s most vulnerable populations. “If every billionaire in the United States of America—and there are 938 of them—paid five percent in [wealth] taxes on a year to year basis, there’d be $4.4 trillion in revenue, and we could eradicate homelessness,” he said. Occhiuto was referring to the Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act introduced earlier
MSA
prayer
Hadley Amato News Editor
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he proposed Spring 2027 renovation of the Old Laundry Building (OLB) will remove the Vassar Muslim Student Association’s (VMSA) prayer space and force it to be relocated. According to the Vassar Student Association (VSA), Vassar College has not yet decided on the location for a new space, and is considering Blodgett Hall as a potential option. VSA Vice President Nicole Gao ’27 explained that the College first began to have conversations with the VSA about the prayer space over the summer and followed up in September. Gao noted that the College was initially looking for a room in the College Center. “In my opinion, this is something we should address. This is huge for a certain amount of students on campus,” Gao said. The Miscellany News reached out to the Associate Dean of the College for Campus Activities Dennis Macheska, who Gao said has been central in conversations about the space, for the College’s perspective. Macheska wrote that he was not involved in the relocation efforts for the prayer space, and declined to comment. The current prayer space is the primary location for Vassar’s Muslim population to pray and be in community with other Muslim students, according to several interviewed. VMSA members are given 24-hour access to the OLB basement, so that they can pray at any time during the five daily prayers customary in Islam. VMSA also gathers and holds meetings in the classroom next to the room. “It's more than just prayer spaces. Especially this classroom, it’s like a community building aspect too,” VMSA member Salma
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this year by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Ro Khanna of California. The Tax Foundation estimates that the revenue from the introduced act could look more like $3.3 trillion. Occhiuto also argued that the war in Iran is taking away money that can be better allocated for domestic issues such as childcare. The cost of the war was an estimated $47.1 billion as of Oct. 28, according to the Pentagon. As for why his upcoming book focused almost exclusively on lobbyists, Occhiuto explained, “I center lobbyists as a critical mechanism through which millionaires, billionaires, corporations, transform their economic power, their economic advantages into political money.” He argued that this is through government officials, lawmakers and congressional staffers taking on private sector positions such as lobbyists, consultants and strategists. “More than 60 percent of all lobbyists in the United States were themselves either former staffers or former members of Congress,” Occhiuto cited. Occhiuto told the story of a Black former staffer named Nia, who he believed exemplifies the reasons Black staffers leave Capitol Hill. Nia left her job due to the trauma she experienced during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. Nia, along with another young Black staffer, was left alone by their older white colleagues in the midst of the rioting. Occhiuto quoted Nia: “The moment that door shut, I knew my time in Capitol Hill was over.” Occhiuto interpreted the event as demonstrating the Capitol’s white supremacy. “It wasn’t simply the white supremacy that
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Muhammad Al-Sheabani ’28 said of the OLB basement. …. “At least for me, a lot of the bonding times I had with my friends were here, studying together here, forming connections, getting to know more about people. Some of our GBs [General Body meetings] are here. And it’s a storage place.” Nazwa Rahman ’28, another VMSA member, similarly said, “It’s a big space for the Muslim community to gather, because we don’t really have a Muslim dedicated space, like a Muslim building.” Several VMSA students expressed the importance of the prayer space’s central location on campus. They explained that, because it is customary for practicing Muslims to pray five times a day, and since the prayer times often fall in the middle of the day, having the prayer space in a central location is most convenient. Muhammad Al-Sheabani explained, “We just want a central place on campus, and it’s just the fact that we haven’t heard from anybody on whoever’s planning this. I’m questioning whether we’re gonna get one because the most important part about OLB is that it’s central.” One of Muhammad Al-Sheabani’s biggest fears is that the renovation might force VMSA to move to a space on campus that is not convenient. “We don’t know where we could go. So, that’s the part that we’re afraid about. Because it’s like, we don’t just want another open big room. Even if it’s a nice room, if it’s all the way in Blodgett or Kenyon, that’s too far. Nobody’s going over there,” she said. Vice President of Communications Victoria Grantham addressed the concerns of the centrality of the space in her email. “One major issue raised was for this to remain centrally located and large enough for the growing community. Since that meeting
upcoming
was storming the Capitol from the outside that troubled Nia, it was revealed about the white supremacy that was held inside—the persistent erasure of a person,” he said. According to Occhiuto, although the 119th U.S. Congress is the most racially and ethnically diverse in U.S. history, it is still largely white. He cited that 74 percent of all staffers on Capitol Hill are white, as well as almost 80 percent of top House staffers. Occhiuto argued that the departures of Black staffers are due to the influence of four central components: pay inequity, lack of upward mobility, lack of social inclusion and a lack of the feeling of safety. Occhiuto then transitioned into his own political experience. While campaigning for Mamdani last November, he would stress the election’s singularity to voters. “I would tell people that this is the most important political election in American history, because it was the first election after a full throated return of white supremacy back into the White House.” He also highlighted that the election’s significance was due to Mamdani’s legacy opposition, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. During the 2025 election, Cuomo received more than $40 million from super PAC donors such as former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, Airbnb Co-Founder Joe Gebbia and the billionaire Lauder family. In contrast, Mamdani’s campaign was built on a massive grassroots operation, which amassed more than 100,000 volunteers by election night making it, according to The Guardian, the greatest field operation by a political campaign in the history of New
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York City. Occhiuto is now involved in another grassroots campaign with Avila Chevalier, who won the Democratic primary for New York’s 13th congressional district earlier this year. She beat the Democratic incumbent, Rep. Adriano Espaillat, who was financially supported by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and other super PACs. Avila Chevalier defeated her Republican opponent, Jomo Williams, in the Nov. 3 general election. Reflecting on his experience campaigning during the primary, Occhiuto shared, “We built coalitions with healthcare workers, with teachers, with union members, to show that change is possible.” Following the talk, Andi Shapllo ’30 echoed Occhiuto’s optimism about the future of grassroots politics. When referring to the upcoming elections, Shapllo stated, “I’m interested in seeing how those [play] out, because even if one or two of them [candidates] get through, I think it brings a lot to the case of not needing PACs and I think it will really empower people.” Assistant Professor of Africana Studies Michael Reyes Salas acknowledged the political work that Occhiuto himself has been involved in. He commented, “It’s kind of surprising to learn of a colleague up here at another institution who’s committed in that way and is willing to take time out of his teaching and research and writing and what-not, his academic life, to be involved in politics at this grassroots level, and collaborating with what appeared to be working class folks in a district that seems to be marked by high levels of poverty. So to me, that’s impressive.”
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Hadley Amato/The Miscellany News. The MBA prayer space in the OLB basement. we’ve looked at a number of spaces and I’ve been regularly in communication with [Advisor for Muslim Student Life Saba Ali] to visit proposed spaces,” she wrote. The VSA was made aware that Blodgett Hall is being considered as the site of the new prayer space, though they explained that nothing has been confirmed yet. Anisha Azizi ’27, another VMSA member, was asked if she thought Blodgett would be an acceptable option for the new prayer space. She responded, “Absolutely not… It’s too far from everything, especially from [the] Bridge, like going all the way to Blodgett to pray. And a lot of our MSA students are STEM students too; I would not want to do that to them; it’s way too far.” Another important feature of the OLB basement is that it has a bathroom nearby the prayer space. Muhammad Al-Sheabani noted that this is highly convenient, as it
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
offers an easy option for Muslim students to perform the customary pre-prayer ablutions, or wudu. “Before we pray, we need to perform wudu…just washing our face, our hands, and then we will pray,” Muhammad Al-Sheabani explained. “And having the bathroom right here is very simple, because we also need to wash our feet.” The College’s renovation proposal was passed by the Town of Poughkeepsie Planning Board in Sept. 2026, and according to Grantham, is scheduled to begin in June 2027. In her interview, Muhammad Al-Sheabani addressed Vassar administrators directly. She expressed, “I hope you understand that this place is a very important place for us Muslim students… I would hope [you] know that we need a central space. If we lose OLB, we lose it, but we hope we can get something better than this.”
ARTS
November 5, 2026
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In the business of undoing and finally understanding modern art Daphne Huffman Guest Columnist
I
found myself alone with a half-charged phone, an “Annie Hall”-inspired outfit and a place to stay in New York City for the duration of October Break. This had been something I had dreamt of ever since I first fathomed I might one day be independent. But when the moment came, I felt somewhat out of it, because my soul was heavy with a sort of spiritual dissatisfaction: My brain was dull from the stress of midterms and academic tedium, my eyes were fatigued from too many late nights and my whole being—though replenished by college after a dreary end to high school—was acutely aware of the process of breaching the stalemate between adolescence and young adulthood. Sometimes solitude is the best mechanism for self-reflection, so during one of my solo wanderings through the city, I discovered I was near the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). I initially hesitated traversing the final few blocks to the building, as I had been a fierce prosecutor of modern art’s stupidity for many years. This opinion was rooted in my experience at the MoMA as a stubborn 13-year-old: I wandered the whole museum in about 20 minutes, after which I impatiently waited for my parents, bored and declaring all modern art performatively abstract and not worth my time. Nuance is often a lost cause to a young teenager, so my 19-year-old self rethought this disparagement under two pretenses. One, the MoMA was supposedly phenomenal, and two, I recalled a particularly moving exhibit from that fateful day in 2021: an experimental film that ingrained itself into my memory, which I later identified as Sanja Iveković’s “Personal Cuts.” Sometimes second chances are in order. So I went inside. I was immediately blown away by Sophie Calle’s “The Sleepers,” a documentation of an eight-day project in which Calle invited 29 people to sleep in her bed, one at a time for eight-hour shifts. Each wall contained
What
Pink
Eliot Sanborn Guest Columnist
A
single piano note, fed through a rotating speaker, hangs in the dark like a ping from a submarine, repeating. Then, slowly, the organ, bass and drums arrive, and the guitar begins to trace lines around the ping. This is how “Echoes,” the 23-minute track that fills the entire second side of Pink Floyd’s “Meddle,” begins. The track is also a fitting microcosm of the album itself: strange, enduring, and willing to let one idea develop over time. I came to “Meddle” through an art history course—ART 277: “Visual Psychedelia,” which looks at how artists, filmmakers and musicians have tried to represent altered states of consciousness, from Thomas De Quincey to the Beatles. I listened to “Meddle” repeatedly, entranced, before writing an essay on how art attempts to capture those states. I write about this album now because it asks for something music rarely asks of us anymore. It was made for people who sat down with an album and stayed until the end, and more than 50 years later, in a world of playlists and shuffle play, that kind of attention is worth relearning. With so little to hold onto, you end up listening to yourself: what you picture, where your mind drifts, how long you can stay with one thing. That makes it less a record to put on than a way to spend 23 minutes paying attention, and, in a surprising way, a form of
elegantly-arranged photographs of strange figures sleeping in the same bed. I spent a liminal portion of time reading her novel displayed in the room’s center, wherein a short, respectfully-written chapter accompanied each sleeper’s set of pictures. Calle intended this as an investigation of the boundaries between public and private life. However, I was overwhelmed by the individuality within each sleeper’s state of unconsciousness: that is, the soul’s potentiality and the capacity to physically emote as our consciousness pauses each night for biological reset. It was a strange idea for an art piece. I doubt I would have volunteered to sleep under Calle’s inspection as part of this piece’s creation. But I was effectively moved by the raw and voyeuristically pure quality of the exhibit, and the lingering impression of sonder. I then arrived at the top-most levels of the MoMA, where more famous works like Vincent van Gogh’s “The Starry Night” and Claude Monet’s “Water Lilies” were displayed. There, I realized that the emphasis of modernity in modern art is not rooted in the time of its creation, but in the sociological shift of widespread acceptance towards modern art’s ludicrosity and pushing past man-made artistic boundaries. In other words, the time at which society began to massively embrace the atypical is still relatively new, much newer than the origins of modern art. Monet’s “Water Lilies” is an abstract experience through the blurry expanse on the canvas, where the scope and meshed-togetherness of creation places the viewer within its stillness and silence, laced with both overpowering ambivalence and reassurance. Andy Warhol’s “Campbell’s Soup Cans” transforms the typical into an unnerving repetition. It is a reflection on the monotony of consumerism and routine, while also exploring the connection between social classes. Conversely, Georgia O’Keeffe, the “Mother of American Modernism,” draws attention to the natural, its individual intricacies and uniqueness within her expansive floral paintings. She endows each flower with
Floyd’s
Image courtesy of Daphne Huffman '30. Andy Warhol's "Campbell Soup Cans" in the MoMA. as much attention and detail as human portraits and faces from the Romantic era. Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night” breaks away from the typical realism of scenery, depicting an otherworldly presence within the sky: an essence of loneliness, a deep longing or turmoil, perhaps even a bridge to purgatory. Umberto Boccioni’s “Dynamism of a Soccer Player”—meant to depict the dematerialization of an athlete—first hit me as a psychedelic representation of a brain, leading me to carry a heated sense of ceaseless cognitive movement. Between Calle’s eccentricity and Van Gogh’s surrealism, I dropped the idea of modern art’s simplicity and began to view the genre as not an easy excuse for creation but as a coping mechanism defying the preexisting boundaries of historical portrait painting. I realized that fine art is not limited to a canvas; Art as a means of creation is purely theoretical and applies across all media, an emulation of human soul without stricture. Modern art calls for a complete infrastructural collapse: an undoing of personal
‘Meddle’
self-reflection. “Meddle” came out in the fall of 1971, 55 years ago, and sits as an awkward hinge in the band’s history. Syd Barrett, the brilliant but psychologically fragile songwriter who led the group’s early psychedelic years, had departed several years prior. “The Dark Side of the Moon,” the tightly built concept album that made Pink Floyd enormous, was still two years away. In between, the band was working out who they were. By most accounts, “Meddle” grew out of a series of experiments after the group went into the studio with very little finished material. Unlike later records, where bassist Roger Waters wrote most of the lyrics around a single idea, “Meddle” was a group effort. “One of These Days” opens the record as a mostly instrumental blast of heavy rock, all pulse and menace, while “A Pillow of Winds” is a drowsy love song that recalls Barrett’s lullabies. Then comes “Seamus,” a novelty blues track built on the howls of a dog, the one place the album loses its footing and a reminder that the band hadn't yet settled on a voice. You can hear the band searching. “Echoes” is where the album comes together. The lyrics begin underwater, with a creature stirring on the sea floor and slowly rising toward the light. Over its length, the music changes from calm to strained to unmoored. Near the middle, the band seems to come apart, giving way to groans and screeches
asks
of
that sound more like free improvisation than rock. Then it rebuilds and finds its way back. The track is not a full concept album yet, but it is the first time the band holds a single idea for an entire side. That patience is what leads to “The Dark Side of the Moon.” The central text of my essay was a chapter from neurologist Oliver Sacks’s book “Hallucinations,” in which he describes using drugs to see a color he had read about but never actually seen, a “pure” indigo. When he asked his LSD-riddled mind for it, a huge pear-shaped patch of indigo appeared on his wall, then vanished after a few seconds. Months later, he saw it again, and this time, music summoned it, with a sober mind. This story stayed with me while I listened to “Echoes.” The track cannot give you a color, but it builds a place where you might find one. Sacks’s indigo came from inside his own head, and so does whatever you see while the song plays: a sea floor, a dark room, a shape you can’t name. Nothing on the record shows it to you. The music only sets the conditions; the rest is yours to interpret. The other works I studied for this essay took different routes. Stan Brakhage’s short film “Mothlight” has no camera and no sound, only moth wings and plants pressed between strips of film, flickering past in a few minutes. The Star Gate sequence in “2001: A Space Odyssey” is an elaborate, engineered tunnel of light set to unsettling choral music by György Ligeti. Both give you something to look at:
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discipline and societal narration. Observing a series of sleepers is an art when covered adequately and carried out with soul. Hundreds of enlarged flowers are art. Thoughtful recreation of soup cans is art. Modern art is in itself a commentary on the themes of humanity and a personal healing process, a bridge from the artist’s deepmost turmoil to our own, a path to healing that calls for an amorphous visitation to the inside. So, to the cynical 13-year-old: You are a writer, and writing is an art. You are a human, and living is an art. Everything is art, so long as we stylize it with our individuality that makes it unique, despite our creations being yet another product of the broad, overdone and overarching themes of humanity. It is how we artists heal, and it is how we recognize that even in solitude, we may be understood. Though I recognize that there are limitations to all fields, I can now embrace the beauty of modern art and thank the MoMA for its patience in my coming to terms with it.
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The hallucination is on the screen, identical for every viewer. “Echoes” felt like the opposite. With sound and no picture, whatever appears in the dark is yours, much closer to what Sacks describes. “Meddle” forces you to supply the images yourself. Even the cover art points the same way. It shows an ear underwater, ripples spreading across the surface, a picture of listening rather than being heard. The designer, Storm Thorgerson, later called it his least favorite Pink Floyd sleeve, and I understand why: It is an odd, unglamorous picture. But as an image of what the music asks of you, it works. You are listening from below the surface. If you want to give the album a listen, here is my advice. Do not listen on shuffle, and do not have your phone out. The album was built for a listener with a record player and nothing competing for their attention. Put on headphones, turn off the lights, and give “Echoes” the full 23 minutes. If you can find a record player, even better, since you will have to get up and flip the album to reach the second side, and that small act of commitment suits the music. It is also worth remembering what ‘Meddle’ is about: A band loses its leader and has to find a direction without him, and the result is a long piece of music about things beginning, climbing, coming apart and starting again. 55 years later, in a world that rarely lets anything run for 23 minutes, that ping still lands.
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‘Wildwood’ Olivia Kappauf Guest Columnist
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n Oct. 23, LAIKA Studios—the creator of “Coraline” and “Kubo and the Two Strings”—released “Wildwood,” its sixth feature film and a feat of human artistic creation. The making of “Wildwood,” which follows 12-year-old Prue McKeel as she ventures into a magical forest to save her baby brother, was no small undertaking. Director Travis Knight revealed that it took around 16 years for LAIKA to create the film. In an interview with Animation World Network, Knight stated, “‘Wildwood’ is by far the biggest and most ambitious thing we’ve ever done.” The combination of stop-motion animation, digital effects and other technical strategies makes each frame a visual marvel. From the immersive forest to the unique physical character designs to intricate battle sequences, the dedication, time and talent put into “Wildwood” breathes through every second of the film. “Wildwood” is a magnificent output of human collaboration and passion, something that is becoming increasingly rare in our modern age. The rapid integration of AI in our society has done irrevocable damage to creativity and is a threat to human expression. Students use ChatGPT to write opinion papers, businesses advertise their products with generative AI, social media is populated with AI “art,” and what were once the purest forms of self-expression—like writing,
‘You
Can
Continued from Fielder on page 1 Fielder largely fails to interrogate the grievous harms Holmes caused patients who trusted her technology. In doing so, Fielder does the truth a disservice. Holmes founded Theranos after dropping out of Stanford University at age 19. She claimed that Theranos’ device could run virtually any blood test with only a pinprick of blood from the finger, rather than the multiple larger vials that other tests require. She billed her product as a healthcare revolution: It was faster, cheaper and more accurate, and would help people who were afraid of blood. Holmes was hailed as a visionary. She wore black turtlenecks like Steve Jobs, most notably on the cover of Forbes, and wrote notes to herself on “becoming” him. Investors, including two former Secretaries of State, poured hundreds of millions into Theranos. The facade crumbled in 2015. The Wall Street Journal published an exposé in which former Theranos employees said that the company’s blood analyzer could run only about 15 tests, rather than the more than 240 it promised. Federal prosecutors then found that Holmes had lied to investors about major pharmaceutical companies’ evaluations of Theranos, including personally putting those companies’ logos on Theranos reports to falsely imply they endorsed the tech. She also told investors that Theranos’ revenues were about 1,000 times higher than they really were. Theranos’ harms to its patients were dire. It sent inaccurate test results to people screening for cancer and women monitoring women’s pregnancies. False results led people to stop taking their blood thinners, or to believe they had a precursor to AIDS or were at risk for diabetes. Some tests showed potassium levels so high they could have only been correct if the patient were dead. Eventually, the company voided every sin-
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drawing and music—have become overtaken by mindless software dedicated to producing soulless imitations of human emotion. “In that environment, making a stop-motion film feels like a quiet act of rebellion. Seeing the hands of artists at work feels more special now than ever,” said Knight. The mere knowledge that every second of the film was the output of countless passionate, talented people coming together to create something monumental in effort, time and execution makes this film a beacon of light in the deep darkness cast on art by AI. ChatGPT can produce a fake image in a matter of minutes, but it could never make “Wildwood” or come close to the power found in raw creativity. Every character in “Wildwood” is complex, flawed and deeply human. The antagonist of the story, Dowager Governess Alexandra, is not a classic storybook villain but rather a mother driven to immorality by grief and heartbreak. The movie opens with a chilling, emotional sequence in which a young boy, Alexandra’s son, rips a gear out of his chest, commiting suicide while Alexandra begs for him to change his mind. The somewhat strange and very serious tone of the scene immediately establishes that “Wildwood” is not a typical animated movie for children; in fact, the film is LAIKA’s first PG-13 feature, and the opening reflects how LAIKA intends for “Wildwood” to not only be visually stunning but a deep, thought-provoking work.
See
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While Alexandra’s actions throughout the film are horrific, it is strangely easy to sympathize with her—everything she does is driven by the need to get her son back, which parallels Prue’s own motivations. Alexandra has turned her love for her son into a weapon of hate, while Prue’s love for her brother gives her the resilience to venture into the unknown and defy those with much greater power than her. In having Prue’s strength be Alexandra’s weakness, “Wildwood” asks: To what extent does love justify our actions? By portraying grief and love in such raw, complicated ways, “Wildwood” allows viewers to feel the profound pain of the characters and find connection in it. The film makes you wonder how far you would go for those you love, and if Alexandra is even a villain at all. These deeply complex, layered portrayals of emotion reflect how the narrative’s strength is found in centering familial love in its many manifestations and forms. One of the most beautiful and impressive scenes of the film occurs as Prue rides on the back of a giant eagle; the scene alone is evidence that stop-motion has reached new heights through “Wildwood.” The fluidity of the scene, coupled with the vibrant background sky, creates a brilliance and wonder that captures the magic of the film—the eagle’s flight feels so natural, so real. Knowing that each flap of the eagle’s feathers and strand of Prue’s hair that blows in the wind were tiny individual adjustments made by the people at LAIKA makes the sequence
Everything’
gle test result, in part because it had been diluting blood samples to run them on traditional machines rather than their own technology. None of this context is included in “You Can See Everything.” A short sequence quickly recaps Holmes’ rise and fall, and early on Fielder tells her, “There is a lot of evidence that points to the fact that you defrauded investors and also deceived, you know, regulators and the public and patients.” He also suggests that she chose to give him access to her home precisely because he is not an expert on her case. But these details quickly fade as Fielder’s story draws the viewer in. This sense of closeness that pervades the film creates a sympathetic narrative of Holmes as Fielder is pulled ever deeper into the whirlpool of her professed innocence. It becomes almost romantic—the scenes of Holmes and Fielder staring at each other with their faces mere inches apart build until the viewer wonders if Fielder has lost all objectivity as a documentarian. In one scene, Fielder and Holmes are sitting on Holmes’ bed, and she suggests they go swimming in the ocean. Fielder responds that he is afraid of cold water. That seems to be the end of it. But later in the movie, a camera begins to zoom in on the ocean. Two figures are splashing in the waves, laughing. They are in their underwear. Fielder ducks his head under a crashing wave, then grabs Holmes by the hand and pulls her further into the ocean. Near the movie’s end, Fielder has a conversation with Amanda Seyfried, who portrayed Holmes in the 2022 Hulu series “The Dropout,” in which she asks him if he is intentionally hiding parts of his interactions with Holmes to protect her. As one reviewer wrote, “You come away feeling that Mr. Fielder is the one who has Ms. Holmes’s best interests at heart.”
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Of course, Fielder chose to include these scenes of incredible intimacy between documentarian and subject—the exact kind of thing journalists are never supposed to do. This directorial decision destabilizes the entire movie by forcing the viewer to ask if they can trust its creator. But this decision makes Holmes look more, not less, innocent. “If Fielder seems to be on her side,” the movie seems to ask us, “who are you to disagree?” Fielder does push Holmes on some of her claims, such as her outrageous assertion that she has never once told a lie. But other than that, Fielder never really brings up the extent of Holmes’ yearslong manipulation or the harm Theranos caused. Of course, Fielder is not relitigating Holmes’ case—the documentary is a character study, not investigative journalism. But the viewer cannot be expected to have read the case’s entire history before walking into the theater. And by neglecting to illustrate the grievous harms Holmes caused, Fielder papers over her culpability. The portrait of Holmes that Fielder paints is of a mentally unstable woman who is victimized by two power-hungry men. The first is Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, who was Theranos’ president and chief operating officer, and Holmes’ boyfriend for 12 years. (He was sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison for his role in Theranos’ fraud.) The second is Billy Evans, who becomes a cartoonishly evil character with no regard for Holmes’ welfare in the second half of the film. Once she enters prison, he makes business decisions on their mutual project, “Theranos 2.0,” without consulting her, posts expletive-laden content on her X account without her consent and even publishes an AI avatar of her and appears unconcerned about its potential to be manipulated into pornographic material. Fielder also encourages the viewer to
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human
art
infinitely more compelling and impressive. Yet, despite the brilliance of the film and excellence of the animators, “Wildwood” is unlikely to make a profit. With a budget of around $100 million, the film domestically made only $12.2 million on opening weekend. These underwhelming numbers largely suggest that “Wildwood” will not break even, and it will thus be considered a box office failure. LAIKA, “Wildwood” and stop-motion animation as a genre need support regardless of their financial output. In the dire state of our modern world, we need to back people that dare make a stand against AI and showcase the beauty of human ingenuity. LAIKA does exactly that. “Wildwood” is a reminder of the brilliance of human art and is proof that no matter how much society forces AI onto us, human artists will not stop. AI will never overtake art—not while so much untapped creativity lies scattered throughout humanity, waiting for an opportunity to shine. Human creation at the scale that LAIKA has produced for “Wildwood” is, as Knight said, a rebellion. We must continue to rebel against AI, and we must continue to remind the world that humans can do so many things that AI cannot. Art will never die if we refuse to stop making it, and it must be supported so that we can continue to do so. AI does not define our world, not yet—and the power to stop it from doing so lies in us, in every hand that dares pick up a paintbrush, a camera or a pen.
too
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sympathize with Holmes by exploring her role as a mother. Holmes’ and Evans’ two children—a toddler and infant—are often present in the film: playing with their parents in the sea foam, being rocked in the living room, being breast fed. “Look,” the movie seems to whisper, “this woman is a devoted mother. Could she have deceived and harmed so many people?” The implicit question is what will happen to them when Holmes is ripped from their lives and sent to prison for a decade. There is one hitch in this story, which reveals the lengths Fielder went to to craft his narrative: He cut out the nanny. Holmes and Evans are frequently interviewed without children around. So, who is caring for them? According to a New York Times reporter who wrote a long profile of Holmes, Holmes and Evans had a part-time nanny named Vanessa. Not even her shadow made the final cut. Under Fielder’s lens, Holmes becomes a misguided woman who just moves through the world differently from the average person. She argues that when she said Theranos’ machine “can” run every test, what she really meant was that it had the potential capability to do that. This is, of course, wildly misleading. But Evans argues that Holmes’ mind is just so far above everyone else’s that she could not understand how that description might confuse people. “She just thinks differently,” he explains. Fielder plays this story for laughs by showing the couple Abbott and Costello’s famous “Who’s on First?” bit. What he does not do is make clear to a viewer unfamiliar with Holmes’ story that she certainly knew that she was lying about her product and putting the public in harm’s way. “You Can See Everything” is a stunning feat of documentary filmmaking. But Fielder’s penchant for getting too close creates a dangerously innocuous version of a convicted fraudster.
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November 5, 2026
Learning
how
Katherine Chang Guest Columnist
I
am easily delighted by the small things in life. Horseshoe crabs running across a beach. Mushrooms sprouting beneath a tree. One of my earliest memories is looking up at the night sky with its dozens of stars and thinking about how strange it was that something so enormous could also feel so calming. I am still in awe of the natural world, but that feeling has become tangled with something much harder to name: the grief and fear of losing what we have. I first became aware of the climate movement in 2019 through the Fridays for Future strikes, Greta Thunberg’s famous speech at the United Nations and the thousands demanding action. There was anger, but also a sense of unity and hope that the protests would finally lead somewhere. Then the pandemic happened. As the world’s attention shifted elsewhere, the movement lost momentum, and I wondered when that same urgency would return. Years later, I realized that I could study climate change myself. I fell in love with oceanography and atmospheric science, but while the science made the crisis more tangible, it did not make me feel that there was more I could do to combat it. If anything, knowing more made the scale of the problem harder to ignore. Individuals are constantly told to recycle and make more sustainable choices despite climate change being largely shaped by government policies and regulations, largescale corporations and enormous amounts of money. There is a particular kind of helplessness that comes from caring so deeply about a problem while knowing that you cannot fix it on your own. For me, that frustration has often evolved into anxiety, grief and exhaustion. Other times, it becomes a kind of apathy that says that the problem is too large, my actions are too small and I have exams and papers to worry about anyway. Why keep thinking about something that I cannot
to
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control? Which brings me to the question that has been bothering me for years: What, then, are we supposed to do with all that concern? On Oct. 8, Laura Carter Robinson, Psy.D., a clinical psychologist who works at the intersection of climate change and mental health, visited Vassar College to lead a series of workshops on climate anxiety and emotional sustainability. Students and employees could register for separate workshops, and as an Office of Sustainability intern, I attended a session specifically for the team. Robinson introduced her EARTh/US framework, which is short for emotions, awareness and action, regulation, thoughts, understanding and stories. Rather than trying to get rid of our difficult feelings about climate change, the framework asks us to acknowledge them, understand where they come from and think about how they affect the way we respond to climate change. I found it comforting to hear other students express their own feelings and perspectives. The workshop helped me see climate anxiety not as something to suppress, but as something to acknowledge and work through. However, I still wondered what meaningful action would entail if you do not own a company, control policy or have much political or economic power. After the workshop, I followed up with Robinson over email to ask a few questions about individual agency, climate apathy and the relationship between coping and action. Robinson first emphasized that systemic change is necessary, and ordinary people should not be expected to fix the climate crisis on their own. Placing that responsibility entirely on individuals is an injustice that ignores the larger political and economic forces driving climate change and burdens those with relatively little power. At the same time, Robinson does not see that as a reason to give up on individual actions entirely. She points to what researchers call “discourses of delay,” arguments
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including doomism and fatalism which acknowledge climate change while still justifying postponement or weakening of climate action. Robinson wrote to the Miscellany that such narratives are often internalized due to promotion by the fossil fuel industry, leaving people feeling powerless even when opportunities to act still exist. But she also emphasized that meaningful action does not mean taking responsibility for the entire crisis: “We don’t need a few perfect people to be perfect in their climate action; we need a lot of people who are imperfect but acting anyway.” Robinson described climate action as a collective effort in which people contribute using their own spheres of influence and abilities, whether that is through writing, art, science, local advocacy or psychology. Action can begin locally and grow outward. “When you act, others see it and that increases the likelihood that they might do the same thing,” she wrote. Climate apathy can also develop from this sense of powerlessness, making it easier to disengage altogether. Robinson explained that when something feels threatening or overwhelming, our automatic fight, flight or freeze responses can lead us to avoid the issue, numb ourselves to it or ignore it altogether. This is why Robinson sees coping skills as important—it is not so that we stop caring or convince ourselves that everything is fine, but so that we can stay engaged with those feelings and act on them instead of escaping them. A lack of action does not always correspond with apathy, however. Robinson specifically pointed out that disability, poverty, racism, age and other circumstances can limit someone’s ability to participate. This means that people and institutions with more power carry a greater responsibility to act. As Robinson explained to the Miscellany, “To avoid it is to inflict moral injury and to betray those who need people in power to do the right thing.” This also changed how I thought about the purpose of coping. It should not simply
crisis
placate us and make people comfortable enough to tolerate a harmful status quo. Self-care instead requires us to recognize what harms us and to act on it. Robinson describes coping as something we do both for ourselves and others. By being more grounded and resilient to stress, we have more space to help others, respond to climate disasters and demand larger structural change. Robinson has had to apply that idea to her own life as well. Working directly with climate anxiety and grief can be taxing, and she told me that it has caused her to take her own coping more seriously. She takes time to talk with others and takes breaks to walk or hike, even when part of her feels that there is no time to rest. But what motivates her is also the same thing that makes the loss of ecosystems and the natural world hurt in the first place: care. Robinson shared that the people she speaks with worry not only about themselves, but their families, communities, future children, animals, oceans and forests. “Those feelings come from so much care and such deep feelings of connection to our world overall,” she wrote. After the workshop and speaking with Robinson, I do not think that there is a neat answer as to what any one person is supposed to do about climate change. I admit that I still feel frustrated by how much of the problem exists beyond my control, and I am uneasy about what the future holds. But I have started learning how to sit with my emotions, understand them and turn them into engagement. Climate action cannot be done alone, and I hope more of us can find our place in this collective effort. Part of me will always be that child staring up at the night sky, bewildered by how enormous and beautiful the world is. Even after everything I have learned, that sense of wonder has never quite gone away. Perhaps that is what motivates me: Not just the fear of what we could lose, but rather the love for everything still here and worth caring about.
Sydney Jones/The Miscellany News. MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
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SAVP
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Ender Nix Columnist
I
might not identify as a woman, but I have lived the life of one. Since I was a kid, I have known the fear that comes with being a girl. As early as middle school, I experienced the perils firsthand. On Tuesday, Oct. 27, I had the honor of attending the Support, Advocacy, and Violence Prevention (SAVP) Office’s screening of “Loud Enough—Surviving Justice” (2023), directed by Hilary Klotz Steinman about a college student and her healing and justice journey for a sexual assault she experienced. SAVP Director Rachel Gellert, Program Coordinator Allison Jasso and student interns were extremely welcoming, supportive and understanding of the audience to make sure everyone was comfortable due to the sensitive nature of the documentary. Some viewers in the audience shed tears, but because of the attention of the SAVP Office it was a safe experience. “Loud Enough” follows Madison Smith, a sunny and self-assured college student from a small town in Kansas. One bitter night in February, a classmate of hers assaulted her after Madison had abandoned her laundry and followed him back to his dorm. She thought he was going to kill her. The film documents her nonlinear healing—including a panic attack during a comfort watch of Grey’s Anatomy and the ways her recovery could be altered by the invalidation of an officer—amidst a complicated process of seeking justice after the trauma, in addition to portraying the failures and revictimization she experienced from the justice system she thought would protect her and the world-shattering effects it had on her family. While the documentary has a relatively happy ending—Madison goes to nursing school and gets married—she does not receive the justice we are told people deserve after
hosts
‘Loud
experiencing a traumatic event. There is no echo of a banging gavel to give comeuppance for the bad guy. Yet, this is how cases of sexual assault go all too often—as of 2024, rape is the least reported crime in America. Approximately twenty-three point six percent of cases of rape or sexual assault are reported to the police. Only about eight percent of reported rape and sexual assault cases result in a conviction. This does not even include the experiences of people of color and LGBTQ+ people who are assaulted every day that receive even less justice. The fundamental theme throughout the documentary was the incompetence of the police and justice system in handling Madison’s case. There were countless instances where they revictimized her, dismissed her or ignored her. There are good people who are educating people involved in the justice system about sexual violence—such as Julie Germann and Justin Boardman, both featured in the documentary—but it is not happening nearly fast enough. As I watched this film, my anger bubbled to the surface because the people who we are told are there to help often do more to hurt us than anything. This also is a major factor in why so many victims do not report the trauma they have experienced. Madison endured so much in her traumatic experience, and the people in the system held too much power to shape her life post-trauma. As a result, assailants got too many slaps on the wrist and not enough jail time. After Madison and her family’s final attempt of gaining justice when the grand jury did not file charges—despite their petitions with hundreds of signatures and the hoops they had to jump through—Madison decided she was ready to move onto the next chapter and rediscover herself outside of this trauma. While her mom and her family were upset and even a little frustrated with her decision, wanting to get justice for her daughter, it was
November 5, 2026
Enough’
her dad who put the brakes on the operation and decided to truly listen to her. In the kitchen after everyone diverted to think, he pulled Justin Boardman aside—who had been helping the family fight for justice—and told him that he was going to listen to Madison’s request, despite his personal convictions. This scene in particular pulled on my heartstrings. While it was difficult for him to let go after spending so long advocating for her, it was extremely admirable to respect their daughter’s wishes after everything she had been through. The biggest thing they could do to show their love for her was put her interests and wants above their own. Two things could be true at once: they were able to acknowledge their own sadness for the decision, while also respecting Madison’s agency and making sure she knew her “no” was significant and listened to. In a Q&A with the director of the film after the screening, the audience got to listen to Steinman divulge more information about her work and process. She said that for Madison, the film was very healing and gave her some closure coming on two and half years since the assault. It was also helpful for the family as a whole to process the miseries they had experienced, as well as the people who worked on the film who had similar experiences to Madison. Sexual assault is so much more common than we realize—nearly half of women and more than one in six men experience sexual assault in their lifetimes. Steinman commented on how she gained trust with Madison and her family by just listening to her story, but also making sure Madison knew she was in control of her own story via communication and lots of collaboration over multiple years. Steinman commented that “Iin documentaries, people talk about how there’s a duty of care to the people the documentary is about.” This practice could not apply more to this doc-
screening
umentary. Gentle handling and care were integral in Steinman’s creation of this film. The documentary was extremely sad and raw, but also unexpectedly hopeful. I was grateful to see struggles like Madison’s being documented thoroughly to hopefully raise awareness and prevent other people from enduring something similar for other people so they do not endure something similar. I can only hope that this documentary will open other people’s eyes to the justice system and how much it needs to be fixed to properly serve our people, because right now the system is horrendous and defective. I hope this film sparks conversation, as Steinman and Madison’s family had hoped.
Sexual assault is so much more common than we realize—nearly half of women and more than one in six men experience sexual assault in their lifetimes. The presence of shots in nature throughout the film is a beautiful way to convey how the documentary and Madison’s experience represented growth and healing. Nature is a symbol of healing and new beginnings, which this film embodies fully. No matter what kinds of horror nature experiences, things always grow back—sometimes even better than before. Despite everything that Madison went through, she still got some closure and healing through the film. She got to pursue her dreams and grew beyond her trauma. This documentary shows me that healing is possible, regardless of what you go through. Things can get better again. Healing just takes time, patience and forgiveness of yourself.
My experience running for first-year senator and losing William Wang Guest Columnist
O
n a sunny afternoon last month, I trapped myself in Raymond House’s multi-purpose room, my face burning. I was trying to type up my platform for the firstyear senator election, and I had five minutes left to write out my candidate statement. I had never run for a student election before, and my only experience in student government was announcing weekly events in fifth grade. The week that followed was a new experience… just not always in the ways I expected. Forming a Platform Before filling out the form, I had to figure out why anyone would even want to vote for me. I thought about the problem for a long time.Inspiration came as I was making buttons with Student Labor Dialogue in the Frederick Ferris Thompson Memorial Library. A friend also recommended that I read The Miscellany News, where I found out about the Working Students Coalition’s petition and demonstrations. And of course, the College had only recently settled with female professors over pay discrimination. My eureka moment was short-lived, though, as I ran into my second road-block: Despite fiercely believing in workers’ rights, my background was completely incongruous. I was not on Work Study, or for that matter, on any financial aid. I grew up in an affluent suburb of San Francisco.” My disconnect from my working classmates was obvious in
how I tried to describe their struggles to get Work Study positions in my platform. I could abstractly say that a girl in my Student Fellow circle applied to 20 openings, but only received one offer. However, I could not say for certain what feelings the girl went through waiting for an offer, hoping to get a job fast enough to receive the full Work Study allotment. I realized I had to frame myself as an ally of the community, ready to brainstorm ways I could use my powers as a possible firstyear senator to further their goals. Producing Campaign Materials One thing I thought I knew coming into the election was how much I enjoyed making social media posts. In high school, I ran my writing club’s Instagram account, and my friends always mentioned how funny the posts that I made were. I soon realized how stressful my hobby could be. The problem came right after the Vassar Student Association’s mandatory campaign meeting. In a matter of hours, some competitors had already created digital flyers. The next day, one candidate even started filming skits of themselves. I wanted to match their speed, but I realized I had to balance my art style with making social media posts that would not reflect negatively upon me. When I made my social media posts in high school, I tried to be unique and outlandish; in one post, I edited my friend onto a Pokemon creature, and I turned another one into a garden gnome. But back then, I knew my friends understood my humor. In contrast, I only knew a fraction of the people in the Class of
2030 at Vassar, but my task was to convince a solid chunk of them to vote for me. Every time I came up with a concept, I asked all of my friends, from the ones who studied in the Raymond parlor with me to those from high school, to vet them and make sure they were not “cringe.” Unfortunately, they shot down a lot of my ideas, which made me panic even more as I watched my competitors pump out content. Eventually, I landed on referencing Instagram memes, and I began collaging my photos into them. I found myself carefully scrutinizing my portraits for imperfections, whether it was a random thing on my skin or just something off about how I posed for the camera. At the end of the day, however, I managed to preserve some of my art style; in the flyers I distributed around campus, I photoshopped myself onto a “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure” character with Karl Marx in the background, and I photoshopped my side profile onto Mao Zedong. Regardless of what I made, when I posted them, the tension shifted as I began tracking people’s interactions. I counted how many likes I got in an hour on my posts compared to how many a competing candidate received. I tried to figure out why fewer and fewer people liked my new posts further into the campaign. I often updated my friends on these metrics, but I thought I was the only one who was truly invested. It was a paradox of instinctively assigning meaning to the metrics even though I knew how harmful they were to my well-being. Going Outside The more and more I worked with social
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
media, the more I wanted to try something fresh. I remembered that my logo of the anime character and Karl Marx in the background was shaped like a circle. Originally, it was meant to be a profile picture, but the design worked to double as a pin. I went to the Innovation Lab and learned from the staff how the button makers worked. I spent some hours there, talking with them and working together; they would cut out the circles, while I put them in the presser. Now I had the problem of distributing the pins. I decided that on the last day of the campaign, I would visit all the houses—though I ended up forgetting about Noyes and Cushing—and try canvassing random floors. I soon learned that my plans would violate the election rules on mass solicitation, so I opted to stand around in the lobbies, waving down as many people as I could. Oftentimes, they were not first- years. At dinner, I brought a large sign to Gordon Commons proclaiming my candidacy. I had to try and catch them in the process of looking at me before I began talking. Surprisingly, by the end of the day, I managed to get rid of all 30-something pins. Conclusion When I came into the race, I assumed that it would be nothing more than a popularity contest. I was mistaken. An election has so many moving parts and by juggling them, I learned more about my values and hobbies. The experience itself was eye-opening, and I think people who are on the fence should definitely go out there and run. I know I will be in the sophomore senator race.
HUMOR
November 5, 2026
Page 9
Breaking News
From the desk of Josie Wenner, Humor Editor
Vassar to implement microbangs "A teeny-tiny bang on every ‘We reject
demand a results
Noah Daube-Valois
Political Correspondent
O
n the heels of consequential midterms that will impact students’ future grad school applications, members of Vassar Republicans surrounded the President’s House to protest their recent grades. Demonstrators wielded signs demanding that the school “restore trust in grading” and “stop the steal.” While chants of “we’ll never back down” rang throughout the evening, the demonstration faced many hurdles, including lacrosse practice starting at 6:30 p.m. The leader of the group, first-year Bobby Jones, started the rally by calling students to remain “peaceful and patriotic out of respect for our boys in blue,” gesturing toward Main Building with a pitchfork. Then, he explained why the demonstration had been organized: “Last week, I wrote an outstanding essay on Trump’s draining of the swamp. Earlier today, my environmental science professor failed it.” The crowd, consisting of roughly 30 students, featured several testimonials alleging political bias among Vassar professors. Freshman Claire Murdoch shared a paper
IV
bar
to
Mae Gesser
Intravenous Innovator
I
t’s not hard to see that Gordon Commons has been suffering. In a recent press conference held by the Gordon Commons Association Board (GCAB), the Deece’s most pressing issue was finally addressed: the wait times. Global Kitchen in particular, a popular food station noted for its fresh dishes and painstakingly slow preparation time, has lines that are often seen spilling out of the building and spiraling around the parking lot. But higher-ups have heard the cries of student discontent and, in a rare display of administrative agility, have implemented an exciting new station almost overnight. As students were surprised to discover this Monday on their routine walk into the building, Vassar has erected a fully functioning, state-of-the-art IV Bar. The new installation features rows of plastic bags suspended from metal rods and sleek leather recliners encouraging students to lie back, roll up their sleeves and in mere moments receive a direct intravenous infusion of essential nutrients and electrolytes. Rather than waiting 45 minutes for a bowl of steaming stir fry or aromatic ravioli, a sated stomach and body full of vitamins is now achievable with a tap of your VCard. Administrators are calling the new station a triumph of campus logistics. “We noticed a bottleneck in student productivity,” said an anonymous spokesperson from
recount!’ of
in which she argued that “$3-per-gallon gas under Biden was more expensive than $6-per-gallon gas under Trump.” Sophomore Jimmy Clark spoke about how a Kamala Harris exposé he wrote was not accepted by his professor for an assignment on communism. The most vitriolic student was senior Jared Carpenter, who was suspended earlier in the fall after accusations of plagiarism. Vassar had allowed him to submit documentation of his writing process that could have proved his innocence, but all of the papers he turned in were redacted beforehand. “They had no respect for my privacy!” Carpenter yelled, flipping through pages of blacked-out ink. The event featured cameos from national figures. Former Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin Zoomed in to defend a student who answered on a geography exam that he could see Greenland from Vassar College. “My connection is poor, and my computer’s almost out of battery,” the former governor said, with embarrassment, halfway through her prepared remarks. “I need to log off, but don’t worry: I’m turning on this megaphone, and you should be able to hear the rest of this from where you are.”
be
added
Campus Dining. “Students were spending valuable minutes standing in line just to chew things. By bypassing the process of mastication, we’re returning four hours a week to the student body.” The dining option will also provide new Work Study jobs, giving back to Vassar’s community. The IV Bar has become a hot topic for student discourse. Some see it as yet another symptom of modern consumerism culture, while others relish in the optimization to their feeding schedules. “As one of many overcommitted freshmen,” says Julia Beedy ’30, “the extra time the IV Bar gives me is a huge weight off my back. My jazz ensemble is really rigorous, and my comedy troupe has our performance right around the corner, and I’m in a student band doing covers of ’80s hair music and just being in the Barefoot Fireflies alone leaves me totally spent for time. The Deece used to be a source of stress and anxiety, but now I find myself so much more relaxed and happy.” Student-athletes in particular have been vocal supporters of the new addition. Rows of recliners long enough to accommodate the whole team have replaced the elongated tables of middle Deece as more and more students trade their paper plates for plastic bags. “Shoveling food into my mouth is emasculating,” says varsity swim athlete Simon Blue ’27. “And also, who even knows what the food we eat actually consists of? At least at the IV Bar, I know exactly what I’m getting. I mean, I don’t, but I could if I looked it up on the Vassar Dining Services
mandate: forehead!"
Vassar Midterm
Vassar maintains that conservatives are welcome on campus, and that one’s intelligence has no connection with their position on the political spectrum. “Conservatives are a vital subset of our students, faculty and staff,” a spokesperson for the institution said. “In fact, a Republican firm is responsi-
Republicans exams
ble for maintaining the dish machine.” While the way in which Vassar will respond is unknown, the campus’ Republicans proposed a solution to social media on Wednesday: “We’re calling on campus security to livestream the destruction of all grade books via firing squad.”
Noah Daube-Valois/The Miscellany News.
to
Gordon
website.” Still, there remain vocal members of the opposition. To appease this minority, this helpful diagram appealing to youth culture recently appeared on posters around the College Center, advertising the many pros frequent fliers of the IV Bar receive:
Commons
ing to have that kind of me time. Not being overwhelmed with options or worried about choking on something solid. I know it’s wrong, and I’m ashamed. I’ve even started doing things to try and make sure my friends don't catch me indulging in my vice, like going during off-peak hours
Image couresy of Mae Gesser '30. The decision to drip or to not drip has become not just a personal choice but a political statement. Environmental studies major Gabe Lucas ’28 told us, “Since the dawn of man, we have chewed our food, and the direction we’re going as a society and as an institution is horrifying. I came to Vassar for a liberal arts education, but this indulgence in quick convenience is totally against what that stands for. That being said, if I’m being honest, it really is relax-
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
and wearing a wig and sunglasses.” Many students feel similarly torn between their internal moral compass and the undeniable benefits the IV Bar offers: “I’m more disappointed in myself with every pump of chemical cocktail that enters my bloodstream,” President of the Green Energy club Siena Liu ’27 confessed to us, adjusting the band around her forearm and nestling deeper into the plush of her recliner. “But the heart wants what it wants.”
HUMOR
Page 10
November 5, 2026
Students express dismay over eight-foot tall Vassar champion Finn Buckley
Warrior Apprentice
T
rasgore Xanthas, an eight-foot tall magic-wielding warrior from the far off kingdom of Oetamushĩ has been raising eyebrows ever since his first blood-hunt across Vassar’s campus. In recent weeks,
he has left quite the impact, subduing local hell beasts and closing a portal to the dark dimension that had recently opened near Central Receiving. Xanthas, a “Keeper of the Eternal Sky Flame,” was outsourced by the Campus Response Center (CRC) as a way to manage both external and internal threats, such as bicycle thefts, assaults and
demon hordes. However, as more and more threats from the dark dimension emerge, a large group of Vassar students have begun to ask the question: “Is Trasgore Xanthas more trouble than he is worth?” “This conversation has been going on ever since Xanthas arrived on campus,” said Clara Shelley ‘27, an outspoken critic of campus offsourcing. “One thing I don’t hear spoken about much is the dojo. I don’t know who’s paying for it, or how it even got here, but I have never felt less safe walking into downtown Arlington than how I do now.” Shelley refers to the Heavenly Dragon Temple, an 800-foot tall dojo erected behind Josselyn House. Its origins are unknown, but it is believed to have arrived after a week-long mystic communion between Xanthas and the Guardians of Time. Many believe that the dojo, as a force of pure justice, has forced the universe to balance itself out, inviting an equal amount of chaotic force as it expels. David Martinez, a former student now classified by the official Vassar grimoire as a “soulless husk,” shared his unique experience walking down Raymond Avenue through the siege camp of the army of the dead: “I was stopped by a demon like two weeks ago who, like, genuinely stabbed me with his dagger. I thought I did the right thing by pressing the blue light button, but by the time the CRC arrived, my soul had been consumed and my heart had turned black as night.” While internal reports say Xanthas has managed some of the higher priority threats such as the Dragon Queen Sasskarat or King Tassen of the Blood Red Hills, the CRC has been delegated to managing lower, less pressing tasks, such as a coven of vampires who attempted to take over the Chapel last week. A raid on the Chapel left many campus security officers dead or partially drained after encountering a higher vampire. Although they had been trained for weeks, officers reported they were never briefed on the specific way to kill a higher vampire: While they are resistant to garlic and sunlight, they turn to ash when touching silver or facing the full moon. Under the protection of a higher vampire, regular vampires are more resistant to crosses and other spiritual objects, because Jesus has little domain in the Ether, where vampires Aria Kuklinski/The Miscellany News. are known to come from.
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
“These things are common knowledge,” said Ki, a light spirit who served as chamberlain of the Heavenly Dragon Temple. “We can’t do their jobs for them. When you hire Xanthas to help bring down crime rates, you should not be surprised when you might have to figure out how to fight a higher vampire, a zombie lord or even a shadow assassin. This is day one stuff!” New budget reports reveal the high price Vassar is paying to even keep the warrior on payroll. Along with minimum wage, Xanthas receives a yearly student apprentice, who is kept inside the Heavenly Dragon Temple to practice the mystic arts, a gilded chariot pulled by four white steeds, four axes made of adamantium and Vassar’s very own magical Sword of Silence. “To even get him the Sword of Silence was a big ask. President Bradley was furious,” said an inside source knowledgeable on the quarterly budget. “That thing is like a thousand years old, and responsible for the deaths of hundreds of embattled warriors. People don’t realize how big of a deal it is to just give it away…” “...The Sword of Silence has always been a big Vassar staple. It’s a reminder of when former President Fran Ferguson defeated the incarnation of Cicero the Sea King, and was able to re-sink the Kingdom of Atlantis, thereby preventing all-out war with the Mermen. Vassar has a long history of ordaining powerful battle mages with that very sword, we can’t just give that away to some outsourced warrior,” said a spokesperson for the College. After a long deliberation with the Board of Trustees, Vassar relinquished the Sword of Silence to Xanthas, under the condition that he not use it in marketing, and that he never uses it against sworn allies of Vassar College, including Wesleyan, The High Elf Tribunal and the AARP. With growing discontent amongst Vassar students, it has been reported that certain deans are considering pushing for a schoolwide referendum on whether to keep or evict Xanthas from the property. Calls for the movement have only grown following the death of Campus Safety officers, the obliteration of Ferry House and the vortex occupying the second floor of Taylor Hall. When pushed for comment on the matter, Xanthas had this to say: “Fuck that shit man. That’s not fucking cool.”
HUMOR
November 5, 2026
HOROSCOPES
Page 11
Josie Wenner Leo
ARIES
March 21 | April 19
TAURUS
April 20 | May 20
GEMINI
May 21 | June 20
CANCER
June 21 | July 22
LEO
July 23 | Aug. 22
VIRGO
Aug. 23 | Sept. 22
Halloween is over. You need to stop wearing your costume. I’m sorry that no one got that you were supposed to be the COVID-conscious lesbian bar in western Massachusetts, but they’re not going to get it a week later. Let it go.
You’re about to enter a very transformertive time of your life. Yes, transformertive. You’ll be gripped by an all-consuming passion for all things Transformers. You’ll innocently sit down to watch “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” with some pals, and the next thing you know, you’ll be tinkering with all of the cars in South Lot trying to turn them into Vassarmus Prime.
Reel in your imagination, course catalogue-wise. You don’t have room in your schedule to take ENGL 280: “Reading Wimpily,” a deep dive into “Diary of a Wimpy Kid.” Focus on your quantitative analysis requirement. Don’t you have eight classes left for your major?
You DO have room in your schedule to take ENGL 280: “Reading Wimpily,” a deep dive into "Diary of a Wimpy Kid.” Create your own framework to study Greg and Rowley’s toxic relationship. Analyze the societal structures that create and maintain the Cheese Touch. Ask yourself: What does it truly mean to be wimpy?
My, my, my. Aren’t you just perfect? This week, everyone you meet will be charmed by your dazzling wit, sparkling eyes and impeccable sense of style. I’d tell you not to let it go to your head, but we both know you’re far too humble for that to happen. Stay sexy, princess.
Inexplicably, all of your friends will start calling you Peebis. You’ll ask them why. They’ll tell you it suits you better than your real name. You’ll ask them to stop calling you Peebis. They won’t. Enjoy your new life, Peebis.
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
LIBRA
Sept. 23 | Oct. 22
SCORPIO
Oct. 23 | Nov. 21
Mercury is in retrograde. Saturn is in the seventh house. The moon is in the sky. These are all terms that you’ll understand perfectly at the end of my seven-week online astrology course, available for only $59.99. Open yourself up to a universe of knowledge!
Ignore that weird rumbling you hear every night. It’s probably just the plumbing. It’s probably not hordes of tiny little goblins that live in your walls and sneak into your room and touch all of your stuff with their little goblin hands every night. Probably.
It is imperative that you remember to check your surroundings when gossiping in the Deece this week. Otherwise, your SAGITTARIUS partner for your interpretative dance class Nov. 22 | might hear you complaining about their Dec. 21 idea to incorporate juggling bocce balls into your final routine. If that happens, your energies might un-sync and never realign, leading to disaster.
You’re right: your outfit WOULD look great with a homburg hat. From hatsunlimited.com: “The homburg hat is an interesting style not seen too often CAPRICORN these days. The overall shape of the hat is oval, with a turned-up lip around the Dec. 22 | brim of the style and generally curved Jan. 19 upsides.” Consider adding this statement piece to your wardrobe to turn heads wherever you go.
AQUARIUS
Jan. 20 | Feb. 18
PISCES
Feb. 19 | March 20
Sunset Lake is getting pretty grimy, huh? You’re just the person to clean it up. Grab your snorkeling gear and water wings and get yourself into that crystal-green water. Don’t forget to add “environmental changemaker” to your LinkedIn.
Your texting has become a little one-dimensional, and people are noticing. There’s only so many times you can thumbs-up react to a message. Try mixing it up with fun texting acronyms such as “TTYL (Trying To Yodel Loudly),” “TBH (That Big Harlot)” and “IMO (Inviting Many Octopuses).”
OPINIONS
Page 12
Vassar
must
Grace Tremblay Guest Columnist
V
assar College’s Dining Services have officially rolled back the semester’s effort to compost in the Gordon Commons, an act that could have environmental ramifications for years to come. For the first six weeks of the semester, students were asked to sort between their food and trash and dump food waste in green compost bins. However, trash was consistently mixed in with the food, making it impossible for food to be composted properly. In an email to the students on Tuesday, Oct. 13, Dean Macheska announced, “We remain committed to exploring ways to advance our sustainability goals while ensuring that our dining operations are effective and manageable for our staff. We may pilot a different approach to food waste sorting in the spring semester.” It is absolutely essential that Vassar finds a way to compost food, no matter how many attempts it takes, because we as an institution produce a significant amount of food waste. In a study by the Natural Resources Defense Council, college students were found to waste 112 pounds of food per student per year. At Vassar, that means wasting over 280,000 pounds of food every year. That wasted food is playing a significant role in heating up our communities.
It is absolutely essential that Vassar finds a way to compost food, no matter how many attempts it takes, because we as an institution produce a significant amount of food waste. So far, 2026 is on track to be one of hottest years on record in the history of the
not
give
United States. We all feel the effects of this in our day-to-day lives: unpredictable weather patterns, major storms, decreased air quality from Canadian wildfires. No matter who you are, rising temperatures have impacted your family and community at one point or another.
Right now, it is easy to feel like we are doomed, like our health is just going to be exponentially declining and our summer heat waves constantly increasing, but that is simply not the case. Although the environmental buzzword of the recent decades has been carbon, there is a more sinister gas at play here, one that has the potential to significantly improve air pollution and overheating if mitigated: methane. According to a video by scientist Simon Clark, Ph.D., methane kills crops, causes severe asthma and has a negative impact on reproductive health. Over the course of 20 years, methane has trapped 86 times more heat than carbon dioxide. Luckily, that means cutting down on methane emissions has a much more immediate impact. What is a major cause of methane? Food waste. Food that ends up in trash cans and then landfills. The good news? According to the United Nations, cutting methane would offer a great climate benefit: “That climate benefit is greater than taking every car and truck in the world off the road immediately.” Imagine breathing in the air outside if there was not a single car on the road. We can achieve the same air quality by cutting methane emissions which simultaneously prevents the global temperature from rising. Cutting Vassar’s methane emissions through composting is a step we must take
up
November 5, 2026
on
composting
in order to improve our own health and safety. Rising New York temperatures and bad air quality cause asthma. These conditions might seem hopeless, but that is simply not the case. We have the resources we need to improve the quality of life for ourselves and our neighbors. We just have to continue to utilize these resources, and that starts with institutional changes like a consistent, successful composting program. Efforts for methane mitigation are well underway. In September, Monica Prabhu of the Methane Mitigation Council spoke to Vassar students about her work. She emphasized that composting is one of the most successful ways to make an impact on a personal level. As college students, we can each keep 112 pounds of food per year out of landfills. When colleges like Vassar can reduce their food waste, the impact increases. On an institutional level, it is imperative that Vassar does not give up on compost-
ing. Finding new and innovative ways to compost wasted food will help pave our way to lower temperatures and cleaner and healthier air. As students, faculty and diners at the Gordon Commons, it is so incredibly important that when Vassar rolls out a new composting plan, we do everything within our power to implement it. Yes, I know that it takes an extra moment every meal to ensure that your uneaten food and dirty napkins are separated, but that extra moment will make such a critical impact. Right now, it is easy to feel like we are doomed, like our health is just going to be exponentially declining and our summer heat waves constantly increasing, but that is simply not the case. We have a chance to make an impact, and by decreasing our methane emissions we can make a substantial difference in the air quality of the next decade. If that takes an extra moment today, trust that it will be worth it.
Charlotte Willenbring/The Miscellany News.
Green Hydrogen: can China fuel the global energy transition? Declan Conway Guest Columnist
A
mericans should use green hydrogen as public infrastructure for the industries that cannot be electrified yet, and refuse to dilute it into the existing gas system. Markets and tax credits have not delivered clean hydrogen—gas is neither clean nor stable enough to wait on and China is already winning the race. Our climate, our wallets and our future are at stake. In Inner Mongolia, a 195-kilometer pipeline is nearing commissioning to carry pure green hydrogen from the Bayan Obo mining district to Baotou’s Kundulun District. Its reported design capacity is 200,000 tons a year, though other sources cite 100,000 tons. It is a flagship demonstration of China’s hydrogen pilot program, built by a China Huadian subsidiary. Baotou officials project that the new measures will slash transport costs from 13 yuan ($1.95 USD) per kilogram to three yuan ($0.45 USD). As of 2025, gas supplies roughly 36 percent of America’s energy. When burned, it emits roughly 40 to 45 percent less carbon dioxide than coal, but methane, its main element, traps about 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide over 20 years and 30 times
over a century. Steel alone produces roughly seven percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, and hydrogen is a leading route to cleaner iron. Yet hydrogen is only as clean as its source: gray hydrogen emits, on average, nine to 14 kilograms of carbon dioxide per kilogram and green hydrogen under two kilograms. Today, green hydrogen costs significantly more—about $3.50 to $6 a kilogram against $1.50 to $2.50 for gray—and the International Energy Agency expects prices to remain static, even in the near term. There are three solutions. First, the agency expects China to reach cost competitiveness by decade’s end, thanks to low technology costs and cheap capital, and capital is a policy choice. Second, gas is not a fixed price: Henry Hub prices averaged 56 percent more in 2025 than in 2024—a record inflation-adjusted low. Third, the bottleneck is demand: China’s electrolyzer manufacturers are capable of building 35 gigawatts a year against under two gigawatts of demand. Public buyers can mitigate this issue by committing to buy steel, fertilizer and chemicals in advance. China currently holds 65 percent of global installed and committed electrolyzer capacity and about 60 percent of manufacturing, against about 10 percent for America.
Europe’s second hydrogen auction requires at least 75 percent of electrolyzer stacks to come from outside China, a sign that governments see dependence on the horizon. Meanwhile, America retreats. The Department of Energy terminated funding for two regional hydrogen hubs worth $2.2 billion, California’s hub shelved its plans, and the production tax credit ends for projects that begin construction after 2027. Leadership decides who writes the standards, holds the jobs and sells the steel of the next industrial era. Hydrogen is light and bulky, so a dedicated pipeline to industrial consumers cuts costs. But China is building a hydrogen-blended gas line from Guyang to Bayunebo, designed for 20 percent hydrogen. A blend that size lowers the gas’s energy content by nearly 14 percent, and analysts warn blending could artificially extend gas use. Scarce green hydrogen belongs in steel mills, not stoves. Low-emissions hydrogen was still under one percent of global production in 2024. The carbon capture credit survived largely still intact, nudging the manufacturing industry toward blue hydrogen, and a federal award is a starting point, not a guarantee. Relying on public funding, private profits and policy is not a strategy—it is a gamble.
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
Thankfully, we have solved this before. In 1930, nearly nine in 10 American farms lacked electricity, and private utilities doubted the lines would pay for themselves. Most farms declined federal loans, so Washington backed cooperatives owned by their customers, and by 1956, all but four percent of farms were on-grid. Hydrogen pipelines, electrolyzers and the renewable power behind them can follow a similar model: public or cooperative, answerable to its communities. State ownership alone, however, is insufficient: China drew about 61 percent of its primary energy from coal in 2022, and Beijing’s planning offers speed, not democracy. Borrow the planning, and give the reins to communities. It is easier said than done, but we have a path forward. Build dedicated corridors linking renewable-rich regions to steel mills, chemical plants and fertilizer producers. Commit public buyers to their output. Keep green hydrogen out of existing natural gas networks. Put the infrastructure under public control. Green hydrogen is not yet cheap, and the technology is young. Waiting for the market to fix that is how we lose the race. China has shown that the pipeline can be built. The question now is who it will be built for.
November 5, 2026
Has
sweater Anna Hagen
Guest Columnist
W
hile trying to pack my clothes upon returning to campus from October break, I realized that my sweater collection was bigger than I remembered. Is it excessive? Perhaps. After rummaging through trunks in my bedroom and finding the best folding method to squeeze them into moving bags, I was forced to confront the question: do I have too many sweaters? This thought plagued me on the drive back upstate. After looking into the history behind the cozy clothing we take for granted, I realized that sweaters have a rich history woven into their threads that is worth preserving, yet they remain part of a wider trend of overconsumption. The threads of the modern sweater may be coming undone. Despite their commonness in the modern wardrobe, sweaters only grew in popularity starting at the end of the 19th century. Sweaters made for comfort and practicality—and that allure continues to this day. The production of the cozy garment gained traction in direct relation to industrial and sociocultural changes. During World War II, fuel shortages and knitting for the war effort turned sweaters into a patriotic symbol, and the home-knitting revival movement of the ’80s promoted the sweater as a form of artistic design and expression.
The threads of the modern sweater may be coming undone. In a similar fashion, the modern sweater reflects a recent shift in textile production: lower quality fabrics. If you think that your parents’ sweaters are made of better materials, it is not just nostalgia speaking. In a podcast with Science Friday, Associate Professor of Textile Development and Marketing at the Fashion Institute of Technology Imran Islam maintained, “Approximately 62 percent of the textile fibers are synthetic fibers like polyester, nylon, acrylic.” This is opposed to
OPINIONS weather
gone
natural fibers such as wool, cotton and cashmere. Manmade textiles attempt to recreate the properties of natural materials, and this inherent artificiality results in phenomena like pilling (fuzzy balls that form on clothes).
If you think that your parents’ sweaters are made of better materials, it is not just nostalgia speaking. Islam highlighted, “But for synthetic materials like polyester or acrylic, [one] can make it in a lab and in a bulk quantity with a lesser price,” despite its decreased long-term comfort and durability. This notion of “bulk quantity” is not just linked to general industrial output, but the rise of “fast fashion”—the potential to instantly purchase cheaply made clothing in previously unimaginable amounts. “Since you are buying more articles for the same season, that means you are not willing to pay more for one article,” Islam argued. This illustrates the mutual relationship between consumer and producer that results in quality being compromised for “convenience.” People become more detached from the clothes they wear because they are more easily replaceable. Thus, they often take less care of garments that are already of lower quality, requiring them to be replaced more frequently. I am a perpetrator of this cycle of neglect, too: I have certainly caught myself saying “I have other clothes” when my sweater gets spilled on or gets caught on a sharp corner. In an interview for Nylon, Tara Latorre, a creator of the fashion label Paloma Wool, noted, “You’re not gonna care for a sweater that much through fast fashion because you can consume so much of it that it loses its value.” However, it can be difficult to invest in high-quality sweaters for the long term. Modern fashion and overconsumption combined with social media make it less likely to find a staple piece in a sea of ever-shifting “new looks.” Meme Meng, a creative producer and former buyer for Elevastor in Paris, highlighted, “When the fashion
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too
far?
industry is constantly trying to update itself on trends all the time, it makes it not so desirable to invest in higher quality sweaters.” So, do we blame the consumer for seeking quantity over quality, or fashion companies intentionally using worse fibers in their clothing products to turn a profit? Honestly, I am not sure. Regardless of who is at fault, I think we would all enjoy having softer sweaters to get through the winter. As the leaves turn and the temperature drops, so does the money in many people’s bank accounts, especially with the convenience of online shopping. Harvard Federal Credit Union asserts, “If you’ve ever experienced the cool-weather nesting instinct, then you already know that prioritizing comfort and warmth may result in a spree of purchases: blankets, bakeware, sweaters and candles.” Clearly, this phenomenon of overconsumption is not just limited to clothing.
While I am wrapped in fibers and knits that were woven before I was even born, I feel tethered. I am grateful that a large amount of my sweater collection has been passed down to me from my parents. While I am wrapped in fibers and knits that were woven before I was even born, I feel tethered. When I spoke about this with my dad, an enabler of my sweater-collecting escapades, he described sweaters as “family heirlooms.” I think that this notion promotes taking care of the things we have, the clothes that shelter and protect us from the elements on a daily basis. Their seams are bursting with history, and we can imbue them with even more meaning by incorporating them into our everyday wardrobe. In acknowledging the sweater’s core role in autumn and fashion history, we can recognize that its decrease in quality in the 21st century is just one thread of a wider movement of increased consumption in response to lower quality. If we want sweaters to continue to keep us warm, it will take the work of both consumers and manufacturers to keep “sweater weather” alive and cozy.
Word on the Street Question: What were you for Halloween? “Cowboy” - Tom Lachowicz ’28 “I actually borrowed people's costumes. One day I did a pizza costume. The next day, I did a fox ears and tail.” - Mark Mubarak ’30 “J Robert Oppenheimer and Maria Mitchell, the first female professor of astronomy” - Aiden Dombrowsky ’27 “Lois Griffin and Nick Wiley” - Apollo Marks ’28 “Rorschach Test” - Ben Wolfson ’28 “Muscle suit and a priest” - Sam Davoren ’28
“The monk from Monty Python” - Tyler Briceño ’28
“Lego Batman” - Marta Karpovich ’29
“Sacrificial lamb” - Zofia Rosciaszewski ’29
“Merida from Brave” - Stella Duchateau ’29
“My friends did hand, foot, and mouth disease, I was the foot, my friends were the hand and mouth” - Hannah Wells ’29 Image courtesy of Karen Mogami '24. MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
SPORTS
Page 14
November 5, 2026
Brewers Ballin’: Addie Nyhan on being a four-time champion Our goal with Brewers Ballin’ is to feature Vassar athletes who starred for their team the week previous to publishing. If you would like to nominate an athlete, please email hkaplan@vassar.edu.
Name: Addie Nyhan Team: Women's Cross Country Year: Senior Hometown: Seattle, WA Statement: “I couldn’t be happier with our performance at leagues this year! It’s never been handed to us and every year we have worked really hard to make it happen. I’m excited to see our teammates continue to dominate the league in years to come. This team is really special and we have some big goals to get after at regionals and nationals to finish off our season so stay tuned!” Image courtesy of Addie Nyhan ’27. Addie Nyhan ’27 runs strong in the Liberty Leagues at Bard College.
Last
week
in
Vassar
Brewers
sports
Women's volleyball clinches third in league
Men's soccer secures second seed
Women's soccer dominates for second seed
For the first time since 2018, the Brewers clinched the third seed in the Liberty League. The team ended their conference play with a 3-1 win over Skidmore College last Saturday.
After a season full of ups and downs, the Brewers pulled through with a strong win against Clarkson University. Senior Mauricio Mejia scored the lone goal.
This weekend women's soccer earned second seed after defeating Clarkson University in a 2-0 battle.
Must
see
playoff
matches
Friday 11/6: • #2 WSOC Semifinals vs Team TBD • #2 MSOC Semifinals vs Team TBD • #3 FHOCKEY @ Union College
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
SPORTS
November 5, 2026
Gritty
Finals
Ben Kaplan Columnist
I
t is often said in basketball that defense wins championships. This became a bit of a conundrum in the 2026 WNBA Finals, as both the Golden State Valkyries and the Atlanta Dream had excelled in the regular season and reached the playoff finals due to their defensive prowess. The result was a gritty, low-scoring and hotly contested series. It also made WNBA history by going down to the wire in a Game 7 where the winner would take it all home. Ultimately, the Valkyries pulled away with the win, winning a title in only their second year as a franchise. The most points scored by any team in this series was 97 by the Dream in Game 3, and neither team scored over 80 individually in any other game throughout. Regular season Defensive Player of the Year Angel Reese of the Dream recorded nine blocks across the entire series, but Valkyries center Kiah Stokes was stunting throughout the series with an astounding 19 blocks. Stokes had four blocks in Games 1 and 2, followed by three in Games 3, 4 and 5. Considering the low scoring and the even offensive match-ups in this series, Stokes was a must-have difference maker for
St.
John's Columnist
S
the Valkyries. Without her, they could not have won this series. Despite losing, the Dream had many bright moments throughout the series. Four of Atlanta’s starters—Reese, Rhyne Howard, Jordin Canada and Allisha Gray—all had their time to shine, particularly in their 97-71 blowout win in Game 3. From an eye test, if the shots fell, especially from the three-point line, the Dream would have been able to pull away in a lot of the games that came down to the wire in the series. Instead, they would get good looks, miss the mark and then the game would stay close, with empty possessions and strong defense keeping either side from gaining a clear advantage. The Valkyries had less offensive output but controlled the pace of the game when it mattered because when long range shots were not landing, Atlanta had to try to get the rim against Stokes. The real glory of the Valkyries win ultimately falls onto two women: forward Gabby Williams and Coach Natalie Nakase. Williams had her struggles offensively in the series, failing to score over 20 points after Game 1 until the Valkyries’ loss in Game 6. Yet, in Game 7, where it was win or go home, Williams had the game of her life. With a franchise that only premiered one season ago and her own legacy on the line, Williams balled
Red
River Hamm t. John’s University bested The University of Texas at Austin 87-74 in their final exhibition game before the regular season. This win marks St. John’s third exhibition win, leaving them undefeated in their three matches moving into the season. The score of this game may allude to a closer match than what occurred. Throughout the game, Texas looked lost, generating 16 turnovers, which led to costly points being racked up in transition. They struggled against the St. John's press and were unorganized while on defense. Texas is currently ranked No. 6 according to the Associated Press Top 25. A multitude of factors contributed to the Texas loss, but two stood out in comparison to the rest. First, Texas’ starting point guard Isaiah Johnson, as well as other key contributors Bo Ogden and Austin Goosby, are all freshmen, adjusting to NCAA basketball. Johnson is an undersized but talented guard who has lots of potential to be an elite scorer and ball distributor. While Johnson may have made some characteristic rookie mistakes, he led the team in scoring and assists with 18 and four, respectively. His ability to draw the defense in and draw the foul to get to the free-throw line was impressive, and he shot eight for 11
Series
Storm
from the line. Second, the environment: Madison Square Garden is unlike any other location. Having the Red Storm faithful echoing across a stadium is overwhelming, especially in a huge venue, creating a daunting setting for all opposing players. Texas is coming off of a 2026 Sweet Sixteen berth, losing a nail-biting match 77-79 against Purdue University. Returning seven-footer Matas Vokietaitis, Texas’ second leading scorer in the exhibition, is looking to take Texas back to a deep tournament run. Texas is young, but has potential. Their ranking of No. 6 is quite high, especially after the optics of the loss to No. 13 St. John’s. However, if their young backcourt can develop quickly, Vokietaitis and Texas will be a championship-contending team come March. The Red Storm dominated with 20 points generated from turnovers and 56 points in the paint. St. John’s players had no issues penetrating the disorganized Texas defense and scoring. Standouts for the Red Storm include Keyshawn Hall, a graduate transfer from Auburn University named Third Team All-SEC last year, averaging 19.3 points per game; Tounde Yessoufou, a transfer from Baylor; and Ian Jackson, one of the few returners. Each had major point contributions, scoring 24, 23 and 18, respectively. One topic of concern for Coach Rick Pitino
makes
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WNBA
out with 30 points, three rebounds, two assists, two steals and four blocks. She was a two-way threat, keeping Golden State in the game even when they were down nine points late in the third quarter. The defining moment of the series came with only two minutes left in the fourth quarter, when Williams hit a three to finally take the lead and lead the Valkyries to a momentous win. Williams, who has had a long and somewhat injury-riddled career across the WNBA, at the University of Connecticut and on the French national team, has etched her name into league history as the first Finals MVP of a seven-game Finals series. When the final buzzer went off, Nakase was jumping for joy on the sidelines, having won an intense, long series against both the Dream and the Las Vegas Aces after years of ascending the ranks of coaching both with the Los Angeles Clippers in the NBA and the multi-time championship Las Vegas Aces in the WNBA. It must be noted again how incredible it is that the Valkyries, a team that did not exist two years ago, have won a title. A blemish on this series is, and will always be, the complete incompetence of the WNBA in handling the venues and scheduling of this series, specifically in Atlanta. The Dream, partway through a move from their tiny current arena, had their Finals games at the
dominate
State Farm Arena. The first games in Atlanta almost did not happen due to scheduling errors, and after Game 4, fans had to evacuate the arena promptly afterwards due to the NBA game scheduled immediately following. Game 6 was then, also due to a scheduling error with the NBA, played at 12:30 p.m. on a Thursday, meaning most people were at work and Golden State fans out west had a possible series-clinching game tip-off at 9:30 a.m. their time. And when the Valkyries won, the only drinks they had to celebrate were a few cheap wine bottles left in the locker room. The WNBA is, pragmatically speaking, a growing product that will continue to expand and captivate more and more fans. Angel Reese versus Caitlin Clark is already developing into a Magic Johnson and Larry Bird level of competitive rivalry. A’ja Wilson is probably the greatest WNBA player ever and still has so much of her career left. Add to that the fervent culture of women’s college basketball and the ascension of figures like Paige Bueckers and Olivia Miles from their alma maters to the WNBA. Hopefully, next time the league can handle this with more care and respect. Despite all these outside influences, the Atlanta Dream and Golden State Valkyries showed up and made history in front of thousands of fans.
Texas
and this roster was the 11 new players creating a potential unsteady foundational base for the team. Pitino dispelled any concern with their solid, coordinated press and their players’ beautiful chemistry in transition. In the transfer portal era, team culture has taken a backseat to pure talent, and top rosters now consist of several key transfers, if not entirely of transfer student-athletes. St. John’s preseason ranking currently sits
history
Longhorns
at 13, which is low in comparison to the talented roster they have assembled this year. With small tweaks and some refinement, the Red Storm can easily make a run to the title this year, hopefully besting their Sweet 16 finish in last year’s tournament. Both of these teams have matches in the following days, and it will be interesting to see if these teams can prosper in their seasons and conference tournaments.
River Hamm/The Miscellany News. The St. John's Red Storm take home a win in their final exhibition game
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
GAMES
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November 5, 2026
The Miscellany Crossword Zero-Sum Game By: Olivia Blank
ACROSS 1. From ___ to riches 5. Land down under: abbr. 8. Punjabi yogurt drink 13. Newton of apple (not fig) fame 15. FL airport on the Gulf 16. Wreck beyond repair 17. Soviet leader famously urged to "tear down this wall!" 19. Public ___, hip-hop group that emboldens its listeners to "Fight the Power" 20. Like a misspelled word in Word, typically 22. Greek goddess of dawn 23. First pick? 24. Tool for visualizing logical relationships between groups 27. League for the Syracuse Mets and Iowa Cubs 28. "Hello!" from a Highland 29. Irish pop-rock band that sings 45A 35. What slip-ons usually lack 39. Sitcom surname that doubles as a mild expletive 40. One who never fully comes out of
their shell? 42. "___ Five" (Dave Brubeck Quartet classic) 43. Swarm 45. 2008 smash single about a one-sided romantic split—or, when taken literally, what black squares do four times in this puzzle 47. Bustling center 49. Lead-in to “eye” or “hot” 50. One night when it's okay to drop the ball? 56. FDR home loan org. 59. Some reproductive cells 60. Become balanced in the long run 62. One of the original five interns on "Grey's Anatomy" 65. Gives it the old college try 66. "The L Word" co-creator Chaiken 67. Quintana ___, Mexico 68. Earl Grey, for one 69. Chemist's test 70. Fourth-yr. students 71. Peak between Pelion and Olympus
DOWN 1. Throw together 2. In tandem 3. Avant-___ 4. "¿Quién ___?" (Spanish "Who knows?") 5. Dylan's "Ballad of ___ Man" 6. Quaker's sch. 7. Kept for later 8. Wireless coverage letters 9. ___ Center (Chicago's fourth-tallest building) 10. Wield the wheel 11. Girl Scout cookie known to some as a Caramel deLite 12. Texter's display of profound affection 14. Sucker for Civics? 18. Makes space on, as a table 21. Not very bright 25. "You've got mail!" co. 26. Top-notch, in modern parlance 27. Think critically, say 29. Psychoactive CBD counterpart 30. 2013 Spike Jonze film 31. Environmental prefix
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
32. Bach's "Mass ___ Minor" 33. ___ for the course 34. Cause for extra innings 36. Cleveland pro baller 37. Scrape (by) 38. Upper chamber fig. 41. Butterflies-to-be 44. Scheduled to deliver (on) 46. ___-Michael Key of "Key & Peele" 48. Word repeated before "black sheep" 50. Princess ___, rapper who’s performed at Vassar twice 51. IQ tests, e.g. 52. Stuvff for sale 53. Some "Nomadland" characters, for short 54. Mister, in Madrid 55. Hungarian mathematics legend Paul 56. Gaming rookies, slangily 57. Chucks 58. Far from shore 61. High-quality cooking oil, initially 63. Aunt in "Bambi" 64. "Oy ___!"