The Miscellany News
miscellanynews.org
November 9, 2023
Vassar College’s student newspaper of record since 1866 Volume 160 | Issue 9
VSafe provides free health care products for students Allison Lowe Copy Staffer
T
he Old Bookstore in Main Building has a new addition to health care products available to students. Located in the back of the room there is now VSafe: a vending machine stocked with reproductive health and general wellness supplies. Students can tap their student IDs to access up to three items
from the vending machine every 24 hours. These items range from fentanyl test strips to Plan B. While Vassar drew inspiration from examples of vending machines with sexual and menstrual health products at other schools, such as Bard College, the most exciting innovation of VSafe is the accessibility of Plan B. Vice President of Vassar Voices for Planned Parenthood (VVPP), Giovanni
Sarah McNeil/The Miscellany News.
Verdi ’25, stated, “We provide Plan B [at no cost] in there, which has never been done at a college before. We’re lucky enough that we got grants and supplies of Plan B [from the Health Services Office], so they were able to stock that in our vending machine.” The idea for VSafe first began in Spring 2022 when then-President of VVPP Hannah Oppenheim ’23 was participating in calls with other Planned Parenthood Generation Action chapter leaders. VVPP serves as part of the Planned Parenthood Generation Action movement, which has over 350 campus groups across the country. The group seeks to increase awareness of reproductive health and rights and advocate for reproductive justice. VVPP achieves these goals on Vassar’s campus through education and the provision of access to reproductive and gender affirming care. While communicating with other campus leaders, Oppenheim learned how campus chapters implemented affordable vending machines stocked with essential reproductive and sexual health supplies. Oppenheim reached out to the director of Health Promotion and Education (HPE), Andrea Pesavento, in order to discuss bringing a similar vending machine to Vassar. “It [was] important to me because I advocate for expanded health options for students on campus, and I know a lot of people want accessible Plan B in particular,
which was what I was really excited about,” said Oppenheim. In joining forces with HPE, the concept for VSafe expanded beyond sexual health like condoms, moving to include items such as medicine and face masks. Oppenheim explained, “We wanted to give students more options so that when they are sick or in need of sexual wellness options, they don’t have to either buy [supplies] themselves or make an appointment with Baldwin, which comes with its own challenges with anonymity and resources.” Pesavento similarly affirmed the significance of VSafe, saying, “The vision of VSafe is to promote harm reduction techniques and provide QR codes for additional education for students to make informed decisions about their health. Through the information provided, students can then self-schedule appointments with the Health Service for questions or assistance.” She stated that it has taken about two years to get this initiative fully up and running: a feat that required HPE to collaborate with multiple partners on campus such as Health Service, Campus Activities, CIS, Facilities, Purchasing and the Vassar Student Association (VSA). HPE also worked alongside the executive boards of student organizations such VVPP, CHOICE, Project Period and Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP). This collaboration offers an inspiring perspective on the potential that See VSAFE on page 3
Cross country wins league Vets Voices: Invisible service Nick Villamil Sports Editor
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ince joining the Liberty League in 1999, the Vassar women’s cross country team had made 23 appearances in the conference championship tournament with its best finish, a runners-up showing, coming in 2011. After placing four athletes in the top 10 of the 2023 Championships on Oct. 28, the team found itself on the brink of changing that. With no other program having more than two athletes place in the top 10, the Brewers were in the lead. In this six-kilometer race, the team championship would go to whichever team had the lowest score, determined by the sum of each team’s five best finishers. If Vassar could have one more athlete finish among the top racers of the 100-person event, the championship would be theirs. As Anna Kaigle ’25, Amaavi Miriyagalla ’24, Acadia Helfand ’27 and Noni Pattington ’25 worked their way into the top fourth of the race, it became clear that the team was going to make history. Officially, Kaigle’s 19th place finish was the fifth score that clinched the program’s first conference championship. This finish, combined with first-year Haley Schoenegge’s third place finish, and first-years Norah Reade, Cayley Swaim and Anika Mueller-Hickler’s consecutive finishes in eighth, ninth and 10th
place, respectively, earned Vassar an eventbest 49 points. In a team competition that can often seem individual, Vassar’s well-rounded roster and the rapport they have with each other was essential. “I’ve never been on a team with this much camaraderie, and it is making the biggest difference in our, and my, success,” Schoenegge, the standout first-year who had the team’s best finish, told The Miscellany News. “We know that it’s not just us when we’re on the line or out on the course—it’s all of our teammates, and all of the people who have been members of the program throughout the years.” St. Lawrence University finished second with 55 points and boasted the individual race winner, but did not exhibit the same depth of talent that the Brewers did. In fact, Vassar could have used any of its sixth, seventh or eighth place finishes instead of Kaigle’s fifth place finish and still have finished with fewer points than St. Lawrence. Additionally, all 14 Vassar athletes finished in the top 55. “Winning Liberty Leagues was an incredible reflection of the hard work that every single person has been putting into our training and our team culture in and out of practice,” Pattington told The Miscellany News. The victory marked a major milestone in what had already been a successful season See CROSS COUNTRY on page 14
Britt Andrade Columnist
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ell your husband, thank you for his service.” I have heard this countless times, sometimes when I was still wearing my uniform. I guess his service was more important than mine. “Ma’am, you can’t park there. It’s a veteran parking spot. Not a spouse parking spot.” I was seven months pregnant and had parked in a Veterans Only parking spot at the hardware store. The woman who stopped me to tell me I could not park there followed me into the store until I flashed my veteran ID card at her. She never apologized, just huffed and walked away. “Do you know your sponsor Social Security Number (SSN) for your appointment?” “Yes, my SSN is…” “No, ma’am, I don’t need your SSN. I need your sponsor’s.” “I am the sponsor.” “No, I need…” This conversation continued for several minutes before they understood that I was indeed my own sponsor. I am part of a dual military couple. My husband and I met in the military. When we got married, we had to schedule an appointment for my last name change, and because it was my name changing, I scheduled the appointment. We were both in uniform, but it was still assumed that I was a dependent and the appointment was under his SSN. Now
married, I no longer had the autonomy to represent myself. I actually stopped wearing my wedding ring to appointments to avoid the repetitive song and dance surrounding my identification. It became both funnier and more frustrating when my husband got out of the military first, and he became the dependent. He came home complaining constantly about employees struggling to find him in the system because they were not looking for him up as a spouse but still as a service member. His service was constantly validated at the expense of my own. Since getting out of the military, the experience has continued. Transitioning back to the civilian world was a nightmare. Women veterans are part of a unique subset of the veteran community: a subset that involves constantly defending your service while being invalidated or ignored by both civilians and your fellow veterans—a community of invisible service. No one told me how hard it would be to leave the military and join two communities that did not see me. Even now I often feel like I have to justify my service to my peers, that if I do not tell people that I am a veteran then people will never consider other women and their service. I consider how my family will remember my service and how to pass on my family history of military service without being eclipsed by it. See INVISIBLE on page 9