Misc.2.27.25

The Miscellany News

Vassar College’s student newspaper of record since 1866

Volume 163 | Issue 5

161st Commencement Speaker Torrey Maldonado ’96 talks representation, schooling

Allen Hale Editor-in-Chief

“Weweren’t in the canon.”

For author and educator Torrey Maldonado ’96, interests in storytelling and the incorporation of underrepresented voices underpin a variety of his professional pursuits. A native of New York City, Maldonado was born and raised in the Red Hook housing projects of Brooklyn. Describing how his local library was a welcoming space in a Zoom interview with The Miscellany News, Maldonado emphasized that the narratives contained inside were incomplete nonetheless. Referring to superhero stories featuring mostly white characters, he noted: “So when you get to it, to the root of it, I, as a Black boy, I, as a Puerto Rican boy, was still thinking that the other was the hero, that the other was better than me, that the other had abilities that I didn’t have.”

Now, 29 years after his own graduation, Maldonado is set to deliver the address for the 161st Commencement on May 25, 2025.

For nearly 30 years, according to his X account, Maldonado has taught at his former middle school. Reminiscing about his home, he stated: “You could imagine it was an environment that was overflowing with challenges, but it was a very vibrant, very active, very thrilling, very engaging environment at

the same time.” His works for young readers, including “What Lane? and “Hands,” are described as fast-paced on his website. Attempting to match the quickness of his readers’ lives, Maldonado’s books often draw upon students’ experiences and his own as a source of inspiration. Speaking with the School Library Journal, Maldonado discussed writing for vulnerable populations who do not feel tomorrow is promised. “That immediacy is in my writing—my New York fiction

wraps up as quick as ‘a New York minute.’” These stories aimed at young readers frequently address topics such as discrimination, creative expression and allyship.

In addition to a variety of starred reviews, Oprah Daily and The New York Times specifically praised his novel “What Lane?” for its ability to prompt conversations about racism with children. “Hands” was the 2024 Global Read Aloud selection for the Middle School/ Junior High category. Detailing this award

in conversation with The Miscellany News, Maldonado said, “Schools in Switzerland and in Germany and Vietnam and Indonesia and you name it, across Canada and across the United States, were using ‘Hands’ to promote the type of thinking that adults and peers at Vassar were promoting in me.” Elsewhere, Maldonado has discussed books with CBS New York and the Library of Congress.

Maldonado remains humble in the social studies classroom despite his numerous accolades. “I don’t reveal to my students that I’m a book author. They find out on their own,” he added, recalling students asking if he is rich or has met celebrities.

During the interview, Maldonado noted core similarities between his two separate yet related careers: “My goal as a writer and the goal as a teacher is the same: To help young people reach their goals. It’s also the same in that, if children are unseen, they feel seen. If they feel unheard, they’re heard. If they feel not spotlighted, they’re spotlighted.”

Advocating for narrative representation, Maldonado spoke earnestly, accompanied by the reassuring smile and illustrative hand gestures of a seasoned teacher. He utilized various references to model central points of the conversation; quotes from Maya Angelou, Frederick Douglass and Raekwon were interspersed throughout his statements, alongside

See Maldonado on page 3

Vassar Tiny Desk returns Fed Vice Chair speaks at Crego Lecture

Charlotte Robertson Contributing Editor

On Saturday, Feb. 22, the Bike Shop transformed into a worthy rival of Bob Boilen’s cubicle as Vassar Tiny Desk recorded three new episodes. The Strong House basement pipes supported a tangle of string lights, accessorized with rubber duck charms. On the walls: spray-painted bunny faces, Bike Shop’s operating schedule, cardboard cut-outs of piping plovers, posters for the Vassar Student Labor Dialogue, student artwork and a tool board. My observation spot, mindfully out-of-shot, was the dumping ground for mic stands, spare tires, locks, cowboy boots, camera bags, a Minion plush and empty Yerba Mate tins.

Revived in 2020, the live video concert series is produced by Student Music Union (StuMu), Vassar College Entertainment (ViCE), Vassar College TV (VCTV) and The Miscellany News

“It’s been really great to be able to transcend space for this performance,” said Kwabena Adae ’26, co-Head of ViCE. In past years, Tiny Desk has recorded in the Alumni House, but with the renaissance of Bike Shop’s venue,

See Tiny Desk on page 5

7

FEATURES

Luke Jenkins describes some scenes and smells which define the Vassar experience.

Henry France, Casey McMenamin, Trygve Aarestad Sports Editor, Assistant Sports Editor, Guest Columnist

[Disclaimer: The views Vice Chairman Jefferson expressed are his own and not necessarily those of the Federal Open Market Committee or the Federal Reserve System].

WhenFederal Reserve (Fed) Vice Chairman (VC) Philip Jefferson ’83 came to Vassar College as a first-year in 1979, he

planned on studying banking and finance, but as he said at the Economic Department’s annual Martin H. Crego Lecture in Economics on Wednesday, Feb. 19, “I encountered one problem: Vassar did not offer any banking or business courses.” Jefferson thus settled on economics. The Federal Reserve Vice Chairman was not disappointed—“I was hooked, and I have been studying economics ever since,” he said. To Jefferson, one of the country’s leading economic educators, first in academia and now in policy, his passion for learning has not wavered. The lecture drew

a standing-room-only audience of students, faculty and journalists from major publications ranging from The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) to Reuters, underscoring the significance of Jefferson’s insights at a pivotal moment for economic policy.

Eight times a year, with the help of Jefferson, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell delivers a press conference on key data surrounding the U.S. economy and issues forward guidance on the trajectory of inflation and employment. His counsel centers around

See Vice Chair on page 3

Event revisits 1969 Main Building sit-in

Hadley Amato Guest Columnist

Vassar’s Race and Racism in Historical Collections Working Group held a workshop on Wednesday, Feb. 19 revisiting the Black Studies sit-in that took place in Main Building 55 years ago this past fall. The workshop was part of the Working Group’s mission to re-analyze and educate current students about the complex racial history of Vassar. The Working Group invited students to a crowded Class of ’51 Reading Room to explore the historical context of the

sit-in and the reactions to it from the College community and those around the country. Students were given access to copies of numerous documents from the College’s historical archives, including the demands of the Student Afro-American Society (SAS), who organized the sit-in, as well as newspaper clippings covering the event.

In 1969, following Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination and in reaction to the racial intolerance at Vassar, a group of 34 Vassar students, all members of the SAS, entered Main Building with supplies of food, toiletries and sleeping materials. Their goals were to cre-

Going on a Deece date soon? Read Nandini Likki’s piece for some crucial advice.

ate a permanent Black Studies program at Vassar and to establish more Black student affinity spaces on campus, such as all-Black housing. According to Vassar’s website, at the time of the protest, Black students made up approximately two percent of the total student body, the curriculum almost entirely ignored or glossed over Black history and the College had only one full-time Black professor. Then-SAS president Claudia Lynn Thomas ’71 spoke extensively about how faculty and administration treated Black students: “I subsequently learned that another

See Sit-in on page 4

With the NBA All-Star Weekend complete, Armaan Desai offers some reflective commentaery.

Image courtesy of Torrey Maldonado ’96.

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CORRECTION POLICY

Tori Kim/The Miscellany News.

Maldonado ’96 to give Commencement Address

Continued from Maldonado on page 1

the consistent use of metaphor.

Among those who engage with his writing and teaching, Maldonado aims to inspire constructive action. “My ultimate hope is that readers who leave my books, students who leave my classrooms, they leave not wanting to hurt themselves, not wanting to hurt anybody else, that they leave feeling empowered and they feel that they wanna empower others.”

Maldonado has discussed his own fluctuating relationship with education in a past interview with Publishers Weekly, being held back in the third grade before transferring to a new school. Speaking with The Miscellany News, he said: “I found that early on, as early as the third grade, I realized that I wasn’t represented in literature.” Maldonado had stopped loving books, but was rejuvenated by his teachers’ and mothers’ supportive encouragement, according to a piece he authored for Bookology Magazine; in the Publishers Weekly piece, he describes how his mother was the only mother to have a library in his neighborhood.

Maldonado later began attending Vassar College. Noting the difference between the

Red Hook Houses and the College, Maldonado detailed a sense of fear permeating the former during his upbringing, denying him the ability to fully pursue childlike wonder or subjects of academic and literary intrigue. “In my neighborhood, you weren’t respected for reading a good book or knowing a good book. My neighborhood growing up, you were respected if you could throw a good right hook.”

“The focus up until Vassar was staying alive.”

For Maldonado, the College offered peace and reprise in a safe space, including a fondly-remembered day where students sledded down Commencement Hill by using trays from Gordon Commons. He was the first of his family to graduate from college, earning a degree in sociology. While at Vassar, Maldonado participated in the late Professor Emeritus of Religion and Africana Studies Lawrence H. Mamiya’s Green Haven Prison program, wherein students discussed topics like social justice with inmates. He eventually earned his master’s degree in educational administration at Baruch College.

Vassar mirrored Maldonado’s hometown locale in essential ways, despite their immediate contrasts, providing a sense of continuity:

“So going from Red Hook projects, which was challenging, and then going to Vassar where my ideas were constantly challenged, that was consistent. Going from Red Hook where it was vibrant and it was engaging to Vassar that was and still is vibrant and engaging.”

Within this context, Maldonado’s self-narrativization outlined how his voice and worldview developed through various discussions. “Because it was so challenging, I found myself progressing in thought, but also progressing in voice and in my ability to argue.” Maldonado characterized Vassar as a space where rich discussions are consistently happening across a variety of campus spaces—Gordon Commons, the Retreat, the quad and the Thompson Memorial Library were among his mentions.

As the senior class anticipates a new chapter in their collective story, Maldonado re-emphasized the importance of applying collegiate experience to his post-graduate life. “The things that Vassar reinforced in me, I tried to reinforce and build in young people.” For himself, the impact of the College’s atmosphere persists in his day-to-day career activities; Maldonado highlighted a transformation from first-year shyness to being a

globally recognized author celebrated for his voice.

Recalling his favorite moments at Vassar, Maldonado relayed an experience at the Jeh Vincent Johnson ALANA Cultural Center— then the Intercultural Center—in which the Black Student Union organized a photoshoot celebrating the diversity and diasporic conditions of Blackness. “We were playing music, we were sharing stories, we were just talking about what Blackness meant in Brooklyn versus Blackness in Nigeria versus Blackness in Atlanta, Georgia,” described by Maldonado as a joyful, vibrant occasion.

On the topic of incorporating underrepresented voices and rewriting flawed narratives, Maldonado honed in on the importance of supportive infrastructure, describing how good intentions only go so far without proper planning. As for contemporary, concurrent tensions like book bannings and the censorship of writing, Maldonado’s educative and authorial approach rested upon a central, motivating question: “I ask myself, how am I using my hands? Am I using my hands to build or to knock down? Am I using my hands to cultivate or if I’m using my hands to destroy?”

Fed Vice Chair discusses healthy balance sheets

Continued from Vice Chair on page 1 the Federal Open Market Committee’s decision on how and if to move the federal fund’s rate target range—colloquially interest rates— which is the fee charged to financial institutions to lend money to each other overnight. Interest rates move markets more than most major companies and directly influence inflation, employment and investment. Jefferson joins a group of Martin H. Crego lecturers that includes Nobel Laureate economists Angus Deaton, George Akerlof and Paul Romer. The Martin H. Crego Fund is used to bring in visiting lecturers in the Department of Economics who have a recognized ability in the field. The fund was started by Jean E. Crego ’32 in honor of her father, Martin H. Crego. Jefferson graduated from Vassar College in 1983 with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics. Upon graduation, he received a master’s degree and doctorate in Economics from the University of Virginia. He started working as an Assistant Professor at Columbia University and a Visiting Professor at the University of California, Berkeley before joining the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System as an economist. In 1997, Jefferson joined Swarthmore College, where he eventually became the Centennial Professor of Economics and served as head of the Economics Department for approximately four years. Jefferson served on the Vassar College Board of Trustees from 2002 to 2022. On Jan. 14, 2022, former President Joe Biden nominated Jefferson to be a member of the Board of Governors. Jefferson participated in hearings before the Senate Banking Committee who eventually supported the nomination on March 6, 2022, by a unanimous 24-0 vote. Jefferson was subsequently confirmed by the U.S. Senate by a 91-7 vote. In May 2023, Jefferson was nominated for the Board of Governors’ second-highest position: Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve. Jefferson became the second Black person to serve as Vice Chairman of the committee after the Senate confirmed his nomination in September 2023 by an 88-10 vote. Jefferson has served on the Board of Governors as Vice Chairman since his confirmation.

Jefferson was asked to visit Vassar and deliver the Martin H. Crego Lecture several years ago when he was still Dean of Faculty at Davidson College, but the lecture was de-

layed. Unbeknownst to the Vassar faculty, Jefferson had been picked to be on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, but he was not yet confirmed by the Senate. Now, after settling into his new role, Jefferson is able to accommodate speaking commitments in his schedule. Ben Ho, Chair of the Economics Department at Vassar College, in a written statement with The Miscellany News: “Because his statements move markets, we had live coverage by reporters from WSJ, Reuters and Bloomberg, etc attending the event or watching online. We had to prepare a live feed, so that the financial press would be able to watch his comments in real time.”

The subject of the lecture was “How Healthy Are U.S. Households’ Balance Sheets?” As Rockefeller Hall 300 simmered down with reporters, Vassar President Elizabeth Bradley and hundreds of students in attendance, Jefferson gave a roadmap of his talk, highlighting how his assessment of household economic health would play into his overview of the balance sheet of the household. Jefferson carefully and slowly explained critical and rudimentary concepts to a room full of students. He started by sharing his assessment of the current state of the economy: “The performance of the U.S. economy has been quite strong overall,” citing employment growth and inflation cooling. “Generally, households appear to be in a good position: Asset holdings are high across the income distribution, driven by high house and equity prices, and debt levels are subdued.”

Household net worth is at a near record high relative to income, driven by gains from housing and stock values. Jefferson said, “Total net worth in the U.S. was over $50 trillion higher in the third quarter of last year than it was at the end of 2019,” adding: “Recent gains in household net worth have been broad based across the income distribution.” Standing beside a graph of Average Household Spending, by Income Group, Jefferson explained how the bottom 40 percent of income distribution has increased with aggregate net worth. Even though there have been strong gains across the income distribution, Jefferson notes that low- and middle-income families are more vulnerable than before the pandemic as household liquidity has fallen. The Vice Chairman shared, “Real estate is a par-

ticularly important source of wealth for lowand middle-income households, comprising 40 percent of their net worth.” According to Jefferson, many low-income households do not own their homes and have not benefited from the recent growth in real estate values over the past five years.

Vassar economics professors pressed Jefferson for his take on household balance sheets. But Jefferson reiterated that for him, the charts were simply data and it is not his job to speculate on the interpretation of this data. The room erupted in laughter as students and professors witnessed in real life the Fed’s critical, apolitical independence. Harrison Shieh, an Assistant Professor of Economics who specializes in macroeconomics, told The Miscellany News how special it was for Jefferson to speak at Vassar: “Speeches from any of the Fed governors or regional Fed presidents are usually very hard to come by and are heavily scrutinized by the media and domestic/global markets, so from a purely economic perspective, it’s a pretty big deal to have VC Jefferson

speak to the Vassar community.” Economics major Abbe Colgan ’26 was one of the many students in attendance. She told The Miscellany News, “As an economics major I wanted to attend because of the high profile nature of the guest. I also hoped he would speak to some of the uncertainty under a new administration.”

Shieh touched on the sensitivity of Jefferson’s statements: “His speech yesterday was a masterful exercise in what we call ‘Fedspeak’, where in many ways he was saying something without actually saying something.” He continued, “Everything he says can potentially reveal some information about how the Fed might set policy in the future, so he and his team have to be very measured and careful about every word that he says.” Jefferson emphasized how earlier in his career, while in education, he might have taken a more critical opinion on the economic data on the projector screen in Rockefeller Hall 300. In his role as the Federal Reserve Vice Chairman, Jefferson’s responsibility is not to theorize.

Henry France/The Miscellany News.

Workshop honors 1969 sit-in

Continued from Sit-in on page 1

professor had responded to [a student’s] incident by stating that Black students were at Vassar to be an ‘educational experience’ for White students.” Prior to the sit-in, any commitments to improving the experience of Black students would therefore only be seen as an experiment, according to Thomas. This is what the SAS was up against when they decided to occupy Main Building and challenge Vassar’s racial discrimination. By the end of the protest’s third day, following much back and forth between students and administration, and significant national media coverage, the College agreed to meet most of their demands, namely instituting a permanent Black Studies program.

Students who attended the workshop about the sit-in learned of the racism present within the Vassar community at the time— many of the responses from administration and alumnae/i discredited the students protesting and were directly opposed to the cause they were fighting for. Some students who attended the workshop felt the fight of student protestors in the 1960s still resonate. Student Facilitator of Engaged Pluralism Em Friedman ’27 told The Miscellany News by email, “When we look at these historical documents, it’s hard not to see similarities between 1969 and 2025. It’s almost eerie knowing that it’s half a century later and student protestors are still fighting the same fight and receiving similar pushback.”

The workshop also gave students the opportunity to see the ways student activism existed on campus decades ago, especially administrators’ responses to it. Then-President of the College Alan Simpson said on the first morning of the sit-in: “I will not make any decisions under duress!” A student

who attended the workshop and wished to remain anonymous commented, “I, along with many other students and organizers of the sit-in workshop, noticed that the ways in which Vassar’s administration deals with student protests has changed remarkably little, almost as if administrators were sharing a script across generations.” One of the workshop’s organizers expressed similar sentiments. They said during the workshop, “It’s like the administration hands down to other generations the language to use.”

Students connected the Main Building sit-in to the pro-Palestine protests that have occurred on campus since the beginning of Israel’s genocidal campaign on the Gaza Strip following Hamas’s attack on Oct. 7, 2023. After a student encampment in May 2024, the administration agreed to hear a student proposal for Vassar’s full divestment from military and surveillance companies. Last December, the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees announced through the President’s Office their unanimous rejection of the student divestment plan. The anonymous student highlighted this, describing another similarity between today’s present protests and the sit-in: “Administrators should remember that their refusal to cooperate and work with student protesters in the past has served only to slow progress, and that what seems radical today will be common sense tomorrow.”

The workshop came as the new Trump administration intensified their challenges to higher education, specifically in their “Dear Colleague” letter, sent on Feb. 14. The letter threatened to withdraw federal funding from all academic institutions that do not follow the government’s expectations about eliminating Diversity, Equity and In-

clusion (DEI). The exact definition of what constitutes DEI for academic institutions was not specified in the letter, leaving many school administrators confused, nervous and scrambling to make sure their institutions can provide welcoming and accepting spaces for minority students without losing federal support.

Director of Engaged Pluralism Kimberly Williams Brown wrote in an email to The Miscellany News, “We are waiting for additional guidance that may further explain the actions that will be mandated for colleges based on this Dear Colleague Letter and seeing what legal challenges may arise related to the legality and enforceability of the letter.” As per Williams Brown’s response, and the similarly critical responses of many in the academic world, it is clear that cultural

affinity spaces, as well as academic departments like Black Studies, have an uncertain future, and one that could be determined in the coming months as legal challenges unfold on a state and federal level. To current Vassar students like Friedman, these political developments make workshops like the one held on Wednesday all the more important. Friedman wrote to The Miscellany News, “Particularly in the era of the Trump administration and the genocide in Gaza, it is vital that all Vassar students are informed on the history of this insitution so we can continue to hold Vassar accountable in ensuring the safety of all people.” They continued, “We must also acknowledge the irony in capitalizing off of a history of student protests while actively punishing them in the present.”

Nobel peace prize winner warns students about nuclear war

On Wednesday, Feb. 19, Dr. Ira Helfand delivered a lecture in Rockefeller Hall to a group of concerned students, professors and other members of the greater Vassar community. Bekir Hodzic ’26 and Rahul Raghuraman ’27 introduced Helfand, a member of the International Steering Group of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), which won the Nobel Prize in 2017. Helfand is also former president of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), a founding partner of ICAN and recipient of the Nobel Prize in 1985. Additionally, he is the co-founder and former president of Physicians for Social Responsibility, the U.S. affiliate of the IPPNW.

Himadeep Muppidi, Professor of Political Science on the Betty Goff Cook Cartwright Chair, invited Helfand on behalf of the Political Science Department as a part of a greater weeks-long project. The Nobel Prize winner’s lecture is part of a series of events titled “NO Your NUKES Week.”

Across the semester, students have been invited to help fold 1,000 paper cranes, which are currently being showcased in an exhibit at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center—having opened on Feb. 24. During an organized gathering for the folding, students discussed the threat of nuclear weapons, ate pizza and watched the satirical comedy “Dr. Strangelove.” “NO Your NUKES Week” concluded with an interactive experience titled “Be Seriously Scared,” an experience about the dangers of nuclear war held on Feb. 25.

Helfand represented Back From The Brink, an organization that educates on the growing threat of nuclear weapons and the dangers they pose to public health and the environment. Next to the Nobel Prize that Helfand showcased was a sign-up sheet for the purpose of mobilizing the student body of Vassar to start a chapter.

Though he started the talk with an apology for his soft voice—due to some technical difficulties—his tone was firm, somber and deliberate. Having spent 45 years as a practicing physician, Helfand’s experience enabled him to clearly and succinctly make health-related points.

The Nobel Prize winner made three main points: First, nuclear war is a real, present danger; not a historical one. Helfand said that while the end of the Cold War drastically reduced the chance of nuclear conflict, it did not effectively deal with existing weapons. Helfand added: “The danger hadn’t really gone away. There were still tens of thousands of nuclear warheads in the world and they were sitting there in the arsenals of these countries, who were now having relatively good relations, just waiting for things to go bad. And now, things have gone bad.” He cited United States-Russia relations as the biggest flashpoint, and emphasized that even if a peace deal over Ukraine is forced without Kyiv’s input, the logic of escalation will make further conflict unavoidable. In addition to other political flashpoints, further threats included climate change pushing nations into resource wars, as well as missile command and control being vulnerable to cyberattacks.

The second point Helfand emphasized

was that nuclear war would be more devastating to humanity than anything imaginable. He described two-mile fireballs and heat radiuses that could melt cars. “In the case of New York, Moscow, Beijing, 12 to 15, possibly 18 million [would be] dead within a half-hour.” He asserted it would be a situation where nobody would survive, but emphasized that such a catastrophic outcome could be avoided through global cooperation and decisive action.

The final point was one of hope: Even if the world is on the path to nuclear war, it does not have to be this way. He listed examples from the 1980s, where a swell of anti-nuclear sentiment prompted the United States and the Soviet Union to pivot their policy toward disarmament. Nuclear-armed nations entered the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) which adds legal binding to reduce arsenals. Nobody would win a nuclear war, so governments created legislation and partnerships to reduce the chances that it would be fought. Leaders today have drifted away from these commitments. “Nuclear weapons make us strong, but they do not make us safe,” asserted Helfand. He cited that his background made him frame nuclear weapons as a public health issue, rather than an issue of strategy. When governments think of nuclear war in terms of strategy, they ignore the reality that there would be no winners if it came to pass. It is Dr. Helfand’s hope that, since a nuclear conflict would affect everyone, nations should cooperate to get rid of this problem. College students are passionate about global issues, such as conventional war and climate change. While nuclear issues

are intertwined with conventional war issues, Helfand feels that people today fail to appreciate how quickly a conflict could go nuclear if these weapons are on the table. Helfand gave Vassar students the suggestion to create a chapter of the Students Nuclear Disarming Group, which already has chapters in several colleges and high schools. Their mission is to educate on the threat of nuclear weapons and to encourage their members of Congress to take action.

Helfand grew up during the Cold War, when drills and paranoia were the norm. He has understood that weapons of mass destruction can threaten our lives, but he also wants people to understand it does not have to be this way. “The stakes are incredibly high. We’re talking about your lives, the lives of everybody you know and care about. We’re talking about everything we’ve inherited from past generations. Everything that future generations are supposed to inherit from us, that’s going to disappear,” he said. “The stakes really couldn’t be higher.”

Image courtesy of The Miscellany News.

Soren Fischer/The Miscellany News.

Soren Fischer, Ian Watanabe Opinions Editor, Columnist

Vassar Tiny Desk returns to recording

Continued from Tiny Desk on page 1 Mechanical Issues, the team elected to relocate.

“Bike Shop feels more underground and intimate,” said Arily Velasco ’25, co-President of VCTV. Pranav Parekh ’25, a Bike Shop senior mechanic, agreed: “It’s beautiful to have people here. Bike Shop has always been a place we try to make comfortable for everyone.”

Set-up began at 8:30 a.m., with the first act arriving at 10a.m. UJIMA, an art collective for Vassar students of color, kicked off the morning with a series of original spoken-word poetry, singing and guitar instrumentals, with a delightful kalimba feature on one of the numbers. “UJIMA is collective care and responsibility. UJIMA is groove!”

Marissa Desir ’25 said, introducing the group, which also included Alma Nájera ’25, Shyasia Arnold ’26, Mareme Fall ’25 and Zephan Aruede ’25.

Before rolling, Jaden Schapiro ’25, Tiny Desk engineer and StuMu Director of Campus Recording, instructed everyone to silence their phones and, crucially, unclip any keychains from belt loops. “That’s important to announce at a school like this,” he said. Nájera led a “ground down” breathing exercise. The clapperboard opened and closed. And they began.

Achieving silence in a cramped room of 20 students was no difficult feat for UJIMA. Their set was captivating. Nodding and swaying, audience members attentively clung to every word about self-identity, the divine feminine, mother nature and peace in Pal-

estine, Sudan and Haiti. I was particularly moved by the following line: “We forgive those who do not practice a life of love.”

“I just love to play for people,” said Aruede. “And the crowd seemed to be interested.”

“I loved starting with UJIMA,” said Velasco. “It set a great tone for the rest of the day.”

Next up was Sam Hurwitz ’25. Having worked on Tiny Desk in the past as a member of StuMu, he was no stranger to the process, addressing the camera with confident ease. He performed three folksy originals, two of which are pulled from his upcoming album “Horizon.” As he strummed and sang with astonishing crescendo, he rocked back and forth as if he might, at any moment, burst off of his stool. Swapping out guitars for his finale, Hurwitz delivered a performance that made jaws drop, demonstrating ridiculous dexterity and precision as he slid from fret to fret. “Sam Hurwitz has been on my mind for a while,” said Schapiro. “He’s been a big part of the folky side of the music scene at Vassar and he’s also an incredibly talented guitar player. It was time that he got his own Tiny Desk.”

The rest of the afternoon was dedicated to Tiny Desk’s most ambitious endeavor yet: a hip-hop cypher. Showcasing two Gordon Commons employees, “Cans” (Duane Canada) and “D. Johns” (Ronell Johnson) alongside student rappers, “Sir J. Cryptic” (Jolyn Prescott ’27), “Adnan” (Adnan Ahmad Rizal ’28) and “Carmine” (Lance Diaz ’26), the onetake shot lasted 38 minutes, but felt like 10. A band composed of Tiny Desk student mu-

sicians performed a live backing track, including “The Jam” by A Tribe Called Quest, “Thank God” by Danny Brown and “24” by IDK, while the rappers improvised, stacking their verses on top of one another.

“We were thinking about doing it pre-recorded, but that’s not as fun and that’s not how they do it on NPR,” said Schapiro, who played bass for the backing track.

“The cypher is a collaborative project reconstructing an institutional memory that is no longer really serving the College,” said Adae. They explained that Hip Hop 101, a student organization that officially formed in 2004, once represented and strengthened hip-hop culture in the Hudson Valley,

uniting MCs, DJs, breakdancers and graffiti artists. “That has not been a project that has continued past COVID-19, so we’re offering the cypher as a space to reopen dialogs of hiphop on campus,” Adae said.

Energy in Bike Shop was high as the cypher began, despite the fact the crew had already been working for eight hours. While waiting for the stage light batteries to charge, the rappers and band freestyled over Radiohead’s “Creep.” I can think of many words to describe the set—refreshing, creative, witty, dynamic, engaging—but the best might simply be “fun.”

Release dates for the episodes have yet to be announced.

SZA reflects on her growth in ‘LANA’

After a year-long wait and multiple delays, SZA finally released “LANA.” This highly anticipated collection of songs was issued as the deluxe version of her sophomore studio album, “SOS,” two years after its original release. In my opinion, it was well worth the wait.

Singer-songwriter Solána Imani Rowe, known by the stage name SZA, released “SOS” in December 2022. Not to be dramatic, but it changed my life. Hearing this profound testament to self-fulfillment, inner peace and comfort in solitude set to contemporary R&B towards the end of my adolescence made my 18-year-old self feel like she was ready to enter this new era of adulthood.

This record-breaking album was a natural progression from SZA’s debut album, “CTRL,” which focuses on balancing insecurity with self-love. “SOS” combines themes of heartbreak, shame and acceptance to emphasize the power we have over our own lives.

“LANA” is a compilation of B-sides, featuring a mix of songs that were left out of “SOS” as well as new songs written for this project. Named after SZA’s first tattoo and nickname, this album balances the raw vulnerability of “SOS” with a mature understanding of life’s nuances. Featuring 15 songs, with four additional tracks released on Feb. 9, SZA has stated that she views “LANA” as its own album.

SZA immediately distinguishes “LANA” and “SOS” as two separate projects through their cover art: The imagery of an isolated SZA in a vast sea is ditched in favor of bugs. This connection between “LANA” and bugs appears in the music video for “Drive,” where Ben Stiller portrays an overburdened SZA, while SZA herself appears as a nude, ethereal figure with a bug’s face. This seemingly random persona was first introduced in an episode of “Hot Ones,” where SZA simply

said, “I’m just tired of not being a bug.” As evidenced by this humorous facade, SZA is grappling with the meaning of her own existence and is embracing the smaller things in life that bring her comfort.

This absurdist imagery is paired with mature lyrics about discovering our place in life.

“Saturn,” which was surprise-released on Feb. 22, 2024, balances SZA’s dissatisfaction with her life with a much broader sense of existentialism. SZA sings, “If there’s a point to being good / Then where’s my reward? / The good die young and poor / I gave it all I could.” SZA acknowledges that karma does not always pan out the way we would hope, and finds comfort in dreaming of another world where everything could be perfect. This song highlights the theme of acceptance and freedom emphasized throughout this album, as the realization that “nothing matters” seems to liberate SZA and push her to make her own meaning of life. SZA juxtaposes this reality-altering realization with rhythmic, high-pitched synthesizers, setting the tone for “LANA” as a whole.

The music of “LANA” has a much brighter and softer feel than the moody “SOS.” SZA overlays the upbeat instrumentals of “LANA” with more playful vocal lines, and cohesively blends a variety of different musical influences and genres into her R&B style. For example, “30 for 30 (feat. Kendrick Lamar)” opens with a spoken sample from “I call your Name” by the R&B/funk band Switch. This sample addresses “immature things” and “painful doubts and insecurities,” which SZA has outgrown.

Similarly, SZA uses the melody from Antônio Carlos Jobim’s bossa nova classic “The Girl from Ipanema” in “BMF,” recontextualizing this song associated with yearning to sing about a new love interest in her life.

This direct shift in style is representative of SZA’s growth as a person between “SOS” and “LANA.” While “SOS” focuses on her inse-

curities, “LANA” focuses on embracing her flaws as a part of her nature. “Special” from “SOS” focuses on SZA’s different insecurities regarding love. She sings, “Hate how you look at her, ‘cause you never saw me / Like I was an art piece, like I was an ordinary girl.” This insecurity and desire to feel special is addressed in a new light in “LANA,” in “Another Life,” where she sings, “Done tryna be your favorite / Done tryin’ to fit your template.” Rather than chastising herself for everything she wishes she could be, she embraces her uniqueness and focuses on everything she is.

This self-awareness is also reflected in how she sings about behaviors she holds less pride in. In “Kitchen,” she sings, “Cursing you solves all my problems / Vacationing in rock

bottom, back again.” While singing about her own tendency to return back to lovers, SZA is accompanied by softer instrumentals similar to those present in “Saturn,” once again acknowledging her own cognitive dissonance. “LANA” is the perfect sequel to “SOS,” painting a picture of SZA’s journey towards self-love. While the music for this album is much more laid-back than her usual work, the amount of passion and dedication that she puts into every song is evident. “LANA” closes the wounds which “SOS” revealed, and effortlessly untangles the web of insecurities and shame that created “CTRL” and “SOS.” “LANA’s” incredibly profound lyrics and stunning music make it a perfect addition to SZA’s discography.

Charlotte Robertson/The Miscellany News.

Grace Finke Assistant Copy Editor

Annie McShane/The

An artist you never got to know: Remembering Chloe Dzubilo

Nikola Parker Cooperman Copy Staff

If you were part of the New York City club scene in the ’80s or ’90s—which no students reading this were—you would have known Chloe Dzubilo. Or, as poet and blogger Jeremiah Moss said, “If you didn’t know her, you noticed her.” You might have seen her performing at clubs, or milling about the crowd, educating people on HIV. You might have seen her name listed as editor in a magazine you opened, or her face on the cover. But if you were not there, in and at that moment, you likely have never had the opportunity to notice her at all. It seems as though knowledge of Dzubilo is as ingrained in the scene as she was.

Most of what is online about Dzubilo was written post-Feb. 18, 2011, the date of her death. She was 50 years old, and many of the people she had spent the pivotal decades of her life with had died or otherwise moved on. For those who remained, or, at least, for those whose memories remained, her death sparked a need to write. As people go, they take their memories with them. Whole people, places and movements are forgotten. For those who had known Dzubilo, there was a sudden understanding that what they said now would be what was preserved about this icon of the city who could no longer share her own story. People rushed to publish, spilling her life onto blogs and forums. By sifting through this complex web, a sporadic picture of Dzubilo is brought into focus as she was: a deeply, deeply present person.

Dzubilo was born in 1960 in Connecticut, growing up as a champion equestrian. In 1982, she moved, as so many transgen-

der people did, to the East Village in Manhattan, pursuing the boom of culture and kinship that was otherwise inaccessible outside of the city. She started with a job at then-nightclub Studio 54, but quickly took up a position at art magazine “East Village Eye” as their advertising director, right at the explosion of the arts scene. She began dating Bobby Bradley, founder of the Pyramid Club. In 1987, Dzubilo was diagnosed with AIDS as Bradley was killed by it. At this time, an AIDS diagnosis was a death sentence. But Dzubilo kept on living.

Her life took on a different edge in the ’90s, mixing art with activism to an intense degree. She began volunteering with the LGBT Community Center’s Gender Identity Project, performing outreach initiatives to prevent HIV. She went back to the Pyramid Club, writing and acting with theater troupe Blacklips Performance Cult. She was at every workshop, every party, every march. She completed her gender transition, which alienated her from her family in Connecticut. She was part of Transsexual Menace, an activist organization that has made a return in 2025 due to increasing risks posed against transgender rights and safety. She sang and wrote for punk rock band the Transisters, which was credited by fellow musician Kembra Pfahler as “One of the only bands that addressed issues around AIDS and had the courage to sing about their anger.” In 1997, Dzubilo directed the first federal HIV prevention program aimed at transgender sex workers. Her work, both artistic and political, permeated every level of the scene.

In 2001, Dzubilo founded the Equi-Aid Project, providing children affected by HIV or otherwise at-risk with the opportunity to

ride horses. As Dzubilo asserted, “It is my belief that horseback riding, under proper guidance, offers these children a deep sense of immediate power, a power that they may have never experienced before.” Her horseback riding years had been under a different name, a different persona, practically a different life. But, ever the equestrian, she bridged the gap between who she had once been and who she was now. She began to reconnect with her family. In 2003, she was appointed to the HIV and Human Service Planning Council of New York, where she was able to advocate for trans HIVers such as herself, chronically overlooked in discussions of the illness. In 2007, she met and married T De Long, a transgender man; this was only possible because both were documented as their birth sexes. If one of them had attempted to legally transition, a shaky and unclear process, their marriage would not have been possible. He encouraged her to draw, something which fulfilled the need to create at a time when she could no longer perform like before; both her health and the art scene had deteriorated.

There is something soberly poetic about the age Dzubilo reached. Far too young, and yet older than many in the NYC art scene could have ever dreamed of. Her contemporary Keith Haring, who was diagnosed with AIDS in the same year as Dzubilo and died three years later, said, “Amazing how many things one can produce if you live long enough. I mean, I’ve barely created ten years of serious work. Imagine 50 years. The progress and evolution is remarkable. I would love to live to be 50 years old. Imagine…hardly seems possible.”

Dzubilo had been a fierce critic of the medical industry’s intolerance for trans-

gender patients, which left many, including her, without proper care and attention. In a 2004 interview for HIV/AIDS magazine POZ, she said, “Trans have a history of dying at home—because of the stigma.” The prejudices of doctors kept many from attempting to pursue the healthcare they knew they would be denied anyway. Over two decades later, it is important to remember her words and to think about the ways in which we are so easily moving backwards. She is just one of many whose lives are so easy to lose. The city changed as Dzubilo lived in it, and it certainly did not stop changing once she was gone. The organizations, the magazines, the programs, the clubs—some still exist as they were. Others reformatted or digitized, got bought out or shut down. There is no expectation that things must stay as they were; change is exactly what Dzubilo fought for, and much of it is representative of progress in the city and the country as a whole. But when this change is met with a lack of recognition, of documentation, we risk losing the how of how we got here and the why of why it happened. And to be deprived of this knowledge is to be left unequipped with the tools and lessons from decades of struggle for liberation, liberation which slips through our fingers without constant upkeep. To bring Dzubilo’s story to the present is to do the work of archiving, continuously maintaining a history which is actively being buried. One way or another, Dzubilo died at home, in the city where she had spent her life. Dzubilo had once gone with De Long to visit Return to Freedom, a wild horse sanctuary in California founded by one of her high school friends. Her ashes were scattered there, free among the wild.

Remembering vividly through Vassar smells

Luke Jenkins Features Editor

Iam sometimes bombarded when I fill my cup with water. I am in Gordon Commons, also known as the Deece—maybe on a bright morning. Quiet eaters surround me, scooping from bowls of yogurt or oatmeal. Or maybe it is almost midnight, and the paper plate holding up my quesadilla feels dangerously thin. But the smell is unmistakable, rising from the ground like the stink of an underworld: a Deece mat, sopping wet and putrid.

The years we remember Vassar will outnumber the years we spend here, likely more than ten to one. It becomes, rather annoyingly significant, how we remember our time in college. Buildings, faces or seasons can be captured in photos, scrolled through under future spells of boredom, or tacked up on the walls of apartments we have not yet inhabited. We will remember the howl of this semester’s winds, the snow and ice that turned our cheeks ruddy.

But another sense, with its own power to recall memories like the putridness of a dining hall mat, is smack dab in the middle of those ruddy cheeks: our noses.

We smell thousands of scents across the campus’ thousand acres. Some are unimportant or fleeting, like the graphite in a pencil, or new paper. Some are jarring, like the burning smell from our radiators or lacrosse gear left outside a dorm door. While these scents make our entire body grimace, they might be crucial to our ability to closely remember pivotal people and moments, perhaps more vividly than sight, per Scientific American. Scents often transport us to our hometowns, to our moms and dads, or to a shock-

ingly fragrant aunt. Because my mom is a devoted Bath and Body Works loyalty member, those transporting smells are my mom’s signature, pinky Champagne Toast, or my dad’s car freshener Midsummer’s Night. Her obsession keeps me supplied with a steady supply of hand sanitizers and body spray. My nose feels atrophied often but never wasted. My current favorite from her stock is a Marshmallow Pumpkin Latte spray!

But smells will soon be able to transport us to Vassar too. The effectiveness of olfactory memory has already been explored on campus in detail. In a recent Grey Matters Journal article, Hannah Koolpe ʼ24 explained what happens in the brain to trigger responses to smell. She describes the adventure of the odor molecule, which begins by entering the nasal cavity and ends with electrical signals being examined by the olfactory cortex in the brain and stored in memory through the hippocampus. It is where our brains return to when recalling a scent. But the journey takes another turn, as Koolpe continues: “The interplay between the olfactory system and the hippocampus is not just involved in storing memories, but also works with a brain region called the amygdala to assign an emotional context to odor-related memories.”

This emotional context can be largely positive or negative, a distinction clear in campus smells that will come to shape our time here in our memory. Noyes or Josselyn House residents might familiarly cringe if a waft of sewage catches them off guard in a basement. Hordes of students might be transported to long nights in the ten-person THs after smelling a distinctly foul body odor. They might bring back events that took place beyond the school too. When asked about

what was notable in their nose, Freya Braiker ʼ27 immediately recalled the smell of wildfire smoke on campus.

As for other smells that remind them of the school, Braiker names many in rapid succession: the Preserve, snow and the weed around the second floor of Josselyn House. But one, heartwarmingly, reigned above them all: “The smell of spring always reminds me of Vassar.” Josh Jateno ʼ26 also pleasantly knew from the get-go what he associates from Vassar with his nostrils: “Laundry smell!”

While scents to share came quickly to Braiker and Jateno, Ben Remy ʼ24 thinks it is hard to name certain smells, especially when naming them out of the blue. Koolpe’s work agrees with that elusiveness: “Memories associated with a specific odor are often evoked before we are even consciously aware of the smell.” What first came to his mind, after some thought, was a sense of déjà vu he could

not place after sniffing coffee in the Retreat. Zayn Cheema ʼ24 brought up the Retreat as well. She described a gripping moment catching a whiff of fries while walking through Main House a few days ago: “It was so visceral.” Cheema and I went on to reminisce about the scent of Deece fish and lattes at the Brew. As this winter does come to a close, spring will bring back Braiker’s most familiar campus scent, and students will soon be drawn outside to file away odors in the hippocampus. To sniff chrysanthemums and warm rain and remember past springs at Vassar. The first day of sunshine will see friends flocking to blankets on the Quad and Library Lawn. I am most excited by the smell of grass on those lawns, hopefully green and flourishing. Quite unlike my earliest memorable Vassar scents: the smell of dead grass, sticking on my knees from our class photo, from the drought in August 2022.

Do Si Darlings: The new line dancing club on campus

If you have ever taken an evening stroll by the AULA and heard the echo of hands clapping and heels stomping to the voices of Shania Twain, Shaboozey or Keith Urban through the brick walls and windows, you have likely stumbled across Vassar’s new and only line dancing organization: the Do Si Darlings. Founded at the start of the spring semester, the club invites any and all skill levels to spend one night a week spinning and shuffling to pop and country music in a positive, low-pressure environment. On February 19th, I spoke to the Do Si Darlings’ founder Marley Correll ’28 about her motivations for this new group on campus.

At each meeting, Correll leads lessons demonstrating the fundamental moves of line dancing to the tune of two new songs, covering each eight-count step by step; songs taught in previous weeks are also replayed to allow returning participants to show off their skills. Though aspects of the lessons build upon one another, anyone is welcome

to attend any night and new attendees are encouraged to stand back and observe if they are unsure to develop their dancing repertoires at their own pace.

Correll found her love for line dancing, which inspired the creation of Do Si Darlings, while spending a gap year attending lessons around her hometown, New York City, at the recommendation of her sister. At the time, the city was experiencing a boom in the “line” scene as groups like Stud Country, the weekly queer line dancing club, began hosting classes at a variety of country and non-country clubs and venues. For Correll, becoming a regular at these events involved some initial nerves.

“I went without [my sister] and I was scared, and then I kept going and then after a while [...] I just started meeting people and I met the teacher and she was so wonderful,” explained Correll. “I just learned more and more.”

Correll continued to develop her line skills after she was invited to start attending sessions outside of established times, practicing with other dancers in a public park amongst skaters and yogis.

When she arrived at Vassar, she found her-

self missing the community line dancing had provided for her. So, she had an idea.

“I was like, hey, I could do an offshoot too.”

After working hard to get the club established for this semester, Correll began to attract interest using only word-of-mouth among friends and the Instagram page, @dosidarlings. From the very first week, the club was met with an overwhelmingly positive response in turnout and energy—well exceeding Correll’s expectations. Currently, the Instagram page boasts over 100 followers.

“The first meeting, like 35 people showed up, which was really wild… the week after like 50 people were here and that was really intimidating, but I’m glad that people are enjoying it and coming back and it’s really nice to see people come back week after week.”

The evening I spoke to Correll marked the fourth week of Do Si Darling meetings—eight total dances learned, in line dancing terms— and was certainly no exception for the history of large turnouts Correll described. The AULA floor was filled with rows of excited attendees who milled and mingled in groups before Correll opened the night by leading a short warm-up routine, used at every meeting, to Twain’s “Any Man Of Mine.”

And it is no wonder why the club has earned such a positive response. Correll’s teaching style, which stems from a dancing background in high school and more recent experience learning line alongside her mother, is fun and straightforward. She encourages everyone to make mistakes and enjoy the process rather than seek perfection. For the duration of every dance, the floor is teeming with laughter. If Urban’s “Texas Twist” is playing, you might even hear a jubilant howl. Turns are sometimes missed, and less-than-perfect counts are reviewed, but it is always easy to

step back in line with a smile.

“I really have to credit my mother for making me have a teaching bone because she has made me teach and she also does not have a lot of dancing experience,” Correll continued. “I love being able to see people get better at something, it’s really cool.”

Correll also ensures that attendees are challenged, varying the music and difficulty level to keep each night interesting, while also adapting her demonstrations or a song’s choreography if she notices dancers are finding certain moves too difficult.

“It’s interesting to see it from the teaching perspective…to see what I think might be more accessible movement-wise, that’s not in practice, and things that people are struggling with that maybe I didn’t think they would struggle with, or things I thought they would struggle with that they actually don’t.”

As for Correll’s ambitions for the club, she hopes to get Do Si Darlings more involved locally, aspiring to partner with the Hudson Valley Bluegrass Association and host future events open to the Poughkeepsie community. She also plans to invite other line dancers she met in her hometown to be guest teachers, who could introduce new styles that she is not as familiar with, like two-step (partner line dancing), to the club.

Above all, Correll hopes Do Si Darlings can provide a place for people to branch out and meet new people even beyond the Vassar bubble.

So, if you are looking for an escape from the house music of the THs, step on in to one of the Do Si Darling’s next meetings at the AULA, Saturday, March 1 at 8 p.m. or Thursday, March 6 at 8 p.m. Bring your friends and plan to make new ones. And no worries if you step on some toes; it is all part of the process.

Tori Kim/The Miscellany News.

Sydney Jones Columnist

Sydney Jones/The Miscellany News.

Dr. Gumbs discusses Audre Lorde, builds community

Aurelia Harrison Guest Columnist

Sometimes, Vassar invites academics and creatives to come give talks to the Vassar community. Other times, the Vassar community decides to bring scholars to itself.

Such was the case with a recent talk by writer and thinker Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs, author of “Survival is a Promise: the Eternal Life of Audre Lorde.” Supported in tandem by the Africana Studies and Women, Feminist, and Queer Studies Departments, Gumbs came to Vassar last Wednesday to discuss her recent book, which Publishers Weekly named a Top Ten Book of the Year.

The talk was introduced by Dr. Diane Harriford, Vassar Professor of Sociology and Director of Africana Studies, who informed us that Dr. Gumbs was here at the request of a group of Vassar students who had become familiar with and connected to her work. Gumbs was then welcomed officially by students Harrison Brisbon-McKinnon ʼ‘26 and Marissa Desir ʼ‘25, who gave her an emphatic and reverent introduction.

Dr. Gumbs is a creative and an academic: On her website, she describes herself as a “Queer Black Troublemaker and Black Feminist Love Evangelist.” She writes in her web biography that her main aim as a creative and an academic is to “facilitate infinite, unstoppable ancestral love in practice.” She has won numerous awards for her writing and poetry, and her work as a North Carolina-based activist is expansive. Through Gumbs’ 2020 book, “Undrowned,” Brisbon-McKinnon stated, “I learned how to refuse to naturalize domination,” praising aspects of Gumbs’ work concerning “the collective power of ecology.” This welcome was followed by a performance by UJIMA, a collective of Vassar poets and creatives of color. They performed “Rooted in Love: Reaching Towards Cosmic World-making,” featuring the words of Vassar students Desir, Nia Bethel-Brescia ʼ25, Alma Nájera ʼ25 and Shyasia Arnold ʼ26. Each performer read off their piece, delivering a stirring tribute to Mother Earth and a powerful invective against the destructive nature of capitalism and systemic racism.

As UJIMA recited their poem, I was sitting behind Gumbs, watching her as she watched these students. Gumbs turned around between stanzas, grinning widely and mouthing praises. When they chanted the group’s name in rhythmic timing—”UJ-I-M-A, UJIMA”—Gumbs danced along.

Finally, it is time: Gumbs takes the stage. She is a striking character, clad in snow boots and a blue patterned dress, sporting statement earrings and a shock of blackand-white hair. She began by giving thanks to her audience and inviting us all to take eight breaths with her. If her aim was to create a sense of spatial unity in Taylor Hall 102, it was a success.

She then expressed that she finds the act of making a dedication in moments like these spiritually important. She dedicated her time in the space to her 90-year-old grandmother, whom she described as a storyteller with a “round memory,” a Jamaican immigrant with a limitless imagination. She then invited us to make our own dedication, and share with someone sitting near us. I was sitting behind a professor of mine—she dedicated the time to her father, whom she thanks for allowing her to think expansively about care, as Lorde often invites us to do. I dedicated the time to my father as well, who is an avid storyteller and

a source of creative inspiration and love for me.

Gumbs could have given this talk about any number of aspects of Audre Lorde after her many years of research and devotion to her work. She tells us that though the choice was difficult, she found herself compelled by a feature of Lorde that most are unaware of: She was obsessed with science fiction. Lorde is best known for her personal essays and poetry about Black queer womanhood and her experiences with cancer and disability, but she grew up a devout fan of the science fiction stories of such authors as Ray Bradbury and H. G. Wells.

Lorde’s childhood was not an easy one. Growing up in New York City, her family struggled financially, and her relationship with both of her parents was strained and complicated. She left home after graduating high school and did not return, even after her father’s death due to a stroke. The fight that escalated into Lorde leaving home, Gumbs recounted, began when Lorde started repetitively reciting a lengthy poem around the house. Though no one is sure which poem it was, Gumbs speculates that it may have been Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Renascence,” a poem foreshadowing Lorde’s interest in future worlds and potential challenges to humanity. Lorde started writing from a young age; she was first published in Seventeen when she was still in high school.

Lorde, according to Gumbs, was a self-described sci-fi superfan. In an era of nuclear warheads and industrialization that was Lorde’s childhood, sci-fi quickly established itself as a respected genre outside of pulp fiction and magazine clippings. She became enamored with Ray Bradbury’s “The Martian Chronicles,” a series of stories recounting the fictional US effort to colonize Mars and displace the indigenous alien life after Earth suffers devastating nuclear war consequences.

For Lorde, sci-fi was more than a form of passive entertainment. She was captivated by the genre’s unique ability to “worldmake,” an art form that looks forward toward what might lie ahead for humanity.

Temporality is a recurrent theme across Lorde’s work—it only makes sense that she would connect deeply with something as reality-bending and imaginative as sci-fi. In the wake of her father’s death, she did not return home to seek comfort in the past. Instead, she turned to reading and writing about the future—to sci-fi.

Gumbs ended the talk with an activity she calls the “Audre Lorde Concordance.” First, she asked us to reflect and come up with what she called a “Lorde-ian question.” To Gumbs, a Lorde-ian question is related to the complicated aspects of life, its progressions and challenges. She believes we all carry around narratives related to our lives, about how things are for us internally and how they ought to be, in our goals and beliefs and values. A Lorde-ian question arises for Gumbs when “there is a part of your life that’s exceeding the story you have for it.” “You are outgrowing and having to let go of a story you used to have, Gumbs said, “She told us that often, the challenge lies in the fact that “you don’t have the new story yet.”

The Lorde-ian question invites you to ask, “What will the new story be?”

Earlier in the talk, Gumbs read us the poem “A Songless Lark” by Lorde. She invited members of the audience to introduce themselves and share their Lorde-ian question with the room and the letter of the alphabet the person associated with

their question. She then read the audience member all the words from “A Songless Lark” that start with their letter, building miniature poems out of Lorde’s original work. For each question, she would read out the mini-poem and interpret it, creating a unique dialogue between speaker and audience.

What struck me most about Gumbs,

other than her boundless charisma and Audre Lorde expertise, was her insistence on community-building. A typical book talk is an opportunity for an author to express and dissect their baook for an audience. Gumbs was not only interested in providing insight into the life of Lorde, but also in creating a caring community where we were free to reflect, interpret and connect.

Images courtesy of Aurelia Harrison ’28.

BREAKING NEWS

From the desk of Oliver Stewart, Humor Editor

Gordon ‘Deece’ Commons passes away at age 86

Washers and dryers weigh in on the free laundry bill

Nicholas Tillinghast Dryer Than The Sahara

The Vassar Student Association (VSA) recently passed a bill to provide free laundry for all students starting in Fall 2025. This weekend, I caught up with a few campus washers and dryers to hear their thoughts on the big change.

I found one laundry machine, Four from Raymond Basement, smoking cigs on the side of Raymond Haus. I asked him what he thought about the new free laundry legislation. He was initially hesitant to speak on the matter.

“You know this isn’t a great time to talk. I’m out here on my 15. Gotta go back soon. Five from Lathrop is covering for me.” With a little coaxing, however, he agreed to an interview. “Honestly, I think it’s a load of crap. They’re expecting us to make it in the world on zero dollars an hour. Zero. I got microwaves at home to feed. At this rate, I’m going to have to go back to dishwashing.”

One dryer, Seven, from the TH circle shared similar concerns. “I mean, most students don’t even tip anymore—they wonder why their clothes aren’t dry at the end of a cycle. It’s a problem of financial motivation.” Upon asking Seven what the tipping procedure looks like, he explained, “Just drop a bill behind the machine! It’s that simple! Usually, $5 is plenty of motivation to give a good dry. Tip me $20 and clothes will be dryer than the Sahara.”

Another dryer, Three, from the second floor of Main was frustrated by VSA’s bill.

“These kids think that everything in this economy’s supposed to be free. Free parking, free healthcare, free water. At the end of the day, you gotta pay the little guy. It just makes me so mad!” Three began radiating heat.

A washer, Two, from across the room chimed in. “People don’t even care to learn my name. It’s De’Angelo! But you wouldn’t care to know that, would you? You guys just think we’re a bunch of machines. We cry watching ‘Babe: Pig in the City’ just like everybody else.” I asked De’Angelo if crying for washing machines resembled a wash cycle, and he said, “Yes.”

I also discussed what the VSA laundry fund allocation meant for their salaries with Three. “We’re not gonna see a dime of it. It goes straight to the top. Besides a few loose socks, nothing’s gonna come down to us. Pretty soon, they’re not gonna pay the vending machines. I’m ready to go full termi—” A student began shoving clothes into De’Angelo’s mouth while he was speaking, and so our interview had to be cut short, but I think you get the point. Could a strike be organized? Three had this to say: “It’s not easy to organize. We’re in the same union as refrigerators and freezers, and those guys are content just to get food on the table.” Talks of creating a separate union, VCWMADWU (Vassar College Washing Machines and Dryers Workers Union) have yet to materialize into further action.

A dryer, Nine, from Jewett has other plans. “I’m not sticking around Poughkeepsie after the end of the school year.

I’m gonna save as much as I can, hopefully earn some good tips and then I’m gonna kiss this one-horse town goodbye. I’m gonna travel. Gonna try to go to Peru. I heard they dry a lot of interesting things there. Drying in Peru is like nothing else. I mean you can hardly even call it drying

because it’s so on another level. I have enough savings for at least a year of travel. After that…I don’t know.” Nine sighed, “If I’m broke, at least I’ll be happy.”

Tillinghast

Nicholas

from the Vassar Insider, reminding you that laundry machines are sentient beings.

Nicholas Tillinghast/The Miscellany News.

[Students] Public Health Notice - Fish Flu

Josie Wenner Developing Gills

To the Vassar Community,

We are writing with a public health notice. As you may know, cases of avian flu (bird flu) have been detected in the United States recently, and we have been taking full precautions against it on campus. Recently, a new strain of the flu has been discovered: piscine flu, also known as fish flu. Symptoms of piscine flu include coughing, sneezing, staring at people with your

mouth open like a fish, developing gills and fever.

The Dutchess County Department of Fish has been tracking fish deaths, and one deceased fish was found to be from our campus (his address was found in his wallet). How that fish managed to leave Sunset Lake and make its way to the river, we don’t know. However, we are in the process of testing other fish on campus. We will report these results when they are known.

At present time, no person has been infected with piscine flu on campus. Please note that piscine flu can be passed from fish

to humans, humans to fish, fish to fish, birds to fish, fish to birds, humans to humans, birds to birds, birds to humans, but not humans to birds.

Due to the avian flu and widespread egg shortages, we have transitioned from using raw eggs in shell to scrambled eggs at Gordon Commons and the Retreat. As a result of the piscine flu, we will not be serving fish at Gordon Commons for the time being, although this will likely not impact anybody because nobody should be eating that anyway. Sushi and poke bowls at the Retreat will not be impacted.

In the meantime, please stay away from all fish. Wash your hands after coming into contact with fish and let health services know so they can advise you on how to best stay safe. If you notice any gills on your neck, please contact health services immediately.

The Vassar College Fish Club will have to cease all Sunset Lake dives effective immediately.

Sincerely,

Joseph Trout Director of Fish Services

How to have a romantic Deece dining experience

Good evening! My name is Miss Likki, but tonight, you may call me Chef Likki. I’m a professional taste connoisseur. I’ve dined in cities all across the globe. I’ve even had sex a couple of times. You can say I’m a master in the art of flavor and high speed experiences.

But alas, Poughkeepsie is no Flavortown. I have struggled with adjusting my high-status palate to the foods found on this campus. Can I still call myself a connoisseur if my typical Tuesday lunch consists of a “protein power wrap?” What the hell even is that?! This is why I have compiled this foolproof recipe on how to have the most wonderful, vivacious and absolutely romantic dining experience in the most picturesque place we all know: Gordon Commons.

PREP TIME: 20 minutes

COOKING TIME: 35 minutes

YOU WILL NEED:

• Food of some sort (it doesn’t matter whether it’s a lovely steak in chimichurri sauce or a delectable bowl of Lucky Charms—this recipe will make any food seem amazing)

• Another person (preferably someone who is okay with you and your presence. Please do not use your 11th grade history teacher in hopes that you can finally sway her into liking you—I have tried this before with disastrous results)

One of those weird quadrangle tables on the left side of the Deece, all the way in the corner

• An elegant table setting

A large boombox

Two red taper candles and two candlesticks (THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! Without these items, this entire recipe will FALL APART. Do not forget the candles.)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Enter the Deece. Bask in your surroundings. Breathe in that air. Squeak your little shoes onto that shiny, shiny concrete floor. Squeak, squeak.

2. Locate the perfect quadrangle. You need to find a table with the biggest amount of angles possible. Something that would make Picasso proud. Something that will seriously test your relationship with the person you have brought with you. If you can find a table that’s within five feet of a huge blast of steam at Your Kitchen, YOU ARE TOO CLOSE TO OTHER PEOPLE.

The beauty of this recipe hinges on the concept of creating an intimate dining experience in one of the most crowded and congested places at Vassar. You MUST try to isolate yourself from other diners in order to perfect this dish.

3. Set the table. Put a gorgeous gingham tablecloth on that quadrangle table and fuss with it for 10 minutes as you try to figure out how you can possibly fit a rectangular tablecloth on a Deece table. Then put your utensils, plates and boombox on the table too. Don’t forget the dessert fork!

4. Set up the candles. Again, A VERY IMPORTANT STEP. Make sure that the candles are equidistant between you and your dining partner. If your partner’s interest in your shared dining experience is starting to wane, make sure to wag a candle in their face and exclaim, “Aren’t these some fine candles we have here tonight?” Then, take a bite of the candle. Yes. You heard me. Bite that candle. Say “EXQUISITE!” before placing the candle back on the candlestick and lighting them up. Due to fire safety guidelines, you will have to blow out and relight the candles every two minutes in order to not set off the smoke alarms. But don’t worry—you can turn this into a flirty game of “Blow out the Candle” between you and your partner. Who can blow it out the fastest? Let’s find out together.

5. Play some music on the boombox. Mood music sets the tone for the entire night, so it’s important to find the right songs. Some of my tried and true favorites include “Baptism” by Crystal Castles, “Megan Fox” by FACE and ENIQUE and “Naatu Naatu” from the “RRR” soundtrack. Any one of these songs will create the most dreamy atmosphere with your dining partner. You can even start dancing softly if you’re so inclined.

6. Get food. As I stated earlier, it doesn’t really matter what type of food you pick up from one of the Deece’s many stations, as long as the other steps are followed to a tee. But if you truly need a romantic food to boost morale, I find that a bowl of cottage cheese usually does the trick. If your palate is like mine and is searching for something to spice up that cottage cheese, simply pour some ketchup on top.

7. Eat that food. To create the most intimate dining experience, you need to know your food intimately,

which means it doesn’t matter if you get a little messy or even a lot messy. Perhaps even eat that cottage cheese with your hands. Who cares? In this world, it’s just you and your dining partner, who, by this point, has seen enough that your eating methods are the least of their concerns.

8. Shake hands with your partner and compliment the color of their eyes.

Watch wistfully as they leave Gordon Commons.

9. Clean up your table and pack everything up. Maybe you can leave one candlestick behind as a memento of the memories you’ve freshly made. Put that boombox on your shoulder and walk out with your head held high. You’ve just accomplished a romantic dining experience in the Deece!

Nandini Likki The Bear

Nicholas Tillinghast/The Miscellany News.

HOROSCOPES

Emma daRosa Studious Student

ARIES March 21 | April 19

Midterm panic is setting in, I know. Luckily, the stars have made me privy to some excellent study spots and hacks for the week ahead. Not for you though, Aries, you guys are totally screwed. Maybe just look at some transfer applications? Clown college?

TAURUS April 20 | May 20

If you want to slam out those last couple papers, all you’ve gots to do is scramble on up to the top of the tallest tree you can find. There, you’ll be able to work in peace and get writing tips from an owl, just like in “Winnie the Pooh”!

GEMINI May 21 | June 20

To lock in this week, try studying in the walk-in fridge in the Deece! The cold will keep you from falling asleep while you try to memorize the names of every woman for your WFQS class.

CANCER June 21 | July 22

Your best bet this week is going to be studying underneath the library. I don’t mean the basement though, friend, that’s hardly isolated enough to get some real work done. You’re going to need to strap on your headlamp and tunnel underneath the library if you want that 4.0. Study with the womp womps!

LEO July 23 | Aug. 22

If you want to pass your econ midterm, take drastic action this week! The stars are showing me a beautiful vision of you studying at the next Board of Trustees meeting. What better place to learn how to swindle people and use money for silly things!

VIRGO Aug. 23 | Sept. 22

There’s just no way you’re going to pass that anthropology midterm without doing some real fieldwork. Break into the Bradleys’ house and hide under their bed, you can write an ethnography! I heard a rumor that John watches “2001: A Space Odyssey” every night before bed.

LIBRA Sept. 23 | Oct. 22

SCORPIO Oct. 23 | Nov. 21

Public humiliation is going to be the best motivator for Libras this week. Go to the Deece barefoot, sit at the center table and put your feet up. You’re not allowed to leave or cover the dogs until your paper is done.

You honestly might be a little too panicked for your midterms. Might I suggest putting yourself on the dish belt in the Deece and going through the wash process? I bet it’s something like a relaxing sauna.

SAGITTARIUS Nov. 22 | Dec. 21

You should just hold your pee while you study and use urination as a reward! According to the stars though, this only works if you get your friends involved to keep you accountable. If you’re about to break, they should call you a stupid piss boy. And when you finally get to pee, they can all cheer!

CAPRICORN Dec. 22 | Jan. 19

Oh Capricorn, you’re gonna do just wonderfully on your midterms. That is… if you can avoid…any incidents. Maybe just lock yourself in your room. You wouldn’t want to risk someone giving you a…wet willie while you try to study. That would throw you off for months.

AQUARIUS Jan. 20 | Feb. 18

PISCES Feb. 19 | March 20

The best place for any Aquarius to prepare for midterms this week is the Nircle. Slide around on the ice, and everytime you fall down, start over quizzing yourself. You’ll probably be ready for your exams before 100% of your body is bruised! Note: The Misc is not liable for any personal injuries, take advice at your own risk.

The stars are telling me that you’re only going to pass your Intro to Racket Sports class if you hit balls off the side of Chicago Hall until one of the stupid windows breaks. That’s a stupid building—you’d be doing everyone a favor. Stupid windows.

Can we do better: Is empathy a sin?

Jacob Cifuentes Guest Columnist

Iwas walking out of Gordon Commons with my girlfriend the other day. Someone was walking a few feet before us and pushed open the door without looking back. My girlfriend said something like, “people are so rude here!” which has become her catchphrase at this point.

Maybe the unintended message of this story is that my girlfriend and I are self-righteous and need to lower our expectations, but that is not what I see. I see a world full of people who do not know how to treat each other. This goes beyond simple gestures like holding the door or saying thank you; I am talking about fundamental problems in our minds and spirits. In light of Bishop Budde’s sermon during the Inauguration, and the ignorant reaction to her courageous speech pleading for mercy and empathy from the Trump administration for immigrants and the LGBTQ+ community, we are seeing the virulent and utterly distasteful views of people coming to light. A deacon went to X—formerly known as Twitter—to respond to Budde’s plea by calling empathy sinful. We can blame the branding of empathy as a “sin” on the everyday games of rage-baiting and dog-whistling we are used to, but the true intention is so much more obvious and mundane. The problem is not limited to political differences, opposing viewpoints on gender and immigration or economic anxiety; it is the result of our most basic disdain

for ourselves and rampant self-worship. We put our self-interests—our thirsts, our conceptions, our possessions, our grasping for validation—over the basic well-being of everyone else around us. Now do not get me wrong, you need to care for yourself and I believe we are all entitled to pursue happiness, but the difference between selfish desire and well-meaning joy is both blurry and jarring.

One of the most important facts I learned in high school was not in class, but the mandatory chapel services we had every week. During the pandemic, we held our services on Zoom, and in one of these services, the chaplain introduced us to a type of Buddhist prayer called a metta chant. It is a simple prayer for well-being and safety, not only for yourself and those close to you, but for the entire universe. This aspiration is the crux of Buddhism and many other belief systems. It is the covenant with, and concern for, our neighbors. Most who are familiar with Buddhism will identify it with the Four Noble Truths—essentially the belief that suffering is caused by “desire” yet is extinguishable through spiritual practice. Suffering, however, is recognized as a collective experience at a slightly deeper level, famously expressed as the paraphrased quote “I am sick because you are sick.” It does not matter if you are Buddhist, Christian, atheist or anything else, the realities of these ideas are easily observable in each of our lives. The first step to alleviating this collective suffering is to realize that acting solely on

your self-interest is pointless. You are not guaranteed to feel any better about yourself after being financially or socially successful. While these statuses are not inherently selfish, according to the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, those who ascend the corporate ladder have double the likelihood of ending up with depression. There are a lot of expectations around us to both belong in a given community and ascend the socioeconomic hierarchy to be above others. While this type of “success” is possible, striving for it constantly does not necessarily yield good results. Have some compassion for yourself and understand that the expectations and opinions of others are only as valid as you make them. I often worry about other people’s perceptions of me, and I force myself to dilute my personality and not talk about my interests for fear that they are not popular or practical. Disclaimer: You will not find any joy in doing that! Being paranoid about what others think all the time is still elevating your self-image over what actually matters. The question I beg you to ask is, “what am I doing here?” because evaluating your motivation behind your actions and existence is essential for personal and spiritual growth. Because we are social animals, our primary motivation should be to sow harmony and compassion in our communities, not to ascend hierarchies or crave external validation.

Even though choosing kindness over apathy is an individual and day-to-day, moment-to-moment concern, the effects

are significant. According to the Mental Health Foundation, acting selflessly and being conscientious not only helps others, it improves your self-esteem as well. Who does not want a lasting feeling of happiness and a warmer community? I firmly believe that actively choosing to do simple things like calling your grandparents and helping out at a food pantry not only benefits society but also enhances our subjective experience in life. The reason why we grasp fleeting sensations of security, pleasure and validation is to feel better in our uncertain world, but—as elaborated ad nauseam— there are more meaningful options that lead to the aforementioned better results.

As we watch our systems and institutions slowly fall apart at the hands of those who seek to use us to fuel their greed, take heed of this message: You have the power to change the world. Maybe you are not a political leader or a billionaire, but your existence as a being on this Earth grants you the intrinsic power to promote good. Little acts of virtue and discipline add up. Say thank you to your professor at the end of class. Compost your food and recycle your waste when given the option. Gently smile to the people you walk by around campus. If you examine your life, look around, look at the news and social media, look at the White House, you will realize my girlfriend was right; people are terrible. You, however, do not have to be that kind of person—you do not have to submit to a horrible existence— if you put in the effort and show that you care for your neighbor.

The case for Stephen A. Smith and liberal populism

Ben Kaplan Assistant Arts Editor

The era of respectability politics, long on the decline, can officially be called dead. Loud voices and aggressive messages that push for an absolute use of available powers have prevailed. America is currently ruled by right-wing populists who take accusations of power-mongering and immorality as points on their resume when polling their electorate. The Democratic Party, and America’s Left in general is in disarray, reeling from the transition from the Right hammering on the window to now clearing out the house of America’s political and cultural mainstream. Names being thrown out to combat this crisis in 2028 include career politicians such as Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer or previous Vice President and failed 2024 candidate Kamala Harris. I say it is time for something different. The left needs a populist candidate and platform, preferably from a political outsider.

Populism refers to a political agenda and attached policies that are favored by and meant to support the working class, usually setting the upper or “elite class” as the enemy. In an American context, that has previously referred to the most wealthy, such as against the Robber Barons of the Gilded Age. One of the many drivers towards Trump and Make America Great Again (MAGA)’s ascension, and then furious comeback, was the growing use of populist attitudes by the Grand Old Party (GOP), maligning the Democrats as out-of-touch coastal elites based on the party’s historical connection to old money.

Now that MAGA has won out on this platform, however, the cracks are beginning to show. Elon Musk’s journey from PayPal money to Reddit funnyman to shadow president is unprecedented. Along with J.D. Vance’s past connections, including ludi-

crous funding to jumpstart his political career from technology billionaire Peter Thiel, has left the current White House at the mercy of new technology money. Though pulling out the stops on culture war populism through a headstrong foreign policy and renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, Trump’s position as a successful populist politician is untenable. Currently empowered technology billionaires such as Musk and Thiel are too obsessed with maximizing the technology revolution and profits, and will eventually find themselves prioritizing their own whims over the working class to a degree that is unignorable. The “Silicon Valley Elite” have pushed their foot in through the door, but it will forever tarnish any good will towards them. The Democrats need someone who is an outsider, educated and not afraid to say nonsense to grab the attention of the American working class that is sure to be disillusioned sooner or later by this shift. The answer: someone like Stephen A. Smith.

If you are not in the know-how, Smith is an eccentric, loud sports commentator known best for his crazy takes, outbursts and unyielding philosophy that basketball legend LeBron James is not, in fact, the greatest of all time. He has appeared in dozens of viral memes and the idea of him being a political figure let alone expressing his views—if he had any strong ones at all—seemed until recently. Over the last few months, Smith began mixing his loud, aggressive takes on basketball and football with takes slamming the GOP and Trump administration whilst also calling out the ineptitudes of the Democrats. The fiery attitude Smith has brought with these segments almost immediately began discourse on him as a possible outsider candidate for the 2028 Democratic primary. This approach of holding disdain for the two-party system, whilst speaking

for the “average man” is the base of modern American populism. It is what prompted Trump to run as a Republican originally, using wealth and a large public image to create a new persona as an outsider while still having the assets to comfortably find a place in the runoffs. A boisterous personality and wealth accumulated from years of sports commentating does not hurt, and even if the thought is cringe-worthy, the proliferation of memes and clips related to the man have made him a recognizable voice and face to millions of Americans. If Trump could win over young voters by nostalgia-baiting the late 2010s and middle aged voters with some far-gone “Greater America,” then a few could be swayed in 2028 just by noting “it is the guy who said James Harden is averaging 40.”

Even if this populist candidate is not Smith, the points still stand. A candidate with little to no political experience, or time in office, but a desire to represent the common man and shock the system is a must.

A new kind of loyalty in the Democratic Party must surround this candidate. That being, loyalty to the beliefs of the Party, and not to the Party itself. It was the loyalty to the Party’s leadership surrounding Joe Biden that led him, a plainly obvious one-term president, to keep up the charade of running again going for far too long. This elite class of Democrats that sidelined Bernie Sanders in 2016 and 2020, and then stood in the way of allowing a true primary to find a fully fleshed-out candidate in 2024 has to, themselves, be sidelined. The conditions caused by our two-party system and the wealth bottleneck at the upper class following the long-term effects of Reaganomics and shorter-term effects of the 2008 Financial crisis, have made it so both parties are inevitably going to have to be funded, in some part, by the upper class. But what the Democrats have the opportunity to do—now that they are down and seem-

ingly out—is run an aggressively populist candidate who themselves could be of great wealth, with an agenda targeting the working class and the average American at a level unheard of since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. If it must be a career politician, it could be J.B. Pritzker or even Union Leader Shawn Fain. Or, it could be a media mogul like Smith. The last eight years of American politics have been an up and down of “how’s,” wondering how the current situation has come about through seismic changes that, in an earlier era of more stable, “respectable” politics, would have just ended in a one-week news cycle and Saturday Night Live skit. The left has to play this game. No more bland corporate career politicians unless they are able to surprise and impress the public. It sounds ridiculous, but a 2028 election cycle where Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker calls the Democratic candidate a broke slave to the elite or daily viral clips of Stephen A. Smith in press conferences methodically tearing apart the platform of the GOP with slogans and hyperboles leaning on mistruth would be what the left needs. If the American people yearn for a reality tv showdown of populists firing off catchphrases and disdain for the system they wish to rule, then the left and Democratic Party should provide just that.

The fiery attitude Smith has brought with these segments almost immediately began discourse on him as a possible outsider candidate for the 2028 Democratic primary.

NBA All-Star Weekend unveils new, controversial format

Armaan Desai Guest Columnist

The NBA celebrated its 50th annual All-Star weekend in San Francisco, and many viewers, players, commentators and NBA legends were thoroughly disappointed, again. The 2024 All-Star game in Indianapolis completely face-planted: The once-exciting NBA Dunk Contest turned into yet another mediocre showing, and the All-Star game finished with a mind-boggling score of 211-186. It was fairly obvious to fans that none of the players were taking the game seriously; no defense was being played and some players were simply lethargic on the court. When asked about this, Golden State Warriors superstar guard Steph Curry said, “We need to change. We need some new life, new juice in the game.”

NBA commissioner Adam Silver decided to heed this advice and unveil a new format for this year’s game. What used to be one 48-minute match between two teams turned into a four-team tournament with three games to a target score of 40. The tournament ended in a 41-25 victory by Team Shaq’s OGs over Team Chuck’s Global Stars. Steph Curry was awarded All-Star game MVP, putting up 20 points, 10 rebounds and three assists in two games. Overall, there was undoubtedly more effort shown in this year’s All-Star game, and even multiple defensive plays, highlighted by blocks at the rim by Victor Wembanyama and Jaren Jackson Jr. The target scores at the end of the game seemed to make it more competitive, while maintaining the flashiness and exciting plays of past All-Star games. These included halfcourt shots, no-look threes, alley-oops and dimes. “I think it was solid tonight, I felt like guys were trying to play hard,” said Phoenix Suns superstar Kevin Durant after the game.

So, if the competitive nature of the AllStar game was somewhat improved, why was there a consensus feeling of disappointment? In the three-hour window for Sunday’s All-Star Game, there were 42 minutes of actual basketball played, 80 minutes of advertisements and 88 minutes of extracurricular breaks.

Among these breaks was a shooting competition after the first game that involved YouTuber Mr. Beast and had Bucks guard Damian Lillard competing against a college student from the audience. Then, there was a retirement ceremony in the middle of the final game celebrating TNT’s 40-year relationship with the NBA, which is coming to an end after this season—a 25-minute break that none of the players seemed to know was coming. “I think the toughest part [was when] they stopped the game to do the presentation while we were kind of halfway through it,” Celtics star Jayson Tatum stated. “It was kind of tough to get back into the game after that.”

Another aspect of the new All-Star format that drew a lot of criticism was the inclusion of the winners of the Rising Stars challenge—a tournament featuring exclusively first- and second-year players. When asked to rate the new format on the TNT pregame show, Warriors player Draymond Green declared it a “Zero out of ten,” and stated that “It sucks.”

The 2026 All-Star game will be held in Los Angeles, California, and everyone will have one question in mind: What will happen to the All-Star game now? With NBA players, fans and executives all clearly divided, there is no clear answer. All we can do is hope that this year’s All-Star game was a step in the right direction towards restoring this historic event’s glory. With so many talented and exciting players in the modern NBA, I have confidence they will figure out a way to bring the excitement back to All-Star weekend.

Butler’s Heat legacy transcends rings

On March 9, 2009, the Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls found themselves in a double overtime battle, the score deadlocked at 127-127. As the possibility of a third overtime loomed, Dwayne Wade stole the ball, raced down the court, launched a three-pointer off one foot and drained it, nothing but net. As the buzzer rang and the crowd exploded into a frenzy, Wade made a beeline to the scorers table, jumped onto it and declared, “This is my house.”

Wade, who retired in 2019 as a three-time NBA champion with Miami, was right.

His stardom was so strong that Miami residents liked to declare the county was actually Miami-Wade County, not Miami-Dade. To this day, the Miami Heat are Wade’s team; Miami his city. Even when players like LeBron James, Shaquille O’Neal and Chris Bosh joined Wade and helped the Heat win championships, fans did not lose sight of who the catalyst for the team’s success was. There will never be another Dwayne Wade in Miami Heat history, because anyone who succeeds with the team after him does so on the foundation Wade built. Deservingly, Wade has his #3 jersey retired and a statue commemorating his overtime heroics at the Heat’s arena.

Appreciating Wade’s enduring legacy is also useful as a benchmark for other players. Any player who hopes to be commemorated

similarly to Wade will have to rival his resume. Here is where Jimmy Butler, who as of Feb. 6 no longer plays for the Heat, enters the picture.

For about four years, the Heat and Butler were an ideal pairing. The Heat desperately needed a leader to lift it out of mediocrity in the post-Wade era, and Butler, heralded for his tenacity and stellar two-way play, accomplished just that. In five full seasons with the Heat, Butler led the team to NBA Finals appearances in 2020 and 2023 and accumulated a wealth of superhuman playoff performances along the way. In those two finals runs, the Heat constantly found themselves as underdogs against Eastern Conference foes. Time and time again, Butler, sometimes single-handedly, stunned those teams and produced unforgettable moments for Heat fans. One of these instances came in April 2023 in Game 4 of a first-round playoff series against the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks. Butler scored 56 points, which is good for the fourth-highest scoring game in NBA playoff game history, and gave the Heat a commanding 3-1 lead in a series they were believed to have no chance of winning. His final basket, a three from the left wing that put Miami ahead by four, gave Butler one of his most memorable moments in a Heat jersey. Just like Wade, but with some curse words mixed in, Butler declared the game, the moment, the arena as his. At that moment, and at many others during his tenure with the Heat, there was no doubt it was.

But less than two years after this moment, Butler and the Heat’s relationship frayed beyond repair. While Butler brought the Heat to the brink of success, he was never given the running mates needed to win a championship. Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro and others were certainly helpful to Butler, but the team always felt like it was one star player away. In the summer of 2023, it appeared Portland Trail Blazers’ star guard Damian Lillard, who asked to be traded to Miami, would be the player who could elevate Miami to a championship. But Portland and Miami were unable to agree to terms on a trade, and Lillard was instead traded to the Milwaukee Bucks, one of the Heat’s strongest Eastern Conference rivals.

The year before, the Heat were believed to be among star guard Donovan Mitchell’s top choices as he sought an exit from the Utah Jazz. Instead, the Jazz traded Mitchell to the Cleveland Cavaliers, who have now built the best team in the Eastern Conference this season around him. At other moments, names like Kevin Durant and Giannis Antetokounmpo were rumored to have interest in joining Butler in Miami. Butler deserved to have a star teammate delivered to him through an ambitious, blockbuster trade, but such a move never materialized.

After failing to add Lillard to the roster in the summer of 2023, the Heat limped through the 2023-24 season. As Butler struggled with injuries and missed the team’s first round playoff series, it became apparent the

Heat-Butler pairing had seen its best days. The beginning of the end seems to have been Heat executive Pat Riley’s public criticism of Butler last summer. On Jan. 2, Butler declared he would be unable to discover his joy as a basketball player as a member of the Miami Heat in a postgame press conference. After that, it got ugly. In the weeks that followed, Butler was suspended by the team multiple times and appeared in only three games. Once so cherished he conjured memories of Wade, Butler was traded while his teammates played a game in Philadelphia. Now, Andrew Wiggins, who the Heat acquired in exchange for Butler, dons the Heat’s #22 jersey—the one Butler made iconic.

There is no doubt that Butler’s Miami Heat legacy has been complicated. The contract he signed with the Golden State Warriors will likely be his last, so a homecoming like Wade’s after his brief stint with the Chicago Bulls and Cleveland Cavaliers is unlikely. But even without a championship to his name, Butler stands in rarefied air as a playoff performer. In Heat record books, his name is found among those which accompany Wade’s jersey in the rafters. There is no doubt Butler’s jersey deserves a place there too. If his statistics are not enough to convince you, just remember: Butler declared the franchise was his and we all believed him. He took Dwayne Wade’s foundation and made Miami feel like it was the early 2010s all over again. That is rafter-worthy impact, and it transcends titles.

Nicolas Villamil Contributing Editor

Image courtesy of Erik Drost via Wikimedia Commons.

Sports streaming has turned fans into subscription jugglers

Holland Kaplan Assistant Design Editor

Growing up in a big sports household, weekends meant gathering around the TV with my dad, grabbing Fritos and watching whatever game was on. The channel was never the question—until now. Streaming has become the new normal, and as the years pass, the convenience of traditional cable is eroding. Every league, team and tech giant seems to be moving onto different streaming services, leaving me bouncing between ESPN+, Apple TV+, Peacock and others just simply watch a game. It feels like the sports world has not just embraced streaming but has plunged headfirst. As a fan, I am trying to figure out if I am sinking or swimming.

On one hand, streaming is a dream come true. There is more access than ever to regional broadcasts now at the tap of a finger. For major leagues and broadcasters, the numbers make it clear why this shift is happening. According to S&P Global Estimates, the United States sports rights payments totaled about $30 billion in 2024 across broadcast, cable and streaming services. There is no doubt that these tech moguls see sports as the frontier of appointment viewing, and they are paying big to own a piece of it. For example, Amazon’s exclusive $1 billion-a-year deal for “Thursday Night Football” locks them in until 2033, and Apple has an ongoing

partnership with MLB worth $595 million until 2029. Even Netflix, long resistant to live sports, is getting in on the action, as they streamed the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson boxing match and the National Football League’s (NFL) Christmas Day games in late 2024.

While all this expansion is happening, part of me has missed the simplicity of turning on my television and knowing exactly where to go. Now, I need a spreadsheet to keep track of which streaming services show my favorite teams. If I want to watch football, I might need Amazon on Thursdays, CBS on Sundays and ESPN on Mondays. As the start of baseball season approaches in March, I have to juggle Peacock and Apple TV+ on top of local broadcasts to catch a game. The cost adds up fast. What once was a single cable bill is now a collection of several subscriptions, each chipping away at my bank account.

The numbers back up my confusion as a consumer. According to EMARKETER, in 2024, over 105 million U.S. viewers watched live sports digitally, up from 95.5 million the year prior. Meanwhile, cable TV sports viewership fell from 90.7 million in 2023 to 85.7 million in 2024. It is projected that by 2027 digital sports viewership is projected to hit 127.4 million while cable shrinks to 75.4 million. There is an undeniable shift towards streaming sports digitally, but is it truly better?

For leagues, the streaming movement

is somewhat of a gold rush. The National Basketball Association (NBA), for example, has secured a massive 11-year, $76 billion deal, spanning Disney, Comcast and

For leagues, the streaming movement is somewhat of a gold rush. The National Basketball Association (NBA), for example, has secured a massive 11-year, $76-billion deal, spanning Disney, Comcast and Amazon, ensuring that games are widely available—but only if you have certain subscriptions.

Amazon, ensuring that games are widely available—but only if you have certain subscriptions. Even individual teams like the Washington Capitals are launching their own streaming services, creating hubs for their most dedicated fans. These plat-

forms offer perks like ticket discounts and behind-the-scenes content, but also force fans to buy yet another subscription, making me question: Is this genuinely for fan engagement or just a money grab?

Looking ahead, I cannot see the chaos of sports streaming slowing down anytime soon. If anything, it is only going to get worse. More leagues and teams will keep launching their personal streaming platforms, piling onto the growing mountain of subscriptions fans like me are juggling. At some point, something has to give. The current model is unsustainable because there is only so much fans are willing to pay before they start tuning out altogether. However, bundling could make a comeback, not because companies want to put ease to their consumers, but because they will have no choice. Whether that shift benefits fans or just repackages the same high costs in a different way remains to be seen. But right now, it feels like I am stuck paying more for what used to be simple, and I cannot help but wonder when enough will truly be enough.

Sports streaming was supposed to make life easier for fans, but it has instead turned into a scavenger hunt that comes with a hefty price tag. As the industry hurtles toward an all-digital future, one thing is clear: The way we watch sports will never be the same again, and the question remains on how many subscriptions fans are willing to tolerate.

Image courtesy of Karen Mogami ’24.

Brewers Ballin’: Wiener three-peats in 500-yard Freestyle

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 hfrance@vassar.edu.

Brewers Ballin’

Name: Adelaide (Addie) Wiener

Year: Junior

Team: Women’s swim and dive

Stats: Junior swimmer Addie Wiener took home gold for the third straight year, winning the 500-yard freestyle event once again at the 2025 Swimming and Diving Liberty League Championships. Wiener posted a time of 5:06.03 which was over four seconds faster than her preliminary time and bested the field by over a second. Not only did Wiener bring home gold in 500 free, she contributed to the silver-medal-winning 800yard freestyle relay team.

Statement: “With the first half of my season spent abroad, it was definitely an uphill battle to get competition ready in the short time frame we had. I’m very proud of how I was able to perform at Liberty Leagues after only seven weeks of training. The team dynamic was great this year, and it was special to be part of a group that consistently supports and pushes each other through challenges towards success. I’m especially grateful to Lisl and Jake for their guidance and encouragement, which helped me get back into peak shape so quickly.”

Recently in Vassar Brewers sports

Men’s & Women’s basketball approach Liberty League Playoffs

With men’s and women’s basketball sitting third and second, respectively, each have secured a spot in the Liberty League Playoffs and will kick off action on Friday.

Men’s & Women’s Swim & Dive wrap up Liberty League Championships

The men’s and women’s swim and dive team captured an impressive fourth and seventh place finish, respectively, in this year’s Liberty League Championships.

Women’s fencing impresses at NEIFC Championships

The Epee squad earned a second place finish while foil and sabre tabbed third place finishes this year at the championships meet.

Image courtesy of Adelaide Wiener ’26.

The Miscellany Crossword

“Non-Negotiable”

By Olivia Blank

ACROSS

1. “Legally Blonde” character whose women’s studies PhD focused on the history of combat

5. Stockholm citizen

10. Like Vassar since 1969

14. Organized crime law acronym 15. Feared mosquito

16. “Let me think...”

17. Big name in PCs

18. Replies to an invite 19. Tiny Energizers

20. March Madness Final Four, e.g.

22. Closing a shirt, perhaps 24. Not right?

25. Fu-___ (legendary Chinese sage)

26. TV watchdog org.

28. Where you’ll find the Jetsons Lounge

30. “Julius Caesar” role

35. Startled greeting

37. Milk qty.

38. Use, as dishes

39. Phrase used to deter excuses, or a hint to answering 20A, 22A, 54A, and 57A

43. Singer Shore mentioned in Adam Sandler’s Chanukah Song

44. Looooong time

45. The “B” of MB or GB

46. Sharp mountain ridge

47. “Et tu, ___?”

49. Highest GPA earner, for short

50.NYC’s Park or Lex

52. “C’est ___!”

54. Lacking a label

57. Reinforcing structures often found on Gothic buildings

60. About 30% of Earth’s landmass

61. Parsley piece

63. Out’s opposite

64. Scary Spice

65. One who got Venmoed

66. Org for organ donors

67. Suffix with chick

68. “___ of robins in her hair”

69. French 101 verb

By Finley Greene

DOWN

1. Divisions of 44A

2. City on the French Riviera

3. Hotel hallway convenience

4. Capitol Column

5. 1777 battle site

6. Vassar - ___ Program in Madrid or Paris

7. Vanguard gov’t bond

8. @___ofwikipedia

9. One of three continents in the “Game of Thrones” world

10. Latte that some prefer dirty

11. Yemen neighbor

12. Zine found on the web

13. Private Insta exchanges

21. Convent resident

23. Like five-star restaurants vis-àvis three-star ones

26. Hollywood’s Henry, Jane or Peter

27. Singers with a mass audience?

29. Many a “Book of Mormon” character

31. Rhyme scheme

32. Specialized high school in Manhattan’s Battery Park City

33. Terra or Panna follower

34. Actor Elgort of “The Fault in Our Stars”

36. “___ first you don’t succeed ...”

40. Shave, as a sheep

41. Intimate bonds

42. Going according to plan

47. Hospital waste collector

48. 12/24 or 12/31

51. Ride of choice for Jennifer Coolidge on “The White Lotus”

53. Point of contention

54. Hand-me-down

55. “Blue” or “White” river

56. Yankees legend Ruth

58. “Rated ___ everyone” (video game content indicator)

59. Zairian dictator Mobutu ___ Seko

60. Reddit Q&A session, briefly

62. Reuben bread